Chapter Text
Prologue
Mako decided early on he did not like Konoha.
For a village with healthy children running around, and Shinobi to protect it, they certainly forgot about the orphans. Especially after the Kyuubi attacked, a giant beast whose dark chakra still haunted his dreams. Everyone got busy rebuilding, mourning and learning their loved ones died. The Fourth Hokage sacrificed himself for Konoha, the Yellow Flash Namikaze Minato. Student of Jiraiya, one of the three Sannin. Minato’s death hit them all hard, as many still had fond memories of his bright presence and gentle blue eyes. At least Mako heard they did, by listening to people talk on the streets.
No one had anytime to do anything but gather the orphans and stuff them somewhere. Nor the resources. Money was spent on rebuilding stores and buying caskets. Mako only had two sets of clothes, all donated, and a pair of sneakers to consider his own. None of the other Orphans had much else.
However that was not why Mako held Konoha in very little regard.
Konoha, or rather the people who lived in it, treated a small child with such hate that Mako was unable to comprehend it.
He watched from the rooftops as the blond child raced through the streets, with actual adults sending him glares. Shop keepers kicking him out of stores, refusing him food. Even the matron treated the kid less then dirt. Better then the last one sadly.
Mako tried to learn why, by listening to the whispers and conversations from the shadows. Hidden carefully away. Civilians never spotted him. Or when he lingered nearby they never considered he actually was eavesdropping. Or if they really cared no one said anything to him. Most of the village freely stated their opinions but never explained why they called a child the devil.
Monster. They called the blonde orphan. Murderer.
How could a child of five be such a thing? And why, when actual child soldiers were sent to the battlefield and considered heroes, did that particular orphan get singled out?
If it weren’t for the guardians of the child, Anbu he learned they were called, who wore animal masks, the kid would be dead. Their past matron literally tried to kill Naruto when they were three years old.
Mako knew she did, he saw it. Anbu could make themselves undetectable but a woman falling down to the ground spurting blood was hard to hide. He woke up initially to her heavy footsteps, played a sleeping child in his bed as he listened to her approach. When she raised a hand with a sharp Kunai in hand, not a moment later she fell to the ground. Dead.
Hound. As Mako liked to call him because of the animal on his mask. Killed her. Mako froze in shock when he heard the cut off scream. Automatically trying to appear as unthreatening as possible. Thankfully he lived another night, as the Anbu simply took her body and disappeared. Mako sat up and stared at the blood stain for a few hours before he could finally fall back asleep.
Another woman came the next morning, an immediate hire. “Your last Matron moved, so I’ll be replacing her.” She had said. Mako only stared. The blood stain had vanished.
He learned from the furious villagers who spat curses at the boy what his name was. It was hard not to learn it, since every single person seemed to know it.
Uzumaki Naruto.
A small but loud kid, with whiskers blue eyes, an obsession with orange and spiky blonde hair.
Besides a small clan in Konoha, no one else had blonde hair in the village. Mako highly doubted the Yamanaka Clan would allow a child of theirs to be treated in such a way. So that left only one conclusion, in his humble opinion.
Uzumaki Naruto was related, somehow, to Namikaze Minato.
The only evidence Mako had of his theory, was the physical. Namikaze also had blonde hair and blue eyes. Controversly he proceeded to marry Uzumaki Kushina, the event was very small and only a few were invited to attend. Many did not agree with Namikaze marrying an outsider. But the two fell in love, no child was reported though Kushina was seen pregnant in the streets.
Naruto remained the only one with Uzumaki as a last name.
All of this Mako learned from listening. People talked a lot when they thought no one was around. Especially for a village used to Shinobi running along the roof tops. He figured some of them just thought he was a particularly young Shinobi and paid him no mind.
Mako could not use Chakra yet, since his core was still developing. Instead he climbed up the buildings by using any leverage available. Pipes, window sills, misplaced bricks, anything. His past life as a rock climber and parkour enthusiast helped him immensely.
Ah yes, and he was once again alive.
Mako had very little to say about that matter, since nothing changed the reality he now lived. A few months into his new life he realized what happened, freaked out and then accepted it.
Now Uzumaki Naruto held his attention.
A strange child. Though many considered Mako strange too. They could never look into his eyes.
He sat on the edge of building, feet dangling, and watched Naruto slip away from a furious villager. Said man was covered in paint, pink actually. A horrid color, nearly radioactive.
“Haha that’s what you get!” Naruto shouted back, and turned down an alley. Mako lost track of him soon after.
Indeed, the villager did in fact earn that particular prank. Mako agreed. The man had refused to let Naruto buy from his store. He swung his feet and watched the man huff and puff before he headed back inside. Presumably to wash off.
Mako really disliked this village. And the hateful villagers.
He climbed his way back down from the roof and jumped the last few feet down. Their orphanage was a few blocks away. He stopped to look at a particularly sharp katana hung in a window on the way back.
His reflection stared back. A boy with spiked brown hair and red eyes, not the Sharingan. The Uchiha sent to check him ensured Mako was not a bastard of some sort. Since the Uchiha felt very protective of their special eye magic. He could still hear the slightly relieved tone as the man said his eyes were normal.
Mako broke away from his own reflection and imagined himself for a moment, wielding the sword. Cutting through his enemies with the grace of a trained killer.
This world was far more dangerous then his last. They may not have military equipment like machine guns and bombs, but what they did have was much worse. Trained men and woman ready to die for their village. Some raised since age six to be child soldiers. Hatake Kakashi became a Chunin at age 14.
Absolutely flabbergasting to him at first. Not so much anymore. These people simply wanted to survive, who was to blame them?
He resumed his walk and went back to the orphanage. A few children looked at him as he passed and said nothing. His room was in the furthest corner, away from everyone else.
Naruto perked up when he entered.
“Mako!”
He offered Naruto a small smile and sat on his bed. Naruto had his own across the room. All the beds in the orphanage had the same thin mattress set on a metal bed frame. Mako was certain they purposely gave Naruto the most rusted one.
“I haven’t seen you all day, where have you been?”
“Around.” Mako replied. He pulled out a book from under his bed and opened it to where he left off.
Naruto huffed in annoyance. “No kidding, but where? I swear you’re invisible!”
“On the rooftops.” Mako replied.
“What?”
Mako pointed upward toward the roof, Naruto titled his head to stare at the ceiling.
“Roof.”
Naruto gaped at him. “Huh?! No way! How’d you do that?”
“I climbed up.”
“That’s so cool!”
“I guess.”
Naruto bounced up and down on his bed, the frame squeaked threateningly. “Teach me how to do that!”
Mako peered at him over the top of his book. “Why?”
“Because! I want to be a Shinobi, I’ll need to learn eventually!”
“Maybe.”
Naruto widened his eyes, making them seem impossibly larger. “Please.” He whined.
Mako looked back at his book and didn’t reply. The steadily growing pressure of Naruto’s gaze laid heavily on him. He tried to focus back on the words, but his mind refused.
Unwillingly his eyes flicked back to Naruto.
The blonde pouted and leaned forward. “Mako, please.” He said, drawing out the ‘o’ in Mako’s name.
Mako sighed.
With a whoop Naruto punched the air and grinned at him brightly. Transforming back into the confident child he was. “Yeah I’m so excited! I told you Mako, we’re going to be Shinobi together!”
“I don’t know if I want to be one.” Mako replied.
“You have to!” Naruto retorted hotly. “You’re my best friend!”
“I don’t think becoming a Shinobi is a requirement for be to continue to be friends with you Naruto.”
Naruto’s brows furrowed. “What re-re-requ- ugh! What does that word mean Mako?”
“A thing that is needed or wanted.”
“Oh! Then it’s a re-re”
“Requirement.”
“Requirement.” Naruto corrected. “It’s my requirement for you! I want you to become Shinobi with me!”
“Becoming one isn’t a simple task Naruto, and it’s very dangerous. Most Shinobi don’t live passed thirty, and that’s old.”
“But the old man is ancient!”
Mako tried to scan his brain for said old man, the only old Shinobi he could think of was-“Naruto the Third Hokage does not count.”
“He’s super strong though, and old! I just need to be strong like him and I’ll live forever!”
“That’s not an incorrect statement, just a very bold comparison. The Third Hokage is considered the ‘God of Shinobi’ Naruto. His teacher was literally the second Hokage. You cannot use him as reliable evidence for how long you will live.”
“What does comparison mean?”
“A consideration or estimate of the similarities or dissimilarities between two things or people.”
Naruto’s face scrunched up in confusion. “What does d-dissimilarities mean?”
“Difference, variance.”
“What does variance mean?”
“The fact or quality of being different, divergent or inconsistent.”
Naruto groaned and fell onto his bed. “Mako you make my head hurt, why are you so smart?”
“I like to read.”
Naruto grunted and stared at him with narrowed eyes. “Can you teach me how to read?”
Mako blinked, and then focused his full attention on Naruto. “You want to learn?”
“Kinda? I mean you know how to, and no one seems to want to teach me.”
His heart softened slightly. “I can do that, if you want.”
Naruto sent him a grin. “Really? Will I be as smart as you are?”
“You can be whatever you want to be.”
Naruto stared at him for a moment, blue eyes unusually intense and then turned away. “Thanks.” His voice sounded a bit gruff and Mako wondered if he was getting a cold.
“Are you okay Naruto?”
“Yea!” Naruto sniffed. “Just getting a cold.”
“I thought so.” Mako replied. “Let me know if you get worse, I’ll try to help you.”
Naruto’s voice was quiet as he responded. “Thanks.”
—-
Their friendship was created by many things. The past matron put them together, because they were both odd. Though Mako never realized that until he finally saw his own reflection at age three. As he looked out the dirty window of their room to see the oustide and saw himself for the first time.
Mako with his red eyes and Naruto with his…well whatever made the villagers think he was a demon.
Human nature really could explain their behavior though. At least when it came to isolating he and Naruto from the rest of the children. Odd things stood out, were out of the norm in society. So Naruto and he were outsiders. Mako accepted it, with the experience of one who lived another life before his current one.
He did not think Naruto would ever accept it. Naruto could live a hundred lives and still remain the same stubborn and cheerful self he was.
As children they grew up together, shared the same room. Mako saw everything. How the matron spat and cursed at Naruto as a babe. When she let Naruto sit in his crib and cry with a dirty diaper for hours. How she left Naruto for dead last when she began bottle feeding all the babies in the orphanage.
Mako learned how to resent someone for the first time then. Truly dislike a person for merely existing.
How could someone be so cruel to a babe that could not even walk?
Mako climbed out of his crib at eight months and into Naruto’s. As Naruto wailed in his crib in the dead of the night. He knew no one would come to soothe him. Naruto stopped crying as soon as Mako put a hand on his head.
Naruto was just lonely, babies needed love. The matron put Mako back in his crib all of three times before she gave up.
Sometimes Mako would wake to Hound watching them. The moonlight turned his hair a brilliant silver, and lit up his surprisingly youthful body. Mako blinked and Hound was gone, he never talked to either of them. Hound was a silent guardian. Why specifically for Naruto Mako could only guess at. Maybe because of his relation to the Fourth Hokage.
Since the matron refused to, Mako taught Naruto how to speak. Simultaneously while remembering how to speak himself. And crawl, walk, count to five and above. Raising a child wasn’t hard.
They became official friends when Naruto decided it so. Not that Mako found it in himself to disagree.
When the festivals hit, and the villagers chose to remember the day Kyuubi attacked, Naruto was hurt for the first time. At age four he finally started to roam around the village by himself, Mako never thought much of it.
Then his friend came back with a massive bruise on his face.
Mako learned to hate for the first time. Not the sort of hate a child would throw at a parent in a time of anger. No, that feeling started to build inside of him as the years passed. Dark and angry, furious.
A child. He raged internally. Naruto was a child.
Naruto insisted on continuing to approach the villagers, force them to acknowledge his existence. Nothing good came of it.
But Mako long since accepted that side of Naruto. Ordering his friend to do what came natural would never end well. So he could only support him, care for his wounds and watch.
Always from the shadows, learning and considering the situation. His small body was incapable of protecting Naruto, as young as he was. So he just was there for Naruto. In ways no one else bothered to be.
Because Naruto had a beautiful soul, like the sun. No one could diminish it, not even the villagers.
They became friends initially because of their close proximity, Mako would never regret it.
——
“The g-girl c-co-cou-“
“Could.”
“The girl could not be-be-“
“Believe.”
“Belive her eyes.”
Mako smiled. “Good job Naruto.”
Naruto huffed and set the book down. “Mako reading is hard.”
“I know, you’re doing well.”
Naruto sent him a suspicious look. “Really?”
“Yes, I don’t lie.”
“Yeah you don’t. Will I really learn how to read like this?”
“Eventually, just give it time.”
Mako accepted the children’s book from Naruto and put it under his bed with his other books. Mako was not a teacher, he had no idea how to really teach someone to read. Guiding Naruto while he read a book was the only way he could come up with to teach Naruto. Their orphanage had very little supplies to be ‘wasted’ on activities including Naruto.
No one else wanted to teach him. The Matron held classes for the orphans daily, Naruto was never allowed. Mako could, if he wanted to, go to them. She didn’t hate him nearly as much.
Mako would rather eat dirt then have anything to do with her.
Naruto got up and stretched. “Can we go play now? My brain feels all sluggish.”
“You’re the one who wanted to learn Naruto, you don’t have to.”
“Yeah but you do, a lot. I want to do that too.”
Mako stood up with him and ruffled Naruto’s hair, Naruto whined in complaint but allowed him to. “Let’s go play then.”
Honestly Naruto was too cute.
Naruto grinned brightly and lead them out, the Park was only a few blocks away. A couple of kids played on the play set and Naruto visibly perked up.
Mako resisted the urge to tell Naruto to stay. His friend bolted off and instantly started to engage the kids in a conversation.
He stayed a few feet back and stared at the slide. Utterly uninterested. He knew how this would end.
“Hey do you guys want to play with us?” Naruto asked excitedly. “Mako and I were going to play Ninja!”
The group of kids exchanged looks, the bravest answered.
“Mommy told me I should stay away from you.”
Naruto froze.
“Yeah, my daddy would get angry if he knew I played with you.” Another said, awkwardly looking away.
“Mommy says you’re dangerous, I don’t want to play with someone scary.” The third commented.
Naruto scratched the back of his head and laughed. His fake one he used when people treated him like sh*t. “Oh! Well okay! Mako and I can just play with each other then.”
The three kids exhanged looks. One slid to the side and walked away, the others followed silently. Leaving them to have the playground to themselves.
A bird chirped in a tree, and Mako closed his eyes as the wind brushed against his face.
He really hated this village.
“I don’t understand.” Naruto said quietly. “Why don’t they ever want to play?”
Mako opened his eyes when Naruto sniffed. “I’m sorry Naruto.”
Naruto stared at him with melancholy eyes. Holding back tears that threatened to fall. Harshly he rubbed his face with his arm and straightened up. “Whatever! You’re more fun anyway!”
Mako wanted to say more, offer emotional support. Make things easier maybe. But what did you say to someone in this situation? That things would get better?
Mako had no evidence to support that statement. So he’d be lying to his friend.
Instead he played with Naruto, running around the park and listening to what Naruto wanted. Together they went on imaginary missions and defeated enemy nin. Naruto always ended up the victor, and slowly became more cheerful as the day went on. The children were nearly erased from his mind.
After a few hours they laid on the ground together, and stared at the clouds. No one bothered them, a plus side to Naruto being repulsive to the whole of Konoha.
“When I become a Shinobi I’ll become one strong enough that everyone will have to see me,” Naruto said loudly. “I’ll be so strong that other Shinobi will run away on sight, my enemies will not even last three seconds against me.”
Mako turned to look at Naruto. Naruto had a determination etched in his face, his words sounded like an oath.
Sensing his attention Naruto met Mako’s eyes.
“You’ll be my right hand man Mako! Together we will protect Konoha, no matter what!”
Mako sent him a small smile. “I haven’t even said I’ll be a Shinobi Naruto.”
Naruto stared at him intently, if he could his eyes could be little balls of fire Naruto was so determined. The sunlight made his hair turn into a blond halo around his face. “You have to be Mako, you’re my best friend.”
“You make it sound so simple.”
I don’t want to protect this place.
“It is!” Naruto insisted hotly.
However-.
Mako gave in, he looked back at the sky.Naruto was always his biggest weakness.
“I’ll be become a Shinobi with you Naruto, simply to make sure you don’t die.”
Naruto’s lips spit into a beaming grin.
“Then we’ll watch each other backs, no matter what. I’ll be the strongest Hokage, and you’ll be my right hand man!”
“Suddenly the prospect became so much more intimidating Naruto. Hokage is a hard position to achieve.”
I hate this village. Why would I protect it?
“I’ll be Hokage no matter what, believe it!”
Mako sighed.
“I do. I believe in you Naruto.”
I will however protect you.
