7. The Blonde Kitsune

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" "      Speaking out loud

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Excuse me for any spelling errors.

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*Slurp*

"Ann thath's *munch* *munch* pwithy muth *gulp* what happened, dattebayo!"

Swallowing the last of her ramen while narrating her story was a cute, yellow-blonde haired girl with blue eyes and distinctive whiskers on her cheeks.

Her name was Uzumaki Naruko, a genderbent Uzumaki Naruto.

Honestly, I'm not that surprised. I knew that I was in an AU Narutoverse, but I didn't know all the differences. My clan existing is one of the changes that I know of, Sasuke being Satsuki is another change, so the fact that Naruto is now Naruko was kinda expected. I swear, if the Kyubi is also a female, I'll run around the entire village naked while shouting 'YOUTH!' for an entire hour.

<A/N: Foreshadow much?>

"You've had it hard, huh?"

I glanced at her with a frown on my face.

I mean, what the fuck world? Why would you do such a thing to this innocent girl. If I hadn't stopped those civilian men, she would've been raped or even killed.

When I stumbled upon the scene of the girl being pinned down and about to be raped, I instinctively attacked. I didn't bother limiting my strength when I attacked them, so let's just say that those men are now permanently impotent after I used my special move, Generation Buster.

After the one sided beat down, I quickly comforted the crying girl, changing her current emotions to a calm state was a challenge, but I did it. Although she wasn't crying like a broken dam, she still had tears rolling down her cheeks. My impression of the girl went up immediately, because she tried to stay strong even after such a traumatic event.

We left the empty alley and headed towards the nearest place where she could calm down, and that place ended up being Ichiraku Ramen. Quite a coincidence, but a welcomed coincidence nevertheless. Not only was the food delicious, but it provided a sense of comfort for the young girl, who visibly relaxed once she was inside it. Teuchi-jiji noticed the crying girl and instantly started making ramen for her while Ayame-nee comforted her.

By listening to Ayame-nee speak to the girl, I discovered that the girl was in fact Uzumaki Naruko. Focusing my chakra sense and empathy on the girl, I was positive that she was indeed Uzumaki Naruko. There was a different chakra type inside her body that I was familiar with, not only because I have similar chakra but also because I remember the chakra signiture. An endless amount of hatred was coming from the source of the different chakra type, which meant that the Kyubi was sealed inside of Naruko.

I was having conflicted feelings, a part of me wanted revenge against the Kyubi but the other held sympathy towards it. Thoughts of how to interact with the Kyubi were swirling through my head, when a pleasant scent assaulted my nose.

There weren't any other customers, so we got our food fast. We practically inhaled the ramen as if we haven't had food in days. Naruko particularly ate her food as if she wasn't almost raped a few minutes ago.

While she ate her fill, I sensed a disturbance in the forc- *cough*, I mean, a spatial disturbance. Someone was watching us, and I already knew who. Turning towards the source of the spatial disturbance, I grinned and flashed a double 'fuck you' with my hands.

It wasn't the first time that the Hokage monitored me through his peeking ball. Not just me, he monitors every child in the village who could be a promising shinobi. He does this mostly by searching the parks and playgrounds where children are mostly found, then he occasionally watches a kid for a few days before moving onto the next kid.

Obviously, when he noticed that I sensed him, he started paying more attention to me. At first, I just ignored him and hoped that he'd stop watching me, the only place he couldn't watch me was in the Kekkan clans land. I eventually got annoyed after months of him watching me, so I started cussing and showing rude gestures at him. Thankfully, he did stop watching me, but he checked up on me every once in a while. I made sure to flip him off every time he does.

The Hokage watched us for a bit before the spatial disturbance disappeared. As soon as he stopped watching us, the grin on my face disappeared and was replaced with a cold glare.

I hate the Hokage, no... I loathe him.

As a member of the Kekkan clan, I have access to not just money, but information as well, old and new.

I've read the records about the history of Konoha, pieced together some scenarios from what I read and my own memories, and I wasn't impressed with my discoveries.

Konoha is known as the strongest village. Sure, Konoha has the most resources. Yes, they do have powerful shinobi.

So what? Even if you have great shinobi and the richest lands, the management of the village can change everything.

Take the First Hokage for example. He was strong, respected and liked by everyone in the village... but he was a naïve and  idealistic fool. His first mistake was capturing and gifting the Tailed Beasts to the other villages. His second mistakes was trusting and believing in the kindness of humans. The Tailed Beasts ended up being used as weapons for the villages and the jinchuriki was treated as less than human.

The Second Hokage was so busy making new jutsus, that he didn't manage the village properly. Thus, it resulted in his death when information slipped out.

The Third Hokage's first mistake was making the Civilian Council. It was initiated to help manage the village during war times, and it worked splendidly! But after the wars, the council members started to become greedy and corrupt. He's second mistake was being too soft on his friends, family and students. What was the results? His friends became old fools who thought that they could do anything within the village, his other friend became a war monger who seeked to conquer the other villages which resulted in a lot of innocents deaths. His first born son died, one of his students is hemophobic, his other student is a pervert who failed in his duties as a godfather and his other student became a missing nin that seeks immortality. The Third Hokage is a failure as a friend, a father and as a leader.

I have nothing to say about the Fourth Hokage, except for the fact that he sealed half of a Tailed Beast that also contained all the hatred, anger and aggression of the Jubi inside of his own daughter while entrusting her safety into the hands of a failure of a Hokage.

But who am I to judge?

Anyway, halfway through her food, Naruko started explaining what happened.

Apparently, those men have always been the most brutal when beating her, but they always beat her when others weren't near. They have attempted to rape her before, but she always escaped. She couldn't even report them to the authorities because nobody even tried to hear her part of the story. She then later found out that they had close connections to the Civilian Council, which meant that they were protected.

When Teuchi-jiji and Ayame-nee heard this, their faces were flushed with anger. I myself wasn't that surprised, I mean, it's a common occurrence in my old world. I would be surprised if there wasn't anything like that in this world. Although that isn't to say that I wasn't angry, in fact, I was already plotting how to ruin the people who had close ties to those men.

"So what are you going to do now?"

I asked Naruko as I licked my bowl clean.

Tilting her head, she looked at me in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"Obviously, the Council isn't going to stay quiet about this."

The peaceful atmosphere instantly turned gloomy. Teuchi-jiji and Ayame-nee looked at Naruko with worry, while Naruko had a look of dread.

"Knowing the council, they'll probably try to frame you of murder, or something like that. They'll either want you dead, imprisoned, enslaved or anything similar."

I refrained from mentioning that she could be used as a breeding cattle for an Uzumaki army. Frankly, I'm surprised that Danzo hasn't done anything to her yet... but then again, I guess he would've been discovered very quickly by Hiruzen if he did try anything. Danzo could at most spread the rumor that Naruko was the Kyuubi. Hiruzen might be a fool, but he is aware of most things that happen within the village.

"There are a few ways of avoiding that, but most of them don't have great outcomes."

Naruko looked at me with panicked eyes.

"T-Then what do I do?"

Propping my head up on the counter top, I glanced at her before speaking.

"Well, you could willingly give yourself in, but that has the worst possible outcome. You could run and hide from the village, but you'd inevitably get caught, the village has some of the greatest trackers in the entire Elemental Nations. Or..."

I paused for dramatical effect. If I was going to be in an anime world, I might as well be dramatic.

Naruko gulped in anticipation at my words.

"Or?"

I turned my head to completely face her and I leaned closer until our noses were almost touching.

"Or you serve someone who has enough power to ward off the Council. Someone who could protect you and ensure that the council doesn't mess with you in any way."

At the end of the last sentence, I leaned close enough until my mouth was right next to Naruko's ear. I could her heart racing, her body tensing and her face heating up. Waves of embarrassment were flooding my empathetic senses. She felt embarrassed, anxious, slight fear and comfort.

Oho? How cute, I can't get enough of her reactions.

As I tried to ignore something waking up in me, I backed away slightly so that I could get a look at her face. Naruko had slightly teary eyes and a red face, both due to embarrassment.

Really girl? We're hardly 7 years old and you're already acting like this? As expected of an anime word.

Now, some might wonder why I'm doing this. It's because I want Naruko. Not because she'll be a beauty later on, well maybe that, but because of her potential. As an Uzumaki, the child of the Fourth Hokage, and as the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Youko, she is bound to be a powerhouse in the future. If her male counterpart and his boyfriend proved anything, it's that genes matter. Even if she's a girl, she can still be physically strong, as proven by Kaguya.

<A/N: No offense to all girls out there. It's just that most females in Naruto (excluding Kaguya, Tsunade and Sakura) aren't physically strong.>

"But... who would even want me?"

She looked down as she bit her lower lip in frustration. Grief, anguish and vexation were oozing out of her.

"I want you."

"""Eh?"""

Not only was Naruko surprised, Teuchi-jiji and Ayame-nee were shocked.

"Nora-chan... you naughty boy."

Ayame-nee said as she looked at me with disappointment. Teuchi-jiji just shook his head.

"Wait, I didn't mean it like tha-"

Before I could clear the misunderstanding, I was interrupted by a small voice.

"Really?"

Looking at the source of the voice, I saw Naruko staring at me.

"Do you really want me?"

I could see the expectation, joy and anxiety in her eyes. She probably never met anyone who wanted anything to do with her, minus Teuchi-jiji, Ayame-nee and the Hokage.

Although I have empathetic abilities, I don't have much empathy and sympathy for others. But even Naruko's story pulled at my heartstrings, albeit somewhat.

So with a small smile on my face, I unknowingly became Naruko's lifebuoy in the ocean of life.

"Yeah, I really want you."