A/N: So I really wanted to write a long story, so here is one chapter of it. If you like it, follow it so I'll know if I should continue or not. Anyway, my examinations are coming up so I may not upload much. Gomenasai! Please be patient with me! Thank you so much for reading and no flames please! Alright! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor earn anything from writing this fanfiction.

Warning: Fem!Naru, Not edited.

There is a certain innocence in her big blue eyes as she stares at the Sandaime. The only indication she held the demon was the seal on her stomach. She is wailing, and the elderly man bends down to pick her up. Rocking her gently, he steps with a purpose towards the Hokage tower.

"Call the council," he says, and the cat-masked ANBU next to him nods, before leaping off. The remaining shinobi trial after the wizened shinobi, faces ashen after witnessing the death of one of the most gifted Hokage to grace Konoha. He had so much potential, but he sacrificed himself for Konoha.

As he settles down on the seat he never wished to sit on again, he closes his eyes, baby in his arms, as he awaits the council.

"Hiruzen! What's the meaning of this? Where's the Yondaime?" Homura questioned. The old Sarutobi sighed.

"The Yondaime has fallen. He has sealed the Kyuubi into this child, Naru." he hesitates. Should he tell them? Minato had wanted him to keep it a secret. But still, she is a girl, and she needed protection from the civilians and the council who want to kill her because of what she houses. As of now, the greater threat is the people of Konoha.

"The Kyuubi? Kill her!" A merchant on the civilian council yells. Sandaime silences him with a glare.

"She," Hiruzen continues, all hesitation gone, knowing if he hushed the truth up, she would not even live to meet any of her father's enemies. After all, she would most likely die by the hands of the people her father risked his life to protect. "Is also the last Namikaze. I do hope you are not so cruel as to wish to kill our saviour's child."

There is a silence. The Sandaime continues. "If that is not enough, she is also one of the last Uzumaki. Keep in mind that her father had sealed the burden into his only child, but a few hours old, to save all of you. She is the daughter of your saviour and she too, although still young, houses an incredible burden, if only to keep the village safe. Remember that a sealing scroll is not a kunai despite housing it. She is not the demon." Having said his piece, he leaned back into his chair, gazing at the baby in his arms. She was sleeping soundly. Then, as if knowing he was looking at her, her eyes fluttered open.

"Well, I must insist I get to adopt her. The Hyuuga clan would be more than willing to adopt this child. She is after all, a child of a close friend of mine and my wife," Hiashi uttered, breaking the silence. Hiruzen turned the baby around, so that she could look at the council who was in charge of her fate.

Even the hardened shinobi could not keep their eyes from softening at the beautiful child's gaze. She reached out, grasping for one of the pens on the paper. She grabbed a hold of one, stabbing with it at the lap of the man she sat on. Hiruzen yelped, before gently easing the pen out of her grip.

Tsume smiled, her sharp canines in display, but her eyes did not smile. Her large brown eyes were watery, mourning the loss if the Yondaime. "May I be given the honor of raising her? I believe she will fit in well with Kiba and Hana, if she inherits her parents attitudes, that is." The Inuzuka was more toned down than usual, probably still stunned at the loss of her dear friends, Kushina and Minato.

There was a sudden uproar, following the two. The civilian council stared at the baby with wide eyes, as if already revering her. They were probably plotting on how to get her into their families, be it by marriage of adoption. Sandaime mused at their intentions. Surely they knew they stood no chance, especially since there were Shinobi clan heads requesting for custody of the blonde child.

Danzo was staring at the child, eyes hungry for power. He wanted her to be trained as a weapon, Hiruzen assumed. He scoffed internally, like he would ever let Minato's child have such a fate. Directing the whisker marked baby's gaze away from Danzo, he let her nibble on his finger, she was all gums and no teeth, so it did not hurt.

"It is troublesome, but I assure you, the Nara clan will bring her up well if you let her live with us. Shikamaru can be her big brother, he is, after all, a few months older than her." Shikaku drawled, a little less composed than usual, his eyes wrought with worry.

"I think we should wait for her godfather to arrive before deciding who she should stay with. For now, I hope I have your approval of raising her for the time being? We should have another meeting in around three months. It will give you some time to decide among your clans the course of action and it will give some time for my student, Jiraiya to arrive and help in deciding his goddaughter's fate." Sarutobi Hiruzen said firmly.

"I suppose the Hokage is right. We need to make necessary arrangements. Will the child's heritage be announced?" Fuguku Uchiha asked.

"Yes, I will be announcing to the village in a week about the demon sealed within this child and her heritage. For now, I would like to request you not tell anyone but your family members. Ensure they do not say anything, this child will be in grave danger from the Yondaime enemies. I would like to add that since the Yondaime is deceased, I will be the acting Hokage now. Meeting adjourned."

-one week later-

Standing before the people of Konoha, donning the Kage robes and hat again, the Sarutobi felt weary. So much had happened and he had been forced to take up the seat of the Hokage again, despite him already being rather old. It was tiring really, but he had a duty to the people.

"People of Konoha, here I hold in my hands the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi," he rocked the baby in his hands, the girl sleeping soundly. "Remember that a sealing scroll is not a kunai simply because the kunai is sealed within it. This holds true for Jinchuuriki. I would also like to announce that this baby, Namikaze-Uzumaki Naru, is the heir to our late Hokage, and is also the last of the great Uzumaki clan. She is the daughter of our Saviour, and I expect that the villagers will treat her as such." With that, the Sandaime shunshined away to the shocked gasps of the people, unwilling to deal with the reaction to the abrupt explanation he had given the people.

-one year skip-

After the announcement, the Sandaime had been carefully shielding Naru from the public, half worried about the appearance of her parents' enemies and half wanting to keep Naru to himself, but the shinobi council was slowly wearing him down, after all, Kushina and Minato had been very close to many on the council, and many wanted to play a role in taking care of the child of their close friend. Furthermore, many of the clan heads did not feel that the Sandaime would have the time or energy to develop her shinobi skills.

"Hokage-sama, the Nara clan would like to adopt the child. I have discussed with the clan elders and they have approved. We will impart our skills to the child and bring her up to be an intelligent strategist, like her late father."

"Hokage-sama, although we have been close allies with the Nara clan for many years, the Yamanaka clan beseeches you to give us the rights to the child. We believe we can raise the child well. We too will teach her our clan jutsu. Exposing the child to them at a young age will allow her to use them when she grows up."

"Hokage-sama, the Hyuuga clan has thought this through, the elders have demanded I gain the rights to the child. We will protect the child to the best of our means and teach her to become a great shinobi. I believe Hinata will be a great companion to the child."

"Hokage-sama, I know the Akamichi clan is not necessarily the one with the best qualifications, but we promise we will bring the child up to the best of our abilities, while we may not be able to teach her our clan jutsus, and we will ensure that she has a happy childhood."

"We, of the Inuzuka clan, wish to raise her as part of our pack. We will teach her to understand the language of dogs as she isn't born from our clan and will gift her with a partner of her choice. Partners if more dogs wish to bond with her. We may not be as influential a clan as the Hyuugas, but we will treat her as part of the pack. We defend our pack with our lives."

"The Aburame clan would like to deny this opportunity. Why? Because although we do so want to adopt her, we feel that due to the Kyuubi, she will not be able to house chakra bugs. They may not accept the chakra of the demon."

"Hokage-sama, the Uchiha clan is sad to say that we are unable to take her in due to internal problems in the clan. We are willing, however to train the child in the taijutsu style of our clan. We will also teach her fire-jutsus, however, in exchange, we wish for her to befriend one, if not two of the Uchiha in our clan, my two sons."

The sly old fox, the Hokage thought. He wanted his children to gain the favor of the child and have her marry into their clan. He glanced down at the child in his arms, she was donning a miniature kimono, embroidered with little flowers. What would be best for her? He mused. He had spent the three months racking his brain over it, yet he could not come up with a clear answer.

He set the child on the table, as she babbled and giggled at the clan heads.

"Sorry I'm late sensei." A familiar voice stopped his train of thoughts. He looked up. There was his former student, he had aged a lot in the five months he had been gone. No doubt Minato's death had hit him hard.

"Sensei, I propose you let me take care of her."

There were muffled protests, the clan heads were unhappy, and surprisingly, it was Shikaku who voiced their thoughts.

"Is it wise to leave a baby in the hands of your student? I mean, no offense Jiraiya-sama, you aren't necessarily the best influence on a child. I mean, it may be troublesome, but perhaps you should leave her in the hands of one of us." The clan head yawned at the end of his sentence.

"Yeah, perhaps you are right, Shikaku," the white-haired Sannin considered it for a while. "How about this? Sensei, you pick a clan to take care of her most of the time, and once in a while, I am allowed to bring her out of the village to teach her. When the genin teams are assigned, I wish for her to become my apprentice instead." The Sannin compromised.

"I mean no disrespect Hokage-sama, but I wish to take her on as my student when she is grown." The ANBU with a dog mask and silver hair stepped forward.

Well, Hiruzen had hoped his former pupil would make his life easier, but it appeared life just got even more complicated for him. He could have sworn he heard his former teammates snicker at his predicament.

"Well... Well... Let's take a coffee break shall we? He motioned for his assistant to get coffee. "Would you like to chat more over lunch? I can order Ichiraku ramen." The clan heads rolled their eyes at the obvious diversion, but nodded.

His secretary dialed the number for the restaurant, placing the orders. Then, the Hokage became distracted by the baby who was crawling towards Tsume. She clambered onto the Inuzuka clan head and sniffed. Tsume smiled, gathering her up in her arms. Then, the blonde girl patted the clan head's shoulder.

"Doggy!" She grinned at Tsume, flashing her growing teeth. Tsume laughed.

"Looks like she likes me!" Tsume said smugly. Then, the girl wiggled out of her arms. Inoichi, who was seated opposite the Inuzuka held out his arms, and the girl crawled to him.

"Yellow!" She tugged at Inoichi's hair. He laughed, about to pick her up when she started crawling away. He looked crestfallen. He had been rejected multiple times by Ino, and now even Naru was rejecting him.

Tsume flashed him a smug grin. Inoichi seemed to shrink into himself.

The clan heads followed the little blonde's movements.

"Twee!" She happily yelled as she crawled towards the plant in the middle of the table.

Jiraiya snickered, it looked like she liked the plant more than Inoichi. The clan heads leaned in, peering at her with curious eyes. She grabbed the pot of dying bonsai.

Giggling, she hugged it tightly. The Sandaime grinned indulgently at the child, already knowing her antics.

"Jiji, why is it so brown? I want it ta be gween!" She glared at the Hokage, who instantly felt bad.

"Well... I can't er... make it green so easily Naru. Come 'ere, jiji will get you a green plant later okay?" Obviously unsatisfied with his answer the little girl turned and stared at Shikaku.

"It is way too troublesome, but Naru, if you want to, we can go get a plant for you?" Shikaku sighed.

Naru pouted.

"Come here Naru, I'll help you fix the plant right up!" Inoichi coaxed, trying to get into the little girl's good books. The girl stared at him, before dismissing him by looking away. The Inuzuka clan head snickered, as did the other members of the council.

The little girl set the pot on the ground, she prodded at the drooping leaves.

"Grow gween!" She stared at it. Then, it happened.

Before the council's eyes, the plant started to grow.

It grew and grew and grew till it was about Naru's height, and it was blooming with flowers.

"See, Jiji! It's gween now." Giggling, she clapped her hands.

The Sandaime gasped, pipe dropping out of his mouth. Jiraiya's eyes widened. Shikaku seemed much more alert than usual, Inoichi had stopped his whining and Chouza had stopped munching on his chips. Even the dignified Hyuuga and Uchiha clan heads were gaping. Tsume just blinked in shock. The rest of the shinobi council were staring dumbfounded at the little child.

And Naru grinned brightly, the flowers in the tree blooming even more. Hiruzen suddenly lost his appetite to eat. And it was all thanks to that little blonde girl.