DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Naruto universe but do have an imagination of my own. PLEASE REVIEW! I will take advice and suggestions from my readers while continuing the story. If you have pairings you want to see, let me know in the comments section!

Thinking

Biju, etc. speaking

Biju, etc. thinking

Emphasis

Her polite refusal to go to the Academy hadn't crossed Hiruzen's mind at all! The girl seemed to have a thirst for knowledge, even though she was just beginning to delve into books. It had taken nearly two years for her to learn to read, but she had started incredibly early for a child. She was a persistent little thing, too.

More than a year later -

Shikaku really wanted to nap all day, but it was well past the time to pay a visit to a certain little hellion who was apparently following in her mother's footsteps.

Groaning as he sat up from the couch, he re-read the note his troublesome wife had left him.

"Couldn't get your lazy ass up; took Shika-chan to the market. Meet us at the Yamanaka's by 1600 or consider your life forfeit.
Love and kisses,
Yoshi"

Well, today's the day, then.

Approaching the safe house, he prepared himself. He'd heard that Naruto-hime (she goes by "Ru," he reminded himself based on reports - and what the hell were Minato and Kushina thinking naming their girl "Naruto?" Ramen: that made the most sense to him considering who they were and how they ate, even though the name could also be construed to mean Maelstrom, too,) was a hard worker and loved taijutsu most, interestingly enough. She also had no problems with Academy-level ninjutsu and even some C-ranked wind jutsus - outside of the clone jutsu. She'd already been taught the Shadow Clone jutsu without permission by the extremely eccentric group of ANBU she lived with, some of whom had enlisted in the more sinister side of the forces just to guard her.

Her living situation - thanks to Danzo and the civilian council - was supposed to end when she enrolled in the Academy, and she actually had been given an apartment which she lived in for less than a day. The day in which she'd been enrolled at age 5 in the Academy, which was also the day she'd been expelled, then refused to go back. After a thorough investigation, two Chunin Academy instructors had been taken to T&I where they received a Mind Walk, thorough reprimand, and were demoted to Genin status. They would forever be banned from teaching or even placed in any kind of supervisory roles.

Frankly, Shikaku thought the Sandaime was being too lenient in their punishment.

It was found that the instructors had planned to eventually kill the Demon Container - the innocent child of his deceased friends - but didn't have an actual plan on how to do it: that's the only thing that saved their sorry skins. The senseis had spent the first day of their students' Academy and thus shinobi careers ignoring the heiress until she had spoken up. First, she had asked why the quiz they had handed her didn't match the other students' papers. Being called out for looking at her classmates' quizzes and thus supposedly CHEATING - and give me a break, we're fucking ninjas so of course we cheat! - even before the students were told to begin the examination of the kids' basic knowledge, the girl was later given the test and then received a badly failing grade despite getting every answer on the exam right.

What followed could have been a disaster. Spars didn't normally take place until at least six months in at the Academy, but the geniuses (not) decided to further punish the girl by allowing the young Hyuuga boy, already considered a prodigy, (Hizashi-kun's son, he reminded himself,) to, in theory, pound her into submissiveness. The Hyuuga boy had a bad attitude, and had gone off on little Naruto-hime for supposedly being "a clanless loser, destined to fail," and a slew of other things he didn't want to consider a child of 7 capable of even thinking.

Naruto had pummeled the boy as soon as the match began, making his features look like paste. She'd also broken three of Neji-kun's ribs before she stopped, then promptly spit on the boy's mangled face.

Hiashi had been out for blood until learning exactly who beat the hell out of his nephew - probably remembering that the girl's parents had extremely long memories, not to mention, her mother had been a holy terror at around that age. From what he understood, Hiashi had since had a very long talk with his nephew about respect, honor, and the boy's late father. The kid had supposedly changed for the better, although his rather regal-looking face now sported what was obviously a badly broken but healed nose.

At least he could chew now and didn't need to sip things through a straw anymore! So much like Kushina-chan…

Knocking on the door to the safe house in the special code that was changed daily, he was let in by Shiranui Genma who nearly fell down at the sight of him. "Troublesome." It probably was pretty weird to see the Jonin Commander in his old ANBU uniform, but this was a tricky situation. He wasn't "supposed" to be here at all, but he couldn't further bear either his curiosity or concern over his deceased friends' - not to mention my Hokage's - child. "Why aren't you wearing your mask, Bear?" He could say he definitely enjoyed seeing Genma-kun pale and drop the senbon from his mouth.

"I forgot! Gomen, gomen…"

"Troublesome." Shikaku shook his head at the assassin and walked down the various halls, following the Tokubetsu Jonin to the main room. There he saw Minato's child for the first time in years, standing on a wall, reading a book. Crap. He was prepared for her to be a second-coming of Kushina-chan, but seeing her now… She looked exactly like a young girly-looking Minato with longer hair. Then there's the fact that if she can wall or tree-walk now; I've gotta train Shikamaru harder. "What a drag." Seeing one golden eyebrow shoot up in question as the small girl observed him carefully, he felt like he was looking at his wartime best friend all over again. The little girl hopped off the wall and stood in front of him, staying on alert.

"Deer-san?" she finally asked, her head tilted cutely to the side.

"Hai, hai. And you're Ru-chan, correct?" The girl nodded her head, still observing him - making him feel like every inch of him was being judged and found lacking. Then she nodded and bowed quite politely as she smiled a huge Kushina-chan smile.

"I sure am! I don't think I've seen you around before, Deer-san, but I like your mask! It's really cool! Whatcha doing here anyway? Oi, Genm -er Bear-san, is this guy alright? Ank -er, Snake-san?"

"Real nice, Gaki: getting us in trouble in front of the commander. I swear you are such a brat, and your lying skills suck," Snake then swore a bit. Of course she did. Naruto was apologizing and saying something to try to get them out of trouble for knowing the ANBU's actual identities, but Shikaku just waved his hand around lazily.

"Forget it: 'mnot supposed to be here anyway," the commander slouched into a chair and brought out the Shogi board he was carrying. He ignored Maito Gai's hushed whisper that he was not supposed to be there, either. Gai had a mission to watch over his "rival" while he was in the village, and Shikaku could easily imagine the Green Beast was sick of the silver-haired Jonin's crappy attitude and came here to cheer up a bit. He could understand it: little Naruto was apparently a little radiating ball of sunshine when no one was pissing her off. "Do you know how to play Shogi, gaki?"

"Don't call me a brat! It's 'RU!' Like Cajun or Creole roux, ya know!"

He had no idea what she was talking about but watched from behind his mask in amusement as the chatty girl sank in her seat and huffed in exasperation with him. "AH! It's like an emulsion - made out of flour and fat, but ya use oil instead of butter, and I don't know what else. It's in etouffee and jambalaya and stuff like that, but I don't know how to properly make them or even roux at all, and…"

"Don't worry about it! I tell ya what, Comm -er, Deer-san, the little gaki can cook some weird, wild shit," Snake commented.

"I'm not a brat! And thanks - but I mean, all y'all have really let me cook is spaghetti and pizza, and even then the noodles weren't right. I think they were ramen noodles, right? So it was off." Suddenly Naruto's cheeks bloomed pink. "And I mean - it's not like I'm really good in the kitchen like some people are or anything… Your dangos are divine, Snake-san."

"That's cuz I buy 'em at the little place over on Central. Just you wait, Ru-chan, I'll take you there as soon as your outta the Academy, or maybe on some days after class!"

Shikaku wasn't surprised, based on the reports he'd read, that the girl's face turned into a sneer, although she tried to hide it. Yeah, she hates the Academy and possibly even the villagers: not good…

Damn Hiruzen for being so weak and telling everyone about her housing the demon - and without telling them her heritage! Making a law to not speak of it did nothing good, Shikaku knew. Hell, his own teammate ridiculously blamed and hated little Ru-chan, but he couldn't even knock Chouza's stubborn head out of his stupid beliefs with a stern talking-to because of that damn law! He really didn't want to face execution but had only heard of three to face that charge, no matter what people said about and did to the girl. "You didn't say whether you played or not, Ru-chan. As riveting as this conversation is, I can teach ya how."

"Is it like chess? I know how to play chess, but I'm not like world-class or anything," she scratched at her scalp before twirling her fingers tightly into the waving curls of her long blonde hair.

"Not exactly, but there are some similarities," Shikaku said, glad he was wearing his mask. As he proceeded to explain the rules of the game, he wondered what his troublesome son would say once he saw Ru in class. She was an incredibly pretty little girl - and of course she was. Neither of her parents was bad-looking after all…

"Check out the latest, Nara! Holy shit, look at this pic," a younger Inoichi whooped. Shikaku looked up to see a picture in the Konoha Shinobi Sunrise of Kushina Uzumaki lying in the sun in a purple bikini. His eyes nearly popped out of his head, but not for the same reason Inoichi's were. The Yamanaka was also sporting a heavy nosebleed.

Shikaku felt his best friend's icy aura behind him. "Is the photographer listed?" Minato asked darkly. Inoichi took off running - idiot: as if anyone's faster than Minato.

"Uhh, yeah. Some guy named Sukea - never heard of him. Oh, Minato, there's more…" Shikaku turned the page and began laughing out loud. The facing page was covered by Minato in a speedo - a YELLOW speedo, for fuck's sake!

He never did find out what happened after that - things had been a blur and Minato's brat student was in the hospital for some time following it.

Geez, what am I going to do with Hatake?

"So this move is okay?" The little blonde asked, bringing him back, fully, to the present.

Holy shit! The girl was good at this for a beginner: really good! Although she shouldn't be; her moves made almost no sense. "Let's start over and I'll pay more attention."

"Does that mean I win?!"

"Maybe it does, chibi. Maybe it does. So… what do you want to be when you grow up, Ru-chan?" Shikaku asked as he reset the board. He couldn't help himself…

"Well, I definitely want to get out of that hick town close to us, no offense. People are so mean! But ya know, maybe people there need more counselors or something. Oh, and the hospital people there suck, too, so maybe I could turn things around there somehow. Or - you know - just in general, cause I sure as hell don't want to live in that shitty village," she continued, uncaring that she was feeling her Shogi opponent's emotions stir and jump. Gai, Anko, and Genma would have her back - she was sure of it. Plus, this guy felt and sounded too lazy to hurt her for what she was saying. She also didn't feel any malice coming from behind his mask and uniform.

Shikaku finally cleared his throat, angered not by her words, but by what the villager's hate had done to the girl. His village and country were by no means perfect, but theirs was by far the best shinobi village to live in. He'd spent time in all of the others and knew that to be a fact, but of course, she didn't. "Do you think you could ever forgive 'em?" The question came out of his mouth before he realized it - which was really saying something.

"Well… yeah! I mean, I guess. I just - I just don't know why they would say such mean things all the time. I mean, I'm a child, right?" Shikaku just nodded at her, deeply considering her answer. "People - people shouldn't be mean to children - me or anyone else. I mean, I wish we lived in a world without violence and hate, but that's just wishful thinkin', right? I used to - well, I used to wanna be a politician or I guess it's more like I hoped to be some kind of bureaucrat that could make a difference."

She blushed again and continued a bit more. "I'm not exactly rich enough to do crap like that, though, right?" Her father had told her more than once that she needed to have a lot of money - tens of millions, in fact - to ever seek elected office. Maybe he was jaded, but from what she saw in the elections before her death, he seemed right. Weird that I can remember Obama v. McCain or Romney and Trump v. Hillary but not… Sean? Evan? It was hard to remember who was who, and it really made her both depressed and angry.

Rachel's temper also embarrassed her - and pissed her off. Never, in her previous life, she was pretty sure, had she reacted sometimes the way she did now. So shameful. "What did you say? Sorry, Dear-san. My head wasn't quite in the game," she said mournfully. It had been nice learning a new game, and she'd blown it.

"No worries, there, Ru-chan. I'll be back to play with you again sometime, or I'll find someone to go up against ya that you'd like, ne?" Shikaku paused for a moment as he made one last move on the board. "And what I said was that I have to go before my wife finds and kills me." He wasn't sure whether or not he appreciated little Naruto's laugh at his potentially murderous matrimonial misfortune.

"Thanks for comin' by and for the game, Deer-san!" "Ru" jumped back onto the wall after grabbing her book. She really dug the "sealing" stuff in there: it was awesome.

Rachel smiled to herself. It didn't matter that she was brain-damaged enough to think she could actually walk on walls and ceilings! Sometimes being the way she was rocked!

Shikaku worked his lip behind his old mask.

1. His wife was going to kill or at least hit him super hard for being late.

2. He needed to seriously work on chakra control with his son, and encourage his teammates and friends to do the same with their kids. No sense in allowing Minato's girl to get so far ahead of them, after all. He knew they'd be classmates soon enough.

3. He finally knew what to do with Hatake. Whether the brat liked it or not, he could work with his sensei's daughter on ninjutsu and hopefully come back into the light. How could the kid not, when dealing with such a bright little girl?

He was terribly wrong.