Author's Note: Woohoo, chapter ten! And the foxes finally show up. Really they'll be her primary summons outside of super serious situations simply because they're not as obstructive and a bit less...noticeable than the dragons. Plus she can't show that card too early, everyone would suddenly be making plans to take advantage of it or to stop it.

Also in this chapter she puts Kurama on the road back to being at full strength. It's something that'll take the time to reach fruition, but it'll see both of them in a better stead when she starts messing with the higher powers of the world.

This chapter is a bit shorter than normal and is a few short tasks on Noriko's part strung together rather than a full on chapter, my apologies about that.

Weeks dragged by at an agonizing pace as I worked to clear as many of my side projects from my metaphorical plate as possible. There were things that were still in the process of being arranged, like a private, secret meeting with the head monk of the Fire Temple for the purpose of relieving Sora of his portion of the Kyuubi's chakra. That was a big one though.

I had successfully set up seven village-wide seals with the help of my clones, and that had been a labor and a half to ensure that every single seal out of several thousand were placed correctly. The biggest of the seven seals weren't too complex, but they required hundreds if not thousands of reinforcement points laid out in rings around the city, the largest of them being nearly five miles in diameter. They were all focal points I would need to protect Konoha from Orochimaru and later Pain along with Obito should it be necessary.

The outer three seals formed a concentric ring of barriers that would be powered by natural energy and form massive spheres around the village to both entrap anyone inside that was an enemy and lock out anyone intending harm. They could certainly be broken, but thanks to absorption seals scattered for miles in every direct there would be sufficient energy to power the things against just about any attack.

Though I wasn't sure they would survive a full force Shinra Tensei.

That was what the fourth seal, the one located in the middle layer was for. With one thousand seal points and a hundred and twenty individual seals per point, it was the most ridiculously complex thing I had created. That was only made worse by the fact I had to make two of them.

Should any two of the three outer barriers be broken and a third one brought to fifty percent strength or lower, the fourth ring would activate, taking the Yondaime's Hiraishin barrier to a level no one had ever seen before. Once the ring of seals engaged, they would encapsulate a the village with up to a height of the top of the Hokage mountain -which was inside the ring as well- and down to a depth of five hundred feet before proceeding to swap it with an identical, encapsulated space about forty miles away, thus taking the village out of the way of whatever was trying to destroy it. My cavern and ROOT would be left behind, but my entire complex was rigged to go up if someone with unapproved chakra attempted to go deeper than a thousand feet from surface level.

And I didn't give a fuck about Danzo so that was fine.

The next seal in was a barrier identical to the outer three, followed by a chakra absorption seal that would suck up any youki a tailed beast or Jinchuuriki attempted to use other than my own. That youki would be paired off with natural energy and discharged harmlessly into the environment. The last seal was a mass paralysis seal that would stun anyone with harmful intentions against Konoha for twenty-four hours. Naturally I was excluded from that. If Danzo ever seized power I needed to be able to kill him if I hadn't gotten rid of him already.

The only real downside was that charging all seven of these seals would take literally years -three and a quarter to be exact- as they would all be sucking natural energy from the environment at once. It was thankfully slow enough that I wouldn't harm the natural world -the dragons had been essential to determining how much I could safely take before I would cause damage- as that would just be counter productive.

But that was only one of my projects. I had other ones being run by dedicated Blood Clones in a separate chamber and facility nearly a mile east of my usual location. That was where the projects of more...dubious...moral standards were taking place. I made sure to get a memory update from them once a week, but I felt a sense of utter disgust and intense self-loathing at what I was doing there with every update.

There were groups of clones working to expand their medical knowledge to the point that a number of the bandits I had fought as Ryuukoe had been dispatched there for use in tests. I did make an effort to only send the worst, but it wasn't much of an effort.

There was another group at that location who were using samples collected from the Uchiha Massacre to grow new Sharingan, who then made use of small samples of DNA from Hashirama to force them onto the next stage and to become Rinnegan. The Mangekyou blood sample I had gotten from Shisui had proved to be the biggest aid in that field.

There were also clones experimenting with the Edo Tensei and the less said about that the better.

That was only the start though. Others were putting my double Master Degrees to work. Some of them were working to create the nerve gas Sarin, not something I truly wanted to make, but something that I knew would work dependably and could be used over a large area. Like the clone Zetsu army.

The final group was already working on the large scale portion of their project, having successfully completed small scale testing after a year of careful collection work on the water table and the Naka river. Their job was collecting and subsequently measuring out samples of Deuterium and Tritium. Given the fairly clean results and the ease of assembly with seals, those clones were rather busy assembling scroll based fusion weapons.

When activated, the scroll would eject the Deuterium and Tritium in a small sphere above itself before subsequently crushing and heating the sphere with an amount of chakra equal to about one percent of my total reserve. Of course thanks to the design I could vary the yield by adjusting just how much deuterium and tritium were ejected by the scroll which took such a weapon down from the strategic use to the tactical level where I could theoretically use it in an actual fight rather than remotely or by clone.

Kurama had questioned me about potentially unleashing such a weapon on the Elemental Nations but he had eventually agreed that due to there being no way to study the process that created the weapon, they would believe it to be a chakra based weapon similar to an explosive tag and would labor under such assumptions to recreate it. The fact that all of said scrolls had Hiraishin seals on them so I could summon them ensured I would always know where they were and that they hadn't been stolen.

That was the darker side of my life, something that I had to struggle to accept but maintain my moral disgust for. My quickly growing demonic side reveled in the ideas of such destruction only made such a task harder.

It honestly made me wonder what my confrontation with my darker side would be like when I underwent the final stages of sage and Jinchuuriki training. I mean, I knew of acknowledged the evil things I did and wanted, so would I even have a darker side to fight against? Or would I have a lighter side in some twisted parody of Naruto's training.

I suppose I would just have to find out when I reached that point.

A few months further on and it was our brief summer break between semesters. Sasuke, to my immense surprise, had actually opened up a bit and now sat with Hinata and I of his own free will. He even gave us answers beyond the standard Uchiha 'Hn'! It seemed that between the silent sympathy I gave during class, Mikoto's magic, and the other remaining Uchiha being so close that Sasuke hadn't had a chance to clam up like he had in canon.

From what I had seen from spying on them, Mikoto had actually knocked the boy silly when he declared he would become an avenger. That had been satisfying to say the least.

He was still quite the wet blanket though.

He didn't participate in my pranks like Kiba would or Hinata would occasionally when I persuaded her to aid me with her Byakugan. Rather he scowled and shook his head. There was amusement in his eyes though whenever he saw the results of my pranks, so I counted that as a win.

Oh and Kiba. He was rough and crude for sure -a bit like me- but it seemed he had developed a small crush on me which had only made things problematic as he liked to sit around me and watch me when he could get away with it. Whenever I caught him I would arch an eyebrow in response and watch as he blushed furiously as he looked away.

The best news was that I had finally been published! Of course, I hadn't actually been published, but rather my translated copies of several books had been published and were doing quite well. It had been to my immense, and, unfortunately, private, amusement when 'The Hobbit' had knocked the current Icha Icha from the top spot of the bestseller list.

Really I couldn't help but laugh at the mental image of seeing Jiraiya learning of such information.

But that was all beside the point as little more than a status update from my clones as I flew through the appropriate seals before biting my thumb and slamming my right hand against the ground in a side chamber.

As I had called, a puff of smoke appeared before clearing to reveal the elegant form of a pure white fox with icy blue eyes. Two facts designated this fox as a summon and not just an animal; one, the fox was the size of a golden retriever, and two, the three tails swishing through the air behind it.

"Hime-sama, it is good to see you. May I ask what I may I do for you?" the fox greeted warmly, dipping its head in deference.

I rolled my eyes slightly at the overly polite greeting before I dipped my own head in return as I spoke. "It's good to see you too, Taiki-san. As for what you may do, my meeting with Chiriku is in ten minutes, and I would like you to take me there and escort me. Yuuma left behind a seal on her last visit so you should be able to reach it easily."

Taiki immediately gave me a pleased smile as she dipped her head and replied, "Of course, Hime-sama, I would take you and escort you. This is why you've dressed up so much and asked for those lessons I take it?"

"Indeed it is," I replied, giving a little spin to let Taiki take in the entirety of my yukata. The base was black before being patterned with faint images of trees that were flush with bright green leaves and various colorful flowers along the bottom of the outfit and the sleeves. There was a practical side to it as well though. I wore my shinobi sandals on my feet, along with a set of tight black shorts and a t-shirt so that I could fight if needed. Senbon were strapped around each thigh and I had a knife similar to and old World War One trench knife up each sleeve. They were chakra conductive of course and still had the triangular blade that had made then so infamous in that bloody war.

That all ceased to matter as Taiki wrapped my left hand with one of her tails before we disappeared in a reverse summon to the fox realm.

Opening my eyes to look over the area, I couldn't help but smile pleasantly. The main part of the fox realm resembled an isolated miko shrine on some densely forested mountain with a path of wide stone steps winding its way through torii gates to reach the summit where the fox's boss lived. As most of the fox clan made their homes below ground in elaborate and sizable burrows, the above ground area was left mostly unspoiled by buildings and other construction. Really it was such a pleasant sight and it made me sigh in contentment as I took it in.

"Hime-sama, I will take you to the meeting now," Taiki said softly, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Thank you Taiki-san, let's get going then."

As the smoke of our summoning disappeared, I quickly took in my surroundings, immediately noting that Taiki and I had appeared within a spartan, but tasteful office. There was a simple desk with a few papers on it, a few chairs, a bookcase, and behind the desk, a monk that was looking at me incredibly intently.

Immediately I gave a graceful bow to the monk who I had recognized from my memories, with his well muscled body, bald head, sharp eyebrows, and positively dangerous eyes, there was no doubt in my find who this was.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, Chiriku-sama. I apologize for having kept my identity a secret, I simply could not risk factions within Hi no Kuni knowing of my actions." I greeted.

Chiriku, head monk of the Fire Temple, looked across the half dozen feet of distance separating us as he intently stared at my small, eight-year-old form before he finally nodded and seemed to relax just a tiny bit.

"You're welcome. Now that you are here though, please introduce yourself fully and have a seat." He said, gesturing with one hand to a chair in front of his desk.

I nodded as I began.

"My name is Uzumaki-Namikaze Noriko, Chiriku-sama. As a former member of the twelve guardian ninja, I do not doubt that you are aware of my status as the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Youko." I said before carefully taking my seat.

"I was. Now while I am...hopeful at the prospect of you being able to help Sora I must ask several questions of my own. The first being how you even knew of his status as a pseudo-jinchuuriki in the first place."

Carefully I looked about and extended my chakra through the room to ensure we were alone before I replied. "To my knowledge, you will be the third person made aware of this information. It is an SS rank secret. Only I and the Hokage may inform others of it. Do you understand?" I asked.

Chiriku's eyebrows had risen noticeably at that information but to the man's credit he gave no other reaction than to nod.

"Good. The secret in question is that I am an Oracle. The Sandaime has had it confirmed after I came to him when the nightmares I had been experiencing of the Uchiha Massacre became real."

Chiriku nodded, his eyes hardening just the tiniest bit before he asked, "and that ability is how you became aware of Sora?"

"Yes, through one of my visions, I witnessed a man, his father I believe, both sealing the remnants of the Kyuubi's chakra into him and unsealing it at one point, only to leave the boy to rampage in the temple."

Chiriku's eyes shot open in shock before his hands started trembling slightly at the thought of such a thing happening.

"And how would you help him, Namikaze-san? I understand that you are likely extremely talented, but you are only eight years old if I may be honest."

I gave a little smile before nodding in reply, setting a hand on Taiki's shoulder as she seemed to take offense to Chiriku's doubt in my skills.

"It is understandable, Chiriku-sama. However, there are three reasons I can do this. One, I have extremely large chakra reserves and this through the use of shadow clones I have been able to study and grow at an enormous rate thanks to my inheritance. Two, I am very familiar with the seal containing the Kyuubi's chakra within Sora, along with the unsealing method. Three, because of the way Sora's seal is done, there is no interaction between his chakra and that of the Kyuubi's chakra, meaning that it's removal will do him no harm."

Chiriku leaned back in his seat and looked me over for several moments before he asked, "Why are you offering this? I harbor no illusions that there aren't factions, as you said, that would do away with you should they learn you have done this."

I was quiet for a few seconds as I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths before I replied.

"While a lesser reason, it is still important. I do not wish the burden of carrying the Kyuubi on anyone else. In my case, I could not give it up even if I wanted to, but Sora can. He doesn't need to suffer through the glares and hatred and if I can spare him that I will."

"Why else?" Chiriku asked, watching as I shifted uncomfortably before his eyes widened.

"You've seen something haven't you? Something more than him just causing harm to the temple and the monks."

Grimacing, I nodded and met his gaze with a slight frown.

"I have. And to stop what is to come, I will need the entire Kyuubi. At this time, only the Yang half is sealed within me, and because there is no Yin chakra present, the Kyuubi cannot regenerate it. That is why I have come here to you. The chakra stored within Sora is both Yin and Yang so the Kyuubi will be able to regenerate to full power within the seal. The only other option I have is to free my father and the Yin chakra from the Shinigami's stomach."

Well what do you know, the implacable Chiriku actually blanched at that. Blanched I say!

"I...can see why you came to me first then. If I give you permission, how soon can you start and how long would it take?"

"I could start preparations immediately with an appropriate room. If so I could begin within a day and I would be finished in a week at the outside. It would only take that long if the seal has dug into his system, however as it has only been three years I doubt there has been time for that."

Silence reigned after that for several minutes before Chiriku sighed and rubbed his temples until he said, "Very well. We have a sealing room preserved from the use of past monks. I will take you there so you may begin preparations. After that, I will go and inform Sora of what is happening."

I stood with him and bowed as I thanked him.

The sealing chamber I was lead to was absolutely astounding. All the surfaces were made of pure white granite to provide a smooth, flawless surface to write seals on. Lighting was handled by seals that sucked the natural energy out if the air for power. It was fifteen feet in height and on each side, and I couldn't have been more thrilled about it. Really I had only seen the ruins of such elaborate rooms when I had dispatched clones to Uzushio's remains to salvage whatever was available.

Acquainting myself with the room was as simple as stepping inside the isolated room and then saturating it with my chakra and then getting out my supplies. Three bottles of ink, six brushes, and an extra scroll with more of everything available should it be needed. With a nod over my shoulder to Chiriku, I began my prep work while he went to fetch Sora for the extraction. Normally days would be needed for this process on a Jinchuuriki as Akatsuki proved, but thanks to the total isolation and suppression it was under with the five element seal there was no need to worry about the target dying from the extraction as it wasn't a part of their network in the first place and it would go faster since I suspected that there wasn't even a full tail's worth of chakra stored in the boy.

That belief was upheld when Chiriku returned with a tanned boy with pale teal hair and a rather nervous expression on his face, likely wondering why he was here and who I was.

"I have brought Sora-san, Uzumaki-san. You are sure this process is safe?"

"Absolutely," I replied without hesitation, standing from where I had finished creating the outline of a boy a little larger than Sora with seals.

"Sora-san, I do not know if you were told, but sealed within your body is a portion of the Kyuubi no Youko that was gathered from the village of Konoha after the attack. The reason I have come is to remove that remnant of chakra from you so that you do not need to ever worry about it again. It is a burden that I would not wish upon an enemy and certainly not upon an innocent boy like yourself." I said calmly, carefully watching his reaction. He had paled dramatically when I said part of the Kyuubi was inside him so I guess no one had told him or knew of it yet. By the end of my words, he seemed cautious and wary though.

"You...you can get rid of it without hurting me you said, right?"

"Correct."

"...Then just tell me what I have to do."

I gave a small smile before directing him to lay within the outline I had made after stripping him down to his shorts so I could properly ink his skin where needed. From there it was two mind-numbing hours of writing out seals to form what would essentially be a cap that would go over the Five Element seal when I released it and subsequently funnel the youki released from it into my seal. That had been difficult, but I found that simply injecting the youki into my system would make the Hakke Fuin actively absorb it since I wouldn't be actually using it at the time, like how the seal absorbed any excess that was left over when I finished a fight.

So once it was ready, I nodded to Sora's watchful eyes with a small smile as I quietly informed him, "This will hurt quite a bit, so bite down on this." With that, I stuck the handle of a kunai in his teeth for him to bite in place of his tongue. At a look from me, Chiriku closed the door to the room, activating the full suite if isolation seals to keep us separate from the temple.

This would also have the benefit of keeping anyone from sensing the Kyuubi's youki throughout the process too.

I took one deep breath before letting it out as I started the process.

"Fuin!"

Sora screamed.

I screamed a moment later as liquid fire rushed through my body.

Three painful, burning, aching hours later both Sora and I were sat at a table to blankets draped over us and hot soup in front of us. It had turned out that, contrary to my expectations, significantly more than a tail's worth of chakra had been hidden behind the Five Element seal. Indeed, the actual amount had been closer to two. And one just didn't have that much chakra either removed through or added through their coils without some sort of repercussions.

As such, for the first time in this life I actually felt sick. It was flu-like symptoms that were fading by the minute, but by Kami did it still suck to experience it.

'Yet another thing to thank Kurama-tousan for.' I grumbled to myself.

My train of thought was stopped the next station though when Chiriku sat down on the opposite side of the table from Sora and I, a cup of steaming hot tea in front of him that smelled quite attractive in my current state.

"There were no problems with the transfer I take it, Uzumaki-san?" He asked.

I shook my head. "The only unexpected result is how were currently feeling, but given what I did I really should have expected it. The symptoms will be gone by tomorrow at the latest, but I will suggest that you keep Sora-san from any intensive and chakra related activities for a week to ensure his coils are stable. If anything wrong does happen, you can summon me the same way you sent your reply, I've left that particular seal in place, Chiriku-sama." I replied before sniffling loudly.

Sighing as he nodded, I took note of a weight leaning on me only to smile when I saw that it was Sora who had seemingly fallen asleep with exhaustion and dropped his head to rest it on my shoulder.

"I'll likely head out in the morning if that's alright with you, Chiriku-sama."

The small smile and nod I received in return said it was.

My return to Konoha involved another trip back through the fox's realm though I when I arrived I ended up being waylaid by Yuuma and Taiki convincing me to join them for a brief meal of roasted venison. Once they returned me back to my chamber underground, I couldn't help but smile. The dragon clan was awesome in pretty much every way imaginable, but they were rather lacking in the cute and cuddly department, something that the foxes were in spades. There was was also the fact that the foxes were never condescending to me or patronizing.

They were honest, polite, and kind in all of our interactions and I made an effort to return the favor. My position as the future princess of the clan probably greased relations between us.

Princess...hadn't that been a novelty to hear about. Turns out that even the Boss fox only has eight tails which put Kurama above her in power. They aren't quite the same as a measure of strength in bijuu, but the tail number is still an accurate strength and position sign in the fox clan. And since Kurama was the only nine-tailed fox, that made him their king, and it made me, as his line heir, their princess.

Jesus Christ that was not something I had been expecting. Though it did mean I could technically summon any of the foxes without worry or repercussions. Granted Tsukishou, the fox boss, would likely be quite upset if I summoned for anything other than a real battle or a conversation with other bosses.

Once home, I nodded to my blood clone replacement and absorbed its memories before laying down and falling dead asleep.

Author's Note: So there's chapter ten, I hoped you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Chapter eleven is going to be an interlude from the points of view of several characters including Kakashi, Hiruzen, and Kurama. This will take us up to the point of team assignments, so I hope you all enjoy it. Now I have some reviews to answer so read them if you want to, otherwise I'll see you with chapter eleven.

Ja ne!

Author Q&A:

Ducat of the valley: Ask and you shall receive! That's what the next chapter will be after all! I've had several Omake ideas buzzing around in my brain so I hope you enjoy the ones I'll be putting out soon enough.

SixPerfections: That's just fine. The reasons though are these; with Kurama actively assisting her and her last life's knowledge, avoiding ANBU wasn't such a task for Noriko. As for the second part, history has proven time and again that people can and will do truly heinous things to each other when they stop things of others as humans like them. Though I hope to avoid invoking Godwin's Law, I have to say just look at what the Nazis did to Jews, Gypsies, and several other ethnic groups.

Elim Garak: Very astute of you. Noriko has and is considering such things, but at the moment her biggest concern is seeing that she comes out on top at the end of Naruto canon.

Idea Gethe: Don't worry I have some Omakes planned for future chapters and once things get moving with the graduation Noriko will have a lot less time to brood and think so deeply.

Dracoeques: No, it won't. The way I view Youki and Chakra is similar to how I view Water and Ice. They're both have the same chemical composition, but they are in different forms. Consider Youki to be a darker, denser form of chakra. More affected by emotions and denser in terms of power per unit. Say a Kage Bushin took twenty-five units of chakra. The same Bushin would take say five units if youki because there's more energy in each unit. It is still Noriko's chakra, just in a different form. I hope that makes sense.

Ilat-2: I'd really appreciate if you still read the Ryuukoe sections. They are plot important and if have worked hard on them. I won't force you to and I won't deny I've done the same before, but I'll still ask you to read them.

idea getthe: There will be some light hearted moments in the coming chapters, don't worry. Including what I hope will be humorous omakes.

Elim Garak: Pretty much.

Elise Caester: Thank you.

Sandmanwake: I am well aware of what going into heat means for animals.

Muxi: Neither was I, but Noriko needed a believable cover for her foreknowledge and the actions she's taking.

Zeicheirenaga: No pairings as of yet. Yes the Inuzukas will for sure, Aburame's maybe, and certainly some of the tracker jounin with sensitive noses.

xbox432: The Sharingan didn't see through it because it isn't an illusion, it's a transformation.

And that's all everyone! I hope you were satisfied with the answers I gave, if not go ahead and ask some follow-up questions, I'll be happy to answer them.