After Naoko had disappeared, Naruto blinked a few times before looking at her cousin and saying, "Uhh…what was that?"

"It's my mother's cloak. It's got a number of seals on it that do various things. Just then she activated the flash seal and the chakra hiding seal that she put on it."

"I see," Naruto said. "Wait! Does that mean that you have one too?"

"Yeah. Mum's trying to teach me how to make my own, but I've never really had the same knack for fūinjutsu that I've had for using my Dyrnwyn."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Noriko grinned. "…Or the interest, much to my mother's displeasure."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I usually spend the time, that I should be practicing that, painting.

"Really?" Naruto asked.

"I wouldn't lie about my artwork. Well, except to my mother that is," Noriko said, chuckling at the irony.

Naruto laughed too. After they stopped laughing, she said, "You know, you'd probably get along well with one of my teammates."

"Oh? Why do you say that?"

"He's into all that art stuff too. Personally, I think that it's a massive waste of time."

Noriko grunted. "You're just like my mother."

Naruto sighed and said, "Sorry, maybe that came out wrong. What I meant, is that my goal is to become the Hokage. If I want to do that, then I need to be as strong as I possibly can. That said, I can still appreciate the time that the artist spent getting to that point. It's just not my thing."

Noriko sighed and said, "I appreciate you saying that, even if it is a lie."

"I don't like when complimenting others."

Noriko smiled thankfully and said, "Then do you mind if I watch you train?"

"No," Naruto said. "Another set of eyes might help."

"Okay, go," Noriko said, nodding at her cousin.

"Alright," Naruto said, grinning as she bit her thumb. When she had enough blood she did some handseals and slammed her hand on the ground, causing a cloud of smoke to explode from it. When the cloud cleared Naruto's eyes widened.

Noriko said, "That's…" a sweatdrop appearing on her forehead.

Naruto said, "Well, at least it has legs this time."

"At least…what are you talking about?"

"Well, last time I was learning how to summon, I didn't get a toad like this for almost two weeks."

"You didn't…I see. Well, congratulations then, you officially don't suck as much as I thought you did."

XXXXX

Meanwhile, underneath Konoha, a female was on her knee before Danzō. She was wearing tight-fit black leather pants. She also had on a gorget that had an intricate design that seemed to resemble gusts of wind, that had a red gemstone at the centre. She was wearing a black leather bra, edged with metal that attached it to the gorget, restraining her breasts, which were large for her age. The cups were attached to each other by a metal representation of some kind of winged insect. She was wearing knee-high black leather boots and had a wavy dagger with a crossguard that had upturned tips. It had a green gem in its pommel and it was attached to her calf with two straps around her left boot. At her hips were another two daggers, though not much could be seen of them because they were both in their sheathes, one of which was steel-blue and had a wispy design made of silver on it and the other was red and had a silver flame pattern. She had violet eyes and blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail.

Danzō said, "Hikari," acknowledging his subordinate's presence.

Hikari said, "Danzō-sama," waiting to be allowed to speak.

" I thought that I gave you the day off."

"You did."

"Then why are you here?"

"I saw a woman leave the Hokage's office that I'd never seen before."

"Hardly worth my time."

"She left through the window my lord. With her level of chakra, there's no way she's not a shinobi."

"I see," Danzō said, "and Tsunade has given her free range of the village, is that it?"

"It seems so my lord."

"I see. Thank you for bringing this to my attention Hikari. You're dismissed."

"Yes my lord," Hikari said, nodding once before she disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Once he was alone Danzō said to himself, "Tsunade, you've gone too far this time," and started walking towards a set of stairs. About ten minutes later Danzō left the Hokage tower and headed towards the two other advisors' houses, where they lived next door to each other.

When he got there he knocked on the door of the first house and waited for the door to be answered. It didn't take long for Mitokado Homura to open the door, surprised to see Danzō standing on his doorstep as he had never been one for visiting. Homura nodded in greeting and said, "Danzō. What is it?"

"Tsunade," Danzō shortly said.

Homura sighed and stepped aside, saying, "What has she done this time?"

"She's letting foreign shinobi into the village without consulting us, and letting them do whatever they want without a guard of any sort."

Homura sighed and said, "Look Danzō. I know what your position on this will be, and you do have a point. But, like it or not, Tsunade is Hokage now. You remember what happened in the last meeting. In any case, she doesn't have to tell us everything. Do you think that Hiruzen did?"

Danzō said, "Letting foreign shinobi move around within your own village is reckless, bordering on treasonous. Something must be done about Tsunade."

Homura sighed and said, "Danzō. It might be that our way of doing things may be blinding us to certain truths and we've been getting arrogant because of it."

"It's not arrogance if you are right."

Homura sighed and said, "We've been making decisions and acting in ways traditionally left to the Hokage."

"It has been for the sake of the village that we have acted when Tsunade wouldn't," Danzō said.

Homura sighed and said, "Is it? I don't know that I can say that with any true conviction anymore. Like this thing with Kakashi's team. I can't see that the village gains anything by having one of your men on that team."

"If Tsunade won't monitor the demon, then we must. It's the only way to reign it in if it gets out of control."

Homura sighed and said, "I'm not sure that it would be possible if that happened. Minato was stronger than all of us and look what happened to him."

"From what Sarutobi told us, Minato cut the Ninetails' power in half before sealing the rest into Naruto. Who is still missing in action. Even if he wasn't, Sai tells me that Naruto only has limited control over the demon. If he manifests too much power 'it' takes control and goes on an indiscriminate rampage. After which, if someone does manage suppress or drain the foxes power away, he can't move. Any advantage that the demon may give him is too thin to even be called a double-edged sword."

"Hmm…" Homura sighed. He said, "Danzō. If you want to have one of your men follow this shinobi, you'll have my support. Any more than that, you're on your own."

Danzō closed his eye as he nodded, saying, "Very well," extending a hand towards Homura. Homura clasped it and used it to pull himself up. He said, "I'll be going to see Koharu next. Is she home?"

"As far as I'm aware she is, yes."

After Danzō had left Homura's house, he went next door and was let in. Once inside, Koharu led Danzō to her office and sat down behind her desk, indicating that Danzō should take the seat opposite. Begrudgingly, he did. Once they were both seated, Koharu said, "This is unlike you Danzō."

"Yes well, I've just learnt that we have an unsupervised foreign shinobi wandering about."

"What?!" Koharu angrily exclaimed, frowning, as she had no clue as to what Danzō was talking about. "Have you brought this to the attention of the Hokage?"

"No."

"Then I suggest that that's where we go to nex…"

"Because it would seem that there is little point."

"Excuse me?"

"Apparently Tsunade-chan is well aware of this shinobi's presence."

"What do you mean?"

"My source saw her leaving Tsunade's office."

"How trustworthy is your source?"

"She was raised by ROOT since the day she was born."

"I see," Koharu said, thinking, 'There aren't that many people that Danzō takes an interest in from that age. I wonder what was so special about this one. Well, it doesn't really matter.' "I think that you should have her followed to see what she does and wait for two days to see if Tsunade-chan tells us about this shinobi. If she doesn't, we bring it up with her directly. For now we need to do everything by the book. After Tsunade's display at that meeting we called, the council will be on her side until they forget their fear once again."

Danzō sighed and said, "I suppose that caution is prudent at the moment," Danzō said. He thought, 'Damn Tsunade! I had them eating out of my hand before that petulant display of hers. Now everything has been set back to how it was before Hiruzen died. In any case, I think I'll stick panther on her.'

XXXXX

Meanwhile, Naoko had given up on finding a permanent residence for the moment and booked herself and Noriko into a hotel for the next two weeks, managing to harangue the receptionist into letting her pay on departure. When she was done she left the hotel and said to herself, "Well, now that that's done, on to tha…" then her stomach rumbled. "But first, lunch."

She then started walking through the village, looking left and right, not finding anything. Eventually someone came up to her and said, "Can I help you?"

Naoko looked at the person and blinked, surprised at what the person looked like. She said, "Maybe there is a Fuzzy-Brow Clan after all."

"Uhh…come again?"

"Just something my daughter said."

"Oh. I see. Have I met her?"

"No. We're new here and I was just looking for somewhere to eat."

"Oh! I see," the man said. "Then allow me, Maito Gai, to show you around. Do you know what you want?"

"Anything but bloody ramen."

"Then BBQ it is," Gai said, giving Naoko a full blast of his nice guy pose. A sweatdrop appeared on the side of Naoko's forehead. "While we're on the way, what did you mean 'Fuzzy-Brow Clan'?"

Naoko grinned half-heartedly and said, "I recently saw someone that looks, and dresses, a lot like you."

"Ah. You must mean Lee."

"I believe that that was his name, yes."

"Well in that case, no. We're not related. He was one of my students after he graduated from the academy."

"I see. Say, you wouldn't happen to know a…" Naoko cocked her head, sensing a presence on the roof of a nearby building. She thought, 'That's odd. Ah well.' She shrugged and continued talking. "…Hatake Kakashi, would you?"

"Kakashi? My Eternal Rival? Why?"

"Eternal…Rival? What is…you know what? I don't think I want to know." Naoko paused for a second before saying, "As to why I want to talk to him, he has done a great diservice to a member of my clan, and I intend to make him pay."

"A member of your…" Gai said. "What clan would that be exactly? I don't think that I've ever seen you before."

"I'm not surprised," Naoko said. "I did only arrive in this village today."

"So then…"

"That can wait until after lunch," Naoko firmly said, not willing to talk about why she was in Konoha out in public.

An hour later, Naoko was led through Konoha's hospital to Kakashi's room, on condition that Gai stayed with her as 'extra security'. When they were outside the room, the blonde that had led them there said, "I'll leave you here now."

"Thanks," Naoko said. "This shouldn't take too long."

The blonde nodded at Gai, saying, "Gai-sensei."

Gai said, "Later Ino."

Once the blonde was gone, Naoko looked to Gai and said, "You don't need to stay, you know?"

Gai looked at her seriously and said, "I can't leave you alone with Kakashi in the state that he is in."

Naoko sighed and muttered, "Well, there's that plan down the drain," as they entered the room. Naoko walked over to the foot of the bed, not saying a word. She picked up the chart and read aloud, "Hatake Kakashi; Age: 29." Then she burst out laughing. She exclaimed, "Chakra exhaustion!?That's what's keeping you here? Now that's funny." Then she saw a bowl of fruit on a table next to Kakashi's bed. She drew the parrying dagger from her belt as she stalked her way to the table, playing with her dagger without saying another word.

Kakashi didn't say a word as he silently watched 'the crazy redhead' walk by his bedside, playing with a dagger that he hoped wasn't as sharp as it looked, not entirely put at ease by Gai's presence. As Naoko reached Kakashi's side, she said, "You 'n' me need to have a talk Copycat," grabbing an apple from the bowl.

Kakashi finally found his voice, hesitantly asking, "Gai, who is this?" looking at his friend, not that he'd admit as much.

Naoko cut Gai off before he could say anything. She said, "You'll figure it out eventually," walking back to the foot of the bed. When she was standing where Kakashi could see her, she held the apple firmly in one hand and placed the thumb of her other hand on the side and sliced through it without any resistance whatsoever. She ate the slice that she'd cut off and sighed contentedly. She said, "Man, it's been a long time since I've had one of these," savouring the taste in her mouth.

"Then maybe you should buy apples more often," Kakashi 'helpfully' suggested.

"I buy them all the time," Naoko said, irritated by Kakashi's throwaway line. "Unfortunately, the ones in the Land of Tea have never been anywhere near as good as those in the Land of Fire. But that's not what I came here for," Naoko said, eating the second slice that she had cut.

"So exactly why are you here then?"

"Well, honestly, it's really a rather interesting story. You'll laugh when you hear it. Don't get up, it's going to take a while." Kakashi looked at her, unimpressed by her joke.

Gai said, "Well, if that's all you're going to do, then I'll…"

"No no," Naoko said. "You can stay…no. You should stay."

Gai said, "Very well," and took a seat on the bed next to Kakashi's.

Naoko looked at Gai and asked, "You good?" Gai gave her a nice-guy pose, causing her to shiver in…disgust? Revulsion? She couldn't tell. She said, "You didn't teach your mini-me that, did you?" Gai gave her another one. Naoko groaned, "Oh no," imagining a miniature redheaded version of the man that she was looking at, or even worse, a young red haired girl with massive eyebrowes in front of a scene that had waves crashing onto a beach at sunrise. "No. No. not gonna happen," scrunching her eyes together, trying to banish the images from her mind. "Ever!"

Kakashi said, "Uhh…you alright?"

"No. I'm far from being alright. With both situations."

"Both?"

"Yes. The first one is you and what you've done. The second, is that my daughter is…,is…aargh!" Naoko exclaimed, unwilling to say the words aloud as it would make it all the more real.

"What I've done?" Kakashi said, focusing on the more immediate problem.

"Yes. What you've done."

"What have I done to you lady? I've never even seen you before."

"Oh, I'm sure that my story will enlighten you."

"Then please, do go on."

"Gladly. Now, imagine this. A few days ago, I'm in the Land of Tea doing my grocery shopping when I see these two Konoha shinobi tailing me. Strange, right?" Kakashi and Gai both nodded. "Yeah, well get this. There were two more tailing my daughter." At this both Gai and Kakashi frowned, concerned as clearly Tsunade had sent a full tracking team to find this lady, who clearly thought that Kakashi had done something to her. "Now, that's not the funny bit. That comes later. Anyway, after I got away from Hana-san and Yūgao-chan, I went home. Kakashi and Gai started laughing. Naoko groaned as she asked, "What's so funny?"

"I'm sorry," Gai said, "but you didn't get away from them. They just let you think that you did," wiping water from his eyes.

"I assure you, no Inuzuka can detect me if I don't want them to. Or any other sensor for that matter. Well…except for my sister, but she was special."

Gai said, "No-one's untraceable."

"I bet your apprentice's Hyūga friend thought the same. But I assure you, I am. I made dam n sure that my daughter was too."

"Neji?!" Gai exclaimed.

Kakashi thought, 'IF this woman is telling the truth, then she's more dangerous than she appears, and she's threatening enough as it is.'

"In any case, that night I asked my daughter if she wanted to drag the cat and mouse out a bit. But she didn't want to. So the next day, I invited them to have some tea with us and they told me that my sister's son wasn't stillborn as I had been told."

Gai said, "Oh shit!" realising now exactly what her problem with Kakashi was.

Kakashi's head shot to the side, thinking, 'Gai swore? I thought that that was against one of his 'self-rules', so what…' He said, "Gai, what's wrong?"

"Kakashi, you might want to watch what you say."

Kakashi looked back at the redhead as she continued her story. "Anyway, cutting to the chase, both my daughter and I decided that it would be best that we move here, at least for the time being, while I correct everything that you caused."

"Okay, what are you talking about?" Kakashi demanded, now really annoyed at being accused of something, but not being told what. "Who are you?"

"Uzumaki Naoko. Uzumaki Kushina's very angry younger sister."

"You're…oh…" Kakashi said, only now noticing that similarities between the woman before him and his sensei's wife. "I see. Well then, in that case…" Kakashi said, moving his left hand so that he could push himself out of his bed, towards the window.

Naoko said, "Don't you move," throwing her dagger next to Kakashi's head.

Kakashi looked at the dagger quivering where it was stuck in the wall next to his head. He said, "Okay. Okay. So, you're Naruto's aunt are you?"

"That's right."

"I don't know what you've been told, but…"

"Oh, I've been told quite a lot. Like how you focused on some Uchiha brat that already had an overblown ego while you let Naruto fall behind."

"Well that's not quite tr…"

"Or how all of Naruto's 'training' has been to give him a demonstration and then tell him to go off and do it." Naoko didn't give him time to interrupt again. "Or how you managed to let his teammate get him, an Uzumaki, to promise to bring his other teammate back to the village, after he'd betrayed it, alive?!" Naoko let the facts sink in. "Now. Tell me, exactly what have I gotten wrong?"

"Well…" Kakashi said, then sighed, looking off to the side, unable to refute anything that Naoko had just said.

"But. All that aside. What is completely unforgivable, is that you, and the rest of this godforsaken village has done, is deny Naruto knowledge of his parents."

"Now just gold on a second. That wasn't my decision. The Sandaime Hokage…"

Naoko levelled her powerful killing intent on Kakashi's bedridden form. She said, "I don't care who was responsible."

Kakashi said, "His…father's…enemies…they…"

"Rubbish." Naoko said. "Minato's 'enemies' were either dead, or too high-up to do anything about it. Besides, what do you really think would have happened when you told Naruto? That she'd scream it from the mountains? That it would give her a big head? Hn, as if that could ever happen to an Uzumaki."

"What do you mean by that?" Gai asked.

"We cherish our bonds, but we are neither constrained nor consumed, by them. We've always left rubbish like that to the Hyūga and Uchiha. It's especially true for jinchūriki."

"Jinch…" So you know then?"

"Tsunade told me when I was in her office earlier."

"I see."

Gai said, "Can you clarify that for us?"

"Clarify what?"

"It being truer for jinchūriki?"

Naoko sighed and said, "Bijū seals are very complex and almost always have an emotional component to them. In order fro a jinchūriki to be able to fully control its beast's powers there is a further ritual that needs to be performed when they are strong enough. But that's of little importance for the moment."

"No," Kakashi said. "What is, is getting Naruto's next training ready, which I'll do whne I'm better so…"

"That's not happening," Naoko said.

"Excuse me?" Kakashi said, annoyed at what Naoko thought she could do.

"No. I won't. I don't have to. Tsunade already did that for me."

"What do you…"

"You are no longer in charge of Naruto's training. I am."

"What? Don't be ridiculous. I'm…"

"Bedridden. Useless. Ungrateful. A waste of space. Neglectful. I could go on if you want," Naoko said, hammering in nail after nail, reinforcing Kakashi's deserved guilt. Kakashi looked down at his hands, unable to deny any of her allegations. "Besides," Naoko said. "Right now, anything that you could teach her would be pointless."

"Wait. You've been referring to Naruto in the feminine for a while now."

"Yes. What of it?"

"Naruto is a boy."

"Oh? Then they haven't told you yet?"

"Told me what?"

"While they were on their last mission they apparently ran across their teammate, who thrust his lightning-charged sword through Naruto's chakra well, increasing Naruto's CVR."

"Increased the what?" asked Gai.

"The Chakra Vibratory Rate. You'll need a medic-nin to explain it to you. Long story short, my nephew is now my niece. Now, I wonder. Whose fault is it that my niece's teammate can use Raiton ninjutsu? Oh, right! That would be you again, wouldn't it Kakashi?"

Kakashi sighed and said, "I can explain if you want." Naoko nodded. "Okay. When I first got them out of the academy I saw that Naruto wanted nothing more than to beat Sasuke. So I sought to foster a rivalry between the two of them as a way for Naruto to progress. One of my teammates went far because of a rivalry with me, so I thought that the same thing would happen again."

"That only works if the two concerned contain the same potential across multiple areas and similar values. And that their growth rates remain relatively the same. Fostering anything close to resembling a healthy rivalry between an Uchiha and an Uzumaki is impossible."

"Well, I didn't know that then. In any case, I nominated them fro the first chūnin exam after they had started their work as shinobi of Konoha.

"Well, that was a dumb an idea as I've ever heard if Naruto's skills were as lacking as I've been told."

"I wanted them to get a taste of what shinobi life is really like." Naoko sighed, shaking her head. "In any case, something unexpected happened during the exams."

"Which was?"

"Orochimaru of the Sannin infiltrated the exams and managed to give Sasuke a curse mark, which I later sealed."

"Yes. I heard about that. That's something else I need to talk to you about later."

"Before I got to seal it, there were preliminary matches held. The curse mark activated during Sasuke's fight, but he managed to suppress it with his will, so I used the Fūja Hōin to seal it after the match."

"Okay. Now I'm following you. You still should have layered it with another chakra-seal, but that's a moot point now."

"Yes. In any case, after all the matches were done, I took Sasuke to a training area I use and taught him my Chidori so that he wouldn't try and rely on the curse mark's power."

"You idiot!" Naoko said.

"Excuse me?" Kakashi said.

"So, what did you have Naruto do while you were handing an Uchiha an A-Rank assassination jutsu?"

"At that time, Naruto was lacking the base fundamentals of how to perform jutsu, so I had a Tokubetsu-jōnin I know teach him the water-walking technique."

"The…are you kidding me? Who was he fighting against?"

"Neji," Gai said.

"A Hyūga? So let me get this straight. You had Naruto learn to control his chakra better as a way to prepare to fight against someone who specialises in shutting down chakra systems?"

"Well, he did win."

Gai said, "You weren't there for it. The fight that the tow of them put up that day was, while quite dramatic to a layperson, far from what would be expected of a chūnin. Naruto's victory was only due to his having access to the Kyūbi's chakra and because he had the Uzumaki tenacity. Had he lacked either he wouldn't have had a chance."

"Oh?" Naoko said. "So what would you say about 'Sasuke's' fight, Gai?"

"It was certainly of chūnin level, if not sub-jōnin. However, that may be put down to Kakashi's having Sasuke try to recreate lee's movements and teaching him a jutsu perfectly designed to counteract his opponent's."

"So," Naoko said, "summing it up, yfor the chūnin exam final round, you palmed Naruto off to some other teacher with instructions to teach him something that really wouldn't help at the time, while you went off and taught the student that really didn't need it, your best jutsu. Am I missing something?"

Kakashi sighed and said, "In hindsight, it was a bad idea, alright?"

"No. Far from alright. Far, far from alright. What that Uchiha needed was a royal kick up the…" Gai coughed, clearing his throat, preventing Naoko from finishing. "And what about this inferiority complex I heard about?"

"Well, I'm not sure, but I think that that may have started that day too." Naoko raised one of her eyebrows. Kakashi sighed and said, "That day the Otogakure attacked alongside Sunagakure, who happened to bring along its own jinchūriki."

" You're kidding me?"

"No. As it turns out, that jinchūriki also happens to have been Sasuke's opponent."

"You're kidding me?"

"I wish I was. In any case, as I'm sure you can imagine, Sasuke's training was useless once Gaara had transformed."

"Well, jinchūriki forms do tend to get quite large."

"Yes, well, Naruto came along and summoned Gamabunta and beat him, though you'd have to ask Naruto for the exact details."

"He can summon him?!" Naoko exclaimed. "Well what do you know?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"You may not be aware, but all summoning contracts were drawn up by Uzumaki seal masters. The toad contract belonged to Mito's family. It's really rather appropriate that Naruto got access to that contract all things considered."

"Appropriate?"

Naoko smiled and said, "Woman's gotta have her secrets," and disappeared in a flash of light that left the two men blinking.

XXXXXXX

A/N

Danzō's subordinate 'panther' is in reference to the Furcifer pardalis.

Hikari outfit: DOT COM /arts/view/38207