Naruto touched the frustratingly flat planes of her stomach sadly. Longing for what so many others seemed to have, but which she had been denied.

She was at the park, observing the happy little children playing with each other. She watched as loving parents cared for any scrapes and bruises that were gathered by rough play, hoping for the chance to do so to her own children. If she ever got any, that is. She felt tears coming to her eyes, although her face didn't change.

Her thoughts returned to the reason for her melancholy behavior. Sakura, her longtime friend and teammate, had told Tsunade-baa-chan her concerns and opinion of Naruto raising a child. She had said that she would be a horrible mother, too loud, too rambunctious, and far too reckless to raise an infant. Naruto had been there, within the very room as the pink haired woman had said that to the Hokage. She had been in the shadows, wearing her fox mask and black cloak, under a minor henge to make her hair black. Her sunny locks were far too recognizable by the general populace.

Sakura had walked in, a determined look on her face, completely ignoring the two ANBU that were always standing behind the Hokage. Naruto's eyes clouded with the memory.

-

The door opened with it's normal slight creak, revealing Sakura standing in the doorway.

"Tsunade-shishou," Sakura began, fiddling with her fingers in nervousness. "I have something that I would like to speak with you about. It's been pressing on me for quite a while now." She looked extraordinarily nervous, like she was afraid of being caught.

"Well?" Tsunade prompted. "Go on."

"It's just… I overheard Naruto talking to Hinata a while back, and what they were talking about troubled me greatly," she paused. "They were talking about children, about who would and would not be a good mother."

Tsunade frowned. "Did they say that you wouldn't be a good mother? I can talk to them about it, but I'm sure that you would be a great-" Sakura cut her off.

"No, not me-"

"Ino, then?"

"No! Naruto wants to raise a child, and I don't think that she would be a good mother!" Sakura said loudly, not yelling, but speaking louder than she needed to.

Naruto, who had been watching from the shadows behind Tsunade's desk, was shocked. So was Tsunade.

"Sakura, what's your reasoning?" Tsunade had hidden her shock well, her eyes only widening a fraction before going back to normal.

"She's too loud to be around an infant! She's immature, not very conscious of others, she has no idea how to raise a little one, the Kyuubi could affect the birth of the child, the seal would weaken while she was giving birth, putting everybody else in danger! She's a menace! The villagers don't like her so any child she has will be in a bad environment, she only has one girl friend in the village, and that's shy little motherless Hinata! Speaking of, Naruto has no idea how to act! She never had a mother to model herself after, she doesn't know how to love a child! She doesn't know the first thing about what a growing baby would need! The child would need a safe and loving environment, which Naruto doesn't have!

"She lives in the Red Light District! No child should EVER have to grow up there! She would be an AWEFUL mother!" Sakura took a deep breath at the end of her rant, then made to continue, but the Hokage cut her off.

"How could you say that, Sakura? Naruto's your teammate! And just what would you have me do? Surgically remove her womb? It's her choice whether or not she wants to have a child, not yours!" Tsunade sounded furious, but in her stupid fangirl ways, Sakura didn't realize the danger.

"Actually, yes. Or at least give her a drug to make her barren. Or even put a seal on her to prevent sexual contact!" The bitch was about to continue, but Tsunade beat her to it.

"OUT! GET OUT! Don't bother coming back her tomorrow, you're apprenticeship is canceled!" The blonde yelled at Sakura, who finally realized the threat of death that permeated the air, and fled.

Naruto took off her fox mask, cancelled the henge on her hair, and broke down.

-

The other ANBU hadn't said a word, he probably thought it was too troublesome to say something for fear of making it worse. So the troublesome man settled for awkwardly patting her head as Tsunade-baa-chan sat next to her and hugged her. Iruka had treated her to ramen, Hinata had taken her to the hot springs, Ino had given her a bouquet of daffodils, and Shikamaru, the troublesome ANBU that he was, had given her a 'feel better soon' card. Which, for him, was a great effort, an she appreciated it greatly. All of it was to cheer her up. It worked, mostly, but it still hurt. Everybody-except Sakura, as the day had revealed-knew that motherhood was a VERY touchy subject for Naruto. What the bubblegum bitch had had said struck home for her.

Was it true? Was she really too rambunctious to raise a child? Too reckless? Too immature? Tears slipped down her face again. She knew that she didn't live in the best of places, and some of the villagers still hated her, so she was right about that, too… More tears slipped down her cheeks, and the droplets of water fell to the ground between her feet.

One of the people in the park, a beautiful woman wearing a pretty white lace dress with flowing dark gold hair sat down next to her on the bench. Naruto would go so far as to say that the girl's hair was brown, but with the way it shined in the sun, it couldn't be anything but finely spun gold. She had an ageless face, she could have ben in her teens or her thirties, and no one would ever know unless she told them. The steel blue eyes that seemed to stare into her soul were wide with innocence, curiosity, and a surprising age. Naruto looked up from the ground in shock, no one would really want to sit next to her, would they?

"Hel-hello," the blonde swallowed the lump in her throat so that she could speak.

The woman with he dark gold hair smiled. "Hello. Would you mind telling me why you're crying? It'll make your head hurt after too long." She had a voice that reminded her of a crystal clear mountain lake, but at the same time, old books and knowledge. The girl had a wonderful voice.

Naruto sniffed. "My teammate said that I wouldn't be a very good mother... and it hurts because I think that she might be right," her voice rose near the end of the sentence, and suddenly she was telling this unnamed girl everything. About never having a mother to look after her, about suffering under the cold gazes of the hatred-filled villagers, about never truly feeling loved, about Sakura's cruel words, and about her deepest fears.

After the floodgates were opened, Naruto sat on the bench with the still unnamed girl under the setting sun.

"You know what's funny?" Naruto said quietly. "I'm telling all of this to you, and I don't even know your name, I couldn't even tell my closest friends all of this, yet here I am, with a complete stranger." She sniffed.

The girl smiled, it was a small, knowing smile, as if she had seen the world for what it truly is in stead of the illusions that people tended to believe. Like she had seen the lie, and knew what lied beneath it.

"My name is River Song, what's yours?" River's eyes sparkled.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, River." Naruto smiled back tiredly.

"There now, now we aren't strangers, are we?" They both laughed heartily. "Why don't we go grab some dinner, I'll treat."

"Yes to the dinner, but I can't let you buy me dinner, I was the one who blubbered to you all afternoon about my problems, I'll pay." She grinned.

River raised an eyebrow, smile never leaving her face. "How about we split the bill, how's that sound?"

"That's fine." Naruto laughed as they got up, and she stretched. "So where to you want to go? I heard that there was a new restaurant that only just opened on Main Street."

"Really? Lets go there, I'm new here." River started walking to the center of the village.

"Oh? How new?" Naruto asked curiously.

"This is actually the first time I've been here." River said, looking up. "It was a spur of the moment decision to come here, and I don't now how long I'll stay, but it might be for a while."

"Huh... a lot of people come to Konoha to have a new start, to forget the past for a little while. I guess it's because this is really the only place where people can." Naruto commented absently.

River raised her eyebrows. "How do you mean?"

Naruto shifted in her walk, trying to put it into words. "Well... in smaller villages, people are always trying to get into your business. The only places that people won't really butt in would be in a large village, but three of the Hidden Villages won't let you in without a thorough background check, an interrogation, and a huge sum of money. Konoha and Suna are the only ones who don't do that. And, lets face it, Suna's a bit... hot for most people's liking. Konoha is like springtime all year round." Naruto explained. "Konoha is the place where you can appear out of nowhere, with a minimal look over to see whether or not you're a threat to the general populace... and after that, as long as you don't cause any trouble, we don't care where you go or where you live or what you look like. This village gets into people's hearts." Naruto paused. "She makes you want to protect her, protect the peace that she offers you. And in turn, she'll protect you too." The wind blew her hair out of her face, and River stared at her with a thoughtful look on her face.

"That sounds... like hope. Something to inspire feelings within someone that will last forever. You have quite a skilled way with words, Naruto." River smiled wider. "Let's go eat, we'll talk more over dinner, hmm?"

-

The new restaurant was very nice. The owners were new to Konoha, so they didn't stare at Naruto, she was just another person in the crowd. She loved it. The walls were dark red, the booths were dark green, the floor was black and white tile. The menu was odd, to say the least. It had things that she didn't know how to pronounce, and other things that she only vaguely recognized. They sounded foreign- actually, the whole place felt foreign. What was it called again? She couldn't remember.

"What a wonderful menu! I didn't think I would find this stuff here!" River said excitedly.

"Well, I don't recognize most of this, so would you mind telling me what's good?" Naruto grinned, scrunching her eyes up in embarrassment.

"Oh sure, the beef stroganoff is excellent, but it has mushrooms, so be careful. The scallop soup is pretty good, but I don't normally eat creatures of the sea, they tend to get offended easily." Naruto's eyebrows rose. "The potato leek stew is also pretty good, it's basically potato soup with pepper kernels and baked leek."

"Hmm... what's the... black pudding taste like?"

"Well, it's made from oatmeal, lard, and pig's blood, and it's normally seasoned with vinegar. I'm not sure what exactly it tastes like, but I've been told it's pretty good." River replied in a matter-of-fact way.

Pig's blood? That's strange... She saw another one, and giggled at the name. "Bubble and Squeak?"

"Pan-fried cabbage and mashed potatoes. It's okay, but I prefer just straight up potatoes. The cabbage squeaks when you dump it into the hot pan, and I assume it bubbles. That's how it got it's name."

Naruto laughed.

-

They both ended up getting steak, mashed potatoes, and broccoli. Probably the only normal thing on the menu.

"So River," Naruto began as she sliced into her meat. "What do you do for a living?" A funny feeling came over her. A warmth You seem like the kind of person who loves discovering things, be it old or new, borrowed or stolen, or even simply not there."

River looked slightly surprised, then chuckled, like she was expecting this to happen. "Hit the nail on the head, Naruto." She suddenly took out a strange metallic object that sparked something very deep within her. Something that wasn't there before, but at the same time had always been there. Something that was both impossibly old but being created anew every second. "This is a sonic screwdriver."

This confused the blonde greatly.

"Why would someone make a screwdriver sonic? That makes absolutely no sense! Who looks at a screwdriver and says- 'I think that that would look really cool as a sonic-y thing!' Who does that?" She thought for a minute. "Well I guess that it would be more mobile than say, a sonic cane, and it's more easily hidden..." She drifted off into the pros and conns of having a sonic screwdriver. "Wait a second..."

River chuckled again, smug. "Now she gets it..."

"How did I know what it was?" Naruto's eyes widened. "What's going on?" Her voice was high again. He always said she sounded so childish when she was scared. Where did that come from? He also joked about it being a defense mechanism, making herself sound innocent and much younger than she actually was to make her oppressors feel guilty. "River," her voice was thick, her face hot. "What's happening to me?"

"The memories that you locked within your own mind are resurfacing." River leaned back in the dark booth, the building was very dim, and the dark corner that they were in didn't make it any better for Naruto. Suddenly small things, things so insignificant that no one would really have thought of them, started tripping things inside of her. How the waitresses all looked almost exactly the same, no jewelry or bracelets to personalize themselves, the biggest difference being the color of their eyes. She remembered walking around the village, apart from her close friends, all of the female villagers looked kind of the same. Same hair color, same skin tone, same likes and dislikes, same opinion, same choice in hairstyles, clothing, favorite foods, everything.

"You're beginning to realize that your world is fake. Everything that you ever thought was real is wrong. Everything you thought you knew is fake, a bundle of fake memories implanted in your head by an older version of yourself before she faded from existence due to you no longer going down her path. Every enemy, every hardship, every wound, every pet, every childhood memory, everyone who was your friend, is only an echo of what is happening outside. A long lost string of numbers that is only held together by a madman's grip on the past." River leaned forward, so close that their foreheads were almost touching. "Everything you know is an echo of what is happening to what is left of you in the real world. The Akatsuki? Daleks who wanted to use the computer chip that you are stored in to take over the universe and beyond. Zabuza? Again, the Daleks. They were using human DNA to try and make other Daleks to trap the Doctor, but the humans held true to their nature at the very end- survival of the species."

Naruto spasmed at the name.

"Orochimaru? Cybermen! Sasuke? The Weeping Angels! He always seemed to be within your grasp, didn't he? And the very moment you even blinked, he was gone without a trace. Everything you know is fake. The Kyuubi? All of the pain and anger you felt in your life all crammed into one being! Leaving happy times to fall everywhere else in your mind, he always told me that you bottled everything up, kept your pain from everyone so that they could be happy. All your friends are different aspects that make up The Doctor! You could never live without him, could you? So you created people to try and replace him, but you couldn't! All of him couldn't be transcribed into one being, so you split him up! All the best and worst aspects of the Doctor, you loved them all. You split him up into eleven pieces! Hinata, Iruka, Hiruzen, Tsunade, Gaara, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Kakashi, Jiraya, and lets not forget Killer Bee! All of the Doctor, split into eleven! But he's still there, isn't he?" River looked sad, like she didn't like causing Naruto pain. "The pain of being unable to bear his child finally broke the dam today, that's why it bled into this far from perfect world where you were happy.

"You're almost done remembering, now. He needs you, Naruto. The Doctor needs you."

The last vestiges of what Naruto had thought to be real slipped away, allowing her to remember her entire life, and what exactly lead up to her being stored within an incredibly advanced computer. The hard drive of a TARDIS.

Hello! Here you go! It's done! The first chapter, so maybe I'll be able to sleep now!