Hello everybody... SORRY! I'm so sorry! I tried to commit suicide a while back, and my mom got to me before something 'bad' happened. She thought I was being cyber-bullied, so she took EVERYTHING AWAY. On top of that, my five year old laptop finally fried, and I LOST EVERYTHING. ALL OF MY BABIES! ALL OF THEM! Including this- but I only recently remembered that I could access this on Docx, where I had sent it to my beta to be... beta-ed. So-...
I'm sorry. As to the reason I tried to commit suicide, we moved to Maine, Vacationland.

NO, THIS IS NOT GOOD! WE MOVED! FOR. THE. SIXTH. FUCKING. TIME. I just got so freaking tired of it...

But- enough of my moping, my inner demon/ muse/ split personality that has been MUCH more vocal since the month in the hospital/ moral support Dani is trying to threaten me by pressing a pistol to my head and saying, and I quote- "WRITE THE $#%&** STORY!"

So, without further a due- On with the... $#%&** story...

Last time~

"Don't count me out! My dad is known as the Number-One-Hyperactive-Knucklehead-Ninja, and I intend to live up to his legacy!"
Morino-sensei laughed. "And now, the torture begins!" He started laughing maniacally, and Kushina and I gulped audibly before we resigned ourselves to our fate.

XxoxX

Morino-sensei, still chuckling, said, "Head to the training field in the back of the academy, I'll be right behind you."

Kushina quickly interjected. "Err, how about you walk beside us? At the moment I don't trust you at all."

"Y-Yeah, who knows? You might try to pull a kunai on us." I added, hoping against hope that he wouldn't try to hurt us; he was really freaking me out. He wouldn't… right?

"DAMN! That was another test… how do you do that?"

"Because, at this very moment, we don't trust you."

"Good." Morino-sensei grinned.

XxoxX

We now cut to a scene where a Fox-Demon masked ANBU is running away from an exploding building in slow motion. Said ANBU is now leaping into a very conveniently placed ditch that the Fox had dug earlier with the help of clones.

A wall of fire quickly soars over the ditch and the ANBU walks out unharmed.

"Well," he says to no one in particular, "I think that that Iwa base counts as 'destroyed'. Off to the next one, then home." The ANBU then proceeds to whistle merrily as he leaves one of Iwa's main supply bases with several storage scrolls in tow.

Back to the academy, Minato Namikaze prepares to meet his doo-… I mean fate.

XxoxX

When we arrived at the field that Morino-sensei told us about, the man was full out cackling.

Kushina and I were on the edge of a nervous breakdown, (but hiding it very well), when he finally turned to us and his face went serious.

"We'll start with aim. For every target you miss, you have to do twenty push-ups." He said with a stone cold demeanor.

"How many targets?" Kushina asked.

"How many kunai and shuriken do you have on your person?" He asked her.

I blanched. He wants us to throw all of our kunai and shuriken, not miss one, and be miserable?

"Thirty all together, fifteen shuriken, fifteen kunai." She answered.

"All of them."

She sighed, and started throwing.

Kushina had missed three targets out of thirty, and while not perfect, she was a prodigy by normal standards. She still had to do sixty push-ups, though. I had only missed two, so I only had to do forty. It really wasn't that much, only five more than my warm up.

Oh sweet ramen, it burned.

XxoxX

The entire day was hell incarnate. He made us spar on balance beams, and every time we fell, we had to do as many sit-ups as we possibly could in the time it took for us to sing the Konoha national anthem.

"Gentle sunlight shimmering through the green,

A tree grows but a single leaf at the start of its life.

Many more grow in time, as the leaves protect the sapling underneath.

Covering each other in their haste to grow strong.

The leaves that die cover the ground,

Leaving the safety of the sapling to others,

For they know they have done their job well.

The tree gains thousands of leaves in its life,

And shall live forever."

Lots of sit-ups, as it were a very slow tune. Then, he had us hang by our knees upside down while we blocked kunai he threw at us. Blunted, he told us, but we didn't take any chances. This took the whole day, and then he made us run laps until it was time to leave the academy. An overly exhausting day so far, all I wanted to do was go home and meditate with dad… but he wasn't there, so I guess I'd have to do it with the frog statues. They were like, amazing imaginary friends, and I could entertain myself for hours just with the imaginary battles and conversations in my head. Weird, I know, but dad said that the most powerful shinobi aren't always strictly 'sane', per say.

I started walking towards the Hokage monument, because really, I had time to kill. After a while, I noticed that Kushina seemed to be following me. I had no idea why, though. She must live on the outskirts of Konoha… I thought to myself, and continued on. When I got to the park under the monument, though, I started to doubt she lived on the outskirts.

I finally spun around, and pointed angrily in her direction. "Why are you following me?!" I yelled at her.

She looked confused, but then her eye twitched. "I just so happen to live just past the Namikaze compound, so can I just go?" She asked, annoyed.

"You do? Oh, I didn't know. I didn't think anyone lived farther away from Konoha than I do." I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment. How could I say that?

"Well, I do, so cool your jets Minato. Jeez."

XxoxX

We walked in silence for a while, when I heard a twig snap.

I spun around and flung a kunai by reflex, like my dad trained me to do. I saw a mouse scamper out of the bushes.
"Oh, it was just a mouse…"

Kushina raised an eyebrow at me. I shrugged in return, but then my instincts told me to throw another kunai. So, me being me, I did. A rabbit popped out, scared to death. But it wasn't just any rabbit.

It was a gray mountain hare, normally found in Kumo.

"GET DOWN!" I tackled Kushina, and several shuriken flew where she had just been standing, each of them burying themselves into the tree behind her.

Four Kumo ANBU rushed out of the shrubs on the side of the dirt path, and I quickly analyzed that no one would come to our aide this time, we were just too far away from the village. No one would hear us. That was probably their plan.

What do they want? Dad doesn't have a name yet, so Kumo isn't after me, so they're after Kushina. Why? UZUMAKI! She's an Uzumaki! Sealing is in their blood! They must want her as a seal master and as a breeding horse for the clan! ...Ew... I thought, frantically dodging and blocking kunai, jutsu, and shuriken.

Kushina joined me, covering my back. We had an unspoken agreement, a truce until these bastards were dead. I quickly formed seven hand signs, and cutting blades of wind shot from my hands and feet, pushing me into the air and slinging me towards the tallest ANBU. I engaged him in taijutsu, using what little my dad had taught me of the Hachidori no Bara. He was expecting academy-level moves, or at most the Yamanaka style, not an unknown style and a skilled user. I quickly took him out using the unpredictable moves that relied purely on instinct, and the wind blades still emanating from my hands and feet. I sliced off his head without a thought as to what on Earth that would mean.

"HIDEKI!" A woman's voice screeched. Oh dear... A woman's scorn... I have induced a woman's wrath. I'm so dead. I shot towards Kushina with a speed that blew my hair back and pulled my eyes into slits, although I didn't dare close my eyes to blink out the tears, however nonexistent they were. In the back of my mind, I knew that the adrenaline from the surprise of the ANBU would wear off soon, but I couldn't afford to dwell on that.

I blocked a sword from entering Kushina's lower ribs, and quickly cast the only fire jutsu I knew at the male who had thrust the sword. It was only a fireball, not even very big, but it was at point blank, and a great deal of damage was sustained. I couldn't use water, because it would bite me in the ass later because it could be used to conduct electricity, and odds are- they were water users. I would only add to the carnage of their jutsu. I didn't have an earth affinity because my primary element was wind. I quickly deduced that seals would help a lot in this situation, so I grabbed a pack of exploding tags and fast as lightning, threw three kunai with chakra strings attaching the tags at the three ANBU.

During this, Kushina was showing that she was no pushover. She had injured two of them, and the one I had burned was missing half of his mask now. We ran out of the blast zone, but couldn't quite make it, and we were both blown back. I hit a tree half a second before Kushina slammed into me. I screamed when three ribs broke, and another two were fractured. We slid down the trunk, and landed harshly at the bottom, dazed. I was exhausted; we had been exhausted when the ANBU had appeared, but now... I was honestly surprised that we weren't dead yet. Kushina was unconscious, and despite vehement protests at the notion, was very heavy.

Two ANBU, the woman and another male, walked out of the smoke towards us. I slowly pushed Kushina off me, and struggled to move her behind me as I tried to take a breath. Oh my gosh, it burned... it hurt so much... but I couldn't give up. I can't give up. I took a defensive crouch in front of Kushina, and took note of how many kunai and shuriken I had left, whether or not I had I had shinobi wire, where everything was, and how close the two Kumo shinobi were coming.

I only had three kunai, six shuriken, a single roll of wire, and thirteen exploding tags. They had stopped at thirteen paces, or twenty six feet, give or take, and there was a damaged branch right above where they were standing, and they were near a particularly crumbly part of the sheer cliff face of the Hokage Mountain. Okay, I could work with this...

"Boy... You are quite the spitfire, aren't you...? We're a little mad at you, you now... killing two of our comrades like that... How about this? If you hand over the Uzumaki, we'll make your death quicker than you deserve. If not, then a slow and torturous death for you. Either way, we'll get the girl. What do you say, eh?" The male said. He had an arrogant tone to his voice that I didn't particularly like.

The woman hissed at me, beyond words in her rage. The sound wasn't human, wasn't animal, and wasn't any fish that I had ever heard of. It was demonic, the uncharted amount of rage and utter fury in her eyes making a shiver of unconditioned terror run down my spine.

"I won't give up." I said in a small voice. Then stronger, "I can't give up. I won't give up! She is my comrade, and may my soul be damned if I don't protect those who are precious to me!" I rose from my crouch slowly, making no sudden movements to trigger them. "She is my friend, my teammate, my comrade, and you have no right... you have no right... NO RIGHT TO TAKE HER FROM US!" I screamed the last bit as a battle cry as I threw two kunai with delayed exploding tags at the wall, and one at the branch. They would explode in thirty seconds. I had until then to keep them in position, and hopefully, the two would die.

I then threw all six of my shuriken at them, although what they didn't see, or notice until I had already pulled them back, was that I had threaded wire through the shuriken, and charged at them with a whip of sharp and pointy fury in my hands as a weapon. Twenty-seven seconds...

I swung the looped wire, the six shuriken forming a kind of mace at the end. Each shuriken weighed about a half pound since it was steel, so I was praying that three pounds of steel could deal damage. Twenty-five seconds...

The woman chucked three kunai at me, so I did what any shinobi starved for weapons would do, and caught one, then deflected the other two. I quickly added the kunai, which was about a pound, to the Whip of Death, as I had oh so adequately named it. A pound wasn't enough, and although when the spiky end of the wire whip hit a shoulder or wrapped around a neck, I could see blood, unless I added copious amounts of chakra to the swing, it wouldn't break very many bones, let alone kill. I added chakra to the wire so that it would cut, and swung it at the woman. She tried to deflect it with a kunai, but the chakra enforced wire cut through it. She jumped away before I could injure her though. Nineteen seconds...

The man formed two clones, and charged at me. The woman saw what he was doing, and also formed two clones that started running towards me. They were planning something terrible, I just knew it. The male shot water jutsu, thoroughly soaking me and the ground. I tried to dodge, but my ribs seemed to catch fire, and a raging inferno of pain enveloped me. I couldn't move when I saw the huge wall of water rushing towards me. I braced myself the best I could, but I was lifted off my feet and blown back. The woman then did something I would never forget. Or ever think back on without flinching in pain. She used a lightning jutsu to conduct a deadly level of amps to my body. Luckily for me, Lady Luck smiled upon me that day. The level of amps had decreased greatly by the time the electricity had reached me.

Oh gods it hurt, it hurt a lot... Oh gods when will this pain end?! NO! I can't think that! I have to endure it... for... Kushina... My body convulsed and shook like I was having a seizure. Lightning pulsed through every inch of my body, making the nerves spasm erratically, and my pain all that much greater. It finally stopped a few seconds later. The rushed over to me, to make sure I was dead, I think. When the woman saw me breathing, she screamed at me. For or about what, I would never know, because all I felt was pain in that moment. I felt a kunai bury itself in my abdomen, and I coughed up blood. My eyesight got blurry, and I started to see black spots in the corners of my vision. A breath escaped my lips, and I manually stopped breathing to make them think I was dead. One second...

"Boom." I whispered as they turned towards Kushina.

A small avalanche of rock and the entire tree fell, but they dodged everything. All of that hard work... for nothing! The noise woke Kushina up, but she was too dazed to be able to do anything as the male tossed her over his shoulder.

She looked at me, panic in her eyes. I stared back, pain and overwhelming guilt in my gaze. I slowly reached out to her, my fingers outstretched; it looked as if I was offering my hand for her to take.

I could see her making connections as she as being carried away. She took in the lakes of water, the scorch marks from the lightning, the rocks, the fallen tree, the weapons strewn around the road, and the kunai lodged in my gut. Her eyes showed panic now; she was being taken against her will.

The black spots started getting bigger, blocking everything out except her face.

"Ku...shi...na..." I gasped in a broken whisper, "...no..."

My vision went black, and I slipped into the unknown.

XxoxX

Gomenasai, everyone. He's still alive, though.

As to two seven year olds taking on ANBU from Kumo, the four idiots severely underestimated Kushi-Chan and Mina-Chan, and about Mina-Chan beating the first one and killing him, the ANBU was expecting something completely different. Plus- the Hachidori no Bara is unpredictable, so he couldn't prepare for anything so *SLICE* He dead.

Make sense? Hope so.

And sorry about the three month wait, there were... extenuating circumstances.

IF THERE ARE ANY MISTAKES: I'm sorry. The format was completely screwed up because I typed this on Pages, but FFn won't accept Pages, so I had to mail it to myself and copy and paste into a Word Document, and lo and behold- all bold, italic, and spacing were gone. GONE! So if there are any mistakes, forgive me.

MK OUT!