2 Chapter2

The crying was the first thing that woke the tired ANBU ninja up, Kakashi groaned as he got up from his bed. He still had on most of his uniform, he had been so tired that he had just crashed onto his bed, even his mask was still on but then he usually slept with it on anyways. It was on for so long that sometimes he forgot to take it off when he showered. But now the crying of Naruto woke the young ninja up.

He sighed as he rubbed his tired eye and went out from his room. He was still living in his apartment, it wasn't that big a place but then again he hadn't needed a big place, sure he still had his parent's old house but after what happened with his father killing himself, he just couldn't live there. Although he knew that when Naruto got bigger this place wouldn't be enough and he might have to move back, Kakashi knew he could always sell it but it had been in his family for two generations.

He made his way to Naruto's room, it had just been a small room that he used for storage but he moved all that stuff out to make room for Naruto's crib and other things. He flicked on the light blinded for a moment as the sting of the sudden light hit his eye. He blinked and saw the scene, the room was white but he did plan on fixing it up a little with more color at some point. There was the crib, a changing table and a few other things.

He walked over to Naruto's crib and looked down at the young boy. "How can someone so small have such a powerful set of lungs?" he asked himself as he picked up the crying infant.

He rocked Naruto gently trying to sooth him. It had been three months since that night he took Naruto in, and he hadn't had a decent night's sleep since. Sure he had gone days without sleep on missions but this took things to a whole new level. He swore they should let ninja's take care of infants for those sleep deprivation training.

"There there, what is it little guy? You hungry again?" Kakashi couldn't believe how much the little guy ate. It was kind of unbelievable someone so small had such a stomach. He couldn't smell anything thank goodness so it wasn't for changing. He carried Naruto into the kitchen as he went to get a bottle. The little blonde boy was dressed in orange, for some reason he seemed to like the color. Kakashi always had trouble dressing him in other colors; he would throw fits for some reason unless it was orange.

He got out a bottle from the fridge and used a small jutsu to heat it up. It was just a simple heating one used when you were stuck out in the cold. Mainly you used your chakra, the life energy that all ninjas trained to use, to mainly make a blanket of warmth around you. He just used it on his hand until the bottle was nice and warm. He adjusted Naruto and the baby eagerly fed off the bottle.

"There you go," He said gently closing the fridge with his foot and walking him around the apartment. He found out that this seemed to calm him down. "Man I know I said I'd look after you but who knew this was so hard. Makes me glad for all those babysitting rank-D missions I had as a kid."

He shivered at the memories of those missions, they were not pleasant experiences but he at least got something useful out of it and he was putting all of that to work. Naruto eventually finished and Kakashi started to pat his back to burp him. He heard the sound and smiled but then froze feeling something warm slithering on his shoulder.

"I forgot to put a tower on me again didn't I?" he asked little Naruto who giggled. Kakashi knew that he had some spit up on his shoulder now. He had been tired and forgot to put that damn rag on now and then. He found something else out, getting that stuff cleaned off a ninja uniform wasn't easy. He sighed and proceeded to walk around with Naruto a little rocking him. It took nearly an hour for the boy to sleep, he had a lot of energy in him and he was always looking around the place.

Kakashi had to watch him as he liked to crawl and explore and usually get into trouble. Kakashi had to make sure that he kept all his weapons well out of the way. He had to stop Naruto from picking up and trying to play with a shuriken that he had dropped onto the floor at some point. It wasn't an easy life that was sure but he did it, plus he knew that the boy needed him as well. Who else would look after him? The new Hokage the Third after taking back his title, had decided that only the council will know of Naruto and his past as well as the ANBU and Jonins.

He still remembered that day as well.

-A week ago-

Kakashi was holding Naruto as he walked into the Hokage's office, by now the entire village was slowly getting back on its feet. The dead had been buried and there was a mass funeral for everyone. He had been there with Naruto, it was only fitting after all Naruto had lost his parents that night. Even if the child didn't really know it at the moment, or maybe he had, for some strange reason Naruto had been uncharacteristically quiet during the whole thing.

Kakashi went into the office as the Hokage had told him to arrive. He walked in seeing the Third back behind the desk, he now wore the old robes he had used to wear before he had stepped down. The white robes with some red trimming, the large matching hat with the symbol of 'Fire' on the front of it.

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi bowed to him as much as he could.

"Ah Kakashi I'm glad to see you, how had Naruto been?" The old man smiled at the little boy who looked up at the strange old man. He reached up with one hand to the pipe that the old man was smoking.

"Hokage if you'd please?" He said nodding his head to the pipe. The old man smiled and put it out, he had one given up on that with his own boys, but with them all grown up and moved out he had taken it up again.

Kakashi nodded his thanks, "Well Naruto is a handful, and I swear the amount of energy he has is frightening. I never knew a baby could wear you out so much so fast."

The old man gave a small laugh remember his own experiences when he was younger. "Well the reason I called you here was to tell you about my decision. I had to tell the council about Naruto, his full heritage as well as the demon sealed away inside of him."

Kakashi sighed, "Didn't go well did it?"

"No it didn't," he rubbed his temples from the headache that he got from that. "At least there were a few of the more reasonable ones. The Hyugas seem to be not opposed but they aren't exactly happy about it, but they will not go against the wishes of the Fourth. The Aburames are just as neutral but I think they're just waiting to see how the boy is before they judge him."

That he was thankful for, at least the Aburame clan kept their emotions tightly controlled but they were very logical as well.

"Any others?" Kakashi asked.

"A few of the less powerful members will not seem to cause any problems, but there is a large faction that feel that the boy is too dangerous to live, this was led by the current head of the Uchiha clan. But I gave a law that stated that they were not to discuss this outside of the council, this is an S-class secret punishable by death. So only the members of the council will know of Naruto and his secrets, only the new heads will be told and of course all the Jonins and ANBU members."

Kakashi nodded his head listening to all of this. "I have to wonder why you had to tell them at all, he would be much safer if no one knew."

The Hokage nodded, "I had considered that but I also had to consider other things. What if the secret got out? The entire council would be after my head for keeping this from them, also we also have to worry about what if one day the seal on Naruto breaks or someone tries to actually remove the damn thing off of him?"

Kakashi hadn't thought of that, but then again why would anyone do something like that?

"No one would be that insane would they? It would most likely kill Naruto if they broke the seal." Kakashi felt a bit more protective of the boy wondering what such a thing would do to the little blond boy.

"My old student the one that taught your sensei...He's heard of things. Naruto is not the first of his kind, there have been others before but mostly they had been killed either by the demons they hold or by others." The old man looked very serious in that moment as he looked at Kakashi. "There have been whispers of something brewing, rumours mainly that he was a bit concerned over. There have been lately someone or more than one person looking into people like Naruto. Vessels for demons, in fact and ancient scroll of such things was said to have been stolen recently from the Village of Mist."

"So there could be a threat but he's still looking into such things, as he is looking for other things that are of concern as well."

"Oh? What else is going on?" Kakashi asked.

"You are aware of Orochimaru's new status as a missing nin correct?" He asked and Kakashi nodded. "Well one girl Anko is missing, she was training under him and disappeared soon before we found out about what Orochimaru was doing."

The old man sighed and closed his eyes, still remembering the horrors he had found in that basement room. To think one of his own students capable of such evil things, he felt like he had failed his student in some way.

"We are searching for her but we don't know if she knew of his status when she left or not. So my other student Jiraiya is looking for leads for him as well." He leaned back into his chair feeling very tired. "This year had been a very dark year it seems."

"We will endure just as we always have Hokage," Kakashi said honestly and that made the old man smile just a bit. "But I am worried that not everyone will obey you're law about Naruto."

"Yes they may find ways around it but I felt you had to be told, just in case you need to be ready for anything." The Hokage said to him.

-Present-

Kakashi was putting Naruto back into his crib after the baby had gone back to sleep. He pulled the orange blanket over the sleeping form and placed his favourite toy next to him, a small orange fox. He wasn't sure why Naruto had an affinity for the animal. Maybe on some level he knew about the demon fox within him, or maybe it was a slight influence from the demon itself. He hated that last thought, the boy was so innocent and the thought of him being taken over by that monster actually scared him.

Kakashi had lost too much to lose another and in this time Naruto was becoming an important part of his life. He worried about the little boy but when Naruto laughed or smiled it actually made Kakashi happy. Happier than he had been in awhile actually, plus little Naruto had an infectious laugh, to think that people could hate such a baby was just stupid to him.

He gently ran his hand over the blonde hair, "I promise you I'll protect you Naruto."

Across the city over in another district of the city, in a large area known as the Uchiha district, in the center of it was the main Uchiha home. This was where the main branch of the family resided, it was a very large estate on par only with that of the Hyugas who were also the rivals of the Uchiha. In the main house in one of the larger rooms lit by candles sat many members of the council at the head of the table was the leader of the Uchihas, Fugaku Uchiha.

"So we are all in agreement then?" The head of the Uchiha's asked those around him.

He was a tall and powerful looking man, he didn't show emotion and looked to be the type to demand perfection from everyone around him especially of his clan. He had gathered those that knew that the Hokage was a fool to allow the vessel of the demon to live on. It didn't matter if it was the will of the Fourth to keep the boy alive or even if he was his son. Personally Fugaku never really thought much of the Fourth Hokage anyway, he had seen that man before he became the legendary Yellow Flash and he wasn't impressed with him then.

So I was little consequence to him if the son of the last Hokage were killed or not.

"Although we can't take direct action that doesn't mean that we can take overt actions." He looked at the faces around him all had eyes of hatred in them. All of them had lost someone precious to them to the demon's attack and it was a powerful motivation.

"What can we do then Fugaku-sama?" One of the men asked.

"We can't make it obvious or else the Hokage would send the ANBU after whoever was behind things." Another said.

"Yes we need someone to take the fall." Another agreed.

"Yes we need to find someone with no affiliation that will kill the boy without hesitation and if possible take their own life to prevent them from talking if captured." Fugaku said. "But the problem is finding someone like that, plus with his new 'father' around it will make things even more hard."

"Yes everyone knows of Kakashi, he even has your bloodlimit the Sharingan." One of the men stated.

Fugaku slammed his hand hard into the table. "Never speak of that in my presence. The fact that fool of a friend of his gave him the pride of my clan shames us all. To think that someone outside my clan uses the Sharingan is an everlasting insult to me. If that fool Obito was still alive I'd kill him myself for what he did."

"But you raise a fine point, Kakashi is not to be taken lightly and now he's an ANBU himself so that makes things even more complicated."

"What do we do then?" One of them asked.

"We wait, we find someone that we can use against the boy but we also might have to wait until the boy is older. Kakashi is only an ANBU to stay close to the boy but once he's old enough I know that Kakashi would go back into the field. He's that kind of ninja and he'll take on missions that will have him leave the village, and then we can easily strike at the demon boy." Fugaku said to them all.

"We shouldn't wait! He should be killed now!" Someone spoke up.

"You fool there is another reason to wait!" He snapped at the man. "The more time that goes by the more relaxed security will be around the boy. Plus any 'accident' that can happen to him would be more plausible. If something were to happen too soon, the Hokage would know that it had been set up to kill the boy."

"No we wait for the time is right and then we will strike."

Soon after that the meeting was over but the leader of the Uchiha Clan waited patiently. Then a door slid open and a young boy of about five with dark hair and matching eyes walked in, he held an impassive face just like the man across from him.

"What are your thoughts to this Itachi?" He asked the young man.

"I think it is wise to wait father." He said calmly to his father. Although personally he didn't see the point in all of this just to kill a little boy. It was beneath his family to hide in the shadows like this and plot such a thing, they were the most powerful clan and here they were acting like some weak and pathetic group of cowards. It sickened him to think that his proud clan would be reduced to such a state but he showed nothing of this.

His father nodded his head. "I want you to keep an eye out in the ninja ranks for anyone we can use. Most likely when someone is given the level of Jonin and learns of the boy's true nature we will find who we need."

Itachi bowed his head. "As you wish father but if you don't mind I need to prepare. I have a test tomorrow and I wish to be ready for it."

His father nodded his head and Itachi bowed as he left the room. He walked through the large mansion and heard the crying of his little brother. He passed an open door and saw his mother there picking up the new born and trying to sooth him. Itachi knew that his father had rarely seen his little brother, that actually bothered him a little.

He knew that his father saw that the first born son was the pride and future of the clan but that was not necessary to ignore another. His little brother was an Uchiha after all and he held hope that his little brother would prove to be strong like himself. But only time would tell of this, and he hoped that his little brother wouldn't disappoint him like so many of his clan had.

He moved on silently as his thoughts turned back into his clan, he knew his clan was supposed to be the most powerful in the village and he was the pride of their clan, but the truth was he felt he was nowhere near his limit. He trained and pushed himself to new levels and always tried to reach the next level. His power with the Sharingan was matched with no one and yet he still had not obtained its full power. He knew that there were untold of levels of strength and power for him but he just needed to be shown how to get it.

He gave a mental sigh as he got ready, he put those thoughts aside as he thought about his test in school although he didn't know why bother, he was the best in his class after all. No one was even close to where he was in his skill or intelligence just as it should be since he was an Uchiha. But still there was no challenge for him there at the school, no one to push him to his limits or beyond. He needed to become the strongest there was in the clan, maybe even the world but he was not finding anything to help him reach that goal here.

Everyone praised him for his 'hard work' but he never saw it as truly hard. He wanted a way to surpass everyone and everything, to be a true ninja. He wasn't sure how but he was sure one day he will find his way to becoming the most powerful ninja in the world and when he found out how to obtain the full power of his Sharingan no one would stop him.

Next Up Chapter 3: What a handful