AN: I should probably mention beforehand, Naruto already told everyone about Kyuubi maybe 1 or 2 months before he left.

Another thing is, I just realized that I never put a disclaimer up. So here it is:

"I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto-san gets all the work, but I get all the fun."

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Chapter 15 : What Was Then
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A great big ball of white fluff slammed straight into a poor, unsuspecting Neji's stomach, knocking him into the hallway wall. The great big ball of white fluff then proceeded to slobber the living daylights out the poor, overwhelmed boy.

One day, when the mood wasn't so tense, Lee would conjure up this moment of Neji's distress in his head, and have himself a nice little laugh.

"Shiro!" came a voice that drew nearer and nearer, "Come back here you stupid mutt!!!"

Akito appeared from around the corner with a distinctly more casual attire than his exam getup and an almost comical exasperation etched into his childlike appearance. He caught sight of the small group, flashed a grin, and then resumed his previous aggravation.

"If Nii-chan KNEW you were still trying to kill people like this." He grumbled, latching his arms around Shiro's fuzzy body, "He'd probably do something bad to you. Maybe he'd get you declawed¡K" Then, as if 'declawed' was the magic work, Shiro perked up, released Neji from his weight, and shot past Akito into the hotel room.

Days later, the guests at the Konoha Hotel and the people in the surrounding area would be wondering just who exactly screamed bloody murder that day.

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"Meet Shiro." Naruto said with a grin stretched from ear to ear. "He was a cub when Jiraiya and I found in a forest of the Hidden Snow Village in the Wave Country." He patted the wolf's fur, which somehow remained spotless, even after the chase he had led his young master through the house. "Isn't he cute?"

While they didn't say it, the little group could certainly imagine Akito's reaction had he been there.

CUTE?! THIS LITTLE FURBALL, CUTE?! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR FREAKIN' MIND, NII-CHAN? DID YOU EVEN HAVE ONE TO BEGIN WITH? Cute. HAH!

All of a sudden, the words he had just spoken clicked.

"You were with Jiraiya-sama this whole time?" Lee asked.

"Yeah, I was with him until about 7 or 8 months ago." Naruto said. "Then we went our separate ways, but I guess it wouldn't make a lot of sense unless I start from the very beginning."

He leaned forward, succeeding in 'unwittingly' creating a suspenseful mood so thick it could be cut with a knife. "Can you handle it?"

After getting a few resolute nods, he pointed to his eye, the one hidden by his hair. "I'm sure you guys have noticed this." He said, earning him a few nods. "This is why I left."

He lifted up the patch of hair, earning him surprised gasps and expressions from the people there. While his left eye was the brilliantly bright sky blue it had always been, his right eye had mutated into a hideously red color with an even more hideously red slit for a pupil. It was the eye of a fox. The eyes of Kyuubi.

He quickly dropped the curtain of hair back in place and gently massaged his eyelid while his opened one silently observed their reactions.

There was none of the disgust he originally thought he'd get. No. There was definitely surprise. A bit of fear that had been expected and had died down quickly.

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He stood up. "I have already told you guys the story of the Kyuubi being sealed inside of me, but there's another part of the story that i just recently learned. It turns out, Kyuubi has been a problem for Konoha years before any of us were even born. It just never became hostile until the last few years.

"During those last five years, the Kyuubi became such a great problem, that Anbu and Nins from the Air Village had to be called in just to keep the village safe."He walked over to the mantel, took a photograph, and held it up. "My mother was one of them."

He held the picture up.

There were five people in the frame, four of them males, one female. The female had black hair, blue eyes, and looked hauntingly familiar...

Suddenly, they realized who his mother looked like. She was an exact replica of Naruto's Sexy no Jutsu, except with black hair and she had on the exceedingly stylish clothes of an Air Village Anbu.

She even had pigtails for crying out loud.

Then, as if he read their minds, he grinned. "This is my mother." he said. "Uzumaki Kirika. She was one of the Air Nins who came to Konoha. 20 years ago, she met my father, fell in love with him, and 5 years after, she married him, and got pregnant with me."

[A/N: I don't really know about the real timeline, but in this story, the cast are all around 16 years old, became genin at age 13. If the age doesn't match up, then just consider it AU, because I find it hard to believe that 11 year olds can leap from tree to tree with ease.]

"Their marriage was never made public, so few people knew that the two were husband and wife. My uncle, who was and still is the Leader of the Air, was among the group of people who knew. He wasn't exactly pleased with his younger sister's choice of husband, but he made no objection."

He paused, taking a breath. Then continued:

"I was born on the night Kyuubi attacked for real. My mother had just given birth to me when she was called out to duty. There were just too many Nins, Air and Leaf, who had already died. When she went out to fight, she was extremely weak and tired from labor. That's what got her killed."

The room was silent at that moment. Not a drip from a mysterious faucet or a tweet from a bird. Silence, as if in remembrance of his mother.

He finally continued. "I don't know what happened to my father afterwards. I only found out why he did what he did a few weeks ago. In his last letter he wrote to my uncle, he said, 'Kyuubi has already claimed the soul of my wife. I refuse to let him claim that of my son's.'

"So that night, he summoned his signature Summon one last time to meet the Kyuubi. That night, he sealed it away inside his only son. Me."

It took a moment for that last thought to sink in, only a moment. The story was hauntingly beautiful, and combined with his voice, had entranced them entirely, whisking them away into the folds of time itself. When his voice stopped, it was as if their souls were forced back into their suddenly imperfect, human bodies.

When the last sentence he spoke finally registered, they started and stared incredulously at him. He who was wearing an all knowing smile upon his face.

"You...?" Shikamaru began uncertainly, feeling uncharacteristically stupid. "Yondaime-sama's son... is you?"

"Yes." he answered. "The much revered Fourth Hokage of Konoha Village is my father."

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"Nii-chan is so stupid!" Akito cheered happily as the two siblings strolled down the nicely populated lanes of Main Street. "I can't believe he didn't catch us sneaking out. Ha-Ha!"

Kai remained silent, but inside, she was cracking up. She had already sent Naruto a message earlier that they were going out. His response had been Don't kill anyone.

She considered telling her poor, ignorant, fool of a brother. But then again, it would take the fun out of seeing him act like a retard, then going home and see him FEEL like a retard. Nevermind his oblivious look when he asked her why she HAD to get a camera. He would find out soon enough.

There was a slight rustle of footsteps behind her as the two descended into a slightly smaller alleyway that was less populated. The footsteps would have been undetectable to a normal person. But for the two of them...

Another rustle.

She sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Come out you-" Akito called out, adding along a string of unprintable curses. "We hear you already."

She sighed again and rubbed her temples, the -almost- instant reflex to, usually, any antic her imbecile brother was up to.

"Let's GO you stalker person!" he continued yelling, like there was no tomorow. "We don't got all day!"

Then, out of the shadows, stepped a figure.

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"So anyway," he continued amusedly as the shock began to wear off the faces of his stunned guests, "Why I left."

He leaned forward. "You see this eye?" he asked, pointing to 'the eye'. "This is why I left." He sat back again.

"You know the day that we fought the sound four?" he asked, ignoring the simultaneous flinch of the people who were present that day. "When I fought Kimimaro, do you remember how long the Kyuubi's chakra was active? Probably a few hours, eh? When I woke up the next morning, I found that suddenly, my eye have become just like Kyuubi's. So I went to the Hokage to ask her about what could have possibly happened to my eye."

"She told me that since the Kyuubi's chakra has been active for so long, parts of it got into my system. Namely, my eyes. She then told me very bluntly that there was no way I could stay in Konoha because the chakra in me was very unstable and dangerous, and there was just that slight chance that it could take over my body."

"So that was the day I left Konoha with Jiraiya. Since then, we've been all over the place for the first eight months of my little 'disappearance'. We've gone to the Sand Country, the Rock Village, we visited the Wave country again- I saw Tazuna-san and Inari. They say 'Hello'." he added to his former teammates.

"Two months ago." he said, "That was around the time when I first entered the Air Village. And let me say, that was the most exhilerating experience I've ever had."

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A/N: Okay, before I get hit with virtual tomatos, rotten stuff, and whatever else you guys want to throw at me for lack of updates, let me just say that I AM really REALLY sorry for not updating sooner. First, my computer crashed. Then, it came back. Then, it crashed AGAIN. Sadly, I was halfway done with chapter 15 and did not have a backup or anything. So [2] weeks later, I FINALLY got myself another computer. A better one. The only flaw? It doesn't have Microsoft Office because it's imported or something. So right now, I'm using Notepad to type up everything. So my grammar and spelling probably won't be as perfect.

I KNOW that I said that I was going to type everything up in one BIG chapter, but I have a lot of reasons NOT to do that by now. First of all, the constant writers block has never gone away. Second, if I just include everything in one chapter, then I'd just have another excuse not to update for an even longer amount of time than ever. Third, if I release it a little at a time, I can organize my thoughts better, and release chapters faster.

I've wanted to post some sort of Author's Note to let you guys know what in the world's been wrong with me, but FF.Net has a rule against that, and I don't want to risk ROTU getting deleted.

Again, I'm REALLY sorry.

I'm thinking about changing the name of this Fic to 'Irreplacable'. Tell me what you think because ROTU is a mouthful and bothersome to type.

During my time away, I was still active on emails. I got a lot of them and I thank you all for that. It makes my life a lot better off than it actually is because I'm a sad, sad person, and reviews are usually the only things that fill my inbox.

Here are the much needed credits that need to be given out:

- Claire Selene: Wonderful correspondant. Helped me from being my beta-reader, to thinking up names like Shiro and Kirika.

- LittlePetSimpson: For helping me organize my thoughts from the chaotic cavern of my mind.

- Loon Luu: List of Jutsus. Thanks!

- Pyr00tje: Just for always being there to make sure I was alive and things like that.

- And lastly, to all my reviewers: Who kept on urging me to continue this story. Thank you all.

Also, you may note that I've changed my name to Yumemi-chan. I've finally learned some Japanese [My mom learned it when she was in High School] and she taught me that it's "Possesser no Possesee." In short, Yume no Tenshi was literally Dream's Angel. Which made absolutely NO SENSE.

-Yume