Aljan Moonfire does not own Naruto...

"Speaking."

'Thinking and Mental Conversations.'

"Demonic Speech."

'Demonic Thinking and Mental Conversations.'

Flashbacks

Chapter 3 –

The Aftermath

As she opened her eye the girl took a deep breath and then immediately let it out with a soft whoosh of air. Closing her eye again she tried to remember what she had been doing that would land her in a hospital. Suddenly she noticed that she hadn't been able to open her left eye.

Blindly raising her hand to feel what could be obstructing it she was startled to feel her finders meet the unmistakable cloth of bandages.

- the blade of a kunai slashing across her eye -

Now remembering the attack she raised her hands to her face and stared in a sort of entranced horror at the jagged scars etched deeply into the palms.

- the weight of a grown man's body pinning her to the ground as something - something sharp and pointy that hurt and hurt and hurt - drove through small hands, pinning them to the floor -

Hands that dropped back to her sides as everything else that had happened on that endless night raced through her head. One small hand made its way to rest on her stomach, clutching at the place she now knew a seal was forever etched as memories flashed behind her eyelids.

- giant red eyes behind bars that reached up for forever and ever -

- 'Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune' -

- sakura and snow -

- a slim black collar around a deceptively delicate throat -

- 'Will you become my heir, Namikaze-Uzumaki Noriko?' -

She passed out.

- '… I will.' -

.-.

"So how do we do this, Kyuubi-san?" asked the girl, staring unwaveringly into the unnerving red eyes of the kitsune.

"You accepting the offer of your own free will has already started the process," replied the Kyuubi. "You have already started to become a…daughter, of sorts, to me. Right now your body is in no condition for me to transfer even my first tail to you. But our agreement cemented a sort of contract between us and it has already begun to affect the seal, see?"

With a few delicate fingers she directed the girl's attention back to the slim collar around her neck. The girl stared for a few moments before she detected any clear changes. She suddenly realized that the choker was not just a slim band of black fabric but a solid band of numerous overlapping symbols that could only be seals. The only reason she noticed this was because the seals themselves were shifting and changing and the odd seal would occasionally glow red and shift to an entirely different symbol.

The vixen gave a slight smile at the look of awe on the child's face before she continued with her explanation. "I will explain the particulars of the seal and the contract to you when we have more time. Right now what you must do is allow me to temporarily channel my consciousness and power through you so I my remotely assist you when you wake."

"What exactly does that mean?" asked Noriko. While the girl was far more intelligent than most children her age she still got a bit lost when adults started in on the high level vocabulary.

"What it means is that, while you are in a kind of danger that I know you are incapable of getting out of alive yourself, we can temporarily kind of…merge." Holding up a hand to forestall any protests the fox continued to explain. "You will still be mostly in control but you will be effected by my chakra and power. It will not allow me to take complete control of your body but it will allow me to control some of your movements when you fight to stop you from getting yourself killed. This will let me help you obliterate all the mentally deficient imbeciles that thought it was a good idea to attack MY vessel. Do you understand?"

Claming down a little after the explanation the girl thought about it for awhile and then agreed.

"Now, I must warn you that, because you are not used to so much power flowing through you, you will immediately pass out once you are safe. While you are out of it I will draw up a schedule that will get you into a good enough condition to accept one of my tails within the next few months." The Kyuubi then gave her a rather sadistic smirk, "I hope you are prepared, Kit."

Noriko swallowed rather nervously at the look of anticipation on the face of her new…foster mother. She then gave her head a small shake to get rid of the apprehension rising in her gut and then nodded fiercely, "I'm ready, Kyuubi-san."

The smirk widened into a smile and the Kyuubi gave the girl a swift hug before setting her back into the snow and standing upright. "Good."

As a tide of red chakra swept the small girl out of the mindscape and back to the land of the living the fox muttered to herself, "I really hope you are ready for this, kit."

.-.-.-.-.-.

"So now you will die, DEMON!"

As the kunai rapidly descended to slash into the girl's unresponsive eye Noriko suddenly awoke to what was about to happen and managed to close her eye and tilt her head just far enough away from the sharp implement that it wouldn't completely blind her. Feeling a warm all encompassing energy begin to flow into her body from the seal she began to struggle anew at her restraints as her tormenters were blown back with the sudden upsurge in energy.

Wincing at the pain in her hands the girl, at the urging of the almost sentient energy, harshly ripped one of her hands free of the kunai and then reached over to rip out the one pinning her other hand to the floor. Springing to her feet the girl paid no attention to the rapid healing of her worst wounds, focusing instead on the mob that was just regaining their bearings after being flung allover the room by the first surge of the Kyuubi's chakra.

Trying to suppress the over-whelming bloodlust rising in her at the sight of the mob of 'mentally deficient imbeciles' that were attempting to kill her, the girl was about to open her mouth to ask them that all encompassing question – Why? – when she was interrupted before she could even begin by one of the leaders of the group.

"There! The demon has revealed itself! Kill it before it kills all of us!" At this shout the people that made up the mob almost became unrecognizable as human themselves. Mouths frothing with a madness inducing combination of fear and anger the mass of frenzied bodies hurled themselves at the small form of the girl they had come to hunt.

'If what they want is a demon, I'll give them one! Kyuubi-san!' the girl's voice snarled through the mindscape and was answered with confirmation of the immense creature's existence.

'I am here, Kit. You best prepare for some fire!' Even with this warning the girl had no time to do so as the red aura that surrounded her small frame pulsed once and then shifted into a roaring corona of fire.

The voice that then emerged from the young girl's throat was only partly hers. "KITSUNE-BI!" The yell wasn't even acknowledged by the swiftly approaching attackers and they only had time to give brief cut off screams as the blue-white flames swiftly engulfed the building. At the fox's urging the girl swiftly followed the spreading flames, untouched by the intense heat.

Grabbing one of the few that didn't vaporize on the spot as witness and scapegoat on the vixen's suggestion the girl calmly made her way out of the collapsing building. As soon as they were clear of the danger the Kyuubi's energy immediately began to retreat from the girl's body, leaving her trembling and cold as she staggered a few uncertain steps in the direction of the Hokage as he rushed towards her.

Barely feeling him lift her off the ground, she softly muttered something nonsensical she doubted she'd remember when she woke up and finally passed out.

.-.

"Her more severe injuries had already been mostly healed by the time you got her here. The only thing that might cause problems for her is that eye. It won't be completely confirmed until she actually wakes up but it's very likely that she'll be at least partially blind. An injury like that is honestly very rare and because it also affected her temple area it's impossible to know how completely it'll affect her until she's fully aware."

Noriko, waking again, frowned slightly at the slightly muffled voice of the woman describing injuries right outside of her door. She frowned even more as she recognized the voice of the old man replying.

"And will she have any visible scaring? Especially on her face." The Sandaime's voice grew louder and clearer as she heard her door open as well. She continued to listen in slowly growing horror as she realized that the one they were speaking about was her. She opened the one eye she could to watch as well.

"Sadly enough, yes. The person who cut into her eye must have heated the kunai as far as he could without melting it and was wearing gloves when they went to slice open that eye. Not only will she have a clear cut scar on either side of the eye, across part of her nose and around over her temple and up into her hairline, but there will be thin burn scars spreading out from the original cut as well. A simple eye patch won't be able to cover it. She'll also always have those crucifixion scars through her hands as well. I'm honestly surprised she'll be able to use her hands at all. With the way she was pinned she should have never been able to move her fingers again."

"I suppose that cursed fox came in handy somehow then." Giving a harsh sigh the Third turned to look at where the previously comatose girl was lying and was more than startled to meet the gaze of the girl's only undamaged eye. "Noriko! You're finally awake then," he said, sighing in relief, "Thank God."

Noriko slowly made to sit up and the healer hurried forward to assist her and then left them alone, knowing that the Sandaime had all the information they did on her condition. "Not God, Saru-jiji, Kyuubi."

"Kyu – you know then?"

"Yeah. Why didn't you tell me about it, Jiji?" as she said this the girl turn her head to look out the window towards the slowly rising sun.

The old man gave a tired sigh and followed the girl's gaze. He lowered his eyelids slightly against the sun's bright rays as he answered as honestly as he could. "Partly because I wanted you to have as much of a childhood as I could give you. Originally I had only meant for the council to know and once I told them I made the circumstances of the Kyuubi's defeat a SS-class secret, but one of them blabbed and before I could do any damage control half the village thought you were the Kyuubi reborn."

"The other reason is that, until recently at least, you were just too young to understand the consequences of telling just anybody about it. You are only six after all."

The girl drew her eye from the window to look straight at him as she replied, "I can understand that; and my parents?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you who they –"

"No. I already know who they are." As the Third gaped rather unattractively at her Noriko continued, unperturbed, "What I meant was why you didn't tell me anything about them."

Pulling himself together he answered rather woodenly, "Once again, it's because you were too young." Frowning slightly, he continued, "Can you honestly tell me that you wouldn't have bragged about who they were?"

Conceding the point the girl turned to look back out the window and changed the subject. "So how long have I been out for?"

"Almost two days. With injuries like yours anyone else would have been out for at least a week."

The girl simply nodded as if she had expected something like that. The old man on the other hand still had some questions for her. "Who told you about all of this, Noriko?"

Said girl gave the old man an odd look and said, as if stating the obvious, "The Kyuubi of course," with an innocently wide eye that belied the immensity of the revelation.

Choking on what he was about to say the Third could only make a few incoherent sputtering noises as the girl continued to explain some of what the Kyuubi had told her. Needless to say, while she told him that she and the Kyuubi and made a deal of sorts, she left out any mention of being the fox's heir.

Relaxing a bit after the explanation they sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Noriko reached up to begin unwinding the bandages from around her head. When Sarutobi made to stop her she said that the Kyuubi had told her it was about as healed as it was ever going to be and she might as well take a look at the damage.

Sighing resignedly at the girl's stubbornness, as she finished unwrapping the bandages and removed the pad cushioning her eye, he reached over to the side table to grab a small mirror placed there for that purpose. Turning back to face her he winced slightly at the sight of the scars and, with guilty eyes, placed the mirror in her outstretched hand.

Forewarned by the Hokage's grimace Noriko took a deep breath before she looked into the reflective surface of the mirror. It was both worse than and not as bad as she thought it might be. A thick pink scar carved deeply into the left side of the bridge of her nose before it skidded up over her eyelid, making it so it wouldn't open fully and giving the eye itself a lazy, half lidded quality. The scar then jerked down slightly to etch itself over the bone of her eye socket before drawing sharply off over her temple and smoothing into the hairline.

Off of every part of the main scar lighter and thinner burn scars drew themselves in spider webs across her forehead and cheek. They faded into nonexistence as they reached her hair line and mouth. The eye itself no longer had a discernable iris and sclera. The entirety of the orb was a pale blue, almost white, color that reminded one of ice with a barely discernable pupil of a slightly darker color that was almost invisible.

The entire effect was rather unnerving and Sarutobi would be rather ashamed to admit that when the girl asked him what kind of masks she would be able to wear he was a bit relieved.

They sat and talked for awhile, as Sarutobi wouldn't have to get to the Hokage tower for awhile, before the subject of Noriko's parents came up again. "Did they leave me some kind of house that I could live in?"

"Well, it would be a bad idea to reveal who your father is to anyone by having you blatantly live where he did. Your mother rented out a flat, but I believe she inherited some land from Mito-sama. I'll take a look at what it was and get back to you on that later. That okay?"

"It's fine." Glancing out the window again Noriko couldn't help the next comment, "And don't you have a job to do?"

As she watched the Sandaime glance at the clock and realize the time she said, "Don't forget to bring me some ramen when you visit next. Hospital food sucks." The Third gave her an indulgent nod as he poofed out of the room with a casual shunshin technique. She then pouted as a nurse rolled in a trolley with a tray of said suckish hospital food.

.-.

Looking through the records of what the girl's parents had left to her the Third could only gape in shock when he realized that Uzumaki Kushina had left her daughter the Forest of Death and the tower in its center.

"Oh dear. And she'll probably love the place to death as well."

Sighing at his unintentional pun, he considered what the council would have to say about this. After he had gotten the blonde girl to the hospital, while the girl was in the emergency room, he had immediately summoned some of his best investigative Anbu agents and set them to uncover what exactly led to the massive mistake that had resulted in his favorite blond being scared for life. He knew very well it could have been much worse.

What was found was horrifying. One of the so-called minor concessions he had given up to appease the council was to allow a few civilians to work at the Hokage tower. A few of the more major civilian clans had hired a freelance infiltration specialist had hidden him in with the few other oblivious people they put to work in the tower. Over the course of the last year the man had slowly found out how Noriko's guard shifts were recorded and maintained. Following his orders to the letter he had secretly and slowly manipulated the shift times to include an hour of time when the girl would be unguarded; it had fallen rather coincidentally on the 10th of October, exactly six years after the Kyuubi had been defeated.

When they received the news the civilian council men and women quickly spread the news to those who, much like themselves, hated the child and what she contained beyond all reason. Thus followed the attack, and, needless to say, most of what had been the civilian council were no longer among the living.

At least half of them were killed when Noriko's apartment building went up in flames. One, the one rescued by Noriko, was currently enjoying a prolonged stay in the AnBu's T&I Division. The others were publicly executed for treason, conspiracy to murder one under the protection of both the Hokage and Daimyo, and the breaking of the Sandaime's Law.

After he had completed his mission the nameless agent had immediately fled Konoha but by now it was too late. Inu was hot on his trail and the Hokage was expecting the man to return with the so called specialist's head any day now. The Yondaime's last surviving student knew exactly who the girl's parents were and killing the person who made the attack possible in the first place would help relive some of his not inconsequential anger.

With the civilian council all but eradicated it was decided by the shinobi council not to reinstate it. They could all now see that such an undermining of the Hokage's authority weakened the village as a whole. However, with the civilian council gone the Shinobi one had to pick up the slack. On the Hokage's orders some of the higher ranking ninja, such as the Anbu Commander and the Head of the Hunter Nin Corps, have now taken on positions in the council in order to take on some of the work.

After going through some of the things the civilian council had had a say in, such as what was taught at the Ninja Academy, Sarutobi could only think that the disbanding of the civilian council was an even better idea than he had originally thought. They had actually let fangirls keep that mentality after their second year at the Academy and even let them pass their final exams? Ridiculous.

Turning his thoughts back to what he had originally been planning, he knew that at the very least he'd have to tell the council who her mother was in order for the girl to be able to live in the Forest.

Taking the deed and everything else her mother had left her with him he left to tell the council and give Noriko half of her inheritance.

.-.

After he left the office a ninja pulled himself up from where he had been hidden in the floor and was immediately killed by a Kage Bunshin the old Hokage had made, hidden, and left behind.

Examining the blank mask the clone scowled to itself and muttered under its breath, "Damn that Danzo. He's getting bolder." Turning back to the body it burned it to a crisp with a minor fire jutsu. As the ashes flowed on a breeze out the window it dispersed itself, sending the memories of its short existence back to its creator.

.-.

Noriko, having fallen asleep again as she waited to be released from the hospital, woke up in her mindscape. She just laid there for while, watching as snow the snow fell down into her face and disappeared as it touched her skin. She wasn't very surprised when the Kyuubi bent her head into her line of vision to look down at her.

"Well? Are you just going to lie there all day, Kit?" asked the kitsune.

"No."

"Oh. Okay then."

As she looked down at the peaceful face of the little girl the Kyuubi noticed that the scars on her body had yet to manifest themselves on the mental plane. Clearly the girl had yet to accept the injuries as a part of who she was, but that was understandable. To expect such mental maturity in a six year old was ludicrous.

Shaking her head slightly at the direction of her thoughts the fox glanced at the snow and after taking another look at the girl lay down next to her, her feet facing the opposite direction as their hair curled together in the white drifts of snow.

She didn't move even after the child left the mindscape. And the snow kept falling.

~ Author's Note ~

The third chapter is here! I hope you're happy; deciding where to end it gave me a bit of trouble. Enjoy and review!

- Aljan Moonfire