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Thinking of rewriting my stories that I'll post here (and adding a new one)

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Xamusel:
Xamusel Fifth A/N: Well… this was shorter than I anticipated. Still, at least the chapter will be edited to a huge degree, compared to the initial posting of the previous one.

Anyway, what can I say? Tomcat and I had a plan for this chapter, and it went off without… much of a hitch, to be honest, because of outside circumstances. Of course, given that the content of the chapter was meant to be during February, I had to retcon the previous timeline of the story to account for the three month time skip to near Valentine’s Day.

Still, in regards to Elesia, she’ll be important for later on down the road. Believe me, that’s the truth, she will be important. No, I don’t want to rush in new characters, but it seemed like a good idea to introduce her before I forgot about her.

As far as Tobi? It took me a while to learn why he was there. He was trying to abduct Kurina before anyone else could… fat load of good that did him.

About the chapter as a whole… I’d say that this was a good one (to a degree… meaning, 8.5 out of 10, instead of a perfect 10). If there’s anything that makes me wonder how it could have been written differently, it’s the scenes from Naruto looking for Elesia, to the end of the day of Valentine’s Day.

In any case, we’ve introduced four people with Kyuubi power, though two of them don’t have their names revealed yet to you all. The other two are Naruto and Kurina, as you might have guessed, though I won’t reveal anything that will be sensitive to the plot at a later point.

...would someone please keep track of the amount of plot point in regards to these four people? Two of them are blondes, the other two are redheads, and Naruto’s the only Male.

Oh, in regards to the ultimate direction I want this to take, I plan on making this a Visual Novel-style computer role playing game. That way… you’ll have to see what I plan on doing to know how well it might work. I just don’t want to reveal the surprises involved in how the story of the game will play out.

Yes, that’s right, the game story will be somewhat different from the fanfic story as it goes further down. It’s primarily because the fanfic is just the prototype of the game, so I need to do things differently in the game itself, if only because, that way, the story will have been more refined.

Now then, that’s all I can say, for the time being.

For now? I’ll hand this off to Tomcat. He has to have a say in what’s going on.

XxX

Tomcat Second A/N: Okay… The second chapter as you can tell is done.  We’re trying to align everything so there’s space and room to move, but given the planned number of chapters, don’t be surprised if the pacing is a bit quick.

That said, we will do our utmost to keep things as well spaced as possible.

Now we have Elesia.  Poor girl doesn’t know the heck is going on.  You can imagine what she might be like around Ino.

As for Hinata and Naruto.  Xamusel feels that might be a little too overused.  So we’re going to take a back seater on that one for the time being.  So instead we’re making it where Hinata has a slight dislike towards Naruto based on what everyone knows what her family life is like.  Only now she’s being used in clan politics in order to one up the rival Uchiha Clan because Kushina and her family are closer to them thanks to her personal friendship with Uchiha Mikoto.  As such, Hinata has become resentful at being used as such, as simply being considered only good for breeding stock.

Ladies, please check your tempers, Xam and I live in the Western USA, not downtown Talibanstan.

(Stan means ‘Land/Home’ over there, like Pakistan and Afghanistan among others which translate as Land/Home of the Paki people or Afghan people.  That’s if my memory on the names are correct.  Been a while since I looked at that.)

So Hinata has been a bit bitter towards Naruto as shown, poor Kiba too.

Unfortunately, Kushina is good at finding these things out.  What she does is a secret at this time.  Though she feels for Hinata and doesn’t ride her case about it.

Plus Naruto needs to learn to be a bit more careful about being pranked himself!

Oh geez… look at that… we let the secret out…

Kurina is Kurama… oh no.

Yeah, about as exciting as watching Shikamaru snore.

What will happen as time rolls on?

Personally, not a ruddy clue in mind.

Now things are also building up.

Who is the mysterious controller who wanted to control Kurama and, by proxy, Kurina?

Not a clue folks.  A mysterious entity with plans unknown.  A threat to others with their own plans.

That said, Tobi felt threatened and made his own move.  Now he finds out that Naruto is able to access the Nine Tails’ power.  How did he do that?  Well, Tobi will be more careful in the future now.  Especially since now that Kushina knows he is still alive and she has a bone to pick with him.

Breaking his bones that is.

But let’s not forget what is happening between Naruto and Kurina.  The two are transcending sibling ties.  They intend to become more.  And Kushina is perfectly fine with it.

They are adopted siblings after all.

So that should wrap that up.

Next chapter should be as good as this, perhaps even better.

So don’t forget to tune in next time kid-dies!

This is Three Dog- Oops, wrong fanfic!

F-14 Tomcat Lover signing off now.

XxX

Xamusel Sixth A/N: If anyone wants to know, I decided to make a wiki for this story, though it’s doubtful that either of us will get it up and running on our own. That’s where you, the readers, come in. I need you to help fill in the missing details.

Oh yeah, one last thing. I started a Roleplay based in the setting of this story, and I’m looking for players to help me tell the story. The forum is labeled “Fantasy Unleashed Roleplay”, and I encourage people to give it a good look over before deciding if they want to participate, as I don’t want to force the issue.

Alright, this is it for me now, so….

Sayonara no Tsubasa
-Xamusel

Xamusel:
Xamusel Seventh A/N: Well, this is it, the third part of the Pilot of the story. We get to see the fallout of the Valentine’s Day fiasco that took place last chapter. How exciting can that be?

...please, don’t tell me I jinxed it, alright? I have a feeling that I already did.

XxX

Prologue Arc
Pilot Part 3
How to Tame a Hokage
Kushina gave a sigh of slight annoyance as she put down the paper she was working on.

The day was March 12th, a month after she gave that announcement about celebrating outside holidays, and it was two days before the boys were supposed to give gifts to the girls who gave them chocolates of the lovers variety. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem, but it was made pretty clear that her children needed to be… sneaky, so to speak, to avoid certain social stigmas about their relationship. Nobody knew about the fact that they were adoptive siblings except a very select few people, and Naruto and Kurina weren’t on that list yet, something she wanted to rectify for a long time.

Still, the fact was, she needed to do something in regards to Elesia. The poor girl didn’t deserve whatever happened to her, and, in fact, deserved more than the crap tossed her way, starting with a kind and loving family that would be willing to adopt her. That would be something she’d be willing to do herself, but there were issues involved with that, such as how Naruto and Kurina would react to having an older sister.

There was one thing that was making her wonder how to handle the situation in regards to Elesia. Ever since the poor girl got checked out of the hospital and put in a caring orphanage, which happened at the end of the month prior, she had been using some strange power with a piece of string large enough to play “Cat’s in the Cradle”. As it turned out, she had this power ever since birth, and it wasn’t based on Chakra. Elesia didn’t know how come she was able to pull it off, but it seemed that she put others in some advanced form of Genjutsu, or whatever it really was.

While contemplating what to do for Elesia, there was a knock at the door, signifying that someone of enough rank in the village needed to speak with her directly.

“It’s open,” Kushina said from her desk, looking up from the paperwork that needed to be done. As soon as the door opened, she saw that it was Yamanaka Inoichi, the man that proved Elesia’s innocence to the village for what had occurred. “Ah, Yamanaka-san, how might I be of service to you?” she asked the head of the Yamanaka Clan.

With a bow, Inoichi said, “I apologize in advance for the additional paperwork. It’s just, well, my family and I are hoping to adopt Elesia-chan as one of our own.” Producing the paperwork used for adoptions, he handed it to Kushina and showed her what was in need of signing, saying, “Haruka and I already signed most of it on our own, as we’ll be her legal guardians, but we need the final three signatures to be done by you, because those are the Hokage-required signatures.”

Kushina blinked at the preparedness of Inoichi and his wife for making sure that they could adopt Elesia. Sure, this was not exactly expected, but it was indeed welcoming to see that Elesia would have some hope for the future in this village.

Taking a look at the paperwork, Kushina wrote her signature on the parts that needed it, and gave it back to Inoichi, saying, “Here you go. You’re now free to tell her and your family the good news.”

“Thank you, Hokage-sama,” Inoichi said as he took the paperwork back. With that, he walked out of the office, letting Kushina go back to work on the other paperwork.

Now that that was out of the way, Kushina got back to thinking, though she also did her paperwork as she went along with her thoughts. She needed a way to get the first White Day in a long time to go off without a hitch… and most of the chocolates in the village went to Naruto, all from his fanclub, to boot.

Suddenly, inspiration hit her, making her wonder why it didn’t hit her sooner. She decided not to make this go with the paperwork, because it was a family thing firstly, not a requirement throughout the village.

XxX

“Mom, I’m sorry, what did you say? I don’t think I heard you right.” Naruto was honestly confused by what his mother was trying to get him to do.

Kushina sighed while rubbing her right temple, saying as she did so, “I said that you need to spend your allowance on gifts for girls this White Day. It’s actually a requirement of White Day that the boy reciprocates the girl’s efforts to show their love, by at least buying them a nice gift to show that you care.”

Naruto felt that he understood, though it was kinda hard to figure out how to get all his allowance spread out for the different girls that got him chocolate. He especially didn’t know what to do with Kurina’s gift to him the month prior, and he doubted that he could announce that he was in love with his sister… that would open up a whole new can of worms that he’d rather avoid.

“Okay, Mom, I understand. Still, how am I supposed to get everyone in the fanclub to know that I’m dating my sister, and do so in a way that will prevent issues in the future?” Naruto asked in worry.

“Actually, you two aren’t blood siblings,” Kushina answered, much to Naruto’s shock and confusion. “I mean, I only gave birth to you. Kurina was born to a different woman, and I adopted her because her birth mother died that night, if you’re worried.”

Naruto, after taking a bit to process this information, asked, “Wait a minute… you mean to say that I was worried about this for nothing?! I mean, that’s something you should have brought up sooner!”

Kushina didn’t say anything more on that subject, instead opting to change it, saying, “It would be a good idea to get the gifts ready by tomorrow night, because you don’t want to be seen as negligent by your fanclub… do you?”

Naruto blanched at the thought of being seen as negligent by anyone. Truth be told, he was against negligence a fair amount, given that he did whatever he could to have his mother play with he and Kurina when they were younger because of how negligent she was of them for a while.

“Okay, I’ll get the fanclub some gifts of appropriate value,” Naruto said after a bit of calming down. With that, he walked over to get his allowance and headed out to the storefront to see about getting the gifts for those that gave him chocolate, not exactly expecting anything to happen.

XxX

Yamiko was walking in her apartment next door to Kushina’s residence with her family. For one reason or another, nobody had decided to let her make her new lab in the village grounds, at least while she was a little kid. If she were 14, maybe, but not when she was biologically closer to 10 or 11.

That was all fine and dandy, but how was she supposed to maintain Mika, of all things? It was a near thing that she was able to repair her that one time four months ago, but her luck was drawing thin without a lab to help maintain the technologies she brought with her, including her pistols.

Still, Kushina was willing to help her get a place set up for the future, which was more than what could be said of the two elders and Shimura Danzo. No, nothing was wrong with the two elders, but they were insistent upon traditions being obeyed that they felt were most important.

It was the old warhawk that was giving her the most trouble. He was insistent on putting her in a special training program and forcing her to ignore the achievements of science, which would be detrimental to her ability to take care of Mika, as well as aiding in arming the village up to a better standard.

Stepping next to the front door of her apartment, she decided to go shopping for a bit, mainly to see about getting some groceries for her next cooking project.

XxX

Elesia looked nervous as she entered the home of the Yamanaka family.  The nervousness was indeed the truth as her stomach was all tied up in knots and her throat felt drier than she had ever felt before.  Her movements were slightly jerky as well from her trying to walk.  It was with considerable effort that she didn’t bolt in fright right then and there.  Then she was over the threshold and to her shock.

“Welcome to the Yamanaka Flower Shop!” a bright ten year old girl with long pale blonde hair in a long ponytail with the rest of her hair pulled back straight.  She wore an orange short sleeve shirt under a white apron with blue open toe sandals on her feet.  Her face was round with youth though looking very pretty.  Her eyes were shut as she had a sincere smile on her face.  She also gave off an aura of being friendly and kind.

“Hello honey,” Yamanaka Haruka greeted from behind a row of purple flowers as she moved to meet Inochi who stood next to Elesia’s right, a gentle hand on her back as the young girl clutched a few belongings she had recently gotten in a small bag.

“Hello dear and my princess,” Inochi laughed heartily at Ino’s immediate response of being called a ‘princess,’ “Well I should correct that maybe, eh?” he patted Elesia on the back gently and the girl blushed as she became the center of attention.

“Oh my!” Haruka couldn’t move fast enough and was soon kneeling before the blushing girl, “You’re so adorable!” she gently pulled Elesia into a warm and comforting hug and the poor brunette blushed even harder, “So young and someone so dastardly tried to…”

“Eh?” Ino blinked her pale teal colored eyes as she looked at the brown haired girl her mother was hugging, “Oh!” it looked like a light just flashed on, “So you’re Elesia!” Ino stepped over and smiled as she bent forward, Elesia was noticeably shorter than her, “So you’re my new sister!”

“Y-yes,” Elesia nervously confirmed, feeling frighten and suddenly watched as Ino’s face shifted into annoyance.

“That won’t do,” and grabbed the brunette girl by the hand and pulled her from Haruka causing Elesia to become fearful that Ino was about to do something mean to her, “You need to have some confidence!” and she began to storm off with Elesia in tow, “I’m gonna help her get settled in now!”

Inoichi gave a sigh as Haruka angrily responded to how her own blood daughter was acting, “Ino!  You shouldn’t pull her like that, she’s very nervous and understandably so!”

“I know!” Ino called back down, “So I’m gonna get her dressed up nice and show her that she’s family now!”

“What does she mean by that?” Haruka looked confused as her green eyes settled on her husband.

The poor man shrugged.  What was Haruka expecting of him?  Even if he was qualified for headcases, Ino was their daughter and, more importantly, a girl.  Haruka would have an easier time figuring Ino out than him.

XxX

Ino lead her new sister around the house showing her where everything was.  She showed her where all the rooms were and what was what all the while chatting amicably with Elesia.  Both were beginning to bond, what with Ino’s forward personality and kind spirit.  Elesia had been taken back by her approach, but soon learned that Ino was friendly and eager to get to know her new sister.

“So where are you from originally?” Ino eventually inquired as she observed Elesia’s dress.

The dress consisted of a sky blue laced shirt with a white bodice around the midsection.  A light purple knee length skirt with long white socks that ran up high under the hem.  These were covered at the feet by brown side button shoes.

The ensemble on her roughly 12 or 13 year old frame, even Elesia was uncertain as to her exact age, gave her an evocative look.  The shirt revealed the top of a budding bust, no different than some of the other girls that age.  Of course, the bodice gave a little push, so it likely made the bust look bigger than it actually was.  Yet, if that was the case, she still had a bust building up for it to do that while at the same time, the bodice showed how she was already getting an excellent form with slender sides and well sculpted hips.

Seriously.

Ino thought she would have a startling amazing form that would have every guy in the village drooling like Choji at an All You Can Eat Barbecue Buffet.

“I lived in a country called Gabriel,” she saw Ino’s confused look and shrugged, “I was an orphan, so I didn’t know much about the origin of the name even then.”

“Makes sense,” Ino shrugged as the two walked towards a room.

“Yes,” Elesia agreed as the two stopped to talk outside a room, “I lived in Chaville, a very wealthy port and merchant town on the coast near the equator,” she chuckled in memory, “The temperatures were usually very hot,” she showed her tan skinned, “So you can guess where I got my tan.”

Ino took a look.  Elesia did have a tan that was not very common to the people of the Land of Fire.  Though she was reminded that Lady Kushina had a slightly similar tan.  It wasn’t as deep, but they were also far north and the Lady Hokage had been living in the village for years now, so it wasn’t a surprise to Ino that the redhead looked more like she was a native of the village.

“Despite that,” Elesia continued as she seemed lost in thought, as she remembered the city she lived in until a few years ago, at best, “We always had a cool breeze that kept the place from being too hot, except in the summer, how I hated those months.”

“Were they hard?” Ino tilted her head in curiousity.

“Only if I could not steal or some how get clothes that were suited for it,” Elesia shook her head as she remembered those days, “The winters could be surprisingly cool and dip into being slightly cold, but you needed heavy clothes for the rains that fell and that made it even colder.”

“Ouch.”

“Yes.  So in order to survive the summers, the clothes had to be cut down and you can imagine just how hard it would be to get new clothes for the next winter if I had to cut down my clothes for the summer.”

“Not liking it.  So where did you live in the city?”

“At first it was an orphanage in the Commons.  There we were all well treated and cared for.  But eventually, the landlord began to demand more money than could be paid.  When the money could not be paid, we lost the orphanage and the caretakers were sent to Debtors Prison.”

“Debtors Prison?”

“A prison where a person was held until they could to pay off their debt.”

“How did that work?”

“Depended on the warden and what their morality was.”

“If I didn’t already hate the landlord, I wish he was here so Lady Kushina could turn him over to the Interrogation Branch.”

“Why there?”

“Daddy said there’s a man there, met him once, named Ibiki,” Ino explained to the confused girl, “Ibiki is said to be able to make people talk.  How?  I haven’t a clue.  But he is as big as a bear and looks meaner than one too.”

“Oh,” Elesia now had a good guess just what the man did.

“So where did you live afterwards?” Ino gently prompted with her question.

“The Port District,” Elesia responded after some thought as she reimagined the sights, “Truly a marvelous place, if not for the dangers there,” the brown hair girl shook her head, “You learned fast to run and hide while those that could fight, did so.  There was always trouble and you quickly learned how to navigate it and that was just about it.”

“I hope it wasn’t some old packing crate?” she knew how small those were when something was shipped.

“An old home built out of them yes,” Elesia responded as she recalled the dingy little place two dozen of them called home, “The old owner was an old seahand who passed away a few years earlier, so we took over his abandon home, there were about 20 of us or so, but there was plenty of space to fit us, as long as we didn’t take too much.”

“Ah,” Ino replied translating as ‘no privacy whatsoever’ and more than grateful for living in the Leaf.

“Strange…”  Elesia frowned as she scratched her head furiously, “I can’t recall details of the city itself.  Things I should know are a blank.  How is that possible?”

Seeing Elesia beginning to show signs of panic at realizing she had memories and details missing, Ino calmly spoke up, “It’s alright,” she gently took Elesia’s hands in her own, “It’s likely a side effect of what happened to you.  It will eventually go away, perhaps not completely, but you can rebuild from what you will recall and memories will resurface.”

“What… happened,” there was real fear in Elesia’s face, her eyes showing that to be true.

Using gentle stroking motions and a gentle voice, Ino explained, “Our family specializes in that branch of knowledge.  It is what helps us with our techniques and jutsu, but we have to be careful as we know we can either damage another’s mind or ours and even both if truly careless, yet we know the limits and what they do,” she smiled warmly at her new sister, helping her to calm down as she continued. “As such, whoever kidnapped you and took control, did so quite forcibly to maintain control and your mind had to do something to keep itself from being destroyed.  Though that means very little, we hope that they do return,” then Ino reached over to the door knob and turned it.

“Until then, we will build new memories as a family,” and she opened the door to the gently furnished room, “This is your room Elesia.”

The girl gasped at the size of the room and what furnished it.  It was large, so large that she knew at least 10 of her old orphanage friends could have found space to live in it.  It had a large single bed in one corner near open windows that lead to a balcony with some potted plants on them.  The curtains over it was a nice shade of blue and purple and were held open by white ribbons.  The bed itself had blue and purple covers and clothes neatly folded on top of them along with still boxed, though opened, shoes and sandals.  Across from the foot of the bed was an oaken dresser with a vanity mirror and a small table next to it with a large closet just opposite of it.  A small stool to sit on, sat near the table with a full size mirror placed between the bed and dresser.

In another corner she spotted an oaken desk with a bag on with school supplies laid out next to it.  A comfortable chair sat next to the desk made of strong wood itself.  A book shelf was next to the desk.  Again it was made of oak and was filled with some books and scrolls already in it.  Next to that was a small step ladder for reaching the higher books and scrolls.

The walls themselves were lined with shelves on the yellow painted surface.  A few had picture frames on them.  Of that few, only a couple had pictures of already in them.  The rest were empty, just like most of the shelves.

Here, Ino explained.

“This way, you can add what you want, including new memories.”

Elesia turned with tears in her eyes and her voice threaten to fail on her, “You knew.  You knew the whole time.”

“We could guess,” Inoichi answered as he and Haruka entered the room, “We always wanted another daughter,” he gently held his wife close, “But we only had Ino,” he smiled at Elesia, “We hope you would honor us by staying and being that second daughter.  That way we can all fill these empty places with memories and give one another what we each desire.”

“A big sister!” Ino giggled aloud.

“Another daughter to fret and worry over and be proud of,” Haruka smiled warmly, like a mother to Elesia.

“A happy and larger family,” Inoichi smiled sheepishly while scratching the back of his head nervously.

“A warm home with a loving family,” Elesia began to wipe away the tears as she collapsed to her knees, sobbing happily as Ino, Haruka, and Inoichi joined her, gently pulling her into a family hug.

XxX

Naruto had just gotten done with shopping for gifts for almost every girl that had given him chocolate nearly a month prior when he saw Yamiko walk in his direction. As he wracked his memory to see if she gave him chocolate the month prior, he remembered that she had a gift waiting for her in his bag of gifts, one that he didn’t know how to keep hidden from her for the time being.

As it turned out, he didn’t need to worry about it, mainly because she was carrying groceries in her arms. As soon as she got near Naruto’s position, Yamiko said to him, “Oh, hello there, Naruto-kun. I was wondering if you could help me get my groceries put away when I get to where I live with Mika.” Upon receiving a blank look from Naruto, she elaborated, “Mika and I eat more than normal people, but mainly due to our intense use of Chakra. Not only do we need to have more food than the average person, but the amount of food I have in my arms is actually more than what I usually buy.”

Naruto, looking at the amount of food in her bags, saw that she was right. It was pretty hard to comprehend how two people about his age were able to eat even half the amount of food he usually ate, but it seemed that Yamiko and Mika were able to out-eat him, of all people!

Suddenly, an idea hit him. Putting his things down, he made the hand seal for Kage Bunshin, making fifteen copies of himself, before indicating his things and saying to the clones, “Alright, guys, make sure these get back home while I help Yamiko-chan get her groceries to her place. Also, please dispel one at a time, or else I’ll get a huge headache out of it.”

With an affirmative reply, the clones took hold of the bags that Naruto had, before they all darted over to the original’s home. With that taken care of, Naruto turned to face Yamiko and said, “Okay. I’m ready now. How about we get going?”

With a nod, Yamiko walked in front of Naruto to ensure that he knew the right way to her apartment, which would help in the long run… especially with a problem that was closer to home than they previously realized.

XxX

A pair of wild eyes looked about to be sure it was clear.  Once they were sure, the owner darted to and fro.  The eyes soon looked out of a new position, spotting its trackers.  They were closing in and fast on the fugitive.  But they would not have it easy.

The fugitive took off again once it was sure it was clear.  Unfortunately, several had gotten smart.  Fortunately, the net had become caught on various obstructions.  The fugitive didn’t look back to confirm what held the net up, literally, given that to do so was to be caught.

Flight was its only course now.  Up some stairs, down some more.  Around a bend through an alley.  Over some boxes or other obstacles, it all soon was blurring together.

Then suddenly it let a surprised sound when it found some purchase give way and it tumbled into some soft items.

The good news, the pursuers immediately lost the fugitive and kept on running by.

The bad news… it was now in an entrapped environment.

XxX

Naruto and Yamiko had made it to her apartment when they heard a meowing sound coming from within. As soon as they'd heard it, Naruto turned to face her and asked, "Do you have a cat?"

"No, I don't," Yamiko answered truthfully, a confused look on her face.

At that, both blinked in realization, and Naruto held Yamiko's groceries while she unlocked her door. With the doorway open, both of them made their way to where the meowing was coming from. They soon found the room, and found themselves looking at a tiger cub helplessly trapped in Yamiko and Mika's laundry, much to the girl's mortification.

"DON'T LOOK!" Yamiko shouted as she shoved Naruto back, but the tiger heard her, panicked and shot out of the room, bowling both kids over and leaving a trail of laundry in its wake.

"The heck?" Naruto pulled a piece of cloth off his face, fearing the worse and released a sigh of relief when he saw it was a pair of shorts instead of something more terrifying, like bloomers or underwear.

He still carried the occasional phantom pain from when he had taken a pair of his mother's 'special' panties, which were a gift from his father, and showed them off in front of several acquaintances.

From what he understood, Uchiha Mikoto still ribbed her longtime friend over the incident.

"NARUTO-KUN!" Yamiko shouted, not caring that they were only shorts; her face was redder than Kushina's hair at that point.

Naruto wisely changed the subject as he got to his feet and started chasing the tiger cub. "On it!" he shouted, chasing it around the apartment flat. "Get back here you!"

Yamiko could only sit where she had fallen and watch as Naruto tried repeatedly to catch the tiger. She watched him bounce off walls, run on them, crash through things, at one point slam into the refrigerator's door, dive head first into a chair, slip on some trash that got knocked free, and eventually make a successful diving tackle…

...right into her.

"Naruto-kun." Yamiko felt her eye twitch as she recovered from the pain, but then noticed something in Naruto's arms.

"Got you, believe it," he said with a little laugh, and sure enough, he had the tiger cub firmly in his arms and it was a big one at that.

The cub had teal-colored fur, with silver stripes evenly placed, though the most distinguishable thing about it was its sparkling grey eyes. It was these eyes that showed its innocence in life that sparkled through. It was hardly a dangerous animal, just lost and scared. Yamiko's heart went out to the tiger cub and she felt that Naruto holding it that tightly was a crime against nature.

"Yamiko-chan?" Naruto looked to her confused, "I don't recognize this breed of tiger."

The blonde girl blinked her green eyes and then took in the appearance of the tiger. As she looked it over, she felt her jaw drop.

Mika, who had been resting until the ruckus started, didn't share her surprise.

"That is a purebred Uzushiogakure-based Sea Tiger," the blue haired girl-shaped golem stated as she eyed the tiger cub and collecting some base stats on observation alone. "I would judge this one to be at least several months old, nearly four feet in length, roughly two point five in height, and weighing between 50-80 pounds," she stopped, observing the fur coat, "and likely illegally born and raised in captivity."

"Illegally?" Naruto squinted his eyes like a fox's as he tried to understand what Mika meant.

"Correct, illegally," Mika responded, and once she saw the confusion on Naruto's face she strangely felt the desire to sigh, but carried on, "Uzushiogakure Sea Tigers are extremely rare and endangered resulting in only legal institutions such as public zoos, wild animal preserves, and such to have them."

"Oh, okay," Naruto said as he understood, and he realized his next question was an obvious one as he said it. "How did this fella come to be in your apartment?"

"Unknown, but investigation will likely uncover the truth," Mika replied as she looked at the tiger and noticed a few other things. "This tiger appears to have only recently fled, leaving a high," the front door was suddenly blown in, "probability that its illegal owners are still searching for it," she concluded without any sign of being perturbed.

In strode the smugglers who looked less than pleased about being made to run around. They smirked as they saw it was only a trio of kids with their lost prey. In their eyes, it would be simple as taking candy from a baby.

But they'd forgotten a few details.

The first thing they'd forgotten was that this was a ninja village. In this kind of village, you don't just go knocking holes in walls and blowing doors off of their hinges. These thugs were used to dealing with the simple folk of the farmlands or the streetwise city slickers. The former wished for peace and the latter knew better than to pick fights they could not hope to win.

But, these were ninjas, and they were trained for battle, to fight from an early age. Even a civilian from a ninja village was not someone you wanted to cross unless you had some advantage and even then, you had to be wary.

Just because they didn’t have Chakra, didn’t mean they didn’t know ninja tricks or taijutsu.

The second, and most important, thing they forgot was that the ninja in question were related to the current Hokage, and their word meant more to her than anything else, especially the word of the smugglers. This was especially a problem for the idiots that thought that they could barge in the apartment to begin with.

As the lead smuggler brought out a switchblade and flipped out the blade, his cronies brought out tantos, obviously normal ones compared to the stuff used by ninjas. That was when they barged on into the apartment, the leader saying, “Okay, kiddies, it’s time to return our property back to us.” Pointing at Naruto with his free hand, the leader continued, “That tiger cub in your arms, boy? Yeah, it’s ours. If you want to live, you’ll have to give the tiger back, and—”

It was at that point that the Sea Tiger growled at the smugglers, signifying that these were the ones it was escaping from, before it leapt away from the immediate area and ran off to the window.

“Get the tiger!” The leader yelled at his eight goons, expecting things to go easily for them.

When they attempted to get past Naruto and the actual residents of the apartment, Naruto kicked one in the torso with a scissor kick while punching another with a straight left, while Yamiko and Mika each knocked down the remaining six that were upright with disabling blows. With that, the fight was over—

“Heh… you think that’s enough to take out my boys? You’re sadly mistaken, brats!”

—or so Naruto and the girls thought, until the eight smugglers that went down came right back up, weapons mysteriously back in hand. With the fight resumed all of a sudden, Naruto, Yamiko and Mika were hard-pressed to keep the home field advantage, as the smugglers charged at the three of them with twice the energy as before.

The smugglers teamed up on Yamiko, Mika and Naruto, beating them with the flats of their tantos. The beating lasted for roughly fifteen seconds, before Naruto overpowered his bunch and threw the whole lot of them towards the door, where the lead smuggler was. As they piled in front of their leader, Naruto finally got a feeling that the smugglers were far from normal humans, though he was having trouble pinpointing the exact nature of the smugglers with his extra sensing abilities.

While the smugglers were struggling to get back up from that one, Mika took the time to see about finding them in her database, the one of people that were from the immediate area. As she did so….

“Oi! Get your sorry asses off the ground and each other, and get back in the fight!” the lead smuggler yelled, starting to lose patience with his goons.

It was at this time that Naruto finally got a lock on the smugglers nature, making him gasp in surprise as he realized the truth. “Guys, we got youkai here!” he yelled to alert Yamiko and Mika.

“Heh! You figured us out, huh? Sorry to ruin your realization, but, now that you know the truth, none of you will be leaving here alive!!” The lead smuggler declared, before snapping his fingers of his free hand and the men stood back up before, in a quick burst of energy, transformed into thin monsters that were vaguely human in appearance with small horns sticking out of their foreheads with long forked tongues darting out of fanged mouths as skeletal wings appeared covered in thin leather skins and they reached forward with clawed three fingered hands.

“Oh you have to be kidding me,” Naruto looked at the youkai with their unnaturally bulging eyes centered on them, “What part of demons being scared of Uzumaki did this guy not get?”

“Eh?” the leading ‘smuggler’ blinked just before Yamiko pulled her guns out and a hail of energy sent the lot back into him.

“I believe that will only make them angry,” Mika intoned a fact as the leader could be heard growling darkly, “But as a means to an end, it has sufficed.”

“Yep,” Naruto knew what would come next…

“GET THEM!” the ‘smuggler’ shouted and the monsters rushed forward.

The monsters reached them and they began to thrash the three youths.  Despite that, the three were giving as well as they got.  Though it was clear that the power difference was a great chasm that couldn’t be overcome in that moment.

Naruto was beset by four of the monsters, since he was proving to be the most durable and stubborn one.  He managed to clock one right in the face and actually knock some teeth out.  Then he elbowed another into one of its companions.  But he was still outnumbered and the strength difference was huge.

Naruto was knocked down and then mercilessly pummelled.  He was picked up by one and smashed through the wall, coughing up blood in the process, before being thrown across the room.  One immediately punched him as he staggered back to his feet.  Then another blindsided him with a shoulder charge and he was done and again, being punched and kicked when one brought its clawed hand up for the kill.

Mika was proving not as durable as Naruto, but enough so that one of Naruto’s opponents had to peel off to fight her as well.  Mika was crashed through a wall into an adjoining apartment, the family there hiding in the back room could only shake in terror as Mika screamed as she was relentlessly attacked before she was slammed into the walkway through another wall.

Nevertheless, she had managed to break the arm of one opponent and knock another briefly senseless with her tonfas long enough to smash the hand of the third before being overpowered as the monsters regenerated or recovered.

Yamiko managed to remove the eye of one of the monsters with a lucky shot and her fire slowed her opponents until they crossed their wings over them and charged.  She was smashed back into the laundry room and then hurled back into the entryway.  She managed another shot that took a horn from the second attacker, but then they were all over her.

“I guess we’ll have to burn the building and kill everyone here,” the leader said, shrugging as he did so.

Naruto, despite being about to die, glared defiantly and said, “You… you f—”

“YOU FUCKING BASTARD!!” an older male voice roared, before an alarm clock was launched at the leader at such a high speed that, quite literally, clocked him as said device broke in two.

That unexpected action stopped the one-sided combat long enough to reveal a young man of around 17, in a blue school uniform, with black hair and gray eyes behind his glasses, storming towards where the leader fell, the switchblade still in his hand. By the time the monsters started processing the scene in front of them, the young man snatched the knife away from the leader and yelled, “You stole my switchblade!”

Upon noticing the monsters, the young man said to the aggressors, “Since when did you feel the need to beat up little kids? Put them down, and come at me….” Reaching for his glasses, he took them off, eyes closed as he did so, before opening his eyes to show that they changed from gray to a brilliant indigo, leading him to say, “...if you dare.”

With a roar, the monsters dropped Naruto, Yamiko and Mika, before charging at the interloper. Expecting an easy time against the new guy, they charged and then circled him, preparing to clobber him in a few blows, if even that.

“閃鞘 (Sensa),” the newcomer intoned, before he slashed at the monster in front of him blindingly fast. When he moved his knife hand closer to his body, he jumped up and over the monster, kicking the entity in the back and revealing that it was cleaved into 18 pieces.

By that point, the other monsters were quick to realize that they weren’t fighting a regular person, though they were still inclined to kill him.

As the young man saw them charge him, he smirked, saying, “You seem quite eager to die, you do realize.” With that, he ran towards the monsters, slashing one in an upper diagonal from his left to his right, stabbing another in a place in its chest that caused that specific monster to die and vanish at the same time, slashing a third from the creature’s right side of the neck to the left side of its abdomen, slicing a fourth from its left shoulder to its right foot, dicing a fifth into five pieces, stabbing a sixth in a different place from the chest of the second one (in this case, the tailbone area) and making that one die and vanish, and cutting the last of the mooks in a somewhat straight line down the middle.

The leader, having gotten up from being clocked very shortly after the last of his mooks died, growled before roaring in rage, transforming into a monster like what his goons were, only more beefy, taller, and with five clawed hands with full wings. When he revealed his true form, he yelled, “Prepare to DIE, PUNY HUMAN!!”

“Eh, you wouldn’t be the first to say something like that, bastard. You think you can actually succeed in killing me, though?” the young man asked the monster, before jumping in a backwards somersault towards where he started killing the goons. Before the move could be questioned, the young man intoned, “閃走 (Sensō)”.

As soon as the intoning happened, he almost teleported to right within the guard of the monster, having ran that fast in less than a second. With a few swipes of his switchblade, he defeated the leader, though allowing the monster to live for a few seconds.

“Who… who are you?” were the last words of the monster, before the life faded from its eyes.

“My name is Shiki,” the young man answered, putting his glasses back on. “Tohno Shiki.”

With that, Shiki walked out of the remains of the apartment, narrowly missing the ANBU squad in the area as he managed to go into a crowd and literally vanish.

Xamusel:
Konoha Military Hospital
Seven hours later

“When I find out who hurt my son and friends, they’re going to wish I wasn’t Hokage!”  Kushina shouted in anger as she went back and forth, pacing in front the surgical room.

Naruto was recovering, much to her shock, very quickly.  Even if he had her regenerative abilities, the one all Uzumaki have, he should have still been laid up for next several months.  Instead, the staff said he might be out in a week at the earliest or the end of the month at worst.  That didn’t make sense even if she had been Kurama no Yoko’s container, he shouldn’t be recovering that fast at all.

Mika, thankfully, managed to avoid any serious harm.  Still, after this, she was going to have to let Yamiko have her lab so she could properly repair the golem.  Until then, Mika was still functional, just not at peak efficiency and at the top of her game.

Yamiko though…

The doors opened up and out stepped the Head of Surgery.

“Good news all around,” he said at once, seeing the Hokage immediately turn to him as he pulled the gloves off his hands, “She’ll be fine and back to her full capacity in about three weeks, give or take.”

Kushina visibly sagged with relief as Hiruzen stepped forward, having been patiently keeping an eye on her, “Anything we should know about doctor?”

The head shook his head at Hiruzen’s question, “No, nothing to worry about,” the man wiped his forehead though in relief, “I’d thought it would be worse, but she’s surprisingly built tougher than she looks.”

“Thank you doctor,” the Third Hokage bowed to him and the doctor bowed back.

“When will she be fit for visitors?” Kushina inquired, wondering as she wanted to talk to her friend and make sure she was alright as well as make arrangements for the debrief on what attacked them.

“Not for two days and not a moment before,” the doctor sternly warned the redhead.

Kushina only nodded and the doctor acknowledged that before departing to care for other patients.  The red headed woman then took one look as Yamiko was wheeled away to her room to rest and recover.  Then with a sigh, the woman turned and started on out of the hospital.  She had an investigation to worry about, a smuggling ring that had been broken up, the contents of said ring, a tiger from her birth country, reports of Youkai having been… well… she figured they would likely need to tear down the upper floors in order to be rid of the damage and stains.

And that was before the normal day’s work was resumed.

‘What is happening?’ Kushina thought to herself as she exited the building and started back for her office, ‘Youkai are not like that, nothing like we’ve been finding, and yet...’

As a Hokage and a Mother, she was deathly afraid of what the future might just hold.

XxX

In an Alternate Universe
Avalon Solutions Headquarters
Roughly the same time

Shiki walked in through the courtyard door of the Emiya estate, having just completed his mission in the alternate reality that was further removed from the base than usual, and proceeded to the dining room table for a home-cooked meal by the care provider of the estate. While he had a ton of issues to work out with the estate’s owner, he had no such issues with the care provider, given that she was such a sweet girl when she wasn’t on a mission… and it was a good thing he never got paired with her on missions, so he was told, because the lingering effects of the torture she endured were more than enough to make any male who didn’t know her all that well, that was also within range at times, want to do something horrendous with her.

When he got to the table, however, he noted that there was a bit of paperwork for him to fill out. Taking the time to look it over, he realized something rather important, namely….

‘This is bad! Tokie is pregnant with my child, and I have to take responsibility, especially if her father has any say in this!!’ Shiki thought.

When it came down to it, he knew that he had to take care of this in a timely fashion, because Tokie’s father, Jinan Sougen, was his doctor (and a rather scary man when he wanted to be). He would have to promise both of them that he would take care of her, through all the tough times especially, and even lay bare the truth about what he usually goes out to do.

With that, Shiki got up, paperwork in hand, and walked over to the Misaki Town entryway to the Avalon Solutions Headquarters, before hurrying over to his doctor and making sure that Tokie got a father for her child.

XxX

Back in Konoha
The next day (local time)

As Iruka tried to teach his class, he couldn’t help, but sigh.  The boys were doing well, more or less, given the events of the other day.  They were all a little freaked about the attack on one of the apartments and more specifically, their fellow cadets who were the target of the attack.  The Yamiko and Mika Joint Fan Club was especially hard hit since they both were in the hospital, though Mika was expected to rejoin in a couple of days.

Still, they were at least paying attention, taking the attack as a cue to learn and study hard.  They were doing exceptionally well in physical exercise as well.  Even Choji and Shikamaru were putting in the extra effort.  They all were really motivated.

The girls… were not.

Most were Naruto Fan Clubs members and they were really down in the dumps about it.  It was grating as even Sakura was getting wrong answers and Kurina was so fidgety he had nearly lost his temper four times with her alone today.  Ino was probably the only girl not affected and that was because she was showing her new sister the ropes of living in the village.

Yet even that was distracting to the girl.

Finally, after even Hinata got another wrong answer, he simply closed his book and turned to them all.

“Okay, listen up,” he called and the boys were attentive, but the girls….

“I SAID LISTEN UP!”

He used his Big Head Jutsu and the girls all gave starts.  One girl tumbled out of her seat.  Ino landed on Sasuke’s shoulders, tumbling them both into Kiba who tried to juggle them both before crashing into Aburame Shino and all four ended up in a mess.  Hinata gave a terrified sound that wasn’t either a scream or a shout of panic and toppled over in a dead faint.  Two other girls jumped into a standing position holding one another for dear life.  Sakura gave a violent start that she kicked her desk over and into the boys below her row.  Then it was further domino effect from there in one way or another and he could hear Mizuki slap his hand over his face in embarrassment.

Once the whole mess was more or less done happening, Iruka could only gape at the damage down.

Then the door slid open and another instructor put his head in through the door.  He took a look at Iruka and Mizuki, then at the mess of limbs, damaged desks, seats, and other messes.  Then he looked back at Mizuki and Iruka and sighed heavily.

“You guys too?”

Mizuki only groaned as Iruka looked only at what should have been impossible.

And so, here they were, with the girls separated from the boys for the time being.  They were all out on the running tracks, well, most were.  The ones that were paying attention and being as motivated as the boys were excused from this reorganization.  Plus, it seemed as time went by, more and more girls realized they had been in a funk all day.  They seemingly came too with a blink of the eyes that seemed to make them realize where they were and what they had been up to or rather the lack of what they had been up to.

As girls began to get themselves reoriented and back into the real world, they were excused.  Those that hadn’t were left to the tender mercies of Mitarashi Anko.  This left the remaining girls wondering if they had gone to hell when they seemed to finally click on.

Of course, that was probably because of Anko’s decision to use shock therapy and her assistants were rather long and huge snake summons.

Her real assistant, Chunin Yuuhi Kurenai looked on in wonder as the girls quickly snapped out of their funks and were sent off to clean up and return to class.

“See Nai-tan,” Anko spoke playfully as she filed her nails keeping them short and normal looking, “A little shock therapy, applied in the right matter would jump start them all.”

“I don’t see how this can even be considered safe,” the crimson eyed woman looked over to her friend with more than a little annoyance, “Considering the size of those snakes.”

Anko merely brought her hand up and glanced at her nails.  Nodding, she put the file away and turned to her friend, “Relax will you?” it was an honest question, “I put special seals on the number tags before I sent them out on their little run.”

Kurenai only huffed and looked to where another pair of girls suddenly appeared in smoke.  The two looked very winded and downright exhausted.  A single glance of their disheveled appearance told the Chunin that they were more interested in their appearance rather than making sure they would not only pass, but survive long enough to thrive in the Ninja world.

She couldn’t help, but wonder about how many dropouts there might be.

Then again, it was probably for the best.  Kurenai knew for a fact of what might happen to a kunoichi if captured.  She had seen it several times herself and Anko was a good description of what might happen to them if they ended up being lead astray by a traitor.  The life of ninja was hard, but equally so for both men and women as there were few qualms about tearing -at times literally- apart in ways best left undescribed.

While Kurenai hadn’t seen war, she had seen her fair share of border skirmishes and had a scar hidden beneath her hair on the left top of her head from a sword slash from an enemy Samurai.

Anko, Kurenai knew, had more scars and some of her sunburns from when her teacher had abandoned her had never healed quite right, though her tanned skin did well to hide those burn scars, the same with how time helped them fade into that same tan.

Even Kushina had her fair share of scars, the most notable around her wrists, though barely visible.  It was a constant reminder of when the current Raikage had participated in her failed kidnapping all those years ago.  Though, as time marched on, they were barely noticeable.  One would have to have seen them before then.  As such, Kurenai had learned that the Godaime Hokage considered them a symbol of her trust in Kumo.

The scars were fading, but they would always remain there.

She would never trust the Raikage or Kumo fully in her lifetime.

“I think that’s enough,” Anko stated and she whistled loudly.

The snakes heard her call and broke off pursuing the girls.  They instead calmly slithered up to Anko who indicated for some Genin to start opening up crates of some premium steaks.  As Anko counted the girls as they came back from running, she could she her snakes held to her rules and hadn’t eaten a single girl.  With them all present and accounted for, she turned them over to Kurenai to sort out as she took care of her pets, making sure they were fed and water as the chasing was as hard on them as it was on the girls.

Sometimes it really sucked to be so big.

As Anko tended to her large and slithery friends, Kurenai took over the girls and began to get them fed and watered.  She had to admit though as they were given food and water and the medics made sure they didn’t eat or drink themselves to death, that Anko’s approach had some merit.  Though she would never say that to the top knotted purple haired woman.

The girls seemed refresh in a way and were talking to one another.  Concerns and worries filling out the conversations that had developed once they had rested enough.  Now that they were free of the snakes, they were all making their complaints known and loudly.

Until Anko summoned an even bigger snake just to shut them up on the subject.

“Geez!” Ino complained as she took a vicious bite out of her Rice Ball and chewed it with speed worthy of an Akimichi or Naruto, “Talk about an insane woman!”

Then again, there were ones like Ino and, truthfully, Anko didn’t care what they said of her.

“Well,” Hinata began tiredly, not shyly, “You can’t really blame her,” she nearly bit herself eating her own Rice Ball, “We were really out of it today for some reason.  I think she was sent here to straighten us out.”

Ino only snorted unladylike as she took another vicious bite and bit her fingers in the process, “OW!” she dropped her rice ball on herself and groaned at the mess it was leaving and sweat it was likely pulling off her.

An Uchiha girl was then heard speaking with some of her clan kin.

“I tell you things have been getting crazy lately!”

“No kidding,” one of the other Uchiha girls muttered loudly, “What gave it away?”

“The Youkai that attacked Naruto, duh!”

“I agree,” a third Uchiha girl in the group stated simply before explaining, “It is easy to pass off the attacks of the enlarged crazed beasts as a new type of Ninja Art, but Youkai do not fall under the same heading.”

“Plus there was the attack on Kurina,” said girl was in the group as well, being friends with several of them.

“W-Wh-what about the attack?” Kurina was clearly nervous and frighten about the subject.

The girl who brought it up continued, “It isn’t a surprise that a daughter of the Kage be attacked,” she lectured as she looked thoughtful, “And it shouldn’t be a surprise that someone else would try to take advantage as you lay in the hospital quite vulnerable,” several nods greeted that logical conclusion, “So it had to be with the Youkai that things really, really started to get strange and unusual.”

“That makes unfortunate sense,” another Uchiha chimed in and they all sighed sadly at that as they knew things were going to get worse before they got better.

Sakura also let out a sigh herself.  She thought about Naruto and how he and Mika would be back soon.  That left Yamiko in the hospital for some time.  That also gave her an opening to get Naruto to like her and start going out with her.

She was no fool.  She saw that Naruto and Kurina couldn’t be biological siblings.  The two had been clearly adoptive siblings, that much she had figured out, so had Shikamaru and Kiba, but in their own ways.  Heck, it had been Shino who had finally told her the truth on the subject when she asked him to help her out.

Sakura also knew that the two were planning to start dating once they were both twelve years old.

The pinkette really needed this chance to try and gain Naruto’s affection.  But she wouldn’t go for it and that had been bothering her all day now.  The problem she was feeling was that it was underhanded.  Naruto deserved to know how she felt with Kurina there.  That way he could honestly choose between them.

She wanted Naruto to freely love her back, because he had honestly fallen in love with her.

Now she had this turmoil going for her.

As Anko observed, she noticed how the girls were talking their problems out with one another.  She felt that was a good step in the right direction for them.  Plus, this little exercise might have the bonus of forcing them to give up on frivolous and stupid things like diets and such.

Don’t get her wrong for a moment.  Some things like a diet was bad for a person in their line of work.  Using Chakra sped up the body’s operations and thus required an increased intake of food and drink.  On the other hand, for Kunoichi, infiltration was one of their specialties.  So they would need to know how to apply such things as make-up, perfume, and how to dress appropriately for the target area and/or target.

Just being in their line of work would let them keep their weight down.  Plus, with constructive understanding of Chakra, they would be able to hide their actual muscle mass as well.  It even had the benefit of hiding callouses on the hands and feet.  Any girl would love that ability after all.

“I see they are doing better,” the smell of lightly burning tobacco wafted up into her nostrils and the Snake Charmer of Leaf turned to her long time benefactor and somewhat of a surrogate father.

“Greetings Lord Hokage,” she smiled genuinely to the old man who chuckled heartily, if lightly.

“Hello Anko,” Hiruzen responded as he eyed the girls, making sure they were doing well, “I’m glad to see they are doing exceptionally well after that grueling run.”

Anko shrugged as she went back to tending her pets, patting one on the side and speaking softly to it before returning her attention to the retired Hokage, “As it stands,” she gesture back to the girls, “every year that passes, we get a stronger and stronger crop.”

“Agreed,” the old man nodded his head as he turned to pat the big snake they stood next to, “With the time and resources we have now, we can actually invest in proper training and outfitting for once, especially after Naruto’s remark to one of the students of the Raikage’s younger brother.”

Anko let out an incredulous laugh at that, “I can’t believe he went and said that and somehow managed to undo decades of bad blood that damn easily.”

The Hokage made a mirthful noise himself as he took his pipe from his lips, “Agreed,” and he did, “Of course in all fairness to them, if not for the Silver and Gold Brothers, we wouldn’t have been fighting them in the first place,” then he thought about it, “At least in the first place.”

Anko only ‘hmmed’ back as the two watched the girls begin to understand a few things.

XxX

Naruto was tossing and turning in his hospital bed, the dream he was having a sign that something wrong was going on, though nobody knew what he was dreaming of… except for a man in a black hooded robe standing in the shadows of his room.

‘It is time to show you what is to come in a possible future, young one. I pray for your success, Uzumaki Naruto,’ the man thought to himself, before fading from the room into Naruto’s dreamscape.

XxX

Naruto ran in fear, not once looking back the way he came, because of some instinctual warning that screamed at him to run as fast as he could away from the thing chasing him! He didn’t know what it was, but he didn’t need to at present, given that he didn’t want to be caught by it or anything else that could happen.

Looking all around him as he ran, he saw that Konoha was in ruins, the surrounding area burning as he ran to avoid the monstrosity headed his way. He also saw a number of places that he didn’t recognize, but felt that he should, until he finally got to a fork in the road… and hit an invisible wall that suddenly barred his way.

Falling flat on his back, Naruto finally saw what he was running from… a massive amount of tentacles attached to a dark mass, the dark mass being the main body of whatever that thing was. It was a good thing that he didn’t see what the dark mass really was, because it seemed to be an abomination of some sort… possibly something mankind should never have to know about.

With that, he froze on his back, unable to move as the monster slowly but surely advanced towards him. When it was within two meters of him….

A bright light appeared in front of him, blocking the eldritch abomination from continuing, as a room started to form around Naruto. When the room finished forming around him, he got up off the ground and took a look around, seeing that it was a different style of room than what he was used to back home. For one thing, all the walls were white in color, with different pictures on the wall that featured him either on his own or with someone else. One set of pictures was of he and Kurina, as a couple no less, leading up to them having kids. Another set of pictures had him with Sakura, though she had long slanted ears instead of the normal variety, leading up to the two of them living long and happy lives. A third set of pictures had him with Ino, though the tone of the pictures was sadder than the others, but leading up to a bittersweet ending overall. A fourth set of pictures featured him with Yamiko and sometimes Mika, though it took a while for Mika to finally grow up, eventually leading up to an ending that showed Naruto working on a project that would benefit humanity with three children assisting him.

All in all, there were fifteen different sets of pictures, and each one was somewhat informative of a potential future that could be… right?

“Ah, I see you found the truth of your existence, Naruto. It’s a shame that you didn’t discover it sooner.”

Turning to face the speaker, Naruto found a blonde-haired girl, who seemed to be a few years older than him, sitting at the table on the opposite side of where he was. If he wasn’t quite as observant in this situation, he might have missed that she had blue eyes, rosy cheeks and pale, pink lips, while she wore a simple, white, lace dress and light blue sandals… and that she was drawing something on a piece of paper in front of her.

Fortunately for Naruto, he was able to pick those details out, so he decided to walk around the table and see what it was she was drawing. When he got to her side of the table, he sat down to her immediate left and turned to face her, asking, “Excuse me, miss, but wh—”

“Naminé.”

“Huh?” Naruto got out after being interrupted.

“My name is Naminé,” the girl, no, Naminé, answered without looking up from her drawing.

“Oh, okay, Naminé-san—”

“Just Naminé, Naruto.”

“Oh… alright. Er, if you don’t mind my asking, what are you drawing?” Naruto finally got to ask.

“I’m drawing an epilogue of your overall adventures. I just haven’t finished generalizing it yet, based on the fact that there are different options to go by in each adventure.” As soon as she finished that statement, Naminé drew some additional bits in the scenery of her work, making it include a bunch of foxes in the background, and a pair of blonde-haired men speaking to each other in the foreground. With that, she put down her drawing materials and said, “Okay, it’s done.”

By that point, the man in the black hooded robe showed up in a column of shadowy energy, saying as soon as he was fully visible, “Naminé, the preparations are complete. We’d best head back now, before they notice that we’re gone.”

“Alright, I understand.” Naminé stood up from her seat, with Naruto doing the same, before they both walked to where the man was.

For whatever reason, Naruto didn’t know why, but he felt that the man was a safe guy to be around. It just was a feeling that he had… nothing more.

When Naruto and Naminé were in front of the man, he said, “Uzumaki Naruto, what you’ve seen so far is something you will need to understand on your own. Nobody will help you out with this, because this is a test that only you have to go through. Do you understand what I mean so far?”

Naruto, because he honestly didn’t understand, shook his head.

“In short, you must find your own path, one that will enable you to find the truth of your life. There will be no clear answers at first, but all will be revealed in due time, so relax your thoughts.” The man said, like he was a sage.

“Oh,” Naruto said, honestly understanding it now.

Naminé walked in between Naruto and the man in front of them, saying, “I hope that they won’t notice our disappearance any time soon, even though we still need to be back before they do notice.” Turning to face Naruto, she said, “We’ll meet again, before the start of the divergences, I promise.” With that, she and the man both vanished in a shadowy column, before the same bright light from earlier engulfed Naruto once more… before he finally woke up.

XxX

A month later

Mikoto let out a covered giggled behind her Kimono sleeve as Naruto and Sasuke continued to go at it.  The two were certainly boys and acted very much the part.  Next to her, Kushina was doing much as she was as Sasuke and Naruto traded barbs back and forth.  The two mothers knew where this was eventually going to go, so they held hidden the ladles they would use to knock the boys on the head for when it got there.

Until such time, they were enjoying the meal, the drink, and the entertainment.

Across the village, Sakura, Ino, and Elesia finished a bit of shopping.  Since things had started to get a little crazy, Elesia had decided that it would be safer on the line than behind it.  As such, she had been enrolled in the Ninja Academy, though a late starter, she was showing promise, especially with Ino helping her.  While Elesia might never get on the line, she would be in important places to support it so it could move forward and defend their home.

Kiba was rough housing with Choji, the two boys trying to see who had greater strength and stamina.  Their mothers were talking about various things while Inuzuka Hana let out another annoyed and angry sound.  Apparently, she had just lost to Shikamaru, again.  Akimichi Chouza was having the same luck against Nara Shikaku as his wife Yoshino stepped out with tea for everyone.

Yamiko finished her final tuning of Mika.  For both, the lab was the gift of the Kami themselves.  Mika had immediately gone through some fighting stances and techniques.  Yamiko had never bothered to mention, that after so much time, Mika would begin to physically develop on her own.  As such, Yamiko needed the lab to fine tune Mika during that time.

Mika’s growth, as Yamiko read over the original report, was the result of a strange specimen of life getting loose and combining with the golem.  Yamiko had noted it had taken three months for Mika to regain some semblance of herself.  But what shocked her, was that Mika should have been full grown by now and even as old as Kushina in appearance.

Yamiko had always known why Mika had been offline when their home had fallen.  She had been placed into a standby phase as they tried to understand why she hadn’t been destroyed when the unknown lifeform had combined with her.  She had just lied straight out back then.  As such, she suspected that sooner or later Mika would start to develop a taste and eventually, a need for food.  It hadn’t been hard to detect that Mika was already starting to develop emotions.

Her gaze at Naruto when she thought she was merely directing her attention tended to be less that of a soulless golem and more that of a young girl developing a crush.

Yamiko feared what would happen if Mika could not control herself in that regard.

“So many stories to tell,” a man pushed his glasses up on his nose as he sipped his tea.

His companion merely nodded.

“This should prove exciting,” the glasses man then eyed in the direction where Neji was trying his best to be a divine follower of predestined fate, “Hopefully Naruto can knock some sense into him.”

“Yep,” his friend agreed before taking out an old fashioned pocket watch and checking the time, “He’s late.”

“You know he’s never late,” glasses responded as he put down his empty tea cup, “He arrives precisely when he means to.”

The companion closed the watch and nodded, “Like now.”

“Indeed my friends, shall we be on the way?” the man was dressed like a foreign noble in a blue and white double breasted tunic with white trousers and knee high black riding boots.  His greyed hair was slicked back and his handsome features were an unusual white.  His red eyes shone with age and wisdom not many would ever see.

“Glad you are here my friend,” glasses let his eye correction drop a little, revealing glowing, golden eyes beneath.

“Where next?” the companion lifted his head, revealing glowing green eyes that looked more like lights in the dark, than actual eyes.

“Why not home for a bit?” the nobleman questioned and his two friends looked to one another and nodded, “Splendid!  There’s this boy and girl I would like you both to meet, even managed to recreate my Jeweled Sword if you can believe that.” He laughed heartily at the memory, “Interesting duo, I’m trying to see if children born from them would be just as interesting.”

The other two sighed, but agreed that if it got his attention, it was worth looking into for themselves.

With the passing of a wind gust, the three were gone and money on the table.

XxX

Xamusel Eighth A/N: Alright, this is where the chapter will end for now… unfortunately, not an awful lot of sustenance to the content of the story. On the other hand, there’s a fair bit of plot advancement, as well as a plot connection device here.

For those of you wondering about Avalon Solutions, it’s actually a setting I’m starting that has basis in the Nasuverse, one that is based on a different route than the normal three of Fate/stay Night (plus the unused Sacchin route of Tsukihime). If you’re wondering, it’s a heavily modified Heaven’s Feel, which will be quite different from the Heaven’s Feel that gets mentioned in-story (if the reference to the Jeweled Sword wasn’t enough of a clue already…).

Yes, Tohno Shiki is probably one of the most hax members of Nasuverse, unless you count Ryougi Shiki… she does a damn good job of playing God (no joke, she can kill concepts better than Tohno, even Servants get killed by her instead of the other one). Perhaps she can kill the Shinju for us?

...I’m joking. I highly doubt that the Shinju that’s displayed in canon will ever show up.

Anyway, yes, there’s a reason why Naminé is in this story. No, it has nothing to do with Kairi and Sora, although that’s the canonical reason in Kingdom Hearts. It has to do with a different sort of problem in this story… and I won’t spoil it for anyone just yet.

Anyway, here’s Tomcat, people.

XxX

Tomcat Third A/N: Life, ever winding, ever flowing.  No straight path to even the final destination.  It meanders on, setting its own pace and course.

Much like this story.

Xamusel’s got the plans, I got the words.  So here we go through with this.

We’re seeing much change and even character development.  Playing a bit on fanon and canon to unite the two and make a story.  As you can guess, things will be different and are different, but some things are written in stone unfortunately.  So there will be tragedy and heartache.

But whenever the darkness reaches its peak, so some light must be seen.

The biggest change is the dimensional barriers.  They seem to be fading and breaking in some cases.  Things and people are spilling over between the two.  What was one world’s problem is now several worlds’ problems.

Plus, what will a certain Dimensional Hopping Vampire with a love of pranks do about it?  Since it would be a problem for him directly after all.  Additionally, who are his friends?  These two newcomers who are traveling with him.  Are they merely travel buddies or are they more?

Things are changing and the winds are blowing.

Will the river of life meander as it has always done?

Or will things suddenly change?

As the story develops, so too does the character of each person involved.

What will be written next?

XxX

Xamusel Ninth A/N: As mentioned, I do have the plans, and one of them that was hinted at twice is that this will be read similarly to a Visual Novel… once in-story and the other by what Tomcat said at the beginning of his A/N. The reason why is because I intend to make this into a Visual Novel at some point, with all the bells and whistles involved, honestly.

Anyway, I guess now will be the time when the chapter gets wrapped up, so…

Sayonara no Tsubasa
-Xamusel

Xamusel:
...alright, story posting is over, now is the time for you guys to look the stuff over and tell me what I should be working on... and even what I should be rewriting (and writing for the first time) by the end of February.

Please, be as harsh as needed, but don't be too harsh!

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