Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Rurouni Kenshin or Chrono Cross. I am writing this purely to see reader reaction and for fun. I make no financial profit doing this.

Chapter 2 – Training Begins

"She should be locked away! She's a menace to society. She makes the villagers nervous, and now it's lead to the death of six civilians and the betrayal of one of our ANBU." Uchiha Fugaku had been the biggest pusher for punishing Naruko, but to be fair it wasn't just because he hated her. As the head of Konoha's Military Police he had to deal with all the complaints of her presence and all the threats towards the girl tied up a not insignificant portion of his manpower regularly.

"That's not her fault! She hasn't broken any laws and you know it! Elder Danzo himself has verified her actions as self defense, and there are no other witnesses to the event. Not even the ANBU agent that was supposed to be shadowing Uzumaki-San. And we know that those killed were involved in the unauthorized change in ANBU duties." Inuzuka Tsume had been surprisingly fierce in her defense of Naruko. She had been one of those blocked from adopting Naruko when she had been orphaned. She was impressed by the girl's guts. That she had been able to keep going despite all the crap thrown at her. And now she had been able to defend herself from six fully grown adults with just a wakizashi she had never even been taught how to use. It was just a damn shame about that mask of hers.

It turned out that the people who had attacked her had also arranged for a fairly new member to the ANBU rosters to sabotage the duty postings. So instead of Hebi keeping an eye on the girl like had been planned, Naruko had been allowed to move without an escort. Hebi had been absolutely furious when she found out. She had arrived at the eastern wall and met up with the ANBU team there only to discover that the team leader did not have her assigned to him.

So she and one other member from the wall had gone to report to the Hokage. Every ANBU assignment went through him from the ANBU Commander. It didn't take long for the ANBU investigation specialists to determine the culprit. Koroshi Kagari, a twenty six year old high Chuunin level shinobi who had been blackmailed by the woman who led the attack on Naruko. She had been a narcotics dealer who had gotten Koroshi addicted to her opium products. Her operation and wares had quickly been seized and Kagari detained for questioning and reevaluation. But not before Hebi had managed to vent her rage on him a bit. And then she put in for transfer to the T&I division.

"She hasn't broken any laws no, and I don't want to punish her for defending herself. But it is true that we must do something to keep the villagers calm." Nara Shikaku was firmly on Naruko's side in this matter, as were his old friends Yamanaka Inoichi and Akimichi Chouza. They didn't hate the girl, but neither did they particularly care for her. As long as she didn't directly hurt them they would leave her alone, but they wouldn't go out of their way for her either.

This was the opening Danzo and Sarutobi had been waiting for. The issue had been raised half an hour ago and Naruko had been brought in to sit before them and tell her version of events. Then Danzo as the only other witness told his version. They had to let the other Council members have their say in the matter, and now that they had, Danzo could make his move to officially place Naruko under his tutelage.

"I propose that the girl be handed over to me for proper training and monitoring. She has great potential, and this is the first time something like this has happened. Now that her attackers have grown so bold as to attempt something like this, she must be able to defend herself. In addition to this it would free up some of our internal security forces who would normally have to keep an eye on her." With this he had shot down any legitimate objections from Fugaku. Danzo's reputation as a stern, no nonsense patriot would quell those who feared and hated Naruko.

Now would be the hardest part, convincing those that actively supported Naruko to allow her into his care.

"And how do we know you're not just going to try turning her into your puppet? Your personal attack dog?" The phrase attack dog may have seemed derogatory, but coming from an Inuzuka that was a compliment to Naruko's potential. The Inuzuka placed a great deal of faith in their Ninken. They were their most prized assets. So comparing Naruko to an attack dog meant they thought she was worthy of their respect. "We are aware of the training your Root operatives go through."

"Naruko would be no ordinary Root agent. In fact, you would hardly call her one at all. She is far too high profile of a person to have operating in the shadows, an unknown and unseen protector. No, I intend to build her into a symbol of our might. She will grow in the light and leave all in awe of her. She will be trained among my operatives. But she will not undergo the emotional conditioning of my agents."

This stalled Tsume's protective rampage. The skill and power of Danzo's Root ANBU was undeniable. He also had never shown any animosity towards the girl, in fact he had shown anger at her treatment. Since Danzo had given his word to his fellow shinobi that Naruko would be safe from his emotion suppressing practices, this was sounding rather appealing. It would mean that Naruko avoided a punishment, learned to protect herself, and gained a guardian in one of the most influential men in Konoha.

Sarutobi could sense the changing mindsets and decided to put the final nail in the coffin. "Naruko-Chan, what do you think of this?"

Naruko had been sitting very patiently in the chair provided, smiling cheerfully and swinging her legs back and forth. "I want Danzo-Sama to train me." There it was, no reasons given, just a simple response. And it was more than enough to carry the motion.

Calling for a vote resulted in a unanimous decision, though some votes very grudgingly given. Uzumaki Naruko would be placed into the care and tutelage of Shimura Danzo effective immediately.


Now that Naruko was effectively in his custody, the first thing to do was get her checked over by a physician. So he summoned his personal healer, Sahashi Yumi, the only woman who could get away with yelling at and ordering around Danzo since his wife had died.

As Naruko's guardian, Danzo could now access her medical files. But he wanted to get as up to date a report as possible. When Yumi arrived he asked her to perform a full check up on Naruko.

"Naruko-Chan, this is my physician Sahashi Yumi." She looked to be in her late forties with hair just beginning to go gray. She wore a blue kimono and carried a medium sized pack that had various seals inside and on top of it.

"Hello Sahashi-Sensei." Naruko watched her carefully. She hadn't had many good experiences with doctors.

"Hello Naruko-Chan, I'm happy to meet you. Can you tell me when your last check up was?"

"Check up? Well the last time I was in a hospital was a couple of weeks ago when a bunch of drunks beat me up and lodged broken glass in my hands. Then one of the doctors tried poisoning me. Hokage-Sama told me he got rid of him though."

Yumi held in her scowl so as not to alarm Naruko. Naruko's medical reports had been woefully inadequate, with little detail and treatment description. Apparently her previous doctors had been criminally negligent in their duties. Well, she would make sure that Naruko's medical needs were met appropriately from now on.

"Alright Naruko-Chan, I'm just going to make sure there's nothing wrong with your body, okay?"

At Naruko's nod Yumi quickly formed the hand seals necessary for a basic diagnostic jutsu, forming a haze of green chakra over her hands. It was only a few moments before she let out a gasp of surprise.

"Is something wrong Yumi-Sensei?" Danzo asked

Clearing her throat Yumi replied, "Surprisingly very little Danzo-Sama. She is slightly malnourished, but not nearly as much as I expected. She also has a massive chakra capacity; larger than many shinobi ever have in their whole careers. But the thing that really startled me was her bone and muscle structure, and her immune system. Her bones and muscles are far denser than a normal shinobi's, both about four times stronger than you would expect in a girl her age and size. And her immune system is the strongest I've ever seen. Have you ever been sick Naruko-Chan?"

"No Yumi-Sensei. The other kids would always be mean to me because they got sick and I didn't." There were other reasons of course, but this was one they came up with all on their own.

"Well, judging from what my diagnostic tells me, you may very well never be sick a day in your life." But on the other hand, if she did ever get sick they would have to quarantine her very quickly. Something that could get past an immune system like hers would likely devastate the entire village at least.

"So what's the verdict Yumi-Sensei?"

"Naruko-Chan is a healthy, if underfed girl that could probably survive a small building falling on top of her. Because the malnourishment is such a light case of it, there's no need to be particularly careful about her nutrition and volume of food consumed. In fact, I would say let her eat as much as she can, and she'll find herself in nutritionally prime condition very quickly. You know what kind of foods to give her." (1)

Yumi then clapped her hands and said, "Let's move on to the physical exam then. We have to check to see if you're getting enough exercise Naruko-Chan."

Danzo led them into his backyard. It had been walled off and sealed so he could train there undisturbed.

Yumi opened up her bag and pulled out a small set of weights. "Naruko-Chan, I want you to pick up these weights until you find one you can't lift okay?" The weights ranged from one pound to fifteen. She didn't think she would need anything heavier for a four year old. She was wrong, but during her diagnostic she had already suspected this would happen. Naruko had been easily able to lift every single weight present.

"Very good Naruko-Chan, you're upper body strength is quite good for a four year old. Next I want to see your stamina and leg strength." She walked over to a tree at the edge of the yard and slapped a large orange sticker on it. "Please run between here and Danzo-Sama as many times as you can." She said as she readied a stop watch.

This turned out to be a rather long exercise. Naruto had been running back and forth between the two points for twenty minutes now at a pace any four year old would be exhausted by in less than two minutes. And she wasn't even slowing down. Watching closely she was actually very slowly speeding up. After twenty five minutes of this Yumi finally called out for Naruko to stop and she came to a halt slightly out of breath.

"Well that's just amazing Naruko-Chan. I've never seen someone your age run for so long and so fast before in my life."

Danzo watched patiently and with more than a little excitement as the tests progressed. There could be no doubt that she would be very powerful someday. "So is she alright to begin training Yumi-Sensei?" He wanted to get started immediately, but he knew better than to contradict a doctor's orders so easily.

"Well I would like her to have a better diet for at least week first, but yes. Everything I've seen indicates that Naruko-Chan is more than ready to begin training. Just keep it relatively light for the first couple of weeks."

Danzo agreed easily enough. He had already been planning to take things lightly the first week. It's not like he could just move on to jutsu teaching right away. The beginning would be largely academic teachings.

Naruko's life quickly fell into a routine. She would wake up at eight am, eat a huge breakfast, meet one of Danzo-Sama's shadow clones for lessons including learning how to read, Math, History, Geography, and chakra theory. She wouldn't learn how to mold her chakra for a few months at least, but Danzo had already taught her how to find it. Her lessons would break for an hour for Lunch and then continue at one pm. They would finally end at three pm, at which point Naruko would meet the real Danzo for physical training, which would continue until seven pm.

Danzo hadn't expected to be able to train her for four hours straight with the occasional breather. There weren't many people that could keep going for so long, especially for a child. But she just kept on going, like an unstoppable force. And then the next day she would be sore in the morning and during their lessons but by the time physical training rolled around again she was raring to go, and at a level even higher than the last day. She healed at an enormous rate, so her muscles didn't need nearly as long a normal persons to heal and strengthen. And he could clearly see that she enjoyed it. Occasionally, for a very brief moment an actual smile would break through her mask.

She enjoyed her lessons greatly, but her favorite part was definitely the physical training. She had always been an active girl, and sometimes being kept in a classroom could bore her, but she liked actually being taught something. This was the first time anyone had been willing to teach her. Not even Hokage-Sama had ever taught her anything helpful.

At the end of her first day of training, she crawled into her bed sore and exhausted. She began having dreams. Dreams of a glorious two bladed staff she would later come to learn was called a Swallow. It was seven feet long, the blades on either side were two feet, six inches long, and the handle area was two feet long. One blade was very elegant looking with flowing curves and some etching that Naruko couldn't read along the flat side. Closer to the handle on one side of the blade was a hook like protrusion. The other blade was much more vicious looking. It was still a very elegant design, but it had several, very dangerous looking hook forming edges to it. (2) These dreams would follow her for several years, and whenever she brought it up with Danzo he could only tell her he didn't know what it was. Danzo spoke to some contacts that specialized in Psychiatry who told him that it may be a result of her new found joy in training, or the desire to fight or defend herself. They warned him to look out for bouts of unacceptable violent urges. Deeming the issue to be benign, he let it drop.


Time Skip – Age 7

It has been three years since Naruko's training began. Her progress had gone well beyond Danzo's expectations. Every challenge he set for her she overcame. Every test he gave her she passed. She was attentive in her academics and energetic in her physical training. The biggest challenges for the girl had been the chakra control exercises, but her diligence and the determination to become stronger drove her to conquer even those obstacles. She had reduced many trees to mulch while doing it, but she had done it none the less.

She had been particularly ardent in her wakizashi training. By now she had mastered its uses. The only way left for her to make any appreciable improvement would be through real combat.

But there were still a few problems Danzo still hadn't been able to resolve satisfactorily. She couldn't function properly in society outside of shinobi activity, and he had yet to solidly tie her loyalty to Konoha. He knew she was loyal to him. He was the only one she would ever actually smile around, and that was still very rare.

He had to get her out into the village without him at her side. She had to make friends to tie her to the village or she would flee the village the day he died. Danzo decided that he would introduce her to the boy he had chosen to groom for his position. A boy her age named Sai. He had a very similar personality to Naruko. Intelligent, talented, yet emotionally stunted. He had responded a little too strongly to his emotional conditioning. Danzo didn't want his agents emotionless, which would weaken their resolve to protect Konoha. He wanted his agents in complete control of their emotions.

"Naruko-Chan, I have someone I want you to meet. You will be working together in the future and should get to know one another."

"Yes Danzo-Sama." Naruko now wore dark purple shirt under a burnt orange jacket that ended before reaching her naval. Under the jackets shoulders was a weave of armor plating that offered good protection while maintaining flexibility. On her legs she had dark purple jeans and black shinobi sandals. Her wakizashi was strapped to her left hip and she had two equipment pouches, a larger one at her lower back, and a standard sized one at her right hip. On her right thigh she had a kunai and shuriken holder. Her hair was still short and messy, just reaching her jaws in length and she still had her smile and cheerful voice.

Naruko followed the direction Danzo's voice came from, arriving in the backyard training ground. Next to Danzo was a very pale boy who looked about Naruko's age and was just a little bit shorter than her. He had short black hair, a black t-shirt, black pants, and black shinobi sandals. He certainly wasn't very colorful. But the thing that immediately drew Naruko's attention was his expression. Because that was her expression. The fake smile, the squinted eyes, and she was willing to bet her wakizashi that he had the same cheerful voice.

"Naruko-Chan, this is Sai. You two will be training and learning together from today on."

"Hello Naruko-San. I look forward to working with you." Yup, same cheerful tone.

"Hello Sai-San. You're very pale. You could almost be a ghost."

"I don't go out very often. Until now I primarily resided in one of the Root underground training facilities."

It was a little disconcerting seeing the two in one place. They were practically mirrors of each other personality wise. But hopefully Naruko would grow as or more comfortable around Sai as she was Danzo, and hopefully Sai would recover some of his emotional capability by interacting with Naruko. Their similarities should make it easier for them to bond.

"I have an assignment for you two." Both Naruko and Sai snapped to attention, expressions intact. "You two are to work together, go into the village, and make at least one friend." This assignment was beyond strange for Root operatives, but it was necessary this time. Naruko had to be able to function in society if she were to become the symbol he knew she could be. She had to learn how to interact with people outside of work. And she had to find a reason to protect Konoha other than being ordered to. The same for Sai if he was to take over as head of Root. He could not properly lead if he could not properly express himself. If he didn't make any treasured connections he would never find the right motivation and determination. Danzo loved Konoha. He loved it because it was his home. But these two didn't consider it home.

The two didn't respond for several moments. "Uh, make at least one friend Danzo-Sama? How do we do that?" Naruko had never made a friend before. The other kids would never let her stay near them.

"Figuring that out is part of the assignment."

"How long do we have Danzo-Sama?" Sai had never made any friends before either. He could already tell that this would be a difficult assignment.

"Indefinite. Further training will be on hold until this assignment has been accomplished."

This managed to get a reaction from them. Their eyes snapped open, although the smiles remained. Naruko was the first to reply.

"But Danzo-Sama, you always said that training was important and should be done every day."

"This is another form of training. Social interaction is crucial to shinobi and their ability to blend in."

"But Danzo-Sama, Root operates in the darkness, unseen and unknown. Why would I need to be able to do this?" Sai asked.

"Not every Root mission is conducted in the dark. And there are many ways to be unseen and unknown. Some of them are in plain sight of everyone." Danzo turned and began walking away. "Now get to it you two. The quicker you complete the assignment, the quicker you may resume your normal training."

Naruko turned to Sai with her smile when Danzo had left their sight. "Do you have any idea how to do this?"

Sai turned to face Naruko with his own smile. "Not a clue."


There's chapter two. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Let me know what you thought, any feedback and constructive criticism is welcome. There will be a few more time skips before we reach the beginning of the series.

(1) I don't know if this is an absolutely terrible thing for a medical practitioner to say, please don't tear my head off for it.

(2) This will be Naruko's primary weapon. I had a lot of trouble trying to describe it, please check out the link on my profile to see what it looks like.