AN: So, I did promise a Sasu/Fem!Naru story, and here it is. I hope it's alright. I was a bit unsure how to start it, though I already had a plot and some scenes planed. There will probably be a few flashbacks in the future to get a better idea of Sasuke and Naru's relationship. Of course some things will be different from canon, and this first chapter was just a sort of prologue to move into everything.

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Heritage Arc.

Eternal Spiral.

Chapter 1: Hopeful.

Naruto sighed as she sat on the roof of her apartment. The full moon high and bright in the midnight sky. She wasn't sure what she should think, not after so long. Uchiha Sasuke had a way of getting under her skin, and pushing all her buttons. Sometimes she just wanted to wring his neck until he was blue, others... well at other times it was different.

Sighing again she ran a hand through her bright sunny hair, an unfortunate hair color for any ninja, but it made her unique so she liked it. The same could be said about her large cerulean blue eyes and whisker-birthmarks. Funny, she knew many believed them to be side effects from the sealing, but in truth she had been born with them.

She knew this because the Hokage had told her himself. There were no pictures of her infant self, there hadn't been any time with the Kyūbi attack happening seconds after her birth. Until she was a genin fresh out of the Hokage she didn't even know who her mother was (she still didn't know who her father was, but she had some theories). The Third Hokage had told her after the incident with Mizuki, but only because she'd pleaded to know now that she was a genin.

'When you're older Naru-chan, I'll tell you about them when you're older.' He'd tell her when she'd ask, but she always sensed the guilt in his voice.

Her mother was the last Whirlpool princess, the great-niece of Uzumaki Mito, the First Hokage's wife. For the first time she could look upon her mother. The Hokage gave her an old photo taken when her mother made jōnin. She was probably in her late teens at the time.

Her long bright red hair was straighter than her own, but similar, and pulled into a high pony-tail. Her headband was proudly displayed around her forehead and her eyes were wide, bright and dark violet in color. She was grinning in a familiar way at the camera.

It was almost painful to realize their faces were very similar. They had the same shape of eyes and nose. Her name was Uzumaki Kushina – she'd been given her mother's name, given she was once an heiress of a noble clan). Apparently, this was to keep her safe. She'd always had an idea of who her father was, but no concrete proof.

She'd have to be blind not to realize she looked a hell of a lot like the Yondaime Hokage. Either they were family, or it was one hell of a coincidence. It was too bad she didn't believe in coincidences. She could wait for confirmation, she was in no hurry to confirm that the person she'd always look up to growing up, and unfortunately the one to seal the Kyūbi inside her, was her father.

She never blamed the Yondaime Hokage for sealing the Kyūbi inside her. She'd felt something akin to betrayal when she learned her hero had made her a jinchūriki and caused her life as the village pariah. But if he was her father... it sort of stung (and by stung she meant angered her and hurt her immensely) to know he was willing to seal a bijū inside her.

The Fourth had to have known how badly jinchūriki were treated. He obviously had faith in the village's ability to It was a shame that faith was misplaced for the most part. She'd asked the Hokage about her father at the same time she learned of her mother, but he'd told her that she'd be told when she was a chūnin. When he felt she could better protect herself as he had many enemies.

She'd become more determined than ever to become a great ninja, a great kunoichi like her mother. She was given her team assignment a week later. Sakura was alright (kind of annoying when she yelled, but Naruto had always wanted to be friends with the pink haired girl). However, she'd been rather annoyed at being teamed up with Sasuke (that kiss stealing bastard).

"Are you always up this late, Dobe?"

'Think of the devil and the devil shall appear,' she thought to herself before looking up and to her right.

Behind her was the figure of her male teammate and the bane of her thoughts. Actually, she found that she just didn't understand the male species. Even Haku, the boy from Wave, had confused her and saddened her at the same time. If she had one regret so far in her life, it was that she couldn't save Haku and Zabuza by default.

The last Uchiha looked as he always did. Dark blue shirt with his clan symbol on the back and a high neck. Long shorts and standard ninja sandals. Like all shinobi his weapons and other handy tools were on him and easily accessible.

She herself wore what she always did – an orange, short-sleeved kimono blouse, with a black obi and black shorts underneath. She also wore thigh-high black stockings and black sandals. She'd gotten the clothes after she'd become a genin.

It wasn't until later she learned it was very similar to what her mother wore as a genin. On her forehead under her bangs was her forehead protector, which signified her as a ninja of the hidden leaf. An orange clip pulled some of her blonde hair from her face on the left side.

Her long sunny blonde hair (which shone with hidden red highlights in the sunlight) pooled around her in her sitting position. If she were standing up her hair would fall to the back of her thighs. Usually, Naruto wore it loose which made her look that much more like her mother.

"Naru – "

Naruto looked up from her introspection and interrupted him. "I could ask the same about you, Teme," she retorted, but it lacked her normal annoyance or anger.

The dark haired avenger snorted, moving closer to stand beside the girl, hands stuffed in his pockets.

"Hn. Midnight walk," he replied, shrugging. "Happened to spot you. Kind of hard to miss with that bright mop you call hair and bright orange you ware."

Naruto was sure that was one of the longest sentences she'd ever heard him speak.

She answered after a minute. "Sometimes I find it hard to sleep."

It was more than true. Most dreams weren't nightmares exactly, but after years of being put down, chased away from most positive human contact most dreams were not pleasant. In her childhood she'd been alone for most of her life, and then she'd started going to the Academy. And even then, she'd mostly had acquaintances.

Just because the older generation couldn't tell anyone she was the vessel of the Kyūbi, did not mean they couldn't forbid their children from playing with her. Sasuke was an exception. His clan didn't really seem to care, though his father wasn't exactly ecstatic when she was mentioned at first.

His mother had encouraged a friendship between them, though. It wasn't common knowledge that for about a year they'd been friends, the best of friends (which wasn't hard to accomplish given Naruto was so starved for attention she'd have handed the position over to a rogue ninja).

As a result, Naruto had been there the day of the Uchiha Massacre. The nightmares were the worst and even several years later they haunted her. They all centered around the day the Uchiha's were slaughtered. Looking at her sort-of friend, Naruto wondered if he remembered that she'd been there that day.

She couldn't blame him if he conveniently forgot that fact, she tried to forget as well. Itachi had been one of the few people to look at her as a human being, and he'd been one of the only ANBU who would actually talk to her. Even if it wasn't their mission to show themselves unless she was in danger, much less speak to her.

He'd even helped her train when he could. It was because of him her chakra control was ten times better than it could have been. Although she still sort of sucked compared to others.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, which was pretty much the norm for him. "You should try sleeping. We have training tomorrow."

"I probably should, but what about you?"

He shrugged.

"Like I said, I was just taking a walk," he said, and turned to walk off. "You should try something warm to drink before sleeping. Something that calms you down, and it might ease your nightmares."

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise as he walked off. Once he'd jumped from the roof to another, on his way towards his apartment she assumed, Naruto frowned and huffed.

"Teme." It was a nice gesture, though. Maybe she'd try it.

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"Where is he!" Sakura raged, glaring at nothing in particular.

Sasuke didn't pay Sakura much attention, but the blonde sitting close by looked at her with bright blue eyes.

"It's Kakashi-sensei, he's always late," Naruto said with a shrug.

Sasuke couldn't help but agree with the blonde dead last. The day their sensei was on time was the day the moon fell to earth.

"Hn."

Sakura looked over at the boy she'd been chasing since she was five – at least she thought she might've been five, it had been so long ago, so of course some of her earliest memories were hard to recall. She was fourteen now (Sasuke and Naruto were nearing fourteen, both having later birthdays). Since their early Academy days, Sasuke had changed so much. She remembered that there'd been a time when he actually smiled.

Naruto, well the blonde girl had become even more of a girl (if that made any sense). When they'd all first met she and others in their class had mistaken the whisker marked girl for a boy. Her short spiky blonde hair, tomboy clothes, and chubby cheeks just gave her that look. She was even teased for it, reminding Sakura terribly of how she was teased for her abnormally large forehead.

Sakura thought that was why Naruto kept her silky looking hair so long. Sakura hated to admit it, but she was jealous of Naruto's long blonde hair. The spiky locks she once sported seemed to have tamed themselves as they grew longer. While Naruto was not perfect by any means, she had the beginning of looks some girls would kill for. Even though the birthmarks on her cheeks always drew strange looks, some would admit they gave her an exotic appeal.

The unspoken friendship between the Uzumaki (heiress) and Uchiha heir had always confused her. They didn't act like best friends or normal friends did – albeit, with how she and Ino acted perhaps Sakura wasn't the best at judging friendships.

Sasuke and Naruto just seemed to have an understanding, An almost friendly rivalry. It was like they understood something she couldn't. She figured it had something to do with their childhoods. Naruto was an orphan and always alone. Sakura heard that she'd been kicked out of the orphanage at around five or six, started the Academy just as early – which was hardly ever done except in cases of clan prodigies – and lived on her own.

She knew the blonde was close to the Hokage, and that she was unusually happy for someone with such a lacking childhood. Sakura couldn't even pretend to understand what it must have been like, but she also knew her teammates wouldn't have wanted her to. They'd all grown closer since the mission to the Land of Waves.

She knew many saw her as a giant fan-girl with a huge forehead, and she'd admit six months ago that was essentially what she was (and old habits die hard), but being on Team Seven had changed her. It had changed Naruto and Sasuke as well, even Kakashi seemed more at ease with them. This didn't mean she wasn't still after the Uchiha heirs affections, but she wasn't as obsessed anymore (not in her opinion, at least). Despite how the team had grown together, at times Sakura couldn't help but feel left out and envious of the unspoken bond between her two teammates. Like she was being left behind.

"Sakura, are you okay?" Naruto asked, looking concerned for her.

"Yeah, Naru... I'm fine," she said, flashing a smile just as there was a swirl of leaves and Kakashi arrived.

"Yo," he greeted.

"You're late!" Sakura exclaimed, much like she did nearly everyday.

"Sorry, I got lost on the path too enlightenment..." Kakashi began, only to be interrupted.

"So you slept in, huh?" Naruto snarked.

Kakashi blinked his visible eye and sighed. "Must you interrupt my excuses?"

Naruto grinned and replied, "Get some new believable excuses, Kakashi-sensei, and we'll see."

Kakashi grumbled, but was also rather amused.

He'd never thought much about one day training a genin team, he didn't really think he was cut out to be a teacher. But over the last few years the Hokage had tried repeatedly to get him to take a team and retire from ANBU, so he did, but none could pass the bell test to his satisfaction. Maybe that made him too harsh, many thought he failed them just because he had no desire to train a team.

That wasn't completely true (it wasn't completely wrong either). The bell test had been what his sensei had used, and the test Minato had taken from his sensei, who'd taken it from his sensei. It was a bit of a passing tradition for Team Seven. Kakashi hadn't had much hope for them either, not with how their records read, but he'd been pleasantly surprised.

In the end they passed, though if he'd failed them he didn't suppose the council would have been happy. Not with the last Uchiha being on the team. Unfortunately, he could only do so much to give his team the attention each deserved. The council was more interested in Sasuke, and he could only ignore the council breathing down his neck to a certain point.

Thankfully, Kakashi had been able to give each some personalized training, not much, but enough that he didn't feel too guilty about the fact he had to focus a little more on Sasuke and training his Sharingan. Out of the three students, Sasuke was considered the biggest flight risk. Naruto following right behind, even if no one really thought she'd leave the village given her dream of being Hokage and gaining the village's recognition.

"Well, moving on. We have a mission," he said. "You have an hour to get a bag ready and meet me at the gates."

"What's the mission?" Sasuke asked, his tone giving nothing of his thoughts or emotions away.

"It's a C-rank. An escort mission to Tanzaku-gai, we'll be gone for about two weeks," he said. "I'll see you three there."

With that he eye-smiled once more and shunshined away.

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Nine months.

It was nine months later the world came crashing down. Or at least, it came crashing down for Team Seven. The Chūnin Exams had marked the end of any sort of peace the team knew. Like a vicious cycle meant only for Team Seven, the team had fallen to shambles. Like a mirror shattered into pieces. It began with one of the three sannin, Orochimaru, and had ended at the Valley of The End. It was funny how history repeated itself.

Naruto sighed as she sat, leaning against the memorial stone. New names had been added since the invasion of Sound and Sand ninja a few months before. Even though Konoha had pushed the sound and sand back, many ninja and civilians had either been injured or lost their lives.

The Sandaime Hokage had died fighting that snake, and then while searching for Tsunade she'd been attacked by the Akatsuki – one of the members being Itachi. She had froze up, having not seen him for six years. The very end conclusion was Sasuke's defection. Closing her eyes she placed a hand over the area close to her heart and winced at the pain she felt, yet there was no visible wound.

'Why Teme, why leave? Why can't you accept that bonds can give you power too? why must you...' she sighed, her thoughts stopping there and not wanting to go further with her melancholy thoughts.

"I wont give up, Sasuke. I'll bring you back, even if it kills me," she vowed softly, her head tilted up to the full moon in the night sky.

She after all, had hope, if nothing else.

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EDITED: 8/1/17.