Narumi wandered around the village bored out of her skull, and more than a little depressed.

It sucked having no friends, or people to talk to. The only four people she had to talk to were Kakashi, who was always on missions, Remus, whenever he showed up, and the Ichiraku's but they were always working. She didn't have any friends her own age, or pretty much any age. It led to things being unbearably lonely, and the glares and whispers from the people around just made things worse.

Her reputation as a troublemaker kept parents from wanting their children to associate with her. People called her a bully, and that really angered her. To be lumped in with the same people who tormented her night and day, it stung at her soul, and made her hate this place, and all its inhabitants.

She was only a couple of weeks away from turning eight and that meant the Kyuubi festival was going to occur. Which meant she would spend the day dodging drunks and hiding from dingbats who thought hitting a child made them heroes. At around this time every year is when people really got sensitive in regard to her status as a Jinchuriki. It wasn't much of a secret to her. She carried the soul of the Demon Fox within her, forced into that role on the day she was born by her own damn father. The people of Konoha hated the Fox with a blind passion, and in many ways that hatred transferred over to Narumi. They saw her as the only means of striking out at the demon that had taken so much from them.

It never made much sense to her, why the villagers chose to target her, and not Naruko. She only contained the soul and body of the Kyuubi, not any of its power. If the Fourth Hokage was as good at sealing jutsu as everyone claimed he was, then they should have no worries for Narumi, as the demon had no power to fight back with. It's not like it could undermine the seal in any way, so they shouldn't be concerned about her being corrupted or influenced by it. No, instead it seemed more likely that the people were simply looking for a way to hurt the demon and hurting her was the only way they could do that.

It was the Voice that helped her reach that understanding. He was sure most people simply saw her as an avenue to pursue their desires for revenge and justice. They had all lost so much, and had no means of coping or moving on, so they sought whatever answer they could find. So what if it was irrational, so long as it made them feel better, that was all that mattered. When they looked at Naruko, they saw a hero, and that kept them from seeing her as a means to exact revenge on the Fox. She also only held its power, so hurting her, wouldn't hurt the Fox at all. In Narumi they saw a powerless soul and that empowered them to act.

This led Narumi to conclude that she would never have safety here in the village. People would never see her, they'd only see the Fox, and a means of hurting it. It was these thoughts that led Narumi to begin pondering her future, and what path she would take. The idea of becoming a ninja had always been on her mind, yet with these conversations, she became more convinced that becoming a Leaf ninja was a path to nothing but further pain, and more heartbreak.

What else could she do, if she didn't become a Leaf Ninja? Only one answer presented itself, and it twisted at her heart to think of it. She hated the idea, and she was afraid of it, but the truth of the matter was that it was likely her only means of escape from this hell, and that was to quite literally escape. To abandon the village and leave it behind. The idea scared her. The idea of leaving behind everything she'd ever known, it always made her pause, and it filled her with unease.

Why couldn't her family just love her? If they loved her, then all the rest of it, she could manage. Hell, even if it was only Naruko, she'd be happy. Having the love of her twin sister would have made it all worth it, because not so deep down, Narumi adored her twin. It wasn't all that long ago that the two were inseparable, and Narumi could remember how Naruko would look up to her, despite there only being a few minutes age difference between them. It felt so near that time, and yet Narumi couldn't remember when the last time Naruko wasn't a brat around her.

She wished it was possible to go back to that. All she needed was someone to love her. Someone who cared enough to be there for her when she needed them. She didn't have that though. The closest she had was the Voice, nothing more than a figment of her own imagination. Pathetic.

She turned her thoughts away from her darkened musing. She needed to find something to do, something to occupy her mind. If she was left alone with her thoughts for much longer, she might start travelling down to a darker place, and she really didn't wanna go there again. She never wanted to feel that level of desperation and helplessness again.

She needed to do something. She could always keep training, but that was boring. The voice in her head called her a prodigy unlike any it'd seen before, but she didn't really have a basis to compare, and the Voice wasn't real so that kind of compliment didn't really matter. She also wasn't sure if he was just trying to encourage her or if he was just exaggerating. Sure in a fight she could easily take any chuunin in the damn village, and if they weren't expecting it, she could probably do some damage to a Jonin as well, but that spoke more about the skill of the village's ninja as a whole, rather than her abilities. She was good, but she hadn't had much of an opportunity to truly compare herself to another fighter.

Her strength was her weakest point easy since she was still little, she couldn't work on increasing her muscle mass until later, otherwise she may damage her body. Speed wise she was faster than any Chuunin in the village, and thanks to her Godmother's drunken meandering Narumi was able to get her hands on some of her techniques, including info on her superstrength. She still hadn't perfected it and could only triple her strength while her Godmother could multiply her strength one hundred times.

Narumi had begun learning a bit about medical ninjutsu from stolen scrolls and the like, but these required an in-depth knowledge of anatomy and biology which she currently lacked, so she had to study up on those first before learning any sort of healing skills. Her genjutsu was alright, she only knew a handful of techniques, but they were decent, better than most Genin, and even a few Chuunin. Taijutsu, was one of her major skills, as the voice in her head, often claimed how it loved to bash people's faces in with a kick or a punch, and Narumi couldn't disagree, she'd broken a few noses, and wrists in her day, and it was fun to hear the crack or popping sound as bone broke, at least in her humble opinion.

Her skill in Shurikennojutsu was great, she was fully capable of curving Shuriken around multiple objects to hit a target thirty yards away, and she could take the wings off a fly with a senbon at ten yards, so her accuracy was awesome.

She was still too little to try to learn how to use a sword, but she liked the idea and was definitely into learning how when she was bigger. She was just now learning seal characters and found that she actually really enjoyed it, it calmed her when drawing out the Kanji for seals. She still hadn't made many, about the best she could do was make a simple storage scroll but still.

Where Narumi really shined was in skills that required less finesse. Like Ninjutsu and spellcasting. She didn't have a wand but found she didn't need one, she could cast a few spells with a wave of her hand though they were much more draining than she assumed they would be if she had a wand. Sadly, there weren't any wandcrafters in the Elemental Nations, and the only other wand around was her mother's, but she didn't want anything to do with that woman. Right now, she only knew two offensive spells, two defensive spells and three utility spells like Lumos, which she had taken from some of her mother's old books one time, before being caught and having them taken away and hidden.

Ninjutsu on the other hand was a much less trying endeavor. She quickly figured out that she had a unique chakra system and magical core. She learned from Uncle Remus that Wizards and ninja use two different parts of their magical pathways to draw energy from. Wizards draw from their core itself, while Ninja draw from their Chakra coils, or tenketsu points. Because of this a wizard bypasses the eight inner gates and draws directly from where their magic is made, this means that when they start, they have much more energy at their disposal then ninja, but not full access to their magic, as most magic is pumped out of their core, as it's made. This led to Wizards recovering magic quickly and suffering from less physical exhaustion but at the detriment of their magic being less dense. Ninja on the other hand gain a benefit later in life, since they draw energy from the coils, which are after the eight gates, meaning they have less magic to use, the benefit comes after a few years of using chakra, because the active use of chakra causes one's coils to expand thus causing their core to speed up production of magic. So, it has been found that the few people who practice both methods, were exceedingly more powerful, Minato, Voldemort and Dumbledore were a few noteworthy individuals who practice both forms of magic.

So anyway, Narumi possessed a unique magical system, if a Hyuuga were to look at her with their Byakugan, they would see a slightly larger than average core, and chakra coils. What they wouldn't see is how tightly packed all of the magic in her body was. According to the voice in her head, her natural chakra control was so high, and her body so unique, that chakra and magic did not escape her pathways or core, thus giving the illusion that she only had an above-average amount of magic, when in reality she had an incredible amount of chakra, more then Jiraiya even, and he had the second largest reserves in Konoha after her twin Naruko.

The Voice didn't quite know what to make of her incredible amount of Chakra. At such a young age, and without the actual power of the Nine Tails within her, she should have just had above average Chakra amounts. Having more than one of the Sannin, that was something that shouldn't have been possible without being a full Jinchuriki.

It had no explanation, and Narumi certainly didn't know what to make of it. All that she knew was that having that much chakra made performing magic much easier.

Thus, she was a savant when it came to ninjutsu. She hadn't yet figured out her base element, but if she had to guess it was likely fire and lightning, but she'd have to buy chakra testing paper, and she already had to deal with outlandish prices when buying food and clothes, no way was she spending money on a piece of paper when she didn't have any problems with learning any of the five elements. In all actuality, Fire and Lightning weren't even the easiest, they were just her favorites. According to the voice in her head, fire and wind were his favorite, because independently they caused immense damage, but when combined they were unstoppable. He didn't blame her for liking lightning over wind, it fit her personality better. All in all, she had eighteen jutsu of varying elements under her belt.

So, when it came down to it, Narumi was good to great in all areas, but because she didn't have a teacher, she couldn't really pull ahead in any area, so she just jumped between them. One skill that she possessed that no one, not even her famous sister could boast of having was being one incredibly tough little girl. Narumi could take one hell of a beating, as she would often have taijutsu matches with her Shadow clones and handicap herself in some manner or another. So, she toughened up quickly, the beatings from the villagers didn't hurt in that department either.

She thrived on the adrenaline of combat, she never felt more alive than when she was fighting, actually fighting. Sadly, the number of people that could actually fight her was getting smaller by the day. However, the number of people who could dance with her was still high.

That's what the Voice called it, he had once described the nature of battle to her. The threat of it, the intensity, how at any moment, your life could end. Unless your life is on the line, it's not a fight. When there is no chance for your opponent or it's so astronomically small, that it's not worth mentioning, it's not a fight. He called any other bout between two warriors a dance. This truth helped to shape her own ideology. She came to view it the same way, unless threatened by death, it wasn't a true battle. At most, it was a playful dance, a word used to emphasize the nature of battle as a form of expression.

Her natural abilities were simply incredible, there was no other way around it. Why was she so skilled, why did things come so naturally to her, she didn't know. The Voice in her head, simply said that she was special. What it meant by that; Narumi had no idea.

So, if not training, what else could she do? After a few moments of not being able to think of anything she just decided to train anyway. At least it would give her something to occupy her time.

Narumi made her way to one of the rarely used training grounds and just started her normal exercises, she started running around a nearby lake, and after that was finished she worked more on her control, so she went to the tree to practice her bounding skill.

Bounding was the term used to describe the act of jumping onto a surface and using chakra to stick. Naturally, it was harder than tree walking or water walking, as you only had a fraction of a second before gravity grabbed you and pulled you down. The hardest form of this training was going from water to a solid surface that hung above the water, forcing the person to keep flipping upside down to get their feet beneath them. It was very tiring, most chuunin weren't able to do it for more the a couple of minutes before either tiring or barfing.

It had probably been thirty minutes when Narumi landed upside down on a tree limb with a sigh, she moved atop it and sat there. She let out a few tired breaths when suddenly she felt something cold and sharp press against her neck.

"You've got some stamina there girl, but you should know never to let your guard down." A voice mockingly stated from behind her.

"You've got one second to get that blade away from me before I explode." Narumi stated in a cold tone.

"Brave words little girl, but I'm the one holding the blade." The voice replied, in a condescending tone.

"One." Narumi spoke with a snarl.

"... What?" The figure asked, but he didn't get time to contemplate her statement as the Narumi he held captive suddenly and violently exploded, sending the would-be assassin flying into a tree. He slammed violently into it and fell to the ground the wind knocked out of him.

"Holy shit... how does a seven-year-old know the Shadow Explosion jutsu?" The man asked while trying to regain his footing.

"That, like living, is no longer your concern." Narumi stated coldly. She wasn't sure she could go through with her statement and actually kill the man; she'd never killed anyone before, but for some reason his attempt on her life, made her feel as if his life had just been made forfeit and now it was her right to take it.

In her head the Voice spoke, identifying weak points to target to take down the bigger foe quickly before they could recover. She took the moment to note that this man... boy... couldn't be more than twice her age. He was taller than her, but not tall enough to be an adult.

Killing him, it was a vicious thought, but with the week she'd been having, she was slowly starting to lose her grasp on civility. Such anger, it was uncharacteristic of a child.

"Wait!" Another voice shouted as a Weasel masked Anbu landed next to the downed boy, who turned out to be a Crow masked Anbu.

Narumi stepped out of the shadows and stood before the two men as the Crow masked one finally made it to his feet, he was holding his ribs, obviously, they were broken from the force of the explosion.

"Why should I? He attacked me. Tried to kill me. That makes his life forfeit." Narumi replied darkly.

"Please lady Narumi, my idiot friend did not mean anything by his attempt, he was just trying to scare you." Weasel tried to explain.

"And why pray tell, did this moron think that placing a blade to the throat of someone with my reputation was a good idea?" Narumi asked, her eyes alight with fury.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"That's just why." Crow stated. "I heard everything about you from the others. Our Captain, Dog, he speaks highly of you, and he never speaks highly of anyone. I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I saw you training, and it truly looked like your guard was down, so I decided to see what he was talking about. I was only intending to scare you, I swear. Had I known those stories were true, I would have never tried something like this." Crow explained in pained breaths. The two men knew that Crow was in no condition to fight. That technique had been at full power, and it damn near killed the fool for his prank. Both men knew that in his condition, Crow couldn't fight a kitten, let alone a seven-year-old with a reputation of screwing the Anbu side-ways every chance she got.

"Well, Crow... you should have studied your target more. If you had, you would have known that I never drop my guard around the fools of this village." Narumi stated with the glare in her eyes never leaving the two men.

"Please my lady. He is very sorry and meant no harm, allow him to get medical attention, and we will find some way to repay you." Weasel offered.

"Yeah, I'm truly sorry, there was no other motive besides spooking you. It was a stupid idea, and I regret it. If there's anything I can say or do to apologize, please let me know." Crow informed her as he tried to straighten up and look professional.

Narumi looked like she was thinking their offer over when the voice suddenly whispered a suggestion. After a moment Narumi replied.

"Go get your ribs checked out. The two of you will be back tomorrow and every day that you are free from your Anbu duties afterwards for a full thirty days. During which you two will teach me. Once your thirty days are up, you'll have repaid your debt, is that fair?" Narumi asked, with a menacing grin.

The two men shared a look where Crow simply shrugged, and Weasel let out an audible sigh.

"Very well. If this will forgive this trouble he is in, then we'll do it." Weasel replied, receiving a nod from Crow.

"Good. See you tomorrow boys. And try not to sneak up on anyone for a while, Crow. You might get bitten again." Narumi said with a girlish chuckle as she turned and skipped merrily away, uttering a vocal thanks to the voice for its wonderful suggestion. Both of them heard her, but didn't know who she was talking too, it left them more than a little creeped out.

"Next time Shisui, when I tell you it's a bad idea to do something. Listen." Weasel stated with a sigh.

"Yeah yeah, don't get your panties in a bunch Itachi, it could be worse. Besides, a month learning what she can really do? I'd gladly get blown up again, for a chance to see that." Crow replied.

Weasel simply shook his head and let out another sigh before stepping up to help support Crow, "Let's get you to the hospital, we'll discuss your antics later." Weasel stated as the two started walking.

"Yeah yeah. I'll be sure to pay attention mother." Crow replied dismissively.

"You'd best. Otherwise, I'll have to tell the rest of the team how you were just defeated, with one jutsu, that was used by a seven-year-old girl who isn't even a ninja yet." Weasel said with a bit of mischief evident in his voice.

"You wouldn't dare." Crow muttered.

"Would I? That is the question. But it's for later. For now, let's get you to the hospital and figure out the damage." Weasel replied.

The next day, the two Uchiha arrived on the field to find Narumi meditating peacefully. After a couple moments of silence, the older of the two cleared his throat loudly enough for her to hear.

"Welcome back Weasel, Crow." Narumi stated as she opened her eyes and stared at the two Uchiha.

"Hey girlie, we're out of uniform right now, don't call us that, just stick with our names." The older of the two said, as the younger just adopted a disgruntled look.

"Very well. What are your names?" Narumi asked.

"Shisui and this is Itachi." Shisui replied.

"Ha! I blew up Shisui the Teleporter! That's awesome!" Narumi suddenly cheered with glee, as she recognized the famous boy, while also taking note of Itachi as the Uchiha clan heir.

"Ah... hey you caught me off guard... and..." Shisui tried to defend himself.

"You had to have your friend here stop me from maiming you. I'd constitute that as a win in my book." Narumi told him with a smirk.

"She's got you there Shisui." Itachi replied with a smirk of his own.

"Shut up both of you. Let's just get this started." Shisui replied, obviously embarrassed.

"Alright then. Let's begin. What would you like to learn first?" Itachi asked.

"Well I know a bit of pretty much everything, shinobi wise, so I can learn and grow in any area." Narumi replied with a thoughtful look.

"Well, what are your strengths and weaknesses?" Shisui asked. He was very interested to hear her reply, since being injured, he'd started to believe the things his captain had said about her and was immensely curious to hear from her own lips just how strong she was.

"Hm... my strengths are probably Ninjutsu and Taijutsu. My weaknesses are probably genjutsu and medical ninjutsu." Narumi replied after a moment of thought.

"Well cool. I can help you improve your strengths and Itachi here can work on your weaknesses. I'm great at Ninjutsu and Taijutsu. Itachi's great at everything, but where he really shines is Genjutsu." Shisui stated, earning a nod from Itachi.

"Alright let's just switch off, Weaknesses today, strengths tomorrow." Narumi suggested with a happy grin.

"Hey whatever you want. You're the one holding us hostage here." Shisui replied with a chuckle.

"Yeah, and I'm gonna milk this for all it's worth... Sensei." Narumi responded with a wicked grin.

The two Uchiha shared a look before chuckling at the little girl's antics.

"Alright, let's begin then." Itachi stated.

And for the next thirty or so days that's how it went. The two boys would show up early, and train Narumi for a couple hours. It shocked the two at how good she was. Both were considered prodigies, and she wasn't nearly up to their level yet, but damn if she didn't give both men a run for their money. Where she couldn't match them in skill or strength, she could beat them in stamina, and chakra. Plus, the two men didn't expect her use of spells, Itachi spent a good portion of their fourth day together dodging stunners.

Narumi had fun with the two guys. They were both kind, and while Shisui would often tease her, and get into competitions with her, he was always respectful. Itachi was the same way, he may tease her every so often, but he treated her with respect. Another good thing about them was that neither man pried into her reasoning for never going home. They learned the truth when Dog asked them where they had been spending all their free time. When they told him, he in turn told them the things that had happened at the Namikaze estate a couple of months back and asked the two to keep an eye on her. The two men were shocked and angered that their own Hokage would treat his child like that, both men lost a lot of respect for the Fourth after hearing that.

Neither ever let on that they knew the truth. They quickly realized that Narumi was a prideful girl, and that to pity her, was tantamount to insulting her, and she didn't take insults kindly.

Narumi learned quickly and it often left the two men flabbergasted at how she could learn a B-rank Ninjutsu in one day and have it mastered within a week. Her massive chakra stores allowed her to spam incredibly high-level techniques while her incredible control allowed for her to use delicate techniques and abilities. Learning from the two, helped her to really hone her skills and finally gain some battlefield experience. Fighting against actual skilled shinobi did wonders for her, and with tips and observations from the Voice, she quickly began to overcome the challenges both young men put before her.

On October tenth, Narumi's birthday, she spent most of the day alone, but shortly before sunset, Shisui and Itachi found her and gave her birthday presents. Narumi was ecstatic, she was so happy that she was bouncing around the whole time thanking the two profusely. Aside from Remus, and Kakashi, the only other person who really got Narumi gifts for her birthday was Naruko, though seeing as how she didn't have money of her own, they were mostly simply trinkets or things she'd made or found, yet those presents carried a deep meaning to Narumi. One she still carried with her, as a token of remembrance of the time when the twins were close, was a hair clip, meant to keep Narumi's wild bangs from falling into her eyes. She'd given it to her last year, and Narumi still wore it, often times lamenting on it, and remembering how the two used to be friends. Even a year ago, the two had been growing further apart, Naruko was began treating her with more and more resentment, and began bullying her and making fun of her, it only got worse as time went on.

This year was probably the best birthday she could remember.

She had received a Tanto and Wakizashi from Shisui. Both were plain blades obviously just meant to be cast away when they broke, but he figured she could use the tanto now and learn with the Wakizashi before moving up to a larger sword when she got older. Narumi had always been fascinated by the sword, and having been gifted ones by Shisui with his assurances that he believed she could be great at Kenjutsu really inspired her to begin learning the art. His opinion of her was beginning to mean a great deal to her. Itachi got her some blank scrolls, along with new ink and brushes, for her sealing practice, plus he got her a book on human anatomy, since he knew she had an interest in learning medical ninjutsu, and he knew that was one of the required fundamentals if you ever wanted to get good at it.

She was so happy with her gifts; she didn't have to wait long to get her gifts from Kakakshi. Kakashi had stopped by a little bit later, and gave her his gift, a fresh pack of Shuriken, Kunai, and senbon, since hers were all getting dull, or broken. He also dropped off Remus's gift, since it was that time of the month again, and he was off dealing with his furry little problem. Remus's gift was a book on basic transfiguration spells. Remus knew of her ability to use spells without a wand, so he knew she would make good use of this gift.

All in all, a great birthday. Narumi ended the day with a smile on her face, which had become a rarity these last few months

Her training continued, and she received further praise from her two teachers, who found her rapidly growing skills to be almost unnatural.

Eventually though, her time with Itachi and Shisui, came to a close. The thirty days were up, and she didn't expect to see them as often anymore. They both promised to keep showing up and helping her whenever they could, but still, she had held them for long enough, and though it saddened her immensely that she wouldn't have them as a constant in her life any longer, she had come to care about the two enough to let them leave, if that's what they wanted.

To her surprise not two days later, Shisui showed up again and offered her more training. It seemed the man had come to view her as a little sister and had enjoyed the time they spent together.

Narumi was so happy to have a true friend like Shisui, sure he was like twice her age, but still, he was so nice to her. And treated her how she wanted to be treated. He became her first true friend, and that idea alone, was enough to restore Narumi's hope in a brighter future. It motivated her and filled her with purpose in the morning. Having a friend was all she ever really needed, and now she had one. It was a life-changing experience, and she was eternally grateful to Shisui for giving her this chance, and for being her friend.

Things continued with them training for several more weeks, Shisui, showed up as often as he could to train her. Sometimes Itachi would come with, but with his recent promotion to Anbu captain, his free time got slashed immensely. Still, Narumi wasn't bothered by it, she came to view Itachi as her second friend, and the two men collectively became her older brothers. She was always so excited to meet with them, it filled her days with joy and made her forget about her family.

One day about a month after her birthday she and Shisui sat atop the Hokage mountain, watching the sun set.

They had just finished another rigorous day of training and honestly, in Shisui's opinion, the girl was going to soon pass him up, she just learned everything so fast, and her skills grew at such an astounding rate, that she was often measurably stronger after each passing day. Today had been the closest she'd come to beating him in a straight-up fight, the fresh cut on his cheek, was a testament to how close her blade had gotten.

Shisui, couldn't help but smile as he thought on her progress, it really made him proud as a sensei, that his student had come so far in such a short time, he glanced over at her, and saw her staring into the sunset, with a content smile on her face.

All he could do was smile as well and wonder what tomorrow would bring.

-Six days later-

Some time had passed and the two continued their training, currently, they were both in the training yard, going all out against each other, Shisui had his Shunshin technique at full power and was flying across the field to avoid Narumi's jutsu and a barrage of shuriken.

The girl moved with incredible speed for one so young. She undoubtedly surpassed where both he and Itachi were at that age; hell give her a year and she'd probably be on par with where they were now. He was amazed by her growth in power, and he worked diligently to challenge her and encourage her to keep growing. Potential like hers comes around once in a lifetime and it had to be nurtured.

He came to a halt and began to speed through hand signs, preparing to launch a fireball at her, when he spotted something odd.

Narumi was watching Shisui intently as he came to a sudden halt, he had been moving with frightening speed, not holding back this time around. Many of the man's movements were little more than a blur to her, yet with each passing moment, with every blinding movement she found herself getting a clearer and clearer view of his actions. It was almost like she was adjusting to his speed, her eyes adapting to perceive his movements. As the fight persisted without her landing a hit, she felt her frustration growing. She watched him come to a halt and begin to speed through hand signs, and for a moment his hands moved too fast to follow but then, time seemed to slow down, she saw his hands move clearly, she could understand the hand signs and recognized the jutsu. His body began to glow, an airy blue light beginning to manifest around him. She'd never seen a jutsu like this before, so she immediately tensed up in preparation for the unknown.

A chuckle filled her mind, the source coming from the Voice.

Before she could question what that was about, she saw Shisui pause for a second, as he stared at her, almost like something had startled him. He fell out of a fighting stance, yet the blue glow remained around him.

"What?" Narumi called out as he stopped his hand signs and started to walk towards her.

"Your eyes... they're glowing red." Shisui stated, more than a little worried, since he knew what she held within her.

"Huh? Red?" Narumi replied with confusion. She fished out her tanto and looked at her reflection in the shining metal. She saw that her eyes were indeed red, and there, next to each pupil was a single tomoe.

"Is that..." Narumi began.

"The Sharingan." Shisui replied once he was close enough to confirm it.

'A gift, one your father never managed to gain.' The voice in her head stated.

'A gift... from who?' Narumi thought back in reply.

'Me. You thought I was nothing more than a figment of your imagination. Ha! I told you, silly girl. You're my grandchild.' The Voice replied to her, amusement coloring its gravely tone.

'My Grandfather? So... that means you're an Uchiha? Or were.' Narumi thought as she admired her reflection. She'd always wanted eyes like the Uchiha, she just felt a connection to those powerful red eyes, when she saw them in Shisui or Itachi, she couldn't help but admire them. It was such a powerful Dojutsu and she had always been fascinated with it.

'I was once a member of the Uchiha clan, in a time so very long ago. Now I am nothing more than an echo of the past. A reflection of our former greatness. I am the Ghost of the Uchiha Clan.' The Voice replied anger, disappointment and a tinge of regret could all be felt in its words.

'So that means, Naruko and I...' Narumi began to think but was cut off by the voice.

'No! Don't even think to lump your loser sister in with you. She's proven herself to be little more than an extension of her parents. Even if she somehow managed to awaken these eyes of ours, it wouldn't do her much good. A strong pedigree never truly compares to a natural born prodigy.' The Voice cut off any line of thought in that regard. Narumi was taken aback for a moment, taking in its anger towards her sister, an anger that she sometimes felt as she wondered what had happened between them. She couldn't disagree with the Voice's assessment about her twin. Just an extension of her parents. Yeah, that seemed to sum up Naruko lately.

Narumi took a moment to rationalize this, to situated everything clearly in her mind. She possessed the Sharingan, and the Voice in her head, that had been with her all her life, wasn't actually a manifestation of her mind, but the voice of her grandfather. That was incredible. For a moment she felt herself recalling all of the times the Voice had helped her, or guided her, or encouraged her, it all made sense now, and it made her feel warm inside. To have something like that, to have the guidance of a family member. She had no idea why it had taken her this long to actually believe the Voice, as it had always made the claim that it was her grandparent. Perhaps the manifestation of the Sharingan a thing she'd have no explanation for, finally gave her the evidence she needed to believe it.

"This is amazing. You're an Uchiha... wow. I guess that explains the nearly black hair and eyes. You must have gotten our genes, still I wonder which side of the family it comes from. Neither of your parents have it." Said Shisui with a look of amazement plastered on his face.

"Yeah... my uh... grandfather was an Uchiha." Narumi said as she continued to look into her eyes.

"Wow... since your mother isn't from this land, that means it's most likely your paternal grandfather. Huh, the Fourth Hokage is an Uchiha... wow... That's... that changes things..." Shisui thought aloud, something touching at his voice as a realization struck him. Whatever had caught his attention went unnoticed by Narumi.

"I wonder where the blonde hair and blue eyes comes from?" Narumi mused.

'No clue where that blonde hair came from. He had black hair and eyes when he was little.' The Voice stated.

'Hm... so you really are my grandfather? How is it you are talking to me? Are you like an actual ghost, does that mean you're dead?' Narumi asked.

'It's complicated. The short of it is that I placed a piece of my chakra into your father when he was a small child, but it got locked away. When he sealed the Fox's soul into you, a connection formed that allowed me to transfer over to you. That same seal that kept me from speaking with him is not present with you, that coupled with the fact that you have a mindscape that I can inhabit thanks to the Fox's seal, allows me to talk to you.' The voice explained.

'Oh... okay. Well... I've always just called you Voice, but now that I know you aren't just a figment of my imagination... do you have a name?' Narumi asked.

'Yes... yes, I do. My name is Madara, Madara Uchiha.' His answer, smashed into Narumi like a truck. Madara Uchiha, her grandfather was Madara Uchiha!

One of the two founders of the Hidden Leaf village, the only one who could stand against Hashirama Senju, the strongest shinobi to have ever lived. He was her grandfather? Narumi was left in a dumbfounded stupor for much of the rest of the day, only breaking out of it to learn from Shisui how to activate and control her newly awakened eyes. With this newfound revelation, a great deal would soon change for her.

-To Be Continued-