A/N So this is an attempt at a FemNaruto Fic. It starts mid-way through the second trial of the chunnin exams because everything before that in my mind pretty much goes the same way as in canon. The only difference is that Naruto has a special pendant that was an heirloom from his father, but it's not worth retelling everything from the beginning just for that reason. I'd really appreciate some constructive criticism and whether or not you'd like to see more to this story.
"Hey, not hurt are ya, scaredy cat?" Naruto snarled as he strained against the gigantic snake that he currently was straining to hold away from his collapsed teammate with nothing but his twelve year old muscles and two kunai. Sasuke merely stared in shock, the scene where he had said the same words to Naruto during their mission to the Land of Waves reverberating in his mind. Before either of the two boys or their female teammate below them could do anything, the snake opened its mouth and curled its tongue around Naruto effectively immobilizing him before lifting him up so he was suspended right in front of the snake's summoner: Orochimaru. The snake sennin looked the struggling figure over in amusement before his slitted pupils alighted on the yellow gem that hung from the cord around his neck.
"Well now this is a pretty thing now isn't it?" He mused aloud as he reached up and swiped the pendant, snapping the cord.
"Hey, give that back!" Naruto yelled in fury and panic.
"Why would a shinobi wear jewelry with no purpose to it?" Orohcimaru asked thoughtfully.
"That's an heirloom from my dad!" Naruto growled as he fought to get loose and lunge at the one who was holding perhaps one of his most precious possessions. Sasuke's eyes widened.
"Oh no, if there was one thing he could've said to ensure that it would be destroyed, it was revealing that it meant something to him." Sasuke jumped to his feet and whipped four shuriken at Orochimaru, but not before the man smiled cruelly and crushed the crystal in his grip. Immediately there was a massive shockwave of pure chakra that sent everyone flying followed by a blast of smoke that filled the area and reduced visibility to zero.
"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled, activating his Sharingan to try to see. There was a cough to his left and he ran toward it to find Sakura seeming disoriented and under a light pile of rubble. He helped shift it off her and listened for any sign of their other teammate, but all he heard was silence, all he saw was the smoke shifting. It was slowly fading away, but not fast enough for the impatient Uchiha.
"I don't hear or see Naruto or that snake man," Sakura whispered. Sasuke felt like cursing, but he knew if he did he might miss the one sound he was waiting for. It was then that he caught a faint trace of the dobe's chakra and he immediately seized Sakura's hand and darted toward it, earning a startled gasp from her. The next thing he saw nearly caused him to gasp out loud as well. Was...was that Naruto? It had to have been. It looked enough like him to be recognizable, but the changes were, to say the least, mind boggling.
The next thing Naruto knew, he was waking up in a small cave. Nearby were a trickling sound of a stream, and the crackling of a fire. He groaned slightly as his head slowly began to stop spinning.
"Naruto?" He heard Sakura's voice from next to him.
"Hey Sakura-chan…what happened?" He replied, his voice somewhat scratchy. "I could use a drink…please."
"Um, sure, I've got your canteen right here. I refilled it earlier while you were asleep," She said softly, seeming nervous. Naruto slowly opened his eyes and sat up, smiling his thanks before taking a long drink of water.
"Ah, that's much better. Thanks Sakura-chan. Where's Teme?" He asked with a yawn.
"He went out to do some hunting. Are you feeling okay?" Sakura replied slowly.
"Yeah, just about good as new," Naruto responded, sounding more chipper as he stretched, not sensing anything off just yet.
"Um… well you… you look different," Sakura said hesitantly.
"Huh? What do you mean Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked curiously
"Well, you…um, how do I put this?" Sakura said thoughtfully, reaching out and picking up a few strands of Naruto's hair that was, as he just realized, much longer now and tied up into two pigtails, as it usually was when he was…
"Heh? Why am I in my sexy jutsu form?" Naruto asked in surprise.
"Well…it's not quite like that. For one, you're still the same age, and two, you have your clothes on, Thank Kami," Sakura pointed out.
"Yeah but it's still the same, just with more of a henge on it when I want to knock someone out with a nosebleed. I use this form for when I'm pretending not to be me…though it doesn't work all that well." Sakura blinked before sighing and putting a hand to her face.
"Of course not baka. Anyone with half a brain could see that it's you. You're the only one around with that shade of golden blonde hair, and if that's not enough of a giveaway, the whisker marks on your cheeks are." Naruto was silent after that, possibly struck dumb that he'd never thought of that before. Suddenly there was a series of knocks from the entrance to the cave.
"Sasuke's back! Come in Sasuke, Naruto's awake!" Sakura called excitedly.
"Finally. Is he still a girl?" Sasuke replied flatly as he moved toward him. Naruto's eyes narrowed.
"I'm not a girl Teme, it's just a henge."
"Hn. Can you dispel it?" The bored-sounding Uchiha replied.
"Of course I can!"
"Great, then do so.
"Maybe I don't wanna."
"Scared you might be stuck, dobe?"
"Fine, I'll show you!" Naruto yelled, jumping to his/her feet and forming the seal to dispel his technique. There were a few moments of silence as nothing happened. Naruto paled slightly.
"This isn't good…" Sasuke frowned a bit at the hand seal Naruto was using.
"Naruto, try to perform the initiation of your jutsu," He said, activating his Sharingan. Naruto blinked.
"But it's already activated."
"Just do it. My Sharingan can analyze jutsus, so I might be able to figure out why you're stuck like this."
Naruto blinked before forming a new seal and shouting, "Sexy no Jutsu!" Sasuke's sharingan whirled for a second before setting still, other than that nothing really happened.
"Now try to release the jutsu again." Naruto again attempted to return to his normal form and other than Sasuke's Sharingan recording, again there was no discernable result. Sasuke glanced at Sakura then back at Naruto.
"Alright. First of all, that seal you made is not the henge seal. Secondly, the release seal you made was not to release the henge. From what I can tell the 'initiation' is the release, and the release is actually the re-initiation. That makes it likely that both segments have to do with a fuinjutsu, which is now lacking a component that makes it function, possibly the physical embodiment of the seal was contained in your pendant," Sasuke explained.
"Um…what?" Naruto replied, not having understood much of the explanation. Sakura blinked as she realized what Sasuke was saying.
"He means, that you were probably born a girl, but was turned into a boy for some reason with a fuinjutsu contained in your pendant," She whispered breathlessly, looking at Naruto as if she'd never seen him clearly before. Naruto blinked, before he registered what that meant. He immediately panicked.
"Nooooooo, there's no WAY, that's impossible, how would that…" He began before Sasuke clamped a hand over her mouth to stall the garbled denials spewing from within. Sakura just burst out laughing. Naruto and Sasuke both glared at her.
"What is so damned funny about this?" The blonde screeched after getting her mouth free. Sakura stuffed her fist in her mouth to choke back more giggles.
"I'm sorry Naruto. But the fact that this happened caused me to remember something ironic that Ino told me a while back. That and the stress of the moment merited a release."
"Enough. While I was out I got our other scroll, so why don't we head to the tower?" Sasuke said flatly. Sakura stared at him.
"You said you were going hunting!"
"I was. Hunting for our scroll."
"How did you get it?"
"I met with Hinata, Kiba, and Shino, told them in vague terms that Dobe was mildly roughed up, and Hinata suggested they give us an extra scroll they had so I took it since I figured that if Dobe didn't manage to change back then we wouldn't need to deal with any more fighting. Let's just go and get somewhere safer than here before we have to deal with him panicking." With that, Sasuke turned and started walking out of the cave. Sakura followed after catching hold of Naruto's wrist and tugging her along.
"If what you've said is true, then shouldn't we start referring to Naruto as 'her' now?" She wondered quietly. Before Naruto could protest, Sasuke cut in, mildly annoyed that Sakura had almost caused Naruto to begin panicking again.
"I might be the rookie of the year, but I'm no expert when it comes to fuinjutsu. The only thing I know about it is that the technique he was showing was not a henge. It might be that we're all under a genjutsu cast by that Orochimaru character, he seemed strong enough to be able to cast one that my novice Sharingan couldn't pierce easily. Until I get confirmation from the Hokage or medical staff, I will continue to refer to the Dobe as I always have."
Naruto closed his mouth, and for a moment gratitude shone from his eyes before he humphed and looked away. "Teme."