Hey guys. I left a tiny present in the end. Enjoy!

*Looks at fav/foll with mouth gaping open. Gets on her knees and bows repeatedly while chanting, "I am not worthy"* Thank You EarlyBirdNightOwl, GrrrArrgh, Karmidee, OnePlotThickens, Pieface18, nini-mercy, CallisaDawn, GingerEm23, Hinata namakazi, Sonea66, ca186229, fafou59, AgentZhao, Ezmathet, Tacos-rule153, Yuki Tsukiko, Mrose5, random like thisXD, ehanda, Sommermaedchen, skmcrae, natishsohi, Fire Dolphin, UNSC Into Crimson Dark, killerfox116, theskythatshinesbright and for all the people who previously foll/fav my story. It means a lot to me that people are actually enjoying what I wrote.

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.

Chapter 12

Naru smiled as she rested against some trees beside Shikamaru and Choji. It was break time and all the kids were outside. She laughed as she remembered what had happened earlier that day. Early this morning, Naru had sneaked into the classroom to pull off an epic prank. Her teacher's face when he walked into the classroom was priceless. His mouth had dropped down to the ground and his eyes had popped out. All the desks were upside down and hanging from the ceiling. The classroom was literally backwards. They had been forced to learn sitting down for no matter how hard the chunin teachers tried they couldn't unstick the seats. Naru loved watching them struggle.

That was the highlight of her day, but currently she was exhausted as she laid beside her two friends. She was still tired from training days on end. Her young body was having a really hard time handling it all.

'Man, I'm tired.'

'I did warn you kit. It was your bright idea to completely exhaust yourself. You baka. I don't know why I put up with you."

'Ya, ya. Kurama. You know you love me, you big furball. I'll take the day off today, ok. You happy now.'

'Hmph, foolish human.'

Naru just smiled. Once upon a time, she would never have imagined that they would get so close. She smiled ruefully, life really moved in weird ways. She looked at her two friends lazing and eating beside her. She was truly thankful that she had been sent back in time, she didn't think that she would have such care-free days again. Her eyes stopped on Shikamaru and she remembered something. She reached inside her bag and pulled out two books.

"Hey, Shika here." He simply raised an eyebrow and took them from her. "One is a book filled with battle and stealth tactics. For some reason I thought you would like that. The other is a kind of a problem solving book. Don't worry its way cooler than what we learn at the academy. It's like they give you a shinobi situation and you have to find a way to complete your task. I tried it, many were to hard for me but I found it kind of fun."

"...thanks." Naru could tell he was interested, even if he didn't let it show.

"Hey both of you can use really strong clan techniques right? I bet you two are really good at them." Shikamaru and Choji looked at each other and back at her.

"Not really. My mom keeps on telling my dad to train me. I just find it to be to much work." Shikamaru complained.

"My dad has shown me a few moves, but its so hard. I get tired really easily, so I don't really like training so much. I probably won't become that good at it anyway." Choji said dejectedly. Naruto jumped up.

"No way. I bet you both will become awesome ninja. You guys are so great. I know you can do it." Naru encouraged the two.

Once again Shikamaru and Choji turned to each other, having a silent conversation with each other. They had no idea why the blond believed in them so much, and for some reason they felt that they couldn't let her down.

Choji was happy that someone had acknowledged him and he wanted to prove himself capable of the trust she was putting in him. Shikamaru on the other hand, felt exasperated at her confidence. Why in the world would she believe in them so much? It didn't make sense to him, but Naruto rarely ever made sense to him. Though, he smiled ruefully, even if it was bothersome he couldn't help but be lead around by Naruto enthusiasm. He groaned he knew he was going to regret this later.

Shikamaru and Choji nodded at each other. Both deciding to talk to their respected dads later for more training.

The three settled down again, each content in their own way. Naru had closed her eyes to doze off, but a few minutes later her eyes shot open. She heard load and desperate barking. She knew only one dog that had that bark. She got up to find the source and waved her two friends down, not wanting to disturb them.

She approached the bushes and looked. There caught in a trap was a puppy Akamaru. Naru reached down and untangled the little guy. She gently raised him, to check for any injuries but was satisfied to not see any. The little pup was wagging his tail at her and licked her face. She laughed at his antics.

"What are you doing with Akamaru?" A familiar voice accused her. She turned around to find Kiba glaring at her.

"I umm..." Naru didn't know what to say. She was dejected that her friend was staring at her like that. He snatched the little pup away from her.

"Don't you dare hurt him." He said furiously. Now Naru was pissed off. How dare he accuse her of trying to hurt Akamaru.

"Look here, you dog breath-" She was about continue to tell him off, when someone else interrupted her.

"You should be thanking her instead of accusing her." Shikamaru said lazily.

"Thank her-why would I thank her? I heard some of the grown ups talking about her. Saying she was a monster and all. I bet she was trying to hurt him." Kiba yelled. At first Naru was stupefied. Both hurt and anger were coming back to her.

"Troublesome, she saved him from a trap." At first glance Shikamaru seemed unaffected, but a closer look revealed something Naru would never have suspected. Anger. But why would he feel angry? She didn't understand. She didn't have a chance to think to deeply about it before she saw a white blur come at her. Akamaru had jumped into her arms.

Kiba turned to look at her, before scratching the back of his head. "Che.. I'm sorry, I guess...Thanks for saving him." Naru was to preoccupied with the dog licking her face to respond. When she finally looked up at Kiba, she noticed that he was sincere, so she forgave him. She handed Akamaru back to him.

"Lets pull some pranks together some time." Kiba tried to make up for what he said.

"Sure." Naru grinned at him. Kiba and Akamaru ran away. Naru turned to Shikamaru. "Hey Shika do you play any board games?" She inwardly grimaced here, but knew it had to be done.

"Hmm, I play shogi and go with my dad a lot. Though I never win against him so its troublesome." He responded.

"Can you teach me how to play?" She inwardly groaned. She had absolutely no patience for games like shogi pr go. It involved to much of thinking ahead and formulating different strategies, something that while ideal for Shikamaru really wasn't up her speed.

Now Naru wasn't as dumb as everyone thought, She just hadn't ever had the chance to get a formal education, since the teachers at the academy refused to teach her anything. Thus some basic concepts, that were taught to every little kid, escaped her. If she been given half a chance as a child, most would have realized that Naru was actually incredibly intelligent. What she did know, she had taught herself. She had taught herself to read and write at the age of four, when she had been kicked out of the orphanage. She had learned math when she had to manage her own money. Sometimes she would hide in the vents of the school, to eavesdrop on some of the classes. She couldn't do this often for she was scared that the teachers would notice. She also spent a lot of time observing people as a child, to pick up on anything else. But things like strategies escaped her, since she was used to thinking on the go. She was more of a on the spot thinker. She could think of brilliant ideas and plans but she usually formed them in the heat of battle. But she also knew that learning how to play shogi or go would be good for both her and him.

Though she knew that she would be an easy opponent for him to defeat it would force him to mentally battle with someone else for a change. He would improve his tactician skills this way and force him to use his brilliant brain more often. For her well, she needed more patience and the ability to think ahead. Though she knew that she was a hot head by nature and so far it had served her purpose pretty well. She knew that if she had any hope of leading the village and her friends in the future, she needed to be able to think better on and off the field. She suspected that frequently doing mental battles with the greatest mind of her generation would help her in that area. She also knew that she would never completely lose her rash and hot headed ways but it was still better than nothing.

There was one other benefit to playing the games together. The future Shikamaru counterpart had sometimes forced her, yes the lazy man had forced her, into playing the games with him. He never really stated why he did it but she was able to understand anyway. What he didn't say in exact words is that it made their teamwork even better. The game had given them a chance to better understand each other ways of thinking, though Shikamaru complained that he would never fully understand her. It had come to a point in which hey were better able to anticipate each others moves in battle without even communicating them to each other.

Shikamaru would one day become her chief adviser and strategist when she would day become Hokage. Even though she knew he would fight against it with all his will, Naru wouldn't accept anyone else. he needed him as she needed all her friends to be there for her.

Naru knew that the friends she knew in the future were different from the ones in this time period, but that didn't mean that she cared for them and trusted them any less. No matter what time period they were in that fact would never change.

"...Sure why not. But never thought you would want to play a game like shogi. It just doesn't suit you much." Blasted Shikamaru had to pick up on that fact, she sometimes wished that he was dumb.

"You calling me dumb?" She tried to distract him.

"Not really, I just know that you don't like to sit around and use your brain for long. You're the type that never likes to sit still." He was bluntly honest with her.

"So you are calling me dumb, you baka."

"...Troublesome" He shook his head and sighed. Naru grinned, it was so easy to exasperate him.

She heard the school bell ring and sighed. "There goes my nape time" Suddenly she realized what she had just said and whipped her head around to look at Shikamaru, "Ahh, I'm turning into you. Save me." Shikamaru just snorted at her and walked back to the school. "

"Hey wait for me!" She chased after him.

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Naru was dragging her feet towards the training ground. She had to tell Kakashi sensei that she was taking the day off. Unfortunately for her, some villagers had seen her on the way there. She had been too tired to fend them off today, and they got some hits on her before she could get away. She decided to go through the forest to avoid any more over zealous villagers. She was almost there, when she decided to talk a little break. She leaned against a tree and closed her eyes. She was so exhausted that she didn't notice that there were two other presences in the forest until it was to late. She was suddenly lifted up. When she felt the cold edge of a kunia against her throat, she stilled.

"Look what we have here, a gaki." The man holding the blade against her throat mocked.

"Wonder what a kid is doing her all alone?...Hey wait isn't this the brat who got our commander captured!" A tall shinobi stood in front of her. Naru looked up at his headband and noticed it held the symbol for the cloud village. She silently cursed. These guys must have been with that foreign shinobi that was after Hinata. How had they not been captured already?

"You're right. I would have recognized this bright blond hair anywhere. It's the same brat. Oh I'm going to enjoy making her pay." The guy with the kunia pressed against her throat a little harder drawing some blood. Naru couldn't help but wince a little. How had they recognized her? Where they there at the time of the kidnapping, and if so how in the world had she not sensed them?

Normally these guys wouldn't be a problem for her even with her five year body. She was still able to do all her ninjutsu after all, and she had some new tricks up her sleeves. But the problem was that she had been feeling weak all day. She would have been lucky to create a simple clone. She also couldn't call up Karama's chakara yet for her body was to young to handle it.

But there was absolutely no way that she would allow these imbeciles to kill her. She had to much too accomplish, too much she had to do. She hadn't arrived in the past for nothing after all. She decided to utilize some of the techniques that Gai sensei taught her. She infused her elbow with some chakara and struck it against her captor's stomach. It didn't do much damage since she wasn't able to infuse a lot of chakara into the blow, but it was enough that he was forced to let go. She jumped out of his hold and turned around to kick him where it really hurt with a chakara infused foot. He fell down groaning. Her second captor immediately tried to restrain her but before he could get too close, she crouched down and pulled out two shurikens.

"Shuriken Shadow Clone" She yelled after throwing her shurikens. Instantly at least twenty-five shurikens appeared and struck the second captor. He fell down in defeat for he was unable to dodge all of them. On the downside, Naru had no energy to even move anymore. She had used up all her chakara and was now completely defenseless. The first captor had gotten up, his kunia still in his hand, and was coming towards her.

"I'm going to kill you, you brat." He threatened not even five feet away from her.

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Kakashi was late as usual. He was planning on what training to give Naru today. Honestly he felt that she needed a break. He had noticed that recently she had been working even harder than normal and she looked bone weary tired. But he knew she wouldn't simply take a break even if he told her to. Most likely she would train secretly at her apartment. He cursed that he couldn't watch her more closely. To give her something to do other than secretly train, he had grabbed a number scrolls that he wanted her to study.

He had been originally surprised that she knew how to read and write pretty well for a five year old, especially since he didn't remember anyone teaching her. Plus though she was a little slow at times, she seemed to be able to comprehend a lot more than any other kid her age.

He chuckled a little at the face he imagined her making when she opened them. The scrolls mostly contained information such as history or the inner workings of the village. Yup, she was going to hate them. But he would simply have to entice her with the promise of a new jutsu if she read them all. He knew to her this would be seen as cruel, but this was the only way he could really think of to make her willingly rest. Whats more was that she did say that her dream was to become Hokage, and to do that she needed to know more than just jutsu. After these last few weeks, for some reason he had no doubt that she would become Hokage. And one of the greatest ones at that.

At one point he had been tempted to call her a prodigy or a genius, but those thoughts quickly disappeared when he noticed how hard she worked in everything. He had seen her concentrate for hours on end, way past the time he called their training to an end, to get something right. Sometimes even the simplest skills escaped her. It was obvious to him that everything she had learned or accomplished came from hard work and determination. 'No she wasn't a genius' Kakashi thought smiling a little 'but she was one of a kind.'

As he reached the training ground, he noticed that she wasn't there. That was highly unusual for her, she would often already be there excited to start training. Yet as he looked around he couldn't see her. Kakashi immediately felt that something was wrong. Suddenly the faint, but unmistakeable, smell of blood hit him. Kakashi was known for his keen sense of smell and no one could doubt his abilities. Kakashi immediately took of to the direction of the smell. Praying that the little girl was safe.

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Naru couldn't move. All she could do was stand there completely defenseless as the cloud shinobi made his way towards her. She couldn't believe her helplessness. She couldn't help but close her eyes when he was right upon her, his kunai inches away from her.

She kept her eyes completely shut, waiting for the final blow. It never came. She hesitantly opened her eyes, to find Kakashi standing over the dead body of the shinobi. He had come and saved her. A part of her hated the idea of having to be rescued due to her weakness but she was grateful nonetheless. She suddenly saw an emotion in his eyes that she didn't often see. Concern. Why did he look so concerned as he looked over her? He made his way towards her and held both her arms as he crouched down. His eyes roamed to find any serious injuries, and he sighed in relief when he didn't find anything to serious. Naru, even in her exhaustion, couldn't keep herself from feeling surprised. He had been worried about her. At that she lost all the strength she had to stand up. She collapsed against him.

"Hey Kashi-sensi...thanks for saving me..I'm going to sleep now. Kay." She whispered as she succumbed to sleep.

Kakashi gently picked her up. He had felt more intense emotions in the last five minutes than he had in a very long time. When he saw the cloud shinobi standing over her he had felt inexplicably scared. Scared that he would lose another person precious to him. Than he felt infuriated that someone would even attempt to hurt her. In less than two seconds, the foreign shinobi was dead. When he saw that she was safe, he felt such indescribable relief.

He looked around him and for the first time since arriving allowing himself to take in the scene in front of him. His eyes widened a little at the sight of a fallen shinobi, with a dozen or so kunais sticking out of him. He was still breathing but barely, if he wasn't treated quickly he would die of blood lose. Kakashi wanted nothing more than to kill him, for even daring to hurt Naru. But he forced himself to calm down. It would be better to send the man to torture and interrogation for questioning. He couldn't help but feel a little sadistic glee at what Ibiki would do to the man. He summoned his quickest ninken and sent him off to inform the Hokage that he had a prisoner to pick up.

As he noticed the condition the man was in he looked back at the girl in his arms, and couldn't help but feel proud that she had been able to defend herself so well.

His eye hardened as he took in the thin slice on her throat. As he looked closer, he saw some recent bruises on her skin. Some looked a little older than other.. He had no doubt about where some of them had come from. It infuriated him, he felt like killing someone. Kakashi couldn't help but feel a little started at the strength of his emotions. He wasn't used to feeling so much for someone so intensely.

He gently gathered her a little closer and took her to the hospital.

When the doctor saw who he was treating, he immediately backed away. "I'm not treating that monster." Kakashi grabbed the man by his collar.

"I know plenty of way to kill you in the time it takes you to blink. Now, do you want to try that again?" He threatened in a light tone, but the coldness of his voice betrayed his anger. All the doctor could do was nod his head. He timidly checked over the girl.

"Other than the bruises and the thin slice against her neck that should heal nicely, she seems to be extremely exhausted. Her body is worn down and her chakara is severely depleted. After a few days of rest she should be fine. She is also malnourished." He told the scary ninja in front of him, fearing for his life. The man just nodded and scoped up the little girl up again gently.

He was about to take her towards her apartment, but changed his mind and went to his apartment instead. He laid her down in his spare room. He watched her sleep. He should have forced her to take a break a lot sooner. He should have known by Naruto personality that she would try to push past her limit. She tried harder than anyone he had ever met, well maybe with the exception of Gai. She lived alone, so there was no one to stop her. A five year old was not meant to take care of herself, he wanted to strangle the people of the orphanage.

He couldn't interfere with her life due the damn council. The only thing he was allowed to due in the past was watch over her as an ANBU operative. At first he watched her because she was the daughter of his beloved sensei, but the brat had quickly carved out her own place in his heart. Thanks to the Hokage, he was allowed to watch over her as her sensei but even that wasn't enough he could see now. He sighed thinking of all the pranks he would have to withstand if he went through with what he had planned. But as he gazed at her some more, he decided that it was worth it. He got up. It was time to have another talk with the Hokage.

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: *Shivers* I dont think I can do the pranking queen/princess justice but ill try. Look below for a little present.

Futakomori: Thanks for all the feedback, I'll try to watch out for that in the future. As for Kakashi's wallet. Well the mans only hobby seems to be reading his books so I bet he has some cash to burn. But with Naru around, and her infamous bottomless stomach well I don't see anyone's wallet being safe. Mwhahahaha.

Naru chan 3400: Thanks for the encouragment. I hope you do well on your finals too. I wanted to die last week.

ehanda: Glad you liked it.

Fire Dolphin: I know what you mean. I always felt that Shino didnt get enough attention the poor kid.

AncientCelestialDragon: Sadly they proubly wont meet for another two chapters. I have a vague idea of how there first meeting will go and I already find my self laughing.

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Omake 2 (ChbiNaru vs ChibiSasuke)

Warning: No tree was hurt in the process of this Omake.

Warning 2: This is a fight involving a bratty five year old girl and a snotty seven year old boy. Do not expect a respectable and clean fight.

Warning 3: Only on days where both of them feel really bratty do I see the fight going this way. Usually I see them being a lot better than this but I once imagined it I had to share. I repeat they usually are much better than the shameless fight below.

"You ready to eat dirt dobe." Sasuke brought his hands up in a fighting stance.

"Bring it Teme," Naru smirked.

"Ready...set...go!" They said together and rushed towards rushed towards each other. Naru tried to tackle hiim and he just stepped out of her way. She ran right into a tree headfirst. She could see tiny ramen bowls swirling around her head. She shook her head and got up only to find Sasuke doubled over laughing at her. She clenched her fist, she was so going to back him pay for that. She once again rushed him and kicked him in the stomach. He fell back and she sat on her stomach. He punched her in the eye but when that failed to make her get off of him, he grabbed her hair and pulled. In revenge she started to punch him in the face repetitively. Eventually he got enough strength to push him off of him. They both got up and faced each other. This time it was Sasuke who rushed in. He tried to punch her but she tripped him. He fell onto his stomach and she sat on his back and rubbed his face into the dirt.

"Give up yet?" Naru taunted.

"You wish dobe." Sasuke tried to struggle but the girl wouldn't budge. Naru simply pressed his face harder.

"How about now?

"Never. I'll get you for this dobe." Naru laughed. After uselessly fighting her for a few minutes, Sasuke finally gave in. She jumped off of him in glee. If anyone would have seen them at the moment they would have been shocked. Sasuke face was swollen with the amount of times she hit him there. On the other hand, Naru had a black eye, a bump on her head, and messed up hair with twigs sticking out.

"Same time tomorrow?" Naru asked. Sasuke nodded. They both headed back to the academy as they tried to think of what todays excuse would be for how they looked.