Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto

AN: I was thinking about this for awhile, roughly a few months, but never decided to go anywhere with this until my friend told me to write it and see what others think. So here I am typing the first of, hopefully, many chapters of Naruto finding a baby alone and raising it as his own, which should be interesting as he didn't grow up with parents, which is where the idea came from.

Enjoy.

Chapter 1- Discovery

Naruto was bored. He had passed Kakashi-sensei's test and had finally became an official ninja with his teammates Sasuke and Sakura. After getting free from the stump that they had cruelly left him tied too, having to bite his way out, he now had nothing to do for the day. He supposed he could've asked his teammates if they wanted to hang-out or something, but Sasuke wasn't exactly fun to be around and Sakura wouldn't go anywhere with him unless Sasuke was around. That left him bored for the rest of the day tomorrow until he started his official duties as a member of Team 7.

Walking out of the training grounds with his hands tucked into his pockets, he scoured the area around him for signs of anything for him to do. People were busy doing their own thing from what he can see. No one would have the time to spend with him, mostly due to him not having many, if any, friends. Sasuke and Sakura couldn't really count as friends right now. They were just teammates for now until he can get them to like him, which by the way both feel about him, would take a very long time to do.

Sighing after a second of looking, Naruto jumped to the rooftops and started hopping his way on over to Ichiraku Ramen for some food. If he couldn't spend the day with anyone, he might as well chow down on some delicious ramen. He would go and ask Iruka-sensei if he wanted to join him, but the man mentioned that he would be gone at a meeting for most of the day. Naruto didn't know what the meeting was about and quite frankly couldn't care less about it. Landing swiftly on the ground by his favorite restaurant, his eyes widened when he it.

A sign read 'Closed for the day due to sickness.'

"Come on!" Naruto pulled his hair, running around in circles in front of the restaurant; making a big scene for those that passed by. "Why is everything against me today?" he ran around the exterior of the ramen stand, hoping to look for a back way in or some kind of entrance that he can use to get inside. He would take some ramen and leave the money inside where Teuchi can see; he didn't care, he just wanted some ramen.

Dropping down in defeat, he lowered his head to the ground. Scratch what he said before about having nothing to do. Right now, as he finished his little show for passing civilians, this was the moment when he realized that he had nothing to do, and now no place to go and eat. Today was just handing him a bunch of cruel things for him to deal with, the only positive being that he finally became a ninja.

He let out an exhale, "Now what do I do? I can try and catch up with Sasuke or Sakura and just ask if they want to hang." He shrugged, "Not like there's anything to do now." He jumped back onto the roofs again, keeping his sapphire eyes on the look-out for any one, or both, of his teammates. Sakura would still be trying to convince Sasuke to go out with her and the Uchiha would be rejecting her or scoffing his annoyance, and that was only if they were still within ten feet of each other.

Stopping on one rooftop to overview his surroundings, Naruto did in fact spot the Uchiha and his crush, doing exactly what he was just reminiscing about.

Sasuke was scoffing in annoyance while the pink-head asked him out. Naruto could faintly point out the twitch that Sasuke's eyebrow did each time that Sakura repeated herself to him about why she thought he was the best. If Naruto didn't like Sakura, this would be totally funny and amusing to watch. It kinda already was.

Seeing that Sasuke was close to opening his mouth and saying mean and hurtful things to Sakura that'll no doubt crush her, Naruto decided to make his move and descend from the rooftop, landing a few paces to Sasuke's left.

Said Uchiha turned to look at him, "How long have you been there?" he asked, not having sensed or noticed Naruto's presence due to Sakura hounding at him like if he was the best thing in the world since sliced bread.

Sakura stopped her so call flirting to stare at Naruto. "Have you been spying on us?" she shrieked, feeling rather annoyed that Naruto showed up just when she was about to get Sasuke to accept her date offer.

Naruto shook his head and held his hands up in defense, knowing where this'll lead if he doesn't say something. "No!" he assured the narrow eyed angry Sakura. "I was just trying to find you guys. Ichiraku Ramen is closed and I have nothing to do."

Sasuke blinked, "You just found that out?" he sounded honestly confused at the news, feeling like Naruto of all people would be the one to keep tabs on all of Ichiraku's news. Sasuke knew and he didn't even go there all that much.

Naruto turned dangerously slow over to the Uchiha, his eyes glaring at his confused ones. "You knew and didn't think to tell me!?" he would've made a move to try and pummel him, but didn't want Sakura to come after him for doing so. How would he get her to like him if he kept making her mad?

Sasuke shrugged, "I passed by this morning on the way over to the bell test. I figured someone who enjoys their food as much as you do would've known beforehand."

Naruto lowered his glare, seeing that Sasuke did indeed have some points. Not a lot that didn't make him wanna attack him for keeping it to himself like he did everything else, but he was right in certain spots. "Anyway…" he still kept one eye glared at Sasuke, "Any chance you two wanna maybe hang-out together? Grow a stronger bond as teammates?"

"No." Sasuke said as soon as Naruto finished asking his first question. Now that he was on the path to becoming a top-ranked ninja, he needed to put more effort into his training to kill Itachi. While he could tolerate Naruto, there was only so much that he can handle in one day. Seeing him get his ass poked by Kakashi and his whining while tied to the stump was his limit for the day.

"Fine," Naruto rolled his eyes at him before grinning towards Sakura. "Guess that leaves you and me Sakura-cha-"

"No."

"Oh, come on!" Naruto pouted. "Why not?" he honestly wanted to know why his teammates, who would be helping him on missions, didn't want to spend any time with him. He would get it if it was before the bell test; they would have a choice to be with him, but now they didn't. They were stuck with him unless something happened that jeopardized the team. Wouldn't spending time increase their bond and wouldn't that bond help them complete missions? If they didn't want to be with him just for him, they can at least suck it up and do it for that.

Sasuke sighed, "I have training to do to help me get closer to completing my ambition to destroy a certain man." He darkened at his mention of Itachi, "If you're bored, go and train; make sure that you don't drag us down on our missions." And with his parting words, Sasuke jumped away towards the Uchiha compound to relish in his private training.

Naruto felt hurt at Sasuke's words, but didn't let it get to him that much. All Sasuke knew how to do was insult people and put them down; this time wasn't any different. He and Sasuke used to be cool at one point. What happened to that? Were they still like that but just didn't know? Sasuke was the only one that could possibly understand what Naruto felt like, what with being an orphan and all; so Naruto naturally wanted them to be friends. Too bad Sasuke didn't seem to want the same, or if he did, hid it extremely well. He looked to Sakura to wait for her input, not surprised when she started yelling.

"Now Sasuke is leaving! Thanks a lot, Naruto!" she sarcastically thanked the blonde before going to try and find her raven-haired crush.

Naruto knew better than to go and chase after them. They already made it clear that they didn't want to spend any time with him willingly. Oh well, he thought, maybe they'll one day come around to him but until that day, he would have to settle with being alone; which he really didn't care about anymore. After twelve years of that, it just kinda grows numb on you. Taking Sasuke's advice just for the fact that there wasn't anything else to do, Naruto turned and headed out into the woods to train in solitude, hoping that he could get a little bit stronger in this day.

…

Naruto was punching the bark of a tree within Konoha's forest, moving in an easy left-hand right-hand pattern, counting off the number of times that each hand collided with the wood. He's been standing here and training for a few hours now, the sky starting to turn orange; nightfall arriving soon. Naruto would need to get back to the village soon before someone discovered he was missing. Not that anyone would care in the slightest but he could get in trouble with Old Man Hokage, and Naruto looked up to him too much to get on the bad side of the man. Reaching a satisfying number of three-hundred punches each, Naruto stopped to see that he broke off pieces of the bark, the wood lying chipped away by his feet.

He took a deep breath to relax himself after moving around a lot for the past few hours. Shaking his sun-kissed blonde head to wipe off the sweat, Naruto started his walk back to the village. He wondered what kind of missions he'll be doing tomorrow. Probably really big and important missions, like protecting someone important, or fighting off squads of rouge ninja. He grinned in excitement; the ideas of possible missions would no doubt keep him awake tonight.

Ducking under a small branch in his path, he missed the small bundle that was behind him. It wasn't until he heard the coo that he stopped mid-step, his right foot dangling in the air above the stick he was about to step on, and slowly turned his head back towards the way he came. When he didn't see anything, he turned his head back to keep going; thinking that he just heard things.

"Stupid birds," Naruto cursed, starting his walk once again. When he heard a goo-goo-gah-gah, he turned one-eight faster than the eye could see him. Looking around quickly, he found his eyes landing and focusing on the basket set up by the tree, his face starting to pale and his legs getting weak.

A baby was wiggling around in the basket.

"Is that a baby?" he pointed to the bundle. "Holy shit, it is a baby!" he looked around once again, "Hey! Someone left their baby over here! I think it wants its parents!" he called for any sign of the child's parents. All he got in response was the chirping of birds and leaves shaking as he moved around in his spot. "Hello?" he grew concerned when he didn't hear a response. He turned from the woods to the baby, who was still shaking in the basket. "Hey, can you talk?"

The baby cooed in response.

"Guess that's a no then," he sighed. "Do you know where you're parents are?" he slapped himself when the kid cooed. "Why would I ask that if it can't talk?" he walked closer, bending down over the kid, who Naruto just realized had black hair. "Can you point me in the direction in which you came?"

The child giggled.

"Okay… how about where you live?"

He got another giggle.

"Where you're parents are?"

The child wiggled in his direction, holding its small arms out for him. "Papa."

Naruto froze, stumbling back and falling on his ass. Did this kid just call him papa? No way that it did; Naruto knew for a strong fact that he didn't have any kids. He stood back up and shook his hands, "Alright, now that I know you can talk, can you tell me where you're mom and dad is?"

"Papa." The baby repeated, still holding its arms out for Naruto to take.

Naruto looked in amazement down at the kid. The baby did call him papa. Did the child not know its parents and just called Naruto papa because he was the first one who found him/her. The raven-colored eyes of the child were staring into his sapphire ones, excited from the look of it, wanting Naruto to pick it up. Naruto couldn't just leave the kid out here alone. A bear or something might eat it. Moving down slowly once again, his arms reached out to take the child out of the bundle.

The child giggled again, "Dada."

"I'm not your dad." Naruto told the child, finding it hard to try and keep the smile off his face. He couldn't let the child see him as its dad when its real one could still be out here somewhere.

"Papa."

"I'll find your dad and return you to him." He promised.

"Dada."

"Please stop calling me that," Naruto was close to crying, but didn't due to years of keeping it in. "I'm not your dad. I wouldn't even know how to be one. I don't have a dad or a mom."

The baby stopped giggling and started to cry, almost like if it knew what Naruto was saying. The kid looked to be about a year old or so, so it could or could not know. Naruto wouldn't know, not having a damn clue on how to deal with kids.

He started panicking, "Wait, don't cry. Please, don't cry." He looked so lost right now, feeling like he was back at the academy when it was test day and he didn't study. He started shaking the baby, "Stop crying! It's okay, look, Daddy's here," he smiled. "Daddy's here." He told the kid, finding it actually easy to pretend to call himself the kid's dad. He didn't like to do anything or think about parents, feeling the pain come back about his not being around.

The kid started giggling again hearing him say that, "Papa."

Naruto smiled a big smile. This kid really wanted him to be its dad. The baby reached up and grabbed his hair, giving it a big pull; Naruto holding in his scream of pain at the gesture. He settled for a pained smile, "Don't pull Daddy's hair." He lectured. He gently took the kid's hand out of his hair. He sighed in realization.

What did he do with this kid now?

Did he bring it to the orphanage? Fat chance they'll take it if they see him bringing it in? They didn't even keep him in, forcing the Old Man to give him his own apartment at seven. Plus, they weren't good to any of the kids there, letting them abuse each other physically and mentally without doing much. He didn't want this kid to go through that. He couldn't tell the Old Man, as it'll lead to the child being given to the orphanage anyway, which Naruto didn't want for the reasons above. So what did he do? He couldn't leave it here on the off-chance that its parents came back. If they left the kid in a basket, they obviously didn't want it anyway. The kid was an orphan like him. He knew how that felt.

But could he take care of it? Hell to the no! He could barely handle himself. How would he be able to take care of a kid while balancing his life as a ninja? He didn't want to leave it, liking the way it felt when he held the baby, who was now asleep in his chest, apparently needing a father's touch to sleep. Until he could figure out what was the right thing to do, the kid stayed with him.

"Wait…" Naruto spoke out loud. "Are you a boy or girl? And what's your name?" he felt really weird talking to a baby that could only apparently say 'Dada' and 'Papa'. He, very awkwardly, took a small peek inside the diaper the kid was wearing.

He didn't see anything between the legs.

"So you're a girl," he noted to the sleeping child. "I need a name for you." He didn't think of any names he could give the baby girl, only knowing names of those he knew. He couldn't call the baby one of those names; it would get weird for when he met up with the other girl with that name. He laughed nervously, "I can't call you Naruko…that would be too weird." He sighed, "I guess I'll call you…Naomi, because now you're my precious beautiful baby girl." He smiled at himself, holding the baby closer to his chest as he carefully snuck back inside the village. If they couldn't see him painting the monument until five minutes after he was finished, there's no way they'll see him with a baby.

Naruto, for the first time in a long time, felt really happy.

End of Chapter 1 of The Fox's Cub

Wow, I actually loved this chapter.

This will eventually end up as NaruSaku. Sasuke will be important too, but more like Naruto's bestie. Yes, I plan on making them not hate each other and become friends in this.

Hope you liked the name for the kid and the chapter.

Remember to review, alert and favorite if you enjoyed and have a nice day.

Next Time: Daddy Naruto