Michiko was standing in the exam room in the academy because today was the day she was going to become a genin. The test was pretty easy so far. She had done two of the three jutsus and the only one left was the clone jutsu. Now she couldn't actually do the clone jutsu, but she had something way better.
"Ok Michiko all you have to do is the clone jutsu and then you pass." Iruka said from behind the examination desk.
"Alright!" Michiko said in excitement. She made some hands signs and five copies of Michiko stood beside her, but this weren't regular clones they were shadows clones. Michiko smiled at Iruka.
"Good work Michiko. You pass." Iruka said returning the smile. Iruka gave Michiko a headband which she put on before walking out the door to see the rest of her friends.
After a brief chat with Sakura and Ino, Michiko ran home to tell her parents the good news. "Tou-san! Kaa-san! Guess what! Guess what! Minato came out of his office while Kushina came out of the kitchen.
"What is it honey?" Kushina asked with a smile already knowing the answer.
"Guess," Michiko said enjoying the moment.
Minato bent down to look her in the face a grabbed her shoulders. "I think I know what happened." He said. "You don't need to be sad even the best can have slow start, so what if you failed the genin test. We still love you and there's always next year."
Michiko puffed out her cheeks looking frustrated. "That's not what happened!" She yelled point to the headband on her forehead.
"Oh, so you did pass. Then it looks like I lost the bet to your mom." Minato said with a smile and Kushina trying hard not to laugh behind him.
"You bet against me." Michiko said with her jaw wide opened.
"No." Minato said standing up and rubbing Michiko's head. "I knew you would pass, but you're not a genin yet. You still have to pass your jounin's test."
"Who is going to be my jounin sensei, and who is going to be on my team?" Michiko asked looking hopeful.
Minato just chuckled to himself. "That's a surprise. How about we have dinner?"
"That's not fair." Michiko said, but followed her family to the kitchen.
Later that night when Michiko was sleeping Minato and Kushina were in Minato's office. "So we're going to tell her after Kakashi's test." Kushina said.
"Yes we promised ourselves we would tell her about the Kyuubi once she became a genin." Minato said. "I've already contacted Jiraiya. He'll be here by tomorrow."
"It just fells wrong. How are we just supposed to tell are daughter that there's a demon living inside her?" Kushina said with concern.
"That's not all we're also going to tell her about Madara." Minato said looking sadden.
"How is Michiko going to take it? It's just going to make her feel responsible for Naruto being taken away." Kushina said.
"I know, but she deserves to know." Minato said though he looked unsure.
The next day all the genin who passed were sitting in the classroom waiting to see who would be on their team. "Michiko if you keep moving around like that you're going to break the chair." Hinata said from beside her.
Michiko stopped not even realizing what she had been doing. She had been so excited to find out her team that she had been squirming in her chair. "Whose team do you think you'll be on?" Michiko asked Hinata.
"I don't know. I just hope I can be helpful and not screw anything up." She said sounding a little depressed.
"Don't worry I'm sure you'll do fine." Michiko said with a smile.
Iruka Walked in not to long after that and gave his little speech about all of them becoming ninja which Michiko tuned out. She was only interested in her new team placement, and it was going to take a lifetime before Iruka would get to that part. "Team 7 will be Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha and Michiko Namikaze lead by Kakashi Hatake." Michiko stopped listen entirely after that. She didn't have any problems with were team. She wanted to talk to Sasuke like they used to before his brother killed his clan, and Sakura was a good friend. Kakashi she had known for a while and wasn't surprised that he was their team's leader. However since she had known Kakashi for a long time, she knew that he wasn't getting here anytime soon. So Michiko laid her head down on her desk and took a nap for the three hours it would probably take Kakashi to show up.
"Michiko, wake up." Sakura said as she shook her awake.
Michiko opened her tried eyes and said. "Did Kakashi show up?"
"Yes he told us to meet up on the roof; Sasuke has already left." Sakura said.
"Ok," Michiko said as she got up and they both headed to the roof.
Sasuke was sitting on the stairs while Kakashi was leaning on the railing reading his orange book. "So now that we've all made it lets introduce ourselves. Tell be about your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future and your hobbies. You can go first pinky." Kakashi said with his eye smile that Michiko had gotten used to.
"My name is Sakura and I like." Sakura turned to Sasuke and blushed. "I dislike Ino-pig! My dreams for the future are." Then turned to Sasuke and blushed. "My hobbies are." Once aging she turned to Sasuke and blushed.
Now Michiko loved Sakura, but seriously couldn't she try a little harder to sound like a professional ninja.
"Ok why don't you go next Michiko?" Kakashi said not hiding the fact that Sakura's answers were less than satisfying.
"My name is Michiko, but you already know that I like my family and Ramen. I dislike people who think there better than everyone else. My dream is to find my bother and bring him back so that are family will be complete. My hobbies are training and getting stronger." Michiko said.
Kakashi responded with a nod. "Now the last one."
"I'm Sasuke. I hate a lot of thing and I don't partially like anything. My ambition is to find my bother just like Michiko, but for an entirely different reason."
"Well I sure got an interesting team." Kakashi said. "You three will meet me tomorrow for a survival exercise. This will detriment if you truly ready to be genin, but be there a 66% fail rate." Kakashi expect them to freak out, but the only one who looked nervous was Sakura. "You also shouldn't eat because you'll just throw is back up." Aging the only one who looked nervous was Sakura. Kakashi guessed it was a good thing is team wasn't nervous, but it took all the fun away for it. "I'll be off then." Kakashi then Shunshined away leaving only some leafs behind.
The next day Michiko walked towards the training ground. When she got there Sasuke and Sakura were already there looking pissed. It was probably because Michiko showed up two hours late and Kakashi still hadn't shown up. "Go morning guys." Michiko said as she ran up to them.
"Hey Michiko." Sakura said thought she sounded tried. "How come you're so late. Not like it matters since are sensei isn't here yet."
"You see I know Kakashi and he is always late, so I just slept in a little." Michiko said.
"And you didn't bother to share that information with the rest of us." Sasuke said in anger.
"Sorry I guess I wasn't thinking about that." Michiko said rubbing the back of her head awkwardly.
Even though Michiko got there two hours late it still took Kakashi 30 more minutes to show up. "Why are you so late?!" Sakura yelled right when he finally showed up.
"Sorry you see an old lady needed help with her bags and I just couldn't turn her down." Kakashi explained in an obvious lie. "But enough about that let's get on with your test." Kakashi held put two bells. "Your goal is to take these from me by noon. Anyone who doesn't get one will be sent back to the academy."
Now Sasuke and Michiko had the reaction of utter disbelief that Kakashi had been waiting for. "But there are only two bells." Michiko said with wide eyes.
"Yes that means that at least one of you will be sent back to the academy." Kakashi said with his eye smile. "And by the way your time starts now." With that statement the three genin disappeared in the bushes.
Michiko was hiding under a bush trying to come up with a plan. Now she loved Sakura and she really wanted to get to know Sasuke aging, but there was no way she was being sent back to the academy. She watched Kakashi for a little while longer, but all he did was take out that orange book and start reading it. She decided that if she would have any hope of taking the bells she had to get them stealthy. She slowly made her way around the clearing so that she was behind Kakashi. After she got behind him so ever so slowly, wandered up to Kakashi.
She got within reach of the bells and Kakashi hadn't noticed her. She reached for the bells and she could partially feel the bell brush her fingers, but then she felt something tighten around her ankle, and before Michiko could even process what was going on her whole world was turned upside down.
Kakashi looked back to see Michiko dangling from a tree a rope tied to her ankle. "Now Michiko you'll never get the bells like that." He said, and before Michiko could even reply Kakashi disappeared leaving Michiko alone to untie herself.
It didn't take Michiko all that long to get herself down, but by the time she had Kakashi was no were to be found. With not much choice Michiko wandered around the forest looking for Kakashi or the rest of her team. When she did find one of her teammates it took everything she had to not burst out laughing. There he was the mighty Sasuke stuck in the ground with only his head showing. "Sasuke when did you get so short."
"Shut up and help dig me out of here." Sasuke said pissed off from being humiliated like this.
"Alright I'll help." Michiko said, and even thought she did help; she gave Sasuke a bunch of crap until he got out.
After Sasuke got out, he brushed himself off. "Thanks." He said and it actually sounded real.
"So what are we going to do now?" Michiko asked.
"We?" Sasuke said.
"Yeah I mean do you really think we have a chance of betting Kakashi one on one. I think we're going to have to work together." Michiko said.
"But there are only two bells even if we work together one of us will be sent back to the academy." Sasuke said concerned.
"I know, so that's why I think we should have the bells and Sakura should go back to the academy. I'm sure you know but she only wanted to become a ninja to get closer to you."
"I guess she isn't ninja material." Sasuke said thought he didn't seem upset about cutting Sakura lose. "Alright let's find Sakura and then we can come up with a plan to get the bells in our hands. They walked off to go find Sakura, but they didn't know that Kakashi was sitting in a tree and heard the whole thing.
"Turning on your friend you two are worse than trash." Kakashi said to himself before shunshined back to the clearing.
It didn't take them long to find Sakura who was lying unconscious for something. "Sakura wake up." Michiko said shacking her awake.
Sakura fluttered her eyes with unfocused vision. "Hey Michiko is it time to go to school already." Then her vision focused. She saw Sasuke and jumped to her feet. "Sasuke what are you doing in my room." She said with a blush only then to look around to see that it wasn't her room. "Oh now I remember we're still doing that stupid bell test."
"Yes we are." Sasuke said having enough of Sakura stupide. "We've decided that were going to work together to get the bells.
"But there are only two?" She said.
"Do worry we've come up with a plan for that." He said. Sakura trusting Sasuke completely didn't even ask what the plan was.
They went back to the clearing were they thought Kakashi would be which he was. They were running out of time to get the bells, so they knew that they would all have to attack him at once if they ever wanted to get those bells. The three ninjas jumped out of the bushes and attack Kakashi.
It went horrible they hadn't even gotten close to the bells and they were out of time. Even though they attacked together they didn't attack like a team. Their timing was nonexistent and they didn't build off each other's attacks. It was basically a free for all, and they had paid for it. They were sitting in front of three posts tired and beaten.
"So since none of you could even come close to getting a bell it looks like you'll be heading back to the academy." Kakashi said.
"Wait Kakashi-sensei give us a little more time I'm sure we can do it." Sakura pleaded.
Kakashi rolled his eye and sighed. "Fine I guess I was a little unfair telling you not to eat, so I'll let you have lunch then give you an hour to get the bells." The three genin looked hopeful but then Kakashi swooped in grabbed Michiko and tried her to the posts. "That is two of you will get to eat if you let Michiko have anything you fail."
"Wait what for?!" Michiko yelled as she was pushing on the ropes trying to get loose. It was a lot better than the one the Kakashi used to hang her from a tree however and Michiko couldn't free herself.
"Because of a certain plan that you came up with on how to get the bells." Kakashi said giving her an angry glare.
Michiko paled and stopped trying to get out of the ropes. "I didn't think you heard." She said.
"Oh I heard." He said.
"What are you guys talking about?" Sakura said, but when she did Kakashi disappeared and Michiko made sure to keep her mouth shut.
"It's nothing don't worry about it." Sasuke said. Sakura nodded and sat down to eat her lunch. Even though Michiko knew to get her late, she did not know that Kakashi was lying about the breakfast. So she was really hungry and watching her friend eat their food was less than pleasant. But Michiko was determined to wait it out and not complain. There was until her stomach made her thoughts known by letting out a loud growl. Michiko turned away with a blush.
Sasuke let out a sign, but stood up and held his food to Michiko's mouth. "Here eat it."
"I can't if Kakashi-sensei catches us then we'll be sent back to the academy. A meal is not worth getting sent back to the academy." Michiko said as stubborn as ever. So since Michiko wasn't going to eat herself Sasuke took a piece of meat with his chopsticks and forced it in her mouth. Michiko wanted to spit it out, but she was just too hungry and ended up swallowing it.
"See you ate it and Kakashi didn't come. He's probably off somewhere reading his porn." Sasuke said. "So just eat you'll be worthless if your half-starved to death when we go for round two."
"I agree with Sasuke we'll need everyone's strength if we are going to have any hope of getting those bells." Sakura held out her own food and Michiko immediately felt a pain in her heart for even thinking about sending her back to the academy, so she and Sasuke could become genin.
"Thanks you guys for doing this. Michiko said, but right as the words left her mouth black colds rolled in along with the loud sound of thunder.
Then Kakashi appeared in front of them. "You broke the rules I hope you're ready for your punishment!" Kakashi yelled. The three genin paled considerably. "Because you all pass." The dark clouds disappeared as quickly as they appeared.
"Wait what?" Sakura said. "I thought we be sent back to academy if we broke the rules."
"Yes but that was a lie." Kakashi said. "This test was for you to work as a team and trust each other. You gave Michiko food even though you thought you'd be sent back to the academy. You decided that having you team at full strength was worth the risk. So you are now official team seven. Meet me back her tomorrow." Then he disappeared yet aging.
"He's always doing that." Sakura grumped.
"I think we're just going to have to get used to it." Sasuke said.
"Yeah, but I least we're an official team now." Michiko said happily until she looked down and realized that she was still tied to the post. "What the hell Kakashi come back here right down and untie me!" Michiko yelled.
Michiko was walking back home; thankfully Sakura and Sasuke helped untie her. When she got home she saw her mom, dad and Jiraiya. Michiko wasn't sure what he was doing here unless he was here help Minato and Kushina give her another responsibly lecture. Michiko dreaded the thought.
"Michiko sit down we have something important to tell you." Kushina said. Michiko sat down waiting for lecture, but there was something about this one that seemed like it was actually going to be important. For one it looked like her mom was about ready to burst into tears as she was clinging to her dad, and Jiraiya had a very serious look on his face. Michiko had only every seen that look once before and that was when they all sat down when she was little and told her about her kidnapped bother.
"Michiko I know you are going to have a lot of questions, but let me tell you everything before you asks." Minato said looking years older than when Michiko walked out the door this morning. Michiko nodded telling him she would listen. "Ok I'm just going to come out in say it. You are the jinchuriki of the nine tails."
Michiko was shocked she had always thought her day had killed the nine tails or at the very least pushed it away from the village, but now he's telling her it's inside her. "I also believe that your brother was taken because he was thought to be the jinchuriki." Minato said with tears and a heavy voice. Then he told her about the man in the mask: Madara Uchiha. How he broke the seal and let the nine tails out. How he and Kushina lost their chakra and she became the jinchuriki. Then he told her all they knew about Naruto's kidnapping.
Michiko was in information overload. She couldn't believe all this happened at her birth. She was broken out of her thought when Kushina stared speaking. "Now none of your friends know about this and it will be your choice to tell them about it or not, but before you make that decided on that there is something else you have to do."
"What is it?" Michiko said forgetting she wasn't supposed to ask questions.
Minato was the one who answered. "I and your mom agreed a long time ago that when you became a genin that we would tell you this, but we also agreed to loosen your seal."
"What why would you do something like that?!" Michiko screamed putting her arms over her stomach as if that would stop them.
Michiko held his hand out to silence her. "For a couple reasons. First it will give you access to the Kyuubi's chakra. You won't be able to use it without some training, but at least you'll have it. The other reason is the seal is already weakening so this would happen without are help anyway and because of this the Kyuubi can influence you to a certain degree. That why we want you to be prepared to face it, so not only will we being loosening the seal you well also go into your mindscape and confront the Kyuubi."
Michiko mind just flat lined at that point. Meeting the Kyuubi the thought alone terrified her, but actually doing it that was simply out of the question. "But I don't want to see the Kyuubi I'm scared." Michiko said in a whisper.
"I know you're scared, but you aren't going alone me and your mom will be there every step of the way. That's why Jiraiya is here he will be doing the seal work that will let me and Kushina enter your mindscape with you." Minato said with a soft voice.
"Don't worry I'll make sure everything goes fine." Jiraiya said giving her a thumbs up.
"Having her parents with her made her feel a little better. She was still scared, but if it was something that was going to happen it would be better with her parents. "Alright let's do it." She said.
Michiko and her parents were in the basement of the mansion that had been converted into a sealing room by Jiraiya. The room had a table in the middle were Michiko was supposed to lie down and a bunch of seals that Michiko didn't understand around it.
"Wow Michiko you look so nice in those clothes." Jiraiya said with a blush right when they came down which earned him a fist to the face from Kushina. Michiko was wearing short shorts and a sports bar leaving her stomach fully exposed.
"Hey Jiraiya you better not do anything perverted to Michiko while we are in her mindscape." Kushina said with a nasty glare.
"I'm not going to do anything." Jiraiya said in fear.
"Are you ready Michiko?" Minato said holding her shoulder. Michiko nodded and walked up to the table and took a deep breath. Then she got on the table and lay down. The seals started glowing and Michiko felt her self-slipping in darkness.
"Don't worry Michiko we'll see you soon," Kushina said right before Michiko lost conscious.
*Takumi Village*
Naruto was in his apartment just relaxing. He just got off his mine shift and had the rest of the day off which was rare. There were no missions he had to do and there wasn't any training he really felt like he needed to do. So he was occupying his time with little things. Like going through the new version of the bingo book to see who had been taken out and who had been added.
However while he was looking through the Iwa section, he suddenly got a headache so bad that he had to put the book down. It was bad, but it wasn't so bad that Naruto couldn't think. He got up and headed for the bathroom. A nice hot shower would probably take care of it. This didn't work out to well because his headache was getting worse at an alarming rate. He was starting to break out in sweats and was berthing heavily. He had to stop and hold his head before even making it half way across the room. The he fell to his knees when a stomach-ache so bad that it felt like his gut was being set on fire hit him. Then Naruto passed out on the floor.
When Naruto came to all he could see was a hall of metal and pipes. He stood up and fought off the dizziness. Once he was in control of his body he looked around to see he was in some sort of sewer. He was also wet from having been lying down in the water. 'Where am I?' Naruto thought. Without any idea where he was and no exit in view Naruto would just have to wander about until till he found something or someone.
Naruto walked around aimlessly. He was being stealthy at first, but it soon became obvious that there was no one around and even if there was the water splashing around whenever he moved would give him away. For some reason he couldn't use chakra to stand on it.
Then all the sudden Naruto feel a dark and heavy pressure. It was nothing like anything he had felt before. It was wired like a fog that had weight. Naruto also noticed that when he moved in a certain direction it seemed to get heavier. Naruto didn't like it. The pressure didn't scare Naruto, but it was certainly off-putting. The worst part was that Naruto knew that if he wanted answers he would need to find the source.
Naruto walked towards the heavier pressure until in made it to a large room with a giant cage. The inside of the cage was pitched black, but Naruto walked up to it anyway. When he was about ten feet away a giant fox appeared suddenly behind the bars. "Hello human." It said.
Naruto was shocked to see the nine tails fox here, but at least now he knew where he was. However now the problem was how and why was he here. "Hello Kyuubi why have you brought me here. I'm not your jailer." Naruto said calmly knowing that the Kyuubi was no threat to him on this side of the cage.
"Indeed you are not my jailer nor did I bring you here, but I do know of you Naruto." The Kyuubi said with a dark chuckle.
Naruto was unaffected however. "If you didn't bring me here then who did?" Naruto asked.
"Your family if you can even call them that. They wanted your sister to meet me, so they loosened the seal. Even now they are wandering Michiko mindscape looking for me. They do not know you're here however. You were pulled in because you yourself have some of my chakra a small amount it may be." Naruto looked confused wondering how he had some of the Kyuubi's chakra. Kyuubi noticed this too and decided to answer him. "Even though none of my chakra was sealed into you some leaked out while you were in your mom's womb. The charka you obtained is so small I doubt it could help you in battle, but it's enough to have pulled you in here when my seal was loosened."
This information startled Naruto if his family was looking for the Kyuubi then they would find him and that wouldn't be good. Even if he put his hood up they still figure out who he was. There can only be so many people with the Kyuubi's chakra. Then another thought hit Naruto. "You aren't going to tell them about me are you?" Naruto said giving the fox the menacing look.
Kyuubi just gave his foxy smile. "I could, but I won't. Don't get me wrong it not like I'm protecting you. You see because you have my chakra I can see what you see and you have a much more entertaining life then your sister. If told them they would come after you and force you back to the leaf. Then I would be forced to only watch boring happy life's, so your secret safe as long as I find you enjoyable."
"I see." Naruto said. Then they heard water splashing around behind them which could only mean one thing. Naruto quickly looked around for a place to hide, but it was an empty room. He couldn't go back the way he came, so there was only one choice. Naruto ran to the Kyuubi's cage. The bars were separated enough for Naruto to jump right through. He knew once he was on that side he'd be at the mercy of the Kyuubi, but he had to trust that Kyuubi wouldn't kill off his only form of entertainment. The Kyuubi eyed him as he entered his cage apparently finding it amusing. The Kyuubi attention was directed elsewhere however when three figures walked into the room.
Minato was in front of Kushina and Michiko. It was obvious that Michiko was scared and Kushina was trying to comfort her. Naruto knew the Kyuubi was going to have a lot of fun with this.
"Well so nice for my jailers to come and visit me." The fox said in a mocking tone.
"You know very well why we're here." Minato said harshly. "Michiko is here to confront you."
"You mean the one that looks like they're about to piss themselves."
"I am not!" Michiko shouted stepping away from Kushina comfort only to go back after a growl from Kyuubi.
Minato looked like he wanted to beat the Kyuubi's face in for scaring his daughter, but knew he couldn't. There was also another problem that ever one in the room could see. Michiko was in no state to confront the Kyuubi. "I just wanted Michiko to meet you, so we'll be leaving now." Minato said acting like he was planning to leave all along, but the fact was Michiko wasn't ready. The Kyuubi was too much for her. Minato's plan to have Michiko face the Kyuubi was a complete and utter disaster.
Minato, Kushina and Michiko disappeared. "What a pathetic container I have." The Kyuubi said to Naruto, but Naruto was no longer there once Michiko left the mindscape Naruto was pulled out as well.
Michiko woke up and she could see Minato, Kushina and Jiraiya above her. "You did great Michiko." Minato said with a forced smile and watery eyes.