Disclaimer-See Chapter One.

Chapter Two – The Cycle Begins Anew

The years passed, and the predictions of the Seer's Glass came to pass. On October 8, 2337, Kyuubi attacked Konoha in a blind rage. The battle raged for two days, and Konoha was brought to its knees. In a last ditch effort to save his village; the Yondaime Hokage battled the fox himself with the aid of the toad boss, Gamabunta. He managed to seal the demon fox within a newborn, and with his last breath, Yondaime named the infant Uzumaki Naruto.

For his dying wish, he wanted Konoha to recognize Naruto as a hero, and reluctantly, the newly reinstated Sandaime announced Naruto as the jailer of the Kyuubi. This was the proverbial salt in the wound to the people of Konoha; they had just lost their beloved leader, and the Kyuubi wasn't even dead for his efforts. The citizens young and old called for the child's immediate execution, and Sarutobi was forced to enact several laws to protect the child. He knew that incidents would still occur with the boy as a victim, so he secretly did his best to make sure these occurrences were at a minimum.

Thus did Konoha settle into a new era.

The barrier shuddered as the flow of power from its maker drained to nothingness. It was only a matter of time before it fell completely.

A young boy pouted quietly in his tiny bedroom. The room was a disaster, only slightly worsened by the private tantrum the boy had had a few days ago. Clothing in all states of wear covered the floor in little piles, with a few particularly smelly heaps serving as nests for moldy instant ramen cups and rotten fruit rinds. Scrolls of all sizes from a pinkie finger to the boy himself were also scattered. Several were damaged beyond professional repair let alone a small boy's endeavors, but there was evidence he tried. The door was thrown wide open, giving a view of an equally small and messy living room. The childish scribble of 'Uzumaki Naruto' was taped to the door for all who cared to see. Naruto scowled as he remembered why he was even home in the first place.

"Why can't I go to the Season Festival? All the other kids get to go… Stupid old man."

He huffed and fell back to stare at his pockmarked ceiling. Anyone who got a good look at him would have noticed tears in his eyes. 'I wish I were like the other kids. I wish I had parents and friends and that the village didn't hate me…' Naruto understood why he wasn't allowed at the festival. The Hokage had explained it to him a few days ago after Naruto had talked his ear off about the stuff he was going to do while he was there. It had been one of the most disappointing moments in his life. The only memory that made him sadder was when that white-eyed girl tried to be his friend and got punished. The blonde never saw her again. He hoped she was okay.

Naruto sniffled as his thoughts turned back to the festival. 'I really want to go. If only I were a ninja. Then I could disguise myself with a Henge and the villagers would never—'

"That's it! I could learn Henge! If that Itachi kid could do it, I can! I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"

As Naruto was learning the art of Henge from one of the many scrolls Sandaime had left him (that one in particular by accident), an odd phenomenon was taking place deep in the forest surrounding Konoha. An enemy shinobi from Iwa stumbled upon the phenomenon. His hardened attitude fell away at once as he screamed and ran. His screams of the Shikigami returning got him caught by a Konoha border patrol and sent to Interrogation. It also saved the traveler in the clearing the same fate.

Yuna stumbled as she walked out of the portal. She caught herself on a tree branch and straightened as the portal dissipated behind her. She looked back to see it gone. 'Nowhere to go but forward.' She squared her shoulders and focused. It had been decades since she had needed it, but Yuna knew that for the task ahead of her, she would need Nirvana. She reached out, but felt no answer. 'Were the Celestial Weapons destroyed in the Cataclysm?' Part of the confidence the ancient summoner felt died. She lowered her subconsciously raised hands and sighed.

"Well, I guess I do this alone then."

She chose a random direction (luckily the direction Konoha was in) and began walking. Suddenly what she needed to do felt a lot harder to accomplish. After a few minutes, Yuna felt a thrum and stopped as Nirvana materialized in front of her. Shock and relief overcame her as she stared at the staff, still as pristine as the day she set it aside. She grasped it reverently and smiled as the magic recognized her. She hugged it close then let it hang from her hand as she took sure steps towards altering the destiny of the world.

Naruto ran as fast as his little legs could carry him. He never looked back; he didn't need to, the yells of the drunken, angry mob chasing him told him all he needed to know. He was injured enough already; he didn't need to hurt more.

Shuriken and kunai flew past him and embedded themselves into trees, spurring the boy on. He ignored the branches lashing at him as he reached speeds most Chuunin would be hard to match. He knew what he was fleeing for: his life.

Slowly, the calls from the mob faded as Naruto made his way into the deep forest. Even the shinobi chasing him gave up after several hours. They realized the demon brat would never survive in the woods, and so left him to die of starvation and exposure. Naruto himself was exhausted beyond anything he knew. Every single inch of him hurt. His muscles were throbbing, his bones were aching, and even the hair on his head was giving him pain. He lay facedown in the dirt, trying to absorb more oxygen then a small child could. He faded in and out of awareness as he recovered. His young mind jumped to why he was out there.

Everything had been going perfectly. No one recognized him as he went around the fair having the time of his life. He got free food and juice, and even got to play a few games and win a prize: a worn looking stuffed wolf. If only that stupid ninja hadn't been there. The big meanie had seen through his disguise somehow and called him out. That got all the villagers riled up, and then he was running for his life. Naruto could only hope his wolf, secreted away in a crack in a wall with several other treasures of his, hadn't been found.

'Stupid… ninja. Ruining everything.'

"Oh!"

Naruto started, and tried to scramble to his feet and run. He crashed back to the ground after the first step, his little body too tired to move. The blonde scrunched up as best he could as he heard footsteps come closer.

'This is it… They found me, and now the old man isn't around to stop them!'

Naruto flinched as a soft hand caressed his cheek. He waited for the pain, but it never came. Slowly, he cracked one eye and peeked at a concerned face looking back at him. The face spoke a few words in a language he didn't know, and suddenly all of his hurts were gone. He opened his eyes wide in shock and stared at the strangely dressed woman standing over him.

"Who are you?"

Naruto congratulated himself on keeping the quiver out of his voice. The woman smiled kindly at him and said something he couldn't understand. The boy's face scrunched up as he tried to make sense of the gibberish.

"Huh?"

The woman sighed and repeated her gibberish slowly. Naruto couldn't make heads or tails of it. He looked her over and decided that she was a foreigner lost on the way to the village, if her clothes and gibberish were any indication. He nodded his head resolutely.

"Okay foreign lady, I can't understand you, but you can understand me, right?"

The woman nodded.

"Good. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, from Konoha. I'll take you there so the old man can help you. He knows lots of languages, and I'll bet he'll know yours."

The woman gave him a weird look and said more stuff with his name in the middle. Naruto shook his head in exasperation. "Yes, I'm Naruto. Now let's go."

The woman didn't budge though, and got another weird look on her face. Naruto thought she was thinking too hard, because his face looked like that too when he was thinking too hard.

"Lady?"

The woman pointed to herself with the pretty staff in her hand and said very slowly, "Yuna."

Naruto frowned.

"Yuna? Is that your name or something?"

The woman—Yuna—nodded happily. Naruto beamed at her; he had no idea why, it just seemed like the right thing to do. "Okay Yuna, let's get to Konoha!"

Several hours later, the pair found themselves in front of the great gate of Konoha. Yuna was amazed by the young boy's sense of direction. He had found his way back home from a mad dash into the woods. She wondered how he did it, and how he could talk so much about everything under the sun in such a short space of time. He was worse than Tidus or Rikku, or even both of them together! Naruto didn't notice his companion's relief. He was more focused on wondering why the gates were closed. 'The gates are never closed… Maybe if I yell at the doorkeeper, he'll look outside and let Yuna in. I can get in over the wall. Yeah.'

"Hey! Open up! We need to get inside!"

A genin looked out the window and saw the blonde pounding away on the huge gate with his tiny fists. The boy smiled and started for the Hokage Tower, thinking all the while of the fat reward he would get for telling the Hokage the Uzumaki kid was at the gate.

One of the chuunin on guard duty on the other side woke with a start and fell off his chair. He sleepily looked out the window to see what all the fuss was about and saw a foreigner with the demon brat. He thought for an instant of extending common courtesy to the stranger, but his hatred for the demon and all things associated with it won over and he settled down to return to his nap. He was about to fall into blissful sleep when the gates slammed open, shaking him out of his chair and onto the floor. He looked out again to see the Hokage standing angrily in the gates. The man's eyes widened and he nearly flew on his way out of trouble; the mission assignment officer was a good friend of his, and he just may weasel out of punishment.

The Hokage radiated power as he stood in the gateway. Naruto stared at the old man in awe; he had never seen him so strong! He felt determination well up inside of him as he thought, 'I want to be just like the old man when I grow up.'

The Hokage turned his eyes on Yuna. She cowered mentally under his gaze. It felt like a tiny Sin was staring her down, trying to kill her with his gaze alone. She held Nirvana close, prepared if not willing to use force if necessary.

"Who are you?"

She began to speak, but stopped at the confused look on his face. He raised his hands, did a short sequence of seals at lightning speed, and mumbled something under his breath. He repeated his question.

"I am Yuna. Are you the village chief?"

He nodded and answered in Spiran.

"You may call me Sandaime. Where are you from and what is your purpose here?"

That shocked Yuna to no end; how was he suddenly fluent in her dead language? She answered cautiously, wondering what else the elder was capable of.

"I am from the village of Besaid, an island village that was swallowed by the sea when I was younger. I am here to train Naruto."

The Hokage glanced suspiciously at Yuna before addressing the five-year-old loitering behind her.

"Naruto, return to your apartment. There are several trustworthy shinobi stationed there to guard you until we can discuss your actions today."

Naruto's lip trembled at the disappointment in the old man's tone. He hated failing him. He tried to plead his case.

"But—"

"Now, Naruto."

The child's shoulders slumped and he walked off. Sarutobi sighed silently. He would make it up to the boy later, after his punishment. For now, there were other matters to attend to. He gestured to the 'foreigner.'

"Come."

He escorted Yuna to his office. Once they were inside, he shuffled a few papers, discreetly setting off several charka beacons designed to call the ANBU at a moment's notice. They worked perfectly; by the time he sat in his chair, both ANBU and members of the Police Force surrounded the office, ready to kill the girl should she prove to have hostile plans of any kind. He laced his fingers together and gave Yuna an intent-filled stare. She appeared unaffected, which made him all the more suspicious.

Yuna was panicking under her serene face. While Bahamut had told her exactly what she should do in this situation, everything was happening too fast. She felt herself doubt the dragon's words, something she had never done before. The Hokage startled her out of her downward spiral when he finally spoke.

"Let me tell you about your situation, Yuna, if that is your real name. You are a foreigner from a town that has never existed on Konoha's record in the middle of Konoha, the most powerful of the Hidden Villages. You have been surrounded by more than a dozen elite ninja that have trained to kill first, question later. I would suggest you reveal your true home and purpose, lest I decide you aren't worth mercy."

Yuna's eyes widened in fear during his intimidating speech. She felt a lump in her throat at the end, and gulped to dislodge it. She bit her lip and nodded slowly, deciding to do as Bahamut said she should. She hoped with all her might the dragon would prove correct.

"Please listen to my whole story before passing judgement."

He nodded, and Yuna started her strange tale.

"It all started long, long ago, with a man named Yu Yevon…"

Sandaime contemplated the story Yuna told him. His rational side thought the whole thing impossible. Sin, aeons, a glass to see the future in a world of the dead? Unbelievable. It seemed like a story geared towards teenagers to keep them entertained. At the same time though… Yuna knew that Naruto was a Jinchuuriki. No one outside of Konoha knew that the Kyuubi wasn't dead, but sealed inside a baby. If she were from an enemy village, how would she know that? It was a point in her favor, along with the name of her country. Spira. It was mentioned in an ancient scroll he had read a long time ago. It was said to be the past form of the Elemental countries.

Sandaime felt the wish to believe her deep in his gut, and he followed it. It had never led him wrong on something so potentially important before. He sighed tiredly and wondered where his pipe was. He could use a good long smoke.

"Yuna, your story is one that is extremely difficult to swallow. It seems straight out of fairy tales, and yet… I believe you. How long do we have?"

Yuna felt relief blossom at his words, along with a small amount of embarrassment. She sent a silent apology to Bahamut for doubting him.

"There are eight years left until Orochimaru finds Yu Yevon's grimoire, which will happen no matter what we do. After that, we will have five years to stop him from becoming Sin."

"Then it is settled. You will tutor Naruto in the ways of a summoner alongside his ninja training. It is the wish of his father for Naruto to be a shinobi, and I promised I would make sure it happened."

Yuna nodded as he continued.

"Now, it is simply a matter of instating you as a citizen and teaching you the language," He said as he shuffled some more papers to signal the ANBU away. They already knew that revealing anything they heard in the Hokage's office was an offense punishable by death, so he wasn't worried about them. He hoped they would imprint that rule in the Police Force. He didn't need the Clans coming after him for helping Naruto over their own offspring. He pulled out a citizenship form and a pen and handed them to Yuna.

"Fill this out. I will be right back."

Sandaime made his way to his private suite within the tower. He entered and went to a suspiciously non-descript wall. To anyone else, that was all it would ever be. To a Hokage though, a small amount of blood revealed a scroll library filled with the most protected secrets of Konoha, including its 'famed' Forbidden Scroll.

Every Hidden Village had a scroll containing its most delicate secrets. What made Konoha different was the existence of two scrolls; a huge public one in his office scroll library filled with relatively dangerous jutsu and fake histories of the clans, and the real one, barely the size of his ring finger, hidden in a library that didn't exist. No one other than the Hokage knew about the real scroll. Sarutobi smiled as he slipped it into a hidden pocket in his sleeve. His teacher had had a stroke of genius when he came up with the idea.

Sandaime quickly returned to his office and found Yuna sitting patiently. The form was sitting on his desk, complete. He signed and sealed it, then filed it away. If luck was on his side, the Council wouldn't learn of it until the probationary period of three months had passed. He pulled out the scroll and opened it with a few drops of his blood.

"Never mention this scroll to anyone, or it will mean your immediate execution. Expose your arm."

Yuna nodded and did so. He grabbed a piece of imprinting paper and pressed it to a tiny seal in the scroll. The paper flashed, and he quickly transferred it to Yuna's upper arm. She yelped as the seal tattooed itself into her skin. Sarutobi removed the paper and undid the jutsu he activated earlier while she recovered from the shock.

"Say something."

"What did you do!?"

Sandaime smiled, "Perfect. You are now able to speak our language perfectly. That seal was essentially a gift of tongues. It will always be a part of you, and you will be able to understand and speak most if not all dialects you come across."

Yuna nodded in shock, "Th-Thank you, sir."

"It is no problem. Here," He wrote down Naruto's address and gave it to her, "This is where Naruto lives. Tell him you will be his guardian from now on and that you are trustworthy. Come back in two days so I may arrange where you two will live. Naruto's apartment isn't made for two people. I will have someone show you the way."

Sandaime called one the jounin waiting in the reception area of the tower. Nakata Akira walked in, looking rather confused.

"Akira, take Lady Yuna to Naruto's apartment."

Akira didn't like Naruto, but that was because he didn't like children and their antics in general. He had been on a mission when the Kyuubi attacked, and so didn't know the boy was the fox's jailer; none of those who knew were allowed to discuss it with him. He would deliver Yuna then report to the Hokage for a mission as if nothing had happened.

The jounin nodded and offered Yuna his arm. She took it cautiously. The pair walked out of the office, Yuna remembering to retrieve Nirvana from Sarutobi at the last moment. He smiled as he handed it to her. If everything went well, Minato's wishes would finally be realized.

There's Chapter Two. A note, if anyone knows Sandaime's official first name, or can confirm it is Sarutobi, please tell me so.

Next chapter, Yuna meets Naruto, Naruto gets punished by the Third, and summoner training begins!