Chapter 4: The Outsider

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

Warning: child abuse and bullying (mostly mentions of it), some dark themes, too much fluffiness sometimes. A real rollercoaster (or, at least, it's supposed to be).

For a surprisingly angry reviewer (dhh):

Wow, calm the freaking down, dude. First of all, if you don't like Self-Inserts, why the hell are you reading a story with one? It's like hating chocolate, but eating it anyway, just to comment later on why it's horrible.

I mean, you basically called me conceited, self-serving and arrogant in three or four lines of pure bull shit (that's what it looked like to me, either way). My self-insert is male because I wanted it to be male, despite being a girl. If you don't like it, seriously, just get the hell away from my freaking story. Goodness.

About Kumi taking care of Naruto later on or not: why did you just assume that Minato would go and die? Kumi's main goal is to keep his older brother alive, so he's not even considering Naruto in the equation. Not to mention that after seven years in this world, he pretty much learnt to detach his former feelings about fictional characters and 'real' people.

"The only way I'll like your OC is if", please, sweetheart, don't try too hard. Who said I was writing my SI/OC based on your opinion?

And after this very long author's reply…

Author's note:

This one took longer, but here it is. I was too lazy to search for any mistakes, though, since I still have to get back to studying, haha. If you see any, I'll be grateful and will correct it later too.

Enjoy the chapter :)

Chapter IV:

The Outsider

"Even when unpleasant things happen during the day, the starts never fail to appear at night. When I see that, I feel calm for some reason."

Seijirou (Mushishi)

"C'mon, Mii-chan, just four more," Minato encouraged from the sidelines, already finished with his repetitions.

I huffed – out of breath and exasperated – before giving him my best glare. I was told, by him and by a very sincere-and-laughing Tsume, that my evil eyes weren't exactly evil. They were much too big and colorful to be anything but cute. Minato's words, not mine. As if he had a super manly face, anyway.

I gave up trying to glare at him and finished the damned sit-ups. Truth is: my new body wasn't all that different from the old one. I could run, jump and had amazing flexibility, alright, but my thin legs and tiny hands weren't exactly made for powerful taijutsu stances. Which worried my older brother a lot. Thus, here were we, following a carefully crafted trained regimen.

My area of expertise – if a seven-year-old Academy could have one – was Ninjutsu. It came as easily as breathing, which was kind of cool. I already knew the three basic jutsu and few more simples tricks using chakra, despite having only started to officially mold said energy a couple of months ago. It was easy to control as it was such a foreign feeling my body.

"Good job," Minato praised me with a smile, as always. He passed me a water bottle that I gratefully accepted. "You're lasting longer already."

I rolled my eyes at this, "Onii-chan, we started this regimen three weeks ago. There's no way I'm stronger already."

Minato made a silly expression family enough to me – it was the big brother crying face. It could also be dubbed as the moment Minato loses all his pride and acts like a mother-hen.

"Mii-chan, you didn't use to be so sassy," his blue eyes comically teared up. "You spent too much time with your new friends and don't bother with Onii-chan anymore."

I sighed at his silliness. Only Minato would think that. It was so clear to everybody else how much I admired my older brother. Kihito certainly liked to laugh at me about this, declaring me as the "baby-chan" of the group.

"Onii-chan, don't be unreasonable, please."

"See what I mean? I miss the days that you'd run to my direction shouting Onii-chan! Onii-chan! It was the cutest thing ever," he wailed. So much for being the perfect Namikaze Minato. And since when I ran in his direction shouting Onii-chan, anyway?

Against my will – as always – I felt my cheeks warming up. It was like people in this world lived solely for the reason of making me embarrassed, seriously. Tsume and Kihito's favorite hobby was pinching my cheeks and fighting over whose turn it was to spin around with me in their arms. You would think I was three, instead of seven, with how much they wanted to pick me up. Most of the time, Mikoto was there to save me from the embarrassment their actions could cause me. Bless her heart.

I let Minato be his silly self for a while more before grabbing the hem of shirt and forcing him to sit down once again. He did so without complaint.

"Ne, Mii-chan, perhaps I could find another style for you to fall on instead of the Academy one," Minato suggested, observing me from the corner of his eyes.

I pondered over the suggestion for a few minutes, pretending to observe the birds flying over the school's training ground. The Academy's taijutsu stances were obviously made for people of smaller stature, since children were more likely to fight against bigger opponents. By the last year of formal ninja training, however, most students started searching for another method of hand-to-hand combat, as the majority of us would reach an at least average height.

Logically speaking, the Academy taijutsu or even a variation of it would be perfect for me. I could always hit a growth spurt during puberty, of course, but I didn't count on that very much – Mom was a very petite woman, standing at just 150cm tall and, from the looks of it, I wouldn't be much better. Which were all the more reasons to simply accept the stances already taught to me and move on.

The only problem being: they didn't feel right. Most parts of the katas included punches aimed at lower parts of the enemy's body and rolling away as a method of dodging. But while this body – my body – didn't have a lot of strength, it had a lot of natural flexibility and speed, which didn't mix all too well with the Academy taijutsu.

So I turned my head to Minato and told him just that.

"Wow, you really thought about this," he commented, impressed. Hah. As if he hadn't thought about it himself before offering to teach another method of hand-hand combat.

I had learnt through the years that Minato carefully thought about everything. He was a worrier and that was his job.

"Well, it's not as if these pathetic hands can do much, is it?" I sighed, showing him my small fingers and glove-covered palms. I had taken to wearing fingerless gloves with metal plates on the back after starting to learn how to fight and getting bruises in my wrists from blocking my opponents' attacks.

"Hey," he chided, snaking an arm around my shoulders. "Don't be so down, buddy, you're great at many things."

I allowed a smile to form on my face and Minato, seeing it, grinned widely. With his yellow-blond hair getting wilder and wilder each passing day, it was easier to see Naruto in him than the calm and controlled man he would become later on.

"How is your Genjutsu coming along?" Minato asked, getting up to gather our things.

Sprawling on the grass field, I answered without much enthusiasm, "It's easy enough to dispel them. Sensei has just started teaching us how to make one, though."

Truthfully speaking, Genjutsu was very boring. There were many possibilities, no doubt about it, but as someone who had had a very weak body in my past life, the art of creating illusions was tedious. I loved the way my new body could move and tumble around, even if my hits were as weak as a baby bird's.

Minato hummed in agreement, "You probably won't like Genjutsu too much, Mii-chan, don't worry about it."

I sat up, arching one eyebrow.

"Why wouldn't I like it?" After all, my chakra control was very good, in fact, one of the best in class. Most Genjutsu users were known for being chakra control freaks, right behind medic-nins.

Minato came closer, holding our bags. He smiled at me, patting my head. What was with everybody and head patting?

"I saw you practicing Ninjutsu the other day and it seemed to me that you were having a lot of fun," was his gentle reply. "Not to mention that your chakra pools are big enough to become a specialist in Ninjutsu."

Well, that was true. Girls usually had smaller chakra reserves and better control. As the latter obviously wasn't a problem for me, I had the advantage of being a boy – no matter how unlike one was my appearance – with bigger chakra pools. I was no jinchūriki, but I could see from where Minato got his Hokage-sized reserves in the future.

"I would like to know my chakra nature, but Saki-sensei wouldn't give me test papers," I looked away, not pouting at all. "He says that I'm too young."

Minato ruffled my hair affectionately, "During your last year they will test it, you just have to be patient."

"Yours is wind, right?" I turned my kaleidoscope eyes to him, interested. Wind sounded cool enough and it was pretty rare too, which made it even more appealing.

The older of us nodded, "Un."

I was about to ask him if it was easy to make it as thin as a razor blade – just like the chakra-nature theory book I had been reading the other night said – but a scream cut through the air.

Our eyes met and we simply started running deeper into the forest behind the Academy, the one usually used for survival training.

"You can't even recognize a Kawarimi no Jutsu? You're still just a kid," someone mocked. I frowned, trying to put a face to it, but it didn't sound like any of my classmates or Minato's group of friends.

We were jumping from tree branch to tree branch, which I used as an opportunity to train my chakra control. Technically speaking, I shouldn't know the three basic jutsus and tree walking, but having a super intelligent older brother kind of helped.

Minato stopped, looking down with a glare. I was so startled by his more-often-than-not kind face distorting into discontentment that I almost fell off the tree had it not been for his arm around my waist.

"Hair like this is ugly!" The voice kept on scoffing.

I glanced at the scene happening behind us, crouching down on the branch much like a cat would. There was a kid that I recognized from Minato's class and an older one that looked like him – probably brothers, then. What caught me by surprise was the third person, though.

Uzumaki Kushina had the fiercest red hair I'd ever seen. Her eyes were narrowed in annoyance, a steely gray that could melt anything with its intensity. She was as old as Minato, I knew, but had more baby-fat than him or his friends, making her face really round.

Her hair – so long and so red – was caught in tight grip by the older kid, a Genin by his headband. It was such an amazing color that I immediately understood why Minato fell in love with it. I had never cut my hair before out of vanity as it was now reaching almost the middle on my back in gentle waves and curls, but it couldn't compare to Kushina's red locks.

The younger kid snickered, "Serves you right!"

To my complete surprise, the steel-gray eyes crumbled seconds before closing and the redhead started crying out of sheer frustration. Minato tensed beside me.

"I… I don't like my hair either!" She shouted back.

Kushina struggled against the hand holding her hair, the locks stretching until breaking point, completely coming off her head. I winced – it must hurt a lot. The older kid himself looked surprised by her tenacity, which made it much easier for her to turn around and deliver a kick to his face, followed by a punch.

"But," she continued as if nothing had happened, punctuating each word with a punch to the face. "Even with hair like this, I'm still me!"

It was a feeling I could somewhat comprehend. Most people confused me with a girl before discovering, one way or another, that I was a boy. It left a vague feeling of annoyance that I usually shrugged off, however, since long hair was a choice of mine.

"Outsider," the Genin retorted, no longer sounding arrogant. As he threw strands of crimson hair at Kushina's face, I noticed how trembling his voice sounded. Her face fell. "As if an outsider can become the Hokage."

As the brother walked away, Kushina finally appeared to notice our presence over her head. She looked up, observing me and Minato on the tree, and her face twisted to an expression of pure fury and self-hatred.

"You're not going to help me because I'm outsider?" She screamed at us.

Actually, I had been too shocked by her presence to help her – but it wasn't as if I could answer that. Either way, she had taken care of it well enough by herself.

"I–" My older brother started saying, being cut off.

"I bet you agree with them too!"

Hey, hey, I thought, a little irritated at her behavior. Minato was the nicest person you could find and he treated everyone fairly. No matter how bullied she was, Kushina shouldn't talk to my brother like that.

I wasn't irritated enough to start an argument with a nine-year-old girl, though, so I simply watched as she ran off. Standing up, I turned to Minato.

"Do you know her, Onii-chan?"

He nodded, still looking at the direction she had run to.

"She's in my class. Came from Uzushiogakure, apparently," he said softly.

I winced. I had forgotten this village's fate until now. The Second World Ninja War had ended with the destruction of Uzushio and the scattering of the Uzumaki clan a couple of years back. I was surprised that Kushsina only came to Konoha now, what with the happenings and all.

"Let's go back home – Mom is probably worried with our tardiness," Minato said, suddenly. He tried not to look disheartened, jumping down to the ground with a cheerful wave.

I jumped right after, already lost in thought. Even though my first meeting with Kushina hadn't been exactly pleasant, her face reminded me of one thing: seals.

Minato would lose his life in the future due to the Shiki Fūjin, a seal with enough force to hold back a demon. How could I prevent that? How could I prevent Kyūbi escaping, in first place?

It seemed that a trip to the library was in order. I had a lot to learn about Fūinjutsu in the next years if I wanted to help my brother at all.

"What's with the long face, shorty?" Tsume asked a few days later, not pausing his chewing on pork buns. Mikoto's face showed her discomfort at this.

I huffed, "I'm not shorty. I'm younger, it's different."

Kihito snorted and Ren nagging Chitarō about eating instead of sleeping – "for once, Chita!" – was just background music.

"Sure, because being one meter tall is the new tall," he replied in Tsume's place. Together they formed a very mean duo. If I didn't know about Konohamaru or Kiba, I'd say they were perfect for each other. Thinking well about it, it could end up not being a good idea, what with their personalities matching too much in bull-headiness.

"I'm not one meter tall," was my response and it was true. I was five centimeters taller than that, thank you very much.

The Sarutobi boy smiled at me almost indulgently, which made my eyes narrow. If only I had Minato's worst glare down pat.

"What's the cause of your daydreams, though, Kumi-chan?" Ren finally stopped harping Chitarō and sat down. I heard something that sounded suspiciously like 'Finally' from the Nara boy.

"Is Minato-san being too hard on you?" Mikoto questioned with concern. As all my friends knew about my new regimen, I wasn't surprised at Minato's sudden involvement.

I shook my head, the golden curls for once not flying around as I had let a very bored Kihito discover how to make ponytails during class.

"I started searching for a new Taijutsu style, but it's harder than I thought," I admitted my problem. And I need a mastery of Fūinjutsu in less than two decades, I added inwardly. That would be the hardest part of all this mess.

Even Chitarō stopped sleeping to throw me a sympathetic glance. Since they were all clan kids, they didn't need to find their own style of fighting and were even already learning their respective clan's katas.

"Would you like help?" Mikoto offered with a sweet smile. I smiled back at her, grateful for her kindness. She was the only Uchiha I had ever seen smiling around Konoha, but then again, I didn't see them much.

"Why are you searching for one so early, either way?" Tsume was curious. Her recently-given puppy, Kuromaru, whined in hunger beside her. Tsume's ninken companion looked more like a wolf pup than a dog one, but behaved better than most humans I had known in my past life.

I picked a rice ball from my bento before answering, "Well, you have seen how badly most of my spars go, so…"

Kihito poked my cheek with his chopsticks, exasperated.

"What are you talking about, flea?" Shorty and flea were his and Tsume's favorite nicknames for me. Right behind ducky. "You win a lot."

I clicked my tongue against my teeth, annoyed at myself rather than Kihito's comment.

"Only against people who don't matter, that's when I win," I replied, looking away. I was unusually talkative today – must be the stress of my situation catching up to me.

Chitarō patted my head, "You're a lot smaller than most of us, Kumi, nobody expects you to win all the time."

I crossed my arms, "Even so. What if I still am smaller than most of others in the future? I should win, short or not."

"So you do admit you're short!" Tsume said, triumphantly. Ren shot her a look that clearly said Not right now.

Mikoto offered me a cinnamon roll in sympathy, but not even the treat cheered me up.

"You're smart, Kumi-chan," Ren said friendly, his grin showing its first sign of life. "Actually, you're smarter than Thing One and Thing Two here, so I wouldn't worry too much."

"Hey!" Tsume and Kihito growled, offended. It was funny, because both of them knew exactly who Thing One and Two was without doubt.

I smiled at my lunchbox, grateful for my friends' presence.

"Tadaima," I called as soon as I entered home. Mom shouted an "Okaeri!" from the kitchen from the sound of it.

Minato was nowhere to be seen – probably was spending time with Akimichi Chōza and Aburame Shibi, as the trio had been working on a project. Unconcerned, I entered the kitchen only to sniff the sweet smell of freshly baked cookies. My mouth instantly watered.

"Are you baking, Mom?" I tilted my head sideways, trying to see around her body. Standing on my tiptoes, I tried to look over the counter without grabbing my usual stepping stool.

She glanced down at me, smiling with eyes so similar to mine. Cleaning her hand on her apron, her fingers went through the waves in my hair affectionately.

"Who tied up your hair, sweetie?" Mom asked, playing with the high ponytail being held by a rubber band.

"First Kihito, when he was bored, but Mikoto redid it later, saying it was horrible," I answered with honesty.

She laughed and it was a beautiful sound, as delightful as the smell of her cookies.

"Go take a bath before training today," she advised. "It's much too hot to begin exercising without getting refreshed first."

I nodded, running off to do what she told me. Ever since Dad died a couple of years ago, I had tried to be as obedient and helpful as possible. I knew how much his death had affected her, even she didn't show it most of the time.

Entering the bathroom, though, I realized that there was no towel in sight or in the cabinet. I went back to the kitchen, confused.

"Mom, where are the tow– Mom? Mom!" I cut myself in the middle of the question, seeing her body lying on the floor.

My knees hit the ground with enough force to bruise in my desperation, but I didn't care. I had learnt first aid during my first year in the Academy and, for all my hard-earned intelligent, I couldn't concentrate on what were the steps of it. I simply sat on my heels, shaking my Mom's shoulder like the lost child I felt.

"Mom?" I called, hoping, praying for an answer. It was a prank, even if my Mom never pranked anyone in this house before. "Mommy?"

Please. Not you too. Not you.

"Minato!" I called, but of course there was no reply. My older, much smarter brother wasn't home.

Tears gathered in my eyes and I tried to remember what I should do, tried to think about what would help in this situation. No matter which ninja training I received, there was no way my body could pick up a person half a meter taller and lots of kilos heavier than me.

"Mommy," I murmured, lowering the upper part of my body and letting my cheek rest against her forehead. She was burning, but it didn't bother me. Why hadn't she said anything? Why had she just smiled at me as if nothing was wrong?

I put her head in my lap, caressing her silk strands of yellow-blond hair and trying not to let my tears hit her pretty face.

Please, wake up.

Please.

"Tadaima!" Minato's cheerful voice called from the door, much earlier than I expected.

That's when I started sobbing.