Disclaimer: I do not own "Naruto" or any characters in reference to Naruto…Naruto is copyright to Masashi Kishimoto.
Claimer: I do own my OCs that appear in the story.
12 years ago during the Kyuubi attack
I was being carried away from the area that harbored a large group of Konohagakure ninja. The ninja formed a large arc in the clearing; many of these ninja were slain and lying on the ground behind the arc of living nins.
"Keep it from entering the village until the Fourth arrives!" I heard a ninja yell to the group.
"Let me go! My dad is still fighting out there!" I yelled as I struggled in the ninja's grasp.
"Your father had requested that you be taken home Kari." He replied as he jumped through the trees.
"What?" Was all I could say before a large toad summon appeared in the clearing, facing the Kyubi No Yoko.
I looked up towards the Fourth Hokage. There wasn't much that I could see from where I was, but I did notice his striking blond hair before a burst of light emitted from where he was standing. I closed my eyes quickly and turned my head in another direction. When the light disappeared from my view, I re-opened my eyes and noticed that the large toad was gone, as well as the Kyubi No Yoko.
12 Years Later
That was when I was only 6 years old; I'm 18 now, and one of Konohagakure's strongest ninja. My name is Kari Uzumaki. My mother and father are both powerful ninjas, but my mother prefers to stay away from the battle field now, mostly because of my younger sister, Youri.
I, myself, am a powerful ninja, but everybody misses the part about me being a jinchuriki. When I was very young, mainly when I was born, an unknown Tailed-Beast attacked the village. There were no other infants that could maintain the great demon, but my body was considered an option. In order to help save the village, both my mother and father agreed to let the Elders use my body for the Container of the demon.
My demon is the Twelve-Tailed Demon Fox sealed within my body. I have given my fox the name Kasia, out of the fact that I can talk to it, and find out its gender. Or should I say HER gender. I guess that you can say that my life has been rather twisted; but only with the demon, right? Wrong. My life has had all kinds of twists and turns in it; some great things have happened, and then there are things that I'd like to forget. I guess it should start out from the beginning…
18 Years Earlier...
"She's so beautiful Katari." A male's deep voice resounded in my ears.
"She is Ashitaka." A woman replied longingly. "What should we name her?" She questioned.
"Well, she has your hair, but we have yet to see her eyes." The man said to the woman.
I opened my eyes, the light stinging them slightly, but I then saw the man and woman staring down at me. The man reached his big hand over to me and ran it through my hair. I giggled under his soft touch, and reached my hands up to grab his broad arm. He put his hand down by my tiny hands, and I grasped his big fingers in my tiny fists. I looked up at the woman, who had beautiful red hair and dashing blue eyes. A smile was on her face, even though she looked really tired.
"I say we name her Kari." The man said as he looked at the woman.
"I think that's a beautiful name." She said as she looked at the man, and then back at me. "Hello Kari, I'm your mommy." She said as she cuddled me closer to her.
"And I'm your daddy." The man said with a smile.
A new man ran into the room and stopped in front of my father and mother. He looked really sad, and his eyes had water in them. He looked at my daddy and then mommy, and then he looked at me. I smiled at him, and his face faltered. Mommy hugged me closer to her and started to cry. The water fell from her cheeks onto my face. I just looked at her, and then the man again. Daddy reached for me and grabbed me out of mommy's hands, handing me to the other man.
The man ran out of the room with me in his arms, I was crying now too because I wasn't with my mommy. It started to rain, and little drops of water hit my face, making me cold. The man held me tighter, stopping in a big area with no trees. He looked down at me with a frown on his face.
"I'm sorry little one." He said before he hit the ground with his hand.
A giant frog was standing underneath us. Other people started to jump on top of the big frog's head, and took me from the other man. They sat around me, putting black marks on my back with a small brush, and did a lot of things with their hands. They all stopped moving their hands and yelled out at the big fox in front of us.
"Death God Sealing Jutsu!" They all yelled out.
There was a bright light that hurt my eyes, making me cry again. The big frog reached his tongue out and touched the side of my face with it. I looked at its tongue and saw a lot of big piercings in it. The other people and the big fox were all gone. The only person left was the man from earlier. He wrapped me back up in my blanket, a sad look on his face.
"Jiraiya, are you sure that she can handle that demanding fox?" A deep voice said.
"Of course I am Gamabunta. Why would I have chosen her if she couldn't?" The man named Jiraiya asked.
The voice didn't say anything else. I looked up at the man named Jiraiya and saw his long, white hair. I grabbed at it, pulling on the edges of the spiky hair. He looked down at me and smiled. The frog disappeared and the man jumped into a tree. The rain got heavier and Jiraiya ran back to the room that mommy and daddy were in. I fell asleep in Jiraiya's arms, his white hair in my hands.
I don't remember how long I was sleeping, but when I woke up, Jiraiya was gone and I was lying on mommy's stomach. She looked down at me with a smile on her face, and I smiled back at her.
"Good morning, sleepy head." She said as she picked me up and cuddled me in her arms.
I wiggled around in her arms and grabbed at her long hair. She smiled at my antics and pulled her head back. She put me back down on her stomach and reached over to a table next to her.
"Your friend Jiraiya left you something." She said as she grabbed two stuffed animals; a red frog and a red fox.
I grabbed the frog and cuddled it, using the fox as a pillow on mommy's stomach. She smiled down at me, her eyes looking into mine. I yawned and went back to sleep on her stomach, her hand rubbing the top of my head, her other hand holding onto my back.
One week later
Mommy held me in her arms while she was walking down the street. She looked down at me and smiled. I was holding my stuffed red frog in my arms, cuddling it. She laughed a little at my childish game of cuddling the life out of a stuffed animal.
"We're home Kari." She said as she walked into a new room.
"This is where you live now sweetheart." Daddy said as he walked up behind mommy, my fox in his hand.
I stared around the new room in wonder, my eyes looking at all of the shiny things that caught my attention. Mommy smiled and daddy nodded towards the stairs to the second floor. They walked up the stairs together and into another new room; my room. I looked at all of the stuffed frogs and foxes, my eyes skimmed the fox pictures on the wall. Then my eyes caught sight of the picture of Jiraiya and the big frog from before. I held my arms out towards the picture, whining a little, and looking up at my mommy. She walked over to the picture and held me up to it. I smiled at the picture and touched it with my hands.
"I guess she really likes Jiraiya." Daddy said as he walked over to us.
"She sure does, Ashitaka." Mommy replied as she brought me back against her body.
Daddy rubbed my head as I yawned a little. Mommy smiled down at me and walked over to my new bed. She laid me down in it and covered me with a blanket that had a frog on it. Mommy kissed my forehead and ran her hand over my hair. Daddy did the same, but he traced a finger over my cheek as I fell asleep.
8 Years Later
"Kari, sweetheart, can you come here for a minute?" Mom called from the living room.
"Just a second!" I called back down from my room.
I looked down at the picture of Jiraiya again and smiled. His large toad summon was standing behind him, with a smile on his face. I put the picture back on my nightstand, and looked over at my two stuffed animals from Jiraiya. My little red frog, Gama; and my red fox, Tsuki. I quickly ran down the stairs and into the living room; a large grin on my face. Dad was sitting next to mom on the couch, his arm over her shoulder.
"What's up?" I asked as I sat next to mom on the couch, cuddling into her side.
"How would you like to be a big sister?" She asked as she looked down at me.
"Really?" I asked excitedly as I looked up at her, my 8 year-old charm shining through.
"Sure, if you want." She said with a sly smile on her face.
"I do!" I replied as I looked into her blue eyes. She laughed a little and wrapped her arm around my shoulders.
"Well, you are." She said as she looked down at my shining face.
"You're gonna have a baby?" I asked excitedly, she just nodded her head.
I hopped around the room with happiness. I quickly ran upstairs and into my bedroom again, closing the door behind me. I jumped onto my bed and cuddled the two stuffed animals. I looked over at the picture of Jiraiya and smiled. I grabbed the picture and held it close. I looked at it again and whispered to it, as if he could hear me through it.
"I'm gonna be a big sister Jiraiya!" I whispered happily.
I looked at the picture once more, and then put it back on my nightstand. I held the two stuffed animals in each arm, my frog-print blanket at my feet. I looked at all of the pictures of foxes and frogs on my walls; some were drawn by me, and others were pictures taken with my camera. I sat up in my bed and looked at my closet doors. I heard flapping wings in my window and looked over at it. There was a messenger pigeon sitting on my windowsill, with a message attached to its foot. I walked over to it, and took the message off of its foot. I opened the small parchment letter, and read it twice to be sure it was true.
Kari,
I don't know if you remember me or not, but it's me, Jiraiya. I'm back in Konoha again, and was wondering if you wanted to sit and talk for a little while? If you say yes to that, you can meet me in the Hokage Mansion with the 3rd.
Your pal,
Jiraiya.
I smiled down at the letter and ran back over to my closet, picking out some clothes, since it was early and I hadn't changed out of my pajamas yet. I grabbed a black tank-top, black baggy jeans, and black knee-high boots. I quickly changed into my clothes and pulled my hair into a pony-tail, my bangs hanging around my face. I quickly ran down the stairs and out the front door, racing towards the Hokage's Mansion to meet up with Jiraiya again.
10 Minutes later
I burst in through the door to the Hokage's office, and slumped over out of breath. I looked up and noticed the familiar white-haired Sannin. I ran over to him and hugged his waist.
"Jiraiya-sama!" I said with a smile on my face.
"Kari-chan." He replied as he returned the hug.
"Come on; let's head over to Ichiraku Ramen." He said as I nodded my head in agreement.
He started to walk out the door, and I followed after saying hi to the Third Hokage. We walked down the busy streets of Konohagakure, a smiled plastered on my face. He had his hand on my head, noticing how long my crimson hair had gotten. When we reached Ichiraku Ramen, we sat next to each other like we were family; and in a way we were.
"So, what's new shorty?" He asked, I just shrugged my shoulders.
"Not much Jiraiya-san. Except that I'm gonna be a big sister!" I squealed happily.
"Whoa, really?" He asked. I nodded my head. "That's a big responsibility." He said as he looked down at my happy face.
"I know, but mommy said she would help me be a good big sister." I said as I grabbed his spiky-white hair.
"Well, that's good to hear." He said as he tried to pull his hair back.
The two of us sat there for hours, talking and eating ramen. I asked Jiraiya to teach me to summon toads like him, and the poor man almost chocked on his ramen.
3 Hours Later
Jiraiya and I were walking back to my house, his hair in my hands. He walked up to the front door, knocking at least three times, before my mother answered the door. She looked extremely worried, until her eyes landed on me behind Jiraiya's leg.
"Kari! Where have you been?" She asked worriedly.
"Out with Jiraiya for ramen." I replied as I looked at her blue eyes.
She strangled me into a hug, pulling me closely into her body. She let go of me and dragged me into the house, Jiraiya following behind us, and sat me in the living room across from my father.
"Hi dad." I said sheepishly as I looked at the angered face of my father.
He just sighed at me and greeted Jiraiya with a smile and a handshake. The two men sat down on the couch together, conversing about some past battles. Mom came in and sat next to my father, who wrapped his arm around her shoulders. I just sat there, fiddling with my hair, and sighed as I looked down at the floor. Mom looked at me and sighed. She stood up from the couch and walked over to me, kneeling next to the chair I was sitting in.
"We were really worried about you, Kari." She said as she looked into my violet eyes.
"I know, but it's been years since I last saw Jiraiya-san. And I really wanted to see him." I replied as I looked down into her eyes.
"Yes, and it's the same for me and your father." She said with a slight smile.
"But it's different for me." I said with a frown.
"But this isn't." She said with a sly smile as she started to tickle me.
I rolled out of the chair and started to run across the room towards the stairs, mom trailing closely behind me, her arms outstretched towards me. I laughed and laughed as she tickled me again. I squirmed out of her grasp and ran upstairs, falling onto my bed after I ran into my room. Mom ran up after me and collapsed next to me on the bed, breathing heavily. I rolled over onto my side and cuddled up next to her. She wrapped her arms around me, her head resting above mine on my pillows.
"You know that your father and I love you more than anything, and we just want to protect you." She said as she ran her hand through my hair. I nodded my head.
"Yea, I know." I said sleepily.
She didn't respond because she had fallen asleep, I had fallen asleep a few minutes after she did.
9 Months Later
I was sitting in the living room by myself. Dad was on a mission, and mom was upstairs sleeping still. I stared at the book in my hands; "For One More Day" Was the title of the book, and I had already finished reading it. Jiraiya was coming over later, and so was one of the medic-nins. I ran upstairs to my room and turned on my radio, dancing around to the song 'Hearts Burst Into Fire' by Bullet for My Valentine. Mom walked in a few minutes later, her now large stomach in front of her, and watched me dance around.
"Cool it on the music sweetheart." She said with a smile.
"Ok mom." I said as I turned the volume down a little.
"Good girl." She said with the same smile.
She left the doorway and walked downstairs to the kitchen to start breakfast. Jiraiya wouldn't be here until around lunch time, so I quickly changed into a black Bullet for My Valentine t-shirt, black jeans, and my black knee-high boots. I pulled my hair back into a high pony-tail, my bangs shielding my eyes. I looked at all of the pictures that were on my wall, mainly the ones with me and Jiraiya, and smiled at them. There were pictures with us and Gamabunta, his toad summon, pictures of us eating ramen together, pictures of us with my mom, and pictures of us with my dad and the 3rd. I walked over to the doorway and stood there.
"Kari, breakfast is ready dear!" Mom called up the stairs to my room.
"I'm on my way down mommy!" I called back as I walked over to the stairwell.
I walked down the stairs, jumping off of the last three, landing with a thud on the first floor. Mom turned her head towards me, a small frown on her face, and looked at me. I gave her a thumbs-up, letting her know that I was fine. She turned back to the stove to finish the bacon, when someone knocked on the door.
"Kari, can you get that for me?" She asked with a smile.
"Sure mom." I said as I walked over to the door.
I opened the door, and there stood my white-haired Sannin buddy. I jumped on him, knocking him onto the ground.
"Jiraiya-san!" I yelled happily.
"Ow, Kari that hurt." He said as he stood up from the ground, rubbing his lower back.
I just rolled my eyes at him and walked back in the house, him following me at my heels. He walked into the kitchen and said hi to my mom before coming into the dining room to mess around with me.
"Your daughter is as stubborn as Ashitaka, Katari." He said with a playful smile on his face.
"She does have some of her father's traits, and stubbornness is one of them." Mom replied, the same smile on her face.
"I bet she got your strength though." He said as he looked back at my pregnant mother.
"I'm sure she did, but I never get to see it when she's out training with Ashitaka." She replied with a small frown on her face.
She walked out of the kitchen with two plates in her hands. I stood up and ran into the kitchen, grabbing the last plate of food for Jiraiya. Mom walked in and grabbed the cups and orange juice. She placed the juice in the center of the table, and the glasses in front of all of the plates. She silently, but slowly, sat down in her chair, her legs on the side of the chair to keep pressure off of her stomach. I looked over at Jiraiya with a skeptical look on my face.
"What happened to 'I won't be there until lunch time'?" I asked as I looked at the white-haired man.
"Well, your father sent me a letter yesterday, which I got today, that said to go over and stay with you and your mother." He said as he put a bacon strip in his mouth.
"Ok, whatever." I said with a smile on my face. I put another fork-full of scrambled eggs in my mouth.
Mom was smiling at the two of us, her eyes glistening in the light of the house. Her left arm was resting on her stomach, her hand lying off to the side of her stomach. She watched as I flicked some eggs at Jiraiya, hitting him in the cheek. She sighed half-heartedly as she watched Jiraiya toss a bacon strip at my head.
"Come on you two, no food fights this early in the morning." She said with a slight chuckle in her voice.
"He started it." I said defiantly.
"Don't pull that one on me Kari." He said as he pointed to the few speckles of eggs that stuck to his face.
I giggled at his slight misfortune, my canines from my demon projecting out from my smile. Mom looked at me sadly as she saw the sharp canines sticking out of my mouth. She jumped a little, shocked by a slight kick from my unborn sibling, and placed her had on her stomach gingerly. Her face gained a smile as she looked down at her stomach, then she looked over to me, my smile was growing as Jiraiya and I argued some more.
"Don't make me summon Gamabunta." Jiraiya threatened.
"You wouldn't dare." I said as I stared at him with threatening, playful, violet eyes.
"Try me." He replied with playful black eyes.
I stood up from the table, taking my empty dishes with me, and walked into the kitchen, discarding all utensils into the sink. While walking back from the kitchen, I yanked on Jiraiya's snow-white hair forcefully, and ran out the front door, a playfully angered Sannin following closely behind me. Mom stood up as quickly as she could, using great force to push herself out of the chair. She walked over to the door in time to see Jiraiya's summon, Gamabunta, picking me up with his pierced tongue.
"Stop it Gama-san! That tickles!" I yelled happily as the large toad continued to tickle my stomach and neck with his tongue.
"Jiraiya, put her down." Mom said with a smile on her face.
"This is her punishment." Jiraiya said from the top of Gamabunta's head.
"Mommy! Make him stop!" I yelled as I laughed, Gamabunta's tongue hitting a ticklish spot on my stomach.
"Come on Jiraiya, put her down now." Mom said with a slight chuckle.
Jiraiya sighed in defeat and told Gamabunta to put me down. He did and I landed on my knees, holding my stomach from the laughing. Gamabunta disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Jiraiya landed on the ground next to mom. I looked up at him, a smile on his face, and glared at him evilly. I stood back up and walked towards the front door, my eyes never leaving Jiraiya until I was inside the house. A pair of arms wrapped around my neck, and I felt a large bump in my back. I grabbed the arms and held them.
"I love you too, mom." I said with a smile. She kissed the top of my head.
"You know that I love you, Kari." She said with a smile. I tilted my head up at her and smiled at her.
She kissed my cheek softly. I leaned my head back into her chest, closing my eyes under her gaze. I opened my eyes again and met Jiraiya's eyes. I stuck my tongue out at him with a smirk that followed, he only looked at me shocked. I smiled at him and turned around in my mother's loose grasp, smiling up at her, and looking into her eyes. She smiled back at me and held me close to her.
I released myself from her grasp, putting my small hands on her stomach, waiting to feel the little life move around her stomach again. I guess that I'm lucky that I'm so patient, because I had to stand there for a good five minutes until the unborn infant moved again. I took my hands off of her stomach and started to walk upstairs to my bedroom. Jiraiya followed me and walked into my room after me, my radio playing the song 'Decembers' by Hawthorne Heights. He looked at all of the pictures that hung on my walls, of all of the pictures of us and my parents that hung on the walls. He smiled at me, and noticed that I looked almost exactly like an old friend of his. He walked over to my bed and sat next to me, his arm around my shoulders.
"I like the pictures that you have in here." He said with a smile.
"Thanks. I just couldn't stand to not put them up." I said as I grabbed my stuffed frog Gama off of my pillow.
"You still have that frog? What about the fox?" He asked as I smiled at him and grabbed Tsuki from the other pillow.
"Of course I still have them. A frog was the first animal that I fell in love with." I said as I cuddled the little stuffed frog in my arms.
"I can guess that you probably gave those names too, huh." He said as he looked down at the red, stuffed fox that sat next to me.
"Uh-huh, the fox is named Tsuki, and the frog is Gama." I said with a smile.
"So you named the frog after Gamabunta?" He asked; I nodded my head.
There was a loud crash downstairs and I jumped off of my bed, dashing for the stairs, running down two at a time, and jumping off from the last three. I started running towards the living room, where the crash came from, and found my mom lying on the ground holding her stomach. I knelt down next to her, grasping her hand in mine. She looked up at me with pain-filled blue eyes, and tears fell from my violet ones. She reached her hand up to my face and wiped the tears away, but quickly clenched her eyes shut when she was in pain again.
"Mom, what's wrong? What's happening?" I asked, fear and worry in my terrified 8 year-old voice.
"The baby, Kari." She managed to say, before a loud scream escaped her throat.
I quickly covered my sensitive ears, blocking out as much of the scream as possible. Jiraiya ran up behind me, dropping to one knee and lifting my mom's head off of the ground. He looked over at me, and pulled my hand away from my ear.
"Let's go Kari. We need to get your mom to the hospital." He said as I ran over to the door, tears on my cheeks.
Mom was gripping his shoulder with her right hand, her left over her stomach, and had her head hanging back over his forearm, her eyes closed in pain. I ran closely behind Jiraiya as he rounded a corner and stopped in front of the Konoha Hospital. He quickly walked inside, I was standing by my mom's head when we reached the front desk. The secretary called over a man with a stretcher, and he took mom into another room. I tried to follow them, but Jiraiya grabbed my shoulder before I could even move.
"Where are they taking her?" I asked; the tears on my cheeks glistening in the lights from the hospital.
"To get the baby out, where else." He said; his large hands on my shoulders.
I sat down in a chair next to Jiraiya, my head resting on his large forearm. He ran his hand through my hair, twirling the long, crimson locks in his fingers. He smiled down at me when I fell asleep from the countless hours of waiting.
6 Hours Later
"Kari, come on now, wake up." Jiraiya's voice sounded in my head. I opened my eyes and looked at him.
"What's going on?" I asked as I sat up, rubbing my eyes with my hands.
"You wanna see your baby sister, don't you?" He asked with a smile. I smiled up at him.
"Yea, I wanna see her!" I squealed happily.
"Well, let's go." He said as he grabbed my hand in his.
We walked down the large, white hallway, towards a room in the middle of the hall. Jiraiya opened the door and walked inside, dragging me right behind him. I looked towards the center of the room, at mom resting in the hospital bed with an infant in her arms. She noticed us come in, and lifted her gaze from the infant to us. She smiled at us, and waved me over with her hand, that she managed to free from the infant in her arm. I walked over and stood next to the bed, my head tilted to the side as I looked down at the infant girl. She had dad's brown hair and mom's blue eyes.
"Kari, this is your little sister, Youri." She said as she looked at my smiling face.
"Youri, huh?" I said as I looked down at the infant. "It fits." I said happily.
"Glad you think so dear." Mom said as she looked back at the smiling infant.
"It's getting late, and you need your rest Katari." Jiraiya said as he walked up behind me.
"That's true. I'll see you again tomorrow Kari, you be good for Jiraiya." She said as she rested against the pillows of her bed.
"I will mom." I said as I followed Jiraiya out of the room.
We walked back down the hallway and out the front door of the hospital. We walked down the street together to Ichiraku Ramen, talking and laughing the whole way there. We sat down at the ramen bar, our chopsticks in our hands. Ayame brought out our orders from the back and placed them in front of us.
2 ½ Hours Later
I was getting ready for bed, pulling my shorts on over my legs. I walked out of my bathroom and climbed onto my bed, pulling my stuffed animals towards me from the pillows. I pulled the blankets up to my chin, and flicked the lamp on my nightstand off.