AN: Hey guys! I have quite the interesting explanation for you as to why I haven't posted any updates in like four months. First off, I wasn't sure whether or not I would continue this story or not. I do love writing but I didn't think if any of you were actually liking what I wrote or not. Then I had school and preparing for exams(no excuse though). The other day however, I got an email saying someone favorited my story and me. I was shocked to say the least that someone favorited me! Thank you inuboy86, kelleyg137, demonzone2571, and zero kuran2 for giving me the confidence to keep writing. So hear it is! My fifth chapter is now up. I also don't own Naruto or Rurouni Kenshin.

"Why don't you go teach Yahiko that forbidden jutsu that you love to use? I'm sure it will help lighten the mood and besides, Sanosuke is going to be just fine," Natarii suggested. Her suggestion worked like a charm as Naruto left her, the fire back in his eyes at the prospect of training. The red-haired jinchūriki sighed in relief and settled on fixing Sanosuke, no matter the cost. She would fix her friend, even if she didn't survive to see his brown eyes again.

The next morning, Sanosuke opened his eyes to hear birds chirping and the sun shining through the window. He sat up, surprised he didn't feel any pain after his fight from yesterday. Sanosuke spotted a figure next to him and noticed the red hair. It was Natarii, or Little Red, as he called her. She was sleeping and while her face looked peaceful, her appearance looked anything but peaceful. Her skin was as white as the snow and her clothes were covered in blood. Sanosuke immediately thought she might have gotten into a fight, but he realized that the blood on her hands and clothes was his. Little Red had fixed him up! He smiled at her sleeping form and decided to let her rest. The fighter for hire walked out of his room to collide with a hyper Naruto. The blonde shinobi looked up to see a healthy Sanosuke looking down at him.

"Hey there Whiskers! Little Red is inside my room sleeping, but you can try to wake her up. Say, breakfast ready yet?" Sanosuke rambled.

Naruto replied, "Okay thanks and yeah, breakfast is almost ready."

Sanosuke cheered and ran off to find the others. Naruto walked inside Sanosuke's room to find Natarii in the same place and position that Sanosuke had found her. He knelt down beside her and shook her gently. No response. He shook her a little harder. Still nothing. "Rii-chan, it's time to wake up."

Natarii rolled over and mumbled something that sounded like, "Stupid boys."

"Don't you want to eat breakfast?"

She shook her head no, but then her stomach grumbled, indicating that she was hungry. "Please?" was the next attempt from the blonde ninja.

The red head opened her eye to see Naruto giving her the best puppy dog face he could muster. Which must have been pretty good, as Natarii growled at him, pushed the blanket off her, and sat up. Task successful. Next, she hopped to her feet and began walking. Her vision became a little blurry and her head spun as she began to fall. Luckily, Naruto had quick reflexes and caught her before she even got close to the ground.

"How long did you work on fixing Sanosuke?" he asked. She didn't meet his eyes and wouldn't answer. He sighed. "Tell me please why you are unable to walk without coming close to passing out and why your skin is very white."

Natarii, her eyes still not looking at her friend, whispered, "The blood transfusion required a lot more blood then I originally thought and I didn't fully realize it until I had finished healing Sanosuke early this morning."

Naruto had noticed her blood-stained clothes and decided to do something about it. "Stay here and don't move a muscle until I get back with some new clothes for you."

He made sure she could stand by herself before rushing quickly out of the room. The red head obeyed his orders because she felt extremely guilty for lying to him. She was afraid he was mad at her. Naruto was not angry at all, just very concerned for his new friend which made him find her clothes faster. After several minutes of finding nothing and not wanting to ask for help, Naruto grabbed his spare outfit and returned to Sanosuke's room. The jinchūriki gave her his clothes and quickly left the room to allow her to change. Natarii didn't mind the clothes as they were quite comfy even though they were big on her. She called out to Naruto and he came back into the room to find the blood-stained clothes in a pile on the floor and Natarii wearing his spare outfit. He watched her meet his eyes this time as she thanked him for the clothes but he could see she was feeling guilty. Naruto inwardly sighed as he went over to her and placed the girl on his back, earning a little squeak and a weak slap to the head. Natarii began to protest and struggle against him, but he would have none of it.

"You can barely stand, let alone walk, without nearly fainting. You need to get better and I will help you do whatever needs to be done for you to feel better." the blonde responded. Natarii immediately stopped struggling and let herself be carried out to the front, where everyone was eating. Naruto and Natarii were met with a few surprised/interested looks and greetings as well as plates of steaming, delicious food. Naruto set Natarii down and waited for her to get comfortable before sitting down next to her. The teenagers listened to the conversation as they ate their food.

"I've been hearing word of an assassin from the war who has been murdering Imperialist officials from the Mejii government. He seems to be quite skilled at swordsmanship, just like our Kenshin here," Sanosuke started. Minato and Kenshin didn't sound the least bit happy at hearing of a murderer in Tokyo, Kaoru looked a little afraid, Naruto and Yahiko were excited at the prospect of fighting him, and Natarii didn't show any emotion towards the conversation.

"I'm surprised that no one from the police has asked us to help out," Minato pondered.

"I don't mind that much. I'm just happy Kaoru's food tastes decent this time," replied Sanosuke. An angry Kaoru began throwing food at Sanosuke who had taken Kenshin and used him as a shield. Yahiko and Minato quickly left their side and went over to Natarii and Naruto, who were laughing at the whole thing. They watched as Sanosuke and Kenshin dodged the food until Sanosuke stopped moving and Kenshin got hit with food multiple times in the head. The group laughed until Kaoru turned her attention on them. She began to throw food at Yahiko who then used Minato as a shield. Naruto had moved himself and Natarii to Kenshin and Sanosuke just as a policeman stood at the entrance to the dojo. Kaoru immediately stopped throwing food and she gathered with Minato and Yahiko at the entrance as everyone recognized him to be the Police Chief.

"I am sorry to bother you like this. But I need the assistance of Mr. Himura and Mr. Namikaze," explained the Police Chief.

"It is not a bother at all, sir. Minato and I will need to hear the full details of the request if that is possible," Kenshin replied politely. Everyone headed into the dojo to listen to the Police Chief.

"This is a huge federal problem that has been kept from the newspapers for ten years. I need to you two to defeat a serial killer. His name is Kurogasa and he has been attacking Imperialists for these ten years; first he tells them when he is going to kill, then he slices through the police guards, and finally proceeds to slaughter the Imperialist official," the Police Chief explained to the group, noticing that they didn't look at all surprised by his request or information.

"We were just talking about the serial killer, sir, and Minato and I will help accept your request seeing as though this man called Kurogasa appears to be a manslayer from the revolution like ourselves who cannot stop being one."

"Thank you very much. You will meet me at Mr. Tani's mansion tonight. Kurogasa is supposed to strike tonight at midnight. Thank you again and farewell."

The Police Chief left the dojo, leaving the Kenshin-Namikaze group to prepare for the upcoming event. Kaoru recovered quickly and began ordering everyone around. "Minato, I need you to run some errands for me, Kenshin, you will help with laundry, Yahiko will clean the dojo, I will clean up breakfast, Sanosuke will go out and fish again, Naruto, you will take care of Natarii, and Natarii, please don't cause to much fuss with Naruto helping you."

Minato quickly left the dojo after getting the list of errands from Kaoru. Yahiko tried the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and managed to make three perfect clones of himself, though he looked winded and tired. Everyone else cheered for him, giving him more energy and adding to his pride. Yahiko and his clones went into the dojo to begin cleaning it. Kenshin began the laundry, humming to himself, while Kaoru started to clean up breakfast, and Sanosuke went off to fish. Naruto had studied Natarii the entire time during the Police Chief's explanations and he noticed that the color had returned to her skin, making her look normal. However, he also noticed that she looked very tired with dark circles under her eyes. When he asked her about it she replied with "I didn't sleep very well this morning."

He knew something more was going on, most likely with her past, but he wouldn't pressure her to tell him. So instead he settled for putting her on his back after a little protesting by Natarii and jumped into the trees, hopping from branch to branch. This caused Natarii to squeeze him tighter and tighter with each hop he took. "Don't you jump from trees to trees?" Naruto asked. She mumbled a no but eventually began to relax. Soon they came to a clearing. There was lush, green grass and the wind was blowing softly, rustling Naruto's hair and move some of Natarii's ponytail. The red head hopped off Naruto's back and ran toward the clearing, giggling in delight. Naruto quickly caught up to her and watched her with concern. She shrugged off his attempts on trying to settle her down, preferring to twirl and dance around in the clearing. Soon, however, her fatigue caught up with her and she had to settle for lying on the soft grass with Naruto next to her. They chatted about the weather and the day's previous events before Naruto asked her a question. "Since I told you about my likes, dislikes, hobbies, interests, and goals, can you tell me about yours?" he asked. This question surprised her and she didn't know if she should tell him or not.

'You can tell him about yourself minus your past, koneko. I don't think you are quite ready to talk about your past to anyone but telling him about what other things might help you in the long run. Plus, he likes you, you like him. It's a win win!' Hikari spoke.

'Hikari-nee! I do not like Naruto that way!' she replied with a slight blush forming on her cheeks. Hikari chuckled in her mind before ending the mental link and this had given Natarii enough time to feel better about answering his question.

"I like cooking, drawing, writing, training, my brother, and my friends. I dislike bullies, fighting unless I have to, people who abuse their power in government or just in general, people who think they are better than everyone else, and people who hate things just because they don't understand them. I enjoy drawing and humming to myself while I draw, I like to watch clouds, and my goal is to be the best I can be so that I can protect my family and friends," Natarii replied. Naruto nodded satisfied with his answer. The jinchūriki watched the clouds up at the sky for a few minutes until Naruto had an idea. He jumped to his feet quickly, very pumped and excited for he was going to do.

"I have the greatest idea! You wanna hear it?" he asked Natarii. After she nodded her head in interest, he continued. "I am going to teach you the Rasengan! It is going to be so awesome when you use it and surprise everyone!"

Natarii laughed at his excitement and decided that it would be cool to learn how to use the Rasengan. "I would love to learn the Rasengan. So how do I learn it?"

"There are three steps. 1. Pop a balloon. In order to this, you will have to rotate chakra in your palm with speed and force. 2. You will do the same thing, but with a rubber ball (hehe). So it will require more speed and power. The last step is using the same method you used to pop the balloon and rubber ball to create the sphere of chakra. Since you have super sweet chakra control, this should be a piece of cake!" he explained. Unfortunately they didn't have any balloons or rubber balls- hahahaha ;)- The teens headed off into town, Naruto carrying Natarii again because he insisted on it and she really wanted to learn the Rasengan. As they made it into town, the teens ran into Sanosuke who had managed to catch a bunch of fish for upcoming meals. "What are you guys up to?" Sanosuke asked, noticing their excitement. Natarii was about to answer his question when Naruto twisted around and rapidly covered her mouth.

"Something super cool that you can't know about yet. It's a surprise/secret," Naruto quickly replied before running off toward the markets. Sanosuke chuckled to himself as he watched them take off. The pair friends bought a few balloons and rubber balls(still funny) and headed back to the Secret Clearing, as they called it, to begin the Rasengan training. Within a few minutes, Natarii had mastered the first step, popping the three balloons they had gotten. Step 2 took about a half hour before she finally got it. Then she blew up the other four rubber balls ease. The last and final step was obviously much harder than the previous two, but she attempted it nonetheless. After an hour of not much progress, the red-haired jinchūriki had an idea. Natarii proceeded to create fifty clones that all began working on creating a Rasengan, while she sparred with Naruto. He was hesitant to spar against her at first, but he gave in after she used her puppy dog face on him. A few hours later, Natarii had mastered the Rasengan and both she and Naruto had improved their taijutsu, ninjutsu, and stamina. The now exhausted duo collapsed to the ground and watched the clouds before eventually falling asleep. As dinner time approached a few more hours late, Minato teleported to his brother to find Naruto and Natarii asleep. He noticed that Naruto's arms were around Natarii, as if he instinctively moved closer to her. The older Namikaze smiled at the sleeping pair, not wanting to wake them up, but he knew Naruto would not want to miss dinner. He woke up his brother first. The blonde jinchūriki quickly let go of Natarii after realizing what he had been doing and blushed madly, causing Minato to laugh. This led to Natarii waking up confused by Naruto's red face and Minato's laughter. She got no explanation, but was instead teleported back to the dojo with the Namikaze brothers. The younger Himura tried to pester her blonder friend, as he would avoid answering her question. She eventually stopped as dinner was ready and it was time to eat. Natarii sat between Naruto and Sanosuke, listen quietly as Minato and Kenshin went over the plan for the mansion tonight.

"Minato, Sanosuke, and I will head over to the mansion to protect Mr. Tani," Kenshin began, but was interrupted by Naruto.

"What about me and Natarii? We wanna go too!" he shouted.

"Hey! I wanna go!" Yahiko chirped in.

"You shrimps are too young to join in," Sanosuke smugly answered.

"You are only FOUR years older than me!" Naruto angrily replied. The bickering continued; Minato and Kenshin tried to stop the argument when Kaoru joined in on it. The group silenced immediately when the only quiet person in the conversation spoke.

"Our job, Naruto and Yahiko, is to protect the dojo. This place is our home. If it falls, we have no place to live. No place to train or to hang out. We must protect our home with everything we've got," Natarii explained. Naruto and Yahiko agreed with her after thinking about it. Minato and Kenshin sighed in relief and Kaoru smiled triumphantly, causing Natarii to laugh quietly; only Naruto and Sanosuke heard her laughter. Dinner finished with more laughs and conversations.

A few hours later:

Sanosuke, Kenshin, and Minato left for the mansion and the rest of the Kenshin-Namikaze group stood guard at the dojo. Soon after they left, Kaoru and Yahiko were beginning to doze off. The red-haired jinchūriki kindly asked them to go to bed and she and Naruto would stay awake and keep watch. Natarii soon found herself alone with Naruto once again. Funny how that always seemed to happen. The teens sat quietly together, watching every little movement around them. The silence didn't last long, though, because Naruto got bored. And when Naruto gets bored, he finds something much better to do than what he is currently doing. Like asking his friend a bunch of question. He began with, "What's your favorite food?"

She answered, "Anything, really. But lately I have been enjoying ramen the most."

The blonde jinchūriki beamed before asking, "What is your birthday?"

"November 24th," she replied.

"Ha Ha! I am older than you!"

"Well, then you are going to die before me since you are older!" Natarii retorted. Naruto stopped his cheering and stared at her, realizing she was right. Natarii noticed his down expression and said, "Well maybe we will die at the same time."

"Thanks for trying to cheer me up after you hurt my feelings, meanie," Naruto replied with a pouty face, making Natarii giggle.

"I'm sorry Naruto. You can continue to ask me questions if you want," she compromised.

"Sweet! What is your favorite color or colors?"

"Purple, black, orange."

This went on for a few more minutes with Naruto learning that her favorite animls were cats and foxes, she had been drawing since she could hold a pencil, and she thought he was cute. That last one took a lot of prodding and making Natarii blush. Then the blonde decided to ask her a more personal question. "Why are you always shy?" he wondered. Surprised by the question, Natarii didn't answer for a minute.

'Hikari-nee! What do I do?' she frantically asked her feline partner.

'Tell him what you feel comfortable saying, but don't make anything up,' Hikari advised. Satisfied with her answer, the red-haired jinchurriki though of an answer to her blonder friend's question.

"I used to be very out going and very confident. I was always upbeat and happy. Unfortunately, as you know, my past was pretty terrible. So because of my childhood, I have become quiet and I keep to myself. I have become very shut off from speaking about myself and I am not good at making friends," the younger Himura explained. I knew from meeting her that something had affected her strongly, but never as bad as she just said. Naruto immediately felt bad when he saw the tears forming in her eyes. Realizing she was tearing up, quickly wiped her eyes and smiled a watery smile because she saw how bad Naruto felt. "I'm okay. You don't have to apologize for the question. You wanted to know and it is about time for me to begin to talk about myself and my past," she said, trying to make him feel better. As they shared a smile, two figures appeared in front of them. The teens stood up and got in their fighting stance, prepared for anything. The taller figure was male with a black sleeveless shirt, black pants, black sandals, white bandages wrapped around his nose, mouth, and neck, a black headband tied to the side of his head with gray socks and long gloves, a huge sword strapped to his back, and he had black hair and cold black eyes. The second figure appeared to be male but had a feminine grace with a light brown turtleneck covered with a blue robe with white on sleeves and where the turtleneck is shown, a brown belt around the waist, light brown shorts and sandals, a white mask with red markings covering the face, and the he had brown hair. The jinchūriki recognized the taller figure to be Zabuza Momoichi, one of the Legendary Seven Swordsman of Kiri*.

"We are looking for the Yellow Flash and we heard he is currently staying here," Zabuza announced.

Naruto quickly responded, "He is not here right now and I do not know where he is either."

"You are the Yellow Flash's younger brother, are you not?" the masked shinobi asked.

"Yes I am."

"Then you should know where your own brother is!" Zabuza growled.

"I don't know where he is all the time. He rushes around like his name implies," Naruto replied. This in turn caused Zabuza to step forward and pull his sword from his back. Naruto and Natarii tensed, anticipating a fight to break out; Naruto was smiling, excited for the fight, and Natarii was cautiously watching them, no emotion on her face. The masked shinobi stepped in front of Zabuza, blocking his view of the blonde brat.

"Zabuza-san, we are only looking for the Yellow Flash, not his brother. There is no need to fight these kids," he calmly reasoned. Zabuza finally put his sword away after having a staredown with the masked shinobi.

"Fine, Haku. You tell your brother we will be back, brat," Zabuza threatened before he and the newly named Haku jumped into the trees and disappeared. The duo relaxed after they were sure their new enemies left. Just great. Now we have more problems. Why do they want Minato? I sure hope and Kenshin and the others are doing okay.

AN: Kiri is the Hidden Mist Village from the show Naruto. In this story, it is a town like Konoha. Thank you again for reading my story. Until next time!