Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. But man… It would be so BADASS if I did…

This story is inspired by a series of 'Bitch Kyuubi' deviation artworks done by an Artist named 'Croaky.' I really liked the artwork and it inspired me to write this fic. I'd encourage you to check it out. There is a link to it in my profile.

ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

Hey everyone! I'm back again! And I'm REALLY sorry about the delay… Bad case of school work/ writer's block.

Also: Garret PI and Slothful - You leave the most kick ass reviews! Thanks, I really appreciate the level of depth you went into. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And Garret I really appreciate you taking the time to SERIOUSLY critique my work. I sent you an e-mail thank you about that… though I'm not sure if you got it or not. My internet was having some trouble that week.

Fan Art Note: Also, I've posted several Naruto fan arts on my deviant art page, so if anybody wants to see what kind of art skills I have, go ahead and take a look, the link is in my Profile.

Chapter 8:

"Seriously Sasuke, you should have been there! It was awesome!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly. "We even had a conga line and everything."

"Really now?" Sasuke replied lamely.

Team Seven was currently waiting in their usual place on the bridge, once again, waiting for their sensei to arrive. Sitting on the bridge railing, looking out onto the small ravine was the brooding Uchiha prodigy. Standing right next to him was an energetic blonde, regaling him with the details of the Autumn festival several days ago.

Several feet away, Sakura sat on the opposite railing watching with some amusement at Naruto's energetic display. Part of her was miffed that the blonde was bothering her Sasuke-kun, but then again… Sasuke looked about just as annoyed as if Naruto hadn't been talking.

"'Come on Sakura, tell him! It was awesome!" Sakura blinked in surprise as she was pulled into the conversation.

"Well… It was a lot of fun. Why didn't you come?" Sakura asked, a hint of disappointment in her voice.

"Didn't feel like going." Sasuke replied simply.

"Well, it's a pity, not often you get to see a genuine ninja conga line in action." Turning in surprise, the three genin saw their sensei Kakashi leaning against the bridge railing, reading his infamous orange book again.

"You're Late!" The familiar cry of both Naruto and Sakura rang out.

"Sorry I got-"

"Lost on the road of life?" Naruto cut in.

"Cross paths with a black cat?" Sakura crossed her arms over her chest, frowning.

"Help an old lady cross the street?" Naruto added.

"Fight a horde of invading ninjas?" Sasuke glared at his teacher.

"Get abducted by aliens, break free from their holding cell before they probed you, fight off their giant kill-bots and save the planet from utter destruction?" Sakura stated, ticking points off her fingers.

Kakashi blinked.

"Wow… I didn't realize I'd used that one already…" The Jounin scratched his head, sweating nervously.

"Don't forget the one about the demonic alligator that supposedly lived in the sewers that you happened to come across when you were on your way here." Added Naruto.

"Wow… I almost never have to use that one…" Kakashi sweated even more.

His three students just seemed to get more and more ticked off.

"Well anyways, the reason I called you here today is-"

"A big mission?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Training in how not to interrupt your sensei." A quick whap to the head followed.

The blonde rubbed in his head and glared at his sensei.

"As you may or may not be aware of, this year's chuunin exam will be held in the hidden village of the Leaf." Kakashi explained.

"W-what?" Sakura looked at Kakashi in surprise. "You think were ready to be promoted already?"

"I think you got it in you." The gray haired man nodded. In his hands were three applications, where once his book had been.

"But be warned… I want you three to take the rest of the day to think this over." Kakashi said, staring most pointedly at Naruto. "I want you to seriously consider whether or not you are ready to take this test yet. There is danger involved in the exam. It's nowhere near as simple as the genin exam."

The three nodded.

'Nowhere near as simple! The three of us almost didn't pass our genin exam!' Sakura thought worriedly.

'This is awesome!' Naruto thought gleefully. 'Hokage here I come! … But… The genin test was hard, if Sasuke hadn't shared his lunch with me… I'd still be in the academy. Maybe I SHOULD think about this…I should talk to Kyu-I mean Mom.'

'Finally.' Sasuke thought. The young Uchiha suddenly recalled an incident from a few days ago involving several sand nins, one red haired sand nin in particular. 'A chance to test my strength against a spook like that…'

"Well, think this over… I mean it." That said, Kakashi was gone in a puff of smoke.

"Later." Sasuke said with a wave of his hand before disappearing off into the forest. Not giving either of his a teammates a chance to say anything.

"Well uh… I'm gonna go… talk to someone… See ya later Sakura-chan!" And Naruto was off as well, leaving the young Hurano girl by herself.

Sakura looked at the application one more time.

'Can I… Can I really do this?'

The young girl was going to have to think long and hard about this.

"So what do you think?"

Kyu closed her eyes and thought about what she'd been told.

"Do YOU think you're ready for the Chuunin exam?" Kyu asked.

"Well… Yeah! I've learned a lot of cool stuff." Naruto nodded. "And I'm getting really good at the whole transformation thing."

"What about the claw attack I showed you?" Kyu asked.

"Oh… Uh, Yeah I got that one." Naruto nodded, looking away from his mother.

"Then show me." Kyu ordered.

"Uh…" He gulped nervously.

Nodding his head, Naruto closed his eyes and willed his transformation.

Opening his red animalistic eyes, Naruto focused on one of the nearby trees. Flexing his clawed hands, the blonde began to focus his chakra into his claws.

'Focus, focus, focus, focus….' Naruto chanted in his head.

Naruto pulled all his concentration onto the tree, and with a lightening quick movement lashed out with his right hand!

"…"

And nothing happened.

"Got it, do you?" Kyu asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"I'll get it!" Naruto replied defensively.

"I'm know you will. Even without your… 'bloodlimit'… I think you'll be alright in the chuunin exam." The redhead explained.

"You think so?" Naruto asked, turning back to normal.

"Yes. But I've already told you… The question is ultimately if YOU think you're ready."

"Right." Naruto nodded.

"Well, I'm going to be heading off." Kyu said, standing up.

"Huh? Where are you going?" Naruto looked his mother curiously.

"I saw this lovely pack of deer this morning. I was going to take a closer look at them." Kyu explained as she walked. "Do you want to come with?"

"Uh… Sure." Naruto nodded, following after her.

"This place looks familiar…" The blonde commented off handedly. As he looked around the grassy meadow, some thing about this place reminded him of something… Something… Lazy.

He and Kyu had walked a short distance out of the forest area and come across a large field of grass, dozens of deer grazing around, oblivious to the two intruders.

"Aren't they lovely?" Kyu smiled as she approached one of the larger deer. When the animal caught sight of her, it appeared to almost freeze in panic. Naruto was almost about to jump in but the deer relaxed and allowed the pale woman to stroke his fur.

"Wow, you're good with animals." Naruto watched in awe.

"I've spend a greater part of my life as one you know." Kyu smiled. "It's funny though… I'm crossed between petting this deer… And eating it."

The blonde boy sweat dropped and in that moment could have sworn the deer did too.

"Hey, who's out there?" A voice called out, both mother and son blinked in surprise, looking around for the source of the voice.

"Huh? Who's there?" Naruto said.

"That's what I just said." The blonde jumped back in surprise as a head popped out of the tall grass. "How troublesome, I can't even take a nap without trespasser's 'causing trouble."

"Heeeey… I know you…" Naruto squinted at the young man sitting in the grass.

"Well of course you do." The boy frowned. "We were in the academy together."

"Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "You're that lazy guy on the loud blonde girl's team!"

The boy's eye twitched slightly.

"Do you even know my name?"

"O-of course I do!" Naruto 'stammered.' "It's uh… Uh… Choji...maru?"

"Shikamaru." The boy sighed.

"I knew that." Naruto sniffed.

"Sure. So what are you doing here?" Shikamaru asked as he got up off the ground.

"Oh, I was just looking at the deer with my mom." Naruto explained.

"You're mom?" The lazy boy quirked an eyebrow.

"Yeah! She's right…" Naruto paused as he looked behind him, only to find nobody there. "Hey, where'd she go!"

"Eh, doesn't really matter." Shikamaru shrugged. "As long as you don't harm the dear, there's nothing to worry about.

"Well, okay…" Naruto nodded, still somewhat confused about where the redheaded fox woman went.

"Shikamaru! Shikamaru! Get off your lazy butt and come to dinner!" A loud feminine voice called out. In the distance a woman wearing a white apron could be seen leaning out the door of a house.

"I'm coming! Jeeze…" The lazy boy muttered. "Man… Mothers... So troublesome."

"Really?" Naruto looked at Shikamaru strangely. "Is it that bad?"

"Eh…" He shrugged. "All she does is nag and tell me and my dad what to do."

"Shikamaru! Do you have a friend with you?" The Lazy boy's mother called out.

"Yeah!… I guess."

"Then be polite and invite him to join us! I swear… Didn't I teach you ANY manners!" The woman cried out in exasperation before turning back into the house.

"Wow." The blonde stared in awe.

"Yep." Shikamaru nodded. "So… You wanna stay for dinner?"

"Well…" Naruto paused to think about it for a moment, he could try and find his mom again… but she probably disappeared for reason… And Iruka was usually busy with something around now… Though Naruto couldn't figure out what it was…

Half way across Konoha.

"Achoo!" Iruka sneezed.

"Bless you." Anko smiled sweetly.

"Thanks…" Iruka nodded, and then continued to shaking the can of whip cream he had in his hand..

"So uh… Where did you want me to put the whip cream again?" The Chuunin asked, his face blushed a dark shade of pink as he looked at his currently naked girlfriend.

"Thanks for inviting me." Naruto grinned as Mrs. Nara began to shovel large helpings of food onto his plate.

"Oh I'm glad to!" The woman smiled. "It's good to see that Shikamaru is making friends outside of Chouji and Ino."

"Making friends is too troublesome." Shikamaru grumbledas dug his chopstick into his meal.

"Shikamaru! Wait for your father." Mrs. Nara scolded. At just that moment an older and what looked like a more scarred version of Shikamaru walked into the room.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." The man said as he took his seat at the table. "debriefing from our last mission wasrunning a bit long…"

It was at that moment that the man, Naruto guessed to be Shikamaru's father noticed the blonde ninja. A look of complete shock written on the older man's face.

"Um… Dear… Why is… HE here?" The man asked pointing at Naruto.

"Don't be rude Shikatou!" Mrs. Nara frowned. "Naruto is Shikamaru's guest."

"Oh... Um right." Shikatou nodded a look of nervousness crossing his face when hea glanced at the blonde.

"So Naruto, heard about he Chuunin examine coming up?" Shikamaru asked, as he began eat.

"Yeah, I've been thinking about it a lot today. I guess I finally figured that after the exam, I'll be one step close to Hokage!" The blonde grinned.

"Hokage? You're still on about that?" Shikamaru quirked an eyebrow up.

"Shikamaru, don't be rude." Mrs. Nara frowned at her son but smiled when she turned to Naruto. "Hokage? My, you are quite motivated and full of energy aren't you?"

And then she looked at Shikamaru again.

"Unlike SOME people."

The lazy boy's only response was a role of the eyes.

"Hokage huh? Why would you want to be hokage?" Shikatou asked as he eyed the blonde suspiciously.

"Well…" Naruto frowned. "So everyone in the village will finally acknowledge my existence!"

"Huh?" The man looked puzzled.

"It's always the same, everybody always ignores me. But if I become Hokage then it'll prove that I'm the best ninja in the village and then everybody will have to acknowledge me!"

Both of Shikamaru's parents looked at him in surprise. Shikamaru himself looked like he had heard it all before.

"That's quite a goal you got there." Shikatou said, cocking his head slightly as if he was suddenly seeing a different side to the young Uzumaki that he'd never seen before.

"Oh my…Well good luck then!" Mrs. Nara smiled.

The rest of dinner went by with little to no incident. Though Shikamaru seemed to have a lot of complaints about his mother, Naruto thought she was a really nice lady, and a pretty good cook!

"Thanks for dinner!" Naruto waved as he walked away from the Nara's home.

"Feel free to come back anytime!" Mrs. Nara smiled. "I can only hope some of your energy rubs off on Shikamaru!"

Standing behind his mother, Shikamaru merely rolled his eyes again.

From the edge of the forest, gentling petting one of the dear, Kyu smiled as she watched her son's orange clad formleave the Nara house.

"I hope you make lots of friends Naruto..." Kyu whispered softly.

The next day:

The chuunin exam had begun on a rough note. Between seeing through the illusion of a couple of genins and dealing with a bizarre boy with creepy eyebrows. It was seemed to be one hurtle after another for team 7.

Of course, things didn't improve at all when the exam instructors actually arrived. Naruto was in the middle of debating which was worse, the creepy instructor… or his impossibly hard test.

And too make things worse for the poor blonde; he was sitting next to a major distraction.

Hinata.

Why was sitting next to the shy Hyuuga such a problem? Well, you'd have to rewind about twenty minutes earlier…

The morning was a bright and shining day. To many genin a good omen for the exam to come. Leading against one of the walls outside the testing center was a pink haired girl with a thoughtful look on her face.

"Hey Sakura!" Naruto grinned as he jogged up to the young girl.

"Hey Naruto." Sakura smiled.

"Hey guess where I was last night!" The blonde grinned.

"On a date with your girlfriend?" Sakura smirked.

"No- Wait… girlfriend?" Naruto looked confused.

"What? You and Hinata aren't dating?" Sakura was trying to tease her teammate to take away some of her own worries but was finding it difficult due to the blonde's confusion.

"Me and Hinata?" Naruto cocked his head to the side. "Why would you think that?"

"Well… You two looked like you were having a lot fun together at the festival right? And you said she asked you to the dance didn't she?" Sakura asked. Was Naruto really that dense?

"Well yeah… but you had a lot of fun with us too…" The blonde pointed out.

"Near the end of the dance." Sakura corrected. "The rest of the time it was just the two of you." Now Sakura was grinning again. Naruto's face was gradually getting redder.

"W-well… she's not my girlfriend." Naruto replied, his voice betraying his uncertainty. "…Is she?"

"You don't know?" Sakura looked at him oddly.

"What?" Naruto said defensively. "I've never had a girlfriend before."

"And after all those times you bugged me for a date…" Sakura muttered as she shook her head.

'She's not my girlfriend right?' Naruto thought, scratching his head with his pencil. '…I mean… aren't you suppose to do something… or say something if you're dating?'

Of course… all this time thinking about whether or not he had a girlfriend was seriously eating up the boy's test time.

"Grrrr… I'm never gonna get this…" The blonde mumbled turning back to the written exam from hell. 'I need to… I NEED TO CHEAT!'

But the question was how…

'Damnit… how do I look at somebody else's test without getting seen?' Naruto frowned. 'Wiat…That's it!'

In the corner of his eye, six seats in front of him, there was a genin who appeared to be writing down a lot of stuff on his paper… Even if it was a wrong answer it was still better than nothing Naruto reasoned.

Focusing with all his might, Naruto concentrated the demonic change specifically to his eyes. After a long moment, he hesitantly opened them, seeing the world in a whole new light.

"Perfect!" He whispered as he used his enhanced vision to look at and copy down the answers from the genin sitting in front of him.

Though… If he had really thought about it, Naruto probably could have just gotten the answers from Hinata, seeing she had already finished her own test three minutes ago...

Naruto was lucky, considering the angle he was at to the examiners, it was impossible for them to tell whether or not he was cheating. To anyone watching him, it would appear as though he was merely staring off into space.

But one ninja was not concerned about catching the blonde cheating. He was too focused on what he had just seen happen to Naruto's eyes. From the angle he was at in his seat, the young genin was able to see the normally sky blue eyes of the blonde turned a bright crimson red.

The young ninja stared at Naruto, trying to grasp what he had just seen.

"No…" Sasuke whisper. "Naruto… he couldn't possibly be…"

And now the side story to beat out all other side stories… Well actually… I personally can't really recall reading any other fics with a side story like this…

… Uh anyways….

IRUKA THE AMAZING CHUUNIN SIDE STORY!

It was a bright and shining day outside. Bird's were chirping, flower's were blooming and Mitarashi Anko looked depressed.

Said Jounin was sitting on the ledge of building right across from the exam center. The angle of her spot being perfect for looking into the testing room so she could get the timing right for her 'entrance.'

But the young snake woman wasn't paying too much attention to the test room at the moment. Her eyes focused lazily on her dangling legs.

'… I guess I'm gonna have to tell him eventually.' Anko thought. 'I'm not sure whether he's going to be happy… upset… or just going to faint.'

The young woman took a brief moment to glance up at the clouds.

"Yeah… He'd probably just faint." She smiled wearily.

Anko closed her eyes as her thoughts let her drift back to earlier the night before.

Anko was standing in her bathroom, staring into her own reflection in the mirror with a look of high anxiety, doing her absolute best to look anywhere but at the small stick in her hand.

"Please say no… Please say no…" She mumbled under her breath.

Pausing one moment to brace herself, Anko looked down at the stick.

"…" And had no idea what it said.

"Shit, where'd that box go…" She muttered as she scrounged around the sink.

When she finally found the box and read the direction, the jounin paled.

"Oh crap."

"Something the matter Anko?" Iruka asked as he knocked on the door.

"N-nothing!" Anko called out.

"You sure… You've been in there for a while." Iruka said worriedly. "Are you feeling sick like you did this morning?"

"No! Uuuuh… Just y'know… 'Lady stuff.'" Anko cringed… She was a special jounin, she could come up with better excuses than that!

"Lady stuff?" Iruka asked in confusion.

The young woman sighed, dropping the stick and box into the trashcan making sure to bury them to the bottom of the garbage before stepping out of the bathroom.

"You alright?" Iruka asked worriedly.

"Sure! I'm fine!" Anko put on a face smile.

"Are you sure? You looked kind of upset a second ago."

Anko suppressed a grimace… she couldn't tell him now… She wasn't ready to. She had to get him off this train of thought.

And then an idea came to her.

"Hey Iruka… Have I ever showed you this little game I know involving whip cream?" Anko smiled seductively at the scarred man.

"W-whip cream?" Iruka stuttered.

Anko sighed… She'd joked about it plenty of times, even had serious fantasies about maybehaving a real family… And just a several days ago, the talk of marriage had come up… Serious talk.

But really... theywere justwhimsical dreams and wishful thinking… but when all was said and done… Anko realized the reality of the situation when she looked at the results of that test last night.

And that test had smacked her square in the face with a harsh piece of truth.

Anko…was too screwed up to be a mother.

"All these years you've been gone…" The young woman muttered as she twirled a kunai around her finger absently. "And I'm still finding knew things about myself that you've helped ruin…"

"Dreams are just dreams I guess... nothing more." The young woman sighed.

"Huh?" Blinking, Anko realized that the first part of the exam was over and Ibiki was giving his little lecture about 'accepting mission' and all that other boring junk.

The snake woman stood up and suddenlyl... Grinned maliciously.

What better way to take her mind of her problems than by making a bunch of kids suffer by sending them to the forest of death?

With that thought in mind, the young jounin jumped the distance between the two buildings and crashed straight through the window, being careful to launch the kunais attached to her banner off the moment she landed.

"None of you are in any position to celebrate!" Anko exclaimed, reciting her planned speech. "I am the second chief examiner! Mitarashi Anko!"

Everyone one stared at the woman in shock.

"Times a wasting here people! Follow me!"

The room remained deathly silent…

"Can't you sense the mood in here?" Ibiki whispered, pushing Anko's banner to the side.

"Jeeze… What a bunch of stiffs…" Anko frowned. "What'd you do to them Ibiki? Take off your bandanna and show them your creepy scars or something?"

Deathly silence again…

"Oh… I guess you did…"

"W-what the heck is going on!" Exclaimed a blonde haired boy near the back.

"Quiet you little punk!" Anko snapped. 'Ah crap, is that the Fox kid-I mean… Naruto?'

Maybe should she should be nice to the kid… for Iruka. The two of them were awfully close after all...

"Who the heck do you think you are!" The boy exclaimed.

"I'm the one who can fail you if you don't clam up!" She shot back... Okay forget the being nice thing….

Grumbling the boy sat back down.

Huffing, Anko took a moment to scan the room, blinking in surprise as she suddenly realized something.

"Hey what's the deal Ibiki! You getting soft or something? There are still twenty six teams here! What's going on?"

"An excellent group this year." The scarred man shrugged nonchalantly.

"Well, don't worry, I'll make sure to cut these brats down by half." Anko grinned evilly as she saw many of the genins gulp nervously.

"Alright then… Let's Go!" Anko exclaimed, heading out of the classroom, glad to forget her own worries, even for just a little while.

Next: Enter Orochimaru! And why does Kiba think he's the only sane member on his team? This and more on the next chapter of… Uh(Checks the title) A Mother and her Kit!