(A/N: Guys, guess what? I have a beta reader, and they're so awesome! Their pen name is White Ink Penpal; go check them out.)

Five-year-old Kakashi Hatake chewed on the inside of his cheek. Even though he was a shinobi genius, he was still a child—a very bored child at that. Kakashi saw his old, gossipy babysitter, sitting with another old, gossipy woman gossiping about the latest news to each other.

"Did you hear about Iwa's problem a couple days back?" the babysitter asked in a hushed tone.

"What happened?" the old woman said.

"Well," the babysitter glanced at Kakashi and back, "I heard that there was a mishap with one of Konoha's team—that being the one that Sakumo-sama lead." The babysitter glanced back at Kakashi, thinking that he was oblivious to their conversation.

Kakashi knitted his eyebrows together, heftily worried about his father. Taking the alphabet blocks around him, he pretended to play and be interested in them. Listening in on the ladies' discussion, Kakashi looked as if he was centered on the blocks.

"I heard from the other ladies that Sakumo-sama had failed an important mission that was vital for this war," Kakashi's babysitter whispered soundly. With his shinobi training, Kakashi was able to hear the news.

The woman next to his sitter frowned. "Sakumo-san failed a mission vital to Konoha's side of war? How did you find out?"

"I know people. But, back to the point, I also heard something about this mysterious blond woman who took on a—I think—forty-two-person army. She actually won out of all of them. However, I don't know why she did it," Kakashi's baby sitter said eagerly.

"Forty-two!? That's practically impossible by yourself!"

"Yes, that's what I thought about too. But, back to Sakumo-sama's situation. I heard that the mission was top secret, but very important to Konoha. I don't know what will happen in the future."

The other lady said, "If it's that important to Konoha, then does that mean...about the war?" she asked uneasily.

The babysitter knitted her eyebrows worriedly. "More importantly, what will happen to us?"

Both women sat in an awkward silence until the baby sitter said, "Why don't we talk about Nali-chan and Sato-kun's relationship status?" she said excitedly.

The other woman squealed like a schoolgirl. "Just wait, it'll be a matter of time until they both get married."

"Awww, married life, it's the best—until twenty years of living with the same person." The sitter sighed as she thought of her own lazy bum. They both laughed together.

Kakashi stared at his blocks blankly, almost as if his own world shattered apart. His dad's mission was unsuccessful? Did that mean that he di- no he couldn't think for the worst. Almost in the verge of tears, Kakashi rubbed his eyes while thinking about the shinobi rules—a shinobi can never show emotions.

Biting his lip, the five-year-old went to the bathroom to reflect on his thoughts. Walking towards the bathroom entrance, Kakashi felt a familiar chakra signature. Smiling widely, he ran to his doorway and opened it, to jump up and hug the familiar presence.

Sakumo was in for a surprise when his normally unemotional son jumped up to him and hugging him worriedly. The impact was so sudden, that Sakumo actually fell back while still holding Kakashi. Kakashi, on the other hand, looked at Sakumo with worried eyes.

"I told you to come home safely!" he said in a childish worry.

Sakumo laughed out loud. "I am safe, Kashi-chan! Don't you see me? My limbs are still intact.", he said, shaking his arms.

Kakashi was still fretting. "Yes, but I heard something went wrong in your mission!"

Sakumo raised a silver brow. "Where'd you hear that from."

"The old gossipy women."

Sakumo frowned. "Sheesh, news travels fast." With a smile on his face, Sakumo patted his son's head. "Don't worry, my mission was both unsuccessful, but successful at the same time. Everything will be okay for everyone. That includes your dad, yourself, and everyone in Konoha."

It was Kakashi's turn to raise a silver brow. "Then how'd you fail it?"

Sakumo answered, "The mission and it's information stays confidential." He smiled again and patted his head. "Why don't we go get that ice cream that you've been wanting. Was it...the triple caramel-triple scooped su-"

"Nu-uh, Dad! That's what you wanted. I said I wanted to get red bean dango."

"Too bad, Boy. My money, my way," he replied with a silly grin.

Kakashi grumbled under his breath, but smiled because his dad was really-really safe.

Walking out, not before dismissing the babysitter, Sakumo and Kakashi went out to buy two triple caramel-triple scooped-triple banana split sundaes.

Nine days later

"Gosh! Why'd I have to be so freakin careless!" Naruto cursed as she trudged and found Fire's borders. It has already been eleven days since Naruto's departure from Iwa, only finding transportation in walking.

"And my legs even hurt from walking in the stupid sand, stupid mud, stupid water, stupid everything!" she continued moodily. Over this timespan, Naruto only ate three meals and drank every other day to averagely sustain herself.

Walking over to a bush wretchedly, Naruto went out to do her business. Thinking about all the possibilities, Naruto thought, 'Better not be on my freaking period or else all hell will break loose!' Ever since Kurama has been on sleep mode, Naruto has been sustaining the fatigue of maintaining her wounds—especially since she still had the small bit of poison lurking insidiously in her bloodstream.

She checked herself and almost fell on her own urine. She just had to get her period on the same time she was struggling to get back to her home. "Good thing Hinata-chan, Tenten, Sakura-chan, and Ino got me my womanly needs and toiletries. I will thank you all forever!", she said loudly. Sighing to herself, a deep hole in her heart dug as she truly did miss her past (or was it future?) friends.

Finally finishing her business, Naruto estimated about a five hour walk until she reached Konoha's borders. Having the last bit of strength, Naruto decided that she wanted to run to cut the time into a third.

Gritting her teeth from panting too hard, Naruto still had two hours to run. Reminiscing about the future as she looked around the familiar surroundings, Naruto's lungs burned from breathing out too harshly. 'What time period am I even at?'

She remembered at what she had done in the past couple of days with a cringe. "Freak. I'm gonna get in so much trouble!", Naruto shouted out as she worried about her mishap in Iwa. She stopped her run and crouched in frustration on the floor with her hands on her head. Naruto's face became disorientated when a flood of ovary blood washed down. Crying in horrible distress, her day had just gotten twenty times worse.

"Goodness gracious.", she said softly, walking very cautiously to another bush.

Three hours later

"Ho-Hokage-sama! I feel a very large and powerful chakra signature!" the head sensor exclaimed. While still holding the sensor barrier together, the head sensor felt the approaching chakra signature stop. "The signature stopped, my Lord."

The Sandaime, though notified, was still confused. "Why would they stop? Do you think it's a large group of people?" he asked anxiously.

The Head sensor shook his head. "The weird thing is that it's only one person. I wouldn't know why they stopped though. What are your orders, Hokage-sama?"

Hiruzen thought quietly to himself before ordering, "Go with a group of eight with Sakumo as head."

"Wait, but I thought that he was in shinobi restrictions? Wouldn't that mean..."

"How would you know that?" Hiruzen asked the head sensor slowly. The sensors face washed out all blood as he apologized. Hiruzen continued, "Today's an exception. I feel nervous about this situation and I trust that this time Sakumo will listen to my exact orders. Get him and seven others. Tell Sakumo, the team leader, to investigate the source. In the worst case scenario, if they are a big threat, tell him to eliminate them."

By the time the team of eight were set up, Sakumo said his goodbyes to Kakashi.

"You better come back home safely, okay?"

Sakumo smiled to his son and agreed with him. "Wait, let me call the babysitter first."

Kakashi crossed his arms and whined, "But I don't need one, Dad!"

Sakumo chuckled and ruffled his hair. "You're only five, Kashi-chan. Later when you're at least this high," he said while measuring his hand to his waist.

Kakashi turned away. "But that'll be in a lotta years!" Sakumo graced him with another ruffle to his hair.

When Sakumo finished and when the sitter arrived, Sakumo said his goodbyes, assuaged his son's worries, and left for his mission.

With his team, Sakumo arrived to the destined area in record time. Frowning, Sakumo didn't need to use his wolves to track the scent or chakra of the person. He narrowed his eyes as he felt the large and strange chakra and oddly enough—the menstrual flow.

Sakumo signaled his team where the suspicious ninja was at. Closing in secretly on the mysterious person, Sakumo silently surrounded the woman.

"It's a woman?" one asked.

"Yeah, that was a shocker."

She was tangled in the floor, in an unconscious form. Sakumo took lead and went directly to the blond. "She seems to have been unconscious for about and hour of so." Sakumo analyzed her body, noting the wounds with a frown. "She's injured. Probably withstanding her injuries for a long time—maybe a week or more."

A shinobi came up to Sakumo. "Sakumo-san, do you think she's a konoichi?"

"Maybe, considering the fact that she has large chakra reserves. She must be trained well."

Another questioned, "Do ya think she's from the Iwa-scum?"

Sakumo narrowed his eyes and looked at the shinobi in uncertainty. "That's the thing that makes me wonder. Why would she come to Fire's borders where she could easily be killed? Especially at the time of war?"

"Why don't we bring her back as prisoner to Konoha. Hokage-sama will know what to do with her," one said.

Sakumo nodded and told one to restrain her. They carried her and headed towards Konoha.

Closing in on the large green gates that held do the entrance of Konoha, the team went to confirm themselves to the gate guards.

"Hatake Sakumo with team and prisoner," Sakumo announced. The gate guards confirmed and let them in. Soon after, the team filed in their mission report.

"Hatake-san, the Hokage wants to see you. He also said to bring in the prisoner," the secretary said.

Sakumo nodded and entered the Hokage's office. Hiruzen saw the prisoner and had a questioning look on his face. "Sakumo, tell me about the mission."

"Hokage-sama. The mission was successful. Out in the eastern side of Konoha's borders, this female was out unconscious. She had an overwhelming amount of chakra, enough for even a person who isn't a chakra sensor to feel. I assumed that she was the person who we were looking for."

Hiruzen nodded. "So, does she seem like a threat?"

Sakumo stated, "I'm not sure, Hokage-sama. But, isn't it unusual to find someone out in out borders on this time during war? It's likely she might be an incoming enemy spy, but she could also be otherwise."

The Sandaime narrowed his eyes,"Take her to the T&I. Stay in on the interrogation, Sakumo. And if she doesn't give any answers, then tell one of the torturers to make her give us some answers."

Sakumo nodded and headed out to the T&I department with the woman.

Naruto felt the cool splash of water splash on to her as she laid on the dirty, stony floor of the T&I department. She woke up with a harsh shiver, eyes opened widely to see two people in front of her.

"Tozoki-san, she's awake now," Sakumo said.

"Yeah, yeah, I know Sakumo," Tozoki said.

Naruto gasped as she felt shackles on her arms and legs. "Wh-what are you do-doing?" Naruto asked in an inaudible whisper.

Tozoki raised an eyebrow. "Hah? Whadya say, Missy?"

Naruto looked around and frowned when she remembered this familiar place. She bit her chapped lips and repeated more confidently, "What are you doing?"

Tozoki glared at her, but calmed himself when he remembered that this was only supposed to be and interrogation. "I'm going to interrogate you, Missy. If you answer all of my questions correctly, then I'll let you go out without any broken bones, ya hear? But, if ya don't answer any of my questions right off bat, then you might not be able to even get out at all."

Naruto shivers at his cold tone and the water that was splashed on her. Tozoki continued, "And don't be thinkin' that I'll be going easy on ya cause you're a girl, ya hear?"

Sakumo sighed wearily, as he was one that didn't really enjoy seeing what goes on in the T&I department. Naruto gritted her teeth as she sat up on the floor. 'I was worried this was gonna happen.' She took on a more calm stature while ignoring the pain that was coursing inside her body.

Sakumo looked at Tozoki as he turned on the small light that was pointing at Naruto. "Please get this done quickly, Tozoki-san."

"I know, Sakumo."

Sakumo saw Tozoki and smirked when he saw that he held a small knife in his hand just to scare the suspect a bit. Tozoki threateningly pointed the knife towards Naruto and asked, "Name?"

Naruto shivered from the cold water again. "Naruto."

Sakumo frowned. 'Why does that name sound so familiar?'

Tozoki glared at her and demanded in a more menacing tone, "Full name."

Naruto stuck her tongue out to him. "Your fault for not saying it specifically." In her mind, Naruto panicked. 'Arrggg! Name, Name, Name-'

"Do you think I'm joking, little girl?" He proved his words to be true as he took out a kunai and threw it towards Naruto, cutting her cheek a little bit.

Naruto widened her eyes as her heartbeat quickened. "Don't have a surname cause my parents never named me. I never did see the point in having a last name, so I never gave myself one, dattebayo."

Sakumo raised a silver brow and walked into the light. Naruto took sight in him and widened her eyes slightly. 'Kakashi- no. This is the past.'

Tozoki smirked, but accepted her answer. "Fine then, Naruto. Your age?"

"Twenty." She then continued, "Height: 166 cm; weight: 45.4 kg."

Tozoki smirked at her attitude. "So, you're familiar of what goes around in here, huh?"

Naruto bit her lip while cursing in her head. "Nope. It's just that when asking about someone's numbers, isn't it only predictable what you're gonna ask next, dattebayo?"

Sakumo smirked at her attitude as Tozoki growled out in her cocky tone. "Don't play with me, Girly." He then put on a serious face once things proved to not be going as he expected."Now for the harder questions. What were you doing in Konoha's borders?"

Naruto gritted her teeth tightly together. "I-I needed refuge. My small village was destroyed by this war! I needed to get to safety in order to stay alive!"

Tozoki narrowed his eyes. "You sure you're not from Iwa-"

Then, it hit Sakumo like a ton of bricks. "Naruto. Your name is Naruto, right?"

Naruto looked at Sakumo. "Yes, why?"

Sakumo narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Why were you at Iwa a couple days back? And why did you attack them?"

Naruto widened her eyes. "How-how do you know I was at Iwa?!"

Tozoki looked at Sakumo with widened eyes, then at Naruto. "You... You were the person that destroyed the platoon?"

Sakumo sighed. "News does travel quickly around this place."

Naruto looked distressed. 'Gosh! Kurama was right.' She bit her lip again and stayed quiet.

Tozoki interrogated, "Why did you attack them?" He got closer to her and pressed the bladed side of his knife on her throat.

Naruto had to tell them if she wanted to live. "I-it was an accident. I mean, I kinda crashed into their big buildings, in which destroying the building and everything inside it. And then, things got real from that point on! All these Iwa-nins began to attack me, and then I started to blow attacks on them, but missed, in which causing more of these buildings to be destroyed. And, I guess that riled them up more?"

Sakumo sighed. 'Those attacks must've been very lethal to destroy one of those huge warehouses, then.'

Tozoki spluttered, "Accident?" He then narrowed his eyes at the blonde and bit out, "Then does that mean that you've come to Konoha to 'accidentally' attack it?"

Naruto stayed calm, unwilling to let the man get a rise out of her. "No. I already told you I needed a refuge for my wounds."

Sakumo cut in when Tozoki was about pierce Naruto. "Tozoki," he said with a firm tone, "she's not lying. You should know this than most—her heartbeat isn't quickening." Tozoki breathed in harshly as Naruto's skin was slightly cut, drawing out a little blood.

Naruto sighed in relief as she gave Sakumo a thankful look. Sakumo replied with a glare. Naruto was about to growl when Tozoki said, "Girly, I'll need to ask ya one more question." He looked her in the eye. "Are you sure you're not gonna attack Konoha?"

Naruto swallowed her mucous. "I'm positive. Believe it," she said with a determined look on her face.

Tozoki looked at her eyes one more time with a smirk on his face. "Fine, kiddo." He then turned off the lights and took Sakumo to follow him out at he shut the door, leaving Naruto alone in the darkness.

Naruto's blood boiled as her screams resonated from the door. "I'm not a 'kiddo'! I'm twenty-years-old!"

Sakumo bowed down to the Hokage, showing a sign of respect. "Hokage-sama, the prisoner had no plans for attacking or harming Konoha in any way. She actually was seeking for refuge for her wounds and I guess a place to stay because her last village was destroyed by this war."

Hiruzen looked at Sakumo and gave him a sign to rise. "Then how were these wounds caused."

Sakumo frowned. "I assume it was from what happened from Iwa last time."

Hiruzen knitted his eyebrows together. "From Iwa!? You let someone from Iwa make you believe that she isn't going to attack Konoha?!"

Sakumo shook his head. "You didn't let me finish, Sandaime-sama. The girl's name is Naruto—and she's not from Iwa. She lived in a small village that was ravaged by this war."

The Sandaime widened his eyes at the proclamation. "Naruto? As in the Naruto who destroyed those warehouses? What's her surname?"

Sakumo answered, "Yes, that Naruto. And she doesn't have a surname—she just goes by as Naruto. I don't really think she's lying because she had answered most of the questions smoothly without any torture." Sakumo didn't count the part when Tozoki placed the kunai to her throat.

Hiruzen sighed. "I'll look into this more later. Sakumo, thank you for your service, but I'm excluding your payment because of last time's incident."

Sakumo bowed down to his leader. "Of course, Hokage-sama."

(A/N: Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter.)