The Legend of Uzumaki Naruta

Book 1: The Legend Begins

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by 3D Master (3dmaster@telfort.nl)

Prologue

A long time ago a demon fox appeared.  It had nine tails and could flatten mountains and cause tidal waves with but one wave of one of them.  When it came to attack Konoha, the Hidden Village of the Leaf, the shinobi went to confront it, to try and stop it.  None stood a chance until a hero arrived.  He was known as the Fourth Hokage, and he defeated the Nine-Tailed Fox, giving his life to defend the village . . .

But not even he could kill such a monster, he could only seal it away inside a new born baby . . . girl . . .

Chapter 1: And So It Starts . . .

“Naruta!” the ANBU guys screamed trying to catch the slippery girl.  The girl bounced from roof to roof of the village, which was a strange mix of feudal Japan and a modern day city, electricity wires running around through it.  “How could you do this!?”

“What!?  They looked so drab, they needed some rouge, lipstick and eye shadow!  Don’t they look much better now!?” the twelve-year-old girl in question yelled back at them. Behind the girl and her impromptu entourage, four large male heads were visible hacked out on a stone mountain.  The one to the left having a regal face, with long mains of hair.  The second had an unruly bunch of hair.  The third looked foreboding, with an angular face and sharp pointed beard on its chin.  The fourth was a face that would have girls go gaga over. And all four of them were made up like cute girls, if drag queens were cute girls.

The girl wore blue sandals, an orange skirt made out of two flaps that kept her legs all but uncovered, and more importantly free to do all the fighting the kunoichi - girl-ninja - in training needed to do. Underneath that was a blue skintight thigh-length shorts, and finally an orange and blue jacket from which she had cut the sleeves, midriff and collar a long time ago, leaving a plunging v-shaped collar.  A sleeveless shirt matching the shorts and equally tight underneath the small jacket kept her both decent and left her otherwise bare midriff some protection.  The shirt stopped just above her bellybutton, flowing around her waist, it, as well as the rest, accentuating whatever little curves the just-started-to-develop body had, which included barely visible modest humps on her chest, that promised to grow into a respectable set of breasts in the following year or two.  A girl wouldn’t be a girl if she didn’t accessorize, black bracelets adorned her wrists, and upper arms - small non-painted half-circles adorned the bracelets, sunlight gleaming off of the silvery nobs.  In front of her shins were protectors from the same black material, fastened around her ankle and just underneath her knee with thin metal bands.  The girl had blond hair which she had done in two pony tails that hung along the side of her head curving from its top, red ribbons wrapped around the base of the tails.  Perhaps oddly, she had three cute dimples in her cheeks that somewhat resembled whiskers.

The girl’s escape didn’t seem to be going too well, as the bucket she was still carrying as she bound from roof, to balcony, to the street, and often just as easily back up again, made an awful lot of noise. Of course, she wasn’t planning on getting away too easily to begin with, for she had noticed one new recruit in pursuit.

“UZUMAKI NARUTA! I HAVE YOU NOW!” the guy in question yelled, landing just in front of her.

Instantly the girl came to a stand still, her left leg shyly joining her right, her arms clasped behind her back along with the bucket. Her head went down giving all the impression of a sweet girl that was very sorry. Carefully she turned her head up, leveling her most terrifying weapon on him - of course, the guy being new, didn’t know that yet.  Pained, clear-blue, puppy-dog eyes, glistening just a bit with accumulating moisture looked in the young man’s eyes - he never stood a chance.  The sweet cute girl looked so vulnerable, as she said, oh so pained, “G-gomen, ANBU-san.  Wh-why are you m-meanies chasing me?”

His heart broke, and he felt like the biggest bastard on the planet screaming and yelling all those evil things at such a sweet an innocent girl.  Smiling like a guy caught stealing candy, his right hand behind his head, he said, “G-gomen, Naruta-chan, b-but you really can’t paint the Hokage mon- oough!”  That was when Naruta’s right foot lodged itself squarely between his legs, and pain flared through his entire body.  The ANBU sank to his knees now desperately cradling his bruised balls that might never gave him offspring if he didn’t get them to a medic-nin soon.  He looked into the face that looked far too angelic for the girl that had just done that to him.

“And another one bites the dust,” Naruta said sweetly, and smiling just as lovely.  Her right index finger poked the guy’s forehead and he toppled over backward and slightly to Naruta’s left.  “Far too easy,” she singsonged as she hopped gracefully over the fallen member of a ninja village’s most ruthless and feared organization, dropping the now useless bucket to the ground.  She turned right, entering a street, giggling a sweet giggle that was threatening to turn into a belly laugh.  She was just about to go back into overdrive when a man appeared from a left side street.

“Naruta!” the simple teacher with a scar across his nose and a fluffy pony tail on the top of his head yelled.

Naruta instantly froze, “I-Iruka-sensei.”  The teacher had long since gotten immune to smiles and puppy-eyes of sweet-looking female students, hers in particular, and Naruta was far more intimately familiar with that fact as she wanted to be.

And Iruka yelled again, “What the hell do you think you’re doing out here when you should be in class!”

*****

The wooden floor of the classroom actually felt cold to her butt.  Tied up she sat there, getting a lecture from Iruka-sensei that she hardly paid attention to.  She grunted in disagreement and annoyance at him when he was done, turning her head away.

“Alright then, class!  Today we’ll do a surprise re-examination of the Transformation Technique!” Iruka said suddenly pointing at the class, and finishing, “Regardless if you passed the first time, if you fail now, you fail completely!  And it’s all because of Naruta!”

A little while later a row of ninja students stood at the front of the class, Iruka standing before them with a paper.  From right to left, there were; Inuzuka Kiba with his puppy dog Akamaru on his head.  The boy from the dog clan had some traits of dogs himself, a set of canines and a bush of unruly brown hair that could easily come from a dog.  A thick red stripe rounding into a point was on each of his cheeks.  He wore a thick coat with a furred hood down around his neck as usual.

Next to him stood Uchiha Sasuke.  The boy was dressed in his usual blue shirt with the Uchiha clan symbol on his back and the high collar, and the white shorts.  A hairdo with smooth locks falling partially across his face and a stuck up higher bit of loose hair on the back of his head that made girls both jealous and go gaga over him had the boys wondering whether he just got up out of bed that way - in that case; lucky bastard - or whether he spent an hour grooming it - in that case; poor girls because he would be /so/ gay.  And going by how the boy acted, most of the other boys money was on the latter.

Next to him stood Aburame Shino.  A small set of sunglasses with perfectly round glasses hid his eyes from the world.  The high collar of his beige coat hid everything from mid-nose downward.  His hands were comfortably in the coat’s pockets - he’d be the most fearsome poker opponent you could ask for; especially since the bugs crawling through his body could be sent out to spy on your cards and you’d never be the wiser.

Next to the genius from the bug clan, stood Nara Shikamaru.  The boy had his not that long hair bound together, the hair standing up on the back of his head in an obviously untreated fountain-shape -  anything else would be too bothersome.  “This is so troublesome,” the boy muttered.

Next to that again, was Akamichi Chouji.  The heavyset boy’s brown hair was up about and everywhere.  A green coat, a shirt, and blue shorts completed his outfit, and like his friend Shikamaru had his hands in his pockets with annoyance.  He nodded in agreement with the other boy, and muttered, “Yeah, now I’m missing my afternoon meal break.”  His stomach rumbled audibly.  “This is all because of you, Naruta.”

“Like I could care about the timing of your stomach, Chouji,” Naruta, who was standing next to Yamanaka Ino one down the line, muttered back in annoyance, her hands held together on her back side, back straight, and thus pushing her nearly flat chest out.

The pony-tailed blonde, with only one lock of hair hanging across the right side of her face - a lock that was carefully styled and held together with lots of hair gel - was in between the two of them.  It couldn’t be helped really, Hinata was like Naruta’s shadow, and another place meant standing next to forehead-girl Sakura-chan - she’d die before that happened.   There was, of course, the option of standing with some of the other boys and girls, but the boys to the left didn’t like to have girls in their mix all that much, and the boys mixed in with a few other girls to her right for some reason didn’t allow her with them - had to be Ami, that bitch, worse than everyone else put together.  There were times when she idly wondered if she had offended them in some manner, but usually quickly dismissed it.  It was fine with her after all, for some reason that bland bunch - only Shikamaru was blander dressed, but his hair at least stuck out - rubbed her the wrong way.

Next to Naruta stood the afore mentioned Hyuuga Hinata.  Short purple hair that grew wider and longer around the base of her skull gave her a cute look.  The lovely face, and shy pose certainly helped.  Like all Hyuuga, the girl had eyes that seemed permanently glazed over white, it was a scary look indeed - they seemed cold, like looking in the face of death. Somehow though, the eyes managed to make her look more cute, instead of less.  A thick coat, even thicker than Shino’s, graced her figure, which was hidden beneath the coat.  She was gently tapping her index fingers together in front of her chest in a nervous tick, a light blush adorning her cheeks.

Next to the Hyuuga-girl, finally, stood Haruna Sakura.  A girl in a red, lined in white, dress ending in flaps.  She had pink hair, a little wide forehead, and a red string tied in her head that kept the hair from that very same forehead.

“Uchiha Sasuke,” Iruka called and the boy in question took several disinterested steps forward. He casually pulled his hands from his pockets, and made a seal.

“Henge no Jutsu,” he practically muttered, and with a puff of smoke he transformed into an exact copy of Iruka-sensei.  The teacher nodded, and checked the Uchiha off the list. Another puff of smoke and Sasuke was back, casually walking to rejoin the line.

“Uzumaki Naruta,” Iruka called, a little bit more strained this time, looking at her with more intensity.

Hinata continued to tap her fingertips as Naruta took her first step forward.  “G-good luck, Naruta-chan,” the Hyuuga girl muttered shyly.

Naruta turned back half-way to look at the other girl, gave her a quick thumbs up and a wink, as she said, “Watch this, Hinata-chan.”

One of these days she’d pull the girl out of her shell, Naruta thought to herself as she took up position.  She gave Iruka a sweet look, that turned into an evil grin as formed the seals, “Sexy no Jutsu - Boy Version!”  Iruka was too late to stop the girl and after a puff of smoke a second Umino Iruka stood in the class room - naked, only a strategically placed puff of smoke that was quickly dispersing keeping a certain something to the imagination.  Iruka looked in shock - and secretly wished his body looked that good.  He was in great shape of course, but the perfected body in front of him would make Greek gods jealous - not in the least place because the package his fake version was given and was becoming visible was quite a bit more respectable than the average Greek god was given - and that was putting it mildly.

Hinata’s face looking at the transformation turned red like a tomato, and then she slumped unconscious.  Neither of the girls around her could grab her before falling as they were all looking with dropped jaws.  The boys showed faces in various stages of horror-induced constipation; except Uchiha Sasuke who just tsked and looked away in disgust, and Shikamaru who just looked away, because becoming horrified would be too troublesome.

“Seems you forgot something this morning, Iruka-sensei,” the fake Iruka spoke with a perfect imitation of his voice.  There was actually a momentary urge on Iruka’s part to see if he had on his clothes, but refrained as anger took its place.  With a puff of smoke Naruta returned, and smiled sweetly up at Iruka, the locks of hair that fell left and right perfectly framing her face and eyes making her look only more cute than she already was.

“STOP MAKING UP STUPID SKILLS, *NARUTA!!!*” Iruka screamed in her face.   Her smile didn’t lower one little bit.

*****

With an annoyed expression Naruta was scrubbing the Hokage Monument clean from the ‘damage’ she’d done to it.  Not surprisingly, she wasn’t exactly hurrying, some times managed to only spread the paint about instead of cleaning it off.  Iruka-sensei was sitting above her, on the Second’s nose.

“Oi, Naruta, you won’t get to go home until you’re done cleaning the Hokage Monument,” Iruka told her with a loud stern voice.

Naruta looked up at him with a dark expression, and said, “Like I give a damn.  It isn’t like there’s anyone there waiting for me.”  A pang of loss shot through the small girl’s heart.   Up until two weeks ago, from two months before that, one of three individuals had come by whenever they could - which was more often than not - and helped her to get her reading, math and some other basic skills up where it should be.  Two weeks ago, they had announced that it now was, and their nightly visits had become much, much less.  She understood it, of course, agreed with it too - they /did/ have families, friends, and such to go home to, and had been sacrificing their time with them to come by nearly every night - and now that the teaching was done, they came by much less, making it up to those families and friends.  Still, despite not blaming or being angry at them, the loss of the nightly visits still hurt.

Iruka looked down at the annoyed and somewhat brooding girl, and felt a familiar pain in his own chest.  Twelve years ago, the Nine-Tails had attacked, and both his parents had died defending the village.  Most of his life he had spent without them.  “Hey, Naruta-chan,” Iruka called with a light voice, making the girl look up with partially sad eyes, “if you finish cleaning, I’ll buy you ramen at Ichiraku’s.”

“YATTA!” Naruta yelled, and suddenly was the best and fastest cleaner that ever cleaned any stone monument.  Iruka smiled at the sight.

*****

“Hey, Old Cutie!” Naruta happily called as she hopped onto the stool of Ichiraku Ramen stand.  Iruka’s eyebrows raised lightly as he sat down.  Naruta had called the proprietor, Mr. Ichiraku himself, the very same thing last time he’d taken her here.  “A Naruta-Special Ramen on Iruka-sensei!”  That however was new.

The Old Cutie in question, a heavy-set man with a brunette, starting-to-recede hairline, laughed heartily at the greet.  “Naruta-chan, you keep flattering me like that and I’ll have to marry you one of these days.  Hey, Ayame!  Our best customer is here!”

“I heard!” the daughter’s voice called out, and popped up from wherever she’d been, “A special for her.  And father, don’t forget the other customer.”

Ichiraku once again laughed, this time a little embarrassed and said, “It’s the flirting of such a cute girl, Ayame, makes me all flustered and distracted.  Iruka?”

Iruka shook his head lightly, and was glad that Naruta had at least people like this.  “A standard pork ramen, Ichiraku.  But what’s a Naruta-special?”

The man laughed, while Ayame pointed out the dish on the menu stapled on the back wall, and explained, “Diet ramen with lots of vegetables, the ones that Naruta likes.”

Naruta giggled lightly, and tapped her belly as her teacher looked at her, “Gotta keep an eye on the figure, or the Old Cutie will be the only one wanting to marry me,” she answered the silent question with a wide smile.  Iraku frowned, and Naruta added, “Don’t worry, I’m not planning on turning into a skeleton, I already had ramen today.”

“But vegetables, I remember you telling me you didn’t like vegetables,” Iruka said a little surprised, as the sounds of ramen being prepared coming from behind the counter.  The smell, truth be told, already making his mouth water.  Ichiraku’s Ramen did make really good ramen.

“Gai-sensei told me that I needed more vegetables and fruit in my diet, just about more varied all around,” Naruta said with a big grin, and then shrugged.  “I’m doing okay on that, but there are times when I’m really in the mood for ramen, you know, so I asked the Old Cutie if there wasn’t a way to combine ramen, healthy and vegetables.”

“And a good thing too!” the man added with chuckle, “We got many more customers now, all women, all stopping by our humble stand since we added it to the menu.  It seems there aren’t many, if any, quick food stands around that have a low calorie and vegetable dish.”

Iruka’s eyes however were locked Naruta, and he said slowly, “Gai-sensei?  Maito Gai? He’s a jounin.  A jounin-instructor to a genin team.  He doesn’t teach at the academy . . . since when is he your sensei.”

“One Naruta-special and one pork ramen, for the esteemed customers,” the man announced and placed the bowls and two sets of eating sticks in front of two.

“Aha!” Naruta said with a grin, and broke the eating sticks apart.  Holding them above the bowl read to dig in, she announced, “Itadakimasu!”  Then she took her first mouth full of the vegetable stuffed diet ramen.  Once Naruta had gulped down her first mouthful she looked over at Iruka who hadn’t touched his food yet.  She looked up to see him still looked at her expectantly.  Not wanting to ruin her sensei’s meal, Naruta decided to tell her tale while eating.  She looked up and tapped her chin, thinking back.  How long exactly had it been? “Uh, I think it’s been two or three months ago, want me to tell what happened?”  The girl’s bright smile was leveled at the teacher, the sticks only just above the food in the white, red-rimmed bowl.

The message was clear - the bright smile even more.  Smiling Iruka took his own sticks and broke them apart, telling her, “Yes, tell me while we eat, Naruta!”

“Hai,” Naruta said brightly, preparing another bite as she started to tell.

~~O~~

Maito Gai had his team running around Konoha for training.  The man was dressed in a green spandex jumpsuit, orange legwarmers - holding enough weight to make a weightlifter dizzy - and his Jounin combat jacket.  A bowl cut made him look like Bruce Lee, if his large eyebrows didn’t completely destroy the image.  The training was nothing like he and his most devoted student Rock Lee, pretty much a miniature version of himself, did every morning and often late every evening, but even his other team members needed some endurance training, even if it wasn’t on the level of him and Rock Lee.  As the four person team ran past a training area where Naruta was throwing kunai and shuriken at some targets on a tree - multiple at the same time - Maito Gai turned his head to look at her.  The area was littered with kunai and shuriken, some had landed in front of the tree with the targets, even a few less than two meters away from where she stood, others were left and right, some hanging in bushes, and a few were indeed on the tree, one even in the rose of one target.

Naruta would never know, but in a different world where she was born a boy, just about the same event happened.  In that world, Maito Gai would see a boy working hard, and with a shiny smile think how the youth of Konoha was burning brightly with its power, perhaps even comment on it to his team.  In that world, he would simply continue to accompany his team on their run, confident that the boy’s hard work would pay off in the end.  There were, however, two key differences between the events here, and there.

The first difference was that Naruta was a cute girl with two long ponytails, that in some manner invoked Maito Gai’s paternal instincts, and his gaze would linger a little longer, just long enough to see Naruta throw a second set of projectiles.  The second difference, was that unlike the boy, Naruta’s arms were bare.  As such, Maito Gai would see Naruta’s muscles move, and this man was a taijutsu expert.  He knew the body and musculature so well, that he knew what punches and kicks an opponent would throw, along with openings he or she left, by merely looking at the opponent’s feet, and thus defeat him.  A little something he taught himself to beat the hypnotic effects of certain eyes.  As such, Maito Gai saw something anomalous, and instead of continuing in his run with his team, here, he would tell his team to continue on without him, and slowly walk over to study the anomaly.

Frustrated almost to the point of tears, a heavily breathing Naruta in her trademark orange and blue outfit, skirt and self-restyled jacket threw another set of projectiles, and watched as again only one hit anywhere near its target.  Exhausted she sank to her knees.  She shook head hard, shaking away the tears threatening to come, and saying to herself, *You will not cry, sissy girl.  The future Hokage cannot cry at every set back.  Get up, try again.*  With balled fists she forced herself back to her feet and checked if she had enough projectiles left for another throw, or if she had to go get some from where they stuck in the ground and the tree.

“Hello, young one,” a voice startled her and she whirled around, quickly wiping across her eyes to make sure that no tear that might have slipped out would be visible, a smile instantly on her face.  And she looked directly into the weirdest looking guy she’d ever seen, also one that exuded power, and confidence, not to mention smiled at her with a smile that she swore had flashed her a shiny star of light.  Which was freaky as the sun had just about finished setting, and it’d be weird enough if it were simply light reflecting off of the guys teeth.  “I’m Maito Gai, Jounin sensei of one last year’s graduating genin team.  And who might you be?  Working so hard your fires of youth caught my attention!” the man smiled again, while giving her a thumbs up, and another one of those flashes of light came from his teeth.

It did not take long for Naruta to make up her mind.  This man looked at her with a warm eyes and a smile - maybe even too warm a smile - none of the cold eyes she was used to and plagued her nightmares.  There were only two other people she could remember that didn’t look at her with those cold eyes - Grandpa Hokage, but not surprisingly she hardly ever saw him, and Iruka Sensei, the ninja academy teacher that sometimes even took her out for Ramen. Thus, hoping the man was the genuine article, she answered, “Uzumaki Naruta.”

Maito Gai had known that of course, the orange clad, prankster and demon container’s reputation preceded her, but it seemed best to make formal introductions.  “Uzumaki Naruta! It seems the fire of youth burns bright inside of you!  Such diligent training I have seen in but few!”

“I will be Hokage one day, and surpass all the previous ones!” Naruta confirmed with a big smile on her face.

Gai knelt down to one need, looking serious at Naruta for a moment, and then exclaimed, “Yosh!  The fires may burn brighter in you than in anyone else, Naruta-chan!  You even make my own burn brighter!  I can do no else than let you use my kunai for this noble goal!  Naruta-chan!”  The man presented a kunai from his pack, and Naruta looked dubiously at him and his offer.  After a moment of contemplating the man’s sincerity or if she was just being had, she tentatively took the kunai, then smiled.

Okay, she decided as she faced the tree with the four crosses to mark as targets.  One kunai she could do pretty well, multiple ones were still too much for her.  She’d show the guy what she was made of.  She threw the kunai and it veered off to the left missing the tree by at least a meter.  Naruta blanched, embarrassed how bad that had been, wondering if the guy was now packing up, or if that had been a trick kunai to make her feel stupid.  Thus contemplating she missed Maito Gai nod thoughtfully as if in confirmation.  “Yosh!  Again!”  He held another of his own kunai.

Naruta looked at the kunai and took it silently, and threw it.  It went just as far wide as the first time, only on the other side of the tree.  “Again,” Gai said, this time his tone was different, serious, commanding, there was no brokering for another option.  Naruta took the offered kunai, and threw it.  This time it only barely missed the tree on the left side.  “Again,” Gai said, a soft gentle tone this time.  Once again she threw a newly offered Kunai, and this time it was just above right the middle of the etched cross that was the target.  “Yosh,” Gai said gently, nodding.  He brought out four kunai, and said, “Four at a time.”

Naruta looked at him with large asking eyes for a moment, and he gave her an uncharacteristic silent encouraging nod.  A few moments later four kunai flew through the air. The first, the lowest one, landed just left of the lowest cross.  The second above that, landed squarely in the middle of the edge.  The third the same way, at least, as close to the middle as it could get for there was one already there from a previous attempt.  The fourth, landed only just below the middle.  Naruta stared at the result for a moment, Gai waiting patiently.  Her face brightened, and then turned into a huge smile.  A moment later she jumped into the air, and screamed, “YATTA!  I did it!  I did it!”  She stopped jumping and looked at the tree with the targets a few moments longer.  Her smile faded, and she asked, “But why could I suddenly do it?”

Gai laid out an amused burst off air and handed her another one of his kunai.  “Hit the tree behind this one,” he offered with smile that threatened to grow in a shiny smile.

“What?” Naruta asked, flipping her head toward him, the tails flinging about cutely with the movement.  “How am I supposed to do that?”

“Yosh!” Gai said, nodding in acknowledgment at the question, and he explained, “Think about the difference between how you threw your own kunai and mine.  Then stop thinking about it, and just do it.”

Naruta frowned, her mind going over the differences, testing a little by moving her arm about, and thinking about why she could suddenly throw straight with Gai’s kunai, and now another piece of the puzzle.  Then she stopped thinking about it, and threw the kunai.  It twisted around its own axis, and the handle and thus point seemed twisted back and forth, up and down seemingly randomly, but it smoothly curved her target tree on its left, turned slowly right, and then just chipped the tree behind her target tree on the left side, falling to the ground almost immediately.

“That was very good, Naruta-chan!” Gai exclaimed with a raised thumb and a large grin that once again gave a shiny sparkle.  Naruta looked surprised at the kneeling man, and then down, her thoughts once again going back to how she could throw more than acceptably well with Gai’s kunai, but couldn’t really hit anything with her own.  Gai’s open hand appeared in her view below her.  She looked up for a moment, and then pulled out a kunai of her own and placed it on Gai’s hand.  The man examined it for a moment, and then nodded.  “Yosh,” he said with a sad voice.  He took her hand led her thumb along a slight hump, then onward to tiny chip and a few more uneven patches, and finally to a tiny tiny crack she could just barely feel.  “Feel those?” he asked, and Naruta nodded, the estimation of the man going up and it was pretty much through the roof to begin with - he had /seen/ in seconds what she hadn’t seen in over a year, and could barely feel.  “Now feel along this one,” Gai said handing out one of his own.  The sides were smooth all around.

“They sold me . . .” Naruta started then trailed off, looking down, feeling a familiar resentment, pain and anger inside of her grow to new proportions.  She knew the people in the village hated her for no apparent reason - but this . . . defective equipment might mean she’d die if she ever got to go on a mission.  She shrank a little more in on herself, unable to find a way to deal with the newest revelation, one she’d refused to allow herself to see.

Maito Gai watched the girl’s reaction with a pain in his own heart.  For all her brightness and fires of youth burning in her, there was an obvious darkness there, a darkness that threatened to consume those beautiful fires, anger and resentment he could feel radiating off of her easily, and he was afraid it even started heading toward an intent to kill.  He sighed softly and looked up at the slowly darkening late afternoon sky, and thought, *Forgive me, Hokage-sama, but I will have to break your law.  It was a noble effort, one that probably worked in the beginning, but now it’s killing her.  Soon her fires of youth will be extinguished and that would be a tragedy, for her, and for all of us.*

“Yosh!  Do you know why they treat you like this, Naruta-chan?” Gai asked with a large smile again, and Naruta looked up at him.  She shook her head ‘no’, her pony tails flopping cutely back and forth again, her eyes still simmering with the darkness inside her.  “Do you know what happened on your day of birth, Naruta-chan?”

“Uh . . .” Naruta said, thinking hard.  First, what was her birthday again?  She never celebrated it, nobody celebrated it, so she never kept track.  Tenth October, right?  She gave herself a mental nod, yes, that was it.  She’d just turned twelve.  Ten October twelve years ago, what happened . . .  “The Nine-Tails attacked,” she said with slight amazement, she’d never realized she’d been born on /that/ day of all days.

“Yes, and do you think a mere mortal man, even as great as the Fourth Hokage could destroy a demon so powerful it could cause typhoons with but a single swish of its tail, and crumble mountains with another?” Gai-sensei asked her solemnly.  He found all this solemness was bad for the mood, better get through this quickly so the fires of youth could once more burn brightly.

Naruta looked the man, her newest friend - it was not hard for Naruta to consider someone her friend.  Don’t look at her with those cold, hate-filled eyes the average person in Konoha looked at her with, was enough really.  Very few fit that profile, there was Old Cutie Ichiraku and his daughter Ayame from the ramen stand, and Grandpa Hokage, but the first were just venders, and the latter was the Hokage and she didn’t see him often.  The final one that fit that profile, was Iruka-sensei, and he was the one she truly considered her first real grown up friend, the man that sometimes bought her ramen, the first one that acknowledged her as more than a screw up, a girl to be hated, or a joke.  He saw passed all that, gave her help, tips and pointers, and here there was another that was doing that for her.  Her thoughts were divided between that marvel and his words, his question.  Could the Fourth really have killed such a monster, and then her birthday, and the way people looked at her, what they called her sometimes along with all the other names, ‘demon brat’.  She never fully understood the name, but now . . .  “I’m-I’m . . . am I . . .?” she muttered out.

“No, Naruta-chan, you are not the monster.  You are its prison, and its prison guard rolled into one,” Gai said with a grin, and placed his right index finger gently on her belly button.  She looked down at it, and felt Gai manipulate a little chakra with that finger, and where her tight blue undershirt did not obscure her skin from sight, some black circles and symbols appeared.  “He sealed the monster in you, a just born baby was the only place he could seal it.  You are a hero, Naruta-chan.  A guardian of Konoha, you keep the Nine-Tails locked up.  That is the way the Fourth wanted Konoha to see you.”  Gai sighed deeply, looking down for a moment, then looked up into the deep blue eyes of Naruta.  “Sadly, fear, anger, and resentment, make it that they don’t.”

Naruta went through a myriad of emotions.  Starting with pain at horror of being the monster, then shock and confusion about being a prison, elation at being a hero and Fourth Hokage, possibly the greatest of them all, considering her one, and finally back to the dark resentment and a growing anger at the villagers.  “Is that an excuse?” she asked darkly, then looked into Gai’s eyes, “Does that mean they can just . . .”  She held up her defective kunai.

“No, Naruta-chan.  They are all bad people for letting their fires of youth be dowsed by their fear and anger.  It is a reason, however, they are not evil people.  Evil people need no reason to hurt others, they simply do so out of their own selfish desires!  So if deep down they are good people, Naruta-chan, what do you think happens if you take away the reason?” Gai-sensei spoke with his trademark loud and boisterous voice, once again finished with a smile that had light twinkling in Naruta’s eyes, threatening to blind her, even.  Naruta grinned, having an idea, but Gai-sensei happily voiced it, “They’ll feel stupid, bad, guilty, very, very sorry, and will desperately find a way to make it up.  They’re youthful fires can burn brightly once more!  Yosh!”

Gai watched as Naruta grinned, and her right arm and fist trembled lightly.  For Naruta this was more than just any revelation, it was more than an acknowledgment.  For more than a year she’d been screaming she’d be Hokage one day, and have all sorts of derisive comments thrown at it.  It had only made her scream it all the more loudly of course, and be more certain it should be her goal, her dream, but there had always been doubts, the darker side of her rearing its ugly head.  Now, Gai allayed every one of those doubts, she’d been on the exact right track all along.  Her right hand shot up in the sky, the index extending from the fist, and at the top of her lungs, she yelled, “THAN I’LL MAKE DOUBLY SURE I’LL BECOME HOKAGE AND MAKE THEM ALL ACKNOWLEDGE MY STRENGTH!!”

“YOSH!” Gai agreed, his heart warming at the bright grin now adorning the girl in front of him.  He stood himself, mimicking Naruta’s gesture, and he added, “YOUR FIRES OF YOUTH BURN BRIGHTER STILL, NARUTA-CHAN!”  Their arms came down, Naruta laughed and giggled, and Gai gave her one more of those twinkling smiles, and asked, “And how hard are you willing to work for that goal, Naruta-chan!”

“I’ll do anything!” Naruta happily exclaimed - she didn’t need to think about that answer at all.

“Yosh!  Then I’ll give you an invitation, Naruta-chan.  Me and my most devoted student Rock Lee, start our taijutsu training at six in the morning every day, if you’re willing to work harder than you’ve ever worked, you can join us tomorrow at that time on training ground nine,” Gai told her loudly.

Six in the morning!?  Naruta blanched.  That was early, really, really early.  She set her face with determination, and nodding, she said with a steel voice that surprised even Gai, “I’ll be there!”

It was at that moment that Gai’s team returned from their round around Konoha.  “Gai-sensei!” the Gai-clone called out loudly, “we have completed our round.”  The other two team mates became visible to Naruta as well, a brunette girl in a formal-looking wrap-around dress, and her hair done in two buns.  The last was a guy with long hair and the same weird all white, pupilless-eyes that her classmate Hinata-chan had.

“LEE!” Gai-sensei called back with passion, “Tomorrow you will gain a new training and sparring partner who’s fires of youth may burn brighter than even ours!”

“TRULY GAI-SENSEI!” the clone yelled out with passion, his right hand in a fist in front of him.  And was Naruta seeing right?  Were there really bonfires burning brightly in Rock Lee’s eyes?  “It would be an honor to meet such a person!”

“She’s standing right here, Lee!  Your new Naruta-neechan!” Gai exclaimed with a similar look that Naruta didn’t see since her eyes were on Gai’s team.  The girl looked backward to the guy, and muttered what Naruta suspected was ‘she?’  The guy with the white eyes shrugged.  Naruta in the meantime was marveling.  The hand on her head that exuded pride and confidence in her made her feel eight feet tall, and she didn’t have to think about being considered the fuzzy-brows little sister.  Some other might blanch and runaway screaming, Naruta’s little heart just filled with marvel.  She had after all, no parents, no siblings, up until recently nothing and nobody at all.  She’s happily take anything she could get.

“Ooooaah!  Naruta-neechan, I promise I will not let you down!  I will keep up with the brightness of your fires!” Rock Lee exclaimed, his right hand extended with an upward thumb, and flashing Naruta a same shiny smile as Gai-sensei was flashing her all the time.

“Well said, Lee!” Gai exclaimed, his own right hand extending instantly in his own thumbs up sign.

“Thank you, Gai-sensei!” Lee returned, his eyes tearing up.  The girl and the boy rolled their eyes at each other.

“Lee!”

“Gai-sensei!”  Even Naruta started to wonder what she’d gotten herself into.

“And Tenten,” Gai changed the topic and settled on the girl, “I believe I have found a way for you to train throwing things with effect better.”

“Really?” Tenten asked, suddenly not annoyed anymore.  Gai nodded with a twinkling smile, twirling one of Naruta’s defective kunai around his right index finger.  The significance of which completely lost on the brunette girl.

“Yosh!” Gai-sensei exclaimed in confirmation, “but I still have a few more things to discuss and test out with the originator of the training method . . .” Gai-sensei said, tapping his hand gently on the brightly smiling Naruta, “. . . so you’ll have to make one more round without me.”

“YOSH!” Rock Lee screamed, his left arm and index finger into the air, bonfires once more burning in his eyes.  “Tenten!  Neji!  Let us show Naruta-neechan the fires of our youth! ONWARD!”  And the Gai-clone was off running.

Tenten turned around and she and Neji debated silently whether or not they should comment, and finally just settled on a mutual, defeated, grumbling sigh and started off after their team mate.

~~O~~

Naruta finished her story, having made sure not to mention Gai telling about the demon in her belly button as she didn’t want to get the man into trouble, and looked up at Iruka-sensei with a smile.  Neither of them, nor Old Cutie Ichiraku noticing Ayame’s fist and eyes squinted in rage.  Iruka looked astounded at his favorite student, and repeated back, “You are training with Maito Gai, /the/ Maito Gai, every morning.  The one in icky green spandex?”  Iruka didn’t trust himself to talk about the revelation that Naruta’s equipment had been essentially sabotaged.

“Yeah,” Naruta answered brightly, nodding.

The reason why Iruka didn’t trust himself to talk, showed itself at that moment.  “*I’m going to kill them all!*” the voice sounded as if coming from a demon.  Ayame’s rage washed over them, making itself known like a killing intent that terrified them all - which was no mean feat for someone who was no ninja.  “*That Uchiha brat a few years ago shouldn’t have stopped with his own clan, he should’ve finished off all of Konoha.  And I’ll finish it for him!*”  Iruka had been to afraid his own anger would show through if he broached that subject, and he’d knew it only embarrass Naruta.

“Nah, Ayame, leave it be,” Naruta tried to wave Ayame’s anger away, her other arm, her left, holding on to the back of her head.  A light blush was on her cheeks.  Iruka nodded inwardly - he was right, Naruta was just embarrassed.

Naruta’s bright smile calmed Ayame down enough for her too see facts - one girl ramen cook versus a village of perfectly trained killers, she wouldn’t stand a chance - and she nodded.  “It’s just wrong, Naruta,” Ayame said softly.

“Don’t worry, Ayame, once I’m Hokage and the village has acknowledged my strength, they’ll all feel guilty and be groveling at my feet for forgiveness.  It’s all good,” Naruta spoke with a bright smile, sticking her right thumb up to Ayame and the Old Cutie.  Both smiled gently.

Iruka shuddered lightly.  For a moment he sought he saw a shiny, blinking light on Naruta’s teeth.  He really hoped that the infamous ‘Nice Guy pose’ was the only thing Naruta picked up from the crazy green-clothed Jounin; not counting the actually jutsu, mostly taijutsu no doubt, the green-clad weirdo taught her of course.

“Naruta-chan,” Iruka started thoughtfully, and the girl turned back to her teacher, “do you not know who and what the Hokage’s are?”

“Of course, I know, I’m going to take the Hokage name after all.  They are the most powerful ninja of the village, and protect it.  The Fourth gave his life to defeat the Nine-Tails,” Naruta stated with a grin, struggling a little to keep the smile on her face, now that she knew how the Fourth Hokage did that.

“Then why did you do that to the monument?” Iruka asked slightly confused.

Naruta looked up at him, and then smiled, “/Because/ I’m going to be Hokage, and surpass all the previous ones.  It’s to tell everyone, including those four up there, I’m coming.”

Iruka peered in the girl’s sparkling blue eyes, having turned back to him after briefly following a pointing finger toward the monument.  Then he grinned, and placed his right hand on her head, gently ruffling her hair and said, “You keep training and getting better, Naruta-chan, and you might just make that.”

“Hai!” Naruta happily answer.

“But that only works if you go to bed now and make sure you’re on time for the Academy Graduation Exam tomorrow morning,” he pointed out to her.

“True!  Old Cutie!  Ayame!  See you tomorrow!” Naruta shouted loudly and then slipped off the stool as the ramen stand owners returned the farewell.  “And Iruka-sensei, you watch tomorrow, I won’t just pass, I’ll astound you!”  And then she happily ran off, leaving three smiling adults looking after her.

*****

“Hey, Sasuke-kun, I knew I could find you here!” Naruta called with a sweet smile, walking down the small grassy incline.  A small lake was in front of her, where Uchiha Sasuke, the number 1 rookie genius was sitting, doing his usual brooding.  With daylight nearly gone, the ninja genius seemed exceptionally drool worthy.

“Nh,” was all the boy returned.  Naruta easily translated it as, ‘Of course you found me here.  You’ve been joining me here often enough.  You’re being annoying again.’

Naruta giggled, and as she reached the sandy path just before the dock started, she asked, “Wanna spar?”

This time the brooding Uchiha bothered to look around, putting his piercing gaze on Naruta, making her heart flutter for a moment.  He was /so/ hot! *Uchiha Naruta,* she thought to herself with a light shiver.

“Why do you always insist on getting your ass kicked, Naruta?” Sasuke asked with a dark tone.

“Because one of these days I’m going to surprise you, Sasuke-kun.  And after that it’s straight on to the Hokage name!” Naruta told him with a huge grin.  Sasuke grunted.  “Oh, come on, for me?” Naruta added, giving him her best puppy dog eyes.

Sasuke sighed, and as he got up, he said, “Fine.  If you like to be beaten so much.”   Disinterested, with his hands remaining in his pockets as usual, the Uchiha casually walked over to the path, and stood across from her.  “Let’s go then,” he muttered, hands remaining in his pockets.

Naruta smirked at him, and with a flick the bands on her upper arms released, and fell down onto the gravel with a heavy thud.  Sasuke’s eyes actually widened slightly.  The wrist bands followed with the same heavy thud, and finally the stylish shin protectors joined them, with another heavy thud.  That had to be some twenty to thirty kilograms at least, the Uchiha realized with surprise.  “Here I come, Sasuke-kun!” Naruta announced and surged forward, throwing a rapid jab to Sasuke’s head.

Sasuke’s left hand shot up from his pocket and blocked the punch just in time.  He looked at the connecting arms with slightly widened eyes.  “Oh!” Naruta said with a sweet voice, “Did I actually force my Sasuke-kun to use his hands finally?”

“Tseh,” came the reply, sounding somewhat angry.  Naruta once again easily translated as, ‘You’ve improved, I’m actually impressed, but I’ll never tell you that; let me show you my disdain by kicking your ass - ‘cause I’m not /your/ Sasuke-kun!’

Sasuke’s right foot rose rapidly toward Naruta’s chin, and her left hand quickly deflected it, taking a step back.  Sasuke’s left hand already came for her face.  She grabbed it and twisted with the momentum, pulling the Uchiha up and over.  The genius wasn’t so easily outdone though, and he twisted around in the air, grabbed her arm with his other hand as well, and brought his feet forward.  His feet smashed squarely in Naruta’s stomach and with a moan of pain she was launched backward.  Sasuke’s movement was stopped by the collision, and so he dropped unceremoniously and unbecoming an Uchiha down on his back side, so he got up especially quickly.

Naruta grunted as she slammed on the floor herself, her body jerking backward, her head dangerously close to slamming into the ground.  She stopped her fall by slamming her hands on the ground, and she got up almost as fast as Sasuke did.

Naruta smiled sweetly at the slightly frowning Sasuke, despite the throbbing where her feet had connected.  They surged forward, and exchanged several blows they blocked or avoided, and then Naruta shrank down and performed a leg sweep.  He easily avoided it by jumping forward with a crouching jump, but she immediately flipped backward into a handstand, and her right foot came straight for him.  He was actually surprised, but dove forward, hands first and kicking his body up, thus avoiding the kick.  He landed on his hands, flipped forward, and then twisted backward, forming a powerful roundhouse kick.

Naruta jumped high suddenly, over the roundhouse kick and started twisting herself around in the air.  “Konoha Senpuu!” she exclaimed, her legs moving up and in a areal spinning kick.  Still imbalanced from the missed roundhouse kick, Sasuke brought up his hands to desperately defend against it.  The first two kicks he blocked, but blocking them still meant he was hit and it further imbalanced him.  The third kick became unavoidable, even if practically diving backward meant it was only a glancing hit to his right cheek.

Naruta landed and quickly turned to face him, but more to confirm if what she felt was true.  It was.  Sasuke felt his right cheek, wincing when he touched the painful throbbing place.  He pulled his finger back from the smudge and looked at it with a little surprise.   “Yes!” Naruta exclaimed with a grin, making a triumphant fist, “I finally managed to land a hit!”  Sasuke gave an annoyed grunt, and Naruta took him in closer.  Did she really see a light sheen of sweat on his forehead?  She did.  “Ooh, Sasuke-kun!” she said with a sweet innocent look in her eyes, “You actually broke a sweat having to fight me.”  She smiled and gave him a warning index finger, “Better watch out, I smell that and I might loose all self-control and jump your bones.”

“You wish you could,” Sasuke all but grunted, and suddenly moved forward.  Naruta’s eyes widened, and managed to only just block the first much faster punch.  The second punch was a feint and he grabbed ahold of her block.  A palm thrust to her chest, followed to one sharply upward into her chin was all it took.  Before she slammed onto the ground, all was dark.

*****

With a groan Naruta slowly opened her eyes, and then forced herself to sit up.  She looked around, she’d been lying next to Sasuke on the dock, with him sitting in his customary position - one leg over the edge, the other foot on the dock, his knee underneath his chin - brooding.

Both her feet and lower legs dangling over the edge, Naruta noticed her weights lying next to her.  Sasuke had obviously pulled her away from her previous position, and had taken the time to place her weights next to her.  “Ugh, I hate it when that happens,” she muttered disappointed, and started putting the weights back on.

“You have improved a lot,” Sasuke commented from his position.

“Oh, such care and emotion!  I’m touched, Sasuke-kun,” Naruta smiled at him.

Sasuke turned his head to put his piercing, and heart-fluttering gaze directly on Naruta, and asked in a frosty tone, “Care and emotion?”

Naruta’s smile turned to a grin, and explained, “You bothered with an entire sentence, Sasuke-kun.”  Sasuke grumbled.  “See what I mean,” she asked smiling.

“You ready for tomorrow?” Sasuke asked her with a tone that said he didn’t care. Naruta knew better.

“Oh, yeah!  This time, I’m going to ace that exam!” Naruta exclaimed with a finger pointing to the sky, a big smile on her face.  “About that exam, it’s about time I get to bed, Sasuke-kun.  You wouldn’t be willing to join me, would you?” Naruta asked with an ‘innocent’ smile.  The Uchiha just looked at her.  Naruta laughed, and as she turned around to leave, said, “See you tomorrow, Sasuke.”

“Hey, Naruta,” Sasuke called, and a smiling Naruta turned back around, “why do you always makes those stupid jokes, turn everything into one, and laugh or smile constantly.”

Naruta smiled a moment longer, looking at him, weighing her options, and then it disappeared as she turned back around.  Sasuke was surprised.  He’d never seen such a serious expression on her face at all.  She reached him, and stayed standing over his sitting form. “Remember when I first joined you here?”  He nodded.  “Simply put, Sasuke.  We are similar, but not the same,” Naruta started her explanation.  “When I found out that you were alone, like me, however bad it sounds, I felt elated that I was not the only one.  Back then, I almost didn’t come down.  You still have everyone in Konoha doting on you, I have nobody.  Only hate-filled eyes, Sasuke.”  Sasuke was a little taken aback by that statement, he had never really bothered to look at how Naruta was treated.  More so, though, he could see into the serious eyes of Naruta, and for several moments, the depth of her pain was open to him, and it was a shocking depth.  It was looking into pools of complete misery.  “I couldn’t bare the possibility that even you, so similar to me, would reject me; so for a while I thought that I would have to be your equal before I would approach you . . . it wasn’t until I realized that me as a girl being your equal would probably have you run away sooner than the opposite, that I went and talked with you.

“In other words, Sasuke.  Smiles, and anything that makes me smile, even fake smiles . . . they’re the only thing that make this life bearable,” Naruta finished, leaving her serious face on a bit longer, keeping Sasuke entranced as his mind went over her words.  Suddenly the serious face was gone, and the sweet smile returned, “Which means you should smile yourself once in a while, better yet, quite a bit more often than that, Sasuke-kun!  Never smile or laugh, and your loneliness will only get worse.”  Then she leant forward and placed a caring kiss on his forehead, conveying her care for him.  Sasuke’s eyes widened and Naruta straightened back up.  “Ooh!” she exclaimed, happily bringing her hands together in front of her chest. She turned and walked away again, “Sasuke-kun let me kiss his forehead!  I gotta be serious more often!  Next times lips, then tongue . . .”  She looked over her shoulder as surreptitiously as a bull in front of red, smiling, and saw a ghost of a smile filter over the Uchiha’s face.  “A smile!  Sasuke-kun smiled!  I’ll melt his heart yet!  Now on to the full fledged belly laugh!”

Sasuke shook his head, but somehow he couldn’t quite keep the corners of his mouth from turning up.

*****

Naruta grinned a secret smile as she waited her turn.  She, and the others taking the exam, were sitting in the class room.  One by one the students in front of her filed out as one of the two examiners - Iruka-sensei, or Mizuki-sensei came to call one.  A short while later a happy student would rush passed the door.  Then a few moments after that, the teacher would once again reach the door, and call out a name.

Finally only she and Yamanaka Ino remained, and her name was called.  Ino let her hand slump down on the table, saying, “I hate always waiting to last.  I should change my name.”

Naruta payed her no mind, and slowly walked toward the door, waited till he was turned back around to walk to the examination room.  Quickly she made the seals for the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, started up the technique, and held it there . . .

~~O~~

“Bunshin no Jutsu!” Naruta exclaimed happily.  There was a far too great puff of smoke, and then the bunshin - an illusionary copy, essentially a clone, of herself - appeared.  It was sickly, its colors washed out, it was lying on the floor, and its head was trapped in its stomach. Another puff of smoke and the clone disappeared.   Naruta’s excitement disappeared along with it, her shoulders slumping.

The woods around them only had the sounds of Rock Lee’s yells counting out the number of punches he was slamming into the log.  Or maybe there were more sounds, but they were just overpowered by Rock Lee’s enthusiastic counting.  Maito Gai stood watching Naruta thoughtfully, his right hand holding his chin.

“Do it again, Naruta-chan!” Maito Gai exclaimed heartily, finishing, “No straining this time!”  There was something he started suspecting having taken on the responsibility to train Naruta in the use of jutsu as well - at the very least the academy level techniques so she could graduate.

Naruta looked confused for a moment, and then happily said, “Hai!”  She concentrated, stopped herself from straining, and once again performed the jutsu, “Bunshin no jutsu!”  Once again the clone appeared, once again sickly - at least its head was now in the right position.

“I see,” Gai said thoughtfully for a moment and then grinned; his teeth giving off its trademark blink.  “Naruta-chan, have you ever heard of ‘Chakra Control’?”

Naruta looked down depressed, and nodded her head slowly.  “It’s how well you can control chakra, apparently I suck at it,” she said with a small voice.

“Not so down, Naruta-chan!  Do not forget the fires of your youth!” Gai exclaimed with another shiny smile.  Rock Lee actually gave a ‘yosh’ at the exclaim and redoubled his efforts. “I think you’re above average, actually,” Gai spoke with a wide grin.  Naruta just looked at him with a gaping mouth, not believing what Gai said.  Not that she had that little self-esteem, it was just the complete opposite of what any teacher and fellow student had every told her. “Your chakra capacity and stamina is amazing, Naruta-chan!  It is greater than my own!”

“It is?” Naruta-chan asked.

A surprised, “It is, Gai-sensei!?” came from Rock Lee before he resumed his training. The boy could hardly imagine a jounin be his Gai-sensei’s superior in anything, much less his Naruta-neechan.

“It is!” Gai stated with a grin and a nod, “You were taught to pull out your chakra for a jutsu and when it didn’t quite go right, to put in more, to compensate for your lack of control, right!?”

Naruta-chan nodded, and added, “That’s what they taught us.”

“For you, that is completely wrong, Naruta-chan!” Gai said with a shiny grin, “The first time you pull out chakra it already is so much it overloads the technique!  Putting in even more, will only make it worse!  That’s why your last clone was better than the earlier ones.”

Naruta looked perplexed at the revelation, getting the urge to look at where her clones had been lying, but not giving in.  “Simply put, Naruta-chan!” Gai explained with a large grin - for once not a shiny one, “Most people start out with but a trickle of chakra, as they grow older and more powerful, they may push them up to be a faucet fully open.  But you, Naruta-chan, you’ve started out with a fire hose at full blast!  It is too much for the size of your body. Attempting a low-chakra jutsu will therefor go completely wrong, can you imagine?”

Naruta-chan blushed lightly as she nodded.  Remembering a prank she thought had been particularly inspired, until the fire hose she needed tossed her about, even going into the air with her hanging on for dear life.  She’d been too light and become the fire hose’s toy instead it being her tool.  Iruka-sensei had finally saved her further embarrassed by closing the water dial - then scolded her heavily.

“Yosh!  The control you have over your chakra is therefore very bad, but for you to have as little control as you do have, your chakra control would have to be above average,” Gai explained a little thoughtfully while Naruta happily nodded.  She got a compliment, and her sensei had just told her she was very powerful - Uzumaki Naruta couldn’t be happier.  “I will give you several chakra control exercises that you will have to do whenever you have the chance - the more control you have over all that chakra the better.  But more importantly, you must work on limiting the amount of chakra you release whenever you do a jutsu, or for that matter anything.”

“How do I do that!?” Naruta shouted out happily, barely able to keep herself from jumping about.  Actually, scratch ‘barely’, she was making small hops already that were threatening to turn into a high jumps.

“Ah, well, I do not know, Naruta-chan!” Gai-sensei said loudly but nervously, the nervous laugh for once not blinding Naruta’s eyes.  “I have but little chakra capacity.  I can make but a few jutsu before I run out.  It’s why I became the best at taijutsu I could be, to compensate for that weakness.  So, limiting my chakra is not something that ever came up!  In fact, I don’t think it’s /ever/ come up with anyone!  Naruta-chan!  You will have to apply your youthful spirit to his problem, and find out how to do it yourself through hard work!  Trial and error!”

“Hai, Gai-sensei!” Naruta exclaimed with a smile.

“Yosh!” Rock Lee exclaimed interrupting his training loudly, sticking out a raged right thumb to Naruta, “Another genius of hard work will emerge!”  He smiled his bright, shiny smile, and gave a wink.  Naruta was confused, but didn’t have time to ask what that meant, for . . .

“Lee!” Gai-sensei exclaimed, tears flowing freely.

“Gai-sensei!” Lee returned and the two went to hug each other.  Correction, Naruta noticed, they came to hug her.  Gai-sensei went down to his knee and a moment late she was enveloped in a crushing double hug.

“Lee!  Naruta-chan!” Gai-sensei exclaimed, crying.

Naruta was being hugged.  The warmth of caring individuals enveloped her body along with their limbs and other body part.  It was supportive, it felt good - it was the very first hug Naruta ever found herself in.  Iruka-sensei may have been the first one to treat her - well, like he treated everyone else - but this . . . some happy tears spilled from her eyes.  This was very nice.

“Gai-sensei!  Naruta-neechan!” Rock Lee exclaimed enthusiastically.

“Lee-niisan!  Gai-sensei!” Naruta exclaimed just as enthusiastically, and then cringed.   Okay, this was just getting embarrassing now - actually, it already was.  And the two spandex-clad men didn’t seem about to stop, exclaiming two names again.  What was going on with these two?  She was a /girl/, who’d /never/ been hugged before and this was embarrassing to /her/.  And these two /men/ showed not a momentary sign of finding this in anyway awkward.   There was definitely something wrong with them.  It wasn’t a bad kind of wrong, and she wouldn’t trade their companionship for anything, and would happily continue to consider them friends and big brothers - but there was definitely something /wrong/ with these two.

*****

About two months later

Behind Naruta, Tenten and Lee were in a light sparring match.  “Bunshin no Jutsu!” Naruta exclaimed, and the clone appeared.  It was standing.  It had all its body parts in the right position, its pony tails fluttered like hair should, and its colors weren’t washed out . . . its skin was greenish sickly though.  It also promptly started wobbling about.

The clone raised a drunken finger as it asked, “Hey, how come I’m drunk?”  Then it toppled over, slammed into the ground, and disappeared in a puff.

Naruta’s shoulders slumped.  “Much better, Naruta-chan!  I can see the hard work fueled by the fires of youth have improved your control!” Maito Gai exclaimed with a large grin once again blinking bright light at Naruta, his upward thumb once more sticking out.  “However, I fear you will not master the Bunshin no Jutsu before the graduation exam at this rate.”

Naruta looked up, pain in her eyes.  “Gai-sensei!  Can I not get a special examination like Lee did?  He’s proven he’s a good ninja without ninjutsu or genjutsu!” Naruta exclaimed painfully, the statement that Lee behind took as a huge compliment made him falter and getting a solid punch from Tenten in his face, who gleefully pushed her novel advantage.  “I can do ninjutsu, I can disband genjutsu, /and/ have gotten much stronger.  I just can’t do jutsu that take a small amount of chakra - yet!”

Gai laughed gently, “No!  Naruta, remember what I said about your pranks and why?”

“Uh,” Naruta hesitated a moment, still pained at her teacher apparently expecting her to fail again - unless he had something else up his sleeve, “Continue, because it’s good training in subterfuge, trap detection, avoidance, and disabling.  It makes everyone keep looking at me as the ‘dead last’, and this is good because other village can send some information gatherers here easily as people hiring for missions.”

“Exactly, Naruta!” Gai took over, giving her another ‘Nice Guy Pose’, and explained further, “They can easily take a look around genins and chuunins, a look the academy, and make notes on their skills.  Konoha does the same.  It’s much better potential future enemies think you’re nothing and then surprise them, than that they know everything there is to know. And a special examination might tip those people off not everything is as it seems, Naruta-chan.”

Naruta nodded weakly.  “Don’t worry Naruta-chan, if there is no other way, I’ll make sure you get that special examination, but first, we’ll try subterfuge,” Gai-sensei told her with another grin.  “Yosh!  Prepare your youthful spirit, Naruta-chan!  For I will learn you a new jutsu!  Behold!  Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!”  Gai made the seals and a moment later a clone of himself stood next to him.

“Huh?” Naruta was a little confused.  Shadow Clone?  What was the difference?

Two smiling Gai’s, both smiles shining for all too see, took a step forward and placed their right and left hand on her head.  She could feel /both/ hands!  “This is the Kage Bunshin, Naruta-chan!” the real Gai explained with his usual grin.  “It creates an actual body, it can be used in battle, the more advanced versions can even use jutsu.  The more chakra you put into performing the technique the more advanced they become, but there are limitations.  Most notably chakra drain.”  The clone disappeared with a puff of smoke, and Gai sagged through his knees, and Naruta knew it wasn’t just to be at the same height as she was.  Breathing heavily, Gai continued, “Once created, your remaining chakra gets spread evenly across all your clones, and this is dangerous.  Once dispersed forcefully by an enemy or otherwise, all but a tiny bit of chakra returns to you.  If you disperse them yourself by ending the jutsu, you can retrieve more of it, and the better chakra control you have the more you can pull back, but never much.  The more clones you create, and the more you have your clones do, especially jutsu, the greater the chakra drain is.  It is a jounin level technique, Naruta-chan, and a forbidden one because of how quickly it drains chakra.  Even jounin like me, are rapidly reduced to useless with but few, or even one.  The only ones who are allowed to learn it, are those with great chakra capacity.”

“Like me!” Naruta exclaimed, and then frowned.  “Then how do you know it?”

“Ah!  That ultra-hip, eternal rival of mine, Hatake Kakashi once taught it to me as an infernal trick to make me lose one of our challenges!” Gai stated with great annoyance.  “That one knew how rapidly it would leave me defeated with my level of chakra!”

“But how will it make me pass the test, Gai-sensei,” Naruta asked again.  “They would see me do this jutsu, wouldn’t they?”

The ‘Nice Guy Pose’ came out again, thumb up, shiny smile, and Gai said, “Very good question, Naruta-chan!  You have made much progress!  But I’ll explain that, and one special property of this jutsu that will make it possible after you’ve mastered it.”

Naruta smiled brightly at him, and nodded.  “Hai, Gai-sensei,” Gai-sensei, she said with a quite excitement.

“Now, this how one performs the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu,” Gai started explaining.

*****

“Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!” Naruta exclaimed, and with a shimmer a second version of herself appeared next to her.  “Yatta!” she exclaimed with a grin, breathing a little heavier.  The clone came over and touched her forward, she felt the touch.

“Oh-oh-oh!  Naruta-chan!  It took you only a day!  You burn bright, indeed!” Gai exclaimed with a huge, and equally shiny grin.

“Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!” Naruta showed her agreement by performing it again, a second clone appearing.  “Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!” Naruta went again, and grinned brightly as a third one appeared.

“Well, Naruta-chan, do you feel any drain?” Gai asked with a expectant smile.

Naruta frowned, and then made the seals again, “Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!”  Gai watched shocked as another twenty or thirty clones appeared.  “Does this answer your question, Gai-sensei!  Nothing!  One day we will /all/ be hokage!”

The Naruta up front, twitched her eyebrows and turned around to face the clones.  “/You/ will /all/ be Hokage!?”

Gai looked astounded, and thought to himself, *Incredible.  Clones so independent they argue with the original.  So much chakra needed for that, then cut in thirty and still not noticing any drain.  What monstrously youthful chakra capacity!*

“Yosh!” Gai exclaimed with a smile, interrupting the possible fight that might very well break out.  “Naruta-chan, disperse all but one clone.”

“Oh, yeah, I can do that,” Naruta said with a grin, and flicked her mind at the jutsu. With puffs of smoke all but one clone disappeared.

“Now have that one run circles around you,” Gai told her with a smile.

Naruta shrugged, and looked at the clone.  It sighed with annoyance and started running.   “Now, Naruta-chan, pay very close attention to the clone and your mind.”

“Okay,” Naruta told him again, and did just that.  After a half a minute or two, Naruta asked, “Uh, what’s supposed to happen?”

Gai grinned, and with a poke the clone was dispersed.  “Huh?” Naruta said, looking at the thinning cloud of smoke.  Naruta frowned, while keeping attention to her mind . . . and then, with there but one clone and her not preoccupied by other things, and her focused on her mind, and no filtering going on, she was suddenly aware of a new set of memories entering her brain.  It was of herself, running around herself.  “Whoa!  I got the shadow clone’s memories!” Naruta exclaimed with surprise.

Gai nodded and spoke sagely, “That is what makes the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu such a powerful technique.  You can send the clone into a heavily guarded fort, and get whatever information you want, then you just disperse it, or even have it run a distraction while you remove yourself from the area.  You have gained the information without yourself ever being in jeopardy, for example.  But also, training!  Whatever experiences and insights your clones gain trying to achieve something, you will gain.”

Naruta looked at him with a grin, “So I train for a while with clones, disperse them, and start over again, the new clones having all the information I got from the first batch, right!”

“Yosh!  Naruta-chan!  You are sharp!  Now comes what we’re going to train,” Gai spoke, giving her a thumbs-up once again, “It’s rather high level, how to do a jutsu, without unleashing it right away.  Carry it within yourself and then when you need it let it out.”

Naruta’s eyes sparkled, a smile creeping on her face, “So I can do the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, hold it, then give the seals of the Bunshin no jutsu, making it look like I did the Bunshin no Jutsu at the exam, if that’s the exam, right?”  Not surprisingly, another ‘Nice Guy Pose’ followed.

~~O~~

Naruta walked into the examination room behind Iruka-sensei.  She saw another teacher already present sitting behind a desk at the front, his name was Mizuki, and had shoulder-length grey hair, a bandana over it.  The classroom was empty, apart from the desk, the two examiners, and Naruta.  Iruka pointed to the middle of the room in front of the table, and she walked over.  Iruka sat down next to Mizuki.

“Well, Naruta-chan,” Iruka-sensei began with a light smile.  He really hoped for Naruta she could pass.  Somehow he doubted she would actually succeed in astounding him.  Naruta liked to bluff, a lot.  “The examination we do, will be the Bunshin no Jutsu, you have to make three of them useful in battle.”

Yes!  She hadn’t charged up the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu for nothing.  “Only three!?” Naruta called out loud, “How about thirty!?”  She made the seals for the Bunshin no Jutsu, called out its name and released the readied Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.  A large puff of smoke and thirty shimmers later and the room was full of them.  “Now watch this!” Naruta exclaimed and the clones made some seals.  “Henge!”  A moment later fifteen Mizukis, fifteen Irukas, and one Naruta up-front stood looking at the examiners.  All of them pointed their right index finger at Iruka, and called loudly, “Well, Iruka-sensei!?  Astounded yet!?”

Both the examiners had their eyes wide in surprise.  Clones that appeared in someone else’s appearance was possible of course, but it was an ability that usually didn’t manifest in a ninja until after they graduated from the academy.  When a genin could do this, they were usually ready to take the chuunin exam.  “Naruta-chan,” Iruka-sensei gently, and then suddenly screamed loudly, “YOU PASS!”

Naruta laughed gently as she dispersed the clones.  “Ah, Iruka-san, you don’t have to be so loud about it, or at least give me some warning so I don’t turn deaf,” Mizuki spoke with mild amusement.

“A-ha, sorry, Mizuki-san,” Iruka said with a nervous smile.

*****

Naruta sat on the swing that hung from the thick tree in front of the academy, her Konoha forehead protector proudly on her forehead.  She looked over at the academy, or rather, the event in front of it.  Parents were picking up their graduated child, and happily congratulating them, some even getting presents.  A familiar pain blossomed in her chest, especially when some of those parents turned to look at her for a moment, those cold, hating eyes landing on her.  She swallowed.  Sasuke had had the right idea - graduate, wait till Naruta came out, giving her a silent question.  When she had smiled brightly in response, he had given a ‘ts’ and stalked off home before he had to witness this.  The ‘ts’ of course, had been easily translated by Naruta as a humorous, not meant, ‘The Ninja Academy’s standards have gone down too much.’

“N-n-nar-ruta-chan,” a timid voice spoke.  Naruta looked up and to her left and saw Hinata stand there.  Her two index fingers were nervously touching each other and wiggling about.  “A-ano . . . I-I wanted to c-congratulate y-you.”

“Thanks, Hinata-chan!  And congratulations on graduating yourself too!  Great job!” Naruta returned happily.  Hinata flushed brightly, and for a moment looked like a deer caught in the sights of a charging tiger.  “Has nobody come to pick you up yet?” Naruta wondered, seeing no one remotely resembling Hinata anywhere nearby.  Hinata’s flush remained, but it was now there for a very different reason.  She looked down at the ground, rather defeated.   “Oh, I think your father is here,” Naruta announced brightly, the slight pained undertone lost on Hinata.

Hinata’s eyes widened, her flush forgotten and turned around, a strange mix of hope and dread in her being.  Then she deflated again.  A man with the same white eyes as Hinata indeed walked into the playground, but the Hyuuga all looked alike.  “No,” Hinata said, “Th-that’s Hinamo.”  She put her fingers together again, “S-someone from the clan.”  She looked up and back at Naruta.  Now the blonde would know how much of a failure she was.  Her own father wouldn’t be bothered to come pick her up.  Maybe she shouldn’t have come congratulate Naruta after all.  “A-ano . . .”  Naruta looked down at Hinata, and then back at the similar looking man.  Not her father?  Naruta knew Hinata’s mother had passed away some time ago, but why would her father not pick her up to celebrate this occasion.  Hinata was a genin, a ninja!  She was now considered an adult by the village.  This made no sense to the blonde.  If she had a child she’d be here, and on time even if she had to fight her way past all the tailed beasts.

The clan member interrupted whatever either might have tried to say to each other with an authoritative, “Hyuuga Hinata-sama.”

Sama?  Naruta wondered.  If Hinata was some type of princess or high lordless or lady or something, wouldn’t it be even more important for her father to be here?  Hinata timidly took a step forward, her index fingers still together.  She stumbled a moment as her feet were nervously pointing to each other, but she caught herself.  “I-I graduated, H-hinamo,” Hinata managed weakly.

“As expected, from a Hyuuga.  Come,” the man said without a hint of emotion.  He simply turned around and started walking away, obviously expecting for Hinata to follow.   Hinata quickly did, giving Naruta a quick wave goodbye.

Before Naruta could let her mind delve into the disturbing mystery, a voice called her name.  “Hey, Naruta-chan.”

Naruta turned her head, and said, “Hi, Mizuki-sensei.”

“You did very well, Naruta-chan,” Mizuki said with a smile.

“Thank you, Mizuki-sensei,” the girl replied with a smile.

“How about we go for a walk, hmm?  I don’t think this is such a happy picture for you, Naruta-chan,” Mizuki asked gently with a hint to the parents picking up and celebrating their children’s graduating.

“Sure,” Naruta answered happily - she preferred Iruka-sensei, but she could always use another someone who didn’t hate her guts - or at least something in about the same position.   The two walked out the playground around the academy and steadily walked in the direction of Naruta’s apartment.

“Did you know, Naruta-chan,” Mizuki started friendly, casually walking along, making sure nobody paid any notice to him and his charge, “that there is a special scroll with jutsu that an academy student can learn?”

“Huh?” Naruta asked surprised.

Mizuki nodded, and explained, “It’s a test really, with a reward.  First you must understand that the teachers gave you some clues, then put them together and it tells you the location, then you must get past the guards and the traps.  Then you have until the ninjas sent after you to learn a jutsu from it; then the scroll goes back for another student to try.  Most never know it exists.”

“Then why are you telling me?” Naruta asked confused.

Mizuki sighed sadly and stopped walking.  He turned to Naruta, who had stopped next to him, and said softly, “Well, I have noticed how some of the teachers treat you, Naruta-chan. I’m quite sure only me and Iruka gave the clues when you were in class.  The others made sure to wait when you were not present.”  Mizuki smiled at her, gently touched her nose with his right index finger and said, “I heard your ambition, Naruta-chan, and only the Third and Fourth Hokage ever managed to get so far so fast they learned a jutsu from that scroll.” Naruta’s eyes were wide, sparkling with possibility.  “Since the others didn’t drop their hints, and you need at least three to even realize there are hints, and you still have to get past the guards and traps, I find it only fair I give you the location, don’t you think?”

“Hai!  Hai!  I will learn- mphf.”  Mizuki’s hand was across Naruta’s mouth.

“Ssh, wouldn’t want any of next year’s students to overhear, now would we?” Mizuki prompted with a grin, and the girl nodded, Mizuki’s hand still over her mouth.  The teacher took the hand off.

Softly Naruta said, “I will definitely learn a jutsu and more!”

“That’s the spirit, Naruta-chan,” Mizuki replied with a bright smile, once again touching her nose.

*****

Several hours later, after sunset

Hokage tower, upper vault

Naruta happily walked in front of the two guards standing in front of the entrance, and looked up at them with her weapon.  Sweet eyes looked up at them, as she asked, “I’m looking for old man Hokage?”

The two guards knew better than to snub the demon brat where the Hokage would get to know about, and she seemed rather sweet.  The right guard told her, “Well, Naruta-chan, his office is one story below, and I think he already went home.”

“A-ano, but I don’t know where he lives.  And it’s reaaally important.  Could you take me there, pleaaaase?” Naruta asked pushing the sweetness up several notches.

The guard straightened back up.  He really shouldn’t, and looked over at his companion. That one shrugged, as if to say ‘I’m still here, what can happen if you hurry?’  The guard finally nodded at Naruta and said, “Well, okay then, come along.”

Naruta and the guard started off toward the right stairs, and slowly started descending. The stairs twisted in a semi-circle, and down below they reached what Naruta knew was a utilitarian closet holding cleaning tools for the cleaners.

Naruta took the sleeve of the guard and yanked.  He looked down askance.  “Will you take my hand?  I’m afraid of the dark,” Naruta asked biting her lip in embarrassment and big pained, fearful eyes.

“Ah, sure, Naruta-chan,” the guard said, offering his hand, almost wondering why people could possibly mistake this sweet girl for the most notorious prankster Konoha had ever known.  Maybe someone was framing her.  Naruta tentatively took his hand, and then squeezed.  He smiled down at her, and then felt a prick.  “Ouch,” he said, pulling his hand back instinctively.

Naruta held up her hand showing something black in the middle, with a distinctly less innocent smile on her face.  “Like my prank, sir?  Normally it’s an electric buzzer, but I chose a sleeping potion just for you,” Naruta said, blinking ‘innocently’.  The guard’s world warbled, and then went dark as he collapsed unconscious.  She quickly caught him, and pushed him into the cleaning closet.  After closing the door behind her, she quickly rushed onward to the second set of stairs, this one also twisting upward, it would come up on the left side of the vault.

Half-way up the stairs - as silent as ninja should be - Naruta stopped, performed some seals, and whispered to herself only, “Henge.”  A moment later with a puff of smoke Naruta seemed to be no more, leaving only the Hokage himself.  The third, Sarutobi, wearing white robes and a white trapezoid-like hat, with a red pattern on it, a pipe in his mouth.   Moving more slowly, the way the Hokage moved, Naruta continued onward.  She reached the top and saw the final guard, she slowly moved forward.  The guard noticed her, or rather ‘Hokage-sama’, and his apprehension over his missing friend took over, even more so when with a puff of smoke ‘Hokage-sama’ asked gruffly, “Where’s your companion?”

“Ah-ah, Hokage-sama, he’s gone for a moment, sir, uh . . .” the guard stammered as ‘Hokage-sama’ steadily walked closer, “it was Naruta-chan, sir, she didn’t know where you lived and wanted to speak with you.  He’s taking her to your house, sir.  You must have missed them, Hokage-sama, they went down the other stairs,” the guard stammered out.

“Mmh,” ‘Hokage-sama’ returned having reached the guard.  As if ‘Hokage-sama’ owned the place he steadily entered the vault area.  The place was a small room with green walls, holding some desks and some scrolls and some writing utensils.  To the left were heavy double doors as to the right.  Vaults.  The left one would hold the Secret Student Scroll with Jutsu.  “Guard, come in here, please,” ‘Hokage-sama’ said commanding.

“Ah, Hokage-sama,” the guard said, holding the back of his head as he walked in.

“I was thinking, now that I’m here, I might as well teach you a new jutsu,” ‘Hokage-sama’ said slow and deliberate.

The guard’s eyes widened in a happy surprise.  “Really?”  The Hokage himself was going to teach him a jutsu!  This was amazing!

“Hmm,” ‘Hokage-sama’ grumbled gravely.  “Watch closely,” ‘Hokage-sama’ said and made the seals.  “Sexy no Jutsu - Girl Version!”

“Wha?” was all the guard managed before a beautiful, naked, cute, young, redheaded girl with a ponytail stood before him, with curves in all the right places.  A few final bits of white smoke still keeping her naughty bits covered rapidly dissipated.  The girl winked suggestively, her arms up and chest out.

“Hi,” the girl said even more suggestively and seductively.

“Ooh!” the man exclaimed as a fountain of blood spurted from his nose, making him stagger back in a daze.

The girl changed back into Naruta - for some reason she never quite liked just making an older version of herself: the whisker marks, the hair color and hair style she always changed doing the Sexy no Jutsu.  A moment later the guard was tied up and gagged, and he was wiggling to get free.  Naruta knew she did not have too long - the guard would free himself; an ANBU did not remain tied for long.  She opened her pouch and pulled out a long sturdy needle, a senbon, and walked over to the vault.  The needle disappeared into the locking mechanism, some wiggling and chakra manipulation later, and the vault doors swung open, revealing the scroll.

Naruta smiled.  Green tiled wall, a pedestal with a huge scroll as tall as herself, some lights to illuminate the place - and a myriad of traps, trip wires, chakra detectors, motion detectors, and exploding tags.  “Well,” Naruta told herself, folding her arms across her chest, “this might actually be a challenge.  Never seen anything this heavily trapped.  You guys really like to make it tough on us students, don’t you?”  Naruta looked back and give the tied up ANBU a smile and thumbs up, completely missing the guy’s frown and anger.

She moved forward and hopped over the first wire, jumped up all the way to the sealing, in between two more triggers for traps, and with a quick twist jumped onward.  Landing against the far wall she gently pushed off and dove down, grabbing the edges of the pedestal. Steady, she let go with her left hand, pushing her feet out for additional balance, making sure not to hit the wires hanging there.  With a quick flick from her free hand she pulled a heavy something from her pocket and dropped it on the pedestal.  At the same time she pushed off with her remaining hand to the right, grabbing the scroll off of the pedestal at the same time as the weight landed on it, thus keeping the pressure trigger from going off.  Her left hand, the one that had placed the weight on the pedestal now grabbed its other edge, she was now holding the scroll with her right.  She wobbled for a moment, concentration on her face.  With a quick toss, the scroll sailed out of the vault, narrowly missing several triggers, and landed on the floor of the room behind.

Naruta was once more balancing on the edges of the pedestal with both hands, and hopped forward, bringing her feet down into frog-like jumping position.  Then further horizontal to miss a chakra trigger-line.  Her hands went down again once over a line, her body forming a right angle.  Her hands landed on one tile between two tiles that had trigger lines in the grooves - exploding tags no doubt underneath them.  She pulled her legs along, completed a flip to put her right leg on the floor just in front of her.  Not waiting a moment she twisted her body upward and jumped onward with the same motion.  She compacted her body in a somersault, and twisted herself between the triggers she had already passed on the way in.  She landed on the floor outside of the vault, and found herself starting to topple back.   Her face looked surprised all of a sudden, and she started twisting her arms to find balance - she must have just miscalculated the difference.  Her body toppled further, and then just in time she pushed herself to the side, to grab the door frame to hold her up.  Righting herself she walked forward to the scroll, a wide-eyes ANBU looking at her.

“Phew, that was close.  It actually took some effort,” Naruta said once again smiling. She took the scroll by its carrying lash and put it on her back.  “I’ll be off studying the jutsu, don’t hurry getting untied too much,” Naruta said as she ran off out of the room.  She jumped out of the first room, and continued on across the roofs for a short while, before going down and running along small alleyways so she wouldn’t be seen.

*****

Naruta sat in front of an old cot, that was half destroyed, somewhere outside of the actual village of Konoha, but within its walls.  “Now, let’s see what this scroll’s got,” Naruta said and opened the scroll.  “Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.  Ha!  Already know that one.  Next.”  Naruta unrolled the scroll further, and read, “Hm, Fuuton: Konohatou and Konohakunai Senpuu no Jutsu¹, huh?  Prior knowledge and jutsu required: Konohatou no Jutsu and Konohakunai no Jutsu².  Helpful prior knowledge: Fuuton: Konohatou/Konohakunai Dammaku no Jutsu³, Fuuton: Konahtou/Konohakunai Ame no Jutsu⁴.”  Naruta grinned, “Thank you, Kakashi-sensei.”

~~O~~

Maito Gai found Hatake Kakashi in a bar.  Across from him sat a black-haired beauty with reddish eyes in a red and white wraparound dress, that he recognized as a fellow Jounin from the insignia, but did not know the name of.  A recent Jounin graduate no doubt.  “Hatake Kakashi!  My eternal rival, I have finally found you!  And with a beauty no less, perhaps some fires of youth burn in you after all!”

The female jounin had turned her head toward the new arrival and looked shocked.  Was the guy’s smile really blinking light?  The one closed eye, and the thumbs up gesture was annoying her though.  More people inside the bar looked affronted at the loud entry, then quickly and wisely turned away, hoping Maito Gai would leave soon.

“Hmm, you said something, Gai?” the silver-haired jounin said, turning his one visible eye coolly toward the newcomer.  A mask covered his face from the nose down, and his forehead protector was pulled down to cover his left eye.  The jounin was in a standard ninja outfit, blue pants and shirt and a beige-green jounin vest.

“AIIIIII!” Gai exclaimed, much to shock and surprise of the female jounin, more so as Gai grabbed his face and bent backward as if he’d been slammed into the face by someone wielding the legendary strength of Tsunade.  Gai bounced back though, and pointing accusingly at Kakashi, he spoke, “It’s that modern, hip attitude of yours, that always pisses me off, Hatake!”

“Now, look here, I am not on a date with this guy, I’m asking some advice on how best to go about chaperoning a genin team.  I’m getting my first this year,” the female Jounin said somewhat incensed.

“Wrong guy to ask, milady, he’s never had a genin team,” Gai said, grinning another shiny smile at her.  “Now me on the other hand, I have my team burning with the fires of youth, and turned into a lean, mean, green fighting machine!”

“Huh?” the female jounin asked a little confused, while cringing at the mental image of three students in the same horrible green spandex as the jounin was wearing. “I read he was given six teams-”

“-and failed all of them in the final test,” Maito Gai finished for her with a grin.

The woman turned her gaze back on Kakashi, who sighed almost imperceptibly and said coolly, “I can’t help it if all the teams assigned to me are lower than trash.  Gai, this is Yuuhi Kurenai by the way.”

“Maito Gai,” Gai introduced himself, pointing his left thumb at his chest, “it’s a pleasure to meet you, Yuuhi Kurenai!  May the team that is assigned to you burn with as much youth as mine does!”

“Ah, thanks, I think,” Kurenai replied with a dubious impression.

Kakashi sighed, and said, “Sit, Gai, you’re making everyone look by remaining standing.”

“Ah, eternal rival!  I shall accept your invitation,” Gai spoke and sat down in a free chair, making a triangle of people at the square table.  “You know of Uzumaki Naruta.”

It was not a question.  Kurenai blinked - who didn’t?  Kakashi turned his visible eye gently toward his best friend - although he would never be caught admitting that fact.  “Hm?” he put out, paying close attention, much closer attention than usual.  Another thing he would never admit, is that no matter how idiotic Maito Gai could act, he was a perceptive man, and almost always right.  Also, the green-clad taijutsu expert never acted ‘normal’ to the trained and untrained eyes, but Kakashi knew him well enough to hear a small shift in tone.  That tone meant that Maito Gai was deadly serious and about to impart a wisdom beyond his years - another thing Hatake Kakashi would never ever admit to.  That tone had come, so Kakashi, despite his casual appearance, was intently aware of what Maito Gai was about to impart.

Maito Gai for his part, was equally aware of the slightly more alert Kakashi.  Slightly, for he knew that no matter how unaware Kakashi looked, he was /always/ alert and very much aware.  “Some time ago I found her training throwing kunai and shuriken, while I was training with my team,” Gai spoke, unusually subdued.  “I found they were . . . defective.”

“Damaged?” Yuuhi Kurenai asked in clarification.

The man with fuzzy eyebrows and a bowl cut simply turned his eyes toward her, and spoke coolly - perhaps even coldly, “Defective.”  Any ideas about this man being incompetent or otherwise not quite there, vanished like that.  However embarrassingly he had acted earlier, or how ridiculous his wardrobe looked, here sat anything but an incompetent man, here sat a very perceptive jounin.

Both Kurenai and Kakashi said nothing as they let the implication soak into them.  Maito Gai continued in a low tone, “I decided to help her, train her, to see that her youthful spirit would soar.  I would teach her when a shop owner would try an unyouthful sale on her; then I found to my horror that Naruta-chan’s reading and math . . . are below standards.”  Kakashi’s eye remained trained on Gai, and betrayed no emotion.  Kurenai’s gasp answered for both them though.  It was even loud enough for some of the other patrons to throw a momentary glance in there direction.

“It’s that bad?” Kurenai muttered softly, shocked at the revelation how completely the girl’s education was mishandled - if not outright sabotaged.

Gai nodded, letting out a brooding sigh so very unlike him.  “So, to make her youth shine like ever before, I started teaching her basic education,” Gai explained with his eyes closed in disappointment.  “Hah!  Anyway, my team and I will leave on a mission that might take as long as a week tomorrow, so, Kakashi, my eternal rival, I thought, who could I ask to continue at least her basic education, and I remembered, Kakashi . . . the Fourth was your teacher, was he not?”  Kakashi’s lightly raised eyebrow was the answer Gai needed.  “And he asked of Konoha to see Naruta as a hero, right?” A light nod from Kakashi followed.  “Then, Kakashi, show me that not all of your youthful spirits have burned out, honor your teacher’s last will, and teach this girl.”

Kakashi didn’t need to think about the request at all - in fact, there was a slight sense of guilt that he hadn’t known about this himself and helped the girl out much sooner.  He gave a nod, and said, “Mmh.”

“I will help as well,” Kurenai said softly, determined.  This was too horrible for words. There was no way she could just stand back.

“Yosh!” exclaimed Gai with another smile that had light reflecting off his teeth, “Youth burns bright today in Konoha, even in my too hip, unyouthful rival Kakashi!”

*****

A puff of smoke.  “Yo.”

The quiet that had reigned in Uzumaki Naruta’s apartment ended a moment later. “YAAAAH!  Who the hell are you!?” Naruta screamed with shock, her finger pointed at the silver-haired man in a jounin uniform that was reading some red book as he puffed out of nowhere into her apartment.

The man’s only visible eye seemed somehow to split in two as it trained on her passed the book, yet somehow, she knew, kept reading it.  “Hatake Kakashi, acquaintance of Maito Gai.  While he is out on a mission, he has requested I help with your reading.  I’m not too early, am I?” Kakashi told her friendly - he would never admit to anyone he’d considered the green-clad jounin a friend either.  He took in the visible part of the apartment calmly.  It was small, not surprisingly, and reasonably neat.  He was standing in a small kitchen with a simple, small, square table in the middle.  It had a simple light blue table cloth covering it, and a flower stood in the middle.  A refrigerator was standing next to the wooden cabinets and counter containing a sink and cooking plates that made up the actual kitchen.

The girl narrowed her expressive blue eyes at him, and asked, “Come Come Secret Spot. Is that porn?”

Kakashi wondered how eyes could go from so sweet to so terrifying in such a short moment.  “Of course not,” Kakashi answered her friendly.

“Then you won’t mind us using that book for the reading lesson, will you?” Naruta asked him with a sneaky grin.

“Ah . . .”

“I KNEW IT!  IT’S PORN!  You pervert!” Naruta exclaimed with an accusing finger.

Kakashi blinked, smiled unseen, and put his dirty book away.  He leant down to the blonde, and with a huge smile - that was even obvious through the mask, even if the eye didn’t betray it - he asked, “Shall we get on with the reading lesson then?  What were Maito Gai and you reading?”

Naruta folded her arms across her chest and studied the weirdo pervert for a few moments; then decided it was better than putting reading on hold for a week, or teach herself wrong at something so important.  “Fine, but you better not try looking up my skirt,” she warned him, and after a moment finished with a dangerous, unmeaning tone, “Kakashi-/sensei/.  By the way, you’re ten minutes late.”

“Only ten minutes?” Kakashi replied.  It had slipped out before he knew it.  Naruta looked back over her shoulder at him with a look even more venomous than before, venomous enough the jounin backed up a step.

*****

Three days later

“. . . and so the three companions hefted their baggage, and set out to continue their journey,” Naruta finished reading the last words of the chapter.  She turned the page, while looking up at Kakashi.  He gave a nod to indicate she had made no mistakes.  She had gotten better at this, a lot better.

Before she could start reading the next chapter of, she had to admit a fun book to read, Kakashi stopped her with a gesture.  He then said, “Naruta-chan, I do not believe continuing to read the book will help with your reading.”

“Eh?” Naruta questioned a little disappointed, wanting to know what would happen next. She definitely was going to finish reading it in her own time.  Then she realized, “Are you saying the reading training is over?”

“Ah, no,” Kakashi answered, and searched for words for just a moment.  Then continued, “Its level is too low.  We need to push your reading up further if you want to understand technical manuals or need to commit texts rapidly to memory as a Shinobi might have to do.  I will tell Kurenai to bring non-fiction texts tomorrow, and I will bring a true technical text the day after.”

“Okay,” Naruta agreed, not really looking forward to it, already knowing it wasn’t going to be half as much fun as reading this action adventure book.

“We still have some time though, how about I teach you a jutsu?” Kakashi offered almost as a side thought.

“YES!” Naruta squealed with excitement, jumping up on her chair.  She jumped twice until she realized it made her skirt flap up and down.  She stopped and looked directly at the silver-haired jounin, trying to figure out if the pervert had tried to peak.  He was inscrutable though.

“Hm, now let’s see, what jutsu would be helpful,” Kakashi said slowly, tapping his masked chin in thought.  “How about a traditional Konoha jutsu?”  He nodded in agreement with his own suggestion as he continued, “Hm, it’s not often used or taught anymore because it isn’t that useful, but still.”

“What is it!?  What is it!?  What is it!?” Naruta demanded impatient.

Kakashi nodded, and said, “The Konohatou no Jutsu and Konohakunai no Jutsu.”

“Huh?  Knives and Kunai made from leaves?  Doesn’t seem that useful, you’re right,” Naruta said in answer.

“Think of it this way,” Kakashi said with a smile, “if you can’t get proper shuriken and kunai from the shops, you’ve got this jutsu, hmm?”

“Yes!” Naruta exclaimed with grin.

“Let’s go to the roof, because we actually need leaves to work these,” Kakashi said, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruta growled to her empty apartment and hurried up side, easily jumping climbing to the flat roof of the apartment building.  The village hidden in the leaves was literal, and as such trees were everywhere throughout the village - the forest in which it was built practically growing inside it.  As such, it was not surprising that some leaves had landed on the roof. “Konohatou no Jutsu,” Kakashi said, making several seals and one leaf levitated off the ground.  Kakashi took the leaf and held it out to Naruta.  The orange-clad girl walked over and tested the leaf.  “The jutsu makes a leaf hard and makes its edges razor sharp, like a knife,” Kakashi explained.  “The standard technique has two usages, either take the leaf and use it as a weapon, or automatically launch the knife at your opponent; but in expert hands it can be modified to do some interesting things with it.”

Naruta turned the leaf knife back and forth, and then it slumped back to normal.  Kakashi explained, “After a while the leaf returns to normal. The more chakra you put in the jutsu, the longer the leaf stays hard.  This is especially useful if you use the launching method.  If the knife slumps back to normal after embedding in your opponent, it is much more difficult to remove, as it will most likely tear.”

“Making it take longer to heal, right?” Naruta asked paying close attention.

“Hm,” Kakashi nodded, and continued, “Especially if one uses rotten leaves.  It will almost certainly lead to an infected wound, and if enough wounds are created by such rotten leaf knives, a slow, agonizing death.  Obviously, never use rotten leaves on your fellow Konoha ninja in any type of match.”

“Understood, Kakashi-sensei,” Naruta replied with rather wide eyes, imagining the rotten leaves information with a shudder.

“Now, for the closely related, nearly identical jutsu, Konohakunai no Jutsu,” Kakashi said, making the seals immediately.  Naruta felt the leaf getting hard again, and change shape.   She looked at it lying on her hand, and saw it rolling up.  It was now a narrow cone, starting at a point, and expanding shallowly outward.  “The difference between the two can be quickly explained; the latter is sturdier and thus has greater piercing abilities.  A leaf knife will in most cases be stopped by a bit of armor, the leaf kunai can cut through it.  The draw back, is that a kunai will tear less easily when someone tries to remove it, and not do as much, if any, damage if it hits your opponent only shallowly.  The kunai needs to hit dead on.  Now, let’s give it a try, shall we, Naruta?   Watch the seals closely, I’ll do them slow this time around,” Kakashi explained, Naruta nodding as she took in every new piece of information.

~~O~~

“Caution,” Naruta read from the scroll out loud but softly, to herself, “this technique requires a lot of chakra.  Chakra is what keeps the whirlwind going, and the leaves trapped in it.  Let chakra slip, and the leaves will be launched from the wind without control.”  Naruta frowned and looked at the diagram of the whirlwind with the leaves in it; a human-form - the opponent - in the middle and wiggly arrows on the top of the whirlwind, and on its side to indicate leaves being launched away.  “Therefore, this technique should never even be attempted by anyone with low chakra capacity, and it should never be used in the vicinity of civilians. Side note: deliberately losing control of the technique has at times been used successfully against multiple opponents.  Only attempt this after you and any allies have found suitable cover.”

Naruta nodded to herself a few times, going over everything in her mind.  “Alright, time to give it a whirl!” Naruta grinned at her own pun, and made her first attempt.

*****

The old man Third Hokage was out of his robes uniform, not even the hat was on his head.   With a pipe in his mouth, he was carefully holding a paint brush, and was ready to apply it to his half-completed painting again, when a hasty knocking on his door alerted him.  The door was opened, and the ninja peeking in called out, “Sorry to disturb you, Hokage-sama, but Uzumaki Naruta has stolen the Forbidden Scroll of Seals!”

“Hmm,” the Hokage puffed out some smoke from his pipe while he grumbled.

*****

Standing on the top of some stairs, behind which was an entrance into the building, the Hokage addressed a rather large group of ninja of different rank and function.  Now they would all get the same.  With a grumbling voice, he started, “Uzumaki Naruta has stolen the Forbidden Scroll of Seals.”  The various exclaims that such power would be deadly in the hands of the demon he unfortunately had to ignore.  “Find her, get the scroll and her back here quickly.”

“Yes, Hokage-sama!” the collection of ninja exclaimed and ran off to look.

The Hokage let out a puff of smoke and turned around the re-enter the building, and asked himself, “Now, Naruta-chan, how did you even know of its existence, hmm?  I should keep a look out.”

*****

Naruta slumped back, breathing hard.  The large scroll still on her back.  Multiple cuts and abrasions covered her body, where a leaf from a failed whirlwind had struck.  She grinned, looking at some leaves slowly fluttering to the ground, all in the same place.  A tree behind it covered in now slumped leaves sticking in it at all sides.  She laughed!  She’d done it!  Not one leaf had escaped the whirlwind.

“Naruta!” Iruka-sensei screamed as he landed crouching on the ground in front of her.

“Hey, Iruka-sensei!  Dang, I was hoping I had enough time left to learn another,” Naruta answered him with a sweet grin.

“Naruta, why did you take that scroll!?” Iruka asked disappointed in the girl.

“Neh?” she asked confused, “To learn jutsu from it and prove myself the greatest ever, why else?”

“Naruta, that scroll is forbidden!” Iruka said heatedly, hoping he could somehow get to the bottom of this and save Naruta from whatever punishment she would be given - and it could be severe, /very/ severe.

“Forbidden?  Huh?” Naruta said looking from her teacher to the scroll and back again. “But Mizuki-sensei said that any academy student could get it if they figured out the clues - and if they were given them.”  Somehow that last Naruta added with some bitterness.

Iruka’s eyes widened, suddenly moved forward, and tossed Naruta almost violently to the right of him, and turned around in the same movement.  Several kunai whizzed passed, and a few slammed into Iruka, one in his leg, the second in his upper chest in his vest, and a third in his left arm.  He had tossed himself forward, now backward as he had turned around, to give himself a little extra time to try and counter, but it was already too late, the kunai had hit.  The momentum continued to propel him forward though, and he slammed against the wooden wall of the broken-down cottage.

Naruta slammed on the ground, moaning with the impact and working herself back upright.

“Ah, Iruka-san.”  Iruka looked up from his downed position and saw Mizuki squatting down on a tree branch, fully equipped for a dangerous mission among other things a huge shuriken strapped to his back.  “I must thank you for leading me right to Naruta-chan.  I almost thought I might miss her.”

“What?  What is . . .?” Naruta stammered not understanding, looking from Iruka bleeding against the wall of the cottage to the squatting Mizuki.

Iruka was thinking quickly, and decided to make the other teacher talk to give him extra time.  “Mizuki!  What did you do?” he demanded.

“Me?  I didn’t do anything,” Mizuki answered sweetly.  “Quick, Naruta-chan, hand me the scroll.”

“Wha?” Naruta asked trying to make sense of the information.

“Naruta!  Don’t give him that scroll even if you die!” Iruka exclaimed quickly, working to get back up and in a fighting position.  “Whatever Mizuki told you is a lie.  It’s a dangerous scroll with Forbidden Jutsu.  He can’t get his hands on it!”

“It is not, Naruta-chan, Iruka just doesn’t want you to have it,” Mizuki said sweetly, smiling all the way.  “Do you know why the villagers hate you, Naruta-chan?”

“You wouldn’t!  Don’t tell her, Mizuki!” Iruka yelled angry with frustration.

‘Yosh!  Do you know why they treat you like this, Naruta-chan?’  Naruta remembered Gai’s question, and his answer, and she looked up at Mizuki.  And she remembered, all those cold eyes from the adults, the same eyes as Mizuki.  “Yeah,” she said slowly, rising to her feet in a fighting position, making both academy teachers look at her a little surprised.  “I’m the Nine-Tails jailor.  What of it?”

Iruka was busy trying to figure out who could have told her.  Mizuki chuckled, and explained, “Well, Naruta-chan, the Nine-Tails killed Iruka-san’s parents.  He sees you no different than the villagers do, Naruta-chan.  You’re the killer of his parents to you.  That’s why he doesn’t want you to have the scroll’s power.  He wants you pathetic, so he can kill you when he gets the chance.  It’s probably why he’s been sweet to you.”

Naruta’s eyes widened and turned her head toward Iruka, who yelled out a negative, then a warning.  Mizuki had used Naruta’s distraction to toss one of his meter-across shuriken directly at her.  Naruta turned her head back around, and froze at the sight of the shuriken coming directly at her head, possibly her neck.  There was a sudden powerful impact and she found herself fall back to the ground.  She opened her eyes back open, and they widened in surprise.  Iruka-sensei was over her now, the huge shuriken sticking out his back.  Tears flowed from Iruka’s eyes.  “Naruta-chan, it is true that the Nine-Tails killed my parents,” Iruka cried if not wailed out, “but you are not the Nine-Tails.  I know that.  I’m ashamed to admit that once I thought differently, but I looked at you Naruta-chan, and you could never be the Nine-Tails.  I had to grow up without parents as well, Naruta-chan, I always acted like a dumbass to get some attention.  I know what kind of pain you must endure, even if it’s greater than mine.  Do not let Mizuki get that scroll!  Run!”

Naruta nodded, scrambled to her feet and ran in the opposite direction, into the woods.

Mizuki landed behind Iruka with some grace, annoyed Iruka’s sudden self-sacrificing moment and speech had surprised him enough he had let him continue.  He casually took ahold of the shuriken.  “You’re wasting your breath, Iruka-san,” Mizuki said with an evil smile as he casually pulled the shuriken free.  Iruka hurked and dropped further to the floor with the pain.  “She’ll never give up the power she now possesses.  Be a good man: stay here and die, while I go retrieve the scroll and kill the demon.  The scroll, its power, /and/ the adulation of the village for killing the demon - this is turning out better than I planned.  Bye, Iruka-san.”  Then the silver-haired ninja was off after Naruta.

*****

Naruta hurried along the trees, rushing onward, jumping from tree to tree.  She dropped herself down from the trees and sat down, unslinging the large scroll from her back and putting it in front of her between her legs.  She was breathing hard and thinking just as much, tears threatening to leave her eyes.  Mizuki obviously didn’t give a damn about her, but was Iruka-sensei the same, or not?  Was it all an act?  Mizuki had fooled her, hadn’t he?

Naruta was thinking hard on the past.  She had thought some time after Gai-sensei had taken her on as another apprentice she wouldn’t feel like this anymore.  That there were enough people now that acknowledged her.  The pain of the loneliness was still fresh in her memory.  The first person who had lighted her existence just a little bit, was, truth be told, the Hokage.  She practically thought of him as grandpa, but the old man was too busy with his job to ever spend any serious time with her - even if she did drop in in his office often enough.   The second was Hinata-chan, a bonding experience during a kunoichi flower lesson was really all it took, now that she thought back on it.  However, the girl couldn’t speak up if her life depended on it.  Naruta had often explained her silence differently than what it really was - she had thought at first it was the same reason everyone else had for not talking to her.  She hadn’t figured out the real reason until after Hinata had very slowly, just a little bit, opened up to her sister in arms so the speak.

No, emotionally, it had still been Iruka-sensei that was the real first person to treat her normally, acknowledge her existence really.  Granted, at first - like he had confessed - he had been somewhat cold, and then just professional, but bit by bit the teacher had talked with her, given her advice, smiled at her, answered her questions without getting mad at her - unless she did something genuinely worthy of getting mad at, of course - and more importantly bought her the occasional ramen.  He was the first.

Sasuke had followed - much later when she’d finally gotten the guts that fateful day to walk down to the lake to join him, and even later than that as the Uchiha boy didn’t like acknowledging anyone.  Naruta had had to figure out his cold demeanor didn’t mean he didn’t acknowledge her, it was just his way of being.  Gai-sensei followed, along with niisan - Rock Lee - and Tenten, Gai-sensei’s female team member.

But still, to her heart, it had been Iruka-sensei that had first given her the feeling of being treated as if she meant something other than an object to be hated.  Had he really only acted nice to her to come close enough to kill her - presumably in a way to make it look he didn’t do a thing?  The pain in her heart was almost unbearable, and unaware of doing it, her right hand let go of the scroll and grabbed her chest above it.  She had Gai-sensei and the rest, didn’t she?  What did it matter if Iruka was a fake?

Her jaw quivered, and she swallowed away a lump, a tear formed at her left eye and she felt it slide down.  Then there was a sound behind her, and she carefully peered around the tree.   This didn’t make any sense.  She watched herself soaring through the sky, the scroll on her back, kicking Iruka-sensei away from her.  Was she going insane?  Before Iruka-sensei landed though, there was a puff of smoke revealing Mizuki.  Henge!  The other her slammed in a tree and sat down against it.

“How did you know I was not Iruka, Naruta-chan?” Mizuki asked with a sickening smile.

Her other self chuckled and said, “Because I am Iruka.”  A puff of smoke, and her other self disappeared, revealing Iruka-sensei.  Naruta’s eyes widened at the scene, her hand still clutching her chest.

“Ah, Iruka-san, impressive, especially considering you’re bleeding to death,” Mizuki said with a gentle tone that belied his true motives.  “Tell me, Iruka-san, why do you continue to try and help the demon-brat?  Do you not understand; she’s like me, she has the Nine-Tails in her, the village treated her like crap.  She’ll never give up the power she holds now.  She’ll use it.  She’ll probably leave just to return and destroy Konoha finally.”

Iruka-sensei’s answer followed, a casual, “Yeah.”  Naruta’s eyes tightened closed, her hand clutching the top and skin above her heart tightened at a sudden overwhelming pain.  It felt like tumbling down a black hole, one she almost liked to follow into.  “The demon would hold on to it.”  A tiny groan left her throat, two more tears leaving her eyes.  Unbeknownst to herself, her slightly enlarged canines started to enlarge with small tiny bursts of growth. Similarly without her knowledge, her blue irises slowly gained an orange tint.  It felt like her heart was crumbling to little pieces - she couldn’t take this, not one of her precious few, not Iruka-sensei.  “But she’s not the demon.”  Naruta’s eyes snapped open, the red disappearing, the oppressive pain seemed to disappear like snow for a fire jutsu.  More so, when Iruka continued, “She’s the number one unpredictable, queen of pranks, Konoha’s very own, Uzumaki Naruta.”

“Iruka-sensei,” she whispered, more tears flowing from her eyes, of happiness this time.   Her hand unclutched her heart, and her shoulders sagged in a relaxing relief.

“Heh, so be it,” Mizuki spoke in answer, shaking his head a little.  “I’ve made a mistake in letting you live back there, Iruka-san.  I won’t let you interfere anymore.  I’m going to kill you, and then I’ll find the brat and take that scroll away from her.”

Naruta’s eyes widened, and instantly she was on her feet.  She turned around and ran passed the tree she’d been sitting against.  Seeing Mizuki jump through the air to land a fatal blow on Iruka-sensei, she jumped herself.  “Konoha Senpuu!” she yelled as she made the flying helicopter kick that Gai-sensei had taught her.  It caught the silver-haired traitor perfectly, slamming three kicks in his torso and head before finally slamming to the ground.   Naruta landed and held the scroll to the ground with one hand, grinning, tears still flowing from her eyes and she didn’t care.

“Naruta!” Iruka exclaimed surprised, looking at the back of the pigtailed blonde.

Groaning with the pain of the kicks and the less than soft landing on the ground, Mizuki forced himself to look up.  “Brat, I will kill you,” he said, and forced himself to his feet, and widened his eyes as he saw Naruta making seal after seal.

“No, I will kill you,” she muttered, coming up to the last few seals.

“What are you doing!?” Mizuki demanded, and then ran forward, drawing his shuriken. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?”

“Konohatou Konohakunai Senpuu no Jutsu!” she exclaimed and instantly the wind started up.  It circled the small clearing, picking up leaves as it went, leaves from the trees detaching and being pulled along in the swirl.

“WHAT DID YOU DO!?” Mizuki screamed terrified as Naruta’s determined eyes were trained on him, and the whirl of leaves rapidly shrank down around him.  Then it was over, as leaves hardened by chakra from the whirl cut into him everywhere.  “AAAH!!” he screamed out the pain, as leaf after leaf cut into his flesh all around his body, some stopping on his armor, rolled up leaf kunai penetrating them, cutting into his face, upper head and nose and eyes . . . everywhere.

Naruta let the technique go, the whirlwind now devoid of leaves calming down and disappearing.  Mizuki still stood, blood pouring down his body from multiple wounds, pooling at his feat.  It was a grotesque sight, leaves now hanging limp, were cut into him everywhere.   The body sank bonelessly down to its knees, the impact dislodging several outer pieces of flesh and muscle.  The head cracking along several lines connected cuts made by the leaves.   Then the body toppled over to Naruta’s and Iruka’s left slightly, and slammed diagonally from their point of view on the ground.  More chunks of flesh dislodged, including a cut to pieces eye; indeed the entire head cracked further, bursting forth blood, showing bone, and falling flesh.  Mizuki was obviously dead.

Naruta felt her body tremble at the sight.  It was horrifying, but what truly horrified her that she had just taken a life, and done it so easily.  In fact, when the technique hit, there had been a secret glee at his death, that she could pay back at least one of those cold eyes.  She had really just . . . she gulped, completely forgetting this was what the Ninja Academy trained her to do.

“Naruta-chan,” Iruka said a little weakly.

Naruta was yanked out of her trance, and she turned around.  “I-Iruka-sensei,” she said stiffly.  He gestured for her to come closer.  She did, and he did so again.  Finally close enough Iruka gathered into a hug.  “I’m proud of you, Naruta-chan,” Iruka said with a smile.   Naruta could only hear the smile in his voice though, as her chin was resting on his shoulder, her arms desperately wrapped around him.  He continued gently, “You did more than good, Naruta-chan.  This was your first kill, a rightful one, you have proven why you earned this head protector.”  Iruka’s left hand had uncoiled from the hug, and the nail of its index finger now gently tapped the metal plate holding the leaf sign.  It made faint metallic sounds as it was struck gently.  “You are a true Konoha ninja now.”

Naruta’s body jerked with a sob, and she whimpered, “But . . . I could probably have . . . have defeated him . . .”

“Naruta, you cannot waste too much time trying to find a non-fatal solution sometimes, even often - it will be the death of yourself and your teammates,” Iruka whispered consolingly as the girl broke down further in his arms, sobbing and crying.  “You’ll have to trust your instincts and training in battle, even your killer ones.”

*****

Up in the Hokage tower, the Hokage peered into his crystal ball, puffing contently on his pipe. He nodded with satisfaction as he saw the events between the teachers and pig-tailed blonde play out.  He was still slightly amazed the girl had mastered at least one jounin-level forbidden jutsu that would burn through chakra in no time at all, and had done so in just under an hour apparently trying and trying the technique again until she succeeded.  Any other genin, and even chuunin would probably be wiped after the first try, and out like a light by the second try - if not dead from losing control over the technique that is.

He left the just graduated girl and her teacher to her private moment, and walked outside his private room, and called an aid.  A male in a chuunin uniform almost immediately appeared, and the Third told him, “Recall all shinobi search for Uzumaki Naruta.  She has been found, and all is well.”

“Yes, Hokage-sama!” the aid answered immediately and was off.

To Be Continued . . .