DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Naruto universe but I do have an imagination of my own. I would love to hear your thoughts on how the story's progressing so far.

Thinking (or flashbacks)

Emphasis

Biju, etc. speaking

Biju, etc. thinking

Naruto walked to class with her friends with a skip in her step. She'd had a great time at Kurenai's house with Anko over the whole weekend, although Anko had been a pain about some stuff. For instance, Naru fell asleep early the first night they were together which apparently wasn't allowed when one is at a sleepover, so the girls put the clothes from her pack into the freezer and froze her underwear in a giant block of ice. How was she supposed to stay awake all night when there was a big comfy bed to sleep in? After being pummeled by the Slug Sannin and sleeping on Jiraiya's couch all this time? She couldn't help it!

The other girls got in trouble for that with Kurenai's parents, though. Naruto got in trouble when she stayed awake the second night to draw penises on her friend's foreheads. Things devolved from there.

It was great!

She also told the girls about everything that Tsunade had told and taught her. Naru explained that the woman was bitter, but all of them had incredible respect for her; maybe even more respect after telling them what she'd survived. Kurenai's mother had been listening and came into the room to discuss her own career as an ANBU with the girls, as much as she was allowed, anyway. It, also, was eye-opening.

All three of them still aspired to become kunoichi, though, and now maybe ANBU, too. Maybe Kurenai wanted it or was more accepting of all the downsides of their profession because her parents were shinobi. Anko, though? At first, Naruto didn't know why she'd still want to join the ranks to protect her village and potentially die or have to do some of those seduction missions or worse someday. When she asked her, Anko became quiet and finally admitted that as an orphan in the village, she had nothing else. She wanted to be respected, to feel that she could be somebody, and also kick-ass legally. "I don't give a shit. I'm gonna go out there and make a name for myself and NOBODY'S gonna stop me! If that Hokage keeps asking us to do stupid missions, well then we'll just have to change things!"

"Yeah!" Naruto and Kurenai had shouted. They all high-fived each other after Kurenai's mother put her hand in the air first. The woman looked happier than she had all weekend and told the girls how proud she was of them.

It was a nice and warm feeling being praised by a mom like that, and Naruto would never forget it. Oops, she forgot to ask for Kurenai's mother's name, only calling her Yuhi-san all weekend. I hope that was alright. She'd like to be invited back someday.

"I don't understand why we have to henge as boys to do missions like that; it makes no sense," Kurenai said with a pout.

"It's because we females are supposedly weaker," Kurenai's mother replied while shaking her head and sighing deeply. "They expect the men to be out there fighting on the front lines while we either provide back up or are doing background work. There are a few of us in interrogation, too. Believe me, I could kick the a-, excuse me, the rears of half the men in this village. I'll be out there doing it again when you three graduate from the Academy next month!"

All three of the girls had decided to get strong enough to fight right alongside the boys, and definitely kick their asses if the boys tried to deny their strength. Kurenai even wanted to come to start coming to taijutsu lessons with Dai-sensei - they were going to call him that whether he agreed to it or not - after school. Naruto grimaced: that man had no limits and wasn't going to be happy that she hadn't told him where she had been.

Sure enough, Gai came running from behind the building, crying tears of joy that "Naruto's still alive! Thank Kami! This is a testament to your Youth!" The boy pumped his fist like some kind of chibi-maniac. Wait 'til she had time to tell him about surviving Tsunade! The things she could share would certainly show her Youth to the world.

Oh gods, did I just actually think that?!

"Thought you dropped out, loser."

"You wish, Hatake! Poor masked baby, were you missing my foot being in your ass?" Naruto asked with a smirk. It was weird for Kakashi to approach her - or for him to approach anyone really.

"Yeah. That's exactly what I've been longing for, idiot. Maa, have you heard from our fathers?"

Oh. "No, I'm sorry; but I'm sure they're okay! I've talked to the toads about it a bunch, and they said that they'd know if something happened to any of their summoners, 'ttebayo!" Oops. Kakashi's eyebrow rose at her verbal tic. Crap! She cleared her throat. "I'm - well - I've also got a feeling our dads are together." She scratched her cheek and wondered just how close Jiraiya and Sakumo were. Knowing Ero-sennin/her Ero-father, she would bet money that the man was driving both Sakumo and Orochimaru up the wall, trying to protect them from their potentially awful future, (or lack thereof in the case of Sakumo,) that she'd told him about.

Kakashi scratched his head. "I can't ask Akiro to deliver a message for me right now. Do you - Maa…"

"Dude! Seriously, just speak up and let me know you need to send something! I warn you, though, if your dad's not with the Per- I mean… If your dad's not with mine, my dad will read the letter anyway. Do you have the note you wanna send? I'll summon..."

"Maa, I need to update it." He walked back to his desk, and not for the first time, Naruto was left wondering about how his hair did that thing it did. Regarding the note, she figured he wrote some froo-froo love stuff about missing his daddy on the paper he'd been holding that he didn't want Jiraiya to see, so was now rewriting it.

"Dad"

There was that pang in her chest again. Naruto was so glad to have Jiraiya in her life, but he was always gone: something she knew would be the case. However much she tried to deny or push the feelings back, though, she couldn't help but miss and want her parents, too. Her really real parents who were alive and young and… Stop it, Naruto. The important thing was to get her dad - no, her biological father who was a teenager now - to begin to teach her the Rasengan so she could get Tsunade back here.

Has Minato-san taught it to anyone yet? Obviously, Kakashi couldn't do it if she couldn't. That better damn well be the case! Has Jiraiya learned it from him yet? She remembered that Jiraiya had once told her that she'd learned it faster than he had, so there had to be hope, right? Grabbing a sheet of paper, she decided to send that pervert an additional note specifically about the jutsu this morning. She began furiously writing and looked up at the end of her note to see Kakashi standing there like she was his damn personal secretary. She grabbed the note from him after folding her own up and drawing a seal on it. It's sloppy, she scolded herself but wiped her blood over it anyway. "Say thank you, damn it!"

"Kami, you're so rude. 'Thank you, Naruto,'" Kakashi said, bowing to her deeply in a way that she just knew was sarcastic. Not for the first time, she felt a weak Killing Intent flow toward her from Kakashi's band of fangirls in this class. What could they see in this jerk?!

"Back off bitches, he's mine!" Naruto cackled, making Anko laugh loudly in the row in front of her. From her left, Kurenai blushed and slapped her hand gently. Naruto laughed harder. "He's mine to torture, that is! Bwha-ha-ha-ha!" She looked over to see Kakashi holding a book up over his face and worried - as if - for a second before realizing his shoulders were just barely shaking. The idiot doesn't want people to see him laugh: what a pain that guy is... She gave the frog she'd summoned the two notes and sent him on his way as the sensei stepped into the room.

"Uzumaki-sama. Glad you deigned to join us today."

"Hai, hai. I thought the class would be suffering without my wit, charm, and general presence," Naruto said, wondering if the outrageous Tsunade had rubbed off on her.

"What am I going to do with you, child?" The woman asked in exasperation.

"You could teach us something cool," Naruto said while working on that seal again. She needed to clean it up to ensure that only one person could open her messages, then practice it repeatedly until she had it down perfectly.

The sensei stared at Jiraiya's prodigious little miscreant while chewing her bottom lip and looked around at her class. She had a lot of smart and eager students, and it broke her heart that they'd too soon be out on a battlefield. She was especially worried for her littlest ones who were also her top two students. What in the world would the village do with two little five-year-olds that were as talented as they were? She'd like to hope that their missions would all remain in the village for years to come, but that was just wishful thinking. Both were from old, prestigious, although near-vanquished clans, so even more would be expected from them. "Something cool, ne? How about this? We have a lot of work to do, but for this day; this one day only, let's talk about sign language."

Well, that sounds... okay, Naruto thought. She'd been hoping for something more badass and flashy, but learning awesome jutsus was not what the Academy was really about. After an hour of lecture, things were getting more interesting though. Naru looked over at Kakashi and saw that he was already looking at her, too. He gave a nod and Naruto shook her head a bit in wonder. Kurenai was sitting back in her chair and smirking: it was obvious she already knew this stuff.

Who knew that in addition to learning sign language to better interact with the deaf community, they'd also be getting the basics of ANBU or at least Chunin-level hand sign language?! Whichever it was, it was fairly easy for her to pick up, but still different from what they'd used in the Shinobi Alliance during the Fourth Shinobi War. Each village had their own sign-language which were combined pretty effectively by the Kage back then. They also changed some hand seals' names, for example, "Bird" became "Fox," because of Naruto's Wind affinity, and more hilariously from "Ox" became "Octopus," which Killer Bee took incredible delight in even though his primary affinity was Lightning, so "Snake" would've been more appropriate.

Since his Bijuu was an Ox Octopus, it made sense, though. And no one wanted to claim the Snake sign, even though Orochimaru was considered to be dead then.

Or he was until that dumbass Sasuke brought him back to life, but that did save us all since Orochimaru revived the past Hokages. Whaa! Every time she thought about the Bastard she would get off track with what she was doing... It showed, too, because Kurenai pinched her pinky.

"Thanks," she whispered and smiled at the girl. Oh! Isn't that cute? Asuma was chewing on a toothpick - he probably got it from Genma - and staring at Kurenai with lovey-dovey eyes. She would've thought he just looked weird had she not known about their future relationship.

It hit her all at once: Kurenai - her FRIEND, Kurenai - and Asuma had a baby! She nearly squealed out loud, but shook the fangirling off and began listening to her sensei again.

Hitomi was pleased that Jiraiya-sama's daughter didn't seem to hold a grudge against her, nor did she act snarky about her father's warning when the girl sat down in Kunoichi Class and offered up a quick but bright smile.

Perhaps the little girl didn't know that she'd been threatened by Jiraiya-sama - and his message had been delivered through the Hokage of all people! Or perhaps Naru knew that's exactly what her father did... She had made a vow that she'd never slap a child again, regardless. Being turned to ash by Naruto's father and his summons hadn't even entered her mind when she'd decided that. It's not like I'll forget it, though: the man could definitely do it! Silly and perverted facade or not, Jiraiya-sama was one of the very best shinobi in the Elemental Nations.

Naruto looked up to see Kakashi dashing home and wondered what his deal was. She had seen earlier in class that one of her toads went straight to him! Outrageous! School wasn't over for the day, and the boy was such a stickler for the rules. Which was hilarious... Considering his nindo later in life, she would never have imagined that he would start his life like all bratty and nitpicky like he is now. She'd have to go check on him later, to make sure that the toad hadn't delivered bad news or something. Surely, the messenger or even Kakashi would tell her if that was the case, right?

She face-palmed hard at hearing girls sigh and act all lovesick as he ran past them.

Really?! The oldest students in the Academy were eleven from what she'd discerned! Most everyone here hadn't even gone through puberty, yet so many of them were acting like fools. Kami, that has to change, too! It's no wonder we're not taken as seriously as the boys with all this sighing and boy-worship going on, she thought sourly as she scraped at a weird leaf that combined with some other crap would make a good poison.

"What about itching powder? How do you make that from scratch?" Anko perked up at Naruto's question, which made her happy. Naruto hadn't meant to interrupt her sensei as she had, but sometimes her mouth just spilled out the great stuff she was thinking. Anko LOVED studying poisons, which made sense considering that the girl could still become that scary T&I proctor from the worst part of the Chunin exams. Naruto would never let her fall to Orochimaru's evilness, though. That she promised, and she never went back on her word.

"Finish this poison and I'll... Fine. May the gods help me: I'll teach you to make an itching powder: it's very simple, after all." The two girls whooped and hollered before giving each other fist bumps.

After class, Naruto summoned a toad to make sure that Jiraiya was okay. She hadn't meant to summon one of the sages, and Lady Shima smacked her in the head for bothering her with such a "trivial request." Then she gave the little blonde a kiss, which grossed Naruto out, after assuring her that her faux-father was just fine.

After school taijutsu practice was as painful as always, so that left just one more thing to do today.

"Hey, wolf-sama! I'm here looking for Kakashi!"

The brown wolf groaned and turned around to have her follow him up to Kakashi's home. Seeing the girl skipping behind him, he rolled his eyes and barked at the front door before pushing it open.

"Bakakashi! Are you home?"

"Be quiet, idiot! I've got my hands full and the pups are sleeping! What are you doing here?!"

"Oh sorry," Naruto squeaked while covering her mouth. "Can I see them?!" Kakashi stared at her blankly for a while then finally shrugged his shoulders. Naruto followed him into the back room again and was stunned to see even more puppies. One of them, a black one, was wriggling around but looked huge compared to the others, although his eyes were closed as he moved. Maybe he's still blind?

"They - they just keep coming," Kakashi said, his voice taking on just the slightest hint of a whine.

"What do you mean?"

"They - gah! After you brought me that puppy who is not normal by the way," he began and squinted at Naruto when he saw her suppressing a rather knowing grin that was growing on her whisker-lined face, "a new one popped up daily! Sometimes two at once!"

"How many? How many altogether?!"

"Seven more since you brought me Pakkun."

Naruto was thrilled! But wait, "Pakkun?" It was really all happening?!

Kakashi looked embarrassed, which was really something considering his half-masked face. "Maa, I said something about guessing he was a pug, and mentioned to Akiro that we should call him Pug-kun as a joke, then the pup talked. I didn't expect that at all! He said 'Pakkun.'" Kakashi shook his head with fondness. "It was more like he barked it, but he's said it every day louder and louder, so you know... That's his name." He didn't expect Naruto to start squealing and jumping up and down and then to hug him of all things! How disgusting! "Get off me you loser!"

He and Naruto froze in that position as the door opened up. Naruto figured it was just another wolf, but...

"Dad? Dad!" Kakashi broke free of Naruto's evil clutches and jumped into his father's arms.