Gen Summary: Dorea picks Naruto world to fall into, tries to seamlessly ingrate herself in Konoha and end causing trouble. The good sort.
Warnings: Kiss cannon goodbye. Fem!Minato and male!Kushina. Mentions of genderbent HP characters like Susan Bones (who is now Dave Bones). Shifting POVs. Dorea/male!Kushina (because why the heck not?). Meddling Mikoto.
Notes: This was made purely to help me grasp conversation flows… I suck at those, so if you have any pointers, feel free to add!
Intro
Red Heads
A little what if story.
Or the story in which Namikaze Minato is actually Namikaze Minako and Uzumaki Kushina is actually Uzumaki Shinaku and he meets Dorea Potter who is addicted to red heads.
…
Part: The First.
Falling
Dorea watched as stars trickled by her in a rapid, confusing motion as she zeroed on an inhabited planet, any planet but Earth (She didn't think she'd be able to handle seeing familiar sights but without the familiar people). The moment she chose – quite at random – a pillar of light out of the grand variety of selections, she sunk into the vortex and became part of it.
Images flashed before her eyes as she traveled, endless possible worlds stood before her in a vast, completely new universe. But then, just as she was about to pick at random again, something pulled her attention to a small world orbiting a sun similar to her last one.
So similar in fact, that even the small planet shared a blue hue and likely continental proportions – meaning a majority of its surface was covered by water.
By pulling on the strings still tying her to the Outside, Dorea caught glimpses of that world's history.
She saw as a being of great power moved there as well, only things didn't end well for it – an inhabitant of that world ate part of that being and that event was actually a knot in the universe's history, a fixed point in time that affected all worlds tied to the same stream.
She could see all possible futures as branches coming out of the same trunk, and having her interest picked, Dorea decided to chose one between many.
Funny thing about these branches, as she came to understand, was that as long as you don't cut the main body, there could be infinite possible worlds existing in the same vortex – parallel worlds that varied according to different paths in the world's history (witches and wizards managed to cut the roots of her own world by killing the muggle/magical Ancestors, so the very pillar of reality collapsed).
As long as one branch thrived, the 'tree' would also live.
Complicated time webs aside, Dorea was reminded acutely of Yggdrasil in the picture she formed in her mind.
One of the few 'branches' that caught her eyes was very interesting – amongst many in which the future ended in tragedy, one or two did not – one of the few that didn't end with the world' stagnation (and thus the universe ending) was about a young blond child (either male or female) who fought against fate and brought peace to their land – a scarily familiar situation. Then her attention turned to some of the ruined futures – that boy didn't exist in some of them, but the why made Dorea amused.
His parents were genderbent.
That version was doomed to fail because the child would never inherit the monster in their stomach (the monster in question would remain in his father's belly), so Dorea wouldn't feel any guilt by interfering with that world (mostly because she needed to feel useful again) – and maybe because she thought what happened to her old world was her fault… if only she could have done something..!
Whatever it was, Dorea felt attracted to that thread the most.
So she fell into it with her decision.
…
Part: The Second.
Meeting
It's rare to see foreigners around these times, he mused silently to himself with an unusual feeling creeping up his spine. His senses were tingling mysteriously.
Something was bound to happen.
The person in question was female, with long dark, wavy hair and green eyes. Her face was exotic to the already exotic looking red headed teenager, her features sharp and elegant contrasting to the soft looking appearance of most Land of Fire people. There was a sharp, peculiar scar on her forehead.
Uzumaki Shinaku wondered what the immigrant in question wanted in his village, but didn't dare open his mouth to ask – leaving that task to his teammate Uchiha Mikoto, who was honestly better at the interrogate people part of their job (manning the gates, that is, because young, inexperienced chunin recently promoted who possessed valued bloodlines were less likely to be sent out the battlefields when there were more powerful, expendable shinobi around – Mikoto's bitter's words after a cup of sake, not Shinaku's).
Downside?
Minako (secretly the target of all his waking fantasies), being the genius that she is, is out there really making a difference – and no, Shinaku did not have a crush on the blonde. Just because she seemed so mature and accomplished and cute with her short spiky blonde hair...
Though the redhead was as far from weak as possible, he didn't think Kumo would pass a chance for a free grab if Shinaku was sent out so soon after gaining his much earned promotion, and this time there was more than Uzumaki genes in stock since granny Mito kicked the bucket and passed forth her burden to the next in line, Shinaku-ouji (he was the prince of a fallen people, but a prince nonetheless).
The red head had his seals and Uzu techniques to fall back on, but Minako also had seals, and she was a Ninjutsu master… sighing, Shinaku's back curved slightly as his mood took a pitfall.
The blonde seemed leagues and leagues away from his reach.
"What's wrong?" A voice called out making the red head raise his eyes again – Mikoto was staring in bemusement at him while the foreigner (apparently meeting Mikoto's aproval seal) had this worried look in her far too green eyes.
And suddenly Shinaku realized what his down look might mean to the foreigner – maybe he found something untoward in her papers and she was worried.
"Nothing to do with you" He replied rather rudely in a curt sharp voice, if Mikoto's sharp jab to his ribs were any indication. "Now move along, you're blocking the line, 'tebane"… The older looking girl blinked back as if stunned, before nodding resolutely and marching off into the village with nary a look back.
Mikoto gave another sharp jab at his side and he ignored blissfully the cunningly thoughtful look that took over her features.
…
Part: The Third.
Guilt
"What was that for?" Mikoto asked her old teammate, having known him the longest since the academy days, she was quite perceptive toward his moods "She seemed genuinely worried about you, it's hard to find nice people around nawadays" she said with a pointed look, hoping to wheedle Shinaku about his behavior.
It was an amusing part of him at certain points in their life – like his awkwardness when dealing with Namikaze Minako – Mikoto honestly never got bored of teasing him about the blonde jounin.
"Nothing" The red head teenager answered too quickly, but his shoulders dropped an inch as if he reached an unvoiced decision. He looked regretful enough at having blown up to a stranger right in front of their village gates "If I find her later on I'll apologize, how does that sound?" He proposed, and Mikoto nodded her agreement before grinning minutely again, absently going through the line of people in front of them – lots of returning teams from the borders patrols and some intelligence gathering that went through right away, leaving a gaggle of merchants who didn't look too eager to dispense their products with post war-time tax…
Konoha was still handling things better than Suna though, so they better behave (Konoha had to rebuild somehow after all, and with how things were going, they'd reach peak condition despite the loss of Uzu).
"I think it sounds as if someone is bitter about something" The Uchiha clan member spoke after a moment or two of working in silence "Is it about that Namikaze girl?" she hit the nail smack on the head, if the minute tension in her red haired friend's neck was any valid clue.
Shinaku shook his head, he really shouldn't have done that because now the shorter strands of hair that framed his face escaped from the bun he put his ridiculously long hair up on. "No…"
Mikoto's nose twitched as she stared at him with a raised eyebrow and an inquisitive, unholy glint in her dark eyes.
Her teammate had a really horrible time in the academy, she remembered with fond nostalgic sadism.
He was teased and bullied about the color of his hair and the chubbiness of his cheeks – gaining the unflattering moniker of 'Tomato Boy' through those times, and funnily enough, girls were the ones who teased him the most… And since he was a nice boy Shinaku disliked hitting girls (The boys stopped teasing soon enough after he gained the secondary moniker of Habanero).
The only one who didn't get on his case was Minako, who focused more on her studies than petty schoolyard bullying. Mikoto agreed with the blonde to certain points, but Shinaku's purpling face when he felt hopeless anger at being teased about his hair was just priceless.
She had to have received some amusement from somewhere in that drab academy setting – she'd never claimed to be virtuous to anyone (nor does she deny it!).
"Because if my betrothal to Fugaku is not approved, I'm willing to marry you to save your honor since you seem incapable of handling women" Scarred to life, more like it, not gynophobic enough to be scared of girls, but enough, Mikoto wondered…
Unless you were blonde and named Minako…
The Uchiha realized then that what she said was true, even if the clan never allowed it, she'd marry Shinaku if given the chance (and Fugaku died of sudden and irreversible causes). There was a good man buried in all that temper and plus, he was lots of fun to hang out with.
"You don't know what you're talking about. I can be a ladies' man if I want to datebane!" He was close to a pout as she ever saw him, so Mikoto sprung the guilt-trip-trap she's set him on the path to with merciless intent.
Her voice was candy sweet so Shinaku's comical horrified face. "Then you should want to be more gentlemanly to the foreigner merchants from now on, the one you just were inexcusably rude with could be bearing missions for all we know and you just scared her off" He was weary of females, but that was no excuse to being rude to one and skirting part of his duties to his village.
(He was wearing his chunin flak jacket, so he was a village representative while on duty… and Mikoto was feeling a bit of empathy toward a fellow girl who got a taste of Shinaku's less than stellar temper).
"I didn't scare her off!" … "And she was not carrying any mission. She seems to be one of those who want to settle down" He pointed out thinking he had a real argument. Mikoto knew him better.
So she quirked up her lips and sang out.
"D-ranks".
To which he masterfully answered.
"Shut up…"
…
Part: The Fourth.
Resolution
She was right.
Shinaku knew.
Mikoto was right about getting on his case this time.
And he did feel slightly guilty.
Thanks to Mikoto too… not because he might have insulted someone, but because he might have tarnished the image of his village or cost it something… though he didn't think the foreigner green eyed girl would take so much offense at his blunder that she'd skip villages and go settle in Iwa.
But just to be sure, as soon as his gate-keeper duties were fulfilled and the (poor, poor sods, gate duty was boring) replacement team arrived for wall patrol while the gates were closed, Shinaku legged as quickly as he could to the Hokage tower. He had some papers to check, and if the green eyed girl was as bent on staying in Konoha as Mikoto seemed adamant to think, then she'd already have her papers in the archive.
Shinaku went through the trouble of enduring the tower secretaries, wasting a whole hour from his life for said paperwork (T&I teams were after some old case files and were making a ruckus, clogging the wait line), only to remember with a wince, as soon as his hand touched the day's archive box that he didn't know the girl's name at all.
Well, he'd just wing it then. No use in hunting down Mikoto only to have her laugh her skinny Uchiha ass off at him in glee. Not really. Uchiha didn't act like that unless they were born normal, as it was the whole lot of them were deranged as a rule. (Pretending to be all serious and stoic, when in reality they all secretly laughed behind everyone's backs).
Anyway.
Thankfully identification papers have pictures, Shinaku was certain he would be able to recognize those green eyes easily enough.
A pile of useless papers and three paper cuts on two different fingers later, the red head teenager held up victoriously his prize. The white slip of paper looked unassuming, but Shinaku gained a whole lot of respect for the paper-work ninjas (AKA genin corps).
Time to open the file.
First and foremost, Mikoto's big, glaring, red APROVED stamp smack on top of everything. For a literal 'unknown' to be approved by the gate guards like this would take the person being high profile enough to warrant some leeway, or just being hopelessly helpless.
Scanning down some more, Shinaku found Mikoto's note for the Investigation team who'd take on the girl's case – 'Individual has no notable chakra and no significant muscle mass. Most likely minor run away noble or rich merchant wife or daughter. Presence of notable scarring on forehead as identifying feature' – Next to a picture he easily recognized. Those green eyes of hers peered at him from the paper too judgingly.
Under those was a name.
Only one was given… Dorea.
Dorea… Dorea… No, no idea what it could mean.
Maybe it one of those fancy cinema names… It sounded more like a war-cry than a name that's for sure. No Last Name gave Mikoto's theory of a runaway more credit though, plenty of war orphans were left with no name like Orochimaru-sama or even Jiraiya-sama so it wasn't exactly suspicious.
And under that was what Shinaku wanted. The address to the hotel she gave administration. The council had a sheet of available apartments or houses for rent, and she should have received one with the welcoming package paperwork, though Shinaku believed she hadn't looked it into it yet (no one decides their address in a day given the chance!) and would likely be in her hotel room or Uzu forbid, exploring the village.
Anyway, he had her hotel address and a name.
Time to stalk- hunt some more.
Part: The Fifth
Confrontation
"I'd like one Dorea's room number" Then, as if an afterthought, he added. "Please" while glaring down the annoying woman who occupied the role of receptionist. The moment she sighed despondently at his entrance was the moment he forgot all respect he was supposed to show.
To give credit to the receptionist, she only glanced at his hitae-ate once before scowling up at him the way only people who grew up in ninja villages did (civilians bred in ninja villages had bigger balls, by default, to deal with scary ninjas in general) – though she knew better than to deny him since it could be official Konoha business.
It wasn't.
But Shinaku would not be telling – read nametag – Kimi-san that. Let the bint be annoyed and feel helpless at his stunning presence.
She was obliged to divulge information even if she really didn't want to. "Room 404, and no rowdy business afterhours!" Kimi-san said, glaring at his back as he skipped stairs altogether and traveled through the outside walls to the 4rth floor. He was still wondering what 'rowdy business' she meant when he reached door 404.
Now… Shinaku had rehearsed mentally and very briefly about how he'd go about this. He'd apologize for his perceived rudeness, give the excuse of huge workloads for his short temper and offer compensation.
A small compensation.
Mikoto installed very early on the value of given word and he should tack on limits to it. Mikoto was one scary cunning bitch and has caught him in word games more than once.
Raising his hand, Shinaku knocked.
Nothing happened.
Well then, more knocks followed, growing obnoxiously louder and angrier in comparison to his temper that grew perilously shorter and shorter – he was there to apologize damnit! She should prostate herself in a humbling position while he went through his glorious apologies and – no, he just didn't go over an egocentric mind rant again…
Granny Mito beat that out of him years ago. 'You're a prince, act like it! One day you will be responsible for reviving the Uzumaki-clan' Apparently only Uzumaki females were allowed to be… spirited… If he read clan records right, Uzumaki males were usually more restrained.
He was about to make a very profound suggestion of just where the clan records could shove themselves when something in the situation changed.
The door opened without any warnings.
And a very annoyed, very wet and very scantily clad Dorea opened the door. Ops. Was his first thought, then that water droplet better stop descending before it – too late, it nestled between her breasts and was that how a bust looks like- Stop it!
And then he was blushing madly and wishing he had more patience.
But oh, water under the bridge now, wasn't it? Literally. If bridge were a pair of- STOP IT!
So Shinaku smiled candidly as if nothing was wrong in the world, ignoring that for the second time that day he might have possibly offended the girl (not that females deserved his respect anyway, besides Minako-chan) and said in a controlled voice. "My name is Uzumaki Shinaku and you will accept my apologies tebane! And don't go moving to Iwa because I might have offended you. If you do, I will never hear the end of it"
"What are you talking about?" Dorea's forehead crinkled in thought. Her face was quite expressive, Shinaku noticed. Actually, all of her body was expressive and totally not going there right now… "Oh… that, I even forgot about it, but since you're asking, no way" She finished, motioning him away with one of her hands already halfway to closing the door on his face.
That wouldn't do.
Time for plan B (In which should be attempted in case plan A, plain apology, failed).
"What!? Accept my apologies already woman" Shinaku might not be the most muscled looking ninja around (that titled belongs to Konoha's very own green, eyebrow weirdo Maito Gai), but one, he was male, and two, he was shinobi, so he easily extended an arm and overpowered her attempts at closing the door "I'm willing on giving compensation" He spoke quickly when Dorea's green eyes turned thunderous "A small compensation" Shinaku added just as quickly, and predicting she would deny yet again, he continued without letting her speak back "I know, let me pay you dinner and show you the best restaurant in Konoha tebane!"
Desperate times asked for desperate measures. And that is one short towel…
He was willing to desecrate the sanctity of his favorite Ramen stand with a girl if it meant getting out of this mess (Ichiraku-oji-san's wife was actually alright, and little baby Ayame was not old enough to be considered a girl yet). And that wasn't the towel or the water droplet or his hormones talking.
Shinaku lashed out with a hand and grabbed Dorea's own when her nose scrunched cutely and she renewed her efforts to close the door on his face. She spluttered indignantly at being manhandled and cried out "I'm still naked!" And to said fact Shinaku was made acutely aware when his force's moment pulled Dorea so close to him his own clothes got damp by the moisture still clinging to her.
He couldn't release her quickly enough. "Oh… right. Go change then, we don't have all night tebane" The girl stood there stunned for a moment, just staring at him as if he was an alien and she couldn't figure him out. But in the end she was possibly hungry enough to agree to his half-baked apology and agreed.
"Fine, it seems you won't go away without having your way. Wait a moment" The scent of her shampoo was clinging to his clothes now. Shinaku winced… this was the closest he's been to a female since well… since granny Mito – not even Mikoto got so close (aside from training, but then they both smelled of sweat and dirt, and not of some fruity, honeyed nonsense that was doing horrible things to his nose glands), hell, he'd not even managed to get so close to Minako-chan yet!
Darn Karma was messing with Shinaku again.
But that was one damn small towel.
…
Part: The Sixth
Thought
Dorea landed in this time-line with no thought beside helping the main characters make this one version a success.
It was doomed to fail from the start for the simple fact that the second Kyuubi Jinchuriki, who was supposed to be female, was born male – the seal that held Kyuubi to the Uzumaki in question's belly was not weakened by childbirth (the one birthing would be his wife, Namikaze Minako) and though the mother still died in childbirth, the babe would grow with their father and not know half as much hardship as was necessary to make a good hero (norms of fate for almost all true heroes scattered around the multiverse… main requirement was a shitty childhood and being an orphan).
The people of this time-line would still valiantly fight back behind the Hero, and there was a small chance that Shinaku would sacrifice himself to give his child the edge of Kyuubi – in which case there was a volatile high chance that the child would end up joining the bad guys out of bitterness for his father's death.
At any case, the time-line had no chance of surviving and was doomed for fail if not for one small, itsy bitty detail: It now housed Dorea.
Oh, it took a while to decide too.
Her criteria kept changing.
But in the end, since she only got one chance to pick a new home for herself, Dorea chose something that would allow her to make a difference…
She had no idea of how she'd go about it (not being privy to everything that happened, only fixed events), and though her magic had stabilized from the power overload and was back to normal witch standard, she would do her very best.
One such fixed point in time she's been keeping an eye on was the horrible manglement of one Uchiha Obito (not necessarily male in all time-lines, but in this one Obito was a he) – the accident led him to be given on a platter to his ancestor, Uchiha Madara, who would manipulate the boy until he broke upon the death of the love of his life (either Nohara Rin(Ran) or Hakake Kakashi (Kakashiko)). Obito giving an eye to his male/female frienemy was also part of the fixed point since the eye would help tide things in the following 4th Shinobi World War in the future.
Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin were still seven years old kids who were still at the academy. Kakashi (male) had recently graduated and was apprenticed to Namikaze Minako. Dorea thought she'd find a way to make the boys closer, so they would have deeper ties by the time the fixed point came to pass – to do so, she had to get closer to either the children or Minako.
So when Shinaku presented the opportunity to her quite conveniently, Dorea pounced.
There was only one thing she wasn't counting on.
Her one weakness acting up.
One thing she had in common with her father.
Long haired red heads.
Uzumaki Shinaku had the typical red hair. Only his was long, reaching down his waist… It was a blatant show of skill – only powerful ninjas kept long hair because it could be used as a hold – his face was round and somewhat delicate, though he had high cheekbones and a strong defiant jaw coupled with a pair of dark green eyes.
Shinaku reminded Dorea strongly of Charlie Weasley, though the shinobi didn't wear accessories like Charlie, he was still a bit forceful and bashful. Charlie Weasley was her first crush ever – she'd embarrass herself by following him around like a puppy whenever he went to visit to Ginny's giggling amusement. (They'd gush over boys together enough times over Hermione's magazines by then).
Then there was sweet Dave Bones, nephew of Amelia Bones. Dorea went through her first heartbreak when she finally had the guts to invite him to the TriWizard tournament Yule Ball and discovered that the red head boy was already in a relationship with Hannah Abbot.
None of that mattered of course, taking out the bit about Shinaku.
Dorea really didn't anticipate her heart beat rate when it he showed up at her door and insulted, manhandled and invited her to dinner all in the spam of minutes (It seems she also inherited her mother's weakness for brash males). She had a rough plan that needed following, and in that plan the part that Shinaku married Minako was fact.
So Dorea breathed out her shock and resigned herself to a couple of years of frustration… unless she found another Uzumaki lost somewhere.
She better start preparing contingency plans, just in case.
…
TBC~