Disclaimer: Disclaimed. I don't own Naruto.. trust me o_0

Gender Bending.

Prologue

EG&D ARATEOTD (:
-Enjoy, Guys & Dolls. And review at the end of the day :smileyface:

"Do you realize the mess you'll get into if His Majesty finds out about this?!" cried Ino persistently, as she wringed on her dress uncomfortably. "You'll be thrown into the gallows to be hanged or you'll be beheaded on the act of deceiving the Monarch!"

Sakura simply rolled her eyes at her friend's dramatics. "But none of that will happen for sure. I'll just make sure His Majesty never finds out."

"Oh, please Sakura," Ino whined, "where's the point in doing all this? Cross-dressing as a male to get into the King's royal court is absurd!"

"By now you should know me, Ino. Why do men get to have all the fun these days! We ladies can't even be Ladies-in-Waiting for the Queen, because the King has no Queen! All the men do is gamble, drink and attend court – I want in!" Sakura cried, as she tied her laces on her brown, leather boots once more, as she adjusted her foreign male garments that hung to her body loosely.

Her white linen shirt was covered with a snug doublet in which that was covered by another jacket coming down over her hips. She wore plain, dreary colors – she wanted to have fun as a male but not have it so she stood out of the crowd with florescent details on her apparel. Her bottom half was fitted with men's stockings and padded breeches, which were surprising comfy. She could move around so much better than in those heart-stopping (literally) corsets that Ino and all the noblewomen wore. They may look nice, but don't ever be deceived by appearances.

"And what will you do when everyone starts noticing your disappearance?" Ino asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"Notice my disappearance? Oh, my dear friend, you do amuse me."Sakura giggled lightly, leaving Ino to fume on what her friend found so hilarious in herself. "No-one ever notices the disappearance of a 17 year old girl, when she is neither part of the ladies of the court, nor if she has hidden herself within shadow to prevent any unwanted attention for her whole life."

Ino thought about it for a second – it made sense, as Ino knew better than anyone that as a child, Sakura hated any attention that was directed at her. But that just further proved to all her relatives that she truly was a worthless daughter. Now, Sakura wanted to prove herself that she was worth her family's respect, especially as an 'inferior' female and as someone who now wanted a recognition from everyone. She hated the way that a lot of the males in court would just bed a few ladies and then throw them out with the trash – like His Majesty, for instance.

No matter how handsome, how authoritative, how king-ly one male was, doesn't give them the right to use females as a sex toy whenever they were summoned. She despised how the King would have thousands of mistresses at a time but never chose a loyal Queen. Being the same age as Sakura didn't mean that you could act like a total dick. She would teach him his place when she got in there.

But anyway, rant over, Sakura sighed and walked over calmly to her best friend. She picked up her hand, and jokingly got onto one knee like a real male would do. She kissed Ino's hand lightly, whilst Ino giggled, snatching her hand away from Sakura playfully.

"I'll be just fine," Sakura stated matter-of-factly. "I'll be back to my normal girlish self after I've experienced the real primitive male side of life at court. And I'll get to into His Majesty's elite chosen set of inner friends, and then I'll literally be ruling England." Sakura stuck her tongue out playfully.

"Just be careful, Sakura. The next time I see you, I don't want you to be headless!" Ino joked.

Sakura just laughed casually and made her way to her white stallion. She (who was now a kind of 'he') threw a coin to the young boy who was tending to her horse.

"Wait, Sakura, what about your family? Your father? Surely he isn't letting you do this."

"Of course he is. I confronted him last week about my plan to work as a male in the court to show myself worthy of his and my mother's appreciation. He simply said that he would help get me in the King's court and recommend me to His Majesty as Sasori-nii's cousin. You see, Sasori-nii is one of the King's closest confidential and as his 'cousin'," she accentuated this word with her speech mark fingers, "the King would definitely allow me to be part of the court."

"Oh my goodness (thou shalt not take the Lord's name in vain), Sakura, that's amazing! You're going to breathing in the same air as the King, you'll be in his personal bubble! Oh, this is so exciting. Promise to write everyday about all the trouble you'll be getting in," Ino stated, winking at the last point. Ino was extremely easily persuaded, making it utterly advantageous to Sakura at times. "And you're brother's all okay with this, right? Because I know as much as you how protective he is about his doting little sister."

"Yes, Sasori-nii's fine with it all. He's helping father persuade the King to accept me into the court. After all, who wouldn't want to see Sir Thomas, aka my father, be completely blown-out thanks to the daughter that he mocked constantly when she was a child?" Sakura climbed onto her horse expertly. "Wow, Ino," she breathed, "this feels really good. I've never sat on a horse like this before. It's always been side-saddle."

"Oh, Sakura, will you really be okay?"

"Ino, I'll be totally fine. Don't worry about lil' ol' me." At that, Sakura bent down from her position on her horse, and grabbed the black wig and black velvet hat that a servant was holding out for her. She didn't like the thought of cutting her hair short, nor would it be convincible to have pink hair as a boy in court, so she had decided on a roughly styled wig. It pulled off that bad-boy, but innocent and caring look perfectly. And it complemented her dainty features. She then placed her hat on firmly, with a few ruffling feathers on the side blowing gently in the wind. "Voila! I look just like a boy, right?"

"I don't really think it would be a compliment if I said yes to a born and bred girl to that question, but if I daresay, you do look awfully handsome (* Author's edit: 'HAWTT!'.. ahem.. for a girl)." A sparkle twinkled admiringly in Ino's cerulean eyes.

Sakura smiled, and kicked her horse lightly, turning out of the manor, after waving her hand casually. "You never know, I might just end up courting all the ladies ;)"

"Kick ass, Sakura!" Ino crudely shouted after her.

Mwaha, i thought a bit of modern language ought to have been all thumbs up ;) Ass...

Erm, it's a bit of long prologue but i wanted to get an introduction to setting/Sakura/clothes etc. so go with it ;)

And yes, please give constructive criticism because i'm weary about all the facts and stuff - i haven't done history since last year, so i'm a bit rusty round the edges...

If you still don't get it, in a nutshell, this is set about the Tudor period in England (you know, with the guy who had 6 wives, and the Queen with an incredibly teeny-tiny waist who ruled without a husband). Sakura is literally going to cross-dress to try and get into the King's 'inner circle', where his riding buddies, etc. would all hang around. Girls aren't (in this fic anyway - i dunno') respected high enough, and Sakura's quite the feminist, so she wants to charm her way around and experience the male's life, as well as to influence the King a little, in order to persuade him to not keep throwing innocent women around. Doing this would prove she's worthy of respect to her family.

Influence 1- The Other Boleyn Girl. I read the book about 1 and a half years ago, and thought it was pretty decent. And then i didn't think about it for a while. And then just yesterday, my friend lent me it. I watched it. I wasn't that impressed. But decided i should write a fic anyway because i love historical settings and all. And Anne Boleyn's the feisty female character that i love no matter how evilll they are.

Influence 2 - Shakespeare in Love. It's a gender bender too, and a romance no less.

Influence 3 - i was going to mention another thing, but it's completely slipped from my mind...