Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

A.N: This is a challenge fic that I found on narutoenthusiast's profile page

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Radio"

"Bijuu/Summoned/Empowered Speaking"

'Bijuu/Summoned Thinking'

'Book Title'

Prologue

Konohagakure, night time

Naru Uzumaki, a six year old girl with spiky, crimson red hair that fell to just above her neck framing a pair of brilliant blue eyes and a trio of whisker-like marks on each cheek wearing a dull orange child's kimono that had definitely seen better days. She was currently running as fast as she could through the ninja village as a pair of average looking Chunin chased after her with angry looks on their faces.

The reason for their chasing her was that she had just drenched a shopkeeper in that had refused her service, calling her a 'vile demon that needed to be killed', in bright pearlescent orange paint. Taking a quick look back she paled slightly at the predatory looks on the Chunins' faces reminding her of the villagers that would beat her on her birthday calling her a demon all the while. She sped up slightly knocking a garbage pail over behind her catching one of the Chunin by surprise as he tripped over it with a yelp of surprise. His partner took his eyes off of their target too look at his friend in surprise.

As the Chunin looked at his friend Naru took a chance to duck into an alleyway hoping it would lead her to a hiding place. Looking around the dead end alley she spotted a crack in a wall that was just large enough for her malnourished body to squeeze through, hopefully.

Walking up t the crack she took the chance as she heard the angry shouts of the chunins getting closer, she had managed to get her upper body through easily enough and pushed on the wall with a grunt to get her waist through. She grinned in triumph as she felt a brief second of weightlessness before shouting out in fear realizing she was falling. It wasn't a long fall as she landed hard on the floor, thankfully not breaking anything.

Letting out a groan of pain Naru pushed herself up looking around the room she was in with the dim light provided by the crack in what she knew now to be a part of the upper wall. She spotted a large fan like circled that was colored white and red and seemed familiar to Naru although she couldn't place it.

The room she was in seemed to be a storage room of some kind as she felt around hoping to find the light switch or the exit. Luck was on her side that night as she felt the light switch along one of the walls and flipped it. The slights spluttered slightly before shining brightly shedding light over the room revealing all of it to Naru.

It wasn't a storage room like she had thought but instead a large library filled with books. Her jaw dropped as she looked around, it obviously hasn't been used in a while with the layer of dust on the various books and scrolls in the shelves.

'This is amazing!' She thought to herself as a grin slowly grew on her face skimming the titles of books 'If I study out of these books, then I can get even stronger, even if those stupid teachers at the academy don't teach me!'

Her eyes settled on one of the books 'Basics of Chakra: What it is and How to Use it.' Grinning widely as she remembered one of the teachers mentioning it before he sent her out of the class for some bogus reason and pulled the book from the shelf and sat down opening it and quickly became engrossed in the words and knowledge the book was imparting onto her.

One Year Later

Naru Uzumaki breathed evenly as she sat crossed legged in the middle of one of the forested training grounds in Konoha. She had seen the sign that referred to this as Training Ground 44 and had on occasion heard some shinobi talk about how dangerous it was, but for her it seemed relatively harmless as the animals seemed to ignore her or outright avoid her. She had shrugged it off and set herself up a small training area in one of the clearings and was thankfully not found by others yet.

Compared to a year ago Naru was looking far less malnourished than before, although she was still too thin for her age, this was due to the fact that she had began to steal the food she needed from the various stalls and shops throughout Konoha making good use out of her natural affinity towards stealth. She was wearing a black, thread bare, child's kimono that was missing it's sleeves and only fell to her knees making her thankful for the warm winters of Hi no Kuni. Her hair was now fell to her shoulders and held in a pony tail, although the top of her hair remained spiky no matter what she did.

She was currently practicing a Chakra Control exercise called 'The Leaf Exercise' that seemed relatively simple enough involving taking any old leaf and sticking it to your forehead and holding it in place using your chakra. She was currently practicing an advanced form known as the 'Leaf Movement Exercise' that involved shifting her chakra ever so slightly in a direction by slowly prodding it with her chakra.

As she continued her Chakra control exercise she reflected on the past year since finding the hidden library. The biggest change was that she was able to eat better now due to the fact she learned the aspects of stealth from one of the many scrolls enabling her to be able to steal the food she desperately needed from the various stalls and stores in Konoha. Even though she had found a source of information that was far more reliable than the shinobi academy she still continued to attend regularly never missing a day. She never excelled though, keeping her grades within the average preferring to remain hidden within the anonymity of the average student.

It had started off with the teachers singling her out on a regular basis for demonstrations and answering questions, but thanks to the hidden library she was able to remain at least one step ahead of the teachers and was able to answer the questions or perform the action adequately although some still tried to sabotage her at every turn.

The reason for the Chakra control exercise was due to the fact that she apparently had massive chakra reserves. Her attention was brought to this when one of the teachers, one that was actually nice to her and treated her like any other student, joked that he wouldn't have been surprised if Naru had the reserves of a Jonin. So she looked, and found, a book about Chakra and found out that the more chakra one had naturally, the more difficult it was to control it. So she started herself on a regime of Chakra control exercise as it explained the difficulty she was having with the E-Ranked jutsus that were being taught in the academy and in the beginner ninjutsu books.

So far she could hold the leaf still on her forehead for a couple of hours without straining herself or her reserves, in the second step of the exercise, the leaf movement, she could do for about an hour before her concentration broke.

The leaf suddenly broke away from her forehead as her concentration faltered slightly causing her to sigh before standing up. 'Might as well practice some taijutsu.' She thought to herself as she began to stretch.

One of the many shelves in the library was completely dedicated to taijutsu with multiple types of it adorning the shelf, after skimming through many of them she settled on one named 'Kukashi-ken(1)' A style primarily focused around deceptive movements to confuse and distract her opponents as she moved in for the kill.

After stretching her muscles out she began practicing the katas to the style that she never displayed in the academy. The biggest reason for her keeping her abilities concealed was the words that an author wrote in the preface to a book on stealth 'The best way to keep your abilities hidden from your enemies is to keep them hidden from your allies.' She had taken those words to heart and carefully kept what she was learning from the library hidden from everyone else in order to have an advantage over them when push came to shove.

She practiced her taijutsu until the sun began to set and gathered her things deciding to go back to the library for a few more hours.

One Year Later

Naru yawned as she placed a scroll on some of the basic d-ranked ninjutsu that were commonly used by most shinobi within the ninja ranks into a book bag before swinging the bag onto her shoulder and flicking the lights off. Before she could exit the room however she heard footsteps outside of it and someone grab the door handle turning it.

Reacting quickly Naru gathered Chakra into her feet and leapt up attaching herself to the wall in a shadowed corner just as the door opened revealing a black haired, onyx eyed boy about her age wearing a dark blue t-shirt and white shorts and arm warmers and had the red/white fan that was on the wall was on the nape of the shirt making Naru's eyes widen slightly as she recognized the boy.

'Uchiha Sasuke,' She thought to herself as Sasuke flicked the lights on and made a beeline to the ninjutsu section 'Has he been researching here as well? It would make sense this being an Uchiha library.'

Sasuke searched through the ninjutsu scrolls not aware that he was being watched with interest "Dammit!" He shouted suddenly throwing one of the scrolls to the ground "None of these will give me the power to kill him! He knows these already!"

Naru remained silent as the sole survivor of the Uchiha Massacre raged 'Is he talking about Itachi?' Naru wondered remembering the stoic Uchiha that she had met once when he diverted a mob away from her about a year before she found the library.

"Useless place," Sasuke growled angrily bringing Naru's attention back to him "This place will never give me power!"

'Idiot,' Naru thought angrily as she watched Sasuke storm out of the library 'Power is not instantaneous, only years of hard work can give you real power.'

Once she was certain the black haired boy was gone Naru jumped down to the ground with barely a whisper of sound before letting out a sigh 'I really can understand his anger,' She thought to herself 'But why is he clinging to it so fiercely? It'll only stunt him mentally in the end.'

Letting out a final sigh Naru left the Library being sure to close the door behind her before heading to her apartment.

Two Years Later

A ten year old Naru Uzumaki walked through the streets of Konoha ignoring the glares she was receiving from the various civilians in the streets as she held her head bowed in what seemed to be sadness. Now standing at 5'2" with her hair falling to her waist in a pony tail with the unbound hair on top of her head still being spiky. She was wearing a set of far nicer clothes – a black sleeveless kimono with a white trim that fell to her thighs with a pair of biker shorts and black shinobi tabi. The outfit was a gift from the Sandaime Hokage who checked in with her weekly to ensure she had the basics of what she needed, especially once he had found out last year that she had to steal in order to eat properly, some of the civilians were still recovering from his fury.

Since then the quality of her life improved slightly now that she was no longer overcharged or banned from stores, but the whispers of her being a demon and the hateful glares still followed her every step. She walked into the largest building in Konoha, the Hokage tower, and headed straight for the reception desk "Is Ojiisan in?" Naru asked the receptionist, one of the few people – that Naru knew of – who treated her decently.

The receptionist smiled "Of course Naru-chan, he's just working on some paperwork, go on up." She answered waving Naru through.

Naru returned the smile half-heartily before heading up the stairs to the office. She knocked on the door and waited for the Hokage's call to enter "Naru-chan, this is a pleasant surprise," Hizuren Sarutobi greeted with a wide smile for his adoptive granddaughter "What can I do for you today."

"I want the truth Jiji," Naru said determinedly surprising the Hokage "I'm a Jinchuriki for the Kyuubi, aren't I?"

Sarutobi froze as his eyes widened in shock staring at the girl 'No,' He corrected himself 'Young woman.' "May I ask how you found out?" He asked warily.

"C'mon jiji, I'm not some dumb kid," Naru growled "Anyone with half a brain could fit the pieces together, I was born on the day the Kyuubi attacked, the civilians are always calling me a demon and not to mention that Bijuu cannot be killed. It's not that hard to put the pieces together with those three things." She suddenly blinked back tears as her lip trembled "Why?" She asked her voice cracking "Why wasn't I told?"

Sarutobi was up and in front of Naru in an instant engulfing her within his thin, but powerful, arms comfortingly as the tears started flowing from her eyes, her body racked with sobs "I'm sorry Naru-chan," He whispered "I really am, I wanted you to have as normal as a childhood as you could have and tell you once you passed the genin exam," He let out a bitter sigh as his shoulders sagged and led Naru to the couch in the room sitting her down beside him as he kept his arm wrapped around her "I failed you in that regard Naru-chan," He admitted regretfully "I had passed a law just after the sealing and retaking the title. It was to ensure that the younger generation didn't know about your burden, however the elder generation passed their hatred for you to the younger generation alienating you."

Naru sniffed as she tried to rub the tears from her eyes only for them to continue falling "It's not your fault jiji," She managed to hiccup out smiling tearily up at the grandfatherly figure "You did the best you could, I.. I just wish you told me."

Sarutobi smiled sadly at the young girl before sighing "I'm afraid I have some more secrets from you Naru-chan," He admitted causing Naru to Look up as he stood up and strode to his portrait before moving it aside revealing a safe, biting his thumb he swiped it across the seal causing it to open. He rummaged around for a minute before resealing the safe and headed back to Naru carrying a picture and a scroll "The secret Naru-chan, is that I do know who your parents are," He held a hand up before Naru could shout out at him "The reason this was kept a secret was because your parents were very powerful shinobi whom had many enemies. But I think you are ready to learn about your mother at the very least."

He handed Naru the scroll and picture. The picture was of a beautiful woman with violet that sparkled with mischief and whose hair was of a similar color to Naru's own and fell past her waist and was much straighter than Naru's own. She was wearing a blue dress with a beige blouse over top and was currently tenderly holding her swollen belly.

"Hey name was Kushina Uzumaki," Sarutobi informed looking at the picture with nostalgic eyes "She was similar to you in a way, although she was far more mischievous, she loved to pull off pranks and was often considered one of the best Kunoichi of her generation. She was known as the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero, and like you... she was a jinchuriki."

Naru blinked in surprise and looked up at the Sandaime who was smiling sadly "She was the jinchuriki to the Kyuubi no Kitsune like you," He informed surprising the girl even more "As for how the Kyuubi was released I do not know as everyone who was present is now dead... All that I know was that the Yondaime had asked for you to be seen as a hero for containing the Kyuubi, I failed in enforcing his final wish."

Naru swallowed as she blinked back some tears "So I'm not the only Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi?" She asked still slightly in shock as her mind processed the information "Then is there any others, any records they wrote?"

Sarutobi smiled patiently "Why don't you read the scroll first Naru-chan." He encouraged her.

Opening the scroll Naru stared in wonder at her mother's handwriting.

Dearest Naru-chan,

If you are reading this then the worst has happened and myself and your father died during your birth and Sarutobi has decided that you are mature enough to know who your mother is at the very least.

First let me tell you how sorry I am that I wasn't there for you growing up, I know how difficult it is bearing not only the burden of the Kyuubi – his name is Kurama by the way – but bearing the hatred of the villagers. I can only hope that you have found people who love and care for you Naru, for they are key to countering the hatred of the Kyuubi.

Contained in a storage seal at the bottom of this scroll Naru is both my own and the original Jinchuriki for Kurama Mito Uzumaki, your great-great-great-grandaunt, journals. We had written down our ways with dealing with the Kyuubi and notes on using his chakra, be very careful when attempting to use it Naru-chan, it is very violate and will cause you to descend into a feral state where it is difficult to differentiate friend from foe, use it only if absolutely necessary.

And remember... Your father and I love you so very much, our sweet princess.

Kushina Uzumaki

Tears of mixed happiness and sadness fell from Naru's eyes as Sarutobi held her comfortingly "They loved me." Naru repeated to herself happily as she cried into the Hokage's robes "They love me."

Sarutobi sighed as he rocked Naru gently soothing the girl who eventually cried herself to sleep in his arms.

One Year Later, Day before the Genin Exams

Naru stood on top of the Hokage Monument, more specifically just over the Yondaime's head 'This is for you Okaa-san.' She thought to herself proudly as she vanished with a swirl of leaves ten seconds before an enraged shout was heard.

"THE MONUMENT!"

END CHAPTER

Post AN: Well there you have it, my newest story, please read and review, and if you'll excuse me, I'm off to bed

OoOoOoO

1 – Kukashi-ken: Hidden Fist