DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Naruto universe but I do have an imagination of my own. PLEASE REVIEW! I will take advice on any relationships you'd like to eventually see, as well as suggestions from my readers while continuing the story.

Thinking

Biju, etc. speaking

Biju, etc. thinking

Emphasis

War had to be imminent.

Naruto's class had grown by at least a third, and just like Anko had promised, she was now sitting beside her in class, all grins and interruptions. The only person that kept the purple-haired girl in line at all was the boy sitting on the other side of her, Ibiki. Naruto had been right: that it was him when she'd heard his voice in the class she'd been promoted from earlier. It wasn't like Ibiki's voice was the rough, deep one she remembered from her past - it was more the cadence of his words that made her identify him. His blondish-brown hair had been a surprise, but it fit him well enough.

Ibiki was the only one who could put Kakashi down in spars, and that was a wonderful thing in Naruto's eyes. It's not like she hated Kakashi or even particularly disliked him - it was more like SOMEONE needed to beat the silver-haired boy to knock his crappy and superior attitude out of him!

It was so disheartening! Naruto had only beaten him that one time, although she was always close. It's only because I have so much chakra, though. She'd heard complaints from her classmates that were too true: Naruto just kept getting up, no matter how hard she was knocked down. I've gotta get better!

She wasn't sure what to do to improve her taijutsu, but something needed to be done. If only I could do Frog Fu. She practiced the katas for it, but without sage mode, it only made her miss the clones she'd try to punch. She'd been flawless with that style in her past life, however, she was apparently too young to manage such a thing right now. Jiraiya had already had her sign the toad contract so that they could message each other, and she'd initially summoned Ma and Pa, completely freaking him out. Somehow the toad sages recognized her immediately - and then laughed at how small she was. Damn toads… She wouldn't be allowed to go to the Mountain, they said until she was older.

Watching Ibiki back Kakashi out of bounds with a nearly thunderous punch, Naruto wondered if he would train her, or at least practice with her. Ibiki was much bigger than her - nearly everyone was - but he was good. Her thoughts on Ibiki derailed as she took note of the cheering of one maybe-someday-kunoichi in an otherwise relatively quiet circle on the other side of the training grounds for Academy students. Naruto hopped up into the tree she was leaning against to get a better look. A wicked smile appeared on her face.

"There's your answer, brat," said Not-Helpful-san. Kurama insisted that she had to relearn some things on her own.

Ridiculous. Her furry partner promised that he would supervise her training if she'd just kill all the Uchihas, but that was a no-go.

The blonde pulled the leaves away in front of her to better observe the relatively fierce taijutsu match going on in the fourth-year class. Obito Uchiha and a green blur were putting on a hell of a show for their age. She had no idea that Obito was as good as he was - she'd only known him as a ninjutsu monster….

"A monster indeed. Let me kill him, kit! I'll take over your body, and you won't remember a thing about it."

Hmm, tempting. Nah… Naruto didn't bother replying to her Bijuu yet again. With so many Uchihas roaming the village, she heard Kurama begging her to kill any one of them many times a day. Knowing Madara was out there, though, she was keeping nearly all her rage in check nowadays just for him. Filthy super-old cannibal… She found it really disgusting that Madara had taken a bite out of Hashirama Senju. It was hilarious in a way, however, that he had the Shodaime's face right over his heart. How in love WAS that asshole with his rival? Poor, poor, lovesick Madara, she thought sarcastically.

The boy that absolutely HAD to be a mini-Maito Gai finally put Obito down - the Uchiha was out cold as the match was called. Yes, she'd found her taijutsu master! So what if he was probably her body's age and only a little taller? She knew what Gai had turned into, and there had to be some reason or teacher that helped the boy become a Class S threat without the use of ninjutsu.

"Uzumaki-sama!" Naruto rolled her eyes at her sensei's call: gods, how she hated that honorific. "You're up against Nami-san."

Jumping down into the ring, she saw the civilian girl flinch. Good. Since just after Naru had smashed Kakashi's exposed and incredibly pale face, the idiots had learned to fear her. After running away from the evil horde of fangirls that day she'd been bullied, but after beating their asses senseless one-on-one, they'd learned to fear her. In a group, the girls were too unskilled and rash to beat her, too.

"Hajime!"

One punch in the face was all it took. Naruto was small but quick, so she'd moved before the girl could blink. Chakra-enhanced punches really helped her a lot. Thank you, Baa-chan. You too, Sakura-chan. Naruto's eyes welled up in tears again. Damnit! I'm such a crybaby… I'll save you two one day: I swear it!

"You alright, Naru-chan?" Anko asked kindly. Naruto nodded her head at her and wiped her eyes, feeling completely embarrassed and overwhelmed. "Awwww! You're just so adorable, chibi-chan!"

Naruto would have hit her for calling her that, but Anko had already let go of her, skipping away into the taijutsu dirt "arena" for her own match. She was up against Asuma Sarutobi, who didn't use the standard Academy style which Anko had down pat. She was beaten quickly, but at least Asuma was nice about it. He gave Anko the Seal of Reconciliation and helped her up. Maybe Asuma could help us hone our skills, too.

"Us" was still a relatively new concept to Naruto, but she needed allies like the new, hopefully-friends that she had made here in this timeline. They were up against odds like no one had experienced ever before, other than me… As Anko limped a bit back to her, Naruto made a promise not to let her new friend - and that's what Anko was: a real friend - she promised to never allow Orochimaru to get her hands on her.

As he summoned Manda, Orochimaru sneezed. Had he not been exceptionally quick, he would've been a snakey treat for the Iwa shinobi surrounding them. Fortunately, Jiraiya had summoned GamaKen, who flattened Rochi's former opponent.

At Orochimaru's brief and unlikely delayed reaction, Jiraiya momentarily wondered whether or not his "daughter" was thinking about how to kill his sorta-male teammate again. A slash of white lightning from the tanto of his other best friend immediately brought him out of his thoughts as together, they all laid waste to the team of Iwa nins. Yikes: Tsunade really flattened that guy's head! "Yo, Tsu-hime! We can finally go back so you can meet your goddaughter, ne?"

"Who said I'd be a brat's goddaughter, Pervert?!"

"You got no choice in it, Hime," Jiraiya whined. "I said you're her godmother, and that's that! She's an Uzumaki, after all, so…"

"I'll be the one to decide, Jiraiya," Tsunade sighed. Jiraiya's such a pain! His brat was around Dan's little sister's age, though - so maybe this Naruto… What an idiotic name! But what can I expect from that idiot pervert? Tsunade twisted up her lips and punched through a tree. Damn it all: if she really is an Uzumaki, like I DOUBT, what choice do I have? Family is family. "Oi, why can't Kushina-chan be her godmother then?" She unsealed a bottle of sake and knocked it back.

"Nope, nope: she's too young. What if something happened to me?! Not that anything could possibly defeat the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku: Winner of Women's Hearts…"

"Shut up, you idiot! Gods, I'll do it alright?! The thought of you raising a GIRL of all things… You can't even raise tadpoles properly, ya menace!" She took a deep drink of her sake before rolling her eyes. "So if I'm the godmother - Gods help me from any spawn of a damn pervert - who's the girl's godfather then?"

Oh shit! Jiraiya hadn't really considered that! Both Orochimaru and Sakumo were in his face: Rochi looking oddly interested, while Sakumo was smiling with glee. "Uh, Minato-kun." Orochimaru looked pissed as he crossed his arms haughtily, while Sakumo's shoulders melted down as the Great White Fang pouted. "Wait - I can't make him her goddaughter - he's her brother, after all."

"WHAT?!" yelled the entire group of Konoha shinobi.

Jiraiya's shoulders drooped. "Shit." He hadn't told anyone other than Hiruzen-sensei the whole made-up story yet. Here we go...

"No, Naru-chan! He's too weird! And what's with all that green? I mean seriously, yuck!"

"Come on, Anko-chan! I swear it: this guy's good! Really good! Don't ya wanna be better in taijutsu and beat all those bastards' asses?" Naruto asked as she pulled the older girl along, not even looking back at her.

"Duh! Of course, I do - especially that damn Ibiki," Anko hotly replied.

"Awww - you like him," Naruto purred.

"Shut up, idiot! I do NOT! What's to like, anyway?" Anko frowned, "It's like you told those stupid fangirls: we're like, 8 and 5 for fuck's sake!"

"Gomen, gomen. Screw those bitches. Let's find ourselves a taijutsu master, ne?" Naruto continued pulling Anko harshly until she reached her target. "Yo, you're Maito Gai-san, right? Ya wanna spar with us? I saw you earlier; you're really good!" Gai looked like he was having a stroke, baffling the blonde in front of him.

He finally came out of his reverie. "Bea- Beautiful flowers! You would - you would like to be friends - no, I mean, you'd like to spar… With me?"

Naruto cocked her head and bit her top lip. What's wrong with him? He's acting like Lee used to with Sakura-chan. "Well, yeah: we'd like to be friends and maybe improve our skills, right Anko-chan?" She pulled the girl's ponytail to move her forward - then they suddenly were hit by the genjutsu from hell. Anko screamed and shook as the sunset genjutsu filled their eyes. Naruto begged Kurama to stop it, but he just laughed at her. Hearts and flowers appeared along a nightmarish rainbow. She noticed that mini-Gai was in the middle of it all, tears pouring from his eyes.

"I would be honored, my Sweet Blossoms of Youth! To have such beautiful…"

"That's enough youth for the moment, my treasured son!" The genjutsu stopped suddenly at the older man's outburst.

Naruto looked up to see another green spandex-clad horror and stepped back. She had to hold Anko in place and forced her to bow alongside her.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the man all but yelled. "I am Maito Dai, the Green Beast of Konoha! Come, friends of my youthful son! Let us enjoy a feast together to celebrate your youthful friendship!"

Naruto dragged Anko along after properly introducing them both shakily, still feeling dazed by the man's "youthful" and bizarre appearance, in her opinion. Free food was free food, though. It was only half an hour later that she changed her mind.

God damnit! This isn't the Curry of Life! This is the Curry of Imminent Death!