Chapter 2 Up, it still needs another round of editing but this is more or less it. Enjoy! Thanks to the new followers :)

(Author's Comments)

"Talking"

'Thoughts'

"Flashbacks"/ Flashbacks

Demon talking/conscience/mental link talk

Change Scene

Chapter 2

Three men sat around the table eating breakfast as the sun started to peek in. Despite the late-night they had, the three were able to get up just before sunrise as an early start to the day – there was much to do after all.

First off their list was the topic of concern in the meeting they just had the previous night. Mikan's possible reappearance in the Academy. Persona would be on his way to tie-off the loose ends of their plan once he finished his meal.

Second would be a concern that had been weighing on the blonde jinchuuriki's mind since the day he was made aware of Mikan's contact with her ancestor. Kurama had given vague clues as to exactly why the ancestor had made herself known but has yet to elaborate any of them. With the predicament they were in, it would be best if they could clear up their concerns with the orange fuzzball as soon as possible. They – Mikan and Persona in particular – had more concerns to handle in this part of the world. (Although if they were more forthcoming he'd be more than willing to lend a hand.)

The rest of their tasks depended on the result of their (Persona's) first task, everything else was part of their routine.

Persona just had the last bite of his breakfast when air shifted and Itachi Uchiha (1) appeared with a small black flame to announce his entrance, who then casually handed Persona (the person closest to him) a scroll as he nibbled on a stick of pocky.

"So Ero-sennin has you doing errands for him now?" Naruto teased as he was handed the scroll.

"With Akatsuki disbanded and Orochimaru dead, there isn't much I can do that isn't already being done by his spy network," Itachi responded taking everything in stride, mildly irritated that his pocky consumption had to be interrupted.

"Oh well, thanks 'Tachi. Remind him to drop by when he's done with whatever he's been doing at the moment. Mi-chan should be awake by now if you want to say 'hi'." Naruto waved and with his dismissal Itachi nodded, waved his goodbye at the group, and dropped by Mikan's room only to find her still fast asleep. So he decided to leave her a box of pocky before telling her mentors that she was still fast asleep and promptly left with a black flame.

A few minutes after Itachi's quick visit, Persona left to get the Middle School and High School Principals' support for the approval of the plan they had discussed.

"What's in the scroll?" Shikamaru inquired, curious as to what could possibly warrant the Toad Sage to use Itachi as a messenger rather than one of his toads.

"Something related to what Mi-chan and I think is the link between Kurama and Yuzu. I know they'd tell us if we asked outright but it helps sate the curiosity to ask for information." Naruto replied as he turned the scroll in his hand.

"Aren't you going to open it yet? We've all been making our own speculations since Mi-chan told us that Yuzu knew Kurama and it would be nice to know if any of us made the right guess."

"I'll open it when we're complete," Naruto decided, placing the scroll in his pouch and proceeded to clean up their plates leaving food on the table for the last occupant of the house.

"Why send Itachi though if it was just information?" Shikamaru wondered

"Itachi probably volunteered. It's been a while since they saw each other, too bad Mi-chan is still asleep though." Naruto answered

"We don't have to be worried about any unwarranted feelings do we?" Shikamaru questioned quickly turning into protective mode.

"No way, he's in the same boat as we are (2). Though if you asked me the same thing with a certain lizard we know…" Naruto hinted which caused Shikamaru to grin

"What's this I hear about a lizard?" Mikan questioned seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

"Whoa, hey! Good morning! We were just talking about the sudden increase of lizards in the house." Naruto exclaimed almost jumping in his chair fruitlessly trying to act innocent scratching the back of his head. Shikamaru wasn't faring any better as he sipped on his obviously empty glass of water.

Letting it slide Mikan sat down as she helped herself to breakfast.

"I think it's about time we confront Yuzu and Kurama about their past. We already found out that alices are actually connected to the Hidden Nations, but that doesn't tell us much about how they know each other." Mikan suggested as she ate her toast.

We'll tell you later when the group is complete. It would be best if you gave us corporal forms to make it quicker. Well, as quick it can at least.

"Kurama/Yuzu said they'll tell us later." Mikan and Naruto said simultaneously.

"Yuzu said we should summon them or something so they can explain properly," Mikan added.

"I can do that with Kurama but I'm not too sure how you'd do it with Yuzu since she isn't exactly sealed in you," Naruto responded scratching his chin.

"Yuzu says we shouldn't worry about it."

Naruto shrugged and decided to play a game as they waited for Mikan to finish eating.

"Man these phones are really convenient, not to mention a great time killer." Naruto absently said too busy tapping around on his phone

"Too bad we can't use them in Himi-Kuni (3), the chakra saturation in the environment fries them out." Shikamaru replied remembering the first and last time Mikan tried to use a phone in the Hidden Nations, "They'd make life a lot less troublesome if we can figure a way to make them work with chakra."

Gaining only several nods in agreement from his companions, Shikamaru decided to pass the time in the way he knew best: napping. So he shuffled over to the couch and settled himself in.

After Mikan had her breakfast and cleaned up, the remaining two decided to go on with their morning routine of training while they waited for Persona.

Chairman's Office

"So basically, you want Mikan to not as herself but as the sister of Uzumaki-san?" Kaito (the chairman) summarized after Persona explained their plan

"With Z's activity still high, not to mention Kuonji's (4) meddling, it would be best if she was kept hidden." Kazumi supplied

"And if possible, she will continue to reside in the cabin. We are not sure of the security of the dormitories." Persona added bowing his head to the principals to say he didn't mean it as an insult.

"Though I am confident in my staff, it is better to be sure." The Middle School Principal (MSP), Himemiya, responded knowing that the Elementary School Principal (ESP) would resort to the lowest of tricks to find out where Mikan was.

"So we are all in agreement that Mikan Sakura, officially, is still undergoing training while we will be accepting a Namikaze for her last year of middle school?" Kaito concluded lacing his fingers together.

The other occupants of the room nodded their heads in confirmation.

"Are you sure that she is unrecognizable as you say she is?" Kazumi inquired. Although he was supportive of the plan and trusting the three trainers' competence, he had his doubts that someone could look so different after 2 years.

Knowing that they would want some kind of assurance to the plan, Persona brought out a picture he kept in his wallet that they recently took.

In the picture, the three trainers gathered around Mikan. Naruto stood behind her with his arms pulling the two raven heads closer in a huddle. If it wasn't for the presence of the three trainers in the picture the academy heads wouldn't have recognized the girl as Mikan Sakura. Gone was her long brown locks and brown doe eyes. The girl in the picture had dirty blonde hair that was pulled into a ponytail parted at the side and bangs framing her face which emphasized her blue almond-shaped eyes. The angles of her face though softer were still pronounced due to the loss of baby fat.

Kazumi was the first to react with a gasp, seeing her semblance to her father as well as to the other blonde in the picture, which raised questions in his head.

"She sure does look like Uzumaki-san rather than her mother now. Although…" Kaito commented trailing off as his gaze landed on the blond present in his office.

"I'm sure there are questions relating to Naruto you would like to ask. We also had the same questions ourselves but I'm sorry to say we have yet to find a concrete answer. We will inform you once we do." Persona addressed their unsaid questions as he replaced the picture in his wallet.

Clearing their throats to recover from the shock the three academy heads nodded their heads once more in acceptance.

"Sir Chairman, about the Dangerous Ability Class, I believe a common friend of ours has contacted you about it?" Persona inquired knowing Mikan's continued absence meant that he still would not be able to handle said class. The heads tried to find a replacement but the class was simply too volatile for any of their current faculty to handle.

"Ah yes," Kaito replied, "although they also requested that a young relative of theirs also enter the Academy. I assume this is because of your group?" he added thumbing through the papers in his desk for the file of the said enrollee.

"Yes sir," Persona replied simply

"Very well, I believe that is all for now. You are dismissed Persona." Kaito waved

Northern Woods Cabin

It was already nearing noon when Persona arrived at the cabin, where he found his three housemates lying on the grass.

"I'm just going to assume that nothing was accomplished since I left," Persona called out which made Mikan sit upright.

"Hey! For your information Aniki, we finished the usual morning routine. Naru-nii said we couldn't really do anything else until you came back so isn't it technically your fault?" Mikan argued

"Maa, let's just get this over with." Shikamaru interrupted as he lazily got up and walked to the cabin not leaving any room for arguments.

"Family meeting it is then." Naruto shrugged, following Shikamaru's example motioning for the two alice users to do the same.

They all settled into the living room around the coffee table.

"So first off, do we have Kaito-san's approval?" Naruto started

"Yes, I approached Kazumi and Himemiya before presenting our plan to the Chairman. It made a lot of difference." Persona replied

"Wait, what…?" Mikan questioned, not following the conversation at all.

"Sorry, we forgot to tell her." Naruto sheepishly told Persona, whose eyebrow was raised almost accusingly at the shinobi duo. Clearing his throat in embarrassment Naruto answered Mikan: "In the meeting Persona attended yesterday, Kaito-san and the two decent principals of the Academy requested that you start attending school again."

"I still have 3 more years though," Mikan stated, her expression showing that she wasn't comfortable with the idea at all.

"Yes we know, though we have our suspicions as to why they suddenly want you back which we'll get to later. That's why we made a counter-offer."

Mikan folded her arms together, silently urging them to explain.

Sighing, Shikamaru took over: "We figured that you wouldn't be too happy with the sudden recall. So we decided to present Kaito another option: which was basically let you appear as someone else to the Academy."

Knowing it was his turn Naruto continued. "So we decided I should adopt you, as a sister at least. I already sent a request to baa-chan to officially list you as my sister earlier when you were sparring with Shika. Though we're going to need to give you a new name."

Blinking owlishly at her trainers as she processed everything she was just told.

"Wait… yes…?" Mikan babbled, at a loss for words.

Laughing at her reaction Naruto decided to repeat his last statement: "Once you decide on a new name for yourself, you're officially my little sister as far as Konoha is concerned."

"Oh my gosh! Yes! I would love to officially be your sister! So a name…" Mikan shot off, her words turning into incoherent babble.

"Whoa, slow down there kid," Shikamaru called out to Mikan messing her hair up to bring her back from her thoughts.

"So a new name?" Persona reminded once she calmed down.

"Izumi." Mikan resolutely replied after a deep breath.

"Mikan, are you sure?" Persona asked worriedly, "that name can raise suspicion. Especially now that you look more like him."

"Besides you, Ojisan, Himemiya-san, and Kaito-san I doubt many would remember him. So I at least want his name out there again." Mikan explained her eyes showing her determination to use her father's name. "Besides, it allows you," Mikan gave a pointed look at Naruto, "to use the same nickname you have for me already."

"Do you have so little faith in me imouto-chan," Naruto replied dramatically looking hurt.

"She's got a point though. We won't have to be walking around warning everyone who knows us that Mi-chan here goes by a different name. Especially when they decide to drop-by out of the blue." Shikamaru supported recalling the many times their shinobi friends dropped by unannounced.

"Izumi Namikaze." Naruto tried knowing the debate was about to end. "Sounds good to me!"

Getting smiles from her trainers, Mikan – Izumi now – nodded her head.

Naruto proceeded to summon a messenger toad to send to Konoha the name so Tsunade could finalize the papers.

"Moving on…" Persona began, receiving a disbelieving look from Mikan.

"We have to ask Yuzu and Kurama about their past remember?" Naruto reminded, knowing the bomb they dropped on her probably disorganized her thoughts.

"Oh right, wait let me ask Yuzu."

Make a shadow clone but focus on using my chakra instead of your own.

It was simple but troublesome, especially now that more of their chakra already melded together. Mikan's chakra felt like a spring on a summer day, cool but pleasant. Yuzu's, on the other hand, felt more like a river on the last days of summer, still pleasant but almost a bit too cold for a dip.

Focusing on the colder chakra, Mikan made the hand seal for the kage bunshin and beside her appeared a copy of her albeit having gold-colored eyes and a narrower heart-shaped face.

Naruto did the same thing to call forth Kurama from his seal. The clone came out as a more foxy-looking Naruto with a shock of red hair and cat-like eyes.

"Now that we're in full attendance, I believe the two of you have something to tell us?" Naruto began to indicate to the two newcomers to start talking.

"Before we start, is everyone aware of the Rikudou Sennin (5) and his role in the founding of the Elemental Nations or as you non-shinobi like to call it, the Hidden Nations?" Kurama started his spiel, but seeing the confused looks of the two alice users he realized that his explanation would take longer than he thought.

"And I thought that you," Kurama gave Naruto an accusing glare, "of all people would've prioritized to explain this to them already." Nonetheless, he decided to push on, "The Rikudou Sennin, or Hane-sama (6) as we called him, is the founder of the shinobi world. But that isn't what you want to hear, isn't it?" he summarized teasingly.

"Kurama-sama, it isn't wise to tease them. Best we come clean now, it has been long overdue." Yuzu chided Kurama deciding to continue in his place, "Many years before his own descendants started fighting each other, he defeated Juubi (7) by sealing its chakra in himself, becoming the first jinchuuriki ever and sealed its body away in what we know as the moon. He decided to separate Juubi's chakra into nine individual constructs, which we know as the Nine Bijuu. They were all given their own shrines and territories, gaining a few followers and were originally treated as gods. As humanity developed and ninjutsu started to spread rampantly in the lands, the Nine Bijuu were soon seen as mere tools. They soon grew tired of the constant bombardment by humans, and consequently decided to create secondary copies of themselves to find a new place to call their home."

Kurama waited to allow the information to sink in before he continued, "We urged our followers to follow our clones. Since the majority were descendants of Hane-sama who were tired of their relatives always fighting each other, we allowed them to consume a part of our flesh with a minuscule amount of our chakra which essentially turned them into hanyou (8). Eventually, our clones found Makai with our followers where they all settled down and populated the once barren lands. The interbreeding of hanyou and demon resulted in the many demons that are occasionally pointed out in shinobi history but taken as mere folklore in the non-shinobi lands."

"Where is Makai exactly?" Shikamaru asked, seeing it as the most pertinent question he had at the moment.

"Makai is a different dimension from where we currently reside. It is only accessible to demons and demon descendants (9)." Yuzu answered.

"If it's a different dimension how are you aware of it? As far as I know, you've never left the Elemental Nations." Naruto asked Kurama.

"In a similar way to your shadow clones, our clones are connected to us, although the passing of information doesn't require for them to 'die'. We are able to constantly access our clones' minds as well as influence them if we wanted to." Kurama answered. He looked around and saw there were no more questions so he motioned for Yuzu to continue.

"Eventually, there came a divide in the demon population. There were those who resented humanity for driving them out of their homeland and those who were content living in Makai. This conflict caused a number of us to leave Makai and travel the human world that was not part of the Elemental Nations. It was us stragglers that gave life to what you come to know as alices. So, whoever wrote that alices are bloodline limits in the Elemental Nations was correct."

"You're still holding something back." Mikan pointed out, her instincts telling her that there was more.

"Very well," Yuzu sighed. She gave Kurama a look that seemed to ask for permission which he gave as she answered her descendant's unspoken question albeit hesitantly. "we stragglers were actually exiled from Makai for being more vocal than others."

"But weren't the Nine Bijuu copies still there? How come?" Naruto wondered since he recognized that the Nine Bijuu were seen as leaders from the way Yuzu deferred to Kurama.

"The height of the conflict in Makai happened to coincide with the period of which the majority of us were being sealed to our first jinchuuriki, which we wanted to avoid at all costs. Our desire to resist being sealed called the chakra in our copies back, which left Makai leaderless." Kurama answered.

"As soon as they realized their absence, the revenge-set demons decided to push us peace-loving demons out of Makai." Yuzu continued.

"And you suspect that your angry brethren to be the cause of conflict in the alice community?" Persona, who had been quiet the entire time, suddenly voiced out.

"I not only suspect them of being the cause, I know that they will soon use this conflict in the alice community to start what they have longed to do." Yuzu answered, her face grim.

"To take revenge on humanity," Shikamaru concluded. His statement sent shivers down their spines.

A heavy silence engulfed them. The implications - hard to swallow.

There would be many things they have to prepare. War was on the horizon.

Knowing there was nothing left to say, the group dispersed with grim faces and thoughts filled with uncertainty.

(1) Itachi Uchiha - will be a good guy here, I won't go into his background too much as he won't be playing a major role in this story, just a few cameos here and there for the sake of the appearance of pocky that the fanfiction community has associated him with (at least a few years ago they were)

(2) "same boat as we are" - the said boat is the family boat if that wasn't obvious enough

(3) Himi-Kuni - short for Himitsu no Kuni or the Hidden Nations

(4) Kuonji - Elementary School Principal, also a bad guy

(5) Rikudou Sennin - Sage of Six Paths aka Hagoromo Outsutsuki

(6) Hane-sama - Rikudou Sennin's given name, Hagoromo, literally means feather mantle, the first kanji for Hagoromo can be read as 'hane' which means feather (as stated in Narutopedia)

(7) Juubi - Ten-Tailed Demon

(8) hanyou - half demon

(9) Makai as a different dimension - a concept borrowed from Yuu Yuu Hakusho

Thanks for reading! Please do review

-Kazemi Reikaze