Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, just the Gushikans.

Chapter 1~ Rebirth

Where am I? Am I dead or alive? Who am I? I don't see anything, and all I feel is warmth.

A moment, a moment where I see a name. Naruto. That name, why do I remember it? What does it mean?

And I have confused myself to oblivion. I sit and think for what seems like an eternity. It's like the explanation is on the tip of my tongue, but I can't get the words out. A constant thumping noise in the background lulls my brain, and I find myself relaxing in the oblivion. And then a sudden movement.

I am being squeezed, and it hurts. At first, I'm blinded by a white light that shines into a world of color. Everything I see is a glittering mosaic, and it's stunned me to silence.

A pinching sensation brings me back, and I scream in more surprise than pain. There's a figure standing over me in white, they seem like a giant to me, and their hands are enormous. I don't know why I'm confused by that, but I am. It's all a mystery, and I'm angry that I have no memory, so I cry. The figure seems pleased and wraps me in a shimmering pink cloth. They carry me through the air, and I finally land in the arms of a beautiful frail-looking young woman. Her face is brought so close to mine that I can make out her expression.

She has a massive grin on her face, and despite being exhausted, sweat dripping down her face that someone is trying to pat away, all of her attention is on me. She has fair skin and plum-colored hair that tickles my nose. But her eyes, her eyes are a deep warm purple. Purple eyes and hair, why does that confuse me so much?

A man looms over her shoulder, and he offers me a small smile. He seems nervous and glances at the door as if expecting someone to walk in at any moment. He is a bear of a man, towering over the woman and me. He has light brown curly hair and a thick beard that complements his maple eyes and tawny brown skin.

"Hello my treasure, hello baby girl," the woman coos as she strokes my hand and nuzzles me. She's trying to speak so softly, but everything just sounds so SO loud. She looks over at the man and smiles tiredly.

The man looks at her with a serious face. "Ume, you need to sleep, I can watch the baby."

But 'Ume' just smiles at me again, ignoring the man's words. "What should we name her, Tenchi?"

Tenchi just sighs and glances down at me. "You know you get to name her..." He whispers. Ume looks up, grinning and eagerly leans over me, studying my features. She has long, thick eyelashes and a perfect thin face; all I hope is that I look like her. She sits there for a long while, absorbing my features before nodding her head confirming something.

"Takara, my treasure."

She turns and looks at Tenchi, he nods in approval before leaning down to kiss Ume and take me from her arms. He cradles me gently in his massive arms as if he fears he could break me. He looks back to Ume who was beginning to fall asleep, curled up on her bed, and then back to me.

"Hi Curly Top, it's nice to finally meet you," he gently strokes my head, before leaning very close to kiss my forehead and whisper, "We live in a crazy world but I promise that I will always protect you, my beautiful daughter." He walks over to a chair to sit down softy and holds me close. I could hear the steady beat of his heart and it was the most calming thing ever. "Sleep now, you need it more than ever." He spoke in a low voice that made his chest vibrate. I felt exhausted and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

After a few days in the white place, Ume and Tenchi took me home. I couldn't see much, my eyes are crap right now, but the place smelled of lilac and... Iron? Weird. I mostly slept, ate, and dirtied myself, but besides being played with by Ume and to a lesser extent, Tenchi, I spent a great deal of my time trying to remember what I had forgotten. I'm not sure what it was but I know it was important. I'd wake up on occasion to hear the quiet pondering of... someone? It wasn't scary, but I wasn't sure who the voice belonged to either. After realizing I was awake, the voice would always go silent no matter my questions.

Then one night I felt it. It's hard to describe, but it was bloodlust, hate, and fear all smashed together. I could hear screams and the ground shook, terrifying me. All I could do was cry while Ume held me in her tense arms. She took me into a basement I didn't even know we had to hide. Tenchi had left when it arrived and when it left he came home. He was quiet and angry. I listened to him recount the event while in Ume's arms.

A fox demon came and killed a lot of people; our leader is dead, and we are weak. Once I was put safely in my crib I heard my parents burst into sobs over the deaths of their friends.

That was enough.

Naruto.

There's that name again. I still don't know who or what it is, but it's been on my mind a lot and I know the attack had something to do with it.

As it so often does, time passes. Before too long, I was gurgling and rolling about trying to talk to 'Mama' and 'Dad.'

I had eventually re-laid a "Mama" and Ume about had a heart attack. She held me tightly as she spun us around laughing, and called for Tenchi. When he arrived and heard the news he looked happy but a little put off so I managed a "Dada" which made him laugh too. His enormous body shook as he picked up Ume and me in his arms in a hug. "Look at that! she wants us both happy!" He said with a large smile.

My first birthday came around, not much of a party, but it was fun, and I began to pull myself up and putter around Mama and Dada. I now know we live in a small two-floor house on the edge of town, due to the rare store visits with Mama. This is, of course, excluding the basement. But, it's close to a training field from Dad's stories. I eventually got to look in the full-length mirror Mama has in their bedroom. I have Dad's curly light brown hair and tawny skin but also Mama's purple eyes. Not her "intoxicating and beautiful" eyes as Dad puts it but a darker maybe poisonous purple in my opinion. Not as gentle, warm, and loving as hers.

My Mom after her year off had to return to work in the prison, as head of the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force. My Father is an Anbu squad leader with a strangely fitting bear mask. Somehow I know what both these jobs are when I heard them discussed, despite my parents not telling me what these jobs mean... this happens sometimes. It doesn't bother me when it happens. What does bother me is that it's hard to believe that my kind, soft, and warm-hearted Mom has such a job. When I was three, I was finally able to express this, though learning to vocalize is oddly hard. So I asked her, in my squeaky kiddie voice, why she has that job.

"Well, there will always be bad people in this world who want to hurt us." She started hesitantly. "You see, when your Daddy gets the bad guys, he gives them to me so that I find out what we need to do to stay safe. So I gather info, and sometimes I just need to push them is all." It was a simple answer and a good enough one for now. I realize I'm too young to know the gory details.

At four, my Dad started to take me outside with rubber kunai to practice throwing and would meditate with me. Mom really was not pleased, saying I'm too young for training and just about decked Dad when he said they should enroll me a few years early into the ninja academy.

"Mama, I wanna be a ninja! Like you and Daddy!" I squeaked in my prepubescent girly voice. She allows herself a smile, but it fades.

"Takara you are much too young. You are my baby, and how can I expect you to be a ninja when you don't even know simple academic things yet?" She bites her lip in worry but her tone was soft and pleading.

My father smiles slyly and responds "How about I train her from ten to five and you teach her in the morning and before bed?" Seeing our hopeful faces and realizing we'd never stop training, her permission or not, she gives a reluctant ok.

So my schedule stayed at: wake up before the sun to study kanji which is the most horrible thing ever! It's confusing and hard and makes my kid brain want to cry.

Then arithmetic, which was easy, and it all came to me quickly. It was as if I had already been taught it... That went on till ten. Then Dad would stretch with me, we would meditate, practice throwing, and finally, we would finish with some taijutsu. Throw lunch in there at some point and exclude the days when Mom or Dad was off on a mission, which would make my day either very academic or very training based.

We would have dinner and then review the lessons together. Finally, I study history until I fell asleep.

This was all fine and dandy, but I had never forgotten the name Naruto. It still baffled me why I won't forget it. I questioned whether I should just throw the name out in conversation to my parents or perhaps my Aunt but I was never brave enough to.

I also know people, jobs, history, and arithmetic without any trouble. Which is strange, especially when my parents don't tell or teach me half the stuff I know already.

Before I would enter school, I would already be able to do geometry and would be working on trigonometry with my Mom. I would know the history of Konoha and select nations backward and forwards. Although that took longer than math, and it took me just a week until school started to read kanji correctly.

On the other end of the spectrum, while practicing taijutsu, Dad tried to secretly put weight bands on my legs and arms. It took one look for my Mom to realize what happened.

He slept on the couch for a week, but Mom eventually came around and let me wear them. I was super slow, but as time passed and Dad added more weight, I felt strong, and I actually was.

In other news, my parents are pretty reclusive. Dad being in the Anbu means he spends most of his time working on missions and doesn't have many friends except his team. But of course being in the Anbu means secrets and not giving away your identity... and never actually seeing your friends in the open, except once a year for a dinner.

My Mom hates drama, so to cut out the middle man, she barely has any friends except the people she works with.

Then there is the fact that both of them have high positions, so they never let me roam around alone so that I don't get kidnapped. Being homeschooled isn't so bad, but I never get any privacy at all. So that means the only other person I see regularly is my Aunt Anko.

She is my Mom's younger 18-year-old sorta-sister and is super cool. She tries to teach me simple jutsu (Although she stinks at it, I haven't been able to do one yet!) and would watch me when Mom and Dad are gone. Anko would take me out for food a lot though, so through her, I get to see the outside world. However, I am awkward and nervous around people, so I don't make any friends on my outside visits. Okay, so there are downsides to being homeschooled.

One day, a week before I would enter the academy, I was eating with Anko when a boy with blond hair ran past, away from shouts. And the moment I saw him, 'Naruto' flashed through my head.

Despite myself, I got up from the chair and yelled, I'd be right back and took off after Naruto. Anko shouted something after me, but I fully ignored her, something I had never done.

'Find him, he needs a friend' pushed through my brain. I didn't know where it was coming from, but it sounded familiar, so I obeyed.

I finally found him sitting against a tree in a small wooded area, crying.

"Hello?" I asked cautiously. He looked up and wiped his face, sprouting a blush.

"I'm not crying!" He yelled. I didn't know what to do so I just sat down next to him. Conflict is not my strong suit, it seems.

"My name is Takara Gushikan, what's yours?" I stared at his whisker marks in curiosity for a second before finding his eyes and smiling.

"Naruto Uzumaki" he answered tentatively, he was acting like I could turn on him at any moment. I smiled a bit more, and after a moment he smiled a tiny bit.

"Are you going to the academy too?" He asked shyly, tugging at the bottom of his shirt nervously.

"Yes, I am! I can't wait to beat bad guys!" I excitedly wave my arms, jumping up.

"Me too! And I'm going to be so strong I'll be the Hokage!" He said, jumping up after me in excitement.

I grinned at him and linked arms with him in one fluid motion, causing him to sputter in surprise.

"Are you hungry? Come with me!" I commanded in a chipper tone, pulling him along slightly, and after a second, he followed me.

We walked out of the woods together vastly unaware of just how much our futures are intertwined.

Author's note:

Hey, this is my first story so ya... Please comment if you liked it or not, I accept I'm going to be bad at first so tell what I'm doing wrong so I can fix it. Anyway, thanks for reading it, byby.

Thank you, and have a nice day!

~ToL

~Offically updated! Since I'm re-doing some chapters there may be an obvious quality difference in some, so I apologize for that!

Also sorry about the crazy story error that happened