🦊Naruto Hatake🦊

Chapter 6

The Will of Fire

"My world is finally complete."

Several weeks later, Kakashi still had not given the Hokage an answer. A big part of him wanted to resume his work as a shinobi of the village, but the other part of him did not want to leave the boy. The chibi was just too fragile. He still had not completely recovered yet. He was happy the night he came home, but he still often flinched whenever Kakashi would approach him too fast. He could tell that Naruto wanted affection, but he was afraid of it at the same time. 'It was stupid of me to believe that just by bringing him home, he would be magically cured,' he thought.

He finally had some support with the genin, Iruka Umino. Oddly enough, his friends were always bugging him about his little pup. They were asking to take him with them. Genma insisted that the boy call him uncle as did Guy and Hayate. One night he was pondering about their attitudes and the only thing he could come up with was that they were all lonely and the little chibi seemed to fill the emptiness. He could understood that feeling. Ever since the boy came into his life, the darkness within his soul seemed to have reduced. The boy was sunshine, plain and simple. The wonder in his eyes at each new discovery in life filled Kakashi with light. It definitely wasn't always easy, but it was worth it.

Although there had been no further threats from Danzō, he was not forgotten. Anbu were tailing him day and night . They felt that they might be close to discovering all his schemes. He had a meeting with the Hokage scheduled today. Maybe the investigation was over, he hoped. He would accept a jonin position if that meant he would get the pleasure of killing Danzō.
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Naruto was currently at the park with Iruka watching him. That little genin was a lifesaver for Kakashi. His little chibi would often go to great lengths to remain in control and avoid feeling helpless. He was disobedient, defiant, and argumentative almost as often as he was sweet, caring and adorable. Just this morning, Kakashi had been trying to get the boy to take a bath, which led to a huge break down.

They had both just woken up and eaten breakfast, when Kakashi told Naruto, "Put your plate in the sink then you are having a bath."

"No, don't wanna baff. I wanna play wit my ninga," he said stubbornly.

"No pup," he patiently explained, "You need to take a bath first. You didn't take one yesterday and you are starting to smell a little ripe."

His little fists clenched and his mouth tightened. "No, don't wanna baff!" he screamed and pushed his plate onto the floor. The resulting crash must have triggered a bad memory because a second later, he was sitting on the ground with his hands around his knees, staring into space, and mumbling, "me sorry, me sorry. Don hurt."

Kakashi sat on the floor next to him and spoke softly. "Take a big breath, nice and slow, son. No one is hurting you. You are safe here. You are just remembering things that happened before. It is okay; it happens to daddy sometimes too. Look around, son, do you see me?" he pulled the teddy bear off the chair and set it in the boy's arms. "Feel your teddy, Mr. Kuma-chan. You didn't have it back then son, remember? You see, you are not in that bad place anymore. You are home with daddy."

Naruto lifted his hand and hesitantly stroked the soft fur. Kakashi's gentle voice began to seep in, dragging him back to the real world. His body relaxed then he blinked and looked up at the nin with a frown. Kakashi could see the questions and anger in his eyes. He wiped the boy's face with his hand the put his arm around his shoulder. "You can ask me anything and I'll try to answer, son."

"Why daddy? Why dey hurt me? Why dey hate me?"

'How am I supposed to answer that question?' he thought. "I don't know. Sometimes people do mean things for no reason. Sometimes they are hurt or scared and just want others to feel the same pain. You have never done anything wrong. You are a good boy and you deserve love. I will not let anyone hurt you again. You are safe with me."He looked around at the broken pieces of the plate on the floor. "You not mad? I was bad and boke da pate. You hate me daddy?" His eyes filled with tears at the thought and his hands wrung the bear nervously.