Naruto sat in the hallway at the ninja academy. He had been trying to skip class today and wound up getting caught instead. Now he was stuck in the hallway until Iruka-sensei was ready with a world class rant for him. It doesn't matter. Naruto decided. I'm not going to be here when he is ready to give it to me. He quickly made the hand signs for his transformation technique. He had discovered that his transformations were real completely by accident. How was he supposed to know that it wasn't real. The description had been to picture what you want to look like and pour as much chakra into the technique as you could. Naruto wound up as a life size hawk, and proceeded to clumsily fly from the class. Which he was going to do now. It became apparent in his pranking career that not being yourself when someone was looking for you was a good idea.

Not to mention that over the years he had grown to hate himself to the core. He figured that if everyone else hated him then obviously something was wrong with him. So he eventually decided it would be best if he was nothing like Naruto and soon he had made a whole nother persona. Whereas Naruto was a boy the other was a girl. Where Naruto was bubbly and happy all the time, she wasn't she let her hurt from the village show. Where Naruto was in your face from the orange jumpsuit to his brawler fighting style she wasn't. The trouble was he hadn't been her enough to move like she should, which was actually why he was friends with a team that had just recently graduated.

Flashback

A smaller red haired girl was punching a training post at one of the out of the way training areas. She was weaving in and out of imaginary blows and delivering frighteningly powerful blows with the excess energy from the way she was moving. She was solely focused on what she was doing and didn't notice the team that had just shown up for training. Nor did she notice the weirdly dressed jonin gesture for silence and attention. Soon however the girl was worn out. She sat down and began sobbing into her knees, only to be engulfed in a tight hug from behind. The girl jumped out of the hug and spun into a ready stance to face off the unknown attacker, only to see looks that ranged from admiration, to sympathy.

"Tell me Child why are practicing such a long way from the main village?" the Green clad jonin asked in a surpisingly gentle voice.

"Nobody wants me around so I came out her." She said looking at them critically. "You can't make me leave here I was here first!" This was said while biting her lip nervously.

"You should be in school at this time shouldn't you?" The girl asked with a slight frown.

"Why all the do is give me tests we haven't covered, and fuss at me when I do something wrong they hate me and I don't know why." She cried angrily.

A look of realization came over the jonin's face. "Ah well then if they are sabotaging your performance we will help you surpass the best in you class. And by doing this it will help my own students reach a new skill level as well."

The girl looked at him hopefully, and was about to open her mouth, when the jonin spoke again. "just as soon as you drop the henge you are wearing."

The girl froze in place. She looked ready to bolt, only for a soft hand to rest upon he left shoulder. She looked over to see the girl of the team smile encourgingly. "Hey, Gai-sensei already said it was cool for you to train with us. So why not show us who we will be training with?"

"You'll just make me leave if you knew who I really was." The girl whimpered sadly.

"Actually." Gai-sensei said with a large grin and a thumbs up. "I already know who you are and it doesn't matter. I'll still train you, and my team will still help."

The girl looked at the green clad man with a scrutiny you wouldn't expect from a child and whispered. "Promise?" Almost brokenly.

"I swear it on my ninja way!" The green clad man stated with a huge smile. Two of the genin were smiling encouragingly, both looked like typical Chinese martial artists, but the third was simply scowling at the world with his arms crossed. The girl put her hands in the rat seal and said "Kai." there was a swirl of blue and she turned into Naruto. He looked at them.

"You can change your mind now." He said with a smile. "Nobody likes me they think I'm useless and a monster, but it's ok I'll show them and you. I will be Hokage one day." He looked at the dumbfounded looks from the emotional whiplash they had just received. Where there had been a shy upset little girl was now a devil may care boy. With that said he turned around to walk away only to hear the jonin say.

"I told you Naruto I knew who you were and I would still train you. Do you not want to be trained but me?"

Naruto turned to look at him for a moment, then asked. "Do you have a problem if I turn back into her?"

"That is an interesting question." Gai said with a thoughtful expression. "Perhaps you could tell me why you were henged as a girl in the first place?"

Naruto seemed to think about that before nodding and saying. "Only if you tell me how you knew I was using a henge in the first place."

Gai grinned and said. "Well that's simple enough. I knew from Hokage-sama that your henge was real. It was the first clue as to who you were. You moved like you were used to being slightly bigger. So your moves were a bit sloppy. By the way where did you learn that style?"

"I didn't that was me winging it. I keep loosing whenever I try what the teacher try teaching me." Naruto said. "And I chose to be her cause everyone hates me. So obviously something has to be wrong with being me. So I decided to be as different as possible. So I made her. People are nice to her. They don't charge her more than retail for food. Or throw rocks at her when she walks down the street."

The whole team was quiet. Finally Gai asked. "Do you plan on becoming her permanently?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah I do. As soon as I figure out how."

"Well if you already plan on becoming her permanently who am I to stop you while you are here?" Gai asked giving another one of his thousand-watt smile.

Naruto nodded and henged back into the girl. Her long blood hung over her face and they heard her almost sob. Again they felt like they were on an emotional roller coaster. The girl with buns in her hair looked at the boy with a long braided ponytail. He shrugged uncertainly. She then turned and said. "Why are you crying?"

"Because he won't. He always acts like nothing bothers him but it does." She said looking up in chocolate eyes with her own violet orbs.

Gai cleared his throat and said. "Hm how about stretches really quick then we can go into light taijutsu spars. Oh by the way little girl what should we call you?"

"I'm Tsubaki." She said looking at him solemnly.

flashback ends

Naruto flew in the form of a hawk to the training ground. He had gotten better at being unseen by the villagers. It was hilarious to know they never suspected the wildlife to be pranking them. Which was pretty much what his life amounted to these days. He pretty much went to school goofed off and showed himself to be the clown everybody thought he was. But Tsubaki had taken up everything else. She was part of him. A part that he actually cared about. It hurt to think of her as himself so he thought of her as her. She was a separate entity that just shared brain space with him. She was coming along nicely. She liked to spend time with her friends, which consisted of Rock Lee and Tenten Higarashi. She and Tenten had to save Lee from becoming a Gai mini clone by taking him shopping and getting him kitted out with black pants a bunch of different skull shirts, a small crystal skull stud in his left ear. They also got his hair cut to spiking length, and had his eyebrows trimmed to be lightning bolts to complement his taijutsu speed. Tenten kept her look and bought a pair of dual dao swords instead. She admitted that she had a 'sharp and pointy' fetish as she called it. Tsubaki used Naruto's monthly stipend to by some clothes for herself as she had been using the henge to make clothes but they broke easily. Tenten had talked her into buying a wooden Jian to practice with to learn kenjutsu. It turned out that her personal taijutsu style, that she had been perfecting with Gai-sensei, was a perfect style to add most close range weapons to. So it hadn't required that much extra work on her part to begin using the Jian.

Naruto pulled out of his thoughts about Tsubaki's progress as he flew into the training ground and released the henge. He looked at the people around him and grinned. It was good to train with people who actually helped you get better. Lee was standing in front of a training post whaling on it with all his might. Naruto grimaced as the log exploded from the last punch. He had been on the receiving end of a few of those punches and they hurt like a bitch. Tsubaki had to before she got to the point that she could compete with lee's speed while he was wearing his weights. Then she had started wearing weights. Which didn't transfer over for some reason. So Naruto didn't gain any benefit from Tsubaki's training and likewise.

Not that it matters. Naruto though viciously to himself. Soon I will be a memory and she will be all that is left.

Naruto walked into the woods and stripped out of his clothes and put them in a bag that he kept here for just such an occasion. He then used then henge and disappeared into her mind. Tsubaki quickly put on he workout outfit, grabbed her training sword, and walked out to see Tenten waiting with a staff.

Oh this is going to hurt. Tsubaki thought with a wince when she noticed the way Tenten's staff whistled through the air angrily. That was a sure sign that Tenten had some frustrations that she wanted to work out. And since Tsubaki had been her sparing partner for a few months now; it was no surprise to Tsubaki, that Tenten had been getting more hits in that Tsubaki got evasions.

"You ready Tsubaki-chan? 'Cause I really want to pound something and you are it." Tenten said dropping into a ready stance. Tsubaki sighed and Dropped down into her starting stance. The wooden Jian was held point towards the ground in her right hand, so it was easily whipped up for a quick strike. And her left pointed upwards behind her ready to come down for a crippling striking elbow, a move that she had defeated all three on the team with. Granted it was a move that they were leery of now but hey. She had gotten all three at least once. Had to count for something.

Tenten rushed in with a sweep of the ground with the staff, forcing Tsubaki to leap into the air and spin away from the staff. The spinning also built up momentum for a debilitating slash of her sword. Tenten stepped into the swing and blocked the sword right against the hilt, which took away most of the strikes power. Then she headbutted Tsubaki and kicked her away. While Tsubaki reversed dazed, Tenten took the opportunity to crack the but of the staff against Tsubaki's hand. Which resulted in a sharp cry of pain and a dropped sword. Tenten raised the staff and pointed it at Tsubaki like a spear.

"Yeild Tsubaki-chan I win this round." She said seriously.

"Ok." Tsubaki said with a frown. "You win this round. How bout another?"

"That's my girl." Tenten said with a feral grin that caused Tsubaki to blush slightly, before they went at it again.

Maito Gai stood before Sarutobi's desk and looked down at the aged Hokage. He was waiting to be addressed as he had been called into the space and not come with anything of importance. So he waited, usually jonin were called in here to give and receive mission details. Obviously the Hokage had a mission for him. Except it wasn't what the Hokage wanted.

"You have been training young Naruto?" Hiruzen said looking at the scroll in his hand.

"No sir I have been training Tsubaki-chan. Naruto says he doesn't need training to reach his goal." Gai said with a small smile.

Hiruzen looked up at Gai, and pulled out his pipe. Gai watched as the Hokage filled it with tobacco and herbs before lighting it and taking a drag of the sweet smoke. "Do you truly believe that Tsubaki isn't Naruto?" Hiruzen asked thoughtfully.

"yes sir I do I believe it is a case of alternating personality. I talked to a few members of the intelligence division about the symptoms and they agree with me." Gai said with a somber nod. "I believe in Naruto's mind there is Tsubaki and there is Naruto. And I also believe they are working together to kill Naruto."

"You mean that by saying eventually make Naruto disappear altogether?" the Hokage asked for clarification.

"Yes Hokage-sama. I believe they fully intend for Naruto to die at the end of the academy and be reborn as Tsubaki permanently." Gai said with a frown.

"Well I guess I need to talk with them both." Hiruzen said taking a deep draw of the pipe smoke. "Thank you for your report Gai."

Gai nodded and left the area, leaving the Hokage to think about what he should do about Naruto and Tsubaki.