Mama is a student

by Babyuknowme13

The art of interrogation is a subtle one, but one no one thought she could master. Naome smiles from the shadows as her family and skills grow, waiting to have her face on the mountain. Hiding her involvment with missing nin and protecting her son, whilst falling for one lazy shinobi though? Well she'll just have to deal with it, after all, she's a future hokage.

2. Mind Numbing

LC; Shit. I hate it when this happens!

Naruto; Yeah, your almost finished and then the document vanishes.

Sasuke; Her computer logged off and she forgot to save.

LC; Well not anymore! I'm saving this stupid thing!

Naruto; You should;ve seen what she did when she first found out!

Sasuke; We thought she was going to commit suicide.

Naruto; We were deeply disappointed.

LC; I still might actually. I am very depressed about retyping all that.

Naruto; She hates wasted effort, and that is what this is.

LC; Well lets get moving back to the fic. I need to make up lost ground.

Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto and let's leave it at that okay?

Chapter 2; Lucky number seven.

Contrary to popular belief, Naome was serious about everything she encountered. Whether or not she showed that depended on the situation. She was serious far more often as Ran then she was as Naome though. Sometimes she worried about that.

Creating a mask could be tricky. There was a risk that the act could take a life of it's own and that was happening a little too fast for Naome's liking. Ran had a job, friends, and responsibilities. Naome had the academy and she could only spend so much time there.

She wasn't too woried though because Ran was just a part of her she didn't show normally. The part that actively painted and read, the part that could spend hours in her garden, the part that was less sure of herself. It wasn't a part she showed at the academy, for a couple of reasons. The first being that at any sign of weakness she could be brought down.

Naome winced as she felt a particularly powerful kick. Hikaru was going to be one hell of a shinobi someday. Shikamaru sent her a side glance but didn't make any other sign that he had noticed. He had never felt the baby kick, even though he wanted to.

Naome yawned as she tried to stay awake to Iruka-sensei's lecture. She was exhausted because of her long hours at Takimaru's. It couldn't be hlped though, she had asked for the job and was loath to quit now. She had to admit though, something had to give soon and if it wasn't the job, it would be her.

Shikamaru shot yet another glance at Naome. Part of him wondered if it was because she kept almost falling asleep, another wondered if it was because he was looking for a chance to place his hand on her stomach without anyone noticing. Least of all her. Troublesome, but he guessed it was fine so long as he was careful not to be caught looking. That might raise questions.

"Remember class, next Wednesday after school we have a guest speaker from the T&I department to introduce you to interrogation techniques." Naome looked up from her note book to see Iruka-sensei standing at the front of the class with his usual kindly smile. She thought that it sounded pretty cool but the problem was the lecture would last for a whole hour. It was a long walk from the academy to her apartment and then all the way to Takimaru's.

Unless she got some time off or quit, there wasn't any way she could make the lecture. Naome waited until lunch to let her head hit the desk and could've cried without shame when her son decided to start kicked her again. Didn't he realize that Kaa-chan needed to sleep? Lucky gaki got to be carried everywhere but she couldn't take a nap?

"Your overworking yourself." Naome tipped her head over to be able to look at Shikamaru. He was standing over her with this look in his eye. He was worried about her.

"I think I'm going to quit Takimaru's." She mumbled tiredly. The only reason she hadn't had a breakdown was because of her legendary hyperactivity. If she wasn't naturally hyper she'd have collapsed long before now.

"Probably for the best, troublesome girl." Naome wondered if that word troublesome was some kind of verbal tick for the Nara. His father said it a lot too, as did the other few Nara she had met. Even Yoshino had taken to the word! If she hung out around Shika for long enough would she start saying troublesome all the time?

She winced at a particularly strong kick to her bladder and wished she hadn't had that extra glass of OJ. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Shikamaru staring at her belly. She knew that the lazy boy wanted to feel the kicking, but he never asked.

"Shika, we already got caught once, you may as well feel if you want to." She sighed, sitting up and leaning back in her chair to look out the window. No nosy fangirls to spy on them today, good.

He muttered something again but obediantly felt the little ball of happy curled inside her body. He had noticed that Hikaru was always pretty active and he took this as a good sign. The problem wasn't that the baby was active, except that it was. Naome was ten but by all appearances Hikaru was the healthiest fetus in the world. It didn't make sense but he had a couple theories.

Naome had a lot of chakra, chakra was the source of life, it was very possible that the baby was feeding off of more than Naome's nutrients. Maybe the baby was siphoning off her chakra to enhance itself to survive the pregnancy. It would explain why she was so tired all the time, which was unusual, even for a pregnant woman.

"Come outside and nap, it's a good day outside and Chouji will give you some chips." He said to her. Normally, the lazy boy wouldn't have bothered. Where Naome wanted to nap was no business of his. He justified himself by saying that the desks weren't good places to nap when grass was an option.

"Fine, but if someone wakes me up before the bell I reserve all rights to hurt you during sparring." He smirked and they decided to just hop through a window. Doors took too long. Luckily for Shikamaru, they were left alone to enjoy the peace.

They were the last to get back to class and were surprised when they found only three seats avaliable. All in different corners of the room.

Ever since Naome had established herself into their group the three of them had sat together. Shikamaru in the middle, Chouji on the right, and Naome on the left. Now they had to sit apart.

Naome shrugged and headed for the window seat. If she wasn't sitting with friends she was at least going to sit at a place with a view. That seat happened to be next to someone she didn't associate with though, someone she honestly disliked. Stupid Sasuke Uchiha choosing to sit in the middle of that row right next to the window seat she wanted.

She didn't want to ask the teme to move over, as it would earn the ire of the pink haired fangirl sitting next to him and drooling, so she decided to just hop over the desk. She vaulted herself over the desk and landed neatly into the chair on the other side.

Sasuke normally didn't pay attention to Naome. She used to be the dead last of the class but had suddenly jumped ahead in grades. This wasn't simple improvement in the aspects being taught, or a change in curriculum, this was what happened when someone decided to try. Naome Uzumaki had been playing the loser, the only question was why.

It had started six months ago, in the middle of November when he looked at the class rankings. Naome was in the middle rather than the last, over taking almost all the civilian children. She had stayed there for three months and then took a leap up again, to the top ten. Actually, it was more accurate to say she was in the top five.

She wasn't loud and didn't wear bright colors anymore and she looked tired, like she didn't get alot of sleep. Was she training at all hours of the day? Was she serious now? Maybe the dobe thing had been an act and now she had let the mask slip.

Sasuke didn't like when unexpected things happened. He didn't like it but he could always count on the fangirls screeching at him, he could count on Iruka-sensei always lecturing, and he used to be able to count on Naome wearing orange. Now she was an enigma he couldn't figure out, a mystery novel with the end ripped out.

When she sat down next to him he took a long look as she vaulted over the desk and into the seat beside him. Her hair had grown out again, it reached just past her shoulder blades. Today she was wearing a dark brown hoodie and she couldn't seem to decide if she wanted the hood up or down yet.

He knew she had gained some weight but he didn't think it was that big a deal. It wasn't even a big difference, she was nowhere near Chouji's weight. She was a little thicker around the middle, but that could just as easily be muscle as fat.

Iruka was going on about the other big five, but he figured he knew enough about them that he didn't listen. Naome wasn't listening either, she was looking out the window with an indecipherable expression on her face, nothing like her old, big grins, or her newer bored looks.

He turned back to face the class, and never saw Naome roll her eyes in his direction.

Yeah, she had noticed him ogling her. It figured that she was the only girl he deigned to acknowledge. All the other girls he ignored. He used to ignore her too but after she got pregnant he was suddenly very interested in her, though he hadn't done or said anything yet.

She wondered sometimes if he might know about the baby, then she'd laugh because nobody but Shikamaru had figured it out and if she had her way no one else would. He was probably wondering if she was trying to grow her hair out for him. Which reminded her, she needed to cut her hair again.

"Alright class, time for shuriken practice." Mizuki-sensei announced. She didn't like Mizuki-sensei, he just gave her this bad feeling. She tended to trust her instincts.

Naome joined the girl's side of the training field they were using. Classes like these were always seperated by gender, the girls on one side and the boys on another. Boys were drilled more in physical excercises and girls more in throwing excercises. This was all under the assumption that all girls were for support and all guys were meant for the front lines.

Naome always thought there was no greater pleasure than doing something everyone else said was impossible.

Her throwing skills were second to only Sasuke Uchiha, something she took as a personal insult. These stationary targets were so boring and all it took was a flick of her wrists, rather than the swinging of her entire arm like the Uchiha and just about everyone else. In fact, the only one who threw like she did was Shikamaru, and his reason was to conserve energy rather than for effeciency.

When she finished her work she sat in the shade with Shikamaru, who had also finished. This was just another day at the academy, nothing to make it stick out from all the others. That is until she began to feel regular pains in her cirvix.

Naome swallowed the lunch that had started swimming upstream and timed the pains. She kept her face as neutral as possible as she timed that they were about ten minutes apart, each. Her face was probably pale, not that she had a mirror to check.

She took a deep breath and shifted a little in her seat. They were in the middle of science class, where they were learning the affects of mixing chemicals to make poisons and antidotes. She had to relax and hope they went away or eased or something.

The pains weren't as intense as she feared for labor pains, if anything they were more uncomfortable than painful. Her water hadn't broken either, and until it did she wouldn't make a move. Of course, if it broke while she was here her secret would be out to anyone who recognized it.

Luckily the pains stopped after forty minutes, which meant they weren't real, just one of those fake labor pains she read about. It had still scared her though.

Having quit her job at Takimaru's, Naome was free to attend the interrogation seminar after class that Wednesday. She would have thought the room would be packed, but all in all only about eight kids were present, and she was the only girl.

The door to the classroom opened and a man with two scars on his face, wearing a black over coat, walked in. He wore his hitaite like a bandana, but that was the end of her observations.

"I'm Ibiki Morino you brats, head of the T&I division. Anyone here to learn about causing pain to others, the torture part of the job, please leave." Four civilian boys packed up and left then, grumbling about being ripped off. Naome hadn't really been interested in that bit anyway, too much blood for her tastes, so she was content to just sit and learn about telling when someone was lying.

At the end of the lesson they'd been given a list of books to look at for further information. Ibiki had told them about the Tells from when a person lied and the differences in tone used when someone was hiding something but not lying.

All in all, it had been worth the hour. Now she just had to get those books, which might be harder than first appeared. Naome Uzumaki wasn't banned from the library, per se, but she was definitely discouraged from going there.

Ran couldn't get the books though, since they were in the Academy Student section. Looks like she might have a little work to do after the end of the year.

At 27 weeks pregnant, Naome was more than ready give up and carve the baby out. He kicked like there was a taijutsu tournament in her stomach, she was tired all the time, and she wanted to feel like a normal kid again. All these seemed like good reasons to her, but the baby didn't seem to agree.

She knew she couldn't though, for more than one reason. Reason one was that he wasn't full term yet and wouldn't be until week number 37. Reason two was she wasn't confident enough that she wouldn't kill them both in the attempt.

Naome sat up and stretched the kinks out of her back. Having quit her job just yesterday she was free to train in the evenings. Without that income she'd have to be a little more careful in her money dealings. No more buying paints, no new furniture, no more splurging unneedingly on instant ramen and dango.

Today was Saturday, she had the morning free, had to pay some bills, then she'd be dropping by one of the Nin Banks to make an account. She transformed into Ran and went for a walk around the block, just so she could say hi to some of the neighbors.

She came back to see an old woman wearing the white robes of an orphanage matron waiting.

"A-Ano, were you waiting for me? I hope you haven't been waiting here long." She apologized meekly quickly. Matrons did not like being kept waiting. She remembered her days back at the orphanage.

"Ran Yurichi I presume?" Ran nodded and walked behind the front desk.

"I am Nora Hagane, the matron of West Orphanage. I am here to speak about setting up an orphan in this establishment." Ran quietly gathered some papers and watched as the matron filled everything out.

"Her name's Tenten and she will become a shinobi in one month. Her things will be here tomorrow but she'll be arriving at three. Can you be here to greet her?" Ran assured the woman she would be there

With that finished, Naome decided to move paying her bills to the morning and left with her purse nice and fat. After paying her bills she went to a Nin bank.

Nin Banks were banks that worked for just about everyone and specialized in making sure the money was secure. There was an unspoken agreement amongst every single hidden village that Nin Banks were forbidden ground. No one messed with their subordinates pay.

Despite the name, they served civilians as well. They served just about anyone and their workers made sure that the money stayed where it was meant to be. Retired shinobi tended to work there, as their skills in memorizing large amounts of information came in handy.

"Excuse me, I want to open up an account." She was asked to fill out tons of information. Codes were very serious things and she wanted her's to be one no one would guess. She thought about it for a second before punching in 1010, the tenth day of the tenth month, her birthday.

With that she deposited fifty thousand yen and left to go and meet Tenten.

"Hello Yurichi-san." As it were, she met Tenten at the door. Ran took a minute to look the girl over as subtly as possible before returning the greeting. Tenten wore a pink, chinese style top and brown pants. She was secretly relieved to find that Tenten was a normal kunoichi, not a fangirl.

"Just Ran is fine Tenten-san." She said politely.

The days flew by, weeks blending into eachother until she hardly knew what day it was. They reached the end of the year, Tenten-san became a genin and told her about the D-ranks and the 'extra test', and the summer began.

Today Shikamaru and her were hanging out with Chouji at the park. Naome had decided that he could be brought into the fold, so she was nervous.

He took it pretty well, considering his best friend had kept such a big secret from it. He understood the need for secrecy though. He was most surprised from finding out that she was actually Ran, he could hardly believe that the henge was solid and that she was actually so polite.

"Well, a lot of stuff makes sense now. I just want you to answer one question." The plump boy said, setting aside his chips for a moment.

"What is it?" Naome asked curiously. The boy only put his food down if things were serious.

"Can I feel him kick?" A grin spread across her face and she lifted up her hoodie. If he was going to kick the crap out of her from the inside, he may as well do it for someone else.

With the summer here, Naome found herself with copious amounts of free time. She decided that five hours a day were enough for training, and as the months wore on she'd probably lessen that too, for the baby and all.

She had taken to painting more often now. She'd sometimes take her stuff out as Ran and set up to paint whatever scene she thought looked good. She got a really good painting of the village from a bird's point of view from the top of the monuments.

Today she was working outside at a park. It was a very popular one with lots of apple trees in the final blossoming of the season. After this the fruit would begin to grow. She figured she would catch the view of the beautiful flowers while she could.

"You are a very talented painter." Ran eeped and turned around to see an older woman looking appreciatively at her canvas.

"I've heard about a young woman who goes around painting but this is the first I've met you. My name is Akane Saotome and I am an art dealer." Akane-san proceded to ask to see her other works, leading Ran to invite her to her apartment to see them.

Akane cooed as she saw each new piece. Ran enjoyed the attention and ended up bringing out the pieces in her room as well.

Akane could hardly believe what she was seeing. The apple tree picture had been great and filled her with such a peace that she could have stared at it until she died. The picture of what she recognized to be the ninja academy was beautifully done with an underlying tone that sent chills up and down her spine.

Even the shock of seeing 'the kyubi brat' in one of the paintings didn't deter her. In fact, it seemed so bold! It gave her a sense of anticipation, like she was waiting for the figures to start moving. Like she was waiting for the little blonde girl to jump from her swing, look at her, and flash that same smile that had been captured.

"Oh this one, I'm sure I could get a good price for it at the market!" Akane practically drooled as she imagined the figures.

"I'm not sure. I painted that one special." Ran said uncertainly. She really liked that one.

"Can you make a copy?" Ran thought about it, then nodded.

Akane ended up having her title her paintings, add a sign in the lower right corner for identification, and then took five of them to sell them with promises to split the profits evenly. The sign was a red swirl thing, like the konoha symbol without the stick or point.

Having found a new, much more flexible, source of income, Naome decided she deserved to indulge herself a little. So she decided a trip to the hot spring as Ran would be a pretty nice way to enjoy herself for once.

She had just settled down and was starting to feel her muscles relaxing when she heard something. At first she wasn't sure what it was, maybe the wind playing tricks on her. It happened again, far too often to be just the wind.

It sounded like giggling, high pitched perverted giggling coming from the wall at the far side of the spring. Ran looked around her and saw that a couple of kunoichi women were bathing closer to the wall. It looked like they hadn't heard anything though.

"Excuse me, forgive me if I'm being rude, but are you expecting?" She eeped and turned to see another kunoichi woman. This one had long dark hair and strange, red eyes. Ran thought they looked pretty intimidating.

"Hai, I'm 27 weeks." She answered politely.

"Sorry, I should introduce myself! I'm Kurenai Yuhi, a chunin kunoichi." The woman dipped her head a little.

"I'm Ran Yurichi, a pleasure to meet you Kurenai-san." Ran replied distractedly. She was sure there was someone on the other side of that wall!

Kurenai noticed the woman's nervousness and turned her attention to the wall she had been staring at pointedly. Sure enough, within seconds she heard perverted giggling. It angered her beyond belief that someone would spy on women, especially a pregnant woman, in the hot springs.

"Girls, I think we have company!" She shouted suddenly, bolting from the water and revealing the fishnet clothing beneath. The only way to tell the difference between a civilian woman and a ninja was that the kunoichi always wore those undergarments to guard against peeping toms. Whoever was on the other side of that wall was going to get a big surprise.

Ran left the hot springs shortly after. Kurenai-san had left in a big huff going on about 'deprived men' and had been too distracted to even say good bye. Not that she particularly minded. Most shinobi didn't sociate with civilians anyway.

When she walked out of the building and passed by the women's spring wall, she found the crumpled remains of a man with long white hair. At first she was afraid the angered kunoichi had killed the guy, but he soon twitched back to life.

"Ano, perhaps you should learn not to giggle so much if your going to watch." She suggested as she walked by.

Jiraiya blinked as he watched the red haired woman walk past him. His mouth fell open and might have bounced on the ground but he didn't care. It was like going back in time! He was looking at Kushina's long lost little sister or something!

"Excuse me, miss!" He called after her. A likeness like that was too uncanny. Anyone who had known Kushina would be able to recognize her!

"Hai?" Ran asked, turning around to speak with him.

"What's your name?" He asked her, moving to walk beside her.

"It's custom to give your own name before asking for another's." Ran chided him kindly, smiling softly.

"Forgive me for being rude. Ahem..." There was a lengthy pause as the man ceased walking. Ran turned around and was treated to something she truly had not expected.

"I am the man known from East to West! The one with friends and enemies alike from the North to the South! I am the Toad Mountain Sage, the great, the mighty, Jiraiya!" Her first reaction was to laugh like a lunatic until the situation stopped looking funny. Months of practice perfecting her polite mask though, prevented the outburst.

"Well Jiraiya-san, I am Ran Yurichi." Jiraiya mentally frowned. Something about this woman struck him as odd, and it wasn't just her amazing likeness to a certain deceased redhead. For one, she was lying to him.

He was a spy master and made his living by knowing when someone was trying to bull shit him. Ran Yurichi was trying to do just that, and with a fairly good attempt as well. She looked him in the eyes and gave all the right reactions to be written off as a civilian, pregnant woman.

The way she moved was wrong though, even for a pregnant woman. They had been walking in quiet conversation for a few minutes now but she didn't look the bit fatigued. If anything she seemed rather lively. He wasn't an expert but he knew pregnant woman often found it difficult to move around after a few months. Either she wasn't really pregnant, thus making her suspicious, or she was some kind of exception to the rule.

There was a pretty simple way to tell if Ran was really pregnant though.

"Ran-san, don't take this the wrong way based on the hot spring's, but would you mind if I felt the baby?" He made sure he looked as innocent as possible. The woman hadn't seemed very mad at him, but one never knew.

"Well, I guess it couldn't hurt." She answered after a moment's hesitation. Why was everyone always asking to feel the baby? If they could feel him kick at nearly every hour of the day, they'd be pretty sick of it too!

They found a place where Ran could sit down and she let the toad sage place his hand on her stomach. Immediatly her instincts started going hay wire! She wasn't sure how she knew but she could feel Jiraiya using his chakra for something!

She had just started to panic. Was he trying to hurt her baby? Was he hurting Hikaru?

Jiraiya meanwhile, hadn't even noticed her loss of focus. All he cared about was the fact that he could feel there definetly was a baby in there but something was stopping his efforts to get his chakra threads closer to it.

It was like the baby was wrapped in a cacoon of chakra! However this chakra wasn't shinobi chakra! Shinobi chakra, even academy student chakra, was regulated and even unless purposely disrupted. Civilian chakra, and most animal chakra though, was wild and untamed. She was a civilian, yet her chakra moved like she was focusing it.

"Ran-san, do you come from a shinobi family?" His earlier memory of Kushina reared it's head again. Uzumakis were known for more than just their sealing and fiery hair, they also had untamable chakra.

"I don't think so, why the interest?" She asked him curiously.

"You know what chakra is, right?" She nodded and then elaborated, explaining how her friend, Anko, had explained the basic concept to her.

"Well, even though you are obviously a civilian, your chakra is very responsive. It seems to have cacooned itself around your baby." The same thing had happened with Kushina, though at the time he thought it was to protect the baby from the Kyubi during pregnancy. Now he wondered if all Uzumaki women did that when they were pregnant.

Then another thought, what if it was just pregnant women in general? He had only known two pregnant women in his life now, so it was likely chakra did that to protect the newborn without any outside interference. Maybe he was starting to get paranoid in his line of work.

"I'm sorry for the trouble." He apologized galiantly. Normally he would have propositioned the woman, but she was pregnant. He had seen Kushina's sudden and very violent mood swings and had no wish to be on the recieving end of that temper. Even if Ran-san didn't seem the type to blow up over someone looking down at her cleavage.

Ran watched Jiraiya-san walk away before mentally shaking herself before continuing home. She should be used to meeting strange people by now. A perverted toad sage was really just the tip of the ice berg.

With her visit to the Hot Spring over, Ran decided it was time to put her newest plan into action. She found a secluded area of the park she was in and performed the signs for henge. Normally, if one was already wearing a henge, that one was dropped before adding the second one. Naome had discovered though that by doing henge while already using one meant that if it dispelled then she poofed back into Ran, rather than Naome.

When the smoke cleared it revealed a young, black haired boy with brown eyes. He was maybe fourteen and was wearing a hitai-ate and chunin vest. His name was Zoro Roronoa and he was a chunin of Konoha.

Zoro nervously stepped into the library, walking past the registration desk and straight to the academy student section of the library. Naome didn't have a lot of expierience in acting like a guy but she figured it wasn't that hard. Especially as she wasn't exactly girly herself.

Zoro was designed to be naturally a serious boy. Naome had thought about making him younger, a normal academy student or genin for a stretch, but she decided it would be better to try and aim higher. Besides, from what she had observed simply by watching the front doors, no one ever bothered checking anyone's rank or identity unless they tried to check out a book.

Hence, Zoro could see himself spending copius amounts of time in the library over the summer. What a bummer.

"Why is a chunin in this section?" Zoro didn't flinch, he'd heard the man coming. Probably done on purpose so as not to frighten the younger 'boy'.

"Eh, I'm just looking for some beginner's interrogation books." The jounin in front of him had a scruffy beard and a white sash around his waist.

"More curious, why is a jounin here?" He retorted, looking off to the side a little to hide his embarassment.

"Ah, well, the thing is, I'm just doing this for a friend! My nephew starts the academy soon so I thought I'd give him a head start!" He laughed nervously.

"Let me properly introduce myself, I'm Asuma Sarutobi. And you?" Now that the original suspicion and amusment was gone, both had gone back to their first reason for coming to the library.

"Zoro Roronoa, pleasure to meet you Sarutobi-san." Sarutobi was the same surname as the old hokage, the sandaime! He briefly pondered what the relation was. Did the hokage have a son? He wasn't sure and he didn't want to look like an idiot by asking.

"Well, I found what I was looking for, why don't we both check them out?" Asuma offered kindly.

"I'll stay here for a bit longer if it's all the same to you Sarutobi-san." Zoro declined seriously. Asuma shrugged noncomitally and went to check out his book and leave. Zoro sighed in relief when he spotted the older man leaving the building.

That had really been too close for comfort. At least now he knew that the Zoro mask worked just as well as the Ran mask.

He got what he could from the book before replacing it on the shelf. He didn't really exist so he couldn't take out a book, and Naome wasn't really allowed to.

On his walk home, he ducked into an alley and released the second henge, turning back into Ran. Ran continued to her apartment like nothing had happened and a soft smile on her face. Maybe nothing had.

At her apartment she got to work in duplicating the painting of Naome and Shikamaru. She worked on that until about six, when she took a break for dinner. She got tired of all the health food she'd been eating and decided a trip to Ichiraku's was well within her budgets. Besides, it had been well over two weeks since her last visit!

"Hey Naome-chan, been a while since you stopped by. Busy?" Teuchi greeted her.

"Mega! But its summer now so I'm going to unwind and relax! Now, make me some miso and then keep'em coming Teuchi!" She said excitedly. The ramen chef chuckled before handing her a bowl, he had started her order before she had even fully sat down.

"What are you planning?" He asked curiously.

"Hmm, its been a while since I pulled any pranks. I've got a looong list of possible victims!" She chuckled darkly. There was the librarian, maybe that white haired pervert later on, and Shikamaru was a little over due.

Hokage Tower!

Hiruzen frowned when he found Naome eating at Ichiraku's. With summer here he had hoped that she would be easier to keep an eye on. This turned out to be a false hope, as it was only just now that the aged kage had found the blonde girl.

Sightings of her had become sporadic at best, and it was worrying him. There was no reason that he could think of that she would be so hard to find in his orb. Even things such as henges couldn't hide someone from him.

"Hokage-sama, please go back to your paperwork and put your little ball away." He slumped a little in his chair when faced with his fiercome secretary.

"Yes ma'am." He mumbled, putting the orb into his drawer. He'd just have to hope that she wasn't doing anything dangerous and go back to his paperwork.

Back with Naome!

Naome had gone to her apartment to get some supplies but now she was ready to set off a prank the likes this village had never seen! Now all she had to do was watch the fireworks and chuckle darkly as people ran around like chickens with their heads cut off!

Ahem...She means, now all she has to do is giggle girlishly in glee for her awesome pranking skills. Yeah, that!

"Holy shit! Look at the mountains!" Ah, so someone had finally noticed. Considering she had been working on that for the better part of four hours, she expected to have been caught long before now. Oh well, all the better for her!

The monuments were tributes to the kage, past and present. The great mountain always loomed over the village, their leaders watching over them all. They were as much a part of the scenery as the trees the village was named for.

No one even bothered to notice them anymore, other than knowing they were there. Which is what Naome had been counting on while she painted each seperate face using her new tree walking excercise.

On the Shodaime's face was a dipiction of many leaves all over his face. On the Nidaime's face were crashing waves. On the Sandaime's face were numerous books and shinobi weapons in exquisite detail. Finally, on the Yondaime's face were hundreds of tri-ponged kunai, and in the shadows made by the Sun's angle, the Kyubi. The demon he died in defeating.

Personally Naome thought it was a good tribute to each respective kage's greatest achievments and powers. Clearly everyone else just thought someone was mocking them.

Pretty soon those masked shinobi, ANBU, were deployed to find out who did it. Who had the balls to paint over the faces of the kage.

Naome didn't want to advertise her involvment though, and other than taking a couple of pictures of her greatest piece of art, made sure to stay out of sight. Unfortunatly, ANBU weren't considered the best for nothing.

"Put me down!" The ten year old cried uncomfortably. She had been slung over the shoulder of one masked member while innocently walking down the street to her apartment! What's more, she was on her stomach, and it hurt! She hoped this wasn't hurting the baby.

"Naome-chan, why did you deface the monuments?" She had been brought to the hokage tower, apparently for questioning. Good thing she had practiced at lying.

"What makes you think I did it, Hokage-sama?" Hiruzen personally wasn't sure it had been Naome. She struck him as the kind of person who would put something mocking on the faces, rather than the art he saw. It didn't even look like a prank!

"I'm sorry Naome-chan, but your the only suspect." He noticed her shoulders had slumped a little before picking up again.

"...How does anyone expect an academy student to be able to do that without getting caught?" She mumbled. That cemented his opinion on the matter. He remembered when she used to pull pranks and she had always confessed right away, yelling about her amazing abilities.

This did however make him wonder when she had changed so much. She was almost a completely different person! He felt his years when he saw the lack of innocence in her eyes. They weren't sad, or broken, not by any means. That did not excuse the glint in her eyes that he had come to expect from genin after their first kills.

An hour later, the aged hokage was seriously considering seppuku.

"Did you paint the monuments?" Koharu asked the ten year old in front of her.

"For the last time, no I did not!" The blonde answered for nth time.

"Did someone help you?" Homura interjected.

"That would be assuming I did it, which I did not!" If he wasn't so amused by the conversation Hiruzen was sure he would've ended it already. As it were he just puffed on his pipe.

"Your the only one who could've done it." Kohura stated.

"...How? I'm still in the academy! Do you think I can walk on walls or something?" Naome wanted to leave. She probably would have stormed out already but watching the ANBU clean up the monument out the window was funny.

"Do you know anyone who could've done it?" Homura sighed. He had better things to do than interrogate a ten year old. As far as he was concerned, she didn't do it and this was a waste of time because the civilian council couldn't keep their noses in their own business!

"Lots. You guys, all the shinobi in the village, maybe a few from outside it too!" Hiruzen decided that he should end this before Naome lost her temper and said something she'd regret.

"Thank you for your time Naome-chan, you're free to go." He said firmly. The girl sighed in relief before running out of the room to do whatever it was she did in her free time.

Finally free of her little interrogation session, Naome went straight home to enjoy the rest of her day by caring for her plants. The best laid plans fail in the face of mice and men though, so of course she found a visitor waiting for her.

Luckily she had henged into Ran, or things might have been messy.

"Ran-san! You look well!" Ran stared at the obviously drunk man in front of her before she recovered her manners.

"Ichigo-san, were you waiting for me?" She asked, as per routine.

"You should get anything important out of here Ran-san, like your money!" The man slurred.

"Me and my friends are going to burn this place to the ground so that snake bitch will get a hint and leave!" Ran gasped and her skin prickled.

"Ichigo-san, this is my apartment building! You can't burn it down!" She cried desperatly, trying to draw the drunkard to his room and away from anything flamable.

"S'Don't worry! Your insured so you can get your money back!" No, she wasn't insured. No one on the Red Light district was insured. Insurance costed money!

"Ichigo-san, stop this! You can't just burn it down! She's not even here!" Anko was still on her three month mission! She wouldn't be back till July!

Behind her the door opened. She turned around, half hoping it was someone who could help. Instead she found a mob of men with torches.

"Ichigo, this your landlady?" Ran shuddered when she saw the man. She hadn't looked too hard that morning on October tenth, but she remembered him. This was the man who had raped her. This was Hikaru's father.

"Please, don't do this! There's an orphan girl named Tenten who lives on the second floor! I live here! Don't burn down my apartment!" She was shaking, she was scared. She didn't want them to burn down her apartment!

"Ichigo you di'nt tell us she was prego! I-I don't want to burn down a pregnant woman's home!" One of the men said uncertainly, stepping back a little.

"Don't chicken out Raiki! Member how that bitch nearly neutered you!" Ichigo spat.

Ran tried again to get the mob to reconsider but one of them dropped their torch and it lit fire to the chairs. It started to spread, slowly.

Her nerves were going haywire so she did the first thing she could think of. She screamed and tried to beat at the fire with an old rug. The rug caught fire.

"Hey! What's going on here!" Everyone turned to the door to see a dog masked ANBU, bearing the silvery outline on his tattoo that marked him a captain.

"Water style, water dragon jutsu!" Water appeared from nowhere, snaking forward and dousing the flames and all the men and even Ran, although to a lesser extent.

"You are all under arrest for attempted arson!" Before Ran knew what was happening the men were all rounded up, suitably restrained, and the apartment somehow dry.

"Are you alright ma'am?" The dog masked ANBU asked her. Ran wanted to say she was fine, but all that came out were more tears and some shaky breath. Then she realized her water had broken.

"My water broke!" She half screamed half squeeled. That set the ANBU off.

"WHAT!" Kakashi was freaked out. He wasn't sure but he knew water breaking meant babies. He did not want to deal with a woman who was going into labor because some jerk offs tried to burn down her apartment.

"Can't, can't you hold it?" He asked hopefully.

"You can't hold in a baby!" Ran screamed, a contraction choosing then to hit. Oh yeah, these were the real deal. If these were just the contractions what would the actual birth be like? Suddenly going without the pain relievers sounded less than worthwhile.

"Um, should I take you to the hospital?" Dog asked uncertainly. Could she get there on her own? Would she make it in time if she did? What if the baby fell out or something while they were darting over the roof tops?

"Please?" She whimpered, the pain bringing new tears to her eyes. Kakashi didn't need any more encouragment. He put up a chakra flare so that some other ANBU could pick up the trash, bride carried Ran out of there, and turned to the hospital.

He landed in front of the emergency entrance and called for a doctor.

"What's wrong with her?" Asked a nurse when she saw him. Usually when an ANBU had to bring in someone they were fatally injured.

"She's gone into labor." His voice shook a little at the idea.

"Can you tell us who your doctor is?" The nurse questioned Ran as they put her in a wheelchair and pushed her to the maternity ward.

"Hiroshi! We've been planning for a natural birth!" She said a little breathlessly.

"We'll get him for you. Are there any personel you'd like to notify?" They pulled up in front of a room and she was settled into a comfortable bed.

"Y-Yoshino Nara!" Kakashi hadn't left yet. He had followed quietly and now simply stood in the corner. In the heat of the moment, no pun intended, he hadn't taken a good look at the woman he had just saved. Now he did, he wondered if the fates were playing with him.

"Yurichi-san, your not due for some time yet!" Hiroshi scolded her as soon as he stepped into the room.

"I can't help it if trying to keep a mob of drunken men from burning down my home is stressful!" She screamed, another contraction hitting judging from the expression on her face.

"What?" Hiroshi cried in alarm. He noticed the conspicuous ANBU in the corner but decided to see how much she was dilated before doing anything else. Like questioning an ANBU captain.

"Your 4 centimeters dilated. Your in active labor Yurichi-san." He reported to the pained woman.

"Do you want to change your mind about the medication?" She shook her head, teeth clenched to stop a scream. Contractions, plus keeping up a henge, was hard!

"She's in here." The door opened to reveal a nurse leading in the immediate Nara family.

"Oh Ran-san! What happened that you were pushed into labor so early?" Yoshino questioned immediatly, nervously combing the red head's hair out of her face.

"I think I can explain." Shikamaru only noticed that the man was an ANBU captain before he took advantage of the change of attention and looked closely at Naome. He hoped she read his silent question. It had always been a gamble about whether or not she could hold the henge up during labor.

Ran caught his eye and nodded quickly, no contractions yet, but she knew in the next three minutes another one would hit. She was already hating this.

Hiroshi checked her again before determinning that it might be a while before the baby actually got there, asking again if she wanted medication. Again Ran refused, this time stating she wanted to have the baby naturally.

"So, Dog-san, why are you here?" Shikamaru asked curiously. As far as he knew, the ANBU could have just left after getting Ran to the hospital, he hadn't needed to stick around.

"Because I'm not there?" The masked nin offered jokingly. He hadn't known ANBU had a sense of humor.

Yoshino sent Shikaku to Ran's apartment to get the things the baby would need and some things to keep Ran occupied between contractions. He came back with the diaper bag and a couple books from her shelf.

Within a couple hours Ran went to seven centimeters, which signified her going into the final stage of labor. Shikamaru, Dog-san, and Shikaku were all shooed out of the room to the waiting area.

Ran's entire body shook with exhaustion. She wasn't yet at the stage where she had to push but she was far enough along that the nurses had decided having so many people in the delivery room would be counterproductive. Yoshino had argued quite fiercly about not leaving though, so she stayed behind to take the place of Ran's 'partner' for the birth.

"Is it supposed to go this fast?" She asked breathlessly. She had read so many books that said the labor would take a while for first time mothers.

"It's different for every woman Yurichi-san. Don't worry, we both know that your baby is perfectly healthy." Hiroshi reassured her gently. Even though he said it, he kept a watchful eye on the monitors. Such a fast labor might cause the baby to get stuck or tangled in the cord if they weren't careful.

Another hour passed and Ran was given the go ahead to push. Now that she could actually do something the pain took a back row seat. Her face and neck were damp with perspiration and her breathing was coming out in pants.

"You're doing really well Ran!" Yoshino praised her, wiping the sweat from her brow.

With another push she felt something coming out and she dimly registered the crying. Tears sprung to her eyes. That was her baby boy!

"How is he?" She asked shakily. Having a baby, the ultimate pain anyone can go through.

"We're taking him to the NICU for a check up. You can see him later. You should get some rest." Hiroshi told her before following after the nurse who had carried away her baby.

Once Ran was alone, the Nara family having been forced to leave so she could rest, she thankfully slipped into a deep sleep, her henge falling. She kept waking up periodically though. Her instincts told her whenever someone came close to the door and she was always half way through the seals for henge before she even fully opened her eyes.

Needless to say she didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night.

The next morning, she was allowed to see her baby. A nurse wheeled her to the NICU. Ran figured she was healed enough to walk, but she didn't protest overly much. She was still tired.

Hikaru had beautiful blonde curls with red along the edges of his bangs. Somehow he managed to inherit both colors at once. She almost squealed in excitment when she saw the two whisker marks on each cheek. He seemed impossibly small and she was almost afraid to accept him when the nurse handed him over.

"Support his head dear, don't worry, you won't break him!" The nurse encouraged her quietly, so as not to wake him up.

"He felt heavier in my stomach." She muttered. He was only just 3 pounds, according to the little chart on the side of his bed. He would've been born a big baby.

"Ah, I heard that you had given birth already!" Ran nearly jumped out of her wheelchair when she heard that booming voice. The nurse beside her scowled and immediatly shooshed the white haired pervert.

"Jiraiya-san, how did you know?" She asked, a little amazed. Who told him? Had he been watching her? What if he knew her secret!

"Do you remember how I told you that your chakra was behaving strangely?" She nodded uncertainly.

"Well, long story short, I asked to be alerted when you went into labor because of that. I didn't expect to get called in so soon though." He joked, quieter this time.

"This is Ko Hyuga, he's going to look at both your's and the baby's chakra." He informed her, moving to the side so she can see the white eyed shinobi.

"Byakugan!" Ko looked at the baby first. The organs were all very well developed, despite his premature birth. He had definitely been feeding off his mother's chakra. The baby's chakra was on the small side, but that was most likely from his premature birth.

Turning his gaze to the mother herself, he noted the untamed chakra that Jiraiya-sama had informed him about. Yurichi-san's chakra seemed large for a civilian, but it was uncontrolled and flared at odd intervals. He studied the hara longer, and it looked like chakra was being produced there directly.

Logically he had to conclude that Yurichi-san, though not a kunoichi, came from a shinobi family. Her son would probably be very talented though.

"Is everything alright?" The woman asked uncertainly, fidgeting a little.

"Hai. Your son will probably make a good shinobi." He told her.

"He's been feeding off your own chakra and it has caused him to develop faster than most. I do not believe he will be here long." They weren't there long at all. In fact, it was only two weeks later that they were released.

Ran closed the front door behind her and collapsed on the couch. She groaned in pain as her chakra drained away. She felt like her whole body weighed a ton. This was the price for having the henge up for the majority of two weeks with little to no sleep and only horrible hospital food to help regain her strength.

Luckily Hikaru was sleeping, so she was able to get in a decent nap. At least until Hikaru began to cry.

Naome felt like crying too when she lifted her head to see Hikaru crying. She only groaned though and forced her weary body to sit up slowly. She reached into the diaper bag and pulled out the things to make a bottle.

She waited for it to heat up and bounced little Hikaru-chan to try and passify him. She tested the milk before finally bringing it to his lips to drink. He sucked greedily and she couldn't help but smile.

"You are Hikaru Uzumaki and I am Naome Uzumaki. I'm your mama and you are my son!" She whispered to him.

"You were born June 5th at 8:23 pm. You were born prematurely but I know you are going to be really strong." She continued saying little tidbits of information, listing them all with a little smile on her face.

"I am going to become a kunoichi, but my dream isn't to be hokage anymore. My dream is to make sure you can grow up safely, here in Konoha." She whispered as she burped him.

She heard the door open and knew it was Shikamaru. He never knocked and he always had this lazy way of shutting the door so it took three seconds longer then it should. He walked into the kitchen and found her gently rocking Hikaru back and forth so he would go back to sleep.

"I just finished feeding him." She said with a big grin.

"I came by because I figured you would be exhausted after holding up a henge for so long." He drawled. He knew Naome had a lot of chakra, but if she kept burning it at this rate, she'd eventually run out.

"I'm going to put him into his basinett then I'm going to sleep!" Naome said decisively. She was going to sleep until school started!

When she had settled down into her bed, he left her room and went to the nursery. He made sure the door hinges didn't squeak as he snuck inside, feeling very much like a child making a run for the cookie jar.

Hikaru had a little name plate over his bed with his name in elegant kanji. He was sleeping on his back with his head lolling to the side. Shikamaru thought he'd still look red, like he had glimpsed when the doctor's carried him away to the NICU. Now though his skin looked almost normal.

The room was filled with toys and clothes, presents from Ran's friends. He noticed that there was a book with baby food recipes on top of the diaper changing counter, definitely from Chrona.

Shikamaru listened to the sound of Hikaru's breathing and then sighed. He could give a hundred reasons why he should cut his losses. A thousand different scenarios had traveled through his mind like lightning but he didn't even blink.

When Hikaru began to cry though and a foul smell filled the air, he didn't even hesitate. He picked up that baby boy like a pro and swept him away to the changing counter.

He could give just one reason why he was going to stick around though, and it had nothing to do with loyalty. The Nara clan are big on self acceptance because of the versatile shadows they wielded. So he knew what he was feeling when he held that baby, and he knew how he felt when he was around Naome.

"Troublesome girl, so troublesome." Hikaru seemed to agree.

He stayed there for most of the day, taking care of Hikaru while Naome slept in the next room. He began to realize how hard it would be for Naome to take care of her son. He had gotten a good night's sleep and he was already dead beat tired.

When Naome woke up filled with energy and eager to play with her son, he left for dinner. Naome fed Hikaru-chan and then changed him too. She layed him down on the floor and tickled his tummy till he giggled.

When she put him in bed and watched him from the rocking chair as he slept, she got to thinking.

Was being a shinobi more important than being a mother to her son? What would she ever do if she was killed on a mission, and her baby boy was all alone? Speaking of missions, who would watch Hikaru-chan if she had to leave for a really long one? She didn't want to leave him alone!

"I'd die if something were to happen to you." He had only been around for a few weeks, unless you counted the months she spent pregnant. She wasn't married, heck the father was rotting in jail after nearly burning down their apartment!

Their. Naome leaned back, reclining in the rocking chair while she thought about that little word. It was little! Almost as impossibly small as her son sleeping not three feet away! Yet when she thought about both of them, she couldn't help but feel it made such a big difference.

Suddenly she didn't just have to worry about herself, training and her diet. Academy work seemed so insignificant now, when held in comparison against the baby in that crib. In fact, the Day Care didn't seem near as good an idea for taking care of him, not when she could do it.

She could drop out. It wouldn't be too easy, Iruka-sensei might come looking for her along with Hokage-sama. She could do it though, with a little work. She could say she didn't want to be a shinobi, that it was too dangerous for her and she was too scared.

The idea rankled her, but she could do it. Having a baby took sacrifice, and if the situation required it, Naome Uzumaki could disappear. Ran Yurichi could take care of her son for years and years without being caught if she had to!

She could even leave the village. Leave behind the stares and comments and neglect of her childhood, the same one that ended all too soon. She could make sure Hikaru never had to know what it was like to go to sleep hungry, or to feel like you didn't exist. He didn't have to live like she did.

She could leave the village. Leave behind Shikamaru and Chouji, Anko and Yoshino, Iruka-sensei and Hokage-sama. She could forget about her past, what made her who she was. She could hide from Hikaru just where he came from. He didn't have to live like she did, but she wasn't sure it was a life worth living.

When Hikaru started to cry she didn't hesitate, just whisked him into her arms and walked off to the kitchen for another bottle. The Shinobi Handbook said your childhood ended when your village handed you that hitai-ate. From then you are an adult who has to act like one too.

Naome's ended June 19th, 11:59 pm. She wouldn't have it any other way. She'd tell you that too.

Within a week she felt she was parenting like a pro. She got used to the small amount of free time she had, and made the most of what she had.

The only thing she was having real problems with, was training. Shikamaru couldn't baby sit all the time but she had to stay in shape and improve. However, Hikaru-chan couldn't go outside a whole lot because it would be too easy for a preemie to get sick.

Naome had never been sick before, but she still worried about Hikaru-chan getting sick. Even a cold could be really serious with such a little baby.

So a week after her decision, she was bundling up her son, henging into Ran, and sneaking off to the forests to train. It was hot out, so she dressed him lightly and set him down in the shade. She made sure he was comfortable on his back before backing away.

First she walked up a tree, a little saddened to learn her control was faltering again. She began with her push ups and sit ups and laps and squats. She did fifty of each then started over again. She wanted to get better and this was the only way to do it.

She practiced kawarmi with random rocks and sticks until she could do it without even looking for something to switch with. Then she tried the bunshin.

Clearly bunshin was a creation made simply to frustrate the Hell out of Naome! No matter what she did, more chakra or less, she just couldn't do it! The clones either came out completely transparent or completely dead. There was no middle ground.

Finally getting fed up with the technique, she stopped trying and decided to do something else. More specifically, the Rope Escape jutsu. It was a D-rank jutsu that could be used to escape just about any knot with little to no effort.

It was taught at the academy, but few actually took the time to study it because it wasn't required and they could always work on something else. Naome loved all things jutsu though, so obviously she asked to be taught all the jutsu the academy had to offer.

Rope Escape jutsu, Condensation jutsu, Spark jutsu, Dusty jutsu, Catfoot jutsu, all of these were offered but she was one of only four kids who decided to learn a few in their year. She asked to learn them all.

Condensation jutsu brought water from the air to fill up a canteen. Spark jutsu could be used to start a camp fire quickly. Dusty jutsu was used whenever someone wanted to clean up their tracks. Catfoot jutsu was used to walk silently over any kind of surface, even bubble wrap!

And yes, she indeed tested out that last one.

All of these were D-rank jutsus, but Naome always thought they deserved something a little higher. After all, when one spends her free time making trouble, one is bound to find outragous uses for innocent things.

Condensation jutsu could be used to make mud. Spark jutsu used to start a fuse. Dusty jutsu to just make a mess of the halls! Catfoot jutsu let her sneak up on just about everybody! See? Crazy and prankster potential uses for innocent jutsu!

When she finished with the Rope Escape jutsu she looked over at her little boy. Hikaru was giggling at a butterfly that kept settling down on his bare tummy. Seeing him like that, she knew that scene would make it on to her next canvas as soon as they got home.

Walking home later as Ran, she decided to put Zoro back to work at the library as soon as the oppurtunity presented itself. First though, she'd have to run out for dango and ramen, not necessarily in that order either.

She somehow got tricked into giving away her son for a day to an overly enthusiastic Yuki Yamanaka the next day, leaving her with plenty of free time. She got that new painting done for Akane and showed her the one she did of her son, before making sure the woman knew she wouldn't sell that one for anything.

She thought about going to the hot springs to relax a little, but she didn't want to accidently meet that white haired pervert again. Something about him struck her as off.

Left with no other alternatives than simply lounging around the home, she transformed into Zoro and went to the library.

There was nothing new or interesting in the Academy section so he moved on to the genin section. Here was where he actually found a book about chakra control and it's numerous excercises. Water walking definitely held appeal.

He made a note of that and then moved a little to the right for the jutsu. He found several D-ranks that weren't taught at the academy and carefully shifted through the ones that didn't have a lot of use to the ones that he could use for a variety of things.

Genin weren't taught a whole lot of chakra costing jutsu or jutsu that could be used for large attacks. It was better to wait for those things when a genin became a chunin and hopefully matured a little. So he was surprised when he found a couple C-rank attack and defense jutsu hidden behind a couple dustier tomes.

They were in an unmarked scroll that Naome knew right away didn't belong in the library. In a past life, she wouldn't have looked past the word C-rank before running out to practice until she ran out of chakra.

Now though, she took a closer look at the scroll handing her a ticket to the fast track in her shinobi career. On the side of the scroll was a symbol she knew fairly well. This was a clan scroll belonging to the Aburame clan. There really was no mistaking the insignia of the beetle on the side.

Zoro felt torn. On the one hand, it was likely these were clan techniques that he couldn't do anyway so he should return it. On the other, he so wanted to take a little peek!

He stood with that scroll in his hands for a few minutes before he finally started moving. First he fixed everything up on the shelf, dusting a couple of the books and making sure nothing else was behind the others. When he was done with that he shoved the scroll into his pocket, still unopened, and left the library.

The Aburame compound was actually inside the Red Light District. Whether this was because they ran out of room or because the Aburame chose to live there depended on who told the story. They lived north east of Naome's apartment, near the border of the district and were avoided regularly. Not many people were comfortable with the bugs sharing their bodies.

The Aburame had never done anything to hurt Naome, and she hated hiding all the time. She dispeled her disguise and walked closer to the compound entrance.

As far as she could see it wasn't guarded, like most other compounds. In fact she wasn't even halted until she almost reached the building. The Aburame lived in a single building, though easily the biggest one in the entire village.

"Uzumaki-san, what is your reason for being in our compound?" She eeped and turned around to see a tall man wearing a jacket similar to Shino's. Did all the Aburame wear those?

"I found something that belongs to you." She stated firmly, pulling out the scroll and handing it over.

The man looked it over for a minute and Naome got a good look at some beetles crawling over his finger. She wondered briefly if it felt funny to have bugs crawling all over you all the time.

"Thank you for returning this. It belongs in our library." Yeah, she kind of guessed that. These guys all said the most obvious things!

"You're welcome." She said, bowing slightly and moving around him to leave.

Shibi Aburame looked long and hard in the direction the young girl had gone off in before going back inside. He had left this scroll purposely in the genin section of the library to see if anyone would bring it back. Naome was the first person to return the scroll.

She didn't go back to the library, deciding instead to practice the new D-ranks she had found. Water walking was also on the to do list. By the time the Summer was over, she'd be ready to kick butt and take names!

She went to training ground seven, a ground normally used by new genin squads and the occasional jounin. Academy students normally used the grounds near the academy itself. However, there weren't any lakes or rivers near the academy to practice her newest skill on.

By the time she had to leave to pick up Hikaru-chan, she was soaked to the bone and didn't feel like she made a whole lot of progress. She waited until she was about three blocks away from the Yamanaka flower shop before henging into Ran and picking up her son, assuring Yuki-chan that she had spent the day relaxing.

Naome wondered if she should be worried that she found it so easy to lie now. Almost easier than telling the truth. Almost. She'd try to keep it that way.

With Hikaru-chan nice and clean from a sink bath and it not being time for a feeding, Naome was left with some play time with her baby boy. Hardly a couple weeks and a day old but he was special. He spent hardly any time at all in the NICU, just a couple weeks.

"Maa, you'd be perfect if you would sleep through the night." She whined quietly when her son dozed off after another bottle. Rather than put him into his crib, she decided that just for tonight he could sleep with her.

Yeah, time started to fly by and Naome hardly had the time to wonder where it had gone. Her amazing energy had reinserted itself and she was once again a ball of bright colors, wearing her old T-shirts religiously simply because she could! Hikaru-chan continued being a source of both love and amusement.

At three weeks old, the remains of the umbilical cord had finally fallen off. He could hold up his head for a couple of seconds, and he focused more on her face now. He'd also gained some weight, which she took as a good sign, since he had been a preemie born a long while early.

At the end of the month, she and Shikamaru spent the entire day doing nothing but playing shogi while Hikaru alternated between sleeping and eating. Shikamaru had taken to showing up a bit before lunch and taking care of Hikaru while Naome did whatever she had to do during the afternoon. It was a system that worked.

"Shikamaru, I'm not sure I ever said thank you." Of course, just because it worked didn't mean she didn't question it.

"Troublesome girl, you're welcome." He muttered, not lifting his gaze from the board. He had been teaching her some strategies and she was really catching on.

"You only promises never to tell anyone about it, but you've helped out a lot." He turned his gaze to her and justified his staring as trying to come up with a good reason for his actions.

Her hair had grown out again, it was below her shoulder blades. She was always saying how she needed to cut it. She was wearing a large T-shirt, a bright orange color, and a pair of beige shorts. He admitted she looked better in this than the dull colors and thick hoodies of before.

"You're my friend, it's not troublesome to help you." He said softly, honing back in on the game.

Naome chuckled at the predictable response and went back to the game as well. They got three more moves in before Hikaru began to cry from the bed.

It was August now and Naome was looking over the progress she had made so far. She had mastered the other D-ranks and the water walking excercise. Her strength training had gone rather well and she had a good base, even without the usual chakra enhancing.

There was still one technique that eluded her best efforts though, and it grated her to no end. Bunshin jutsu, the ultimate party pooper.

Shikamaru and Chouji sat at the edge of the clearing she was practicing in, Shika holding a sleeping Hikaru. The knowledge that her son was sleeping was probably the only thing stopping Naome from going onto a very loud, very bad mouthed, rant.

"I don't understand why she's having so much trouble with it." Chouji mumbled through a mouthful of chips.

"Neither do I, but I know it has something to do with it being the least chakra extensive jutsu out there." Shikamaru responded lazily. Maybe she just didn't have the capacity to use the jutsu. It didn't really matter though, since her grades in everything else was so good. She only had to pass taijutsu, get above a D for genjutsu, pass the written, and get a good score on the target, and she would pass no problem.

Naome finally got fed up with the jutsu and turned to a more interesting pass time. Seeing that her friends were busy talking to each other and not paying attention to her for the moment, she quickly henged into a butterfly to sneak up on them.

Once she was just a few feet from them she henged back to normal.

"Boo!" She cried. Shika and Chouji jumped a mile and her son shifted a little in his sleep.

"Don't do that Naome!" Chouji scolded her, having caught her in a strangle hold while she was busy laughing her ass off.

"Sorry, sorry!" She giggled, not sounding sorry at all.

One month left for summer vacation, Naome wondered what she'd see and do during it. She was walking home as Ran with Hikaru snuggling happily in her arms and the diaper bag slung over one shoulder.

"Ne, tomorrow I'm dropping you off at the Day Care Hikaru-chan. You get to spend the day with babies like you!" She decided on the fly. She needed to take another trip to the library anyway. This time with a pencil and note pad, some of those techniques looked hard.

Hikaru only yawned and dug deeper into the crook of her arm. Ran smiled down at her baby boy and chuckled to herself about what he'd probably be doing while she was gone. Sleeping and eating, not much different except she wouldn't be doing the feeding.

Dog-san was jumping over roof tops after being relieved from border duty when he noticed a familiar red head walking below him. He stopped and subconsciously dipped his head to one side like a curious puppy. Ran Yurichi and Hikaru, the latter of which he had watched being borne into the world.

He thought briefly about going down and formally introducing himself, but held back. He had just been the carrier, and no matter her apparent resemblance to Kushina, they weren't related. He shook his head once, twice, then jumped off again in the opposite direction.

The next day, Ran carried Hikaru to the Day Care just outside the Red Light district. She entered the building and shifted Hikaru in her arms nervously. Mentally shaking her head, she walked up to the front desk.

"Excuse me, I'd like to register Hikaru-chan for Day Care." She said confidently.

"Ah, you just have to fill out a few things if you have the time." The Day Care was used by civilians and shinobi. As such, it along with the orphanages and any other Day Cares, were heavily guarded. A genin team was assigned to the Day Care for week long periods on rotation, sort of like a continuous D-rank.

Ran filled out the usual information needed, such as name, age, and allergies. At the name she hesitated before putting Uzumaki. That's what she had written on the birth certificate, so that was what she was going to write on the little papers!

"Alright Hikaru-chan, say bye bye to Kaa-chan." The sitter cooed to the baby. Ran felt a little regretful when he was lifted out of her arms but she schooled her expression.

Ran ducked into an alley and henged into Zoro before stepping out and going on his way. He took his time, getting his mind into the proper state. A little mental prepping was never amiss.

He turned the corner and spotted the library at the end of the street. He started to speed up his walk a bit when he heard something.

"Oi, Zoro-san!" He stopped uncertainly and turned around. Asuma Sarutobi-san was speed walking over to him, followed by a woman that Zoro knew.

"Sarutobi-san, what a surprise." He said blandly, offering only the tiniest of smiles.

"Allow me to introduce Kurenai-san." The woman was a year older than Zoro appeared to be. He was somewhat surprised to learn that she was a chunin like him though.

"Greetings Kurenai-san." He nodded respectfully.

"I'm Zoro Roronoa." He introduced himself.

"Going to the library again?" Asuma questioned.

"Hai, I figured I should get some more attack based jutsu." He shrugged. Really at this point he'd be happy with anything over D-rank.

"Have you started elemental training yet?" Kurenai asked him. Zoro tried to keep his face neutral but now he was curious. What was elemental training?

"Do you know what your element is?" Asuma asked curiously.

"No." Zoro answered.

"I've got some chakra paper left over from when I was testing mine! Water!" Kurenai said excitedly, pulling some strips of paper out of her kunai pouch.

"Just channel some chakra in and we can see what your element is!" She intructed him. She looked happy to teach him about something like this.

Zoro looked down at the paper, unsure what nature elements had to do with him getting attack jutsu but unwilling to ask for fear of looking stupid. He closed his eyes and sent chakra to his hands. When he opened them the paper had split in half.

"Amazing! Wind affinities are really rare in Konoha!" Asuma mumbled. As far as he knew only himself and his father had a wind affinity at the moment. It looked like Zoro-san was a special case though.

"Well, now that I know we have the same element, I can't leave you alone to struggle through the training!" Asuma chuckled. The library didn't have a whole lot of wind jutsu anyway.

They managed to lead Zoro to a training ground and then began explaining about affinities. They went into descriptions of other nature training styles on his request. They all had something to do with leaves, funnily enough. For instance, with wind you have to try and cut a leaf.

With water, you have to try and soak a leaf. With fire you must burn it. With earth you must make it crumble into dust. Finally, with lightning you must crumple the leaf together like a bad idea written on paper before being tossed into the trash.

"Alright, first we'll start with some jutsu that don't require chakra changing." Asuma sighed. Who knew teaching could be so tiring. Not to say that Zoro was a bad student, he listened and asked good questions, but the work just drained all his energy!

Boar, Dog, Bird! Zoro was busy trying to use Wind Style, Great Breakthrough jutsu. It could create a strong gust of wind to knock down unsuspecting enemies. He was having a little trouble getting the gust strong enough to do what he wanted it to do. Which was knock down a kunai that had been tossed at a branch in a nearby tree.

He released his chakra and the wind swirled from his position straight for the tree. His aim had improved, but the wind wasn't strong enough to knock the kunai down. This was his third try.

"Well, you're getting better. You'll have it down by the end of the week if you practice every day." Asuma shrugged noncomittably. He had gotten bored with the whole teaching thing.

Zoro chuckled at the dozing man before looking to the Sun to gauge the time. He had to meet Shikamaru at Ichiraku's at lunchtime. It was almost noon already.

"Ne, Asuma-san, thank you for teaching this to me but I have to go." He didn't say anything about what he was leaving to do or when they could meet again.

Asuma waved the young chunin off before drawing a cigarette and lighting it up. Zoro was an interesting kid, more so because he was always careful about what he was going to say. Asuma didn't think the boy was too worried about being rude as much as worried about saying something he'd regret later. Maybe he watched his tongue because he used to get in trouble for a smart mouth or something.

He exhaled a long cloud of smoke and thought less on Zoro and more about Kurenai. She was really coming around and he was going to ask her out tomorrow for this weekend. He meant to do it today but he chickened out, and seeing Zoro he had decided to give Kurenai a tiny taste of what teaching would be like if she really wanted to teach genin after making jounin.

Zoro dispelled his henge and returned to Naome form before coming within sight of the Ichiraku ramen stand. Her stomach growled as she smelled the familiar scents of the heavenly noodles.

Naome was wolfing down ramen before Shikamaru even finished his half hearted greeting. She hadn't had ramen in forever!

"Naome-chan, what are you doing over the summer? We've barely caught a glimpse of you since school let out." She had been busy with Hikaru-chan. So busy that ramen had taken a back seat to diapers! Clearly she had commited some unforgivable sin to the ramen Gods.

"Training, hanging out with friends, nothing new." She answered through a mouthful of noodles.

"Are you alright? You look a little tired." Naome swallowed this time before she answered.

"Tired? Me? Where have you been the last ten years? I could run around the entire village fifty times before I got tired!" She declared hotly. (Somewhere in Konoha, the green beast sneezed).

"Just been training extra hard! I've gotta be hokage after all!" She declared.

Beside her Shikamaru looked up from his ramen and stared. She still wanted to be Hokage, after everything that had happened. That was still the motivation behind all her training. Becoming pregnant was why she started taking it seriously, and the level of improvement he saw was astounding.

If she wanted to be hokage, he highly doubted anything would be able to stop her. Troublesome girl was too stubborn.

Ran arrived at the Day Care earlier than she meant to, but she guessed it was inevitable. She still wasn't comfortable with leaving him with a sitter for so long. She signed her name and went to the back where the babies were kept.

Hikaru was lying on his stomach, he held his head up just a little and Ran wondered why he was ahead of everyone else. He was a preemie, so technically he should've been behind everyone else, but he was progressing pretty quickly from what she could see.

Inwardly grinning like a loon and thinking about how her son was a little genius, she swept the little baby into her arms, careful to support his head. She cooed happily to the startled baby until he relaxed into her grip and then she turned to leave.

"Excuse me Ran-san, but would it be too much trouble to ask you to fill out something? We need an emergency contact in case something happens." Ran smiled and handed over the baby to accept the papers. She scanned the requirments for a contact and eventually put down a name she could only pray didn't hurt her later.

Hopefully, Anko Mitarashi would never have to find out about this. If she did, hopefully she wouldn't be too angry. Ran had witnessed that anger, and she wanted it in no way directed towards her.

The final month before school started went by in a flash, but she felt pretty satisfied. She mastered the Great Breakthrough jutsu and the Kaze no Yaiba jutsu, which she could make cut down a whole tree now! The Leaf cutting excercise wasn't producing much but Asuma-san did say that it was for chunin and she was only ten, so she wouldn't go on any tangents about it.

Zoro also bought some weights and a new mask named Tia bought some long sleeved feminine clothing. Naome found herself in need of a training bra and figured she may as well show off what little she had. Yep, her boobs were still large and in charge and she was taking advantage of it.

The weights were ten pounds each, one on each limb and on her torso. It had taken three weeks to be able to walk like this and she knew she had to up the amount again soon. She was almost used to the weight! Probably from all that time carrying Hikaru in her stomach.

Her new outfit was a blue bandana around her forehead to keep her bangs out of her eyes. The top was a simple, dark orange long-sleeved shirt that fit snuggly but she wouldn't outgrow too soon. She at first wanted a tank top but then she thought about how those showed off a bit too much skin, and she hadn't lost all of the pregnancy fat. The bottom were bell pants that hit mid-calf before ending.

Where the pants ended, the leg warmers that held her leg weights started. The pants were a dull brown but she thought they looked nice with her top. The warmers were smallish, because she made Tia a little younger than her, but they fit fine. They were also a deep blue, like night with a full moon.

Standing in front of the bathroom mirror now on her first day of school, Naome doubted that she looked anything less than howt! Her foxy grin appeared on her features as she fantasized about the way the jaws at the academy would drop when she walked in.

"WAAAHHH!" Well, if she ever got Hikaru-chan fed and dropped off at the Day Care anyway. She sighed extravagantly before henging into Ran and picking up her son and diaper bag before heading out the door.

She dropped him off as fast as she could, but she was almost late to class anyway. She stepped into the door and took a second to catch her breath before taking a seat next to Shikamaru, who was of course sleeping. Did anyone expect any less of him?

"Welcome back class, I hope you had a good break." Iruka greeted them happily. Mizuki yawned a greeting before holding his chin in one hand and trying to stay awake. Naome was used to little sleep though, thanks to Hikaru-chan.

"Alright then, let's call roll." Naome instantly grew bored and thought about all the cool stuff she could be doing if she wasn't in class. She could be pranking someone, she could be waiting to say hi to Anko who would be back any day now, she could be training on the leaf cutting excercise. So many things to do during a boring school day.

"Naome Uzumaki?" The afore called girl yelped in pain as an elbow found it's way into her side. She glared to her right, where Kiba Inuzuka and Akamaru were sitting.

"Nice to see you here on time for a change Naome." She stopped trying to burn a hole through the dog boy's head and turned to look at Iruka-sensei.

"I've gotten better, but sometimes I think that I could better spend the day actually throwing kunai rather than trying to figure out the percent of force needed to send it through an enemy on paper." She said seriously, forcing herself to keep an innocently blank face mixed with obvious boredom. Yeah, those books on psychology books really helped.

"Wow Naome, you do have a sense of fashion!" Sakura cried in shock. Obviously she hadn't been paying to much attention to the blonde in the back row.

"Yeah, those hoodies were ugly!" Kiba shuddered, emphasising the amount of awful the clothes were.

"Ne, I had my reasons. Stealth training and all that!" She chuckled, thinking back on how few times she got caught pranking now. She was awesome! She ruled all kinds of cool!

"'Sides, you don't do anything about that ugly mug of your's so I decided to give the general populace something easier on the eyes to look at. Some eye candy if you will!" She enjoyed the snickers from her fellow children and the glare from Kiba.

"That's enough now class, we have to get on with today's lesson. First, I'd like to inform everyone that this year more classes will be seperated by sex but you are able to switch between classes as you wish, so long as the one you're actually assigned in has good grades." He read off a little pamphlet. This year the girls would be doing things like calligraphy and painting and flower arranging and geisha stuff.

He passed out a list of the courses to all the girls along with the usual schedule. Naome immediately crossed out painting, she didn't need help with that. Calligraphy would be alright, since she knew from Tenten-san that they practiced it by cracking codes. Geisha stuff was right up her alley, since she lived in the Red Light district she knew a few decent women who would sometimes help her out.

Flower arranging was something she wasn't interested in at all. Not in the slightest. They weren't even allowed to mess with poisonous things or even medicinal herbs! She wanted to learn about those, why wasn't there a course for stuff like that?

She sighed to herself as she thought about the two classes she was taking and what she could substitute for the other two. The Shinobi courses looked so much more interesting! Advanced Shinobi Tools, Stealth Techniques, Tracking, and even Strategies sounded better than what she had.

Naome sighed as she decided to take Stealth Techniques and Tracking rather than Flowers and Painting. With that, she turned in her choices and rejoined the real world. The real world apparently finding complex math problems about flying kunai important.

"I could sell my soul for a calculator." She finally decided.

"Troublesome girl." Oh well, at least she still had her pals.

By the end of the day she was more than ready for graduation. She was ahead of everybody! Even Sasuke couldn't give her anything to work against anymore! She was bored! So bored! She had the need, the need for multicolored paints and bright colored smoke bombs and trip wire!

Naome burst out the door to the academy and had to physically restrain herself from screaming "Freedom"! at the top of her lungs. It was a close call though.

Shikamaru and Chouji both had clan training today though, so she was on her own. She henged into Ran and walked to the Day Care. She missed her baby boy!

She picked him up and signed him out before heading off. She decided it was nice enough out that taking a walk in one of the many parks of Konoha wouldn't be amiss.

"Hmm, what to do with the rest of the day." She muttered to Hikaru. He was resting against her chest but his little eyes were honed in on her.

"Maa, kaa-chan needs to work out and get in shape. Hmm, we could go grocery shopping, we're running a little low. We could go surprise Yoshino-san with a visit." Hard to believe that before getting pregnant, her hardest decision was whether she wanted five bowls of ramen or just the one.

Ran opened the doors to her apartment and shifted Hikaru's weight in her arms. She was just about to go into her own home when someone spoke out.

"Hey Ran! Long time no see! Did'ya miss me?" Ran chuckled and turned back around to see Anko standing behind her with a plate of dango.

"What the-! Is this teeny tiny thing the big baby you were expecting?" Ran laughed again and invited Anko inside. She could always use dango.

"Hmm, I shall be making a visit to Ibiki later then. Can't let these no good men walk around still men after threatening a pregnant woman, can we?" Anko said with finalty after the story ended.

"Ibiki?" She remembered him from the lecture he gave at the academy! The head of T&I!

"He's head of T&I division. I need to go to him to find out these fucker's names." Ran wasn't sure that was a good thing.

Anko looked rather amusing, half a stick of dango in her mouth and a baby laying on her chest. Ran made sure to memorize that scene so she could paint it later. Which reminded her, she needed to buy some new paints.

"Oh yeah, here's my three month's rent!" Anko handed over a larger wad of cash than Ran could ever remember seeing. Dear Kami, A-ranks must pay well!

"I've never realized how much money I make. I usually spend it too quickly." She mumbled to herself. Anko snickered at her slack jaw before turning to the baby sleeping on her chest.

Hikaru probably got the blonde hair from his daddy, whoever the dick who left Ran-chan was. Although, the red streaks were pretty bad ass looking. He'd be a lady killer in a few years! Anko wondered if he'd have a taste for dango. How old did a baby have to be to eat solid food again?

Anko was stunned a little spit like Ran had the guts to stand up to a mob of drunken men. Maybe working in a tavern gave her experience or something. She looked around the room and marveled at how much it had changed in just three months.

There was a painting of little Hikaru in a clearing. A side view picture of the Hokage monuments that gave the perfect angle for the Yondaime to shine. There was even a sad one of the memorial stone and what appeared to be a man looking down at the names.

Anko's brows shot into her hairline and she moved closer. Yep, the man had silver hair and was holding a little orange book.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!" She gasped, weakly falling back onto the couch. Hikaru was shocked awake and started to cry. Ran plucked him up quickly and calmed him down while she waited for Anko to finish.

"What's so funny?" She finally asked with a pout.

"You painted Kakashi!" She lifted an eye brow and turned around to look at the painting the older woman had been studying. She had found him on one of her walks and memorized it to paint later. The silver hair reminded her of the mysterious Dog-san ANBU who took her to the hospital.

"Huh, so that is Dog-san's name. He's the ANBU who carried me to the hospital." She informed Anko.

Anko Mitarashi looked like Christmas had come early this year. Not only was there a painting of Kakashi Hatake brooding but he was the ANBU that whisked Ran to the hospital? This was just too rich.

"Ran, you have to let me bring him here to see this! I'll buy you all the dango you want and not take a single bite!" The purple haired woman swore.

"To see a painting? Well, I guess you can. I'm holding you to the dango thing though." No sooner was the permission out than Anko was out the door crying about finding a certain 'Silver haired pervert'.

Ran wondered what she had just gotten herself in to. Oh well, it couldn't be that bad, could it?

"Anko, why did you drag me into a civilian woman's home?" Evidently it could be bad. Anko had apparently kidnapped the man while he was on duty. Although he didn't look all that mad about it.

"Because she painted you in front of the stone brooding and crying crocodile tears!" The woman answered her captive happily. Ran had placed Hikaru into his basinett before they arrived, and she was glad she had.

"She did?" He raised a challenging look at his captor. Ran wondered what expression he was making under that cloth mask.

"I'm sorry Dog-san, I walked past you like that and thought it would look nice on my canvas." She apologized profusely. She really did not need a shinobi ANBU guy angry with her. She had a baby to think about!

"Maa, you can call me Kakashi when I'm not wearing the mask." He waved her off. She wondered what that orange book was. His eye was practically glued to it. What happened to his other eye?

Kakashi looked at the portrait and admitted privately that she had done a good job. It was painted at the right angle, so you could see his eye. In his right hand was his ICHA ICHA but it was shaded a darker color, like it was in mourning.

"It's well done." He wondered if the fates were messing with him. Why did he keep meeting the same Kushina-look alike civilian? He hadn't known Anko was on speaking terms with anyone who didn't carry large amounts of metal on their person.

"Thank you. I think it's one of my best." She replied graciously. She offered it to him but he refused. Eventually Anko stopped pouting about the lack of visible reaction in the ANBU and scared him off to who knew where.

"Well, he was rather interesting." She sighed, sitting back down on her couch now that it was just Anko and her.

"One day, just one day I'd like the chance to see more than a fraction of that skin." Anko sighed dreamily, her face getting a little red. Ran knew a crush when she saw one.

"So you like him?" She asked innocently. She never got to play these kinds of games with people her own age!

"Ran, I tell you this in the strictest security and trust. I want him naked, in my bed, with me on top of him doing very naughty things to his lower regions." Ran couldn't help bursting into laughter at the face Anko made when describing her little wet dream.

"Well, I know the way to a man's heart is through his stomach but I'd have to ask around to find the secret combination for the pants zipper." She joked. Anko looked scandalized, obviously not expecting someone like Ran to make a joke like that.

"Aha! I've rubbed off on you!" She cried victoriously.

"I guess you have!" She nodded.

When Anko left she dispeled the henge and went to the canvas. She still had that scene with Anko and Hikaru-chan to sketch then paint. She took out her supplies and donned an apron. She tied back all her hair and sat in front of the white sheet.

First she did the background, putting in the couch, the walls, and the scene out the window. Naome dipped her brush into the yellow and swiped it gently over the wall area. She took a deep breath before continuing the process. She put in Anko, and little Hikaru-chan laying on her chest.

With a finer brush she put in the dango stick. At first she reached for a shade of brown, but then changed her mind half way through and dipped it into the Quicksilver. The dango stick became a senbon. This was the way of most of her paintings, she'd start something and then change her mind and suddenly the mood of the picture took a drastic change.

This always seemed to happen to the paintings that had anything to do with ninja. Even the monuments had been done thinking about each one's acomplishments and the consequences of their mistakes. The Kakashi painting had looked peaceful to her but when she was finished it was that of a man in mourning.

Now this one of Anko and her son, it had darker shades than she had first envisioned. That of a Kunoichi who couldn't leave behind her career in presence of even a child.

When she heard her son cry she went right away. She never looked at the paintings until they were finished. She liked not knowing just how they'd turn out.

When she laid him back down, she again started the painting. The gentle curl of her son's hair, and the bunched up fishnet in his curled fist. The amused yet guarded expression of a friend. The sharp lines of her hair.

Naome finished the painting and left it out to dry. She fed Hikaru-chan again, then changed him. By now it was late. She made a small dinner, just some sashimi. She downed the fish then decided she would sleep.

It was a couple hours before she managed to follow through with that.

Two Months Later!

With two months behind her, Naome found herself in class with an old friend. Nausea sucked so badly. She had woken up feeling fine, if a little tired. She had taken a shower, fed and washed Hikaru-chan, dropped him off, and was at school a whole hour before it started up.

She could feel the fish she ate just last night swimming upstream. Naome groaned quietly and tried to think of something to calm her stomach. Of course, her silent prayers went unheard by the Gods and the feeling seemed to magnify.

"Sensei, may I be excused?" She asked, raising her hand weakly and trying not to fidget under the curious stares of her friends.

"Go ahead." Iruka remembered what had happened the last time he hadn't trusted his gut when it said something was wrong. He still swore he could smell it when he passed out tests to the back of the room.

Naome needed no further urging and was out the door with a hand over her mouth before anyone could blink. Yeah, all that training had made her pretty fast.

When she managed to calm her stomach down enough so she wasn't in danger of losing the ramen she ate last week, she went back to class.

Iruka wanted to take her home, but Mizuki-sensei wasn't here today. He had taken a vacation half a week ago and wouldn't be back for another. He resolved to wait it out until lunch and hope Naome could stomach it.

When lunch time came around with Naome running a fever and asleep on her desk, Iruka turned to Shikamaru. They were friends, more if the rumors were to believed, maybe he could convince the lazy boy to take her home?

"No problem." Shikamaru answered tiredly, sounding like there was a rather big problem indeed. He managed to rouse Naome enough to walk and then led her off the grounds and all the way home.

When she was lying in bed he thought about whether or not going back to class was worth it. Naome might need him, not to mention that the Day Care would only take care of Hikaru for so long. Someone would have to pick him up.

Naome was asleep in bed and he took the chance to think about what to do. Hikaru had to be picked up at three thirty. He wasn't on the pick up list because he was too young.

"Troublesome." He muttered, looking at his options. He could go to either his mother, or the crazy Tokubetsu Jounin who lived here. His mother would be unbearable and no doubt would insist on taking care of 'Ran' while she was sick. Not to mention asking uncomfortable questions like why Shikamaru was here rather than at class. Especially since he shouldn't know that 'Ran' was sick.

"No help for it, I'll have to ask that Anko lady to do it. Maybe I can keep her outside?" He resisted the urge to mutter troublesome a few times. They really needed a better contingency plan than this for if something happened to Naome. Why hadn't he planned for this occasion?

He checked the papers at the front desk and figured out that Anko lived on an apartment on the same floor. He hoped she was home.

He knocked on the door. He waited a few seconds before the door opened, revealing a messy headed woman in the midst of a wide yawn.

"Anko-san, may I ask a favor? It's about Ran." He added quickly when it looked like she was going to slam the door.

"What's wrong with her?" Anko yawned again. She had been taking a nap when Shikamaru knocked on her door. Wasn't a brat like him supposed to be at the academy?

"She's sick and needs someone to pick up Hikaru from Day Care. You're on her emergency check out list." He told her. He felt the urge to add 'troublesome' somewhere in there, but this was a very troublesome woman, so he stopped himself. Stupid family speech quirk.

"Course I will." She said simply before closing the door. Shikamaru sighed quietly and went back to Naome. He'd have to tell her to be ready for a henge, even if she was sick.

When he came back to find her puking her brains out, he knew she wouldn't be able to keep it up. Morning sickness had been a recurring problem and Naome was often forced to call in sick at work in order to not blow her cover. It's hard to hold a henge when you're barfing your guts out.

Her reaction was one he had suspected. First, rage about how he should've told her before going to Anko. Then fear that she would see her as Naome. Then worry about getting Hikaru sick. She was so troublesome.

Anko chewed on the dango stick between her lips as she walked down the street. Things had started improving when it came to the civilians' treatment of her, but she hardly noticed anymore. She had something much more important to think about.

How did that Nara brat know Ran was sick when he was meant to be at the academy? Why wasn't Yoshino or someone there to do this? Why was she of all people on the check out list? She knew Ran and her were friends and all, but she couldn't take care of children! Especially small children that cried and wet themselves!

When she entered the Day Care, she tried to ignore the sudden flourishing of whispers that followed her. She wasn't there for their entertainment, she was there for a friend. If they wanted to start some rumors, fine! It wasn't her kid!

"Hello? I'm here to pick up Hikaru. I'm Anko Mitarashi." She introduced herself to one of the genin working there. A girl wearing a pink chinese style top and brown hair held in buns. Come to think of it, that's the girl who lived in the apartment above her!

"Okay, you're on the pick up list. You just sign your name here and then go get him." Tenten told her, pointing to the dotted line. Anko smacked her name down then went to the back. There she found Hikaru-chan being played with by a boy she could've sworn was Gai's illegitimate child. Dear Kami, was the man asexual? Did he bud?

"Oi gaki, I'm here to take Hikaru-chan home to his kaa-chan." She said gruffly. She wasn't sure how to treat the mini Gai clone.

"Ah! You must be a friend of the Youthful Uzumaki-san!" Anko wasn't sure what the vessal had to do with this so she only accepted the baby and diaper bag. She decided to get out of there before the gaki's talk of Youth infected Ran's kid.

Anko was walking by the desk, thinking about the offhand comment about Uzumaki, when she glimpsed the sign out sheet lying next to the one Tenten had pulled out with Hikaru's info sheet. Her eyes honed in on one important detail.

Hikaru's last name was Uzumaki.

Anko wasn't sure what to make of this situation, but she knew how to get answers. It was possible that Ran's mysterious lover had been related to the Uzumaki girl. And Ran did know Naome Uzumaki, so it wasn't much of a stretch.

Anko's eyes narrowed though as she thought about it. There had always been things about Ran that didn't add up. The first being that she had come out of nowhere and bought old woman Rukia's apartment before the woman left town. Anko didn't know anyone who knew Ran before, and in the Red Light district, everybody knew everyone.

She looked down at the baby in her arms and wondered some more. The whisker marks on the boy's cheeks. Were they hereditary? Was Naome Uzumaki and Ran's mysterious lover somehow related? She held the baby closer and pondered some more.

Ran moved more like a dancer, but less like a shinobi. Of course, that could be a sign of an academy student in their late years. Maybe she had been in the academy but dropped out? Things like that tended to stick around as habits. Or maybe she was just confident in the way she moved, it had happened before and it often led to a background check on civilians, to make sure they weren't enemies in disguise.

Anko's heart sped up and her stomach gave a very painful lurch. She stopped in the middle of the street with a sleeping baby in her arms as she thought about what happened to spies. She didn't want to think that Ran was a spy though. Didn't want to believe that their friendship had been a ruse from the start.

She didn't want to lose a friend over something like some suspicions and a last name. She steeled herself though and kept walking. If Ran turned out to be a threat, then for the good of the village, Anko would eleminate her personally.

And if Shikamaru Nara was involved in this conspiracy, then Shikaku should've raised his brat better.

She snuck into the apartment and made way to the master bedroom. She fell into view when she saw who was sitting on the bed. Nearly gave the kid a heart attack too.

"What are you doing here? Where is Ran?" Anko asked first, before either child could think of something to say.

Several Hours Later...Nah, not really. Just one hour. I didn't want to do the whole explanation.

"Wow. You mean I've been buddies with a ten year old rape victim and single mama all this time?" This was a lot to take in.

"I'll be eleven next Friday if that helps." Naome mumbled. She had just gotten through with proving once again, that yes, her henges were solid. It felt good to let other people know, but that made three. Seriously, how long until the whole village knew her secret?

"Anko-san, this is all so very troublesome, but please don't tell anyone about this!" Shikamaru sounded a lot more passioned than Naome had ever heard before. He sounded like he really cared about them. She couldn't help but smile.

"Who said I was going to tell? I'm no rat! Although, you Naome owe me so much dango for this!" The woman broke off from her psuedo angry tangent when she thought of all the dango she could make the blonde girl buy for her.

"You're not angry?" Naome blinked. She couldn't help it! She'd had so many nightmares about people finding out and Hikaru-chan getting taken away that such quiet acceptance set her off balance.

The force of her fever broke through the mental barricades she had erected during their talk and she groaned before cradeling her head in her hands. It felt like her head was going to be split open!

"Ne, take a nap girly! Nara gaki and I'll take care of Hikaru-chan till you're better!" Anko waved the girl off. She still needed some time to think and sort through all this, but she wasn't angry. No, she was relieved. Because she knew now that she did have a true friend. Naome didn't make friends with her because she wanted to protect her secret, if she had wanted to do that she would've avoided any shinobi!

She was just relieved that she hadn't lost her only friend.

Naome got better within a day. She happily retrieved her son from the overwhelmed hands of Anko. Apparently nobody had told her that taking care of babies meant very little sleep. Something Anko was very fond of.

With that crisis everted and a new ally, things were looking good. Then the Kyuubi festival started. October tenth, the day that the Yondaime defeated the nine tailed demon fox. Naome's birthday, that she hated. Finally, the anniversary of being raped.

She was comforted by not waking up to a burning building, but she was still on guard. Civilians didn't know where she lived, so she figured the apartment was safe so long as all the curtains were drawn.

Then of course, Anko decided Naome needed to face her fears and confront the stupid villagers by going out for a night on the town. Anko wanted to celebrate her birthday by taking her out to the festival for the first time. Yeah, not helping at all.

"Come Oooooonnnn!" Anko whined, trying to wrestle the blonde into a cute orange kimono with blue wave designs. It looked totally cute on the now eleven year old! Anko still thought of Naome as her younger sister, whether or not she was pretending to be Ran.

Actually, Anko thought the whole thing was hilarious. It was like one giant prank. Nobody knew that Ran was a mask and nobody was going to find out! An Academy student was fooling every John, Dick, and Harry in the entire village! Ha!

"No means no Anko-nee! I don't want to go out! Besides, someone has to watch Hikaru-chan!" Naome tried to argue but it was pointless. Besides, she did kind of want to go. She had always wanted to go to the celebration and see the fireworks go off. She wanted to be able to stand in that crowd without any stares.

"I already arranged for a sitter! Nai-chan owed me some favors and she likes kids, so it's a win-win!" Anko argued back. Anko had been surprised to learn that 'Ran' had met Kurenai before but really, it shouldn't have. Ran seemed to know everybody.

"But!-" The kimono was forced over her head. Naome huffed a little but gave up the fight and simply let Anko use her as a life size doll. She still hated October tenth. Abso-fucking-lutely she did. She just wanted to see the fireworks and hang out with Shikamaru and Chouji. That's all.

She still hated it, and she probably always would. It wasn't a good day. Not like June 8th. That was a good day, a really good day! It was the day her baby was born!

Naome studied herself in the mirror. Her hair was up in a stylish bun. The kimono obi was tied elegantly. She was wearing those big wooden clog things that forced her to take tiny steps or fall flat on her face all the time.

Still, she thought she didn't look too badly. If she dared to say it, she'd say she looked downright girly! Naome chuckled when she thought of what some of her classmates might think if they saw her before she remembered that she wasn't supposed to like this.

She was only doing this because Anko-nee wanted to celebrate her birthday. She still hated October tenth. She hated everything about it.

Still, tonight might be fun.

END OF THE CHAPTER WOOT! I AM AWESOME! PRAISE BE TO THE ULTIMATE, ME!

LC; Alrightie then, it's finally done!

Naruto; Geez, another almost 20,000 word chapter?

Sasuke; Usually your chapters have only about 3,000.

LC; Yeah, but I felt a little ambitious!

Naruto; Ahem. The Anko Discovery scene?

LC; What?...Oh yeah! This scene was the idea of Nayami-chan! She helped!

Naruto; Yeah, the whole, Naome getting sick to Anko finding out.

Sasuke; All that was the pen-author Nayami-chan.

LC; Well, I put all the details, but the basic plot for that was her's. Thanks Nayami-chan!