Tale of A Golden Girl

Crybaby

Once confirmed that she wouldn't mind going home with Sakumo, Naruto was given a checkup, proven bafflingly healthy as can be. The little blonde was given a plain off white cloak to shield her stump from the open air outside, and a pat on the head from the Third Hokage. The kind Sarutobi sent both the blonde and Hatake on their way with a gentle wave.

It was half past noon, and the weather was neither hot nor cold, a simple mild tone that allowed the citizens of Konoha to bustle about through the marketplace as usual.

Many of the landmarks were familiar, but then again, many of them were not.

Naruto trailed slightly behind Sakumo, smaller hand safely held by his warm, and much larger one. Periodically the blonde would skip to catch up from falling behind, even though the Hatake was being considerate and using a slow pace to accommodate Naruto's short legs. The blonde tried not to pout, because as a man, the last check up he'd had with Granny Tsunade predicted he'd hit six feet at least.

Now he had to go through puberty all over again, and there's no telling what horrors he'd experience as an adolescent in a girl body. Repressing a shudder, Naruto turned to other thoughts.

Being small again, only reminded Naruto that she'd been quite unfortunate as a young child. Even being a girl this time around, she had the terrible speech impairment that had caused her countless grief at the Academy in her time. Obviously she had worked and grown out of it, but it was still a great cause of some of her worst memories.

Kurama sighed. 'Stop moping and do something useful for us.'

'Ugh. Fine.'

With that, the blonde made a show of looking at everything with wide, awed, and curious eyes. She knew Jiji was watching her behavior through his crystal ball, and that Sakumo was assigned to care for the blonde for more then the reason that the man seemed strangely attached to her. Naruto knew Sakumo would be watching her very closely, and that she really had to act as if she had amnesia.

Though, if Naruto went back to her previous youth, she had been quite the prankster. If she just thought of her situation as an elaborate prank, she would reveal nothing, as she had rarely gotten caught when she really hadn't wanted to. It would be trying on Naruto's already short fuse, but the blonde knew she could be worse off.

Naruto looked up at the White Fang of Konoha, knowing that the man was Kakashi-sensei's father, and that she was going to have to face her old sensei. Her sensei that was only five in the time she'd fallen into. Her sensei that had no idea she existed.

'Foolish mortal.' Kurama growled. 'If you keep down that road of thought, you will only cause yourself more pain.'

'And whose fault is that?' Naruto snarked, feeling somewhat spiteful. 'You should have just left me to bleed out. Now I have a whole new war to end, and I somehow need to find Zetsu and kill him before he revives Kaguya.'

'Hmph!' The Bijuu huffed. 'Blaming me will bring you no closure, Naruto. As I said, you will have to make due.'

Thinking about that, instead of lashing out like she usually would, the blonde deflated. If war taught the Uzumaki anything, it was that out of control emotions lead to death. Specifically the deaths of her precious people.

'Yeah,' Naruto mentally mumbled. 'You're right... I'm sorry, Kurama. It's not your fault, you were just trying to help...'

'I place no blame on you, Naruto.' Kurama said. 'Your feelings are... understandable.'

'Thanks Kurama.' Naruto said, feeling her heart warming.

'Just remember.' The Bijuu said, making her perk up. 'You may have knowledge, but you are, in every sense of the word, a five year old girl. You hold so much power, but your body is too weak to properly manipulate it. You will have to relearn everything physical.'