Naruto: 8-9-3

-I do not own Naruto-

-xXx-

A week passed since Anko started following Naruto around, seven full days of watching him become a hero to the lower-class villagers and be smiled at by the people he passed in the streets. Men would nod at him in respect and appreciation, women would smile and sometimes wave, even the children saw him as a role model and idol to emulate. Many times while they were walking they would have to stop as a group of kids would run up to him and say hi or ask him to play.

Anko had to admit, it was sweet to see him smile and sometimes play a small game or two with the children. He was never mean or nasty around them or cursed or drank when they could see and hear him either. If she was honest with herself, she would have to admit that she may just be falling for him, especially since he was the perfect father materiel.

Not too long after his speech in the middle of the slums she had watched him talk to a man dressed in a suit, whom he had later told her that the man was an employee of his. She didn't hear much as it was a quick conversation with Naruto telling the man something. When asked he told her that it was charity work.

Then, not three hours later, around 4:00, he took her back to the slums to see the result of the charity. Men and Women, all baring the Black Rose symbol were passing out clothing and toys to everyone.

She could still remember what he told her, 'Look Ms. Mitarashi, look at the expressions of joy on the faces of the children, the happiness of the adults. Not only are their children getting toys and clothing but so are they. To get something nice like this would have made me the happiest child in the world, even if it was clothing.' The look of pure happiness she saw on a little girls face was burned into her mind, the giggles she gave as she hugged a stuffed bear made her heart clinch. Had she really missed this? To live in the village for so long and just now learn about it?

'These people deserve these gifts, they all deserve to wear new clothes... everyone deserves to look nice or pretty every now and then.' The images of a tearful mother hugging her husband while holding a pretty pink dress before hugging the woman who gave it to her popped into her mind.

Over the next few days families would come home to find more gifts laying in there mailbox or in front of their doors. She had pitched in on some of these, helping deliver them with her ninja training. Each were full of necessities that they would need, things like new toothbrushes and toothpaste, combs and brushes, soap, medicine for fever, colds, headaches, first-aid kits.

He even sent the children living in the orphanage some toys and clothes, despite the fact the he was kicked out by the hateful matrons there.

Yeah he was a modern day robbin hood, only that he didn't steal from the rich... although some would say he did since his restaurants were so expensive, but then again you never tasted a stake as good as they could cook.

"Come on guys lets get these birds loaded up," The blonde yelled as he watched a line of guys pass heavy looking boxes along before stacking them in a large cart.

Anko sat on the roof of Narutos place, the fancy restaurant called Atlantis, watching as the men loaded the boxes out of the buildings freezer door.

They had been here for since half passed five in the morning and it was already seven, so she was tired.

She looked at the blonde down below and watched as his assistant, a young man named Nishki counted the boxes at they passed, tallying them up on a clipboard. If was funny to watch as Naruto would play jokes on him just for fun...

FLASHBACK

"How could you send me there, those... those things nearly drove me insane, screaming about youth and spring,"

Anko winced, she knew exactly who he was talking about and felt for him.

Naruto shrugged, "Oh get over it," he spoke while reading the paper, which told about his little charity event the day before, "Keep on complaining and your going back with them."

Nishki gaped at him, "Is my mental health nothing but a game to you?" he asked in horror.

Naruto glanced at him over the paper, "Rack 'em up, let's play again,"

FLASHBACK END

They had developed a strange relationship, ever since she laughed at one of Naruto's jokes he hadn't liked her at all but put up with her since Naruto seemed to like her.

Nishki finished the tally and nodded to Naruto, who motioned for the men to get a move on.

The freezer door was shut and locked as three strong looking men in tight black shirts took the handles at the front and started pushing the carts with ease. moving them in line with another two carts.

Anko leapt down and joined Naruto and Nishki on the road as Nishki turned to Naruto, "Ah sir I have a request to make, I need a place to stay, seems that the floor my room was on is being fumigated again."

Naruto hummed, "Yes I heard, they keep trying but you always come back,"

Nishki sweat dropped and Anko choked in laughter, mostly because of how serious Naruto looked.

"Lord Chairman I'm serious," The man said.

Naruto looked at him, "Me too, but Anko here has taken up residence in my guest room so your out of luck,"

-X-

Sarutobi yawned as he did his paperwork, cursing anything he could think of that could've contributed to his work load.

Suddenly his window was thrown open and a white haired man stuck his head in, "Sensei!"

Still half awake, he sent a coffee cup flying towards the sound, only to shatter the glass as the window was closed quickly.

"Damn it Jairaiya-kun, that's the third time this month," he sighed as his student climbed through, brushing the broken shards aside.

He chuckled, "Sorry Sensei, I just came by to see how your doing, and to ask if you know where Naruto is, he's not at his hotel or the Hospital,"

The hokage nodded, "Yes he woke up a day after the attack, he was already walking around last time I saw him... Last I heard he was working on some large project in the village, I haven't heard much about it but I have the report somewhere from his guard that I assigned to follow him."

Jiraiya blinked, "You have someone spying on him?"

"Of course not," Sarutobi said in a offended tone, "He knows and if he didn't want it he could've sent her away,"

"So you haven't read it yet?"

The hokage gave him a look then looked at the stack of papers he had to do.

"Oh... right,"

He shook his head, "Feel free to read it if you want,". He leafed through some scrolls and found it before tossing it to the man.

Jiraiya sat down on the couch off to the side and opened the report scroll, only to whistle after a second, "Wow, kids quickly becoming a hero,"

Sarutobi looked back up, "Care to share what your reading?"

"Narutos been busy, he's started going charity drives for the less fortunate in the slums where he grew up." The pervert said while reading, "He's basically the Civilian version of his father in terms of people looking up to him. Says that the kids love him and want to be like him,"

Sarutobi stopped doing his paperwork and opened his bottom drawer, pulling out his crystal ball and activating it. "Let's see what our mini-Minato it doing," he spoke, curious as to what the blond was doing.

The ball got cloudy before clearing up, showing Naruto standing on the tailgate of a large merchants cart with a group of people dressed in black shirts, they couldn't hear what he was saying but they watched as the crowd in front of him cheered for him. After a second they formed a single-file line and he started opening the boxes and handing out frozen turkeys to the people.

"Amazing," Jiraiya stated, "that's got to be enough Turkey to feed every family in the slums."

The people in black shirts climbed in the back of the other two carts and started doing the same, Handing the free dinners out to the people who would otherwise not be able to afford them.

"You know," the younger of the two spoke, "If the council keeps trying to screw him over, he could easily cause a riot."

Sarutobi nodded sagely, pulling his pipe out and packing it, "Yes... and if he's anything like his parents he'd carry out such a threat if he had to, you of all people should know that."

Jiraiya had a quick flashback to how Kushina threatened to kick him in the balls if she caught him peeping in on her and being the uncontrollable pervert he was, he pushed his luck and suffered for it.

"Why are you looking for him anyway?" The hokage questioned, "It's far too early for him to be doing any training with you."

The pervert rolled the scroll up and placed it on the mans desk, "Not too long before he was attacked, I met with him about getting the information you asked me to find. I had just learned that he had his own information network that made mine look like the academy gosip circle."

"I wouldn't be surprised, Naruto always had a way of finding out little secrets that no one wanted out in the open," the old Hokage chuckled, "And with all the money he makes, it can't be hard, you on the other hand support it by yourself so it's harder for you,"

"Wow, what a confidence boost." he muttered as his sensei finished, "So you knew?"

"Nope, it was just a little strange when he showed up out of the blue and pointed out two areas of the village that were up for sell, I just figured he had a information network of his own. After all you usually need to go through a lot of paperwork to find out what's for sell and anyone who does it is screened and recorded."

Jiraiya sighed, 'He's not called the professor for nothing,'

-X-

As the last family was given a free turkey, Naruto waded through the crowd of thankful people, shaking a few hands and politely saying a few words to some. Following him from the roof was Anko while Nishki went with the carts.

Soon he broke through the crowd and dusted off his white coat, chuckling as a few children off to the side wore some cheap sunglasses like his.

"You know Anko," he started as she jumped off the roof and landed next to him. "If being a ninja here don't work out your always welcome to come work for me,"

"Really?" Anko asked in a surprised tone, "What brought this up?"

Naruto shrugged, "I just thought that we'd make good partners," he told her while motioning to the side.

Anko looked and saw some children playing, a few of the boys had their hair spiked similar to Naruto's style while the girls had spiked ponytails like hers.

Helping Naruto wasn't a thankless job, sure she did it from the kindness that had rubbed off on her but it wasn't like she did it while under a genjutsu, doing things like this would get around sooner or later. It was only natural for the boys to emulate Naruto while the girls did the same to her.

Then she thought about it and grimaced. The thought of little girls wearing clothing (or lack of) like hers, pissing their parents off then making them came after her.

She pulled her trench coat together just a little more and looked around, hoping not to see any children already doing such a thing.

Naruto chuckled, "Come on Anko, lets go get some dango."

-X-

"We have to do something about that monster, that little demon is just bidding his time,"

Danzo sat and listened to the civilians bicker back and forth with a frown, none of these fools had any idea how stupid their plans were. They wanted to kill the Uzumaki and steal his businesses but hadn't thought of the problems doing so would cause. The Black Rose wasn't some corner store it was a multinational company, killing the Uzumaki would do nothing but piss off a hornets nest.

"Killing off the boy is a big mistake," Danzo spoke after a minute, making the civilian council look at him as he stood up, "You can do as you wish but your not using my men to do it,"

He slowly made his way to the door, "I will not be a part of this and as much as I hate to say this, Sarutobi was right when he ordered to leave the boy alone,"

He never told them that he was planning to try and strike an alliance with the boy. He knew better than them, Uzumaki Naruto was a human not a demon. When Naruto was still a newborn, he kept pushing to have the boy trained to protect the village, not because he thought he was a demon but because he could control it. A ninja with the power to control the strongest demon would make Konoha the strongest village once again.

But sadly for him, Sarutobi still had the power to stop that at every council meeting. Still even when the boy was too old to be turned into a full member of Root, he was planning on approaching the boy to train him. He wasn't a fool, he saw the devotion the boy had to the village and he would dare say that his own ninjas looked like traitors compared to the blonde.

Then that whole Forbidden Scroll incident happened, Mizuki tricked Naruto into stealing the scroll and revealed the fox to him. Then everything fell apart... Naruto lost his love for the village and dropped out, leaving the village before he could make the offer and staying hidden for years.

But now that he was back, Danzo could visit and try to strike a deal with the blonde. Sure he wasn't a ninja now but he had the resources and the political weight to make things happen. After all he knew that having Naruto's backing in anything could drastically turn the tide of something in their favor, be it a war, a national incident... ect.

The only thing he needed to do now is to find out how to convince him, what to use that would make him agree. It would have to be something that only he could offer and not something that the blonde could buy.

Women were out of the question as he had read the few reports his Root ninjas had given him. He seemed to be able to pick them like fruit and sweet talk them out of their panties. Money was out for obvious reasons. Blackmail was a big no-no.

Offering ninja training? Could it work? He had heard that Jiraiya was training him off and on but it was a slow process, that the man would show up a seemingly random times.

He'd need more, training would only go so far and Naruto didn't strike him as the type to be fanatical about learning jutsu.

Danzo left the council chambers where the civilians had started the secret meeting and left to return to his own hidden underground base.

He wasn't there for an hour when the ninja he had hidden in the meeting room popped in.

"Lord Danzo, I've come to give you the civilians plans,"

The one eyed man motioned with his one arm for him to continue.

"They've come up with a plan to frame him..."

-X-

"Hey Anko-chan! Over here!"

The pair looked over to where the voice came from and saw a booth across the room full of ladies, each wearing headbands with the Konoha symbol on it. He recognized one as Kurenai, the woman who taught Hinata.

"Girls night?" he questioned lowly.

She nodded.

He hummed, "Go on and be with your friends," he said as he spotted Goro sitting in a corner, "You've been following me around for the past week, you need a break... if you need me I'll be over there."

She didn't argue and they split, Naruto going over towards the booth on the left side of the building while Anko went right.

-X-

(With Naruto)

Naruto approached the table and popped Goro in the back of the head, making him spit out a piece of dango.

"HEY! WHO THE- Oh Naru-chan,"

Naruto ignored the name and walked passed him to sit across from him, "You know when I'm trying to find you your never around," the blonde said while straightening his shirt. "But when I'm not it's like looking for Orochimaru at a boy scouts meeting... he's always lurking in a corner..."

Goro mumbled something while Naruto ordered a plate and some tea.

"What no sake for you?" he asked while the waiter walked away.

Naruto nodded, "I have to set a good example for children."

"Oh come on!" Goro whined, "I'm way older than you,"

The blonde glanced at him, "From the way you act I find it hard to believe but I'm not joking, take a walk through the slums and you'll see my child army."

Goro cracked a smile, "Orochimaru would kill to be you," he said before leaning forward, "Speaking of which, whose the babe you walked in with."

Naruto's order arrived and he took a sip of his tea, "That Goro, is Anko Mitarashi, a special Jounin of Konoha and an expert in torture and interrogation,"

"What's she doing with you?"

Naruto bit into one of the dango, "She's my bodyguard, curtsey of the old man himself, but the bigger question is where is my information?"

Goro frowned and pulled a scroll from his pocket, "Lord Chairman, I know it's not my place to say, but I don't trust this village at all," he spoke in a hushed tone while passing it across the table.

Naruto took it and slid it into his inner coat pocket, "Goro I understand and agree fully, precautions have been made just in case of anything, besides I doubt that anything will happen so close to the festival,"

"I hope not,"

-X-

(With Anko)

Anko sat down beside Kurenai and the other girls, every week they would all get together and chat about things going on in there lives. Kurenai would talk about the lack of good men, which they usually all agreed about. She would listen and eat dango. Tsume would sometimes make a crude but funny joke about someone, usually her runt of a son. Hana would tell about her days at work. Yoshino Nara would complain about her clans laziness... and the other girls that normally joined them were all out on missions.

"I haven't seen you lately Anko," Yoshino spoke while nursing a cup of sake.

Tsume nodded while chewing on one of the sticks, "Yeah usually your up and hurting some pervert by lunch time, I've been getting up late for the past week."

Anko stole one of Kurenais dango, "Well I've been busy, some people have very important missions that need to be done,"

"Like what?"

"Well... I've been playing bodyguard to a rich businessman," she said while looking at Hana who cocked her head to the side.

"Yeah right, after the last time where that guy tried to bribe you to let him play with you?"

Anko shook her head, "No this guys different, he's one of the most successful men in the nation and he's not even in his twenties. I'm telling you if he asked me to I would quit my job and work as his body guard forever. Besides what I make from the village he pays me extra to do little things... like prank random people just for a good laugh."

"You mean Naruto?" Kurenai asked making the girls look at her. "He hired us to escort a few carts back to the village, he's a real nice guy. You know they saw money changes people but from what I heard about him years ago, back when he was in the academy, he hasn't changed a bit."

Anko smirked, "Oh yes he has, remember that time his was being chased by those ANBU and lost his shirt? Well if he took his shirt off now you'd need a transfusion."

To be continued...

-X-