AN: I've seemed to have lost my muse. And found it in short bursts. No, that does not mean I wish to drop my other stories (my muse is a flighty thing). I will, likely, make short little romance fluff stories or anything that actually comes to my mind. This is the first one (I really do want to make a proper Fem!Haku and Naruto fic, but. . .). That being said, I'll be going with a mature rating in these just so I don't catch flack.

To Love Oneself

If Naruto had paid attention. He might have known just how. . . odd his Shadow Clones were. Actually, all things considered, most of them might be called Naruto himself and his normal irreverent nature acting out on him. Normally. For almost every clone.

Except one particular brand of clone. They were less him. . . and more something else. Of course, even his normal clones were a bit off, but this was rather unique. It wasn't so much a different facet of his personality, or a part of his personality exaggerated, as it was a completely different person.

This is probably caused by Naruto's own devastating use of the Shadow Clone before properly understanding it. That, and the fractured psyche he already had due to not only the stress of housing the Kyuubi in his mindscape, but the effects the Kyuubi had on the populace which affected the mindscape.

For a person whose only real company growing up was himself, and the rare visits by the Hokage, the outlet for his first six years of cognitive thought that was anywhere near positive. . . He really couldn't be blamed. He might not have truly known sacrifice those early years, but he lived it. It was a wonder he didn't turn out any worse than he did. He could have been nearly broken like the Ichibi's Jinchuuriki. . . though he just broke in a different way.

Naruto. . . wasn't unintelligent. In fact, if he hadn't had the seal and everything that happened in his formative years, the Third Hokage and Jiraiya were of the opinion that he would have had the intellect level of his father. He certainly had the drive of his mother and his father (when it came to sealing and love). His mind was just. . . broken in that regard.

While most people couldn't really comprehend why Naruto took so long to learn how the Shadow Clones really worked in regards to memory, one had to remember a few facts. Naruto, unlike any practitioner of the jutsu before him that was known, did not use one at a time except on the rarest occasion. He didn't even use them in numbers less than ten. He used them in the hundreds. And a hundred memories in battle had his mind shunt them. Into those fractured halls of his psyche, which broke them down and sorted them for almost eminent deletion.

Except for a particular branch of clones. His 'Sexy' Clones. The Harem Jutsu. That had a special hall reserved for it. And the memories of those clones accumulated. And festered. And his fractured psyche just. . . snapped. In a way, Naruto lost quite a bit when that happened early on. Because those clones had certain emotions and feelings stored with them.

For a growing boy, most of them weren't really needed. Of course, in hind sight, it explained quite a bit. Lust, after all, was left in the room. So were most of his earthly desires. Sure, there were some overspill to his normal psyche, but it was the primary dumping spot. And when Orochimaru 'sealed' his chakra. . . the ramifications were more than control issues. It destroyed the link to the buffer zone almost entirely. And those memories, and emotions. . . developed its own personality, and character.

Even after breaking the seal, it was there.

Some influences then occurred because of where the buffer was mentally, and chakra can converse with chakra without actualizing itself in a rudimentary way.

Naruto's parents lent their protective instincts and love filter through the gap. Kyuubi's emotions were present as well. It gave the isolated memories chakra that the seal no longer could give Naruto with any regularity to it. And bit by bit, not only was a personality formed, but it actually had a body of chakra. To itself. It no longer was an echo.

It simply was.

And that was the amazing thing. It had choice. How? It really couldn't tell. No one really did, but just maybe it had to do with how the Bijuu themselves formed. It was a pure chakra entity, and like the Bijuu, they had minds without flesh brains. Of course it was residing in a mindscape as well, but that doesn't change the facts. It could think for itself.

And after Naruto ripped off the seal and met his Dad who reapplied it?

It was promptly kicked out of its previous spot in the buffer zone, as it no longer existed. And took up residence in one of the more fractured districts of Naruto's mind.

It was rather close to its old storage district, when it was simply the memories of clones before they were sorted. It had a feed, if you will, to Naruto's life. For the first time in three years, the first time when it was no longer just. . . a figment of Naruto.

And. . . it came to love Naruto. How could it not? It was closer to Naruto than anyone could possibly be. It actually got the thought processes of Naruto straight from the source. It knew. . .

No, she knew. She knew it was wrong. Or odd. They weren't twins, and genetically. . . they couldn't be. But they were the same person, at one point. She wasn't even truly real.

Her body was based off his sexy jutsu, modified by possible random rolls in a mirror (and, frankly because she loved Kushina's hair just as much as he did, and loved it more that she could have her hair color in that, for both of them). Her hair retained some of that spiky nature, adding depth as they just out like the cascading end of a waterfall. Her breasts. . . well, they were bigger than her mothers by a margin. And unbeknownst to her, matched the endowments on a certain Hyuuga who had longed after Naruto before she was even created (much to the jealousy of the second Hyuuga who had a small thing for him from a certain sketching collection her sister had with very detailed sizes). She had nearly the same eye color, just a shade darker, and the whisker marks remained as well. Her body stature was much the same size as when she was just a henge.

It was during one of those rare moments when Naruto decided to meditate that things got a bit hairy. Luckily, she was trying on a few mental dresses and clothes when Naruto went down his mindscape to the most broken down part of on a hunch of Kurama's to see what was going down.

"Kaa-chan," was Naruto's first spoken words. "No, you can't be her. Who are you!" Naruto's voice was thick with confusion and just a bit of anger. Not only was she in his head, but she looked close to his mother.

"Eek," was the cry of the fragment, unused to and not expecting any contact. Her cheeks flushed red as she was wearing a rather similar jumpsuit as Naruto, albeit not zipped up all the way.

"Who are you," Naruto questioned, "And what are you doing in my mind?" His fingers dextrously pointed toward the being.

"Um. . . I was you? I mean, at one point. And I've never not been here, so I guess living here," she stated. Her face scrunched up to think.

"Wait, you were me? How does that work," Naruto replied back with another question, his face similarly posed as hers.

"I. . . don't know," was her simple reply, shoulders shrugged and hands up in defeat.

"Umm. . . whats your name? You aren't me, so. . ." Naruto trailed off, voice uncertain. A silence filled the area for a few moments.

"I've never had one. A name isn't something you really give yourself," was her rebuttal.

"Ah," Naruto responded. He stood up and walked near her, his hands reaching forward before darting back. He gulped, before settling down. "How about I name you?"

"Really," she responded enthusiastically, jumping up and down, distracting Naruto from his thoughts as his blush grew bigger.

"Yes. . . how about Chisio," he haphazardly approached, before nodding and yelling, "For your hair!"

"Thanks, I accept," Her smile was bright as she shouted with joy. She had a NAME. Chisio.

"Uzumaki Chisio," Naruto agreed, "I like it!" A smirk came to Chisio's face.

"Decided to marry me already, love," she stated. Naruto's face turned pink, and dropped shade after shade into red.

"Umm, but weren't you me? And wouldn't you be an Uzumaki then," Naruto managed to hammer out. Chisio's grin widened. And she leaned in close to Naruto as his blush started to go full body.

"But I never said anything about that. Lover. But I don't mind being one with you. I've had three years to watch you, you know. I don't mind waiting to hear a reply, but if you do, I'd love to be able to be with you out there. Permanently," Chisio replied, before going into a whisper, "And I wouldn't mind sharing to much. I'll let you fill your promise to Shion as well. And maybe even Hinata, considering she loved you far longer than I have from what I can tell." Naruto fell to the floor with a hearty thunk.

"Umm. . . well. . . Igottagetgoingnow,bye," Naruto belted out.

"Before you leave, Na~ru~to~kun, don't forget that I love you. Really, I do," Chisio replied with a beatific smile that made Naruto faint in overload.

AN: Well, here is the oneshot short story. No, no real development occurred. I'd actually have to make a real story around it or incorporating it. I'm not going to rush that development. On the other hand, I do like the thought process behind it. Originally starting out, I was planning on taking this as another Naruto incest story with his sister (I do love those. And yes, I'm a sick freak like that) but it turned into a Naruto self-cest story with a clone that became something like his sister. Genetically speaking. I ended it before it got anywhere close to dirty, but the implied matter is likely mature.

On the list of possible short stories? NarutoxYakumo, NarutoxYugao, and maybe even NarutoxYui (about that last one. . . not in any story that doesn't involve more. . . adult activities). NarutoxYukata? Now I'm just throwing random names (that one is possible. . . obliquely. . . without requiring erotica).