A/N: The results are in. Our winner is... Minato, with 16 votes! I have to remind you all that this will be a slow burn- a lot of plot needs to happen, and this will be a pretty sizable fic, but I hope you'll bear with me as we go. Also, this chapter is a bit on the longer side. It is my in-advance apology because I will be inactive with this story until at least April 15th. The reason for this is a long, arduous research project that is due that day and that I have not started writing the essays for. So I hope this makes up for it slightly.

Thanks to everyone for voting, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 11

"Charlie. I've got it."

The words came suddenly. The drop in volume spoke of the necessity to keep quiet, and yet the meaning being those three words would've impacted her just as much had he screamed them from the top of the Hokage Monument.

She had been watching a rerun of Rugrats when he'd said it. His voice saying her name always caught her attention, drew her forth as if she was surfacing from underwater, but this time, this time it felt like she'd been falling from the sky, and he'd snatched her to safety with a hero's smile. This time, she could feel all of his emotions at once, a current of relief and satisfaction and determination and a tiny, infinitesimal amount of nervousness.

Charlie closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she was in that yellow space again rather than her mental labyrinth. He stood there, grinning cheesily, and held up an incredibly detailed looking seal on parchment paper for her to see. She couldn't discern much meaning from it- she had all but removed herself from his company when he worked on the seal, too afraid to distract him- but his expression told her everything she needed to know.

Incredibly, the first thing she asked him was, "How'd you get in here?" rather than "Holy shit, how'd you do it?" Though the second part flowed instantly after the first. The third part was her squeezing the absolute life out of him, right around the middle. He looked like himself, rather than like her, which was much less creepy in her opinion. The same blue top and pants, green flak vest and Hokage haori. His hair was just as long and untamable as ever, and he had the same sunshine smile he always wore.

She looked like herself too, thankfully. In her mind, she looked exactly the way she was supposed to. Almost an adult, as it was two days before Naruto's birthday which meant it was five days until hers. She was still wearing her jeans, her Converse, her floral blouse. Her hair was even in the same long braid it had been before, and hopefully, the chubby cheeks had vanished, too.

The fourth part was him hugging her back with unusual exuberance, most likely due to finding the answer to at least one of their problems. "I closed my eyes, thought of talking to you, and did," he said. "And as for how I did it, I just used the Four Symbols seal rather than trying to fix the Eight Trigrams seal to weaken it."

Charlie glanced up at him, hoping the blank look on her face would convey that none of that made any sense to her. She noted belatedly that his face was a bit too close to hers, and that they'd probably been clinging to each other for a bit too long. She hopped back a bit. Apparently, she'd been deprived of human contact for far, far too long.

If he noticed the flush rising to her cheeks, he didn't mention it. "Ah, the Four Symbols seal is like the Eight Trigrams, except... half. The Eight Trigrams is made by layering one Four Symbols seal on top of another, and is used to hold strong malevolent beings or things- like a Tailed Beast. This seal is half as strong. It's still meant for evil energy, but... if all goes well, hopefully it will be strong enough to tether me while still allowing me to communicate with you."

Charlie breathed out a sigh of relief. One of her greatest worries was not being able to talk to him, as clingy and childish as that was. He was the only thing keeping her stable right now, and she didn't know what she would do if something were to happen to that. Wait... "So you scrapped the whole modifying-the-Eight-Trigrams seal thing?"

He gave a sheepish smile. "Ah, well, I eventually figured out that it would still be too strong for our purposes. Plus, this is easier to amend later, and less dangerous to work with."

The redhead felt her shoulders sag as the relief finally hit her. She felt her lower lip jut out, and had the embarrassing feeling that she was about to cry, again. "Thank you," she said, in not much more than a whisper.

All he did was smile, and pull her into a hug again. She wondered if he wasn't feeling a bit emotional, too.

"Minato... are you... is this okay?" she mumbled quietly into the fabric at his collar. "You said earlier that you didn't mind, but..."

"I feel a lot worse being out than I do being in, Charlie." He pushed her back to stare her in the eye seriously. His hands squeezed her shoulders meaningfully. "You have given so much to me. I've finally been able to talk to my son, I've been able to do things for my village, for you. So allow me this, okay?"

Hesitantly, she nodded, and watched that infectious smile spread across his face again.

They stood in the Hokage's office, as they had many times before.

Minato had gone to the Hokage first in the morning, skipping Kuboyashi's morning lecture with relish (it did get tedious, after a while, to relearn everything). Sarutobi had been incredibly relieved that Minato had managed to work out a seal, as he had felt like banging his head against the wall for weeks. It was the hardier cousin of the Four Symbol seal, only responsive to certain chakra signatures and only weak enough to allow Minato to communicate with Charlie- not overtake her.

She had been worrying away the entire walk there, however. What if it went wrong somehow? What if she couldn't talk to him anymore? What if it didn't work? All he did, though, was tell her to have a little faith. He wasn't hailed as a prodigy for nothing, after all.

So there they stood, the Fourth, the Third, and Yamanaka Inoichi, who was bleary eyed as it was only six in the morning.

"This is going to be a very delicate procedure," Inoichi started finally, after they all were caught up on what was about to happen. "The seal will be on her brain rather than her skin, so it may be painful, and it'll be a bit delicate afterwards. I recommend not pushing your boundaries or trying to talk to her much once she wakes up. There's also the matter of your chakra..." He trailed off, staring at Minato seriously.

"She didn't have my specific signature beforehand, so no one should be able to sense me after this. I've purposely left the seal a bit weak, just to allow not only communication, but... when the time comes, I hope I'll be able to lend my chakra to her," Minato explained.

To be honest, his primary hope was that she would naturally be able to make use of his chakra. Technically, the Four Symbols seal would allow that. If that wasn't the case, though, he had a backup plan.

He had done a bit of research on chakra systems, and though obviously no one had been in this situation before, there had been people who weren't able to 'unlock' their chakra. They were able to access their chakra after a medical procedure involving opening the chakra passageways and removing blockages. He hoped that by doing a similar procedure on Charlie, it would yield similar results.

Hope. It all lead to that. Hope and faith. Minato was the calculating type- he hated risky moves like this, and he hated relying on fate. But it was all he had now. It had to work, or at least lend itself to a solution.

Inoichi led him to the Hokage's desk chair, and he sat primly, ignoring the coiling nerves in his stomach. Sarutobi seemed to understand the slight widening of his eyes, however, and gave him a grandfatherly smile. "Are you ready, Minato-kun?"

Minato gave a short nod and relaxed as much as he could. With one last assessing look, the Hokage grabbed his outline of the seal in one hand and Inoichi's upper arm in the other.

"Then let's begin," Inoichi said. His cool fingers found Minato's temples.

As the spell of the Yamanaka's jutsu cast over him, Minato felt his eyes close.

"It's strange to be here again," Inoichi noted. The stood in front of Charlie's brain for the second time, adjusting minutely to the strange situation. "Usually, I see a brain only once."

The meaning behind that, of course, was a bit dark. Then again, enemies of the Hidden Leaf didn't really get much leniency.

Sarutobi took a deep breath as he drew closer to the brain, the odd synapses of electricity setting his hair on end. "Let's do this quickly," he suggested. One dark eye glanced to his companion over his shoulder. "Be ready to pull out at the first sign of trouble."

Inoichi nodded curtly.

His Hokage gingerly placed the seal Minato had created directly onto the fleshy brain. With one steady hand, he pressed his palm to the script. "Fuuinjutsu: Shishou Fuuin!"

The black ink of the tetragram flooded the pink flesh below it, and Inoichi grabbed the Hokage's elbow on instinct as the space around them started to shake. The immense power of the seal blew the blond man's hair back. "Let's get out of here," he shouted, and dragged the both of them out of the jutsu.

Sarutobi shuddered automatically as he came to in the office. Inoichi rolled his shoulders, exhaling a sharp breath. Before them, the little redheaded girl's head lolled to her front, and her entire body had relaxed nearly off the seat. Inoichi felt for a pulse, and sighed as he found it. "All right. With any luck, she'll be back once she comes to."

"How long?" Sarutobi asked, leaning against his desk. Inoichi's jutsus always made him feel terrible, as if he'd just been thrown around by a Tailed Beast*.

"I'd give her longer to wake up than she took last time. Probably at least a day, Hokage-sama."

"Do you know where her apartment is?" Sarutobi inquired. If she was going to be out until the following morning, the chair wasn't going to cut it. Besides, he needed to sit down after that- that seal had taken more chakra than he cared to admit.

At the blond man's nod, he sighed in relief. "Please take her there. Her key should be in her pocket."

With a bow and a, "Hokage-sama," Inoichi disappeared.

Sarutobi collapsed into his desk chair with relish. "These damn kids and their jutsus and their body snatching," he grumbled, feeling his stomach turn sickly.

Naruto was... concerned.

Charlie had neglected to tell him that she wasn't going to school. In fact, she wasn't even home by the time he left, and that was just weird. Where did she have to go so fast that early in the morning? Was she sick?

Begrudgingly, he walked to school alone. Hands shoved in his pockets, he resigned himself to another day of Kuboyashi's torture alone. The other Academy kids acted like they didn't see him as they formed a pack on the way, and he rolled his eyes. Charlie seemed to be their main focus, it appeared.

He wouldn't pretend that it didn't hurt him that so many people avoided him like the plague (or worse, threatened or spit at him). Perhaps if he'd done something wrong, he would've been more sympathetic towards their feelings- but he hadn't. Not that he could remember. And they had hated him all of his life.

Even that horrid wench of a matron, back when he was still in the orphanage. She had a bad temper, and often kicked him out on the streets for the night (even when he hadn't done anything wrong, mind you). The first time she'd done it, he had been four years old, barely able to form a cohesive sentence let alone survive a frigid night alone.

Still, he'd made it this far. And he had friends, they were just few and far between. Like Charlie said, he had people he could fall back on.

And yet, sitting in the classroom alone felt pretty desolate.

He watched with bored eyes as the rest of his class filtered in, and then Kuboyashi. It was Monday now, and new ranks had finally been posted on the board. Naruto was pleased to see his name in 4th place, though his classmates disagreed.

They stalled in confusion in front of it, wondering why their rank had gone down and why his had shot up, before making their way to their seats with ugly expressions on their face. Oh, he couldn't wait to hear this.

Kuboyashi began the morning the way he usually did- good morning, the schedule for today is, any questions, okay we'll get started.

Except he didn't get to the 'let's get started' part, because stupid Akiko shot her hand up and without pause said, "Ano, sensei, how come my grade dropped?"

Valid question. She had only gotten 13th, after all. If he was her, he would be concerned too.

"Because we had to recount the scores. The scores you see on this board are accurate," Kuboyashi said. The blond was pretty happy that he didn't mention Naruto by name- probably because he was afraid of what would happen if he did.

He made a mental note to thank Charlie again. She always seemed to know what to do.

To his displeasure, however, Akimichi Kazuo, with one hand in his chip bag, busted out, "How come Naruto got up to 4th place?"

A wave of 'oh shit' came over the boy as every eye in the class turned to him. If Charlie was here, she'd know what to say- she'd both tactfully explain his ranking, while at the same time not accusing the teachers of being jerks. But Naruto, he couldn't come up with anything.

He was just... himself. He wasn't super awesome, like Charlie, and he wasn't super smart, like Charlie, and even if he dealt with criticism all his life, it never came easy to him.

So all he did was shrug and say, "I got the wrong score last time."

Which started a flurry of accusations, groans of discontent, and shouting. Naruto dutifully tuned it all out, picking at his ear with his pinkie as he did so. It was hardly his fault that they didn't study or practice enough. Yeah, if Charlie hadn't been here, he would definitely still be dead last- but she trained him, and she fought for him, and so he had assumed his actual rank.

Naruto wouldn't feel bad about that.

By the time the class broke for lunch, the blond had all but fallen asleep at least six times. The glares his peers gave him bounced off his iron skin, and he laced his fingers behind his head to be a picture of nonchalance as he made his way to the tree. Charlie hadn't packed him a lunch, so all he had to eat was a couple of bananas he'd grabbed on his way out the door, but at least it was something.

Old times.

It felt odd to be sitting here alone now, and he didn't like it. He and Charlie had been the dynamic duo for more than two months by this point. 'She has some explaining to do when she comes back,' he thought grouchily.

Something pricked at the corners of his mind, and he glanced up. The trio of girls that Charlie... tolerated, were on their way to him. Their faces were tight with anger, lips pressed together, and yet they did their level best to give him fake smiles. He had become adept at recognizing negative expressions. "Hey, Naruto," Akiko said, in a forced casual tone. She had changed her outfit that day- she now wore a qi and knee high boots. The more disturbing part of her new get-up was her hair, which she had curled to oblivion and then pinned to the top of her head.

He didn't know what kind of style that was meant to be, but whatever she was going for had fallen flat.

"Hi?" he replied, peeling his second banana.

"Where's Charlie-chan?" she asked, and her face wavered with her disgust as he jammed half of the banana down his throat. He did this for two reasons- 1) he had the feeling he would be needing to run soon, and 2) to see the look on her face when he did.

Naruto shrugged. "Couldn't tell ya, -ttebayo." 'Probably hiding from you and beehive hair,' he added mentally.

Chiyoko sighed over the girl's shoulder. "I told you, Akiko-chan, I bet she's skipping 'cause today's the first day of kunoichi classes."

Akiko's lips quirked up into a humorless smile. "Oh, yeah. She's much too masculine for those. I mean, did you see her arms? Why does she need to be so... buffed out?" Her giggle sounded false.

Naruto cringed. She was trying to take digs at his friend, and he should've felt angry on her behalf... but Charlie would've just laughed in her face. Hell, he felt like laughing in her face. The girl was grasping at straws.

"It's kind of ugly," Mayu stage whispered. Her black, beady-looking eyes kept darting to him, waiting for him to set off.

Akiko grinned at her. "Well, at least she knows her place," she emphasized maliciously, and stared down at Naruto to see his reaction.

Naruto finished his banana and tossed it over his shoulder into the bushes beyond the trees. It was kind of annoying that they chose to dig at Charlie instead of him, though they were clearly pissed at him. Were they trying to get a rise out of him?

He wouldn't give them one. Charlie had looked cool as hell standing up to Kuboyashi like that, stone cold and unaffected.

So he decided to try that instead.

"It's pretty sad that you have to go after people like that. I hope you feel better now," he said, an unbidden shit-eating grin splitting his face. He couldn't say it didn't give him some satisfaction to watch them all gape at him in shock.

Akiko's face dropped into a scowl, and her hands clenched into fists. "Naruto," she growled, before stalking forward towards him.

"Bye," he shouted, and split.

He decided he really didn't want to go back to class, and so he ran home instead. It was about 1 now, and he hoped that Charlie would finally be home so that he could hound her about where she'd been and why she'd left him to the dogs.

Naruto rang her doorbell about sixty times before he realized that she was either still not home, or in a dead sleep. Figuring the former, as Charlie didn't seem the type to sleep heavily, he sighed and retreated into his apartment.

What a boring day it was turning out to be. Maybe he could go get ramen later.

When she awoke, it was to the sound of loud banging on her door.

Her whole body froze as she realized she was now back in control of her own body. She could feel her hands, her feet, the blankets under her back and the pillow under her head. She could blink her eyes, wiggle all fingers and toes, and as she lurched up, she could feel queasy, and dizzy, and tired.

Charlie's eyes were wide as saucers as she gripped her forehead in her hands, taking quick, shallow breaths. 'Fuck,' she thought, 'I'm... back?'

Panic gripped her heart momentarily. '...Minato?'

She sagged in relief as his voice came through her mind, clear as always. "I'm here, Charlie," he replied, amused. While she was grateful to hear from him, those three words sounded louder than an alarm, and she gripped her head in her hands.

'Shit, did you yell or something?' she asked. He didn't reply. 'Oh, the old man said to not talk to me for a while. I forgot, sorry.' He just hummed in reply, and even that was painful enough that she winced.

Her brain felt like someone had squeezed it tight, and she could only move gingerly, gingerly as she stood up. A headache of massive proportions was building behind her eyes, and that incessant knocking wasn't helping.

As quickly as she dared, Charlie marched her way to the front door and threw it open, ready to give hell to whoever had woken her up, when she froze up. It was just Naruto, and he was pouting like a kicked puppy.

"Do you... wanna go to school?" he asked awkwardly, shuffling on his feet as he avoided eye contact.

Regret pooled in her stomach. She'd probably accidentally given him a nasty glare.

"Ah, sorry, Naru-chan, come in," she said, sounding as exhausted as she felt.

He perked up a little and followed her inside. "How come you weren't at school yesterday?" he asked, blinking innocently up at her. "And Kakashi-sensei was wondering where you went, too," he added. The redhead grimaced- she had missed their meeting with the oh-so-perceptive jounin, and he was probably squinting shrewdly at her from afar at this very moment.

"Just wasn't feeling too well. I was at the hospital," she lied, and felt her way to the kitchen to look for some aspirin. It was weird to look at things, and be able to move, and say whatever came to her mind. It was weird now.

"Are you okay now?" Naruto asked, sitting at her table and watching her stumble around.

"Just a really bad headache," she said, and grinned at him. "Ne, what day is it?"

Naruto had to think about it. "Uhhh... October 10th?" he finally answered.

"That long, huh?" she murmured to herself.

She finally found the aspirin, and downed about four tablets with a glass of water. Her eyes stared unseeingly down at the tile countertop as her thoughts spiraled around her. She swallowed and set the cup in the sink, gripping the edge of the counter with thin fingers to steady herself.

Then, she padded with socked feet to her friend, knelt down, and grabbed him into her arms.

The blond stiffened a bit before relaxing in her hold. His arms slowly wrapped around her to hug her back, and his chin dug into her shoulder as she pulled him closer.

Charlie cleared her throat of any wobbliness or tears as she said, "Happy birthday, Naruto."

She could feel the large smile form on his face. "Thanks," he said simply.

Charlie pulled back, mirroring his expression. "Yeah." Her hazel eyes- now really, truly hazel- fell on the clock over Naruto's shoulder, and she gaped. "Shi- I mean, crap! We're late!"

Her fingers clenched into the collar of his jacket as she pulled him in her wake, only pausing at the door to throw her shoes on before rushing out. They had five minutes to get to class.

"Naruto," she said, glancing over her shoulder as they marched down the stairs. A challenging smirk quirked her lips. "I'll race you."

The blond got a determined glint in his eye as he said, "You'll lose!"

The moment they reached the ground, they set off, dirt kicking up in their wake as they streamlined towards the Academy. They rushed past pedestrian and student alike, and if anyone had time to yell at them to slow down, they were already too far gone to hear it. Charlie picked up the pace to make it neck-and-neck, thighs already burning with the sudden exertion.

"How's-my-dust-taste?" she got out between breaths, leaping over a child standing in the middle of the road. Belatedly, she heard him cry out.

"I-wouldn't-know, slowpoke," Naruto replied, equally as breathless.

Akiko, Chiyoko, and Maru were nearly bowled over as the duo blew past them, and Charlie chuckled as she heard Akiko's protests over her shoulder.

Finally, they both made it to the classroom seven minutes early, and gripped their knees as they tried to catch their breath. "I-won," Charlie sputtered victoriously.

"No, look!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing at their feet. His right foot was a few centimeters ahead of hers.

The redhead rolled her eyes. "I still got here first, dummy," she retorted, letting out a hoarse laugh.

Naruto pouted childishly. "Whatever," he mumbled, but grabbed her wrist anyway as they headed to their table.

Charlie raised one prim eyebrow as she felt multiple pairs of eyes on the both of them. "Uh, Naru-chan, why is everyone staring at us?"

He shrugged casually. "They're mad 'cause their ranking dropped," he said, nodding towards the updated ranking list.

Oh yeah, that. She had almost forgot that. Geez, she hoped Minato hadn't scared Kuboyashi off too badly. She knew he could be a bit scary when he wanted to, even in the form of an 11-year-old kid.

She gave a stern glare to the people mean mugging them, and watched with a bit of malicious satisfaction as they turned back round in their seats.

The trio of girls flocked in not soon after Naruto and Charlie had sat down, and while two of them found their seats with little trouble, Akiko took a detour to their table. Out of the corner of her eye, Charlie noticed Naruto stiffen. Something must've happened yesterday while she was out, she surmised.

Akiko had an annoying smile on her face. "Hey, Charlie-chan, feeling better?" A lesser being would've thought her expression and tone of voice was genuine, but Charlie was a little above assuming good things about people.

Naruto kicked her ankle under the table, and she grit her teeth. "I'm doing great, thanks for asking, Akiko-chan," Charlie replied evenly.

Her pale blue eyes drifted towards the blond beside her, and a Cheshire smile grew on her lips. Charlie's eyebrow twitched automatically- the kid looked like the Grinch for a second there. "Hello, Naruto-kun," she said in a teasing tone.

Naruto rolled his eyes moodily, further concreting the idea that something had happened the day before. He never really showed much interest in Akiko before. "Wouldn't think you'd show your face to us again after all that crap you said yesterday," he replied bluntly.

Charlie glanced at him casually. "Oh? Drama?" She turned back to Akiko, who was squinting at Naruto as though daring him to open his mouth again. "Are you harrassing my friend, now, Akiko-chan?"

The girl shook her head quickly. "No, not at all. I just wanted to see how you were doing, we were all super worried about you yesterday."

Naruto kicked her ankle again, which was starting to get really annoying because she got the message, damn it. Charlie gave the girl a bright smile anyway. "Thanks for worrying about me, but I'm fine now."

"Are you going to come to kunoichi class now?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder as Chiyoko and Mayu giggled. An inside joke, it seemed.

"I don't know about that, but..." Charlie replied, and gave a nod towards the front of the class, where Kuboyashi was now tapping his foot impatiently. "You should probably go back to your seat."

To her credit, Akiko flushed and hurried to her seat, mumbling an apology under her breath.

Charlie sighed and stomped on Naruto's foot midway through kicking her again. "Naruto, I swear to God-"

"She was mean yesterday," he revealed in a whisper, taking hesitant glances towards their teacher. "She came up talking about how you're ugly and look too masculine to go to kunoichi class."

"...So?"

He blinked owlishly at her. "What do you mean 'so'?"

Charlie giggled quietly. "Naru-chan, you and I both always knew she was a mean girl. You can't honestly be surprised." His expression told her he was still a bit peeved. "It's like I'm always saying. I learned a long time ago that people's opinions only matter as much as you let them. So I just choose not to care."

Naruto squinted at her, but shrugged and didn't press the matter further.

Kuboyashi pulled her aside once his lecture was done for the morning, and Charlie waved Naruto off as he tried to follow them. It warmed her heart a little that he was so concerned about her, but she was a strong girl most of the time. "Charlie-chan," her sensei said, leading her into what she presumed to be the faculty lounge, "I have these papers for you." He dug through his back and pulled out a stack of what she recognized to be homework.

"... Thanks," she said, accepting them dutifully. She watched him carefully as she folded the papers neatly and stuck them in her kunai pouch. "Was that all?"

"Ah, no. You missed the first kunoichi class you were scheduled to be at." He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Minato had done a good job of scaring the man, but he'd also managed to scare him off. "You'll be attending the kunoichi class twice a week instead of sparring. Your instructor is..." He paled as he read her title off the piece of paper. "... Murakami Kazu. Good luck." He handed the paper to her as though it were poisoned.

Charlie stared flatly at it. Call it sexist, but she really thought this would be a gigantic waste of her time. She wouldn't be doing seduction missions any time soon, and she definitely didn't care to know about proper bouquet arrangement. "I'd rather ki-"

"It's required," he interrupted. His longsuffering expression told her he'd heard it many times before.

A tick mark appeared on the girl's forehead as she grit her teeth, the paper crumpling weakly in her deathgrip. "The sexism in this society is beyond compare."

Kuboyashi just shrugged and swerved around her to leave the room, probably wary of being in the blast zone.

With stomping feet, she left the warmer indoors for the chilly outside. Naruto was rocking casually on the tree swing, but he stalled upon seeing her. He grinned widely and waved to her. "Hey, Charlie, what's the-"

He paled a little at her terse expression, and she took a deep breath before composing herself. "Kunoichi class," she said, by way of explanation.

His sky blue eyes glanced over her form. "Kunoichi... class?"

"Instead of sparring. F-" Fucking kunoichi class.

"Kunoichi class isn't as useless as you may think. We all have our skill sets," Minato piped up.

He really shouldn't have, because 1- it made her headache return, and 2- he was just fanning the fire.

'And my skillset involves my vagina, Mi-na-to?' she growled, feeling her annoyance return with a vengeance.

"N-no! I- I just mean, y-you-" he sputtered in fear. Oh, if he only had a corporal body she could slap.

'Might I remind you that if I use my skill set, you'd have to watch?'

He didn't have anything else to say to that. Smart boy.

Sighing irritably, Charlie plucked at the grass under her fingers. "I guess it could be worse," she allowed eventually, and slumped a little at the happy smile Naruto sent her. She just wanted to squeeze his cheeks sometimes.

"So when are you going to that class?" Naruto asked, eyeing the balled up paper in her hand tentatively.

Charlie unraveledit and glanced down. "Tomorrow. It meets Monday and Wednesday. And..." she squinted at the paper, "...I have to 'dress for success'." She gave Naruto a confused glance. "What does that mean? Dressing up?" She hated doing that. In her old life, she had been made to dress formally on many occasions- violin recitals, meeting with people who could give her an internship, meeting with professors, colleagues. It never got any easier.

The blond rubbed the back of his neck. "Maybe? Do you have anything fancy?"

Her hand began to twitch irritably. "No. It's a waste of time."

"Looks like you'll have to go shopping today, then," Naruto noted cheerily. He had that grin on his face again, but this time it looked like he was enjoying her pain.

She narrowed her eyes at the little brat. "Then I'm going shopping. Bye." She stood, brushing off the seat of her pants. If Kuboyashi was making her take these damn classes, he could deal with her absence for the rest of the day. Besides, she didn't want to bog down Naruto's day by making him go shopping with her. "I'll come by once class lets out, and we can go do whatever you want, okay?"

Naruto pouted childishly, but let her go.

Charlie reveled in the cool air on her face as she walked into the shopping district. It was rather quiet, probably due to the time of day, and that too was a blessing. 'I kind of regret yelling at you,' she noted, stretching her arms behind her head. After all, he had given control back to her. A lesser man might not have done the same.

One thing was for certain. She would never take things like this for granted again. It had been much, much too long since she'd felt the ground beneath her feet and the wind in her hair. Even if she had about a billion other things she had to worry about, for the moment, she just wanted to enjoy the simplicity of living.

"It's fine, I provoked you," he replied evenly. "Are you shopping for a dress?"

The redhead grimaced. She didn't even know where to look for something like that. All the shop names were ambiguous things like 'The Kunai's Edge' and 'Risa's Place'. 'Is that what I should wear?' One couldn't blame her for being confused- she wouldn't know what to wear in her old life either.

He laughed at her. "I would assume so. Why don't you check the store we went to the first time?" Ah, yes. The first store she'd ever been to on her own. Maybe Haruna could help her once more.

Charlie followed her mental map towards the boutique (which was thankfully demarked as 'Boutique'). She hoped desperately that Haruna was working, or another equally as nice colleague. Her hands found the pockets of her tunic as she glanced around casually.

Though it was basically the village center, it was rather peaceful, people quietly milling about or trying to haggle the merchants that lined the streets. They sold anything from squash to jewelry to freshly baked pies that filled the air with the scent of cinnamon and sugar. A few kids were being a bit rowdy behind their mother, who was staunchly ignoring them, but beyond that, it was... quiet. No car horns, people talking on the phone, vendors yelling at her from the sidewalk.

A nice change of pace. A small smile lifted her lips. She wondered what road she had taken that had pulled her to here, to this moment. Even though it had been her reality for more than two months, it still didn't feel real to her. Though she didn't wake up expecting to be in her own bed at home anymore, it was still strange to see the green and blue-clad shinobi walking around, to feel the dirt ground underfoot where there used to be pavement.

"Listen to me," Minato said abruptly. Her feet stuttered a bit as she walked, but she resumed her pace without incident. "Don't act suspiciously, but I sense someone following us. Can you feel it?"

No. No, she couldn't. Sweat beaded on the back of her neck anyway.

"It's not the same chakra that was following us the other day. I think we have a new tail. They..." he trailed off in his confusion. "they don't seem very strong, though."

They didn't need to be strong to beat her up, though she didn't bother mentioning it. She could feel the new power in her legs, her arms- Minato hadn't been screwing around in the time he'd held the reigns- but she was still weaker than pretty much anyone with a hitai-ate.

Sighing, she rolled her shoulders and paused before the doors of her destination. 'Let's see if they follow me in,' she thought, passing into the building.

To her pleasant surprise, Haruna was working, and she gave her a knowing grin as she came round the counter. "Hi!" she greeted.

"Hey. I, uh..." Charlie flushed in embarrassment, "I need a formal dress. Do you carry them here?"

The blonde raised her eyebrows, but nodded. "We do. Come with me," she said, takingher hand suddenly and leading her to the back of the store.

"They came into the store," Minato noted, sounding surprised. It surprised her, too- this store was specifically geared towards women, so unless her stalker was female, surely he would remain outside to not be noticed?

Haruna led her to a rack of formalwear. They were all floral, all kimonos, and all at least a thousand ryou. She balked, recalling the meager sum of money she had left over after Minato's latest shopping spree. "Anything cheaper?"

"Hmmm, well, we do have a few qi pao that can work. Here." Haruna grabbed her hand again and led her a few racks down. They were a bit more manageable, about 500 or less. "You look pretty good in red, sooooo-" she broke off, and all but disappeared between the fabrics as she searched. "Oh, here. Look." She proffered the dress up for inspection. It was... admittedly, a bit risque, with a slit at the thigh up to the hip, and it looked like it would be a bit form-fitting.

"I don't k-"

Haruna boldly rolled her eyes as she shoved the dress at the girl and pushed her towards the dressing room. "Go on," she called.

Charlie made a face as she glanced down at the dress in her hands. It really wasn't appropriate, but if she wore some spandex shorts underneath maybe?

She put it on with little relish in the little dressing room, pausing for only a moment to check it out in the full-length mirror. As she suspected, it was near skin-tight, showing off the curves that she didn't have and way too much leg. She flushed. "Um, Haruna-san, this isn't going to work."

Haruna poked her head in, and made a face. "Not curvy enough. Try this one." She threw another dress at her, this one a deep burgundy. It had the same style, though it was thankfully longer and had a floral detail near the collar.

Alas, too baggy. "It's too big," Charlie pouted as she exited the room. Haruna tapped her chin thoughtfully.

"Okay. How abooooout..." She searched through the dresses again. "This one." It was green this time, and had a high collar with a center slit running a bit deep. Still, it looked like it could fit her, so she grabbed it anyway.

This time, she was relieved to see that she neither looked like she wore a potato sack, nor like she was a boy dressed like a girl. It still demonstrated how not curvy she was, but at least it had some extra padding in the chest area. And the slit didn't go near as high on her thigh. "This works," she said exiting the dressing room once again.

Amber eyes widened as she met the furious gaze of Akiko. 'She's my stalker?' Charlie thought, and found herself slumping a little in relief. An angry Academy kid, she could deal with.

"Be on your guard. I have a feeling this will end badly."

Charlie took a deep breath. "Oh, hey, Akiko-chan. What's wrong?" Something must've pissed her off bad for her to leave school. She definitely hadn't looked that angry this morning.

The girl flipped her dark hair over her shoulder. Her face was icy as she said, "I heard you were the one who got my ranking docked."

... That's all it was? Really? She could laugh, but instead, she deadpanned. "It was the right thing to do."

Akiko looked like she was about to murder her, and as Charlie's eyes followed her twitching hand as it made its way towards her kunai pouch, she thought that she just might want to. "You don't seem to understand, Charlie-chan. So I'll help you."

Her pale, thin fingers retrieved a single kunai, and she pointed it at her threateningly. "I'll make sure you won't make the same mistake twice."

KyraKuran: It is a concern of mine as well. Obviously not going to be incorporating any sort of relations between Minato and Charlie while she is physically so young because that's just creepy. And wrong. But don't worry too much, I've got a few tricks up my sleeve ;) Thanks for your review!

orlha: Yes! I hope you will still put up with this fic even if it's MinatoxOC ^^' I will try not to make it too complicated lol! Thanks for your review!

zukushimika: He won! Yeah, I didn't want to bother to learn how to put a poll on my profile so I just did it here . Anyway, thanks for your review, I hope you enjoy this fic!