Author's Note: the massacre is short and to the point in this chapter. Noriko comes out with a story to explain her knowledge and to ensure that Hiruzen listens when she gives him warnings.

I will be answering reviews and pertinent PMs at the end of chapter 10.

It took three days of waiting from when I rescued Shisui before Itachi and Obito. I had quietly sneaked out of the village before returning as Ryuukoe with my latest bounty, informing the gate guards that I would be also stopping over for a few days of rest in the village before heading out again. There weren't any questions, I had taken such breaks before and I was regular enough of a sight that no one really batted an eyelash at my presence.

Now though things were changing.

Sitting atop a quiet apartment building, I meditated and let my ability to sense the chakra presences in the village sharpen significantly. I could feel the movement of the ANBU patrols, and the average civilians asleep in their beds. The Uchiha compound though was abuzz with activity. I felt how a number of the clan members' chakra flared briefly before dying out, snuffed out like little candles in the wind.

Despite my resolve to see this out the way I intended to, it still left me uneasy as I felt them die. Panic, anger, fear, betrayal, and a host of other emotions colored their chakra as they died.

It was dressing really. Still, I waited, absorbing what natural energy I could in my meditation and tracking Obito and Itachi through the compound. I watched through their signatures as Itachi confronted his parents and struck them down -the clone ant on Mikoto's calf quickly applying the stasis seal- before he proceeded to brain rape Sasuke, and act that made me wince in some sort of sympathy despite my dislike of the kid.

There was an unexpected complication though, the hidden library while extensive, wasn't exactly large meaning that only so many of my clones could get in there at a time. That was an issue because I wasn't stealing the scrolls, but rather having the clones read them, memorize them, and then move on.

Thus occupied, I created and dispelled a single clone, passing orders to the ones that couldn't fit in the library. These clones quickly set to destroying the eyes on all of the Uchiha they could find including the ones that had been saved. Those ones would get their eyesight back, either tonight or over the next few days if my estimation of the Hokage's desire to keep a lid on what happened so speak proved true. If someone like me was there and capable of restoring eyesight, I fully expected that I would be co-opted into helping heal them at the hospital.

I was ready though when I felt Itachi and Obito vanish, likely disappearing into a Kamui to go where-the-fuck-ever and finally giving my an opportunity to act. Opening my sage altered eyes, I vanished from the roof top with a shunshin to reappear in the Uchiha main house, just beside Mikoto's, Sasuke's and Fugaku's probe forms. Not wasting any time, I quickly knelt by Mikoto's side, taking in her slashed eyes and noting that the clone which had done so had already healed some of her wounds and stopped the bleeding even with the stasis seal.

As I took in her condition, I noted the good news, her eyes were still reasonably in one piece meaning that healing them would go much faster than regrowing Shisui's had.

"Senpo: Iryojutsu: Sou Fukugen!"

With that, I got to literally watch as Mikoto's eyes healed before my own and the stab wound through her heart closed and disappeared without a mark. It was brief, maybe thirty or forty seconds of effort given that I was pouring in considerably more chakra than I had with Shisui before I ended the jutsu and stood, using shunshin to quickly reach Kagami and repeat the process.

With my two primary goals out of the way, I felt out the remainder of my stasis seals and frowned slightly when I only detected two.

Did my clones, and by extension me, really only find two kids worth saving in the whole damn clan?

Now wasn't the time for that sort of thinking though, so I quickly shook my head and banished the thoughts before flickering to the first child who had a stab through the heart from behind. I dealt with that and the little girl's eyes and moved to the other body in the room, a child of about four years old who had been pinned under the girl that I guessed was his sister.

It was with my hands glowing gold as I attempted to heal the child that ANBU finally found me when they arrived.

"Step away from the child," a far too familiar voice called out from behind me.

Mentally banging my head in frustration at having been found so quickly, I spoke up in reply to the ANBU behind me, all of whom likely had weapons drawn.

"Inu-san," I said calmly if a bit tiredly, "I am in the middle of healing this child. If you want him to die then I will step away."

There was shocked silence for a moment before Kakashi replied, "Very well when you are finished, stand and move away, Ryuukoe-san. We will need to take you into custody at the very least to get your statement, so please come peacefully."

"Hai, I will do so shortly."

Once I had finished healing the boy, with ANBU then taking him, his sister, Kagami, and Mikoto along with Sasuke to the hospital, I found myself deep down within the comfy confines of Konoha's T&I chambers, seated across from a rather grumpy and unhappy Morino Ibiki.

I was honestly worried. Out of everything I had planned on, I had actually forgotten that I would have to come here to tell them what had happened.

It was a rather remarkable failure on my part.

So in my current situation, I locked my yellow-gold, slitted pupil eyes with Ibiki's. I was uncomfortably unarmed, having almost been stripped to take every weapon and item in my possession for safety, including my mask.

Indeed, the only reason I hadn't been stripped I suspected was that I was reliable and helpful to Konoha.

The lack of mask obscuring my face left me rather a touch uncomfortable though as the head of T&I let me sit and stew. It was a contest of wills and I was determined to, if not win, then at least give a good showing.

So it was surprising when only fifteen minutes in, Morino Ibiki sighed and rubbed his temples as he started to speak.

"For the record, you have not been charged with any crime. That said, we need a full statement from you, and should we believe that you are withholding vital information, we will be forced to inspect your memories or submit you less delicate methods, understood?"

"I understand fully Morino-san. I will answer your questions as completely and truthfully as I am able."

There was a brief pause as Ibiki gave me what I took as a skeptically raised eyebrow before he briefly coughed and continued.

"Name?"

"Ryuukoe."

"That is your full name? Not just a name you took on for bounty hunting?"

"It is. My father's bloodline and ancestry requires that we bear a single name with the word Ryuu in it. My younger brother is named Ryuugen. My father was Ryuujin."

"...I see, and where are you and your family from?"

"We originate in Kiri where we kept to ourselves where possible except when it was decided that a family member was at an acceptable age and maturity to find a spouse whereupon we would visit towns and cities to find an appropriate person."

"Are you on such a...journey at the moment?"

"No. With the deaths of everyone else in our family, my brother and I have gone on our own separate ways into the world in an effort to find somewhere to settle down and preserve our line."

"What happened to your family?"

"There were six of us originally, however on a day when my otouto and I had been sent hunting, a group of the Mizukage's loyalists attacked our home and killed our father, mother, grandfather, and aunt."

"Why did the Mizukage attack your family?"

"You mean Konoha doesn't already know?"

"Know what?" Ibiki growled.

I raised my hands in a placating gesture.

"Please be calm, Morino-san, I meant no disrespect. I only meant to confirm that you did not know Kiri's state."

"We don't so get on with it."

I shot the man a slightly annoyed look before I replied, "Currently, the Mizukage is attempting to eradicate all of the bloodline users in Kiri, and afterward should he succeed, the elemental nations. A rebellion had already begun when I left under the leadership of a woman I believe is named Mei Terumi. They are trying to overthrow the Mizukage and Sanbi Jinchurriki Yagura. Already I last heard that the Kaguya and Yuki clans had been wiped out completely."

That information seemed to leave Ibiki floored for a moment before he grimaced and resumed questioning me.

"What were you here in Konoha for?"

"I was here to turn in a bounty, restock supplies, and rest for a few days, maybe even a week."

"Why were you in the Uchiha compound?"

My mouth was a touch dry and I swallowed as I spoke up, my tone a bit sullen. "I...I felt them dying. I am a fairly accomplished sensor and as such I felt the emotional and physical flares of their chakra before it began disappearing. Once I realized what was going on I used shunshin to reach the last people I had felt become wounded, a woman and a man in a home. The man was beyond saving, however, the woman who I guess is his wife was able to survive long enough for me to heal her and restore her slashed eyes. An older man along with the two children I was found healing were also able to survive until I could heal them. By the time your ANBU arrived, I could feel no other survivors. As such I complied and allowed them to bring me here."

Ibiki was silent for several moments as he wrote down my responses and Kami knew what else before he stood from his chair and nodded to me.

"Thank you for your help, Ryuukoe-san. ANBU will take you back to where you were staying and you are free to go. Just be aware that you may receive a request to return to answer more questions."

I bowed my head I response. For all his intimidation, it seemed that Ibiki was capable of being genuinely polite when he wanted to.

It just didn't happen very often.

I waited until news of the massacre had thoroughly spread through the village before I moved on with the next stage of my plan; getting the Hokage's support.

Kurama-tousan and I had worked long and hard to prepare for this, editing together the memories of the appropriate Naruto episodes in order to put together a convincing front that what I had seen was a vision of some sort.

Prophesies happened in the ninja world and so did oracles, like the princess-priestess from demon country.

It was that kind of relatively common knowledge that I was counting on as I carefully pushed open the door to Hiruzen's office, making sure to put on a more timid front than usual until Inu gave me a small push from behind and shoved me into the room. I immediately shot Kakashi a glare over my shoulder, certain he was smirking at me beneath his masks before I faced forward and met the gaze of the Hokage.

"Is something the matter, Noriko-chan?" He asked calmly, though with clear concern, and for good reason as my current behavior was quite out of character for me.

"Umm, I don't...know?" I answered in a rather meek tone.

He sighed briefly before he motioned me forwards.

"Have a seat Noriko-chan and tell me what's bothering you, please."

I did just that, genuinely shifting uncomfortably in the seat before I asked, "Jiji...Did...Did Weasel-nii really try and kill his clan?"

Instantly Hiruzen's countenance darkened and he seemed to age before very eyes as he took a long pull of his pipe and closed his eyes before nodding and answering.

"I'm afraid that he did, Noriko-chan."

I couldn't help a grimace as I said the words that were going to get this on to the next stage, letting my head hang down and my red bangs cover my eyes as I whispered, "I should have said something..."

As expected, even with his advanced age, Hiruzen caught what I said. "Noriko-chan, there's no way you could have known what was going to happen. You can't blame yourself for something like this."

"But I did! I did know he was gonna hurt them!" I suddenly shouted back, my own hurt and worry for Itachi helping push tears from my eyes before I froze at the sight of the Hokage's suddenly icy face.

"Explain Noriko-chan. How did you know?" There was a solid edge of steel in his voice that brooked no argument and made me shrink back in my seat.

"Could we talk privately?" I asked softly, looking nervously at the ANBU around us, my chakra already suffusing the room to look for anyone hidden.

"Very well, ANBU, leave us."

The agents did as directed, though not without a few glances, and left with bows and shunshin before closing the door behind them as I sighed softly in relief at being alone.

"Now explain Noriko-chan. If you knew he was going to do this I need to know how you learned of it."

I was silent for a moment before I muttered out a single word.

"Dreams."

Hiruzen's eyes narrowed dangerously, and surprisingly a small flicker of killing intent focused on me making me gasp a bit before I continued speaking.

"Until it happened I kept having nightmares Jiji. I kept seeing Weasel-nii and the weird guy in an orange mask hurting everyone!" I blabbed, finding the killing intent and the intense scrutiny to be too much to maintain a front.

"You were seeing it in a dream?"

I nodded jerkily, watching the Hokage with wide eyes, watching as he sat back in his chair and stroked his chin a bit.

"Noriko-chan. You know what the Yamanaka clan specializes in, correct?"

I nodded, already seeing where things were going, and secretly approving.

"Would you be willing to let one see the nightmare you were having?"

I grimaced at the idea of reliving that scene Kurama and I had put together while hiding everything else behind the safety of his cage.

Still I nodded.

"Very well."

With a quick summon for ANBU, Owl was sent racing off to fetch Yamanaka Inoichi.

I inhaled deeply out of reflex as the man before me removed his hands from my temples, letting me reach up to freely massage them and ease the pain from having someone dig around in my mind.

When I finally turned my attention to the blonde opposite me, I took in his almost incredulous and...seemingly awed expression with a note of unease on my part.

"What's your opinion, Inoichi? Is it real or not?" Hiruzen asked, bringing everyone's attention back to the world around us.

"Though I've never had the chance to inspect visions first hand, I would have to say that they're real. They match up with what we have recorded for how they should be when my clan investigated such things in the past," Inoichi replied slowly, "As such I would say she's the real deal. A genuine Oracle, Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen let out a low whistle at that before he looked around the room to double and triple check that the three of us were the only ones in the room.

We were, I had checked myself too.

"It goes without saying that this does not leave this room and the three of us, Inoichi. As of this moment, Noriko's status as an Oracle is an SS rank secret. You are not to tell anyone without my or my successor's explicit permission."

"I understand, Hokage-sama," Inoichi said solidly.

"Noriko-chan," I shivered under his gaze and tone, noticing how Hiruzen's face softened a bit in reaction.

"Noriko-chan, you are to tell absolutely no one about this. The only person you may tell is my successor in case I was not able to tell them myself. Should you have any more of this visions, I want you to come and report them to me immediately, do you understand?"

"I-I understand, Jiji-sama," I bit out nervously. Kami, being shoved under scrutiny like this really sucked.

The old man seemed to breath a sigh of relief at that before signaling for ANBU. Instantly Inu appeared and Hiruzen nodded to me before Kakashi offered me his hand and took me home via shunshin.

That got things rolling, time to talk to Tou-san. My brain wasn't working right emotionally and I need to know why.

"What the hell is going on with my brain, Kurama?!" I demanded, stomping past the bars of the seal as I approached the fox.

"You're growing up, Kit, I thought that much should be obvious," he snarked.

"Bullshit, Tou-san. I've been through puberty before, and it was nothing like this!"

"Of course it wasn't you foolish kit. You weren't becoming a hanyou last time! You've started becoming half fox demon, did you really expect that there wouldn't be changes to your personality and habits?"

That...honestly sorta brought me up short. Really in hindsight it should have been expected. With my body maturing and growing faster than it would have normally and demonic traits showing, mental changes really shouldn't have surprised me.

Sighing as I flopped out atop one of Kurama's paws like it was a couch, I looked up at his massive red eye as I replied.

"Sorry Kurama-tousan. Could you tell me what sort of changes I've got to look forward to at least?"

Kurama gave a chuffing laugh as he shook slightly in amusement before flicking me with the tip of a tail.

"It's entertaining," he began, "How you like to apologize every time you lose your temper, no matter how justified you were. While you might have had your mother's temper at the start, you certainly have tempered it since then."

"Of course I have, 'ttebane..." I muttered I sullenly before I felt my ears begin to burn as Kurama's laughter redoubled into a rumbling that shook the sewer of my mind

"Oh shut up! Just tell me what I should expect you damn rug!"

Kurama's laughter sounded for a few more moments before finally quieting as he looked down at me with clear amusement, "Of course kit, of course."

I glared at the clearly patronizing tone.

He made a show of clearing his throat before continuing.

"Now, even though you've quieted your temper with experience from your last life and dare I say vindictiveness in this one, you can expect that it will become more of an issue by the time you enter your physical teens if not sooner thanks to my work. Your hormones will also be a bigger issue than they would be for a normal human."

I grimaced in clear distaste. Hormones, everyone cheer!

Fuck that.

Tou-san seemed to pick up on my mood as he continued, "You can be thankful that you won't have a monthly menstruation and thus won't need to take that pill the slug created to suppress them. Instead, you'll have a single week or so in early spring at which point you'll go into heat and then be done with it till next year."

That was not much more appealing.

"Would Tsunade's pill suppress that as well?" I asked.

"Not sure, Kit." He said with a shrug of his massive shoulders, "given that it's only intended to work for a few days on a normal person, it's possible your body could burn through its effects before it really has a chance to work."

"Oh for Fuck's sake! Can't you do something about that? I was actually kind of looking forward to not having to have periods."

"Maybe, now sure if I will though."

"WHAT?! WHY THE FUCK NOT?!" I demanded in a rush of anger as I flushed and almost threw myself from Kurama's paw.

"Because it's a natural cycle and messing with such a thing, especially in someone as long lived as you will be, is a bad idea." He retorted.

I gave a low, ineffectual growl and huffed as I settled back in.

"Look if it's that much of a bother for you, then why don't you make a seal to prevent it in the first place? You had mentioned planning something to prevent those old fucks from trying to turn you into a breeding sow when they learned of your abilities."

"Ugh, dear Kami don't remind me about those old fagots," I groused.

"I won't, but we still haven't finished our initial conversation, Noriko."

"Hai, hai...let's get on with it..."

He stared hard at me for a few seconds before huffing and continuing to speak.

"By the time you graduate, you'll likely be dealing with a fair amount of interest from the male brats in your class. You'll have been into your maturity by a bit already at that point, but they'll just be getting there and your pheromones will likely get their attention."

I groaned and rolled over to bury my face in his fur.

"Quite. Now while most males in the village will at least pick up on it, you'll likely have trouble with almost the entirety of the Inuzukas."

Cue more groaning.

"They'll likely see you in one of two ways, either they'll view you as a fox and possible enemy, or, and this is specifically for the makes though the females may be affected as well, they'll view you as a mate to either dominate or be dominated by. In short you'll either be a clan wide enemy or in the running for the alpha position."

"Screw that! I am not going to fight Tsume!"

"You may not get a choice, Kit. Now get up and get to work you have things to do. Like those ridiculous defensive seals you thought up for the village."

I grumbled and stated where I was until Kurama unceremoniously threw me from the seal and back into my own mind to wake up.

After that mental mess and the subsequent clean up, I made a few discrete checkups at the hospital for the purpose of ensuring my rescued Uchiha were still doing well and hadn't been picked up by Danzo or killed by a roaming Obito. Of course, it wasn't like I could walk in, but a spider or two and some flies got in easily enough.

All five had been set up in a single room. With Sasuke having abandoned his bed to share a spot beside Mikoto as soon as he had awoken from the Tsukiyomi and learned she was still alive. The other two kids, the older girl named Midori and the younger boy named Hiraku, they had been set up beside Kagami though the older man was sleeping a lot more than one usually would. I could only assume that the damage done had taken a great deal out of him.

All five surviving members of the Uchiha clan had requested to meet the person who had saved them and regrown their eyes when the Hokage had visited to check on them and tell then what had happened. When he had informed them that Ryuukoe was out of the village and he didn't know when she'd be back given she was a bounty hunter instead of a Konoha nin, there had been some disappointment on their part, especially on the part of the kids. That, of course, surprised them though Mikoto and Kagami had both heard about my persona, and as such accepted it.

Indeed the biggest issue they seemed to have was that they wanted to know how I had regrown their eyes, not that they were going to get that out of me.

Wasn't like anyone could use it unless they became a Jinchurriki and then a sage.

Once Sasuke had been released from the hospital, I decided I would make a concentrated effort to find out how he was doing. To that extent, I decided that I would actually be attending class in person.

So come Monday morning, I got some breakfast, got my morning exercise, got my shower, dressed, and then headed off to class, deliberately taking a seat beside Sasuke before his fangirls could show up and yell and scream at me. I knew they would, but I figured I could indulge in kindness for once and help shelter him from them.

Thus, I watched with a carefully guarded gaze as Sasuke entered, noting the perplexed look he shot me before taking the seat to my right, putting him against the wall with no room for anyone else to sit beside him. I could see him watching me out of the corner of his eyes as I lazed back in my chair as I put my feet up on the desk as my clones were want to do, simply letting the silence hang between us until he finally grew too uncomfortable and spoke up.

"...Why are you sitting next to me?" He asked softly.

I held my silence for a moment before I sighed and answered, "I figured that you wouldn't want to sit next to a fangirl right after what happened."

His eyes widened slightly in surprise I would guess before he turned his gaze back to the front where our teacher would be with a single syllable of acknowledgment.

"...Hn."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head slightly from side to side as when I felt the corners of my lips quirk.

The peaceful quiet of the room lasted as a few more students came in, notable among them to be Shino, Shikamaru, and Hinata. The former two shot me looks of curiosity to which I shrugged in response while Hinata took the last seat in our row beside me.

I shot her a smile in greeting which she returned warmly with a slight blush on her cheeks. I had to wonder as I went over the memories of my clones if Hinata was just like that normally or if she was developing a crush on me as well like she had on Naruto.

The peace of the pre-class atmosphere was ruined though when Sakura and Ino bashed their way into the room, struggling past each other to run to where Sasuke was sitting only to draw up short when they saw Hinata and I sitting beside him, both of them going wide-eyed and open-mouthed surprise. It really would have been funny if not for them being so damn annoying.

As they recovered from their shock, both girls instantly went red with anger before loudly chorusing, "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING SITTING NEXT TO SASUKE-KUN, YOU DEAD LAST?!"

I couldn't stop the wince that came in reaction to their extremely loud and shrill voices, especially given my enhanced hearing. Before I could even respond though, someone else came to the rescue.

Surprisingly it was Sasuke.

"I asked her to so I wouldn't have to deal with you two," he growled in a low voice.

I shot him my own look of surprise while Hinata looked on with muted interest at our interactions. Sakura and Ino were hilarious though.

Both were gaping life fish and sputtering in disbelief and raw fury as they locked their gazes on me and I returned a foxy grin. Just as they were about to respond and wail like banshees, the classroom door opened and the teacher called for everyone to get to their seats.

The pair closed their mouths and glared before sullenly stomping to their seats where they continued to try and set me aflame with their gazes. It wasn't an issue though I simply dismissed them from my attention and looked to our teacher. Interestingly, our old teacher was gone, and we had a new one.

A new one named Umino Iruka.

I couldn't help the smile on my face as he introduced himself to us as our new teacher as our previous teacher -a real stuck up motherfucker in my opinion- had been killed in the Uchiha massacre.

Really that suited me just fine, so I sat forward, murmuring "thanks" to Sasuke who just "Hn'd" in reply, and I began to actually pay a bit of attention to the class. Iruka was a good person after all.

Given that the man was one of the few to have ever looked past Naruto's exterior and see just how much the boy had needed a helping hand, and then provided said hand. He was kind but also a bit strict, at least when it came to school work. The amount of help he had given to my counterpart was enough to endear him to me.

As such I wouldn't be rubbing juices from a can of tuna on the bottom side of his table like I had to our previous instructor. I also wouldn't be screwing with his mind like I was planning to with Mizuki. Honestly, I had already scouted his residence and it was too easy to get in and mess with him. Two weeks ago for example I replace all his sandals and shoes with matching copies half a size smaller. From the uncomfortable look on his face whenever I saw him walking around, he still hadn't figured it out.

Author's Note: and there's chapter nine. Ten is almost done and will likely be finished in short order. I am planning for chapter eleven to be an interlude/time skip with viewpoints for a number of different people which will cover the course of the three years or so between the end of chapter ten and graduation.

Now goodbye!