*Looks at fav/foll with mouth gaping open. Gets on her knees and bows repeatedly while chanting, "I am not worthy"* Thank You Aelliea, LizHarris, argooo1, Cjkhaos, kingshadow108, twirlgirl4life1, Merula Aeolus, SkypathStarshadow, cheunsha, sakurakinomoto520, darkfrost154, kyuuo, Terisa-Umi, XLoVeIsPaInFuLX, molly20009, DigitalGirl490, Ruri7533, Sexta, ZabuzasGirl, Dendule95, clizasanimeluver98, GoldGreen, 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 15

The gathered eleven looked at each other in confusion. Naru hadn't told them anything other than to meet here. Plus three of the gathered weren't even in their class. Not knowing what to do they naturally separated into groups of one or two. Shikamaru laid down to watch the clouds while Choji sat beside him and ate some chips. Kiba was playing fetch with Akamaru. Shino was gathering and communicating with his insects. Ino and Sakura were giggling while watching Sasuke, who was doing his best to hide from them. Hinata was off to one side playing with her fingers with Neji standing with his arm crossed beside her. Lee was doing pushups rapidly and Tenten was leaning against a tree while twirling a kunia with her finger. When Naru saw the tiny groups she sighed. This really had to change. She took in a deep breath.

"HEY GUYS!" She yelled loudly. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at her while slightly covering their ears. She gave them a wide smile.

"Dobe, why did you call us all here?" Sasuke asked first.

"Hehe, well I thought of a game and I wanted us all to play it together." The others looked at her like she was crazy.

"Oh come on. It'll be really fun." She gave them her best pleading face. Her friends shook their heads at her but agreed.

"Cool, see that flag up there." She pointed to a big orange flag hanging from a branch, high in a tree. "In this game you have to get the flag to win."

"That seems to easy." Kiba scoffed.

"Hehehe I already set up traps for you guys. So you'll have to work together if you want to have any chance of getting the flag. Plus I have some additional rules. Since I already know where all the traps are this game will have an added twist. Meaning this game will be me against all of you."

"Wait that doesn't seem fair to you Naru." Sakura spoke up. Naru smiled devilishly at her.

"Trust me, this game will actually be harder for you rather than for me." She took out eleven orange ribbons and started to hand them out to each of her friends. "Each of you will have this ribbon tied around your arms. It'll be my job to try to get this ribbon off of you. If I get your ribbon then your out of the game. If I capture four ribbons at any time, than I automatically win. Got it?"

Her friends looked at her like she was crazy. Most of them shivered at the look on her face. Some of them had been around her long enough to recognize it for one that meant nothing but trouble. Some of them sighed. Why in the world did they agree to do this again? Right it was because she had some screws loose, so they actually feared what she would do to them if they actually had the nerve to refuse her. They had seen enough of her pranks to know what happened to people who went against her. Tenten, Lee, and Neji who knew very little about Naru decided to play for they didn't fully understand the predicament they were in. Unfortunately they only saw a harmless little girl asking them to play a game. If only they knew the truth, but their fates had been decided the second they met Naru.

Naru on the other hand had a maniacal smile on her face. She was snickering on the inside for what she had planned for them.

"You are having way to fun with them Kit."

"What its just a little fun. Going against me will force them to work together. They'll have to or else they wont have any chance of getting past what I've laid out for them." She snickered. "Plus if I get a few laughs out of it all the better." Kurama grinned.

"I've underestimated of how cruel you can be sometimes. It seems I'm rubbing of on you." He chuckled, completely proud. Once upon a time Naru would have completely been horrified at that statement, but now she couldn't help but smile at her partner. She was pulled away from their conversation when she noticed that the other were looking expectantly at her, ready to go.

"The game will start when I say go. Good luck, you'll need it." She snickered out loud this time. "Ready...Set...GO!" The second she said go they all scattered running towards the flag at top speed. Well all of them but one. Shikamaru was yawning while walking slowly forward. He saw no point in putting in so much effort on the get go. Naru had mentioned traps and he had no doubt that she had meant it. Running forward recklessly would prove to be futile. He yawned again thinking how troublesome this game was. That was until he saw the glare that Naru was giving him. Shikamaru felt terror running down his spine. He had learned the hard way not to mess with Naru when she was giving that look. It promised retribution that would last for days. He wasn't even this scared of his mother and that was saying something. He sped on ahead to catch up with the others praying that she wouldn't catch him.

Meanwhile the other were already facing obstacles. When Naru had mentioned traps, they didn't think she meant anything like this. There were hidden trip wires everywhere. When Kiba tripped one, a dozen or so rocks came hurling at him, he barely escaped getting hit by them. Not to mention the other traps that swaited them. Ino fell into a deep pit while Sasuke was hanging upside down by a rope. Neji and Hinata believed that they were safe with their Bakugan but even if they were able escape one or two another trap awaited them. They weren't the only ones, for the next twenty-five minutes a trap was going off every few minutes. Thirty minutes since the beginning of the game, all eleven of them were covered in dirt and panting heavily. Finally Shikamaru called them all to a halt.

He sighed "Look, running around blindly forward isn't helping us. We need to work together. This is only going to work if we have four teams. Team one will scout ahead for any traps, team two will disable them, team three will be in charge of getting the flag and team four will be on the look out for Naru and stall her. Neji and Shino will be team one for Neji's Bakugun and Shino's bugs will be the best for finding the traps. Tenten, Sakura and Choji will be team two for you guys can work quickly and efficiently at disarming them. Lee, Ino, and Kiba will be team three for you guys can reach the target quickly. Sasuke, Hinata, and me will be the forth group. Sasuke is the best qualified to fight with Naru, while Hinata keeps a look out and I will immobilize her if I can." Some of the group didn't look practically happy but they all nodded that it was a good plan.

Meanwhile someone was watching them high on top of a tree unnoticed. Naru was smiling as her friends started to come together.

"See I told you they would come together eventually and work as a team." Naru told Kurama smugly, truly proud her friends progress.

"Hmph, so they aren't completely useless. Well they are smarter than you in any case, though that isn't much of an accomplishment."

"Shut it you big furball" Naru said irritably. The big fox just chuckled. Naru decided to ignore her irritating partner for now and go back to focusing on her friends. She waited till they were around three minutes ahead and then jumped to the ground. Truly ready to begin the chase.

Shikamaru, Hinata, and Sasuke had done an impressive job on delaying her. Hinata had quickly spotted her and while Sasuke engaged her, Shikamaru caught her with his shadow. But Shikamaru just didn't have the chakara to hold her for long. She waited him out till he had no choice but to let her go. The second she was free she dived for Sasuke's band for he was closet to her and snatched it off his arm. With him out she ran to Shikamaru who was still suffering panting against a tree because of chakara exhaustion. He didn't have the strength to fight off her assault and she was able to get his band too. The only one left in the group was Hinata. The truth was Hinata just didn't have ability to fight her off yet but she did impressively deflect her hands a few times before Naru could snatch her band too. With all three of them out, she raced on ahead only needing a single ribbon to win. As she passed threw the forest she noticed that most of her traps had been disabled. She smiled that her friends had done such an impressive job. She was moments away from them now for they were within her sights. They were inches away from the flag. Naru raced forward with team four following her. Choji was the closest to her so she jumped towards him and was seconds away from grabbing his ribbon when Lee grabbed the flag. At that the game was over. They had won. The Konoha twelve all collapsed on the ground.

Naru pouted as she laid on the ground. She really did hate losing but as she looked at her friends faces she smiled. She started to laugh. It had been so long since she had gotten to play with all of them like this, so long since she could actually act like a kid like this.

"Told you it would be fun." The forest was filled with the sound of her laughter. Her friends looked disgruntled at her. She called this fun? They were all covered in dirt and sweat and none of them could move a muscle. They felt like they had barely made it out alive thanks to her traps. She had put them trough hell in this game of hers and she called it Fun? They had all suspected it before but now it was official, she was certifiably insane. They really wanted to be mad at her but as they looked at the pure joy on her face, they couldn't help but smile a little themselves. Her joy was infectious and they all started to laugh a little which soon grew into full blown laughter. A little part of them realized that it was true they did have fun in this game of her, even if it was hell. They themselves might have been a little crazy.

Kakashi bolted up on his bed. Something had woken him up but he couldn't see nor sense anything. He placed his mask back in place, and went to investigate. As he walked closer to Naru's room he identified it as the source. He quietly opened the door and peaked in. What he saw crushed him.

Naru was curled up into a ball in her bed and she was behaving restlessly as she slept. She was also whimpering a little. It was obvious she was having a terrible nightmare. As he got closer he heard her mumble something but he couldn't make out what she was saying. Kakashi had no idea what to do. Sure he suffered from his own nightmares, most shinobies did, but he had no idea of how to comfort someone else. He reached out and gently shook her. She shot up in her bed. She was breathing heavily and when she looked up he could see tears welling up in her eyes. Kakashi felt as if someone squeezed his heart with a fist. She turned away from him and looked in a different direction. He saw her little fist clench up as she tried to calm herself. It was as if she refused to let her tears fall.

Kakashi couldn't do anything else but gently pull her towards him and let her rest against him. She froze at the contact and tensed up but then she gradually started to relax. Soon he could hear tiny whimpers and feel his shirt getting wet as she wrapped her tiny arm around him. Not long after he noticed she had completely stilled. When he looked down he noticed that she was asleep. She had his shirt clenched tightly in her tiny fists and as he tried to free himself, it became apparent that she wouldn't let go. He sighed and laid down next to her.

As Kakashi laid there, he was unable to fall asleep. He wondered what had made little Naru cry. He had never seen her this heartbroken before and he wondered what it had taken to bring her to this point. While it would have been normal for anyone to break down after the encounter she had in the woods but for some reason he didn't believe that to be it. One reason was that unfortunately Naru was no stranger to life threatening situations, she had faced many of those from the villagers. Another reason that today was the forth night since it had happened, if she would have broken down wouldn't it have happened sooner. It might have been a late reaction, but Kakashi just had a feeling that that wasn't it. No he felt it was something more, something that had completely shook her, he just didn't know what. He sighed. He would have to keep a closer eye on her, but for now he needed some sleep if he wanted to keep up with her. He pulled up her blanket to cover both of them, closed his eye, and fell asleep.

Unaware to the two of them, someone else was watching them. Kurama sighed. His kit had been having another nightmare. She had been getting them frequently since the start of the war. For he was mentally linked with her, he could she her dreams and it made him sigh. They were about something that Naru feared the most. That everyone she ever cared about would died right in front of her and she couldn't do anything about it. These dreams were hard on her when she older but now that her emotions were regressing into a kids it was especially trying on her. She no longer had the emotional stability to keep her emotions in and deal with her fears on her own. He knew that if she was her normal self she would never have broken down like this in front of anybody but he couldn't help but be thankful that she had and that Kakashi had been their to comfort her. He hated how she tried to keep everything bottled in, he feared that it would destroy her one day. Now she finally would have some emotional support. He tried but he just couldn't grasp human emotions enough that he could support her. He sighed again as he laid her head down on his paw and joined his partner in sleep.

Announcement: After this chapter I will be PM'ing everyone who reviews. This way I can get back to you guys sooner. The one reviews that I will show here from next chapter on are FAQs people ask or PM me about and Guest reviews. Just to make this clear: I ABSOLUTELY LOVE REVIEWS!

ZabuzasGirl: I'll try.

bunnyguest: Thanks. As for Kakashi spying, haven't really thought about it it, but that might be a good part to add. Thanks for your review.

buterflypuss: I made her younger for two main reasons. One reason was that When i was initially planning this story many of the earlier chapters were going to be dedicated to Naru's interactions with her friends when they were children. While I wanted Naru to be really young as to raise less suspicions about her drastic change in personality and abilities and to give her a lot of time to develop and start changing things, to me it didn't make sense to leave her friends as the same age as her. If they were five they simply wouldn't be able to keep up with her, and I didn't want that. I wanted to make them more physically and mentally ready to interact with her. But even so I didn't want to add to big off an age gap in between them so I left it at two years apart. Let me know if this is making any sense because I really don't know if it is. The second reason I made her younger than the others is simply to motivate them to improve more. I feel like if they watch someone younger than them do better than them it would push them to train and advance themselves. Or just piss them off into wanting to beat her. (I know i would be pissed for I hate losing to people younger than me...which i do often) I hope I answered your question.

Littlest1: Thanks. I knew that she was distantly related to Tsunade but I didn't know that her mom was part of the main family. Thanks for info.

wind dancer1981: Thanks for the encouragement

DigitalGirl490: I'm sorry to say that it will not be Sas/Naru. While I plan on making them great friends and rivals, I honestly don't see them together in this fic. But that doesn't mean that you wont see more Sasuke and Naru interactions because they're will differently be some. And im confused about the "Really Naru?" part