Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto except for the characters that Misashi Kishimoto did not create. Also this entire story is different from the manga and the anime. I have messed the entire plot up from the original story and made it into this. Don't like, don't read. Kazekage=Gaara Hokage=Tsunade. Technically starts after the destruction of the Leaf Village and after Tsunade becomes Hokage and Team 7 with the exception of Sasuke is a team again. There will be no Sai as I do not like him or Danzo as he is an asshole.

Chapter 2

Parting with "Mother" Kurenai

I'll start my real story with when I was in school. My sensei was excellent. He wasn't my mother, but he was my mother's lover, Asuma Sarutobi the son of the Third Hokage and Konohamaru's uncle. Katie and Tomi were in my class with me. As were Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, and a few other kids. My sisters and I always sat together and took notes. Unlike the boys we paid attention. Especially when Choji was eating during the lesson or when Shikamaru was sleeping. But they weren't as bad as one boy in the class next door. His name was Naruto Uzumaki. When I first saw him sitting on the swing outside of the Academy, I sincerely believed that he just acted out because he was lonely.

One day I say Naruto sitting in the swing outside of the Academy like I did every other day. But on that day, he looked different. It wasn't the look of a boy plotting the next big prank; it was the look of someone who was truly and utterly alone with no one to look up to or to be friends with. At the time, Mom had told me to talk to him, but I was too scared. I knew that he had a crush on Sakura Haruno and I knew how the other villagers treated him. Even because of that, I still excused myself from my table and went over to him.

"Good afternoon, Naruto," I greeted waving to him when he saw me.

"Good afternoon, Tora," Naruto replied bleakly.

"What are you doing here all by yourself?" I asked him.

"I've always sat here," he answered. "Ever since I was little, I would come here. People leave me alone here."

"Why don't you join my group and me for lunch?" I asked.

"Why?" Naruto looked at me suspiciously. He had a hard time trusting people as they liked to use him for their own means and then they would leave him and treated him like everyone else did, with disgust and distaste.

"I just thought that you would like to make some new friends rather than being alone," I explained. I turned to walk away and noticed that Naruto had gotten up from the swing and was following me.

"Alright," Naruto said coming up next to me. "You win."

After that day, Naruto became a permanent addition to the group. We were hardly ever seen alone; even when Naruto when to Tenuchi to have ramen. I was one lesson that Mom taught me that had stuck with me. "When you make new friends, stick with them as well as your current friends. You never know when you may lose one of them and may need support." My mother was very wise in the way of friends. Trust me; she has many.

Three years after I became friends with Naruto, Mom came by to see how the entire group was doing. After seeing Naruto and I spar, myself winning, but just barely, she stopped us and proceeded to train us after sending Naruto off to his other team.

"Good job Tora," she complimented. "You need to work on getting your kicks higher though."

"Yes, Mother," I replied bowing slightly to her. "Thank you."

"Now Hitomi, try to use your new jutsu," Mom instructed. "I heard from your brother that he's been teaching you the Shadow Possession jutsu."

"He has but I haven't fully mastered it yet," Tomi replied shyly. Because of her shyness, she never really liked talking much. She made Hinata Hyuga look like the Loch Ness Monster.

"Just try it," Mom said. "Assume the position and try it on me."

"Alright," Tomi said shakily. She got her hands ready for the hand signs. "Don't blame me for the after effects."

"I don't plan on it Hitomi," Mom said bracing herself. "It's how your father and I trained when we were your age. Now just try your best." As Hitomi concentrated on the hand signs and the jutsu itself, her shadow moved slowly toward Mother and took control of her bodily movements just like that of her family.

"Great job Hitomi," Mom said when the shadow receded back. "You need to work on how much chakra you put into the jutsu. You need only enough to control the shadow and then keep a steady flow. That way the possession will stay longer and you can make a plan of attack after the shadow recedes."

"Thank you Kurenai-sensei," Hitomi bowed to Mom and stepped back to allow Katie to talk with her.

"Your turn Katerin," Mom said. "Has your father taught you the Lightning Blade yet?"

"Ph you mean Chidori," Katie said. "Not yet. He says that when I become a chunnin he'll teach it to me."

"Good," Mom said. "What about the sharingan that he has?"

"He says that I don't have it," Katie replied again. "He got that eye from Obito Uchiha. Mom surgically placed it Dad on their friends' request.

"I forgot the story about the eye," Mom said more to herself than to us. "Either way, do you have any new jutsu?"

"No Kurenai-sensei," Katie answered. "Gomen."

"No need to be sorry Katerin," Mom said smiling at her. "That leaves more time to perfect the jutsu you already know and leaves for other jutsu to wait until you are stronger mentally and physically for the other jutsu."

"Arigato, Kurenai-sensei," Katie said bowing to her.

"Domo," Mom said. She turned her attention to me and said, "Now try the shadow clone jutsu Tora."

After a half hour of drilling us on the jutsu we already knew, she dismissed us to go back to our dorm to wear ourselves out more by listening to music and dancing to it like the crazed teenagers we were. Before we left though, she called me back to talk to her alone while we walked back to my apartment.

"It's good that you made friends with Naruto Uzumaki," Mom complimented.

"Arigato Mama," I said. "Now I know that you didn't just want to talk to my about Naruto. What's going on?"

Mom sighed knowing that I had seen through her façade. "Well I have a mission that I leave for tomorrow," she explained sadly.

"What's so bad about that?" I asked confused. "You get sent on missions all the time. Why should this one be any different?"

"Tora listen!" Mom exclaimed turning me as she spoke. "This isn't like other missions. This is an A-ranked one that I must do with Kakashi, Asuma, and Guy's groups."

"What is the mission?" I asked softly.

"We must recapture the Kazekage from some S-ranked missing ninja," she explained. "One of which is from the Sand Village, Sasori of the Red Sand and his partner from the Rock Village, Deidara. Both are in an organization called Akatsuki. As far as we know, they haven't left the Sand Village yet because of Naruto andSakura who were visiting the Kazekage at the time," Mom explained. "According to the information that we have received, Lord Kazekage has the One-Tailed spirit, Shukaku, sealed inside of him. The Akatsuki apparently want to capture all of the tailed spirits to use against the Hidden Villages. If they succeed in their plans, not just the villages, but the whole world will be in danger from them."

"Let me go with you Mother," I begged. "You will need my help to fight."

"It's not that I don't want you to help Tora, but you're too young to help," Mom said shutting down my offer. "I don't want anything to happen to you. What would your brother say?"

"What was that?" I asked. As far as I knew, I had no family left after my real parents had been killed fighting the Kyuubi.

"Oh shit," Mom muttered under her breath. "I really didn't want to say that."

"I have a brother?" I said entering my memories and leaving just as quickly. "You said that I had no family after the fox came and attacked 14 years ago on the day of my birth!"

"The Third Hokage thought it wise that you were split from your brother after the death of your parents," Mom quickly explained. I usually began to scream after I found out a secret that had to with my or the people I cared about. She spoke quickly to detour me from that route. "I offered to take you in and raise you as my own child and told everyone that Asuma was the father but that I refuse to marry him until after you grew up."

"But you refused to marry him even after I grew up," I said matter-of-factly.

"True, but we are both busy with missions and our groups," Mom explained. "We decided that it would be best to leave it like it is."

Did you ever talk to Tsunade-sama about it?" I inquired.

"Actually, no." Mom said. "We didn't want to incase one of us never came back from a mission. It's not uncommon, but you never know what will happen on a mission."

I nodded my understanding. "Asuma-sensei told us about that in class. It was one thing that we should expect if, after many weeks of being on a mission and not returning, that the mission was a failure and that all people involved were most likely kissed in the process."

"You were the best in your class," Mom said. "You would be on par with Sakura herself."

"When will you be back?" I asked worriedly.

"I don't know," Mom replied looking down at me while I looked up at her. "The Akatsuki consist of many missing ninja from many villages. One is from our own!"

"Let me guess, Itachi Uchiha." I said. Naruto had told me about him and his partner after coming back from bringing Tsunade-sama to be the fifth Hokage.

"How did you know about him?" Mom asked.

"Naruto told me about him and Kisame Hoshigake when he came back with Lady Tsunade," I explained.

"What did he tell you?" Mom asked. She liked testing my knowledge of things before telling me any new information so that she wouldn't be telling me information that I already knew.

"He said that Itachi is Sasuke's older brother and is the one responsible for killing his entire clan except for Sasuke," I explained. "Also that Kisame is one of the original Seven Swordsman from the Hidden Mist Village and looks more like a shark than a man."

Mom nodded her approval. "Good," she said. "Do you know the other members?"

"I had done research on the others so yes I do," I stated simply. "The entire group consists of 9 members forming two-man cells. Two other groups are the ones we already spoke of, Sasori with Deidara and Itachi with Kisame. There was also one more member of the group but he left after trying to win over Itachi to his side. He is also a sanin from our village Orochimaru."

Mom stared at me for a moment, shocked at how much I new about the organization. She quickly collected herself. "Very good Tora," she said. "How did you find out that information? Not even the library will tell that information to chunin."

I shrugged my shoulders. "I had a few 'special' talks with Jiraiya before he took Naruto off to train him," I explained. "From then, I gathered more information from other people when I went on missions."

"That would explain it then." We arrived at my apartment and I stopped in front of the door and stood to face her.

"Are you sure that I can't come with you Mother?" I asked. "I could be your back-up."

"I need you to stay here." Her tone left no room for argument.

I sighed in defeat then remembered something. "If Naruto is in the Sand Village with Sakura, then why did we see him today? It's at least a three-day journey to the Sand Village from here."

"That was one of Naruto's more sturdy shadow clones," Mom explained. "He left him here saying that he wanted to keep an eye on you."

"'An eye on me'? Why?" I asked

"Naruto has feelings for you even though he doesn't realize something more important," Mom explained. "The brother I said you have, that is Naruto."

"Na-na-brother?" I stammered. For the first time I was completely and utterly speechless.

"Yes," Mom explained. "Your true mother was Kushina Uzumaki. And your father was Minato Namizake, the Yellow Flash of Konoha."

"The Fourth Hokage is my father?"

"And Lord Jiraiya is your god-father."

I was utterly speechless. It took all of my strength not to fall on my face and faint right then and there. After I regained some semblance of speech, I asked, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was forbidden," she explained. "After Kushina and Minato were killed and the fox sealed inside a newborn baby, the Third decreed that no one was to speak about the fox or who the fox was sealed in. You and Naruto were separated. I agreed to take you in when I was 22. I was only a chunin. As to how the Fourth was killed, when you were born, the Kyuubi attacked the village. The ninja couldn't stop him. Finally the Fourth Hokage came after summoning Gamabunta. He used a jutsu that sealed the spirit of the fox within a newborn child at the cost of his own life. That child was your twin brother Tora. Naruto is your twin brother and the container for the Kyuubi. I saw how the people treated Naruto after the attack. No one wanted to adopt him. I would have, but I already had you. So the Third Hokage gave him an apartment when Naruto was old enough to live on his own. That's why I wanted you to become friends with him. Because even though the Hokage wanted you split up, I wanted you to know that you still had a blood relative and not just me and your friends."

I nodded in understanding letting the information sink in. "Should I tell my teammates?" I asked.

Mom thought for a moment then answered. "Only that Naruto is your twin brother and who your real parents are," she said. "No one else is to know about the Kyuubi."

"Yes Mother," I bowed my head to her in respect.

"Now get inside and get some sleep," Mom said. "I shall be back in a few days." I nodded, gave her a hug, and then retreated into my room not knowing that that would be the last time I ever saw my mother alive.

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