The scene was a bright afternoon, sun bright and children running in circles as a woman, much older than she looked, sat and watched, smiling silently.

"Tsunade-baachan, can you help us? Our sand castle keeps falling down..."

"Of course..." she said, standing... and fell.

"Tsunade-sama!" a man's voice called out, as everything went blank. She rose suddenly.

"Tsunade-sama?"

The woman brushed through her wheat-coloured hair, and said...

"He will awaken today..."

~

Kyubi Hanyou Heart

An Inuyasha/Naruto Crossover

Prologue

By Alden

~

Two eyes opened, at the same time. Both were coloured the same, bluegreen, as their owner called the colour. Golden hair twitched in front of thse recently wakened eyes, and a mouth under them called, "I'm awake!" in a pleasant morning voice.

As it turns out, the girl's name was Yamanaka Ino, and it was her birthday.

She pushed the covers off herself, and stood, in all the glory of the day she became 15 years old. "Damn, I expected to feel at least a little different..." she muttered as she made her way to the bathroom, after grabbing some clothes, and closed the door...

After her shower, she dressed quickly and put on her scant amount of makeup, then headed downstairs, smiling, to greet her family.

The Yamanaka Shrine was a large place, two levels and spacious grounds. Ino was glad - all of theother girls were jealous. Of course, she liked the shrine for more than that... It was home, completely and thoroughly. No place in
Konoha City was like this... that's why they lived right outside it.

But one of the greatest things was the giant tree behind it, where there was an old story of a Kyubi that was sealed there... and an ancient shinobi who protected the village had sealed him to the tree... not that there was anything there...

That didn't put Jii-chan off any more than the fact that there didn't seem to be any youkai arond anymore... he said the 'essence' was still there, whatever THAT was... 'weirdo,' Ino thought fondly, as she headed into the kitchen.

"Ohayou, Jii-chan!" she greeted warmly.

"Ohayou, Ino-chan! Gotta present for you!" he said, pushing a small box towards her.

"Ohhh!" Ino got excited as she opened it. Maybe this year...

"It's a pendant made from the tooth of the werwolf that threatened- hey, Ino, are you listening?"

"Mhmmm..." Ino said, dulled, as she shoved the pendant in her pocket thoughtlessly and stood. "Dad!"

Yamanaka Inoshi was the only parent Ino had, her mother having died when her younger brother Udon was born, and he tried to make up for it. He was usually busy with his job at a niversity in
Konoha City, but made sure he saw Ino and Udon as much as he could. Neither was starved for love, and both loved their father and grandfather a lot.

"There's my little princess!" Inoshi accepted his daughter's hug.

She frowned. "Daaaad, I'm not little anymore! As of today, I'm 15!"

Her father laughed. "Yep, you are... Gotcha something!" He pulled out a small box.

Ino grabbed it, and opened it slowly and almost reverently...

Gold and sliver, a merging of two colours appeared before her eyes, mixed with a sapphire blue. "Oh! It's so... THANK YOU, DAD!" she hugged him around the neck, and kissed his cheek. She caught a glance of the clock.

"Ummm... Dad! I gotta go! School...!" She rushed out the door, grabbing her backpack on the way and shoving her feet into them quickly, then running out onto the street.

"Ino! Ino! INO! INOINOINOIN-" her friend yelled before she turned around.

"Oh, Toki! You came!" Ino said, smiling.

"Happy Birthday, Ino-chan! Le's go!" Toki said, hookng her arm around Ino's and dragiing her a few steps before Ino managed to keep up with Toki's unimaginable stamina. They were at school in five minutes...

~~~

"Happy birthday, Ino!"

"I'm still only fourteen, I'll catch up soon!"

"Here!" Ino's friend crowded her with cheers and smiles, and one passed her a present.

"Oh? Thanks!" Ino said happily, opening it slowly... to reveal a makeup bag!

"Are these things allowed in school?" Ino asked. She was happy, but NOT dozy when it came to having to smuggle thigns inside instead of walk in proudly.

"As long as you only open it in the washroom. Ohhhhhhh~! There's superhot Shikamaru! Maybe he'll ask you out!" one of her friends, Yuki, said, pointing out another figure.

The fifteen-year-old Nara Shikamaru was a cut over mst other guys in their classes. Perpetual smirk, ponytail with most of it cut off, and usually wore a shade of grey.He slouched through the hall, and turn a lot of his head on the way to his locker.

"As if. The guy's too lazy to go out, he'd probably just not ask rather than have to go... I know his type'a guy, y'know?" Ino said, furiously hoping she was wrong.

"I guess..."

"Oy! Yamanaka!" Shikamaru caled out from behind her.

"Ya!?" She called back.

"Over here a minute!" he said. She'd heard he didn't like to waste words, but...

"Go!" hissed Yuki, making shooing motions. "He's gonna ask you out!

Ino walked slowly overto him, and said, "Yeah?"

"Umm.... Oh, this is so troublesome... that is.." he shuffled around in his pencilcase.

'Ahhh, building up nerves...' Ino thought happily smiling.

"Here! You left your 'special pen' in my pencilcase smehow..." she said, passing over her gold-and-silver pen she'd lost last year.

"REALLY! Thanks, Shikamaru!" she said, heading back to her friends.

"No problem!" Shikamaru called back, saying the phrase he hated most.

~

"Guys!
My pen!" Ino was excited, because her pen was special, from a foreign dealer, when she went to the fair with her momwhen she was 4.

"..." the three of them said, staring at Ino in disbelief.

"What?" Ino asked, then realised... 'He didn't ask me out...' Saddened, she put her pen in her pocket, and wandered off with her friends to their first class.

~

When she got home, first thing she did was head out to the well house to see if Udon was playing in there again.

"Ino, Ino, come quick! Kutaro fell down the well!" her little brother's voice came from inside as she opened the door. She looked down,

"Kuta! Bad cat!" she said, then jumped into the well. Picking up the cat and holding him up, she waited af ew seconds before asking, annoyedly, "Udon! THE CAT!?"

"Umm...
Ino, look at the bottom of the well.." Udon grabbed the cat, then hurried her to come up.

Ino shrieked and jumped onto the ladder, scrabbling up... then it broke...

"Ahhh!" BUMPH!

Ino looked around. The ladder was gone, and vines had replaced it. She looked up, and saw...

The sky...

She panicked.

~~~

Fini, prologue!

I know ththis is extremely short, but I wanted to get idea ot to see if it was well-recieved. You guys can chew on THIS, right?

Help needed... I'm not sure if Ino and Sakura look alike enough to be the Kag/Kik pair... (I DON'T mean pairing, I mean reincarnation)...

Any suggestions would be wonderful! Also, I'll try to answer any questions about this Xover Universe through te story, 'les I need to put it in an A/N...

EDIT: I'm gonna make a decision... and I need help... Okay...

I could probably get more done if I just wrote randomly and stuck everything I'd done at the end of the month, but you guys would have to wait a month before reading anything... -- But, what I WOULD have would keep you reading longer, so, should I:

1) Keep pdating sporadically, whenever I finish things, or

2) Write for a month, post things at the end.

PLEASE help me with this - If you've already reviewed, I think you can do an anonymous.
I'm putting this note on all of my fics...