DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything from the Naruto universe.

Thinking (+ flashbacks, etc.)

Emphasis

Bijuu, etc. speaking

Bijuu, etc. thinking

Kurama was worried about his kit, and if he had to admit it - and he never would admit it - he was also a little lonely.

While the yellow-headed Uzumaki was in the tender care of that bastard freak, Orochimaru, he'd been forced to repeatedly hear the cries of the babe that he'd initially hated just as much as her moronic chakra-stealing progenitors and ascendants. Call him weak - and you'd better never - but the haunting despair and fear of a mere kit who was only strong enough to walk were more than he could stand!

He'd first called her to him from the recesses of the sewer that was her mind when her wailing was so loud and desperate he feared that she would stop breathing. And she was giving him a headache! If she were any older, he would've called her an idiot - and he did back then, despite her age - because dying would kill both of them. He had been stunned into initial silence when the wounded kit first saw him and stumbled, running, straight through the bars of his cage and into his fur, grabbing him desperately to calm herself.

What a nightmare that had been, he began to smile to himself. Now, though, her days were full of family and attention, training and trying to improve. He wanted the little terror to advance so that she'd never be held in that filthy snake's clutches again. Having less of her attention was both a blessing and a… drag. He could definitely get more sleep, but she spent less and less time with him every day.

Who would've thought that the great Kurama would be so charmed by and protective of a filthy human? She was still a nightmare, though: her moronic genetics assured that. "But she's my little nightmare," he said to himself.

"Hmm… Speak of the devil and she will appear."

"Hey! That's not very nice! What are you doing, Kurama-nii?"

He gave her a very dry look. What the hell could he do in here? "Hmph. Brat. What are you doing here? Training accident? Another assassination attempt?"

"You would know if you'd been paying any attention," the horrible girl snarked before sighing and sitting down before him. "I was training with Drun- I mean, Tsunade-shishou. I think maybe I passed out?"

"And here you are," Kurama sighed. "Perhaps it would be beneficial to stop training with your canine father-figure or Wood Boy." He simply raised an eyebrow at the brat to keep her silent. "I'm serious about this, Naruto. You are pushing past chibi flesh bag limitations. You remember what happened when you did that before."

Naruto did remember. It had been nice meeting the woman Kurama recently admitted was really her mother, but the redheaded woman had been so crazy and angry that she'd scared Naruto to death. Then she just disappeared! She only remembered the snake boy lying on the ground in a pool of blood afterward. The big snake was laughing when he forced a guy with two heads to carry her away.

She had cried to Kurama for hours, believing that she'd killed someone. Kurama-nii-san said that he deserved it, but Naruto never wanted to hurt anyone, no matter what he said about the filth of humanity. Naruto just wanted to get away from the bad people.

She'd actually been relieved when the snake boy showed up to "spar" with her days later, but that day was when things got even worse.

But then there was the explosion! And then her daddy found her!

"I don't want Daddy to be mad at me for not doing as good as everybody else," Naruto admitted while settling down against the big fox.

"The word is 'well,' not 'good,'" Kurama scolded. He'd been teaching Naruto right from wrong as well as how to be less of a dolt for so long, correcting her didn't disgust and depress him anymore. "And the dog brat won't be angry. The word you're looking for is 'disappointment.' As in, he will be 'disappointed' in you."

"Oh," Naruto said with eventual understanding. "Thanks, nii-san." Kurama watched as the kit eventually went to sleep.

He was such a great parent. "Take that! And, again, screw you, Kushina!"

Naru decided to take her brother's advice, which was easy because her daddy was out on another mission. Bisuke stayed with her this time. He said that he wasn't a puppy, but all of the other ninken said that he was. He was lots of fun and liked to play with her, but was sometimes difficult when she snuck him into class. He liked to attack Akamaru's tail and one day, they made so much noise that Iruka-sensei ordered her to take him home and not bring him back.

She wasn't sure what to do, because she'd promised her daddy to keep his summons with her all of the time, so she went to Drunk Granny. Drunk Granny had a conversation with Iruka-sensei that changed his mind! Now as long as he doesn't see her with a ninken, he won't say anything, even if he knows an additional one is in the classroom.

Poor Iruka-sensei. She wondered what happened to him. His black eye looked like it really hurt.

He didn't like the toad that was now on her head, though. But Gamakichi was super cool! He was really small and told people off, even threatening mean ones plus Sasuke-teme to have his dad come and flatten them. She'd pay to see that - and she did! She'd spent all of her last allowance on candy, but Gamabunta told Kichi that he couldn't help her. It seemed that he was just as hard to deal with as Grandpa Pervert said.

Scolding me for wanting to "devastate the village…" Who the hell does he think he is?!

Almost all of her friends had clan things to do this afternoon, so she was left on her own. Drunk -er, Tsunade-shishou sent her home because she and Shizuneechan had to operate on someone. She stopped by the Children's Ward and let them play with and pet Bisuke while Gamakichi jumped around making the kids laugh before happily skipping home.

"Hashi! Are you here?" she called through the house. Hashi-kun always came home after school. He was about to graduate and Tsunade-shishou had decorated the entry and dining rooms. She said that she was giving her nephew a party whether he liked it or not, but Hashi really did not want it at all. Hashi was shy but very nice. Naruto thought that Tsunade-shishou should just let him do as he wanted.

Later that evening, Naruto crept through the mostly dark house, wondering where Hashi was. He sometimes went to the hospital, but usually only when Drunk Granny or Shizuneechan ordered him to. Her gut clenched as she felt something was very wrong. "I think something's happened to Hashi-kun," Naruto told her two friends.

"Well let's go find him!" Gamikichi nearly cheered. Naru was out of candy and he had been about to go home, but if they could have an adventure? Yeah, he'd stay for that!

Bisuke whined, not liking the situation at all. "Boss would say that you need to stay here."

"But Daddy wouldn't want anything to happen to Hashi-kun!"

Bisuke paced around the kitchen, considering that. It was true that Boss cared about the quiet older kid and had even talked about training him for his squad. The old bitch probably wouldn't want to allow it, but what could she really do? As soon as the kid was an official Genin at the end of the week, he was an adult in the eyes of the village. Seeing that the fox kit he was temporarily in charge of getting ready to leave the house, he decided that she was right. He just wished they'd done this earlier.

The farther Naruto walked from the Senju compound, the more that the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Oro- the Snake had trained her to sense danger and incoming chakra signatures. Chakra, when honed and trained well, reacted to other chakra sources. She was confident that she was being followed and tried to let Bisuke and Ganakichi know it, too. As the hospital came into view, Naru broke into a run, but a shinobi appeared in front of her.

"Uzumaki Naruto, you are to proceed with me to the Hokage."

Naruto examined the guy in front of her. He wasn't alone; no, she could feel at least five chakra signatures from the weirdos around her. His mask was also different from her daddy's. It was blanker, and Naru couldn't even tell what animal it was supposed to represent.

"I sense little to no emotions from this squad of meatheads. I don't believe the one in front of you is acting on the authority of the Old Monkey."

"Yeah, even I can tell that!"

"I'm just going to see him now," Naruto lied with a fake smile while scratching her mask. "I don't need an escar…"

"Escort!"

"Escort, ya know." The man reached for her, moving forward to grab her shoulder, but Naruto quickly dodged him with speed he didn't anticipate. Bisuke was instantly in front of her, growling and baring his teeth, but the bad shinobi kicked him, horrifying Naruto. "Bisuke! No!"

Gamakichi had jumped off her head and onto the bad shinobi's mask, covering his eyes. It took him several moments to pry the toad loose, but other shinobi were already jumping into the fray. Right in the middle of the street! Naruto wanted to run away, hoping that her friends would be okay - she told herself that Kichi would just return home, but he was so little! Would he or Bisuke be okay?

No, they might not!

She turned to her kidnappers and let Kurama-nii's chakra surge through her. She wasn't strong enough to take them on her own.

As her vision started to fully return, she saw the old JiJi move toward her, a seal on his hand. He was too late, however. Naruto had already run through the hand signs she'd seen so often. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu." She grabbed the little toad and disappeared, Bisuke following in exhaustion immediately after.

Tsunade and Kakashi were trying not to panick.

Tsunade had just received notice that Hashi had been abducted from school, and she would demolish every building in Konoha in order to find him! Then there was that tremendous surge of the Kyuubi's chakra. It only lasted for a couple of minutes, but she had been on the other side of the village, interrogating and threatening any and everyone she could find: shinobi or not.

Kakashi had been the one on watch for his team on the other side of Fire country when Pakkun appeared, telling him that Bisuke had been hurt and was back in the summoning realm. Someone had tried to take Naru-chan, however, the last thing his ninken had seen was Naruto reverse summoning herself somewhere. Kami, he should've had her sign the contract! She would already be back and safe with his ninken!

Jiraiya had screwed up there, too, believing that she was too young to summon - even though her chakra levels were insane. Nearly every day he sent a toad to hang out with or observe Naru for a few hours. Kakashi believed it was the Toad Sage's way of staying relevant in his goddaughter's life while he was forced to be away. Naru-chan enjoyed the summons' company, so he had no issues or jealousy over it. He was glad that she had another way of defending herself or messaging the old pervert.

"Everyone up," Inu ordered, his Killing Intent rolling through the campsite. "We're out of here in five."

"Taicho?" the best sensor on the team asked as she crawled out of Hayate's tent.

Kakashi looked away and then kicked the Uchiha brat's tent. Surprisingly the youngest member of his team exited it looking completely prepared. "Ready, Taicho," the youngest member of the squad said quietly after packing his tent and bedroll into a seal.

"Top speed back to the village,' Kakashi said after putting a note in Pakkun's vest. The ninken quickly took off running ahead of his summoner.

"What's going on?" Hayate asked. "We haven't completed the mission."

"Unless we hear otherwise, this takes precedence. We have a village-wide Level 2 Alert. At least Level 2."

Yeah: a missing jinchuuriki and Mokuton user, both at least honorary members of the village's royalty, was definitely cause for panic. He also prayed that what Pakkun reported wasn't a piece of a Level 1 Alert: an attack on the village. The Kyuubi attack was the only Level 1 event he'd ever experienced, and that was enough for his lifetime, thank you very much. "Let's go," Inu said darkly, waving his first two fingers forward. He set a grueling pace back to Konoha.

Hashi was pretty sure that the Hokage wasn't coming.

Damn: it was just like Naru-chan always said... He was too compliant! He carefully tested the tea that had been placed on the bandaged man's desk in front of him. Normally he would've picked his little sister figure up from school or the hospital, but today he'd been practicing his various jutsus on the normally empty Training Ground 3. The graduation exam in two days was scaring him to death. He might be older (and dare he admit it: normally better) than his classmates, but that didn't make him particularly confident that he could perform well under stress.

"How is your tea, son?"

"It's very good," Hashi said sincerely. Not only was it tasty, but it also didn't appear to be poisoned: something he greatly appreciated. "Thank you, Danzo-sama."