Chapter 3 – planning things out
Disclaimer- Naruto and Its characters do not belong to me. All rights go to Kishimoto. The story "Changing the Story" and its OCs are my creation. Plwease don't steal.
Words- 4,829
Naruto walked through the village for a while after leaving the Torture and Interrogation building. The talk with Shikaku and Inoichi was heavy on her mind.
'Shikaku-Sama was right. I don't know how I'm going to actually save anyone or make a difference.'
'I am currently nine years old- around four years from the start of the show. So I'll have four years to prepare to be thrown into the fire…' She thinks to herself.
'But what is my end goal even?' she continues while passing by the Hokage tower.
'The original Naruto fought to be recognized, and sure, I wouldn't mind having some fame myself, but to throw everything on the line again and again just for people to smile at me more...'
Naruto watches the villagers around her, noticing that either they'd completely avoid her or would send condescending looks her way.
'I can handle having most people look down on me I think' she concludes.
'Besides, what am I supposed to do with the fame? Surely, I don't think I'd actually make a good Hokage in the future. I'm not like the original Naruto...' her thoughts trail off on that topic.
"That's a thought for future me" She speaks to herself out loud.
'Onto the present plans- What can I do in the meantime?'
Naruto's walking brings her back around to the academy's training grounds. Off in the distance, a swing hangs alone quietly swaying in the light breeze. Naruto catches a glimpse of it and pauses in her walking.
'I'm only nines years old, but there is one thing I can currently do.' Naruto's mind starts running through different ideas and plans for the next few weeks.
"I will have to make a few friends earlier than planned" She speaks to the breeze and her words of declaration are carried through the rest of the village.
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Scene change
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Sarutobi Hiruzen sits in his office at the top of the Hokage tower with a single file in front of him. Taking a drag out of his lit pipe, he opens the file. The first page is titled 'Mizuki' and has a red Confidential stamp upon it.
The third Hokage spends a few minutes reading over the file before he closes it and sets his pipe back down.
Standing up, he walks towards one of the many windows along the side of the room and stares out toward the Hokage monument, paying close attention to the fourth's face.
'So ...Mizuki…was a traitor' he thinks to himself.
'There were no traces of a curse mark upon any part of Mizuki- However, a thorough search throughout Mizuki's apartment, thanks to Hound and his team, found several incriminating documents and plans which revealed his true nature.'
The Third's shoulders sag thinking upon his former student, the one responsible for the Chunnin turning traitor.
'Even after all these years later, you're still being a thorn in my side, Orochimaru.' he sighs while walking back to his desk slowly, his old age speaking now more than ever.
Putting aside that unresolved issue, the Third focuses back on the present.
'It is possible at this point, that Naruto might be telling the truth.' he takes another drag from his pipe, this time a bit more longer.
'The questions are endless if that's the case. How did this happen? Who is this new impostor? How much does she know? Can she be trusted with the safety of the village? Are there others that happened to come with her?' Hiruzen's mind races faster than even the Fourth could possibly keep up.
'Shikaku and Inoichi both agreed that the current Naruto shows no Ill-intent and seems to be telling the truth- even if she seems to be withholding quite a bit of information from us'.
Hiruzen thinks about his options for a second.
'I could have Inoichi-San take a look into Naruto's mind, but that might cause more harm than good with the Nine-tail's seal.'
'My best bet would be to have Naru-chan followed and watched by an Anbu team, however, if I order an Anbu team to suddenly watch over Naruto it would undoubtedly draw attention from the Council and Danzo.'
'Normally, the council's involvement and advice would be appreciated and welcomed, but after the Uchiha incident...' his thoughts grow dark.
'I think...for now… I'll trust this to Shikaku-san and Inoichi-san to handle' he concludes taking one last puff of his Pipe and putting the folder into one of his desk drawers, the same drawer containing a copy of his favorite novel written by one of his students.
The Third Hokage signals the Anbu to let in his next appointment and they abide by his command remaining completely oblivious to the inner thoughts of their old Hokage.
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Scene change
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Naruto rummages through her cabinets back at her apartment. They're almost completely bare save for a few cups of instant Ramen and a small bag of already-opened rice.
'Damn, I was hopeful that a female Naruto would have been a little bit more mature in her selection of survival ingredients...' Naruto thinks while scrunching her brow together in frustration.
"I guess I'll have to swing by a marketplace soon to stock up," she tells the walls.
'There's the small problem of the vendors overpricing me since I'm a Jinchuriki… I can think of two ways around that for the moment.'
Naruto considers her options.
'Option One is that I use the transformation Jutsu to make myself look like a random citizen.'
'But from the original Naruto's memories, I've only just recently been able to perform a successful henge.'
"I'm not too sure I'd be able to actually pull off that Jutsu for the duration of grocery shopping," she says out loud.
'Maybe I can try that out after practicing some more with the Jutsu, in the meantime, that leaves me with option two.'
'I put in a mission request for a D-rank and have a group of genins get my groceries.'
Naruto huffs at the idea.
'This better not be as much of a rip-off as Doordash or Uber Eats was in my old world.'
Naruto complains to herself thinking of the expensive food delivery services.
"I guess I don't have too much of a choice, I'm sure I'll save more money paying for a D-rank than I would going out myself..." She decides.
'Next time I visit the Hokage tower I'll put in that request.'
Naruto takes a look around the rest of her apartment.
Like she noticed when she woke up for the first time, the room is pretty barren and Naruto can see the lack of potential for the place- even with a bit of remodeling and heavy lifting.
'I doubt I will ever invite people over here...' she tells herself dejectedly.
'There's no room to entertain and It's quite embarrassing how worn out and rough the layout is...' she continues.
"That's okay for now, but maybe I'll take a look into upgrading in the future..."
Naruto walks over to the small kitchen table pushed up against the window at the side of the room. She grabs the Taijutsu scrolls she got from the library then sits down.
Looking out the window she admires the view of the village. It's late in the evening and the sun is just now setting, throwing the village into a golden flame.
'I'm not too sure how I got here' she ponders while taking a few slow and steady breaths while gazing out.
'The last thing I remember was laying down to meditate….maybe I finally ended up shifting…?'
The street lights come on outside throughout the village.
'To be honest though... I'm not really concerned about the how...' she thinks.
Looking back down at the scrolls, she opens them and starts studying.
She'll need as much help as she can get before facing Might Gai.
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Naruto wakes up several hours later with a stiff neck and sore body.
'I must have fallen asleep while reading...the scroll was pretty boring, to be honest...' she tells herself while stretching her arms above her head and letting out a yawn.
Taking a look at the clock on the wall, she notices that it's a little bit before 5am.
'Meh, I really need to get a better sleep schedule' she thinks while slowly getting up out of her chair.
Leaving the scroll on the table, she walks to the cabinet and pulls out her single cup in the entire apartment, and fills it up with water from the sink.
She takes a drink and debates what her plan will be for the day.
'I decided yesterday that I was going to try to make some friends earlier than the initial Naruto did.'
'But that brings me to decide who exactly do I start with?' she questions.
Naruto takes a sip out of the cup.
'Sasuke and Sakura, of course, come to mind first. But would either of them be willing to befriend Naruto currently?'
She considers the thought.
'Sasuke is living all alone...so no parents to hate me for being the Kyubi container I suppose...' Naruto tells herself with an eyebrow raised slightly at the thought.
'That would make things a little easier, than say, trying to befriend Sakura who has civilian parents that probably hate my guts...'
She takes another sip from the glass.
'Actually...I can't recall if Sakura's parents were ever against Naruto's presence in Sakura's earlier genin days'
'I wanna say that they didn't, but I can't be too sure...'
"Okay!" Naruto declares while rinsing the cup out and putting it on the drying rack.
"Let's try to gather some Intel on the Harunos!" she announces.
"First Unofficial Ninja Mission- Cherry blossom starts now!"
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Time skip...Later that morning.
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'So what do I know about the Harunos so far?' Naruto wonders while walking down the streets of Konoha.
'I know that from my previous life, the Harunos were traveling merchants and an actually well-known Civilian clan.'
'As far as I can tell, the previous Naruto didn't have any encounters with any Haruno besides Sakura, and THAT was even limited.'
'Turns out that Naruto being female in this timeline stopped her from still having a crush on Sakura- They' 're honestly more like rivals than even Naruto and Sasuke are at this point … It's a shame really… I could have had a better idea of the type of people Mebuki and Hizashi were had Naruto been paying more attention...' She sighs.
Naruto walks a bit further and finally arrives at her destination- A flower shop.
'My knowledge is limited on the Haruno family, so I'll have to work with what I'm given.' she thinks to herself while walking into the flower shop smiling lightly.
A bell rings as she opens the door and she is greeted instantly by a small woman inside the shop.
"Ohayo, and welcome to our family's flower shop! What can I help you with… today…" The woman trails off as she stops arranging the assortment of flowers in her hand and takes a look at the new customer.
A few brief emotions flash behind the women's eyes and Naruto decides to respond before she can kick her out.
"Ohayo, Yamanaka-Sama, I was wondering if you could help me pick out some flowers to decorate my home with?" She tells her quickly still smiling lightly and doing her best to put on an innocent appearance.
The woman takes a second to control her emotions before responding to the child.
"Actually, we were just getting ready to close for a bit...why don't you come again another time..." She says while looking around the empty shop as if there were customers ready to tear into her for allowing the Kyubi container inside.
Naruto waits for her to calm down then figured she'd try another time.
"Ah, Gomen, Yamanaka-Sama...I'll try to come back another day when you're less busy..." Naruto tells her while backing up slowly and towards the door.
Naruto stops as soon as her hand reaches the handle after getting an idea and turns to look at the woman who's looking more and more ready to faint.
"Can you tell Inoichi-Sama that I stopped by at least?" she asks the woman.
The woman seems startled at the request for a second before looking confused.
"Inoichi- San?" she questions
"Hai," Naruto confirms, "Inoichi-Sama has been helping me with some bad nightmares lately and he recommended I swing by the shop and get some nice smelling flowers to keep at my bedside at night..." Naruto lies smoothly.
"You know? To help calm my nerves..." Naruto concludes.
The woman looks a bit unsure at Naruto's words. Carefully trying to recall any previous conversations she had with her husband about the nine-tail Jinchuriki. When none comes to mind, she decides to ask the young girl for more information.
"You've… you've been talking to my husband...about nightmares?" she questions still unsure and non-moving from behind the store's counter.
Naruto takes her hand off the door's handle and faces the women slowly as if not to startle the timid women.
"Hai, Yamanaka-Sama...although...I didn't realize you were Inoichi-Sama's wife until right now..."
"Oh," the woman says while picking up the flower bouquet she had in her hands when Naruto first walked in and continues to mess with the arrangement.
"Yes, Inoichi-Kun is in fact my husband, We've been married for 11 years now..." She tells Naruto.
"My husband told you to swing by the shop to pick up some flowers, did he?" She finishes wrapping a teal ribbon around the bouquet and places them gently back down on the counter before finally walking around it toward the center of the shop. Still keeping a few feet between Naruto and herself.
"Yes, Ma'am," Naruto responds quickly, afraid the woman will change her mind.
The Yamanaka walks to a section on the far right of the store where different kinds of flowers are arranged by type. She grabs several flowers from one of the shelves and Naruto recognizes them instantly.
"Lavender helps relax the mind and can calm nerves." the Yamanaka tells Naruto.
She walks over to Naruto and hesitantly hands the girl the stems before walking into a different section and grabbing a couple more stems from a different type of plant. Naruto is unable to identify this one by looking.
"Passionflowers also help reduce nightmares and calm the senses," She tells her while handing the last flowers to Naruto.
Naruto arranges the flowers together in a small bouquet and smells them then smiles at the woman.
"Thank you Yamanaka-Sama!" She tells the woman.
"These flowers look beautiful and I have no doubt that they'll help me rest easier!" Naruto proclaims.
The woman chuckles a bit, smiling weakly at the young girl, before turning around and walking back to the counter.
"How much do I owe for these, Yamanaka-Sama?" She asks her.
Naruto follows her slowly while reaching into her back pocket and pulling out a wallet.
"Each flower is 100 Ryo, so 600 Ryo will do." She responds.
Naruto takes out the money and places it on the counter, grateful that the Yamanaka decided not to over-charge her.
"Thank you once again for helping me, I'll be sure to let Inoichi-Sama know how well they work, Ja-ne," Naruto tells her once again starting to walk towards the shop's door.
"Hai, Ja-ne" The woman responds.
Naruto exits the flower shop unsure if she actually accomplished anything besides meeting Ino's mother.
'Well, that was a pretty big fail… I was hoping to see either Ino or maybe even Sakura in the shop. Inoichi did mention to his brother yesterday about Ino running the shop...'
'Oh well, I'll have to try that plan another day.' she concludes, finally walking away from the store.
The streets of Konoha are empty and barely anyone is walking around leering at Naruto.
Naruto starts heading towards her house to drop the flowers off. It takes her about ten minutes of walking before she reaches it. Quickly bringing the flowers inside and leaving them on her kitchen counter to take care of later, she heads back out.
"The day is still young Naruto," She tells herself, "Don't give up already".
Getting the urge to try a different plan, Naruto starts heading toward the local park.
'If the school's out currently, then I have a good idea of where to at least find some children...' She tells herself.
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"That sounded creepy..." She sweat-drops.
It takes the Blonde a couple of minutes of walking before she reaches her destination. She looks around the park taking in the scenery.
'Man, this park is pretty lame" she thinks to herself.
'Two swings, a sandbox, a slide, and monkey bars that only have 5 bars?'
'I'll have to find Tenzo earlier than in cannon and blackmail him into creating some of those wooden fortress playgrounds that my old world had...' She chuckles at the idea.
"I bet I'll get all the other children to love me then, hehe- Wait." She interrupts her own giggling.
"Again- that sounded creepy" she winces.
Letting out a sigh, Naruto thinks about her options once more.
'I'm supposed to be making friends, but maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way,'
'I am after all more mature and not actually a kid… Maybe I should be making friends with older people. I got along well with Izuna and Kotetsu, maybe I should focus more on the older generations…'
'Honestly, at this point, I'm probably more likely to try to baby any of the Konoha 12 I run into...'
Naruto turns around and sighs dejectedly for the second time this morning.
'It's probably for the best, I would one-hundred percent try to mother hen any chibi Naruto characters at first sight. Maybe I'll-'
Her thoughts are disrupted as she walks straight into another person.
She's knocked down and lands on her back, momentarily stunned.
"Watch where you're going, brat." A voice tells her from above.
Naruto looks up at the person from the ground and has the quick idea of telling them to shove it before she stops herself realizing the face is familiar. She stares at the older kid in confusion trying to place who she ran into exactly.
"Cat got your tongue, kid?" The girl replies while reaching a hand down to Naruto. Naruto timidly grabs it and smiles gently at the Inuzuka girl.
"Gomen, Inuzaku-san, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," Naruto answers her.
"No worries, brat. Just make sure you're paying more attention to your surrounding. You are training to be a Shinobi aren't you?" The Inuzuka asks her.
"I am and I should pay more attention, shouldn't I?" The Blonde chuckles sheepishly.
"Hmm...still…You are more polite than my little brother, I guess..." The older girl shrugs the incident off and starts to walk away after a quick nod in the blonde's direction.
Naruto has the realization of who the Brunette is.
"W-wait!", she stampers out after a split-second decision, "You're Kiba's older sister, Hana, Right?"
The young Inuzuka stops for a second and considers her response.
"I am." She decides to confirm the accusation.
Naruto bobbles her head happy that she remembered correctly.
"I'm in the same class as Kiba-kun, he likes to talk about you and how cool of an older sister you are..." Naruto blabbers off hoping she can keep the girl's attention.
Hana smiles at the announcement and turns back to face Naruto.
"Are you friends with Kiba-kun?" she asks still smiling.
"Well, we've hung out a few times, and well… maybe… might of...skippedafewclassestogether?" Naruto decides to be honest and quickly tells her.
"Hehehehe!" The brunette snickers and runs a hand through her hair which is down at the moment.
"So you're the one that got him in trouble a few months ago, huh?" She's grinning by this point.
Naruto's shoulders sag momentarily recalling the scolding she got from both the Hokage and the Inuzuka clan head because of that time.
"Your mother is more terrifying than the Hokage, you know that right?" Naruto speaks up wincing at the memory.
The older Inuzuka sibling raises an eyebrow and smirks.
"You think that was bad, you should have seen her that time Kiba snuck out of the compound when he was five..." she chuckles at the memory and Naruto giggles with her at the thought before they're both interrupted by a shout.
"Hana! You're back from your mission already!?" the voice shouts while walking up to the two girls.
Kiba walks up to them out of breath and briefly glimpses at Naruto before barraging his sister with questions about her mission.
"How was your trip to Suna? Did you fight any bad guys? Did the Haimaru brothers get to bite anyone? Did you kick any Suna guy's a-" Hana interjects laughing and quickly covers his mouth before he can finish the sentence.
"Watch it, brat. We're in public!" she tells him scolding.
"But, you said you didn't care if I said that word against idiots..." he tells her frowning.
"Yeah, when we're at home and no one else is around…." she sighs before checking on Naruto's reactions., awaiting to see how the blond will respond to the crude nature that is the Inuzuka clan.
Naruto takes in the new information and quickly decides how she'll make her first friend in this world.
"Don't worry Hana-chan, I won't say shit," she says with a straight face.
A snort is heard from Hana and a laugh from Kiba.
"Ha! Nice one, Naruto!" Kiba exclaims loudly.
Hana rolls her eyes at her brother before grabbing him by the back of his collar and dragging him towards her.
"Sorry Naruto, but I have to bring this one back to the compound. Mother's been looking for him everywhere. He's skipping out on some clan training." Hana tells Naruto before she starts to drag the boy away from the playground.
Kiba sulks a bit and starts complaining about the manhandling while being dragged.
"It was nice talking to you Naruto, maybe we can chat some more another time?" Hana throws Naruto's way while still walking.
"Y-yeah!" Naruto throws back at her.
"I'd love to hang out another time," she tells her smiling.
Naruto watches the siblings go, happy to have run into them.
Naruto takes one last look at the playground, deciding that there was nothing else to do there, then starts walking away and towards the next destination on her list- The Hokage Tower
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It only takes her a few minutes of walking before she arrives at the bottom floor of the tower.
The tower is calm since it's only noon, so Naruto walks in without much of a commotion. Sitting at the front desk is a woman that Naruto recognizes as being a regular assistant, but doesn't know her name. Naruto walks up to her as she is writing in a book.
"Excuse me, Ma'am?" she asks "I would like to speak to the Hokage about a mission request."
The lady looks up as Naruto walks up and scrunches her face for a second before relaxing it back into a blank look.
"And what kind of mission quest are you requesting, kid?" her voice is quick and sharp to the point.
Naruto speaks up as politely as she can her answer.
"It would probably just be a low D-rank mission, Ma'am. I need someone to do a bit of shopping for me."Naruto tells her honestly.
"Shopping?" she questions confused.
"Why would you need someone to shop for you?" her voice says in accusation.
"Are you too lazy to do it yourself?" she says.
Naruto shakes her head trying to come off as childlike and innocent as possible.
"No, Ma'am, It's just that, I've been having problems with people kicking me out of their stores, and those that do allow me to shop always upcharge me. I mean, just a few days ago I was feeling hungry because I hadn't had anything to eat because Ichiraku was closed early and I missed lunch, so I went to the market to buy some food, but the only place that allowed me in only sold fruit, so I got some fruit, but I only ended up grabbing an apple because I only had 10,000 ryo on me which is what the apple costed...' Naruto tells her quickly afraid she'd lose interested in what Naruto was saying.
The woman looks baffled and considers her next words for a moment.
"10,000 ryo for an apple?" she says finally and starts to show some disbelief at the girl's words.
Naruto looks at the ground and puts her hands together in a strange copy of how Hinata usually stands.
"Yes, Ma'am" she quietly whispers.
The front desk lady takes in Naruto's stance and her eyes soften a bit.
"Well, I guess I can put in a mission request, there's no need for you to talk to the Hokage about this," she tells Naruto while getting out a different scroll and writing down Naruto's information.
Naruto looks back up at the woman, her face glowing at the statement.
"Really?! You'd do that for me?" she asks her.
"Hmmm, Is that all you need bra- I mean- Kid?" she catches herself.
Naruto smiles at the woman and considers her question, debating if asking for more would be risking it.
"Hai, I think that's it for now..." Naruto tells her.
"It should only take a few hours for the request to go through and be approved, in the meantime, do you have a list of what you need to buy?" She asks the girl.
Naruto doesn't need to fake her next response and blushes nervously.
"Uhhh...Gomen...I didn't think I'd get this far..." She tells her while scratching the back of her head.
The woman raises her eyebrows slightly before writing down something else on the paper.
"If that's the case, would you like the genin team to swing by once they've accepted the mission to pick up the list first or would you like to right one now."
Naruto thinks about the two options for only a second before responding.
"If it would be all right, the first option works best. That way I can think more about what I need first."
The woman nods her head and asks for Naruto's address. After asking a few more questions and having Naruto sign a few things, the woman puts the scroll away and looks back up at Naruto.
"Well if that's all you need then, you should be visited by a genin squad in the next day or so if accepted."
Naruto smiles once more and thanks the lady before wishing her a good rest of her day. She then precedes to walk back out the door noticing that the lobby had gained a few extra people in her time standing there. No one, however, tried to stand behind Naruto in a line.
Naruto rolls her eyes at the actions of the ignorant villagers before stepping outside.
'I didn't exactly accomplish all that I needed today, however, I got to start an acquaintanceship or two I suppose.' Naruto thinks to herself while heading to Ichiraku's.
'One step at a time, Naruto,' she thinks still smiling, 'One step at a time'.
Authors note- Okay wow, I have no idea what I'm writing, I never knew how much thought and Googleing was required to put together a story, even one that's just fanfiction. I find myself constantly on Narutopedia trying to remain accurate, but I'm sure I'll slip up at one point. Thank you all for still sticking with this story and I apologize for this chapter taking a month to make. I actually got distracted writing a future chapter, So that will be fun hopefully lol.
A couple of things I'd like to mention-
I plan to have a couple of time skips throughout "Changing the story". One will be coming up shortly.
I'll try to update at least a couple of times a month, but who knows with life.
And lastly, I realize I didn't exactly explain how or why Liliana ended up in the Narutoverse, I honestly feel like so many SI backstories are alike, and figured you can just pick your favorite one and roll with it. Maybe she got hit by Truck-kun, maybe she died and was given another opportunity at life by Kami-sama, or maybe she was watching Naruto and got sucked into the TV. I don't really wanna have to come up with it, screw it lol.
Thank you again for reading and happy late May the Fourth! "Sending Kisses"