Chapter 202   - Ch202. Naruto's new home

Naruto curiously stared at the woman who caught him during one of his pranking escapades and was currently walking through the village while holding him under her armpit as if he was a sack of potatoes. Admittedly, he would normally struggle but his body felt oddly sluggish, preventing him from moving much. Naruto was not stupid, he recognized when he was beaten with no way out.

Then, in Naruto's opinion, yet another surprising thing happened. The woman walked into a secluded part of the village. A part that Naruto recognized as the Senju compound. To his shock, the woman who kidnapped him only stopped in the backyard of one house and dropped him onto the ground, causing him to groan in slight pain as he impacted the hard surface face-first due to being unable to move his body. Maybe it wasn't that smart to verbally antagonize her during their trip...

"Yo, brat," The woman squatted near him and started talking in a very annoyed manner. "I am Anko Mitarashi, your new guardian as of two hours ago."

Now that was something that sent Naruto into a shocked silence, causing him to choke on his unspoken complaints. His eyes widened and his mouth started opening and closing while his mind was unable to comprehend what exactly was going on.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Shocking, right?" Anko dismissively waved her hand. "Anyway, Lady Tsunade wasn't happy when she got to know her blood relative was treated badly by the village. She couldn't really come back due to the political climate in the village either and that's where I came in. For the foreseeable future, we are stuck together, pipsqueak. Get used to it." Anko grinned, causing Naruto to blanch.

A thousand questions were swirling in Naruto's head all at once but only one was important enough that he found himself voicing it out without even realizing it. "I... I have a family?" Naruto's body shook in... even he didn't know what. Was he relieved? Angry? Sad?

Anko slightly winced. She knew the kid wouldn't take the revelation well. Sighing, she shrugged, "Yeah. Sorry, kid. Your family is not in Konoha and getting to you is harder than you would expect. I suppose Lady Tsunade could get to you at a moment's notice but it would cause a lot of trouble for her. The Hokage would never allow it and even now it took a lot of blackmail for me to become your guardian which put you into the purview of the Senju clan." Anko cautiously added, observing Naruto for his reaction.

And as expected, Naruto hid it well but Anko was not a high-ranked for nothing. The brat already knew his mother's name and... "I am glad you already have mistrust towards the Hokage." She grinned at the widening of Naruto's eyes.

"I have no idea..." He started.

Anko then quickly poked Naruto's forehead, right where the seal placed on him by Ringo was located, instantly silencing him. The very same seal that gave the kid knowledge when he needed it and functioned as a lie detector of sorts. Rei had no idea how would that go but it was an experiment to see how would Naruto grow up if he had something teaching him the important stuff and showing him who is and who isn't trustworthy.

"Oh~, I think you know exactly what I mean, ne, Naru-chan?" Anko's grin widened as the kid realized she knew about his biggest secret.

"You... what... how!?" He exclaimed. The 'thing' giving him knowledge, teaching him, and causing him to know who he should trust was with him for as long as he could remember. It was his most important secret, the only thing he could depend on in his life. While people avoided him, the voice in his head always told him what to do to survive. Always taught him how to better himself. How could the woman in front of him know about it!?

"The seal on your forehead was created by Rei, the husband of Lady Tsunade, when it became apparent you were an Uzumaki and there was no way to help you directly. They couldn't really take you in since you are a jinchuuriki." Anko slowly said, looking for any sign of shock on Naruto's face. When she found none, she mentally nodded. The kid already knew. "Konoha would not allow it, hence, it took them so long to get someone to take care of you."

"Which is you." Naruto slightly narrowed his eyes at Anko who rolled her eyes.

"Yes. You will live with me in the Senju Compound from now on. I will provide necessities for you and I will train you. You will start the academy soon... by the way, a good thing you didn't pester the Hokage for early admission. It would only annoy the teachers there. Lady Tsunade isn't really in a trusting mood so I was made to retire from my kunoichi duties for a few years and will now focus on your and my own training in the time being."

"I will be trained? YATTA!" Naruto jumped up, cheering in a very silly way. Only a shuriken scratching his cheek stopped him in his spot with a 'deer in the headlights expression as he looked at Anko whose eyebrow was twitching.

"Stop acting like an idiot. I know enough to recognize your facade. I have nothing against you using it to fool the idiots outside the Senju Compound but here you will act like yourself. Too much acting can be bad for you, lest you really start believing the act real." Anko admonished, walking forward and ruffling Naruto's hair.

For some reason, Naruto couldn't find it in himself to give her a cheeky retort as he usually would. Nor could he tell her off for treating him like a kid.

'It feels kinda nice.' He thought and blushed as he felt Anko's hand ruffling his hair.

"I too am not very liked by the villagers." Anko said, making the warm mood turn serious, "I know it is easier to show a facade of cheerfulness but it can hurt you if you overdo it. It certainly hurt me, kid." She bitterly admitted, "It took a nice heart-to-heart conversation with Lady Tsunade to show me what I was doing is wrong. I don't want you to one day find yourself so comfortable with your facade that it will become reality."

Naruto briefly pondered Anko's words and had to admit, he didn't want to always be his naive, stupid, cheerful self. When he grew up, he wanted to be able to drop his facade but could he really get so used to it that it would become second nature to him? That was something he really didn't want to experience.

Deciding to change the mood between them, Naruto quickly changed the topic, "So... what will you teach me?"

Apparently, that was a wrong question if the sudden vicious grin Anko gave him was any indication. Not a second after, a wave of a killing intent strong enough to make him stiffen, but weak enough that he could still move, engulfed him.

"I will teach you how to survive."

Naruto only barely dodged the kunai aimed at his shoulder as he thought...

'Maybe staying in my old apartment would be safer?'