Yo- it has definitely been a while.

Sorry about that, I think I finally managed to burn myself out on Naruto for a while. But hopefully that's over. I got a brand new story for all of you and I hope that you like it since I can't seem to find my rewrite of my time travel Shikamaru/Naru/Kakashi story.

Otherwise I would have reposted that.

So just to be clear this story will touch on some subjects that are dark. Some of them may contain triggers. So be careful there, okay.

Also I'm going to be using one of my more previously popular names for Fem Naru. No pairing as of yet, just new abilities and friends.

Enjoy.

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Leaning himself back against the tree trunk, he rested his head against the rough bark and closed his eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time in so many minutes, when it had only been a few seconds since he had come to rest against the tree that he was currently using to hide behind so that he could catch himself a little fox.

A little fox by the name of Uzu Namikaze to be exact.

Today's meeting with the council to get them to cease their attempts to destroy the child had been, for the lack of a better word, a travesty.

Never in his many years as Hokage of the leaf village had he ever wished so badly to strike someone under his protection dead.

But he had today.

Oh god had he ever.

How anyone could hold little Uzu responsible for what had happened several months ago while the five year old had simply been out walking in the village, and lost control of her chakra all of a sudden resulting in the deaths of thirty people and the injuries of at least fifteen others- was beyond his comprehension.

After all it wasn't like the child knew anything about chakra control. Or the fact that she held a demon within her that may or may not be able to take over her body at short intervals.

It wasn't like someone had ever bothered to try and teach her anything about those things. So honestly, how could anyone in their right mind believe that what had happened was an actual fucking attack and not just some sort of accident?

How could anyone decree the death of another without my input? He thought to himself as he opened his eyes and gritted his teeth so hard that it felt like they would break at any moment.

The answer to his unspoken question was simple. He had been on a mission for the past five months and had thought that he had left everything in capable and trustworthy hands. Obviously he had been wrong about that, since many things had happened since his departure.

The accident, Uzu's forced brainwashing and weaponization. Her solo missions out of the village to prove her 'loyalty' to the village by either assassinating her given target/targets or dying by their hand.

Gritting his teeth even harder, he was vaguely aware of a 'snapping' sound coming from somewhere inside his mouth a mere second or so before he tasted the metallic taste of his own blood as he recalled how smug those bastard's faces had been when they had flat out told him that Uzu was being sent on another suicide mission and the only way to stop it was for someone of influence to adopt the child and train her in the things that concerned them all.

Which was why the moment he left the meeting, he had called upon his son Asuma Sarutobi and his advisor Shikaku Nara and asked them both what they thought of him taking Uzu as his adopted daughter or in this case due to his age granddaughter.

Both men had been curious and voiced some concerns, but Sarutobi had been relieved that neither man truly held any animosity towards the child and like him believed the incident that had taken place several months earlier had been nothing more than that. Just an accident.

Children who knew nothing of chakra control and whom held great reserves of power within them had incidents similar to Uzu's own, very often. The only difference was that they usually had someone to train them or help take responsibility to the accidents.

Uzu had had noone.

That shit is going to change. Every last bit of it... He thought as he continued to wait patiently for Uzu to appear so that he could grab her and return her to the village so that with some help with Ibiki, Inoichi and Shikaku, he could begin to undo the damaging programing that had been done to her young mind. Sighing softly to himself, he glanced up at the sky and had the random thought of what Minato- the late fourth hokage would say about his only child being treated so cruelly by the very village he had died to save.

"He would have laughed in all of your faces and told you to eat shit and die." The small voice coming from beside him, wasn't nearly as startling as it's source. Jerking his face down, he found himself looking down at the tiny strawberry blond head of none other than Uzu Namikaze herself.

"W-What?" He stammered out, thinking that surely he hadn't heard the little girl right. After all a child as young as she was rarely so intuitive- much less had the vocabulary of a seasoned sailor. Though if he had heard her right, she was dead on about how the fourth would have reacted to her treatment by the village.

The fourth had been notorious for being a vindictive bastard when alive. So he imagined him being much worse due to death.

The child tilted her head slightly, letting her barely shoulder length hair fall into her ruby colored eyes, baring a disturbing, angry looking scar running along the milky white skin of her throat to his gaze as she gauged his reaction to the wound that he could tell had come from a meat cleaver slashing the skin multiple times while it had been healing.

And knowing the little one like he did, she probably had been strapped down to something kicking and screaming while it was being done to her.

Making him wonder what else had been done to her while he had been away from the village. Surely Kakashi had checked on the child as he had been requested, very, very firmly to do. Especially since the jounin wasn't one to abuse others. Especially children related to the man who had been like a second father to him after his late father's death.

But seeing as the scar was there instead of flawless milky skin, he would obviously have to have words with the lad as well as the council members once he had Uzu back in the village. "Is something wrong?" The girl asked after several moments of total silence. Sensing that the elder wanted something from her, a word? Perhaps a favor?

That was fine. She supposed, since she had already had kunai used on her along with various other instruments. He could use her mouth or one of the other places if he wished. As long as he didn't try using anything metal on her like the others had.

There was a reason why at least three men in the leaf village now hobbled around without very important pieces of their anatomy in place.

The elder blinked at her as if he hadn't heard her before and his brain was taking it's sweet time catching up. That was fine too, she supposed since she wasn't in any particular hurry at the moment.

Itachi would be coming soon and she knew that she had to wait for him to show up and give her the bag of heads and let him smear blood on her skin and clothes if she didn't want a repeat of this particular mission to occur. And as bad as she felt about Itachi being used by her, the boy was already in Anbu.

A captain of his own team.

And he didn't seem to mind helping her since he had been nearby the day that the incident occurred several months ago and knew that she hadn't meant to hurt or kill anyone. She had been in the middle of practicing something that she had read about in a medical scroll that she had come by in the local school library.

The scroll itself mentioned how to store chakra within one's own body for later use. It even showed a design that had to be branded into the skin of the one using the chakra storage method.

For some reason she hadn't understood at the time, she had either stored so much chakra within her small body, or simply had too much to begin with- causing said chakra to escape her in a devastating explosion that had killed thirty people, both shinobi and civilian alike.

All of different ranks and ages.

While others caught in the blast had been wounded or knocked unconscious.

Itachi had been there and later explained it to her while she was later on held in the Anbu's prison cell in chakra restraints- that what had happened was something along the lines of a chakra scalpel- only much larger and more heavily concentrated which was what had caused the explosion and deaths. As well as caused the injuries of others.

He had known that she hadn't meant for it to happen and had visited her every day for a month while the council was trying to figure out what to do with her. And in the end he had been greatly angered by their carelesssness towards one of their own.

An innocent child at that.

Yet he had been helpless to stop everything that had occurred from then on. He would have been labeled a traitor if he had tried. Perhaps that was why helped her now, Uzu thought to herself as the elder finally managed to speak to her. His voice cutting through her thoughts and bringing her back to the present.

"Child, do you know who I am?" Sarutobi asked, someone on edge about this conversation. Or perhaps he wasn't on edge, maybe he was just nervous. After all, the fourth's dying wish was that his daughter be hailed as a hero by the village. And it was the one thing that he had failed to see her treated as by others.

But just because others failed to see her as what she really was, didn't mean that Sarutobi didn't care enough to see her as the village hero. Hell at this point he was ready to proclaim her a goddess and begin the religion of Uzu the Almighty.

He even planned to start it out as a cult that would bow to her every whim. If that was the only choice left to him at this point in time, but hopefully things hadn't progressed quite that far yet. Not that he wouldn't look absolutely- how did the young ones say it now? Bitchin? Yes, yes that was the word he was searching for.

Bitchin, in a form fitting floor length royal blue robe complete with a woven gold tasseled belt and ceremonial dagger with royal blue sapphires and a silver goblet encrusted with gems for Uzu to drink from.

Yes, that would do perfectly for their cult.

"You're the Hokage." Uzu said, her voice snapping him out of his daydream. Which sucked because he'd always wanted to be the member of some brainless cult. And being a part of Uzu's just felt...well, right.

He smiled at her and reached out to ruffle her hair in an affectionate manner when Uzu shrieked and jumped back away from him, her hands automatically going up in a defensive gesture as she glared at him from under her long bangs, her ruby eyes darkening to a malevolent garnet red.

"What was that? What were you doing?" Sarutobi stared at her for a moment and then stared down at his open palm in a quizzical manner.

Did the child think that he meant to harm her? Is that why she had reacted so strangely? He wondered as he asked, "Uzu, do you think I mean to hurt you?" He kept his tone neutral, light, calm. Or rather as calm as could be expected when one had a child react to a simple touch in that manner.

She had a kunai in her hand now and her glare was as icy as her tone as she replied, "Weren't you?" She would not let this man who ran the village she lived in, fool her. She had already made far too many enemies to believe that the Hokage would be on her side. Or even care about her side or whatever reason had brought him beyond the village walls.

She didn't care anymore. If he made another move to touch her- she'd kill him.

He sighed in an almost disappointed manner and knelt down so that they were both at eye level and stated very calmly, and rationally. "No. I have no desire to harm you now or ever. I came here today to imform you that I was formally adopting you as my child or grandchild as the case may be. And as such, you no longer have to go on these missions." She gaped at him for a second, obviously having not expected that after everything that had happened to her.

"You will have my name to protect you until I can train you to protect yourself. You don't have to live with me, since you do not trust me. But I would like to have permission to find you a better place to live and improve on certain conditions. You would get a weekly allowance to help you pay rent and get food and whatever else you need- as long as it is within reason. And I will spend several hours a day training you in chakra control and hand to hand. Do you think you can live with this?" He asked as a common courtesy. After all the child had been through much and simply ordering her to do as he said may not sit well with her.

She may start to see him as an enemy too. And that was the last thing he wanted of her.

Uzu was quiet as she thought over what he had just said. Sure being adopted formally into his family would give her a bit more freedom, but at the same time it would make her just as much a target as she was now. Still, she had no qualms with a majority of his offer.

Having a family for once would maybe be nice, she guessed as she continued to go over everything else he offered. Better living conditions would also be nice since she was rather independent. An allowance would be fine as long as it was enough to do as he said.

Training more would also be welcome. Despite the multitude of time she spent training on her own- she was never sure if she was doing anything right or not. It's why most times she relied on nothing but sheer brute strength alone. So help would be nice too. But before she agreed to anything she'd have to ask him if he knew about her strength or not.

Otherwise those training sessions would be cut painfully short.

No longer being forced to do the council's bidding would free her up her time greatly. Something that she would appreciate all the more when she managed to murder every last one of those fuckers. And she would too. She already poisoned one before leaving the village. Meaning that she'd be adding one more name to the long list of names that she kept hidden under her mattress.

Which she would have to burn once she was home. But that wasn't really here nor there.

"Before I agree to anything, I have to know if you know about my strength. Otherwise those training sessions you offered will end in death."

Sarutobi blinked at her for a second before asking. "What are you talking about?" To which Uzu sighed and put her kunai away and walked several feet away from him and placed her palm against a tree nearly the width of a medium sized building and gave a barely noticeable, push, causing the truck of the tree to splinter with a loud crack and then begin to tip and fall to the ground.

Eyes the size of saucers and still growing, Sarutobi gaped at Uzu like a fish as the tree finally crashed to the ground. Holy shit! No he hadn't been aware that she could do that. And yes, he was wondering if he could take back the training lessons he offered her.

He didn't have a death wish after all.

But he knew that if he took it back now, she would likely never agree to anything he said and the council would continue to send her out on missions until she got killed. So what he had now was a clear case of damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Still, she needed someone to guide her. And he was the next best thing, he supposed, as she turned to stare at him again and seemed to be waiting for something. For him to run screaming in the opposite direction of her maybe?

It was a tempting thought. Very much so. But Sarutobi would stand firm on this. Even though his knees suddenly felt a mite on the weak and shaky side. Uzu would be a member of his family and he would train her. Oh look he was so thrilled by the idea that his eyes were tearing up and he was starting to sniffle a bit.

"Well?" She asked in that tiny voice of hers. "Have you changed your mind yet?"

He simply shook his head, no. Not really trusting his voice at the moment. Of course he was sort of changing his mind. His mind was going all over the place trying to figure out someone better suited for caring for the girl. But in the end the only two people he could think of were Jirayia and Tsunade.

Two of the legendary sanin.

Neither of which were currently residing within the village. What a disaster. He thought as Uzu snorted, knowing very well what seemed to be going through his mind, yet voicing none of it. She'd say this for the elder, he was impressive in his stupidity.

But as the old saying goes, no guts- no glory.

Although in his case it should probably be changed to, no guts- ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, why!? Or something like that. Sensing a familiar chakra signature closing in on her location, she stood there for several more moments when she felt the air stir around her and turned her head to look at Itachi's raven mask and blood spattered uniform.

Reaching up, the tall ten year old tugged his mask off and gave the girl a small smile before leaning down and kissing her cheek and then noted the Hokage a few feet away and asked curiously, "What did I miss?"