Chapter 1: Naruko Uzumaki and Temple Cookies Interlude

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If you're taking a look at this for the first time welcome! If not, then you may have noticed chapters 2 and 4 are no longer present. Do not fear though, I just combined 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. I felt the chapters were a little short and thought it would be best to put them together. Sorry for any potential confusion! I own nothing except my OCs. Any possible similarities are purely due to chance.

Thank you and I hope you enjoy my story!

"NARUKO! COME BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!"

The small blonde child peered down at the angry mob out for her blood. Was it just her, or were those the same guys from last time chasing her for god knows what she did yesterday?

"How dare you vandalize the faces of the great Hokages!"

"Losers!" She shot while jumping onto a building, then back flipping them the bird for extra measures. Geez, either those guys had the great misfortune of always being at the end of her fox like mischief, or the old man really did demoted them to the "Naruko watch" squad.

"You'll never catch me! Muahahahah! DUECES BAKA-YAROU!"

And so our little blonde, prankster, heroine flashed her signature grin, and went about jumping across buildings, brush and can of paint trailing behind her. Twin pigtails following her like ribbons in the wind, into the sunrise away from the freshly graffitied faces of the village's great heroes- now sporting colorful snot marks out of the nose, clown makeup, a mustache, ohh! And a unibrow to top things off.

"Hehehe. I'm so smart they totally lost track of me."

"NARUKO!" A familiar voice bellowed behind her head.

"Aaahhhh!" She screamed, falling on her butt as she turned to potentially fight of the person.

She was meet with the angry face of mama dolphin.

"Iruka sensei! What are you doing here?"

"The question should be why you aren't in class!"

"Aaahhhh you see…" Twirling her fingers; "…you see I was kinna running away from this mob because I…ummm drewalloverthehokagefaces!" She blurted that last line all at once hoping he wouldn't catch it.

"YOU DID WHAT!?"

"Ahhh come on Iruka I was just working on some artistic improvements. It might even bring in more tourist! I mean we have such a beautiful village, who wants to look at some old dude's fugly fac…OWWWW IRUKA SENSEI THAT HURTS!

The little blonde girl looked up at him with glassy blue eyes, now nursing a bump over her head.

"Baka!" Iruka roared, spitting angry bullets in her face. Gross.

"Don't speak so vulgarly of our great heroes! And I'll have you know the fourth and second hokage were considered village heartthrobs!

"Hahaha I'm telling Old man Sarutobi you called him ugly!"

"What? I didn't-never mind!"

"Where are you taking me?!"

On lookers watched with mild confusion as Iruka grabbed his number one troublemaker student off in the opposite direction.

"You missed a spot over there!" A nagging voice called behind her.

"I know Iruka-sensei!"

After he had gone and dragged her back to class, she had proceeded to make a fool of herself via Sexy No Jutsu, then made an even big fool of herself (an impressive feat all of its own), by failing to perform the shadow clone jutsu. While her classmates excelled at said skill, her clone came out looking like a slimy green alien had babies with a deformed mermaid zombie (it was supposed to look like her). He then forced her back to the Hokage monument and made her clean up ever last drop of paint.

"My beautiful art…" She sniffed remorsefully.

"You better finish cleaning up soon, it's getting dark!"

At that moment she didn't know what came over her.

"Who cares? It isn't like I have anyone waiting for me at home!"

Iruka was taken aback by the sudden aggressive tone. Naruko always had such a cheerful disposition, sometime he forgot the child had more to her than what she choose to show.

Wiping her face with her arms, Naruko went back to furiously scrubbing at the paint. "Look, I'll clean all of this up Iruka sensei, I don't want to keep you from anyone, so you can go. You don't have to stay with me."

Iruka knew she was trying not to cry even as she spoke. It tore at his heart, the sadness and the guilt. He couldn't lie; he was once in the various crowds of people sneering at her- associating her face, her existence with the monster that took his parents away from him. But moments like this made him realize how human she really was. At age 12, the blue eyed, blonde fluffy mane, 4 foot 9 of a girl looked incredibly tiny. And moments like this, as she hunched over into her protective shell, she looked even more vulnerable. And human.

He really did love the girl. He loved all his students (he was mother dolphin after all), but the little blonde prankster had a special place in his heart. She reminded him of himself. She really was a sweet kid, but most of all still just a kid.

"Actually Naru-chan…I don't have anyone waiting for me at home either. How about this, if you can get everything done in an hour, I'll treat you to ramen for dinner." Iruka replied with a genuine smile. At the sound of "ramen" the blonde girl's head spun around in a yellow whirlwind.

"RAMEN!?" She shrieked. "Ohhh great Kami-sama thank you so much Iruka-sensei I'll be done in half that time dattebayo!"

"Old Man get me an extra-large tonkotsu ramen with extra pickled ginger and meat!"

The pair had taken to inhabiting the empty chairs at Ichiraku's ramen stand.

"Oh well if it isn't my favorite customer Naru-chan! Alright one extra-large pork bone ramen with extra ginger and meat!" Teuchi's good-natured voice called back over a pot of boiling soup.

"One miso ramen for me please," Iruka politely chimed in.

"Honestly Naru-chan even though you're only a ninja in training you should speak more lady like in public, Suzume-sensei teaches her kunoichi class for a reason."

Naruko almost choked on her drink; for real Iruka-sensei?

"Iruka-sensei, no offense but that's a bigger load of bullshit then the ones them Inuzuka dogs leave around the village."

"NARUKO! LANGUAGE!" Iruka shouted red face at her choice of words. When they were just about to eat too.

"But Iruka sensei! It's true, those classes are so boring, I rather be taking the extra taijutsu classes with the boys. At least they don't make me sneeze; well except Kiba, but he smells all the time anyways so that doesn't count…"

"NARUKO!" He wacked her over the head with his chop sticks.

"Ahhhhhh" the little girl whined before returning to slurping down her noodles.

Iruka watched her with critical eyes.

"Say Naru-chan….why did you vandalize the Hokage monument…don't you know who the Hokages are?" He asked genuinely curious.

"Of course I know who the Hokages are! Shodaime, Nidaime, Sandaime, and Yondaime Hokage, leaders, protectors, and the strongest ninja of this village. One day…"

She paused for a second.

"One day…I will become Hokage! Then the village will finally acknowledge my strength and existence!"

As she spoke Iruka could see the passion burning in her eyes. She wanted to become the leader of the village huh?

"Well Naruko, that's quite a dream, you must train and study hard if you ever want the slightest change."

"I know Iruka-sensei! And I will too. Believe it!"

Iruka smiled and patted her on the head.

"Geez that ramen was great!" A happy and full Naruko skipped towards her apartment. Along the way, noting the lack of people in the streets, despite the abundance of sunlight. She suddenly felt a restless sensation charging through her small body.

"Humm…I think I'll go train for a little bit at the training grounds, since no one seems to be out around this time!"

Skipping her way from her apartment and towards her favorite training area, she made a mental list of all the different skills and techniques Iruka sensei might test her on tomorrow for her exam.

Henge, shuriken and kunai throwing, the written test, and the bane of her academic existence: the shadow clone jutsu.

"I really need to practice that justu….Gerr I just can't get it down! But If I don't I won't be able to become and ninja!" The sunny girl threw her arms up in frustration. She had practiced and practiced, but that damn jutsu just seemed to hate her! Despite her cocky front, she really was nervous. Three times! Three freakin' times she had failed the ninja entrance exam. If she failed this one, she would be barred from becoming a ninja meaning she could kiss her dream of becoming Hokage goodbye!

Lost in her inner thoughts, Naruko didn't notice how her feet carried her to the training field without her mental awareness. She reached into her bag and felt around for her scrolls, shuriken, and kunai set. She would be too anxious to sleep anyways, might as well be productive.

Her blue eyes skimmed her surroundings. This was her favorite field for a reason. Not only was it relatively quiet, had all the proper equipment catering to ever form of ninja skill from target practice to taijutsu, it also had a small stream running through it for the much needed water, and bathing break.

But what she loved the most was the building up the hill not too far from said hill.

Her eyes peered into the horizon. She could just about make it out- an old traditional style building, rust red in color, with majestic waving roofs, elegant curves, surrounded by lush green trees, and a clean grey stone path.

In front of the building, she could see a large sign that read;

"Shinden no Konohana-Sakuyahime" Temple of the Earth Goddess Sakuyahime, protector and patron of the village Konohagakure-Village Hidden in the Leaves.

She had always wanted to visit a shrine. There were many shrines in the village honoring many gods, especially Sakuyahime, but she was barred entrance to all for some reason. Usually the shrine keeper would chase her out screaming something on the lines of "demon child!" or "evil being!" She never understood why they called her that, and acted in such a manor to her- just her. She supposes she would never understand either.

"Whatever…I don't need them anyways." She swallowed the bitter thought away.

But this particular temple made her fell nice. Something like a soft warm aura; even though she rarely saw people there, and the fact that it was hidden so deeply away could be interpreted as kind of creepy, she always got a good feeling from it.

Little did she know from inside the shrine, a rose colored hair, purple clad priestess felt the same pull towards the speck of blonde, who in turn looked longingly back at her direction. She had seen the blonde child come by often, with the same look on her face every time she turned her head towards the temple.

Every time Hikaru felt as if she should reach out and invite her in for some tea and snacks. But every time the child would make away with whatever else was on her mind.

Mostly target practice at the training field down below. Was she a ninja? The child intrigued her. Hikaru had never seen her around the village before. Then again, the village is pretty large, and the temple priestess rarely left her beloved shrine anyways.

Before Hikaru could make away from the shrine to go after the little girl, another young girl came towards the training field, with brown hair held in two buns, kunai knives, and a pissed off expression on her face.

The brown haired girl then proceeded to throw her knives, successfully hitting all t the targets in front of her, and even some behind her without looking. The blonde girl appeared rather impressed.

"Oh well, I wouldn't want to get in their way and be the third wheel now would I." she signed to herself with a small smile. Something told her that the girl didn't have many friends. Hopefully this brown haired girl could change that.

"I guess, it is time to prepare for tonight's ceremony. Besides, Kaigara-chan should be coming over some time soon."

The rosy priestess turned with a flicker of her robe sleeves, and went to collect all the required materials for the nightly cleansing fire.

Tachibana Kaigara hated joint meetings. Why was she even there? It wasn't as if had much contribute anyways, considering that she was only a genin a mere month ago. And even during her first month as a chunin, all she did was hang out at the deciphering squad, aka feed the birds. And they weren't the cool birds either; hawks are cool, pigeons are not.

The village paid her to feed pigeons.

Feed the birds, collect messages, usually from different nations involved the usual hellos and goodbyes, nice talk that's all. But what made this particular meeting worst was the fact that it was a joint chunin/jounin meeting. She really felt out of her league. Her? Equals with the legendary Copy Ninja Hatake Kakashi? The man who copied 1000 jutsus, legendary hero? Yeahhhhhh. No.

Oh well, what's done is done, and now at least her workday was done. As she made her way up the usual path pass the training field to the temple, she took the time to take in the smell of the earth, trees, leaves, and dirt. As she got closer, she smelled something else. Fire.

She felt the power of the element increasing with every step she took. Looks like Hikaru had just started with her nightly routine.

Once she finally reached the clearing where the temple and training field came into view, she also saw two girls. A couple years younger than herself; they look like they were training. Genin? Probably.

Deciding to put her "newfound" chunin stalking skills to the test, she walked up a tall tree, took a seat, and observed. From up on top of the tree, she could hear the girls talking:

"They suck! They always leave me out of things, then when I want to fight them seriously they use kiddy gloves with me!"

"That sucks! What a buncha insensitive bastards!"

"They're not really that bad, I just get completely pushed in the background. I mean Guy-sensei is the perfect teacher for people like Neji and Lee, but who the hell is supposed to train me!? My non-ninja friends keep thinking I could just train myself and pull some badass jutsu out of my ass like my teammate! My genius teammate!"

"I mean come on, you can't compare me to Neji! Because he's Neji Hyuuga! I can't decipher and master some ultra-secret jutsu by just watching! I mean what kind of freak does that!"

"Dude, I agree with you completely!"

"Hey what's your name anyways?"

"I'm Tenten, nice to meet you!"

"I'm Uzumaki Naruko! Future Hokage Dattebayo!"

Hokage? Now that got her attention. This little girl wanted to be Hokage? For the common soul, even dreaming about becoming Hokage was too much work. And she's a girl too...

A smile crossed her lips. If she had more time, she would have stayed, but Hikaru was waiting for her. She jumped down from the tree and continued towards the temple, her daily dose of curiosity filled for the day.

She could feel the power pulsing through her. The intensity of the sacred flame beating in sync with her own, each crackling of wood and coal, another knot in her core. Each night she would conduct this same ritual. She would build a fire, and burn various items of earth in honor of the earth goddess. In exchange, the spirits would cleanse the temple and village.

And sometimes, they would talk back to her.

She felt a burning sensation inside her belly, a breathlessness, a desire to consume the fire itself. This has only happened a hand full of times before, but when it happens, she always knew what she needed to do.

She stepped into the fire.

The fire pit, larger than herself took her in with open arms. Instead of searing flesh and pain, the fire licked her skin softly, and as the mystical heat began clouding her mind, she heard the soft whispers of spirits in her ears.

The girl!

Find her!

The girl!

"What girl!?" was all she could gasp as the invisible smoke began to filling her lungs.

She is ready!

It is time!

"Ready for what? Time for what? What girl!?" She screamed desperate for an answer to the cryptic words of the spirits.

"I need to know more, who is this girl, where am I supposes to find her? Tell me what you want me to do!" As she barked, fired dancing around her, wrapping around her like a dress of heat, her eyes wide open and blank.

"WHO DO YOU WANT ME TO FIND!"

Kaigara's heart almost stopped beating.

Was Hikaru standing in the middle of the fire?! Screaming loud nonsense words?! What the HELL!

She was about to cry out in panic before she noticed the focused expression in Hikaru's eyes. She appeared to be in some sort of trance, head tilted back wailing like a banshee at the ceiling, as if it held some creature she couldn't see.

Kaigara knew as a priestess Hikaru did some insane stuff, but she had never seen something like this before.

Before her brain could fully comprehend the scene before her, the rose haired priestess stepped out of the flames, completely unharmed, back onto the wooden floors and let out a tired breath before collapsing.

"So you're finally awake?"

Hikaru's wide lids flashed open and tilted her head to see the smiling face of her friend.

"Lord you had me scared. But then I remembered you priestess's can do some freaky shit Hikaru-kun."

The priestess frown; "Kaigara-chan….how long have we've know each other, and you still call me that? Besides I'm a woman now, I want to be addressed as such."

Kaigara's eye twitched before laughing nervously;

"Hahaha, sorry about that Hikaru-chan, you know sometimes it slips."

Hikaru in turn closed her eyes and signed; "I know you mean no harm, it just makes me feel better, knowing my best friend acknowledges me for my soul and not my body."

Kaigara fixed her with a serious look. She got up, walked over and gave her transgender friend a hug.

"You should know more than anyone that I've always and always will acknowledge you for you and whatever makes you happy." The teal hair girl gave her a warm smile.

Of course she always saw Hikaru for who she is, even when she was still biologically male. It didn't matter to her. Whatever made her the happiest made her happy, what she was wondering was why her friend felt the need to confirm this all of a sudden.

Knowing something must have shaken her, Kaigara fixed her violet eyes on Hikaru's sapphire ones.

"Did something happen?"

The priestess closed her eyes and replied:

"Remember Takashi-san? I told him the truth, and he ran away from me."

"What?! That jerk!"

"Even after I explained everything to him, he said I still wasn't woman enough her him."

"That jackass!" Kaigara roared. She never liked sounding like an elitist, but civilian villagers could be so ignorant it was sickening.

She wasn't saying that the ninja population was the shining example of acceptance and progressivism, but your business was your business.

If you are willing to put your life on the line to protect the village, plus the fact that any day could indeed be your last day, nobody cared to get into your personal life!

She knew her position as ninja, the elite warrior class of this village, gave her that privilege, privilege she didn't deserve over someone like Hikaru. Status meant everything in a village like this. With wealth and status one could do whatever well they pleased.

She may not have wealth but she did own a ninja headband, and that meant she could get away with a lot. She wasn't ashamed to say she had gotten out of a few legal pinches with both the military and civilian police by using the "I had a really difficult mission and really needed a drink" excuse, even though she was clearly underage.

Granted she probably won't live past 50…but everything has its give and take.

"I'm sorry Kaigara-chan. I didn't mean to become so sensitive and take it out on you. It's just, even though I know I'm living as who I am. I can't help but feel insecure, sometimes I don't feel like a woman-a true woman." Hikaru replied sadly.

Kaigara didn't know what else to tell her. Hikaru knew. She was smart. But at times, she needs to sulk, in order to digest and move on.

"Well he's a dumbass manwhore that wasn't worth your time anyways! Forget him!" The teal hair girl leaned back on the wall gave an annoyed swat with one hand.

"Male, female, neither, either, both, none, nor, relationships are a BITCH!" She exclaimed.

Hikaru looked curiously at Kaigara for a minute then broke out laughing.

"So. You gonna explain what the deal was with the fire?" Kaigara's eyes sparkled with curiosity while munching on temple cookies.

Another perk about hanging out at the temple, free cookies! Hikaru honestly didn't know what to make of it either; "I was communicating with the spirits."

"You were what?!"

"The spirits contacted me through the sacred fire."

"Wow…" was all Kaigara could mutter. For as long as they have been friends, Hikaru had yet to disclose even half of her powers as a priestess.

Hanging around a priestess for so long, of course she knew such things existed, but never a particularly religious person, one could say she was rather spiritually disconnected.

"They want me to find someone, they want me to find a girl."

"What girl?"

"My question exactly!" Hikaru barked, just as frustrated as the other girl. "Good Lord" Kaigara exclaimed. "Well…this is your territory, I can't really help you on this. Unless you have some sort of description"

Hikaru folded her dainty arms across her chest and replied; "Nothing, I was only told to find this girl, not who or how."

"Well. Unhelpful little bastards aren't they."

"Kaigara chan! Watch your language!"

"Ahahahah gomen gomen Hikaru-chan."

Helllo! This is my first fic for Naruto. This is a edited version and mostly likely will be edited again in the future. I would really appreciate it if yall reviewed, thankies to those who favorited!

-VI