Chapter Text
“Saru-kun,”
Hiruzen jolted at the slam of the door against the wall.
There was an absolutely gobsmacked expression on his student’s face, pipe hung loosely in his hand. In any other situation he might’ve let his amusement show through at Hiruzen’s funny facial expressions. But not now. Not with the child in his arms, clinging to him like he’s never been held before in his life.
The blond gripped at his chest plate in a white-knuckled grip. His blue eyes stared at Hiruzen through the fur his face was snuggled into.
“We need to discuss something,” Tobirama ground out through clenched teeth, taking a few steps closer towards the hokage. He hefted the blond higher on his torso, a clear meaning to his student on what that something was.
Hiruzen just sat there with wide eyes, shakily bringing a hand up to wave off the Anbu that were posed for an attack.
“Sensei...?” Tobirama narrowed his eyes at his student.
“The last thing I remember was battling the Kinkaku unit and hastily writing a seal for hiraishin. Obviously, something was written wrong and imagine my surprise to not only suddenly being on the streets of Konoha,-” And here Tobirama paused, having to compose himself before he lashed out in anger.
“But to see a child with the chakra of the kyuubi walking down the street, being treated terribly by adult villagers and absolutely filthy,” the words were accentuated with Naruto popping his head up out of the fur, glancing at Hiruzen with dirt caked on one cheek and scrapes on his forehead.
He only had one shoe on, his other foot clad in a thoroughly worn sock with holes in it.
“When I asked him, he said he lived alone,” the Senju growled out. “But it was okay, because ‘Jii-chan’ looks after him,” Tobirama took a few steps forwards, glowering at the hokage.
“A baby, Saru!” He snapped, slamming his free hand down on the desk. “Not only did I see him being treated like scum, but he didn’t even know why!”
He took a step back and let out a long sigh. “I made you hokage for a reason, and now I’m sorry I did,” he looked down at Naruto and soothingly pat the frightened boy’s back.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” he snapped his gaze back to his student. “You are going to fix the political mess of an ostracized jinchuuriki, surrender any parental right over Naruto to me, and if you don’t get your act together, trust that there will be hell to pay,”
He turned back towards the door, leveling Hiruzen with a stare that could freeze over hell.
“I am beyond disappointed and angry with you, Saru. You’ve forgotten the entire purpose of the village and what being a hokage means,” and with that, Tobirama exited the room and made his way out the building.
He travelled along the rooftops to where Naruto told him he was staying. His heart sunk at the sight of the building and it felt like a lead weight in his stomach at the even worse state of the child’s living quarters.
Barely any furniture, a step stool against the sink overflowing with dishes, clothes strewn about. Tobirama glanced down at Naruto and watched as he angrily puffed his cheeks out and avoided eye contact.
“Are you gonna yell at me for being messy like jii-chan does?” He muttered, a pout on his face. Tobirama’s eyes softened and he set Naruto down on the floor, kneeling down so the boy could see him easier.
“No,” Tobirama said, resting a hand on Naruto’s head. “I’m going to help you,” he slowly ruffled the blond locks and stood back up.
He walked over to the sink full of dishes, pretending to not hear the boy’s shaky breath and sniffles as he started on the dishes. Oh how angry he was at Hiruzen. This child had been neglected for so long a pat on the head is foreign to him.
As he finished the last of the dishes and dried his hands, he turned back towards Naruto and grabbed his hand.
“Do you have a towel?” He asked, pulling him towards the door leading to the bathroom. Naruto nodded his head and pointed to the towel on the towel rack.
“You take a bath, make sure to wash well, okay?” He gave the boy a look. “I’ll know if you don’t wash behind your ears,” Naruto nodded his head and gave the Senju a grin.
“Just you wait, I’ll be so clean I won’t ever need to take a bath again!” He stated, clamoring to turn the faucet on.
Tobirama nodded his head in approval and made for the door, deciding to not bother with the last comment. He picked up clothes and trash as Naruto took his bath and brought a clean change of clothes in for him.
“Are you all clean?” He asked, catching Naruto in the middle of splashing his hand onto the surface of the water, splashing the water over the tub.
“Yep!” Came the enthusiastic reply. Tobirama picked up the towel and motioned for Naruto to stand up, unplugging the drain. He wrapped the boy in the towel and kneeled down to dry his hair.
After drying and dressing Naruto, they found themselves at the kitchen table. Tobirama had whipped up a simple meal of rice and fish, but the boy had looked at it like he had made the most amazing meal in the world.
Naruto gazed at the Senju with stars in his eyes and Tobirama has to look away, cheeks pinking from the obvious hero worship he was being given.
“Itadakimasu!” Naruto exclaimed before digging into his meal, Tobirama eating at a more sedate pace.
Tobirama noticed towards the end of the meal Naruto starting to yawn and rub his eyes in exhaustion. He stood up and took their dirty bowls to the sink to wash later.
He came back and picked the blond up when he saw Naruto’s head drooping to the table. He let a small smile when the boy snuggled into his shoulder and gripped at his turtleneck.
“Time for bed,” he muttered. He walked down the small hallway to Naruto’s bedroom. He pulled back the sheets and laid Naruto down, waiting for him to get comfortable before pulling the covers back up. He tucked them up to Naruto’s chin and smoothed out the wrinkles.
“Ne, Tobi,” He jolted a little at the nickname and looked down at the boy. For a second he saw light brown hair and an ‘x’ shaped scar on one cheek before mentally shaking his head.
He realized that Naruto was still waiting for a response and cleared his throat before speaking
“Yes?” Naruto seemed to be fighting against sleep. His eyelids were almost closed all the way as he looked up at Tobirama.
“Are you gonna be here when I wake up?” He asked in a small voice, seemingly afraid of the answer. The Senju reached a hand up to run through the boy’s hair. Naruto’s eyes closed all the way at the soothing motion.
“Yes, I’ll be here,” He responded. He continued to card his fingers through the blond locks until Naruto’s breathing evened out.
From the short time he’d known the boy, he already knew that he would raze the shinobi nations if they tried to take Naruto away from him.
“There’s a lot to be done and I’ll be damned if the state of things continue the way they have,”