Sarutobi stood by the window overlooking the village. Beside him stood a tall man with a long spiky white ponytail. The man was a stark contrast to Sarutobi himself. Whereas Sarutobi wore his typical Kage robes, but the other was wearing a pair of geta sandals and an olive green gi with a red jacket and a large scroll strapped top his back.

"Sensei you have to be joking." The larger man said incredulously.

"I can't say Jiraiya-kun. I just know what I've been told." Sarutobi said with a sigh. "I brought you in because I need your input as to how to deal with this."

"What could I possibly do that would make this any better?" Jiraiya asked loudly. "You said that his entire being is split into a boy who hates himself and a girl who so far has only one goal. Which by the way is to help her other half commit SUICIDE!"

Sarutobi sighed deeply. "I know Jiraiya I know. But maybe we can find a way to talk him out of it but we have to find a way to talk to them both at the same time."

"How would we do that? If she is really a whole different personality we would need another body." Jiraiya said throwing up his hand in defeat.

"Shadow clones perhaps?" Sarutobi said thoughtfully. "Naruto most certainly has the chakra for at least one."

"That could work." Jiraiya said with a thoughtful expression. "What say we do this and he really just wants to die?"

"I don't know Jiraiya. I just don't know." Sarutobi said picking his pipe up off the desk beside him. "But we have to get to the bottom of this."

"Kami help us with what we find there." Jiraiya said somberly shaking his head. "Is he already on his way here?"

"Yes I had Kakashi-kun go retrieve him and bring him here ." Sarutobi said with a wry grin. "I believe it is like removing a bandage and would be best done as soon as possible. So as soon as you reached the office I sent Kakashi off."

"So they'll either be here any minute now or they won't arrive for hours?" Jiraiya said with a frown.

Sarutobi gave his student an indulgent smile. "No fear Jiraiya-kun I expressed the importance of this to Kakashi-kun. He is under the penalty of me allowing Kurenai to know the location of the bookstore's back room if he doesn't arrive promptly."

Jiraiya frowned at his sensei. "And he didn't realize that you were bluffing?"

"Well I mentioned that I could get mine straight from the author as well as forbid you from giving or selling him anymore."

"Ah, well yes there is that." Jiraiya said soberly. There was a knock at the door. Jiraiya turned to see the door open and both Naruto and Kakashi walk in. Kakashi had his nose in Icha Icha Paradise vol. Two, and Naruto looked like he wanted to be anywhere else. Though given what he had just been talking about with his Sensei maybe he would prefer to be nowhere at all?

"Naruto-kun it's good to see you." Sarutobi said with a broad smile. "I wanted to talk to you about a certain young lady."

"You know gramps, I really don't like it when people dance around stuff. If you wanna talk to Tsubaki you just have to ask." Naruto said with a frown.

"Well yes I do wish to talk to her but I'd like to talk to you both." Sarutobi said crossing his arms behind his back.

"I can only let you talk to her or me we can't both talk at the same time." Naruto said with a suspicious frown. "How would you talk to both of us?"

"There are a few jutsu that make solid clones." Sarutobi began.

"You think that would help?" Naruto asked skeptically. "Gramps you know I can't make clones."

"You can't make the low level clones but that won't matter. Shadow clones are an entirely different cup of tea my boy. They have a physical body and can think for themselves." Sarutobi said with a knowing look.

"Th-that might work." Naruto said thoughtfully. "Who's gonna teach me the move?"

"I will." Jiraiya said with a small smile. " However I'm only showing you once so you damned well better pay attention."

"Yeah what ever you say old guy. Get to the jutsu already." Naruto said with a frown.


It took Naruto three hours to get the jutsu down. But when it was complete he transformed into Tsubaki. She sat looking at the three men in the room and the clone of Naruto who was looking at her oddly.

"Kami that is weird." The clone said at last. "I never expected to meet you face to face."

Tsubaki shifted uncomfortably at all the attention. The clone noticed and got between her and the others. " Alright old people stop starin' at her before I have to hurt you."

"Thank you Naruto." she said with a sad voice.

"Hey it's no problem. Your like my little sister right?" The clone asked rhetorically. "Big brothers are supposed to take care of their little sisters." She looked at him skeptically. She could see the loathing behind the false smile. It wasn't directed at her. She knew that but being face to face with Naruto gave her no options. They shared a brain and a body after all. She could read him like a book. She was shore he could read her to because he turn away from her. Hiding his face.

The adults in the room noticed a few things about the by-play. First off they noticed that Tsubaki was the original and Naruto was the clone. Also he was protective of her. Like she was in need of someone to take care of her. There was also the fact that she was gazing at him sadly and he turned so she couldn't see his face. That worked both ways when he turned away he could no longer see the hurt look on her face.

Jiraiya looked pointedly at Sarutobi, who only gave him a weathered look that said clearly. I have no idea what to do. Jiraiya turned to the two preteens. "So I hear that Tsubaki is training and Naruto isn't. How come?"

"'cause when we find a way to get rid of me I'll disappear and she'll be the only one left behind." Naruto said looking at the three men.

"He doesn't like it here and just wants to go away." Tsubaki said softly.

"Why do you want to disappear Naruto?" Kakashi asked closing the book in his hand with an audible snap. He put the book into his kunai pouch, and looked right at Naruto.

"Because I hate my life." Naruto said with a growl. "There has to be something wrong with me and obviously I need to die so I can stop bothering people."

"That's not true!" Roared four voices, three were angry and one was close to crying.

"Really?" He asked angrily. "Because I'm pretty sure that that many people with the same opinion can't be wrong! I've heard them calling me demon and murderer. I can't remember what happened when I was a baby but I'm not stupid!"

"What do you mean Naruto-kun?" Sarutobi asked in a subdued manner. The other two men looked deathly pale.

"I was born the day that the Yondaime killed the Kyuubi." Naruto said lowering his head so that his bangs covered his eyes. "I have checked the records. I was found in the wreckage of the fight. There was no body found for the Kyuubi was there gramps. And I know why! It's because he didn't destroy it he turned it into a human!"

Everyone in the room was deathly quiet. To be so close to the truth and fall so far short.

"I am the reincarnation of the Kyuubi." Naruto said with a growl. "And even if I die all that power has to go somewhere."

"What do you mean Naruto-kun?" Kakashi asked in a strangled whisper.

"I can't just die or someone else would be born with this cursed soul." Naruto said angrily. He began pacing the room. "Do you realize that even if me and Tsubaki succeed she will have my body. She'll be my jinchuriki damn it!"

"Naruto I feel there is something that you must know." Sarutobi stood up from his desk. "You are not the Kyuubi. You are it's jinchuriki. The Yondaime didn't turn it into a human baby, he sealed it into one. You. His own son."

Naruto whirled around and looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "No." He said backing away from them. "That can't be true if I was the Yondaime's son why did everyone hate me?!"

"Because they were close minded fools." Jiraiya growled angrily.

"I don't know if I believe you. And even if I did. It doesn't matter I don't plan on being around long enough for it to count for anything." Naruto said gruffly. "Just leave everything to Tsubaki she will need it if she wants to be a good ninja."

"Why do you have to cease to be?" Jiraiya asked looking at Naruto suspiciously. "Why are you so determined to disappear?"

"Because I want to disappear." Naruto said vehemently. "I hate my life and I just want it to end." His statement had started harshly, but by the end it just sounded lost and defeated.

"Take off the coat." Tsubaki said softly.

Naruto jerked like he had been slapped. "How did you..."

"I'm sharing a body and brain with you. I can remember all your memories like a movie I watched." Tsubaki said sadly. "You can do mine the same way. You just didn't think I could."

"What are you two talking about?" Sarutobi asked reluctantly like he really didn't want to know but knew he had to ask.

Naruto took off his jacket and tossed it to the side where it went up in a puff of smoke. There gleaming evilly on the exposed skin of his arms were two rows of thin scars running horizontally up from his wrist to his elbows. The three men looked physically sick to their stomachs at what they saw before them. Here was the boy they were charged with protecting and they had failed utterly.

"What it's not like it could kill me." Naruto said defensively but making no move to cover the scars.

"...Why?" Kakashi asked looking at the scar transfixed.

"I wanted something real." Naruto said sullenly. "At least the razor blade never pretended that it was going to be nice to me."

"It was before I came into being." Tsubaki said softly. "He created me after he had dreams about a woman who looks like me."

"Kushina." Sarutobi said thoughtfully. "I wonder why he would dream of her?"

"She's his mother." Jiraiya stated wryly. "Why shouldn't he dream of her."

"But he's m\never seen her, even in a picture, since the sealing." Sarutobi stated with a frown.

"Maybe her spirit was trying to help him?" Kakashi said with a thoughtful look.

"Maybe she was trying to tell him it would be alright." Tsubaki said angrily. "It doesn't matter because it's not alright. He is my father, my brother, and me all rolled up in one and I have to help him kill himself so if your not going to help leave us alone."

Naruto shook his head and frowned, before poofing out of existence. Tsubaki turned away to leave only to be stopped by Jiraiya. "How are you going to make the transformation permanent?"

"Fuuinjutsu." She said looking at him distrustfully. "Why?"

"Because I'm a Fuuinjutsu master and if you do it wrong it can have disastrous effects. I'll help you make the transformation permanent if you allow me to."

"Why would you help me?" She asked uncertainly. "You don't want him to die."

"Your right I don't but that's not the point. If you play around with Fuuinjutsu and not know what you are doing it could kill more than the two of you." Jiraiya said with a scowl. "It'll take a while to make a seal that will work but after I do you should be fine. Can you wait a few weeks?"

"I can." She said cautiously. "But you are gonna explain it every step of the way or your not doing anything."

"Ok." Jiraiya said with a grin.


Tsubaki left the room and soon the entire Hokage tower. She made her way to her apartment and grabbed some clothes. Since she had transformed with closes on they were much more fragile than the real thing. After removing the transformed clothes she walked into her scroll library. It was admittedly small, with only a few jutsu of each element and a few that weren't elementally aligned. But she had worked hard to get then. She had spent hours working on calligraphy so that she could get her own jutsu library. Mostly because she still didn't trust most of the village even though they treated her like a normal person. How could she trust them after seeing how they had treated Naruto growing up.

She frowned and grabbed a scroll on wind release: great breakthrough. It had been a very rare find. And she was eternally grateful that some tired librarian had misplaced it. She had borrowed it as soon as she saw it and rushed it home to begin copying it. It had taken an hour and a half to copy all the information. Which was a let down to her but she new that wind release was rare in Konoha so she wasn't really surprised. She had also found the lightning release: lightning ball scroll having been put up wrong as well. It was coincidentally the only lightning jutsu she had found. She had plenty low level jutsu of the other three elements, but those two were her treasures. She had found that she could pretty much do any elemental jutsu except earth, which she figured meant she was probably wind-natured as earth was wind's natural opposite. She walked out behind the apartment into a small clearing and unfurled the jutsu scroll. She studied it like she had so many times before and tried to figure out a way to create her own jutsu. She wanted to create her own jutsu more than anything. She had decided it would be a move that would allow her to punch blasts of wind. But thus far no luck. She had managed to make great breakthrough into a smaller group of blasts instead of one huge one, which had its own applications. Given that the big one was a area of effect jutsu and the smaller could be aimed. So far wind release: bullet barrage was the closest she had gotten.


Unknown to Tsubaki there was a woman watching her from the shadows marveling at the resemblance between this little girl and her former Sensei, Kushina Uzumaki. She wanted to rush out and hug the mini lookalike but knew there was no way this girl was related to her Sensei. Her Sensei only had one child after all and it had died. Unless the village had lied about that to keep her safe. Her Sensei had had quite a few enemies especially in Kumo. Not to mention the fact that her Sensei had been secretly married to the Yondaime so that would mean that any child she had would have been his also. Oh Kami it made sense of course they would hide her. She would be in constant danger from assassins from both Kumo and Iwa. And being a girl and one of the last Uzumaki she would be in danger of far worse than just death. Finally the woman couldn't take it and had to talk to the little girl reading a wind-natured jutsu scroll of all things. She stepped out into the field.


"You know that's pretty advanced reading for a girl not even in the academy." Said an amused voice behind her. Tsubaki 'eeped' and spun around to find a woman with long purple hair and a sword sticking over her shoulder. Tsubaki looked at her like she was waiting for an attack.

"Who are you?" Tsubaki asked trying to discretely look for an exit.

"I'm Yuugo Uzuki." The purple haired swordswoman said with a small smile. "And you are in my personal training area."

"Oh." Tsubaki said with a blush. "I didn't know it was anybodies area. I just found it when I moved in and it seemed like a convenient area to train in. I'm sorry."

"It's no problem but why aren't you in the academy if you are reading such advanced jutsu?" Yuugo asked with a frown.

"Well I never got in. I'm kind of new around here." Tsubaki said looking away from Yuugo. "The Hokage knows about me and is going to let me become a ninja. And I sometimes train with Gai-sensei and his team."

"Huh. What do you train in?" Yuugo asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Well me and Tenten are training in swords she has a bunch but I have a training jian. And I'm practicing in my own form of taijutsu that they are all helping me develop." Tsubaki said thoughtfully.

"What have you learned by yourself?" Yuugo asked inquizitively.

"Well I have mastered tree walking and am working on water walking. I know how to use shadow clones. And a few elemental jutsu like great breakthrough, lightning ball, water bullet, and phoenix flower. I can't use earth techniques. And I'm trying to figure out how to create my own jutsu." Tsubaki said while tapping her chin with her pointer finger.

"Wow you are a really well rounded ninja." Yuugo said with a bit of awe. Granted the girl knew her stuff but it was different to know something in a training environment and to know it in real combat. "Do you have a sword style or do you just use it like a really long kunai?"

Tsubaki blushed at the comment. "Well I use it as an extension of my taijutsu style."

This seemed to intrigue the older woman. "Can you explain that to me please?"

"Well my taijutsu is all about evading my opponents and using the evasion as a means of attack. I gain momentum from the evasion and use it to bolster my attacks. It all works on the principle that the best was to bloke a blow is to not be there to receive it. I have used it effectively on Neji using the Hyuuga fighting style and he is hailed as a prodigy." Tsubaki said with a smile. "I have knocked out every member of Gai-sensei's team with my taijutsu alone."

Now Yuugo was more than impressed. This tiny slip of a girl who looked so much like her Sensei had been able to defeat every member of a heavily taijutsu based team using taijutsu. Yuugo swallowed and looked at the girl before biting her lip. "What is your name?" She asked looking directly at the girl.

"Tsubaki." Was the reply.

"Do you have a family name?" Yuugo asked trying not to look desperate.

"I guess it would be Uzumaki." Tsubaki said suspiciously. Yuugo looked at her and almost broke into tears. She slowly walked over to the girl and knelt in front of her. "Do you know your mom's name?" She asked looking at the mini Kushina.

"The Sandaime said it was Kushina today before that no I didn't." Tsubaki said backing away. "Why are you asking me this?"

Yuugo finally couldn't hold back the tears. "I was Kushina's student when I was a genin. It was me Hana Inuzuka and a girl named Kiterra. I knew that Sensei had been pregnant but they told me that the baby had died. They told Kakashi the same thing. He was your father's student." Yuugo said softly hoping not to upset the girl. "I would have been there to help raise you if I had known you were ok...can I hug you?"

Tsubaki looked at the older woman. Then said in a rush. "You knew my mom? Can you tell me about her? I don't mind if you hug me."

Yuugo scooped up the girl and twirled her around giddily. "Of course I'll tell you about her. Would you like to go get some ramen? Kushina-sensei used to love it we can talk there."

Tsubaki nodded happily and grabbed the scroll and quickly rolled it up. She put it in the pouch belted to her leg and smoothed out her shirt and shorts. She then looked at Yuugo shyly and offered her hand for the older woman to take. Yuugo smiled back and took the younger girls hand. She was going to be having words with the Hokage later but right now she was with her sensei's daughter, her own little sister in all but blood. She would think angry thoughts later.