Once in a Lifetime

Author's Note: Hi my dudes I am once again writing fanfiction about this pairing! Yes I have not updated for long and I am very sorry for those who were waiting for Melt With You. I think I've become better at writing? Idk I hope so. But blah blah anyways, here is my new story. I've got some things for you to remember while reading this story.

So Naruto in this chapter and the next will be at the age of 10. She, yes she. This is a Fem!Naruto x Tobirama FF so if you don't likey then go away lmao sorry xD It is also a soulmate AU (I wanted to try it on this pairing and I kinda like the idea of it.) at the end of the chapter there are also some notes I kinda wanna tell y'all. Anyways I don't want to waste your time reading this boring notice. So I present Chapter one of our tale!

Naruto is not mine!

Before in the warring times of Konoha, soulmates were quite rare. They never did have an explanation for it but it was there. Now though? It was in each country and very usual for the lifestyle of a shinobi.

There were different types of soulmates.

They were ranked, considerably all of them still led you to whoever your soulmate was. But each level of ranking had an order to a higher probability in meeting them.

The highest ranking of soulmates was the 'Red String of Fate' ; it was a surefire way of knowing that you had someone on the opposite end of the string. Sometimes it meant literally a red string could bring both of you together, other times it was figurative.

Another soulmate ranking that was quite on par with the red string of fate; it didn't have a name but it wasn't all too common. It is said that if you write something, anywhere on your skin, it would appear on your soulmate's skin as well.

The most common type of soulmate ranking was sensation. Where both of the soulmates proceed to have contact by skin, you'd feel the connection immediately right away and know that they're the one.

But having a soulmate does not guarantee a sure 100% of both souls to be linked. You'd have to nurture the relationship at first, granted there will be plenty of mishaps and arguing but once you have it settled then all of it would make sense. It doesn't matter which age you'd meet them, most occurrences would happen around the age of 8, that being the earliest age and 19 as the oldest age.

There are rare scenarios that might happen, such as your soulmate being born later than you were hence why you'd get the mark at an older age. Sometimes though, a person would not have soul marks or any soulmate at all.

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"Stinkin' old fart! I'll get you back someday Ojichan!" Naru pouted while making a mad dash away from the ANBU that was currently on her tail. Huffing but not one bit tired, she slipped through the crowd with ease due to her petite form. She made a henge of a very normal looking civilian, snickering as she passed by the men that were looking for her.

Once she arrived in the forest grounds, the girl dispelled the jutsu and sighed in relief. She walked towards the clearing feeling light hearted but as soon as she got to the shore of the lake, the third Hokage was there. He looked mad for sure! "Eheheh jiji~"

The old man pinched the bridge of his nose "Naruto, how many times do I have to tell you.." He turned away to look at the lake, Naru rolled her eyes then proceeded to imitate Hiruzen. Her mouth copying the exact wording he had said.

"Would you listen to me?!"

"But jijiiii you keep talking too long.. it's soooo boring!"

He sat down on a log; motioning for her to come forward. She hesitated, feeling a little shy and scared but did so anyway. When she sat in front of him he started laughing as if nothing went on, and she laughed as well, only to earn a knock on the head "Ow what the hell jiji!"

Hiruzen snorted "I'm not going to be here forever, you know that don't you?" he smiled at her patiently, it pained him to let her realize this so early in life but it could not be helped. Naru eyed him with big blue eyes, for a fraction it showed sadness only to be masked by fake understanding. "Of course old man! But that won't be happening for a long while, not until I get that hat from you dattebayo'!"

The reason why she was running in the first place was because she had accidentally found out her soulmate (sort of) in his office. And he hadn't given her the soulmate talk yet. So when he mentioned something along the lines about it, she ran for her life. Of course he'd known this reaction very well having experienced the same thing with Asuma. If he had to do it all over again he'd never have children, period.

He shook his head smiling fondly. Naruto didn't understand why he did so but she didn't ask either, instead she stood up and gathered firewood as it was beginning to get a little dark "Neh, Naru-chan." Hiruzen spoke "Do you know why we have soulmates?"

She flinched and stuck her tongue out in distaste, it wasn't like she wanted to know all that lovey-dovey stuff Sakura and Ino gush about!

Naruto shook her head firmly "Nu-uh I don't wanna talk about 'ttebayo!" the old man laughed at her antics "It's an interesting topic I swear, I won't talk about the gross stuff if I can avoid it." She paused in her tracks and pondered. Well if he did say it was interesting…

The little girl nodded but hissed like a cat when Hiruzen poked her whiskered cheek "Alright, alright. Did you know, I learned about soulmates from my teacher?" again she shook her head "Well I did.. It was long ago.."

"Sensei!" Young Hiruzen called out to his teacher (yet to be Hokage) on one fine morning. The man was so lost in whatever he was doing these days. Hiruzen couldn't particularly see what he was up to because the man was facing backwards from him. However he did spot a pen in his teacher's hand.

"Ah, Hiruzen. What brings you here?" Tobirama still hadn't turned around, though he rolled down his sleeves. The boy was curious "I happened to come along the riverbank, then I saw your figure so I wanted to ask what you were doing. I can leave if you want me to, sensei?"

Tobirama smiled, somehow the tone of his voice seemed like it was directed in a mischievous manner "Tell me Hiruzen, do you believe in soulmates?" The young man responded "depends." followed by a shrug.

With a pinch to Hiruzen's cheek (he didn't even see him stand up!), Tobirama sighed "You're too young to understand anyway."

"Have you met them sensei?" Asked the student while rubbing his red cheek. At that Tobirama further sighed and folded his arms "No, not yet I haven't." Noticing his teacher's distress the boy hurried to give some sort of assurance "I'm sure they'll be pretty or handsome sensei!" That seemed to have work as the silver-haired shinobi cracked a grin.

He ruffled the boy's hair and nodded "Oh I know. Someday you'll have a soulmate as well Hiruzen, you're a splendid shinobi." Hiruzen's eyes sparkled in joy "Do you really think so Tobirama-sensei?"

"Mm. Shall we head back? I'm sure your teammates are quite worried about you and perhaps they are worried about me too."

"Alright, sides I bet Koharu and Homura are slacking off right now!"

"You mean you were teammates with those two old butts?!" Naru exclaimed loudly. How weren't they as cool as jiji?!! Coughing or choking rather, Hiruzen chuckles aloud "Hey those old butts run the village too you know?"

"Yeah but they're not as cool as you! I mean you bring me ramen and stuff 'ttebayo!" Hiruzen rolled his eyes with delight "Uhuh, well it is getting dark. Come on, we'll stop by Ichiraku's on the way to your apartment." Pumping her fist up high she runs in circles excitedly "Yatta some ramen! You're the best jiji 'ttebayo!"

Later that night as Naru came home, she tore her apartment door open in full speed and hurriedly went to get a pen, breathing in with anticipation, she wrote on her skin "Hello..are you there~?" the ink magically disappears on her arm and then

a second later she felt the ink etching on her skin "Stop talking to me. I mean it."

She giggles, her soulmate was so funny!

Author's Note: Hi guys I'm back again! I love this pairing so much and I wanted to try out the soulmate AU on them, cuz they're just so friggin cute arghhh! I have many plans to work on this but I'll finish Melt with You first. Please don't forget to drop a review and maybe a favorite too if I'm lucky? Ehehehe! Anyways I love hearing from you guys to see what you think and hopefully I'll be able to post chapters twice a week? Oh yeah here are some actual notes:

1.) Yatta - means Hooray in Japanese.

2.) Ojichan - means grandad in Japanese, Jiji means the same thing I guess? Naruto just says it a lot so *shrugs*

3.) Sensei - Teacher in Japanese

4.) So you're all wondering what age Tobirama must be when they had their soul marks right? Well I'm thinking he's at least 2 years older than Naruto is right now. He'll grow up the same time Naru does but it'll all be explained in the next chapter.

5.) Figuratively yeah you can have no soulmates in this universe.

And that's pretty much it! If you have any more questions feel free to dm it to me and I'll gladly answer them! I will be updating on Mondays and Wednesdays each week for this story.

See ya next time~