Child of the Moon

Eight Years Later

After a long time out of the village, Tsukiko was pleased to return to the Village at long last. She hoped Naruto wouldn't be too upset that she had missed his graduation exam, and hoped that he'd been able to graduate this time.

"Right," she said, staring up at the stone faces of Hokages past and present. "I'll take him out for dinner, as an apology. And if he passed, I'll take him shopping."

She waved a brief greeting to the men at the gate and made her way towards the Hokage mansion.

Along the way, she happened to walk into Naruto himself.

"Sis! When'd you get back!?" he greeted her eagerly, his big blue eyes glittering with pure joy at the sight of her.

'Judging from his thoughts, his graduation exam went not so great, but he passed with flying colors in the end.'

"Just a moment ago," she smiled, crouching to his level. "Hope you're not mad I missed your graduation exam?"

He grinned hugely. "I flunked it."

"Huh, you know, last time you were all broken up about it," she said, flicking his goggles lightly. "And you didn't even try."

He chuckled proudly. "Iruka-sensei passed me in the end, anyway. Oh, and he took me to Ichiraku's for ramen and-"

Tsukiko laughed and ran her fingers through his sunshine yellow hair. "How about you tell me about it all over some of that ramen tonight? I need to run some errands and I'll be by later, ok?"

"Ok!" he grinned, before scowling over his shoulder.

"Good luck," Tsukiko laughed, straightening up and passing a very poor attempt at subterfuge. 'Naruto, he's like you. No one sees him for him.'

Once her errands were done, she happened to catch wind of thoughts involving Naruto. Ebisu, a jonin like herself, was trying to find his pupil, Konohamaru. Disliking him, purely because he was prejudiced against Naruto, and a brown-noser to boot, Tsukiko decided to tail him.

When they reached where Naruto and Konohamaru were, she decided to watch for a bit. If he dared do anything to hurt Naruto - emotionally or physically - she would tear him apart.

"I found you!" he declared, the two boys turning around in surprise.

She concealed her presence close enough to observe, a kunai in hand, in case she needed to intervene.

'Hmph. The nine-tailed fox!'

She hated it when people only saw him as the beast, not as him. She almost revealed herself, except that Naruto had taken personal offense to the way Ebisu had looked at him, and she wanted to see what he would do.

She wanted to see with her own eyes, how much he'd grown.

"So, Honourable Grandson," Ebisu said, jumping down from the tree. "Time to go home."

"No way!" Konohamaru yelled. "I'm learning how to beat my grandfather so I can get the title Hokage! Now don't get in my way!"

"A Hokage is more than just a fighter!" Ebisu insisted as he approached the duo. "He must know honor, virtue, wisdom, and he must be skilled in a thousand jutsu! You don't even know one-"

Konohamaru became frustrated, and did a transformation hand sign. "Argh! Transform!"

There was a burst of smoke, and in place of Konohamaru was a naked brunette who winked cheerfully at Ebisu. "Hey there, like my jutsu?"