Half Brother

Naruto's Guardian

Naruto was making instant ramen for himself, when someone knocked on his apartment door. Thinking it to be that idiot landlord, he prepared himself to shout at him that it wasn't the time for rent yet, dattebayo, but was surprised to see a teenager with a headband, grinning at him, as he opened the door.

"Who are you?" he asked, warily, because he didn't have good experience with people knocking on his door, unless it was jiji.

The suspicion did nothing to dampen the ninja's enthusiasm as he replied, "My name is Uchiha Shisui. We'll be living together from now on. Hokage-sama's order."

So jiji had found another caretaker for him, and this one would be living with him. Naruto hesitantly glanced around his apartment. It wasn't exactly the most spacious and one. Still, this one showed more enthusiasm than all the other caretakers combined. The least Naruto could do was show some hospitality.

"All right. You can take the bed. I'll sleep on the couch." Seeing that there was no way that the taller teenager could comfortably fit on the couch, this was the only option. "Would you like some cup ramen?" he remembered to ask. It was his last packet, but Naruto didn't have many people who would smile at him.

Shisui looked at him oddly, with a soft gaze. "That's very kind of you, Naruto-kun. But my apartment is a lot bigger, we should get you moved there."

Naruto turned to look at him suspiciously. "All right. What do you want? Nobody is that nice to me, you're overdoing it."

Shisui's eyes turned red at that and it looked like he was physically restraining himself from violence. Naruto, who had learned about self preservation early on, took an instinctive step back.

That seemed to get Shisui out of his state and he looked apologetically at Naruto, his eyes back to black. "I'm so sorry, Naruto-kun. I didn't mean to scare you. I was just angry at those...... It's our first meeting and I'm already screwing this up, ain't I?" he put his hand on his forehead. "I always thought that it was easy when Itachi did it."

"It's all right." Naruto tried to comfort him. "The other caretakers were a lot worse than you."

Judging by his frown, that didn't comfort him at all. "I'm not just your caretaker, Naruto. I'm your guardian. Look." he showed Naruto a paper which had a lot of kanji which he didn't understand. "This has Sandaime-sama's signature saying so. We're family now."

"Family?" Naruto asked, hopefully.

Shisui knelt down in front of him and gave him a soft smile. "Hai. I don't really have a lot of experience with it, but I'll try my best if you give me a chance." He opened his arms like Naruto had seen many parents doing before giving them a hug.

Naruto, for once, let go of all his wariness and suspicions, and dove in for the hug, which was returned by Shisui.

Naruto was not crying. There was just something in his eye.