Iruka's Family

Chapter 7

That night Iruka couldn't sleep, he knew who got Naruto the toy, but why? What were the ANBU allowed to do? And how did Naruto know about them? When he had questioned the boy, he replied.

"They sometimes follow me around, or give me things, sometimes they scare away bad guys."

"Do they always do that?"

"No. Sometimes they disappear...it's...kinda lonely." The boy refused to answer further questions afterwards. Iruka had given him a full meal then sent him off to bed. But he couldn't shake the feeling there was more to the picture.

Fate must have felt like giving answers because a knock on the glass door in Iruka's room jolted him to reality. He looked out to see 2 ANBU, Raven, and someone else. He slid the door open and stepped onto the small porch.

"Good evening!" Raven said, in an almost cheerful tone. The second ANBU gave a small wave.

"Er...good..evening?" Iruka was not sure how to react, what does one do when 2 ANBU Black Ops come to your porch? He ended up blurting out a question. "Did you get him the frog?"

"No." Raven answered, the other ANBU, who had been quiet the whole time, spoke up.

"Dog got it for him, something about people being cheap skanks I think." Iruka fidgeted nervously, he already felt bad, but now he felt even worse.

"We know it was needed for food." Interjected Raven, "Dog tends to think emotionally and not logically when it comes to Naruto."

"He's the reason we have any sort of contact with the boy though." The other ANBU pointed. Raven then turned his head to Iruka.

"I apologize, I almost forgot to introduce my college here, this is Toad." The ANBU, Toad, waved. Iruka suddenly felt a wave of friendliness come from Toad, like the ANBU had totally dropped their guard.

"It's nice to meet you." Iruka stuttered. Toad nodded their head. "So, if you don't mind me asking, is there some sort of emergency or..?"

"No, no, no.." Toadsaid waving his hands in assurance, "We actually wanted to ask for a favor." Raven suddenly turned their head at Toad as if to say; Really? He then turned back to Iruka.

"That's one way to put it, I was going to say we were going to offer help."

"That's 2 different things." Raven sighed,

"Well we were offering to help you with caring for the boy."

"And we normally can't do much due to our position." Toad interrupted.

"But with him now having a guardian, we can create a...loophole." They stood there in silence for a moment. Iruka trying to process what they just said.

"What do you mean loophole?"

"We technically can't interfere in Naruto's life without permission or if he's in danger."

"But now you can be our middle man!" Toad said excitedly. "We can do stuff for Naruto, and you can say it was you!" Toad was almost jumping up and down, even Raven, the more reserved of the two was radiating excitement. Iruka had started to put the pieces together, as long as he took credit, the ANBU could do as they pleased, but with what he was not sure.

"So what are you planning to do?"

"We are willing to share Naruto's likes and dislikes, as well as maybe dropping off a gift or two." Toad proposed.

"So does...er...Dog know about this plan?"

"No, but he's not the type to follow orders." Raven stated, a hint of annoyance in their voice.

"I see.." Iruka stuttered, he really had to work on that. He couldn't help but feel they truly wanted to help Naruto, plus, the smile on the boy's face when he saw the toy. Iruka wanted to see him smile like that again. So he said the only answer that seemed fit, "Why not?"