Iruka

Iruka was left melancholic after Kakashi went away with Naruto's papers. He wouldn't be free for the next two months despite having retired for he had to help Naruto with his first Chunin exam hosting.

He was pretty sure Kakashi would not touch this topic again unless he was free enough. But now he was left with chaos in his mind with no one to confide in or ask for answers. His wrinkled face wrinkled even more.

Everything he knew about Naruto originally came from the Third. And when he finally started knowing Naruto properly without prejudice, he was already on his way to graduate.

Naruto did come back to him again to prepare for becoming Hokage after the war. At that time, they were buried in various books about law, politics, economics, strategy, environmental studies and what not required for becoming Hokage. The course lasted for thirteen years until he became Hokage where Naruto had to cram in so much despite his reduced... attention span. Kakashi also sometimes taught and sometimes listened in.

If he had to say... Naruto was the most well prepared Hokage amongst all of them.  Actually no, ot was more true to say he was the most systematically prepared and all rounded amongst the seven Hokages of Konohagakure no Sato.

But that became a burden for him. He was a good Hokage, but his abilities and knowledge forced him to have more responsibility.

But he... he spent eighteen years of his life teaching Naruto, yet he didn't know something as basic as who his caretaker was? Him? His teacher?

Orphans of Konoha received special attention from the entirety of Konoha and usually had multiple people caring for each one of them or at the very least, keeping an eye of them.

Uchiha Sasuke was one examples of an orphan under his charge. The reports he received of him after the massacre piled up to the ceiling. Everything, from his likes, dislikes, preferences, his family dynamics, everything was included for refrence. Each and every teacher were asked to pay special attention to his situation and education.

He was also one after he lost his parents to the Kyuubi so he knew first hand of what it was like to be an orphan and how cared for he was by his own teachers and the third Hokage.

Orphans who didn't opt to become ninja were put under the care of some villagers under an apprenticeship program. So it was a given they would know almost everything about the child at any and all times as long as they were within Konoha.

He thought deeply staring at the empty tea cups in front of him well until the sun set and the afterglow faded. The room was as dark as his thoughts which blended together into scary possibilities.

The report he received about Natuto was false.

The Third... had concealed information from him.

Iruka took a deep sigh. He turned on the lights of his empty home.

Then he turned it off again.

Click.

He pressed on the switch hard. It sunk into the socket.

Crick.

The switchboard shifted a little.

He pried it off the wall. Behind it was a scroll.

He took it out and unsealed it. Out came a pile of reports. They were the copies of reports of all the students he was asked to pay special attention to during his tenure.

The original ones were kept somewhere only the Hokage knew.

He shuffled through some of them.

Hinata Hyūga. Neji Hyūga. Sarutobi Konohamaru. Uchiha Sasuke. Uzumaki Naruto.

They were kept grouped according to their relationships with each other.

He pulled out Uzumaki Naruto's file. The very same one he received directly from the Third Hokage's hands.

Seven pictures. Seven pages.

One for each year of his life after his birth until he came under his charge at the academy. The first page had his birth certificate with his foot prints and hand prints. Stapled to it was a small note:

Kept under special observation.

'Special' here meant directly under the Council and ANBU.

The second page had a picture of him being a year old. He was sitting on a small pillow.

It still said 'Kept under special observation'.

The next was of him crawling and smiling into the camera.

The next, him playing with blocks. Next, him sitting still for the camera. Next, the same pose. The last was him of seven years old. He was making a silly face.

All the pages had bullet points of his major mile stones. The day he walked, the day he started reading, his first word–tteba.

It was all there. Yet Kakashi said Sarutobi Hiruzen was not his caretaker. Then why? Why was his signature on all the pages?

Why was the entire report... in his handwriting?