So, I've been wanting to do something for Naruto, and I decided to do a Female Naruto, whose name is still Naruto, but as she grows and makes bonds with others Naru will be a common nickname for her.

I don't use the name Naruko, mostly because I like the fact Naruto means maelstrom (or fishcake depending on who you ask, apparently).

I'm hoping this story will be liked as it is my first Naruto attempt. I still haven't decided on a pairing though. It's between Sasuke and Gaara. So hard to choose between the two. Oh well, romance wont be for a while.

This story also begins a few years before canon (Anime or Manga).

Also, I haven't read the Manga, I only have access to the Anime. So that and online sources are where my information comes from.

Just fair warning. Also on the topic of warnings, there may be some language and of course violence in the story. If that offends you I apologize, but that is just how I write. Realistically as I can. Though it wont be cursing in every sentence so no worries there.

And finally a disclaimer.

I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING RELATED TO NARUTO OR ANYTHING RELATED TO ANY ANIME. I ONLY OWN THE FEW ORIGINAL CHARACTERS THAT SHOW UP.

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Existence Arc.

Uzu no Musume.

Prologue.

"I want to go to the Academy."

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage, looked up from his desk in surprise at the young girl in front of him. Of course, one would be hard pressed to determine if it was actually a little girl or boy at first glance.

Being as the child was only four and she was rather small from years of neglect. Her hair was also short, barely touching her shoulders. Over all it was rather messy and spiky (assuming she didn't attempt to tame it).

She looked so much like her mother, but with her hair so short it resembled her fathers in more than color. Though it was highlighted red, similar to a sunset when in direct light.

Something Naruto had inherited from her mother other than her nearly tomato shaped chubby face. Though Kami forbid someone call her out on this trait, like her mother she had a red hot temper. Though she had a little better control over it.

Over all the girl in front of him was a bit of an enigma, even to him.

She was unusually smart for a four year old, and barely cried anymore. Despite how the village treated her, despite everything he'd tried to do to keep Minato's dying wish of his daughter being seen as a hero.

It was simply never enough it seemed.

Very few actually did honor Minato's last request. He'd admit he somewhat regretted making it publicly known the girl was the Kyūbi Jinchūriki

Many simply saw the Kyūbi no Yōko. It hadn't taken him long to find out she was a bit of a prodigy, the kind that only came once every so often in a generation.

It shouldn't have surprised him really, she was the last of the Uzumaki and Namikaze clans, two clans once valued for techniques of their respected villages.

Though very little was really known about the Namikaze's, it was determined they were once of Wind Country before the last of the clan fled their village and came to Konoha two generations before Minato was born.

The blue eyed girls words had shocked him though.

There she was before him, in an orange shirt with the Uzumaki clan spiral. A symbol still used on the flak jackets of chūnin and jōnin to show the friendship between Konohagakure and Uzushiogakure (even if the ones used by Konoha had more spirals and was a somewhat different coloration).

She also wore a pair of dark gray long shorts, which made her gender even more debatable. In her arms was a stuffed, rusty-orange colored, plush fox.

To him it just made her seem so innocent, but her eyes held such determination and knowledge along with mischief and loneliness.

She smiled and laughed and her eyes held a spark, but it only took really looking to see behind this. To see the bitter loneliness and darkness that threatened to destroy the girls sanity.

It was why he tried to help her as much as he could, she was after all like a granddaughter to him.

If it weren't for the fact he was so old now, and him helping his daughter-in-law with her pregnancy he'd have taken Naruto in himself.

Unfortunately he was Hokage, and that took up most his time. With his eldest son having passed recently, leaving his wife and unborn child behind made this an especially bad time.

"The Academy? Don't you think you should wait a year or two? You're only four now Naru," he said, and her blue eyes did not weaver as she shook her head.

"I want to go now. I want to prove I can be more than a pest. I'll prove to everyone I can be Hokage one day, and that I wont bow under their glares," she said with strength behind her words.

Strength that he didn't feel should belong in a four year old's voice. Yet, he knew it was a product of her raising. She'd been forced to grow up or be beat down so badly she wouldn't ever get up again.

His eyes softened some as she continued.

"I don't know why everyone hates me jiji, but I wont lay down and take it anymore. If I prove myself as a ninja than they have to acknowledge me for me eventually. I wont allow anyone to push me around anymore, I know I'm four but I can do this. Please, Jiji!"

By the end her voice was loud and almost pleading. With a sigh Sarutobi looked over at the pictures of the former Hokages, one in particular of Minato Namikaze, the girls father, and he nodded.

'I hope you would agree with my decision, Minato. She's so young but she's never truly had a childhood to begin with. If this is what she wants than I will allow it.' he thought to himself, and then turned back to the patiently waiting blonde.

"Are you sure this is what you want, Naruto?" he asked. "Once you go there is no turning back, and if you do pass the exam the next time it is held then that's it. You'll be a Shinobi of the hidden leaf, considered an adult, no matter how young you are."

He saw a look pass through her eyes, hesitation, but it was gone nearly as soon as it appeared.

"I'm sure," she said. "I want to become a strong kunoichi, to prove my existence to them all. I'm not a demon."

She said the last part so softly he almost didn't hear her. He sighed sadly on the inside and pulled out a form.

"I'll let them know and starting Monday you'll begin at the Academy. I will also go about pulling some of your parents old material from storage. They wanted you to have them once you began the Academy. I am sure this was not the age they expected, but I think you'll benefit from them. They are your birthright after all."

Naruto's eyes lit up, sparkling like sapphires placed in the sky and she grinned.

She looked so much like her father in that moment it was hard to realize this girl and the solemn girl from before were one and the same.

Bowing slightly the girl thanked him and ran out of the office, probably to make preparations at the apartment he'd set her up in six months before.

"I hope you're watching over her, Minato, Kushina. You'd be proud of her I believe," he muttered as he returned to the form enrolling Uzumaki Naruto into the Academy.

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Naruto nearly had to cry at the scrolls in front of her, storage scrolls and even one medium size treasure chest-like box that had a paper seal on the front.

The old man had said it functioned much like the storage scrolls, all of which only opened to Uzumaki or Namikaze blood – her parents clan names.

Apparently the seals were Uzumaki designs, and not just any Uzumaki could open it, only one from the main family, or the head of the clans family in other words. It was a seal her mother had taught her father.

The Hokage only knew it could tell the difference through chakra, but it was a clan secret and her mother had only taught her father when they'd become engaged.

She still wasn't sure who exactly they were, but Jiji had promised to tell her when she was older. She figured her parents had left some sort of instructions with the old man before passing in the Kyūbi attack.

She saw more than many expected, and she was far from stupid but she wasn't perfect. She couldn't see everything.

Seeing what fūinjutsu could do just for storing and keeping secrets safe, she couldn't wait to delve further into it. Maybe it could help her safe guard her apartment.

The apartment itself was an old building that had been abandoned when the owner upgraded. The Hokage had bought the land and building out before he gave it to Naruto. So all three floors were her's to do as she pleased.

She had chosen the apartment that was largest and safest for her, being on the top floor made it a little harder for upset villagers to get in without her realizing it. With seals she could protect it even more, but that would have to wait.

She knew enough in common sense that diving headfirst into something as precise and dangerous as fūinjutsu could potentially blow up in her face and kill her. It was a tricky art, and it was probably one reason there were not many fūinjutsu masters in the village's history, or present.

Once she'd gotten a hold of her emotions again she'd first explored the trunk, unsealing it with a bloody thumb. Once open she could see it was rather spacious and housed many clothing storage scrolls with tags detailing sizes and ages worn.

This would be good for her, if these were her mothers old clothes then she could use them herself with some modifications. It wasn't exactly easy for her to get clothes seeing as most shops would stone her if she came too close.

Some were books, and a couple pictures of who she was sure was her parents when they were younger. Probably around eleven or twelve.

Her Jiji hadn't been kidding when he said she looked like the perfect blend of both, but if she grew her hair long it would probably make her look even more like her mother.

She already had the same facial shape, even if she had a slightly sharper jawline and chin, and eye shape of her mother.

Her father; she was positive this was her father seeing as his hair was only a shade different to her own blonde locks, and his skin was the same tan-peach tone as hers. Even his eyes were the same shade of cerulean blue. He looked more than a little familiar, but she couldn't place where.

None of it had their first names though, just their last names. She was disappointed about that, but shrugged. At least she knew what they looked like.

"This is great," Naruto said, grinning once more.

She didn't think she'd grinned so wide in a long time, not a true one anyway.

Gathering the storage scrolls she knew were family jutsu's and clan information, she walked over to a bookshelf that had been in her bedroom when she'd moved in. One of the left overs from when the building housed other people.

She placed all scrolls on the shelves in an order she could remember. Then placing the books which had seals on the spins that would only open to an Uzumaki's blood and chakra signature – it seemed the Uzumaki's were a paranoid bunch to her – on another shelf.

Taking all the clothes from the storage scrolls and chest she placed them all in the closet. She'd sort through them more in the morning. She was happy to find a lot of it was more than suitable for a ninja.

Which made sense, seeing as her mother was a kunoichi herself before her death.

Once that was finished Naruto walked over to the book shelf, which was pretty full, and pulled out a worn book on fūinjutsu. From the title and contents inside it was for beginners, and mostly went over history.

What made it different from other books was that it was written by an Uzumaki, one of the first books all Uzumaki's read to begin understanding the art Uzushiogakure was so known for.

Climbing on to the lumpy, yet still more comfortable then alleyways and concrete, bed she opened the book and began to read.

If she wanted to be able to make her home more protected from the villagers and random shinobi who only saw a demon for no apparent reason, than she'd need to start learning now.

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Edited 9/15/14.