A few days later, Yukio arrived at the house where Naruto was being cared for.
No, he wasn't kept in an orphanage, as some members of the council were worried that, in the worst-case scenario of the Nine-Tails being released, the babies and children in the orphanage would be harmed.
This was a problem for two reasons: first, because it was morally wrong to kill babies—but that's not the main reason. The main reason was that it would decrease public trust in Konoha.
Secondly—which also ties into the first point—is that orphanage kids dying is grave because most of the S-ranks who came from civilian backgrounds were orphans.
This was also one of the reasons the main orphanage of Konoha is heavily guarded and not lacking in funds, thanks to graduated ninjas sending money back.
At least some of them do.
Anyway, most of Konoha's ninjas are civilians or from civilian families, so this could cause outrage from that side, which the council doesn't want to deal with.
Yukio also didn't have any qualms about it, as their point was valid; plus, he didn't trust any of the orphanage matrons not to try to kill Naruto in his sleep or slowly poison him.
Even though Anbu are always guarding him right now, there's always a chance they won't be able to save him, as the matrons themselves are ex-ninjas.
This saves money since they don't need to hire bodyguards.
So, Naruto, currently almost two years old, was kept at a house near an isolated part of the village.
And under this house lies one of the Anbu bases.
So, Naruto had been brought up by masked ninjas since birth.
Yukio opened the door.
"Did the Old Man tell you why I came here?" he said while walking forward into the house.
"Yes, we have prepared his belongings and sealed them in a scroll."
"Cool," Yukio nodded and opened the door to Naruto's room.
He saw a blonde-haired infant—or technically a baby—chewing on a frog-shaped soft toy, while with one hand he shook a stick-shaped toy that made noise when moved.
The baby Naruto looked in Yukio's direction as he heard the door opening.
His eyes widened, and he made some noises, throwing away the stick and frog toy.
He crawled toward the crib wall, shaking his hands as if to tell Yukio he was there.
"Hehe, yeah, yeah, I'm here," Yukio walked up to his crib and picked up the energetic baby.
Naruto didn't really like Anbu much since they were, first of all, masked and didn't react much when he tried to interact with them.
To him, they were like "machines" that gave him food every few hours.
He had tried to mess with them with his baby curiosity, but still, they didn't react differently.
On the other hand, people like Yukio, or "unmasked" people who visited him, people he could see expressions on, were liked by Naruto.
It was because they were a kind of change from his usual environment of masked people.
Yukio let one chakra string form in his hand, which then reached toward the scroll kept on a table in a far corner.
Yukio grabbed the scroll, held it for a second, and then it disappeared.
"I'll be leaving then," Yukio said, and his body flickered out of the house.
"So, how've you been?" Yukio asked Naruto, who was making loud noises from the sensation of moving at high speeds—a new feeling for the energetic baby.
Yukio reached his house and opened the door.
He went to the hall and summoned Naruto's crib.
"Let's see, I've already created a seal system in the house that'll let you explore freely without getting hurt. I'll connect the crib to it by adding some seals on it, then I'll create an automated system to take care of your needs in case we're out. How's that sound?" Yukio said aloud, setting the blonde baby on the floor.
The blonde baby, who'd never had many chances to be out of his crib or not held by someone, was feeling freedom for the first time.
He grinned and crawled like there was no tomorrow in a different direction.
Meanwhile, Yukio worked on connecting the crib and creating an autonomous system to feed Naruto and take care of his diapers.
Just a few days ago, he'd upgraded some seals in the house to make cooking, ingredient processing, and other tasks fully autonomous, so anyone in the house could prepare food that would taste decently good, if not the best.
So, he just needed to connect this to handle the baby's food needs.
Being a seal master was really convenient; you could easily take care of a baby, which is typically very tiring.
Meanwhile, Naruto was enjoying his freedom, exploring anything that caught his attention and curiosity.
Yumi, who had just come out of the bath, stopped and looked at the blonde kid.
The kid looked back at her and paused too.
A baby and a girl looked at each other.
"Who's this baby?" Yumi finally asked out loud.
She noticed Yukio sitting near a crib, inscribing some seals on it.
"He's the son of my late sensei. I took his guardianship today, so he'll be living with us."
"Huh, is that so? I see," Yumi looked at the baby, then went to the table to eat something.
She didn't really like babies, as the only one she'd recently interacted with was Sasuke, who always cried in her presence, leading Mikoto to bonk her.
So, in her mind, babies were evil.
She looked back and saw Naruto crawling behind her.
She stopped, and so did Naruto.
She started walking again, and Naruto did the same.
She sighed and sat at the dining table.
The food was already cooked, as she had prepared it to finish right before her bath.
She couldn't believe how normal people live without such systems.
Life is really hard for those people.
Today she was having a bowl of katsudon.
She took her first bite—a cutlet with mostly rice.
She hummed in satisfaction as she chewed it.
She looked down and saw the blonde baby tapping her legs, looking at her.
Especially at the food.
He was developed enough to sense smells, and though it wasn't the best Yumi had eaten, it was a big deal to Naruto, who had never had solid food before.
Yumi looked at him while chewing, then swallowed.
She took another bite and looked at Naruto.
Naruto's eyes seemed to glisten, and he gulped, making some noises, clearly excited to eat.
But Yumi put it in her mouth and started chewing, looking at the baby, whose hopes were crushed.
Naruto looked at her in disbelief, not knowing how to react. To his baby mind, was this the first time he was deceived? Tricked? Betrayed? He didn't even know the language they spoke, let alone such complicated words.
Yumi then took another bite and held it in the air for a few seconds.
Baby Naruto's eyes filled with hope again, only to be crushed as he watched her gulp it down.
Yumi smirked, thinking, *This is really entertaining.*
Naruto was on the verge of tears.
She then shivered for some reason.
She slowly turned her head to see Miyuki looking at her, smiling. *Damn, I knew it; all babies are evil after all.*
She was bonked by Miyuki, and it hurt even more than what Mikoto usually did.
The worst part of such hits was the prolonged pain, which she suspected was due to the use of lightning chakra by both of them.
"It's okay, Naru-chan. Nee-chan will give you some pudding. How about that?" With that, Miyuki took Naruto away.
"You really have a tendency to harass children. No wonder Mikoto-sensei always says Sa-chan doesn't like you," Yukio looked at her, shook his head, and returned to his work.
Yumi felt wronged.
She hadn't even done anything to Sasuke; that baby always acted like that around her.
She was being misunderstood.
She prepared to say something, then stopped.
Was it worth it to risk her food getting cold?
She might hate babies, but not enough to let her food get cold.
They weren't worth that.
With that, Yumi kept quiet and continued eating.
***
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