A/N: Hello, people! COVER ART BY: Niyuu_Trickster_Kat!

I don't own Naruto.

I have no beta.

ENJOY!

CHECK ME OUT ON TUMBLR. HELLY-WATERMELONSMELLINFELLON!

TAGS for this Chapter: SWEARING.

Shikamaru frowned when he noticed Naruto's orange-clad body up on the school roof instead of coming inside like everyone else. His blond hair kept dipping in and out of view. Curious, he elbowed Choji and then nodded upward. "Wanna go see what he's up to?"

The Akimichi opened his second bag of chips for the day and shrugged. "Sure."

And so they slipped away from the crowd of students and up the stairwell to the roof. Anything to get out of classes.

"Hey, Naruto, what are you doing?" the Nara asked.

The blond spared them a small glance as he fiddled with some ninja wire, before saying, "I'm planning out some epic revenge pranks."

"Why?" Naruto hadn't pulled a prank in a while. He'd been too busy training because he really wanted to graduate this time and felt it was more important.

"You know how Hinata got in trouble the other day and had to stay behind for detention?"

"Yeah." And she had refused to tell them why, just that 'it was necessary' in some ominous way.

"Some of Sasuke's Fangirls have been spreading nasty rumors about Yuuki. How she's got sexually transmitted diseases or can't have kids meaning she's useless to him and stuff. And while Hinata got her revenge on them with Juken, and they're still in trouble, I think they deserve even more trouble for their words. So I'm giving it to them."

All at once, Shikamaru felt the cold feeling of fury filling his body. Never before had he ever been this angry before. So angry, in fact, that he felt strangely calm about it, even as that cold feeling washed down his spine and his mind conjured up unpleasant images of things he would very much like to do that would get his arrested at the very least and sent to dungeons of T&I at the very most.

This was worse than what his preconceived notions used to be. He expected catty behavior from young girls because they weren't fully matured yet, and maybe an unhealthy amount of jealousy thrown in there, but this was so much worse than any of that.

"Is Ino involved?" he demanded, his voice so stern that it obviously made Choji uncomfortable. Enough to actually take a few steps away out of self-preservation for his being and the safety of his food.

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know and I don't care. She and Sakura are the leaders of the group and they must have had some kind of hand in it, so all of them are getting a part in the revenge. I don't care about the levels of involvement each did or didn't have, they're all guilty by association. It's no longer a club to glorify Sasuke being an orphan, it's now just a bunch of bullies who can't handle someone other than them thriving, and I don't like bullies."

"Make it memorable," the Nara told him tightly. "In the meantime, I'm skipping school to tell Ino's parents. I'm getting sick of this. Choji and I are going to be stuck on a team with her when we graduate and if she's going to be going around and acting like this in any way, I want nothing to do with her and I'm going to make that fact clear."

They'd been given more advanced work in the Academy to prepare them ahead of time for life as a shinobi. They got lectures from active shinobi every month and learned about the ups and downs of the job in every field available to them. He'd been willing to look the other way with the whole kissing Sasuke's ass for stupid reasons because no one had gotten hurt at least, but no long could he remain silent.

Ino had turned twelve. She was about to become a kunoichi. Their line of work wasn't a place for attitudes such as this. How could she be trusted to do her job if she was behaving this way all the time?

"You coming with me or going to class?" Shikamaru asked his long-time friend who looked nervous.

"Um… I'm going to class, if you don't mind. At least so it seems less like our group isn't skipping as a whole. Iruka-sensei won't go off looking if only two people are missing."

Good point.

"See you guys later then. Wish me luck."

"Hey, where's Shikamaru?" whispered Yuuki, leaning over the empty space between them.

Choji shrugged and murmured, "He had something to do apparently. Said to wish him luck. He might come in late, but I'm not sure."

The girl nodded and slouched in her seat to better hide the bento she had open in her lap. The inside was just completely filled with rice and she was carefully stuffing clumps into her mouth with her chopsticks. Choji was in a similar state, but with a bag of beef jerky. He was attempting to make his food last my having snacks that had more protein and took longer to consume.

"Yuuki, Choji, if I turn around and see you eating, I'll confiscate your food," Iruka warned, chalk pausing on the board even as his back remained facing them.

The two shared a look of concern, before each swallowed in haste and arranged dazzling smiles on their faces when the man finally did turn, his face lacking any amusement.

"Uh-huh."

At least with their antics, it seemed like nothing was out of the ordinary, so it was all good on his end. Now as long as Yuuki remained unaware of the things being said about her, then everything would be perfectly fine.

An unholy amount of screaming echoed through the Academy, practically shaking the walls with the vibrations it caused. Everyone, regardless of what their teachers wanted, rushed to the bathrooms to see what had happened and found a most amusing sight awaiting them.

Several girls, all from Sasuke's Fanclub, Yuuki noticed, were standing in the bathroom, all with tears pouring down their faces and their hair on the ground around them surrounded by something red. Above their heads was a whole series of clear bags dangling from nearly invisible ninja wire and dripping from the cuts in them, was the red stuff that was now on the floor.

As for the girls and their hair, whatever the red stuff was, and it smelled worse than formaldehyde, didn't fall evenly around them. So some girls had more bald spots than others, but for the most part, their hair was ruined and in order to truly salvage it, they'd have to shave the rest off and let it grow out naturally.

Ino looked like she had a receding hairline now and Sakura had enormous patches missing from around her ears.

Yuuki had no idea what the red stuff was, but damn if it wasn't effective! She had to wonder what warranted this kind of thing though.

The gathered kids, all who had managed to cram inside the bathroom to get a look behind the teachers blocking the way, broke into fits of laughter, pointing at the still crying girls.

Damn. They did someone dirty and she approved of the revenge. It didn't physically harm anyone and apparently couldn't be traced back to anyone either. Well done.

But what red chemical/solution/liquid thing had the power to instantly make someone's hair fall out upon contact? That was the question. And what child had access to such a thing?

"Get a trademark for that game of yours before some company copies it and makes a profit that you deserve," Shikamaru told her during lunch the following week. "You want to not be poor anymore? That's the way to do it. Mass market those things everywhere. Come up with more if you have to. Eventually your problems will be solved for life."

It had merit and it wasn't something new either. "I actually have considered more games to share. I have prototypes that Naruto and I play in our own time. I've already made notes on how to improve them too. I just need the materials."

"What are they like?" the boy asked, his head resting on his folded arms but facing her direction for easier conversation.

She sat up, excited to tell someone else about the odd ideas she got in her dreams. "So Snakes & Ladders is a game where you have to make it to the top, starting at the bottom left and moving toward the top right with a marble. There are indentations on the board to fit the marble in each space. Once you make it to the right side, you go up a level and then move to the left end, where you'll move up one level and then move toward the right. This continues all the way up. But along the way are snakes and ladders. Ladders, if you land on their space, let you immediately climb the levels without having to zigzag up the board, while snakes, if the marble lands in the indentation they make in the board, forces you to roll all the way back down to the tip of the snake's tail toward the bottom of the board. Multi-player, probably up to four people."

"I like it. It would be popular among children and their families."

"Naruto really likes it. He's always getting the best roll on the die."

"Anything else?"

"Pay Day," she said. "The board is blocked off into 31 Days to represent a month of time. You set a time limit beforehand, so say 3 months. You play from day 1 to 31 three times in a row and whoever has the most money at the end is the winner. This includes spaces where you can buy expensive properties that you can then sell later on for up to double their price, bills you have to pay, family demanding money from you, and sometimes freebies from other players if they get ordered to pay up. There is a banker in charge of the money too."

"Kind of similar to Monopoly but just different enough to grab the same audience and probably another demographic that doesn't want the stress of Monopoly. That one takes hours and few are dedicated to winning like me."

"Yeah," she agreed. "I always win at Monopoly against Naruto while I always lose at Pay Day. I guess he's better at multiplying money in the short term since I typically play for the long haul." Like how she started saving up the moment she transferred into shinobi training so she'd have half a million Ryo saved by graduation. Long haul indeed. Yuuki was so stuck in the future she could barely see the present and that was where Naruto and she differed.

"I have so many ideas and I haven't even gotten around to making prototypes for everything yet."

"My dad said he'd be willing to help you get the paperwork done for all of this if you want to. He's got an ear in some very important businesses and can help you out. He knows what to do and can give you some good advice too."

Yuuki fully turned to him with a critical eye. "And what does the Nara Clan get out of this? I'm not stupid." If he said they wanted nothing she would call him a liar. There was no way anyone, even the nicest of people, would ignore a chance to help themselves or their families, to be better off in life.

"Never said you were, you troublesome girl. He said we'd front you the money for the start-up in manufacturing so you won't have to dip into your savings so close to graduation, and in return he'd ask for 20% of the total income you would make off this if you decide to make it a brand."

That could be a lot of money, but even when all was said and done she'd at least get a good portion of everything in the end. And with the entire world exposed to her ideas, she could rake in a lot of money. That 20% wouldn't be much of a loss to her. She'd have to consider it further and all the potential investments involved and how many shares and where they went. Which meant she needed to read a book on investing finances really soon.

"Should I come over and talk with him?" she asked, mind already doing the hard math on what splitting these funds would do for her.

"Tonight okay?"

"Yep."

Hiruzen smiled, pleased with himself.

"Don't go getting a big head old man, I know what you're up to," Tsunade warned him as she plopped down in a chair. Her Apprentice took the other offered chair, a hesitant smile on her face. There was sake already provided in order to lessen her annoyance. She took to it gladly, as he expected. Shizune decided to have water as her choice of beverage.

"Pray tell, what am I up to, Tsunade?"

"You needed a quick way to get me back in the village and knew I'd follow Shizune anywhere. Smart," the woman said with a frown, downing her first saucer of sake without blinking. "Annoying as fuck but very smart."

"That's only part of the reason," he admitted as there would be no point in lying about it. There was just so much to catch her up on and now that she was in the village, the chances of her leaving after what he had to tell her, were incredibly low. In fact, he'd probably have to stop her from committing unsanctioned murder. It wouldn't look good and Koharu and Homura would never want her as the Godaime Hokage if Hiruzen let it happen.

"There is a lot more going on right now and having you both here would be better for the village as a whole. The traitorous Chunin mentioned in the scroll Buta handed to you lead to us taking a deeper interest in Orochimaru and the new village of Otogakure which is just filled with people he's experimented on for reasons yet unknown but supposedly for his own benefit."

The muscle in Tsunade's jaw tightened. "What's the snake been up to, sensei?"

He sighed, feeling exhausted and guilty all at once because this wouldn't be happening if he'd had the resolve to end his former student years ago. Still, he pressed onward. "Jiraiya put his nose in some important places thanks to the information we gleaned a few years ago. From what we've learned so far, Otogakure plans to invade Konoha in a joint effort with Suna, to do as much damage as possible during the Chunin Exams following Uchiha Sasuke's graduation from the Academy. Orochimaru is very interested in the Sharingan and figures Sasuke-san is the easiest way to obtain it as any attempts on Uchiha Itachi failed him."

Tsunade grumbled and rolled her eyes. "His obsession with minors has always been a major concern to me but I just passed it off as scientific curiosity of the human condition, but this isn't the first child he's obsessed over and the kid won't be the last either. I'm beginning to wonder about him and his mental faculties."

Her Apprentice winced and looked away. "I'd prefer not to think about it, shishou."

"Jiraiya will be coming back to the village during the Exams as well so having you both here might prevent more chaos than expected. Might even make him not want to invade at all."

The dubious glare she sent him let him know how foolish she thought his hope was, and he had to admit that she was right.

"So about this kid you want Shizune to work on, what can you tell us about her? I'm not blind to the fact that if she becomes Shizune's Apprentice then she's basically my second Apprentice even if distantly because I'll be so busy."

Having already anticipated this, he handed over the girl's profile which had been updated ahead of time. It wasn't very thick, but the notes made were the most important of all. Iruka had been very thorough in his observations.

"She went from 99th percentile in the civilians school and having great grades to being in the 50th percentile in the Academy and being average?" Tsuande said with a tone of complete displeasure.

"All deliberate, I assure you," the old Kage said with a smile. "Yuuki-chan is very much like the Nara in that she understood class rankings and calculated the amount she needed to maintain an easy place in the A Class. She could have graduated early but since she has two stipends from different places that will stop coming once she graduates, she wanted to take advantage for as long as possible to prepare herself for life as a poor Genin. She has a mind for business and money and realized early on that D-Rank pay is abysmal when half goes to the village and the rest has to be split at least four ways. Rent and utilities will enter her life the moment she's a Genin so she needs as much money saved up as possible. She even realized how beneficial the new lessons would be in preparing her for life as a soldier so she takes them seriously at least."

And she was imparting her lessons onto Naruto! The boy had improved a lot with her help. Not just in class, but in life. He learned how to budget, he learned Konoha Sign Language & More Code, and he learned the valuable lessons in empathy versus sympathy. It was wonderful! All by being around one girl.

"Her chakra control is noted to be the best her Chunin Instructor has ever seen," said Tsunade, eyes flitting over the pages. "Kunai Balancing by the time she was nine. She mastered Tree Walking and Water Walking by ten before her classmates who all took an extra year of study. By eleven had discovered her Chakra Nature to be Fire and burned her leaves already and moved on to Coal Cooling. You've started teaching Chakra Nature in the Academy?"

He nodded. He'd realized that it was a necessity to prepare them. "Yuuki-chan made some good points to her Chunin Instructor on how limiting kunoichi classes were overall. I decided to take a closer look into the Academy structure and found some concerning details. I'll tell you more later on, but know that the entire curriculum was re-hauled and all the students are learning skills to help them live, not just survive. Yes, we encourage personal study, but we should have been doing more to get them on the right path to begin with."

"It's far better than what we were taught in school," Tsunade observed with a grumble, "but it's still not something that could be considered wartime teaching so it wouldn't alert the other villages. Not with mandatory cooking and sewing lessons added in here. It says she showed promise in the basic medical courses taught at the Academy and can handle small cuts and bruises on her own now."

"Yes. Yuuki-chan's best friend is Uzumaki Naruto and I'm certain I don't need to explain his existence to you."

The blonde shook her head. Of course he had told her about Minato and Kushina's child and the status of the new Jinchuuriki who was distantly her relative. Very distantly. It was important information either way.

"As they train together often and he gets hurt a lot, she uses him a guinea pig and he doesn't mind. If it was anyone else I would object but as any injury she might accidentally give him through failed Iryo Ninjutsu is minimal and would be healed thanks to his special circumstances, I don't see a problem with it."

"Has she expressed an interest in the medical profession?" asked Shizune, leaning forward in interest.

"Yes. She was quickly made aware of her options being Genjutsu and Iryo Ninjutsu and she told her Chunin Instructor that Genjutsu was boring and being a ninja doctor would at least make it easier for her to diagnose her own ailments and keep her friends safe."

"How is her application of chakra into her Taijutsu?" Tsunade asked, flipping through more papers.

"She's in third place for the girls and sixth place overall in Taijutsu. She doesn't use it in the Academy because she's aware of how much damage it could do. Though she did spar one of Maito Gai's students a while back in a first to three injuries match and won with no injuries sustained. Gai insisted she was very skilled but needs to work on her defenses more as her speed isn't the best so she might not be able to get close enough to someone to deal such damage."

Both women nodded.

He was just glad that they were both being cooperative.

"As for other matters of much greater import, I need to tell you about what we discovered in Danzo's hideouts. It involves Orochimaru's experiments, you, and your grandfather's DNA."

The stiffening of Tsunade's shoulders made Hiruzen feel even more guilty than before. Once again, because of his naive hope in the people he cared for, something atrocious had occurred under his purview.

"So here's the gist of what I've come up with that I think is perfectly fair," said Yuuki in a no-nonsense tone. The men at the table with her all blinked in shock as she steamrolled whatever they'd planned to say. It was her work they wanted to benefit from after all. Of course she got the biggest say.

"I want 40% of all profit. My concepts. My art. My prototypes. That means I deserve the biggest share based on those facts alone. Then your company will receive 30% because of distribution, ad campaigns, and manufacturing. The Nara Clan will received 20% as we have already negotiated before this meeting. The finally 10% will go to my friend Uzumaki Naruto who was a big help in the crafting of these prototypes I have before you and will continue to help me craft more."

The nine men, excluding Nara Shikaku who had come as moral support basically, all stared at the papers and games she'd slapped down before them. Some sneered at the mention of Naruto's name, and she knew that they'd be important to watch out for.

"This is how it's gonna be if you wish to license the brand Yuuki's. And don't worry, half of my share of the profit is going to be split between the Kato Foundation and other charity cases that this village apparently can't seem to figure out how to aid."

Shikaku hummed. "I'd advise you to take her offer. It's the best deal for everyone involved, and even those not directly involved. She has dozens of games in mind and taking advantage of this now would be the smart thing to do."

His silent but slightly terrifying presence behind her was a relief as the men in charge all caved pretty easily then. They cared more about not losing money than they did about their dislike of Naruto. And maybe working closely with them she could help show them that there was no reason to dislike Naruto to begin with.

"What is that?" Choji asked that afternoon at lunch when Yuuki pulled out a scroll instead of the usual bento of rice.

"A storage seal for food," said Yuuki, spreading it on the lunch table. "I've gotten into the use of Fuinjutsu lately because I've noticed it has a great many uses. And I decided to take advantage of the end of season sale at the market and stock up on produce as much as possible. In this special scroll, the food will stay fresh far longer than it would in my fridge so if I buy in bulk now when there are discounts right before the prices shoot up in winter, then I will save money all winter and spring and won't need to go shopping for months. I'm a genius. Fear me."

Naruto snorted. "I've never met someone who goes about being lazy by doing excess work ahead of time."

"My way is genius. Y'all are just a bunch of preps. I put up my middle finger at you!"

"What?" the boys collectively said in confusion.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "It came to mind so I said it." The words 'My Immortal' and 'trash' came to mind as well but no explanation was forthcoming so she chose it ignore it.

Shikamaru and Choji along with Shino and Hinata were also with them. Hinata was steadily refusing to look at Naruto whenever he faced her direction, but she would go pink whenever she peeked at him. Shino was very quiet like normal, but they kept him involved in conversation. Shikamaru had inhaled his lunch so he could rest and Choji was on his second bento.

Naruto of course, had gone to Ichiraku to get ramen to go and had been back pretty quickly. Yuuki had still been sorting her fruits for her meal by the time he'd returned.

"Are you really gonna eat a whole watermelon during lunch?" asked Choji, looking curious.

"Don't underestimate me! Anyone got a kunai?" Just because they weren't allowed to buy them yet didn't mean the clan kids didn't get them as gifts from their family members. Of course they had them already.

Shikamaru offered one only a second before Shino managed to. The two eyed each other for a second but said nothing. Beaming at them both, she accepted their weapons and eyed the melon closely. It was a thing she liked doing to see how long it would take to slice the whole melon into manageable pieces with the rind completely gone.

Her best score was twenty-three seconds.

"Naruto, time me!"

"San...ni...ichi...Hajime!"

She went, blades flashing back and forth as she hacked the melon up into ten perfectly even pieces where the rind was discarded.

"Twenty seconds!"

"YES!"

A/N: Another chapter is done!

How was it? Let me know.

Ja ne! :D