Chapter 31 - Chapter 33

Name:A New Path Author:Vallori
Dragon was standing outside the orphanage in the early hours of the morning. He came here and knew exactly what he wanted to do. At this moment he didn't care if this would change fate, or whatever. He liked the Naruto he met yesterday too much to let him suffer on his own like this. Let's see who would dare to stop him.

*knock* *knock* After a few long seconds the door to what was supposed to be a safe home for all children opened up. A smiling woman opened up the door and was greeted with Dragon and his huge physique. She stood there dumb struck for a few seconds before she recovered and started smiling towards him.

"What can i do for you, Sir?" She asked Dragon with a smile that he instantly identified as the most fake smile he had ever seen. Even a psychopath, a serial killer could fake a smile better than this.

"I am here looking for Naruto. Is he inside?" The woman's smile went from a smile to a frown immediately.

"No, sorry he is not." She said and quickly tried to close the door in front of him.

"It won't do you any good to lie to me." He said and stopped the door closing with only one finger. She tried more force but it just wouldn't move at all. While she was trying to close it, the commotion caused the kids that was close by to gather around them. This included a boy with yellow hair.

"Uncle Dragon" Naruto came running but stopped ones he met eyes with the woman standing at the door.

"Hi, Naruto. I said I would come today, so here I am. We have a lot of stuff to do, so come on out." Dragon had simply stopped caring about the woman still desperately trying to close the door in his face.

"Naruto can't go outside. The kids need permission to go outside and we also don't know you, Sir." She said with an angry and frustrated tone.

"Now while that may be partially true. You should know that I don't care. Also another thing, Naruto won't be returning here. I am taking him to live with me." Dragon said and pushed the door with a small amount of force effectively also pushing the woman to the ground and hurting her lower back in the process.

"Come Naruto, we are leaving." Dragon beckoned the boy and he quickly followed Dragon outside since he already started walking away from the building. Naruto ran after him with his eyes still round in disbelief and shock to what he just heard.

"Is it true? Do I not have to return here again?" Naruto said now very close to crying for real.

"Yes, from today on wards you will live with me. I am a shitty cook, but except that my place isn't so bad." Dragon said and looked back to see Naruto with a face full of tears.

"Now what's this, Naruto? I didn't know my new adoptive son was such a cry baby." Dragon said and laughed. Naruto quickly wiped his face clean of tears and looked at Dragon.

"I am not a cry baby!" He said, now with a determined look in his eyes.

"ha, ha, i know. Just some healthy teasing. It's called teasing in the name of love. It's something my lady taught me years ago." Dragon thought back to all the times where Sylvia would tease him and make fun of every little thing he did just to annoy him, then when he got mad she put on her cutest smile and claimed it was all teasing in the name of love.

'I can't wait to meet you again Sylvia. Now that the system has no more annoying quests for me, I can finally return.

'And also, why do I keep getting family members everywhere I go. In One Piece it was Byakuya and Bradely and here it's Naruto. Am I really changing that much?' Dragon's mind started to wonder so much that he didn't even notice Naruto trying to get his attention from behind him.

"DAD!!!" Naruto screamed finally just to try and get Dragon's attention.

"huh, did you just call me dad, Naruto?" Dragon looked back shocked at this development. He didn't think this would happen so fast if at all.

"Well, you didn't answer to any other name. I had to do something. You were about to walk into a wall." Naruto pointed at the wooden fence that he though Dragon was about to walk into. Little did he know about observation haki.

"oh, thank you, Naruto. Now, what do you wanna do first? Let's have some fun today, just you and me." Dragon said while observing all the stares of disgust and anxiety people threw their way.

"I wanna climb that mountain!!" Naruto said and pointed at the mountain in the distance with four massive faces on it.

"You wanna climb the Hokage mountain?" Dragon said with some amusement in his tone.

"hm," Naruto nodded fiercely.

"Fine! Climb on!" Dragon bowed down and let Naruto climb onto his shoulders. Ones Naruto sat steadily on his shoulders Dragon bent down properly and leapt into the distance.

"WWWOOOOHOOOOOOOOO" Naruto screamed in utter joy while basically flying through the air just from how high Dragon had jumped. Every other second or so Dragon would land on the ground or a roof and take off again using another massive leap. The scene of Naruto screaming at the top of his lungs while riding on top of the biggest man anyone had ever seen, was a good scare to the people on the ground whenever they landed to leap again.

In the distance inside the most famous room in the entire village an old man stood and observed the man and child duo flying through the air. A smile was plastered on his face and at the same time pain and guilt was seen inside his eyes.

"Prepare for landing." Dragon said and landed on top of the head of the fourth Hokage. He helped Naruto down and they both sat down on the head and stared out on the village. Naruto lost all his words and excitement when he saw the view in front of him. Beautiful was the proper word to describe this view.

"What are you thinking about, Naruto?" Dragon said and looked at the new addition to his ever-growing family. Kids in this world matured hundreds of times faster then they do on earth and what Naruto said next clearly showed just that.

"Family. I was thinking about what you said yesterday." Naruto said and watched the village and the people moving about inside it.

"And? what are your thoughts about it?" Dragon didn't know how much he had affected Naruto. He never told a lie but he also didn't think he was the best motivational speaker in the universe.

"I want to know who my family and why they are not here. But at the same time, that also doesn't matter..."

"oh, and why is that?" Dragon was very intrigued by the mature words coming from a three-year-old.

Naruto took a long, very long pause and then said. "I have you, after all, dad."

Naruto stared at the ground while his whole face turned red as a tomato. It was one of the sweetest and funniest moments Dragon had ever seen since he reincarnated.

"Work hard and dream big, and eventually you might be able to meet your parents. But until that day, I am more than honoured to take that role." Dragon said and then put a hand on the boys head and smiled.

"Welcome to the family!" He said and then he got a quick but a very emotion-filled hug from Naruto.

They then sat and watched the village until even the sun said goodbye and disappeared beyond the horizon.

Naruto had at this point fallen asleep against Dragon's body and he just sat there observing the quiet night sky and the moon that was illuminating the ground in a beautiful silver colour similar to his own eyes.

"You can come out, boy." Dragon said while still staring at the village. An elderly man walked out from behind a stone pillar and showed himself to Dragon.

"Since when?" Hiruzen asked with no malice in his tone, only slight shock.

"Since we arrived in this village. My eyes never lost sight of you." Dragon said and beckoned him to sit down, which he did.

"So who are you?" Hiruzen didn't bother with small talk since he got the feeling Dragon didn't care for it at this time.

"A father, a husband or an Emperor. Take your pick." Dragon said and looked over at Hiruzen.

"Emperor? Why did you come to my village, Mr Dragon?" Hiruzed was smoking a long pipe now and he had the look as if this was just another day at the office.

"How is Ryu doing in the Anbu?" Dragon said without showing any indication that he would answer the previously asked question.

*sigh* "Outstanding. He doesn't even need to utilize any ninjutsu or genjutsu at all. His speed and physical strength alone were enough to bring down anyone I pinned against him. Did you train him since he was a child?" Hiruzed was actually baffled at the strength Ryu had shown and he was sure he would need to sacrifice his life to be able to kill Ryu successfully.

"Sort of. You can say he carries my inheritance so it's no wonder your anbu stands no chance." Dragon said with a proud look on his face. They were his subordinates and he would always be proud when someone talked highly of them.

"I wouldn't mind some of that inheritance, ha, ha, ha," Hiruzed genuinely laughed like he had not done in so long.

"Behave and you might see it one day, boy." Dragon said and spoke like some wise old clan elder that was trying to motivate the younger generation. Technically this wasn't wrong since he was older than the village itself.

"May I inquire about your identity, Dragon?" Hiruzen knew that Dragon was older then he looked. Hiruzen had lived a long life and he had crazy amounts of life experience, so figuring out that this man was his senior was not very hard. It was visible in all the things he did. How he spoke how he stood, his very powerful aura and presence when you looked at him. It all spelt out a ridiculously long life.

"I have been around since before the founding of the villages. Who I am, you might know someday, but for now, it's enough to know that i hold no intentions of destroying your village." Dragon said and smiled at Hiruzen.

This was the identity he had come up with since he knew his age would and identity would come up in question eventually. He knew Hiruzen was not only crazy powerful but also very smart in more ways than one. Saying he was younger then Hiruzen or a simple ninja would not fool this Hokage at all.

Also revealing this would earn him more respect from Hiruzen and that in turn would help him immensely when he wanted to move around or when he would act to unite the world. Hiruzen's support would be a huge help in the future.

"I figured Senior was older but this is quite the shock, isn't it. You wouldn't be acquainted with the previous Hokage's would you? I just ask out of simple curiosity." Hiruzen was just curious, and this wasn't any vital information he desperately needed to know.

"I was. When you live this long, you meet quite a few people." Dragon didn't think much of it since they were dead.

[Host should not have said that since the previous Hokage's are supposed to be revived in the future and they most likely will be. The likeliness that host will meet them is 99,98%.]

[Would host like the system to implement an identity to solve this issue?] The system came forward with some information that completely had escaped Dragon's mind.

'Shit, I totally forgot that the snake boy resurrects them. Wait, you can change history?'

[The system holds and can manipulate small amounts of the divine power of the Overgod. Changing history is possible for the system, but it will drain the system and history won't be able to be changed again until the system recovers it's borrowed divine powers.]

'I see, yes implement my identity in the history books. and tell me what my identity is.'

[Host is also incorrect in another matter. They are resurrected multiple times and the host has not changed that future so the host should be prepared to meet them eventually.]

[Host's identity has been implemented as one of the warlords during the warring era. You were very famous back then as someone that stopped multiple fights among the clans. The host was eventually the one that stopped a fight that would have led to the death of Hashirama Senju earlier than expected. Saving him pushed Hashirama Senju to finally create the Hidden Leaf village together with Madara Uchiha.]

[Hashirama Senju worships Portgas D Dragon as a person with a good heart and great power. Someone who's footsteps is worth following.]

[Tobirama Senju and Madara Uchiha despise host since you are on no one's side and still holds great power. Enough power to annihilate an entire army as they themselves can do. They were always wary of you and never held any trust towards you no matter what Hashirama Senju said to try and convince them.]

'Will the people of this time know me now?'

[Your name pops up in lost records but only Madara Uchiha, Hashirama Senju and Tobirama Senju would recognize host on a glance.]

"Hiruzen Sarutobi pays respect to Portgas D Dragon!" Hiruzen clasped his hands together and said this with pure respect in his voice. He had no idea why he would suddenly do this but everything in his body told him to, and it just felt right.

"ha, ha, you feel any better now?" Dragon said while readjusting Naruto that was sleeping on his arm. The fact that this system could still surprise him with all its features amazed him greatly.

"Much, by the way. Do you know what rests within that boy?" Hiruzen said and gestured towards Naruto.

"Who do you take me for? Nothing will happen as long as this boy is with me. That fox is not even a whole, so it can't defeat me." He said and looked at Naruto that was sleeping soundly.

"I understand, Mr Dragon." After that none of them felt like speaking further and just sat there the rest of the night enjoying the cool night breeze.

"Call me Dragon instead." He said to Hiruzen that was staring at the boy.

"I understand, Master Dragon." He said with a smile overcome with happiness. Hiruzen had this hidden personality that he never could afford to show.

Dragon saw it now and he would explain it as childlike and innocent. Maybe this manifested because Hiruzen didn't have a proper childhood. He didn't know, but he quite enjoyed finding out that this Hokage had an innocent side to him as well.

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End