I had this whole long rant written out, but when I went to save it, I discovered that I'd auto-logged out of fanfiction (I write my A/Ns on the site). So, I'll keep it short: this fic came out on a whim, it will draw as much inspiration from Shinto mythology as I can, and I will probably be getting back to working on the rest of my stuff in two days, when I get back to my desktop instead of my sucky laptop.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the associated characters. I do own the OCs Kazahana Miyuki, Reikanna Yoshimi and Tsukino Miyako.

There was nothing left standing. Every building had been torn down, many of them destroyed outright. Fires had consumed many others, and there was evidence of flooding and earthquakes.

But the structural devastation was nothing compared to the horror spread throughout: the bodies of hundreds of men, women and children were scattered across the ruins, blood and gore painting the Earth red.

The survivors stood on the edge of this devastation. One of them, seeing her mother's mangled corpse, fell to her knees and let loose a scream of despair that shook the world around her…

A month and a half earlier…

"Hurry up, we're almost there!" called the redhead impatiently from well ahead of the group—well, most of them, anyway.

"Yeah, Miyuki-sensei!" called the blonde daughter of the redhead. "We're almost there!"

"Kushina-sama! Naruto-chan! Please, be patient!" said Kazahana Miyuki, no longer even bothering to hide her annoyance with the Uzumaki mother-daughter duo. Tsukino Miyako, one of Naruto's teammates, giggled loudly at Miyuki's irritation while the other, Reikanna Yoshimi, did her best to suppress her own giggles. Both, however, quickly shut up when Miyuki turned the evil eye on them.

The five kunoichi were making the journey from their home of Hakumeigakure no Sato in Uzu no Kuni—or to be more precise, what was left of Uzu no Kuni—to the Chūnin Exams held in Konohagakure no Sato of Hi no Kuni.

Originally, Uzu's ninja village had been named for the country—Uzushiogakure—but that village was destroyed in one of the opening battles of the Third Great Shinobi World War. The survivors, primarily kunoichi who had ended up in better positions to flee than the shinobi, had fled across the ninja world, including the then-pregnant Kazahana Mashiro, Miyuki's mother. After the end of the war, the survivors had all returned to the ruins of what had once been Uzu no Kuni to rebuild, finally giving birth to Hakumei after many years of hard work.

Uzumaki Kushina, however, had never made any secret of the feelings she'd developed for the legendary Konoha no Kiiroi Senkō, Namikaze Minato, whose strength and equally legendary Hiraishin no Jutsu had single-handedly won several major battles against Iwagakure no Sato of Tsuchi no Kuni. Minato was now the Yondaime Hokage, the leader of Konoha, and that guaranteed Kushina the chance to see him again.

In fact, given how blatant she was about it, no one would've been surprised if certain rumors sprung up regarding Naruto, who had blonde hair and sky blue eyes, the same as Minato did, whereas Kushina had blood red hair and dark purple eyes. However, regardless of what anyone else might say, it was mostly just coincidental.

The truth was that thirteen years ago, about two months before Minato became the Yondaime Hokage and only a year or so after the end of the Third War, the mightiest of the legendary bijū, the Kyūbi no Yōko, came upon the survivors of Uzu as they began to lay the foundation of Hakumei. It had been immediately clear that it was headed towards a far more significant destination: Konoha.

A creature as powerful as Yōko could not be defeated by conventional means—killing the legendary bijū was a process that required several steps, some more complex than others, and a lot of luck. Fortunately, the people of Uzugakure were extraordinarily gifted, and one of their best, Tenmachi Shion, had stepped up to the task of sealing the Kyūbi in a way that only the Tenmachi Clan could. It had, sadly, cost her very life, ending the bloodline of her clan.

What she'd done was to seal away the Kyūbi within the womb of a particularly strong kunoichi—Kushina. Through the sealing, Yōko had been reincarnated into a human girl—Naruto.

While she'd probably taken on some of Minato's traits for reasons most preferred not to bother speculating on, it was generally regarded instead as a reflection of Naruto's purity, in opposition to the darkness she'd been as the Kyūbi.

Miyuki shook her head in frustration. She'd always been eager to help, and had readily jumped at the opportunity to teach Naruto, Yoshimi and Miyako. Now, she was seriously starting to regret that decision. True, all three of them were like sisters to her, but at times…

Miyuki might seem young for a Jōnin, but anyone could readily acknowledge her as one of Hakumei's best—which was why she'd been the favorite to teach these three. Besides being chosen by Yawarakai-te as its wielder, she was quite talented with the wind and water element ninjutsu her family was best known for, as well as being something of a seal mistress, making her ideal for keeping an eye on Naruto.

And, certainly, she wasn't any younger than Uchiha Itachi, perhaps the most dangerous criminal in the bingo book. And Hatake Kakashi had been even younger than her when he'd become a legend.

"Put him down… now," growled Uchiha Sasuke lowly, Sharingan flashing to life as he stared down the Suna nin with the face paint, "or do you really want to cause trouble with the grandson of the Sandaime Hokage?"

"Just put him down, Kankurō, he's not worth it," said the blonde girl with the large fan on her back. Kankurō growled slightly, but did as asked, dropping Sarutobi Konohamaru to the ground. Konohamaru quickly rushed over to his friends behind Sasuke, who let out a small sigh.

"What are Suna nin doing in Konoha in the first place?" he asked evenly.

"We're here for the Chūnin Exams, of course," said the blonde. Sasuke nodded, turning to leave.

"Then don't cause any trouble," he said. "This is our village, and you're only guests. Keep that in mind." As he began to walk away with Konohamaru and his friends, a low voice stopped him.

"Before you go… tell me your name," it said. Sasuke looked back to see a third Suna nin, a boy his own age with red hair, rings around his eyes, a large gourd on his back, and an insane look in his eyes. He was standing between the other two, who were very clearly afraid of him. Sasuke was surprised he'd been able to appear without alerting him at all.

"It's customary to give your own name before asking for the name of another," he replied, curious about this all-too-clearly dangerous nin.

"Sabaku no Gaara," he replied in that same low, somewhat monotone voice.

"Uchiha Sasuke," said Sasuke, eyeing the nin carefully. He nodded and turned away, leading the others with him. Sasuke's eyes narrowed, and he crouched down so he could whisper to the three Academy students with him more easily.

"Be more careful around the village from now on," he said. "Until the exams are over, we'll have foreign ninja crawling all over the place, some of them even more unreasonable than that guy was."

"Okay, Sasuke," said Konohamaru before the three rushed off.

Sasuke straightened up and walked away, thinking about that Suna Genin. In some respects, the look in his eyes reminded him of the looks some of the Uchiha clansmen his older brother, Itachi, had killed several years prior. Sasuke vividly remembered that time.

Normally, Itachi was too busy to spend time with Sasuke, but he'd made a point of making time for him leading up to that incident. Itachi had told Sasuke several times that he loved him, and during that final time playing together, had sworn to Sasuke that his loyalty to Konoha and peace was absolute, and had made Sasuke promise to never follow the path of ambition, and to never trust the ambition of the Uchiha Clan. At the time, Sasuke hadn't understood.

And he hadn't understood even after Itachi became a criminal following his murder of their father, Uchiha Fugaku, and several other prominent clansmen.

But after several years, he'd come to understand. Itachi had cut off the head, but there were still remnants of the ambition and desire for power that seemed to Sasuke almost like a curse of the Uchiha blood, and he thanked Itachi for saving him from ever falling to that curse, and Sasuke knew that, if the time came, he would proudly follow in Itachi's footsteps.

"Kurenai-sensei, why are we here?" asked Haruno Sakura curiously, voicing the question that her teammates, the ever silent Aburame Shino and the incredibly shy Hyūga Hinata had also been curious about.

"The Chūnin Exams are being held in Konoha over the next month or so," replied Yūhi Kurenai, leading her team to the main gate. "I wanted to get a good look at the Jōnin instructors, and I thought that, since you haven't met any foreign ninja before, you might like to get a good look as well."

"Oh."

Of course, Kurenai would prove to have somewhat unusual luck in this task, as her team arrived at the gate at the same time the five kunoichi representing Hakumeigakure arrived.

"Finally!" said Kushina, rushing inside the village and stretching, her eyes almost immediately rushing to the Hokage Monument. She turned to face the others with a frown as they walked through the gate. "We would've been here sooner, too, if you hadn't insisted on walking so slowly."

"And it's your damn crush that's reduced you from the mature and intelligent woman I know to an overeager little fangirl," said Miyuki. The rather intelligent teenage woman immediately fled with Kawarimi no Jutsu as Kushina and Naruto pumped the replacement log full of kunai and shuriken.

As the last two girls laughed, Team 8 stared at the five newcomers with unconcealed curiosity.

The oldest of the group was a stunning woman about a decade older than Kurenai with dark violet eyes and long red hair. She was vaguely familiar to Kurenai for reasons the latter couldn't fathom. She wore a sleeveless blue shirt and black shinobi pants with no hitai-ate.

The second oldest and seeming leader of the group was a teenage kunoichi about a decade younger than Kurenai. She had deep, green-blue eyes and long light brown hair, and she was actually several inches taller than the redhead. She wore black bracers, a large pinkish-white haori with a blue-violet hakama. From her neck hung a gold medallion with a sapphire stone set in the middle, her hitai-ate was tied to her left bicep, and sheathed at her hip was a katana.

Next were the three genin kunoichi; Kurenai had been surprised by this, since most teams consisted of two shinobi and one kunoichi, plus a leader of either gender, though her team was a clear exception with two kunoichi and one shinobi.

They were all about the same age as Kurenai's students, and the first of them had waist-length red hair and hazel eyes. She was the shortest of the group, but had a bright and cheerful air to her. She was dressed in traditional shrine maiden garb with a white haori and red hakama, her hair held up slightly by a black ribbon, and her hitai-ate worn hanging loosely around her neck the same way Hinata wore hers.

The second girl was the tallest of the three genin, but was otherwise the least distinct: she had brown eyes and long black hair falling to waist. She was wearing a white kimono-like battledress, though low-cut such that it exposed her prominent cleavage and with the sleeves detached, with her hitai-ate just barely visible under her long bangs. Kurenai vaguely wondered if the girl had done undercover work, since the outfit could lend itself to certain spying duties a kunoichi could be entrusted with.

The last of the group seemed to be a year or two older than the other genin. She was just shorter than the oldest of the group, had bright sky blue eyes and sun blonde hair. She was very well developed in the chest area, and wore her long hair in a single braid. Her outfit was almost simple in comparison to the others, consisting of blue jeans, an orange shirt under a leather jacket, and blue shinobi sandals, with her hitai-ate worn loosely around her neck the way Hinata wore hers. Curiously, a trio of whisker-like scars adorned each cheek.

The reactions of Team 8 varied. Hinata, shy as usual, had edged a bit behind Kurenai, while Shino was as stoic as ever, carefully assessing each to judge their abilities. Sakura was mostly surprised to see a team consisting entirely of kunoichi, and was also surprised that they all had long hair. She herself kept her hair short since she felt long hair was impractical.

"Miyuki!" growled the woman.

"Never call my mom a fangirl!" growled the braided blonde. The teen, Miyuki, merely smirked.

"If Kushina-sama doesn't want to be treated as a fangirl, she shouldn't behave as one," said Miyuki evenly. That was when it clicked for Kurenai.

The woman Uzumaki Kushina. She remembered the woman being a friend of Namikaze Minato during the war, but she'd left in the waning days of the conflict, back just before Kurenai had become a Chūnin.

"Hey, I haven't seen Minato-kun or Konoha in years! I have every right to be excited!" said Kushina.

"You tell her mom!" said the blonde. When Kurenai thought about it, that hair and those eyes bore an uncanny resemblance to the Hokage…

Miyuki disappeared and reappeared behind girl, bopping her lightly on the head.

"You be quiet," she said as the blonde rubbed her head lightly. "Until the seals are released and I say otherwise, I'm still your teacher, Naruto-chan."

"Yes, Miyuki-sensei," said Naruto.

"Forget that, let's go!" said Kushina. "We need to meet with the Hokage before we can check in at the hotel!"

"You just want to see him," muttered Miyuki with a slight sigh as Kushina ran off with Naruto at her heels. "Yoshimi-chan, Miyako-chan, let's go!"

As the three walked away, Kurenai continued to watch them, barely concealing her wide eyes.

No… that girl couldn't be…

Minato hated hosting the Chūnin Exams. This was primarily because of how many people came through his office. Some of these Jōnins were nice enough, but others were clearly contemptuous, and this exam would even be the first for those two new villages, Oto and Hakumei.

The sole Oto Jōnin had arrived earlier and had already left for the hotel, but he was curious as to where the Hakumei Jōnin were. He'd been expecting them over an hour ago.

"Minato-kun!" came a sweet and vaguely familiar voice. Minato knew it wasn't one of his fangirls, who usually called him 'Hokage-sama' anyways, because he'd trained himself to automatically react to their voices by fleeing.

The Hokage looked up just as five kunoichi stepped through the doorway, led by a familiar redhead.

"Kushina?" gasped Minato. Kushina smiled brightly.

"I'm glad you remembered me!" said Kushina cheerfully.

"So am I," muttered the teenager behind Kushina as she stepped forward and bowed to Minato.

"Hokage-sama," she said. "I am Kazahana Miyuki, Jōnin Instructor of Team 9 of Hakumeigakure no Sato, consisting of Reikanna Yoshimi, Tsukino Miyako and Uzumaki Naruto."

Kushina glared at Miyuki, while each genin bowed slightly as they were introduced. Minato nearly choked when Naruto was introduced, and his eyes immediately turned to Kushina, who sighed lightly.

"Can we get them to the hotel first?" asked Kushina. "It's a long story."

It was two days later that teams began gathering at the Konoha Academy for the first stage of the exam. Most were there simply with the goal of proving themselves. Ten teams were there in preparation for something bigger. One team had a very sinister mission in these exams.

And the genin from Hakumei were simply eager to aid their village by proving the Twilight village's strength in these exams.

As the tension ran high, Sasuke glanced about, trying to assess these other genin as best he could. The other rookie Konoha teams—8 and 10—gathered around Sasuke's Team 7, consisting of himself, Akimichi Chōji and Inuzuka Kiba. Team 10 consisted of Chōji's friends, Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Ino, and someone that all of the other rookies greatly disliked, Sasuke's cousin, Uchiha Muramase.

Muramase was one of the most stuck-up people Sasuke had ever met, with all the misplaced pride that Sasuke now associated with the Uchiha his brother had slain, and an ego the size of Tsuchi no Kuni. He also hated Sasuke passionately for outdoing him at the Academy without really trying, but as Sasuke understood it, he was stronger because of the lessons Itachi had instilled in him, as opposed to Muramase, who took the lessons of the Uchiha arrogance to heart.

"You know, gathering in a large group is probably gonna make some of the others think you're weak," came a low voice, catching them off-guard. The rookies turned to face a silver-haired genin wearing glasses and a Konoha hitai-ate smiling at them.

"And you are?" asked Sasuke.

"Yakushi Kabuto," introduced the teen. "I'm a fellow Konoha nin and I guess, embarrassing as it is, you could call me a veteran of the exams."

"Kabuto-san, is this your second time?" asked Sakura. Kabuto chuckled in embarrassment.

"No, it's actually my seventh," he said, blushing in embarrassment. "These exams are held twice a year, every year, so this is my fourth year."

"Wow… you must be pretty weak," said Muramase with a smirk. Sasuke shot his messy-haired cousin a slight glare.

"Or the more likely conclusion: these exams are that tough," said Sasuke. "I recall that very few of those hear will pass." Kabuto chuckled.

"You'd be correct," he said. "You see, no more than a dozen of those here right now will make it to the final exam, and likely less than half of those will pass. There are people here who have been genin for far longer than I have." He pulled something from his pocket. "But there are some advantages to be had in all this. For instance, I've collected a lot of great intelligence, which I've recorded on these." He laid one of the cards on the floor, around which the rookies gathered.

"But… the card's blank," said Ino.

"Not once my chakra's been added," said Kabuto, pumping a little chakra into the card. Almost instantly, an image formed on the card.

"Wow, a graph of the countries and attending ninja from each," said Ino. Sakura's eyes focused on a symbol she'd seen just the other day.

"Kabuto-san, which village is that?" she asked, pointing to the symbol. It looked kind of like a sun partially eclipsed by the moon.

"Ah, that's one of the two new villages in the exams," he said. "Hakumei. The country it's been set up in was originally destroyed in the last war. I hear they've only recently recovered. It's a tribute to their resilience that they returned from that at all."

"Do you have info cards on specific ninja?" asked Sasuke.

"Oh? Keeping an eye out for the competition?" asked Kabuto. "Well, sure, though I can't say how accurate any of the information will be."

"Rock Lee from Konoha," said Sasuke, "and Sabaku no Gaara from Suna."

"Oh? You even know their names?" Kabuto sounded disappointed as he quickly withdrew two cards. "That takes all the fun out of it."

"Ok, first is Rock Lee," said Kabuto as the image appeared on the card. "He's a year older than you guys. Mission history: twenty D-rank completed, twelve C-rank. His sensei is Maito Gai. His Taijutsu has improved greatly in this year, the rest is nothing impressive. He gained attention as a talented genin last year, but didn't participate, so like you guys, it's his first time. His teammates are Hyūga Neji and Tenten."

"And for Sabaku no Gaara…" muttered Kabuto, "mission history: unknown number of D-ranks completed, eight C-ranks and… wow, a B-rank mission as a genin. Since he's a newcomer from a foreign country, I don't have much more information on him, but… it seems he returned from all his missions without even a scratch."

"What about those genin from Hakumei?" asked Sakura as the others digested this. "They seemed kind of… strange."

"I'll see what I have on them," said Kabuto, shuffling his cards and pulling out three more.

"Let's see… Reikanna Yoshimi, Tsukino Miyako and Uzumaki Naruto," he said. "Mission history: D-ranks and C-ranks are unknown… but it seems they've got three B-ranks and even an A-rank. Well… it's not as much of a surprise for a new village. Their genin will either be really weak or really strong, and this info seems to suggest the latter. I'd be weary of them, but the odds of having trouble with them are pretty low given the number of teams partaking in the exams… unless of course you do well enough to make it past the second." Kabuto smiled. "Anyone else? I have info on pretty much everyone else, except for the Oto team. That village was even more recently established than Hakumei, and this is the first most people have likely heard of them. Unlike Hakumei, though, I wouldn't expect too much from them."

Unfortunately for Kabuto, the Oto nin in question overheard this. Irritated, the two boys charged forward to attack him.

However, it was at that instant that a massive murderous intent flooded the room, beyond anything any genin not from Hakumei had ever felt, as even the experienced Kabuto, stoic Neji and insane Gaara felt themselves suffocating under it. The Oto nin tripped, falling to the ground and sweating in fear. At best shakily, everyone turned to see the source: Uzumaki Naruto, who was very clearly glaring at the Oto nin.

"Don't cause trouble before the exams even start," she said quietly, but in the silent room, her voice was clear to all. The Oto nin fearfully stumbled to their feet, and the killing intent suddenly lifted as Naruto smiled brightly. "Okay?"

Everyone stared at the blonde like she was insane, when smoke suddenly filled the room, and the Jōnin presiding over the first exam appeared.

Author's Notes: Bits and pieces of this story have been seen elsewhere-Naruto is raised in another village, Naruto really is the Kyuubi and not the host, Naruto is female, Naruto's parents are alive, etc. etc. etc...

Anyways, this is the result of the idle hands I get when I don't have access to my desktop. A few things to note is that I did a fair bit of research on kitsune for Naruto. Her abilities will be heavily influenced by this, meaning that while she has Wind-natured chakra as a human, she has both Fire-natured and Lightning-natured chakra as a fox. She also has an incredible mastery of illusions, and as noted by Kurenai, is well-developed for her age.

Naruto's teammates also derive from Shinto mythology and the occasional Japanese urban legend. For example, Miyuki's sword, Yawarakai-te is said to the sword forged by Masamune that, when placed in a river, did not cut leaves or fish that passed by its blade, a sword that didn't "cut the innocent and undeserving", although some versions give it the power to heal the innocent instead.

As far as pairings go, I'm currently undecided. Minato x Kushina and Asuma x Kurenai are givens. The rest are much more up in the air. Given my love of NaruSaku, there's a distinct possibility of that becoming the pairing, with Sakura at first admiring, then falling for Naruto, and the same is possible with Ino and Hinata. On the other hand, I know that I definitely intend to portray Sasuke, who is very clearly a good guy here, as having a crush on her.

Anyways, I'll be heading home tomorrow, so the day after that is when I'll be getting to work on the rest of my fanfics again, so you'll be able to reasonably expect updates again.

Please leave a review! Ja ne!