Naruto went to the team meeting spot at the normal time the next day. Hinata and Sasuke were arriving just as she did. This was pretty normal, as they had gotten accustomed to each other's habits. Unlike most days, no one felt like sparring. They were all working on chakra nature manipulation. Naruto was working on cutting her leaf horizontally and vertically at the same time. However, she could not concentrate as she waited for Kakashi to show. Her planned confession to her teammates was spoiling her efforts.
Hinata and Sasuke had built a little campfire and were both trying to prevent their leaves from burning, having already mastered burning them with only their chakra.
"Something bothering you, Naruto-chan?" asked Hinata.
"Yeah, I'll tell you about it when Kakashi-sensei gets here."
Sasuke looked up from where he was working, but didn't say anything.
Finally, their sensei arrived. "Traditionally the few days after any mission higher than D-Rank is decompression time. Realistically, you guys had that while you were still in Nami no Kuni, but I'd still like you to take today easy."
"Sensei, I'd like to talk to the team about some personal matters," Naruto said.
She activated her Byakugan to make sure no one could eavesdrop and waited until her team knelt beside her on the ground. Kakashi leaned against a tree nearby. He seemed content to let them work this out themselves.
Naruto said, "This is very personal and some of it constitutes an S-Rank secret of the village that I've received permission to talk to you about since you're my teammates and likely to find out anyway. I'm asking you not to tell anyone about what I tell you. I'm just making sure no one walks in on us."
Sasuke looked as if he were about to make a snide comment but, after seeing her obvious jitters, he opted not to.
"You know how they teach you in the Academy that the Fourth killed the Kyuubi?"
Her teammates both nodded.
"It turns out that the Kyuubi is not alive in the conventional sense. It's not really a demon; it's a mass of sentient chakra. Since chakra can be used, but not destroyed, the Kyuubi can't be killed. There are actually eight others like the Kyuubi that are collectively called the Bijuu. They are ranked by their number of tails from one to nine, with the Kyuubi being the most powerful."
"What happened to the Kyuubi, if the Fourth didn't and couldn't kill it?" asked Sasuke.
"You guys have both seen and used storage scrolls, right?" she asked.
They both nodded.
"Well, the Kyuubi is too powerful to be sealed into a scroll or other object. You have to seal it into a person. An infant works best. You know how I've never been willing to tell anyone when my birthday is?"
"It's October 10th, isn't it?" said Sasuke as he realized where the conversation was headed.
"Yes," she said quietly as she bowed her head.
"Is that why everyone treats you so poorly?" asked Hinata, who scooted over to give her a hug.
"Feh," said Sasuke. "Anyone with brains could see that there's no way a Dead Last like you could be a homicidal demon. The idiots are lucky you're not me. If they treated me like that, I would have introduced them to the phrase 'self-fulfilling prophecy.' Why you?"
"Evidently, the Kyuubi is strong enough, that not just anyone can contain it. You need to have dense chakra, and a lot of it. Really only an Uzumaki or a Senju can do it without suffering from adverse effects. According to the legend that Hokage-jiichan told me, the Rikudo Sennin gifted his eyes to his oldest son, who became the first Uchiha and he gifted his body and chakra to his second son, who became the first Senju and also the ancestor of the Uzumaki. My descent from the Sage is why I can safely contain the Kyuubi."
Sasuke nodded. "The family stories I've heard say that the Uchiha got our eyes from the Rikudo Sennin. They don't mention the Senju or Uzumaki, though."
"Don't worry, Naruto-chan," said Hinata. "We don't hold the Kyuubi against you. We think it's great that you protect us from the Kyuubi. Right, Sasuke-kun?"
Sasuke nodded. "Is there any benefit to being the container of a bijuu?"
She nodded. "It's a huge source of chakra that can be used with the right training. I've heard that some of the bijuu give bloodline-like abilities to their containers. From what I understand, while my stamina, chakra, and healing are all high thanks to being an Uzumaki, they're further enhanced by being the Kyuubi's container."
"Is being the container the reason for your sudden change in appearance and getting the Byakugan?" Sasuke asked.
"Not directly," she replied. "Mizuki was one of those that thought I was the Kyuubi. He set me up to take the fall for a crime that he was committing, but some missing nin found out about it and kidnapped me so that they could take the Kyuubi from me—something that I understand is almost always fatal.
"While I was kidnapped, this weird creature named Zetsu thought that my chakra was like his mother's. He took off the chakra-suppressors they had on me so that he could examine me. While he was examining me, I noticed that his chakra was a lot like mine—only it had a disgusting, evil feel to it. I tried to absorb and purify his chakra, which I was able to do. That's when my appearance changed and I got the Byakugan."
"How odd," said Hinata. "Have you found out anything about this Zetsu or his mother?"
"Not about Zetsu, but I have about his so-called mother, Outsutsuki Kaguya. While you two were passed out on the bridge in Nami, I accessed the Kyuubi's power to boost my own. Afterwards it talked to me and told me about Kaguya."
She told them about Kaguya being the origin of chakra, her insanity and defeat by her sons, and transmigration.
"So you could be more powerful than the Kyuubi?" asked Sasuke. Naruto could tell his jealousy was starting to act up a little.
She shook her head. "I may have the potential to be that, but I'm pretty sure I would have to absorb all the Bijuu to do so. I'm a little scared to even try. I don't want to go crazy like Kaguya did. Plus, the Bijuu all have personalities—absorbing them would be like killing my. . . step-children, I guess you could call them. I wouldn't want to do that unless they deserved it."
"But the Kyuubi killed dozens, if not hundreds," said Hinata. "How could it not deserve it? What if they're all like that?"
"When I talked to the Kyuubi, it seemed pretty reasonable," Naruto said.
Sasuke snorted. "Reasonable? The Kyuubi? Are you sure you aren't already going crazy?"
Naruto and Hinata both glared at the dark-haired boy.
"Maybe it was reasonable because I have a certain amount of leverage over it, but it also told me what happened on the day of my birth."
She told them about her mother being the previous jinchuuriki, but kept her name and the fact that the Fourth was her husband and Naruto's father a secret due to the Hokage's request. She told them about the masked man with the single Sharingan, which the Kyuubi had identified as being the twin to Kakashi's Sharingan.
"Sensei thinks that someone from Iwa took your cousin Obito-san's remaining eye, Sasuke-kun, and that was who did it," she said. "Whoever it was, has been keeping a low profile."
Sasuke looked furious. "Sensei, why did you leave his body there? Didn't you know this would happen?"
Kakashi spoke from where he was leaning. "Obito-kun was trapped under a large boulder, including half his face. We were in enemy territory and in a terrible rush and Obito-kun was moments away from dying. Rin-chan and I both thought that his other eye was crushed. In hindsight, it was a very poor decision, but that day was one horrible event after another. Neither Rin-chan nor I were thinking right. That day was one of the worst in my life—and I've had a bunch of really bad days. I was a 13-year-old jounin leading my first mission. Incidents like that are why Konoha stopped promoting kids so rapidly."
The group was silent for a moment before Naruto said, "I have just two more things to mention. The Kyuubi identified one of my friends as a fellow transmigrant and said that I had run into a third, but it wasn't aware enough at the time I had contact with the other transmigrant to identify him."
She paused, "Sasuke, according to the Kyuubi, you're the transmigrant of Outsutsuki Indra, the first Uchiha."
Sasuke and Hinata were both stunned.
"What does this mean for me?" asked Sasuke.
"It means that you're likely to be quite powerful," said Naruto. "However, the Kyuubi implied that the reason that Indra and his brother Asura have had so many transmigrants is that they died with lots of regrets and unfinished business. You need to be careful not to repeat Indra's mistakes, just as I need to be careful not to repeat Kaguya's."
Sasuke nodded. He looked both satisfied and contemplative. "The other transmigrant is Asura's, isn't it?" he asked.
Naruto nodded. "It's probably someone with Senju or Uzumaki blood, but with how many Senju married into other families, that doesn't narrow it down much."
"The last thing is. . ." She paused. She was actually pretty nervous about how Sasuke would take the last announcement. "Because Kaguya was the source of all the great Doujutsu, I ended up with the Sharingan, too." She sent more chakra to her eyes in order to open her third eye. The view in front of her sharpened accordingly.
Sasuke stared at her and then closed his eyes. When he opened them, each of his eyes looked like her third eye—red with a dot in the center and a single, spinning tomoe circling it with the orbit of the tomoe being marked a thin circle. Sasuke was silent for several moments before giving a bark of laughter. "You're the only person I know whose life might be worse than mine. It's only fitting that your karma balance out somehow."
Naruto gave him a grateful smile.
The three genin were silent. Kakashi spoke, "Naruto-chan has given you both lots to think about. I'll add that discussing what Naruto talked about with others is forbidden and leaking the information carries the death penalty, so please don't. We'll dismiss for the day and resume training tomorrow."
Training resumed. In addition to elemental manipulation, the three genin worked on weapons techniques.
Sasuke worked on perfecting his wire techniques and started working on harder ones.
Hinata got Haku to help her learn to throw senbon needles. She had an idea to charge the senbon with chakra to do remote Gentle Fist strikes. It seemed to work, but was more difficult due to the time it took the senbon to travel to the target making hitting the tiny tenketsu harder.
Kakashi introduced Naruto to bolas, but she had to work it out mostly herself using training manuals. The first time she managed to wrap herself up, was embarrassing. Sasuke's self-satisfied smirk was worse than usual that day.
After about a month, Hinata and Naruto were decent with their new weapons. Targeting with the bolas were more forgiving than senbon, so Naruto was better off with her new weapons. Sasuke was pleased with his advancement in wire techniques.
Additionally, Kakashi trained Sasuke and Naruto in the use of the Sharingan. Both genin had advanced their Sharingan to two tomoe.
One morning Kakashi said, "If everything goes as I expect, we'll be leaving on a C-Rank mission later today. You may know that the Chuunin Exams are coming up. I've decided to enter you. Normally, I'd let you think about this up until the day of the exam, but I need to know how you feel about the exams because of our potential mission."
"I'm ready for them, Sensei!" exclaimed Naruto.
"I welcome them," said Sasuke.
The two looked at Hinata. She shuffled her feet a little. Finally, she said, "If you think we're ready, I'm willing, Sensei."
Kakashi told her, "This is about what you think, Hinata-chan, not me or even your teammates."
She steeled herself and said, "I'll do it, Sensei."
Kakashi smiled with his eye. "Excellent. Our mission is to deliver the formal invitation for the Exams to Daimyo-sama. This mission is always given to a team of promising young genin that will be participating. Hokage-sama was going to give this mission to Gai-kun's team, but Gai-kun is a little. . . overwhelming for Daimyo-sama's court. Hokage-sama is very pleased with your progress and thought that introducing the Uchiha and Hyuuga heirs to the court would do Konoha good politically."
Hinata and Sasuke nodded.
Kakashi eye smiled again. "Good then there's only one thing left to do. If we're going to court, Naruto needs a new outfit."
Naruto looked down at her orange jumpsuit. She was about to protest, but stopped and sighed. Now that she had friends, she was not so starved for attention. Plus, she did not want to embarrass Hinata, Sasuke, or Konoha.
"Okay, Sensei." She turned to Hinata. "Can you help me pick out something, Hinata-chan?"
"I'd be happy to, Naruto-chan," she said.