Konohagakure no Sato, 12 Years after the Kyūbi Attack
Uzumaki Naruko walked down the road to the Hokage Tower humming slightly. She felt like she was walking on air. Finally, after three years of consecutive failures, she had graduated from the Konoha Ninja Academy and was a kunoichi.
A slight frown crossed her face. Just yesterday she had failed the graduation exam again, an exam she now knew had been rigged by the traitor Mizuki so there was no way she could pass. Afterwards, Mizuki had come up and told her about a special make-up exam she could take. All she had to do was infiltrate the Hokage Tower, steal a specific scroll, learn a jutsu from it and presto, she could graduate.
The infiltration had been easy as the ANBU patrols were far too set in their patrol patterns and she had slipped though during a small gap when none of the ANBU could see her.
She giggled when she remembered what happened next. Her Ji-chan had caught her as she was about to take the scroll, so she hit him with her original ninjutsu, the anti-pervert Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Jutsu) and knocked him out, blood gushing from his nostrils as he left consciousness behind.
When she had reached the clearing, she had unrolled the scroll, only to discover that the first jutsu in it was a Clone Jutsu, her very worst ninjutsu. It had taken her two hours to learn the damn jutsu and she had been very tired afterwards.
Not long after she had mastered the jutsu, she had been discovered by Iruka-sensei, her other class teacher. He had just figured out Mizuki's plan when he pushed Naruko out of the way of a barrage of kunai and shuriken. He even took an Fūma Shuriken to the back in order to protect her. Mizuki had then told her why she was hated by the villagers.
She was the container of the Kyūbi no Kitsune, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox that the Fourth Hokage had sacrificed his life to defeat when it attacked the village twelve years ago.
A soft smile graced Naruko's face as she remembered him telling Mizuki that she would never act like Mizuki and was not the demon fox. Those words had given her the courage to stand up once again and face down Mizuki.
She had used her newly learned jutsu, the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu) and had beaten the man into a near unrecognisable pulp. Then Iruka-sensei had given her his own hitai-ate (Ninja Headband) and graduated her.
Today, she was going to see her Ji-chan and have a talk with him about the damn fox. He had sent an ANBU to ask her to come as soon as possible. She was glad he had chosen a female ANBU as she had just gotten out of the shower.
'Ok, that's one thing to ask Ji-chan about: why the hell ANBU don't just knock on my door like everyone else instead of breaking in all the time.' Naruko thought to herself as she approached the entrance to the Hokage Tower.
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Hokage's Office
Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage, Shinobi no Kami and surrogate grandfather to one Uzumaki Naruko, sat at his desk and wrestled with the once and future enemy of all Kage -paperwork.
He was dressed in the white robes and ceremonial hat of the Hokage and had a weary, burdened look about him that had nothing to do with his advancing years.
He just finished stamping 'denied' on yet another request to have Naruko exiled from the village when his secretary let him know that 'the Demon Bitch' had arrived.
"Thank you, Maya-san." Sarutobi said, barely keeping his anger in check. "Also, please clear out your desk. You are fired."
His now ex-secretary stomped out grumbling under her breath and let Naruko in.
Sarutobi smiled at his surrogate granddaughter fondly. Despite her use of that jutsu, her visits usually brightened his days considerably.
Naruko was slightly shorter than most girls were at her age, which Sarutobi attributed to slight malnutrition. Her eyes were a bright blue and glinted with barely concealed mischief. She had three small scar-like marks on each cheek and a button nose. Her hair was a strange mix of both her father and mother. It was mostly blond like Minato's hair, but had red highlights mixed in like Kushina's hair and it seemed like the more she grew up, the more red appeared in her hair. Currently it was in a ponytail that stretched to the middle of her back. Around her neck was her pair of dark green goggles.
"Ji-chan!" Naruko called exuberantly as she sat down on the chair in front of his desk.
"Naruko-chan." Sarutobi replied, restraining his instinctive impulse to wince at the kill-me-now orange jumpsuit she wore. Seriously, how this girl managed to infiltrate the Hyuuga Estate and replace all their underwear with pink thongs whilst wearing that thing baffled him.
"Ji-chan, why do the ANBU always break into my apartment?" Naruko asked bluntly.
Sarutobi let the wince show this time. "They do that?"
"Yup. The ANBU you sent to fetch me this morning broke my window lock while I was in the shower and scared the crap out of me when I got out." Naruko said with a scowl.
"I see." Sarutobi replied. "That was Hebi (Snake) today, wasn't it?"
"Yup."
"I'll have a word with her." Sarutobi promised, "But for now…I suspect that you have some questions about your…tenant."
Naruko's face fell slightly at the mention of the Kyūbi, but nodded. "Hai, Ji-chan. Mizuki-teme-" she spat the traitor's name out as if it was rotten food, "-said that I was the fox, that all those deaths twelve years ago were my fault-"
Sarutobi interrupted her furiously. "NO! You are Uzumaki Naruko, Genin of Konoha and container of the Kyūbi no Kitsune, not the beast itself!" He said firmly, making a mental note to have Ibiki and Anko have a…discussion with the former chunin about mentally tormenting his surrogate granddaughter.
"O-OK Ji-chan." Naruko replied, looking slightly relieved, "But then…why do the villagers hate me so much?"
"Because, to be blunt, they don't have the slightest clue about what they are talking about." Sarutobi told her bluntly. Seeing the blank look on his audiences' face, he expanded on his explanation. "When the Yondaime Hokage sealed the fox into you, he used an esoteric and difficult branch of the shinobi arts called Fūinjutsu. Using Fūinjutsu, anything is possible as long as you have the right formula. Unfortunately, as most shinobi prefer to use Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Taijutsu or Bukijutsu (Weapons Jutsu) rather than a complex and hard to understand art like Fūinjutsu, no-one could explain precisely what the Yondaime had done."
Sarutobi held up a hand as Naruko looked as if she were about to interject. After she settled down again, he continued.