Chapter 1: Live

Red.

However she registered the blood that flew around her and Sasuke's hand burst through her heart, it didn't mean she saw a tear quickly falling down his cheek or Sakura loudly screaming her name.

"Sa... suke..."

Naruto's eyes were wide with disbelief but soon it was half-lidded.

"... live." It was uttered with visibly great difficulty as blood clogged up her throat.

Even in the midst of confusion and despair, her subconscious didn't want him to die. Even if the world would take the brunt of his concept of an ideal world and descend into darkness, he was her brother who she failed numerous times already. She didn't have it in her heart to condemn him.

She just didn't.

Naruto, although filled with a fleeting sense of regret and guilt, smiled. Peacefully.

Twice, he had put his hand through her chest. The first time, she had been able to survive by drawing out Kurama's chakra. Oddly, she didn't feel the need to do it this time.

She didn't feel his chakra that she was almost sure would be healing her by now, even if he was a different Kurama.

It felt distant when she heard Kurama yelling at the back of her head to get up and heal. She didn't have it in her to do that as she felt her chakra slowly waned out until there was no more.

She closed her eyes shortly after seeing a glimpse of her mother, blood dripping from her mouth, smiling enchantingly at her.

At least she got to see her parents.


Kurama knew his host was dying and there was nothing he could do. Trying to pump his chakra through Naruto's body had been futile, as some sort of barrier prevented him to do so, and if he had been able to, his chakra level was so low he felt weaker than ever.

Even worse, the chakra his old man gave to her was slowly snuffed out by something unseen.

Apprehensive, he blinked. Out of nowhere, the surroundings in front of him changed.

Kurama felt as time was temporarily frozen and then he grinned.

"So this is him, huh... that sly old man."

It would be interesting, as the Yin half of Kurama never experienced this before.

The past, eh?

Time-travel is not impossible for Rikudō Sennin after all.


The first time Naruto realize that she was in the past was when she stared up at Hokage-jīchan's younger face.

It's been a month or two since she realized she had been trapped in a younger body that wouldn't move at command. Her blurry vision was gone, so she could see the white ceilings above and the person who always changed her dirty diapers and fed her with bottles.

It was a medic ninja garbed in a typical medic ninja clothes whose face she didn't remember. A stranger... and she was vulnerable.

She screamed loudly or crying loudly as she had no control of this body. For a good few hours, she screamed and screamed and then a figure stared down at her with a worried and similar face.

Sandaime-no-jīchan.

"It's going to be alright, Naruto." The voice and the way he speaks... it is surely him. He picked her up and the warmth of his chakra wrapped her like a blanket. Unable to speak her mind, she snuggled closer to his chest.

She stopped crying after that.


Naruto stared at her trembling hands. Sweats were pouring from her body and it was so hot her eyes grew wide along with the increasing pain. The most coherent thought she had now was how thankful she was that she was lying on the bed and not the floor like the last time.

Someone poisoned her. Again.

It was likely the guard number 7 who she also didn't bother to remember the name of, like the past guards. The veteran chūnin was tasked to feed, teach, and protect her, essentially almost like a full-time babysitting job.

It's been five days and it seems unlike the other five guards who signed out of this mission on their own, this guy was the second to think that she could die by mere poisoning.

How laughable. Kurama's chakra would clean her system from foreign harmful substances, not to mention her Uzumaki vitality. It would be damn near impossible for her to die.

She gasped as the pain became unbearable.

Time to press the emergency button in her pocket.


Hiruzen closed his eyes, his advisors around him.

"What is this about another murder attempt on our village's Jinchūriki?" Homura started. "I thought you would put a competent guard this time, Hiruzen."

"It's the second time a guard is brave enough to pull this." Koharu eyed Hiruzen. "It's proven that a very trustworthy guard is needed until her chakra reserves grown large enough to be detectable by the Barrier Division."

"There is two applications left for this mission; Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Shisui. Surely, Hatake Kakashi should not be given this task. He is a jōnin and extremely needed in ANBU," Danzō remarked as he read the file that Hiruzen brought, "and Uchiha Shisui is no doubt the same as Hatake Kakashi but he is an inexperienced chūnin. Add to that, his clan is what makes him unfit for this mission."

Koharu and Homura shared an intrigued look. Very few shinobi are willing to be near Uzumaki Naruto, less so an Uchiha.

"Uchiha Shisui is Kagami's descendant if I'm not mistaken." Hiruzen immediately thought of his late friend. "I will assign him."

"Hiruzen! He's young and inexperienced!" Danzō glared menacingly. "Not to mention the Uchiha is-"

"We agreed on Uchiha Shisui," Koharu spoke up. Homura nodded next to her.

Hiruzen smiled briefly and declared, "It's decided then."

Danzō gave a disapproving stare at them before he stomped out of the room.


Life is meaningless without some sort of goal or dreams. Naruto knew that since she was barely four when the first time she had entered pre-academy. That was why she decided early on to become Hokage, as it implies of being the strongest and recognitions inside her childish mind.

Her childhood before she turned four was all blurry the first time around. Because of that, she didn't even blink when a kid around eight entered her room with a precaution of a seasoned shinobi. She never thought about it before, but seeing someone with that age wearing a hitai ate, looking twice his age even; it dawned on her of how odd it was for her generation to graduate at around twelve.

Maybe because it was peace time back then...? She wasn't sure, but she didn't want a repeat performance of before. Although Team 7 was nice to be in- they had been like her family- she didn't want to subject herself to the academy's boring lectures that she promised herself to skip over this time... somehow.

She had to graduate early to avoid being put in Team 7 again.

Though she needed to befriend Iruka-sensei. That man was the first to approach her excluding the Sandaime. She was grateful and wanted to be on a good term with the man again. Hopefully, she would be able to do that.

Now, she had to deal with the unknown kid first...


Shisui smiled uneasily as eerie cerulean eyes fixed upon him with thousands of questions that he just knew he didn't know the answers to.

Unbidden, he ducked his head as he tried to compose himself.

About a year ago he had requested to take the mission to guard the Kyūbi's Jinchūriki, hopeful it would improve his clan stance of having nothing to do with the Kyuubi's Attack. As he was a newly made chūnin at the age of seven, and Uchiha Kagami's descendant at that, he felt he had the chance to be accepted.

A year and a few months later, he was assigned to the mission.

Out of four higher ups of Konoha, he got three approvals. And so he proceeded to tell his clan about it. To his relief, they were cool about it and took it as a sign that the hope to be accepted back by Konoha had not been a lost cause, what with them had been forced to move into secluded grounds near the outskirts of Konoha after the Kyūbi's Attack and put under a heavy surveillance that was just frankly insulting but they had endured, proving that they had nothing to do with the attack.

Shisui closed his eyes and exhaled deeply, feeling a weight lifted from his shoulders thereafter.

He was the one who requested the Sandaime for this, wasn't he? It was accepted and he had to be grateful of that.

"Hello, Naruto-chan. My name is Uchiha Shisui and I'll be your guard from now on."

There was no rule to not interact with his charge, and Shisui was not the type to not talk for hours like some of his clansmen were.

"Please take care of me!" The words were garbled, but that was expected as Naruto wasn't even two. The smile on her face stretched the thin whisker marks on her cheeks and it was certainly adorable.

Shisui could see a plethora of boys running after the girl and he was just... no. His face grew grim as he realized there was nothing he could do but to warn the girl.

"You're too cute," he uttered firmly with a smile of his own, "don't smile like that at anyone but me, okay?"

Naruto blinked her large blue eyes, bewildered beyond belief. The boy was asking her to not smile at anyone but him?

"Why?"

"Just... just don't, okay?"

"... okay?"


Babysitting is usually a mission that Kakashi avoided to the best of his ability.

But not this one.

Kakashi was miffed that they had skipped him over from guarding his teacher's daughter and gave the mission to an Uchiha... that was seven years younger than him.

Throwing tantrum was so not his style, but he felt compelled to scream in Sandaime's face to show his displeasure. Well, either that or imposing on the baby Uchiha's mission.

As the first option could've possibly landed him inside a prison cell, he chose the second option.

And so he 'observed'.


It was a glorified babysitting mission. Even knowing that, he had taken it with his clan's future in mind.

He didn't know that he had indirectly signed up as Naruto's unofficial teacher and sparring partner too.

She grinned at him. His body dodged the speeding body solely directed at him as he pivoted to the right. She stepped backward for a moment and then-

She hit him.

Incredible.

Although he held back, for a three-year-old that was beyond awesome. He was ten now, and about 40 cm taller than the girl. But he could confidently say that in terms of brute strength, she would beat him in that regard in a few years.

When he was with her, it was perplexing. She was such a mystery that he wanted to unravel yet not. He mind became a paradox at the thought of her, really. One moment she was like the child she supposed to be, the next moment she was like a seasoned shinobi she wasn't supposed to be.

To add to that, he felt her chakra. He was a decent sensor, so he could tell that Naruto's chakra was as bright as the sun, as warm as hot cocoa, and as calming as the quiet forest.

Shisui knew he exaggerated some things, but he was certainly biased what with him watching over and interacted with her for three years now.


Now that his charge was able to at least protect herself from a genin, the Hokage felt there was no need for her to be guarded any longer. The village's Barrier Division now was able to detect her more closely since her chakra reserves were now larger than most chūnin, and so the Barrier Division was tasked to watch her.

Shisui was, of course, conflicted.

He had been in a long-term mission of guarding Naruto, not knowing when it would end.

He got attached.


"Namikaze Minato is awake, Danzō-sama."

"Take me to him."


Author's Note: I can't write well but... I want to post this. So... here it is.

Hopefully, I will be able to write my ideas more thoroughly in the future *sighs*.

-Tonegawa Rie