A/N: Alternate universe. The Jinchuuriki are just mythical humanoid creatures like kitsune or harpies. Their genes are dominant, so that they always produce children with the same animal features and specific abilities as their own to avoid weakening the genes with each generation. They aren't even called Jinchuuriki, they don't have a specific term to name them, but the people have a wild imagination to qualify them with heinous words, just like real world racists find all sorts of cruel nicknames for strangers or people with different origins (racism is very old, the word "barbarian" comes from Ancient Greece, because the Greeks used to call strangers something like "barhbarh" to show their disdain for foreign languages they couldn't understand, and here it's literally a different body with animal features, so racism goes even further than what real life can produce).
The Fourth Hokage was assassinated because of his relationship with a kitsune from the village of Whirlpools, a non-Konohan woman seen as a demon or a witch, and she died to protect her baby. More down to Earth than canon in my opinion and allows for more interesting internal politics as well as foreign politics and opens doors to different factions in the village, different alignments, also explains why it's complicated to put the child in any family because they're discriminated against while being a symbol of a possible harmony between humans and humanoids, and also a tool as the Fourth Hokage's child and as a being with particular abilities.
Now there is a reason for them to grow alone, to be kept away from malicious people while not giving a tool to some clans who would use the child to gain power…all the while trying to get the village to agree on the adoption by a faction who seeks harmony between humans and humanoids, which makes the other factions furious and could spark a civil war…
Now that you have the context, let's start on this first chapter. Instead of Naruto, they will be named Kitsune, as Naruto doesn't fit a girl and Naruko would make it lose its' meaning, on top of the fact that there was no one to hear the baby's name after the assassination of everyone present for her birth. She was named after her race because giving her a name would open another can of worms and it would be hard to find a fitting name that would be accepted by the village.
I'll adapt the magic system to be more consistent. Instead of chakra being the equivalent of vital energy sustaining Harry Potter spells (which in HP are not limited by any source other than special magic which is very tiring, but you can see them spam medium level spells without any difficulty), the exhaustion will come from physical exercise like elemental bending in Avatar, which is much easier to write than very unrealistic and subjective distribution of chakra reserves among characters (Naruto having 5x more than Kakashi as a fresh genin while Sakura can barely walk on trees for half an hour before being exhausted). Which means no "jutsu", but instead manipulation of the different abilities of ninjas (like the different categories of abilities of nen in Hunter x Hunter allowing for different powers).
Unlike humans, humanoids like the Kitsune have soft magic (as opposed to hard magic; hard magic is defined by strict rules and has limits or costs while soft magic is mysterious, can have more powerful effects than hard magic but can also be more volatile or hard to understand, basically hard magic can be learned at school while soft magic is not easy to understand and use and other than its' users, very few people can grasp how it works, especially when, like here, there are different races with different forms of magic depending on their animal features and the legends they come from).
Kitsune will have a very different path from Naruto, despite having a similar early childhood. Her goals and interests will be very different due to learning something about her parents as a child rather than Naruto learning anything long after the beginning of Shippuden.
Power levels toned down to Naruto before the time skip because I don't want every bad guy to have perfect defenses, be immune to 99% of poisons and have hax abilities that will be outsmarted in childish ways by some random chuunin with three years of battle experience while seasoned fighters can't do anything against them.
Medical ninjutsu and poison will be more important than in canon, just like Tsunade and Shizune to a lower extent were hyped in the Sannin showdown and like Kabuto who fights very well without kekkei genkai, without elemental attacks, with very basic skills pushed to their best.
X
Chapter 1
Kitsune was moving from a hiding spot to the next. She took risks, but she was hungry and couldn't wait to fill her belly. She had already skipped two meals and her stomach was aching and growling. She jumped on a barrel, jumped again to hang off a shop sign, climbed on it and jumped to catch the border of the roof. She pushed on her legs and pulled on her arms and rolled over the railing. She jumped from roof to roof in Downtown District until she reached the stocks for the market.
She lifted the trapdoor on the roof and entered the ceiling, where she found some bread to eat on the spot and dried meat and fruits to carry in her bag. She got back on the roof and jumped away.
On the way to her safe place, she didn't pay attention to her surroundings and fell in an ambush. Five guys, from seven to twelve years old, were deployed around her, covering all of the escape routes. She started to feel her fear rise. But she still had a way to get out without too many bruises. She ran towards the biggest kid and slid between his legs, hitting his family jewels in the same motion. She ran, jumped, climbed, hid, and she couldn't get to her safe place, so she had to leave Downtown District for a few days until these guys gave up on their revenge.
She still had her bag of food, her rags completely scratched with the sliding and acrobatics she had done, but she got out of danger. She was now in the deserted Uchiha District. She had heard that the Uchiha were all killed by a rogue ninja from their own kin, a creepy story told to kids to scare them. If they got too close to this place, the rogue Uchiha could attack them. But Kitsune preferred a potential danger to a real one. She walked through the empty district towards the center of the village. To the Hokage Tower, one of the rare places where she would be safe for some time.
When she got out of the empty district, she entered the Middle Ring, a circle around the center of the village, inhabited by civilians who managed to make a living without holding an obvious shady business. She couldn't always move on the roofs here, because there were pavilions too far from each other to jump from one to the next, so she had to cross the streets at several points.
The gazes she received when people recognized her ranged from uninterested to heinous, most of them rather bad. She felt like she had just shown up at a ball party in rags with a swollen eye and after two weeks without taking a shower. She tried to ignore the looks she received, but it still hurt to be considered barely human if even human at all. Sure, she had furry ears, nine fluffy fox tails and fur up to the sides of her face, but she was not a subhuman!
She left the Middle Ring and entered the center of the village. This was a big district, with all of the noble clans' lands except the Uchiha's. The looks she received were not any better than those from the Middle Ring, some even appraising her like an object. She didn't know what they expected from her, but they seemed to have expectations for her, just not the kind of expectations they should have for a child they didn't know.
She passed in front of a flower shop and something drew her attention inside. She entered and the bell rang. A young girl in the shelves turned to look at her and seemed to dislike what she saw.
"Ow, you girl look like you need a bath and new clothes. Come with me, I'll…"
"Ino! Sweetie, please don't talk to that creature!" exclaimed the girl's mother from the counter where she had just appeared from the back room.
"But mommy, she looks like she's been living in the streets…"
"And that's where she belongs. Nine tailed foxes are not welcome here, go away, witch!"
Ino looked at her sadly. She took a flower and feigned to slip on the floor just to throw the flower into Kitsune's pocket with a wink. Kitsune gave her a hesitant smile of gratitude and left the shop with tears forming in her eyes.
After that, she rushed towards the Hokage tower and climbed on a house to reach the electrical lines, which she used to hang over the street and land on the Hokage tower's balcony. She overheard a conversation before reaching the window.
X
"…give Kitsune to my clan. I can turn her into a great weapon for Konoha," said Danzo, the Hokage's former comrade and a man who thought of nothing but war.
"No! Let us adopt her! The poor child didn't ask to be what she is, don't let them turn her into a mindless killer! She's just a child!" exclaimed Tsume Inuzuka.
"Bah!" mocked Hisashi Hyuuga. "We should get rid of her kind while we can. If we let her grow up, she might have children and produce a whole new generation of fox monstrosities, I would rather kill her while she is not a danger to the village. She didn't ask to be what she is…but her father mixed his Hokage blood with a lowly kitsune, a subhuman! I would have gladly sentenced him to death for treachery if he hadn't been assassinated. And her mother…a redhead witch with abnormal abilities! I thank whoever killed her and rid us of this uncontrollable madwoman."
"Enough!" shouted the Third Hokage. "You are spitting on the Fourth Hokage's memory, Lord Hyuuga! Take back what you said before I rid you of the leadership of your clan! You do not even understand love, how could you understand what a human is? She is not any less human than we are! And her father chose love over expectations, which I admire him for, unlike you who spent your life ignoring your emotions and feelings in order to follow the horrible traditions of your clan and even raise your children without respecting their feelings, forcing your will onto them even when they are not fit for the task you want to assign them just because you refuse to think about looking at the branch family's talents who could fulfill your expectations better!"
"Personal attacks now, Lord Hokage? Well, you could not even keep your son as the heir of your clan, he rejected his inheritance and refuses to succeed you to this day. As for the Fourth, he disregarded the opinion of the village and chose to breed with a subhuman and give birth to an abomination of noble blood rather than marrying a woman from a noble clan and strengthening the political situation of Konoha while producing a powerful offspring. Instead, he weakened the village, caused internal conflicts and got killed for his mistake, leaving the village without its' strongest ninja, making Lord Jiraya stay away from the village to the point we do not even know where he has been for the past seven years, Lady Tsunade will probably never come back and after taking the hat back, you even let Orochimaru continue his experiments until it became too obvious and you let him get away, now he might be sharing our secrets with our enemies and he will probably try to cause a war against Konoha just to get revenge on you.
"You are a failure, Lord Third, and so was the Fourth Hokage. We have suggested better candidates, but you have rejected all of them. If this goes on, we will ask the Daimyo to choose the Fifth Hokage himself and finally let Konoha rise again to the top of the Elemental Nations."
"So that's what it is? A power struggle? You want to overthrow me to put a warmongering fool in my place and lead Konoha to another war? Do you want your daughters to live the fourth shinobi war and be as traumatized as my former students, their lives ruined? Do you want to orphan half of the village and send children into a war? Or maybe you would like to get rid of all the people you do not like, Kitsune first, and become isolationist while giving side looks to all the other villages because you cannot trust anyone? I am sick of treating with you, Lord Hyuuga. If you want to destroy Konoha, go on and replace me. If you want the best for your daughters, then let me do my job instead of constantly questioning my decisions and hampering my work. Now get out or get me out, but this conflict has lasted for too long."
"I give you two years, Lord Hokage. If you want me and the high nobility to believe in you, then show us that you can change things for the better, start reforming the village to lead it to a new era where our children can grow without a war making them orphans, do something! And choose your successor. Otherwise, leave your hat to someone who can represent the interests of the village."
"Tcheh, as if the whole village had the same interests. You and the high nobility want to stay true to old customs that have been hindering your own clan for generations, Lord Hyuuga," said the Inuzuka clan head. "It is time to admit that Konoha is split. Either we agree on the path to take for the village or we should decide of who will stay and who will leave and found another village with their values."
"The high nobility is the heart of this village, we founded Konoha, whether you like it or not, Lady Inuzuka. If someone has to leave, it will be the lower nobility and its' supporters. Your clans did not contribute to the foundation of Konoha, so you should be the ones to leave and found another village with its' own values. And it would mean that your memory and that of anyone on your side who knows Konoha's secrets would have to be erased in order for them to remain secret."
"When you are done with the new versus ancient Konoha, maybe you will finally agree that we need to do everything to make this village the most powerful so that no one dares attack us," said Danzo.
"This unplanned meeting has come to an end," declared the Hokage. "You all are making me crazy. Next time you want anything, discuss between yourselves and come to me when you have an agreement. Now, if you will, I have paperwork to do. Leave my office, leave me alone and stop annoying me with your complaints. I still need to find someone decent to take my place and it is certainly not one of you. Out!"
Danzo, Tsume and Hisashi left the Hokage's office and closed the door behind them.
"Come in, Kitsune. Don't stay out there. I know you have been listening."
The little girl entered through the window. She looked like she had had a bad day in the streets, wearing tattered rags, with scratches everywhere and she had probably not been cleaning herself for more than five days. She was stinking. But the worst was her look. She seemed to be shocked by what she had overheard.
"If you have questions, now is the time to ask. My time is coming to an end and the next Hokage might not be willing to tell you anything."
"…Am I really the Fourth Hokage's daughter?"
"Yes. Due to the circumstances of their deaths, we kept your parents' identity a secret. Only the shinobi council knew about your father's relationship with your mother."
She took the information in and then nodded her head.
"…Who was my mother?"
"Kushina Uzumaki. Her father was from the Uzumaki clan now scattered around the continent and hiding. Your mother's clan was annihilated thirty years ago, the survivors covered their tracks and hid their identity. Your maternal grandmother was a kitsune, just like you and your mother. You used to have an aunt, but she died alongside most of the Uzumaki."
Again, she took a moment to integrate this information and nodded.
"What kid of people were my parents?"
"Your father was a genius. He understood everything very fast, learned very fast and discovered incredible abilities with chakra. The most powerful ability he completed has never been understood by anyone else. But he was clueless in the love department. Your mother used to lead him by the nose, she was the one to ask him out and to decide of what they would do together. She had a strong personality, was very independent and hot headed, but she loved him and spent most of her time in Konoha with him, in one way or another, even when it required her to take a mask of the ANBU and hide her features."
"…Did they want me?"
"They were eager to see your face, to hug you in their arms and to applaud at every single step of your growth. But they were not given the time…"
"How did they die?"
"Your father was poisoned and your mother cast a spell to protect your life during the attack. Everyone present for your birth was killed. Your mother's spell had shielded you, but it has long since worn off."
"…Is it possible to revive my parents? Even just for a moment? I'd like to see them and tell them that I'm still alive, that you've been nice to me even though you couldn't help me much because of this conflict with the clans."
"It is impossible to revive the dead, Kitsune. I am sorry, but you will never know your parents. Although I can show you a photo of them, if you want."
She nodded. The Hokage took a photo frame from one of his drawers and held it in front of her. She slowly held out her hand to take it and look at it. The Fourth Hokage was a blond man with nice features and spiky mid-length hair. Her mother was a red haired young woman with a foxy smile and fox fur. Her tails were hidden.
"They're beautiful…"
"Yes, they were…"
"I'll find a way to talk to them. I wanna see them in person. I wanna live with them. I wanna know how my mo…how mommy could live in the village despite all the hate."
"…She had a strong will. It was not always easy, but she did not listen to people's opinion of her. She had incredible mental strength and willpower. She suffered a lot from her relationship with your father, but she never gave up. Her feelings were more important to her than people's opinion."
"…Makes me want to meet her even more. Who killed them?"
"We never knew…the killer left no traces. I think it was a puppeteer, because any human would have left traces behind. I would have bet on Sasori of the Red Sand if he had been alive. Poison and puppets are his weapons. But he died around fifteen years ago, so it cannot be him."
"Poison, puppets. Alright. Thank you, Lord Hokage. Can I sleep here tonight, please? It's not safe out there for now…"
"You know what? I'm too old for this shit. Let's drop titles and etiquette for tonight. Screw the high nobility, they want to get rid of me anyway. Come with me, I'll let you take a shower and you'll eat to your heart's content. You'll meet my grandson too, I think you two would make a great pair of troublemakers!"
She took a step back in surprise. The Hokage had never dropped the etiquette in front of her. He had always stayed distant and dignified despite trying to help her and being friendly, he had always stayed polite.
He put his hand of her shoulder and raised her against his shoulder before using a shunshin, a very fast movement that looked like teleportation. They arrived at the Sarutobi clan mansion and entered through the front door. He let her slip to the floor.
It was a big house, traditional with rice fiber sliding doors, wooden floor, tatami and very little furniture.
"That's better than my safe place," she declared.
"Make yourself home. I'll find you someone out of Konoha who can take care of you until you can become a ninja, if you want to become one. You'll be safer outside the village for the next few years. The political climate is not very favorable to you."
"Who will I be with?"
"I had three students. One is a rogue ninja, so it won't be him."
"Will you give me to the legendary Toad Sage?"
"…He isn't ready to meet you yet. He had numerous occasions but didn't come back. He'll come in time."
"Then…the legendary Tsunade? The best kunoichi of all time?"
She had stars in the eyes.
"Precisely. You two share a blood bond. It will help getting you into her good graces. She has no blood related family anymore, so when she'll learn about you, she should be eager to meet you."
"Is she…my grandmother?"
"She is, but it's a secret. Your father was an illegitimate child. She was very young when she had him and we did everything to conceal her pregnancy and her motherhood. She couldn't take care of him and then the war started. She never had the occasion to raise him. When her lover died, she left the village while he stayed. They met and had a friendly relationship due to him being Jiraya's former student, but she never told him the truth. She liked your mother a lot too."
Kitsune had tears, a mix of joy from finding an unexpected family and sadness over the tragedy behind her whole family history. She gladly accepted the clothes from a maid and went to the bathroom, where she took a bath and took out all of the dust and dirt. She was Lady Tsunade's granddaughter, she couldn't stay dirty like that if she wanted to make a good first impression when she'd meet her.
X
After the best meal she'd had in months, if not in years, and the best night of sleep she'd had in her life, Kitsune woke up, stretched and went to the dining room where she ate breakfast and met a spoiled four year-old kid named Konohamaru. She couldn't stand him, so she ate voraciously and left the dining room quickly to meet the Hokage at the door in a new outfit, some clothes from his second son when he was young. It wasn't a prefect fit nor was it feminine, but it was still better than her rags.
She accompanied him to the Hokage tower, where he asked a man with a wolf mask to bring her to Lady Tsunade and introduce her properly. He acquiesced and escorted her out of the village. They walked a long way in silence and he brought her into a casino in a nearby town.
The place smelled of smoke and money. She pinched her nose but eyed the money with shiny eyes. She followed the masked man to a gambling table and looked at him, then at the swindler and at a beautiful woman in her twenties who looked annoyed to loose all her money. She punched the table in fury and stood up, glanced at the masked man and indicated the exit. He nodded silently and dragged Kitsune back to the street.
They waited for the young woman, probably the informant to track Lady Tsunade. A black haired girl in her early to mid twenties got out of the casino with a clothed piglet and nodded towards the wolf mask. She led the way to a shady motel. They entered and she led them into a room that looked like a mess, clothes spread everywhere and the young woman from the casino sitting on the bed.
"Morning, Wolf. What do I owe your visit to? Is that your daughter?"
"Hello, Lady Tsunade. This is Minato and Kushina's daughter. Lord Hokage thought it was not safe anymore in the village and ordered me to find you and entrust her to you. He told me that you would take care of her when you would know who she is."
It took a moment to register, but finally the blond woman and the child both pointed a finger at each other in surprise and exclaimed simultaneously:
"She's my granny?!"
"She's Minato's kid?!"
None of them could believe it, yet the dark haired woman looked at them in turns and smiled.
"You both reacted exactly the same way. It's like looking at a mirror, Lady Tsunade and this little one on the other," she said with a grin.
"I didn't know the troublemaker had a kid…"
"How can you look so young? You must be at least forty!"
"Shut up! I'm not old!"
"My father wasn't a trouble…well, he was a troublemaker since his choice has led to his assassination and everyone else present for my birth, but he loved me! And my mother too!"
"You sure look more like Kushina than Minato. You're like a mini-Kushina!"
"She looks more like you than like Kushina," said Shizune before putting a hand in front of her mouth.
"Well, she's my grandmother, I have to have something from her, right?"
"It's like my genes skipped a generation," mumbled Tsunade. "You're a mix of me and your mother."
Kitsune looked at her as if she had said the best thing in the world. Her eyes were full of stars and she jumped at her neck, hugging her tightly. The fur on the side of her face was soft and Tsunade liked this feeling. It was like hugging Kushina once more. Her illegitimate daughter-in-law who would never know who Tsunade was to her companion…
"Who's the beautiful woman with you, granny?"
"Shizune, she's my…ex's niece."
"The same ex who caused you to leave the village?"
"How many family secrets and stories has the old man revealed to you?"
"Just the basics, I'd say. Who you are to me, who my parents were, why you couldn't raise my father. You didn't get to raise your son, but now I'm okay with letting you take care of me."
"Huh? You're letting me? I'm Tsunade Senju, little girl, I do whatever I want. I don't need your agreement to raise my granddaughter. I couldn't raise my own son, no one could take you from me! And since I don't want to be reminded of my age, call me mum."
"Mum? Okay. Not mommy, though. One day, I'll bring mommy back from the dead and I'll be able to hug her and talk to her. I'll bring my father back too, and you'll be able to hug him too and to tell him everything you couldn't tell him before he died. And I can also bring back gramps if you want me to. Wait, is he my gramps?"
Kitsune felt drops of water fall on her. She looked up to Tsunade and saw her cry silently.
"Don't worry, mum. I'm gonna beat up death until it releases the ones we love!"
"You're my treasure, little one," said Tsunade in tears. "What's your name?"
"Kitsune."
"But…that's not a name!"
"Well, no one survived to remember my name. The Hokage told me that the Toad Sage knew mommy and my father, maybe he knows how they wanted to call me?"
"Before he comes to us, you'll need a name."
"Kitsune's fine. It sounds feminine, it means something, it's who I am. I got used to it."
"Then I'll just call you Vickie, for Vixen."
"Well, still aligns with my name and who I am, why not?"
"At least it sounds like a name, not like I'm calling your race."
"Alright, mum! How do you want me to call you, Shizune?"
"I…I've always wanted a little sister…"
"Then I'll call you big sis!"
Shizune squealed in satisfaction.
Such was the meeting of Kitsune and her family.
X
A/N: How was it? Long for a first chapter, maybe, but a lot of A/N so not that long of a chapter. Minato should have been Tsunade's son. I don't see how he can have such large chakra reserves and be the only one who could learn the Flying Thunder God outside of the Second Hokage if he wasn't a Senju.
Kakashi didn't know that Minato was Tsunade's son, he only knew that Kitsune was Minato and Kushina's kid. That's why he didn't mention the fact that Tsunade was Kitsune's grandma. He just didn't know until then.
Vicky's encounter with Ino wasn't for nothing. That flower was a first step to her biology interest.
