Chapter Text
As many stories so often do, ours begin with a tragedy.
Two loving people, from two noble lineage, led to death by one adrift and astray in a world, where the meaning of life is derived from death and not itself.
It is not by how they lived, but by how they died that a Shinobi is remembered.
And if events had gone but only slightly differently, no one would have made to remember Kushina Uzumaki, when her husband, the Hokage, sacrificed himself to seal the full Kyuubi within their daughter.
Kushina clung to the last of her life, as her husband soul was devoured by the Shinigami. She clung to life, as the first shinobi arrived.
She clung to life, even as she foresaw in the Sandaime gaze their wishes would not be answered.
She clung to life, as it, inevitably, slipped from her tight grasp.
But… Something happened that night.
For Kushina Uzumaki, did not allow herself to fade as easily as her enemies would have wanted her memory buried, and her legacy crushed.
She raged. A black void of hatred and pent-up, carefully accumulated and cultivated, thought to be tamed rage, wrath even, took old of her.
And she spat. Her last, and only heeded prophecy.
As her will to kill the men who had placed their sullied hands on her daughter to take her away.
As they were taking away her husband, to leave her here to die.
She spewed one last harangue of blissful, all encompassing fury.
“If you treat her badly, the world will crumble. If you treat her spoiled, the world will be defeated. If you treat her like a weapon, she will burn your pathetic lives with her own.”
Those words, would prove… Almost, prothetical.
For Kushina did not die.
Not truly.
And to this day onward, her legacy would persist in her daughter. Until Uzu himself, one day, shall end this world for it to be reborn anew.
Several years later, Hiruzen watched reports about young Naruto Uzumaki. The girl whose eyes seemed to know almost too much. The deep violet gaze, with slitted pupils and almost broken up irises.
And still Kushina’s last words on his mind.
But how was he supposed to protect and make a child, be seen as human against the flaws of Mankind?
The Uzumaki themselves used to refer to anyone outside their clan as lesser beings.
He remembered very well, of how Kushina had proclaimed to the classroom she had been assigned too, how she’d become the first Female Hokage, despite having been sent here a Jinchuriki and wasn’t even meant to gain citizenship.
The Daimyo of Uzu no Kuni, had laughed out the delegation led by Danzo, when Konoha had asked for help in the Second Great Ninja war. The war which cost all of the first generation of Kage their heads.
Their reasoning, still haunted him as well.
“Why should we cater to the need of weakling unable to protect themselves? Hashirama was needed. And so we agreed to his deal. And now? All the Senju are dead. Whereas we, Uzumaki, are still as vibrant and strong as ever. Until that Senju grandchild of Mito is on the throne of ‘Konoha’, there shall be no longer any help sent outside of your… Jinchuriki needs.”
Their destruction, had been far too sudden. So sudden in fact, no one actually knew what had done them in. What was known, however, was the scramble for their previous lands… And the piles of charred and burnt inside out bodies.
No scars had been found on the lands or the construction. Everything laying still and quiet, as if nothing had disturbed it, yet all was death and smelling of crisp burned meat.
To this day, no one knows what had happened.
There seemed to have been Uzumaki who survived. Numerous records of the Uzumaki living outside of Uzu, had delivered the knowledge they had persisted.
Hiruzen smoked his pipe.
He felt dread, as always, when thinking of this.
A kind of fear, none could understand.
The Uzumaki had been demons, creature just as skilled in all manners of combats. Their charisma allowed them to twist truth, without ever actually lying, with such great ease, they could convince you to murder a stranger. Seduce you, ensnare and twist until they could no longer be bothered with your lives.
He had known Kushina was the same.
He now had to face the terrible thought it was an inherited trait among all of them.
Naruto Uzumaki loved flowers. Especially yellows ones. Like her hairs.
She didn’t particularly care why people stared at her as if she was the devil itself. When they sneered, she answered with a smile. That leaded to them blanching and feeling so afraid they… Well, does an adult soiling themselves count as having an accident?
Still, she’d been told by some, that her smile was creepy as all hells.
If only.
She watched, spread in the soft morning grass, a monarch butterfly land on the very tiny tip of her nose. She was, officially seven years old. She’d heard yesterday about the Uchiha Massacre. She’d have felt bad for them, if she didn’t care all that little.
Really, why was everyone so spooked? Uchiha this. Uchiha that. Uchiha then. Uchiha ther-
Ah.
Right.
They weren’t there any longer.
She cackled with a big laugh. Well! Teach them right for their arrogance! She still remembered some of those fuckers sneering at her. A snap reasoned near her.
She sprang up quickly upright – well crouched – and at attention. In front of her, standing startled was that old man who sometimes gave her money.
Oak something.
Wait.
Hokage! Right that’s his name.
She smiled a little. She kind of liked this old man. He at least didn’t get scared. He smiled back.
“Ah. Naruto-chan! I had wondered where you had went off too when I couldn’t see you at you’re apartment.” he said.
She crooked her head cutely.
“I like the outdoors. It isn’t as musty and I breath better. It just lack that something better.”
The Hokage looked at her with amusement and something else.
“Like what?” he prodded indulgently.
She sniffed.
“Iron.”
He stopped short.
Now his gaze had become sharper. She looked unrepentant. Yep. No shame at all. Not her. Naruto Uzumaki was the best there was in this shithole village!
“Hmm. Like when you cut yourself?”
Naruto frowned.
“I never cut myself up old man!” she cried indignantly.
This amused him shortly until it stopped dead by her next words.
“I cut others up when they are mean to me. But I guess it still smell the same.”
Hiruzen looked at the young Uzumaki child shrewdly. Her hairs may have been blonde and not bloody red, but it seemed she was just as thirsty for it all the same.
What a dangerous combination.
Especially since he didn’t know to which point her blood had been diluted by Minato’s.
To even think Kushina had tolerated the blonde boy’s advance on her, his love, and eventually allowed a Lesser Human to breed her, since, that was the term which would have been used by her clan.
“Who have you cut up?”
Naruto narrowed her eyes.
“Dumb men who thought they could pick on me in the red-light district.”
He wasn’t sure how he felt about that one.
“How would you like to go to the academy tomorrow?”
“Nah.”
The answer was so immediate, he had only started smiling that it was wiped off clean.
“Why?”
“I’d prefer to stay in my apartment. There aren’t as many arseholes who want to annoy me.”
Hiruzen felt a growing headache coming up.
“It is a school, Naruto. You won’t have to live in it.”
She looked suspicious, but accepted.
The next day found Naruto walking around town, still as barefooted as ever, wearing her pretty beige kimono and black pants. She liked those clothes, because they made her almost seem human.
She knew she wasn’t tho.
Human that is.
She was something greater.
Probably.
There wasn’t any proof yet, but she was certain she’d managed to prove it one day.
Upon entering the school, she was met with the usual scorn. Her long hairs would have made a good grabbing to annoy her, if she hadn’t already been known for stabbing first and asking question second.
She revelled in the weariness those tossers and son of bitches felt for her.
On the outside, however, she showed a pleasant and polite smile. Entering her classroom, she walked to the teacher, a medium tall man, with tanned skin and brown hairs, whose only notable feature would be the scar running across his face.
She wondered if it bothered him.
Well, no matter.
“Greeting Teacher. I have a paper given to me by Hokage to a Iruka about me being, I quote “henceforth included in the higher grade of learning.” and therefore, unless mistaken, here I am.”
She finished with a smile.
Iruka’s eyes widened.
“Well all seems to be in order. Class, this is Naruto Uzumaki, who will be your new classmate.” there was a, relative silence afterward.
Naruto, was being distracted by something flying outside the window and had directed herself toward it, while there teacher spoke.
Damn was she hungry. And that bird looked tasty as fuck.
“Hmm.” said Iruka. “Miss Uzumaki, would you, perhaps present yourselves?”
He was, soundly, ignored. She was so damn hungry all of a sudden.
“Miss Uzumaki!” exclaimed Iruka tired of being ignored.
She did not startle, instead turning a dark glare on her teacher. A flow of disastrous feelings infiltrated itself within the classroom. It was just as potent as the Kyuubi, yet so different at the same time.
It dissociated Naruto from her prisoner, but classified her immediately as creepy and freaky.
Then she spoke softly.
“I did hear you the first time. I just don’t want to speak with a bunch of brown nosed brats believing themselves heroes for no reason. Sycophants and child soldiers, and a cannon fodder, do not have to interest me enough to speak.”
She then sauntered to the only desk alone.
Many looked at her uncertain yet affronted. Iruka had been told by the Hokage quite a few things about one Uzumaki Naruto. But this attitude hadn’t been a part of it. His leader had told him to train her as best he could, and to show her how humanity wasn’t all so bad.
But she seemed already pretty much convinced of the opposite.
The day continued in much the same manner.
The little girl seemed carefree and unbothered by any and all attempt at bullying or verbal attacks by the other teachers. It was… Well, either the greatest sign of humility or the most confident pride he’d ever seen.
But when the spar came around, the traditional question of: “Is someone wanting to spar first?” was asked, everyone in his class raised their hands except Naruto who was once again distracted by a butterfly.
He chose Kiba, who asked, as was tradition, to choose his opponent.
When he demanded Naruto be his opponent, Iruka felt the headache almost slam on his shoulder.
He accepted still, and Naruto was asked to place herself in front of the Inuzuka and do the sign of confrontation.
She yawned but did so anyway.
Kiba launched himself at her to start a beat up, and Naruto attempted to avoid, clearly not understanding why she was fighting at all. When the Inuzuka kneed her in stomach, it was then that something interesting happened.
By now most everyone was feeling weird. Naruto hadn’t even attempted to defend herself, well, if she did, they didn’t notice.
Kiba was smirking.
Naruto, however, had her eyes wide open, pointing toward the ground.
Then, her shoulder shook.
The students felt bad now, believing her to be crying. And glared at Kiba, when a chuckle escaped the blonde, everyone stared as she laughed a breathless kind of giggle. And were astonished to notice, that she did not have a single bruise on herself.
And that she hadn’t been moved a single centimetre from her position.
“So that’s why the old man wanted me here. To learn how to kill…” she murmured.
Then, with speed far greater than a genin should have, she showed incredible strength, lifting Kiba by his still pushing knee, and brought him down like a doll would be discarded. She then brought her talon on his own stomach, cracking the ground underneath. Her eyes alight with amusement.
The following moments of silence, as the boy curled up on himself, coughing blood and whining in pain. Naruto stood there looking fully awake. As if on drugs, her eyes were wide open, pupils dilated. She grabbed the front of his hoodie and lifted him single-handed.
He was now staring at her in horror.
The other teachers outside Iruka did too.
The students, for the civilian and some of the clansmen, were just as terrorised.
Here was this nobody little girl, acting and destroying the boy who held the most successive wins in Taijutsu. The few ones who seemed not as spooked were Shikamaru Nara and Shino Aburame. Both intellectual genius attempting to rationalize what was happening.
It just wasn’t logical or understandable through it tho.
“You know.” said Naruto, a wide smile on her face. “I used to dislike fighting. But I guess if everyone is as easy to beat up as you, it’ll be a breeze. Though, I don’t much like the idea of fighting rapscallion and small bitty baby like you.”
She reared her fist so fast, if a Jonin hadn’t intervened at that point, she might have punched a hole through Kiba’s head.
The teachers, Iruka included, were horrified at how far she was going to go. Most became uncertain of their treatment, because while they were safe from her, being too strong, the other students would only drop like flies if they didn’t teach her how to safely fight against and with comrades during spars.
And the Hokage had been formal. The little Uzumaki would be a Shinobi, one way, or the other.
Hatake Kakashi, had not seen his sensei child since she’d left the Orphanage.
To meet her again as she was about to execute in cold blood a comrade was extremely horrifying. He should have definitely kept a closer look on her. Because right now, those eyes were so filled with blood lust, like a hound tracking or toying with its food.
Then she dropped the Inuzuka Boy, and walked back to chasing after a butterfly as if nothing had happened.
Well. He hoped they solve those problems before she got inside a team.