Another Shade of Blue
The boy was from a foreign village, had just threatened to kill his own siblings, and didn't even look at her twice, but there was something screaming inside Naruto Uzumaki to not let him walk away. "W-wait," she called out, catching an indifferent teal gaze, "Who are you?" fem!Naruto, GaaNaru
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Kurama had been distracting her all week.
This wasn't a new experience for Naruto. She had been friends of a sort with her Bijuu, ever since a near-death experience in her childhood. Of a sort, because the Kyuubi was a centuries-old manifestation of power and Naruto was the orphaned, loudmouth preteen jailing him, and this dichotomy did not lend itself to friendship. However, the grumpy fox didn't have any other conversational partners, and would often mentally converse with the child. The Uzumaki found herself quickly developing the skill of keeping track of multiple conversations, once he began.
She didn't mind, really. It was far better than being alone.
'I'm telling you, brat, there's something dangerous approaching us!' the Kyuubi's deep voice insisted.
'I live in a ninja village, Kyu. There's always something dangerous around me,' Naruto replied, exasperated. 'Unless you're talking about the Konohamaru Corps or Sakura, I can't sense any other immediate threats.'
'There are three syllables in my title, and in my name, brat. Stop shortening them!'
'Only if you stop calling me brat,' was her repeated counteroffer. There was a mental scoff, before Kurama receded back into the depths of her mind. Knowing that he would be sulking for the remainder of the day, Naruto returned her attention to the spectacle in front of her.
'He really shouldn't have said that,' the Uzumaki sympathetically winced, as Sakura's fist crashed down on Konohamaru's head. There was a time when Naruto had been the one receiving Sakura's personal interpretation of justice. Kurama had rather quickly shut that down, by shocking her every time Naruto refused to dodge. The demon had advocated hitting the Haruno back, but the Uzumaki was leery of hurting her own teammates.
'Even if they're occasionally worse than my actual enemies,' Naruto mentally winced at the reminder of Haku's gentle smile. 'I should intervene now, before Kono-chan's ANBU Guard needs to.'
"Sakura, I'm sure that Konohamaru didn't mean it," the blonde said, in her most soothing voice, "He's just a kid. Let's leave him to play with his friends."
"I did so mean it!" Despite the visible bruise on his forehead, her unofficial little brother was still glaring at the pinkette. "You're a mean and ugly girl, with a big forehead! Nee-chan is way prettier than you are! Her hair isn't a weird pink colour, and she's not flat-chested, like you, either!"
'He just had to bring that up,' Naruto sighed, slumping forward, so her chest wouldn't be so visible. She wasn't as developed as Hinata, but the Uzumaki hadn't dieted like her other female classmates, and was a little further in puberty as a result. Couple that with her accidental kiss with the temeā¦
"Konohamaru, run," the blonde warned, seeing the fires of revenge light Sakura's jade green eyes. This time, the Sandaime's grandson had the common sense to listen, as he high-tailed it down the street, Sakura at his heels. Naruto briefly paused to smile reassuringly at Moegi and ruffle Udon's hair- they were cute kids, and she found the goggles flattering- before chasing after them.
'Konohamaru needs to learn basic diplomacy, or at least some discretion,' Naruto mused, 'I'll let Sakura have one hit, before I stop her.'
The Uzumaki's ocean blue eyes widened when she turned the corner, and saw the scene before her. Konohamaru's feet were kicking helplessly in the air, as a teenage boy wearing a black catsuit outfit and purple paint, held him up by his shirt. Next to him, was a pretty older girl with dusky blonde hair pulled into four pony-tails and a Sunagakure headband. Sakura was hovering anxiously in front of them, pleading for them to allow Konohamaru down.
"Not a chance. The kid has to pay for running into me first," the oddly dressed boy scoffed, before he caught sight of Naruto. "On second thought, I might agree to let him go, if I can get a date out of it."
Sakura blushed a furious red. "I'm never going to betray my Sasuke-kun!" she loyally exclaimed.
"Huh? No, not you. You're too flat-chested," the boy dismissed, making the pinkette bristle, "I was talking about the cute blonde over there. What do you say, Leaf Nin? Will one date equal letting this brat down?"
Konohamaru stopped struggling long enough to gape down at his captor. "What? No way are you getting a date with my sister, you make-up wearing creep! Nee-chan, don't give in to him! I'll sacrifice myself for you!"
Naruto sweatdropped. "That's nice of you, Kono-chan, but not necessary," she addressed the boy next, "Please set Kono-chan down, Suna Nin. There's an ANBU protective detail around us, right now, and they will not take kindly to the Sandaime's grandson being threatened in his own village."
She paused, allowing the foreigners to pale, before adding. "Even by the Kazekage's children."
The Uzumaki had established the identities of both parties involved in the confrontation, while keeping her own secret. She had offered a warning to the other teens, but worded it in the terms of a suggestion. She had implied that she was related to the Sandaime, but Konohamaru had been the one to explicitly claim her as a sister. They were inside of Konoha, and should this move to a physical confrontation, Naruto was pretty sure that the international incident would be blamed on Suna.
The Kazekage's son was hesitating, and Naruto was confident that this issue could be resolved without violence, when a rock came flying out of nowhere. The tiny projectile cracked against the older teen's knuckles, causing him to recoil, and Konohamaru to tumble into the ground. The Academy student quickly scrambled up, and ran to hide behind Naruto. A childish exclamation of worry and a wet sniffling sound suggested that Moegi and Udon had also made an appearance.
"Suna-nin, what are you doing in this village?" Sasuke's coal black eyes glared down at them, from his relaxed perch in the tree. Even as Sakura squealed about how cool he looked, Naruto took one look at the defensive catsuit-wearing teen, and internally cringed.
'Dammit, why couldn't the teme see that this problem was almost resolved?' Naruto whined.
"Nee-chan, why couldn't you do that?" Konohamaru pouted, from where he was clinging to her legs.
Naruto looked down at him, and ignored Sasuke's rude questions about what the foreigners were doing here. "Because violence should never be the first answer, Kono-chan."
"It was way more cool though," the Sarutobi sighed, ears perking up. "Hey, so will your team be joining these exams too?"
The Uzumaki shrugged. "Maybe? We'd be too young for them normally, but the Council would want to squeeze the teme's participation for more revenue, and Kakashi is kind of negligent on safety issues."
The Konohamaru Corps perked up. "We'll be there to cheer you on, nee-chan!"
"You can show them how strong kunoichi are!" A starry-eyed Moegi added.
"I can't wait to see what seals you'll use in battle," Udon said admiringly. "Will you use the flash tag?"
Naruto would have replied to them, but her attention was on the Kazekage's son. He had dropped a heavily bandaged package in front of him, and it was starting to unravel. The Uzumaki quietly palmed a kunai onto her hand. Even if her idiot teammate had been at fault, she wouldn't let him fight a Chuunin-ready puppeteer alone.
Kurama spoke first. 'Brat, the dangerous presence is here!'
Then her ears registered a young, male voice. "Kankuro, stop."
All of the trained genin in the area were stunned, as another figure made himself visible from Sasuke's tree. The Uchiha appeared shocked that he hadn't noticed the redhead's arrival. The boy used a sand-based Shunshin to appear on the ground, and looked disapprovingly at his nervous siblings.
Naruto took his appearance in. He had a slight figure, barely taller than the embarrassingly short Uzumaki, blood-colored hair, and a red-inked tattoo on his forehead. He wore a plain black mesh shirt, a white sash, and carried a sandy coloured gourd on his back. His black-rimmed, teal eyes were a reflection of the isolation and pain that Naruto had experienced in her own childhood.
They were speaking now, but the Uzumaki couldn't hear anything. Her chakra sensing abilities, born from her Uzumaki heritage and strengthened through the Kyuubi's gifts, were going haywire. This boy- this stranger's- chakra was intimately familiar to her, like a long-ago friend that could she not recall or the ghost of a memory that was hovering at the edge of her consciousness. He was a past that she was never part of, a future that she couldn't yet see.
Each Bijuu could gift its tenant with a unique ability. The Kyuubi's Gift of Foresight burned.
'I think he's a jinchuuriki as well,' Kurama's voice echoed in her mind, 'He's from Suna. I can sense Shukaku's madness around him.'
The boy was a jinchuuriki. He was like her; a Kage's child turned into a living weapon. He was powerful and mad, terrifying and dangerous. He had the same eyes that she did, the same burden, the same history, but now, he was walking away from her.
Naruto didn't notice that she had stepped forward, didn't know that Sasuke was about to speak. Instead, her voice rang out, scratchy and uncertain, but so very sure that she couldn't let this boy walk away from her. She didn't even need to feel the Kyuubi's spiritual tug on her mind, to know that this boy would be intimately familiar to her future self.
"W-wait," she called out, catching an indifferent teal gaze, "Who are you?"
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I am NOT abandoning Threads of Fate. So, now that the panic has been averted, what do you think?
