Author's Note: Well the story officially kicks off now since I actually got done with the prologue two days ago. As previously stated, this is completely AU in a world where Naruto is not really the Yondaime's child but rather the female (not male) Kyuubi's. Kushina Uzumaki is still alive so he will have a mother. Also, after this chapter the story will begin to take place throughout the main time frame as the series.

"I…" indicates speech.

'I…' indicates inner thought.

'I…' indicates conversation with Kyuubi.


Do You


Chapter 1: The Fox and the Hound

It was impossible to see any glimmer of the sun today because of the dense blanket of charcoal and smoke gray clouds that had laid itself out over the village of Konohagakure no Sato, which seemed only that much more appropriate to the boy. After all, a week earlier he had been enjoying a wonderful little rainfall back in Kiri while he and all of his friends played shinobi in expectation for entering the Academy at the start of the year and now here he was, hundreds of miles away from his home in some horribly foreign village preparing to attend another hidden village's academy with a classroom of unfamiliar other kids. The gray, foreboding clouds were the first common thing that he had seen since he had arrived here. As he pushed the goggles he wore on his forehead back into place, he could only sarcastically wonder what kind of justice that was.

"Naruto? Are you ready to go?" His mom called from outside his door.

"Just a second!" He took one last second to glance at himself in the mirror, looking at the eight-year-old that grinned back at him behind a pair of cool blue eyes. On his forehead, Naruto wore a pair of goggles strapped to a black cloth band to push back his spiky disheveled hair. In the middle of the space between the eye pieces, the four waves that symbolized the Land of Water had been engraved into the metal. He had on a black t-shirt pulled over his chest with an unzipped thin orange and black jacket on top of that coupled with a pair of matching pants. On the back of the jacket was a tremendous spiral set in a deep shade of blue which his mom had put there because she said it reminded her of her home back in the Land of Whirlpool.

"I swear that if you're not at the door in ten seconds I'm going to leave without you!" She hollered.

"I'm ready!" He replied, nearly busting through the doorway as he pushed his goggles up one last bit. From the front door of their secluded little house at the back of the Hokage's manor, Kushina Uzumaki looked at her eager, cheery adopted son as he raced up to her. To her, his youthful enthusiasm, even regarding the fact that they were so far from his home, was something to envy. After all, it was a trait he shared with the man that had sealed him. It was sad that he would probably never even learn who that man was.

"Well look at you! You look you're ready to go off and join the Seven and fight off all of the enemies you meet!" She said jokingly as she knelt down to wrap him up in a warm hug, twirling the red streak of hair at the front of his spiky mane as she did so. The Seven – being the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist – were a group of highly powerful and specialized jonin from Kirigakure appointed by the Mizukage, like an advanced ANBU group. "Next thing I know, you'll be asking for a Zanbatō and trying to perform the Kirigakure no Jutsu."

He flashed her a tremendous smile as he pushed the single strand of hair back into its spike in the center of his head. "Not a chance! I'm gonna be the Mizukage himself and be stronger than the Seven!"

She loved his unflinching ability to make her smile. All he had to do was speak about who he would be when he grew up and it could bring the greatest grin to her face as she listened. She knew that if anyone could achieve such grandiose plans for their own life, it would be Naruto because he just would not allow himself to believe anything else. In that, in his self-demand to succeed or die trying, he was just like the Minato she used to know so long ago in another time of her life.

"Well let's go, Naruto." She said as she stood up, taking his hand. "Before we take you down to the Academy to register with the rest of the new class today, we need to stop off because the Hokage would like to speak with you."

"Really? Why would he wanna speak to me?"

"Well… He's a friend of Jiraiya's and Jiraiya loves to talk about you." Kushina replied hesitantly as they walked on toward the building housing the Hokage's office. She had promised herself that she would not tell Naruto who Minato was so that he would not bring attention to himself he didn't need by claiming to be the son of Konoha's Yellow Flash. It was understandable then he would not know much about the Hokage or the old man's intentions in wanting to speak with Naruto before he began to become a ninja. "…Since Jiraiya's probably told him all sorts of things about you and how you're the best kid around, I think that the Sandaime Hokage just wants to meet you personally to see what kind of person you are. He's a good Kage and very friendly to his villagers and you're one of them now, kiddo."

"Well that's okay I guess." Naruto replied. "As long as it doesn't take too long, I guess. I just want you to be there when I register so I can show you what I learned to impress the Academy's entrance judges!"

"Oh? You learned something special?" She asked, genuinely surprised at her son's words. He had been secretive lately but she had just thought it to be a little bit of anger at the fact they had moved. Yet if he had been practicing on his shuriken toss or learning a little bit of chakra control, then he would already be attracting the eyes of the village, which they did not need. "What is it?"

"I can't tell ya! You'll just have to wait to see it but I can guarantee you'll be amazed!"

"Okay, Naruto. As long as it isn't anything dangerous, I can't wait to see it." She replied as they turned the corner only to arrive at the front gates of the Hokage's tremendous office.

As she had expected, Sarutobi was already standing out front waiting for them, a steady plume of wispy silver smoke pouring from the weathered pipe that protruded from his mouth. At his right, Jiraiya was standing patiently, having been waiting to speak to her for the better part of the week already now. The Toad Sage had not changed much since Minato had first introduced him to her a good decade ago; he was still the same overtly perverted yet supremely wise old man that had accidentally 'arrived' just when she and the Yondaime were enjoying themselves in a hidden hot springs back in Kirigakure. Minato had nearly killed him for that but after Jiraiya apologized profusely, she and the sannin had become decent friends. For the last eight years though, he had taken less of friend role and become more of a father-in-law to her and a grandfather to Naruto, helping her carry out Minato's last wish as best he could. For all Naruto knew, he was Kushina's father since she had never told him his 'dad' was. Which, of course, was why…

"Grandpa Jiraiya!" Naruto exclaimed as he ran over to the white-haired sannin.

"Heya! How's my favorite grandson?" Jiraiya asked, giving the rambunctious eight-year-old a massive hug as Sarutobi looked on with a sly and wizened smirk. Meanwhile, Kushina was preparing herself for the conversation that she knew had been coming since the day they had begun to leave Kiri. After all, this was the village where the Kyuubi had attacked instead of some mist-covered little island five hundred miles away. They knew there was a child that housed the legendary kitsune. "Look at you, Naruto! You've gotten even bigger than you were the last time I saw you!"

"Just wait and see! I'll be even taller than you when I grow up."

"I can believe that. You'll be a ninja giant, at least fifteen feet tall!" Jiraiya replied with a laugh. "Naruto, I want you to meet a very good friend of mine and the Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato. This is Sarutobi, the Sandaime."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Naruto." Sarutobi said as he took Naruto aside; leaving Kushina to speak with Jiraiya alone so they could talk about the thing inside Naruto and how it would probably put him in danger now, especially with him beginning as a ninja. They had decided not to tell Naruto exactly what he was – that he was not really Kushina's son but rather the offspring of the queen of the tailed beasts – until he was at least thirteen and old enough to understand. "My ex-student tells me that you're going to be joining the Academy today."

"Your ex-student?" Naruto asked questioningly.

"Sorry. I used to be Jiraiya's sensei back when he was a genin so many years ago." Sarutobi responded with a smile. "So are you excited to be joining the ranks of the Konoha shinobi?"

"I kinda wish I was going to Kiri with my friends. Sagara and I were going to become part of the Seven Swordsmen but… it looks like I can't anymore…" Naruto answered, casting his eyes down on the ground as he thought about a friend he might not see again now that they were both becoming ninja soon for different villages. His mom had started introducing him to the world of the shinobi earlier this year by showing him how to throw kunai and shuriken somewhat but what she didn't know what that Jiraiya had been teaching him to control his chakra since he was five. He told him that, with the talent he had already, he was probably stronger than most basic genin. "Mom says you wanted to talk ta me because I'm one of the new villagers."

"Well she's right, Naruto." Sarutobi said, smiling broadly as another puff of smoke drifted from the pipe in his mouth. "Jiraiya talks about you all the time whenever I see him so I just wanted to see the grandson he loves to mention when he's here in Konoha. I see he's not exaggerating; I think you're going to be quite the ninja."

"…Thank you, Mr. Hokage."

"You don't have to call me Hokage, Naruto. Just call me Sarutobi. Now, I have something to ask you."

"What do ya need?"

"Jiraiya tells me you have a very interesting marking on your chest…"

"You mean the symbol my mom gave me because of our clan?" Naruto replied. Even though Kushina was not going to tell him about the Kyuubi until he was older, she still had to make up a good excuse about why exactly he had a massive seal tattooed into the center of his stomach unlike every other child he had met. So, instead of telling him it was keeping his real mother's chakra locked inside of his body, she had made up a tiny little lie by saying that it was the Uzumaki mark for all the males of her clan. Luckily enough for her, she had separated herself far enough from the rest of her family when she had become a kunoichi and left them behind back in the Whirlpool Country. "She says that we're part of the clan's nobility and that the mark indicates it."

"Is it now? Well that's fantastic!" Sarutobi spoke, though he knew the truth of the matter. "Naruto, I'm going to tell you a little secret about some of the people in this village. You need to make sure that you do not show them that mark or tell them about it, even the adults."

"Why not?"

"Well my boy, I guess you could say that the members of the individual clans in this village can be kind of jealous of the members of other clans, especially the important ones like yourself. So you need to make sure they don't know about that mark because if they did, they might be mean to you and I don't want to see that happen."

"Really?" Naruto asked incredulously. He had never met anyone from any other clans except for a few of the kids that he played with back in Kiri and they had always been nice to him but this was an entirely different village so he guessed it wasn't completely impossible that they'd be mean. It just didn't seem like something that could really be true though. "But mom said the people in this village were nice…"

"Most of them are, Naruto. But there are some that won't accept you if you show them who you are…"

"Sorry to interrupt, Lord Hokage, but there is a matter that requires your attention." Without a sound, a masked shinobi appeared at Naruto's side, accompanied by a cloud of acrid and sulfuric smelling smoke. He wore a basic flak jacket and uniform just like all the other Konoha-nin that Naruto had seen since they arrived in the village but he had a basic face mask that covered his mouth and nose. His hitai-ate was pulled down over his left eye so Naruto could not see anything really that distinguishing about him besides his faded-looking gray hair. All in all, the shinobi seemed very mysterious, especially because of his appearance. "It seems that there is an issue within the compound of the Uchiha family that-"

It was then that he noticed the mostly blonde-headed boy standing beside him.

"Oh yes of course. Naruto, this is one of the village's jonin: Kakashi Hatake. Kakashi, this is one of our newest villagers: Naruto Uzumaki." Sarutobi responded, introducing the two of them. "Now, Kakashi, what was it you needed to tell me?"

"With all due respect, Lord Hokage, I do not believe that we should speak in public about this matter as it may require the direct attention of ANBU." Kakashi answered after looking down to Naruto and flashing him what Naruto could only assume was a smile because of how his eye closed like he was grinning. "I need to discuss this with you in private, sir."

"Very well. Naruto, it's been a pleasure meeting you and I look forward to you becoming a great ninja!" The Sandaime finished with a courteous and generous bow accompanied by another wizened old smile from behind his pipe. Even though Naruto had just met the man, he liked him because he was not like most of the old people that he had met so far but a little bit like Jiraiya instead with how he hadn't stopped smiling and didn't talk to him like he was a child. For some reason, the boy just felt like he could trust this new Hokage. But then again, his mom had told him that he really did care for his villagers unlike the mostly corrupt Mizukage back in Kirigakure. "Would you tell your mother to just ask if she needs anything for me?"

"Will do!" Naruto replied with a big thumbs-up as he turned and ran back to where Jiraiya and his mom were still talking in hushed tones. "Mom, old man Sarutobi said just ta ask if ya need anything."

"Naruto, call him Lord Hokage." Kushina responded, blushing with a laugh at her son's name for their new Kage.

"But he said I could call him Sarutobi."

"Okay but at least call him Mr. Sarutobi. He is your elder, after all." Kushina finished as she took Naruto's hand and turned her attention back to her son's grandfather. "Well I think we're done here. Jiraiya, are you going to accompany us to get Naruto registered for the Academy?"

"Yeah Grandpa! You've gotta see what I'm gonna do!" Naruto chimed in merrily.

"Of course! I wouldn't miss it for the world!" Jiraiya boomed merrily as he danced about like some deranged kabuki actor across the courtyard in front of the Hokage's office. These little displays always made Naruto laugh which is why he continuously did them whenever he was around; well that and he always thought it turned the ladies on to see a man not afraid to strut his stuff in the most traditional way imaginable. That latter reason, though, was something that Kushina knew all too well about and, as such, continuously yelled at him for doing in front of her son. "And after we've got you enrolled in the Academy, how about I take you out for a big bowl of ramen, Naruto?"

As they walked to the Academy, the Jinchūriki felt really happy for the first time since they left Kiri.

The Konoha Ninja Academy

"Now when I call your name, step forward and throw the three shuriken provided for you at the target in front of you." The academy trainer chunnin said with a bored stare as he watched the nearly fifty or so children test out their basic abilities to see if they could even be admitted. Naruto stood almost at the back of the line, waiting impatiently for his chance to finally show off the technique he had been working on for the whole last month in preparation for this little test. Even though he wasn't taking it in Kiri, he was still going to show off. And as luck had it, he had precisely the perfect amount of shuriken and there was a small coy pond next to them that would provide more than enough water for him to do his thing.

"Dear Kami, this line is taking forever to move! I wanna go already!" Naruto exclaimed somberly as another kid, a seemingly silent little boy with sunglasses on that he had heard called Shino, stepped up to the line to have his three throws.

"Me too! I can't wait 'cause I'm gonna become an amazing ninja and be the strongest fighter in the entire village." Said the boy directly in front of him the same sound of exasperation that Naruto had just used. He turned around as Naruto looked up to see a boy about his age with wild brown hair and almost feral yet, at the same time, cheerful eyes. He had two red lines on his cheeks, one on each side of his face and wore a black shirt with a pair of black pants as though he were already trying to be a ninja. Though the boy's appearance struck Naruto as a little weird and almost animalistic, the strangest thing about the kid was that he had the cutest little gray-furred puppy resting on top of his head. "Ain't that right, Akamaru?"

As if on cue the puppy yipped a happy reply.

"Uh… What the heck?" Naruto asked incredulously as he turned his wide-eyed stare from the tiny puppy to its apparent owner. "What's… with the dog?"

"Oh him? This is Akamaru and he's my companion. The name's Kiba Inuzuka." The boy replied, carefully picking up the puppy from its resting place on top of his head to show him to Naruto. Although the puppy seemed incredibly small – which made Naruto think it was still a very young pup – it didn't act scared or nervous around the new person but more like an excited and energetic little ball of fur as he started to try to jump around in Kiba's arms. Kiba, meanwhile, just laughed about his canine partner's behavior. "I'm from the Inuzuka clan so he's my friend for the rest of my life!"

"Can… he understand you?" Naruto asked.

"Of course; it's not like he's stupid or anything." Kiba exclaimed merrily as he scratched the top of Akamaru's head. The pup, however, looked up at its master with a slightly narrowed gaze and barked a single, dismissive little bark before turning his attention to Naruto. To the blonde-headed boy, it seemed as though he was annoyed by what Kiba had just said. "What? I said you weren't stupid. I was just answering his question! Great, now he's pissed at me. Thanks a lot… uh what was your name again?"

"Oh, it's Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm gonna be the Mizukage of Kiri one day!" Naruto almost shouted cheerfully. "And don't you forget it, either!"

"Kiri? Why would you want to be the Kage there?"

"I'm from Kiri; Mom and I just moved here 'cause she wanted me ta attend the Academy in this village, she said." Naruto replied, frowning slightly. "So we moved here earlier this week…"

"Gee, that really sucks…" Kiba murmured as they both took another step forward as the line moved again. "But I guess you can always go back there and become the best in that village. As for me, I'm gonna be the Hokage and even outdo The Professor himself!"

"Who's The Professor?"

"You don't know who The Professor is?" Kiba responded amazed. Naruto simply shook his head and shrugged, causing the spiked crown on top of his head to go swaying as he tilted to the left a little bit. This caused Kiba to chuckle a little at the blonde in front of him, making Naruto start to laugh too. "Oh yeah, you're not from around Konoha, right? The Professor is the current Hokage, the Sandaime. My Mom told me that the ninja of the village refer ta him as The Professor because he apparently knows every single jutsu that has been made by a Konoha-nin. It's supposed to be a nickname of honor or something like that, she said."

"Really? That's cool!" Naruto answered back, perking up as the smile returned to his face after the memories of Kiri killed it a moment earlier. If Old Man Sarutobi was really as intelligent and good at jutsu as Kiba had just told him, Naruto could only hope that maybe he could get him to teach him some cool techniques and then he could do even more even without being a genin yet. Coupled with meeting this newfound friend of his, the move was starting to look a little bit better. "You know, if you become the Hokage of this village when I become the Mizukage back home in Kiri, then we could join forces to lead the strongest ninja army anyone has ever seen!"

"Hmm… Yeah! That'd be awesome! We could totally kick anyone else's butt if they tried to attack us or our villages!" Kiba quipped with a giant grin, giving him a thumbs-up. "Definitely, we're gonna be Kage!"

"It settles it then; we're gonna make a pact right now to become Kage one day."

"Agreed, Naruto! Onward ta becomin' ninja legends!"

"Yeah right; you two losers probably won't get even get admitted into the Academy," Retorted an annoying little black-haired boy from about two kids behind them. "I wouldn't be surprised if you can't even throw the shuriken at the target without falling on your faces!"

"Shut up, Sasuke! Just because our siblings aren't in ANBU doesn't mean we can't kick your stuck-up butt if we need to, Uchiha-brat!" Kiba spat back with Akamaru barking right along beside him from on top of his head. The boy, Sasuke, just shot a bunch of evil glares their way from behind another candidate but Naruto could not help but laugh at how stupid he was. The boy had not yet seen what Naruto had prepared for this little test and when he did, he would be in no place to talk. "Don't pay him any mind, Naruto. He's an Uchiha and thinks that anyone not in his clan is a piece of trash to be walked on, especially with his brother Itachi being recruited by ANBU back when he turned thirteen. Besides, he won't be talking when he sees what I've got planned for this thing."

"You're plannin' on showing off too?" Naruto asked in a now-whispered tone so that the raven-headed annoyance couldn't hear them talking. "I thought I was the only one since all I've seen so far is kids just tossing the shuriken like a throwing card…"

"No way! This is our only chance to show what we can do before we get in the Academy and they start telling us what we can and can't do! I've got a little trick I've been gettin' ready for nearly two months now. Mom taught me some chakra control back during last fall and I've been perfecting this little trick ever since! Let's just say you can get ready to be amazed!"

"We'll see. I've got something planned as well."

"Well it looks like we'll see it real soon, Naruto. It looks like I'm up next." Kiba finished.

Naruto turned his attention toward the candidate in front of Kiba to see a girl with a head short cut dark hair and gray eyes finishing up her final throw. All three of her shuriken had hit the target that the instructors had set up twenty feet away but none of them were close to the bulls-eye but rather scattered all about the target like most of the other potential candidates' throws. She seemed to be intensely focused on the path the little four-pointed knife had taken as it flew through the air and into its painted straw destination, as though she were reading the very air currents that it cut through to try and analyze some deeper meaning to why it flew how it flew. Although this seemed wholly boring to Naruto, he was still starting to smile wildly because after Kiba it was his turn and he could finally show his mom and grandpa what he had wanted to for the whole last month since he had first learned the technique.

"Thank you, Hinata. Kiba Inuzuka, throw your shuriken." The instructor said dully, as if cursing whatever god had delegated such a boring task on him.

"Naruto, could you hold Akamaru for me. Oh, and while you're doing that, watch this." Kiba spoke with a smirk, handing the gray puppy to Naruto before stepping up to the line.

Holding the three shuriken between his index and middle finger, Kiba closed his eyes and brought his hands together in the tiger configuration hand-sign for a moment before relaxing his body. After he did this, he carefully put one shuriken between each of his fingers and then, with the quickest flicker of his wrist, launched them at the target.

The instructor stood there wide-eyed and dumbfounded, just like the better majority of the other candidates and their parents.

"HAH! All the way into the wall!" Kiba shouted as he burst into laughter, taking Akamaru back into his arms and dancing with the puppy merrily. Not only had he succeeded in throwing all three of the shuriken at the same time, not only had the shuriken hit their intended target all in very good positions around the bulls-eye in the center, but they had also tore right through the straw like tissue paper and lodged themselves into the wall ten feet behind the target, which just happened to be made of solid brick. Naruto could not help but laugh along with his new friend and join the celebration; it was as good of a trick as the one he had ready next. "Naruto, as I'll probably be saying until we both become Kage, beat that!"

"With pleasure!" Naruto replied, taking his spot on the line as the instructor regained his composure and thanked Kiba for his throw.

"Naruto Uzumaki, throw your shuriken."

"Now it's your turn to watch, Kiba." Naruto shouted cheerfully, tossing the three metal shuriken high up into the air above him before bringing his hands together.

'Ram, Snake, Tiger, and Water.' He chanted those same four symbols in his head as his hands went through the signs he had practiced at least a thousand times since he first learned the technique earlier in the previous month. They were second nature to him already but he still chanted them along silently as his hands acted on their own accord, signing in perfect rhythmic synchronization with the pulsing flow of chakra he could feel coursing through each and every part of his body. For someone of his age, this jutsu was of an almost unheard of level of difficulty but he was not just any kid, he was going to be the best and no one could stop him even if they wanted to. As he lifted his left arm up high and brought his right fist in front of his chest, he finally announced the name of the jutsu, shouting it at the top of his lungs like a battle cry.

"Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!"

The tiniest ripples spread across the coy pond next to him as every eye watched Naruto and the two perfect water clones that now stood on either side of him each caught one of the three shuriken and, in complete harmony, launched the knives at the center of the target with uncanny accuracy.

"The water… clone technique…" Kushina murmured from beside Jiraiya, amazed at her son's flawless high genin-level jutsu. "His chakra… can't be that high…"

"Kiba, I think I mighta got ya beat." Naruto finished as he stepped away from the line, the clones dispersing into a fine mist throughout the air. Without missing a beat, he and Kiba began to laugh hysterically happily together again while their instructor and the crowd still stood their shocked. It had worked just like Naruto knew it would. He was already well on his way to proving that he was the best ninja this village would ever see.

Meanwhile, Kushina and Jiraiya just stood back and watched as the kitsune child rejoiced at his success.

'Could it be... hers?' The mother Uzumaki silently asked herself as she stared at her son in shock and awe.


Author's Note: Well there's chapter one for you folks. Just as a little heads up, the next chapter will roughly begin where the anime did (perhaps just a little earlier). Tsukiko, thanks for the review. It's always good to know that someone likes my stuff. Oh and as a note in case anyone is wondering, this will not be a yaoi or anything. Kiba and Naruto are just natural friends so get your minds out of the gutter. lol

Anyways, hope you enjoyed it and I'll be back soon with chapter two. Peace.