DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Naruto universe but I do have an imagination of my own.

Thinking

Emphasis

Biju, etc. speaking

Biju, etc. thinking

It was over two years since the last time she had been hospitalized. Naruto had regained her ability to keep short-term memories, although she did not have the long-term ones of the life she had been living this time around. She never let herself forget about the Uchiha that had somehow saved her life, and Kurama never let her forget that "Deer boy" even mentioning it had apparently traumatized her enough to put her in a catatonic state for days after first mentioning the Uchiha massacre.

Kurama didn't fully believe that the Uchiha would save her for any reason, even if it was the clan killer, his favorite Uchiha, that had been the one she clearly saw and remembered helping her. He focused on the memory of her having been hurt by the whole thing: he hated that.

No one in the Leaf was quite sure what exactly had caused the meltdown Naru-chan had. She later learned that a Yamanaka, presumably Inoichi, had tried to go into her mind to furrow out the issue, but was soon met with an angry fox that threw him out handily. Thankfully the Biju left the mindwalker unharmed, with a warning to never intrude again or his mind would be devoured.

"Honestly, Kura-chan, you didn't need to go that far!"

"Call me that again and I'll devour you, too, brat!"

Naruto groaned. She had once again gotten used to internally monologuing with her demon - and man did she ever mean demon in every sense of the word. He can be such a hard ass …

"I can hear you! And don't you dare call me…" Naruto threw up a cement door mentally that she had managed to form between herself and Kurama for instances just like these. She felt guilty immediately afterward. In her first life, even if they hadn't immediately been friends - actually they hadn't been friends up until just before she either died or whatever the hell had happened to her - they were all that either one of them had for years. Slowly she opened the door again. The fox looked at her with an expression of guilt at first, then of slight antagonism.

"I'm sorry, Kurama. I didn't mean to do that," she sighed. "And I shouldn't have said that you were being a hard ass."

The great nine-tailed fox gave her a long stare before slumping his mighty shoulders. "You didn't say it to me, kit. You just thought about it." He moved into a position where it was slightly easier for him to look into Naruto's eyes. "Now that we spend more time one on one, we need to work harder on this. And soon, we will open up this wretched seal." The girl moved sideways and entered in between the bars that held the nine-tailed fox away from her and hugged his snout. The fox rolled his eyes, but both could tell how much he appreciated his container's care for him. The waves of fondness/love/appreciation - whatever it was filled her. Brat.

She was a good kit, and she had too much on her shoulders. It wasn't fair that she had to deal with all of this - again.

Is this father's doing?

Questions such as this plagued his mind, but thankfully he could access all of his vessel's senses this time. His vessel: even the word made him snort. She was his kit! Screw the yellow-headed suicidal idiot. Yes, he could say now that her sire had his uses: he'd helped him attain his kit, his most favored vessel, (the child of prophecy,) after all.

And the red-headed crazy woman that was the kit's mother was always entertaining, even with that damn seal of hers that kept him tied down. Sure, he wanted to roast the idiot's hand when he was trying to maintain the seal on the red-head just before the kit was born… why not? The idiot was a flesh-bag, and flesh-bags needed to be roasted! Still, he was only trying to escape a bit this time. Kurama had sensed the stirrings of Asura in the womb of that wild red-headed vessel of his, so he couldn't help but be curious. But then another fucking Uchiha was there, to control him again - and everything had gone to hell. He wasn't even sure what had happened after that. And worse, it happened twice, he now knew!

The other thing that Kurama hadn't shared with his host is that when the clan-killer had saved Naruto-chan, the orange-masked fucker had been there again at that time. Why? He didn't know. Had the orange-masked asshole come for her already? Or was he helping rid the world of all those red-eyed bastards? He would have said he owed him one for that, but the Sharingan-wielding bastard had taken away the kit's parents and was trying to stop the clan-killer from helping his kit. Of that, he was positive.

Finally, there was someone else that had been attacking his kit before the clan-killer had approached. That piece of garbage had her pants down, and Kurama couldn't help her. He remembered now, even though she didn't, thank Kami. It sickened him more than anything he could remember. Despite himself, he owed the clan-killer. Uchiha Itachi had saved his kit from something utterly disgusting because Kurama couldn't get enough of his chakra through the seal. Granted, it did bring to the surface in the seal her sire - who wanted to slay not only the perpetrator but the entire village at what he saw - but in the end, the Yondaime loosened the seal instead before quickly disappearing. The Uchiha heir, however, was the one to slay the would-be-rapist, and Kurama owed him. Tch. He was hiding these things from Naru-chan.

"Just because I'm alone during the day a lot doesn't mean that I can take out my frustrations on you," Naruto told her Biju. She wasn't allowed to go to school during the day anymore. That had been decided, sadly, immediately following her stay at the hospital, even though she had wanted to become friends with so many of her classmates again. She wondered if they would ever have the same bonds that she had in her previous lifetime.

Iruka-sensei came to see her after school every day now, though, to tutor her and spend time with her. She felt like they were closer than ever! Apparently, he had only found out that she was a girl after seeing her in the hospital on that day years ago, and found himself faltering. When he told her what he learned about her that day, she laughed, and he gave her a scolding. He asked her how she would feel if she suddenly had to fend off an entire village full of perverts for her little sister. She laughed heartily at that, thinking of all the perverts she used to know, and he was horrified at her attitude.

"Naru-chan, I don't think you understand what a big brother's duties are," the man said. The girl's eyes teared up and she had never felt happier. She hugged him tightly, and the man froze: that's just who he was. A goofball.

She and her other big brother - the one who was a lazy pain in the ass - had also been busy. They had written out who they needed to go after, various strategies to stop certain things from happening in the future, and more. They were both also learning fuuinjutsu so that they could first keep their writings, plans, and observations secret, and second, delve further into the least practiced of all shinobi arts. Naruto was a natural at it. She had never had a chance to study it before in either life before this, but now that she was doing it, she was coming along brilliantly. Even Shikamaru's father, Shikaku, praised her for her efforts in the beginning.

He didn't know how far she'd come in the art, though.

Aside from hiding things, the most impressive demonstration of her sealing abilities had been another painting of sorts on the Hokage Mountain. Kurama and Shikamaru helped her remember her supposed impending marriage before becoming a kunoichi of the village. She was not having it: no way in hell! What better way to protest than to expose the secret to the masses?

Although it took her months to create and learn the camouflage jutsu in order to make it at all, her vision finally came to life. Lit up in the evening sky above Konoha, the four Hokages were made over. The First Hokage was blushing as the Second, who looked eerily like Madara Uchiha, seemed to be kissing him on the lips, (she gave him very big lips.) The Third Hokage's visage was looking horrified at the second two, (Naruto had laughed maniacally as she was painting her masterpiece - after all, the Second Hokage was the Third's sensei.) The Third was also wearing a bridal veil over his head. Naruto even went as far as to don a neck and wedding dress on the bottom of the Third's head. Finally, there was her father: Naruto gave him arms that were raised scarily above the Sandaime's head and made his face look as fierce as possible. He looked pretty damn terrifying if she said so herself!

The impression she hoped to convey was that the Yondaime Hokage was haunting the Sandaime, who was wearing a wedding dress, whilst Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha kissed. All in all, it was beautiful and freaking perfect! Better still, it showed up during the day and was lit up by night via fuuinjutsu for a full week and a half!

Tonight, though - tonight she and Shikamaru needed a break! After all, they were really in their twenties, even though they physically were supposed to be 10-11-year-olds. When Yoshina-san, Shikamaru's mother, went over to secretly party with Ino-chan's mother, and Shikaku-san and Choza-san had a big meeting at the Yamanaka's, it seemed it was the perfect time for the cats to play.

Shikamaru and Naruto henged themselves into their "more accurate bodies," and headed to the Karaoke bar. It wasn't the first time they had gone there, but it ended up being the time they got caught.

What happened across town ended their fun later in the evening…

"Ne, Commander Nara-san, those were some impressive moves you had going on! But don't you think it was a little disrespectful to dance with the bitch who was pretending to be a female Yondaime?" Anko laughed.

To say that the Jonin Commander turned on the snake summoner with an aura of discontent would be putting it mildly. He was furious!

Those brats!

"Nara-san?" asked a silver-haired masked jonin, angry that someone was impersonating his sensei - let alone doing it as a female version of him…

"I'll handle them, Kakashi-kun," the Nara clan head stated firmly. Anko shrugged her shoulders at the Hatake and he glared back at her. No matter what Commander Nara said, he would find out what moron dared defame his sensei, the Yondaime Hokage. And so, he followed his commander at a discrete distance even as he heard a woman singing from one of the shinobi bars deeper within Konoha.

Approaching, he saw a man dancing - badly - with a drink in his hand that looked, from behind, exactly like the Jonin Commander. What an idiot! Singing on the stage and nearly staggering was a smaller female version of the Yondaime from the back with longer hair of the exact same color, holding a drink. Nara-Sama came up upon the two as they came closer together and banged their heads together. "You two are in so much trouble!"

Kakashi stood still, absolutely shocked. The woman he really wanted to attack had shortened about a foot and she turned, losing her curves. But there was no doubt: as the whiskers on her cheeks returned and she stared up at the face of the Jonin Commander, he realized that he had finally seen his sensei's child.

The Hatake fled back to his apartment before he could see or hear any more.