DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything from the Naruto universe.

A/N: Pretty gross imaging in the first section: just a warning!

Thinking (+ flashbacks, "Naruto speaking to Kurama in her mindscape," etc.)

Emphasis

Bijuu, etc. speaking

Bijuu, etc. thinking

As sure as Sakumo felt he was about the reason for Naru's disappearance, (particularly as it followed Danzo prowling around his son and the equally young blonde Genin,) he would be remiss not to take off in the direction he smelled smoke and death as he followed one of her trails.

Coming upon a scene of carnage replete with no less than freshly burned and charred bodies, Sakumo reeled when one turned its head toward him. This one looked like it had had its skin burned or even flayed rather than being charred.

"Then-th-ei," Naru struggled to say. "Ah. Me-th-h-ed up."

"No," Sakumo whispered, absolutely horrified. "Naru-chan?" he asked in what was more of a breath, praying he was wrong. He summoned two of his fastest wolves but Naru groaned as she began pathetically waving her poor little hand after trying to stop him.

"NO!"

"Don't move. I'll get you help. Tsunade's in the village and…"

"NO! Hibe Be." Naru tried to smack her lips and let out a whimper. She was more numb than anything now but BOY had she fucked up. Kurama did, too. –At least, just this once, they'd both dove into a Hellpit of Stupid together.

Sakumo had sent one of his wolves off for Tsunade. "What? What did you say, Naruto?" He asked in a quiet voice as he knelt beside her, remaining calm thanks to his training and experience but struck by how much pain Jiraiya's kid had to be in. He was frankly afraid to touch her.

It hurt him to look at her. And there is something terrifyingly familiar about one of the scents here here…

"Hide," she tried to better enunciate. "Me?" She looked up at the sky and thought of how pretty the clouds looked, which made her groan again. What a stupid day it's been from early morning. "Jutht uh… Gimme a thew thecondth."

"Give you a few seconds?" Sakumo asked but bobbed his head reassuringly. He glanced around at the other bodies and wondered if Naruto had been responsible for all of this chaos. No… The air smelled absolutely foul - far fouler than what was left of the poor little girl in front of him. Her hair was a little charred on the ends but still long and blonde, though.

What in the world?

Naru reached up to pet Runa but grimaced when she caught sight of her hand. "Crap." She withdrew it and shrieked when her sometimes-sensei tried to begin bandaging it - but then tried to smile up reassuringly at him. She was in a lot of pain but didn't want him to feel bad.

Already she was feeling better but for a little while there it had been touch and go: her insides had felt as if they had been Amaterasu-ed. She listened to Kakashi's dad try to hum to her - thinking that was nice and that he had a very dreamy but low and gravelly voice - as his hand lit up in iryo-ninjutsu. Naru knew she had to look terrible.

Thank Kami, he didn't show up earlier when her body felt as if it had been burnt to a crisp; roasted inside and out. She let her tongue dance around in her mouth for a few minutes before chirping out, "Kidnapped!"

"I was afraid of that. YOU, right? YOU were kidnapped?" Was he seriously questioning a six-year-old in this condition; one that was outside the village?!

"Mmhmm."

"Do you know who they were, Naruto?" Naruto shook her head very slowly.

"Thought… yay," she could already speak better. "Thanks big guy," she whispered internally. Poor Kurama looked like he was trying to hide; he had to feel terrible about what a jinchuuriki transformation had done to her chibified self. "Thought it… wath Dan-th-thzo."

Sakumo wasn't quite sure what to say and wondered what Jiraiya had told her about Hiruzen-sama's most trusted advisor. The girl seemed to smirk up at him and good LORD was she healing fast. Faster than Kushina does!

Maybe there was still hope for her, yet.

"I'm a then…. I'm a SSSen-Sssor," she tried to clarify as she was ready to enjoy the cool breeze - but then it felt like she had painful goosebumps all over her messed-up skin and made her begin shivering. She popped her head up a bit and was a little startled, never having seen herself like this before. Sakura-chan had once told her about what condition she'd been in following her fight with Orochimaru at Tenchi bridge but supposedly she'd healed very quickly after that - although she remembered none of it. Of course, then I was around ten years older than I am now.

She made sure to sound her words out nice and slowly since although her tongue felt like it was working fine, her lips had to be a mess. They definitely felt stretched and chapped. Well. That was the best way she could think of to describe them. "Dan-zzo's evil. He's power-hungry and…" Her eyes darted south but she blew out a happy dose of relief at only feeling Tsunade heading their way. "Tth-sunade's coming."

"Good," Sakumo said, releasing a breath he didn't realize he'd still been holding. "…You heal remarkably quickly, do you know that?"

"Uthumaki gene-es," she tried to grin. Unfortunately, Sakumo-sensei didn't look like he quite bought that. Naruto groaned. "What a drag."

"Naruto-chan… Tsunade's been out of the village for a good while and isn't glad to be back. Maa, be careful of what you say to her, alright?" Naru's golden eyebrows furrowed and Sakumo wondered how she still had them, although her face now only looked badly sunburnt.

"Kay," she finally responded.

"And I would recommend you keep your thoughts on Danzo-sama to yourself, little one. He is ranked second to only Hokage-sama and was a hero in the wars."

"Hmph! …Foreign th-shinobis took me."

By the time Tsunade got there, freaked out, and screamed at her, Naruto had begged them not to tell anyone about what had happened to her OR about her palms. Naruto had been stupid enough to try to Rasengan her last captor even after going Jinchuuriki Mode 2 on all of them. She'd turned the woman who'd bitten her into…

Into?

What had happened? Wait…

Naru blinked sleepily as she tried to talk to Tsunade and wouldn't know until much later about the genjutsu the Slug Sannin had used on her to knock her out.

Naru woke up in a spare bedroom at Kakashi's house, having no idea of why she was there or how she'd arrived. Kurama was sleeping - or pretending to - and her hands were a mess. She was particularly upset that she had an adult's bite marks that took up more than half of one of her stupidly small hands on both sides that hurt. She didn't even know why that hand had been hurting so much until she allowed Sakumo-sensei to redress her hands.

"Who bit me?" Her lips quivered before she pulled them into her mouth. She didn't know what to do. Her eyes welled up with tears but she turned her head and hid - mostly behind her hair when she saw Kakashi staring into the room at her. What happened to my hair?! Some of the ends are burnt.

"Don't worry about it, Naru-chan." Sakumo had already sent a bird out to find Jiraiya. Overnight his clones had more thoroughly investigated the area and he didn't like what he'd found.

"What happened to her?" Kakashi snarled when his father came out of one of the spare bedrooms.

"I need you to calm down and Be. Quiet. Kakashi-kun."

"That doesn't fly with me!"

"Stand down, Genin." Kakashi reeled back as if struck, staring at him with wide eyes so Sakumo grabbed him and sat his small son in his lap. "Just let me do this, for now, Kashi. Please." Slowly, very slowly, his son turned toward him - only looking confused thankfully. He wrapped his arms around him, reassuring himself that his pup was okay: safe and sound. He was grateful that Kakashi hadn't been with Naruto when she was attacked but also really shaken by the condition a small child their age had been in when he found her.

And then there was the other thing…

"I know you're worried about your teammate."

"She was crying. And someone bit her," Kakashi whispered. "And she was burned: I could smell it last night!" Kakashi wiped his eyes as he thought about that strange, awful smell. The fact that it had come from his teammate had frightened him, even more, when he found out that it was Naruto in that room this morning.

Being frightened wouldn't help anyone. A shinobi must show no emotion. A shinobi must endure!

Sakumo decided it was better to admit part of the truth; his son was too darn smart for his own good. "She was - but Naru's fortunate. Uzumakis have incredible healing abilities." Beyond incredible, apparently. "I don't think Naru remembers what happened to her."

"Why? And what did happen?"

"I'm not sure."

"Did someone take her? Like the way Kumo took Kushina-nee?"

"Maybe."

Kakashi glared at his father, finding his answers highly unsatisfactory. "You're not helpful at all."

Sakumo grinned. "Lucky for me that you are." Kakashi's deadpan expression made him snort despite the serious situation they found themselves in.

.

Naru wondered if it was all over. Sakumo-sensei had turned her lying, lately-amnesiac-y, tiny ass over to the Yamanakas. She'd just been Mind Walked, had NO idea of what they'd found, and was generally feeling unsettled and sick because of a terrible headache their jutsu had left her with.

Had a young Yamanaka Inoichi seen what she'd been through? Had he seen that he'd been killed during the Fourth Shinobi War because of her and those like her, a lunatic Obito who had more recently been her classmate, Madara Fucking Uchiha… Did he see the Sage of Six Paths, her nutso teammate that wanted to destroy the shinobi system and kill all the Kages? Had he seen that all of the other villages' dead Kages somehow sent her back in time, causing her to be reborn or show up out of nowhere in Uzushio as a fucking newborn?!

God. She was going to be seen as a threat or some kind of weapon - even more than she had been in the past - wasn't she? OH. MY. GOD: did they find Kurama?! That was the biggest threat to the two of them - she might even have to go on the run if they did! ...No. Kurama could hide, she was sure. They'd talked about this many times!

"Kurama, will you please talk to me? Before they come back!"

"No. Sleep."

"You don't need to feel bad over what happened! Neither of us knew that me using your chakra wasn't such a great idea right now. Everything turned out okay except for that Mind Walk."

"Two Mind Walks."

"What?" Naru squeaked.

"Two. A follow-up by that Mind Walker after a longer attempt by his father. …I think the older Yamanaka was his father. I believe his name was Ino-something."

"Am I having episodes of dementia?" The fox raised an eyebrow at her and then closed his eyes again after shaking his head a bit, his tails wrapping around him. Kurama looked calm enough. "Am I forgetting things? HEY! Are you - has all my - well everything led me to this dreadful end? NO! Are you making me forget?"

"If I was, you should thank me! A good way to do that is by letting me get some peace and quiet!"

Naruto's lips moved into a pout that she rolled around as she considered that. "No. If something happened, I want to know."

Kurama huffed. "Have you never realized that you process trauma differently than other, normal people?"

"I do?" He gave her an expression that was somewhere north of loathing and west of deadpan. "I don't get it." The blonde gasped when she heard a fight taking place outside the door in the room she was boxed up in. "Jiraiya's here! Oh ho ho." There might be seals on the room's walls but she could surely hear him. "And he's pissed…"

Naruto popped her head up out of the box again so that she could see. Her eyes went wide at seeing her adoptive father in Sage Mode with his big, ugly, toady nose and the whole bit as he raced in and grabbed her. He forced a fist right through her holding box - she was so damn small that she could stand INSIDE the stupid thing - and was shouting obscenities at everyone he came in contact with as he carried her out the door over his shoulder. "Damn!"

"No cursing," he ordered hypocritically. "I'm takin' you home and then I'm going to go beat Sakumo's ASS."

"What? No: wait! He was the one who came and found me!" Jiraiya didn't say anything and used three sunshins to take her to a cute little house that was somewhat near the edge of some smaller clans and a civilian district - but not too close to either. "Where are we?"

"I bought this place. Our new home was supposed to be a surprise for you. …Welcome home, kiddo."

"Oh! Wow - that's so great! Thank you!" Naru then gasped as she cursed her 6-year-old mind. How hadn't she thought of this before: "What about your mission? I don't want you to have abandoned or failed it! You KNOW what could happen to someone - even someone RESPECTED who could fail a mission!"

I can't let what originally happened to Hatake Sakumo happen to you!

"Fuck my mission. Someone took my kid." Naru sniffled and wound up cursing her emotions, too, as she laid her head on his shoulder and began to cry.

She wasn't even sure why she was so upset.

.

A teenage Inoichi couldn't make any sense of the images - all without any context - that he'd seen. When his father, the Yamanaka's best practitioner of their clan jutsu came to him to try to reach into the mind of a Genin near-toddler… Are six-year-olds still considered toddlers? The girl was awfully small… He'd been scandalized but his father eventually said the words he didn't even know that he'd been longing to hear.

"I cannot see into her mind, Inoichi."

Inoichi tried to figure out how the cute little head that was poking out of "the box" - that's Minato's little sister, I think - was attached to a living body. The box was SO much bigger than she could possibly be. They had to have put a stool of some kind inside the box for that little blonde head to stick out of it.

The girl, obviously under a genjutsu, yawned and made a cute little sound that only made him feel slightly better. "Is it because she's so young?"

"Is it?" his father asked with a raised, judgemental eyebrow.

"No, sir. Although our jutsus are not recommended to be used on children, we must only be far more careful when using them on a child."

"That's right… Inoichi, I may have been the best our clan had once seen… but you have surpassed me."

"Sir?" Inoichi couldn't believe his father had just complimented him like that. –Or at all.

"You heard me," he scoffed. "Find out what she knows."

Inoichi nodded and placed his palm on the little girl's head. She really was so small. "Psycho Mind Transmission jutsu."

…

The Hokage sat next to the Yamanaka Clan Head, Yamanaka Inojin, in front of the teen who had been interrupted from writing his report. The village leader tapped a repeating rhythm on the side of his pipe with a thoughtful look on his face. "Maybe some of what you saw was a dream or recurring nightmare."

"A rather horrific dream, wouldn't you say, Hokage-sama?" the Yamanaka Clan Head sniffed.

Hiruzen relit his pipe with a seal-less spark jutsu. "According to Jiraiya, Uzumaki Naruto made her way to Konoha from Uzushio, leaving her destroyed homeland for Konoha when she was three or four. I don't doubt that she's seen horrific things."

Inoichi nodded. Everyone had heard about the destruction of Uzushio. "That could be it: the wasteland I caught a glimpse of. It was odd, though," he shuddered just thinking about it. "I encountered a vicious sandstorm and," here he almost laughed as he thought of how that landscape instantly changed, "pillows and other constructs of sand. There was a monster, for lack of a better word, attacking her and so many others. And… tailed beasts." There he had to pause because of the way Hokage-sama's eyes sharpened. "A shinobi that Genin Uzumaki seemed close to, romantically perhaps," he continued, choosing not to meet his father's eyes. Not to mention her romantic interest looked exactly like Shikaku.

He needed to jutsu his teammate to make sure he didn't have to kick Shikaku's ass for being some kind of beyond-troublesome lolicon freak.

The whole thing/sequence of memory pieces seemed outlandish. The Yamanakas could only see through the target of their techniques' five senses, so how could he believe his target's memories were from anyone else other than a more grown-up version of the same little girl?

"Three other shinobis stood out aside from Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-hime. Two were around my age. –-An Uchiha, another with pink hair, and I believe there was an older shinobi - or maybe two men that… wore masks?" Inoichi wasn't even sure that was the case, or if the two men were one and the same. There was one thing he was sure of, however: "Each had one Sharingan." –So they had to be two people, right? Or two sides of the same coin.

–Maybe they were symbolic? Inoichi hadn't come across something like that before but perhaps it was possible. He needed to look more deeply into his clan's archives. He'd only been granted full access a few months ago when he finally made Jonin.

Hiruzen didn't like any of that but quickly thought of a reason (or an excuse for Jiraiya) that might explain the most dangerous part of it. "Uzumaki sealing allowed the bijuu to be sealed."

Inoichi's eyes widened for a second as he remembered something else: no, two things! Like the others, those images had flown by so quickly that he'd missed them when beginning to write up his report. "She was standing on a toad: well… She was older, judging from those with her, her abilities and distance from the toad as she looked down upon it. Also, there was a… terrifying summoning creature the likes of which I'd never seen - but not in the same place." He shook his head. "When I tried to concentrate on ANY part of what I experienced through her eyes, dark orange or red seemed to almost claw my vision away."

Hiruzen hummed. "Was it painful?"

"No sir," Inoichi replied to his kage. "It was more confusing than anything."

"Visions," Inojin said, crossing his arms over his chest. His son's eyes became huge - his "tells" still too discernable - and the Hokage raised an eyebrow at him. "In our clan's history and lore, a select few were said to have visions of the future - and not just Yamanakas. This ability was said to come from the Sage himself." His son pulled a face, knowing that was seen as nonsense now so Inojin stepped on his foot underneath the table to shut him up.

Hiruzen nodded; he knew of that ability, too. "Did either of you see who kidnapped her?"

Inoichi provided the Hokage with a notebook. Several pages featured drawings of ninjas he wasn't familiar with. The teen tapped his finger on one page. "This is the kunoichi who bit her."

The Hokage chuckled mirthlessly. The ninjas that Inoichi COULD apparently see so clearly weren't any of his own. He'd have to take the drawings to Danzo to see if he might be hiding Leaf assets. "So her blonde hair isn't enough to hide the girl's Uzumaki heritage. –But how did word get out and how did these shinobis get into Konoha if they're not ours? The answers to those questions must be among our first priorities to address."

.

Sakumo put a steak on his black eye and shooed away the pups and wolves who came sniffing after it. "Feel better?"

"NO," Jiraiya barked, still in disbelief that "good ol' Sakumo" had turned his wounded, kidnapped kid into the T&I division. "I ought to wring your neck. Do you realize the attention you've drawn to her?!"

Sakumo groaned as he stood up, beginning to feel really angry for the first time since this whole thing happened. "You want to tell me why you brought a jinchuuriki into Konoha? –I know she's not your daughter."

His student, Kushina, had never lost control but Sakumo had been guarding the site when Mito-hime transferred the Kyuubi to the little redhead - and tiny amounts of the demon's chakra had spilled into the air. –It was very similar to what he'd smelled in the air of that burnt clearing after the fires FINALLY stopped.

Sakumo allowed a low growl to escape him when Jiraiya grabbed him by his Jonin vest to bring him toward his snarling face.

He got a hold of himself when his friend growled but Jiraiya thrust Sakumo back into his chair, nearly knocking it over. He turned to leave but threw a comment over his shoulder when he left the traditional but low-key Hatake manor. "She's here to save our asses: yours in particular right now, it seems. Stay the fuck away from my daughter."

After being unceremoniously kicked out of his own place, dropped off, and then doing an investigation and evaluation of Naruto's new home with her, Kakashi stood in her backyard. Like his, the grounds were more a training setting than a backyard. He shook his head at the moron who wanted to train despite her two thickly bandaged hands.

"C'mon, Kakashi! Elbows only! Or… Yeah! We can use everything but our hands, right?!"

"You're an idiot."

"Sure, sure. Let's go, though! C'mon," she whined. Zabuza could fight without hands so she'd manage, too. Not only would it help her become stronger but it would be hilarious to kick Kakashi's ass without hands: otherwise he'd grow into someone too damn cocky. "What if you hurt your hands as I did? We gotta be prepared to overcome stuff like that. Here: put a kunai in my elbow crease thingy and my mouth so I can stab you and defend myself."

Kakashi kicked a rock at her and blew out a sigh as Naruto hopped around trying to goad him, gesturing to where she wanted him to put a kunai that she might hope to drop on him in a best-case scenario. "What happened to you?"

Naruto deflated for a minute. "I don't know. …C'mon! Put up your elbows!"

Kakashi did raise one elbow and then began using his teammate for target practice as she ran and flipped around screaming and fake-laughing. This was her own fault so he'd teach her stupid self a lesson! When he finally ran out of weapons and Naru was laying on the ground, panting, he sat down next to her. "You're pretty fast, which is good, I guess. Considering that I'll have to protect you from those wanting the Uzumaki bloodline."

"I guess," Naru groused. "I really don't remember what happened at all. But…"

"Someone bit you."

"That… Would probably be a very dumb thing to do." Naruto remembered Uzumaki Karin's skin: she had bite marks all over her. Now Naruto had her first bite mark but Naruto's chakra was toxic. I need to find Karin's family. Maybe I can save her from having to go through what she did. Her eyes nearly popped out when she realized what Kakashi had said. "Wait! I don't want you protecting me!"

Kakashi had strongly protected her, though - even if it was reluctant on his part in Naruto's preteen days. That realization after being bitter about how close he was to her parents left her feeling ambivalent again - although it's not like she could change what happened to her (and how either one of them acted) once upon a different time. "We will have to protect each other, ya know. …I don't know if you've got a bloodline but you are your father's son. Enemies after him might want to take or use you against him."

Kakashi hadn't thought of that. Well, he used to think about that A LOT but just hadn't thought about it in this instance because he was worried about Naruto.

He knew from a very early age - from before he could even remember - that his father had a lot of responsibilities and a lot of burdens; and a lot of enemies. If anything, Kakashi wished to lighten his father's load. He didn't want his father worrying about him in that way. Worrying about him, as in caring about him? –That was fine. Anything beyond that that affected his father's career - their careers - wasn't good, though.

"What is your big brain turning around and round now?" Naru asked as she watched the gears turn in her former sensei's now small but pointy, silver head.

Kakashi hummed. "What do you want to specialize in?"

That came out of nowhere, Naru thought. "I don't know." Before, I was considered a frontline fighter from the moment I was born. "I don't know what I'd be good at other than beating people up."

"You're sneaky. Maybe infiltration. –Although you're not a good liar. …Trapping's a good possibility. "

"I'm a good liar," Naru lied loudly, not convincing anyone. "What about you?"

"I like tracking and kenjutsu."

Naruto hummed, knowing that in her past, Kakashi and his team of ninken were as good as the Inuzukas or better. "But you want to get out of your father's shadow."

Kakashi's steely-gray eyes narrowed as he stared at her. He rolled his shoulders and almost wished that his mask covered his entire face - and maybe some of his body. Had he really been obvious about that? "Maybe you're the one that feels that way."

"About you? OH: about me and Ero-Tousan!" She didn't want to be seen as the legacy of simply a Super Pervert but being a (Great) Toad Sage was something she'd been damn proud of. She supposed it would be nice to do something that was all her own, though - but what would that be? "Sure, I am… I mean, why not?"

"'Why not' she asks," Kakashi groused under his breath. "Don't even. To be a Hunter Nin you have to be a very good tracker. Maa, the alternative, I guess, is combat search and rescue." He wasn't sure which could be more distasteful. Maybe there was a third option that he wasn't yet aware of?

"You want to be a hunter? Do you want to take people out? Kill them?" Kakashi blinked at her stupidly several times.

"In any capacity, I would finish my missions - and if I could prevent the deaths of innocents, treason against the village thus putting more lives in danger? Yes. I would."

"Wow," Naru softly drawled, impressed but saddened that ANYONE would have to do that (let alone a 6-year-old child) - although that was their current reality. "You sound like an adult. You should try to be a kid, Kakashi-kun. Stop and smell the roses: that kinda thing."

"Maa, the roses aren't in bloom, idiot."

Naruto's eye twitched. "Oh well. Why don't ya stick your masked face in their leftover thorns and take a whiff, just in case, so they can give you a good thrashing," she joked. She squeaked when Kakashi - in a fit of childish yet ninja-like violence - jumped on her legs and punched her in the gut. Naruto winced because OUCH - and pretended to cry. "Whaa!"

Kakashi sucked in the air around him. He'd just attacked his teammate who was wounded! "I'm… You're always saying shit about my mask!"

"Was that supposed to be an apology, you ass?!"

"OI!" Jiraiya yelled as he came out of the house after tangling with Sakumo across town. "You're going home, brat."

"Hai," Kakashi complied as he got up, hoping that Jiraiya hadn't seen him lose his temper. He'd like to say that wasn't like him but Naruto knew how to push his buttons, plus they were already quite conditioned to pound or stab each other on a daily basis. "See ya around, Naruto-chan."

"Bye, meanie," Naru cautiously waved a bandaged hand, wishing she could flip his chibi yet lanky self off. "My hands hurt," she said to herself before curling around them on the dirt.

.

Two weeks later and with fully healed hands, Naru thought that she was in the clear. Things had gone back to normal although she was filling in on Anko's team because the purple-haired Genin had broken her arm. She'd only seen Kakashi a couple of times when he'd been shopping with his father. Jiraiya had scooped her up and stomped away from his old friend (and her teammate) as soon as he noticed them, which was a bummer.

She wanted them to get along.

Naru also thought Jiraiya needed to get over himself. Ever since she woke up as a baby and began considering how to get back to Konoha to begin fixing things, she'd hoped to avoid T&I but knew that it COULD be inevitable. If she couldn't remember what happened to her and Kurama didn't seem too terribly worried about it now, what was the problem? She must have passed their inspection if they had put her on missions again, trusting her with Raido and the future closet-perv, Ebisu, against such terrifying enemies as yardwork and Tora.

But then she got called to the Hokage's office by an ANBU.

"Uh-oh."