Sarutobi Hiruzen was too old for this shit. This was supposed to be the Fourth Hokage's job, as he was nearing his seventies and had been very eager to take a long vacation from the piles of paper that seemed to stack up endlessly. But then the Kyuubi had gotten loose of the seal, leading towards the deaths of the Fourth's and his wife, their child becoming the new fox jinchuuriki, and more paperwork.

The third's head had begun hurting even more when Naru had learned the essence of pranking, something passed on genetically probably from her mother. By the tender age of four years old, the young girl had single handedly nearly doubled his paperwork through the multitude of highly effective pranks all around Konoha, from the local Ninja Academy until ANBU Headquarters (and Hiruzen had no idea how he managed to sneak in undetected, when everything about her appearance stood out). It had been a year since the pranks, and the Hokage had not yet found a resolution to the problem.

Hiruzen decided that dealing with the Fourth's fallout while simultaneously dealing with his over energetic horrendously orange daughter was just too much.

"Jiji!" Naru beamed at him, the epitome of childish joy. "Meet Kura-chan!" She brandished a small fox towards Hiruzen, holding the animal in a deadlock around the neck, while the little thing attempted to break free. Hiruzen wasn't sure if it could even breathe anymore, considering how tight she was holding the animal by the neck. "I met him inside my head!"

Whether or not Naru understood the implications of what she had done, she gave no sign, and instead continued grinning like there was nothing wrong. Glancing over at the amount of paperwork stacked by his desk, Hiruzen decided that no one else aside from the two of them would know any of this.

"Ehmm… Naru, is Kura-chan the fox you found in your mind?" Hiruzen asked. Because if the fox really was what he thought it was, not only was his already endless amount of paperwork, that seemed to perpetually increment, going to increase even more, but he would also have the attention of the village back on the girl, which was something he wanted to avoid at all costs. The ANBU in charge of her were already having difficulty with the girl and her affinity to stealth, and he had already been told of many other times the civilians tried taking things into their own hands.

"Yup!" Said fox was now lashing angrily at the young girl, clawing and biting at her little fingers. Instead of hostility, Naru seemed to take it as a sign that it wanted more attention, so the girl instead brought it towards her in a hug. Hiruzen would say he almost pitied the Kyuubi, putting more pressure onto it.

"Naru, when did you first meet the Kyu-, I mean Kura-chan?" The ball of chakra seemed to understand that it was given a name for little girls, and began howling as it continued to struggle in the little girl's arms. Resisting the urge to kill the creature, Hiruzen moved his hand to sense the chakra over the fox.

Suddenly memories: the Kyuubi wreaking havoc on the village, Kushina's chakra chains binding the creature to the ground, the Yondaime and his spouse jumping over the claw to protect the young baby girl, and the Death Reaper Seal. The day everything the Yondaime had was lost, all but Naru.

There was no doubt the fox that continued scratching futilely at Naru's hands was the Kyuubi. But how was it here?

Hiruzen was sure that Minato had composed a failsafe for the Kyuubi's seal, stating that he would be partially sealing a bit of his and Kushina's chakra in the case that things went awry. Which meant that unless Naru understood the essentials of Fuinjutsu 101, there was no way that she had accomplished freeing the monster by herself.

"Oh!" Naru looked back up to Hiruzen, away from making faces towards the nine-tails. "You see, yesterday night, civilians were chasing me around Konoha, for absolutely no reason by the way, and then… uhh," The girl paused, a finger to her chin as she looked up, recalling the memory. Suddenly her eyes lit up, remembering, and she continued to narrate enthusiastically. "Yeah! All I did was look at them, then the next thing I knew, they were chasing me down the streets and yelling at me. So I kept running, and I kept running, until I hit a rock and tripped."

Hiruzen could already visualize where the story was going. In around a single week, an average of two attacks usually took place, in which offenders would be then sent to Torture and Investigation where Ibiki or Anko would then have their own sadistic fun. Most aimed to beat the girl and leave her half dead. However there were still cases of attempted rape, as well as cold blooded murder, and those were usually sentenced to death immediately.

"What happened next, Naru?"

"Well, after I tripped on the rock, the civilians caught up to me. One had a knife, Jiji! He was also smiling weirdly, smelled bad, and he was speaking and I couldn't understand anything." Naru frowned at her description, before continuing. "Anyways, there were three of them. All guys, the shady kind. They were very creepy, and then the man with the knife moved forward and raised it up into the air."

Then Naru frowned.

"Then… then I don't really remember? Things are really blurry Jiji. But I think… I think I killed them. But it wasn't me too. Everything was orange and red and black…" Naru then looked down towards Kura-chan. "Then I met Kura-chan!"

In hindsight, Hiruzen really should not have reappointed the ANBU guarding Naru away. The clean up crew needed assistance, and with it being late, he had not expected the girl to be wandering around at night, which was bad considering she apparently did take nightly strolls around Konohagakure no Sato. Something he would reprimand her for later, but there were more pressing matters.

"Are you okay Naru?" Hiruzen asked softly. No child should experience their first kill at the age of five, because there was no reason to taint something still innocent. Though Hiruzen had done the deed at an early age, it was during war, and drastic situations call for drastic measures. Now however, Konoha was in a state of temporary peace, and child soldiers were no longer necessary for survival.

"Huh?"

And that was when Hiruzen noted that there was something psychologically wrong with Naru, when he looked right into her bewildered face. "Why would I not be okay?"

"You've killed someone."

"Yeah, but they were going to kill me." Naru asked, a confused look crossing her face. "And it wasn't me, it was Kura-chan! He protected me!" The girl was now smiling, rubbing the small fox to the side of her cheek. "Who's a good fox? You are! What a sweet little thing you are…"

Hiruzen stared at the girl. On the bright side, it looked like she had the Kyuubi problem under complete control. And if what she was saying was true, the nine-tails had been the one to defend her from the drunk civilians. Though there was still the possibility that it could break free (how much he didn't know and truth be told, it terrified him), he decided that if the fox hadn't escaped now, then it wasn't able to and things should continue to be fine.

Naru was five, and in a few years she would be joining the academy. An ominous feeling hung in Hiruzen's heart as he watched the small blonde girl exit the doorway, still cuddling the nine-tails against her cheek and whispering phrases. All the while, the fox's sounds of struggle echoed throughout the tower, reminding him of Tora and the unfortunate genin who would be sent to capture the little devil.

He would need to keep a better eye out towards the girl, meaning nightly shifts, and maybe he would even assign a personal bodyguard to ensure things didn't go out of hand. The fox, or whatever construct the Kyuubi was now settled in, was very capable in containing the bijuu chakra, as Hiruzen had not sensed even a single bit leaking. And while he was very curious, it could wait until a later date.

Hiruzen was going to have a talk with a certain Yamanaka.

"Shisui-san!"

The Uchiha turned around and fell backwards as a mop of golden blonde hair rushed into him, knocking him off his feet.

Today, Naru was at the Uchiha compound, as she did every afternoon when she had nothing important that needed immediate attention. Most of the time she hung around Shisui, while other times were spent with Mikoto and Fugaku's kids: Itachi and Sasuke, whenever they weren't training.

Shisui laughed as he pushed himself up from the floor, the little bundle of joy still on his chest, her face up into his, cerulean doe eyes sparkling. It was the Sandaime who had been the one to introduce them to each other, as a sign of the trust that the Uchiha had temporarily lost for the accusations of their involvement in the Kyuubi incident. It had taken the lives of many, both civilian and shinobi, and the animosity towards their clan had risen, up until Naru had begun visiting. Well, from the other shinobi clans at least.

"Shisui, I want to play Hide and Seek! Or let's play Ninja!"

For some absurd reason, Naru was alarmingly incredible at masking her chakra and covering her traces, to the point that even Shisui took hours looking around the family compound searching for her. And he was a jonin, which meant that Naru's stealth ability was not something to be taken lightly.

The last time they had played Ninja was just as embarrassing as playing Hide and Seek. Naru was like a fox, in the way that she had some ability to easily get in and out of places she shouldn't even have access to, such as ANBU Head, and of course Shisui wasn't ready to shame his clan by trying to sneak in. She was swift, agile, and the worst thing to chase.

"Naru, I'm already a Ninja." Shisui said lightheartedly, while pushing Naru off him onto the floor. "I can't play Ninja, since I am one."

"What? That's not how the rules work!"

"Oh really?" Shisui asked, amused. He had begun babysitting Naru at four years old as a personal D-rank from the Sandaime, and though he really tried, he could hardly see any difference from two years ago.

She was still extremely short, alarmingly lean, with her mop of blonde hair that flowed down to her waist. Her cerulean eyes still sparkled with childish innocence, despite the hatred the whole village seemed to have directed at her. Her dream was still the same: to become the first, female Hokage.

"Yeah! Anyone can play Ninja! Even Ninja can play Ninja! You don't have to be a not-Ninja to play Ninja! You're speaking nonsense."

Shisui sighed. "Fine, but we're still not playing Ninja. Don't you have anything else in mind?"

"Hmm…" The girl brought a finger to her chin whilst thinking. "Aha! Teach me a jutsu! And not one of those boring academy ones, I want the big ones!"

Now normally, that would be a big nono, considering the academy three were basics and a good place to start. Doing big jutsus at such a young age was usually a bad idea, as chakra exhaustion could kill the child. That would be normally.

However for Naru, Shisui knew that there was no need to fear for that. She had already shown that she knew how to move chakra to certain parts of the body, allowing her to run faster than average, and she also knew how to mask her presence. He supposed he could show her one, as long as it wouldn't tax her that much. Uzumaki's had long vitality and endless reserves of chakra, so things should be fine.

"How does the Body Flicker Jutsu sound?" Shisui asked, now standing straight up and looking down at Naru. Naru stared back up, making her eyes look even bigger than usual.

"Sure! That's the thing where you teleport, right? I think I know how to do that though…"

"What?!"

Not that he was mad, it was just… alarming. Because she had skipped over the academy three, straight into a D-rank Ninjutsu, without any background of how chakra worked whatsoever.

"Yeah! You wanna see?"

Shisui just nodded dumbly. And He blinked... and completely missed it. Naru was already on the other side of the room, cheerfully waving at him. He just stood there dumbfounded.

Silence.

"That is not the Body Flicker technique!" Shisui exclaimed. Because if he missed it by blinking, then that meant that it was almost, or just as fast as Minato's Hiraishin, which decimated forces from Iwa, wiping out whole squadrons before they even had chances to react. It was better than his Body Flicker, and he spent years chisling it! But there was something missing as well… and Shisui couldn't put his finger on it.

Naru frowned at him. "Of course it is! See? I teleported!" She repeated the process, and this time Shisui observed it without blinking.

For a while, she seemed to be in two places at once, before his mind caught up and realized that she was already in a different location. No hand signs, meaning she had perfected her technique. No seals, meaning that this was even more advanced than the famed Hiraishin. Naru, whether she knew it or not, had just surpassed the Fourth in his own game: speed.

"Can you do it again?" Shisui asked, turning on his Sharingan. Though not as adept as the Byakugan in this scenario, his eyes still had some ability to see and observe the flow of chakra. "Just so you know, I'll be using my Sharingan. I want to see how you do it."

Naru smiled at him. "Okay!"

In less than a blink, she was already on the far side of the room. There was no movement, she simply disappeared and appeared somewhere else. She wasn't using any seals, no hand signs to assist. But that wasn't what bothered Shisui the most.

Unless his Sharingan was defective, there was absolutely no chakra being invested in the technique. None at all. Which was wrong, since all jutsu needed and required chakra to function. Chakra was a gift from the Sage of Six Paths, who long before had introduced Ninshu to the world, the predecessor of what was now known as Ninjutsu. But Naru had performed a chakra-less Ninjutsu, which just didn't make sense.

"So, believe me now?" Naru was across him now, using whatever teleporting technique that was, a smug grin on her face. "See, I can do it too! That means you have to show me an even better jutsu, since I already know how to do that!"

Shisui just stared blankly at her, opening his mouth, before closing it again. "Shisui-san?"

Then, at the worst time possible, another person had entered the room.

"Itachi-kun!"

Cue tumbling to the ground as Naru barrelled straight into the older Ninja, latching on to his torso and pushing them down onto the ground. Shisui, still thinking about the implications of whatever Naru had done, barely noticed it. Until he heard Naru say, "Itachi-kun! Watch me do the Body Flicker!"

Shisui's eyes widened. "No- wait, Naru don't-"

But it was too late, as Naru had teleported again, this time behind and above Shisui, and she landed on his back, pushing him to the floor. Looking up from his position, the younger Uchiha was looking at her, gaping, looking at her like he couldn't believe what he just saw. Frankly, Shisui could relate. And the only words that left his mouth was, "That's not a Body Flicker."

"What?!"

"Yup." Shisui winced at her shouting, but continued to get up anyways, pushing Naru off himself again. "If anything, that's closer to the Hiraishin."

Naru frowned. "The Hirai-what?"

"The Hiraishin, the Fourth's- ahh, wait nevermind. You're going to see the Hokage. I'm going to see the Hokage. We're all going to see the Hokage." Shisui then turned to look towards Itachi, who was doing his utmost best to sneak out the doorway silently. "You too Itachi."

The Hokage sighed, meeting Naru for the second time that day. "What is it Naru?"

"I don't really know, Jiji." Naru eyed the two Uchiha's who stood behind her, waiting for the Hokage's permission to speak. "All I showed them was my Body Flicker Jutsu, and now we're here. They keep saying I'm doing it wrong, but I'm fine!"

The Hokage's eyes widened slightly, before narrowing. "Show me your Body Flicker."

"Hai!"

Suddenly she was gone, no sign of her departure. No swirl of leaves, wind, no flame to accompany the flicker. She was just gone, without even producing a sound, and it was as if she wasn't there at all. Stranger than that, Hiruzen would have to double check as he felt not a single pulse of chakra from the jutsu.

Then suddenly she was back, appearing out of nowhere, standing where she had a while ago, with the two Uchiha's behind her standing attentively with their camouflage green jonin vests. She waved her hands around in an exploding motion, "Tada! Shunshin no Jutsu!"

"That is not a Body Flicker!"

Naru didn't understand what was wrong. He teleported, she teleported. Same thing. Why did it matter if she used chakra or not? Besides, that probably meant that her technique was better than usual and she didn't see anything wrong about that.

"Shisui, while I know you are quite famous for your technique, please avoid shouting in the tower. Watching her butcher your technique is somewhat… amusing."

"Sorry…" Shisui murmured.

"Butcher?!" Naru scoffed. "Excuse me, but I have perfected the art of body flickers! I don't even need your swirling things and stuff. I'm here-" She then flickered behind Shisui, who subconsciously stiffened at her proximity "-and I'm not! See, there's nothing wrong with it!"

"You're not using chakra." Hiruzen said it with undeniable confidence, hiding his complete utter confusion behind a mask of professionalism and conviction. "Naru, I'd want us to meet up tomorrow to further analyze your own version of the Body Flicker technique."

"But I was going to hang out with Sleepy Nara tomorrow!"

"Well make room then, because this is something I have yet to see." Hiruzen said, not relenting one bit. Right now, he wasn't Naru's Jiji, but the Hokage: stern and powerful, the Professor, God of Shinobi. "Eight in the morning sharp, I want you to be here at the Hokage Tower."

"But-"

"I'll treat you ramen."

"Okay!"

Hiruzen then turned to the other two in the room, the ridiculously young Uchiha jonins. "From here on, Naru's abilities will be considered A-rank secrets. Tell Naru to avoid using her 'Shunshin' around other shinobi, especially sensors. Ensure that she understands what A-rank secrets imply, and…" He paused, looking at them individually, analysing their strengths, weaknesses, personalities. "Uchiha Shisui, I will be assigning you a long term mission, and while you are allowed to back out, I do hope you consider it."

"So, Jiji…" Naru began. "I want ramen for today, and tomorrow morning, lunch and evening."

"What?! No! Only once."

Naru pouted. "Then I'll make sure to be late, as late as Inu."

"Fine." Hiruzen sighed. He should not have let Kakashi meet her, as he was obviously a bad influence on the kid. The next thing he knew, the girl would decide reading Icha-Icha in public was good etiquette. "The next time you see Inu, make sure to tell him the Hokage needs to talk with him."

"Okay Jiji!"

With that, Hiruzen quickly ushered them out of his office, eager to get back to his previous task, eyeing the collection of Jiraiya's books and giggling. Beside Naru, both Uchiha's shivered subconsciously, before moving Naru away at a faster pace. "Let's have ramen!"

AN: I have not watched the anime, nor have I read the manga, so expect some AU-ness and some diverging factors. I will be swapping in between using English and Japanese Jutsu names, because I figured why not? Chapter 1: Shunshin 101