Underlined - English

'Italicised' - Thoughts

In Text Bolded - Tailed Beast

A/N - Heyo! Just wanted to clear something up for you all that ended up getting edited out by accident! 'Ankei' and '-nii' are both used to refer to an older sibling, so it kinda doesn't make sense that Naruto and Noa both call each other Big Sister/Brother.

Thing is that when they were young, neither of them really knew when their birthdays were - and only Naruto ever learned when they really were - so they didn't know who was older. They both wanted to be older though, so they decided to just call each other Big _ to be fair.

Lots of Love!
-Milo Of The Key

NARA SHIKAMARU

"We should keep this a secret." I chime out suddenly, cutting through the silence of our chess game. Noa looks up at me, searching for the meaning behind my serious words in my eyes. "Us, I mean."

My ... (kami-what-even-are-we?) - Noa sits up fully, straightening her spine and locking eyes with me, the game forgotten. "Is there a …" She trials off, and I rush to fill the void. 'Is there a problem?' She doesn't say.

"No," I insist, low but firm. "But we have to be careful. The number of people after you - the people you have pissed off or intrigued or whatever - is growing every day. The less information that they have to hold against you or manipulate you with the better."

"And what about the people who already … know?" Noa asks, she too unsure about the status of our strange, tiptoeing relationship.

"It's … technically not official, so I haven't told anyone." I explain lowly, eyes back on the board. "And the same number of people who think I'm together with you think you're with Sasuke or Naruto."

A pause.

"It's not?"

I look up at her to see that she too had her eyes fixed on the game. "Official, I mean."

I gulp, steeling myself, "Do you want it to be?"

She doesn't even hesitate, "Yes."

I bury a smile, moving to evade her knight, "Troublesome woman."

"Your troublesome woman," Noa corrects me smugly.

UCHIHA SASUKE

"That council meeting was so dull!" Naruto complains loudly as we exit the Hokage Tower complex. "When I'm Hokage, the council meetings will be much more exciting!"

Noa snorts beside him, flipping through her medical journal - noting something down. "Sure, that will happen. The only way that you could make these more interesting would be to get rid of all the stuffy old people."

Noa seems to immediately regret the comment, as Naruto's eyes light up like they do when he is planning one of his better pranks. "Naruto," I hurry to derail him. "You can't get rid of half the council - that's got be treason of some sort."

As Naruto begins to pout, I think back to the meeting. Yes, it was mostly boring as Naruto had complained - but there was also a short debate on the ANBU medical files and their redaction. It ended as quickly as it started, but it got me thinking …

"Sasuke?" Noa cuts through my thoughts, "You okay? Something on your mind?"

I work to find my words as we slide into Ichiraku's. "You and Naruto are well on the way to achieving your goals …" I start, unsure of how to continue.

"You're worried about joining Special Ops." Noa supplies me, switching to English for added privacy.

"Yes," I follow along, and vaguely processing that Naruto has tuned in to what we were saying. "I feel … late."

At that Naruto snorts, stirring his miso ramen before he speaks, "That's dumb - if you had joined a year ago you wouldn't have been ready - you've learned so much under Kakashi. And anyway, even if you join right now you'd be one of the youngest in the history of the Ops - only, like, your brother and our teacher beat you there."

"As far as we know," Noa corrects, but seems to agree with him. "Honestly Sasuke, so you feel like you're late? Okay, let's fix it. Do you want to join right now? Or would you rather do some further training beforehand? What can we do?"

I really should stop being surprised by how well Noa can cut to the center of an issue.

"I don't know," I switch back to Common, signalling how I'm done talking about this now. "I'll just have to think on it."

"You do that," Noa smiles - before turning to her own ramen and dropping all conversation.

'I'll have to think on it.'

YAKUSHI KABUTO

"Orochimaru-sama, are you sure this is a good idea?" I can't help but ask, examining the orders for the Sound Four. "This kind of hasty movement may be considered … reckless."

Orochimaru hisses in pain as he shifts to face me, his arms jolted by the movement, "Yes, it is reckless. But if it succeeds - as it must - then not only will I have the Sharingan, I will also have an advantage over that blasted Tsubasa. She is too soft hearted to ever damage the body of her teammate, no matter who is wearing it."

I stifle a sigh, slightly irritated over how much attention that brat was getting from Orochimaru-sama. Noa may have attacked me during the exams, but I doubted that in a true battle - where neither party was holding back - she would be able to defeat me.

But kidnapping the Uchiha Clan Head in order to overpower a Tsubasa child? For the sake of my master, I hope it goes well.

For my sake? Let them fail, the Uchiha is too untrained now to be any use to Otogakure as anything other than a nuisance.

UMINO IRUKA

"INCOMING!"

I bolt to the window in an instant at the familiar cry - throwing open the window to my classroom between breaths, lecture forgotten. I have just enough time to notice the confused and somewhat frightened looks on my students faces - except for Konohamaru, who looks like he knows what's going on - before my former student literally flies through the window.

On the ginormous chakra wings she was still only barely able to control.

As she quickly reabsorbs her chakra, I shut the window with a sigh and prepare myself for a long day. Twenty minutes into the day and I can just feel the oncoming questions and demands for demonstrations -

Noa owed me dango for this.

"Noa," I grit out, rubbing my scar in a feeble attempt to calm myself down. "I know by now you've fixed your little 'landing problem,' so why do you feel the need to dive-bomb my class?"

The little menace only pouts cutely, pushing herself up to sit on the edge of my desk as my class sat frozen in awe, "Aww Sensei!" The chunin protests, "Just because I know how doesn't mean I will. I know how to detonate the entirety of Training Grounds 44, but I won't."

Great. Just great.

Konohamaru suddenly remembers his voice, and jumps up to run to the Tsubasa Clan Head, "You saved my Jiji!"

Noa looks down blankly at the young Sarutobi before snapping her fingers, making the connection. "Oh! You're Konohamaru! The Old Geezer talks about you all the time - so does the Ruto for that matter."

Konohamaru beams at being recognized by name by one of his idols - and for being talked about by his 'rival' and his grandfather. "Yeah! I'm gonna be a super strong ninja like you someday, and then I'll be able to save other people's Jiji's!"

A swell of pride grows in my chest, and I watch happily as Noa ruffles Konohamaru's hair with a smile on her face.

And then the classroom detonates.

Everyone - even the civilian born kids - had heard about the young genin who had nearly died saving the Sandaime's life, and they were just now connecting the dots. The sheer noise in the room drowned out any distinguishable syllables, and Noa looks irritatingly amused as I attempt to gain the attention of the class back.

After a couple minutes of yelling and a twitch of chakra, she hands me a ready-made megaphone.

"QUIET!" I holler into it, feeling my head swell. "QUIET!"

The lunch bell rings, and I have just enough time to get to my desk chair before collapsing into it.

"Now you wonder why I decided to become a medic?" Noa asks rhetorically - cheek dripping off her words, "Blood, gore, and dying patients is nothing compared to teaching - you should try it sometime. You're control's pretty good!"

"Which control?" I ask, voice barely audible. "My self-control, my control over the class, or my chakra control?"

"All three," She decides after a pause - pushing herself off the table. "Annoying you was only a small part of why I came, though."

The seriousness in her voice gave me pause, and I push my head off my desk to look at her.

"I came because of this," Noa continued, holding out three packages of what looked to be books - each bound thickly with cloth and plastic and string. Whatever the packages were, they weren't meant to be opened. I take them wordlessly, examining them curiously - confused on why she would give them to me.

"If I die," Noa starts, and I snap up to look at her - but am cut off before I could protest at the notion, "Hold on Iruka! This is important!"

I sit back in my chair, and she takes off again. "Okay, if I die I need you to gives these to someone on my team - doesn't really matter who, I wrote for them to be shared. They need to be read if I kick it before I can tell someone what is written in them. Okay?"

I struggle to find the words - obviously, this was some kind of safeguard, but against what? What did she have to hide? I doubted anything important she would write would be in anything but English, and this was obviously not intended for me to know but -

"Why me?" I finally settle on, finding the question safe.

"Because I trust you," My old student states bluntly - and as long as I've known her she has never told me that. "I never taught you English because you would have become a target, and of the people I have taught you are the least protected. Why give you these? You won't and can't read them before the time comes - and because if someone comes looking for classified information about a dead girl, they'd go to my team and Gai, not you. You are the furthest from my closest circle that I can still trust - and I need to do this."

I nod mutely, and she pushes herself off my desk - walking towards the door.

"Thank you, Iruka-sensei." Noa quietly calls out as she pushes open the door and waltzes out into the hallway - leaving me with three packages encompassing her last testament.

UZUMAKI NARUTO

Three weeks after Aneki plants the idea into my head, I decide to talk with the Fox.

I wait until Noa has a shift and Sasuke and Kakashi head out to do some kind of espionage training exercise - or whatever those ANBU types do to train.

The house is empty, but it feels too silent - so I gather my gear and Sushin to the top of the Hokage monument, right over my father's head (and oh boy isn't that strange to think). I settle to meditate, thinking back to what I knew about mindscapes. It takes a moment - my breathing circulating rhythmically - before I find myself falling into -

Splash -

A enormous cavern - with walls and ceilings so high I couldn't even make them out - surrounds me. As I sit up, I feel the displacement of ankle deep water around me - tiny waves rippling out from each splash I made. The cavern isn't … dark, but it isn't light either. The water seems slightly fluorescent, giving off a faint blue light - barely visible, but enough to see by easily. After all, there certainly is no sun down here.

So this my mindscape. Huh, I needed to redecorate down here.

Up here? In here?

In here.

Tearing myself out of my thoughts - (wait, no. I'm literally in my thoughts. Wait …) -

Changing my focus, I begin to look around for the Fox -

I give out a very unmanly yelp in surprise. Apparently I just needed to turn a 180.

Here goes. Start simple.

"Ohaiyo!"

No response. That won't do, I didn't want to be a bad … host?

Whatever.

I approach the cage - gilded and detailed - that took up a large expanse of my mindscape. The kitsune behind the bars was huge - bigger than even Gamabunta by a factor of ten. Their fur was crimson red - the color of blood - and their ears were longer, rather rabbitlike. Most of all though, their nine tails were curled around their body like a blanket - hiding their eyes from my view, although leaving their sharp teeth exposed to the world.

Or just me, really. Cuz this was my mindscape, and all.

"Hello?" I try again, approaching the bars - though not crossing though. "Are you awake, Kyuubi?"

"What do you want, brat?" The Kyuubi growels out, eyes still hidden by their tails - although I had no doubt that they were still tightly shut.

"To talk." I comment - as if it was obvious. "I don't want to be a Jinchuriki, and you don't want to be stuck in me. Problem is - neither of us can actually exist without the other because of my tou-san's seal (which I am sorry about by the way), so we might as well get to know each other."

I let out a huff of air after my brief speech, and wait patiently as the Kyuubi begins to slowly peel tail by tail away from their eyes until they lock their crimson eyes on me with - full of … something I couldn't identify.

"You want … to talk." They deadpan, eyes narrowing.

"Yup!" I confirm, sitting down and kicking back against the bars. "Starting with introductions! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, although I guess I'm a Namikaze too? Anyway, I'm a chunin of Konohagakure no Sato, and the Clan Head of the Uzumaki Clan! What's your name?"

The Kyuubi snaps their head around to face me quick as lightning, eyes narrowed - assessing. " … You have not proven yourself worthy of using my name." The Kyuubi declares with some force, although something tells me that the fact that I asked at all won me points. "I am the Kyuubi Kitsune, and I am the eldest of the Bijuu - the most powerful with the most tails."

I whistle lowly, impressed. "Woah, I guess I lucked out by having you be my partner, huh? But no name …" I trail off, thinking. "My Aneki says that an English word for fox is 'renyard,' but that's a bit masculine. Are you a male?"

"Yes." The bijuu confirms, sounding amused. "I care not what you call me, Kit. This Aneki sounds like an interesting one, to know such a tongue."

"She sure is! She's the best sister ever!" I cheer, glad to have gotten somewhere with the fox. "Renyard it is! One day - when I prove my worth - I'll be able to use your real name!"

Renyard snorts in amusement, shifting to lay his tails back over his eyes, "Sure you will, Kit."