Authors Forenote – I don't own Naruto, Kishimoto does.

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Feline

Yugito Nii paused near the top of the staircase which rose from the bottom of the mountain to the plateau where her fellow Jinchuuriki chose to live. As she paused to regain her breath, her ears picked up a voice that she'd never heard before.

"Like this?"

"Just like that, little bro." B rumbled, proud satisfaction in his voice. "Now you've unlocked your chakra properly, you'll be able to do far more than simply do those jumps of yours."

Yugito crept up the stairs as quietly as the namesake of the beast sealed within her. Reaching the top, she lowered herself so that her belly scraped the steps, then slowly slid upwards until she could peer over the topmost step.

The sight before her caused her eyes to widen in shock. B was sat in a meditative pose, something which was very unlike his usual always-moving, bombastic personality. Facing him was a young boy that she had never seen before, his blond hair shining in the sun and a Konoha leaf inscribed on the front of his shirt. As he turned slightly, her eyes widened further at the sight of the Uzumaki spiral covering most of his back.

Shifting her feet, Yugito gathered herself, then she launched herself forwards. Her steps were almost silent, but the boy somehow heard her coming and turned to look at her just as she leapt at him…

…only to be snagged out of the air by B.

"Whoah! Easy there, Yugito-chan. This be Naruto, he's a friend."

Yugito adjusted her outfit to get rid of the wrinkles as B lowered her back to the ground, then she started circling the young boy.

"Naruto, hmmm? Are you from… Konoha?"

"Yep." Naruto nodded and Yugito felt her fists clench.

"What is someone from Konoha doing here? Is this another attempt to damage us like the Hyuuga thing?"

"Easy, easy." B placed his hand on her shoulder. "This is Naruto. He's the son of the Yondaime and he's here to learn how to use chakra and eventually talk with the Kyuubi like we talk with ours."

Yugito flinched back from the blond powerhouse. "The Kyuubi?!"

"Yep, Mr Nine, this is Miss Two, Nii Yugito, holder of the Nibi. You think I'm awesome with my fighting moves? She's better at everything else. Planning, teamwork, you name it, she's better."

"You say the nicest things." Yugito almost purred before she caught herself.

"So, I think we all need a drink. Thanks to Naruto, we got fresh milk from a farm in Wave his dad used to visit. Interested?"

Yugito found herself licking her lips before she could stop herself and B nodded. "Okay, be right back. Keep those talons sheathed, Yugito. He ain't a spy."

Yugito stared at B, then at Naruto, who shifted nervously under her gaze.

"What?"

"That's the longest I've ever heard him go without trying to rap." Yugito shook her head, then offered her hand to the boy. "You're helping him grow up. Nice to meet you, I'm Yugito Nii."

"Uzumaki Naruto, pleestameetchu."

Yugito paused as she mentally decoded the second part of his introduction, then she carefully reclaimed her hand from his enthusiastic shaking.

"So, how did you get the milk here from Wave?" Yugito asked curiously and Naruto shook his head.

"Sorry. Big Bro said not to tell anyone who don't ready know, ain't Hokage or on my team."

"And I don't know, I'm not the Hokage and I'm not on your team." Yugito nodded in understanding. "Very good. I see you've learned operational security."

Naruto's face scrunched in thought. "What's oppashal secaty?"

"It's pronounced Operational Security." Yugito corrected him. "It means not telling people what they don't need to know and keeping secret anything that should be kept secret."

"I… think I get it." Naruto finally said, then he looked up as B dangled a large glass of milk in front of him.

"Drink up bro, you know it's good,
"Strengthen bones as fresh milk should.
"Big strong bones make you big and tough
"Help you fight the rude and rough!
"Yo!"

Yugito facepalmed with one hand as she accepted the large glass of milk from the tray with the other. Raising it to her lips, she took a sip and paused in shock, staring at the glass.

"Somefin wrong?" Naruto asked, wiping his milk mustache off.

"This is… this is…" Yugito paused and took another tentative sip. Seeing that Naruto had drained his own glass, she pulled him into a sudden hug, ignoring his yelp of shock.

"mmmph?"

"This is the best milk I've ever had!" Yugito hugged Naruto, then released him so that she could pick up her milk and take a long, luxurious swallow of it.

"Hope you enjoyed that, lil' bro." B chuckled. "There's lots of shinobi who'd love to be where you were… ow!"

"Jerk." Yugito grumbled as she pulled her hand back from the dope-slap that she had delivered and Naruto giggled at B's pout.

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"Yugito."

"Sir." Yugito braced to attention as the Raikage put his weights down and turned his attention to her.

"So, my brother's newest friend. Your opinion of him?"

Yugito froze as she tried to decode the Raikage's expression, looking for clues as to what he wanted to know.

"You won't get in trouble, Yugito." A sighed as he leaned back in his chair, almost absently pressing his fists against each other in a set of isometric exercises. "I know who he is. I know who his parents were and that he knows it too. His father managed to beat my brother and I in combat. But I don't know him. Yet. Tell me about him."

"Yes, sir." Yugito took a breath. "Naruto is… eager. He loves learning and he's already unlocked his chakra."

"How old is he?" A interjected. "Darui didn't say."

"I haven't asked but I'd say about four or so." Yugito finally said. "B's running him through some basic Katas… not his personal style! No, you remember that defector from Konoha during the early days of your father's rule? The one who brought those scrolls with him? Well, B's running him through the basic Konoha Academy style."

"Good." A nodded. "We already know the weaknesses, so if he fights against us, we'll know how to take him down, but in the meantime, he feels gratitude to us. Chances of him defecting to us?"

"Slim to none." Yugito replied instantly, then she paused. "He's hoping to become the next Hokage, sir. Having a Hokage who is friendly with us…?"

"A good friend is worth a thousand kunai." A quoted. "Agreed. A friend in Konoha is worth the effort put in. A friendly Jinchuuriki doubly so. Any chance we could ask him to spy for us too?"

Yugito laughed despite her best efforts. "Sir, I don't think he could lie to save his life. Him? Spy? That would be like… like you trying to go undercover as a Samurai, sir."

A snorted in amusement. "Point taken. A Hokage who can't lie? Hah! That would be interesting. He might be useful for relaying messages to and from Konoha, though. We wouldn't have to reveal how we do it."

"I… hadn't actually considered that angle, sir." Yugito admitted.

"It'll help us with Konoha, too." A mused, pausing in his isometrics to rub his chin. "The Kamis know that we need to make up for Dad's stupid idea to grab a Hyuuga girl as breeding stock. Still not sure why the tree-huggers didn't push it harder"

For a long moment, the office was silent, then the Raikage shrugged.

"So, how's he paying for this?"

"Shopping trips, sir." Yugito's bemusement was evident. "That and fruit-gathering trips. Those Durian Fruits are really tasty. I quite enjoyed the ramen he brought last time as well."

"…Ramen?" A queried, then he chuckled. "His mother was a fiend for the stuff. When I was still a chunin, there was a running joke that to get her into a trap, you just had to set out a bowl of Ramen. Now keeping her in the trap, on the other hand…"

A chuckled, then waved one hand. "Off you go, Yugito. And don't tell B that I know about his friend coming to visit all the time. He doesn't need to know that I know, let's allow him his secret."

Yugito blinked as, once again, she frantically re-evaluated everything she thought that she knew about her boss.

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"Hello?" Yugito called out, feeling rather silly, but to her relief, a voice responded.

"Yugito-san! Where's B?"

"He's got a mission and I remembered you tended to show up at about this time." Yugito replied, sitting down on the bench and then helping Naruto to scramble up beside her. "Him and a team went out to stop a group of bandits from raiding several villages. He'll be a week or so."

"Oh." Naruto seemed slightly depressed at the news. "He said I was good enough to start learning the sword. Do you know it?"

"No, sorry." Yugito shrugged, then frowned slightly at the sight of B's storage-bench with its lid up. "I occasionally use a long kunai, but I prefer to get in closer in combat so I can use my speed and agility better."

Naruto was about to reply, then his stomach rumbled.

"I think someone's hungry." Yugito teased him as he blushed.

"Yeah, I could do with a Ramen about now."

"Sure." Yugito shrugged as Naruto wriggled off the bench. "So what…"

Yugito's question went unfinished as the world seemed to blink around her, the bench she was sitting on vanishing. Her reflexes turned her fall into a roll and she found herself in a short side-alley she didn't recognise.

"Come on!" Naruto grabbed her hand and pulled her round into the building they had appeared beside. "Hey, Teuchi, how's my balance?"

"With that last bag of fruit, you've got twenty-five bowls stored up." the cook behind the counter laughed, then his eyes narrowed as he looked at Yugito.

"I'm not even sure what's going on." Yugito admitted as she sat down on the stool next to the one that Naruto had happily scrambled up on. "Where are we?"

"Ichiraku's!" Naruto declaimed. "The food of the Kamis! Two bowls of Pork Ramen please!"

"Two bowls coming up." The cook replied. "And for your guest?"

"One bowl is fine, thank you." Yugito said, still looking round in confusion, having flared aand suppressed her chakra a couple of times in an attempt to break the genjutsu she thought that she had been caught in.

"You know, you may be the first girl Naruto has brought here." The cook noted as he stirred the pot, then started slicing the vegetables that he flipped into the simmering noodles with the effortless ease of long practice. "Normally it's his taijutsu sensei he brings here. Nice man, although he likes to rap. What do you teach?"

"The last lesson was tracking." Yugito said, feeling somewhat disconcerted as a youthful silver-haired shinobi wearing an angled Konoha hitai-ate nonchalantly ambled in, his visible eye fixed on the book in his hand.

"One beef ramen, please, Teuchi." The shinobi said, his voice clear despite the mask covering his face from the bridge of his nose down.

"Ayame! Need a hand!" the now-identified cook called and a young female voice replied.

"Coming!"

"Naruto." The shinobi said in greeting as he glanced across.

"Kakashi." Naruto chirped and Yugito froze in horrified shock as she recognised the name. She was sat two stools away from Sharingan Kakashi! One of the most deadly shinobi known to exist! The son of Konoha's White Fang! A shinobi who was sat there reading…

"Is that Icha Icha?" She asked before she could stop herself and Kakashi nodded.

"It's Jiraiya-Sama's newest one. Icha-Icha Traveller."

"It's out?" Yugito gasped. "It's not due out in Kumo for another three months!"

Kakashi gave her an odd smile using his visible eye. "It only came out yesterday, there's a bookshop just round the corner with it in stock."

Yugito opened her mouth, then paused as a bowl slid in place in front of her, one filled with succulent, steaming Ramen.

"Itadakimasu!" Naruto chirped as he picked up the chopsticks.

.

"Icha Icha Traveller?" Darui asked curiously as Yugito jogged past him, her new prize held firmly in one hand. "I thought that wasn't out yet."

"It isn't." Yugito smirked.

"…what?"

Laughing, Yugito dashed through the doorway of her house, closing it after her, then she opened the book ready to start reading, only to pause as a sheet of paper drifted down. Carefully picking it up, she looked at the message written on it, growing more and more shocked as she read through it.

Jonin Yugito Nii.

Please hand this note to the Raikage.

To the Yondaime Raikage.

It has come to my attention that we both have a vested interest in the education
of Uzumaki Naruto, I as a potential successor and you as he will be a formidable
ally as he rises through the ranks of Konoha.

As such, I wish to discuss, among other matters, a non-aggression pact between
our respective nations with the option of a full alliance in the future as well as the
progress of young Naruto.

Please send your reply through Naruto via Yugito Nii.

Awaiting your response,

Sarutobi Hiruzen

Sandaime Hokage.

Konohagakure.