The Kunoichi Who Tried to Save Everyone

Naruto is my little brother, and it doesn't matter how badly I don't want to interfere with the plot, I will destroy anyone who thinks they can harm him. Orochimaru, The Akatsuki, Uchiha Madara. My name is Uzumaki Kazuko, and this is the story of my second life. Self-Insert, AU.

I don't own Naruto, Kishimoto does...for now.

Introduction: Harmony調和

In my first life, I was born Tanya Beauregard, the only daughter of a prominent french diplomat. My childhood was as lackluster and cliche as any. I never knew my mother, she'd died when I was born, and I knew it haunted my dad. It was why he always looked at me like that. Like he was seeing her ghost. Haunted...that's the word. I could never voice my observations, could never sit down and talk it out with him, not with my anxiety. Oh well, past is the past. Onward with the story.

He avoided me throughout my life, dodging all contact except letters, not wanting to see her, or hear her. How sad is it that I hadn't even know my mother's name? He was too pained to even speak it. Ridiculous. Understandable, but ridiculous. Thinking about it makes me want to spit. I was raised by my nanny Katie, a polite, christian girl, who instilled many selfless values into me. If not for her, my soul probably would have been corrupted by loneliness and depression. Other than Katie, I had no one, she was my mother, my father, my best friend, and my teacher.

It's a surprise I didn't turn out socially stifled, but the few times I did see my father, It was during dinners with foreign dignitaries. Katie was forced to school me in etiquette, charisma, and multiple languages throughout my 18 years of being Tanya Beauregard. I never got the chance to be socially awkward.

My sanity thrived off of anime and fanfiction.

Until one day, believe it or not, I died. Well...to be more clear: Tanya Beauregard died. I had a dinner with my father's best friend, who may as well have been my Uncle, and his daughter, who (in all honesty) was a whore. She'd spent the entire dinner conversation blathering on about her bladder infection which she got from having too much sex with her current boyfriend. Yep. She straight up spoke about that at dinner. In front of her father. The Japanese prime minister.

Are you surprised that I wandered away from such riveting dinner conversation to gaze at the beautiful ocean? I'd seen the giant rock in the water, so I didn't make any moves, thinking, there's no way the captain would miss it. Instead, I began daydreaming of how I would get home, soak in the tub, and watch some Shippuden reruns. I'm so lame, I'd been thinking of Naruto, when a freaking boulder is splitting the side of the ship. You know you're a nerd (and idiot) when your dying thought is of anime.

My heels caused my feet to slip the second I tried to run towards the dining cabin. I knew the feminine death traps would be the end of me. I never wore them unless I was going out with my dad. Even now, I kind of blame him for it all. What happens next isn't pretty...but I'm not going to sugarcoat my own memories. I gain nothing from lying, so I can only say it straight up.

I slipped off the side of the boat, my stick-like figure sliding straight through the bars, and being practically dragged beneath the current. I didn't have anything even resembling that of a fighting chance. The second the waves pulled me under, my head hit the sharp front of the boat, and with a sickening crack that I somehow heard, Tanya Beauregard was no more.

Death is worth it to not have to hear that god-forsaken girl chatter on anymore about her bladder. Kidding. Mostly.

My second life began as someone both familiar and yet unknown to me at the same time. Uzumaki Kazuko. Did the last name catch your eye? You're thinking, woah, no way, she's related to Naruto now that she died, like a dream! Um, more like a nightmare! I blinked a couple of times, opening my numb mouth, my new body only very slowly connecting to my soul. I'd never felt anything like it.

In the seconds of whiteness between my death in those frothy waves to my rebirth that moment, it felt as though my personality was being...scrubbed from me. I still held all the memories of Tanya Beauregard luckily, but the feelings accompanying them...were entirely gone. Heartfelt moments of my development through life brought forth nothing when I thought about it. I clenched and unclenched my hand, getting used to this new body, whoever it was, this...new sensation.

Honestly, I suppose I'm lucky that I was able to experience my second life without being...depressed and suicidal all the time, about never smelling the cinnamon and honey suits my father always wore again. The scent was his trademark, and many praised him when it greeted their nostrils. It associated him with good things. Though damaged and distant, though the reason for my death, every instinct I'd ever known was aware of his intelligence. It was what brought him to his position of power, after all. I would also have grieved over my loss of Katie too much to move on as Kazuko. She'd been a parent in every way she could to me. Her social life was nonexistent at first, having started babysitting me when I was 5 and she was 21.

My eyes must have been clouded over, because my gaze was certainly unfocused, however, I could hear great with unbelievably sensitive ears this time around, and I most definitely identified the sounds of a woman and man teasing me in japanese. Thank god for Katie's strict ass language lessons, or i'd be screwed.

"Kazuko-Chan's a little dreamer like her Tou-Chan, isn't that right?"

Imagine my shock when I was met with the faces of Minato and Kushina themselves just inches above me, finally connecting the dots of what was really going on. And then, when I stupidly looked down, I had to swallow a few times to keep from screaming like my body so wished to do. Baby. Body. Baby body. I am in a baby. I knew I died. I knew I heard the word Uzumaki. I knew that I was in a new body. And now, I knew I was in a baby body of all things. I knew so many things and yet….I had so many unanswered questions.

Teething. Potty training. A whole new life. The Kyuubi. My parents imminent demise. A million things ran through my mind. The future coming of my little brother, since it was clear that I was the only infant in the room, and the day everything would change. Obito would show up and threaten Naruto or something and then Kurama would get released and then to save the village, Kushina and Minato would finalize the plot by dying and sealing him inside of Naruto. The whole entire beginning plot point...and here I was, his older, not-supposed to exist, all knowing sister.

"Pretty girl gets her looks from her Kaa-Chan, though, Kushina-Jr!" Minato cooed, tickling my chest with warm fingers.

My heart skipped a beat and I genuinely had no control over the impish giggles my body released. I was apparently an infant in every right. I knew that he would love me in ways my dad as Tanya never had. Even if only for a year or two, I craved paternal affection. And here it was. He seemed delighted with me, his eyes sparkling.

My new dad, god damn Namikaze Minato himself, scooped me out of Kushina's soft hold, cuddling me to his chest, and burying my head under his chin like an animal, nuzzling me. I was a surprisingly big baby. My best guess for an explanation was my Uzumaki genes, and plus nothing went wrong with Kurama when it came to the development of this body from what I could deduce, like the premature birth Naruto would later have, so it made sense I would be an extra healthy baby.

Minato smells like firewood and lilac, if you can imagine.

I was in awe. I cuddled into him, a serene smile drifting over my features. And would you believe, that somehow, I fell asleep right then and there? Before I even got to got some one-on-one time with Kushina! Like I said, the baby body I was born in did what it wanted when it came to certain things, unfortunately. A few really happy moments in the embrace of my new 'Tou-San' was enough to lull me into a coma-like state of sleep. I'd never slept so good in my entire life as Tanya Beauregard.

That first night in the Naruto world, in my second life, as Uzumaki Kazuko, I stayed up staring into the skylight of my nursery and at the star's littering the night. I thought about Kyuubi. I thought about Kushina and Minato dying. I thought about how I would undoubtedly be forced to raise and shelter my little brother from the cruel civilians who blamed him for all the lost loved ones to Kurama, and how we would grow up in an orphanage, until Naruto started at the Academy and the Hokage would give us an apartment. I remembered how Naruto was beaten from shops with brooms and shunned by nearly everyone, taunted, exiled for nearly no reason. My chest hurt.

I thought about everything. I was a baby who knew her entire future ahead of her. There were plans to be made if I wanted to survive.

Ideally, doing absolutely nothing to the plot, and living out my years as a seamstress or something would have been best for Kishimoto's story. However, it was no longer his story, at that point, it was my new life. I knew deep deep down that I couldn't just stand by and do nothing. I could feel the chakra everywhere. At first, I tried to ignore it, not knowing what it was, still figuring things out. But it made sense, once I connected the dots on where exactly I'd been reborn to. As soon as I knew what that feeling was in the air, I inhaled.

One breath in, and suddenly, in the darkness of my room, everything changed. I could hear the soft breaths of my parents in their room, I could hear the low singing of our apartment neighbour who was taking a shower late, I could hear the leaf's riding the breeze. I could smell the shampoo in the freshly cleaned carpets in my nursery, and the artificial watermelon that had somehow been ingrained in my baby bib. I dug my pudgy finger tips into the satin of my bed in my flare of anxiety at the experience, and then, I could feel the legs of the crib. I could feel the lengths of the floor, leading to the hall, to the kitchen, to the living room, to the field, and even to a nearby building that smelled like Ichiraku's.

I exhaled.

Everything went away. That was...something else. My brain needed a break, it was weak, and tired all of a sudden, as if coming down from a high. When I woke up, I would have all the time in the world to contemplate what the hell that had been, but as long as I ignored it, I could get some much needed sleep. After all, I needed to grow up to be big and strong if I wanted to live to see my nephew and niece, Boruto and Himawari.

Hopefully I could convince Naruto to change that god awful name. And Sakura too. Honestly. Boruto sounded like Burrito, and Sarada literally made me think of 'Salad.' It was laughable. Out of all the amazing names in the Japanese language, that was the best they could do? Not while I'm around.

When I woke up, the morning sun casted a red glow upon my nursery in the shadow of Kushina's hair.

"Good morning, Kazuko-Chan. It's just me and you today. Tou-San's at work" she sounded sleepy, looking incredibly adorable having just woken up clearly. She bent down my crib and picked me up. I accidentally released a little cry of discomfort my eyes watering. But Kushina just hummed, calming me instantly like only a mother could. And before the draft of morning wind could so much as kiss me, I was buried in her red hair and soft skin, resting above her chest, her arms wrapped entirely around me like some kind of human pillow.

In that moment, I began to think, maybe, just maybe, my afterlife wasn't a nightmare. Surely it was a blessed dream and none of that dark nonsense I'd began planning for would come to fruition, since this was obviously my own form of heaven. I'd never been so happy. Hopefully, I lived in some kind of alternate universe, especially since I existed, and not Naruto, even if I'd originally assumed he was to be my little brother. I dismissed all my previous planning and buried myself in Kushina's embrace.

Of course, I was on the nose with that previous guess, not that I knew it at the time. My own childish desperation for 'happily ever after' deluded me into thinking that maybe things would be different.

I found out how wrong I was exactly one year later, when I woke up choking on chakra and being smothered by the scent of Kushina's blood, the sound of my newborn baby brother's screams deafening me, despite the distance between myself and the event I'd knew would come. Despite my own wants and hopes.

Uchiha Mikoto, my babysitter for the evening, couldn't figure out why I shrieked like I was being burned alive. Mommy is dying. Daddy is dying.

My first word is help. And the only person that hears it, I realize, is another dead woman walking. Your son is going to kill you and your husband. Your son is going to kill you. Help. Help. Help. Help.

"Help" I don't hear the japanese word flowing off of my underdeveloped childish tongue, because instead, all I hear is the demonic barks of Kurama radiating throughout my skull. And I can't stop breathing so hard. Every inhale, and I see it even more vividly. The violence. The fear. The blood, oh god the blood. Decay.

My name is Uzumaki Kazuko, and I am helpless in that moment.

AN: Not the dreaded Naruto's Sister Cliche! Well I'm doing it, kiddies. Because I can. This fic is more of a challenge I've presented to myself. Every chapter of this, I'm going to sit down, and try fully immerse myself in the story as well as possible, and really do myself to come up with thought provoking, realistic, interesting paragraphs for you all to read, and basically just write until my fingers hurt.

Anyways, let me know what you think of Kazuko. I'm considering placing her on an OC genin team, but if you guys have any inputs on what route I should take when it comes to placing her on a team, or also future pairing, then please let me know! I could put her wth Gai and Lee and Nei, but I did that on my other fic and got rid of Tenten, and got a couple hate-reviews I had to delete. Since she's gonna be a year or so older than Naruto.

I'll probably be updating in bursts, trying to get as much of this story done in as little amount of time as I can and then going of over it all later, but even my rushed drafts come out pretty good I think, considering I wrote this in about an hour. Also I chose the name 'Harmony' because that's what her Kazuko means.

Until next time!