DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Naruto universe but I do have an imagination of my own. I will be happy to take advice and suggestions from my readers while continuing the story.

Thinking (+ flashbacks, etc.)

Biju, etc. speaking

Biju, etc. thinking

Emphasis

Hey readers! Forgive me for not jumping straight into the story, but I wanted to first personally thank yochan123, Anabel Huisa, DannyPhantom619, LastOfTheGods, Gyuchin, and all the guests that have reviewed this story. Reviews and comments definitely keep a writer like me going, and your support, advice, and kind words have also lifted my spirits for days. Thank you!

It shouldn't matter.

It shouldn't matter who her parents in her new life were because, well,
1. She never knew them - and they'd abandoned her in favor of battling the Kyuubi.
2. She already had parents. Or rather Rachel did.

That didn't mean that she hadn't been curious about them throughout her comparatively short life here, though. Everyone comes from somewhere, and for the longest time, she thought that she'd been either dreaming as she lived in this world/life with people breathing fire, walking on walls, and doing all kinds of other weird shit that she'd never dreamed of as Rachel. The other possibility had been that she'd been drugged with some kind of weird hallucinogen, but as she grew, she remembered from her brief foray into such things in college that you'd KNOW if you'd ingested something like that. You'd feel the effects more than seeing the kind of stuff she woke up to daily. Hypnosis had been another possibility that she thought of as a tot, but finally disregarded it and just rolled with the flow.

...Reveling in the feel of what she later learned was her chakra, the way her muscles burned for such an incredibly short time after "working out" compared to her first life; walking on walls and even water - just like Jesus alone was said to have done in the Bible. It had been exhilarating and sometimes she felt like she could become a freaking superhero.

Like the people, the ANBU, that she had lived with for so many years. Superheros that were so bright that they each deserved a movie of themselves and their lives, too.

She had been lucky even as she was an orphan, incredibly so. Still, she had always wondered who Ru's birth parents were and why they weren't with her until the Hokage said that they were "great heroes who fought the Kyuubi with everything they had." She had asked the old man to tell her about them on a few occasions, and he always refused. It left her feeling hollow whenever she thought that she'd been abandoned as a newborn, and up until recently, she hadn't realized how important she was to Konoha as a tool - and that was why she was being guarded.

That was the only reason she had people in her life. Outside of Lady Ichika, anyway.

She knew that she'd heard quiet conversations in the various houses she lived in that there was fear of her being kidnapped, too. In Rachel's world, kids were abducted all of the time. It was disgusting, and she'd admit that she would've feared it more - being taken, potentially trafficked - but she lived with people that were basically superheroes who were training her to be one, too. Even Superman had parents, so yes: she had long wondered who her's were.

But the Yondaime?

The man had been written about extensively. Everything from his orphan upbringing to his various feats during the war, the team he coached that had been all but wiped out, the things he did and was never able to do as planned as Hokage because of his untimely demise. He seemed to have a lot of Western influences compared to this place, honestly. Nothing she read said anything about him having a family, and considering how young he was, Ru never thought anything of it. The man was the incarnation of the boogeyman to Konoha's enemies, but widely loved and seen as their greatest hero here. So despite the resemblance, Ru wouldn't have imagined that she was his daughter.

Now she supposed that was another reason she was guarded as a child.

Uchiha-sensei was saying something to her and seemed to be imploring her to leave this place, but Ru couldn't really understand what she was saying. Looking back at the picture of the redhead, she wanted to know more about her.

God! Why couldn't she have gotten her mother's hair?! Ru definitely got her hair from her father: the texture, the color, everything. She laughed at that, the sound bitter even to her in her dazed state. The way her mind was whirling, it was a silly thing to be focused on.

She felt Uchiha-sensei's hand on her shoulder and looked over and noticed Shisui-senpai pawing carefully at the Yondaime's cloak. Uchiha-sensei followed her gaze and went over to whack the boy Ru had learned was her nephew. Her feet took her upstairs.

"Naruto-chan, wait!"

Nah, she wasn't waiting - or at least her feet weren't. The first room she found looked like it was the master bedroom. One of the Yondaime's famous tri-pronged kunai was hanging over the bed by a red ribbon that stretched from one wall to the other. Ru felt too flustered to look any further, and her feet were already moving anyway as her heartbeat picked up. She couldn't move when her feet otherwise carried her into the little room next to it.

Another special kunai hung from the ceiling toward the corner of the smaller powder blue room. Along one wall was a large crib that looked like one of those that could turn into a bed. It had a white sheet with a little frog pattern on the crib's mattress. There were bold-colored blankets that had been carefully pushed in along the crib's sides meticulously, and the room had way too many stuffed animals in it.

Various colored frogs, dogs - one nearly like the pug pillow she kept at home - deer, birds, and cat plushies were placed in a pile in many different sizes.

Uchiha-sensei put her hands on Naruto's shoulders and said that they needed to leave, but Ru didn't want to. She tried to pull her out of the room, and that's when she saw them. Fabric, stuffed kanji were stuck on the wall spelled out her full given name, and over a changing table were more fabric blocks that did the same. They all looked homemade and gave her a lump in her throat. Uchiha-sensei was right: she had to get out of here.

She ran down the stairs and nearly barrelled into Lady Ichika. "Uhh, here!" Ru tossed a seal at the woman whom she was still coherent enough to be glad was alive, and ran straight out of the house and away from the gate. Naruto was too emotional and confused with why she really was this bad off when she ran the wrong way. Just past the six houses were several sealing arrays. It was obvious even to her that they were transportation seals. She jumped into one, not giving a rat's ass where she ended up.

She looked around, realizing that she was outside an onsen. A man with long white hair in a tree was staring at her with his mouth hanging open, which she supposed was understandable considering that she had just appeared in a seal that immediately went away from the ground it had appeared on once she had successfully left that compound. A few moments later, a seal reappeared with Uchiha-sensei and her nephew.

Mikoto grabbed her goddaughter in a desperate hug from behind the girl. "Naruto! Do you know how dangerous it is to activate an unknown seal?!"

"She does," Lady Ichika said nonchalantly after appearing alongside them. "Hello, Pervert."

"You're ALIVE?!" Jiraiya yelled in horror, so taken back by Lady Ichika and what had to be Minato's daughter's appearance, he didn't think about what that would cause. The onsen's wall was almost immediately broken down and women came pouring out to beat him relentlessly.

"What is happening?!" Ru eventually asked in disbelief.

"Justice," Lady Ichika said. She opened the scroll she was holding and smelled the pizza as she rubbed her back. "Did you make this? What were you doing at the Uzumaki compound?"

Naruto watched the chaos taking place next to her. Uchiha-sensei and Shisui-senpai were working through the hordes of women and now men who were pounding on the old guy to get to him. Shisui was also getting hit here and there as he did so, and let out an occasional howl or yell when hit particularly hard. It was hard to look away. "I hadn't seen you in a long time and thought you might be dead," she said vacantly. "I sensed your presence and then it suddenly was gone, so I again... thought you died right there where I found... I found a goddamn compound with my family's seal on it - a giant ass symbol right on that crazy-ass gate, then searched to find you because I thought you were dead, goddammit! I walked into a house that apparently was my fucking own or would've been if my parents didn't go fight the fucking Kyuubi who's a giant bastard and..." Naru was getting more and more aggravated the more she spoke.

"Naruto," Lady Ichika placed her hands on the young girl's shoulders. "I understand you're upset, but we have to get you back to the village. I have no doubt that Hiru-kun put some kind of seal on you that alerts him if you leave the village. You may even have a tracker on you."

"What?! The fucking Kyuubi seal..." Ru tried to ask/yell why the Kyuubi seal wasn't a big enough seal on her body to fucking deal with for a lifetime, but Lady Ichika covered her mouth. Her attention was then caught by Uchiha-sensei who must have broken the white-haired guy's ribs by the way she was punching and yelling at him. She never thought she'd see the Uchiha matriarch so livid and outwardly emotional like this.

"Send us back right now you traitor! Look what you've done! Look what you've done!" Mikoto screamed, her Sharingan blazing vividly. Shisui was having a difficult time holding the woman back.

The white-haired man looked at Naruto with a pain in his eyes that didn't seem quite related to his injuries. He put his hand on the ground shakily as Ru's small shoulders were grabbed by all three of her traveling companions; the same seal that was back at the compound appeared on the ground. "Never thought I'd use this again," he said sadly. Then they were gone and within a second were back at the compound.

Naru flopped on the ground next to a tree as she ignored the adults and teen that were talking over her. She had gotten her wits about her again, sick and tired of ninja shit, and once again felt like the adult that she was - the one trapped inside a child's body. She looked up and sighed tiredly, waiting for a break in their conversation that now seemed to be focused on pizza, which was obviously infuriating Uchiha-sensei. "What now? And please don't even consider treating me like I'm a child." That's when the Hokage arrived.

After everything that had happened today, (not to mention taking her away from the people that she cared for - whether they felt the same way about her or not - and dumping her in Lady Ichika's spare building in the Red Light District,) Dear Leader was about the last person Ru wanted to see. She looked him up and down once, then turned away from him even though he was their dictator - an idea which just pissed her off more. The women in the group were in his face about all that happened, and Ru was sure that the guy next to him was the same silver-haired masked Jonin who had broken her arm a while back. He kept darting his eyes toward her, then stared longingly at the houses, and Ru had enough of this emotional shit.

Yes, she was Uzumaki Naruto, daughter of that red-headed woman that was obviously an Uzumaki now that she considered it indifferently, and the Yondaime. She had also been Rachel, however, and was somehow reincarnated into what Rachel would've considered a supposedly childish but violent fictional world, yet had retained her memories of being an adult.

An adult who had lived, loved, and lost, then died young. An adult that at least lived in a democracy, even as fucked up and jaded as it had been; who had been free to make her own decisions and mistakes. Her mouth opened and her tongue moved on its own accord, much like her feet had earlier. "If this is how this place is run, then I'll do everything in my power to do MUCH better," she said flatly. "Even if I have to become the 'Hokage,'" her fingers making air quotes around the ridiculous word, "I"ll ensure that no one ever forces a child to bear responsibilities that he or she has no business taking on. I'll ensure that children are free, remain untracked unless it's for their safety, and never used as village tools."

Her words jolted everyone. One, she had just mouthed off to their leader and insulted him or implied it, to boot! Two, it seemed that she wanted to become the Hokage, and for the majority of the group, it reminded her of her parents' dreams. For Shisui and Naruto, though, they both were shocked and made anxious. Shisui feared that this made little Naruto even more like that "Naruto" boy he had seen ranting about being the Hokage one day in Nara-chan's memories. For Naruto, herself? She was flipping out because she feared being more like that dimwit in the cartoon than she had ever thought possible.

"I'll become the greatest Hokage, 'ttebayo!" or something similar in that fictional character's voice echoed in her mind and made her wince. Do I really have no choice but to become who that obnoxious orange kid is?! "Or maybe I won't, 'ttebayo," Ru grimaced at the verbal tic that she seemed to be struggling with suppressing more and more. "Maybe I'll just get screwed and live in a van down by the river."

Hiruzen approached the hysterical girl - she had to be hysterical, considering the way she burst out laughing so hard after a moment of silence - and tapped her forehead, ultimately using a little-used jutsu that made her forget.

Naruto scratched her cheek as she wondered how long she'd been in class. She could've sworn that she'd been making pizza with Uchiha-sensei of all things. Crap. I must've fallen asleep again. The two male senseis were quietly arguing about something, so she took that moment to speak with the boy who sat next to her every day. "So Shikamaru, your clan makes medicinal products, correct?

"Hmm? Sorry, Ru: I was falling asleep. I swear to Kami this shit's so boring," he lamented as he rubbed his eyes

"Yeah, you're telling me. That's why you've gotta bring something to read, man! Or bring a game or something."

Shikamaru yawned widely, not even covering his mouth. God my manners suck. "I guess I could bring my portable shogi game back. We can hide it behind some books or papers and play while we read until you fall asleep."

"Sounds good. I'll bring a deck of cards," Naru nodded, feeling a little more alert now. "Say, can you perform genjutsu?! You can hide what you're doing behind those, I hear."

"Tch. What a drag! Now you've given me a reason to learn another technique. Damn you, Uzumaki."

"Ha! I've tried and tried to learn genjutsu and haven't had any luck, so our fun's on you!" Shikamaru replied to her words with what Naru called his "trademark word," but wanted to find out if what she suspected was true. "Before I realized you were really sleeping, I was asking about your family's medicinal herbs and such."

"What about it?"

"You have that forest, right?" Ru looked around to make sure no one was listening. She brought her voice down to a whisper and wondered if the Nara heir was alright when he began flushing when she leaned toward him. "Does your clan produce something that... can be smoked or otherwise produced that produces a..."

She's not talking about marijuana, is she?! Shikamaru could hardly believe his ears!

"...I guess you could say a euphoric effect? Or one that numbs pain - something like that." Naru knew that Lady Ichika was having a hard time, and really needed to go make sure she was alright. If only I knew where she lived when she's not staying in the building. The question of Lady Ichika's more permanent residence made her head bang, right in the center of her forehead and flowing toward the base of her neck.

"Hey, are you alright? You need it for headaches, ne?"

"Not until now, 'ttebayo. God help me: there's that tic again," Naru groaned as she rubbed her head. She looked up and was surprised when Iruka-sensei decided to send them home early.

"Good timing then. C'mon home with me, Ru-chan. Dad's out of town and Ma's visiting my aunt, so I can help you out."

Ru followed him, barely able to concentrate fully on keeping her henge on. Shikamaru didn't question it, which surprised the girl, but she was grateful. Her head wasn't hurting quite so badly now as they walked to the edge of the village and into the Nara compound. The gatekeepers had been asleep on the grass, interestingly enough, but allowed them through when Shika kicked them to let them know he was bringing a friend home after classes ended early. She thanked Shikamaru for having her and began to bow to him, which he waved off before handing her a piece of candy. "What's this?"

"It'll take the headache away. I use them sometimes," he shrugged lazily.

As always, Naru thought fondly. She considered the Nara heir to be a friend, and he was a sweet kid. Just lazy - but pretty damn smart and mature for his age, really. She wondered why eating a candy - or maybe it's a clan thing about talking about it - would make him seem uncomfortable. She chewed on the candy, the texture reminding her of a gummy bear. It had an herbal taste, one that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Out of nowhere, she giggled. Shikamaru smiled at her then popped a candy in his mouth before eventually giving her another, the two of them just sitting on the couch, doing nothing as time passed. He left to get something from his room and Naru was almost too thrilled at seeing that he brought back a BIG bag of Akimichi's barbecue flavored chips. "Alright! I was starvin' but didn't want to move."

"Yeah, that happens," Shikamaru said as he stuffed the chips in his mouth. They were even better than anything he'd had in his past life. "I've seen the Akimichi making these, but still don't get how they figure out the perfect blend of herbs and spices." He let out a choke of laughter, remembering the Kentucky Fried Chicken catchphrase. Oh, how I miss the Colonel's original recipe... He stuffed more chips in his mouth, wondering if he was spending too much time with Choji.

"I'm no chef," Naruto replied with her mouth full of chips. She covered her mouth hastily and was relieved when Shikamaru just chuckled at her acting so ill-mannered. Finishing her mouthful, she continued. "But Uchiha-sensei says that..." She stopped in increasing horror as she remembered making pizza with the Uchiha clan matriarch. "Nara-san," she said as she paled. "What's in the candies that made my headache go away?"

"Maa, that would be Taima, but I just call it Zasso," Shika replied before deciding to pull the girl over to his shogi board in the other room.

"Zasso?" Doesn't that mean "weed?" Naruto started giggling before making an utterly stupid opening shogi move, which made her laugh even more. "I suck!"

Shikaku entered his home to hear the laughter of children - and one of them was a girl. Considering how his son only tolerated Ino-chan, he feared that the girl in the house was one that wasn't allowed to be - much to his consternation - there at all. If Yoshino finds out she's here, though... He made a clone to go delay his wife who still blamed the girl for the brother she'd lost in the Kyuubi attack. Yoshi-chan wasn't so bitter anymore, but he didn't want to risk it.

He had no idea of how much a delay would be necessary.

Finding the two kids lying on the mats in the lounge where he and his son normally play shogi, he heard them giggling and prayed to Kami that his son hadn't gotten into his personal stash again. He realized that the boy was bored with the Academy, but getting stoned wasn't the way to solve that! Especially not at his age! His clan's research was clear: Nara Taima wouldn't hurt children in any way, but he felt that kids should be doing something productive. Like sleeping or learning.

Time to announce I'm here. "Shikamaru," he closed his eyes at seeing his normally apathetic son seem to panic, while Minato's girl just waved up at him lazily. She was normally a formal little thing, although he'd seen the hyperactivity in her on more than one occasion, too. "Did you get into the candy, son?" The little blonde gave him a wink and his son groaned.

"Yeah. Naruto had a headache, Dad."

"Oh, I feel much better now. Better than I have in years! Thanks, Shika-kun!"

"Troublesome," both males said. Neither of them liked the coy look on the jinchuuriki's face as she sat up and stared at the older Nara.

"Ne, Deer-sama," Naruto began, chuckling humorlessly as the man's eyes widened at realizing that she knew who he'd been back when he visited her at the safehouse. "What kind of jutsu would make someone forget their home and clan compound, their formerly unknown parents... you know... After otherwise having a lovely afternoon with someone who seems to care about them and obviously knows their family? What would do that?" Her big blue eyes were sparkling with interest, but Shikaku could see the underlying anger that she was suppressing.

"Well shit," he replied before sinking to the floor.