DISCLAIMER and A/N: I don't own anything from the Naruto universe. Naruto's really pissed off in this chapter, btw. Please try to understand her present feelings before you come after me. I really would like to hear what you think of the story, though! -Thanks!

Thinking (+ flashbacks, "Naruto speaking to Kurama in her mindscape," etc.)

Emphasis

Bijuu, etc. speaking

Bijuu, etc. thinking

Naruto was out of surgery by the time Kakashi got back to Konoha. He was furious with her, furious with his sensei, furious with the Hokage Guard Platoon who refused to immediately teleport him back, but Kakashi had shown them. Indeed, he had gone against their supposed orders and flashed himself all the way back to (well, fairly close to) Konoha.

He brushed his fingertips down the soft skin of her hand and wished his sensei would take a hike and get out of her room. Minato-sensei was both blaming himself for getting Naruto hurt and blaming him and Jiraiya for not keeping a better eye on her.

"What were you thinking, pretty girl?" he asked her in a quiet voice, waiting for her to wake up. She looked pale. Considering that she nearly lost a kidney, had the tendons cut in the back of one knee, and had other internal damage, it was more than understandable. A knock on the door disturbed them and Shikamaru entered.

"How is she?" the Nara asked worriedly.

"Why did she call you?" Kakashi asked. Minato waved him off, further frustrating him.

"She's recovering," the Hokage said. "Tsunade-hime says she WILL make a full recovery."

Kakashi watched as Shikamaru glared at his sensei, finding that he appreciated the Nara heir's apparent dislike (or at least sourness) for his mentor very much right now.

"So she knows," Shikamaru said as he crossed his arms over his chest, wondering if the Yondaime's plans were still the same now that he'd seen Naruto with his own eyes.

"Yeah. I'm… afraid I surprised her," Minato said with a caustic chuckle, running a hand through his hair.

"I'm sure this conversation can be had elsewhere, ne?" Kakashi asked, barely pretending to be friendly.

Minato nodded. "I'll be back," he said, flashing off with the Nara kid.

Once back in his office, Minato sank into his chair and put his head in his hands. Without looking up, he asked Jiraiya and Shikamaru for their reports. Jiraiya handed his written report in - something that was incredibly unusual - and stormed out. He knew that Kakashi and his team, which included Jiraiya, had been informed by one of his daughter's clones that she had allowed herself to be captured, but was tracked by more of her clones, who led them to her.

Kakashi's team arrived right after he flashed back to them after delivering a wounded Naruto to Tsunade and Shizune.

"I saw Naruto summon the fox," the Hokage said to the young man, letting him take it from there.

"Hai," Shikamaru said, not wanting to relive that. That fox had scared him as much as Hidan did. "I had not seen one of Naruto's other summons before and had no idea she could summon a big one. I had already captured Hidan in my jutsu when the fox asked me my name, after ripping Hidan in half. – I took a nasty spill when he did; what a drag," (he muttered that last part to himself.) "Since he's immortal, Hidan was still screaming and making demands. He cursed the fox… which caused the fox to begin eating his other half until I asked for Hidan's head."

"You asked for his head," Minato deadpanned, repeating his words back to him.

"Hai," Shikamaru confirmed. He'd been ready to blow Hidan to Kingdom Come since he was a fairly small child in this lifetime. Watching Hidan be nearly swallowed whole - well, in two main halves - by a giant, pink bloodthirsty fox was a little different, though. "His head is buried in the Nara Forest, as planned, although I did slap an explosive note on it when I threw it into the hole."

Minato's eyebrow lifted in something of a horrid fascination. "His body?" he asked, almost not wanting to know.

"The fox agreed to, and I quote, 'expel it on your land, human filth.' Maa, he did appreciate that Naruto summoned him for battle," Shikamaru sighed, "but was disappointed there weren't more enemies to devour."

"Great," Minato muttered sarcastically. "This is why shinobi don't summon foxes, I suppose." Shikamaru shrugged. "I'll expect a written report. Send Genma in for me."

Shikamaru nodded, knowing that he was dismissed.

Naruto's long eyelashes began to flutter and Kakashi tried to decide on which of the many things he rehearsed in his mind that he wanted to say to her. She finally locked eyes with him and let out a painful breath. "Hi," she tried to say.

"Do you not understand how precious you are to me?" Kakashi asked, gently taking her face into his hands. "How could you allow yourself…" He moved away from her when Jiraiya walked into the room.

Why couldn't anyone and everyone else buzz off?

"How are you feeling, kid?" the old man asked. Naruto nodded her head and tried to talk again. After drinking a sip of water, she was finally able to speak, although Kakashi didn't really want her to.

"What happened?" she asked.

"You were fighting the Akatsuki?" When she still looked befuddled, Kakashi began to protest, but Jiraiya continued. "Hidan and Kakazu. And Danzo."

"Right," Naruto said, trying to remember - and also trying not to remember. She shuddered as she thought about her father showing up, alive: his skin not cracked, his eyes just like hers - without those Edo-Tensei black sclera… She tried to shake off the memory and tried not to cry.

"Traitor."

Naruto turned inward and looked at the fox sadly. His head was tucked into his tails again and it was just the two of them. "So that really happened, right?" The fox didn't say anything; he only pulled his tails more tightly around him. "But I guess you're right: maybe we found our traitor the old toad was talking about," Naruto said with a defeated sigh.

"I thought it was the Old Monkey," Kurama admitted ruefully about that part of"The Great Lord Elder's" damnable amphibian prophecy. "To THINK that my other half turned against me!"

Naruto's eyebrows rose: she hadn't thought of it that way but it made sense that Kurama would. They sat in silence for a while before Naruto approached him and dug her way in through his tails. "My father probably… used some pretty words with the other you or something."

"Do you think 'pretty words' would sway me, the Great Kyuubi?"

"You," Naruto began but found she didn't have the energy to be cute with him. "They've been together as long as we have, ne? Geez: PLEASE don't make me defend Namikaze Minato right now." She didn't know how long they sat there after that, Naruto curled up between his cheek and tails because she had no desire to go back to the room she could occasionally feel her father's apparent real-live (and the rest of Kurama's) chakra in. "Can you talk to your other half?"

Kurama brought his head up, unintentionally knocking her back a bit. "I told him to fuck off."

"Good."

"I'm depressed," Kurama later said, more to himself (and surprised: finding that depression was disgusting) than to the brat who cooed at him like an idiot before hugging his ear. Naruto disappeared from in front of him, and Kurama realized how cold he felt.

"Why did you allow yourself to be captured?" Kakashi asked, hoping to keep the desperation out of his voice.

"I - I didn't," Naruto exclaimed before beginning to cough. Jiraiya stepped up to refill her ice chips and waited for her to settle down.

"Your clone said you allowed yourself to be captured," he said gravely.

"Stupid clone. I did not: she probably didn't see," she said before biting her lip and trying to go through her clones' memories. "Too many clones and I'm dopey," she whispered, giving up on dealing with all of their memories right now. "The ROOT guy had a seal. There was an Aburame," she began, thinking of how to describe Shino's clansmen but not give away that she'd previously known/known of him. She hadn't mentioned him to Jiraiya before and he'd probably have a fit over it. "The Aburame had rubber or rubber-like gloves over most of his body, and goggles."

Jiraiya stepped back and gave her an odd look of understanding (and maybe fear or at least apprehension) before she continued. "His partner, though, had this ugly doll. I think he said his jutsu was called the "Mind Puppet Curse Jutsu or something? It was activated when I saw the seal in it."

Jiraiya sighed in relief and sat down on the bed. Allowing oneself to be captured was a punishable offense that at LEAST required a massive investigation that Naruto didn't need right now. As long as everyone kept their mouths shut about what Naru's clone said, she'd be okay. "So he was a Yamanaka."

"He… he didn't LOOK like a Yamanaka," Naruto said, remembering his hair. That guy's orange hair made her like the color a little less, which was just criminal. "He did appear in my mind, though: he said I was… powerless or some shit. SO ya know: I showed him," she said, one side of her lips curling up involuntarily into a smirk.

"What did you do?"

"I ripped off the seal. Kurama crushed him."

Jiraiya swallowed hard, nodding, while Kakashi sank back into his chair and soon slumped over, rubbing his temples. Jiraiya's dark eyes darted back and forth between them.

"I think it was a good time for it," she continued, sounding satisfied but weary, after crunching some ice. "There was an ANBU on my tail - oh my gosh: that guy stole Danzo's head. And his body exploded! And what happened to Roshi and Ranmaru…"

"What the hell's going on in here?" Tsunade hissed as she darted into the room. Machines were going off, meaning that Kakashi and That Pervert were bothering her granddaughter. She pushed Naruto's head back into her pillow and told her to "shut the hell up." Running a diagnostic and applying her iryo-ninjutsu, Naruto relaxed as her pain and heart rate settled down again. "Don't get her so upset!"

"I wasn't upset!"

"Shut up, you," she ordered.

"So mean," Naruto pouted like a brat. Jiraiya and Tsunade began chatting/arguing and Kakashi leaned over to whisper in her ear.

"Never scare me like that again."

Naruto sighed and ran her fingers across his masked cheek. "I can't promise that, my love." A smile grew on her face as she watched a blush cover the tops of his mask. "But I'll try to always come back to you," she whispered.

Tsunade let out a delighted, tiny near-squeak but Naru grasped Kakashi's Jonin vest and pulled her into him. "What is it?" Kakashi asked urgently as she began shaking.

Minato walked in.

"Please make him go away," she whispered into his neck.

"Sensei…"

"I need to speak with you," the Hokage said sharply while looking at Jiraiya. "It's urgent."

Naruto pulled her face away from her husband, reluctantly letting him go. Her family - her real family - looked pissed, and somehow that was comforting. Jiraiya pulled Minato out of the room and Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. "How long?" she asked, her voice still hoarse and scratchy. "How long have you known? Since the Chunin Exams?"

Kakashi nodded, looking away from her and pained at least, while Tsunade sat down in the chair opposite him. "We were ordered not to tell you, brat. Minato had planned," she began but Naruto scoffed and interrupted her.

"I don't give a single fuck," she looked up at her brother figure who strolled into the room looking uncomfortable. "How long did you know?"

She and Shikamaru had shared EVERYTHING, had pulled all kinds of possibly against-orders, nearly treasonous stunts since she moved in with him - before she could even remember moving in with him and his family!

"Since just after the Chunin Exams," he admitted in a soft voice.

"Were you also ordered not to tell me?"

"Not specifically," he said after a beat, doing everything he could to maintain eye contact with his little sister and best friend, who looked like he had just shattered her and everything between them. "Naruto…"

"Fuck off, Shikamaru," she replied between gritted teeth.

Shikamaru saw that her eyes flickered to red for a second, but plowed on. "He plans to die and take the Akatsuki down with him, thus… 'sparing you the pain' of going through everything," Shikamaru admitted, but Naru interrupted him.

"That mother— FUCKER!" Her monitoring alarms went off again and she only fought Tsunade who eventually did knock her out after a few seconds. Honestly, Naruto didn't really feel like talking to any of them anymore.

"Can you believe this?" Naruto asked, pacing back and forth in her mindscape. "That - that ASSHOLE - I mean, I KNEW he was all 'do this and do that' for the village and ONLY the village! Kaa-san TOLD me she didn't want to seal you into me or leave me alone, but that asshole had to make sure your power remained in Konoha!"

Kurama's head rose and he gave her a fairly blank look, aside from one raised eyebrow. What did she expect him to say? He'd hated Minato ever since he FIRST ripped him in half - maybe even before then. They felt the asshole-in-question's chakra re-enter the room and their combined chakra exploded.

"FUCK. YOU, choosing the village over me," Naruto bellowed. 'Fuck YOU, being Hokage! Fuck you trying to die and protect me or some bullshit," she shouted, getting angrier when her supposed father - fucking sperm donor is all he is - sent a glare to Shikamaru. "And fuck YOU for not telling me," she sneered at Shikamaru. "And how fucking dare you decide to off yourself," she snarled at Minato. "What? Do you fucking hate me, or babies or something?!"

Minato tried to breathe and not react badly - not react as the Hokage - but that last question, one that his daughter had apparently posed seriously, baffled him. Naruto let out a snort and began crying, breaking his heart.

"Kakashi and I have to begin repopulating the Hatake Clan in the next couple of years," she sniffed in a softer voice. She moved toward her husband. "Not only do you not give a shit about me, but you don't even care about your grandchildren."

Minato's breath caught as he stared at her lost, disappointed expression. His student obviously couldn't look at him, while Jiraiya looked to comfort his child: something he had no idea of how to do. Tsunade - his biological mother, for Kami's sake - looked like she wanted to kill him.

KUSHINA was the loving one; KUSHINA was the one who would always put their child first. SHE was the one quick to anger but quicker to love. For Minato, it had always been the village; a deep desire to prove himself and protect it at all costs. He loved Kushina. He loved Konoha. And he thought he loved Naruto, but she was right: he was a fucking terrible father.

He flashed away, leaving what was soon a sobbing Naruto behind.

Five days later, the ANBU guy who had taken off with Danzo's head entered her room. She had felt him coming and had been curious (and wary of him,) but Jiraiya was in the room writing his trash and pseudo-guarding her.

"Yo, brat," the ANBU guy - an Uchiha-looking dude with wild hair and a long scar down his eye, rougher than Kakashi's - said, approaching her lazily.

"Who are you?" she asked, a weird feeling swimming in her gut. She knew this guy - but didn't know this guy. Her eyes darted to Jiraiya who seemed at ease and into what he was doing.

Some guard he is…

ANBU-Guy let out a dramatic, whining sigh. "Such a brat. I'm Uchiha Shisui." Naruto's breath caught and she flew into action as his Sharingan activated, replicating a sea of clones in her mindscape to cover Kurama's eyes. The fox was already on his feet and wanted to thoroughly smite the guy.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said, his avatar stepping back from the enormous amount of clones he was nearly dumbfounded by. He'd never seen anything like this before in someone's MIND.

"Let me tell you, Pretty Boy," one of the Narutos snarled at him, "the last asshole who entered my mind without my permission ended up never able to function or think again. Do you really want that fate?"

"Damn, Naruto: harsh," Shisui said before shaking his head hard when the clones began popping. He stopped the fox's gigantic paw from coming down on him, freezing it in his tracks as body flickered in this bizarre place and caught the Kyuubi's furious eyes - then had to dodge a massive amount of Rasengans. He let out a breath, resting his hands on his knees when it all suddenly stopped; he had to guess he had Jiraiya-sama out in the real world to thank for it. He was still faced with one furious blonde young woman and a hypnotized fox, however. "Fuck, Naruto! I know you don't remember me, but I'm just here to look at your seals."

"I'm going to kill you," she said, fully feeling like her monstrous petite self. "You let him go right now!" Knowing that Kurama was at this guy's command was terrifying.

"I've been your protector since you were a baby, brat. Your mind was sealed so you don't remember everything we once did, but… FUCK!"

Shisui found himself bent over the real Naruto who was still in her bed with a chakra suppression seal over her forehead.

"What happened?" Jiraiya asked, looking up from his future book.

Shisui stood up unsteadily and would almost swear that his real ribs were broken although that was impossible. "She punched me out of her head! How the hell can she do that?!"

"Who knows," Jiraiya said, only caring (and glad) that his granddaughter was able to defend herself against an Uchiha: probably the BEST Uchiha. He and a Yamanaka had looked into the seals on Naruto's mind when she was a little girl, so he didn't see how an Uchiha who had just gone through an eye swap with his retrieved cousin was going to help anything.

Naruto had told him how much (she and) the fox hated the Sharingan, so Naruto's anger didn't surprise Jiraiya in the least. But did Minato listen? No. He wanted her memories unsealed and apparently thought this brat could help. "Can you redraw the seals you saw?"

"I… didn't see anything," Shisui admitted reluctantly. He ruffled Naruto's unruly locks, really wishing he'd been able to reconnect with her - and not just piss her off. "Imouto," he mumbled before sucking in a deep breath. One of his eyes - ITACHI'S eyes - hurt BADLY and he suddenly just wanted to get away from the girl. "I'll report to Hokage-sama," he said, feeling rather sick. He went home and to bed instead.

The next time he got up, he looked in the mirror and paled at what he saw. The eye that was so painful was now purple with concentric rings. What the hell had happened?