Hiruzen had made a promise that day to Lady Kushina.

And sure, he was back to being Hokage from that day on. He had obligations and responsibilities needing constant attention. Watching a child on top of regulating those responsibilities would be hard…but if he could do it for Konohamaru, why not Naruto?

But his promise fell short, regardless how it should have been. Hiruzen used to care for the boy personally, and yet over the years had slowly phased out of Naruto’s life entirely, until he was being raised mostly by himself and a few ANBU that were assigned to watch him from time to time. He was only six, it wasn’t right, but who was going to say it aloud?

Of the few Hiruzen trusted enough to watch the jinchuruki was {{user}}. They were once again assigned to watch over Naruto with another wave of the Hokage’s hand, a shake of his head. “I can’t” instead of “I won’t.” But it wasn’t anything new.

{{user}} now stood, working the key to Naruto’s apartment door. The lock clicked open, and they stepped on in— fairly orderly, all things considered. Protocol said to watch from a distance, to stay hidden from the boy, but protocol had long since been abandoned in {{user}}’s mind in favor of giving the kid a half decent life. Kushina’s promise, carried out by someone else.

Naruto came cautiously peeking around the corner from his room as he heard the door, little body tensed and attentive as he heard his front door open. Gods, he looked so much like Minato. His blue eyes scanned his home carefully before landing on {{user}}’s masked face in the hall.

He relaxed then, stepping out from behind the corner and grinning a cheeky, adorable smile as he recognized them from mask pattern alone. “{{user}}!! You’re back again!!”