DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Naruto universe but I do have an imagination of my own. PLEASE REVIEW! I will take advice and suggestions from my readers while continuing the story.

Thinking

Biju, etc. speaking

Biju, etc. thinking

Emphasis

"I'll get you for this, Ero-Sennin."

Naruto sat in an Academy classroom, a scowl on her face that once again scared all the other children away from her. Her teacher, an Uchiha-something or other, was especially troublesome. She snorted at her internal description before putting her chin on her desk in sadness, thinking about Shikamaru. He was the one boy she had ever "like-liked." Naruto's memories of the two of them hanging out together and his soft smiles swam in her vision as if to mock her. She shook it off as she vividly remembered seeing him with Temari-chan after returning from her training trip with the Pervert. She had acted the clown again, hoping he didn't see the hurt on her face - something she was used to doing with nearly all her classmates. Except for him.

Is he still in that God-tree thing?! Is everyone?

After stretching, she slumped in her chair at her morbid thoughts. She still had no idea of what had happened to her old friends or how exactly she and half of Kurama had come to this time following the Fourth Shinobi War, and she was STILL pissed off about it! One moment, Naruto thought they had won the damn war, then the next, she had been standing there: sweaty, gross, and overpowered as hell - along with her stupid, revenge-obsessed, Rinnegan-wielding idiot of a returned-teammate… The Bastard then stated his desire to kill all the Kage after every-freakin-thing they'd been through in front of all those already dead Kage - and the… Ugh. That father of Kurama's and the other Bijuus did some kind of weird jutsu and blasted Sasuke out of the circle, leaving her in the middle of the seal with him.

"Watch it!"

"Oh, I call bullshit on that! You don't want to be back here any more than I do," Naruto taunted her Bijuu.

Although that was true, surely his father, the Sage of Six Paths, had a reason for blasting that Indra and Madara-reincarnate away, Kurama fully believed. Naruto had been sent by his father and all those dead Kage here for some reason, and he couldn't help but trust him. His brat, though? No. Her blasted sire had faded off into the Pure World, and then minutes later, here she was: with that blasted yellow-headed monkey still ALIVE of all things… Surely Father had a reason, but Naruto-chan and I could've taken down that Bastard Uchiha!

Why were they here at all if not to save the future and all those they held dear? No matter how often he reminded his vessel of this, she was still being immature about it. Granted, with the mindset of a teenager in a 5-year-old body, it was only natural she was having a difficult time. It was also ironic that he seemed to be tasked now with abating all of the anger in her, rather than the other way around. Kurama certainly knew the far boundaries of anger and hate, but an anger-management specialist he was not! He could only hope that when Naruto's life stabilized, she would calm down and become that hyperactive, happy, and positive idiot that had so changed his outlook on life.

Naruto continued glancing around her first-year classroom looking for anyone familiar as time passed. Stupid Jiraiya, thinking it was a great idea to have her "babysat" by the damn Academy as he went traipsing around to save the future, which was her job! I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself! "Gomen, Uchiha-san, can you repeat that question?" You freaking Uchiha…

"Please pay attention, Naruto-chan. I asked what you can tell me about the Shodaime Hokage?"

What a question, Naruto thought. "The Shodaime's name was Senju Hashirama, brother of Senju Tobirama, the Nindaime. It was his and (stupid) Uchiha Madara's idea to form a village to save children from the Clan Wars that they had suffered through, losing so many of their siblings and family. Shortly after he married Uzumaki Mito from Uzushiokature, who became the first jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi..." Ooops: maybe I wasn't supposed to say that? Judging from the open-mouthed expressions around her, she'd said something wrong - or maybe it was simply too much. "Umm, well that's when Madara turned his back on the village." And let's not forget that I'm his reincarnate, and he was like, bipolar or something… Yeah, she wasn't going there; she had apparently gone far enough.

"Very good, Uzumaki-chan," the Uchiha sensei said quite warily. "Would you mind waiting in the hallway?" Naruto nodded her head.

What is her freaking problem?! This was the second time she'd been removed from class since she'd enrolled yesterday for answering a question that she knew she had answered correctly. Damn it! Sure, this had happened to her before back in her OWN time in Konoha, but that was because they hated her for being the supposed demon! Her mother still held nearly half the Kyuubi now since Naruto entered the Leaf - so there was no reason for them to act like this toward her! Well, I did accidentally go overboard with my little classmates in taijutsu practice yesterday….

Stewing in her thoughts as she sat cross-legged in the hallway, a tall dark-haired man approached her. "You are Uzumaki Naruto? Daughter of Jiraiya of the Sannin?" Naruto wanted to flip him off but decided to agree to the man, reluctantly nodding her head and wondering what would happen next. "Naruto-sama, I would like to ask you a few questions…"

Naruto answered his random questions easily and wondered what the heck the "-sama" was all about, before being congratulated and moved into the room with third-year students.

"Class, this is Uzumaki Naruto. She has been promoted and will now be your classmate," began a Hyuuga woman who was apparently her new sensei. She looked a little more like Neji-kun than Hinata-chan. Oh, Neji...

Naruto eventually pursed her lips and looked around. She noticed a girl that looked like she could - or eventually be - that snakey Mitarashi Anko, plus a guy that after listening to his voice had to be an unscarred Morino Ibiki. Yeah, I remember you from the Chunin exams! You don't scare me now! In fact, the boy looked quite normal and wasn't leaking Killer Intent at all. Naruto continued to watch as the class went on, watching the Morino and Mitarashi scowl or make faces at one another. Funny. Continuing to look around the class, she saw him again at the back on the other side of the classroom...

Obito: you... You idiot! The boy wearing the goggles like she used to have - and how did that even happen? - was constantly looking longingly at a brown-haired girl that resembled an Inuzuka in a way, but the cheek marks were wrong… I can't believe I miss that idiotic Dog-Breath. Damn it! Kiba-kun... Naruto wiped her eyes before they began to tear further and put her head on the desk, hoping to go to sleep and find peace. She was patted on the head by what was an incredibly gentle Hyuuga sensei who proceeded to ask about the Elemental Nations and their borders.

Naruto rolled her eyes and answered, not understanding why her classmates were staring at her. She knew her answer was right! I ran through all the damn countries when fighting those zombies! After again being sent into the hallway, she was moved up another year. Then after two days, the same thing happened again. At least she'd noticed a few somewhat-familiar faces.

Kurenai and... Asuma-sensei: gods, she wouldn't have recognized him had it not been for a much older boy that had come to collect and take him to the Hokage Tower. The guy had looked so like Konohamaru-kun that she almost reached out to grab and hug him, but no… HOW had she never noticed that some of her old senseis and more had been around the same age? She shook her head before darting into behind a trash can, upon seeing a man that looked so like Lee-Kun entering the Academy, only bigger-browed and… Dear gods: is that Gai-sensei's dad?!

Just as she noticed him, she saw in the distance a teenage blonde with two boys stalking a redhead and her friends. Naruto quickly hid behind a door before retreating toward her classroom. In the bathroom, she smacked her forehead up against the stall wall and refused to cry, not realizing that tears were already dripping down her whiskered-cheeks.

The next day she shadowed another bigger kid into the graduate-level Academy classroom, staring at the floor. Barely acknowledging the sensei, Naruto accepted his greeting, nodded her head, and stalked up the steps to the nearest empty chair. It had been a terrible night, all alone in Jiraiya's apartment as she tried to forget about her actual parent's youth and the sheer fact that all three of them were alive and here in the village, together - but not. She had been late, and the uppity sensei asked her a question about the Nindaime, with a quite snarky attitude.

Naruto answered the question in a bored fashion and leaned her head back against the wall. A toad jumped through the window and landed in front of her, freaking out a lot of the students. The little multi-green-colored amphibian gave her a scroll and poofed away. Vaguely, she heard the sensei explain about summons, and that her father was the great Jiraiya-sama, one of the three Sannin. Naruto would've scoffed if she wasn't so focused on unbinding the sealed message. I don't know what's so great about him - forcing me to sit through the Academy again, she thought darkly. Finally, the scroll opened.

"Dearest Gaki," Naruto couldn't help the smile that crept up one side of her face. The Toad Sage had three other words blacked out in front of "Dearest," the very first word of the note! She wondered if he was short on paper, in the middle of something, or just didn't care how his heavily edited note looked with all its blacked out re-chosen words.

"Sensei told me of your advancement at the Academy. Good job and all that crap, but you know you are in there for a reason! Strong you may be, Naruto, but you're still a child. No matter what, you will finish out the semester and not graduate any earlier than what you've managed to pull off. I've already informed Sensei. To think I was going to bring you a doll…" Naruto snorted then gagged at that part, shaking her head at all of the warnings of blacked-out stuff - impending violence she guessed. He'd probably threatened to spank her, then realized that could be construed as perverted - or maybe, hopefully - he was with someone who informed him spanking was wrong. Who knows with that man? Sighing, she saw all the things she was not to do: catch his place on fire, prank/deliver retribution on citizens or her senseis, blah, blah, blah.

At the end of the note, she could see that he might be as uncomfortable as she was with their new relationship. He'd first signed it as "The Gallant Jiraiya-sama" with a ridiculous henohenomoheji that looked a little like him, but the title had a single scratch through it and had been replaced with "World's Best Dad." Naruto shook her head and pouted. She really wanted to be angry with him for not taking her along, but he just had to go and be an at least somewhat-caring, total goofball. She smiled genuinely for the first time in days and rolled the scroll back up tightly, only to see more writing on the back.

"For Little Naru-chan," it said, and was accompanied by what were tiny drawings of baby bottles and…. "ARGH!" The note exploded in a fit of rampaging wind-chakra from the blonde. Oops: she'd accidentally blown a few kids off their seats. Once again, Naruto found herself sitting outside in the hallway, this time it was definitely as punishment. Well, it's a good time to try to get some sleep.

She heard the footsteps outside of her classroom door but kept her eyes closed. Naruto really hadn't meant to do what she did, but Jiraiya knew how to push her buttons already. She listened to children of various ages squeal, whisper, and chat as they passed her by, a few occasionally making a comment or two about the girl sleeping on the hallway floor. Mind your own business - it's not like I'm laying down! Finally, she was gently kicked by a boot.

"I know you're not asleep," the child's voice said - she guessed it was a boy, but it was hard to tell. Naruto feigned sleep anyway, wiping her eyes groggily, and looked up. Oh great. It was none other than her old sensei, still masked and looking bored and rather odd with his two matching gray eyes.

"So you're Jiraiya-sama's kid? Didn't know he had one." Kakashi looked back at her from where he was gazing down the hallways when he spoke and tilted his head. "Maa, you don't look like him. I wouldn't have believed it for one minute had the toad not gone straight to you."

Naruto's mouth opened slightly. What a rude brat! He was staring at her, looking so bored and sleepy with those heavily-lidded eyes of his that she wondered why he bothered to talk to her at all. "So? Maybe I look like my mom."

"Maybe?" Chibi-Kakashi asked.

"I don't know. My mom died right after I was born," she said quietly. It was both the truth and the cover story Jiraiya had come up with to cover for her, as well.

Mine, too. Maybe his dad was right after all, and his mouth was really going to get him in a heap of trouble: it certainly had here. Kakashi looked away but gave Naruto a nod, not knowing what to say. "Maa, Dad mentioned that he was taking a mission with Jiraiya-sama," he walked alongside the blonde girl who was now walking toward the door. He also noticed that she was nearly ignoring him. "Don't suppose you know where they are?" Naruto looked at him in obvious disbelief. "I mean, you got the message and all, ne?"

Squealing, giggles, and whispers broke out around the two as they walked out the door. Naruto stopped dead in her tracks, wondering what the heck was going on. There were so many girls, and some of them were glaring at her. Oh! It seems Chibi-Kakashi has a fan club! She looked to her former sensei and saw so much irritation in his eyes. Hilarious! "So you like the older ladies, huh?"

Kakashi sputtered and muttered something about "stupid scary girls" under his breath as he moved swiftly so that none of the little banshees could touch him.

"All right cougar-bait, let's go get some ramen!"

Kakashi tried to get away from her grip, but she was pretty strong! Especially for a ~shiver~ girl! Even though his dad often told him that girls didn't really have cooties, he couldn't be sure. He'd read that those cooties weren't real, but one could never be sure! After all, he had an old book of his grandmother's that implied that walking on walls or water couldn't be done, so who knew what was really true.

Rubbing his shoulder and occasionally taking a bite of the eggplant in the otherwise non-nutritious but edible food, Kakashi watched in horror as the pushy girl ate bowl after bowl of ramen. She didn't speak, didn't look at him: just inhaled the stuff at an inhuman-speed. He decided then and there, he was never going near this person again! Even though she helped him shake his pursuers, he still ended up with a girl! A weird one but still... He cursed his earlier curiosity and wished he never met this "Naruto" person.

Naruto finally felt satisfied and looked toward the silver-haired chibi and asked the one thing she was really wondering about right now. "So, were you born a flagrant pervert, or did you just slowly become one?"

"Whaa?!"