Holy schnikes!!! 17 reviews?!! That's more than I've ever gotten on any of my other stories. Huh. Guess that means I'll be continuing this. ^^ I'm glad you folks like it.

Cneko: Ne, ne guess what Kizuko-chan?

Kizuko: nani, nani?

C: These nice people seem to actually like you and aren't reaming me a new one for original characters! Well…not yet at least.

K: Wai!! Arigato nice people!! Kon Kon says Thank You too!

Oh, yes. And thank you to whomever it was that mentioned my lack of commas in the first part. That's what I get for typing and posting that sucker at 5AM when I'm dead tired. Hopefully, that's been fixed now.

So. PG-13 for language and a bit o' light GaaNaru. I'm trying not to focus too much on the yaoi here. *crosses fingers* Let's see if I can do that. ^^;; There will also be OOCness for some bits…but I mean, hey, come on. Naruto's been in exile for 10 years. I think he's allowed to be bitter. Although I'm going to try to stay true to the core of the character…so smack me upside the head if I venture too far into OOC country, please.

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The journey back to Konoha was uneventful and quick. None of the cabin's occupants had much in the way of material possessions, so packing had been done quickly. Clothing and other essentials divided into three packs, and they were off.

 There had been a brief disruption when Kizuko had run into the forest and had to be carried out by Naruto.

"Is she alright?" Tsunade had asked, looking at the softly crying child with concern. Naruto nodded in return, handing the snuffling girl over to Gaara. "Yes, she was just saying good bye to her friends." "Her friends? I wasn't aware that there were any other children around here." "There's a family of foxes that live nearby in the forest." That seemed to be the most of an explanation she was getting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before walking through the giant gates of Konoha, Naruto dug around in his back and pulled out a faded blue scrap of cloth. "Never thought I'd put this back on again." He muttered. Kizuko's blue eyes lit up. "What's that, Papa?" Rubbing the cloth absently, he stared at it for a long moment and the smiled down at his daughter. "This is Papa's hitai. It shows that Papa is a ninja." He tied the hitai around his forehead. It was odd…the action had been so common place for so many years of his life but now it felt strange. That went with ten years of exile, he guessed.

Kneeling, the blonde smiled at the smaller blonde by his side. "What do you think, Kitling?" "Papa's so cool and handsome!" Naruto grinned and turned towards the quiet laughter on his left. "What? You know she only speaks the truth!" He smirked at the sand nin, who rolled his eyes in return. "Papa is! Papa is!" Kizuko squeaked, jumping up and down in front of Gaara in defense of her father. "Bah. Ignore him, Kitling. Gaara's just jealous."

"Oh, really?" Green eyes glinted with mischief, which was rare into itself. Heavens forbid that the prankster blonde not go along with any type of mischief. "Yes, really. You're jealous of my utter and complete coolness, as well as my drop dead good looks and ultra sexy body!" Gaara snorted. Kizuko scrunched up her face in confusion. "Papa, what's …'sexy' mean?" The look of horrified embarrassment that comes with such innocent, yet uncomfortable, questions crossed the blonde's face. "Urk…umm…Look, Kitling! That's the village where Papa grew up."

Thank Heavens for six years olds's attention spands.

Gaara sided up to him. "Nice save." He said in a low voice. "Never let me mention anything involving the word 'sex' around her for at least twenty years." Naruto replied rubbing a hand over his face. He looked ahead to the city that lay within the huge gates. "Gaara…what am I doing here?" The red head frowned. "You're standing in the middle of the road for one thing." "I'm serious!" Light blue eyes met light green and held. "You are here to reclaim your dreams, to give your daughter a life outside of exile, and to prove to the idiots in there that you're not just a demon." Naruto smiled and leaned into the other man. "Thanks. How do I survive without you around?" "You very nearly don't." came the snort.

~~~~~~~~~

Returning to Hidden Leaf was having a negative effect on him to say the least. Walking through the streets he could feel the stares and hear the hushed whispers behind hands.

"Is that…?"

"I thought the elders banished him…"

"Why did they let that monster return?"

Monster…demon…killer…He'd dealt with it before; he could deal with it again. He smiled as Kizuko danced ahead of him, Kon Kon's ever present form flopping through the air. No matter how bad it got, they couldn't break him. Not with her around. Not with a child's unconditional love to prove he was worth more than the demon inside him.

But…it still hurt.

Walking through the village, flashes of memory came back unbidden.

"Congradulations, you graduate."

"Ne, Iruka-sensei, you'll treat me to ramen, right?"

"You're late!! Don't lie!!"

"I'm gonna be Hokage someday!!"

"Naruto, You make me tired…"

"Naruto…why can't you be more like Sasuke-kun?"

"Sasuke's the best!"

"Give it up, Dobe."

"It is not Uchiha Sasuke's fault. He is under the influence of the cursed seal…However, the Kyuubi is a completely different matter. It is obvious that if the demon, even if sealed, were to remain in the village, it would be a danger to all living here. Therefore, we decree exile."

Exile…Monster…Exile…Demon …Exile…Kyuubi…Exile…

"No!" he cried out against the memories, squeezing his eyes shut, trying to block out the past. Gaara paused beside him, silently offering support. Kizuko must have heard his cry because the next thing he knew he was holding an armful of blond and orange and blue. "Is Papa sad?" Naruto smiled sadly. "A little, Kitling. Papa has some not nice memories of this place." The little girl frowned in a Very Serious Manner. After all, something was upsetting Papa. "Kizuko will make Papa better." She leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek, then wrapped her arms around his neck. "You already do, Kitling." He buried his face in her hair, inhaling her scent. " See? All better. Now, shall we go see what Tsunade-sama wants us to do?"

"Hai!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As usual, bureaucracy  ruled the Hokage office. They had been left waiting outside for twenty minutes. That duration had left enough time for Naruto to get at least fifteen hate-filled glares and flick off ten of them, Gaara to almost kill someone twice, and Kizuko to find a bottle of ink and start drawing on the walls. Naruto noticed with slightly guilty pleasure that the ink was permanent.

Finally, Tsunade opened the door to her office. She blinked at the scene that greeted her. Naruto was fidgeting and rather quiet. That was never good. Gaara looked bored and annoyed. That was certainly never good.  Kizuko sat on the floor happily making ocean scenes and sand castles out of the bottle of blue ink and sand, courtesy of Gaara. That was…definitely going to be trouble for the cleaning staff later on.

Tsunade felt a migraine coming on.

"Naruto, if I could speak with you alone, please…" The young man in question fidgeted, his eyes flickering from his daughter to Tsunade. "Go on. I'll watch her."  The blonde gave the Sand nin an expression of absolute relief and walked through the door.

Tsunade closed the door behind them and returned to her desk. "Let's start simple, shall we? Arrangements are being made to acquire a small apartment for the three of you. It should be ready within the hour. Now, there should be no problem with any of you staying, unless of course, Gaara is…"

"He's not a Missing Nin." Naruto cut her off. "His siblings know where he is."

Tsunade nodded. "Good that makes things a lot easier on my end. You'll be expected to start back to your duties as a Chuunin immediately. I assume we can expect Gaara to be assisting you?" "Only if he wants to." "Just let me, or you superior know if he does. Taking out an ally because they aren't wearing a Konoha Hitai would be sloppy to say the least." She was silent for a long moment. "Naruto…I'm sure you've already noticed it by now, but…the villagers, well, a lot of them have long memories. And after what happened, we can't expect the law about saying anything to the children to still apply. At least not to your generation. I'm afraid I can't guarantee the type of treatment you'll receive from them."

"Hey, I lived with it for twelve years…at least this time around I'll know why everyone hates me so much." He shrugged. She studied him carefully, this young man who had known far too much pain in his short life. "You're taking this awfully nonchalantly." "Baachan, it's either this or I let it drive me insane. I'd like to think I'm stronger than that. Besides, Kizuko needs me."

"About her…I assume you'll want to place her in the Academy? Iruka is still teaching you know." The young man's face became wistful. "Iruka-sensei? Definitely." "I'll arrange someone to take her there tomorrow then." She was silent again for a moment.

"Naruto…who is the mother?"

The younger man glared at her, as if measuring how safe something was, and then broke out into a grim smile. Tsunade was wearing her 'I Am The Hokage You Shall Do As I Command' face. No backing out of this one.  "There was no mother. She's mine and mine alone."

Tsunade blinked. "I assure you, as a medical nin, that's very much impossible." "Only if you don't have a kyuubi sealed up inside you. Lucky me, I do. And she likes me."

This appeared to be the day for much blinking and incomprehensible subject matter. "Explain."

He growled deep in the back of his throat, and if she hadn't been Hokage and a Sennin she probably would have been very much intimidated. Good thing she was. "After you all so graciously decided to exile me, Nine Tails and I got to know each other a little better. She's really not all that bad, in a homicidal sort of way. Sort of like the mother I never had. Due to the village that never wanted me, never loved me, and then ripped me away from the few who did decide I was worth something just to save some pretty boy's ass." Blue eyes flash crimson and the whiskers marks deepened a shade purpler. This, she had seen coming. This explosion of anger and resentment, she had seen it coming and been waiting for it, but still couldn't prepare her to deal with it.

"Do you have idea what it's like? To never have been wanted, loved? To be hated, not because of who you are, but because of what some benevolent asshole sealed in you? And then, and then…to finally be accepted." He smiled, happier days clearly replaying themselves in his mind. "To know that there are people out there that care about you and love you. That's the best feeling in the world. Normal people take it for granted, but I never did. I would have given my life, my soul, to protect this village. I did give up a piece of myself so that I could use Nine Tail's power to do just that. And how do you repay me? 'You're too dangerous and therefore we must exile you' I went from having everything to fuckin' nothing because I cared enough to protect this place!! You locked me away!! Away from everything I had ever loved and never even allowed me more than an hour or two of human contact!!!"

She watched the young man in front of her roar out his anguish and rage, desperately wishing that the idiots on the council could have seen just a fraction of how much this boy had cared. She had argued, fought, begged, and pleaded. And it had all fallen upon deaf ears. They had just been looking for a chance to get rid of the boy it seemed. For all her power as Hokage, she hadn't been able to save one boy when it had truly mattered. It still tore at her, and probably would every day for the rest of her life. In front of her, Naruto had gone frighteningly calm.

"My life after that? Hell. Complete and utter. And I came very very close many times to just saying fuck the world and leaving it all behind. But she wouldn't let me do that, because if I go, then she goes too. So…she gave me Kizuko." Crimson drained away to soft blue and the snarl of rage melted into a father's fond smile.  "She gave me the most precious thing in my life." He suddenly remembered he had an audience.

"Kage Bushin no Jutsu combined with Sexy no Jutsu, because I know you're wondering. You medical nin are like that."

"YOU SLEPT WITH YOUR OWN CLONE?!!" That was too much, if she was Hokage.

A look of puzzled, utter disgust crossed his face. "Hell, no. Are all sennin perverts or are you three just a special breed? Kizuko was made from chakra. Nine Tails told me how to. I had my clone use the jutsu to transform into a girl and then Nine Tails and I used our combined chakra to form Kizuko inside the clone. It was kind of like forming a seal, only internally. Kizuko was conceived and born within a day, when the time was right I released the hold on the chakra forming the clone and there she was.  My little girl."  He held out his right hand where there was still a shallow, yet cleanly healed scar. "I had to use my blood as well as the combined chakra. It was hard, really hard. I barely had enough chakra to do more than sleep for a week or so after. But it was worth it."

Tsunade sighed. This was…unbelievable, at best. "Then Kizuko is…"

The growl was back. "Kizuko is just as real as any of those children in that academy. She eats, sleeps, breaths, cries, gets hurt, has nightmares, and loves. She's my daughter."

"Very well. I'm a bit in shock though, it's not everyday that I see the product of asexual reproduction, you understand. Though she certainly does look like you."

The blonde gave a harsh laugh. "Asexual? I suppose you could consider it that, but… Don't be fooled, check her chakra next time. She's as much a part of Nine Tails as she is a part of me." He gave a feral grin. "Therefore I suggest you do not make her mad unless you're prepared to deal with the consequences and property damage." He stood and headed for the door. "Now if you'll excuse me, Godaime-sama, my little girl is waiting for me." He walked abruptly to the door, and slammed it behind him. Gaara looked up at him, curious. He huffed, nearly going back into rant mode but was quickly stopped.

"Papa!" A blur of blonde pigtails and orange and blue cloth launched at him. He caught her up in a hug and held tight. "Hey, Kitling. Where you good while Papa was away?" She nodded. "Un. Kizuko-chan was very good…but…Kon Kon…." She held up the stuffed fox who was now bright blue with spilled ink. Naruto glared at Gaara around the blue fox. "You call that watching her?" Gaara shrugged. "I watched her turn the fox blue. She didn't hurt herself." The blonde groaned "Remind me to hurt you later. Kitling…I think Kon Kon's gonna need bath." Her blue eyes widened in horror. "A bath?! Kon Kon's not that dirty!"

He eyed the toy skeptically. "I hate to say it but I think he is, Kitling. Besides, if we give him a bath he'll smell nice again. You don't want him smelling like nasty ink do you?" Kizuko wrinkled her nosed, making a face. "Ugh! No! Kizuko wants Kon Kon to smell like the forest again. Like home!"  "Right, Kitling. Like home." His eyes drifted to the window where the Konoha skyline shone in all its crowded, concrete glory. "Like home."

The question was, was home really here anymore?

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Err…Yes, so Kizuko's origins revealed. I admit it. I'm not original. I took the idea of Kyuubi being female and ran with it. ^^;;; Even though it's been pretty much proven that Kyuubi was male by the anime now. Oh well. Like this doesn't already have a big ol' AU stamped on it.

As for the conception by Chakra thing…well, I've never actually seen anything detailing what can and cannot be done with chakra. I figured if you can create actual clones of yourself with it, why not take it a step farther and (with enough of it) create life with it? Maybe I'm delusional and this will be the point where everyone starts reaming me a new one. ^^;;;;  ( I did warn you it was complicated!)

I'm not insane in my logic…right?