Summary: Everything was going good for Kotori, until she confessed having 'dreams of the future and past' to her teammate. Now she's worried he might be on Orochimaru's radar.
Chapters: 1/?
Words: 3,735
Beta: None

Mizuki sensei walked into the classroom, his shoes squeaking obnoxiously as he stared daggers at the snickering blonde next to her. A smirk quirked her lips for a moment as she watched Iruka sensei try not to laugh as well. She blinked up at Mizuki's angry expression before turning to Naruto.

"Naruto-chan," She whispered even though she knew that their Chunin instructors could hear, "Did you sneak into his house to do that?"

Mirth danced in his eyes as he giggled his answer, "Ehehehe, yeah."

"Hm," She decided to add insult to injury, "You'd think a Chunin would have home security that could at least keep a pre-genin out."

Her cousin smirked at that, "Maybe I'm just so awesome that I got passed it."

"Maybe," She smiled as turned back to the paper in front of her. Tomorrow was the day she and Naruto would be taking their Genin test, a test that would last most of the day. She went over the review sheet despite not worrying too much about it. The red head did worry about her cousin though. Although, at the same time she wondered if she needed to…

To say that Uzumaki Kotori was unusual was an understatement, or at least to her it was. The girl was slightly frightened by the things that came to her in dreams. Her cousin had been one of many people she had dreams about before meeting, as were a handful of other students in the room. The strange gift of precognition was both terrifying and oddly relieving. She kept her knowledge to herself, though.

"Alright class," After a few words with Mizuki, Iruka called the class to attention, or at least those who weren't sleeping, "Tomorrow you're going to be taking the test to see if you are ready to be Genin. It's the last test of this year so after lunch those of you that are taking it can pair up and study together, alright?"

"Yes sensei," the class chorused before the bell and they rushed out the door.

"I'm getting lunch in town," Kotori told Naruto as they walked out the door, "Ino will probably tag along."

"That's okay," Naruto said giving her a mischievous smile, "I think I'm going to pull one last prank."

She gave him a sideways smile as he snickered, "Do you have a plan of action?"

"Paint on the faces of the Hokage," He whispered in her ear.

"What about plan of escape?" She said raising a brow.

"Hide while the Chunin run by and then run like hell." He said snickering.

"You want me stick around after lunch to do a transformation of you?" She asked him and he nodded.

"Okay," She said as Ino came up to them, "Don't do anything I wouldn't."

He laughed, "Okay, see ya later."

"What was that all about?" Ino asked as they began walking side by side.

"Naruto is doing his usual thing." She shrugged, "You want to get Onigiri at the convenience store?"

"Kotori-chan!" Sakura called catching up to the two, "wait up."

"Sakura-chan?" Kotori asked raising a brow. Normally she did talk to her if Ino was around since they had a bitter rivalry due to their crushes on the same boy.

"Hey," Sakura said giving her a bright smile and pointedly ignoring Ino, "I was thinking since it was the last day we could all eat together?"

"Does that mean you two will get aside your rivalry for an hour?" She asked slightly surprised at this.

"I will if she will," Ino said crossing her arms and glaring at her pink haired rival.

Reluctantly Sakura nodded, "Just for lunch though."

"In that case…" Kotori said nodding and running towards a retreating girl, "... Hinata-chan!"

The girl in question squeaked at the shout of her name and blinked shyly at the redhead that called her name, "K-Kotori-chan?"

"Would you like to have lunch with, Ino, Sakura, and I?" She asked her and the Hyuuga smiled shyly as she nodded, "Alright," She grabbed her hand and led her over to the others, "C'mon girls."

Naruto snickered as he ran from the Chunin ran after him. He spotted his cousin easily and hid while she did a quick transformation. She started running and the Chunin chased after her as she led them to the academy. She turned a sharp corner in the hallway and stopped running as she canceled the transformation jutsu. It was good practice for her in acting natural under pressure, she forced herself to walk slowly as the Chunin rounded the corner, and looked for Naruto. She slipped into Iruka's classroom before they could put together that she had been in on it.

Walking over to her seat she noticed some of her friends (that she had left in order to help Naruto) were gushing over Uchiha Sasuke. She rolled her eyes and took her usual seat next to the one Naruto had been permanently assigned. Not even five minutes later Iruka walked in with her cousin tied up. She snickered as Naruto pouted as Iruka scolded him and then announced they would be having a pop quiz on the transformation jutsu because of Naruto.

"Except you, Kotori-kun." He said giving her an irritated look, "That was a very good transformation, I'm surprised you maintained while running." She shrugged and kept her face blank, "However, you have to help Naruto clean up his latest prank."

"Don't I always?" She said with a sigh.

Kotori scrubbed at the stone faces of the Hokage next to her cousin, who was pouting as he did the same. Iruka sat on top of the head above them to make sure they did as they were supposed to and didn't make more trouble. Not that he really had to worry about her, she usually just helped Naruto escape, or bought the paint (or anything else). There really wasn't much to this paint though. She made sure to get chalk based paint, that way it would come off easier, or just with rain.

"This sucks, loser." Naruto muttered under his breath.

"You two are not going home until you've cleaned off every drop of paint." Iruka reminded them.

"So what? It's not like there's anyone waiting at home for us!" Naruto shouted at him and continued to pout as he cleaned. Kotori frowned at that. It was true. Both her parents and his had died in the Kyuubi's attack. She'd had the nightmarish dream of that a few months ago.

After a moment of silence Iruka spoke to them again, "Naruto-kun, Kotori-kun," Naruto scowled up at him and she blinked up as well.

"What do you want now, sensei." Naruto grumbled at him.

"Well, I was just thinking…" Iruka said trying to come off nonchalant and failing, "...Maybe after you clean all this up I could take you both out for ramen, the good stuff."

Naruto face lit up with joy, "Now that's some serious motivation, I'll have this clean in no time!"

"You've done it now sensei," Kotori giggled, "My baby cousin is a total ramen addict."

"Kotori-chan!" Naruto whined, "I'm not a baby, you're only twenty days older than me!"

"You'll always be my baby cousin," She said waving his whining off with a hand, "Even when you become a Jonin, you'll be my baby cousin."

He huffed, once again pouting at her, "Whatever."

Iruka sat between the two Uzumaki cousins as they ate ramen at Ichiraku cheerily. He, however, just couldn't come up with a logical reason as to why they would do something as awful as painting the faces of the Hokage. They were both good kids, Kotori was tied for top kunoichi with Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura, and Naruto was genuinely a kind person even if he was at the bottom of the class. Finally after thinking about it until it was almost giving him a headache he voiced his question and the answer he got from Naruto surprised him.

"... Because I'm going to be greater than any of them, me, Naruto, the next Hokage, and then everyone will have to look up to me and stop disrespecting me" He answered with determination.

"And why did you help him, Kotori-kun?"

"It's actually pretty good practice for our ninja skills," She said to him, "I mean if it weren't for all the pranks I wouldn't have been able to out run those chunin earlier." She giggled at that, "maintaining that jutsu while running also comes from pranks."

"Huh," Iruka blinked at that, "I never really thought of it like that."

"Hey, sensei," Naruto said drawing his attention, "can I ask you a favor?"

"Hm, you wanna another bowl?" Iruka asked curiously.

"Uh, no, um, I wanna try on your headband," Naruto begged, "Please!"

"Uhh…" Iruka began to mess with his headband as they looked up at him, "Oh this? No way, you can only wear the leaf hitai-ate after you graduate from the academy and become a ninja." he gave Naruto a smile, "You've gotta pass the test tomorrow."

"That is so un-cool!" Naruto complained causing Iruka to laugh.

"Hey, is that why you took off your goggles?" Iruka asked still snickering.

"I wanna another bowl!" Naruto said rather than answering.

Kotori woke up gasping for breath after having a dream. It was about tomorrow's test and the things that would follow. Naruto would fail, miserably, but then Mizuki - "That asshole," she had thought bitterly, - would trick him and everything would work out. The information she'd gather from the vision, however, was slightly unnerving. It was honestly shocking to find out that her baby cousin was the container for the nine-tails. He was such a sweetie and that fox… she shuddered remembering that chakra from all those years ago. Naruto was not the Kyuubi, which she knew for sure.

Rather than dwell on what she had just learned she shrugged it off like she did most bad news, and rolled out of her bed. It was almost time to get up anyway and if she didn't want ramen for breakfast she knew she better start cooking. She looked at her cousin who was cuddling his pillow with a fond smile before heading for the kitchen. Today they were having rice, miso, and tamagoyaki*. She knew that Naruto would probably put everything, but the rice into a bowl of ramen, but she didn't mind. Besides she knew that ramen tasted better when it was cooked with boiling hot miso rather than water.

The smell of miso soup woke Naruto shortly after she started on it. She already had the rice and tamagoyaki done. He took his egg roll and set it aside as he poured some of the miso into ramen just as she guessed he would. She made too much rice and put the leftovers into the fridge so that she could use it later. They ate in silence while they tried to wake up a bit more before heading to school.

Once there they were given the written test, and then obstacle test, but the latter was just a way to tweak stats. There was a time limit on the obstacle test and if you couldn't get through it in the time allotted you were pretty much screwed on your stats. The only test to worry about was the test on one of the three academy jutsu. The written test was used as one of the systems of ranking and sorting for teams, so Kotori didn't worry to much about it either.

Kotori had no doubt in her mind that she would pass with flying colors. It was just that she was worried about how Naruto would handle her passing and him not. She never saw herself in her visions so she didn't know what would happen with her. It made her nervous as she waited for her name to be called for the final test. She began chewing the inside left corner of her lip as she stared at her desk in front of her.

"Kotori," She jumped when her cousin put a hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry," She turned around and saw him give her one of his smiles that were like sunshine, "You'll do fine."

"Thank you, Naruto." she said smiling back at him, "I'm just -"

"Uzumaki, Kotori," A Chunin sensei called out effectively cutting her off.

"Good luck when it's your turn." She said quickly before scurrying to the testing room. Iruka and Mizuki sat behind the table and told her to do the clone jutsu. "Uh, how many clones?"

"As many as you can make." Iruka told her as he went over her test scores on the sheet of paper in front of him. She knew that the clone jutsu was mostly about chakra control and that the average Genin could make at least three. So she made six since her chakra control was better than most Genin. Although if she were honest she could only maintain three in fight, but her sensei didn't need to know that. Six seemed to satisfy her sensei who nodded at her.

"You pass," Iruka told her, "Do you want to discuss your score?"

"Yes," She said to him, "where do I rank?"

"Well, if it wasn't for your chakra control you'd be tied with Yamanaka Ino, instead you're tied with Haruno Sakura." Mizuki told her.

"Doesn't the fact that I have medical training boost my score?" She asked remembering all the time she spent on that damned fish test. Due to the fact that she had more chakra than Sakura and most of her fellow students she had to try harder on chakra control. It just meant that since she had medical training she was told to learn things that most only learn as Genin, like tree walking.

"Extra training won't be added to scores until later," Iruka said to her, "So really you're the top Kunoichi."

"Good," She said nodding, "what did I do the worst in?"

"The obstacle course," Mizuki answered, "Your time was four minutes and fifty-four seconds."

"That's still not as bad as some of the others," Iruka said once he saw her wrinkle her nose.

"I still need to work on my speed though," she said frowning as she walked up and got a hitai-ate, "are we allowed to change the fabric these are on?"

"Yes," Iruka answered, "they should sell fabric you can use for that in most ninja clothing stores."

"Okay, thank you, Iruka sensei, Mizuki sensei." she said bowing before exiting the room.

She then went into the class where the graduates were and saw a few of her friends milling around waiting to be dismissed for the day. She sat with Hinata who was wearing her hitai-ate around her neck and kept glancing around.

"H-have you see-seen Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked her which made Kotori want to laugh since Hinata was the one with the eyes that could see through walls. She restrained herself from doing so because she knew the girl was actually worried for him. Kotori thought that crush was the cutest thing ever.

"I'm going to take a guess and say he failed…" She answered sadly, "... I'm not worried though, I think the Hokage will do something like he did for that Rock Lee kid last year."

"R-really?" Hinata asked blinking her eyes at her

"Yeah," Kotori said nodding, "Naruto is… well he has a lot of chakra and it would be stupid not to let him become a ninja."

"I-I hope y-you're r-right, Kotori-chan." Hinata said looking sadly down at her hands in her lap.

"He'll be fine," Kotori said waving off her worry with a hand, "So, what kind of missions do you think we'll get as Genin?"

"Naruto-chan, I'm so sorry." Kotori hugged her cousin while he sat in the schoolyard swing sadly.

"It's okay, Kotori-chan…" He said smiling up at her and then blinking, "... where's your head band?"

"I don't want to wear it yet," she explained, "I'm going to change the fabric on it, I don't like the blue color."

"Oh, I didn't know you could do that." He muttered looking down at the ground again.

"Well, um, I need to go buy that fabric for the headband, so… I'll meet you at home before we go to Ichiraku's later, right?" She asked him with her head cocked to the side.

"Yeah," He said cheering up a little at the thought of ramen.

"Okay, love you." She said hugging him again and then dashing off.

The store that she had asked Iruka about after class was ran by Shinobi that knew what kind of fabric was appropriate for missions and such. Kotori looked down at what she was wearing and frowned. She wore a dress like most other girls at the academy did, but she wasn't a girl anymore; she was a Kunoichi. Kotori moved through the racks of clothing deciding that she was going to dress differently now that she really was a ninja.

She gathered a few mesh shirts, tank tops in various shades of green, black knee length shorts (that were more like leggings, really), and an oversized black and grey jacket. The one thing she loved most about her village was that they almost always put an Uzumaki swirl on everything so she didn't have to embroider her clan's symbol onto her jacket. She went up to the register and put her clothes on a tab that would be paid out of her checks when she finally started taking missions. It was how most ninja paid for things and the rates were different for each person. She had to fill out a form to figure in what her rates would be which took a while.

By the time Kotori got to the apartment she shared with Naruto he wasn't there. So she began to put her clothes away and then changed into her new clothes. The jacket seemed to be made for a self-conscious woman because when she zipped it up the circular grey part on the sides made her look thinner. Not that she really needed it.

You could almost always tell who the other orphans were at the academy by their size in comparison to everyone else. She and Naruto didn't eat enough so they were shorter and thinner than most of the others. It never really bothered her to be called short, but it did bug Naruto when it was pointed out that he was the shortest boy in class. Kotori always tried to tell him that size didn't matter, it was what was in the inside that did.

After looking herself over she left the apartment and went to off to find Ino to show off her new look. Instead she found Hinata looking for her instead.

"Hinata-chan?" She said as she went down the stairs.

"Kotori-c-chan," Hinata greeted, "I'm s-sorry if I'm b-bothering you."

"Oh no, it's alright," Kotori wanted to ask why she wasn't celebrating becoming a Genin with her family, but she knew that they always gave her a hard time so she didn't bother, "I was about to go ask for a second opinion on my new outfit so…" She gave a shrug, "what do you think?"

"I-I like it." Hinata answered as Kotori did a little spin, "A-are you going to k-keep your hair up in p-pigtails?"

"Hmm…" She reached up and ran her fingers through one of said pigtails, "I really don't want to cut it," Kotori frowned since she honestly did love having long hair, but it could easily be used against her in a fight, "what do you think I should do with it?"

"Y-you could wear it in-in a bun?" She suggested to her.

"Okay," she said smiling happily, "Do you want to come up stairs and help me with my hair?"

"Uh, is-is N-Naruto-kun…?" Hinata's face flushed as she tried to get her question out.

"No, I have no idea where he is," Kotori shrugged, "He'll probably show up later wanting to go out for ramen."

"Oh o-okay," She said as they went up the steps.

Kotori sat up sleeping on an old sofa she and Naruto had taken from an alley when they first moved into the apartment. Before they lived together they had been in the same orphanage. She approached him only because she overheard him say his last name was Uzumaki. He had been lonely there just as she had been. Once they found each other though, they were inseparable. They were the only family the other had and no one could get her to turn against him. The nuns in charge tried to separate her from him and that caused the biggest tantrum from both of them. They gave up eventually.

"Hey! Kotori-chan!" Naruto shouted happily as he threw open the door. She snapped awake and blinked at him.

"Where were you?" She asked rubbing her eyes.

"You'll never guess what happened!" He said launching himself at the couch, "I thought you were going to change the color of your headband?"

"Huh," She muttered touching the hitai-ate as if she could tell the color by touch, "aw, crap. I totally got side tracked."

Naruto laughed at that before telling her where he had been all night, "So, maybe we'll go on the same missions sometime and everything!"

"I hope so…" She mumbled sleepily, "We have to have our picture taken for our ninja IDs tomorrow."

"Really!" He said excitedly, "I'm going to do something awesome for it!"

"Okay," She said blinking, "I'm going back to sleep."

"Wait," He said suddenly nervous, "I need… I think I should tell at least you this…"

"Hm?" She cocked her head as he looked down sadly.

"I just… I'm not sure if you'll still want to be my family if you know…" He said looking up at her worriedly.

"Naruto, you know no matter what, you'll always be my family." She told him as she pulled him into a hug, "Even if you were to hate me, I'd still love you."

"I have the nine-tailed fox sealed inside me." She chose to hug him tighter when he whispered that, "It's why all the villagers hate me."

"Well, they're stupid and small minded." She said to him, "I don't hate you and I don't hate the Kyuubi either."

He pulled away from her and blinked at her, "Really?"

"Yep," She said to him, "I've already forgiven him for everything he's done to me. After all if it weren't for him I might not have ever met you."

Naruto smiled and began rubbing at his eyes as they watered. She didn't point it out that he was crying, but instead just hugged him tighter.

A/N: Hi, this is my first Naruto fan fiction, or at least the first one I've posted, it's probably going to be canon being spit back at you for a while, but some things are going to get different sometime after the 'Land of Waves,' arc. I'm doing this mostly for my own entertainment and decided to share it, so please don't flame me. I'll update whenever I get a chapter. I hope you enjoy this. :D