1 Prologue

[A/N: This chapter is an extremely rough draft. No editing has been done so expect a few grammar/spelling mistakes, maybe some repeat phrases, redundant lines, and for things to generally just flow a little wonky. I might have even left some placeholder lines in it. If and when I do get around to editing expect quite a few changes to better accommodate the direction I was trying to lean into by the end.

Let me know if you guys would like more of this story. I have some very interesting ideas for it but if no one wants to read I won't bother too much and focus on my other one.]

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It was currently about late afternoon in the village hidden in the leaves. It was the middle of winter and the streets and buildings had been painted white with snow. The sky had already begun to turn a beautiful shade of reddish-orange to signify the passing of time.

As the cold breeze blew, all around, passing villagers could be seen bundled up and making their way to their destinations, most likely home, to take shelter from the cold.

All but one that is.

Slowly walking down one of the many snow covered streets, we see the strange sight of a small malnourished child making her way to who knows where.

Although malnourished and covered in dirt and filth, it did not detract from her obvious beauty. She had slightly dull purple eyes and three whisker marks on each cheek. Her most distinct feature however, had to be her long, almost blood crimson, red hair tied up in twintails. A trait characteristic with a certain forgotten founding clan of the village hidden in the leaves.

With her ever present smile on her face, she was one of the village's most well known residents. Natsune Uzumaki.

What made sight strange, however, was that despite being the most well known resident, almost every eye pointed at her held pure unconcealed hatred. Some would stop and spare her a single glance of disdain before continuing on as if she didn't exist. Others would offer a word of advice to the girl, usually along the lines of telling her how much better the world would be without her and the different ways she could make that happen.

Normally it would stop at that, but recently things have been ramping up.

"Hurry up and go back to hell, Demon!"

One man spat as he picked up a stone and chucked it right at her head. The poor girl wasn't quite able to react in time, despite how many times she had been put in similar situations, and was knocked to the ground with a nasty gash across her forehead.

None offered her any help or pity. All those around who bore witness to the event, simply chuckled or continued to treat her as if she didn't exist.

Even those select few in the standard Konoha green shinobi vests, simply spared the situation a glane before continuing on about their day. Be they members of the renowned Uchiha police force or regular members of the general shinobi force, it was a common enough sight by now that no one batted an eye to what would be considered abuse to any other child.

She laid there for a moment in an effort to stop her head from spinning while also trying to gather the strength to stand up again. She hadn't eaten in a few days so it was a little more difficult than it usually would have been. Add on top of that the revelation she came to earlier that day, the girl had slightly more trouble finding the energy to stand than she would have liked. She felt a trickle of liquid fall down the side of her face and attributed her current predicament to the gash it was coming from.

Despite that, she still somehow managed to do so. About a minute later she slowly pushed herself back up while grabbing hold of the very same rock that put her in that position. She looked down on it for a moment in what seemed to be contemplation. The civilians around her and the man responsible for throwing the stone, tensed in anticipation and fear. The few shinobi also stopped moving and paid the situation a little more attention than they were previously. A few could even be seen reaching for their kunai holsters.

The street grew quiet for a moment. A stark contrast to the previous joyful atmosphere. Everyone was tense, waiting for the girl's next move.

The girl in question simply continued to stare at the stone with slight traces of her own blood coating it. Unhurriedly, she turned her head to look at the man who threw the stone.

The man instantly regretted his actions as he was met with the blank stare of the village demon. A single line of blood running from her head to the corner of her eye, almost giving the appearance of a tear. He waited with baited breath to see what would happen next, only to shudder when the demon merely put on the same ever present smile she had become known and hated for, before turning and continuing on to her unknown destination, taking the stone with her.

Once she was gone, everyone around breathed a sigh of relief, before their faces just as quickly turned up into a sneer of disdain. Some chose to mouth off about how the demon knew better than to go wild in the village with the Hokage's protection still valid. Others questioned why the girl was even still allowed in the village in the first place.

Everyone continued on with their lives as if nothing happened.

All but one that is.

The man who cast the stone, continued to stand there as still as a statue. Thinking over what he had just seen. A few thought he might have been scared by the demon and tried to reassure the man that it wouldn't possibly be brave enough to try anything against him.

But nothing got through to the man, for what he was feeling at the moment was not fear. But pure regret for his actions. In that moment when he met her eyes and saw her obviously fake smile, he could feel the endless amount of pain and loneliness behind her mask.

The brief interaction made him want to question everything he thought he knew about the girl. It made him want to apologize. It made him want to try to understand the girl even just a little.

It was just a shame that by the time he came to, she was already gone.

---

Natsune continued on her path silently. Slightly shivering from the cold and praying the wound on her head would heal before the blood loss became too severe.

Walking deeper into one of the village's many forests, she couldn't help but reminisce on her new life thus far.

That's right, for you see, Natsune was not always her name. Not that she could remember what it used to be anyway. What she could remember though, is that not only did she have a previous life, she even came from a completely different world!

A world without shinobi. Without tailed beasts. A world without chakra.

She couldn't remember too many details, but she knew it was a rather peaceful world. Not that it was without wars and conflict, just that she was lucky enough to never be involved in them.

There were many things she remembered, such as knowledge from school and various forms of media and entertainment. The most important of which was her knowledge of anime! Specifically, her knowledge of the series titled, Naruto.

It was a series that followed the titular character, Naruto. A bright and cheerful, yellow haired boy, on his journey through the ninja world.

The story held many moments of fun, laughter, pain and sadness. It was by far her previous life's favorite story. Her past self loved just about everything about the story. Including the long and out of place filler episodes that plagued the later half of the anime.

So imagine her surprise when she suddenly woke up in the arms of Naruto's beautiful red headed mother, with absolutely no idea how she got there!

You'd think it would be a dream come true right? To become apart of the world you love so much, she was sure many otaku would kill to be in her position. But truly, the only thing she felt in that moment was fear.

She was absolutely terrified of the prospects, because she was such an avid fan. She knew the horrors of this world behind the uplifting messages about bonds and friendships. She knew about how dangerous this world was and all the threats that would eventually find their way to her.

She isn't ashamed to admit that she screamed her eyes out upon coming to that realization and didn't stop until she fainted from exhaustion. Completely missing the life changing events that followed her birth.

She regretted that she couldn't see her new mother and father's last moments in this world, and their heartwarming message to their child she remembered, whom she had now become. She would also later come to regret her discomposure for entirely different reasons. For if she had been awake at the time, she might have noticed some important signs a little earlier and perhaps she wouldn't be in the situation she is now.

Over the next few years she would truly get to experience the pain and isolation that every jinchuriki was touted to go through. She was shunned and ignored practically right from birth.

The only times she would interact with people during her first 2 years of life were when they came to feed her once a day. She couldn't recall having kids of her own in her past life, but she was still pretty sure babies needed to eat more than once a day!

But she managed to survive none the less so she really couldn't be sure. Hunger pangs would become all too common over the next few years anyway so it was better to get accustomed sooner rather than later, she tried to justify.

Instead of worrying over food, she instead spent time trying to come up with a plan to obtain the strength necessary to survive this blood filled world. She had read tons of fanfic and often browsed the wiki site and databooks in her spare time so she was sure she could come up with something in the long run.

She made plans to meet and befriend certain famous individuals and try to learn as much as she could from them. In some cases, in hope of preventing tragic outcomes for them.

She was so caught up in her thoughts every day that she didn't even notice how her situation already differed greatly from the original naruto she knew. Heck, her name and gender weren't even the same. She just chalked it up to fate shenanigans or something and continued to make her plans.

Around 2 years after reincarnating into this world, she was finally able to feel her chakra and begun to work on circulating it and developing a bit of control over her eventual massive reserves. That much turned out pretty well and she was even able to get a single leaf to stick to her forehead after a few weeks of training!

She was sure she would have been touted as a genius superior to the likes of kakashi and Itachi if anyone had bothered to care about her. She was making plans to show off to the third hokage whenever he finally showed up and maybe get him assign her a trainer early on.

But for some reason, even a year later, the third hokage never came to visit her. Strange.

It was around this time that she finally got kicked out of the orphanage.

She knew it was a possibility but it still hurt a lot when it finally happened. She hadn't really connected with anyone in the orphanage due to her status as the jinchuriki and everyone keeping the other kids away from her. She also wasn't able to endear herself to any of the matrons at the orphanage either due to the fact that she was essentially an adult in a child's body.

She had no idea how to act like a child and as such came off as the strangely quiet demon that sometimes muttered to herself incomprehensibly. A small mistake on her part but it was only a minor setback!

Taking the advice of another fictional character from anime, she just decided to smile through the pain and fear! So long as she continued smiling, she could trick herself into believing she wasn't afraid.

From then on, she would always smile whenever she was feeling sad.

At least that's what she thought at first, but after a few months on the streets thing began to worry her even more. She began smiling near constantly. Why? Because she appeared to have awakened her ability to sense emotions a little earlier than she thought she would.

Maybe it was due to her chakra control training she started early?

The how didn't matter to her much, but the results definitely made her day to day life harder.

She could feel the utter hatred and rage being directed at her from every villager she pass on the street. Worse was it continued to grow everyday. It was suffocating and terrified her, so of course she decided to keep smiling and move on. Not realizing she was only making the situation worse.

The first beating came as a surprise to her. She was confused why the anbu she occasionally felt didn't step in to help.

The next few beatings made her wonder why the hokage had yet to show himself to her and offer her a place to live.

As things continued, she grew more afraid and her respect for the original naruto reached it's all time peak. She couldn't fathom how someone was able to endure this hellhole and still spout off how he would one day become it's leader.

Many times she wanted to fight back and teach them all a lesson, but she knew it would be counter productive. She didn't want to end up like gaara and have her eventual friends be afraid to even look her in the eyes.

So instead, she kept up her smile and endured. She endured living on the streets. She endured digging through the trash for food. She endured the cold winter nights with only some discarded clothes she found as her only source of warmth. She endured the more vicious beatings and increasing levels of hate all with a smile on her face.

Her previous plans? All out the window. She didn't have time to worry about finding people like Guy and Kakashi when she wasn't even sure she wouldn't starve to death the next day. She couldn't find the famous ramen shop because no one would talk to her let alone give her directions.

For the next two years life was very difficult for natsume, but she endured. She never lost hope that she would somehow turn her situation around. She was finally five years old and eligible to enter the academy. She overheard from a few people that the academy let's just about anyone in so long as they are citizens of the village. They didn't even charge admission to orphans! So she didn't even need the hokage to give her permission to attend. She could probably register herself!

She was finally ready to make her next step on her path to power. She couldn't wait to meet the main cast and become friend with them. None of them ever cared about Naruto's reputation outside of his pranks, so she should be fine. She could finally have someone to talk to after 5 years of isolation and solitude.

Everything was looking up for once, so color her surprised when she was outright denied entry into the academy on the grounds of them not accepting demons! She hadn't really thought about it before, but wasn't it supposed to be illegal to even mention demons and the like around her? She was definitely going to file a complaint to the hokage over this! It was finally time to confront him over the blatant neglect she had suffered over the years! No more waiting around for things to happen.

Just as she was about to march right up to the hokage's office, she caught sight of something that would completely shatter her worldview.

"Come on, mom! Let's hurry up and register! This is going to be my first step to becoming Hokage, dattebayo!!"

"Alright, Naru-chan! Jeez, there's no need to rush. Registration doesn't end until next week anyway, so we still got time."

Approaching the location she just departed from was a mother and child pair that Natsune couldn't not recognize.

The woman was the very same red headed woman she had seen when she first came into this world. Silky red hair and beautiful violet eyes full of life unlike her own partially dull pair. Walking next to her and pulling at her hand was a rather androginous looking child with bright yellow spiky hair. Their eyes were a bright blue similarly full of life and energy as the supposed mother.

Yes, it was no other than Kushina Uzumaki and who she assumed was Naruto Uzumaki. The real protagonist of this world.

It was at this moment she realized a serious fault in her thinking thus far. Something she should have realized the second she saw her own red hair.

This might not be the same world she was familiar with.

She isn't the protagonist.

Then, who was she supposed to be? Why was she brought here? What was the purpose of her going through all this pain and suffering up until now? All the scars that littered her body, who were they for?

Even while having a mini panic attack, the smile on her face never faded. If anything it became more pronounced. The habit had already formed and she couldn't just get rid of it whenever she wanted.

While she was lost in her thoughts she hadn't even noticed the pair she was staring at took notice of her.

The small yellow haired one with a look of confusion and the older redhead with a look of recognition, confusion, and maybe something more hidden beneath the surface.

"Hmm? Mom, do you know her? She kind of looks like you a little bit with the pretty red hair. Didn't you say everyone from the Namekaze clan passed away?"

Kushina didn't answer immediately instead opting to stare at the little redheaded girl that looked so familiar to her. She couldn't quite place where it was from and she suddenly got a massive headache trying to think harder about it. She knew the girl was the village Jinchuriki, but it felt like she was forgetting something important.

"Mom?"

"Hmm? Oh, it's nothing, sweetie. Everyone from the Namekaze clan did pass on, unfortunately. You and I are all that's left after your father died to seal the nine tails. As for that girl...no I don't think I know her…" Kushina said, sounding completely unsure of herself.

The girl in question jumped a little after that, clearly having heard their conversation. She bowed a little with a smile on her face and went off in another direction.

"Oh...Oh well. Maybe we can be friends when the academy starts if we're in the same class. Hehe"

"Yeah… that might be a good idea." Kushina said, still thinking about the mysterious little girl they had just seen. Watching her walk away filled her with an intense desire to run after her but she just chalked it up to the girl clearly being an orphan like herself. Maybe she felt some sort of kinship with her?

'Wait a second? Orphan? That's right, I was an orphan… So when did I join the Namekaze clan? It wasn't established until Minato became the fourth hokage, right? But, didn't he take my last name? And all my clan techniques were from before that…' The headache Kushina felt intensified greatly in that moment. She was sure she was forgetting something very important, but she couldn't remember what.

"Mom! Are you sure you're alright? We can come back tomorrow if you want, I can wait…"

Kushina was suddenly taken out of her thoughts by her cute little Naru-chan's worried voice. All her previous thoughts vanished as if they were never there and she dropped the matter entirely.

"Ooh, how did I end up with a cute little daughter like you, Naru-chan! Everything's alright, I was just thinking about something, is all. Let's get you registered for classes already, ttebane!" Ah her stupid verbal tic came out again. She must have really been flustered to slip up like that!

(P// Make sure Nat mistakes her for a boy)

"Yeah, that's right! Look out world! My name is Naruko Namekaze and I'm going to be Hokage, dattebayo!"

---

Natsune sat down under a hollowed out tree in the forest, her current home after the last one was destroyed during the night.

Her thoughts were racing as she wiped away the blood staining her face. She had so many thoughts on her mind, but they all came back to one fact.

She wasn't the protagonist.

(P// Go back and emphasize her "I'm the protagonist" mentality. Maybe mention more of her plans for the other characters)

Having finally had time to internalize that fact, for the first time since the day she was born, Natsune cried.

She shed silent tears as she let everything wash over her.

She felt, anger, grief, pain, rage, helplessness, you name it. But underneath all of that, she felt a profound sense of relief. So much so that even with the tears pouring down her eyes, she finally smiled her first genuine smile in 5 years.

No longer did she feel shackled by the weight of her future responsibilities. She didn't need to worry about saving the world. She didn't need to worry about saving all the other characters. She could finally start living her life for herself instead of trying to live up to the original's shadow.

She knew pretty early on that she was not naruto. She couldn't take everything this village threw at her and still want to save them, but she felt like she had to. In the future, the other five villages needed to come together to combat threats like the akatsuki and the ootsutsuki.

She felt utterly terrified when she thought about fighting them in the future, but now she doesn't have to worry about it. She could get stronger for her own sake rather than worry about others.

This village could burn in hell for all she cared. Heck, if given the opportunity, she'd probably do it herself. Now she doesn't need to act like Naruto in hopes of bringing people together. Leave that to him. Now she could do things her way.

That's why her smile only deepened slightly when she heard a pair of rhythmic steps approaching her from not too far away. For she knew, this was one of the reasons she tried so hard to keep up her facade. She couldn't allow herself to show weakness in order to avoid needing to deal with this man until she was ready.

(P// Hint at this earlier)

But now, things are different.

"You look lost, child. Why don't you come with me and I'll help you obtain strength you couldn't possibly Imagine."

Natsune looked up with the same fake smile she always used, tilted her head slightly, and asked a question to the bandage-covered man which she already knew.

"Who are you, mister?"

"You may call me, Danzo-sama"