AN Important - I read all of your reviews and came to a decision. One, Naruko will not be crushing on Kiba, if she was it would be false love and later on she would come to realize her true feelings for a special friend.

Two, I don't want to say this but this is a HAREM~ oh yea, if you want to give me some suggestions feel free - like if you want to see a male character turned female go ahead and recommend it - that and I don't like telling you this, usually I want to keep you on your toes. That and I just don't want you to know. Pretty obvious to tell it's a harem since I barely write non harems...

Three, I want to clarify one potential character that Shirou could be paired with, Kakashi, I am still really unsure and clarifying this. If it's a Female Kakashi she most likely will have some sort of 'relationship' with Shirou if you know what I mean or plain old male Kakashi that's not a dick. I like Kakashi okay?

Last and finally four, seen some requests on male Sakura I'm not sure if I want to do it, sorry.

Update - fixed something I thought I deleted last chapter sorry for any false alarms. No quirky AN's for this chapter. I also love seeing your reviews, feel like some school girl. Hmm. Summer break is almost here, I can feel it, too bad my grades aren't the best. Oh well!

Chapter 4 - Revelations and Future Plans

Naruko woke up, her eyes trained to the ceiling. Her thoughts were in disarray. So she turned over to lay on her side, her back facing the wall and wrapped in a familiar orange blanket. She stared at a familiar clock on a small familiar windowed cabinet. She was definitely in her room, that's for sure.

But the question was why her room was so clean the empty ramen cups she would leave near her bed were long gone, the trash pile in the corner of her room was empty, the clothes that once were scattered around the room were neatly folded and left on another cannot opposite of her bed.

Even the plant looked more healthy than ever, the floor was practically spotless, and the clothes she would wear often that were hanged were left near her bed. The only thing that remained the same was the panty that she also hung.

She could barely remember what happened yesterday after waking up, but she did remember having Shirou carry her home. So did he clean her room? Her thoughts were ripped away from her as the familiar smell of ramen flooded through the small opening of her door. The only difference in the smell was that it smelt... divine, much more so than ever before.

The smell alone was enough to have her fully awake and on her feat. She couldn't exactly see since some hair was obscuring her few so she blew it hoping that would solve the problem, it did. She of course wasn't dumb enough to bolt out of her room and devour the food.

She knew without a doubt that someone was in her home. So she crept up to the door, the wooden floors slowly creaking as she did so. Once she was close enough to the door she peered through the small thin opening to see who was on the other side.

It was Shirou, doing house chores. She let out a small gasp as she was so excited at seeing her friend at her house, so to thank him for cleaning her house she would hug him. Ok she wasn't thanking him by hugging him it was just an excuse to hug the boy.

So when the boy got close enough to the door she slammed it open, startling Shirou in the process, and jumped into his chest to hug him, to him though it was enough to knock him off his feat and make him winded as it felt like she actually slammed into him.

When he looked at the person who caused this current scenario he was greeted with her face, her eyes were closed and head tilted with a trademark grin he would often find on her. It was cute he had to admit.

"Shi-rou!" He let out a sigh at her antics, he had a feeling this would often happen to him also.

So he stood up with Naruko hanging off of him, "Yes, Naruko?"

She nuzzled into his chest and a muffled, "Thank you!" Was heard. With that she let go of him and hoped towards the smell of her favorite food. Her eyes closed in bliss she bent over her small table, her hands clasped behind her back and her hair falling to the floor.

When she opened her eyes would even haunt her. She was greeted by something she hoped she would never ever see, vegetables. In. Her. Ramen. Yes she claimed it as hers the vegetables weren't claimed as hers though.

She went to pluck them out with her hands and throw them in the trash where they belonged. She was stopped by a stern cough that came from her friend. She slowly turned around to see Shirou crossing his arms in a stern expression, "You need to eat vegetables, it's healthy."

She didn't, couldn't argue with him. She had a gut feeling he would do something she would hate. And she trusted her gut.

So she sat down with a huff and stared at such heresy. She would have to cleanse her mouth if she were to eat it. She turned around to look at Shirou, "Go ahead. Eat them."

With an audible gulp she slowly picked up a pair of chopsticks and picked up a vegetable and slowly brought it to her mouth, her hands quivering in the process. The vegetable was now in her mouth, yet she couldn't bring herself to close her mouth and chew on it.

She turned around once more and asked, pleaded, "water." Shirou let out a sigh and went to grab a glass of water. Which was soon found in her hands. Now everything was ready. She closed her mouth and chewed as quickly as possibly and ate it, she soon chugged down some water to drown out that disgusting taste.

So the rest of time was spent with her slowly eating the vegetables, chugging down some water, and devouring the ramen.

When she was done she gave Shirou a shaky smile while her eyes threatened to let lose a dam of tears. So Shirou let out a sigh, change took time, he reminded himself. He also reminded himself that Naruko most likely wasn't full yet since that was a single bowl of ramen and he learned that she could eat quite a lot.

While she was eating he didn't spent his time watching her eat, he was making more ramen but without the vegetables.

He put down three bowls for her and was rewarded with doggy eyes begging that they didn't have any vegetables. Her mood soon did a hundred and eighty degree turn and she was figuratively inhaling the food.

He let out a sigh, "You sure do like to eat a lot don't you Naruko?"

It was a rhetorical but she still answered with a proud expression, "Hunger is the enemy after all!" It was practically an excuse to explain why she ate a lot.

For Shirou though, his back went ramrod straight and stood stock still, the reason for this was that it meant the whole world to him as it was one of the last ties he held to his old life and someone he held very dearly.

But she didn't need to know that.

He also reached into his shirt and pulled out a familiar red pendent. He was lost in thought when Naruko suddenly appeared and looked at it in wonder, "WOW! This is so beautiful! Where did you get it!?"

He smiled at her enthusiasm but it was a bit forced because of his thoughts on it's owner. He soon looked up at Naruko and answered, "...I got it from a special friend."

Naruko noted that his entire mood seemed sad and decided to talk about something else like... Satsuki! "Wanna go find Satsuki?"

He nodded at her but he needed to clean the bowls that once contained ramen then they could find her.

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Satsuki was sitting on her bed in her bedroom. She had absolutely nothing to do since her brother was back on his shinobi duty's. She could ask her mom or dad to play but decided she shouldn't do it.

Her mother was likely busy with chores and such while her father was a very strict man and had other things to intend to.

So here she was, kicking her legs whiles she sat on her bed with nothing better to do. That was until she heard her mother's voice, Uchiha Mikoto, "Satsuki your friends are asking if your home!"

Just like that she recalled the events that she forgot. Especially the one where they were suppose to meet up. Now that she thought of it the girl called... Naruko didn't mention where they would meet.

So she got off her bed and ran towards the door, she took a few breaths before she would open it hoping they would not mention that she never went to find them.

Opening the door she smiled at her friends, she didn't have many since she didn't bother with people outside of her clan much so these two people would be her first friends outside of the clan. "Hello!"

Naruko quickly responded by enthusiastically waving her hand at her, "Hi Ki-Chan!"

She physically back up with her arms in front of her, "K-Ki-Chan?! Don't call me that!" She quickly growled and searched her thoughts for a nickname for her to enact her revenge, "Ko-Chan!" It was aggressive and filled with embarrassment, wait. Ki and Ko sounded very familiar...

"Ehh~ Ko-Chan sounds so cuute~ say it again, say it again!" Shirou stood perplexed in the back watching the odd interaction.

"N-No! What makes you think I will ever call you by that, that, ridiculous name!" She was blushing in embarrassment.

Of course when she said that Naruko quite literally deflated. And since Satsuki wouldn't call her 'Ko-chan' then she would just have to have someone else say it. That someone else being Shirou, "Shirou, Shirou! Call me 'Ko-chan!'"

His answer was instant and blunt, "No."

Her smile soon turned devious, if she couldn't have him say it she just had to, persuade him, "Whaat?! Shi-Chan!" She noticed he flinched at the nickname, "I'll just call you Shi-Chan if you don't call me Ko-Chan!" She also just noticed that when she combined the nicknames it formed a name, Shikiko, it was a off handed thought.

Back to Shirou though, he relented, "Fine, Ko-Chan..." he most likely was never going to say this again. Especially when he was seeing her jump in joy and hugging an unfortunate Satsuki. He did nothing to help if he too wanted to avoid the hug.

Which was soon broke apart when they heard Satsuki's mom calling to them, specifically Satsuki, "What are you doing standing at the door? I want to meet your friends Satsuki!"

She quickly obeyed her mother's request and brought the both of them to a table with empty seats, which were for them to sit in.

With that Satsuki went to get her mom to inter-meet. So the pair were bombarded with questions from a rather other protective mother.

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Sarutobi Hiruzen sat in his chair staring at a mountain of paperwork. Sometimes he wished he never became hokage, but with great power comes responsibility they would say. Well his power landed him with this ridiculous amount of paperwork.

Sometimes he just wished they would disappear or at he could have a easier time doing it. His hand was aching. So he took a mini break to rest up his wrist and his thoughts trailed to one Uzumaki Naruko.

He sighed, he felt like a horrible grandfather. He was keeping too many secrets from her, important secrets. Especially the one she wanted to know about, her parents. He didn't want to tell her so he made a deal with her, until she would become at least a chuunin. At the same time he just wanted to tell her, yes her parents, especially her father, had a great deal of enemy's. Telling her would put her in danger of having family old enemy's after her. But one thought kept persisting in his mind. What if he just told her? Yes his worry's may be a little over the top, I mean, would telling her really harm her?

Her parents enemy wouldn't know, it wasn't like they just suddenly knew she existed when he told her her parents identity. The hokages office was heavily defended after all. But a problem came with that thought, could she keep quiet about it? Or at least tell her most trusted individuals.

If he told her and she just went around saying she was the yondaime's daughter. Of course he felt bad, he couldn't bring himself to tell her such a secret. But at the same time would she trust him when he finally spilled the truth to her? Most likely not.

He leaned back in his chair and turned to face out the window to face the view of Konoha. He needed to make a choice or this same thought would plague his mind. With a resolute look he decided. "Anbu." It was spoken sternly, it would seem odd since no one was present. No one visibly present that is.

Soon a voice spoke up, a feminine voice. "Yes Hokage-sama?"

He could tell she was kneeing and raised his hand in a familiar way to tell her to get up, which she did. "Could you go and bring Naruko to me. It's urgent."

He could tell she nodded and shunshined away. Turning back to face his most hated enemy he gripped his hand into a fist and tightened it. "Today, paperwork, you shall meet your worst nightmare."

To the Anbu hidden in the room it was an odd sight, you don't often see a hokage threatening paperwork everyday. But to the higher ups in the room they nodded in understanding and wished him the best of luck in this in facing such an undefeatable foe.

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Back with Naruko, Satsuki, and Shirou, they were now walking about and visiting places in their first, "best friends forever hangout event," as Naruko dubbed it.

They were currently eating ice cream at Shirou's house. Which was small and only contained anything essential or important. And Naruko, as expected was leading the conversation.

She was soon interrupted when a cat masked anbu shunshined into the room. The female masked anbu soon spoke, "Naruko, the hokage would like to speak to you."

Naruko groaned, "Do I have too? I was hanging out with my besties!"

The anbu ignored the way she referred to her friends as, "besties," and spoke, "Yes, you have to. The hokage has said it was important."

Naruko groaned again and spared Shirou and Satsuki an apologetic look, "Sorry Shirou-kun, Ki-chan," Satsuki's eyebrow twitched, "I have to go, wait for me ok? Don't do anything without me."

Satsuki nodded, "We won't." She was lying.

Shirou though quirked a brow and took this to another level, "Wouldn't we die if we did nothing?" It was a thought taken too seriously. He thought nothing of it though, he was told some rather odd things but they meant every single bit of it. He wouldn't be making the same mistake twice though. Especially when he remembered when Artoria request a rather... hefty amount of food to be made as a celebration.

At the time he thought it was a joke. After all, who would take a request to make enough food to practically make someone bankrupt seriously? Well that 'who' was Shirou. And he had to deal with an unpleasant Artoria after that.

What could he do when she suddenly began crying and rolling around the floor? Ignore her? The answer was yes. But Shirou couldn't say no to her, not after everything they did together. Even if she forced him aside so she could actually fight without him protecting her.

Artoria actually loved it when Shirou would try and protect her. She wasn't going to mention it to Shirou though. At that time she even felt an odd feeling when she was near him and when he was trying to protect her leaving her in a flustered mess.

Back to reality though, Naruko was long gone. And satsuki soon spoke up with a rather soft voice, odd, "Want to do... something?"

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Naruko soon found herself in the familiar space within the hokages room. "Jiji! What do you want-ttebayo! I was hanging out with my friends!" She whined at the hokage.

Hiruzen didn't know it was apparently at a bad time when he wanted to reveal her parents. But he spoke up, "Anbu, leave the room. I need to speak to Naruko-Chan in private." The hidden and revealed cat masked anbu left. They still remained close to provide security though, but not too close.

He soon looked into Naruko's blue eyes, "Naruko, I need to tell you something important. Very important." He emphasized on how important this matter was.

Naruko soon turned quiet to show she understood how important this was.

"Naruko, I need you to promise me what I'm going to tell you is kept a secret." He continued.

"I promise Jiji."

"I know you always keep your promises, but you must do your utmost best."

She nodded at this, "I will try my best."

"No Naruko." He removed the suffix to show how important this was, "I don't want you to 'try' your best. I need you to do your best." He reiterated.

She nodded once more, "I will." Her gaze fixed solely on his.

After starring in her eyes for a few for seconds, which felt like minutes to Naruko, he continued, "I will be telling the identity of your parents to you."

At those words Naruko was going to jump on joy and shout but was stopped by Hiruzen, "Naruko, this is a serious matter." She stopped herself from celebrating but she couldn't stop the amount of joy she was feeling, so she just celebrated in joy in her head.

He let out a sigh, maybe now was not the time, she was young. Not even an academy student yet. Yet he needed, had to do this. "Naruko, you mother was Uzumaki Kushina. She was a headstrong, impulsive, eccentric, and stubborn women. She was also talkative and rather tomboyish. In fact you remind me of her. Even have a verbal tic like her." He laughed

Naruko felt rather embarrassed at her verbal tic, she couldn't help it.

"Your mother was borned into the Uzumaki clan in Uzushiogakure. When she was younger I remember how she proclaimed that she would even be the first female hokage, like you. She had fiery red hair and a rather round face, people would call her a tomato too. But the people who called her that invoked her wrath, her hair would fly around wildly around her and would pummel anyone who dare called her that name.

Somewhere a certain red head snorted in pride.

"Because of this she also earned the nickname, 'Red Hot-Blooded Habanero.' She eventually met your father and had you, Uzumaki Naruko."

Also somewhere a certain red head felt like she wanted to pummel someone. For Naruko though, she couldn't help but swell up with pride for being Kushina's daughter.

Hiruzen continued, "Your father..." he stopped, as if he was hesitant and Naruko was figuratively on the edge of her seat, "Naruko, your father is... Namikaze Minato, the forth hokage."

Naruko felt so happy yet so mad at the same time. If her father was the hokage then where was he? Did she have to face such hate from the village? Where were her parents when she need them the most?

"He was perceptive and collected, even at a young age, he would also do things without reason, and was known as a prodigy. When he became apart of a genin team under Jiraiya, one of the three sages, as his teacher. He took him as his apprentice and rescued your mother once. I believe that was when they fell in love."

He soon stopped speaking, believing that was enough information for young Naruko to figure out the finer details of her mother and father, her father was easier as he had a literal book about him.

"Why...?" He soon looked at Naruko, her head down and hair overcasting her eyes, "Why didn't you tell me this sooner...? Where are they...?"

He sighed, "Naruko, you need to know your parents have many enemies and... they are, dead..."

Naruko has a metaphorical bomb dropped on her, she wanted to run away into the comfort of her friends and cry. But she continued, she needed answers, "Why?! You didn't bother telling me they were dead! I could of lived a better life if everyone knew!"

Now this was where Hiruzen drew the line, "Naruko, you need to kno-"

He was interrupted by Naruko shouting at him, "Know what?! They had lots of enemy's! I can ta-"

Hiruzen now interrupted her, slamming his fist on the table, his emotions getting the better of him, "Naruko!" She shrinked back at the volume of his voice, but stood up determined, "You need to know you could die and the dangers! What would your parents want!? You dying because of a dumb decision?! Yes, things could of change, but think! Think what would happen if everyone knew! You probably wouldn't have met that boy or girl, since you would have too many friend trying to exploit you! They died to keep you alive, Naruko..." he sighed, how could he let his emotions get the better of him? Especially since he was the hokage, "They died protecting you."

She didn't want to hear him anymore, he was right. He was trying to have her live a safer life. He was right, she probably wouldn't have met Shirou or Satsuki. He was... right, he was trying to have her live an actually childhood instead of hiding from enemies that threatened to stab her in the back.

"I... I know, Jiji. But you could of... told me sooner... I didn't have to feel so... hurt..."

He sighed, "Should have I Told you when you were but a child with no friends then?" She somewhat understood what he meant, she didn't have any friends back thing and she was very young and learning this would probably cause some emotional turmoil, "I could've waited since you were a chunin, when you were stronger to protect yourself and older... But I trust you to keep this a secret. You have friends now, friends you can rely on Naruko. Just prove me I made the right decision today Naruko." With that he turned around with a sigh and pulled out a familiar pipe and lit it.

Naruko took this as permission to leave, which was. She didn't know what to feel, sadness, anger, betrayal... understanding.

It was too much for her childlike brain to handle something like this.

But it was like the Hokage said, she had friends to rely on now. So spent rest of the time walking to Shirou's house thinking on what to do. And where his house is.

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"DIEE!"

Shirou just gave her an odd look. They were playing shogi and by no means were they experienced at it. So when she had his jeweled general - King - in a checkmate. He had no way of escape so he lost. By someone randomly placing the pieces in a haphazard way and hope to kami you win. Which she did.

They were on their third game as her brain couldn't compete with his mentally developed one. So she lost the first two games and toke a ridiculous amount of time to chose which piece to move and when she did she believed it would help her. Which it finally did seeing as she won and shouted at his jeweled general to die.

He decided to make some small talk to stop the girl from doing some form of a victory dance, "When do you think Naruko will come back?"

The small talk did stop her from doing a victory dance, saving her the embarrassment and probably saving Shirou too if he didn't want to face her wrath, she put a finger on her chin and adopted a thinking pose, "I don't know."

"Shirou-kun, Ki-chan! I'm here!" The sound of Naruko's echoed throughout the building. She was soon seen when she opened the door with a rather sad smile on her face.

Seeing a sad smile on their friends face Shirou stood up to try and help her in some way while Satsuki stayed on the floor sitting. She didn't know what to do, her father would tell her she shouldn't help those lesser than her. The same most likely applied to anyone.

"What happened?" Shirou didn't want to sound demeanding about the subject, if she didn't want to tell him her problem then he would wait and try again. If that didn't work than he just had to restort to different measures. Which isn't as bad as it sounded.

For Naruko though she wondered what she would say, the Hokage did trust her with this important secret and at the same he did mention something about her friends.

This was an important choice, could she trust her friends like the hokage trusted her? After thinking about it the answer was a clear yes from her. Now she just had to hope it didn't backfire in her face and everything would somehow work out.

To Shirou, Naruko fidgeted a bit before answering his question, "Well... I just learned something very important..." she emphasized on the very and he noticed it.

Before she could continue on Shirou interrupted her, "If you don't feel like telling me it's okay."

She let out a smile, at least she had a choice. Meanwhile Satsuki was still sitting but she was now leaning forward to hear them more clearly. "No no, I want to tell you." She let out a short sigh and prepared herself to say it as quickly as possible, "Ijustlearnedwhomyparentswere!"

The only problem was it was too quick and Shirou wasn't able to exactly understand her so he responded with the only thing that would best fit the situation. "Huh?"

Naruko realizing her mistake quickly hid her face with her pigtails and spoke once more, this time more slowly, "I just... learned who my parents were..."

Shirou understood the situation now, he knew of the Kyuubi attack and how many children were orphaned so he deduced that Naruko was one of the children that happened to not know her parents. He smiled at her and thought it wasn't that big of a deal. Well, it was but not some super secret type of deal, "Well, congratulations."

"My dad was the yondaime, Namikaze Minato." Shirou still held the smile but it slightly faltered, okay, it was a big deal, "My mom was Uzumaki Kushina, part of a clan called Uzumaki." He was definitely wrong, this was a huge deal. Not only was she the daughter of the yellow flash, she was also from a destroyed clan that was very powerful.

Satsuki though reeled at the thought, if she was the daughter of the yellow flash her potential could be huge! Satsuki felt a sort of rivalry from Naruko now and just wanted to prove herself more now. Not many could say they were stronger than the yellow flashes child. Which no one knew and most likely every ninja was currently stronger than her now. But that could change in the future, she knew it!

"...How do you feel about this?"

In response she clenched her fist, she felt angry, sad, happy. That was all that was needed for Shirou to understand her.

Now came the current problem. If she went to the Hokage and came back with this news then that would mostly likely mean that he kept it a secret. The only question was why? If he thought about it the yellow flash and the Uzumaki clan had many enemy's that would probably want to end her life.

Shirou felt the need to protect her but at the same time he knew he couldn't save everyone. He'd be damned if he didn't try his best though. Coming to a conclusion he decided it was best to part of his skills unto her, he wouldn't always be there to help her and when he wasn't she would need to be able to defend herself.

"Naruko, do you want me to help you train to become stronger?" This was the best way to offer his skills to her, the opportunity to become stronger were on many shinobi and kunoichi's thoughts.

As expected she was confused but soon lit up, figuratively of course, and beamed at the offer to become stronger. Now she could prove the Hokage that he was right in his decision in trusting her. Then a question came to her mind, "How are you going to train me? Your not a shinobi yet."

Shirou crossed his arms, "I don't have to be a shinobi to know a thing or two. I could teach you many things too, like how to use a bow, a sword, a spear, or even throwing kunai." When both Satsuki and Naruko heard this there expressions brightened, for Satsuki at the opportunity to showing her brother how much she learned, and Naruko to prove the hokage right and become stronger.

Since Satsuki wasn't offered the opportunity she spoke up, "Could I also come?"

Shirou thought on it and ultimately decided on yes and gave her a nod. He spoke again but this time referring to the both of them, "If you want to train we should meet up at my house at six in the morning. You would need some rest for tomorrow's training." They both eagerly nodded and left his home to do just that.

Naruko though stopped at his door just before she was going to leave, "You didn't have to do this you... but thank you!" She quickly left as to avoid her friend from seeing a tinge of red on her checks and went home.

Left alone now Shirou just had to come up with plans for tomorrow, he didn't know too much on how they would fight so he could just teach them a little bit of everything. The only problem with this was that they wouldn't specialize or be too good with any of the weapons he would teach them. They were on a limited time since he had a feeling they would try to become kunoichi's.

It wasn't a matter of if they wanted to be kunoichi's, they both wanted to become one. So with the academy fast approaching - since they had to be at least 8 years old to attend and they were all around the age of at least six - he had limited time to preferably teach them every weapon so they could get a feel of each one and chose which they would specialize in.

So with that, I bid you adieu. This is your resident author signing off, see you next time. Or never.

Update - It's been probably a week since I continued from where I left off...