Misplaced Princess

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything from the Naruto universe.

Thinking (+ flashbacks, "Naruto speaking to Kurama in her mindscape," etc.)

Emphasis

Bijuu, etc. speaking

Bijuu, etc. thinking

Naruto patted Iruka on the head sadly before he ran off to be with his team and sat down on one of the couches in her father's office. Bending over and placing her chin in her hands, her elbows resting on her knees, she wondered where she had gone wrong.

"Isn't he a little young for you?"

"I was wondering when you were going to come out," Naruto whispered to herself. "Kakashi-kun…"

"Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Umino-kun!"

"What about Iruka?" Iruka-sensei… It's not like Naruto was CLOSE to the man - at least in her present life (Kurama said he was important to her in all of them and that she needed to give "Iruka-sensei" a break) - but when she was younger, he used to take her out for ramen on occasion. Maybe it was a dumb thing to hang onto, but considering the way everyone else treated her back then…

"He's way too young for you," Kakashi insisted in a forced whisper.

"Too young for?" Naruto began, but didn't get what he meant, unless… "I feel terrible that he didn't proceed to the Finals! I'm not sure where I blew it," she sniffed. "I mean, I know we're the same rank and everything, but I'm so much older and… Wasn't it my job to pull him and Yugao-chan through with me?"

Kakashi took a step back. Had he misread everything?! Iruka was just a kid, after all. The only reason the kid threatened him and his presently non-existent relationship with Naruto, of course, was because of Naruto's unknown past. Suddenly she was bowing to him. And he felt his sensei's chakra nearby! Minato-sensei was on his way back to the office!

Kakashi wasn't even supposed to be here! Oh, shit…

"I'm so sorry that I acted like I did that night - or day… Please forgive me! It won't happen again!"

"Don't say that," Kakashi groaned, moving away from the Hokage's daughter: hoping to save his life.

"It should've been me that moved out!"

"Shh, hime-chan," Kakashi begged, blushing brightly when he realized that he had called her that.

"What's wrong?" Naru asked, pushing his forehead protector up a bit and making him squeak. She stood up on her toes, yanking him down to put her head against his then realized what she was doing and with WHOM. "Sorry. Again," she said awkwardly, hopping backward and swallowing down a lump in her throat. "You don't feel hot, at least" She turned toward her father who'd just opened the door. "Hi!"

"Good morning, Princess," he said, smirking when she grumbled about the title. She was adorable. "Kakashi-kun. You alright?" He glared at his student as a warning for him (and every other boy) to stay away from his precious daughter.

"I thought he had a fever," Naruto admitted, blushing brightly.

"I just bet you did," Minato said - a little too loud to be under his breath. When he caught Naru pouting about his words, he grinned at her. "You're a very caring person, Naru-chan."

"Oh. …Thank you!"

"You're very welcome," he winked but shot another glare at Kakashi. "You're excused. Now," Minato continued, folding his hands together, "we need to discuss your training for the Finals of the Exams."

"Ero-sennin sent me a note saying he wanted me to do more training on the mountain. He said he thinks it's time."

"No," Minato said. "I will train you." Naruto had been gone too long and she hadn't been back for nearly long enough for him to allow her to leave again.

Naruto blinked several times, even releasing chakra to ensure that she wasn't in a genjutsu. "But you're so busy!"

"I can use a shadow clone if I have to, but Naruto: this is important to you, is it not?"

"It is! But I feel really bad that Iruka-kun and Yugao-chan didn't make it to the Finals. I feel like maybe I don't deserve to be promoted at all."

"They're quite young, Naruto. And now they know that they each need to work on their resistance to genjutsus. Few are promoted to Chunin on their first attempts."

"But you were promoted your first time through it, and Kaa-chan was, too!"

"Yes… And I'm sure you will be, too - if you work hard and think carefully," he said reluctantly. Naruto had really calmed down since she first showed up in front of them that awful day, and she'd blossomed under Shikaku's leadership. "You are my daughter."

Naruto felt like she folded in half (also feeling like she was having an out-of-body experience,) but looked around toward her father's guards whom she couldn't see, but she could feel them. Her true identity was such a big secret; she was surprised that he said it out loud. Warmth filled her chest. "I am! I'll make you proud of me, Papa!"

Her father took a shuddering breath and began weeping and Naru apologized all over herself, patting him before being pulled into a giant wet hug.

"It's so hard," Minato admitted in a whining groan that night in bed. "I mean, I'm a young man…"

"Kinda," Kushina agreed teasingly. "I mean, you used to be."

Minato clicked his tongue and continued. He knew better than to remind Kushina that they were the same age after a comment like that. "She's just… She's too beautiful: like her mother. How am I supposed to react to… things? –And have you noticed there are entirely too many shinobis compared to kunoichis?"

"Uh, yeah," Kushina drawled, wondering if he really hadn't noticed before that the ratio of active-duty shinobis-to-kunoichis was around 5-to-1 at best. "What happened?"

"What hasn't happened, Kushina?" Minato asked in frustration. "I see boys looking at Naruto, and she's - she's my baby girl! But she's not a baby… Kushi, we were her age when we started dating. And she wants to rank up…"

Kushina smiled as she thought about their very early relationship as Minato continued to rant. And of course, Naruto wanted to rank up: she was their daughter. Minato was an idiot.

Ah, but back when they were young, she had also thought that Minato was such a baby with that baby face of his, and then he rescued her and everything changed. "I don't know if I would say we were dating at their age, ya know. You were pretty awkward and I didn't know where we stood for years." She pushed herself up in bed and snorted loudly. "When you asked me to move in with you, I thought you were going to break up with me!"

Minato looked at her as if she was crazy. "Never!"

"You'd better say 'never,'" Kushina said in a dark voice before stretching. She saw her husband's gaze linger on her and smirked. "You're so whipped." Minato blushed but nodded with a smile which left her feeling quite satisfied. "Anyway, Naruto's a good girl. We just have to limit the boys to Kakashi-kun…"

"Will you stop going on about that?!" Why was his wife so determined to force his bratty student further into their family and onto his sweet daughter? He was already family! – And a teenage boy, so that was a huge issue. Plus, did he mention what a brat Kakashi was? Kami, that kid was a brat.

"No way!" Kushina's machinations were in full swing. She'd talked to her friends about it, and they all knew to push any opportunities they saw between Naruto and Kakashi and then report back. The Shinobi Wives Club was awesome for stuff like that as well as being a general support group. She had been forced to call Naruto her niece, but that hardly mattered. Once word went out about any romance or friendship that needed help (or really needed to end,) the wives went into action.

From what her Wives Club's spies said, the so-called Shinobi Husband's Club was a drag and mainly a place to go drink and complain. Bakas. So typical!

"You have to give yourself a break. Our newborn daughter arrived in 13-year-old packaging," Kushina said wisely. She lamented all of the time she'd missed with Naruto; although maybe they were more aptly described as Naruto's "lost years" since her poor daughter had been deprived of her parents and all love? Either way, those years were just GONE and…. And… She broke out in loud tears, startling her husband.

She'd seen the way that Naruto used to look at Karin-chan! Things were getting better and Naru was turning out to be a very good older cousin… Karin-chan always lit up whenever Naru-chan walked into the room…

"Kushina," Minato breathed in concern, wiping away her tears. "What is it?" It wasn't like his wife to cry like this, out of the blue!

"I'm - I'm pregnant!" This is NOT how she planned to tell him. Damn hormones!

"That's - that's wonderful," Minato gushed before it felt like he was tasting ash. "It'll be fine. Don't worry: what happened last time… it cannot happen again, hm?" It took him a while to say more as he held his crying wife. "Tsunade said it's okay, right?" Kushina nodded her head and took in a deep, wet sniff. "And… She'll come around. Naruto's a good girl. Just like you said." He hugged his emotional wife - now things made more sense to him: Kushina had been even more sensitive than she usually was lately. "I'm going to train her for the Chunin Finals."

"What? You won't have time," Kushina said knowingly, wiping away her tears. "And that means she won't be at the Academy!" She loved spending time with her daughter!

"I'll need help with it, for sure," Minato admitted regarding Naru's training. Frowning, he thought about it more, although it had been driving him crazy all day. "Shikaku will still want her with him if, for no other reason than it allows him to leave the office; you or Tsunade can help out, but I'm not letting her out of the village. …And I need to spend more time with her. You two - I can tell - are getting closer and she seems comfortable and happy with you. ...More so than with me."

They sat in silence for a few moments, before Minato gave Kushina what she would call something between a goofy and pervy grin.

"I'm going to be a father!"

"You already are a father, you baka!"

"Yeah. But… Never mind. Why don't we tell Naru after the Exams, hm?"

"Alright," Kushina agreed softly. She had been wanting to tell Naruto since she found out. "But she's the next one we tell: promise me!"

"I promise."

Naruto sat outside her father's office and practiced her calligraphy. One of these days it was going to be good enough to seal the crap out of everything, but it wasn't good enough yet to make her own super-original seals. Determined, she bent further over the paper but looked up in surprise when she felt a familiar chakra. Jiji.

"JSh - sandaime-sama," Naruto said, rising and bowing to the man. It was really weird to call him that. Or to be so polite to him! "Hokage-sama is in a meeting."

"Hai, hai. I actually came to see you, Naruto-hime!"

"Please - just 'Naruto,' 'ttebayo." As weird as it was to call the Sandaime by his title, it was even weirder for him to call her THAT. She'd always been Namikaze Minato's daughter, hadn't she? Not that he would've ever told her that… Swallowing down the bitter taste that fact left in her mouth, she asked what she could do for the man.

"I have a certain aptitude for ninjutsu," Hiruzen said, a grin creeping up his face at the girl's faltering disbelief that he'd put it that way. "Alright. I'm pretty good," he had to agree, patting her head. "I know that Minato-sama has to deal with the hospital this afternoon, but thought I'd give you a hand in your training."

"Oh. Oh YEAH! Absolutely! Um… I just need to send a message to Kaa-ushina-oba."

"Relax, Naruto." Hiruzen looked behind him and reached out his senses again, just to make sure. The Hokage's office sure was nice when Danzo's men weren't lurking about!

Oh, Danzo: how did you fall so low?

"I think everyone here knows that Kushina's your mother." Naruto blushed a fiery red - so much like her mother - and Hiruzen chuckled. "What do you say? Allow an old man a spar or two?"

"Yes!" She quickly wrote her mother a note that she wouldn't be showing up to the Academy and summoned a toad. There would probably be hell to pay later, but this was an opportunity she couldn't miss!

Naruto stumbled into the house late that night, caked with mud and smoking.

"You brat! – Wh- what happened to you?!" Kushina yelled, changing course from wanting to yell at Naruto for having made her deal with Academy brats all by herself, mid-scolding, as she got off the couch.

Naru looked up and wondered why the edges of her vision were getting darker. "That old man's… strong." Jiji had turned the earth into a river that he both set on fire and electrocuted. What a drag!

–Oh no: she was turning into her sensei!

When Naruto began to fall down, Kushina cursed, but it was Ame that caught her, forcing Naruto's arm over her shoulder as Karin-chan squealed with laughter, toddle-running toward her.

"No, Karin," Ame softly scolded, bending down to push the girl away from her second cousin. Her little daughter thought Naruto was the sun and the moon all rolled up together. "Naruto's filthy and you've already had your bath!"

"Dirty," Karin said clearly, "'ttebane."

The three other Uzumakis yelled as one: "Oh no!"

"Bath," Karin demanded, pointing at Naruto. "Now."

Naruto laughed despite how much it hurt. "I love you guys," she said tiredly as her aunt dragged her to the bathroom.

Karin ran back to her aunt Kushina, babbling to herself and demanding kisses to the orange teddy bear she loved the most. The toddler carried it everywhere: Kushina was sure that it was because Naruto gave it to her, or maybe it was the orange that reminded her of her teenage cousin. "Maybe things will be alright, hm? What do you think, Karin-chan?"

The Hiraishin was fucking impossible. Kurama said that she could do it, but at this point, Naruto just couldn't see how it worked! "When did you come up with this?"

"Well, it's not exactly an original jutsu, Naruto!" Minato gestured toward the Hokage Mountain, ignoring the way the sculptors made his face look: so harsh. "Lord Second invented the jutsu - he invented SO many - and that was the one I chose to… Well, I wouldn't say enhance," Minato said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

Naruto shook her head in wonder as her father began explaining how he'd needed the jutsu in the war, and how he had begun working on it when he was a teenager, looking at the special kunai that were littering the field. Her father had been popping between them like a deranged bunny. "They always said you were a genius, but somehow I didn't realize just how much of a genius you are."

"Mou, Naruto! My little girl's flattery will get her everywhere." Naruto snorted but turned bright red as she kicked a pebble. He laughed and ruffled her hair, pulling her in for a kiss on the top of her head because he couldn't stand not doing so.

"I don't see how I can possibly learn this before the Finals," she admitted, working her bottom lip.

"Maa, maa. I really wanted to simply introduce it to you today." Minato wanted Naruto to learn the Hiraishin badly, though, just in case she needed to get out of a troublesome situation.

Naruto nodded, genuinely, deeply appreciating that. "I'm glad you did," she said shyly. "Thank you." Why were things always so weird around her father? "Is there something you can teach me - an 'in' or something - that'll help me defeat whoever my opponent turns out to be?"

Minato had been thinking about it, almost regretting that the final matches would be decided by drawing AT the event. All of the Genin competing were from Konoha - as they'd been for the entirety of the exam - and from what both Jiraiya and Shikaku had told him about Naruto's fighting style AND what he'd seen for himself so far, he knew she'd win the whole thing. Just like he had. "There are certain techniques the toads have…"

"Yuck! Hard pass!"

Naruto tried to ignore the big fuzzball; she thought Kurama was pretty funny. "Can we go to the Mountain?"

"I'd actually like that; I haven't been back in a while. But first, why don't we work on some earth jutsus? They can be extremely helpful when you need to defend yourself." He seemed to amaze his gasping daughter when he produced a large earth wall. Rushing forward and pushing a Rasengan straight through it and out to the other side, he turned back and wiggled his eyebrows at her. "Quite a surprise for an enemy, ne?" Naruto agreed as she applauded, bouncing up and down.

Minato had once dreamed of training his own child, but it was even better than he'd imagined. Screw his paperwork: it could wait.

Kushina softly pounded her forehead into her desk while Naruto laughed at her. "One day you'll be a sensei! Karma will get you, Naru-chan."

"Fuck that," Naruto said honestly. She couldn't imagine dealing with brats all day. Doing it half-days with her mother on occasion was bad enough. Those months she'd spent every day at the Academy as her mother's unknown guard/ known accomplice? Yeah: that had been terrible, (aside from getting to be with her mom,) even though Kushina only worked half-days.

"Naruto," the redhead began to scold. "…Meh. Fuck this, indeed. So," Kushina continued, brightening up considerably after she cursed. "What kind of seals are you going to use in battle?" Her daughter sat down beside her and began scratching her cute little whiskered cheek as she thought about it. Kushina couldn't help herself: she pulled Naru's cheeks to her and held her kawaii face as she talked. She'd done it enough that Naru didn't pull away anymore which was great!

"I guess it depends who I'm up against. Like, if it's an Inuzuka, a STINK seal or bomb - although Kurama says I should just fart on him: I don't know what he's on about there," she said in a dark whisper.

Kushina snorted and sat back, wishing so much that she could've had a better relationship with the big fox. Naruto would mention what he'd say every now and then, and it seemed that Kurama had a wicked sense of humor.

"And if I have to fight someone with a dojutsu, I could use a flash bomb: that would be easy enough. I don't know… Maybe a gravity seal? Can you make me some?" she asked, cuddling up to her mom a little and batting her eyelashes at her.

"HA," Kushina said, internally squealing at how cute Naru was. "That crap may work on your father, but not on me!"

"Aw, man!"

"And I'm going to tell your father that you HAVE to make your own seals."

"Rude," Naru said despite knowing that was only fair. "...And I'm going to dye all your clothes orange," she said in a dark whisper.

"I would look TERRIBLE in orange! Dammit, Naruto: what have I told you?! NEVER tell your target your prank plan!"

"Eep! Sorry!"

"Alright, kid," Shikaku said, petting her head gently. "Make me proud in there."

Naruto nodded even though she realized that for the big Chunin Exam Final, her sensei hadn't really done anything but make her babysit Shikamaru and play shogi. She ran out into the arena, blushing terribly when she heard her family shouting encouragement and general silliness. Looking up into the stands which only held Jonin, she swallowed hard, wondering how much more difficult it would've been if the whole place had been filled up with people.

And how impossible it would've been to be here without her family's support.

The henged clones she'd hidden in the stands were also making a lot of racket.

"Let's have a good match, ne?"

The Akimichi boy nodded at the blonde and grasped the fingers she'd offered in the Seal of Confrontation. He would take her seriously even if she was kinda old to be a newbie Genin.

"Hajime!"