Miyu tensed as the man continued to look at her with disdain. It brought up bad memories. Kurama noticed her reaction, and lowered his stance, growling a soft warning. He caught the father's attention and was rewarded with a look of disgust. His growling increased as the man carelessly angered the demon.

"Can I ask you to repeat that?" Miyu asked, remaining politely.

"What? The fact you are Fugaku's daughter?" Ichirou looked at his father strangely, having never seen him behave this way before. "Or the fact that you are an unwanted bastard child?" The younger girl sighed heavily, in the end she had already expected something like this from the prideful clan.

''Now, the question is where you would like to stand in their hierarchy,'' Kurama commented, ''at the moment I would not be so against a position at the top. If only to prevent fools like this one from acting so conceited.'' The fox mentally ranted about foolish humans while Miyu took the time to calm herself.

"What's wrong? Does it hurt to hear the truth?" The man commented offhandedly when she hadn't responded, "Finally it looks like Fugaku slipped up. Good, it will be easier to bring him down this way." He mumbled to himself. It should have been inaudible for humans, but the fox easily picked it up, and anything the animal heard was of course passed onto his partner. Maybe it would be easier to prevent the massacre than she thought.

"I'm sorry," She began, her tone even, "It was just that, from my knowledge, isn't the Sharingan well sought-after? I don't quite understand how I could be unwanted if I carried it in my blood."

"As if a mongrel like you could ever manifest it," The man stated, "It would have been better to kill you then let you tarnish the family name."

"I have been nothing but civil towards you so far, your threats and insults are unwarranted," Miyu grit out, beginning to lose her temper, "But if you're determined to continue I'll have to prove just how wrong you are."

"I'll speak to you however I want." He replied uncooperatively, "Its better you learn your place now if you hope to survive." He ended with an open-ended threat to her life.

Kurama growled with his hackles raised, they didn't have to take his hostility, but he didn't think a dead body would help ease Miyu into their clan.

"I think you're the one who needs to learn their place," Miyu snarled. This man rubbed her the wrong way and brought up memories she would rather forget. She felt the chakra in her body surge with her emotions and made no move to restrain them, even when her eyes were dyed red. Ichirou gaped with his mouth hanging wide open, his father choking in surprise. "I am Uchiha Namikaze Uzumaki Miyu, I don't care if you accept me or not, but next the time you threaten or insult me will be the last." She turned abruptly, with a final glare over her shoulder, and left with her fox stalking behind her.

''For a second I thought you might have become the instigator of another Uchiha Massacre,'' Kurama commented offhandedly.

"Almost," She muttered, trying to calm down as she walked, "Are these the kind of people Sasuke grew up with?"

''They are more similar to the Hyuga then they would like to admit.'' The fox voiced her own opinions before she had a chance to. It seemed like it wasn't all rainbows and sunshine with the Uchiha. She brought a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes, deactivating them, while trying to ease an oncoming headache.

"Yip!" Kurama barked out a warning but Miyu was too distracted, bumping into the unknown object.

"Ouch!" She winced and rubbed her backside which had fallen on the cruel unforgiving floor. Across from her was another child who looked a few years younger than her. Her gaze travelled upwards from the plain brown shorts and black t-shirt, decorated with the signature red and white fan. Slightly chubby cheeks from excess baby fat and short black hair framing his pale face, she would never forget those dark piercing eyes.

"Who are you?" The boy asked with a curious look. He had never seen such a sunny person before with golden hair and bright blue eyes except from Namikaze Minato. The unknown girl in the dark clothes had given him a certain look when she thought he wasn't watching. He didn't recognize it but, why did it seem so sad?

"Sorry about that, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." Miyu said helping him up, "I'm Uchiha Miyu and this is my partner Kurama." The fox yipped a greeting.

''Nice to see you again, chibitachi.'' The Uchiha would probably never hear the mocking words or tone.

"It's alright," He responded, "It was partly my fault as well. I'm Uchiha Itachi." His identity was confirmed. "I don't think I've ever seen you in the compound before."

"I'm moving in today. It's nice to meet you Itachi" Miyu smiled brightly at him and Itachi was broken out of his usual apathetic expression.

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance as well." He wondered why she was moving in in the first place and had no trouble asking.

"I'm only half Uchiha." Miyu explained. He raised a brow in curiosity, "Actually, I came to the village a little while ago."

"Where were you before?" She shrugged in response.

"I can't remember." The two had long taken to sitting in the middle of the hallway as they spoke with Kurama settled in between them and was soon asleep as he dozed.

"You can't remember?" Itachi repeated.

"I have amnesia." She explained.

"So you can't remember anything at all?" He asked, slightly confused.

"Well I remembered my name, a couple jutsu, how to fight and Kurama." She listed them off her fingers.

"So then you're a ninja?" He seemed more interested now.

"Yeah, today was my first day at the Academy." She wished she had a camera to capture his expression. Stoic, chubby faced, and slightly excited.

"Can you show me a jutsu?" Itachi asked running his hands through the foxes surprisingly silky fur.

"Probably. What do you want to see?" Miyu offered. Her repertoire was currently restricted but she was sure she could do something that interested him.

"Bushin no jutsu." She didn't even blink before a small cloud of smoke appeared and her mirror image joined her.

"Like this?" They spoke in synch, watching Itachi tried to decide who to speak to.

"You didn't use any hand seals." He commented, turning to who he though was the original.

"I'm good with this jutsu." She went out on a limb and ruffled the boy's hair. To her joy he hadn't minded much. They spent the rest day talking aimlessly to each other something that two children should've been doing all along, instead of worrying about the raging war happening in Itachi's case, and the one that would come in Miyu's. She still wasn't good enough to fully open up the young Uchiha but an almost-smile every now and then was good enough for now. Kurama purred contentedly as he felt the Uchiha scratch a particular spot behind his ear.

"What do we have here Itachi?" A kind voice spoke over a calm silence as a woman walked towards them. Miyu recognized her and from the look in the woman's eyes, it went both ways.

"Haha-ue." Itachi called in monotone.

"It's nice to meet you." She greeted, "I am Mikoto, as you can see I'm also Itachi's mother."

"The pleasure's mine...Uchiha-sama," The name rolled uncomfortably off her tongue, "I'm Uchiha Namikaze Uzumaki Miyu and this is my partner Kurama." The fox, after roused from his slumber, yipped a small greeting.

"There's no need to address me like that," Mikoto said, "After all..." She caught herself and gave the girl a wry smile, "But really, your name seems like a mouthful."

"It is." Itachi watched the interaction, greatly interested. There was something he was missing.

"Well, it's getting late," His mother said watching the setting sun, "We should probably go in for dinner."

"Will you be staying for dinner?" Itachi asked inquisitively. Yet again the two women shared a look.

"As long as I'm not intruding." Miyu finally replied.

"Of course not." Mikoto reassured. The Uchiha matriarch led the way into compound, passing by several other residential houses to reach her own.

''How nostalgic.'' Kurama commented, reading his partner's thoughts.

"Come on in then," Mikoto waved invitingly, "Fugaku's been waiting." Miyu nodded and walked forward with the fox flanking her. Itachi, slightly confused trailed behind the girl, and together they came across his father sitting at the dining table.

"How would you like me to address you?" Was the first thing said in the room. Miyu finished speaking and looked up at the Uchiha head, anticipating his answer.

"... However you call Namikaze would be fine." He decided before turning towards his son. "Itachi, there's something important I have to tell you."

"Yes, Chichi-ue?" The boy was feeling apprehensive at the slight tension in the air.

"The girl beside you is Uchiha Miyu, She'll be staying with us from now on," Itachi nodded in understanding but what was said next astounded him, "She is also your half-sister."

Dream

"Ne, Kakashi," began a rather gorgeous blonde with eyes that mirrored the ocean's depths. It was hard to believe the incredible cute child of his beloved sensei had grown into the powerful woman that sat on the bench beside him, swinging her long legs back and forth. She wore the ever familiar uniform of Konoha's black ops, honouring her final day before retirement.

"Hm, what is it?" He looked up from a battered orange book, personally signed by the author who had promised a sequel that would never come.

"Did you ever find yourself missing Anbu?" She asked fiddling with the custom made fox mask.

"All too often." He answered deciding the conversation was probably worth putting his book down. "It's too easy to leave yourself on autopilot there. Almost addictive in the way you merely have follow orders and the fact missions sometimes get so hard you have no time to think about anything else."

"So that's why we're discharged?" Naru assumed, "Because Anbu is addictive and will turn you into a machine?" He nodded.

"I can't speak for other villages but Konoha like ninja with personality." He explained.

"Like Gai." She stated.

"Yes, like Gai and like you." He expanded, "Like the lazy Nara and wilful Yamanaka, the jovial Akamichi and the fierce Inuzuka, the prideful Hyuga, calculative Aburame, or our confident shinobi and temperamental kunoichi." That earned him a rather hard punch to his arm. "And of course our drunken Hokage."

"And a perverted Hatake." She grumbled. An unexpected thought popped into her head. "And the Uchiha?" She wondered. The two took a while to think of the rather emotionless clan.

"Well, they were arrogant." Kakashi shrugged. They shared a look before bursting out in hysterics, or chuckles in his case. It was the strangest thing since it wasn't even that funny. Yet here they were in near unstoppable laughter and gaining questioning and disturbed looks from people around them. Maybe it was a good thing Tsunade had relieved Naru from her duties. And, as sudden as it came, they stopped.

"I can understand wanting to stay there." Naru said picking up the conversation, "It's so much easier."

"It is," Kakashi agreed. Another long silence stretched out and in that time he had abandoned his book in favour of her hand. Smaller and thinner than his own, Kakashi entwined their fingers together.

"I feel like a drug addict going into withdrawal." She said with a sigh.

"That won't do at all." Kakashi admonished, "I heard the reason why Tsunade pulled you out earlier than usual is because she's planning something big."

"Big?" She echoed curiously.

"Mmhm." He looked off nonchalantly into the distance.

"Well what is it?" She was all too familiar with his games and just wanted the answer straight out.

"Sorry, can't say." He made a motion of zipping his mouth. "Classified."

"I'm pretty sure I'm ranked high enough to know." He shook his head. How much higher than Anbu captain could she get? "Dammit Hatake! Why even get me curious if you weren't going to answer?" She pouted at him, and while it wasn't as cute after he had seen literally her rip out a man's heart while he was still breathing, it did look incredibly sexy. And he would have captured those same lips too if it wasn't for his second remaining student to pop up.

"Naru!" Her loud voice, combined with the elemental of surprise, was enough to cause the blonde to jump.

"Sakura!" Naru exclaimed, after landing herself on Kakashi's lap, "What's up?"

"Hope I'm not interrupting." The medic sang. Kakashi gave her a look that told her she definitely was, not that she cared. "But Tsunade-sama requests your presence."

"Huh? What does Baa-chan want?" She reluctantly detached herself from her former sensei and dusted non-existent dust off her pants. "I guess I'll get going then..." She shot Kakashi a wistful look but he just waved her off.

"Don't worry about me and get going. I'll probably be dropping by your apartment tonight anyway." He gave a mischievous wink with his sole uncovered eye and Naru vaguely wondered if that counted as blinking.

"Alright then, I'll see you later." She leaned in and in a practised motion pulled down his mask to place a chaste kiss. Sakura looked at the cute couple from her peripheral vision but quickly got bored as the kiss seemed to deepen and Naru had moved back to straddling the Hatake. She cleared her throat loudly and finally the two lovebirds stopped, both looking slightly messed up. "Right. Baa-chan." Naru remembered. She waved to them both and shunshined into the office, only to get a face full of rainbow streamers and glittery confetti.

"Congratulations!" Shouted her closest friends, who had all been gathered into the room.

"Wha-" She was stunned and it was definitely because of the barrage of bright colours.

"Congratulations gaki," Naru pinpointed Tsunade's voice and turned to face the desk where a large banner stretched across the back wall. The busty blonde pulled out special stamp and slammed it right on the girl's unsuspecting forehead.

"Gah!" She stumbled back at the sheer force and was caught by a smiling Neji. "What the hell was that for, and what is all of this?" She finally asked.

"Here you go." Ino passed her a small pocket mirror so she could clearly see the red-inked words. Naru was torn between cheering and crying, out of joy of course, so she settled for both.

"Yatta!" She pulled the closest person into a tight hug and was soon suffocating Hinata, "I did it! I did it!" Someone managed to tear the poor girl out of her grasp but at the sacrifice of Shino. "Shino! Do you see it?!" She pointed to the red words and he nodded. Who couldn't see it when it was placed in such an obvious area? "Isn't wonderful?!" She was bursting with joy and decided it needed to be shared around. First by giving Shino a dizzyingly kiss, before he was 'saved' and replaced with Hinata once again. Of course that didn't stop her but Hinata did faint, and really no one was safe from an irrational Naru. Kakashi and Sakura chose that moment to coolly walk through the door.

"Should I be jealous?" He asked giving questioning stares around the room. No one replied and the sunny blonde bound up to him, showing off the mark of honour. She then jumped him and Kakashi decided the answer was no.

Reality

Miyu jolted awake in an unfamiliar, traditional-styled room. Where had such a cheerful memory popped out from? If she remembered right that was when Tsunade had declared her as a Hokage candidate, the only candidate, and therefore the one who would succeed her. Miyu stared at the ceiling as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Hokage? No, she didn't need that. The title wouldn't help her. No, she didn't need it. Power. That was what she was striving for. She closed her eyes again. That's right, power... Kurama watched her from behind his tail, his red eyes shining bright as she fell back into a dreamless sleep.

"Miyu!" Iruka greeted her and waved her over to the back. "You look beat." He commented when she sat beside him.

"I was training." Miyu answered. She didn't know how he had found out about her change in living arrangements so soon, but Gai had showed up on the Uchiha's doorstep shouting in his usual voice. Thankfully, most people were already up and about.

"Training?" Iruka repeated, "Do you do this every morning?"

"Yeah." She nodded, "Maybe you should join us. I usually spend my mornings with Gai."

"Maito Gai?" Iruka paled slightly, "I'm fine. But I think I will start training myself a bit more."

"Whatever works best for you." She said with a shrug. The rest day was spent in much the same way as her first. A brief lesson, lunch, some demonstrations, and then the ending signal.

"Well I'm out brats!" Saito-sensei declared, finishing his class, "Go home and leave me alone." He left the room and his students began to pack up and leave. Several of them pointed to the new student and Iruka whispering all the while.

"Finally!" The brunette quickly packed away his belongings before stretching out his arms, "I didn't think I was going to last another second."

"Same here." Miyu agreed. Kurama had taken to 'hunting' while she was at school, leaving her rather bored. She didn't want to disrupt Iruka's learning, not that he was focusing much anyway, and ended up doodling on a scrap piece of paper.

"Is that all you did?" Iruka asked seeing her artistic masterpiece. It was such a strange picture but was fairly well drawn. "Why a toad?" He thought girls hated those animals,

"With a jacket and pipe?"

"Just felt like it I guess," She shrugged and began scrunching it up only for an arm to stop her. She gave the offender a questioning look.

"Can I keep it?" Iruka asked embarrassed, "I thought it looked pretty good and..." He trailed off mumbling.

"What'd you say? You gotta speak up Iruka." Miyu replied straining her ears. Something about his mum?

"My mum wants me to bring proof whenever I get a friend..." his face was an interesting shade of red.

"Alright then, I guess that's alright." She handed over the wanted paper slightly surprised, "You must have a lot of random items at home."

"Aha...hah...Actually, this'll be this first one." He muttered the last bit too quietly for her to hear. "So," He said louder, "I guess I'll see you again tomorrow?"

"Yeah."

"So how was your day?" Minato asked when she appeared at training ground 7, "And where did Kurama go?"

"It was fun," she answered, "And he's been spending the day hunting."

"Ah... So, did you make any friends?" He questioned.

"Yep. I made one really good one." Miyu smiled beside him.

"Really," He was relieved she wouldn't be all alone in the Academy, "Who was it?" His mind was already sorting through all the children he had seen which could have been a possibility.

"Iruka!" Her smile widened as she grinned back at him after stopping a few steps ahead.

"Umino Iruka?" He echoed, "As in the prankster?"

"Mmhm." She nodded, confirming the fact.

"And you didn't make any other friends?" He pressed.

"Nope." She popped the 'p' at the end of the word.

"So you made only friends with a troublemaker? Couldn't you have found some better, 'female' company?" He put emphasis on the gender, but didn't want to be too pushy.

"Iruka's great company. He's fun to hang out with." She pouted at him not approving.

"Well I've met his parents and their both respectable ninja." Minato responded, "Can you promise me that you'll make at least one more friend?"

"Okay, I'll try." Miyu nodded, though she didn't really want to get too close with the other kids in her class.

"Good." He glanced over to where Kakashi and Rin were both sparing horizontally on tree trunks. "And how was your first night in the Uchiha compound?" He asked a bit more carefully.

"It was alright." Miyu answered, "Mikoto is nice and a great cook, Itachi doesn't seem to mind me too much and Fugaku has been accepting."

"Hm. Well if you ever want to come back there is always a place for you in the apartment." Minato clapped his hand and the both jumped down panting slightly. Rin looked exhausted but Kakashi was a bit better off, most likely the winning side of their mock fight. "Take a break." Minato gave, both students looking rather thankful.

"Hi there Miyu." Rin greeted with a wave, Kakashi merely giving her a nod of acknowledgement.

"Training hard?" The little girl asked.

"Yeah." Rin replied, "It's been a bit tough these past few days. Anyways, how was the Academy?"

"It was fun. I really like Saito-sensei." Miyu answered cutely.

"I heard he was quite an unorthodox teacher...but a good one nonetheless." Kakashi added. "What did he teach you?"

"A bit about stealth and the uses of a good henge. Then he showed us the hand signs."

"Henge, huh?" Rin pondered over the thought, "Don't you already know it?" the blonde girl nodded in confirmation. "Can we see it?"

"Ok." She shrugged and there was a small 'poof' as a cloud of pink smoke obscured her.

"Kushina? What are you doing here?" Minato asked when he turned to look back at his students after spending a moment away.

"Uh, sensei, that's not Kushina-san." His female student told him, "Miyu was showing us her henge."

"Really?!" he was genuinely surprised, "I know Kushina down to the exact length of each individual, and beautiful, strand of hair. That definitely looks like her to me."

"Always a flatterer." An amused voice said as said woman walked into the clearing. She stopped next to the henged Miyu and gave her a once over. "Damn, I'm hot." She commented.

"Should I repeat my question?" Minato asked.

"Nah, I heard you when I was coming over." His girlfriend replied, "It's nothing important. I just decided to drop by." Miyu release her henge, deciding that it was too confusing with two Kushinas standing there.

"You must be really good." Kakashi praised. Rin was surprised at his compliment but agreed wholeheartedly.

"I know, I couldn't even tell the difference."

"Not in that way," Kakashi clarified, "Didn't you notice she didn't use hand signs?" Rin thought back. Now he said it she had only seen the girl nod before transforming. None of her fingers even twitched.

"She must have fairly good chakra control then." The medic deduced. Miyu stood completely unaware of the conversation due to the fox chatting with her mentally.

''So I decided to scout around some more today,'' Kurama informed her from wherever he was in the village, ''there are a lot more ninjas patrolling the area and the guard is tight.'' Honestly, I'm not surprised, she responded. Did you find anything of interest? ''A couple, it looks like the snake Sannin is still in the village.''

"Orochimaru." She growled almost inaudibly under her breath.

''Yes, with his little apprentice too.'' Anko? She asked. ''Yes, her. Orochimaru, he smelt like rotting corpses but outwardly his façade is nothing but respectful.'' If I remember correctly he would have already started his human experiments. Hopefully we'll be able to save some less fortunate people from that fate.

"Miyu?" the girl visibly started, jolted out of the conversation she was a bit too immersed in. Minato watched her in concern with Kushina sharing the same expression next to him.

"Are you alright?" He continued.

"Yeah, I was just thinking." It looked like Kakashi and Rin had gone back to training, practising some simple water jutsus she could identify.

"Would you like to try it?" Minato asked after following her gaze.

"Can I?" Miyu bounced on the balls of her feet eagerly. This was the perfect chance to 'widen' her ninjutsu arsenal without any questioning.

"Of course." Kushina followed up, "What would you like to learn?"

"What about Mizurappa?" Minato suggested, "It's a pretty basic technique."

"Alright." Kushina agreed, "Well since you apparently have great chakra control this shouldn't be too hard." Miyu agreed it would be easily, but for an entirely different reason.

Where did she hear I had great control from? She wondered slightly confused. It didn't help that Kurama had picked up on her more recent thoughts and was snickering in the background. "Well Minato," Kushina shoved her boyfriend over to Kakashi and Rin, "Over there are your students so I'll leave you alone to attend to them. Meanwhile I'll be teaching Miyu the basics of the basics." She ushered Miyu to a more reclusive area before getting down to the 'basics'