The Protagonist System

I had the worst and the best first birthday ever. Since it was also the anniversary of the Kyuubi's attack, it was both a funeral remembrance and a celebration that the village survived. Everyone had mixed feelings, which included my usual caretaker Yui, her friend Akiko, and Yugao Uzuki, otherwise known as the ANBU agent called Cat.

It was the worst because everyone gave me angry eyes when Yui took me outside, which meant someone had spread around what I looked like and what my name was. I had thought I would have a few years before people started actively hating me and I was sad to discover I was wrong. I wasn't going to let it get me down, because Danzo himself deemed the crowds deserved to see him.

I was a little surprised to see the older man had an eye patch on his face and his arm had a bundle of bandages wrapped around it. His claim of wounds that never quite healed was believed by everyone and no one questioned him on it. However, a quick look with my X-Ray vision let me see that he had already acquired several pairs of eyes already and had implanted them in his slightly mutated arm.

Danzo also had one in his eye and that one was supposed to be the most important one, the Mangekyo Sharingan, only it was a normal eye. He hadn't taken it from Shushi Uchiha yet so I knew I had some time, a few years at least, before that happened and set Itachi Uchiha on a path of death and destruction.

I also managed to tag the man with a tracking spell during the Hokage's speech about the massacre and how we all came through it. The spell would let me find out where he went when he wasn't working or hiding under protective chakra barrier. Then again, he was paranoid enough that he was wearing a minor one right now.

That was why I couldn't use telepathy to pluck what I wanted from his mind, like how to disable the protections he had in place. Plus, it was crowded and I could only do so much with so many witnesses, especially with them all giving me glares and mumbling about me being a demon child and should be put down to protect everyone from me going on a rampage to kill them all like I did a year ago.

Idiots. I thought. You're only ensuring that actually happens with how you treat me.

It was only because Naruto was indoctrinated by the Hokage, and was not taught much about anything except faulty fighting techniques, that he was able to ignore the way people treated him and became a ninja to fight for the village and eventually becoming Hokage himself.

We met up with Akiko and she helped divert attention from me by putting herself between the crowd and Yui. When we sat down to have something to eat at Ichiraku Ramen, which was an outdoor stall built on the side of a modest house, I made sure to reach over to caress Akiko's neck and said thanks. She blushed and Yui added her own thanks.

I turned my head and glanced over her shoulder to see Yugao's face without the Cat mask. I knew she was also keeping me protected, so I gave her a little wave that only she would see and went back to sipping the broth Yui had put into a bottle for me.

It was tasty and I understood how easily Naruto had declared it a staple food and didn't want to eat anything else. A bowl of ramen noodles was probably the first actual food he had after only eating rancid formula, so it was no wonder he would get upset when anyone said it was only ramen and not important.

I suspected it was also why Hiruzen made sure to have a bowl with him at least once a month to keep up the grandfatherly appearance. He could have done so much to make Naruto's life better and he didn't do anything but the bare minimum. Naruto saw the old man's visits as rewards for doing well in his life and never questioned anything.

After eating and both women wishing me a happy birthday, they brought me back to the orphanage. It was getting late and the crowd was getting too thick to stop anyone from commenting about me. The glares were getting worse as people drank more and lost their inhibitions, too. In other words, it was getting too dangerous to have me out in public.

I pretended to fall asleep on the way home and Yui was grateful. She tucked me into my crib and pet my hair for a few moments, then she and Akiko left to go party after making sure the night worker was told I was back in my room. I watched them with my clairvoyance power for a while before I felt Cat appear in the trees outside, probably to keep watch for anyone trying to get into the orphanage.

Surprisingly, Dog was also there on the other side of the building on the nearby roof. He wasn't anywhere as vigilant as Cat was and I was sure he wouldn't interfere until it was strictly necessary, like someone trying to light the building on fire.

Yeah, killing an entire orphanage of children to get me was worth the price to the drunk man's mind. Dog didn't kill him, though. He disappeared and brought him to the civilian jail, didn't say what his crime was, and started making his way back to the orphanage.

Rotten bastard. I thought and waited for him to hop up onto a nearby roof before I had him misjudge the height and he tripped on the edge and fell flat on his face. I giggled at him cursing his luck and he lifted his mask to stop the blood flowing from his nose. You should get that looked at, Kakashi.

The ANBU guard seemed to freeze for a second, dropped his mask over his face again, and immediately threw out a handful of 4-point star shuriken in all directions. He didn't hit anything but several walls and open air, though. He mumbled something about losing his mind and proceeded to gather them up and cautiously continued his journey back to the orphanage.

At least now he's keeping an eye out. I thought and sighed. I was not really tired; but, I also couldn't sneak out with so many people around. It was too dangerous and I was sure to be caught. However, I could still follow the tracking charms I had spread out over the ROOT operatives.

With them out during the celebration, I could watch and see how they operated. I could also see what they were going to do. To my surprise, several of them made their way to my orphanage. They arrived well before Dog did and slipped in through the back door after disabling the chakra alarm.

I couldn't have that, so I reactivated it and poked it after they were inside. The kitchen lights snapped on and all but one of the night workers rushed to the back door. The lone one called the police to say someone broke in through the back door.

The ROOT operatives tried to flee, because they could not be caught entering an orphanage. It would give their entire operation away and prove where all those missing kids went. I used telekinesis to lock the door and they had to break it and several windows to escape.

Dog arrived at the same time the two Uchiha police arrived and he hid to watch what happened. The workers complained about the ruined kitchen and back door, showing proof that it wasn't a prank call, and the police took their statements and claimed they would search for the thieves and would take care of them.

I huffed at the obvious lie and none of the workers believed them, either. They didn't search the building for others or bothered to check on the kids, which was stupid. Mind you, they were probably half-assing things because they were too busy with all the other calls they were getting during the village-wide celebrations.

I pretended to be asleep when one of the night workers checked on me by opening the door and glancing in, then shutting the door. I knew that was going to happen, which was why my dummy was always so effective when I used it at night. They never came in to physically check that I was okay. That worked in my favor and I wasn't going to complain about it.

After the place settled down about half an hour later, I snuck out of my room to the second floor window and waved at Cat. She held up a hand and gave the sign for one day and I gave her a thumbs-up back. She would see me tomorrow night for her official shift.

I went back to bed and tried to go to sleep, except two more idiots tried to enter the orphanage with the clearly damaged door allowing them access. The police were called both times and it was the same two police. They were not amused to have come back the third time and one of them used an Earth Jutsu to raise a dirt wall in front of the door to hide it.

Surprisingly, that worked and there were no more attempts at trying to get to me, either to deal with me or to kidnap me. The night workers were thankful that they didn't have to deal with it and left it for Yui and the other two daytime workers to clean up.

Needless to say, I slept a lot more the next day to catch up on what I missed and to be rested for my lessons with Cat that night. I was sure she was going to go through the Academy basics first and then would start showing me more and more techniques to test me with copying her as easily as I copied her before.

I was excited to see her reaction as I did and couldn't wait to have some fun with her.

*

Yugao Uzuki had the day off after working an extra shift during the first annual survival celebration. She knew it was going to be a tradition every year, on order from the Hokage, and she also knew it would keep the attack in everyone's mind while also keeping a target painted on the back of the cutest little ninja in the village.

She spent the day at home and rested while she thought about why the old man wanted everyone's thoughts and hatred focused on Naruto. Was that what he wanted? Instead of hating their lives, or mourning the loss of family members, it was someone for them to blame their problems on.

That was the dumbest thing they could do, since that little boy was going to grow up into a powerful shinobi and could pay them back for their behavior. She thought about telling them that, then realized her opinion wouldn't sway them after how irrational they had been after an entire year of them being angry at the boy for something he didn't do.

Still, she could warn Naruto that it was a crime to harm civilians using his abilities. He could be demoted, fired, or jailed for it, assuming he was caught or turned himself in. That was also if he successfully graduated from the academy when he was 12.

Six years wasn't that long to spend training to become a ninja, which was why they focused on the basics. Their sensei's would take over their training at that point and their teammates would have more focused training on their specific talents. Scouts, medics, heavy hitters, information gathering, stealth, and many other essential roles needed to be filled in Konoha's shinobi forces.

Yugao would also tell the boy that he shouldn't listen to the hate and should ignore them, even if it was other ninjas that said those things about him and to him. They were too shortsighted and blinded by their hatred of the Nine-Tailed Beast to see that he was just a little boy that didn't to anything to them.

Yes, that would be what she would do. She would explain the constant danger he would be in and that he was also completely innocent. It wasn't his fault he had been chosen to be the container for the beast and he shouldn't have to suffer for it, even though he always would.

A knock on her door made her sigh and Yugao climbed out of bed, checked the mirror to see that she wasn't as dishevelled as she thought she would be, and went to her door. She had already sensed who it was and opened the door to look at the man that was getting on her nerves, despite how much she secretly loved him.

“Hey, babe! Wanna hang out?” Hayate Gekko asked her with a fake drawl that he copied from a civilian and was practising for his next undercover mission.

Yugao wondered if she could punch his smug face before he could react, thought better of it, and slammed the door instead. She walked away to sit on the couch in her living room and wasn't surprised to see him already sitting on her couch. He softly chuckled as she sat next to him.

“Was it believable?” Hayate asked as he put an arm over her shoulders and hugged her.

“I wanted to punch you in the face.” Yugao admitted.

Hayate laughed. “Then that's a yes.”

Yugao rolled her eyes at him and snuggled in. “How did you convince the boss you could have the same day off as me?”

“He thinks I'm still working, of course.” Hayate said, proudly.

“You put him under a Genjitsu?” Yugao asked.

“Yep! As far as his five senses are concerned, I'm diligently guarding the vault of secrets and it's not the stuffed outfit I left there.”

“Ah, if he touches you, there's actually something there for him to touch, so it doesn't break the illusion.” Yugao responded. “Are you sure he won't pulse his chakra to disrupt the flow of energy or poke himself with a kunai or something?”

Hayate chuckled. “I blunted all the closest sharp things and he thinks he already did break the Genjutsu.”

Yugao smiled and couldn't help teasing him. “That was smart of you.”

“Hey! Don't sound so surprised.” Hayate complained. “I trained you, didn't I?”

“Yes, you did.” Yugao answered and leaned in to kiss him.

Hayate accepted it and deepened the kiss, then he quickly stripped her off and was making her feel better than ever. Yugao reciprocated easily, because he was a man and wasn't that complicated. A mouth or hand worked just as well as a certain other part of her anatomy and she judiciously applied her best kunoichi techniques to him to make him blow like a geyser.

She had already set her alarm, so she relaxed and fell asleep with her lover until it was time for her shift at the orphanage. He didn't move when she left him on the couch and showered, dressed, and left. She was in a great mood and would do her best to put Naruto through everything she could without going too far with it.

How far was too far? Perhaps elemental release. That was an advanced technique and she didn't know what element his chakra was attuned to. Maybe she should bring a piece of chakra paper as well to see what it would do if he released his energy into it? It would only take a quick stop at the supply store and she would grab a few other things for him to try, like shuriken.

*

Yugao stood there in the shadows with her tiny student, after he had easy copied her ability with the academy techniques and everything else she showed him. She had even done her own sensory training and he got that, too!

That wasn't the shocking part, though. She stared at the chakra paper he held in his tiny hand. It had done something funky when he added his energy to it. It split from wind, was wet from water, wrinkled from lightning, and for some reason glowed like a lightbulb. It wasn't supposed to do that last one at all, so she had no clue what that meant.

Naruto giggled and the paper froze into an icicle, showing that the wind and water was actually ice, which shouldn't have been possible. He was an Uzumaki and their bloodline was for excessive chakra reserves, a strong life force, and the ability to consume and heal with chakra. It was not supposed to be ice.

“Parky!” Naruto said and tiny bolts of lightning flowed over his hand.

Or lightning. Yugao thought and was too stunned at the sparks to react as he did the very thing she thought was too far for a first night of training. Elemental release. How is he doing that?

Naruto made his hand glow after the little bolts of lightning stopped. He pointed a fingertip at the tree they were hiding in and a beam of light burned a hole through it in an instant.

Yugao's mouth dropped open at that, because she had never seen anything like it before. A baby had used light to burn through a foot thick tree trunk! How? HOW?!?

A second later, she felt his tiny hand on her cheek and a serene calm filled her mind. She also felt all those little aches and pains she usually ignored fade away and her lagging energy surged forth. She gasped when she realized he had just healed her and she hadn't felt a single pulse of chakra.

“Naruto.” Yugao whispered and scooped him up into her arms and hugged him. “Never, ever do that to anyone else. They'll take you and do things to you and no one will ever see you again.”

“Sowwy.” Naruto said and had a concentrated look on his face.

Yugao somehow felt herself grow stronger, her energy reserves tripled, and her sensory power spread out from her normal range to cover the entire walled in village. Since Konoha was about 45 miles across and there was about 80,000 people living there, it almost blew her mind at feeling them all.

The pressure suddenly reduced and it became manageable, making her sigh with relief. She could still feel them all, only they were at the back of her mind and it wasn't overwhelming. In fact, her ability seemed to let her focus on specific people and she knew exactly where they were, which was going to help her a lot when she worked.

“Better?” Naruto asked and he didn't slur the T like usual.

“You did that.” Yugao stated and didn't ask.

“Fix all owies.” Naruto said and let her cheek go. “Tired.”

Yugao nodded and used her Body Flicker technique, or Shunshin, to bring her tiny student back to the orphanage and walked up the wall to the second floor window. “Promise me that you won't do anything that I taught you.”

“Pwomise.” Naruto said and hugged her neck.

Yugao smiled and set him on the floor inside the window. “Goodnight, little ninja.”

“Night, Kitty.” Naruto said and used a shunshin to his door, then opened it barely enough to fit through, and slipped inside. He closed it without a sound and Yugao felt proud that he could do that after a single night of training.

I hope I haven't unleashed a monster onto the world. Yugao thought and closed the window, then leapt away and landed in the trees. When she thought about Naruto, she just couldn't see him that way and her worries faded away.

She easily tree-hopped through the branches and transferred to roof-hopping when she had to and headed back to her home. She would barely have enough time to sleep and not be tired in the morning for her normal shift at work. As she drifted of to sleep, she felt grateful to Naruto for whatever he did, because all that effort coming home hadn't taxed her at all.