""Gramps?!""

Sasuke and I said in unison, both shocked to see the Hokage in our living room.

"Oho! Hello children." the Hokage said with a smile, he sipped his tea as he studied us, dirtied and sweaty. "Seems you've taken an interest in training, good… good" he said rather mysteriously.

I looked at Sasuke to my right and he was practically beaming with joy, I was tempted to tell him that if he smiled any wider his eggy head would crack but I restrained myself for now.

"What're you doing here Gramps?" I asked, I had the feeling that Sasuke would stay starstruck for a while so I decided to take the initiative.

"Hm? Nothing much, just decided to pop in for a visit!" said Gramps laughing heartily. Sasuke did his best not to run up to the man and walked over to take a seat next to Tomo whose existence he had basically forgotten about. I followed his stride, the only difference being the nod I sent to her as I sat down.

'Just decided to pop in huh? What a load of bullshit.' I thought, sitting down. The Hokage of the leaf village visiting a random orphanage for tea wasn't something that just happened, he had a reason for doing this. He seldom visited Naruto when he lived all alone but had time for us? Made no sense, unless there was something here that he wanted.

Now it's not like I didn't trust the man… I did… kind of. Truth be told, even though he was shown as a "kind" man in the series, it wasn't something I could bet on. The best way to explain it was that Hiruzen was not reliable in his "kindness".

One look at Naruto's situation was all it took, just like how he's partially responsible for my situation as his student is the one who abducted me, Minato and Kushina relied on him to take care of their child which he did an abysmal job at.

My theory when I was on my previous planet was that this was a plot hole. The creator of the series wanted to present Naruto as someone who was hated by the village at the start but then, later on, had to semi-retcon the Hokage's disregard of him when Naruto's heritage was shown… but now… how the fuck am I supposed to make sense of his actions? Was there some explanation for why he acted the way he did that I don't know?

Hiruzen smiled at me and I returned him one in kind. Maybe I was selfish but I at the very least knew that he had some amount of care for me, whether he cared about Naruto or not I didn't know but I'm not going to treat him any differently because of it. He has been good to me so far, so I will be good to him.

"It's good to see that you're settling in well Aoki," he said before turning to Sasuke, "Have you two been getting along?" he asked looking at the older boy.

"Yes Lord Thir- Gramps! We've been getting along great! We practice and talk about ninja-stuff all the time!" Sasuke said with a childish smile. Looking at him I could see why Tomo had called my smile creepy, the one Sasuke showed was full of wholesome joy while mine was laden with a manipulative desire. Not as pure, but it was funnier to look at according to the granny.

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I noticed Sasuke's tick of calling Hiruzen Lord Third instead of Gramps, from this I could guess that Hiruzen and Sasuke have not communicated enough for Sasuke to cement him in his mind as "Gramps". It seems he hadn't invested as much time in Sasuke as he has me…

'He's probably here for something to do with me.' I guessed inwardly. A small voice in the back of my mind chastised myself for being arrogant enough to assume the Hokage went out of his way to meet me but a louder voice yelled that it was the most logical possibility and to not be too humble. I was used to being forgotten in social situations previously; I needed to develop a stronger sense of pride, I noted this bad habit to address later.

Hiruzen initiated some more light chatter with Sasuke and me, asking us about our schedules and lifestyles. He talked to me about settling into the house and meeting the kids, and with Sasuke, he questioned him about his academic life.

When Hiruzen said that he had checked out the boy's results for his written exams Sasuke almost jolted up in shock, with a smile Hiruzen told him he had nothing to worry about and suggested a couple of books for him to read. Sasuke hearing the advice nodded so hard I worried his head might fall off and crack on the floor; humpty dumpty style.

All throughout this, Tomo was silently listening to us with an unreadable expression, not participating but not souring the mood either, I felt like including her in the conversation but I held off on the thought that maybe she wouldn't appreciate it.

'Even though she dislikes some things about becoming a ninja, does she also dislike Hiruzen? Chances are that at best they have a rocky relationship.' I thought, trying to assess how Tomo and Hiruzen interacted without us.

We were talking about my possible future enrollment in the academy when two loud cries interrupted us.

"uuuwWAAAHH!!!"

"GANNNYYY!"

The sounds of the twins could be heard from upstairs, 'strange' I thought, they usually slept together in the large crib downstairs and not separately upstairs.

Tomo grabbed Sasuke's hand and told him "Help me with the babies, we'll come back down soon" and all but dragged him upstairs, she wasn't being coy with her intentions of leaving me and the Hokage alone. Sasuke protested quite a bit but begrudgingly went to go help Tomo, he shot me an envious look for being able to sit with the Hokage by myself before leaving the room.

There was a comfortable silence in the room before Gramps broke it.

"You could tell?" he asked, making sure that the play Tomo and him had set up hadn't gone under the radar.

"Yeah…" I replied feeling a bit strange. I knew he was interested in me but to go as far as to basically kick Tomo and Sasuke out to talk with me one-on-one? That was unexpected.

Hiruzens smile faded a little, it was still there but it had gained a layer of seriousness that wasn't there back when Sasuke and Tomo were here. "No need to worry young Aoki, I just have some things I need to talk with you about," he said, noticing that I grew a little tense.

I nodded, waiting for him to continue.

"Aoki," he said, bringing my full attention to him.

"Do you want to become a ninja?"

I replied almost immediately, it was no secret and I'm sure he already knew my answer. "Yes Gramps, I do."

"I'm going to show you something, Aoki." he said, his usually calm demeanour slipping, "You won't understand most of this nor do I expect you to but I will explain it in detail once you've read it." Hiruzen looked at me for a second before exhaling deeply, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a rolled-up piece of paper.

"I know you are an intelligent child, Aoki, please understand that me offering this to you is a show of trust, for most children, I would've held off on sharing this information until they had graduated from the academy but..." the Hokage looked conflicted as he continued, "I've come to realise that I should be more open with others if I expect them to be open with me." he relented.

Hiruze looked at it for a second hesitatingly before extending the scroll to me.

With a confused expression, I grabbed the paper and unfurled it, exposing its contents.