Chapter 4
"If you ever see a woman with like super grey hair and an angry face, you just need to wait till she close her shop 'nd you can find the best bags of chips 'nd candy in the dumpster behind it. They're only a little harder to chew than other bags too!"
The more this kid spoke, the more Hashirama wondered what the fuck happened to all the laws they put in place to keep this type of situation from happening?!
Like the frequent visits from the Hokage? The top secret jutsu to make the Hokage themself look like a known child for a day to secretly make sure the treatment was fair? (The real child was always kept safe and under the most pleasant genjutsu until they switched them back with the memory of a great nap and whatever important information that needed to be passed along.) It had to be a seal or else any of the staff would have noticed. All orphanage staff had to be genin level at least. These were children from a shinobi village, who knew what poor bastard children from various clans there were in there. And even if there weren't any, those are still children of Konoha, they had to be protected and cared for.
He looked back at Naruto, the kid who was covered in dirt, dried blood, and whatever other stain that green stuff is. The tops of this kid's hair barely made it to his hip, he was the epitome of what he wanted to protect in this world. Yet, this village failed him somehow. Somehow this village had beaten this boy down so hard, so harshly that training ground 44 had somehow been a better place for this child to be wandering than the streets he helped plan out himself. This boy, who at first glance reminded him so much of a young Kawarama with big innocent eyes like Itama once had, had seemed to have been through hell and was still smiling, still saw joy in things, still wanted to trust adults. This boy had every reason right now to grow up and abandon this place, to become it's enemy and Hashirama wouldn't fault him for it. And yet, Naruto clearly still loved the village who scorned him so easily. Even he himself had trouble forgiving such grievances so easily when the adults of his father's time were hurting Tobirama when they were children. (And if he never did, no one would be able to know it was he who had poisoned their tea all those years ago.)
He also was saving the topic of Tobirama's likeness being on the monument, something even he was confused about. Even though he joked about giving his little brother the hat, he knew it would most likely be Madara or Izuna. Tobirama was a fantastic leader when given command, but would always hate the position whenever he held the village together when he went away on a trip to the Capitol or the rare occasional trip to Uzushio with Mito for big celebrations.
"Any other fun tips about the village we should know?" Madara prompted.
"Yeah! Uh, don't go near the 'partments with red lights on them at night. There's like a whole part of the village with it. Real mean people there, some of 'em got heavy bottles 'nd some are sharp so try not to look at the men with 'em or they hit you with the sharp part."
"H-Has the sharp part ever hit you?" Izuna said, falling in step with Tobirama quickly, sharingan on and subtly checking the boy over.
"Yeah, once! My side was really really red with blood and it hurt a lot. But there was this one super nice nurse lady at the hopsitle who fixed it, it went away in like a day! She even came to the orph'nage to check on me too! But the meanie other grown ups told her to never come back if it was for me. Called her a traitor, and monster lover dunno what they means." Deep breath in for 10, deep breath out for ten.
How is he able to talk about this like it was a knee scrape and no big deal?
What the hell is wrong with the people here?!
How had their dream failed this badly?!
"Hey little storm." Hashirama began, Naruto's attention on him with a curious look instantly. "Do you want to see the Hokage's office?" Somehow, the child's face lit up even more.
"Can we?! Ev'ry time I gone there 'fore, I'm not 'lowed in."
"Of course. I promise you'll never be stopped from entering there ever again." You never should have been barred in the first place. He made eye contact with his brother as they changed directions. Madara chuckled lightly at his side, Izuna falling in step with Tobirama as they trailed behind them, eyes rarely leaving Naruto.
"I know you helped build the place, Hashirama, but please try to keep your powers in control until we know the full situation. We can raze the place after Naruto is bathed and put to bed, okay?" His facial expression must be loud if Madara was the one telling him to calm down.