ch 3

After an hour of waiting in the thirds office, the third walked back inside to talk to the newly married couple, only to find them both sound asleep, Anko leaning back in the chair Naruto had been sitting in with Naruto comfortably curled up like a...fox...in her lap. "Naruto, Anko." the Third spoke up, waking the two from their nap. Naruto fell off Anko with a curse, hitting the floor with a thump when she jumped out of her seat. Anko looked around quickly for a moment before she smiled sheepishly when she noticed the third looking at her with an eyebrow raised, 'Perhaps I don't have to worry too much about them rubbing off on each other after all' the third chuckled to himself, amused at the pairs' almost immediate bonding, if it was one thing that brought people together it was a shared loneliness that they could relate to. "Are you alright Naruto?" the third asked the boy, who was picking up what was left of his dignity after being unceremoniously dumped on the floor.

"Yeah Jiji I'm alright" the boy turned to say something to him when the third gasped.

"Naruto!"

"W-What?" the boy jumped back, startled by the thirds raised voice.

"Your...eyes" the third pointed to a small mirror on the wall, the boy turned and nearly jumped out of his skin, his pupils were thin, his eyes were still sky blue but his once round pupils were nothing but slits now.

"I told you you'd most likely start showing fox attributes, I'd keep an eye out for your tail and ears next" Kyuubi spoke up from the corner.

"I didn't think it would start happening RIGHT NOW" the boy groaned, his transformation was already starting and it could only cause him more grief once the council saw him.

"Come on Naruto, Anko, we can worry about Naruto's fox parts later, the council is waiting for us" The third led the pair to the council room, once there he opened the door and motioned for the two to enter. "It's good to see you all are here council members" The third greeted them all.

"Get to the point Sarutobi" A middle aged merchant spoke up "We all know this has to do with the little brat over there so what is it?"

"Now now Kurokara-san, I think there's alot more to this than that." the voice belonged to an elderly man who ran the local cloth shops around Konoha, he was also one of the more level headed of the civilian council. Kurokara glared at the old man for a moment before sighing "Go ahead then Hokage"

"Very well" the aged kage nodded. "The fact of the matter is that this meeting is, to an extent, about the young Uzumaki over there" he motioned to the boy in the corner of the room. "Roughly three to four hours ago Naruto here was cornered by a mob of civilian villagers who, by witness accounts tried to take the boy's life." there were several murmur's among the men and women at the table at this. "I am sad to announce that those individuals are no longer among the living" there were cries of outrage at this.

"Did the boy kill them?" a curious voice asked, everyone turned to the speaker, the pale eyed head of the Hyuuga clan, Hiashi Hyuuga.

"Yes." the third stated quickly, but before the rising voices could get louder. "However!" He said with a harsh tone and the council wisely quieted "The boy had reason to defend himself in this case, and while it still stands that he has killed I believe a far more interesting event has occurred from this incident, namely the means by which young Naruto here killed those men" There was whispering through he room before the Hokage continued. "Due to the stress the boy was placed under, he...inadvertently accessed his bloodline" voices were raised but again the third quieted them. "I am not finished, as I was saying, the boy here unlocked his bloodline, which if any of you are wondering is hyōton, Ice Release but that isn't all, again due to the stress the boy was under, it just so happens that the boy unknowingly tapped a bit of the Kyuubi's chakra." he took a moment to let that sink in "The boy is fully aware of what is inside of him as he tapped into the foxes chakra at the same time as his Hyōton bloodline was active, but for reasons currently unknown the chakra mixed in a negative way creating a feedback which caused that explosion earlier today."

"What does this mean Hokage-sama?" a bored voice asked from the back, the voice belonged to the head of the Nara clan, Shikaku Nara.

"Well, I can't really explain without showing you, Naruto, come here a moment please" he waved the boy forward, as Naruto got closer he noticed a few looks of shock as they noticed his slitted eyes and all but destroyed clothes but he ignored the glares they shot him and approached the third. "Here, channel chakra like you did before" as he handed Naruto another piece of chakra paper. Naruto held the paper over the council table and like before the paper split into four equal pieces, each being affected by a different element. Immediately shouting rang out.

"What is the meaning of this?" an elderly voice asked, raising his voice to be heard over the others and yet still sounding calm and collected.

'Danzo...ever a pain in my ass.' The third thought quietly before raising his voice, "As you can see gentlemen, the boy not only has an elemental affinity to Wind and water, the pair of elements that make up Hyōton, but the other three elements as well. As for the meaning, well, that is the strange part, due to the boys 'accident' as we'll call it, the clashing chakra in the boys system, rebounded and struck his chakra network, instantly vaporizing a good portion of it in the explosion."

"Impossible" Hisashi interrupted "No human can survive their network being damaged that badly." he should know, the Hyuuga were experts on fucking with the chakra network to kill people.

"Exactly Hiashi-sama, No Human. This boy while he is indeed human, has a body that does not follow the same rules in regards to healing, I will admit this now but both I and Naruto here have had a lengthy discussion with Kyuubi himself on this matter earlier."

A small yip from behind the third drew everyone's attention, the third moved out of the way to reveal Kyuubi in all his short fuzzy glory. "Sup humans?" the fox hailed them.

Shouts of 'The demon's escaped!' and 'Monster!' among other things rang out in the chamber.

"Well fuck you too." The fox huffed and walked over to Naruto to collapse in a poofy ball at his feet

The third sighed and waved a dismissive hand at the council "Do not worry, the seal still holds. That form the fox is taking is just a bunshin body the it uses to communicate." The council whispered a moment over the fox until the Third coughed to get their attention again "From what the fox explained to me, what has happened to Naruto here is what's known to demon and summon kind as 'Elemental Convergence' strictly speaking the converging of elements on a elementally neutral chakra network. During the time while Kyuubi was healing Naruto here the boy was able to draw in large amounts of elemental chakra from his surroundings, which just happened to be the Forest of Death of all places."

Many in the room paled at the mention of the forest, even the experienced Jonin in the room were uncomfortable with the place. "As you all know the Forest of death is anything but normal, so anything the boy absorbed was most likely amplified by his chaotic surroundings which leads us to the boys current condition, as it stands the Kyuubi has told me that the boy at the very least now has access to every one of the base elements, with the possibility of the boy forming multiple elemental bloodlines likely. So any ideas you may have had of getting rid of the boy now would be nothing short of idiotic" The third glared at a few of the civilian council who had been giving the boy and by extension the fox at his feet an evil look for awhile now.

"If that is the case Sarutobi then why do we not have the boy produce offspring that would take full advantage of his possible bloodlines?" Danzo asked curiously.

"That, Danzo, has already been taken care of" the third glared at the man, how dare he even suggest doing that to a child, it was disgusting. "Anko." Sarutobi motioned for her to approach. "You all know Anko Mitarashi here, correct?" many at the table nodded though not many hid their open distaste for the woman. "Anko here is the one who found the boy and brought him to me, after a brief discussion on the matter which I personally brought up she has offered to take care of the boy..." Several voices of dissent were clear. "Silence! I am not finished." he roared "Anko agreed to take care of the boy, but that alone would not allow her to do so since he is legally an adult...as many of you on the council are aware" He gave each of them heated looks. He had made Naruto an adult only a week earlier to try and protect him when he had learned the orphanage had kicked the boy out. He couldn't take care of him himself due to the councils meddling but the third had bought and was sustaining a small apartment for the child and since he was an adult he could legally have his name on the deed. Had he known where the boy was he would have immediately taken him there, but Naruto had a bad habit of hiding from people...given his life though that's to be expected. If only he wasn't so damn GOOD at hiding...it had gotten to a point where even his crystal ball could not find him at times.

The third sighed, this wasn't going to be taken very well.

"Since the boy is legally an adult, clanhead and last of his clan, he has made it clear to me that he did not want to be subject to the Clan Restoration Act without his say in who he takes as a wife, I discussed his options with him and we came to an agreement. As of this moment Anko Mitarashi is now Anko Uzumaki, the two of them are husband and wife." ...To the thirds surprise there was complete and utter silence, he looked at the council members in the room. There was shock, horror and rage to name a few of the emotions on the faces of his council. Before any could speak the third continued "Both of them agreed to this, I have the documentation showing as such and if you want a second opinion I'm more than willing to let Inoichi-san look through my memories to show that both signed the document of their own free will. Also, Naruto has made it clear that since he is now married he is no longer subject to a council ordered marriage or conception of a child so long as he is married and has at least one child by the age of sixteen. Any other women he takes as a wife under the C.R.A. is entirely his choice. Do I make myself clear?" The thirds voice may have been controlled and even but the threat was as clear as day to everyone in the room.

Many of the civilian council who would have pressed for the boys death, expulsion or forced a marriage given his new possible bloodlines nodded in agreement, after all what could they do? The boy had clearly acted in self defense when that mob attacked him and even if they could press the issue they wouldn't, not with the potential for a whole new string of bloodlines that could come from the boy. To them he was now even more of a necessary evil.

Danzo on the other hand was sitting quietly to the side of things, on the outside he was as calm and collected as ever but on the inside he was seething, 'Well played Sarutobi, well played. You knew I would make a pass at the child, as I've pushed to weaponize him on several occasions, but this? I never expected you to convince a child to do something as foolish as this...foolish, but given the circumstances genius as well' Danzo sighed before glaring at the third and ever so slightly nodding his agreement, thinking to himself 'I know when I've been outplayed Sarutobi, I'll back off...for now'

The third noticed Danzo's reaction and let out a mental sigh of relief 'Danzo's backing down, good, that means I've won this round, none of the others would dare try anything if Danzo is staying out of it.' The third looked at the rest of the council, sure enough none of them seemed keen on arguing. "If there is anything else any of you would like to add please do so." the room was silent for almost a minute before the third sighed "Very well, this meeting is adjourned, dismissed." The council rose at the thirds words and walked silently out of the room, thinking about what they had just heard.

"That was fun" the fox yawned "Well this body is almost out of chakra, later monkeys" a puff of smoke signified it's departure.

The third watched the fox go "Naruto" he spoke up startling the boy from his thoughts.

"Y-yes jiji?" Naruto fidgeted slightly, his nerves were shot to hell watching the council debate his fate, he couldn't describe the feeling when he realized he wouldn't end up a test subject or a breeding factory.

"I hope that you are happy with what has happened" he said at length, his voice quivering slightly in sadness "I know I can never apologize enough for not being able to take care of you, had I the chance I'd have adopted you immediately, but sadly I was never able to convince the council of my intentions, they saw you as a threat, and in my weakness I never confronted that decision and for that I am deeply sorry."

"It's ok old man, I may have been alone but i never really felt alone when I knew you cared about me, that and the Ichiraku's were a big help too" The boy let out an ear to ear smile.

"I bet they were" The third chuckled.

"Don't worry so much" the boy sighed, "I have people who care about me and that's all I could ever really ask for in life...and besides, I'm technically not alone anymore, am I An-chan?" the boy sent a sly smirk at Anko, who was a few feet away.

The girl in question blushed slightly 'Ooooo that little bastard' She thought in embarrassment 'I'm sooo getting him back for that.'

"Yes I do believe you're right Naruto" The third laughed. "Though even if you have found someone to stay with, you'll need some decent clothes, after all, we can't have you walking around a beautiful lady in nothing but torn rags." The third nodded to the boys clothing which had all but been forgotten. "Anko can take you to the Wolf Claw weapon shop tomorrow, an old friend of mine is the owner, I'll have him put it on my tab."

"T-Thanks Old man!" Naruto hugged him tightly.

"No problem Naruto" he chuckled, hugging the boy back, "I think it's time for both of you to head home. Anko?"

Anko walked up behind Naruto and placed a hand on his shoulder "Yes sir. Come Gaki! It's nappy time and I need my beauty sleep."

Naruto snorted at that before the two of them disappeared in a shunshin.

The third sat in the council chambers for several moments wondering just what the future held for Naruto, before he too disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

-ooo-

"Gah I'll never get used to that" Naruto choked, when the two appeared on the edge of a fenced in forest.

"You just need to build up your strength, your body can't handle the changes in speed yet, that comes with growing up and getting stronger." Anko rubbed her hand through his hair ruffling the blonde mop and making it spikier than ever.

"Where are we anyway?" Naruto looked around at the forest curiously.

Anko smirked "Back at the forest of death."

Naruto looked confused "What the hell are we doing here for?"

"Well considering I live here..." She trailed off a grin plastered on her face.

Naruto's eyes went wide "WAIT, you LIVE here!"

"Guilty." raising her hand up in front of her in a joking gesture.

"Ugh, any other surprises I should know about?" he raised his brow questioningly.

"Well..." she trailed off "I have a fetish for blood, my favorite color is purple, my favorite food is dango...you take my dango you die, and I have a tattoo of a python on my ass..." She ticked each thing off on her fingers.

Naruto slapped a hand to his face and groaned. "I didn't mean that literally..."

"I'm a very blunt person." she smirked.

"I can see that..." Naruto deadpanned. He sighed "Fine let's just get to wherever in this crazy forest we're going "

"Okie dokie." she picked the boy up and chucked him over her shoulder, with a leap at break neck speeds she jumped into the woods...with him screaming bloody murder all the way

An hour later (roughly ten of that prying Naruto's fingers from her arm) they were standing in front of the tower in the center of the forest.

"Home sweet home." Anko nodded proudly...as a flash of lightning and evil laughter came from nowhere...

"What the fuck was that!" Naruto yelled.

"Oh you know just the natural ambiance." she smiled evily.

"Wonderful..." he sighed entering the building, as he entered he noticed that the place on the inside, for the lack of a better term...was FUCKING HUGE! "Wow..." He took off running, passing by at least a dozen doors before he made it to the arena area that was used for the chunin exams "This place is awesome!" he yelled out.

"Heh I knew you'd like it, it's pretty big, so you really don't have to worry about anybody invading your privacy here, that is until the chuunin exams and this place is filled with chuunin wannabes for a few days, but that's why my room is at the top of the tower, no one really bothers with going that far up just to find a room to stay when there are so many on the ground floor." she grabbed his hand and took him on a tour of the place, pointing out the large cafeteria and all the bathrooms in the building, the showering area was large too, looking like a gym shower but that was to be expected in a place like this. Level by level they went up until they were near the roof of the building "Here's our room." she smirked, pointing to a large wooden door covered in seals.

"Any reason why that door is booby trapped to all hell?" Naruto asked sarcastically.

"I like my privacy during the chunin exams." Was all she said before walking to the door and channeling chakra into the seal in the middle, instantly a distinct click was heard and the door swung inward. "Welcome, to the birds eye view suite." she laughed waving her arms in a overly dramatic way. "It's one of the two ways to the roof of the tower, and this one has a personal balcony to look over the forest with. And yes, I booby trapped the balcony too."

Naruto sweatdropped "Paranoid much?"

Anko ignored that "Well since it's already well past the ass crack of midnight, I think it's time to sleep. I'll finally have a use for that other bed now..."She trailed off for a moment before noticing Naruto's state of clothing "Ah, I forgot about that, strip real quick I'll get you something to wear." as she walked to her wardrobe back turned to Naruto, who rather reluctantly stripped down to his underwear in front of his 'bride'

'Kami this is awkward' The boy thought to himself

"Ah here we are" she pulled out an old long grey T-shirt and tossed it to the embarrassed boy, who put it on quickly, only to find the thing was many, many sizes to big for him, hell it looked like a full length dress on him. "Well, thats irritating."

"Don't worry about it, do you have a kunai, some rope and a needle & thread?" Anko nodded and brought him the things he needed. Naruto immediately got to work, taking the shirt off he cut the thing at about the midway point, after that he took the bottom part and cut the lower two thirds in a V shape, taking the needle and thread he began sewing either side of the V, the speed at which he was doing this caused Anko's eyebrow to raise.

"You're pretty good at sewing Gaki."

Not stopping, Naruto grunted "Well you tend to learn things that make life easier when no one'll help you." There was clearly pain in his voice, he had only been out on the streets for about a month before all this shit happened but really the streets were a better place than that orphanage ever was, at least on the streets there are plenty of places to hide from the people after you...not like that helped much really.

Anko frowned. "Look kid, I don't pretend to know what your life was like, I lived it. You don't have to keep up this mask of indifference around me, I won't turn a blind eye to you just because you have some giant firball inside you and to be honest you're not the only one having to bear a seal and bad memories."

Naruto jerked his head towards her. Anko nodded and pulled her coat off of her neck revealing a small black tattoo on her shoulder. "The curse mark" she said slowly. "A seal developed by my previous master Orochimaru, he gave this to me when he defected the village, as a 'memento' of our relationship. it gives him power over me, to cause me pain whenever he wants and the thing throbs constantly, I'm lucky most of its potency is sealed away by another seal but that doesn't stop it from hurting me, or from other people thinking I'll turn on them at any moment, controlled by some snake bastard."

Naruto's face was blank for a moment as he looked at Anko's face, there was genuine sadness there and a bitterness he'd only ever seen in himself. Naruto sighed, it was times like these that made him feel older than he was. A 7 year old acting like someone triple his age. He dropped what he was working on and walked over to Anko, without saying a word he pulled her into a hug.

Anko's eyes widened a little, after a few moments a small smile crossed her face as she hugged him back "It's pretty sad when a woman gets comforted by a child, or for that same child yo be the one who understands her pain the most." she chuckled bitterly

"I know An-chan, I know how it feels...to be alone. But we aren't alone anymore are we?"

"Heh, I guess not." she smirked as she tussled his hair again. They sat there for what seemed like hours together just holding each other, letting the others feelings show through, if only a little bit. Finally they separated, knowing that truly they were no longer alone...

Naruto turned back to the cloth he was working on putting the finishing touches to it. When he held them up to anko she snorted in amusement, he had turned the cut off bottom of the shirt into a baggy pair of pants complete with a rope belt, the top half of the shirt he sowed along the bottom to make a clean edge. All in all it turned out to be a nice set of clothes for him, at least until he could buy some ninja clothing.

"Not bad, not bad at all." she appraised him

"Like I said, knowing how to make things in life easier is a damn good skill" he flashed her a wide smile which she laughed at before they both went to bed for the night, knowing that tomorrow would be a new day...for the both of them.

MEANWHILE IN AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION!

A pissed off Danzo brooded...and brooded...

"You will rue the day you crossed me Hiruzen!" Danzo yelled out to no one in particular...

...

...

"RUE IT!"

And back to Brooding the Uchiha 'wannabe' went, the stolen sharingan eye behind his bandages spinning fiercely. "But first, I must try that new flavor of pocky I've heard so much about!" again yelling at no one.

('Maybe calling him a Uchiha 'Wannabe' was being a bit modest...') thought our lovable author as he contemplated seppuku via ball point sharpie