Chapter 1

sniff* "Stupid bullies..." Narumi Uzumaki mumbled to herself as she trudged through one of the wooded areas surrounding Konoha, wiping an eye with her free hand while her other held on to the stuffed frog she'd gotten from the Hokage on her sixth birthday last year.

Her reason for being out here: seven years ago a vicious and destructive entity known as the Kyuubi; The Nine-Tailed Fox attacked Konoha, causing tremendous damage and loss of life until it was defeated by the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze...

By sealing it away into a newborn child: Narumi herself. Unfortunately, she had no knowledge of it. The formerly retired Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, in an attempt to have the girl seen as a hero per the fourth's wishes, made it a death sentence to speak about how the monster had been sealed away in her. The old man meant well, but scars tend to run deep, and the secret gradually leaked out.

And instead of people seeing her as the only thing between them and the fox's vengeance, they saw her as the beast itself and all the hate and bitterness they had towards it, was re-aimed to her.

Resulting in glares and whispered insults like 'demon' and 'monster' when she was nearby. Thankfully, none of it went physical, especially after the one person who did try to attack her met a gruesome end at the tip of ANBU swords.

That didn't mean the name-calling didn't hurt, especially for a little kid. Getting away from it, at least for a little while, was her main concern. Which currently brought her out to her current location.

With her mind focused more on just getting away than where she was going, it was little surprise when she accidentally tripped on something, sending her sprawling to the ground. "Itai.." She whimpered, sitting up and rubbing her nose before looking at what she had tripped on; an old tree root. However, it was what she saw the root was attached to that caught her attention: a tree stump, the stump itself was a foot or so taller than her, but carved into it was a small alcove. The back was filled with writing carved into it, and a small shelf with a blue stone...something on it. It was a big rod, almost as long as her forearm and covered in weird squiggles and dots.

Narumi remembered the Third-the man she saw as an unofficial grandfather-telling her about things like this; they were called shrines, usually used as memorials or spots to worship.

And this one was currently holding her curiosity. Slowly edging closer to it, she squinted to try and make out some of the writing. Unfortunately, time and weather had rendered most of it illegible with the exception of a few syllables.

"All, uh...one of the shards...what's a shard...?" She asked her self. After a moment of pondering, she gave up and decided she'd ask Grandpa about it before resuming her attempt to read, "Fa...Fu...Fut?" She tried to read the rest of the word but it was too worn away. Whatever it said, it looked like it was saying the blue thing was one of these shards.

Fut. Her eyes lit up, remembering the Third using something called a Fuuton Jutsu to blow her hair around while playing with her one time. Maybe that's what the thing was about! She HAD to to show it to her Grandpa, he'd probably know more!.

Normally, one would assume she'd just run back to town and tell him about her discovery. Unfortunately for Narumi, she chose option B.

Grab the object and take it with her.

The second her hand wrapped around it, she realized something was strange about it; something made of stone wasn't supposed to be soft OR warm to the touch.

It wasn't supposed to start glowing either. Crying out in surprise, she tried to drop it, only to find she couldn't let go. She tried shaking it loose, pulling it away with her other hand, and even banging it against the tree trunk, but to no avail. It was like she was glued to the thing.

And the glow was getting brighter and brighter, soon becoming too bright for her to even look at before it shattered with a loud crack, throwing her to the ground, unconscious.

"Hokage-Sama!" The hulking ANBU known as Kuma stood at attention as Hiruzen Sarutobi, the elderly Fire Shadow, came charging down the hospital hallway.

"Kuma, I just got word from Taka! What happened!?" He almost demanded once he reached the man.

"Narumi was out cold, but luckily unharmed, when we found her during our patrol on the village outskirts." The man then hesitated.

"What is it, Kuma?"

He sighed, "She...she was near one ofthoseshrines."

Sarutobi looked at him blankly, "What?"

"I'm as startled as you are, Sir. I thought they had all been destroyed."

"So did I." The old man rubbed the bridge of his nose, "You dealt with that one, correct?"

Kuma nodded, "We used at least half a dozen explosive tags. Left only a crater. Unfortunately..."

Sarutobi stared at him, "Not really a word I'd hoped to hear, Kuma."

"Judging from the broken pieces of stone in her hand and around her when we found her, I'm afraid she touched the relic that was in it."

Sarutobi stood motionless for a moment before letting out a long exhale, "Wonderful..just wonderful." His hand found its way back to the bridge of his nose, "Blasted Henken shrines.." He muttered. Granted, they weren'tdangerous, but they-mainly the relics known as the Henken Shards normally found in them-tended to be be a nuisance to the unlucky soul who found them, especially those making the mistake of touching them.

He was relieved Narumi was unharmed, that much was true, but...

The sudden shriek of a little girl from inside the hospital room almost made him and the Anbu jump.

"Sounds like she's up, and...well..." Kuma trailed off.

Sarutobi sighed. How was he going to explain to her that she had, well, extra plumbing now?