Chapter Text
Tobirama Senju was not at all impressed with Saru at the moment.
In a way, from an administrative point of view, he understood that the situation in question was not easy. The village was on fire, literal and political, after the great attack. The Yondaime was dead, the council wanted blood and they're still at risk of attacks by other villages during the moment of weakness.
Navigating through this mess was a nightmare, but Tobirama thought he had taught Saru better. It went against the very nature to which the village had been created. The function of the village was to take care of their children , sanctioned abandonment of one of them was certainly not included in this.
The clans were blocked from adopting the child. Danzou's request was denied (at least one thing right in this mess). An order of distancing and gagging from everyone who had been friends with his parents was in place, which put little Uzumaki in a difficult situation.
With Tsunade roaming the world, because Saru was too weak to give an ultimatum, and the child's godfather being sent out of the village until otherwise ordered, he would be thrown to the dogs at the orphanage.
An Uzumaki, descendant of Mito, son of a Hokage.
Was Sarutobi stupid? After the board meeting, it was very clear how bad that would be. The secret about the identity of the new jinchuuriki had been leaked (Danzou, in one more of his machinations) and with the village almost having been completely wiped away, they were looking for someone to blame. The ban on disclosure would not help much beyond fermenting hatred. Just because they couldn’t talk about it openly, didn’t stop them from abusing the boy.
Watching the red-haired woman trying to attack Sarutobi (and passing through him without success), he couldn't believe his student would fall into that political trap. In all those years he spent on that plane watching over Sarutobi, he was more and more perplexed seeing how his students were throwing his teachings out the window. Anija had done the right thing to have passed the other side, at least he wouldn't have to see the state of the village he loved so much.
Over the shoulder of his former student (and at the moment disappointment), he watched the child. Only 14 days old and with an immense political weight on his back. Yondaime had had too much faith in the people in the village, and that child would pay for it.
As he watched him, his eyes opened on the tiny face. It had different colours, like the Bijuu he now carried inside him. Tobirama frowned when those heterochromatic eyes stared into his presence, only turning away when the red-haired woman, Kushina Uzumaki, approached again, still cursing Sarutobi, her face in pure stress with her son's situation.
In a few moments, he would be taken to the orphanage, removed from the care of the Sarutobi clan where he had been until then. The mother tried to comfort her son, knowing that what was to come would not be easy.
Tobirama watched a small hand rise, moving, trying to grab a wad of red hair from where he was in Sarutobi's arms, eyes on the face of the dead mother who was talking to him.
Nibi, Bakeneko, was also known as the ghost cat.
Nine months in contact with the necromancer bijuu, and soon after having sealed it in his still developing body, it had, it seemed, an unexpected effect.
Later that night, in a dark room and separated from the other children in the orphanage, a group of ghosts watched helplessly as the little Uzumaki was ignored by the caregivers. Tobirama, having lived his childhood in a period of war with two younger brothers, unfortunately, knew the sound of a child crying from hunger.
More and more ghosts appeared, some curious about the news spreading, others looking anxiously at the door, waiting for someone to finally appear. Tobirama knew that no one would come.
Kushina Uzumaki, with a devastated expression, tried to calm her son while muttering vows of death against several people. Comfort, for the moment, was the only thing she could offer.
At that moment, he realized that little Uzumaki was lucky to see them. If the living were to ignore who at the time was keeping them all safe, for fear and ignorance, the dead would have to serve.
They say that if it takes a village to raise a child. Luckily for little Uzumaki, it doesn't have to be living people.