"…ruto."

She stirred in the warm water, before the dark voice boomed again.

"Naruto!"

Her eyes snapped open, and she sat up slowly, rubbing her pounding head. She looked up at the giant Nine Tails, before blinking; she hadn't expected to see the cage again. "What—Oh." She remembered. The seal had reverted back to its original state when she was affected by the whirlpool's jutsu. "Kyuubi." She greeted.

He sneered down at her. "You are a careless, reckless idiot!"

"So I've been told."

Other than the way Kyuubi's black lips curled downwards further, her reply gained no response. "I don't know whether to praise or curse your stupidity, girl. At least your inner form is still the same."

"Huh?" The fox demon growled and slammed his claws down, splashing large amounts of water towards her. The teen scowled, she took off and began ringing her jacket, trying to dry it. She then noticed her hands and arms.

A big, relieved grin slowly crept up on her face. "Hey! My fingers aren't chubby anymore!"

"Would you shut up for a second?" He sighed, trying to lessen the frustration he felt. "The technique that changed you… from what I can tell, if you don't stop it quickly, it would affect your mind as well."

"What!"

His eyes looked down squarely on hers, the scorn dimmed down by his seriousness. "Your chakra is being… eaten, you could say, by the whirlpool kunoichi's chakra. I'm not entirely sure how such a thing is possible, but the user's chakra is multiplied when it passes through the seal and goes out the victim's body. You could say it's like bacteria, and that the white blood cells are outnumbered."

Naruto's brows furrowed in confusion as she tried to soak in the information, and she said slowly, hesitantly, "Is the enemy's chakra still… inside me?"

Of course. There's still more than plenty enough to get inside your brain, but right now it's still swarming around it. That's probably how you turned younger; I'd say you're between four and five after the jutsu's effects are done. I'm not entirely sure about this theory, but you're planning on finding out about it anyways, aren't you?"

"Y-Yeah."

"Well, you better get to it faster—the chakra's going to reach your brain soon. And after it does, it will consume the chakra working it, making you lose your memories along the way."

Her eyes were wide, and a nervous bead of sweat rolled down the side of her face. "What will happen after it's finished?" The blood pumping in her veins felt like ice, and she knew the answer before he even said it.

For the first time in her life, his blood red eyes averted from her.

"You'll die."

Silence stretched; their posture tense as the words crashed down on her. Naruto flexed her hands, as if trying to confirm that she was still there, in her mindscape. "How long do I have—?" He shook his head, and his demonic orbs were directed back down at her.

"I'm not sure. You'll have to find that out on your own." He sighed heavily, as if trying to lessen the weight on his shoulders. "It's just my estimation, but you probably have a couple of years at most. Also, I'll do what I can to exterminate the chakra, but I can't guarantee that it'll be much—this lousy seal your father made is blocking the way."

"I see." She relaxed, but only slightly. The demon fox then pinned her with a glare.

"Don't laze around; you better not give up. I'm just as affected as you are, you pathetic excuse of a human. And remember: you won't be able to save your 'precious people' if you die, which would be a waste since you're a long way back in time."

Naruto smiled softly. "You should know better than that—I'm not the type to give up am, I? And you're now one of my friends, Kyuubi. Like Hachibi and Killer B!" She missed the way his eyes widened when she remembered his last comment. "Hey, Kyuubi should I rip the paper off—"

"There's no time for that now. You should wake up –Go."

"Wha—Wait—" Before she could even ask what was happening, she had been forcefully pushed back to consciousness outside of her mind.

The giant fox lied back down on his stomach. Kurama scoffed with a smirk on his face as he rested his head on his crossed paws.

"Friends…" His glowing red eyes slowly drew to a close, "That idiot."

"…seemed to have been exhausted. There's odd activity in her chakra; it's as if another is invading her system, and we can't stop—"

"Oh, she's awake."

The young blonde blinked a few times, and was willing herself to calm down at the sight of Namikaze Minato standing by the door. When she sat up, some signs of alert must have been apparent on her face, so she covered it up by flicking her eyes around the room in false fright. "W-Where am I?" She already had a pretty good idea where; the smell of anesthetics was attacking her sensitive nose.

"Konohagakure's hospital." He replied gently, a warm smile on his tanned face. "I'm Minato. May you tell us your name?"

She then noticed the nurses shuffling to her with their hands in a green glow. In shock of seeing her father so soon, the blonde hadn't noticed the other occupants of the room. "Naruto. My name's Naruto." Saying her last name was most likely not a good idea.

"Alright, Naruto, how are you feeling?"

"Great, never better." A lie, but he didn't need to know that. She took off the blanket on her, realizing that she was in a hospital gown. "Where are my clothes?"

"They're right here." A nurse said with a bright smile on her face as she passed it over. "They seemed a little… big on you. Hope you don't mind, Naruto-chan."

She shook her head, politely receiving her bundle. "Thank you. I was planning on growing into them." She discreetly patted the spot of where her hitai-ate was in her jacket, and inwardly heaved a sigh of relief.

Her conversation with Kyuubi flashed in her mind, and she let a small frown mar her face. Staring down at the boots on top of her clothes, she absently noted that it had been thoroughly washed. She wouldn't be able to do everything on her own. She'd need help. But, she looked at Minato through her eyelashes, who?

A barely visible smile touched her lips, and she looked back down at her jacket; looks like she'll pay the Third Hokage a visit.

"Naruto?"

"Hm?" Her attention was reverted back to the blond man.

"I'm going to ask you a few questions. Is that alright with you?" She nodded, and matched his grin. "Good. First off, how old are you, Naruto?"

Remembering Kyuubi's words, she answered without missing a beat. "About four and a half years old."

"I see." Hesitantly this time, he asked, "Why is a child as young as you out in the forest alone?"

"My parents died on the day I was born." Naruto resisted the urge to cringe at the bluntness of her words.

The blond's face shifted from wary to solemn in understanding, "I'm sorry."

"I'm fine," especially since her father was alive and kicking right in front of her.

"Who were you with until now?"

"Oh, I had a teacher who taught me stuff and took care of me when he found me as a baby, and we stayed in a few small villages for a while." She chewed her lip thoughtfully, cooking up a lie that would pass through an elite ninja. "I got separated from him after an attack by ninjas, and he told me to run here while he held them off." She formed a crease between her brows and tried to imprint her words onto her brain; it wouldn't be a good idea to forget and arouse suspicion.

"I see." He averted his gaze. "I think it is best if we let you talk to the Hokage—he'll be the one to decide what happens from here on."

Naruto hid her triumphant grin with a grateful smile. "Thank you."

"I guess we should buy you some clothes first, though."

Minato watched the bubbly girl in amusement as she talked on about how it had always been her dream of being in Konoha, and soaked the buildings around them with awe. She now wore a plain orange shirt and black khaki pants that reached to her knees. Her shoes were the usual navy blue sandals, and her hair had been tied up in twin pigtails. Her reluctance ended rather quickly when he stated how cute she looked, and the memory alone brought a smile to his face. The girl was weak against compliments, eh?

Much too similar to a certain fiery redhead.

His amusement dwindled down to a mere façade now, as he pondered more onto that thought. Not only was Naruto's habits and personality alike with one Uzumaki Kushina, her facial structure as well as body frame was like a complete copy of her, only smaller and seemingly more fragile. Not to mention how similar her hair is to mine…

"Naruto," He caught her attention immediately, and gave a light smile. "Your sensei must be very strong if he managed to take care of you and himself alone, seeing as it is a time of war. Have you done any shinobi training with him?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah. But, er…" She paused, choosing her words carefully so she wouldn't sound like her age. "He said I have a lot of chakra, so I'm still trying to gain better control."

"Ah, I see. It'll be difficult to make a clone then, huh?"

"Well, he pointed that out to me and showed me this really cool version of it. He said that he got it off from a friend or something." She grinned; this lie was perfect. "It's called the… um… Oh yeah! The shadow clone jutsu!"

His eyes widened in surprise. "Can you do it?"

"No, not yet; I didn't really have time to get around to doing it, because the time he showed me how to do it was when we were attacked—Ah…"

Her own sentence reminded her of her current situation, and she looked down at her feet. Funny, she thought to herself in an attempt to lighten her spirits, I never intended on stirring up a half lie… She paused mentally. Can you even call it that?

"We're here, Naruto."

"Oh." Naruto looked up at the red tower. Nostalgia and longing wafted over her until she snapped herself out of it. "That's a huge building…"

"Mhm. I guess it is, isn't it?" He said nonchalantly, but she noticed that he was subtly watching her and inwardly cursed. She had often been told that she was like an open book—or rather; her eyes were like an open book. It revealed much too many of her thoughts and emotions.

The two blondes reached the office without any trouble; the staff didn't even bat an eye when Minato passed through the guards with her. So now, the two stood in front of Sarutobi Hiruzen, who had a brown brow raised in question.

After a moment, something seemed to have clicked in his head as he looked back and forth between the two. "Minato, did you by any chance…"
The young man waved off his concern with a smile, "No, Hokage-sama. She's the one who was found outside the gates, remember?"

"Oh, so you're her, then. Hm…" He didn't let his eyes lift from Naruto's as he said dismissed the blond, "Minato, you may go now."

With a bow, the Namikaze left the room. "So, what's your full name, child?" Hiruzen asked softly, and Naruto perked up.

"Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto."

"Ah, so I was correct with my assumption then. Well, seeing as I haven't seen Kushina having an inflated stomach before in her many visits, I'm guessing that you don't come from here, do you?"
The time traveler shook her head. "I'm from… well, just an estimation, but most likely twenty to thirty years into the future." She chewed her lip, eyeing the aging man carefully. "But… do you believe what I'm saying, Hokage-sama?"

"Partly," He admitted, folding his hands in front of his mouth and leaning onto the desk. "But time travel isn't impossible. What is making this hard to believe is that the person who's sent back many years is a girl as young as you. Your mental state shouldn't be able to handle—"

"That's the thing." She lifted up her shirt and brought it to her teeth, before clapping her hands together to gather chakra; she had been practicing a little of controlling it on her way back to Konoha. "The most recent seal, the one on top, is the seal I received from—well, you could say a zombie who used to be a Whirlpool kunoichi."

Hiruzen was quite sure he saw the Hakke Fuuin underneath the two layers of seals, but stashed it away for later. "Zombie?"

"The situation at my time is kind of… crazy right now, so I'll explain what's happening later." Naruto broke her hands apart, and patted her shirt back in place.

"I understand." He actually didn't. "And you said that the user of that fuuin is from Uzushiogakure?"

"Yes, and this seal is what caused me to become four to five years old, but I've told Minato that I'm four and a half."

"When is your birthday, Naruto?"

"Hm? October the tenth."

"That's six months away from now, so what you chose is a good age." Which would make her only eight days older than Asuma... "Do you know how the seal works?"

"Ah, sort of. I've found out that it's a type that exchanges chakra, only altered so that it would make the user's chakra multiple times stronger and deadlier."

"You're smart to have figured that out on your own. How old were you originally?"

Naruto gave an awkward laugh, "Yeah, I'm good with seals…" He doesn't have to know that Kyuubi figured it out… "I was sixteen," and quite developed, she thought in regretful dismay.

"I see… twelve years… How about your mind? You shouldn't be able to think like your proper age if you're inside a four year old's body."

"That's right, and most likely because of that I have headaches." Now that she thought about it, she had felt very lightheaded a while ago. Must be because—"I've lost a lot of blood which could have been caused by my brain adjusting in my skull… But I'm no expert medical and scientific logic, so I'll need to find out more about the technique before I can jump into conclusions."

"You're theory seems to be the answer, but you're right about the last part." Pinching the bridge of his nose, he sighed. "Well, this is taking away the doubt I had. I'll also run a blood test to check if everything is true, though. I can't let my guard down, after all."

"Yup, I understand."

"So let's have it now."

Naruto faltered, "Wha—Now?"

"Yes, now." The village leader brushed his beard with his fingers. "Your condition seems fatal if we don't do anything about it soon, but I'll have to see if you really are Minato and Kushina's daughter. I'll need to confirm everything before taking action."

She nodded; most DNA paternity tests' results take over a week. The Sarutobi's chakra spiked before an Anbu appeared in the office and bent down, waiting for his orders.

"Bring our best doctor here at once."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Like how he came, the masked shinobi quietly flickered away.

"Naruto," Hiruzen successfully caught her undivided attention, "how have you gone back in this time? Thirty years from the future at most, was it?"

She nodded once. "It could be more, but I doubt it from how old Dad looked to be." Naruto chewed her lip, "Well, how I got here was through an accident on my part…"

"Accident?"

"I panicked when the… zombie attacked, and tried to use the Hiraishin to escape." She scratched her cheek sheepishly, "I couldn't use it as well as Dad, and so I had to make two seals for the jutsu to work— one on the kunai and the other in my stomach."

The man refrained from slapping a palm to his face, and calmly drew back into his chair. "Then the Hiraishin and the Uzu kunoichi's seal combined when used at the same time?"

"… Pretty much." Naruto shuffled her feet and let her fingers fidget with her clothes at Hiruzen's sigh. "Are you mad…?"

"No, no, Naruto." He brought his hand to his forehead before letting it slowly sink down to cover the bottom half of his face, and his voice was slightly muffled. "Just… calmly handling disbelief."

"… You're doing a good job."

Removing the hand, he chuckled, shaking his head. "Well, I'm pretty convinced that what everything you've told me is the truth, so I'll tell Minato and Kushina that you'll be staying with them for the time being."

"Eh…" Naruto blinked. "But… um…"

Now, the Hokage seemed confused. "You don't want to?"

She furiously shook her head, waving her arms around before they settled into a cross. "No, I do!" She brought them down to her sides, eyes downcast. "But… I'll be a bother, won't I? I mean… In their eyes, I'll be intruding their home since they don't know that I'm their daughter… And I can't tell them that. It would only make things more complicated for them."

The man smiled. She was surely their child… putting others before herself. "Well then, I'll make this their mission as Konoha shinobi. It would reflect badly on the Hokage if I left a young girl by herself, no matter how safe this village is."

Naruto nodded, and he continued, the smile off of his face as he took on the face of a real Hokage. "Naruto, keep everything we've discussed as well as what you know of the future classified."

Two knocks sounded the moment Naruto nodded, and the Kage called, "Enter!"

"I'm truly sorry to keep you waiting, Hokage-sama." The doctor came in, bowing sincerely.

"No worries, Isao. More importantly, have a DNA paternity test taken for Naruto here, Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato." The Hokage stood, ignoring Isao's shocked expression. "Make sure that this and the results are kept only between us three."

Regaining his composure, the he bowed again. "Hai, Hokage-sama." He turned to the girl, "Please follow me, Naruto-san."

Said girl nodded, stuffing her dislike of needles deep in her brain. Complaining wasn't going to help anyone.

She sighed.

Hiruzen stifled a yawn as he gazed down at his painstakingly large pile of paperwork, mankind's worst enemy. He opened one of the desk's drawers and took out the academy enrollment sheet. She'd definitely be a strong ally for the time being, what with her large chakra reserves. He grumbled; the DNA paternity test was pretty much a waste of time... but it was better to be safe than sorry, he reminded himself.

Finished with filling the paper out, he let his strained hand relax by shaking it.

One major problem is her chakra control, though. He can tell just by sensing it that her chakra pools was like a sea during a storm. Sakumo would surely be able to help her… He chuckled, that man's good with kids.

After calling the man over, he had a smile on his face, happy with the turn of events. But, at the reminder of the word "zombie", it soon dissolved. What did that girl mean? The Sarutobi sighed; I should have asked her to tell me about what happened.

Even if it did change the future, it would have been for the better, wouldn't it?

Naruto glanced back down at the quickly written address and back up at the door in front of her nervously. Was this really the place? The moment that thought crossed her head, the blade of a knife pierced and lodged on the wood. The steel point was a mere centimeter away from the bridge of her nose as she stared at it, cross-eyed, in absolute terror. She almost let out a shriek, but it somehow caught in her throat, so only a strangled sound escaped her lips.

The door swung open to reveal a beautiful, red-haired woman in a white dress along with a green vest. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry about that." She plucked the knife out, before gazing down at the frozen girl. Her face slowly evolved from a sheepish smile to a wide, joyful and pleased grin. "Ah! You must be—"

"Oi, Kushina…" Minato's voice came from inside the apartment, before taking the knife from her hands. "Ah, hello again, Naruto!"

Said blonde gulped, her big blue eyes warily locked on the slit made in the middle of the door. She turned back to the couple, before smiling back. "Good afternoon, Kushina-san, Minato-san!"

The fiery redhead ruffled her bangs playfully, "Oh, quit it with the honorifics. We'll be under the same roof, so what is the need in that, eh? You can just call us nee-chan and nii-chan, or maybe even kaa-chan and tou-chan"

Naruto felt her eyes sting, before they crinkled against her smile. Giggling, she said, "Then I won't hold back, Kaa-chan, Tou-chan!" before she entered the welcoming home with them. Kushina and Minato watched the girl take everything in with smiles on their faces.

It was the start of a close, happy family.

"Naruto! What about your breakfast?" Kushina shouted from the kitchen as Naruto struggled to put on her sandals at the genkan.

"No thank you! I'm going to be super late for my first meeting!"

It had been two days since she entered the household, and, like she had exclaimed, she was running late for her very first meeting with the man who was supposed to train her. "Then at least eat toast on the way! You won't be able to do a very good job if you don't eat breakfast!" Kushina said as she gave it to her and opened the door. "Be careful, alright?"

"Hai, Kaa-chan!" The blonde waved goodbye before holding her toast with her teeth, and closed the door behind her.

Minato came up behind his fondly sighing girlfriend with a smile, and slipped his arms around her waist. "You really turned into her mother, huh? And it's only been two days..."

"You've turned into her father, as well, Minato. Besides, it wasn't hard at all," She replied, kissing his cheek. "She's so sweet, and looks like you."

"And you." Then he added teasingly, "Also acts like you, too, only a little more… calm."

Kushina huffed, hiding her amusement. "I can't disagree with you there, though." A pause stretched between them, both swimming in their own thoughts.

"Do you think…?"

"I've thought about it vaguely the moment I saw her." She chewed her bottom lip, a blush filling her cheeks, "But… it's not possible—I mean we never…"

He settled a hand on top of her head fondly. "Well, we can't really do anything about it, so let's let it go for now. Hokage-sama doesn't seem like he'll explain any time soon." Minato finally stepped away from her, smiling once again, "Let's get some breakfast, hm?"

Naruto sighed. Hopefully she won't get the headaches today. They were less frequent now, but whenever they attacked it would full blow and longer. Unlike before, when it was only about a minute, now it would last ten or more.

Since she had nothing to do over the last two and a half days (Minato and Kushina were quite constantly on missions) all she did was practice controlling her chakra, only stopping for meals and talking with her parents. She had secretly mastered the kage bunshin after eating her dinner and helping Kushina wash the dishes, which took her approximately three hours—and that was only to make one perfectly solid clone. Minato had got mad at her out of worry for sure, but was proud of her progress nonetheless. The rest of her time until leaving the house was spent on training, though this morning she practiced without a clone.

So she was pretty sure that she had improved was a heap of a lot better than before. Not anywhere close to what she had when she was sixteen, but it was good enough to be decent for her age.

Briefly, she wondered who her trainer might be. But even if she did, she probably won't know the guy anyway. She had finished her toast, and slowed down when she noticed that she was going to reach the meeting place on time from the public clock.

So, when she saw a man with long hair and coal eyes, beside him a small—probably a little taller than her, though— masked boy, both with silver hair, she did a double take.

Hatake Kakashi, her previous teacher and… Hatake Sakumo?

Wait, he's still alive?

That can only mean one thing. Inside, she was bouncing off walls with pure, unadulterated glee—she was so going to give Kakashi the happiness he deserves—

"This is the girl I have to train with?" He muttered irritably, before turning to his father, "She looks so weak."

His words rang loud and hard in her ears, the appalled look on her face dwindling to a serious, calm look, but her eyes were ice cold. "What was that?"

"I said—" Sakumo slapped the back of the boy's head with a pleasant smile on his face.

"Sorry about that, Naruto. He's not a morning person."

Naruto reluctantly let go; she wouldn't have been able to win against Kakashi, anyways, with her lousy taijutsu skills and very limited arsenal of jutsus. "Good morning, my name is Naruto." She dipped her head down, obviously facing the father.

"I'm Hatake Sakumo, and this runt here is Hatake Kakashi. Pleased to meet you, Naruto." Sakumo pushed his son's head down.

Naruto's face brightened with a smile, "Nice to meet you too, Sakumo-sensei," it turned forced when she turned to the younger Hatake, "Kakashi-san."

He merely huffed.

Sakumo sighed at his son, before looking at the blonde. "I've been told to focus on your chakra control, so may you tell me what drills you have tried?"
She shuffled on her feet at Kakashi's obvious scrutinizing glare and tried to match it with her own. "I've used Kage Bunshin—"

"Shadow Clone?" Both Hatakes said in surprise.

"Ah… I can't do a regular clone because I have lousy chakra control, which is caused by my larger than the average reserves. I also have another reason for it, but it's classified." The three knew she wasn't boasting, Kakashi because of her slight shyness of saying it. "I use the clones to practice holding a leaf to my head while a fan's on—I can't train outside—and tried wall climbing, but that one I only just started."

Kakashi huffed. He'd started walking up trees the moment he turned four. Pouting under his mask, he kicked the soil. Why did he have to train with some random girl in blonde pigtails? Why didn't his father just continue training him only?

By the time he had just turned four, he could read, write, do complicated math equations, and partly understand what the adults said. He understood orders fairly well. He did whatever his teachers and (most importantly, of course) father told him to, and tried to do whatever he could to please his father. He had done his best when his mother left him, the best he could do so that his mother wouldn't worry up in heaven.

It's not fair. He'll show his father that he can do a whole lot better than that blonde. He's my dad, so he should train me. Not some outsider, who didn't try as hard as he did.

After they stretched, Sakumo told them to try climbing trees. Kakashi had no problem, and kept going at it to improve his reserves. Naruto however, took more time to adjust. By nearly an hour, she had mastered it, while Kakashi was lagging behind, tired.

Kakashi glared at the determined blonde. She said that she had large chakra levels, but just how much? Not only that, but her stamina was just as impressive.

Kakashi pounded his feet harder into the bark, charged by his frustration.

Naruto turned, surprised at the sudden harsh sounds coming from her reluctant partner. He was definitely smirking under his mask at her. Her brows slanted downwards along with the corners of her lips as she came to a stop, before jumping and twirling down on the ground gracefully. A triumphant smirk of her own settled on her face as Kakashi's feet reached the grass.

A silent challenge sparked between them, and Sakumo couldn't help but sigh at their antics.

How was that? Reviews of what you thought (no flames, swearing, or offensive words, please) and stuff I could improve would be awesome!

I'm kind of worried about my grammar... and the different tenses―do I shift them a lot/too much? I'm not really sure about past tense, present tense, etc.

By the way, for the people who don't know what a genkan is, it's a japanese entrance hall.

Nee-chan = kind of a less strict way of saying big sister rather than Nee-san, which is quite polite/grown up.

Nii-chan = The older brother version of the meaning for "Nee-chan."

Tou-chan = Dad.

Kaa-chan = Mom.

I was trying to make Kakashi a four year old who had been spending most of his life training with his parents and stuff. So he has very little to no experience in talking with others his age. I can't really sneak into a jealous four year old's mind, so I don't know how well (or bad) I did with that...

Ahh, so worried T.T

By the way, I was gonna do chakra paternity tests rather than DNA, but that would mean for all parties to be present for that to happen, so I decided against it.

And about the romance... it would be eventual. That means that there would be none of that mushy stuff for a long while. I'm planning on doing small time skips and tiny one-shot fillers of the future, though.