Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

A/N: Hey There

Welcome to the longest chapter yet, doubling the amount of words compared to the last two chapters and probably the most confusing chapter to as there will be several time skips and references to past happenings. But at least the story will pick up some speed at the end.

I hope you'll enjoy it and have fun reading!

Replies to reviews:

ameranthus13:

I hope you'll like the other side of the cliffhanger ;)

Fanficlover16000:

I'll probably open a poll in the future with several choices since I haven't finally decided yet on who exactly she's going to end up with

Here is my legend/key for the text:

"I was lost on the road of life." - speaking/shouting

"YOU DEMON!" - loud shouting

'Why do they all hate me?' - thinking

"YOU PUNY LITTLE HUMAN" - Bijū speaking

'HMM... I THINK, I'LL TAKE A NAP' – Bijū thinking

KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU – all sorts of jutsu


Chapter 4 Training and Bonds

In a damp, dark sewer red, bloodshot eyes gazed into azure ones.

"SO MY JAILOR GRACES ME WITH A VISIT..." the demon fox's voice roared through the room. The nine-tailed fox had laid down just behind the gate, its head resting on its overlapped paws. A wide, demonic grin was on its face, razor sharp teeth flashing between the black rims of its maw.

"So...So I didn't fantasize you..." At the beginning Naru's eyes had widened in recognition but turned downward at the end accompanied by a sigh. Returning her eyes to her gigantic counterpart the small blonde girl continued.

"I've said what you've done and told nobody about that one time. I guess if I'm back here means I got my side of the agreement, had a nice time and you now want the price? I know I can't win, but don't think I'll go down without a fight!"

The Kyuubi watched with amusement at the emotional changes his container went through as she laid out her deductions for him, settling into a fighting stance at the end, glaring at him. As far as she was from the truth with the reason of her presence, it truly relieved him of his boredom. A child of merely a few years was thinking of facing a being from the realms of legends without succumbing to her fear, even knowing that she would stand no chance.

'HUMANS MIGHT BE AN ANNOYING, FOOLISH, STUPID AND SHORT-LIVED RACE, BUT SOMETIMES THEY BRING FORTH TRULY INTERESTING BEINGS.' the fox thought.

Unaware of its thought process Naru stiffened up, when the grin on the nine-tails' face grew even wider, expecting it to attack. Mentally she was making peace with her short life and was about to charge at the behemoth in front of her as it started to laugh. A roaring laugh that was enough to shake even the deepest parts of her body with ease, changing into a fox-like yipping at the end.

The Kyuubi had lifted one of his paws and moved it over his eyes as a sign of amusement before he reigned in his laughter and addressed the, by now utterly confused but still positioned in a fighting stance Naru.

"YOU'VE GOT ONE THING WRONG THERE, KIT. I DIDN'T CALL YOU HERE." he was going to take this chance and have a little more fun with his jailer.

"Huh?" was Naru's unintelligible answer paired with her head tilting slightly sideways. "What do you mean it wasn't you?"

"WHO IN THIS ROOM TRAINS HERSELF TO THE BRINK OF EXHAUSTION?" the giant fox mocked her with mirth in his voice and one paw posed to his chin in a thinking gesture. He took utmost pleasure in the changes her face went through, finally reaching a wide eyed realization and then remorse for not noticing.

"I knocked myself out hard enough to land in my subconsciousness?"

"YUP, YOU FUCKED UP A LITTLE AND FELL INTO A DEEP DREAMLESS SLEEP. THIS SENT YOU DIRECTLY HERE. BUT RATHER THAN DISCUSS THE EAGERNESS OF YOUR TRAINING, THERE ARE OTHER THINGS THAT NEED TO BE TALKED ABOUT."

The nine-tailed demon fox in front of Naru now placed both paws besides its head and stood up from its lying position, easily dwarfing the small blonde who retook her stance.

"You said I was wrong about one thing, so that means you still want to get out? I doubt that would be good for me and I can't have a demon fox out there rampaging out there, hurting the few people I like." she answered the Kyuubi's action while letting out her killing intent (A/N: from now on just KI). Once again the fox was surprised that his host would think of facing him even when she knew her chances and that a child could produce KI. And again the mental maturity of the kit pleased him.

Still feeling like playing some more with Naru and maybe provoke another interesting aspect of her to revealed, he continued.

"A CHILD DARES TO FACE ME, THE MIGHTY NINE-TAILED FOX? YOU WILL BE SHRED TO PIECES IN MERE MOMENTS. BUT I DO HAVE MERCY, SO SURRENDER NOW AND I'LL GRANT YOU A CLEAN AND FAST DEATH. IF YOU CHOSE TO FIGHT IT WILL BE SLOW AND EXCRUCIATINGLY PAINFUL."

A bloodthirsty grin threatened to split his face in half as he let out as much KI as the seal would allow him. This promptly caused Naru to freeze before shaking uncontrollably. Her legs were trembling like leafs, her hands started to sweat profusely and her head was turned to the ground.

'WHEW, THAT WOULD SEND MOST NORMAL ADULT HUMANS INTO A PUDDLE ON THE GROUND BEGGING FOR THEIR LIVES.' the fox mused in his head. He focused his attention back on Naru when she lifted her head from the ground. Her body was still shaking, but she had forced it back into the stance dog-mask had thought her. Cerulean eyes stared into red ones with an unwavering gaze betraying the involuntary actions of her body. Her mouth started to move several times without producing sound before her throat found the strength to give power to the words she wanted to say. With a big breath drawn, the blonde shouted at the top of her lounges, her head thrown backwards, facing the nonexistent ceiling.

"I'LL NEVER GIVE UP! COME ON, FOX!"

After her outburst she lowered her gaze to once again lock eyes with the behemoth in front of her. She wouldn't go down, not as long as there was just so much as a spark of life left in her body.

As the fox saw those eyes, he knew he was royally screwed. He couldn't actually do anything to the girl in front of him and with that degree of determination nothing short of someone wiping out anything she holds dear will give him an opening to escape his prison.

'THAT BLONDE BASTARD REALLY SEALED ME INTO ONE HELL OF A BRAT. SHE'S JUST AS FIERCE AS KUSHINA...'

For a moment both, the blonde child and the red fox just stood there gazing into each other's eyes. The red eyes scanned the girl for several things.

Blonde hair, check. Blue eyes, check. Body build, too early to be sure. Ridiculous ferocity and determination, check. That look in her eyes, double check.

The nine-tailed fox was the one break the silence with a, once again, roaring laugh.

"MWAHAHA! HE REALLY IS A WORSE BASTARD THAN I THOUGHT. TO THINK HE WOULD SEAL ME INTO HIS OWN DAUGHTER!"

Naru could only stand there in confusion, the gears in her head spinning at full speed. One moment she was about to fight a losing battle against the demon fox, next thing it starts laughing and rolling from side to side on the ground...

'Is something wrong with my vision or is the great nine-tailed demon fox, the Kyuubi no Yōko really rolling around on the floor, laughing its ass of about someone sealing it... into their... daughter...'

Kyuubi stopped his expression of amusement when he saw that Naru's face had turned into a frown. He stepped closer to the gate and laid down again intending to listen to what she would probably say next. And he wasn't disappointed.

"I wish he was here right now so I could strangle him." the girl muttered in a low voice laced with the new found hate for the forth Hokage. Not only had he sealed this giant red furball into her, but now he was also her father. Seriously, who does that to their own daughter?

She internally raged on and on about her father, not aware that the strongest thoughts and emotions can't stay hidden in the layer of her mind she and the fox were.

The Kyuubi on his part enjoyed leaning back and watching the show as Naru cursed with vocabulary no four year old should possess. Her not so silent swearing went on for a couple of minutes before she abruptly stopped and once again stared at the fox and asked him in a voice that would have make him shit in his pants had he not been the mighty nine-tailed fox.

"How. Did. You. Know?" her voice gave him a miniscule shudder as it reminded him of Kushina and her much less comfortable seal. He would rather not have her change this cage to that rock with chains, regardless whether that was possible. But more importantly, he could maybe use this. He won't be able to break her determination to protect those she cares for from inside here and he wasn't about to simply wait till someone outside does him that favor. But if he handled this correctly, he could start to slightly alter the target of her protection. Yes, he could use this.

"I AM THE GREAT NINE-TAILED FOX, AS OLD AS THE NINJA WORLD AND KNOWLEDGEABLE IN EVERY FIELD KNOWN TO HUMAN AND MANY MORE. BUT AS FOR WHAT YOU ASK ABOUT, HAVE YOU EVER LOOKED INTO A MIRROR?" he waited a moment for emphasis before continuing. "BEFORE YOU ASK, NO, ONE AS GREAT AS I DO NOT DRAW CONCLUSIONS FROM SUCH VAGUE FACTS. THE MORE INDICATING FACT IS THAT THE WOMAN I WAS SEALED INTO BEFORE YOU, ONE UZUMAKI KUSHINA, WAS SECRETLY WED TO THAT YELLOW BASTARD. TAKE YOUR NAME, APPEARANCE AND THE FACT THAT THE SEAL HOLDING ME IS AT IT'S WEAKEST IN CHILDBIRTH AND DRAW YOUR ON CONLUSIONS."

Naru was speechless. The furball in front of her just revealed something to her that Hokage-jiji said, he didn't know, and that by extension meant, nobody in Konoha knew. She was aware that she couldn't and shouldn't take everything the fox told her for the truth, but it did make some valid points. Her blonde hair was unique in the village. The only other blondes she knew were the Yondaime and the people from the Yamanaka flower shop , but their was rather platinum than sunshine blond. And if the things it said about the woman that was its host and her mother then it would be undeniable.

Thinking about this "Kushina" she quickly came upon a question.

"Wait a moment. All the stories tell about how the Yondaime sacrificed himself. Nothing about a woman or wife, just all the ninja you slaughtered. Does this mean you killed my mother?" Naru asked with barely restrained anger. Her question only earned her a shamed expression and a quickly mumbled "I DON'T KNOW..." from the demon fox. This caused Naru to snap.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU DON'T KNOW?! FIRST YOU SPLURT ABOUT BEING THE FRIGGIN KYUUBI NO FUCKING YŌKO AND KNOW YOU DON'T KNOW WHETHER YOU KILLED YOUR OWN HOST!?" she shouted at the fox which only served to irritate said fox to an unimaginable degree causing it to snap too.

"HOW SHOULD I KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I'M BEING CONTROLLED BY THAT THRICE DAMNED WINDMILL."

Both pairs of eyes widened and the demon fox quickly slapped his hands over his muzzle in an attempt to return the traitorous words to where they came from.

It didn't work.

"You were controlled?" the girl asked with unbelief written all over her face.

"The mighty demon fox that terrorized the Village hidden in the Leafs didn't commit a bloody slaughter just for fun but was controlled by someone?"

"SILENCE, HUMAN" the Kyuubi said with his best intimidating voice, which lost some of its power in the current situation. "SPEAK ONE WORD OF THIS AND I WILL PERSONALLY STRANGLE YOU EVEN IF THIS SEAL KILLS ME IN THE PROCESS!"

Silence reigned once again between the two. An eternity passed as both looked at each other, thoughts filling their heads. Once again Naru was the one to restart the conversation having picked up on the important things her opponent had unwillingly blabbed.

"So you weren't responsible for what happened to the village, and in extension not for the villagers attempt at revenge. And to top it off, this seal prevents you from attacking me without suffering some sort of backlash." Naru calmly noted that getting your counterpart enraged is a good strategy to get them to betray information the otherwise wouldn't and not to do it with people or beings that are stronger than her and not confined behind bars as she could feel the fox's seething and hear its low growl.

Quickly thinking of a way to appease the fox and still get some kind of merit out of it she made a proposal to the fox.

"I won't tell anybody about the great demon fox being used as a tool..." said fox growled again at her way of formulating things. "... under one condition."

"YOU DARE TRY TO NEGOTIATE!? KNOW THAT YOUR HEAD WILL FLY IF I DON'T LIKE IT!"

"You will tell me everything about the fucker that screwed up my life on the day I was born, made me hate my father, robbed me of my parents and thrust me into an environment of hate."

That wasn't what the fox expected and it flash froze the inferno of anger that had filled his mind moments ago. He would have expected her to demand him to lend his powers, make use of his more than sagely wisdom or even something as preposterous as an apology for what he had done. He would have most certainly tried to end her had it been one of those, but that the kit would so willingly take it upon herself to hunt down that despicable Uchiha.

He could get his satisfaction without going through the trouble of ripping through the seal, which would risk his immortal life. Sitting back and enjoying the show in the first row without having to face those irritating eyes sounded like the best choice for the time being. Sure, it wouldn't be the same as ripping the masked man apart himself, but from her rage earlier, the Kyuubi was sure, that his host would make her vengeance something worth seeing if she was given the chance.

Now speaking with a much softer and lower voice, the fox replied.

"FINE, KIT. I'LL TELL YOU ABOUT THE MAN WHO CONTROLLED ME THAT DAY. BUT BREAK YOUR SIDE OF THE DEAL AND YOU'LL BE IN FOR HELL."

Naru nodded in acceptance of the deal and the Kyuubi proceeded to tell her what he knew about the masked man, which didn't amount to very much. The man was probably an Uchiha judging by the Sharingan he had possessed. And the only guess as to who it could be was quite ridiculous. A rouge Uchiha with enough power to control a tailed beast with a grudge against Konoha. The only one the fox knew who would meet those criteria was Uchiha Madara who if he lived would be a very, very old man, more like moving skeleton with skin. So they didn't have anything concrete, but at least a starting point.

Naru really needed more information if she wanted to find the culprit, but she couldn't just ask around for a Uchiha with the ability to control the Kyuubi that had gone missing-nin. That just spelled trouble. Which lead to her next problem. She couldn't just go into a library and research history books or reports either about the Uchiha or to find out more about her mother. Getting in wasn't as much of a problem as the simple fact that she couldn't read yet which obviously made written sources of information useless to her.

She knew that Kakashi wouldn't be able to help her in learning reading and writing since frankly, he sucked a teaching, big time. As long as it was just showing how he did it for the others to copy it, it worked just fine but all of the more complicated principles of teaching were beyond his reach.

So who could she ask?

Hokage-jiji was out of the question as he was too busy. Neither was Teuchi-oji-san an option for the same reason and she didn't know anybody else good enough to ask that much of them. 'If there only was a smart person nearby that had enough free time to teach me.' she thought before a figurative light bulb switched on in her head and a vulpine smirk crawled up to the corners of her mouth.

"Nee, furball?" she taunted the fox who only huffed indignantly at his new nickname. She then put up her best angelic smile with big round eyes, she tried to make them look like kit ones rather than puppy eyes, before asking with a voice like small bells:

"In all your wisdom and knowledge you are surely able to teach your insignificant host how to read and write, so I can read up stuff about the masked guy?"

She had figured out quickly that you could move the fox to do many things by stroking its ego which wasn't really much of a challenge since it seemed to be big enough to scrape at the literally nonexistent ceiling of the room.

Brought down by his inability to ignore praise directed at him paired with the actual usefulness towards his goal, he couldn't deny the task of teaching her how to read. If he taught her that he could always play that card and still tell her to go read something so he wouldn't have to teach her anything else.

"FINE, KIT. I'LL TEACH YOU HOW TO READ AND WRITE. WE CAN WORK ON READING IN HERE, BUT YOU'LL HAVE TO PRACTICE WRITING OUTSIDE FOR IT TO WORK AS ITS MORE MUSCLE MEMORY THAN UNDERSTANDING."

Looking towards the ceiling the fox then added:

"LOOKS LIKE WE WON'T HAVE MUCH MORE TIME. LISTEN CLOSELY NOW. TO GET BACK HERE YOU HAVE TO GET INTO A STATE OF A CLEAR MIND. THE BEST WAY FOR YOU RIGHT NOW IS TO DO THAT BY EXHAUSTING YOURSELF TO THE LIMIT. LATER YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO REACH THIS PLACE BY MEDITATING. EVERYTHING CLEAR?"

Naru nodded. Training herself so hard you're basically grinding yourself to the ground fit just fine with her plans. She needed to be strong to be a ninja and even stronger to face someone strong enough to control the Kyuubi. And this meditating thing sounded like something worth trying out.

"OK, I got it. I will try to come back soon, so you can teach me." she said with a smile before the space between her and the cage enlarged dramatically once again, throwing her into darkness.

The blonde then had a wonderful dream where dozens of ramen bowls surrounded her and spiraled around her in a spherical pattern exuding a godly aroma. At the center of the sphere was her extended right hand in which she could make out a formation of small ramen bowl orbiting a miniature of herself. As she looked in fascination at her small self she noticed that it was looking at its right hand just like she was. Naru then quickly glanced upwards and was shocked to see another her holding the spherical formation of ramen bowls just like she was.

Moments later she woke up in her bed, her white shirt she used as a pajama soaked in sweat, clinging to her body. Muttering about a weird dream and that she had showered just last evening the azure-eyed girl walked into her bathroom while rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

The sun had just risen and the sky was clear. This certainly would be a good day to train and that was just what she intended to do.


A week later

Naru was alone at the training ground 23 and was going through the taijutsu stances Kakashi-sensei had shown her, at a slow pace. Although she had gotten them down quite good in her own opinion there still were some edges that didn't feel just right. And the masked ninja wasn't available as he had gone on a mission.

Not that he would have excelled in teaching her where exactly she had gone wrong but he still could have given her some pointers to where she made mistakes.

Frankly said, she was frustrated right now. She did learn reading and a little bit of writing with the furball in the past week but wasn't nearly on the level where she could understand scrolls. Even those for taijutsu with many pictures where still to hard for her, so she was stuck. Without someone to teach her, be it Kakashi or scrolls she was doomed to bide her time until she had learned from an ancient demon fox how to read and write.

This, as ridiculous as it sounded, made her quite desperate for something to happen. And as fate had a good day today coupled with the fact that Kakashi hat tempted it one time too often by reading smut in every situation, fate decided, that it would change the training course of the scarecrow's nemesis just a little bit to relieve the small girl from her boredom.

Naru went through the same stances again and again as she heard shouting coming nearer. She wondered who would come to this training ground close to the village and shout like an idiot. The answer to her question presented itself shortly afterward as she could make out a green figure close in, leaving a dust cloud behind in its path.

The glistening, green spandex suit combined with the ugly leg- and arm-warmers made Naru lose faith in the wearers fashion sense and wished she had lost her sense of sight for a moment. But she couldn't see the true horror until the green beast came close enough for her to see his head as he walked on his hands.

Noticing the youthful sight of a youthful girl doing youthful training Maito Gai couldn't just pass by and not encourage her to further follow the path of youthfulness. A short distance away from the blonde he pushed himself off the ground and landed in front of her in his unique Nice Guy pose, holding his thumb up and flashing her a wide grin.

"What a youthful day to be training, isn't it?" he asked in his slightly too loud voice.

"Umm, yeah, kind of. What, eh, Who are you?" Naru answered, stunned by his shiny, black bowl cut and the simply gargantuan eyebrows.

"I am Konoha's Sublime Green Beast of Prey, the Leaf's accomplished taijutsu-master, Maito Gai! May I ask who you are, little youthful one?" the eccentric ninja proclaimed while changing through several poses, causing a sweat drop to form on the back of Naru's head.

"My name is Uzumaki Naru." she properly introduced herself. Gai's eyes widened shortly before he regained his normal happy expression, but Naru caught it and was about to write him off as another hater and was about to turn away and quit training for today as the green beast spoke up again.

"Uzumaki Naru, a fine name indeed. What brought a young girl like yourself to this training ground on such a wonderful day? A little bit of light practice, I take it?"

A little bit bewildered by his unexpected reaction she answered.

"Yes, I thought of getting the flaws from my stances but my usual sensei is away on a mission so I kind of was about to pack it up and go home."

"Oh, how youthful to study alone to improve your mastery of the art and how sad that the flames of your youth are threatened to be blown away, but fear not, for I am now here! Let this taijutsu-master be your teacher for the day so your flames of your youth will burn ever so brightly." he almost shouted at the end as manly and in his opinion youthful tears streamed down his face like two big waterfalls.

Naru on the other hand didn't know exactly how she should respond to this persons offer. Of course she would love to have some teach her more about taijutsu and he probably was better at teaching than Kakashi. On the other side she didn't know whether she could trust the strange stranger that was rambling on and on about youth and seemed to exaggerate everything he did. In the end, she decided to trust the green clad ninja, after all she couldn't imagine someone willingly play a role as crazy as that nor that he or she be able to pull of that degree of... craziness for deception.

"Kay, mister Bushy Eyebrows! What should I do?" she asked, hoping to receive a more enlightening answer than her silver-haired part-time mentor usually gave her.

The flames of his youth newly fanned, Maito Gai let out a cry of "YOSH!" with a fist pumped up.

"First, we will run 3 rounds around the outer wall of Konoha. Ready? GO!" he shouted before taking of on his hands, leaving a shocked Naru behind. She had just gotten herself a crazy teacher in addition to the lazy one she already had. Sighing she started running after the green clad man, always following the shouts about "youthfulness".

Fate patted its own shoulder for work well done and made the finishing touch by letting a cold shiver run down the back of a certain scarecrow.


When Kakashi returned to Konoha from his mission around a month later, his heart stopped for a moment and he almost fell from the tree branch he used to observe Naru's home as he could make out a vibrant green spandex suit with orange leg- and arm-warmers inside her closet and cursed his fate. Fate only shrugged and blamed it on his choice of literature.


Five months later

In the past couple of months a lot had changed for Naru as she had spent most of her time training extensively in taijutsu under Gai and in a couple of simple ninjutsu under Kakashi including some more mundane ninja techniques such as the NAWANUKE NO JUTSU the other two of the so called academy three, the HENGE NO JUTSU and the insufferable BUNSHIN NO JUTSU which frankly took most of her time, and even a genin-level jutsu called SHINJŪ ZANSHU NO JUTSU which let her hide herself in the ground and pull someone into the earth up to their neck.

Thanks to the tortu... training the spandex clad training nut had forced her through, she had gotten considerably faster and should be able to give most kids her age and even some older ones a good beating. Those exclusions mostly concerned clan children that had started earlier than her, but she was gaining good ground on them as she poured almost all of her time into the relentless training sessions with both of the ninjas teaching her part-time.

As Gai had come to know that his eternal rival had taught her a thing or two the flames in his eyes ignited to new heights as such a youthful task as teaching a youthful youngster now also was a youthful competition with his rival, which only served to intensify the training he gave Naru. She took it in stride since as much as it was exhausting it clearly showed results and that was her intention.

Kakashi on the other hand took this as a chance to laze off and only stop by from time to time to show her a new technique she then would learn on her own. This pissed Naru slightly off and she would use the green spandex suit Gai had given her as a present as a means to punish Kakashi for being to lazy by wearing it and following him around for a the good part of a day, ranting about youth causing Gai to appear next to them at a moments notice. Valuing his unyouthful time with his treasured books Kakashi chose the lesser, or in this case simply physically smaller, evil and turned up to show Naru new things more often.

Another thing that really made progress in those months was Naru's ability to read and write. She was now able to understand most texts that weren't specialized literature and write good enough to be decipherable for other people. She greatly thanked the furball in her stomach for that as he – she also found out that the great demon fox had a gender and didn't really like being referred to as "it"- proved to be a quite capable teacher when he wasn't striking his own ego.

The blonde had spent the time she hadn't been out on a training ground running after a green lunatic or trying to get something useful from the lazy one in the library.

And as she had thought at first getting into the library wasn't as hard as she thought it would be. Sure, at first she had come upon an unfriendly librarian that had thrown her out, but she didn't let that hinder her for long. The next day she had already stood between the bookshelves again, only this time she had disguised herself slightly. Just a dress instead of the tomboyish pants and shirt she usually wore and a strawhat in addition to a little bit of make-up to cover her whiskers and the librarian that had thrown her out unceremoniously yesterday was eager to show her around the library. What a jerk.

Nonetheless, she was able to make some progress on the research front. Nothing about the masked man but that was rather expected in a library open to the public without any kind of restrictions. But she had found out something concerning her family.

Her "father's" side of Naru's family tree was absolutely empty as she could find out that the forth Hokage had been an orphan much like her with no known living relatives. On her mother's side on the other hand she could at least make out that the Uzumaki name originated from a clan that had once lead the Village Hidden in the Whirling Tides or Uzushiogakure, a ninja village that had been destroyed by an alliance of Kumogakure, Iwagakure and Kirigakure in the third great ninja war. Kumo, Iwa and Kiri had destroyed the village and the survivors scattered throughout the lands. According to the books, the official Konoha ninja attire is decorated with a red swirl as a sign of friendship towards their allies. Apparently the First and Second Hokages were related by blood to the Uzumaki clan which led to the long lasting cooperation between the villages.

Other than that Naru found out that crimson red hair was the most common hair color for Uzumakis and that they had been known for their unsurpassed mastery of fūinjutsu, which immediately interested her and their abnormally long lifespans which could so much as triple tat of a normal person.

This information made her quite worried. If she was from such a distinguished clan that was deeply bonded with Konoha's roots, why were there no other Uzumakis in Konoha who could take care of her. Scratch that, why were there no other Uzumakis at all in Konoha?

After all they had been their closest allies since the foundation of Konoha, why wouldn't they seek shelter in the place that sounded most likely to accept them?

And why hadn't the old man told her that she belonged to a clan, even if it had fallen. There still were possible relatives alive outside these walls, so why hide her family from her?

At first she had drowned the unease she felt with more training. When she wasn't training she had spent her time reading what few books there were about fūinjutsu in the public library and found herself interested in the topic as she felt it coming to her naturally. But all temporarily distraction didn't really solve the underlying problem, so one day her need for an explanation won out.

When she couldn't hold it in any longer, she decided to talk to the old man about it. She wouldn't do it on one of his visits as that could make the future ones awkward. No, Naru decided, that she should do this as a formal request for him to explain his actions. She would visit him in his big red tower and make him stop doing his paperwork if it was really needed. And so she did.


The blonde walked through the great doors of the Hokage tower with her head held high and straight for the stairs leading to the Hokage's office. When she was stopped by the secretary she simply stated that she wanted an audience with the Hokage and that she would wait shortly for him if needed.

The secretary, shocked by the girl's unusual behavior quickly informed the leader of her village about his small guest and promptly got the sign to let the girl pass. The brown haired woman in her thirties quickly relayed the message to Naru gesturing for her to step through the oak doors with the fire-emblem on it.

Opening the doors with both of her small hands, the Sandaime looked slightly amused at the small girl. She had just closed the doors behind her and sat down on the chair in front of his desk as he had laid down his pen and exchanged it for his pipe, drawing a breath of smoke. The serious look on her face made him wonder what this could be about as he exhaled a ring of smoke and smiled at Naru.

"What can I do for you today, Naru?" he asked with his soft, grandfatherly voice.

"Hokage-sama." Sarutobi Hiruzen was worried now. She had never referred to him with his title in a serious manner.

"I would like to ask why there are no survivors from the Uzumaki clan inside the walls of Konoha, even though they are supposed to have been one of Konoha's oldest allies, whether I do belong to said clan and if so, why I was never told when I asked concerning my parents." she brought out with a steady voice, betraying her inner insecurity and her hopes for a reasonable explanation.

The Sandaime froze for a second as she heard the girl bring up the fallen allies and her own origin before he reclaimed his composure and set on to explain why he had done what he had done.

"Naru." he let his protective gaze run over her before continuing. "Let me first answer your second question. Yes, you are of the blood of those who once ruled the now ruined Uzushiogakure, the Uzumaki clan. You weren't told of your heritage for the same reason that there are no other Uzumakis in this village."

"Why is that?" she inquired still staring at the old man.

"Because it would have painted a big target onto them. Even in peaceful times each and every redhead with a Konoha headband would have been killed on sight by Kumogakure, Iwagakure and Kirigakure, so the survivors chose to rather keep a low profile and hide themselves."

"But why didn't you tell me?"

"It was decided that you should be informed about that once you reach the rank of chuunin and are mature enough to keep it a secret since it could make unwanted attention arise with people like Kumo targeting you for the Uzumaki longevity as has happened with the Hyuuga heiress just last year."

"Then what about my parents? At least one of them should have been an Uzumaki, who were they and what happened with them?"

"That, my dear is as I told you before. Both of them perished in the Kyuubi attack, proudly protecting the village. But sadly I am not allowed to reveal their identities just yet as they wished for it to be disclosed to you once you reach the rank of chuunin. Sadly you had to find out about this in a way I would have liked to spare you from." he sad with a sad expression gracing his face.

"So you'll tell me once I'm older?" Naru forced out as she was close to shedding tears.

"Of course, Naru, of course." he calmed her down by patting her head softly. "Now go on and train diligently and you will be a chuunin in no time." The old man ushered her out her office jokingly, provoking a childish giggle from the blonde girl, who left through the door with a smile.

"Thanks, see you, jiji!" she yelled before the door had completely closed.

Naru left the tower with a jump to her walk as a big boulder had fallen from her heart. She quickly was on her way to meet the hyperactive and hip combo to become chuunin as fast as she could.

Inside his tower, the Hokage stood at the window of his office following the mp of sunshine blonde hair vanish in the streets of Konoha. He drew a deep breath of smoke from his pipe before exhaling it with a sigh. Things didn't go quite as he had planned them and the Professor didn't like it when his plans got disrupted to such a big degree.

He had expected ripples to form, as no plan could survive the contact with reality but this might turn into an unfavorable situation for him. To prevent this he needed more information on what was happening so he gave a sign for one of his most trusted agents to step from the shadows and receive his orders.

"Follow her and make sure nothing happens. Stay covered, we don't know who could have his or her eyes on this."

With a nod the figure slid back into the darkness causing the room to regain its usual warm and cozy feeling and a smile returned to Sarutobi Hiruzen's face as he returned to his paperwork.


Another week later

Naru was feeling kind of exhausted and decided that she would take a break today. She had saved up a little money to go to Konoha's onsen to relieve herself from the bodily stress of her everyday training and wanted to take a look at and maybe chat with one or two kunoichi that might be in the civilian/ninja-mixed bath.

And she wasn't disappointed as when she got there, a group of two kunoichi was inside the water. One had shoulder-length, untamed, black hair and crimson eyes while the other had deep violet hair tamed into a spiky ponytail paired with pupil-less brown eyes which combined with her facial expression made her look like she was dead on the inside.

Naru quickly undressed and cleaned herself before entering the hot water stealing a glance at both of the women from time to time. She could clearly see the well toned bodies, their skin, well kept and soft-looking, was only blemished by one or two faded scars which told of the dangers their profession entailed. Both were equipped fairly well concerning their female assets and made Naru ask herself whether she would get similar curves in the future and shuddered at a thought that shot through her head.

It entailed her as a grown up woman with no curves, inside a green spandex suit, and with a blond bowl cut. She would have to bang her head hard against something later to kill the braincells that produced this image.

Looking back at the kunoichis, Naru noticed that the crimson-eyed beauty had laid a hand on the shoulder of the seemingly younger, purple haired one, and was talking to her about something with a concerned expression. The one being spoken to simply looked tired, weary and a little bit angry as the relaxing hot water didn't seem to spend her the relief she wanted and probably needed.

Mitarashi Anko did not have a good week at all. All the glares she continuously received had ripped open old but unhealed wounds once again and made bad memories resurface, for which the term unpleasant would be the underestimation of the century. So she had gone to her best friend and only real source of human contact, aside from her superior Ibiki, and had asked Kurenai to spend an afternoon with her, relaxing in the hot springs.

Kurenai, knowing how bad the shunning got to her friend, accepted immediately. But things didn't go as well as both women had planned, as they weren't alone in the bath. A small girl had entered shortly after they had gotten into the water and threw glances at Anko from time to time which irritated her.

She always was the type that could handle direct confrontations better than stories being spun behind her back and the disdainful glares that followed them. And this little girl seemed to be intent on driving her over the edge as she didn't stop stealing glances at her. It took everything Kurenai had to stop her friend from snapping and attacking a civilian child.

But when Anko noticed that the kid's eyes fell on the cursed mark on her neck, even Kurenai's soothing didn't help anymore and her patience ran out.

Naru had continued to observe both women until her eyes fell on a mark at the neck of the purple haired kunoichi. It was an interesting tattoo consisting of three small tomoe in a circular pattern.

It totally charmed her and made her unable to take her eyes of the three simple tomoe as if they were a piece of artwork. She could feel herself being drawn towards it as it appeared to bare itself for her.

But only a moment after this sensation of enlightenment had set in, the purple haired woman abruptly stood up, shrugging away the hand on her shoulder, and stormed into the blonde's direction, shouting at her.

"WHAT IS IT, GAKI! DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ME!? HUH!?" Anko snarled at the girl, forcing her into the corner of the bathtub. "ALWAYS GLARAING AT ME FROM BEHIND WITHOUT THE BALLS TO COME AND SAY TO MY FACE, YOU COWARDS! IF YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME COME AND GET IT FROM THE FRONT! IT WAS THE DAMN SNAKE, IT WASN'T ME FOR KAMI'S SAKE, WHEN WILL YOU PEOPLE LEARN THAT!"

She continued to let out all the negative emotions she had bottled up over a longer period of time as she continued to yell at Naru, before Kurenai was able to stop her rant by hitting her cheek with an open hand resulting in loud slap resounding through the bathroom. At Anko's confused and slightly shocked expression, Kurenai only looked at with a stern expression before pointing at the curled up and shivering girl, cowered in the corner Anko had forced her into.

Naru looked around herself, panicking from the bad memories of being cornered into a situation without way to escape. Her body paralyzed in fear of what the woman towering over her was about to do to her.

Anko looked at the child before facing Kurenai again, shock still written on her face. When Kurenai was still pointing at the girl, she looked at the girl again, the gears in her head trying to figure out what her friend was going on about. Seeing the shivering for once again, the gears in her head clicked and it was obvious why she had been slapped.

The girl she was using to went her anger wasn't just as scared as she had intended to. Well, she aimed for scaring her enough to soil herself, but that's beside the point. The blonde shivering child was genuinely afraid for her life, something that hadn't been her intention at all nor was it something she wished for any child to experience.

Faced with what she had just done, and to add insult to injury, her mind replayed the girl's actions since she had entered the room. In her pissed off state, Anko had only registered the girl looking at her and hadn't payed attention to the intent behind those gazes. The cerulean eyes hadn't looked at her with disgust and scorn but rather with pure childish urge to discover and get to know, and a slight tinge of admiration.

She hadn't just rightfully vented her anger on one of the many people that unjustly hated her. She had yelled at a small girl that had probably looked up to with admiration for her as a kunoichi, something she painfully missed most of the time.

With the realization of her mistake crashing down on her conscience, the teenager bent down and swept the bundle of misery into a tight hug. Crouched in the corner of the room both she and Kurenai, who had joined her short-tempered friend, were soothing the girl, slightly wondering what could have caused her to fall into a state of primal fear.

Several minutes later, Naru had been calmed down enough to form coherent thoughts and was able to speak again. The purple haired kunoichi had profusely apologized for yelling at her which she accepted, adding that she was sorry too for staring, and only wanted to get a good look at what female ninja were like, since she hadn't known any and wanted to be one in the future.

This caused both of the older females to raise an eyebrow.

It wasn't usual for girl aspiring to be a kunoichi to not have someone experienced in the trade to tell them what dangers they are bound to face. If she was a clan child, finding a female ninja wouldn't be much of a problem, neither if she was an orphan as some of the medical personal that routinely visited the institutions were medic-nins and as such even more familiar with the certain dangers females faced. And if she was a civilian girl, for whom it was generally rare to aspire being a kunoichi given the extensive training needed and the infatuation of most normal girls with a prince on a white horse taking them to be his queen. And even then there were better ways then seeking them out in a bathhouse. There is even a whole section of low C-Rank missions that were just about this problem. So how did this girl want to be a kunoichi without falling into any of the groups?

"Say, what's your name and who're your parents, gaki? I'll give them a stern talking to for not getting someone to tell you about the thing you want to be." Anko asked her while flashing her grin that most people in the T&I department feared to have directed at them.

"Don't have any." Naru answered the unpleasant question shortly.

"Oh," Kurenai said with an apologetic smile. "Then why didn't you ask the medic-nins that come by from time to time?"

"They threw me out around a year ago. And before that the matron didn't let me see them before, saying that they had better things to do than take a look at me." the blonde tried to keep her answers as short as possible to get away from the topics she didn't want to touch.

"THEY WHAT!?" both women shouted in unison as something with that statement scraped a memory in Anko's head, but not clear enough to make it out just yet.

"It's okay. Hokage-jiji gave me a place to stay and stops by regularly. And Inu-san watches over me and my home sometimes." she tried to appease the almost enraged women.

'Around one year ago, a matron, Inu-san...'

Shattered fragments pieced themselves together in Anko's mind and her stomach turned upside down at the implications of what she hoped wasn't true and would make her loss of control much worse of a slip up.

"You still haven't told us your name." Anko asked making it clear that this time she would have to give it.

Afraid of the reactions she might receive, she timidly and quietly answered.

"Uzumaki Naru."

Anko once again draw the small girl into her arms.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't want to let you feel that again. Sorry."

At first surprised by the sudden hug, Naru froze up again, before instinctively realizing that the woman who had placed her arms around her wasn't a threat but a save haven in which she wouldn't have to seal away what she couldn't process but could let all of it out. And so her tears began to flow in streams as she bawled in Anko's arms.

Kurenai only received a 'well talk later' look from Anko as response to her questioning expression. Knowing that whatever it was must have been quite hard on the child for Anko to show this kind of protective behavior when her normal way would be taunting people to make them face their inner demons.

After Naru's crying had ebbed down to slight sobbing, both kunoichi could make out a characteristic sound form behind one of the wooden walls surrounding the water basin. Every kunoichi in Konoha knew who was behind the sound and what to do in this case. Even more so if you have unresolved anger issues and are already quite emotional.

It really wasn't a good day for Jiraiya, the one and only gallant toad sage, as he had made a grave error in the location he chose to gather material for his next book. He usually spied on kunoichi baths as they were full of bodies that moved the blood inside a man's body to certain areas, and mostly earned beatings he could take, but this one turned out to be occupied by a crazy snake lady that didn't have any problem chasing him through half of the village, only clad in a towel, and top it of by hanging him from the big sign at the entry of the market district with a note sticking to him, saying "I'm a pervert and regret my actions.".

While Anko had rushed off to punish incorrigible peeping-tom, Kurenai had stayed back and soothed Naru until she stopped sobbing and talked to her about being a kunoichi to cheer her up.

When Anko had returned through the hole she had blasted through the wooded wall, Kurenai and her decided to go eat dango and take the blonde with them.

On their way towards the dango shop, Naru picked up a small notebook someone must have lost and after skimming through the first few pages was sure it was one of Kakashi's dirty books and stored it away to return it to him later on.


Five and a half months later

Naru's live had gotten even better since the quite emotional experience at the bathhouse as Kurenai and Anko had taken a liking to her, each in their own unique way. One as a some kind of a big sister equivalent and another as a fellow pariah, suffering from the same shunning.

Both would visit her from time to time to talk with her or bring her sweets and generally give her human contact aside from the two oafs she interacted with on a regular basis. Kurenai taught her the basics of healthy cooking and Anko made her immune to the sight of blood with her love for horror movies.

To her amusement, each one was convinced that what the other wasn't something really necessary for a ninja and wouldn't back down from their respective positions.

Both women gave Naru a feeling of safety and made her feel wanted. On their free days they went to the hot springs together or Anko would drag them to her favorite dango store and stuff herself, much to Kurenai's and Naru's amusement. Those days also served as a relaxing time off of her training regimen which and made her much happier.

Another thing that turned out really well for her concerned the book she had picked up that day in front of the bathhouse. Apparently it hadn't been Kakashi that lost said book but rather the author himself as it had been the final version of an unpublished volume with the last edits to the script written on the side edges in the author's handwriting.

Kakashi then went on about how the book's release date was already near and that the changes were probably already incorporated and that it would be to hard for her to return the book to the author, so she should give it to him for safekeeping.

Not fooled by the scarecrow's obvious attempts, she was able to coax Kakashi into lending her some of the books he had on the topic of sealing as well as getting him to teach her a cool jutsu that was beyond the scope of what the academy taught. He had to spend a short while debating what to teach her since depending on the jutsu it could endanger others and herself. A child spewing fireballs wasn't something you wanted to have in a village full of flammable buildings and people. And even if it was unlikely for her to pull off a jutsu like that successfully, he wasn't willing to bet on it.

In the end he settled on a C-Rank earth technique called DOTON: MOGURAGAKURE NO JUTSU, since he had already told her an earth jutsu before, plus this one was quite difficult and needed a high amount of chakra to be able to cause harm with it. The effect of this jutsu is to enable the user to easily dig through the ground without leaving obvious traces behind.

As long as Naru wasn't going to use this jutsu to dig away the foundation of a house she wouldn't be able to cause any real harm, so he sternly warned and made her swear not to use the technique near any buildings.

She happily agreed to those conditions and left Kakashi sighing with no other choice than to show her the complete set of 21 hand seals needed to use the jutsu at the beginning. After he had shown her what to do and explained a little bit about the inner workings of the technique, he gave her the advice to concentrate on things like chakra control first.

And just as the silver-haired ninja had said, she wasn't able to use the jutsu before she had spent a significant amount of time on training with the tree-walking chakra exercise. When she had finally gotten the jutsu to work correctly, to Kakashi's horror and Gai's youthful amazement, she quickly gained proficiency in it and was able to dig herself through the ground to depths and lengths that could be used for practical purposes, in contrast to when she had just gotten it right for the first time, got stuck after 3 meters, and had needed Kakashi to pull her out.

By now Naru's arsenal of skills was at least on par with most children from clans. She had already gotten down the academy three almost perfectly, only the BUNSHIN NO JUTSU was still a little bit rough around the edges. In taijutsu she could probably beat everyone her age and shortly above not from Hyuuga and Uchiha clan, but she considered those two to be cheating, so she was quite confident on that front. This of course originated from sticking to the single most eccentric taijutsu-master known to Konoha, and his ridiculous training schedule that made most people wince.

To Gai's slight disappointment, Naru's body wasn't entirely suited to the Gōken, his own style of hand to hand combat. She would be able to practice the style but continuous use would strain her musculature and deform her skeleton. As much as he wished for a youthful student, he wouldn't willingly ruin somebody for his own wishes. Instead he focused her training on a mix consisting of some less strenuous Gōken moves balanced with a few moves related to the Jūken-style, and several throws and redirecting techniques using the opponent's force against himself. Everything he taught was focused on maximizing her speed, because what her body wasn't able to produce in regards of sheer force, it was capable in achieving higher velocity. In short, if she were to train herself to her limits like he did, she would be able overcome his speed but wouldn't be able to surpass him in terms of strength.

But still, Gai was very content with teaching an eager student who was willing to got to her limits and surpass them.

With taijutsu and ninjutsu as her strong points and sucking severely at the one genjutsu she knew, Naru was very happy to add another skill to her repertoire.

When she had relieved Kakashi of the sealing themed books, which had been starting to grow mold in his bookshelves, Naru was fascinated by what she read and finished the books in no time. All of the seals she studied just seemed to willingly present her with their inner workings and made themselves easily understandable for her.

It was obvious to her, which part of a seal fulfilled exactly which function in the finished seal, and what the effect of said seal would be. She had read about her family's ties with the art but didn't think that it would be on this level. After all, Kakashi had told her that fūinjutsu is a very complicated thing to master and therefore commonly referred to as an art, which is why only a few people that have the title of seal master exist in the whole world.

For her it just felt natural. And soon after finishing all the books, she found out exactly why.


Flashback, two months ago

Naru stood in her usual training ground and was grateful, that nobody besides her ever really used it. She was currently trying out to sharpen her senses with the help of chakra. Hearing and smell had already worked quite well and she now wanted to try enhancing her sight.

Closing her eyes to concentrate, the blonde channeled chakra into her ocular muscles and optic nerve. But the result she received wasn't what she had expected. From what her part-time teachers hat told her, using chakra for sight enhancement should make the distance of objects you can focus bigger and generally give anything sharper outlines and a better contrast.

This wasn't anything like that. Everything in her field of view turned into shades of gray and didn't get any sharper or anything, but seemed kind of translucent. Looking around, she could make out some colors in the otherwise monochrome world. Most of them were in the distance and she could only make out smudges, but one patch of extremely faint blue was right next to her, inside her bag.

Curious as to what was going on right now, Naru tried stopping the flow of chakra to her eyes and resuming it, causing her views to change every time between normal and eerily monochrome. After confirming, that whatever it was would switch on and off, she decided to take a look at whatever it was that glowed in her bag.

Opening it, she found that it was one of the books on seals she had gotten from the copy-ninja that radiated blue light. Picking it up cautiously, she warily eyed it's exterior, finding nothing that would explain the glowing, which made her open the book. Nothing happened while she skimmed through the book's preamble and the first few pages, but that dramatically changed when she opened the first page that contained an actual seal design.

A slight headache assaulted her as the seal seemed to duplicate and free itself from the paper it was written on, floating in front of her as a faint blue apparition before it fell apart into the smallest functional structures. She could see the interaction between all parts of the simple storage seal, from the part that created and upheld a dimensional pocket to the part connecting the physical seal to the dimensional pocket. Even the small flaws in the commonly used seal were obvious to her such as the space used to store things being accessible if the right conditions are met or that the seal's contents would be randomly expelled from the dimensional pocket if the seal was destroyed, scattering the contents literally everywhere and turning retrieval into a pointless task.

As the flood of information threatened to overwhelm her, she quickly closed her eyes and stopped the flow of chakra to her eyes. She now sat on her bottom, panting from the mental strain this had put on her. All those new terms like 'dimensions' and so on that had popped up in her head as she had looked at the light show confused her greatly, although she now apparently knew what they meant concerning their use in fūinjutsu.

Unable to concentrate on her training due to the headache she now had to fight with, Naru called it a day and returned to her home. Unusually tired, she quickly fell asleep, even though the sun hadn't even set yet.

In the, by now almost familiar, sewer that awaited her the demon fox had already expected her arrival with a wide grin on his face. He was keenly observing the small blonde who still felt a slight discomfort, even in her own mind. Breaking the silence, Kyuubi addressed his host with a chuckle in his voice.

"YOU REALLY ARE FULL OF SURPRISES, KIT."

"What do you mean?" she asked slightly irritated, while rubbing her temples to make the pain in her head go away.

"YOUR EYES, KIT. I DON'T KNOW WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED SINCE I CAN'T FEEL MUCH GOING ON OUTSIDE THE SEAL, BUT YOU HAVE WOKEN UP SOMETHING."

"Woken up? I just tried out using chakra to sharpen my senses, channeled chakra to my eyes and now I've got a murder headache."

Kyuubi's grin grew a tiny bit wider and his tails began to sway behind him in a hypnotizing manner as it would be a little bit of fun for him to let her guess around while her head seemed to be essentially mush.

"COME ON, I KNOW YOUR BETTER THAN THAT. THINK AGAIN, WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT STRANGE POWERS?"

"What about strange powers? What should I know about that, I've never heard about anything like that!" she shouted at her prisoner as she didn't want to play games in her bad mood.

"SPECIAL ABILITIES, USED WITH EYES? DOES THAT RING A BELL?"

"Oh..."

"Wait, what!?"

"YUP. I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU PULLED IT OFF, KIT, BUT YOU MANGED IT TO SOMEHOW GET A DŌJUTSU OF YOUR OWN. AND BEFORE YOU ASK, IT WASN'T ME SCREWING WITH YOUR BODY OR SOMETHING." the nine-tailed fox answered in a mock defense.

"Great, I too got cheater-eyes and they give me one hell of a headache. But I like how they have something to do with fūinjutsu, might explain why my clan was so good in it."

"YOU GOT THAT ONE WRONG."

"Huh?"

"IN ALL THE TIME I CAN REMEMBER, THE UZUMAKI CLAN NEVER HAD ANY SPECIAL BLOODLINE DEALING WITH SEALS, NOR HAS THERE EVER BEEN ONE. MY BEST GUESS WOULD BE A SPONTANE MUTATION THROUGH BEING EXPOSED TO THE SHINIGAMI'S SEAL SINCE BIRTH COUPLED WITH YOUR HERITAGE. BUT WHO KNOWS..." the fox speculated, losing Naru I the process.

"This is definitely too much for me right now. I'll go sleep until that headache is gone." she quickly ended their conversation before vanishing from her mind scape and fleeing to her dreams.

The next day she debated on what to do about her new found "talent". As the Hokage had mentioned, having other people know you had a rare or interesting bloodline made would be like painting a big target on yourself, especially for a clanless girl like herself, so going around and spreading word about would be plain stupid.

In the end, she decided to keep it a secret to just herself as long as possible. It wasn't that she didn't trust those around her, since the old man would never mean to do something that would cause her any harm, Gai would never do something so "unyouthful", Kakashi's motto was "Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.", Anko knew betrayal and wouldn't do that to someone else and Kurenai was simple too good-natured. Her problem was rather that she wanted to be sure, nobody would overhear them or in the old man's case that he wouldn't be forced by his council to reveal it and try to use her as a tool. And to ensure that, Naru decided to follow the logic, that a secret only stays a secret as long as only one person knows it.

She would tell them eventually, but not before she had become a ninja and be solely under the Hokage's jurisdiction. And to be honest, she didn't really want to use it. It gave her a headache when she had used it, and more importantly, abusing a shortcut to reach what her ancestors apparently had through pure skill and hard work felt wrong, not to mention that it would make her a hypocrite for judging the Uchiha's use of their Sharingan. So she decided that the best choice of action for her would be 'just forget that the whole thing happened!'.

End of flashback


And despite her dislike for the powers her new eyes gave her, she still was infatuated with fūinjutsu and continued practicing it. Mainly her calligraphy though, because for one, it was nowhere near good enough for doing sealwork, and secondly, because she had run through all books Kakashi had lent her and she had no new material to work with.

Which brings us to Naru's birthday where she was visiting the old man in his office and told him of all the things she had learned form her teachers/friends, excluding the part about fūinjutsu as she couldn't actually produce results with it yet. The Sandaime quietly listened to the happy girl while smoking his ever present pipe.

"I see that you've been dedicating yourself to training, Naru. From what you told me, you will already have quite a headstart when you start with the academy, maybe even enough to graduate early." he paused to take a deep breath.

"But you still have a lot to learn besides fighting. The most important thing you still lack, is working together with others. From what you've told me you rarely took your time to play with other kids your age. As a ninja of the Village hidden in the Leafs you will always have comrades who will help you out, but getting help is something you need to learn and get experience with. Do you understand, Naru?"

Slightly dejected, Naru nodded.

"But don't worry, working and learning together with the other children in the academy will surely make you a fine kunoichi soon enough. Combined with the lessons on strategy and history it will certainly be interesting for you, of that I am sure. After all, the only way to know our future is to know our past." the Hokage tried to sound apologetic as wanted to make going to the academy as positive as possible even though the full five years of academy would probably be completely wasted on her.

His last sentence that was probably intended as a piece of sagely wisdom unraveled something the blonde had buried half a year ago and thought she could keep it under wraps until the time was right, but thoughts of her parents surfaced again. Of her father, against whom her distaste had lessened as time went on, and of her mother. The person that had given birth to her and of whom she had nothing but a name. Her head tilted down and she now stared at the floor unsure what to do next. Unconsciously, she whispered the only thing connecting her to her mother.

"Uzumaki Kushina..." the girl mumbled, almost inaudible, but the Professor had caught it.

He sighed as he wished it wouldn't have to come to this. He thought that he had gotten rid of any record concerning that woman after finding what she had looked into only months before her death. She could have been a danger for the whole village had she survived that night and her had the chance to let her plans come to fruition. But now he couldn't change anything about it anymore. The damage was done and it would be a slight setback, but thankfully he had taken precautions since Naru had come here half a year ago, asking about her heritage.

The Hokage walked over to the window facing the village, closed it softly and silently activated the privacy seals, preventing sound from leaving the room. He then faced the blonde girl in his office again and made a short gesture with his hand.

"I'm sorry it had to come to this, Naru." was the last thing she could hear, before her world went black.


A/N: Urgh... this chapter just didn't want to end because I just had to push the whole year in a chapter and didn't want to split it. I hope the multiple time skips don't make the whole thing too confusing, but I'll try to cut down on them.

So, we have some new things this time around. A yet unknown bloodline, secrecy on several sides and happenings in the past catching up. Please give me your opinions concerning some or all of those things and tell me whether you like them or not, and if possible why.

Till next time!