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Thinking

Biju, etc. speaking

Biju, etc. thinking

Emphasis


Naruto felt Kurama stirring in her mind - for some reason he'd been quiet all day - but decided not to listen to his musings on her apparent non-relationship with her so-called husband.

There was work to be done! She shook her sadness off with determination, grabbed clothing, and left the house. The rest of the night would be spent painting fences with her nightmare of a team, and after that, she was going back to the Naras.


Danzo was seething.

Knowing Hatake's psych profile as well as he did, along with the Jonin's adoration of the Yondaime, he'd been positive that even the idea of consummating his marriage with the former Hokage's daughter would lead him to run like the wind away from the jinchuuriki. But that is not what his subordinates were reporting to him.

So far he'd learned that "Team 7" had an altercation of sorts that he didn't like the sound of with that fool, Hiruzen, earlier today. Furthermore, on THAT mission, his soldiers had seen a closeness, even proximity-wise, between the jinchuuriki and the last Hatake. He didn't like it: no, he didn't like it at all. And where is "Sai's" daily report?!

Danzo scratched his bandaged face. I should have put an older, more seasoned operative on that team. Sure, his minion now dubbed "Sai" had completed all of his missions successfully, but the ROOT leader hadn't fully ensured the young shinobi's total obedience: that had yet to be tested. The report will come, or he will be punished.

Nodding his head and flicking his fingers, his latest servants scattered. Danzo stirred his tea and considered the boy. Outside of the many killings his young operative had committed during his training, he had also successfully completed many assassinations, with no hesitancy. Yes, Sai hadn't been weaponized as much as Danzo would have liked before this mission, but there was no one else with his competency near his age. The boy will succeed. Or else, of course, the young ROOT ANBU would find out what else that seal on his tongue could do.

"Report," Danzo ordered his two most loyal young men after they bowed to their leader.

"Jonin Hatake is at the Hokage Memorial."

Not surprising - this better not be a waste of my time. Danzo then glared at his youngest, but incredibly skilled, Aburame lackey.

"The jinchuuriki's mission is complete. She did not sunshin to their estate, and is now moving through the village," the man said, still bowing down and staring at the floor.

"Quickly! Capture and bring her to the base nearest her current location. Engage chakra-suppression and silencing seals and signal me when you have her." His operatives disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Shadow clones: very good! They would grab the girl even sooner than he'd first anticipated.


Naruto walked the backstreets of the village, determined to avoid glares or what almost seemed like leers as she slowly made her way toward a secret entrance to the Nara Forest. The herd had come to recognize her as Nara family after all the years she had been there, so she knew that she'd have no trouble getting in.

It had taken a long while for the deer to accept her when she was younger; she assumed it was because of Kurama. Newborn deer and foxes didn't particularly get along, so it wasn't that surprising. This happened often with animals: she'd have to really prove herself to them during both of her timelines, just so that she could be at peace with them. It was a fact that really sucked: Naruto loved animals! Dogs and toads, dogs and toads, she reminded herself. For some reason, both of those species had no problem with her - summons or not.

Naru was exhausted - not chakra-exhausted, of course: just mentally drained plus bone-tired. It was evening before her team finished the old hag's fence, and the nasty woman kept giving Naruto the stink-eye. She was sure that the homeowner was wondering whether or not she was actually "The Demon Brat," although the wrinkly lady never said it outright.

Maybe I should start wearing makeup to cover my whisker marks… It was a terrible concept in her mind, and not only because she didn't like foundation, especially. Makeup base was time-consuming to put on and did little for her, plus she'd never had any luck with it for long, being the sweaty always-training kunoichi she was. The goop always ran off, leaving those birthmarks to just show up again - so what was the point? She could - and did usually just henge a "whisker-cover" on her cheeks, but because it took such a tiny, insignificant amount of chakra to do so, she'd occasionally slip and the henge would falter when she wasn't henging more of her features along with it.

Keeping her senses alert enough to detect ill-intent, she checked in on Kurama who was sleeping soundly. Naruto sighed and stretched.

It was just then that she sensed a sudden sunshin and was grabbed firmly around the waist by something thick, and what?! She'd been sunshinned away. No, she was being repeatedly sunshinned!

"Genjutsu," Kurama yawned.

Oh, yeah: it was, but it was a nice one: pretty flowering trees... What the hell is going on?

"Just take 'em down."

A Rasengan appeared in each of her hands - her chakra-control was worlds better now - before her senses cleared and she came to a halt.

"Whoa! Nice!" The woman gave a pointed nod at her partner.

Naruto was in disbelief: what is this?! "Ano, Kurenai-sensei…" And oh, dear Gods, no: Naruto knew exactly who this was! "And, uhm, Mitarashi-senpai?"

"Well, what a polite little hottie she is, ne Kurenai?" The snake mistress was smirking as she began to walk a wide circle around her, looking Naruto up and down. Naruto tried to clear another genjutsu, which only made the purple-haired woman laugh heartily. Looking at her partner-in-crime, Naruto's eyes widened in near-shock upon really studying Kurenai. Polite, sweet, disciplined, and oh-so-proper Kurenai-sensei was looking down at her with her arms crossed. The woman looked... tough! Since when did Kurenai-sensei look like a badass?! Naruto couldn't help but stare: it wasn't like she was wearing different clothes or anything - it was her stance, and the setting of her jaw, and... Awesome!

"Maa, what can I do for you two tonight, ya know?" Naruto immediately scolded herself for letting that tic out again.

Both women snickered, while Anko held up Naruto's hair to apparently have a good look at her boobs. She gave the blonde a thumbs up while Naruto blushed red and stepped back.

"Never mind her, Naruto-chan. I was just telling Anko earlier about your trouble with the council," Kurenai began.

"Already heard about it. Geez," Anko interrupted dismissively. Kurenai began to talk again but Anko was definitely louder. "We're here to help you, kid! You got allies! And a nice body. What do you think about fishnet mesh?"

"What?!" Naru asked, completely dumbfounded. She looked up sharply at feeling a rather blank-feeling hidden presence, and the other two women followed her gaze. She was sunshinned away again, to a table with an absolutely ridiculous amount of dango. Naruto tripped over her feet. The dango was just sitting there at a table like it was waiting for them!

"LET'S EAT!" Anko ordered. Not knowing what else to do, she sat down and stuck the dango stick in her mouth, the other two women doing the same.

Kami-sama! Naruto's world lit up in a way that she hadn't imagined. Had this happened when she first had ramen? Probably. She swore she was in a genjutsu again as the space around the wonderful food appeared to have pink clouds around the pile of cutely-arranged dumplings - no: the divine dango. All hail its majesty! Naru looked up at her apparently nice-enough kidnappers to see Anko stuffing her face in a way that Naruto gobbled ramen. Kurenai was licking the sauce off, before downing the dumplings on her stick in one mouthful. Naruto choked and Kurenai gave her best friend a bland look.

"Thinking about Asuma-kun, I see," Anko said.

"Eww!"

"Don't knock it 'til ya try it, kid," Anko gave her a flirty smirk, then tensed, "Naruto-chan: you're the one who my favorite Dolphin calls his little sis, aren't ya?" Naruto nodded eagerly, unable to speak about Iruka-sensei because her mouth was so full of the delightful treat. Anko smiled at Kurenai, who was also chewing. "Glad you brought me to her, Nai-chan!"

Turning to the young woman she knew was so close to her Iruka-kun, she asked for info on one of the topics they had in mind. "So imouto, tell us the facts about the council. I've heard everything from you being already married to that Uchiha prick - not that I know him or really have anything against him, personally: but I've only known two Uchihas I could ever stand, and he isn't one of them," she said hotly. She blew out hot air. "Bunch of assholes that think they're royalty, aside from a couple of my former teammates…" Anko looked off into the distance sadly, before returning to the topic. "They talked about you, too, on occasion, girly: you must be somethin' special."

Naruto's eyes widened. What a… really nice thing to say! She almost teared up: she'd never had many female friends aside from Hinata, especially as so many were angry and sometimes vindictive - her mind briefly wandered to Sakura. That was notably even more true after she was finally revealed to be a female after traveling with Jiraiya for so long in her past life. Many women became even more convinced that she was not only the demon itself back then, but also a pervert or some kind of threat for their "man" for some stupid reason. Ino seemed to understand why Naruto had hidden her gender, especially after learning about Kurama, and Tenten just didn't care one way or another. I need to go see her… Naruto wiped her eyes, not noticing the knowing look that passed between the two women she was sitting with. Finally, she responded, "Ano, I wouldn't say that."

The two women were smiling softly at her, Naruto noticed, and it was hard to even look up to meet their eyes again. Anko slapped the wooden table soundly. "So?!" Naruto looked at her in confusion, eyebrows raised due to the noise the snake-mistress just made. "Aaaagh: the council! Come on! SPEAK!" Kurenai scolded her and Anko rolled her eyes. "Then we'll talk men, Naru-chan."

Do what?! She looked from one woman munching and then to the other and sighed. Aaaah, what the hell… Naruto began to tell them all about the council trying to force her to wed the last Uchiha in the village - pretty much admitting everything aside from marrying Kakashi - and how Sasuke had attacked her after meeting as teammates. If that now-verified information didn't piss them both off enough, the idea of whoring her out to make Uzumaki babies to random men certainly did! Naruto had only seen dango sticks fly fast enough to embed themselves in a wall once, and she couldn't remember where: it was definitely in her past life, though. As the two women ranted about what they would do to the Uchiha's and various council members' balls, Naru could only smile. She noticed a sadly-resigned worker pull the dango wooden sticks out of his stall's walls as if it were a common occurrence. Naruto added one more stick to the walls' intricate patterns of tiny holes and was patted on the back by Kurenai.

The women quietly discussed creating a kunoichi army to take over the village, and Naruto could only hope they were joking. Or not, she thought traitorously. She didn't really mean it, although she was frankly a bit sick of JiJi taking it up the butt from Danzo and the civilians so often. Topics turned to the fun Anko was having at T&I doing nearly unthinkable things, Naruto's pranks, as well as harassing Kurenai to admit her relationship with Asuma, which she wouldn't.

Regarding men? Kami, did I really need to learn that Kakashi's a "lazy fuck," whatever that means? She shook her head and grimaced at the word "lazy." She usually associated that trait with the Naras, and dear gods: she never EVER wanted to think of them that way. As if that wasn't bad enough, Naru choked when Anko said that her taicho - who they didn't know was also her husband - was "hung like a horse." As if I wasn't nervous enough; although it is… interesting. Unknowingly her lips twisted up in a grin, which both women pointed out made her look perverted, as they hounded her about "boys." At least what they said about Kakashi didn't come from anything either Kurenai or Anko had seen or experienced themselves, thank you very much. And no, she really didn't need to know any of THAT about Iruka-sensei, no matter how adamant and earnest Anko was being.

Leaving the restaurant, Naruto informed her new (hopefully) friends that they were being followed, as they walked her toward the Nara compound. After their talk, both women were almost eager to kick ass - warming Naruto's heart. She actually got hugs goodbye from each of them and began to step into the forest when she noticed another muted presence.

"Sai? What are you doing here?"