"Talking"

'Thinking'

Jutsu/ Bijuu/ Summons

Flashbacks and Setting

I don't own Naruto or its characters.

Chapter 4: The Aftermath Part 2

Naruto was a changed person after that fateful council meeting. He knew there was no one he could rely on, and he was the only person his baby sister could rely on. He also remembered how the council said he'd have to come of age, or become a Chunin to gain sole custody of his sister. The blonde boy realized he'd have to become strong, and quickly too. A heavy burden was placed on his small shoulders, but he'd keep his promise to his parents no matter what. Narumi was going to grow up safely, and if people wanted to get in the way, they'd have to face his wrath.

The village needed more shinobi as soon as possible, so the academy was at the top of the list for emergency repair funding. As such, the academy was back to a semi-functional state by the end of the month. Despite living in makeshift tents or hastily patched up shells of their former homes, parents were happy at the academy's recommencement. They needed to get their kids out of their hair and occupy them while they worked on rebuilding.

As for Naruto and Narumi, they were placed at an orphanage, as their home had caught fire in the Kyuubi's attack. It made Naruto's secret possession of their clan's treasured sealing techniques and artifacts, as well as the scroll of seals, easier to cover up. The council tried to gain the Yondaime's scrolls on techniques and sealing for the village, but were unable to find anything other than ashes.

They were still able to squeeze something out of the 2 children however. Custody of the children of the Yondaime meant they had control over their finances as well. The Namikaze-Uzumaki family had an enormous fortune, from Minato's many S-rank missions and Hokage's pay, and Kushina's inheritance from the Uzumaki Clan. They weren't as rich as some of the bigger clans like the Hyuuga Clan, but as individuals, they were amongst the top 5 richest in the village.

Now the council wasn't necessarily full of evil people who loved to extort helpless children. They were no Gato. However, the village was strapped for cash, and people were suffering from the damages. People slept in makeshift tents, which formed slums, and access to clean water was limited as well. The damages to the economic engines of the village meant people had less jobs, less money, and as a result, less patience and fortitude to deal with the stress.

The crime rates soared, and the Uchiha Military Police Force was stretched thin trying to contain the rise in crimes, while still trying to do missions do make money for the village.

With such dire circumstances, the council was desperate for more money. It just so happened they had access to one of the biggest fortunes in Hi no Kuni (Land of Fire). It's not like they immediately rushed to that source of Ryo either. They actually left it alone for a couple months. However, when things were looking so bad, they couldn't help but turn their eyes to the Namikaze-Uzumaki inheritance. The needs of 2 kids couldn't stack up against the needs of the entire village. Besides, 2 kids couldn't possibly need that much money. At least that's what they told themselves.

But they never dipped into their own funds. After all, they would need that money to take care of their own families.

The quality of life for Naruto and Narumi took a quick turn for the worse once the village started quietly dipping into their inheritance. Their food and clothes slowly declined in quality, until it finally became the standard drab clothing, barely a step above rags, that was supplied to orphans or homeless people.

Naruto realized what was happening, but knew as he was right now, he was powerless to do anything about it. That didn't stop him from doing what he could to provide better living conditions for Narumi.

He scrounged around for food, often foraging in the nearby forests for fruits or edible mushrooms, and once he became more skilled at wielding kunai and shuriken, starting hunting small game. No sister of his would grow up malnourished.

He sold small pelts and herbs to the villagers to make a little pocket money, which he spent to get Narumi some higher quality clothing, milk formula, diapers, and other small things like toys.

He also began to train like a boy possessed. His father had been stronger than anyone else in Konoha, and still failed in some ways, to protect their children. He failed to protect them from the dangers that resided within the village's walls when he died, and unwittingly left them to the wolves. If the Yondaime wasn't strong enough, then Naruto vowed to be even stronger than his dad. If his dad trained twice as hard as anyone else, then Naruto would train 4 times harder. He needed to become stronger to protect Narumi, from both external and internal threats.

What was once a normal life for a kid was flipped on its head. He had no time to play or socialize anymore. Training and keeping Narumi safe would be his only goal in life.

When he wasn't in the academy, he would take his sister into a secluded training ground during the day and train until the sun began to set, combining baby sitting with training. He worked on his kunai and shuriken throwing for hours. He would go through the taijutsu and sword katas his parents had left them for hours while Narumi took a nap. He would run laps around the training ground with Narumi on his back. He would do pushups with her on his shoulders.

Even back at the orphanage he would go through his hand seals whenever his hands were free, practicing them when he was walking around, or when the orphanage would have gatherings or meetings. He worked on his chakra control in his in-between time as well. He would work on balancing leaves with the tenketsu on his hands whenever he walked around anywhere, and would also use the chakra training exercise to entertain his sister when she was bored. Narumi loved to watch the leaves dancing above the blonde boy's hands.

Whenever Naruto was alone, such as when he went to the bathroom or before he slept, he would read the sealing books and scrolls left to him by his parents. Even at school he would read during breaks, flipping pages with one hand while doing the leaf balancing exercise with his free hand.

His friends began to worry about him. At first, they tried, earnestly too, to reach out to him, break him out of his shell, and get him to play with them again, but the blue-eyed child had no time for such foolishness. One by one, they slowly stopped trying and gave him his space. Uchiha Itachi, his best friend who was the same age, but in the year above him, was the only one who stayed by his side after a few months.

Before the death of Minato and Kushina, Naruto was a bright and lively child, personality mirroring his mother. He was the one who broke Itachi out of his reserved shell, and got him to act like the child he was. Afterwards however, none of Kushina's bubbly personality remained. All that was stripped away and what remained was his father's cold and calculating mind that Minato himself only showed when he was fighting.

Itachi noticed the changes in Naruto, but he didn't mind. He himself was a quiet and reserved person by nature, so he didn't mind quietly being next to Naruto during breaks in school as Naruto immersed himself in his books and exercises. He would simply enjoy Naruto's company and would relax or work on his own things.

Naruto appreciated Itachi for his loyalty immensely, even if he didn't express it outwardly. As such Itachi and Narumi were the only ones who got to see his rare smiles and glimpses of his old personality. He eventually asked Itachi to join him in training as well.

Having at least one person he trusted without question was a huge burden lifted off of Naruto's shoulders. No matter how strong anyone might be, humans are social beings, and need people in their lives. The rare occasions where Naruto was unable to be with Narumi, he asked Itachi to look after her.

Itachi was a calm and gentle soul, and was an excellent caretaker of children. This really showed when his little brother Sasuke was born later in the year.

The two friends were already prodigies, but as they trained together, their skills began to sky rocket. In school their grades were at the top of the class for their respective years.

His training was taken to the next level when he learned the Kage Bunshin (shadow clone) jutsu from his father's scroll of seals. He was now able to train more efficiently, making a clone to watch over Narumi. Before, he used to have split his attention between training and Narumi, but now he had a way to give both tasks 100% of his attention.

His Uzumaki heritage gave him chakra reserves that were greater than any in his age group, and even some older people. He was able to make around 10 shadow clones, which enabled him to work on multiple things at once. While he went to school, he had clones work on chakra control exercises, read his scrolls, hunt and forage to make extra money, and take care of Narumi.

With this development, Naruto began to develop his skills at an even more accelerated pace, and he was soon advanced 1 year ahead into Itachi's class. It was here where Itachi introduced Naruto to his friend Uchiha Izumi, a pretty young girl, who had long brown hair, which she tied in a ponytail and had bangs which framed her face. She the onyx eyes of most Uchiha, and had a mole under her right eye which a lot boys said added to her beauty. Her father was not an Uchiha, so she lived outside the compound until he died in the Kyuubi attack. Itachi began to hang out with her after she fought against some bullies on his behalf, who picked on him for being so antisocial.

Even at their first meeting, Naruto noticed Izumi might have some sort of feelings that went beyond friendship for Itachi. He didn't think much of it, or Izumi herself at first though. He had no time to make new friends he thought. But slowly Izumi began to show up more and more in his life, as she gradually began to accompany Itachi when he went to meet Naruto.

Having trust issues, it took a while for Naruto to open up to Izumi, but he trusted Itachi, trusted his judgement on people so he let her tag along for their training. Izumi couldn't really keep up with the 2 prodigies training at 100%, so she was often left to the side to rest, where she became acquainted with Narumi.

Naruto was a devoted brother, and Narumi received the love and attention of 2 parents from her brother. She still needed a female presence in her life though, and Izumi slowly began to fill that role. The Uchiha girl wasn't as obsessed with getting stronger like Naruto was, and started to slowly phase out the training and focused more on watching over and playing with Narumi.

Naruto was wary at first, having trust issues and being over-protective of his sister, but Narumi loved Izumi and her presence, and Naruto appreciated the girl and welcomed her into his small circle of trusted people. The 3 classmates soon became inseparable, and Naruto soon found himself frequenting the Uchiha clan compound more and more. Itachi's mother, Uchiha Mikoto, was calm and kind woman, Itachi taking after her, and enjoyed seeing the children of her deceased friend. She saw a lot of Kushina in Narumi, like she once saw in Naruto before he changed.

Mikoto often invited Naruto and Narumi over for dinner, granting the orphans a homecooked meal every once in a while, which allowed them to escape the gruel served at the orphanage and gave them better nutrition.

The ties the 2 orphans were developing with the Uchiha clan head's family wasn't all positives however, as many of the other clans saw this development as a scheme to bind the Yondaime's children to their clan, and began to gossip. Many within Uchiha clan weren't happy with the situation either, as Narumi, or rather the Bijuu sealed within Narumi, was responsible for their falling reputation, and hated her presence. They kept their thoughts hidden however, as they didn't want to cross the clan head.

Still, Naruto's friendship with the Uchihas was a huge boon for an orphan without any clan to back him or train him. He met Itachi's cousin, Uchiha Shisui, who was 3 years older than them, and also a prodigy, being a Chunin at the age of 10. Shisui was more like Naruto in personality before the death of his parents, and felt bad for the blonde boy, who he was fond of even before.

He began to help them train whenever he wasn't on missions, and was impressed by Naruto's drive and talent. Shisui tested the two for their elemental affinities to help them train and was astounded by what he discovered. When Itachi channeled his chakra into his chakra paper, it caught fire and quickly turned to ash, which was expected for an Uchiha.

The surprise came when it was Naruto's turn. When Naruto channeled chakra into his chakra paper, the paper split into 3 vertical strips showing he had a rare wind affinity. The strip on the left burned up in intense blue flames, while the strip on the right was soaked into water before falling apart. 3 affinities were almost unheard of.

However, the thing that shocked Shisui the most was what happened to the strip in the middle. The strip in the middle fizzled before dissolving into nothing, and few drops of liquid that dripped onto the ground showed how caustic it was when it sizzled and dissolved all organic matter that it came across. Shisui had no idea what this was, but figured it was some sort of Kekkei-genkai (bloodline limit) that was never seen before in Konoha.

He began to look through his clan's archives, seeing if there was anything that could explain this strange Kekkei-genkai displayed by Naruto. Itachi's older cousin eventually discovered it was Boil Release (Futton), a rare bloodline that was rarely seen, only in Kiri, the Hidden Mist Village. When Naruto learned of this, he asked Itachi and Shisui to keep his secret, fearing exploitation by the council, which they agreed on.

Seeing Naruto and Itachi's massive potential, Shisui began to secretly take Naruto and Itachi to the clan's library to teach them the clan's collection of elemental jutsu every once in a while.

Naruto continued to grow and advance his skills at a near-unprecedented pace, and he soon graduated the academy at the end of the year with Itachi at the age of 7, not even a year after the death of his parents. He was put on the same genin team as his best friend, with a much older graduate, Inari Shinko, a 12-year-old girl who moved to Konoha when she was 9, and retained a foreign accent, which differentiated her from others. She had brown hair which was tied into two pig-tails, and wore her Hitai-ite on a bandana which covered the top of her hair.

Their team, Team 2, was led by a Jonin named Minazuki Yuki. He had short dark hair, which he tied into a small pony tail in the back, had unkempt eyebrows and a small goatee. He was known by most of Konoha as a competent sensei.

He, however, had a somewhat shady history behind him. Every time a student showed more talent than himself, he found some reason to send them back to the academy, or prevent them from taking the Chunin exams.

Danzo secretly arranged for Team 2 to only take missions ranked higher than C-rank after 5-D rank missions, as he saw their talents wasted on doing D rank missions rebuilding and repairing their village, and they built a reputation as the best Genin team in years with a stellar mission record.

Minazuki Yuki was secretly jealous at the obvious talent shown by his two male students, and took an A-rank mission, to teach them their place. When Naruto and Itachi were able to lead their team to a flawlessly executed mission, he was livid. He wanted to ban them from taking the Chunin exams taking place that year, using their recent graduation from the academy and Shinko's lack of readiness as an excuse, but both the Sandaime Hokage and Danzo objected, and made special arrangement so that Naruto and Itachi were able to take the exam as a 2-man team. Yuki was given 2 new members to his team in their place.

Even with a handicap of having 1 less team member, Itachi and Naruto tore through the Chunin exams with ease, and they were promoted to Chunin within 6 months of their graduation, at the young age of 8. People began to compare the 2 prodigies with Kakashi, who graduated the academy at 5, became a Chunin at 6, and Jonin at 12.

As a Chunin, Naruto was finally able to claim sole custody of his younger sister Narumi. The council hadn't expected him reach Chunin status at the age of 8, and were reluctant to hand over custody of Narumi, which was tied to custody of their inheritance as well. They were trapped by their own words however, and were forced to hand over custody to the 8-year-old blonde.

At first Naruto was elated to be the sole person responsible for Narumi, and to receive his inheritance, but when he saw what remained, he was absolutely furious. He had known the council was siphoning off his inheritance, but he hadn't expected to see a mere 100,000 Ryo remaining from what was once one the largest fortunes in Hi no Kuni. 100,000 Ryo was roughly equivalent to the pay of one of the harder C-rank missions. He had been planning on getting a new apartment for him and Narumi, but this threw a huge wrench in his plans.

Naruto threw himself into missions to make money. Taking any A-rank or B-rank mission he could get ahold of. He entrusted Narumi to the care of Izumi, who still hadn't graduated from the Academy, and Mikoto while he went on mission after mission.

He even started taking a few solo B-rank and A-rank missions, which he used to experiment with his bloodline. There were no resources on the Boil Release in Konoha, so he had to make up his own jutsu, modeled after the Suiton jutsu he knew.

He discovered just how deadly it was, on a solo bandit camp extermination mission. It was getting late, sometime after dinner, and many of the bandits were drunk. Naruto had been observing them the whole day assessing their numbers and patterns, hidden in a nearby tree, using stealth skills unseen since the second Tsuchikage. He was practically invisible using his Meisaigakure no Jutsu(Hiding in Camouflage Technique). Naruto was cautious, and though he was an excellent direct fighter, he enjoyed using stealth, and took precautions to hide his presence, even with low level opponents like bandits.

He counted 20 bandits. There were 2 bandits on each of the 2 entrances to the camp, and the rest were in their tents, which were arranged randomly around a central camp fire. The bandits were drunk, and many of them were snoozing. He looked around for innocent bystanders or captives and found none. He had seen enough of the bandits and decided it was time to strike.

Without any hand seals, he formed 4 Kage Bunshins, and sent 2 each to hide near the 2 entrances of the bandit camp, to set an ambush for any bandit that would try to escape. He quickly flashed through 2 hand seals, fewer than what was usually required for the Kirigakure jutsu (Hiding in the Mist Technique), and a small amount of mist began to gradually form around the camp. He had picked up the technique in a fight against a B-ranked missing Kiri-nin, who ended up dying easily to blonde ninja's sword in a brief clash. His version had its own deadly twist to it.

"Futton: Kirigakure no Jutsu!" Whispered the blonde, hidden in his hiding spot in a nearby tree. The mist gradually grew to encompass the entire bandit camp as Naruto fed it more chakra, growing thicker and thicker, until it was almost impossible to see past your outstretched hands.

"Hey! Who turned off the lights!" One drunk bandit complained in a slurred voice.

"You idiot. We're outside! It's just the fog. Now give me back my bottle!" his equally drunk companion replied, as he groped through the fog to find his bottle of sake, not questioning why such a dense fog would appear out of clear skies.

The blonde assassin used his water chakra to manipulate and give shape to the jutsu, and used his fire chakra to adjust the pH level of the water, and he began to raise the pH level which quickly soared past pH 15. The water in the mist became more and more alkaline, becoming caustic to the level that it would quickly dissolve organic matter in seconds.

The drunk singing and laughing quickly became screams of agony, but even the screaming ended within seconds as they all succumbed to their fate.

Naruto released his jutsu and blew it away with a small Futon (Wind Release) jutsu. The results were horrifying. What was once living people were now sticky brown puddles of dissolved flesh and blood. Naruto was used to killing people and wasn't hugely affected by dead bodies, desensitized to death to a degree, having been exposed to the gruesome death of his parents at a young age. This however, was something different altogether.

He felt as if he committed an atrocity, and the realization that he could literally liquify 20 living, breathing people into a brown sludge scared him slightly. He had literally melted people to death in seconds, and there were people who thought his sweet, and unbelievably cute, baby sister was a monster, while they praised him. Idiots. He retched, but held himself back from throwing up.

After collecting any valuables (after all he still needed money, and he wasn't about let a small bit of blood, or brown sludge, stop him), he decided to hide all traces of what happened here. "Gokakyu no Jutsu! (Grand Fireball Technique)" he quietly yelled out as he released a massive blue fireball which incinerated everything in the camp.

When he returned to Konoha and gave his report, he left out a few key details. He decided he was going to hide his trump card for now.

By the time Naruto reached 9, he finally had enough money to afford a deposit for a small 2-bedroom apartment. He threw a small house-warming party, inviting Itachi, Izumi, Shisui, Mikoto, and by extension, Sasuke. Sasuke and Narumi waddled around the apartment, playing with the toys Mikoto brought along for them.

"Thanks Izumi and Mikoto Oba-san for allowing us to temporarily stay at your compound and taking care of Narumi-chan when I was away." Naruto gave the two women a small bow.

"Come on sweety, it was the least I could do." Mikoto replied as she gave him a motherly smile. "I told Fugaku to adopt you and Narumi if we could, but it looks like the other clans just saw it as a bid for power. I wish we could do more for you." She said with a small scowl as she remembered hearing what happened at the council meeting from her husband.

"And who could refuse to look after such a little cutie!" Izumi squealed as she chased after the two 2-year-olds.

Naruto gave a warm smile as he looked at the Uchiha guests he had over. These were the only people he trusted fully. This was his new family.

When Naruto and Itachi became 11, they were promoted to Jonin due to their flawless mission records, both as a team, and on solo missions. Other Chunins were elated whenever one of the two prodigies were assigned to their team for missions, as it guaranteed success and no deaths. Well at least for the Konoha team. Plenty of death would be guaranteed for whoever got in their way. Sure, Naruto didn't always work well with strangers and didn't seem to trust them much, but he still carried them through most missions, and they knew they would be safe with him around.

They were now officially the youngest Jonin in Konoha history, beating Kakashi's record by 1 year.

Izumi also graduated that year, a year earlier than most others, who graduated at 12. Even though she was a year younger, she graduated as Kunoichi of the year. She was strong and talented after all; it was just that she looked average when compared to Naruto and Itachi.

They didn't want to be Jonin senseis or anything, still being a year younger than the average age of most academy graduates, and decided to apply to join the ANBU forces, Itachi to bring honor to his clan and family, and Naruto for the increased pay. The ANBU commander stamped their applications as soon as he saw them, hands shaking and mouth drooling with excitement. Now he had the youngest prodigies ever seen, under his command.

They were tested by Kakashi, who was now 18 years old, and a legendary ANBU captain. Naruto wasn't particularly close to Kakashi or anything, but he didn't really hold any grudges against him. The man was 14 when Minato and Kushina died, did anyone really expect a 14-year-old to raise 2 kids? The ANBU captain was just a traumatized teen after all, with his mom dying at a young age, and his father committing suicide a few years later, and had lost his sensei who acted as a father figure.

He had dropped by every once in a while, when they were at the orphanage, to secretly check up on his sensei's kids too. Kakashi didn't know Naruto noticed, but unbeknownst to most at the time, Naruto was a powerful sensor, and noticed his chakra signature and eventually snuck around to see Kakashi visiting with small gifts for them.

"Well well, look who it is. Little Naruto all grown up now huh." Kakashi lazily stated as he continued to read a little orange book.

"So you're gonna be the one testing us?" Naruto asked, one eyebrow rising slightly as he questioned the masked shinobi."

"Looks like it. I'm gonna be seeing what all that talk surrounding you kids is all about." Kakashi drawled lazily as he put his book into his pocket. "Alright. Let's see what you two got."

Naruto and Itachi looked at each other and smiled.

They never smiled in front of anyone.

Kakashi felt a chill going up his spine.

An hour later

"So how would you rate their skills Inu?" The ANBU commander asked the battered shinobi before him.

"Well, let me first say I should have tested them one at a time." Kakashi coughed out as he rubbed his sore arms.

"Itachi is a genius on the level of Shisui, maybe with even more potential. He has a complete mastery of his Clan's intercepting fist style of taijutsu, and a fully developed Sharingan, which he has perfect control over. He has large chakra reserves even for a Jonin, typical of an Uchiha. His ninjutsu, flawless. Especially his Katon jutsu. I'd say he's easily one of the strongest in ninjutsu in the village with those flames of his. Even with his already high standards, which I'd say trumps most others in this village, I'd say his most impressive aspects are in shuriken-jutsu, and genjutsu. I can say without any doubt, that he is the strongest genjutsu user in this village. Bar none. Well, maybe besides for the Kurama clan, but they haven't had any one who could fully utilize their genjutsu bloodline in years."

The ANBU commander was giddy with excitement at the news, but hid it well behind his mask, and asked in a calm tone.

"Excellent. Excellent. And the Yondaime's son?"

"Naruto? Where to start. The kid is a vicious son of a bitch, no disrespect to Kushina-san. He's like a dangerous combination of his parents, with his kenjutsu skills outshining anyone in this village. I'd say he has potential to give the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of Kiri a run for their money. He combines his mother's skills with the sword with his father's speed and reaction time. If the kid knew the Hiraishin, he'd be damn near a Kage level threat at the old age of 11."

The ANBU commander nearly had an orgasm. "Excellent. Please continue."

Kakashi began to sense the ANBU commander was starting to struggle to hide his emotions. "Well, his taijutsu, shuriken-jutsu, and kenjutsu were all very impressive, and paired with his unparalleled skills in stealth and sensing, honestly could have landed him as a Jonin on those skills alone."

The ANBU commander sensed there was more good news. "But?"

"But I'd say those are the least remarkable things about him." Kakashi continued.

"What? What makes you say that?" The ANBU commander questioned.

"He has 3 elemental affinities. Katon, Futon, and Suiton, and let me tell you, he's got a stupidly high affinity for each of them too. His fire jutsu burn blue and are hotter than anything I've faced. The sparring room we used? They're gonna need some serious repairs. And I'm not talking about just some carpentry work. He partially melted the damn stone floors. He luckily was able to limit the damage by pulling a huge amount of water out of thin air too."

The ANBU commander jumped up from his seat. "What?! The only person who was able to do that was-"

"Was the Nidaime Hokage, at least from what I've heard. I haven't seen anything like this before. Not even from Kiri-nin. I'd say his wind affinity is pretty high too, but it's a rare affinity in Hi no Kuni, so I don't have much to compare it with. He also seems to have the biggest chakra reserves in this village, including the Sandaime. Kid can throw A-rank jutsu left and right as if he's throwing shuriken. Shoot, some shuriken holsters don't even hold that many shuriken."

"He'll make a fine addition to the ANBU." The ANBU commander commented.

"I'm not finished. He's also very good at genjutsu, though not to Itachi's level, and very good at using it on the fly to create openings for his taijutsu and kenjutsu. He also seems to know some iryo-ninjutsu or something, healing any of the very small number of wounds I left on him. But the thing that makes him really special? He's a prodigy with seals. Maybe the healing thing was a seal too? Anyway, not only does he have a wide arsenal of seals, of which I'm sure I've only seen a fraction, but he can apply seals using his chakra, just as well as he can with a brush. He's definitely his parents' son. He's already above, or at least equal to, Jiraiya-sama in sealing skill. I'd wager he'll be able to unlock the Hiraishin if he really put some effort into it."

The ANBU commander sat back down at his desk and put his hands together, softly drumming the tips of his fingers together as he thought. 'Amazing, our pool of talent has never been so deep! We've got 3 ANBU who reached Jonin before they even reached their teens. The ANBU's reputation will reach new highs, all under my term too!'

"I love my job." The commander said after a brief silence.

Sensing the conversation was done, the ninja with the Dog mask turned around and limped towards the door.

"If you make me spar against them again, I'm quitting."

Kakashi didn't get paid enough to deal with this crap.

*Author's Note*

Thank you everyone who left reviews and voted! It's interesting to see different people's opinions, and I'm curious myself to see who wins the vote.

I'll post the result of the votes until the pairing is decided. Also I forgot some characters I wanted for the pairing vote, but luckily some of you suggested them, reminding me.

Here are the results and choices so far, at the time of posting, with a few additions.

Shizune 3

Samui 3

Tayuya 2

Mei 2

Kurenai 1

Izumi 1

Yugao 1

Ryuuzetsu 1

Mabui 1

Temari 1 (thought I kinda consider as an unofficial member of the Konoha 12 so probably not gonna happen)

Anko 1

Kurotsuchi 1

Tsunami (Inari's Mom)

Yugito

OC (Tsukkuyo from Gintama, love her character, and she is a kunoichi in Gintama as well)

Other (your suggestions)

That's also the end of the prologue. This chapter was more of Naruto's training montage of sorts, so it didn't have too much Narumi in it.

Next chapter will be the start of the actual story, and more Narumi centric. Let me know if you guys are interested in having a more detailed academy arc, or just blow by it and get stuck right in with the story. I do enjoy a good, detailed academy part, since it really helps develop dynamics between characters and allows for characters to be more fleshed out, but I'd like to hear your opinions as well!

I've posted nearly everyday this weekend, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that during the weekdays or even on other weekends. But I'll try to post at least 1 chapter a week, but its not really a promise, cuz I don't really wanna make promises I can't keep, cuz that's my nindo. Lol

Anyways thanks for reading guys! Please continue to leave reviews and vote!