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Tobirama had not signed up for this, to be the ghostly babysitter of an infant Jinchurriki.
It had started right after his death when he appeared in an unfamiliar room with people he had never met before, one of them very obviously about to give birth. Strangely, none of them had reacted to his presence, not even the hyper-alert guards.
It wasn’t until someone called the old man Sandaime-sama that he recognized his student in that aging face. Somehow, dying had not only not killed him but sent him forward in time as well.
Baffled but determined to figure out what was going on, he observes the people around him. It seemed like a lot of precaution for a birth, even after learning the red-head was the wife of the Yondaime. Except, she did have some resemblance to Mito. Was she the new Jinchuuriki?
His guess is proven correct when a man in an orange mask appears and proceeds to set the Kyuubi loose on the village. It’s one of the most trying times of his life as he watches the bijuu kill the villagers, helpless to do anything to stop it. He has no chakra in this state, and his hands keep passing through people. When he tries to pick up a kunai, it stays solid in his hand for only a moment before falling through. He can only watch, horrified, as Minato makes the biggest mistake of his young life.
“You stupid man. Just do as your wife said and seal the Kyuubi in her! Are you really going to leave your infant son an orphan? While that masked man is on the loose? You better have a damn good successor ready to take over.”
As it turns out, Minato does not have a successor. He left a man in his seventies, a man who had retired, to deal with a foe he was unable to defeat. Because that would work out so well.
Then, showing that he had the common sense of Hashirama, Hiruzen didn’t even try to cover up the existence of the new Jinchuuriki. When that predictably backfired on him, he came up with some asinine rule about not sharing the secret with the younger generation, including Naruto. Now the kid would have no idea why the majority of the adults in his life hated and feared him.
Well, that made two of them. What on earth was the Academy teaching about sealing these days? Had the whole village lost its fucking mind?
“I should have made Koharu the Hokage,” mutters Tobirama, glaring at Hiruzen as he hands Naruto off to the Orphanage’s Matron. “Then again, her common sense seems to have run off to wherever yours has gone. I can’t believe she sided with Danzo on this. Putting Konoha’s Jinchuuriki in an orphanage is just asking for trouble.”
Not only was it a security risk, but Naruto needed to be raised in a loving environment to stay loyal to the village. Out of all his students, he would have expected Danzo to understand that. So what if one clan might gain a political advantage from raising the Jinchuuriki? The threat Naruto posed to the village if he turned against them was greater than that.
He follows the Matron as she takes Naruto to a room with a single crib, depositing him none too gently. It hadn’t escaped his notice that the child was the only one to react to his voice, head turning to look in his direction whenever he spoke. However, he doubted the child’s eyes were developed enough to actually see him.
The child begins to cry as the Matron walked away, but she scowls and ignores him. Was she not even going to try and see what was wrong with him?
Tobirama approaches the crib and reaches for the child, expecting his hand to go through but needing to try anyways. Surprisingly, his hand stays solid, allowing him to awkwardly pat the child on the head. At his touch, Naruto stops crying, blinking up at him sleepily.
“Is this why I haven’t moved on yet? Some higher power wants me to look after you?” wonders Tobirama.
It was the only explanation he could think of for why Naruto alone could hear and interact with him. Normally, he did not think of the gods as merciful, but Naruto’s circumstances were magnitudes worse than the average child’s. Perhaps someone up high didn’t think Naruto would even survive infancy without the assistance of a ghostly guardian.
“What do they see in your future that’s so important they would interfere in your favor?” asks Tobirama.
Naruto, of course, doesn’t answer.
He sighs and goes looking for the Matron. She and her assistants are busy herding the rest of the children through their daily routine. It’s heartbreaking to see how many have been left parentless in the wake of the Kyuubi’s attack.
Over the next few days, he observes as the Matron visits Naruto only as often as he needs to be fed. She gives him his bottle, burps him, and changes his diaper all with a cold efficiency, never once saying a word to the lonely infant. With how many children she has to take care of, her strict schedule could be excused if she bothered to sooth the infant while she was there.
It then falls to Tobirama to make sure Naruto doesn’t grow up to be a sociopath. Was he the only one in the village who knew even the bare bones of psychology? Children needed emotional support to become well-adjusted members of society. He’s lucky he helped with Hashirama’s children or he wouldn’t have a clue how to rock a baby to sleep.
At first, he worries he may drop the child and holds him carefully over the crib, but his tangibility never waves with Naruto. That just further supports his theory that he was specifically sent here to look after him. He always makes sure Naruto is back in the crib before someone enters the room, not wanting to start rumors of the “demon child” being able to float.
He takes note of the face and chakra signature of everyone who calls Naruto that, or any variation of it. Someday, he would find a way to make them regret their words. This was not the village he had given his life for.
A week goes by like this before he can’t deny his boredom any longer. Watching a baby all day, every day, was not the most exciting thing in the world. He knew there were Anbu watching Naruto, there to prevent any assassination attempts. If he timed things right, he should be back before Naruto woke up from his nap.
He hurries out of the orphanage and to the Hokage tower. Being invisible would at least come in handy for this. No one would think to censor their words because a ghost might be listening in.
There’s still a lot of activity this soon after the Kyuubi attack. People come in and out of the office, updating the Hokage on problems solved and problems discovered. He can’t help but sympathize at how exhausted Hiruzen looks. The man may have been handling Naruto’s situation poorly, but he was clearly working hard to help the rest of the village.
It quickly becomes clear, however, that he’s not going to learn everything he needs by hanging around the office. Although the meeting Hiruzen has with the council reveals how much power the Hokage seat has lost over the years. When had Hiruzen decided to let civilians have any say in how the village was run?
The new council of Hiruzen’s consisted of the shinobi Clan Heads and elected civilians from different careers, such as merchants, farmers, and shop owners. In theory, it was a good idea, except Hiruzen called the entire council when deciding shinobi matters as well.
As aggravating as the meetings were to listen to, it was necessary to learn how the village was functioning. He may be dead, but Naruto wasn’t. If he was going to properly advise the child, he needed to know the current politics.
That’s how he spends the first six months of Naruto’s life, sneaking away for a few hours while he’s sleeping to eavesdrop on different people and talking to the child while he’s awake. Then one day, Naruto begins to crawl and the Matron starts testing to see if the infant can hold his own bottle yet. He doesn’t predict anything good coming of this.
The Matron somehow becomes even more distant after Naruto succeeds in grasping the edges of the bottle and walks away before he’s even done. Understandably, Naruto loses hold of the bottle halfway through and begins to whimper. He tries to grab the bottle but his hands keep slipping through.
“I am a ghost. How is a ghost supposed to raise a baby when he can’t touch anything?” asks Tobirama, despairing as Naruto cries.
And perhaps the gods are listening to him, but in his moment of desperation, he’s able to lift the bottle. He feels drained afterward and all but collapses to the floor, but at least he was able to feed the baby. It’s unnerving to realize he can’t even touch Naruto right now and hopes that he regains whatever ghostly energy that lets him interact with the world soon.
“What on earth….”
Tobirama’s head snaps up at the sound of a very familiar voice, astonished to find Mito standing in the middle of the room. She looked younger than the last time he had seen her, almost as young as when she married Hashirama.
“Mito.”
Her eyes meet his, confusion melting away to concern. “Tobirama. What happened?”
“That...is a good question.” He struggles to his feet, leaning against the wall for support. “I’ve been here for about six months, and this is the first time I’ve been able to hold anything besides that child. I held his bottle for less than ten minutes, and I feel as if I could sleep for a week.”
She hums thoughtfully. “And yet you’re able to lean against the wall without trouble.”
Tobirama blinks, feeling a sense of weightlessness as he falls back into the other room. His view of the ceiling is replaced by Mito’s vaguely amused expression as she steps through the wall after him.
“Well, it seems part of our intangibility is directly related to our expectations,” concludes Mito. “Did you ever read any ghost stories while alive?”
“I…yes,” he admits.
“And in those stories, did the ghost struggle to hold objects in the beginning, and need to build up strength over time?” asks Mito.
“Yes,” he sighs.
Mito nods knowingly. “It’s not definitive proof yet, of course, but we are purely made up of spirit right now. I imagine our beliefs hold more sway over our reality than when we had a physical form.”
Tobirama reassess his situation with this new information in mind, only marginally surprised when his exhaustion slowly fades away. Logically, it didn’t make sense for him to get tired from holding a bottle and not a baby, but subconscious beliefs were difficult to fight against when you were unaware of them.
“Thank you, Mito.”
“You’re welcome. Now, would you kindly explain what you do know about our situation?”
“Of course.” He stands and returns to Naruto’s room. “We can talk in here. I don’t like to leave him alone while he’s awake.”
Mito approaches the cradle, staring down at the curious infant. “Who is he?”
“That’s Naruto. I arrived on the day of his birth. He’s the son of Namikaze Minato, the fourth Hokage, and Uzumaki Kushina.”
Mito’s eyes widen. “My niece? The last I saw of her, she was just a teenager. What happened to her? You wouldn’t be this concerned about her son if she were here to take care of him.”
Tobirama gives her a summary of what he witnessed, and how the villagers so far have reacted to Naruto’s status of Jinchuuriki. As a former Jinchuuriki herself, she’s not only as pissed off by their reactions as he is, but also hurt as well.
“Is this how they would have treated me had they known?” asks Mito. “Or worse, do they regard the child as such because he can’t yet speak to defend himself?”
“They’ve turned him into a scapegoat,” agrees Tobirama. “The villagers already thought of you fondly as the wife of the First Hokage. I doubt that would have changed for most of them.”
Before Mito can respond, the Matron finally reappears. She looks triumphant at the sight of Naruto’s empty bottle and quickly changes his diaper before leaving. When Naruto looks as though he’s about to cry, Tobirama quickly scoops him up into his arms and whispers to him soothingly.
Mito doesn’t bat an eye at his behavior. She’s seen how much he and Hashirama spoiled Tsuna. “Who was that woman?”
“She’s the Matron of the orphanage, Sugimura Saiya, though I refuse to call her by name,” answers Tobirama.
“Because of how she treats Naruto,” says Mito. It’s not phrased as a question. Mito understands how he thinks. “Are we going to be raising him then?”
“I don’t see how we could do anything else. If he has any living relatives, they seem wholly uninterested in his welfare. He doesn’t have anyone else,” says Tobirama.
“I came to care greatly for Kushina before my death. She was like a daughter to me. I will help raise her son,” decides Mito.
Tobirama feels a wave of relief as anxieties he had refused to acknowledge earlier dissipate. It was necessary for him to gather information out in the village, but he hated the times he came back to the sound of Naruto crying. There was also the worry that an inattentive, or uncaring, Anbu would allow an assassin into Naruto’s room. If ghosts could sleep, he’s sure he would have been having nightmares of blood-soaked cribs.
“Thank you. I don’t know why we were chosen for this task, but I’m glad I’m not having to do this alone,” says Tobirama.
Mito smiles sympathetically. “Taking care of an infant is a lot of work, isn’t it? They wake up at all hours and need almost constant attention.”
“And the only ones willing to give it to him are dead,” says Tobirama sardonically. “I’d say it should be his parents here, but the man had a chance to survive. He gave up paternal rights with that.”
Mito frowns. “I suppose Kushina grew up to have bad taste in men.”
Tobirama snorts. “It runs in the family.”
Mito neatly folds her arms and gives him a flat stare. It was not the first time Tobirama jokingly questioned her decision to marry Hashirama, and like all those others times, she felt no need to explain herself. Hashirama may have been a bit dense at times, but he was a sweet man.
A few days pass as Mito acclimates to her new situation. She learns a new routine, taking turns with Tobirama as to who watches Naruto while the other explores the village. With someone here to keep an eye on Naruto, Tobirama no longer feels a need to rush back as soon as possible and manages to get more done in a day.
After the newness of the situation has worn off, Mito begins to notice something unacceptable. Naruto doesn’t have any toys. All he had were a few outfits and a blanket. The Matron would set the blanket and Naruto onto the floor during the day and leave him to his own devices until the next feeding session. The poor child would have had to entertain himself if Tobirama and Mito were not there to interact with him.
“It’s not right,” she tells Tobirama, after relaying her observation. “Toys aren’t just for fun, though there’s nothing wrong with that, but they also help develop his mind. The state of this room is also unacceptable. They just barely clean anything in here. You can see the dust building up on the windowsill.”
Tobirama takes her complaints seriously and starts thinking of a plan. “The Anbu don’t watch the windows at all hours, and some of them are less attentive than others. Cleaning this place ourselves shouldn’t be too difficult, but bringing him toys unnoticed won’t be as easy.”
Although they can now pick up objects without difficulty, they’ve yet to figure out a way to extend their invisibility and intangibility to what they’re holding. He would have to break into a toy shop and carry the items back to the orphanage without the ‘magically floating objects’ being seen.
It takes them about a week before they can fully implement the plan. They might have been able to pull it off on the fourth day, but they decide cleaning should be a priority first. Babies have fragile immune systems, and they didn’t want him getting sick.
They get another opportunity on the seventh day, and Tobirama rushes off to the toy store in the middle of the night. He’s able to phase through the building and searches around until he finds a cloth bag. There’s no guilt to be found as he stuffs it full of baby toys. Even if he hadn’t heard the shop owner calling Naruto a demon, everyone in this village owed their lives to the kid. The Kyuubi would have killed them all if Minato hadn’t sealed him away into his son. The least they owe him is a few children’s toys.
When he’s collected everything he thinks Naruto will need, he unlocks the deadbolt from inside the store, opens the door to get the bag out, then phases his hand back in to relock the door. Then it’s a matter of sprinting through the streets, and hiding in alleyways when he senses someone approaching. He’s thankful that despite his lack of chakra, he hasn’t lost any of his speed.
He makes it back to the orphanage unnoticed and stuffs the bag underneath a bush before the Anbu can notice. Mito stands in front of the window of Naruto’s room, waiting for him. She waves when she sees him, then they both begin observing the Anbu, searching for an opening.
The Anbu couldn’t stay stationary their entire guard shift, especially at night. There would be too much chance of them falling asleep or their legs going numb. All he has to do is wait for them to begin moving.
There’s a ten second opening as the Anbu circle around the orphanage. He grabs the bag and sprints for the orphanage, and Mito quickly opens the window, nearly slamming it shut as soon as the bag is safely inside. He hides the bag underneath Naruto’s crib, for once thankful that it was against the wall near the window. (It was such a safety hazard normally. The Anbu couldn’t see Naruto as easily when he was in the crib, and an intruder would just have to go through the window to get to him.)
Mito re-enters the room and smiles triumphantly as the Anbu continue on unawares. “Do you think the Anbu need remedial training or are we just that good at stealth?”
“Probably both,” says Tobirama. “They’ve let their guard down because of the lack of assassination attempts. Personally, I think the villagers have been too busy rebuilding to make a move. That won’t last.”
Mito’s lips purse together, annoyed at the idea of anyone attacking her nephew. “I’ve never had to kill someone with an infant’s toy before. Have you?”
“No, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out quickly.”
They still couldn’t touch anyone but Naruto. If someone got past the Anbu, they would have to use whatever was at hand to defend him.
Both of them freeze as Naruto begins to fuss, likely woken by their quietly whispered words. Tobirama checks out the window, giving the all-clear signal to Mito. She picks him up and takes him to the least visible corner of the room, hidden from Anbu eyes. They don’t even notice Naruto isn’t in his crib when they look back.
Mito begins to sing softly as she rocks Naruto to sleep, a traditional lullaby of Whirlpool that her mother had sung to her. The country of her birth may be gone, but that didn’t mean its culture had to go with it. She would teach Naruto as he got older the songs and stories of her people. If he had the physique for it, she would show him the Uzumaki taijutsu style as well.
And with Tobirama’s help, they may be able to pass on a decent understanding of fuinjutsu. That one, though, really depended on how patient the child turned out to be. The startling difference between Tobirama and Hashirama’s personality showcased that some things were just inherent, rather than a matter of environment.
As soon as Naruto falls asleep and Tobirama gives the signal, she sets him back down in the crib. Tomorrow, she would get to see him play with his new toys, see his expression at the first sound of the rattle and the feel of soft fur against his skin from his first stuffed animal. Tobirama had chosen the traditional teddy bear with dark brown fur. Smart of him not to choose something white. It took forever to wash dirt out of white fur.
And everything he had chosen was something the orphanage already had. They planned to only have one of the toys out a time, giving the Matron the impression that one of the assistants was letting Naruto borrow the toys for a time before taking them back. Hopefully, the Matron would be as indifferent to this as she was anything else Naruto related. They didn’t need her asking awkward questions.
Tobirama follows Mito as she slips outside, both of them keeping an eye on their surroundings as they talk. He was glad he wasn’t alone anymore. It had been a very boring six months with no one to converse with at night.
Perhaps that was why the gods had waited to send Mito to help him. They wanted him to latch onto Naruto as the only one who could see and hear him. Then once he was emotionally invested in the child, they let him have one of his friends back so he didn’t go insane from the lack of adult conversation.
And he was emotionally invested. He had a list going in his head of everyone who called Naruto a demon. If that was as far as it went, he would let it go; but if they discriminated against him in any way, there would be retribution. Nothing lethal, as he still felt some sentiment for this village Hashirama had created, but he would make their lives very difficult.
He could even turn it into a training exercise for Naruto, show him how to set up traps without being noticed. The child would likely need an outlet as well. Pranking the villagers would be a more benign way of expressing his displeasure without resorting to violence. It was going to be an interesting few decades, assuming the gods didn’t yank him back to the afterlife before Naruto died.