The Sandaime smiled and held Naruto up in front of his face by the armpits. The tyke's blanket slipped off his form, dropping limply onto the desk below. "What am I going to do with you?"

--------------------

Naruto couldn't breathe. He felt like he was being suffocated. His breath came out in short pants, lungs so obviously overworked from running. He kept taking quick glances behind him, nervousness increasing with each surveyance. He held three kunai in one palm and a handful of dirt and sand in the other. He tried to calm down, focusing on the way his sandals clicked on the ground instead of the pounding of his heart. His legs were aching and his lungs hurt.

Chants in the background broke him out of his wild stupor. He took a sharp left and dived behind a trash can, hoping to catch his breath. Dropping his kunai and instead placing a hand on his mouth to cover up his heavy breathing, the raven finally noticed how much pain he was in. The newly renowned six-year-old eventually calmed down a bit and smiled. This birthday was definitely going to be going down as his worst so far.

Last year, when he had turned five, he had been helping his grandfather-figure sort papers and stamps. He had missed the beating that was meant to be given to him at the orphanage.

It was October 10th. The day the Kyūbi attacked, or better yet, Naruto's birthday. However you wanted to see it, nobody would be able to overlook the sheer amount of death and pain that had occurred. With the efforts of the end of the Third Shinobi War at the time*, the damages had been collateral and hard to fix. Families and friends were lost, allowing a cloud of grief to settle over the village.

Naruto had found it odd how his birthday had been the same day as the Kyūbi attack, but he couldn't let that get in his way. He had realized that this is why many people saw him as the Kyūbi, as he had been one of the only children in the village to be born that day. The other two, like him, were the children of the Yondaime Hokage. Naruto had just been told of his origins and didn't really know what to think of them.

As the rumble of footsteps drew closer, Naruto started shaking in fear. The hand over his mouth was now drenched in tears, tears that slowly dripped down his face and onto his ragged clothes. The mob closed off the entrance to the corridor, and now the only thing Naruto's mind could see were the dead ends on either side of him.

They all had weapons, he concluded. Be they their fists or kunai. But unluckily for our little brunette, one had an incredible sensory ability.

"He's behind that trash can."

And before he had time to grab his kunai again, Naruto was grabbed by his jet-black hair and chucked against the wall. Blood stained the stone, dragged sickly as Naruto slid down to the ground, limp. The chūnin snorted.

"P-Please... Stop. Please stop!" Naruto cried out, hands flying to the injury on the back of his head. A different chūnin's face twisted into something akin to rage.

"Please stop? Please stop?" Naruto duly noted that he sounded more like a dog than the strays did. "You didn't stop when you killed my brother, you monster!"

The chūnin used a chakra enhanced palm to slap him in the face, before backing away. Everything became foggy as the pain started muddling his brain. He could only make out a few words from the incessant shouting, but in a flash of melancholy, decided that he wasn't going to like what was coming to him.

"Pin... Demon... Wall."

A villager picked up Naruto by the front of his shirt and pinned him while a genin forcefully stabbed kunai into the little boy's hands. He screamed.

There was hesitation, but it faded as quickly as it appeared. A nearby villager (the vendor at the tomato stand that refused to give him fresh produce, Naruto remembered sourly) flicked out a pocket knife and pushed it into his stomach.

He whimpered as it was twisted.

I'm actually going to die. Naruto let the thought pass through his mind as everything stopped.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!"

...

Itachi paid no heed to the burning bodies of the shinobis and instead kept his three-tomoe Sharingan focused on the smaller boy in his arms.

"Oh Kami... Naruto, I'm so sorry I didn't get here fast enough. We need to get you to the hospital," he paused as Naruto tried to pry open his eyes.

Red glared back at red. "The Sharingan..." Itachi whispered, feeling sick. Naruto blinked, smiling.

"You have cool eyes, mister."

...

"Hokage-sama," Itachi bowed. The Third looked up from his papers, pipe peaking out of the corner of his mouth.

"Weasel. What brings you here? You're supposed to be on duty."

"Naruto was attacked," the ANBU whispered sullenly, fists clenching.

Hiruzen raised a brow but nodded. "What happened to the attackers? Did they manage to hurt Naruto?"

"I burnt the shinobi attackers alive on grounds of treason. The villagers got off scot-free, but not without stabbing a hole through the jinchūriki's stomach. His hands were also stabbed, and he has a fracture in the back of his skull."

The Third sighed, eyes on his paper once more. Judging by the way the boy shifted uncomfortably on his feet, Itachi obviously wanted to say something more. "And? What else?"

Itachi stayed silent for a second or two, before sighing in resignation. "He has the Sharingan, Hokage-sama."

The Third suppressed a gasp of surprise, but unconsciously leaned forwards in his seat. Two fingers raised up to pull the pipe from his mouth, before lowering again to set it down on the table. "Are you sure, Weasel?"

Itachi nodded. "I saw it with my Sharingan activated. There was no genjutsu, from what I could tell. How does he have it, though?" Hiruzen rocked back onto his seat, rubbing his chin.

"I don't know. It could have been that Minato had Uchiha parents, but Minato has blonde hair..." Hiruzen sighed, taking off his hat. "Or that Kushina or Minato might have been related to Uchihas. I'm not exactly sure. The Sharingan could have been dormant in Minato or Kushina, and then Naruto's Uchiha genes were activated after a skipped generation or something along the lines."

Itachi nodded along but wasn't really paying attention. He glanced up at the clock on the wall behind the old man, noticing his shift had ended shy of an hour ago. "May I make a request?" The brunette waited for Hiruzen to nod before taking off his mask and continuing. "I would like for Naruto to stay with me and my family."

Hiruzen raised a brow, intrigued. Itachi paused to gather his words before speaking again. "I've seen what the villagers have done to him and I'm pretty sure that he'd have been dead if not for the one tail of Kyūbi chakra residing inside of him. If he came with me, my family and I could teach him how to use the Sharingan properly, and the family techniques that come with it." Itachi sucked in a breath, "Especially if he develops the Mangekyō by accident."

"If your father allows it, why not? But, you have to ask him. I don't want you going home with Naruto and then Fugaku coming to me and throwing a tantrum. If he accepts, you can tell Naruto tomorrow morning, and if not you can always visit him in the orphanage," the Sandaime finished, drawing up an address on a scrap piece of paper with his brush before holding it out to the Uchiha.

Itachi nodded lightly, throat still raw, before slipping the paper into his pocket and shunshinning away.

...

Itachi sat down quietly with his mother and father in front of him. He had returned home and called them to the table beforehand while he tried to ignore the sensation of his tongue melting in his mouth. "Well..."

A hard look from his father forced him to continue his sentence. It was at times like this where he wished the man was more empathetic.

"Uzumaki Naruto... The jinchūriki..." kami, why was this so hard? "He has the Sharingan. And we need to teach him how to use it."

Fugaku's eyes narrowed. "What are you insinuating, boy?"

"We should take him in," it was lamely put to say the least, but at least got to point across. There was a blanket of silence for a moment.

Mikoto smiled. "I wouldn't pass up the chance to take in my best friend's son. I agree, but what do you think Fuga-kun?"

Fugaku let the idea drift around for a second. Fugaku had been good friends with Minato when they were chūnin, and slowly drifted apart from each other when they were jōnin and had genin teams of their own. Eventually, he sighed. "I agree. Naruto needs someone to teach him the ways of the Sharingan, and if he is truly an Uchiha he'd make a fine addition to the family."

Itachi struggled to dampen his beam, and Mikoto laughed. "If I hadn't known better, I'd think that you'd be going soft!" she laughed, pecking her husband on the cheek. He huffed slightly, crossing his arms.

That was the easy part, the ANBU thought to himself. Now...

"Satsuki!" Itachi called up the staircase. After maybe a minute or so of waiting in silence, the boy called again. "Uchiha Satsuki!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming."

Soft footsteps patted down the stairs before a small girl in white pyjamas appeared. "Nii-san? Why are you calling this late?" she whined. Itachi smiled softly, poking her on the forehead. Her hands flew up to the sensitive spot, a whine sounding from the back of her throat.

"Hey," she looked up. "Do you want another brother?" Satsuki scrunched up her face in thought before shrugging. They'd woke her up for this?

"Yeah sure. As long as he isn't dumb, I'm good." she murmured, holding back the 'like you' that had been about to arise. She yawned loudly before slowly climbing her way back up the stairs to her bedroom. Itachi smiled, following her.

...

Naruto opened his eyes and almost groaned at how painful his stomach was. He immediately noticed that he was now at the orphanage, not the hospital, and that some people were talking to the right of him. He blinked at the family (he guessed, not knowing if it was a family) and sighed.

The person that he noticed first was a tall looking man with a droopy face, black eyes and brown hair. He recognized this man as the head of the Uchiha Clan and Police Force, Uchiha Fugaku. Naruto wondered why he'd be at the orphanage, and if he was adopting. He smiled softly at the thought but grimaced at the throbbing his stomach conjured.

The second he saw was a young boy, maybe eleven or twelve years old. He had a familiar vibe radiating off of him, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He presumed the boy was Fugaku's son since they looked almost identical. Other than not having a droopy face (were those... wrinkles? this boy was like, ten, and he had wrinkles...), black hair and wrinkles framing his nose, the boy and Fugaku looked exactly the same.

"Itachi, which one is he?"

"He'll tell you once you finish these documents. You need what, one signature? Be patient, Fuga-kun."

So his name was Itachi. Honestly, who'd name their kid after a weasel? Those tings were so creepy...

Naruto's eyes widened slightly. A memory fogged the back of his eyes, picturing a boy with a ponytail in a weasel-looking mask. He doubled-back at the teen who handed the Clan Head a pen, mentally comparing the builds of the two bodies and other similarities. Was the boy the teen that saved him the night before?

The next he noticed was a kind-looking woman that was chatting absentmindedly to Fugaku. Naruto had seen her with the Uchiha Clan Head before, so he guessed that they were husband and wife (or brother and sister; don't judge a book by their cover). She looked like an older version of the little girl beside Itachi.

The last was the girl. She was playing with some blue clay (Minoru-chan's blue clay. She had yelled at him when he touched it last week. Why wasn't she angry now?), moulding it into unsightly shapes of different sizes. She had long black hair that was tied up in two ponytails, but her hair was very layered and the back was loose. It looked like a duck's ass, he noticed.

He sat up slowly, gaining the attention of the occupants in the room. Naruto kicked his feet over the bed and stood. He, Jiso-kun and Masami-chan had to sleep in the waiting room because there were a lot of new orphans coming to the orphanage.

"You're awake!" The girl ran up to him, smiling.

"Who're you?" he asked coldly, looking down at her. She was pretty short. He got started on making his bed, not wanting to look at the happy family any longer. She just kept staring at him expectantly, and startled him when he turned around. He twitched. "Creepy..."

Itachi smiled, folding his arms and walking his way over. "We're your new family."

"Family? Jiji said that my last family left me. You're just messing with me," he whispered, though he dearly wished it weren't true. For emphasis, his eyes traveled to each Uchiha before returning to the ground. The older boy's grin turned lackluster, planting a seed of guilt in the maelstrom's stomach.

"We won't leave you. Your old mommy and daddy were stupid for leaving, dummy. Family sticks together. They weren't your family," Satsuki puffed, folding her arms like her brother. Suddenly, a thought struck her light a lightning bolt. Her 'cool' demeanour shattered, and as inconspicuously as she could, she leaned over to her mother to whisper something in the lady's ear. "Uh, mom? Whassis his name again?"

Mikoto laughed, covering her mouth with her palm. "Naruto. Uchiha Naruto."

"I'm not an Uchiha. I'm just Naruto," Itachi then proceeded in brutally stabbing him with his middle and index fingers on the forehead. "Hey!" he growled, massaging the area with a hand.

"I know right?" Satsuki mumbled, before letting out a similar response as Itachi poked her too.

"I'm Itachi. You can call me Itachi-nii. That's my kaa-san-" he pointed at Mikoto with his thumb. "-You can call her kaa-san. And this is my tou-san. He's your new tou-san." and grabbed Fugaku by the sleeve.

"And this right there-" he placed a hand on Satsuki's head, ignoring his little sister's quick sputter ("Hey!"). "-Is Satsuki. You can call her whatever you want, okay?"

Naruto nodded slowly with a blank face. Satsuki grinned. "Now, get your stuff! I wanna go home," nodding solemnly, he tried to hide his apprehension. Ever since he was young, people had been manipulating him and such. This time might be like all the others; but...

The girl and the boy seemed genuine. The maelstrom didn't know what to think.

The lady came forward gracefully. Even from his view, he could tell that she was a shinobi. Dropping into a crouch, she delicately brought her hand up, but stopped halfway. He gave her a pointed glance, answering her unsaid question kindly.

Mikoto caressed his face, rubbing his cheeks. Naruto blushed in embarrassment and mumbled something.

"What was that?"

"Um, I-I don't have anything here. They don't let me keep anything, since I don't have my own room," Itachi frowned along with the rest of the family. Naruto and Satsuki looked each other in the eyes. "Besides, I always hang more on the streets and the forest anyways. I haven't slept here for about two weeks now," he swallowed harshly. "I got lost. The villagers try to beat me up sometimes, but last night I think they tried to kill me for real," Naruto looked down as if he had done something wrong. "Then, 'Tachi saved me with his jutsu."

"How did you know it was me? I had my mask on."

Naruto shrugged but smiled. "You kinda just... Felt the same, y'know? Calm. And you also had your hair up in a ponytail, like you do now."

"Good observations, but let's keep this between us and Hokage-sama, alright?" Naruto nodded.

"Okay, let's get going," they waited for Naruto to start walking with them, but he stayed stock still.

"Naruto? What's wron-"

"Thank you, 'Tachi-nii," Naruto hugged Itachi tightly and spoke between sobs. "Thank you for giving me a family."

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edited as of 28/04/2020

* - In my timeline, the 3rd shinobi war ended when naruto was 4, sorryyyyy

Ahh, forgot to tell you guys, but I plan on updating every Monday or before since I have school and all that. Hope you liked it!