Chapter Two :

Riverside Days


Naruto gave a sigh as she dodged another sword, "When the first try doesn't work out, try again. What should one do when they've tried over ten times?" she wondered out loud as she ducked down to avoid a kick.

The ninja wearing the Hagoromo clan symbol growled in annoyance, "Kids like you piss me off!" the teenager declared.

"I just asked a simple question!" Naruto squeaked jumping away to avoid a hurricane of shuriken.

The teenager narrowed his eyes at her, "You think I'm stupid? Who the hell would believe a kid who managed to avoid every single trap I set and walked up to me while I was eating to ask something so stupid? You were obviously trying to make me drop my guard!"

Naruto sighed, "But I'm just a kid! Do you really expect a kid to be skilled enough to kill someone twice their age?!" she yelled in annoyance.

The teenager hurled more shuriken towards her, "I've seen younger bathe in the blood of my clan members!" he growled leaping towards Naruto.

"I've tried to be nice!" Naruto snapped going into the sleeve of her kimono to produce a kunai, "But," she deflected the shuriken before they could hit her, "Desperate times calls for desperate measures!" and she leaped.

It happened in less than five seconds.

The blonde rammed into the teenager making both fall down, her left hand grabbing the sword before it could pierce her neck as she placed her kunai at the teenager's throat.

Both went tense as they stared each other down.

"Answer the question," Naruto hissed releasing a tint of killer intent.

The teenager spit in her face,"Go die!"

"I said," with her left hand she broke the sword she was holding, "Answer. The. Question."

Killing intent was dancing around the two.

"We're in the Warring Era!" the teenager answered.

The killing intent immediately went away.

"Thanks!" Naruto gave him a sweet smile before leaping away.

The teenager could only wonder if that really happened. Because, honestly, who would go through all the trouble to avoid every trap just to ask what period they were in? And despite himself the ninja found himself commenting out loud: "Did she live under a rock or something?"

Regardless he damned sure wouldn't let anyone know that he pissed his pants because of a girl.

He did have his pride after all.


-O.O.O-


Her senses could feel it. A vaguely familiar signature that for some reason made her want to rip apart a whole forest as a warm up before destroying an ocean or something. It took all she had to hold down the killing intent she was starting to feel.

A pebble skipping over the river made her go back in tune with the nature surrounding her. Nature had always been something she loved after all, it was so relaxing and calming. Soothing even. Whenever she was feeling stressed she'd go into the living world and just sit on a tree, like she was currently doing right now.

Calmly she looked down towards the river and saw a boy. Maybe a year or two younger than her? She wasn't too sure. He had black hair from what she could tell, and he was currently struggling with skipping pebbles. At the funny sight she allowed the lingering desire to kill the boy flee from her.

Killing others wasn't something she was opposed to, but she'd prefer to have a concrete reason instead of just relying on her instincts, no matter how good they were.

"Ugh! I'll reach the other side!" the boy declared throwing another pebble, which didn't make it halfway across the river.

Naruto jumped off the tree landing exactly next to the fuming boy, "It won't make it if you don't calm down," she lectured softly. It was nice to see kids acting their own age instead of, y'know, killing others and stuff.

The boy jumped whipping his head to face her, "Who are you?" he tensely asked.

"Me? I'm no one important."

Naruto didn't mind telling him her name or anything. But during the warring era it was common to not give your name, right? Or was it your last name?

"You're a shinobi." It wasn't a question, more like a statement.

"I have the same skills as a shinobi, but I don't really consider myself one. I don't even know what exactly a shinobi is. Sure, they go around doing missions, but is that all there is to being a shinobi. Pointless killings, going to war against others and dying just to fuel more sparks of war? If that's so, then I'd rather not be known as a shinobi."

The boy looked at her with something akin to understanding before huffing, "You're weird."

"Who's the one who was talking to himself earlier?" Naruto shot back as she crouched down to pick a pebble.

"...hn."

Chuckling Naruto threw her pebble slowly, and in a lazy motion the pebble reached across the lake, "Going slow and steady sometimes gives you quite the advantage, eh?" she questioned looking back at the open mouthed boy, "Why are you here anyways?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"To think," the boy answered.

"About?" Naruto prompted.

"Why are you here?" the boy avoided the subject.

"I was just walking around," Naruto shrugged.

"Shouldn't you be in your clan's compound?" the boy asked not so subtly eyeing her breasts before looking at her in her eyes.

Naruto had to fight off that tick mark on her head. Really, sexist much? In Naruto's opinion gender didn't matter when it came to being a ninja. All that mattered was your skills and surviving.

"I don't have a clan or anything fancy like that. I'm what one would call an orphan, or a wandering mercenary."

She decided to stick to the close truth.

She didn't belong to the Uzumaki clan of this era, she didn't have a family and she was planning on making money by doing missions.

"You live all alone?" the boy asked in surprise.

"Well, unless you consider the frog that follows me around for no reason a companion, then yes, I live all on my own. Prime example of being independent, tteba..." she trailed off mentally warning herself to not use her verbal tic lest she wants someone to figure out her origins.

"Since when?" the boy asked.

Naruto shrugged in answer, "Can't remember," it was partially true.

Recently she had been seeing visions of her past. It was rather sad, especially the images of herself sitting on a swing while hearing everyone telling their kids to avoid her for no reason.

"I'm sorry."

"Ah? Don't apologize. It's not like it's your fault that I'm an orphan," Naruto waved him off.

"Yeah..." the boy agreed crouching down to grab another pebble, "My name's Madara."

Eh? Did the boy just break the warring rule of not identifying himself to strangers? Should she break the rule too? It'd be kind of like leaving Madara hanging if she didn't introduce herself. Yeah. But she can't introduce herself as an Uzumaki, god knows what would happen if rumors start going around about a girl with blond hair claiming to be an Uzumaki. So she'll have to use her other last name, right? The Shinigami told her it was from her father's side.

So with a grin she gave a mock bow, "Naruto Namikaze at your service!" she chirped before looking up.

She was met by the shocked expression of Madara, "You aren't supposed to reveal your clan name!" Madara quickly lectured giving her a punch to the head.

"Ouch!" Naruto cried out holding her head as she crouched down, "Why not? Namikaze isn't a clan or anything!" she protested.

"Oh."

Oh?

ohh?

Without wasting a second Naruto returned the punch to the head, "Meanie!" she exclaimed, feeling smug as a bump formed on Madara's head.

"How was I supposed to know that Namikaze wasn't a clan?!" Madara shot back as he stood up crossing his arms.

"Any shinobi worth his or her salt would know every clan there is!" Naruto pointed out.

"You're not even a shinobi!"

"Did I ever say I was worth my salt?"

"Dobe!"

Naruto blinked at the nickname. Forgotten memories of her best friend returning slowly but surely as she yelled, "Teme!" and tackled Madara into the river.

She didn't know how, but a Taijutsu match had started at one point. Without voicing it out loud both agreed not to use Genjutsu nor Ninjutsu. Of course Madara complained when Naruto swiped some dirt towards his eyes or tried to poke his eyes. For some reason Naruto really liked aiming some cheap shots at his eyes.

The match ended with Madara laying flat on his back clutching his manhood in pain and Naruto laughing at his expense.


-O.O.O-


Naruto didn't know why, but she decided to camp near the river and make it her base. Maybe it was because she wanted to see Madara again?

The boy made her feel like a kid. It was a good feeling, though annoying sometimes.

It was exactly when she was roasting some fish for breakfast that he came by again.

"Oh, you're still here dobe," was his greeting.

"Hmph! Just for that I'm not sharing my fish," Naruto pouted.

"I already ate," was Madara's smug reply as he sat on a log next to Naruto.

"Hey, who gave you permission to sit next to me?" Naruto jokingly asked, eating her fish.

Madara took a brief moment to stare in disgusted awe at the way Naruto inhaled the fish. "...you're not supposed to eat the bones."

"Duh, that's why I took them out before roasting the fishes."

Ah.

Maybe he had underestimated Naruto's cooking skills. Then again, he shouldn't be surprised considering Naruto was a female. Females were known for their kitchen skills during the war era after all.

"So, Madara? I'm sure you didn't come here just to look at me eat."

"I just had some free time on my hands."

"And you're not going to train? You pegged me as the type to train at every waking moment."

"Hn."

"Aww, come on. Don't be so secretive!" Naruto teasingly said as she poked Madara's arm with her stick, "You can tell me!"

"I think you're more secretive than me," Madara shot back as he grabbed his canteen to drink water.

Naruto gave him a flat look, "Who was the one who didn't give the other their last name?" and like that she knew she won the argument. Because between telling Naruto his last name or what he was really doing, it was obvious which one the boy would choose.

"I had a feeling you'd be here."

Naruto grinned, "And I had a feeling you'd come. Do you know what this means?"

Madara lifted his eyebrow, "What?" he asked and took a mouth full of water. Travelling from his compound to the river was a bit taxing, but it was worth it.

"We're destined!" Naruto exclaimed.

Madara did a spit take.

"My fish!" Naruto cried.

A red faced Madara turned towards Naruto, "W-what?" he sputtered.

"I said 'my fish!', you deaf or something?" Naruto asked, crossing her arms and momentarily forgetting about her fish.

"No, before that." There was now only a tint of pink of Madara's face.

"Oh! I said that we were destined! Think about it, why would we have met yesterday and both of us had a feeling that we'll meet again? It's obviously the world telling us to become friends! Don't you agree?" an excited Naruto asked.

Dumbstruck Madara nodded in agreement, this was the first time in history he was friend-zoned, usually it was him friend-zoning others. But he was glad that Naruto only saw him as a friend, otherwise things would have been too awkward.

"So as a symbol of our friendship we should do a blood ritual!" Naruto cheerily suggested.

"No."

"A jump in the river naked ritual?"

"Rejected."

"A drinking each other's spit ritual?"

"Disgusting."

"A cutting one limb of each other's ritual?"

"Too morbid."

"Shaking hands?"

"Too boring."

"Telling each other a secret?"

"Too girly."

"Hey! Oh, well. How about training together?"

Madara hummed, "Acceptable."

"Great! What's your signature jutsu?" Naruto curiously asked.

Madara tensed, "Classified."

Naruto crossed her arms with a pout, "Well mine's Rasengan!"

"Rasengan?" Madara echoed allowing himself to show his curiosity.

Nodding quickly, Naruto babbled an explanation, "My...eh Guardian, for lack of better terms, told me it was my father who invented it. It's super cool! And guess what?! Even the Sharingan can't copy it!"

"That's impossible! The Sharingan can copy anything!" Madara yelled in anger as he grabbed the collar of Naruto's kimono, "Anything!" he repeated. No way was he letting a foolish girl tell her that his clan's bloodline couldn't copy this jutsu she talks about.

Naruto stared at him in surprise, for a second she saw the face of Sasuke instead of Madara, "Sa...Madara? Calm down. You're hurting me," it took all she had not to lash out and break his jaws.

Madara blinked, his spark of anger fading as he noticed that he was standing up holding Naruto in the air and that Naruto's face had a purple tint to it. "Sorry!" he quickly apologized, shocked and angered at himself for losing his control.

Naruto hit the ground on her butt with a sigh of relief as her breathing became easy again. Being a mortal was hard. "It's...okay, no harm done," she said, waving Madara off.

Madara's face was so pitiful. A cross between looking ashamed, guilty and kinda like a kicked puppy. It was Naruto who should be looking like a kicked puppy, but, whatever, right?

Beaming up at him she asked, "Wanna see it?"

It was probably due to his guilt that he answered, "Yeah."

Grinning Naruto ran towards a tree motioning him to follow her.

Madara's eyes bulged out when a clone appeared next to Naruto while the girl didn't use any hand seals and..."Is it solid?"

"Un!" the clone answered for Naruto, "Boss here is a specialist when it comes to solid clones, but she sucks at the regular ones!"

Naruto sheepishly rubbed her neck and Madara wondered how someone who could make solid clones couldn't make the regular clones.

"Now pay attention Ma~da~ra!" Naruto said in a sing-song voice holding her hand out. Grinning from ear to ear her clone placed both hands on top of the hand and began doing rotating motions.

"No hand seals..." Madara mumbled in shock as a blue sphere began forming

"See ya boss!" the clone exclaimed disappearing.

"Pay attention Madara!" Naruto exclaimed running towards the tree, "Rasengan!" she called out.

Madara looked on in shock and awe as the huge tree now had gaping hole, his eyes looking between Naruto and the hole before locking on the grin Naruto had. He didn't need to Sharingan to read what Naruto had mouthed to him. "I told ya so."

"..."

"Like it?"

"..."

"Is it amazing?"

"..."

"Awesome?"

"..."

"Scary?"

"Yeah to all the questions," Madara eventually said.

"Ha! Imagine when I face an Uchiha, they'll be like 'My Sharingan can see through deception and copy everything' and I'll be all like 'See through this!' when I beat him I'll be like 'You rely too much on your Sharingan', cool, huh?"

"Hn."

He mentally noted to start training harder. The girl who seemed younger than him a technique that could beat the Sharingan, so he'll have to work harder in case there's other people like her in the field.

"Let's start training."


-O.O.O-


Naruto grinned from ear to ear on her sixth meeting with Madara. Why? Because Madara was hanging from a rope upside down a tree. It was hilarious and suspiciously nostalgic.

"Come on, if you can't even steal my scroll how do you expect to do well on a mission?" Naruto taunted.

"I'll have you know that I've completed more missions than most adults in my clan!" Madara growled cutting the ropes and landing gracefully on the ground, "You on the other hand are too fast!"

"You're just too slow," Naruto smirked, catching the kunai that flew towards her after the statement easily.

"I'm tired of this stupid game," Madara crossed his arms, "Let's train."

"Party pooper," Naruto mumbled under her breath, throwing the kunai back at Madara, "What's your affinity?" she asked.

Madara looked extremely hesitant.

"Come on, it doesn't matter to me which affinity you have or anything. Besides would you rather learn new techniques or learn nothing because of your insistence of not giving anything personal away?" her tone was serious for once, "I don't want you to die, so help me make sure you don't, please," she added softly.

With a sigh Madara answered with: "Fire."

"Okay, as for me? I've mastered wind, water and lightning affinity already," Naruto informed.

Madara's mouth dropped open slightly as he stared at Naruto, "You have thee affinities?"

"Five actually, and I can mix a few here and there."

"How?"

"I don't know, my memory's kinda hazy. Something to do with an old man?"

"...are you sure the Namikaze isn't a clan?"

"Positive."


-O.O.O.-


"Father?" Madara spoke up during dinner.

His two brothers silently sitting on his left and right paused in surprise. Madara wasn't one to openly talk during diner after all.

"Yes?" Tajima Uchiha, leader of the Uchiha clan asked.

"Have you mastered your elemental affinity?" Madara asked.

"Mastering an affinity takes years which due to the constant fighting has been impossible," Tajima answered with a statement.

'How old is Naruto? She seems younger than me, or maybe it's because she's so childish that she seems younger? But still, mastering three affinities while she's not even eighteen?'

"I see, is it possible for a child to master an affinity at a young age?"

"Impossible."

'But that's the only explanation for how Naruto mastered three affinities.'

"I see."

"Why the interest?" his father had always been a suspicious individual.

"On the mission I last took I saw a fellow clansmen doing an impressive display of our fire techniques, it had me wondering," he felt a bit bad for lying, but he was sure that his father wouldn't take a stranger like Naruto befriending him so kindly.

"Ah."

"One last question."

"Ask."

"Is there a Namikaze clan?"

"Namikaze? I've never heard of such a clan. They were probably killed off at one point or another if they ever existed."

"Ah."

And his younger brother Izuna was the only one who noticed the pity his eyes held as he ate a rice ball.


-O.O.O-


It was on their seventh meeting, a week after their last one that Madara decided to try and master his fire affinity.

"So I have to make my chakra burn the leaf?"

"Uh-huh."

"Then I'm supposed to be able to gather the fire from your camp into a ball without burning myself?"

"Yes!"

"And finally I'll be able to enhance my weapons with fire?"

"If you're good you'll be able to do it with your melee attacks too."

"Hn."

"I'll be trying to master it too!"


-O.O.O-


A content sigh escaped Naruto as she bathed in the river, "The water is just perfect! You should join in!" she slyly suggested to Madara whom had turned around in order to not see her.

"N-no thanks."

"Aww, come on."

"No."

"Why not?"

"It's not acceptable for a woman to bath with a man who isn't her husband."

"We're not married?"

"...stop fooling around."

"Ah? How did you know?"

"I know you."

"I miss the times when you'd turn red when I suggest something."

"Over time I developed an immunity towards your teasing advances and innocent advances."

"Innocent advances?"

"You're sometimes dense."

"Whatever, join me~"

"I'd rather not."

"I feel rejected."

"It's for your own good."

"But~ What if I told you that my husband is dead?"

Madara tensed, did Naruto really had a husband? It wasn't something uncommon for kids to be married off, but still..."How old was he?"

"Twenty seven."

Madara felt sick, "Did he ever touch you?"

"Nope."

His shoulders sagged in relief. Someone like Naruto doing things with older men didn't sit right with him, in fact he couldn't imagine Naruto in a relationship at all. Naruto was someone that couldn't be tamed. And men from this era didn't like that.

"He doesn't even exist," Naruto giggled.

"That wasn't funny," but Madara was glad she was just kidding.


-O.O.O-


It was on their ninth meeting that Madara noticed something.

"You're always wearing the same clothes."

"Yeah, so? I don't have any money and I don't know where to go shopping."

"Hn."

The next day Naruto smiled in amusement seeing some clothes laying besides her tent. Obviously the clothes didn't have any symbol or anything. But she still made sure to tease Madara.


-O.O.O-


On their eleventh meeting Madara came looking down.

"Is something wrong?" Naruto asked, staring in concern at Madara whom was sitting near the river.

"Nothing."

Even without her sensory skills Naruto could tell that it was a lie.

"It doesn't seem like nothing to me," Naruto gently said sitting next to Madara.

"To everyone else it's nothing."

"Are you everyone else?"

"No."

"Then it's something important."

"It doesn't matter."

"If it's important to you, it's important to me too."

"Why?"

"Because we're friends. Friends lean on each other when they need support, so you should lean on me when you need me, and I'll do the same."

For a minute the two didn't say anything, but then a chocked sob escaped Madara. Naruto's eyes widened in surprise seeing Madara rub furiously at his eyes that were crying.

But then she knew what to do.

She wrapped her arms around Madara's shoulders before gently pulling him towards her shoulder making sure to murmur soothingly to him reminding him that she's there for him and that everything's going to be alright. She had a feeling that no one had ever done this for her, but she damned well will do this for her friend. It wasn't until later that she found out that the boy whom's soul she had reaped yesterday was Madara's younger brother Isana Uchiha.


-O.O.O-


"I'm going away for a month."

"Eh?"

"I have a mission."

Silence fell and the two didn't say anything for a long time.

Naruto furious that Madara's father would send another son out on a mission one day after his other son had died. She really wanted to give the man a piece of her mind. And she will. Eventually.

Madara simply because he didn't know what to say.

Eventually Madara had to leave to prepare for the mission.

"I'll see you later."

"Hn."

Because both knew they couldn't make the other promise not to die.


Chapter End.


Author's note: ...ah! Done!

Edited: 25/6/2017