Cneko: Final…Fantasy…X II…..

Kizuko: Ne, write about Kizuko.

Cneko: Can't…Yuna…and…guy who looks like Tidus but probably isn't Tidus….

Kizuko: ……..*scrunches up face*

Cneko: ….DressSpheres….must…level…

Kizuko: WRITE!!!! WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE!!! *throws tantrum*

Cneko: O_O !! Yes, Ma'am!

And there is my excuse for not updating. Even though I really should have because you guys are the bestestest and you give me all those lovely reviews….

Okay!! You asked for it! And I finally figured it out!! Here's where we start hitting the spoilers for the series, folks! Up to Manga chapter 198, to be precise. (sorry, for those who aren't reading the manga…that's just how it kinda worked out…)

By the way, there will be a Gaara sidestory/prequel to this. I've already got 3 pages written of it.

Onward!

*****************

The shadow watched. The little one was alone at school most of the day with only the protection of a Chuunin teacher. And then, in the afternoon the children went outside to play.  That would be the most opportune moment.

It was time.

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

The days had somehow merged together to become nearly a month since Tsunade had come to beg their help and release him from his prison. They had fallen into a routine of sorts.

Kizuko went to school, the children picked on her, she either bit them or Shinosuke made a timely remark about how particularly stupid a certain assignment, teacher or other such item was, Iruka-sensei would either scold her (all while having the strangest sense of dejavu) or attention would safely be diverted to less violent directions, she would come home, happily or not, dragging Kon-Kon behind her.

Naruto spent most of his days training or doing whatever petty assignments Tsunade would give him. Sometimes Gaara would tag along, sometimes not. Otherwise, he could be found attempting to make the apartment livable (He had lived alone his entire life, he liked to think he knew something if not much about housekeeping.) or about town causing general havoc in the gossip circles and on the comfort level of the villagers. He was always there to welcome Kizuko home in the afternoons though.

Gaara did whatever it was Gaara did. He tagged along with Naruto, if he felt like it or if he felt the Hokage had given the blonde a mission he couldn't handle alone and didn't have appropriate backup for. (And sandgods knows, that was far too often. None of these leaf idiots could be considered appropriate backup except for perhaps five.) He disappear back to Sand as needed, which Kazekage had quickly learned wasn't very often if he wanted to have a long successful reign as Kazekage or alive, even. He did his duty has the family's silent guardian and sent the more hostile and vocal villagers scurrying in terror with a glare and a swirl of sand, or perhaps slightly more if they upset Naruto by upsetting Kizuko. And he endured the ramen.

Desert sun above, did he endure the ramen.

Kizuko had had one of her worse days at the Academy. Naruto had been half way down the trail back to it with murder in his eyes when a noise caught his attention. His little girl's stomach growled. Loudly. She looked at him with big eyes and said quite a matter a factly, "Papa, Kizuko is hungry."

If Kizuko is hungry, then Kizuko shall eat. Looking about quickly for the nearest source of food, he found it and almost did a double take. There it stood. His beloved Ichiraku ramen stand. He hadn't been there in ten years. No one made ramen like they did. "Kitling, how's ramen sound?"

"Is it yummy?"

"The yummiest."

"Wai!"

And so they went, Gaara rolling his eyes as he walked behind the bouncing blondes on their way to sit at the bar.

"Ojisan! Two Miso ramen and…Gaara, what do you want?"

Taking the empty stool next to the foxboy and sending a good homicidal glare towards a couple of other customers who were whispering and staring, the redhead replied. "Tanuki."

"Che. Figures."

At this point they had been noticed. "Irasshai…Naruto-kun?" the old man behind the counter squinted at the blonde. The blonde flinch briefly, steering himself for rejection and being kicked out. "Hai, Ojisan. It's me." The old man made a sort of odd noise. "It's been awhile, son. We've missed your business." Naruto smiled slightly. Kizuko's stomach growled again. "Ne, ne! Ojisan! Kizuko is hungry and Papa says ramen is the yummiest! Kizuko wants ramen!"

The old man blinked at the bouncing ball of blonde and orange. "Right away then, missy."

And thus was Kizuko introduced to ramen. She was truly Naruto's child, if the physical features hadn't of given it away the ramen addiction would have. Although, Gaara often smirked to himself as he watched Naruto despair in his daughter's taste buds as she craved udon nearly as much as ramen.

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

For all the bitterly cheerful demeanor he put forth, Naruto was worried. It had been nearly a month and Sasuke had yet to make a move. He didn't trust it, just like he didn't trust Sasuke. He felt like there was something he was missing, but he was blind to what it was. He and Gaara would often discuss it late at night after Kizuko had been put to bed.

"I just don't get it. He attacks two Anbu forces and then is quiet."

"Maybe he decided to pull back for awhile since you've come back." Gaara sat on the bed watching him pace.
"No. I know him. He was the closet thing I had to a best friend for years. He's not afraid of me just like I'm not afraid of him. We don't prepare for each other. We rush towards the other one, chakra flaring, and battle cries echoing. We drive each other crazy; we're the only ones who can drive each other to that limit. Something's not right. It's like he's hesitating for some reason." Naruto paused looking out open window to the full moon in the sky above.

"And they say I'm the paranoid one?"

Naruto turned towards the bed and snorted. "You are."

Gaara shrugged. "Yes, but you seem to be intent on giving me a run for the title. Uchiha will make his move, when he makes his move. There's very little you or I can do about it until then. So shut up and come to bed."

"Says the man who doesn't sleep."

"Who said anything about sleep?"

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

His answer came a few days later in the form of a kunai tossed directly at his head as they were walking home from a mission.

Gaara proved a handy person to have around as sand spread out and formed a protective barrier around both of them.

"I could have caught it, you know."

The pale man shrugged. "Reflex"

Naruto raised his eyebrows. "To protect both of us?"

"I don't fancy the idea of raising her alone."

"It was a kunai. Hello? Basic training 101?"

Gaara just shrugged and looked the road ahead.

Naruto sighed and picked up said kunai noticing a slip of paper around it.

"Wonderful. Kunai messages. How cliché can he get? I think the time with the snake's affected his brain and sense of style."
"Uchiha had a sense of style?"

"Yeah, the 'I'm a dark and brooding pounce' style." Unfolding the paper, Naruto read and then froze. "I've got to go."

"What? Where?"

The blond shook his head. "Watch Kizuko, make sure she gets home from school okay." He turned to leave but was immediately incased in sand up to his waist. Blue eyes glared at green as Gaara folded his arms and calmly said "Where? You know, I do like how look and I'd really hate to have to maim you."

"Forest clearing. Just outside of town. He wants to meet. May I go now Mother?"

The sand receeded and an odd look came over the Sand nin's face. "I meant it."

"Meant what?"

"What I said about raising her alone."

Naruto grinned. "Hey, I'm Uzumaki Naruto, remember? But…still watch her and the village for me. I trust this as much as a trust him."

"That's suppose to reassure me?"

The blonde had already sped off.

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

The shadow smiled and then moved towards the Academy.

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

Naruto reappeared in a clearing outside of, but near to Konoha. It was surrounded by tall pine trees, and there, leaning against one of those trees was Uchiha Sasuke.

He had grown taller, his raven hair was long than it use to be, and the hitae he wore bore a music note instead of a leaf, but he was still Sasuke and just the sight of him brought the years slamming back.

It had started three years ago. Five of them had been sent to retrieve Sasuke from the Sound. Chouji had nearly died. Neji had punctured a lung and lost all movement in his left arm for nearly a year. Kiba had lost Akamaru.

It had been the toughest battle any of them had ever fought, but they had made it. They had gotten to Sasuke.

Unfortunately, it hadn't been in time to keep the curse from evolving to the second level.

Naruto had had to use Kyuubi's power to subdue him in the end and the other five had seen. He had been kneeling, exhausted, over Sasuke's unconscious body when he turned to see the others venture bloody and beaten into the former forest he and Sasuke had fought in. For a brief panic stricken moment, Naruto felt the adrenalin pump through his body and prepared to flee from the curses and attacks he just knew were going to be coming his way. And it was going to hurt worse than ever before, because…because he considered these four comrades, if not friends.

It never came. To his amazement and relief, Shikamaru looked from where he was supporting Chouji's thin body to meet Naruto's eyes dead on. There was silence for a moment, and then, "Nice work. Mission accomplished. Now, let's go home, I'm tired."

The other three never made any mention of what they had seen and hadn't treated him any differently.

They all thought that had been the end of it. They somehow dragged each other and Sasuke back to Konoha, where they recovered in hospital and Sasuke's seal had been sealed for a second time.

Or so they thought.

It lay dormant for three years, letting everyone think that it had been truly sealed. The Sound had been unusual quiet. He had made it to Chuunin level along with Sasuke, Sakura, and many of the others. He had friends, ones who knew about the monster within him and didn't care. He had the whole world and then some. Life was the best it had ever been.

And then suddenly, one day, Sasuke's supposedly sealed cursed seal was crawling its way all over his skin and the dark haired boy was destroying the village with a passion. Uchiha Sasuke unsealed and going beserk? Who ya gonna call? Uzumaki Naruto, of course!

He didn't really remember much of the beginning of the battle. All the usual tricks had failed or being copied by the Sharingan using sonuvabitch, were otherwise useless. He remember the ending though. Hokages, past, present, and future, did he remember. Just like the last time, he used Kyuubi's power. 'Foxed out' as Shikamaru had called it once on the extremely rare and private occasions when they discussed it. Unlike the last time, it hadn't been in a relatively secluded forest with only four other barely alive and friendly souls to witness it. It had been in the middle of Konoha proper with the whole damn village looking on in horror.

When he came back to his senses, Sasuke was unconscious on the ground, there was mass property damage all around them, villagers looked on and then ran away screaming as his confused glance aimed towards them. Kakashi-sensei, somehow in that mysterious Kakashi-sensei way he had, had been there to catch him as he passed out from sheer exhaustion and shock.

The trial had been two days later and his exile from the village imposed three days after that. It had taken him sixteen years to build up the trust of Konoha and her villagers and had taken less than a week for his perfect world to come crumbling down around his ears.

Exile the monster. But what of Konoha's wonder boy? Oh, the poor innocent orphan. It wasn't his fault, of course. It was that nasty icky seal to blame. After all, if it weren't for that seal Konoha's Golden Boy would never ever attack the village or do anything so evil. Yeah. Right. If Sasuke hadn't known that second level seal wasn't properly sealed from day one, then Naruto had a cute fluffy bunny sealed inside him.

Sasuke stood up and walked forward, shaking Naruto out of his memories. Crimon eyes looked on him with the mild interest one normally gives an interesting bug of some sort. "Hello, Naruto. It's been, what? Ten years?"

Naruto grinned cheerfully. "Hiya Traitor! You seem to be suffering from an unfortunate case of living. I plan on curing that once you answer two questions."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow with a look of 'You're kidding me, right?'. The cheerful grin changed to dead seriousness, blue eyes went ice cold. "Where's Sakura-chan?"

"Dead, along with our son."

"Died in child birth?"

"No."

There was a long moment of silence.

"Did you kill her?"

"Isn't that three questions?"

"Answer me, you fucker!"

"No."

"Monosyllabic as always, aren't we?" The grin was back. "Now, about that second question…"

Sasuke gave him the 'I'm waiting you idiot' look that he knew so well from the past.

"Why am I here?"

The brunet cocked his head to the side. "I thought I'd give you a chance. In honor of the past and all that. The villagers obviously hate you, you were exiled for ten years, why protect them?"

"You're asking me to join you?" Naruto laughed "Oh, man…what the hell has that seal done to your brain? You actually thought I'd say yes? I hate your fucking guts. You're the reason I was exiled in the first place, you bastard!!"

Sasuke didn't even twitch a muscle. "Actually, no. I didn't think you would, but I was under orders to ask and truthfully, we only want the demon fox. You alone are worthless, dobe."

"You bastard, take that back or I'll…"

"Haven't grown much in ten years have you?"

The blonde's eyes had bled to dark purple, nearly red, with hatred, but as if a spell had been cast over the clearing neither moved.

It was odd to see two men who defined themselves so much by their actions be at a complete standstill with each other. The air grew heavy and tense until an explosion and cries from the village echoed through out the forest. Both turned towards the noise, carefully keeping the other in sight should they try anything.

Swirl of sand and wind formed into a redheaded young man next to Naruto. "Gaara? What happened? The Village…" snarling Naruto turned towards Sasuke. "You bastard you planned this!" Sasuke didn't move. "If I say 'no' I doubt you'll believe me."

"You've got some connection to it, Uchiha. There's a brat down there causing chaos with a sharingan." Gaara lay a pale hand on Naruto's shoulder. "It's Kizuko…"

The blonde spun, Sasuke forgotten. "What? What's wrong? You could take care of a sharingan user no problem…"

Gaara shook his head. "It's not that. I couldn't get to her in time…Naruto…she's foxed out."

The color drained from the young man's face and unspeakable horror entered his blue eyes. Which quickly turned to fury as he cast a glare of pure malice in the direction of Sasuke, who had been silent. "I swear," came the growl, the hatred made his voice sound different and animalistic even to his own ears. "That if that brat harms her in any way, I will make Itachi look like a fluffy bunny at the petting zoo. Bet on it."

Sasuke didn't move, save a slight tightening of his fists. The two other shinobi hurried back to the village in a gust of wind and sand and leaves. The dark man looked towards the village, his fists tightening further as he muttered "Kaede…" And then he too, disappeared in gust of wind and leaves.

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

"Stupid fox!! Give up and die already!!"

The weird girl with the red eyes and the glowy arm charged at her again. Kizuko growled. This girl was mean!! She had charged into school, thrown Shinosuke into the bushes and kept coming after Kizuko. She was really nasty, Kizuko bet her Papa never taught her how important it was to be nice to people even if you don't like them like Papa and Gaara taught her.

The little blonde jumped back and darted to the side, her arm hurting from where the girl's glowy arm almost hit her. This really wasn't fun, and this girl was mean, and Kizuko hurt from where the girl had hit her before, and she had lost Kon-Kon somewhere. She wanted Papa, she wanted Gaara, she wanted to go home, she wanted…she wanted…she wanted to rip this girl's throat out and feel the coppery blood slide down her own.

Chakra flared.

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

Kaede took a step back as the child in front of her began to change. She felt a tremendous amount of chakra rise up and cover the girl. The blue eyes went as red as her own, the whisker marks bled to a dark purple. Chakra swirled around the child, almost taking on the shape of an evil lupine-like face and nine tails. She could only describe the power around the child as…evil.

She was scared.

This wasn't how it was suppose to happen!

She had heard the name Uzumaki hissed all her life in hatred. And now, here was this little Uzumaki, obviously the spawn of the elder, dangerous one. She could take her. The other was only a child, and better to take her out now before she became a thorn in their side. She was Uchiha Kaede, daughter of the last surviving Uchiha, and wielder of the Sharingan and Chidori by age nine. She could do this. At least that's what she had thought.

The foxgirl hissed and then moved towards her with incredible speed. She had grown claws, in the odd transformation it seemed and only the sharingan allowed Kaede to move to the side before those claws could decapitate her. Still she felt a sting and wet trickle down her cheek. Maybe she should run…the chakra was overwhelming. Maybe she should…no. She couldn't run. How could she face Otou-sama if she ran away from this little brat? She'd never be of any use to him if she ran. Only if she beat this Uzumaki. If she could beat the brat in front of her, he'd be so proud of her! 'Kaede', he'd say. 'You are my beloved daughter and most valuable ninja. You are a worthy heir for the Uchiha name.' It would be wonderful…and it would be hers. All she had to was beat the little one.

With a determined grin, Kaede summoned forth the Chidori once more. The chakra ran across her arm, the sound of a thousand birds filled the air. Suddenly, the little fox was on her again and she threw her arm at the other girl. The fox dodged and chidori barely grazed its side where the wound immediately healed. Claws raked across her middle sending agonizing pain throughout her nervous system, fanged teeth snapped at her throat barely missing it. She jumped back from the fox, which hissed at her.

Crap! She had missed and she only had enough chakra left for one more…better make it count. Kaede charged the fox, who lunged and clawed her chest and sunk teeth deep into her left shoulder. She screamed in pain, but managed to bear it long enough to hit the fox at point blank with her chidori. It flew from her, taking a chunk of skin with it, back until it bounced against a large piece rubble and then fell to the ground and lay still.

Wincing, she placed her right hand over the wound on her shoulder to stanch the bleeding and pulled out a kunai with her left hand. The fox was unconscious, so she had better kill it now.

She limped towards the prone body and was about to thrust down the kunai, when darkness engulfed her.

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

He had seen the older child with short black hair held back by a kerchief raise a kunai over his little girl's beaten body and nearly lost it. The only thing that saved his sanity at that point was that Gaara got there first. Sand flew and surrounded the girl, closing in on her fully. The redhead made the motion for the sand to squeeze the girl until they had a rain of blood, but Naruto held out an arm.

"Don't kill her."

Gaara gave him a funny look. The blonde looked determined, if slightly wicked.

"I want a shot at her first. Uncover her head."

Another motion and the sand parted revealing the girl's head. Naruto stepped forward, and the girl's eyes became very wide.

"You hurt my daughter. You've proved you can hunt the kits, now can you handle the adults?" He raised a hand casually, air and chakra spinning lazily but steadily quicker with in his palm. "This is called 'Rasengan'. It can tear a thousand year old tree in half quicker than lighting. Now, let's imagine what this is going to do when I aim it at your face."

The girl's face filled with fear. So much, that her sharingan faded and her eyes returned to normal. Emerald green eyes stared up at Naruto in terror. Familiar emerald green eyes, set in an Uchiha face. "Sakura-chan…" His expression fell, the chakra in his hand dispersing.

There was a flash, a crack, and quicker than he could move the girl was gone from in front of him and several feet away in her father's arms. "Otou-sama, I…" Kaede bit her lip.

"Later." Sasuke didn't even look at her but kept his eyes on the two demons guarding their wounded kit. "Naruto, we've both got wounded to look after so this ends for today. We'll meet again."

"Yeah, and then I'm going to kick your ass! You and that brat of yours!!" the blonde called as the two Uchiha retreated.

"Naruto."

"I swear, Sakura-chan's daughter or no, next I'm going to …"

"Naruto."

"And that Sasuke! Ten years and he hasn't changed at all…"

"Papa?" came the soft whimper

Immediately on Boo-boo alert, Naruto focused all his attention on the little form on the ground. "Papa's here, kitling." He glared at Gaara. "Why didn't you tell me she was awake?" The sand nin rolled his eyes heavenward in a silent plea for strength and moved to the left as something familiar caught his eye.

"Kizuko hurts."
"I know, Kitling. And Papa will try to make it better. Are you cold, or does it just hurt?" He gently picked her up.

"Hurts…"

Naruto closed his eyes in a silent pray to whatever gods watched over demon vessels. The worst hadn't happened then, as he had feared it would with Gaara's report of her channeling the Kyuubi inside her.

"Kon-Kon…"

"Here." Gaara handed her a slightly singed, but still entact Kon-Kon. "He was hiding in the bushes."

Kizuko snuggled closer to her Papa, wincing as she did, silent little tears making paths down her cheeks.

"Mean…"
"I know she was, Kitling. And if I ever catch her near you again, Gaara and Papa are going to find out just how many cuts a human body can take before it dies."

"Generally, around two thousand."

Naruto paused. Looked at Gaara, opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and then shook his head. "No. I'm not even going to ask how you know that. Come on, Kitling, let's go see the doctor."

********************

Dear lord, it's done. There! Now you all know what happened! And yes, Cneko does not write fight scenes well. I know. ^^;;;

Ack! Poor Kizuko-chan…dun worry! She's got Papa's healing factor so she'll be driving Iruka-sensei crazy by tomorrow.

And I killed off Sakura-chan….Wah! I'm really really sorry but it's kinda important for later on. I didn't want to…I like Sakura….she could be so awesome in the series if they'd only let her. God, just let Tsunade train her or something. I'm sorry, Sakura fans!! Please don't hate me! *cowers*

And Sasuke appears. Along with a surprise. Boy, he's rather hard to write.  Ha! I had you all fooled with the shadow didn't I? ^^ Yah, well….Kaede's got issues. Lots and lots of issues. Not the least being that she's desperately trying to please Otou-sama, because she's not the male heir he wanted.

 Interesting side note, Kaede means a type of maple tree in Japanese. I figure Sakura = cherry blossom/tree, why not stick with the tree naming system? ^^;;;;

And yes, I swear Kaede is the last original character to be introduced. No more. I promise. It's just that Kizuko and Kaede both are rather important for the plot…And Shinosuke's gonna have a rather important role later on too….But I swear! That's all! Kaede's the last…

*runs off in case people decide that now they will begin reaming her a new one*