Misplaced Princess

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Naruto universe 

Thinking (+ flashbacks, Naruto speaking to Kurama, etc.)

Biju, etc. speaking

Biju, etc. thinking

Emphasis

Grimacing, Naruto slowly opened her eyes to see a face - a gleeful face. The woman's violet eyes were huge and she was right in her grill! Oh, no, she thought in despair: it's another crazy person.

The blonde shrank back against what she could now feel were pillows, thinking about how there was something about this red-headed woman that felt familiar. She couldn't even make out the woman's ramblings, though - and holy cow, could she talk! Naruto could only try to move away from her, but the crazy woman's grip on her arms was really strong!

"KUSHINA-CHAN! What did I tell you? You're going to scare her to death!" Naruto's eyes snapped over to that woman who looked a lot like Jiji's picture of his student, Tsunade.

Naruto closed her eyes, shook her head quickly, and groaned. "Damn it," Naruto muttered, "the next thing I'll see will be that traitor, Orochimaru." The two women stopped moving and looked at each other in shock, while the blonde teenager opened her eyes slightly and used their inattention to move away from the woman with… Kami! Who in their right mind would wear their hair that long?! The redhead grabbed onto her shoulders before the Tsunade-looking person jerked her away, forcing her to sit down in a chair beside the bed.

"Being that we're all ladies here, can you please keep Pervert-san away from me?" Naruto asked tiredly. Gods, what had they done to her? She almost always had so much energy that it was even hard to stay still! The two women were giving her an odd look now.

"Pervert's with your father, Naru-chan," Tsunade said rather indignantly.

"Great," the blonde said sarcastically. "You've got the wrong girl, lady! I'm an orphan and have always been one." Naruto's eyes closed as she yawned widely. She didn't see the devastated look the two women gave each other. Trying to raise her arms to stretch, she noticed that one was tied to the bed with a long… string? Ribbon? She attempted to yank it off of her wrist, but only felt more tired as she tried to do so.

"Gomen! That's just a precaution, dattebane," the redhead said - freaking Naruto out a little with that last word. She'd never heard anyone else utter that "tic," and she often got scolded for it. The only person who didn't seem to mind or say anything about it was JiJi... The Masked Pervert out there had been trying to stop her use of "dattebayo" a couple of years ago, repeatedly telling her that it wasn't feminine. Well, that guy outside of the room felt like the pervert, anyway - if he's suppressing his nearly too-bright chakra somewhat...

That asshole: she'd only been able to graze her fingers in his eyes, (or EYE: singular, actually,) a couple of times: the fast fucker. The only reason she tried to change her "speech impediment" at all was that the senbon-sucking guy had said the same thing. She guessed he was a pervert, too. It's not like Shiranui Genma-san necessarily seemed like one or she had evidence of him being a perv like she did with the Copy Nin with his book and weird staring... Instead, it was more like something ingrained within her that assured Naruto that anyone with an oral fixation as bad as the one he had could only mean wicked things!

Further considering all the perverts in her village, JiJi included, she eventually fell asleep as the other women continued their ramblings.  She was just too tired.

"Kushina, I'm not sure what your pansy of a husband told you, but…." Tsunade faltered as she saw her cousin's hair begin to rise before the woman slumped down in exhaustion in her chair. Seeing the redhead's eyes tear up, she bent down and began to give her chakra through her iryo-ninjutsu again. It was especially easy with Kushina, considering their shared Uzumaki heritage - almost like water gently falling down into a puddle. After receiving a pat on her arm, Tsunade backed off. "What did I say about using chakra, intentionally or not? Not to do it, remember?" Kushina nodded her head and pouted. "How long are you planning to stay?"

"Trying to get rid of me already Auntie?" Kushina asked.

"Don't call me that, brat!"

Kushina rolled her eyes. "And, ano… I don't know." She let out a harsh breath and frowned. "You haven't told me much, aside from that her blood tests came out positive, so I just don't understand!"

Tsunade sat down beside her as both watched the blonde teen sleep. "Classified, honey. If you want answers, you'll have to ask your hubby… that asshole." Before Kushina could respond as the Senju knew she wanted to, she continued. "I'll tell you this much right now, though: your little one here - well, she's not so little, I suppose - but what's definite is that she's not going to be happy with Yondaime-sama." Tsunade had all but spit out Minato's title.

Kushina couldn't be too surprised at Tsunade's bad attitude; she knew her only remaining relative well. Although now we have one more in Naru-chan, too! Tsunade really couldn't stand the village that had taken away the love of her life and beloved little brother. And she especially blamed the Hokage position and the whole system, seeing as the village leader had been the one who ordered those she loved out only to face death, just as Tsunade's grandfather and great-uncle had ordered many others before losing their lives "for the village." The fact that both Dan and Nawaki intended to one day lead the village just made it worse for her. "Tsunade-chan, I can't thank you enough for coming back for us," she said softly.

"Tch! I nearly didn't." Tsunade shook her head. "As I told you before, I just had a feeling…" A terrible feeling - not that any feeling, bad or good, had ever made me want to return permanently to the village - but she had felt forced beyond her own will to come back to Konoha, only to find the fox attacking the village. The first thing she saw upon entering was a bloody corpse. I can't believe I got over my phobia so quickly after that. She didn't even know who to thank: someone had pushed her straight to the hospital, where she found the girl and then Kushina.

"Still, you did, and I can only imagine how hard it was for you," Kushina replied carefully.

Tsunade snorted. "I can't say I'm happy to be here kid, but," she gave her cousin a side-glance, "I am very happy that you are." She crossed her arms under her chest as if even saying something so kind ticked her off. Kushina smiled: her cousin was still a softy underneath that hard exterior.

"You saved Naru-chan, too."

"Yeah," Tsunade agreed, watching Kushina shift uncomfortably in her chair. "Bet that comes back to bite me in the ass… I'll stay with the gaki; go stretch your legs." She handed Kushina her crutches - the first lady of Konoha was being a real pain and refused to use the walker that was prescribed for her, and had to nearly be tied down to a wheelchair whenever she was completely exhausted.

"How long do you think she'll sleep?" Kushina asked, worried that her daughter would wake up without her being there.

"It's hard to say. She's on a lot of pain medicine for the demonic chakra she took in," Tsunade explained as Kushina's expression saddened. "She's a tough little cookie, Kushi. After all, she's an Uzumaki, ne?"

That seemed to lift Kushina's spirits a lot. Tsunade watched her carefully as she struggled with and cursed at her crutches as she left the room. That woman is so stubborn, she thought hypocritically, listening to Kushina softly order Kakashi-kun around in the hallway. Tsunade snorted. After what Naruto had said in the hospital, she was going to be really hard to convince that the brat was not a pervert, which was really quite funny. As far as she knew, Sakumo's brat had a stick so far up his ass he could hardly sit down! "You've got quite a sense of humor, gaki," she said to the sleeping girl.

The Slug Sannin pushed the girl's bangs out of Naruto's sleeping face. Taking in her appearance again, Tsunade thought about how her face shape really was a lot like Kushina's, but she looked even more like that jerk, Minato. "I can't believe that idiot Hokage smacked his own daughter. Don't you worry about that baby: it will never happen again. As long as you keep your mouth shut about my age, ne?" Tsunade's question was asked bemusedly.

Little did the Slug Princess know that Kushina had come back toward the room, leaning on the wall for support without her crutches to grab her book and heard exactly what she'd said. Minato-kun hit her? She knew Tsunade well enough to know that she'd give her crap about everything being "Classified," or some kind of bullshit!

Although Kakashi-kun might do the same, he was Kushina's best bet to get the answers she needed. Even if he couldn't tell her exactly what happened, she knew his cute little masked face well enough to at least get some information, based on how uncomfortable he'd be with lying to her. "Kakashi-kun! Get over here and help your nee-chan!" The boy came running.

In the meantime, Tsunade had taken to measuring Naruto as she slept. She'd never had a daughter or little sister other than Shizune, but Shizune wasn't one to wear dresses or anything really feminine. The best she could occasionally do with her was get her into a kimono for a festival, and even then, she could only do so much with Shizune's short hair. Oh, Naru-chan will be so fun to dress up! She looked like a doll, already. ...I'm sure she'll love it! "And no more of that horrible orange for you, Naru-chan!"

.

"Well, that makes sense, I suppose. But why is everyone so mean? You seem like a nice fox: why do people not like you? Gomennasai!" Naruto bowed to the big fox in front of her.

He called this a mindscape, didn't he? 

"But seriously, Kyu - er, Kurama-sama, people say that you're really bad, but I just don't see it."

The fox very nearly smiled: Naruto was Naruto, no matter what. And thank Kami-sama she's not calling me a rabbit anymore. "I changed my attitude over time, kit. If you want to know what I used to be like, look behind you."

Naruto did as he asked but didn't see anything. Everything was dark outside of the fox that had apparently been sealed inside her "by the blonde monkey." Kyubbi's kind of funny. She'd tried to ask if by that he meant the Yondaime who so obviously didn't kill the Kyuubi, but it was like he hates her former hero so much that Kurama-sama couldn't bear to even hear the man's title.

Former hero… Even if he couldn't kill the Kyuubi, why put him in some nameless orphan like me?

It's not like she wanted him to have used Shika or even Ino-chan at all, but they were super little babies - like newborns - when she was born, too! Both of them also had important families that wouldn't have let people get away with the crap that she had been put through. Kami, I really thought I was dead! And it fucking HURT! Such dark thoughts led her to reconsider how much JiJi really cared about her at all: my shitty apartment, not being able to buy decent food…

The more her thoughts regarding her life churned, the more heated the sewer's water became. Is it really my fault that my mind is apparently a SEWER? After everything I've been through?! And now THIS? Gods damn the fucking village and everyone…

The light behind her was growing and she turned to see another even more GIANT Kyuubi in a cage. And he looked ferociously scary like he wants to eat me! Naruto's heart raced as he tried to crash his massive paw through the gates. The entire area shook and Naruto was thrown into the cage opposite the one holding back the bigger fox.

"Naruto," the first fox said to the trembling girl holding onto his cage's bars. "Naruto, listen to me. You must fight negativity, no matter what you learn. The reason for your physical pain is the rush of violent chakra you gained when taking in my other half. Father intended for that to happen I'm sure…"

But has something gone wrong? Kurama had been trying to figure it out after the second cage appeared with his whole self in it - his formerly very angry self, it seemed. He was incredibly grateful that a silencing seal was a part of his other half and a half's cage because that guy - I never know how to refer to "him" - was really pissed.

"Hate may give him more power."

"For fuck's sake! How is that fair?!" Naruto asked, still staring at the bigger fox. She faded from Kurama's view.

Kurama rested his head on his paws and closed his eyes. He could scarcely feel the small slivers of chakra entering him from the other seal. But what would happen when he regained all his chakra, or even before then? And could anyone, even Naruto, survive let alone thrive with 150% of the greatest Bijuu's chakra? Even when an older Naruto had parts of his brother's and sister's chakra along with all of his own, she'd never had this much to deal with. And at that time, none of the sibling's chakra - including his own - was angry. He closed his eyes again. For now, he was stuck and could only hope for a positive or even neutral outcome for his kit.

Naruto woke up to the sounds of the fight. She was pretty sure that it was the weird redhead's voice angrily yelling and nearly shrieking from somewhere below her. Feeling afraid for the woman - because something was wrong with her chakra, no matter how crazy she seemed - she tried to get out of bed but was held down. "Hey! Let me up!"

"Stay down, brat! They need to work it out for themselves." Tsunade held down the girl who was really fighting against her. Finally, the brat gave up as she curled into herself, holding her stomach and wincing in pain. Tsunade offered her water and medication, which the girl took without even demanding to know what it was this time.

A girly howl echoed through the house. "Kushina! What? What! Stop! You're not supposed to use your chakra!" was heard before another scream issued from that person.

As soon as Minato had lightly knocked and entered the main Senju estate, he was tackled by his wife. And not in a good way!

"I'll kick your ass without chakra, dattebane!" The furious redhead screeched, sitting on top of her husband and throwing hands like mad.

Minato screamed. She'd BIT him! And not like during sexy-time!

Naruto was worried. There was a catfight going on between what sounded like two women, and she'd also hear the voice of some guy she didn't recognize the chakra of. He'd occasionally yell out the word or name, "Kushina!" She was pretty sure she only felt three people down there, though, and one of them - oh, dear gods - one of them was The Pervert.

"Worry not, little one," Tsunade said between snorts and chuckles. "He's just getting what he deserves: Uzumaki-style."