Konoha's Innocent Vixen
By: Kibou32
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Summary: Story of a female Naruto who doesn't want to be Hokage. She's accepted – somewhat – by the villagers for being the Kyuubi's vessel, her father Namikaze Minato – the Yondaime Hokage is still alive after the sealing happened and is dead set against the thought his daughter would become a kunoichi despite the fact that both of the legendary sannin: Tsunade and Jiraiya, are teaching the kid everything they know in hopes of instructing a soon to be powerful shinobi weapon. Watch as Naruto deals with a negative out look from shinobi all around her – including her father's reluctance to seeing her as anything else than a ninja – to the pressure from those she's captured the hearts of to be the Godaime Hokage when all she ever wanted was just to be a regular shinobi with nothing else of importance besides the bijuu residing inside of her.
Pairings: Gaara + Naruto.
Warnings: there may be debauchery, heterosexual sex, etc.
Author's Note: As promised… Akatsuki comes to play. No romance in this chapter, though. Bummer.
:-:
Getting your life back
:-:
Gaara was not amused at the new turn of events. He was stuck in a prison cell surrounded by ANBU all around and awaiting the judgement of the Yondaime Hokage. In this cell, with its strange seals and whatnot; he felt estranged and alone. He had always been alone. But the bijuu inside of him had always had a running commentary and his mother had always told him he had to kill… so the silence inside his mind was killing him. And the gourd with his mother's spirit was gone, so he was unsure of what the future may hold for him. He wondered what could he do now.
"Good morning, Gaara-kun." – a voice to his left said. He stood up from where he sat and looked at the man who so resembled the object of his lust.
"…" – he didn't say anything.
Two ANBU crossed the threshold and grabbed him each by one arm to keep him steady. He didn't try to overpower them. He knew he was virtually useless without the sand.
"I'm sure you know who I am. My name is Namikaze Minato, I'm the Hokage. I was told you have problems with the bijuu in you, is that correct?" – he heard the man ask him.
He wanted to tell him to shut up and stop being nice to him, but he knew he couldn't. Sitting here in this cell had made him stop and think. He could see that his want for the petite blond kunoichi wasn't the bijuu affecting him, but he could actually see that he really wanted her. Except… the kisses he made towards her… he could tell he had frightened her. Why had he frightened her?
And then he remembered where he was and decided to do nothing, say nothing. Besides, what could he do or say against a strong man like the Yondaime Hokage?
"I have heard from your sister that you can't sleep because of Shukaku and that you think your mother is the one who incites you to kill."
Gaara was at first nonplussed, but then felt murderous. Did that mean the blasted bakemono inside of him had lied?!
Minato seeing as the poor boy felt murderous at the fact of being used, sighed.
"I can fix the seal in you to make it better in a way that would enable you to feel better. You could sleep at night."
Gaara thought about it for about two seconds before nodding in agreement to the procedure the Hokage was about to exercise on his seal.
:-:
Kurenai took Naruto to Tenten knowing the girl was the best example to follow. She may have been a tomboy as Naruto, but she was proud of being a girl and would get her charge to like herself as a girl as well. While they spoke to each other about things, she poofed herself into the outside of the Hokage's office. She awaited her turn.
When she managed to get in, she was faced by Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama standing next to each other.
"Hokage-sama… permission to speak." – she knew she was interrupting but knew that she had to be done.
"Yuuhi Kurenai, do you not see we're in session?" – said the elder woman who sat behind the great medic-nin Tsunade. Kurenai bristled inwardly, her distaste for the elder council was tremendous. If it hadn't been for them, her new charge wouldn't have ended up like this.
"Excuse me for interrupting, sir and madam; but I came to tell you about Uzumaki Naruto."
This took precedence above all, after all; Naruto was the village's ultimate weapon. The older woman frowned whilst the man looked at her intently trying to discover if it were a ruse or something else.
"Proceed." – he said.
"Uzumaki Naruto came to me this morning saying she wished me to train her. She seemed distraught and claimed she didn't want to suffer a defeat against Suna's jinchuuriki once again."
There was silence. Then Tsunade-sama cleared her throat frowning.
"Did she say what kind of defeat she was talking about?" – Jiraiya-sama drawled suddenly looking much more serious than he was when she had first come in to the room.
"Yes. In fact, she showed it to me."
"What was it? Was it a wound? Because I ran a check-up on her and found nothing wrong." – Tsunade-sama said worriedly.
"It wasn't a wound. It was a hickey." – she stated and watched as the Hokage's eyes widened and then narrowed in thought. She frowned inwardly.
"A hickey you say?" – said the older woman called Koharu.
"Yes." – she answered promptly.
"I see. Perhaps… there has been some lacking in her teachings about how to deal with men at the Academy." – Hotaru said.
She watched as Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama turned to look at the Hokage as one and narrow their eyes in a glare.
"I think it is a good idea you teach her what has been missing in that sense, Yuuhi-san. We give you full reign into teaching her for the next month." – Koharu said not diverting her gaze towards the Hokage.
Kurenai took that as a dismissal and bowed before leaving.
Jiraiya exclaimed: "Is there something you wish to tell us, Minato-kun?"
Tsunade snorted: "Of all the types of sabotages you could have done, this was not the thing you should have played with."
Minato didn't blush, but he did pout.
:-:
As the days progressed, Naruto was starting to see that there was nothing wrong in being a girl. She took to her duties as a chunnin like everything else she did and soon the thought of being split from her team didn't cross her mind. Until that is, she was presented by the Hokage himself, her first mission as the chief chunnin in taking four genins: Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, Yamanaka Ino and Akimichi Chouji for a reconnaissance mission out to Rice Country, where the village of Sound was rumored to be. She met with her team at the bridge and proceeded to let them know of the C-level mission.
Because she had not seen her teammates for at least three weeks after the failed invasion, she was surprised to see their mouths drop open at her new look. She was wearing her hair in a short ponytail, with light makeup on her eyes and her outfit wasn't the stupid uni-suit it had been before. Instead it was blue standard shinobi pants that fit her athletic figure and a white tank-top underneath her green chunnin vest.
"What?" – she asked.
"Naruto… you look different!" – was Sakura's awed exclamation.
Sasuke looked to be unable to form words.
"Ah… souka. Sorry, but I've been busy with dealing administrative jobs at the Hokage Tower that I'd forgotten all about it. I got promoted just like Shikamaru."
Yamanaka Ino – who stood at her right – giggled at the sight of an enamoured Uchiha. Chouji – who stood at her left – kept on munching the vegetable chips his mother had made for him under the medical recipe of Naruto's handwriting.
They left the village around noon.
:-:
Sabaku no Gaara stood next to his siblings feeling slightly better than before. He apologized to his siblings for giving them such a hard time, to their surprise; but his straying eyes left no doubt as to the reason why he couldn't concentrate on leaving Konoha to go home. Shikamaru took notice of this immediately and took a memo to get answers later on.
"So… we'll be seeing each other soon enough?" – Temari said to the lazy ass genius in front of her.
"Troublesome. It depends on what happens next. Ja ne." – and with that he turned around and left, with the doors closing after him.
Temari sighed inwardly and started to follow her brothers back to where they were heading… back to their village.
:-:
Three weeks later
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Kakashi returned three weeks later informing the Hokage of a disappearance. An Cloud nin that was very important seeing as that kunoichi was also a jinchuuriki. Neko no nibi, alias Yugito. It was his theory that perhaps the girl had disappeared from the hidden village because it was running away from someone.
Minato was about to comment, when Naruto irrupted into the room.
Carrying said missing-nin on her back.
:-:
"What on earth were you thinking!?" – Tsunade shouted at her number one apprentice in the labs that stood underground the ANBU's special tower.
"Well… I wasn't thinking really! I just saw these two men with black and red clouds coat and decided to help out! What do you think I could have been thinking?!" – Naruto shouted sarcastically back at her.
Shizune and Minato who stood side by side whereas Kakashi stood by the door of the single medical room shook their heads in response. Shizune had never seen her mistress so angry. On par with Tsunade-sama's temper, Naruto was hardly being nice; in Kakashi's opinion.
"Maa maa, please tell us how this came to be." – Minato said in a soft tone of voice wondering what this was about and also trying to stop a fight between the two kunoichi in front of him.
Kakashi just blinked and wondered if his sensei knew he should never step in between a kunoichi cat-fight.
Naruto visibly stiffened for a second before exhaling once. Tsunade closed her hands in fists attempting to control her temper and not hit the blond girl in front of her.
"We were coming back from our mission to Otogakure, when Ino thought she heard fighting going on. We were at the other side of a hill and without my prompting Sasuke ran over the top to find out what was going on. Here he saw a numerous amount of corpses littering the way. I went over to look and I saw these two weird looking men fighting a large purple cat that had two gigantic tails. Before I could summon my team and let them be, Sakura screamed and we were found out."
Kakashi rubbed his face and promised to himself to put Sakura through a gruesome training routine once again to get her head straight about how people went about on a mission and encountered unfavorable situations.
"And then? You tried to hightail it out of there, right? Tell me that's what you did, Naruto!" – Tsunade stated, her voice rising as she finished her sentence were she was all but shouting.
"Yes! But Ino and Sakura – the fools – kept arguing we should try and help the girl, whilst I told them to run and obey! Except Sasuke had decided to be a hero by now and enlisted Chouji's help in getting the girl out of harm's way!"
"Naruto… calm down ok. I'll make sure Sasuke and Sakura get the point. And I'll tell Asuma about Chouji and Ino, ok." – Kakashi stated as he watched disturbed at how much Naruto seemed to be projecting youki at them.
But Tsunade was livid and would not be deterred. "Perhaps it was too soon for you to become chunnin. Perhaps you need more training before you can become a chunnin." – she said smirking evilly at her charge. Shizune knew she was just being vindictive to cover the fact that she had been worried for her charge.
"So take the fucking vest back! I was just doing my fucking job! When the tall guy looked at me and said that he recognized me as a jinchuuriki and was about to kill Sasuke, all I did was my job!" – Naruto screamed at her and released a potent shout as she ripped the chunnin vest off and poofed out of the room in a resemblance of Hiraishin no jutsu. Minato narrowed his eyes at the display and looked furious at Tsunade.
"You pushed her, damn it. Find out what you can about the girl on the bed. I'll go see Naruto."
Tsunade slumped over the chair behind her and put her hands in her eyes. Kakashi felt decidedly uncomfortable at witnessing the great medic-nin cry.
"Shh. Everything will be alright now, Tsunade-sama. Please don't cry. Naruto didn't mean to swear at you, ok?" – those were the last two words he heard before he also stepped outside the room in search of his subordinates.
:-:
Sasuke and Sakura were being bandaged at the hospital. Sakura and Ino sustained light wounds and Chouji was just out of chakra resting in a separate cot on the same hospital room they were at.
Sasuke was nursing his hurt male pride at being unable to take the fact that he had been beaten and had to be rescued by Naruto. How was he to get her to notice him if he had to be defended and rescued by her every single time they went on a mission?!
"Yare yare. I suppose this is also my fault for not telling you of Naruto's promotion." – said a voice from the doorway and Sasuke flinched when he caught sight of his sensei looking serious despite his flippant tone of voice.
"Sensei! Is the girl okay?" – he heard Sakura ask.
"The girl is fine. You guys however are not. I thought that this was explained at the academy lessons. A chunnin is always superior to a genin. When Naruto took you guys for a mission, she wasn't your equal; she was your superior. And you had to obey her orders as you did mine. What part of that didn't you get when I talked to you on the genin test?" – he said all the while looking from the corner of his eye at how the Yamanaka girl folded in into herself.
"You said shinobi who leave their teammates behind are worse than trash." – Sasuke said pouting a little bit.
"I said shinobi who don't obey orders are trash, but those who leave their comrades behind are worse than trash. Now where on the mission does it coordinate with what I've just told you, Sasuke? That girl wasn't your teammate. She wasn't even a comrade! A shinobi isn't a prince charming sent out to save the world! For this insubordination, you both are going to be doing D-rank missions for three months and training with me every afternoon from this day forward."
Sakura groaned, Sasuke wilted into himself and looked to be about to cry.
This scene was what greeted Asuma when he came into the room to look at his genin. He looked stern and wasn't smoking. Ino took this to mean they were also going to be punished as well.
:-:
Shikamaru wasn't the chivalrous type. But he knew Naruto enough to know this required him to lend his shoulder so she'd cry on. Even if he knew with certainty she wasn't going to cry about it. She wasn't like Ino. Hell, even if she looked more feminine now than what she wore before; he'd say he'd never see her looking like any of the other girls he knew. So he just lend her his arm even if she wasn't going to cry on it.
Naruto, for her part; only knew that depending on Shikamaru wasn't as bad as she'd thought it'd be. She didn't feel like crying, god knows she had done that once in her lifetime a long time ago and she knew it didn't help much to her situation. But… either way… the soothing rhythm of Shikamaru's beating heart lulled her into false sleep and she felt herself fall.
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Inside her mind.
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Naruto needed not to talk with the beast inside her often. This was another reason she didn't like men. In her younger years after the incident that still gave her nightmares, she had encountered the beast in his humanoid form. He had stooped to her level in a dream and offered her a way out. Out of the tremendous loneliness she felt due to the absence of her only blood relation… her father. He was always too busy for her. Sometime she felt like that man had only given her mother her seed and then waited for the results. Her ero-sensei Jiraiya whom she thought of as a grandfather and her tough-nut Tsunade whom she thought of as a grandmother were a great help to her, as was Kakashi, Itachi and all those others that helped her become stronger. But she still couldn't get over the loss of her father as much as it pained her to say it out loud even in her own mind. Which was why she didn't like men.
Electra's complex at best. The demon had said to her she suffered because her father – the idiot that he were – had put him inside of his only daughter, his only child and stopped caring about her. Now standing in the green pastures that was her mind, the tranquility returned to her and she calmed.
Do you fear, little one?
Iie. I only fear death.
You're not good at lying girl. You fear men because of what you saw when you were five. You weren't raped, but you could have.
Men are useless pieces of shit.
Maybe we are useless. But that is why women were created, you know.
She was briefly reminded of the redheaded genin and scowled.
The demon's red eyes crinkled amused and said…
Even that 'useless' boy. I daresay my dear lady, you've met your match.
Urasai! That's not why I'm here, damn it.
Kyuubi's eyes narrowed as he remembered the men with the black coats with red clouds on them.
Akatsuki!
Akatsuki? Who are they? They looked at me and I felt small, Kyuubi-san.
Make me a body, kit and I'll find out.
Later, Kyuubi-san. I need sleep now.
Sleep kit, I'll make sure no one harms you.
:-:
Naruto awoke feeling rested and murmured her thanks to Shikamaru who just grunted and continued to look at the sky, which was now black and filled with stars. She laid back down next to him and stared at the stars.
Isn't as easy as you'd like to think.