AN: So, another chapter.

I want to thank those who have reviewed and I hope you all enjoy this chapter as well.

Another thing, I usually don't bother with the whole split chakra thing when it comes to the Kyuubi as I find it only complicates things for my stories.

But in this one it helps to explain how Hotaru and Naruto could both have Kyuubi sealed in them if and when she needs to use Kurama's chakra and questions are asked.

Oh, and from now on when I say Sasuke, I mean younger Sasuke and when I say Izuna, I mean older Alternate Sasuke.

Red Moon Arc.

Reality Is Just A Perception.

Chapter 3: Return Of The Unknown.

Sasuke twitched once more as he looked at the redhead.

"Really?" he inquired. "That's the best you could do?"

Hotaru chuckled, slowly grinning. For a minute it was almost as if they were twelve again, back when everything was different.

He wouldn't admit it, but he sort of missed it. Sort of.

"They're good names, Sasuke, now choose!" she said, pointing a almost accusing finger at him.

He sighed.

"Sōsuke is too similar to my own. I know my parents well enough to know they'd not name two of their sons so closely to each other," Sasuke said.

Hotaru nodded, smiling.

"Izuna it is then!" she said, excitedly with a smirk and poorly hiden mischievousness.

"Uchiha Izuna it is then," Sarutobi said, pulling out some papers from his desk. "May I ask, Hotaru, why you suggested that name?"

Hotaru blinked.

"What?"

"Dobe," Sasuke – now Izuna – said, snorting. "Why did you choose Izuna as one of the names. It's a rather famous name among Konoha ninja."

"Oh," Hotaru said in realization. "Actually I chose it because, I like the name, it suits Sasu...Izuna – that'll take some getting used to."

Sasu – excuse me, Izuna's brow twitched.

"The point?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah. It's also the name of Madara's brother, and I figure it may piss Madara off. I do enjoy pissing that ancient douche-bag off," Hotaru said, smirking. "Oh, and I think it means something to do with the least weasel and it's subspecies. Along with a mountain, tengu and some fox spirit, or something along those lines."

She shrugged.

"I really don't know, it's just what I found when I was bored. Anyways, it really is a name that suits him," she added.

Izuna glared, frowning.

Leave it to Hotaru to choose a name that could be used as a means of payback. Despite how innocent she seemed at times he knew the redhead held a grudge like no other, and had a temper that rivaled a volcano.

Sarutobi chuckled, remembering how infamous Kushina was with her creative ideals of revenge and pranks. She was very much like a Kitsune in her love for mischief making and pranks.

He was glad Naruto had inherited it in a lesser extent, from the looks of it Hotaru's reality was not so lucky.

"I will have papers and records made up today. For now I'd like you two to keep a low profile," Sarutobi said. "For now you both will stay in the Uchiha compound with Sasuke."

Hotaru blinked at how strange it was for someone to say Sasuke and not mean the one she'd grown up with and recently been playing some sort of demented game of cat and mouse... or was it snake and fox?

She shuddered, she much preferred to think of Sasu – ahhg, so annoying – Izuna as a different animal.

A raven, or a wolf. Hell, even a weasel would be better suited to him than a snake in her mind.

But then, she hated snakes with a passion that surpassed even her hate for Uchiha Madara. That was saying something, because she really hated that man.

"There is something I am concerned about, Hotaru," the Hokage began, looking at her seriously. "The Kyuubi... I assume it is still with you."

"He," Naruto corrected, snickering at his raised eyebrow. "Kurama is definitely a male, jiji. Bijū may be masses of chakra but they are still gender specific. Though all but Nibi are male."

Sarutobi blinked in surprise but said nothing else on the matter. You learned something new everyday.

"And he did come back with me, though I think he's sleeping or something seeing as I haven't heard from him yet. I wouldn't be surprised, the fight just before we arrived was pretty intense."

Izuna snorted. That was an understatement.

"Kurama?" Sarutobi asked slowly, trying to wrap his head around that revelation.

Hotaru looked at him as if he'd asked if the sun was warm.

"You didn't think Kyuubi was his name did you?" she asked, and she sighed. "Even the biju have names, Kyuubi is just his title."

Shaking her head, Hotaru finished.

"Anyways. The point is, I don't know how exactly but we're able to coexist here. Two Jinchuuriki of the same bijū I mean. I think it has to do with the fact we didn't go back in time, but across realities. Considering I may end up using his chakra in the future you may want to come up with a story. That I was there for the sealing and my father split the chakra, sealing the Yin in me and the Yang in Naruto."

"Kyuubi has two chakra's?"

Hotaru nodded.

"Yes, Kyuubi isn't split by his chakra any longer within me, and I never really understood how he had two different chakras that could even be split. It was returned during an event in our reality, a war, which was surprising for us since Shinigami-sama hardly releases what he rightfully devours. According to Kurama, he owed him one for some reason."

Hotaru shrugged, she hardly understood what Kurama meant sometimes.

All she knew was she got an power increase, or more like Kyuubi did, when the Yin chakra returned to her from her father.

There was a reason the chakras weren't usually separated, it could cause an imbalance later in life and become fatal.

Naruto she was a little worried about, if her father had split the chakras in this reality as well.

If so she'd have to be sure to warn her counterpart turned little brother the danger of over using Kurama's chakra.

Without it being complete it was even more corrosive and could cause him internal damage that could shorten his life span.

Kurama may be able to help her with some sort of seal or jutsu to get his counterparts Yin Chakra back, eventually.

She hadn't had it so bad, but she was a girl, Yin was something she made herself naturally.

It still had effects on her though and before Kurama had his complete chakra back he hadn't been able to heal her, with it back he'd been able to heal her cells and restore her lifespan to it original state.

Sometimes people forgot bijū were the closest things to gods on earth they had, though they weren't gods themselves they were still insanely powerful.

"I see," Sarutobi said, shaking his head at the revelations. "I will take your suggestion, though I will keep quiet until the time I have no choice but to explain. Until then.."

Sarutobi stood and retrieved two jōnin vest, the normal green. Handing them to the two in front of him he also took out two hitai-ate's and handed them over, noticing theirs were not present.

Hotaru happily took hers, though Izuna hesitated but finally, with a sigh, he took the offered items.

"Good, now I think the two of you should go to your new home, though temporary for Hotaru. I will work on digging out someplace for you and Naruto to stay as his apartment isn't big enough."

Hotaru smiled.

"Just give me the keys to the Namikaze compound... we'll stay there, but for now I don't mind staying with Sasuke and Izuna."

"I don't know if that is a good idea, Hotaru. No one knows of Naruto's heritage but me, and a select few others..."

Hotaru glared, a frown marring her usually bright face.

"I don't care. As I told Kakashi, our past links, like our parents, are all we have to remind ourselves we're human. Naruto probably has it worse than me, since I knew who my parents were when I was his age. Add to the fact it is painfully obvious who he is related to, I am shocked no one else has realized it yet," she said. "I will be telling Naruto of our parents, he deserves to know."

Sarutobi sighed.

"I thought it best he didn't know, you must understand. Minato had enemies, and so did Kushina in her own right. Though not near as many. I was concerned it would go to Naruto's head."

Hotaru nodded.

"I understand that, you feared he'd gloat over having the Yondaime as his father. But you have to realize he's more mature than you give him credit for. Jiji in our reality didn't tell me until I was a genin, after our first C-Rank mission. But I'd always had my suspicions and I'd known about my mother since I was eight."

"I see," he said. "I understand, I'll trust you to handle the repercussions of revealing you and Naruto as the Yondaime's legacies."

Hotaru nodded.

"I'll protect Naruto with my life," she said. "And train him too, if the Academy is anything like it was in my world they didn't try to teach him much."

Hotaru and Izuna stood, bowed respectively and left after one final dismissal from the Sandaime Hokage.

'Minato, Kushina... I think things are finally looking up for Naruto,' he thought as he turned to look at the fourth's portrait.

Hotaru and Izuna found the genin of team seven at Ichiraku's, much to Hotaru's delight.

Though still not cleaned up from their fight, the two had made the best of what they had.

Hotaru had returned her hita-ate to her forehead, though temporarily seeing as she usually wore it around her neck.

Izuna had yet to put his on, she supposed she should have known he'd be hesitant to ware it after so many years.

Both had thrown their new jōnin flack jackets on, if only to over some of the damage to their clothes.

"So what do we call you?" Naruto asked, looking at the older version of the Teme.

Izuna looked at the counterpart, turned little brother, of the redhead beside him and scowled, his expression never moving an inch. At least not to anyone who couldn't read below the surface of emotionless mask.

It wasn't easy to get past Izuna's though, even when he was twelve... though back then his emotions were more open. Not quite as guarded.

"Izuna," he said. "My name is now Uchiha Izuna."

Sasuke – Hotaru was right, it would take getting used to when it came to calling someone else by a name he'd grown up with for seventeen years – twitched at his words.

He was surprised, his new little brother was used to being the only Uchiha.

It probably didn't help he now had a new older brother... back then he'd hated even the mention of brothers, much less regarding him.

It didn't seem he and Sasuke were that different at all.

Besides the fact this Sasuke didn't have Hotaru in the same way he did. He and Hotaru had been friends before the Massacre, it didn't look as if Sasuke and Naruto had that benefit.

Though he saw the beginning of a friendship, or maybe it was the beginning of getting out of denial that they weren't friends?

He shook those thoughts, thinking of the past never helped him. Izuna had pretty much burned that bridge with Hotaru, or had been trying to burn it for years now.

Hotaru was stubborn, it looked as if she was doing everything she could to stop him from severing their bonds. Or maybe she was right and bonds weren't as easily severed as he liked to believe.

It didn't matter, they weren't in their world anymore.

"And I'm Hotaru, as you know," Hotaru told them, smiling. "I'll be staying in the Uchiha compound until Jiji can dig up dad's keys to the house and take care of our papers. After that Naruto and I will move to the family compound."

Naruto blinked in shock, his sixth bowl of ramen left forgotten for the moment as he stared at his new older sister with wide blue eyes.

"Family compound? You mean we have a clan?" he asked.

Hotaru laughed.

"Of course, dad was the last of his and mom was the last of her. Both the heirs, so we are the last our both our clans."

Sasuke and Sakura stared at their teammate in surprise, one more hidden than the other who wore the expression openly.

"We shouldn't talk about this in public, dobe," Izuna said, as he stood, having finished his food. "I'm gonna go. Find a empty place to stay in he compound."

Hotaru finished her fifth bowl of ramen and stood as well.

"I'm coming too," she said, and then turned to the three genins. "We really need to clean up as well. We'll see you when you get in Sasuke, and you two tomorrow I guess."

Izuna sighed and began leaving, and Hotaru glared at his back before waving at Team Seven and following after Izuna at a fast jog.

"This is just... unreal," Sakura said, blinking.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted.

"I think it's cool!" Naruto cheered, grinning happily at the fact he had family, even if it was a older counterpart of himself.