Kunoichi

I got the idea for this from the story 'The Kunoichi Training Program' by ThePeaPodinthePumpkinPie and some from the story 'The Somewhat Cracked Mind of Uchiha Itachi' by Kereea. Both of which you should check out although the first is really short and the second is longer on under the same author.

"A promise must never be broken."

-Alexander Hamilton

Chapter 1: The Promise of a Student

3rd Person PoV

Flashback

Uzumaki Naruto was not an idiot. People liked to call her that, along with a lot of other things. However Naruto knew that they disliked her because of something she had no control over. She had eliminated all of the other variables that she could control.

Naruto was not an idiot. Yes she didn't know how to read completely yet. However she was currently teaching herself and everyone else had someone to teach them. She devoted hours of her day to the practice.

Her favorite spot to do so was an old corner of the Hokage Tower. It was rarely patrolled by ANBU and then it was usually a bored operative that only peeked inside. It was an office but now it was a storage room with documents from the time of the first and second hokages. She had a lot of reading material from Uzumaki Mito's exasperated missives to her husband to the original curriculum for the ninja Academy. This spot was safe for Naruto that after she was kicked out of the orphanage she made a bedroll that she put on the top of one of the cabinets in the room.

It was here one night when her life changed.

She was reading like she normally did. It was late usually the only people in the building at this point were the ANBU guard and Hokage-jiji. Everyone else had decided that their homes were the better option or they were on a mission. Well Naruto had thought everyone else was gone.

However, she was incorrect in that assessment. There was one person roaming the halls of the part of the Hokage Tower that was used by Tobirama. This person was the second's only female student Utatane Koharu. She sensed that someone was in the room and as she approached she heard a small child sounding out words. There was no other voices just the child's. It was coming from an old office that had essentially become little more than a forgotten store room.

She realized that the voice was from the top of one of the many file cabinets that left only three feet between the ceiling and the cabinet. There was what looked like a flashlight being pointed down at some pages. From the words the child was sounding out it looked like they were reading through old mission reports. Koharu was interested in who this child was so she crept forward and saw the long blonde hair of Konoha's little jinchuuriki. She was laying on what looked like a ratty old blanket with a beaten up old camp light that civilians use.

She was tiny, very tiny with blonde hair that didn't look like it had ever been cut in her life. It was tied up in a long braid that was clumsy and looked like it needed to be redone and was curled up into a bun. She had her mother's face with a hint of her father in her chin and eyes. Koharu watched the girl for a moment and decided to ask why she was there.

"Come down here little one." Her voice is soft and quiet but the girl stops and focuses on Koharu immediately when she shouldn't have been able to see the tiny old woman in the darkness.

Naruto has seen this old woman with the green glasses man that argues with jiji. She was always there silent in the background. She had her hair always tied back in a well done bun, like the geisha in the district that Naruto tried to avoid. However, this woman was old and she didn't wear the revealing brightly colored kimonos that those geisha wore. She was mostly monotone and understated. It was easy for Naruto and probably any adult ninja to pick out that she wanted to be in the shadows.

"I don't think I should obaa-san." Naruto is always cautious around adults no matter the age or size they are all bigger and stronger than she is.

"I will not harm you." She says and something in her voice or in her demeanor is sincere enough for Naruto to trust her. There is always a chance that it will backfire but it cannot lead to death.

She wiggles out from underneath her blanket and drops down in front of the old woman. She stands at her full height and focuses her eyes on the old woman. She realizes that she is almost ridiculously short, one of the shortest adults Naruto had ever seen.

"You're one of the old people jiji gets annoyed with." Naruto tells her and she doesn't see but feels the flash of amusement that flickers like candlelight under her emotionless surface.

"Hokage-sama… is too soft for my tastes. I try to remind him that we are a ninja." She pauses and then asks. "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be at the orphanage?"

"The kijo kicked me out months ago. I'm reading, no one comes here so no one can call me stupid and kick me out." Naruto has learned to trust the feelings that aren't hers and she can feel a flicker of anguish and anger flit across her senses. (*Kijo means ogress or devil.*)

"Why would she do that?" The old woman is still calm but Naruto knows there is anger writhing under the surface.

"She says that since I have no chance of being adopted that I am just mooching and I am hurting the other children's chances of being adopted. I think she just wants the demon away from her, and I'm pretty sure that I increased the adoption rates but whatever."

"I see… should I tell Hokage-sama?"

"What can he do? He can't force her to not be a kijo."

"No," she is choosing her words. "However, he could get you an actual apartment, and maybe get her out of a job." Naruto gives the old woman her trademark vicious smile, a smile that gives the adults visions of the beast living trapped inside her.

"Maybe, maybe not probably depends on the wording." The old woman smiles.

"So your brains come from your father-" The woman cuts herself off realizing her mistake.

"You mean Namikaze Minato." The woman finally opens her dark eyes.

"How do you know that?" Naruto decides that there is no use in lying.

"We're the only two people in this village with this color hair, and the fox has always said I'm too smart for my own good like the annoying ningen that was my father." She sees the old woman blink multiple times.

"You've spoken to the Kyuubi."

"Yes, his name is Kurama and he's funny."

First Person: Koharu

I stare down at the girl in shock. It's been a very long time since something could truly shock me like this. However, I should have known it would be the child of Minato and Kushina who could do that. The smile is all Kushina and the razor sharp intellect was all Minato, but the edge of feral was something that was all her own. There was also that hint of a commanding force that made me ache remembering Tobirama-sensei.

This girl would be his worst nightmare. She is gaunt and guarded, she feels the need to live in an office and acts far too old for her real age. She is four years old, I remember idly. I have been content to rely on information of our jinchuuriki. I cannot unsee the obvious signs of neglect and abuse. It reminds me of the promise I made to Tobirama-sensei.

I had been called before my sensei and I quickly went to follow the order. I find him as relaxed as he could probably ever be in his family home on the edge of a garden created by his dead brother's abilities. He never smiled, it was a rare thing that was only directed towards Tsunade and the group of us students when we were young and his brother was still alive.

"Koharu, sit, I need to speak with you." I sit down quickly and recognize the commanding tone. My sensei had always had this presence about him one that could make lesser shinobi shake.

"What is it sensei? Where are the others?"

"This is something I need you to keep to yourself. No one else can know about it." I nod seriously. "I need you to promise me something."

"Anything sensei, you know that." It was absurd of him to ask me to keep a promise.

"I want you to protect my descendants." I blink because sensei was never married and he had never brought home a so called mission baby. "I have an illegitimate son named Namikaze Takehiko that I have not claimed for his own safety. He is not a shinobi just a merchant."

"Why me sensei? Why not Hiruzen? Homura? Danzo? Even Torifune or Kagami?"

"I am your sensei Koharu, and as such I know your flaws more intimately than most. You know why I wouldn't trust Kagami even though he hates the elders of his clan more than I do, he is still an Uchiha. Torifune has his own clan. Danzo would force my child into becoming a shinobi or wait until he's had a child and steal them." I wince because I know he's right. "Homura follows Danzo's lead, and Hiruzen would bring the boy here and hide him with little tact." I almost laugh because that is something Hiruzen would do, but I know this is a solemn moment.

"So I am your best choice."

"Hai, I trust you. You are discreet enough to keep a secret but won't force my descendants to do something they do not want to do."

"Why wouldn't you want your children to continue the Senju line?"

"Because my son is like my brother… Itama." He is quiet for a second. "He would make a poor shinobi." I had never heard sensei speak of the brothers that never survived to see Konoha, but if his son reminds him of his dead brother I can see why he would allow him to live his own life.

"What if his children wish to become shinobi?"

"Then guide them here, help them if you can. Especially if they are female."

"Why not tell Tsunade?"

"Tsunade will soon be buried under her duties to the village and clan. She will not have time, and no one else will probably survive to see my grandchildren."

My sensei was correct, no one else survived to see this girl's mother grow up. The only one left was Mito and she was slated for death as soon as Kushina arrived. Mito wouldn't have seen this gaunt little waif. No one else had survived to see my sensei's grandchild, a blonde boy with large eyes holding the intelligence of Tobirama and the spirit of Hashirama. I couldn't help him more than leaving a couple books on seals out in the open and nudge Hiruzen into putting him under Jiraiya, but that was all he needed. Yondaime Hokage Namikaze Minato the Yellow Flash of Konoha the secretly Senju hokage that everyone loved, that had a shorter reign than my sensei.

I almost turn away to call for Tsunade. Surely the last female Senju could provide a better environment for her relative, but I know she couldn't. She would steal the girl away and hand her over to Iwa for training rather than see this girl a Konoha shinobi. I sigh because I have been putting this off for long enough. It is time for me to keep my promise to Tobirama-sensei.

"Meet me here tomorrow at dawn. That is when we'll begin your training to become a shinobi like your parents." The girl's smile is blinding.