The Guardian (Naruto Fanfiction)

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Regardless of how little sleep he had gotten the night before, Itachi was awake before dawn.

It was still dark as he prepared to leave. He normally did not carry his ninjato in the village, but today he ensured it was securely sheathed across his back.

As Itachi was leaving, Sasuke's bedroom door opened.

"Aniki? Are you already leaving?" the boy asked, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke. You can't go with me today."

"Why not? I want to play with Naruto."

"It's too dangerous today. I'm sorry."

"Dangerous?"

"Go back to bed, Otouto. You don't have many days left to sleep in." Itachi said, poking his forehead gently.

Sasuke nodded groggily and shuffled back to his room.

When Itachi arrived outside Naruto's apartment, he found Kakashi and three other ANBU operatives waiting.

"It's been quiet all night. No sign of your masked man." Kakashi reported, "The four of us will be back here tonight, and another team will be here to back you up today."

"Thank you for doing this, Kakashi-sempai."

"You and the Third aren't the only ones who want to keep him safe." Kakashi replied.

It was only then that Itachi realized that Kakashi had to have known who Naruto's parents were. He was, after all, the Fourth's student.

Kakashi and his team left, replaced by a new team of ANBU operatives. Itachi was alert, suspicious of any movement near the apartment.

"Captain, he's awake." one of his men reported after a few hours.

"Thank you."

Itachi jumped down from his usual post in the tree. He slipped into the apartment through the open window.

"Whoa!" Naruto exclaimed, understandably startled, "What's going on?"

"You need to stay inside today, Naruto. And come to think of it, you should probably keep that window closed from now on."

"Huh? Why?"

"There might be someone in the village who wants to hurt you."

Naruto looked unimpressed, "There's lots of people in the village who want to hurt me."

Unfortunately, Itachi could not argue with that assessment, "Will you just take my word for it?"

"Yeah, I guess. Who is it?"

"We don't really know. We only know that he's dangerous."

"If you don't know who he is, how do you know he wants to hurt me?"

"Because he has tried before; a long time ago, before you can remember." Itachi replied.

Naruto pouted, "I still don't wanna stay inside all day. It's boring."

"We could always work on your academics. School is going to start again soon, and you could still use some help with math."

"I hate math…" Naruto grumbled.

Despite Naruto's reluctance, Itachi eventually managed to coerce him into school work. Naruto sat at the kitchen table, bent over a sheet of paper, tapping a pencil on the table. Itachi could tell he was distracted.