Sadly I do not own Naruto. Oh well… but I can still play around with the plot.

This is very much an AU story. If you don't like it, I really don't care. This came into being from a request from a friend and now co-author, not to mention an AP English assignment.

Hidden in Plain Sight

My dear readers, we come to look upon something…

Extraordinary…

Here is a small child, the offspring of the great Yondaime Hokage, the greatest of the kages of the Konoha Village, and yet, this child is the single most detested and despised creature in all of Konoha. You see, dear readers, before the Yondaime gave his life for the village and his child, he sealed a great demon inside of the child. The Yondaime sealed the great nine-tailed fox demon, Kyuubi no Kitsune, who had been attacking the Hidden Village of the Leaf, into his only child.

Though that child is hated and despised, it does not lash out at the villagers with the immense power of the demon fox that resided with in the seal. Instead, this child has always been a kind and gentle soul, always with a huge smile, no matter how fake it was. The child was always loud and easily excited, there was never an unkind gesture or word that came from the child to anybody, even the Kyuubi was treated with kindness.

Yes… the child knew of the demon.

The child found out while being attacked by several of the villagers. There it was, curled into a small ball while blows and kicks rained down on to it from above. They were cutting the child, using kunai, broken bottles, knives, and other sharp instruments that they had either brought or had found on the street. Then the pain stopped, and the child would remember being wrapped up in a warm, furry embrace and being carried off, away from the pain. Those who had attacked the child would later swear that a large red fox had come out of thin air, drove of their attack, transform into a very handsome young man with fox ears and tail, pick the child up, and the two of them disappeared into the night. Though, to their disappointment, the child was back in a week; the child would never tell where it had been.

Ever since then, there have been rumors flying about the Hidden Village of the Leaf, so many, in fact, that even those who knew the truth had their stories distorted. If there was a person in the world who cared to know the whole truth, that person would have to find the current Hokage, the elderly Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha, now only he truly knows the whole story.

It had taken years, but finally the child's name became known throughout the village, it was Naruto. Some of the villagers would wonder why the child had no family name but then there were those who still thought that the child should be put down like an animal. The Sandaime refused to allow for the execution or exiling of the child, so he gave it a family name and thus Naruto became Kitsune no Naruto, or to those few who were kind to the child, 'Naru-chan.'

Naruto is a bit different than most other people. Oh sure, he has the normal two eyes, a deep sky blue, soft blonde hair, two arms, and two legs… This is where things start to get a bit weird. Instead of normal ears, Naruto's head has two fox ears jutting out of sides of its head, each ear was a reddish orange color with a white tip. Those ears plus a very fluffy fox tail that was almost a meter long at the child's very young 4-years, a tail that was the same colors as the ears, this tail was as flexible and fully controllable as a cat tail or monkey tail. These are the reasons that Naruto is hated by most of the villagers.

The years of passed, mostly without incident, though there was that one time when the child was again assaulted by some very high class nobles and was almost raped if it was not for the mysterious man again, those nobles were never seen again by mortal eyes…

Now our little Naru-chan has become thirteen years old and nothing much has changed, or that is what most people think. Our Naruto has just now hit the onset of puberty, and this is also the first out-of-the-village mission with his genin team, consisting of Uchia Sasuke and Haruno Sakura and their sensei, the jounin Hatake Kakashi.

Nothing really has changed about out Naruto, the kindness, the same smile that never reached the eyes, and the loudness. Though there was some deep dark secret that Naruto kept from the rest of the team, and it would be years before Sasuke or Sakura would notice anything… odd…

Sasuke would be the first to notice that there was something odd about his team mate, there was always the shimmer of a GenJutsu Chakra about his team mate. At first he passed this off as some prank or the like, and dismissed it for three years, after all he had to deal with Orochimaru and his evil brother Itachi; but he continued to notice the shimmer was always there. He mentioned it Sakura, and after a few weeks of puzzling the whole problem over in their minds, the two of them decided to take the matter up with their teacher, Kakashi.

When asked, Kakashi, became quite nervous and stuttered that he had no idea what they were talking about, and when pressed further Kakashi left in the puff of smoke that he always did when leaving any team event, evidently the Jounin knew more than he let on.

Sasuke and Sakura set out to find Naruto; little did they know that they were going to get way more than they bargained for.

Naruto was in the forest, alone, again. Naruto would always come to the forest for some peace and quiet, after the war with the Sound many things had changed. Thoughts flooded the genin's mind, eventually all thoughts turned to that fateful night before the chuunin exams in which the Sandaime was killed.

Flashback

Naruto had been called to the Hokage's office.

There really wasn't must left, that the Hokage could say that would shock Naruto's mind anymore. Oh, sure the Yondaime was his father, sure the village hates him because of the Kyuubi… There wasn't anything else.

The door to the office opened and there was the sad face of the Sandaime looking down at him. "Leave…" the old man ordered the ANBU that guarded his door, which they did.

The old man beckoned for the teen to come into the office and to sit at his normal chair, once the child was seated, the old man sighed heavily as he too sat down in his chair behind the desk.

"Naruto…" started the old man, but he trailed off.

Naruto looked at Hokage, but didn't say anything, the teen just looked at Sarutobi with curious eyes, the kind gentle soul was there again.

"Now is the time for the last secret that your father kept from you…"

"I already know what you're about to say, old man…" said Naruto, there was definitely something odd about his voice, it had a different pitch to it.

But the old man appeared to not have heard anything that the teen spoke, he squeezed his eyes shut and barreled onward. "Your real name is Uzumaki Noriko… The daughter of the Yondaime…"

There was no response to that, the Hokage opened his eyes to see Naru-Noriko sitting there in the chair completely relaxed and at ease, there was no emotion on the girl's face.

"And your point is…?" asked Noriko, the smile was gone and so was the beginnings of the male voice that had always been there. Now the voice was very much feminine, and his-her body had become smaller more petite and the beginnings of curves on her body.

"B-but how…? How did you know…?" Asked that Hokage, clearly startled that the child knew of the GenJutsu that had surrounded him-her.

"Kyuubi-chan told me…" said Noriko, as if she was stating the obvious. "Kyuubi-chan's been using Chakra well before this village was formed, so of course she would know about the GenJutsu. Wouldn't you have figured this out by now, after all Kyuubi-chan is a demon, so she would know all about it…"

The Sandaime looked at the girl in front of him, his eyes held surprise and yet understanding.

And that was that.

End Flashback

That was almost three years ago, and now Noriko was alone with her thoughts. Tsunade was the Hokage now, and she knew of her secret and the reasons that she kept the GenJutsu in place. Though in all honesty Tsunade knew that he had the GenJutsu up the minute that she met her, throughout the whole mission with Jiraiya, Noriko was disguised as Naruto so that there wouldn't be any sort of reports of an odd girl in orange that might eventually reach the village of the leaf. While the three women were alone, Tsunade and her assistant, Shizune, asked about the jutsu, let's just say that that conversation was really awkward…

In the last three years since Tsunade had become the Hokage, their relationship had grown, if people could see the two of them, Noriko without her henge, they would call them sisters. Tsunade had had to help Noriko with all the changes that were happening with her body, in fact, the Hokage had pulled Noriko from her apartment for a while for all the shocks and sudden changes to occur (i.e. the start of Noriko's monthly cycle), but that only lasted for six months before everything had settled and Noriko had been forced, however unwillingly by Tsunade, to return to her apartment.

In those years there had been several other happenings in Konoha, among those being the revelation that both Kakashi and Iruka were seeing each other… romantically. The rookie nine had all changed and matured even 'Naruto,' but some in more ways than others. Time came for Noriko to get new clothes, some that wouldn't look so odd on either the henge male body or her normal female form. So Tsunade took it upon herself to buy her a new jacket and new clothes. The jacket was bright orange leather that had the Kanji for Kitsune stitched on it in black, the plants were the deepest black, and the shirts were a mixture of cut off shirts and spaghetti straps, also black. This was the most clothing that she had ever owned in all of her life, and it was all thanks to Tsunade, though it should be mentioned that the Hokage conveniently left out all forms of under garments out of her shopping spree.

Noriko was developing all the curves that most girls have and it was getting to a point where not even the GenJutsu or the numerous wraps binding her breasts could hide them, she would have to go shopping but that would be later today, Sasuke and Sakura had said that they wanted to talk with 'him.'

So in the middle of a clearing deep in the wood sat Noriko, deep in thought. She had sat there for hours, alone with her thoughts and her self-proclaimed nee-chan, a.k.a. Kyuubi-chan. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she almost didn't notice as her two team mates got closer and closer to her.

"Naruto…?" it was Sakura, they were very close…

'What the hell…?' Thought Sasuke. 'What's going on? He's so small, he almost looks like a girl…' But his thoughts were interrupted by the body of his team mate filling out before her eyes, becoming more masculine and muscular before his very eyes.

"Whoops… Sorry about that guys…" said Naruto, scratching the back of his head with one hand and flashing them his trademark foxy grin. "I've been working on my Chakra control and I was seeing how long I could hold a henge all over my body while not thinking about it… I guess I was so deep-"

"Can it dobe." Cut in Sasuke, his voice was cold and hard. "And stop lying, tell us the truth, what are you hiding?"

Naruto looked at them in shock. "H-Hiding…? I-I'm not hiding anything?"

They looked at him, clearly not believing him at all.

Well at least Sasuke was, Sakura was looking at him with an odd expression her face.

She really didn't have any other lie to feed them, it was either flee, or tell them; and she sure as hell wasn't going to tell them that the boy they had know for the last six or seven years was really a girl. So Noriko went for the second option.

"Look guys, unless you have something important to discuss I'm outta here… Oba-cha wanted to see me about something." Said Naruto getting up and stretching, Sakura and Sasuke could both see the shimmer.

Sasuke activated his Sharingan, the flowing of the Chakra around his friend was there but he simply could not see what it did to his friend's body, the Sharingan just wasn't designed like that, he would need the Byakugan of either Neji or Hinata to find out what was going on.

The instant Noriko saw the Sharingan activate, she took off as fast as she could to the Hokage tower, she would need to ask Tsunade as to what to do, she was in big trouble that was for sure.

Sakura, on the other hand, had no idea as to why would Sasuke, her boyfriend, be acting like that? There were so many unanswered questions, some of which the two of them would have to go straight to the top to get their answers.

The two Chuunin were about to head for the Hokage tower when their former teacher and now Jounin boss appeared before them in the normal puff of smoke. "Yo." He greeted lazily.

The two Chuunin looked at him, they were annoyed beyond measure.

"The Hokage has a mission for the two of you, Naruto had been ordered to stay here, so the two of you are to some with me. Now go get packed, we leave in half an hour and we will be gone in the hidden Village of Ice, pack warmly, we'll be there for about three weeks." And the Jounin disappeared from view in the same puff of smoke, nit allowing them any questions.

THE HOKAGE'S OFFICE

Noriko sat in Tsunade's office, breathing very hard and completely unable to make a sound, her face was flushed and her fox ears drooped as if they were exhausted as well.

The Godaime Hokage leaned back in her chair, sipping her sake thoughtfully. "That was too close Noriko-chan…" she said finally. "That was way too close…"

Noriko looked up from her feet, there was an indescribable pain in her eyes. "I don't know what to do anymore, nee-chan…" she said in a small voice all the while pulling up her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms and her long fluffy tail around herself.

Tsunade's heart broke at the sight of the girl in front of her; the two of them had been through so much that, though they were not related by blood, the years and the experiences that the two of them had been through had bonded them together as sisters. The normally loud, rambunctious, cheerful 'future Hokage' was breaking in front of her eyes and it hurt…

A lot…

"Look…" sighed Tsunade, but before she could finish the door to her office few open and both Sakura and Sasuke walked through the door, they looked irate, Sasuke had his Sharingan activated.

In her current state of heightened emotions and running on pure adrenaline, Noriko's fear got the better of her and the extreme stress forced the Kyuubi's Chakra out. Using the new power that now flooded her veins, Noriko was under Tsunade's desk so fast, she seemed to just disappear, making no movements. Now under the desk, Noriko curled up into a little ball, shaking like a leaf.

Sasuke was all prepared to ignore the sight of another fox-child, but neither Tsunade nor Sakura were going to let this go… not without saying something and possibly killing one of them.

"God damnit you two!" bellowed Tsunade, thanking Kami that Noriko and her had come up with a plan, just in case something like this happened. "Do realize how long it took me to get her into that chair, just to get her to talk to me? Hours! God damnit! Hours! Ugh! What in Kami's name do you two genin want!?!"

Sakura and Sasuke winced, the sight of the enraged Hokage would strike fear into anyone's heart, even Gaara's; but, before either of them could say anything in their defense, a new sound cut through the now uncomfortably silent office.

The girl, Noriko, was whimpering.

Normally Noriko could keep a cap on her emotions, but right now this was just too much for her to handle, the adrenaline induced hysteria had made it impossible to hold in her emotions.

Tsunade's expression softened almost instantly, the simple sound tore at her soul. "Look… you two…" she said in a soft voice, presumably to start to calm Noriko down. "I assume that you're here about your mission, right?" They nodded. "I thought so… I'm sorry, but one of you MUST go, I told the sound that I'd send our best…"

"But why not send a Jounin, or and ANBU, or why not-" started Sasuke, but Tsunade cut in.

"If you finish that sentence with Naruto's name, I paint my office with your blood. Naruto is on a forced vacation with Jiraiya in the village of the sand, you two know very well that ever since the war he hasn't been well…" Tsunade's voice was a deadly whisper.

"I'll go…" said Sakura, looking at Sasuke with admiration in his eyes.

"No…" said Tsunade, she placed a finger on her chin thoughtfully. "I have another assignment for you right now, Sakura… Sasuke you are to go on the mission with Kakashi, you are to go to find someone to accompany you from the ANBU squad to go with the two of you. Be ready to leave in an hour then meet Kakashi at the gate, you are dismissed, Sakura stay… we need to talk about your new assignment…"

Sasuke gave Sakura's hand a gentle squeeze as he left the office.

An uncomfortable silence fell in the office, only broken slightly by the whimpers coming from the fox-girl-ball that was Noriko. The Hokage gestured to a chair that was in front of her desk leaving one open for the girl under her desk, just in case she decided to come out.

"I need your help…" sighed Tsunade, setting down her cup of sake. "The girl you saw a few minuets ago is… well… her father took her and preformed grievous experiments on her… Her name Noriko, Uzumaki Noriko. She was found this mourning by Gai, right outside the village…"

Sakura nodded, she didn't understand why the Hokage was telling her this. "Okay…" she said. "But why are you telling me this…?"

"I need you and the other kunoichi, you know… the kunoichi from your class, Tenten and Temari, she's visiting with the Kazekage. Get her cleaned up and then get her the proper clothes for a girl… don't worry… I'm paying for every thing. In other words… I just want you to look after her… Please…"

Sakura pondered the request for a few moments, then nodded. "I'll do it, but I do want to know what…"

Tsunade looked at her with scrutiny, then sighed. "There's not much we know for sure, but there are a few things that I do know. First of all, you do know that Naruto and the Kyuubi parted ways after the final battle."

Ah yes… how could anyone forget that eventful day… The carnage was unbelievable, the image that would be burned into the memory of the entire world; Naruto and the Kyuubi- in all her glory- fighting side-by-side to kill off Orochimaru and the last bits of the Atsuki. The two of them had finished the battle quite quickly and afterward, the Kyuubi vanished, never to attack the Leaf again. No one wanted to remember that day, and everyone forgot that it was after that day that Naruto had become distant, and they couldn't figure it out; or at least it took them a while to do so.

"From the reports that we have of her father, he took the Kyuubi… he forced it into her…" Tsunade's voice trailed off as she looked down at her desk, silently, Tsunade was thanking Kami that Sakura was believing her.

Sakura couldn't believe what Tsunade was telling her, sure, there had been Kyuubi sightings all over the country, but they had stopped a few months ago, though no one knew why. To think that the Kyuubi had been captured and resealed… was unthinkable… In the past, she had had at least one or two conversations with the demon, Kyuubi was actually quite nice and a great conversationalist. Naruto was 'his' own person, 'he' wasn't the demon and she wasn't 'him.' Come to think of it, she quite liked the demon and had pushed for her to become the guardian of the village, but the council wouldn't hear of it, no matter how many people spoke out for her character, though many think that they refused just because Naruto put in a good word for her.

Slowly, Sakura's thoughts trailed over to the fox-girl, now curled up under the Hokage's desk. She was still out of sight… Sakura reflected on her friend, Naruto's life again; the loneliness, rejection, and hatred that 'he' had faced, Naruto had once told her that if anyone had ever faced what he had, he do anything in his power to save him or her from that hell… She was damned if she was going to let another go through that and become another Naruto…

It took the combined efforts of Sakura and Tsunade to coax the sacred girl out from under the giant desk. Once out and standing in front of the two of them Sakura looked her over for any injuries. She noted that the Kyuubi must be doing her stuff…

There was something very familiar about those clothes.

Sakura looked Noriko over as she took off Naruto's prized leather jacket, it was impossible for anyone not know that it was his jacket, the Hokage had ordered it specially for him and it was one of a kind. She was a little under middle height (FYI the Naruto disguise made 'him' about 6'3"). She had had spiky unruly blonde hair that hung a little below her shoulders. Her eyes were a beautiful sky blue with slits for pupils, Sakura guessed that that was Kyuubi's doing. On her cheeks were three dark, yet dainty whisker marks that looks some what like Naruto's. She was most definitely female, there were all the right curves in all the right places, yet there was the hint of muscle under all the feminine curves, most of the kunoichi would kill for a figure like that.

Then it clicked. They were Naruto's.

"Noriko-chan… Where did you get those clothes...?" asked Sakura looking over at Tsunade then to Noriko and flicking back and forth between the two of them.

Before Noriko could answer, Tsunade answered for her.

"Naruto gave them to her…" the Hokage said. "Her other clothes… well… they weren't worth using for rags, so Naruto took it upon himself to give her the clothes off his back- though the jacket was just a loan- he went home in just his boxers, I'm pretty sure I heard some whistles."

Sakura and Noriko blushed, though Sakura's was noticeably deeper than Noriko's. 'hmm… Noriko's a good actor. I wonder what else she's been hiding from us…?' thought Tsunade. "Here." She handed Sakura a scroll that she had written just for the occasion, it was basically an order that anything that they bought would be charged the Hokage and would be paid by her.

Sakura took the scroll, tucked it into the pouch at her waist, grabbed Noriko's hand and the two of them left without even saying good bye.

ON THE STREETS OF KONOHA

The people of Konoha shot Noriko furtive looks, but showed neither her nor Sakura and animosity. In her mind, Noriko wondered what her friends would think f her true self as a lady, as Naruto, she wore a mask that hid all of her emotions, now as a girl, as Noriko, she could be her true self.

Before she knew it, the two of them were at the flower shop that Ino's family ran and lived in. Sakura practically had to carry Noriko into the shop. As the two of them entered the shop, a little bell rang from above their heads, altering Ino, who was working the counter at the time, to their presence.

"Hey there Fore-head chick!" Ino shouted to her friend, they had come with new insults for each other. "Who's your friend?" But as Noriko came out from behind Sakura, Ino registered that she wasn't… normal… Her reaction wasn't expected…

Upon registering that Noriko had two fox ears sticking out of her head and a very fluffy fox tail she shrieked (you men know… the kind that only a very excited girl can make…) and tackled Noriko who was too startled to move out of the way.

"She's SOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTE!!!" shrieked Ino tackling the fox-girl in a hug that knocked the two of them off of their feet. Noriko tried in vain to get away from the suffocating hug that she was receiving from the over excited teen. Eventually Ino pulled herself up off of the ground and held the girl at arm's length, looking her up and down with a designer's eye, being a flower arranger and a very fashion tuned teen, Ino was able to figure out what anyone would look good in. "Hiya! I'm Yamanaka Ino, just Ino please!" There were other things said, but to Noriko's highly sensitive fox-ears it was just noise.

"H-Hi… ano… I'm Noriko…" replied Noriko, still a little shocked.

Ino frowned a little bit and glanced at Sakura, but didn't say anything. "You new in town?"

"Yes… come on Ino-pig. Tsunade-sama wants us to get her cleaned up and buy her some new clothes with the other kunoichi and Temari." Sakura answered for Noriko. Ino nodded and then yelled.

"Mom! I'm going out with Sakura to help with something for Hokage-sama!" and without waiting for an answer from her they three of them left.

Finding Tenten and Temari wasn't hard; they were at the training grounds. Their reactions were about the same as Ino's and they also frowned at Noriko would answer shyly and all the times she would be looking at her feet and would miss their looks.

Everyone knew where Hinata would be; at the Hyuuga main complex in Konoha. Sakura was the only one of the girls who wished to retrieve Hinata, the others wanted to go ahead shopping for Noriko, but Sakura wouldn't have it. The door was answered by a undistinguishable servant.

"Yes…?" asked the servant.

"We want to see Hyuuga Hinata…" said Sakura, taking charge. "It's for a mission for the Hokage."

"Just a moment." Replied the servant.

"Is it just me or are all them the same…?" asked Ino. They had kinda forgotten about Noriko. "Every time I've been here, all of the servants look the same and they all sound alike."

"I've always thought so." said Hinata, coming out of the complex. "But they're a lot nicer once you're on the inside."

There was a chorus of hellos and "how are you"s from everyone but Noriko, she on the other hand, looked at her feet. Hinata looked at the new girl with curiosity.

"Hi there…"she said trying to get the girls attention. Noriko looked up into her white, pupil-less eyes. "I'm Hyuuga Hinata."
"Hi… I'm… ano… Noriko…" Noriko stammered, finding her feet very interesting and twiddling her index fingers.

Hinata frowned as well, and looked at the others, they all nodded as if they were confirming something, though no one said anything.

"Come on girls…" said Sakura, trying to break the mood. "We've got shopping to do!"

The other kunoichi, yelled in an affirmative. Both, Temari and Ino took Noriko's hand and led her off into the shopping district of Konoha.

SHOPPING

"Where do we go first?" asked Hinata, looking around at all the shops. There were so many different kinds, all of them devoted to the wonderful world of women's clothing.

The group of kunoichi, all stopped in the middle of the road. They all knew the one question that they had to ask, but no one wanted to ask it.

Finally, Sakura took the initiative and asked the question. "Noriko-chan… do you have any… uh… under wear?"

Noriko wouldn't meet their eyes, but mumbled something that only Sakura could hear. Sakura looked up, but didn't repeat anything that the girl had said. "Tenten and Temari, you two go find some sleep wear, go with "smalls" and Hinata and Ino will come with me. We'll meet back here in two hours to find day wear." Then whispering to the two she was sending off, "Find something with foxes…"

Tenten and Temari mock saluted and hurried off while Sakura took Noriko's hand and gently led her into a store, with blacked out windows (for the perverts) that was devoted entirely to women's undergarments.

Once inside the store, Sakura and Ino led Noriko to the back of the practically empty store to one of the changing booths. One of the attendants tried to stop them, but after she had read the scroll that Sakura had thrown at her, the attendant shut up.

"Noriko-chan..." started Ino, "Do you know your sizes?"

"Ano…" stuttered Noriko. "I-I n-n-never had a mom. S-so I-I don't-t kn-now… I n-never had 'nybody t-tell m-me anything…"

"Well then…" sighed Sakura, this was going to be harder than she thought; not that she minded, but she wanted to have several hours to talk with Noriko. She led the other girl over to one of the stalls that served as a dressing room and led her inside. "Get undressed and we'll figure everything out."

"But-"

"I'm a medic and a girl so don't think of this as perverted or anything like that, okay?"

"O-Okay…" Noriko started to full off the black shirt that was 'Naruto's' and handed it to Sakura, who folded it neatly. Underneath the shirt was a expanse of lightly tanned skin that was only broken by some graying bandages that tightly bound her breasts.

Sakura was shocked at the sight, but didn't say anything, though there were several thought blazing through her head…

Then, Noriko stopped undressing herself; she just stood their looking at her feet, embarrassed as hell.

"What's that matter?" asked Sakura. "Why'd you stop?"

"I… ano…" Noriko said but the last part was so quiet that Sakura couldn't hear it.

"Sorry… but I didn't catch that last part there."

"I… d-don't have anything e-else…"

"Oh… But didn't you have something under your clothes when you came…"

"…"

"INO!"

At the girl's shout, the blonde poked her head into the dressing room through the curtain that served as a door. "You rang?" she said.

"Yes… find me some bikini briefs, you know what I'm looking for, something on the smaller end of the scale. Then find Hinata, tell her to find me some plain white bras, somewhere in the mid b-cup."

Ino, foregoing all hints of sarcasm, pulled her head out of the stall and they could hear the two of the girls' feet walking about.

The three of them had spent an hour in the store, finding several things for Noriko, when they left, Noriko looking much more comfortable in the black clothes that belonged to 'Naruto' having recently donned the undergarments that they had purchased and everything was in its proper place. They found the other two sitting at an outdoor café, drinking tea, with several bags of clothing next to them. As the three of them approached the café, Noriko noticed an odd gleam in their eye, and her 'Naruto side' was screaming in fear.

"You finished…?" asked Tamari, setting down her now empty cup of tea.

"Yup…" said Sakura, draping and arm around Noriko's shoulders, indicating that they should take a look at her.

Okay, the other kunoichi were going to have to keep an eye on her, she was gorgeous. The undergarments that they had bought only accentuated her figure and made her look sexy, rather than adorable, although she was still adorable, but now looked more like a vixen.

"Ladies… I think that we're going to have our hands full with this little vixen…" said Ino, suggestively.

"Ano…" Noriko blushed a deep, deep red.

"Well she can't have my Choji-kun!" said Tenten, the two of them had been going out for little over an year.

"… or my Kiba-kun." Said Hinata.

"… or my Lee-kun." said Ino, with fire in her eyes.

"…. If you so much as touch my Sasuke-kun…" Sakura threatened.

If she could have, she would've had the earth swallow her, but she wasn't allowed to show that she knew any jutsu's that only 'Naruto' knew. So, she compromised by taking a step back. "Ano…"

It took them a few minutes, but they eventually clamed down.

"Okay…" said Ino. "Now that we've installed a healthy fear of Kami in our Noriko-chan, we can finally get to the good stuff."

"What good stuff?" asked Noriko, her 'Naruto' side getting the better of her.

The other kunoichi stared at her, she had never not stuttered before to them.

Then, as if something had been confirmed in their minds an evil grin crossed their faces, Ino, rubbing her hands together, said. "Why… the main part of the shopping… getting you some day clothes."

By the time they were done, Noriko had a complete new wardrobe, was completely wiped out, even more dirty and sweaty, and had no idea where she was going to stay for the time being.

But then, as if the Hokage was reading her mind, and ANBU appeared in front of them holding a scroll.

"Sakura-san…" said the man with a falcon mask.

She took the scroll and the man disappeared. Sakura opened the scroll and read it quickly, she looked at Noriko directly.

"It says that you're supposed to stay with one of us, the Hokage hasn't had time to set up your apartment."

"O-okay…" Noriko stuttered.

"The lot of you can stay at the complex." Said Hinata, looking pleased with herself. "There are plenty of large rooms for us to all stay together, and then we have the hot springs and open air bath house."

"It's settled, we're going to the Hyuugas…" said Temari. "I haven't had a good soak in a hot spring in what seems like years."

The group of them walked over to the complex as it was nearing the time of that day when a man (or woman) gives his first yawn and looks up at the clock and considers going to bed early after a long hard day of being a Ninja. The huge gates to the complex opened as Hinata knocked and one of the servants ushered them inside of the complex.

Almost instantly they were accosted by Hiashi, who looked a little tired and drunk at the same time. That was a good thing, because a sober Hyuuga can be a stubborn jackass when it comes to anything that another needs to convince them of. About three minuets after Hinata had spoken to Hiashi, Noriko found herself being stripped by a group of girls, intent on getting her "cleaned up," as per the instructions on the scroll.

Soon Noriko found herself sitting in front of a faucet with a nude Sakura and Ino scrubbing her hair and back. It was surprising to all of the other girls to find out that Noriko's hair was naturally unruly and almost blindingly golden blonde. To them, Noriko had amazing skin, it was lightly tanned and soft to the touch, there was no hair at all on her body, save on her head.

"Did you shave yourself…?" asked Ino, curiously.

"Shave…?" asked Noriko, this time she wasn't pretending. "Shave what? I'm not a man. So why would I need to shave?"

The other girls stared at her, dumbfounded.

"You mean that you've never had to shave your legs or otherwise…?" asked Temari, with wide eyes.

"…yes" replied Noriko, wondering what she had done wrong.

There was an uncomfortable silence as the other girls looked at each other; Sakura on the other hand ignored them as she dumped water over Noriko, rinsing the shampoo out of the other girl's hair.

"All done!" said Sakura standing up from her kneeling position behind Noriko.

Noriko stood up and moved out of the way so she could return the favor for Sakura.

Sakura shook her head and said, "Nope… you go over there and get into the hot spring and wait for the rest of us, then we're all going to get to know you better and you can ask us questions."

"O-okay…" said Noriko, walking out to the spring and lowered herself into the hot water until only her nose and the top of her head was above the water, she closed her eyes and sighed, even her ears relaxed and leaned back against her head.

WITH THE KUNOICHI

The other girls looked at each other with a newfound knowledge in their eyes.

"Okay…" started Tenten. "Who of you actually believes the story that the Hokage fed us?"

No one said anything.

"I always knew that there was something going on, but I never could put my finger on it." Sighed Temari, sounding just like Shikamaru.

"I know, but there has to be a good reason for all the mystery… but what?" said Sakura, rinsing out her hair.

"I think a better question would be is why?" said Hinata stepping away from one of the other faucets in the bath house. They were all cleaned and were now headed to the hot spring that took up most of the bath house.

They looked in at Noriko, she was still completely under water except for the top of her head and her fox ears.

Slowly, a feral grin came over Ino's face and she pulled the others back into the part with all the faucets. "I think I know a way to get her to confess…"

The lot of them gathered around her as Ino explained her devious plan.

WITH NORIKO

She was thinking hard, these girls had shown him more compassion than the combined amount in all of his life. No one else had been this nice to him, although there had been time when Kyuubi-nichan had been kind and then there was months with Tsunade-nichan but that really wasn't like this…

The kunoichi had shown her things that no one else had ever had, even when she had dropped the henge to go shopping, the shop keepers had either thrown her out of the shop or had refused to help her when asked. Sakura, Ino, and Hinata were all so kind, although she knew that both Hinata and Neji could see through the henge the both of them had treated her like she was still a boy; though Neji had confronted her about the henge after the Chuunin exam, and was the only one who had wormed the whole story out of her. Both, Ino and Sakura were known to be hotheaded in a lot of things and Noriko knew this first hand, but the two girls that he had met today were vastly different from the two he knew. Right now she hoped that Neji had kept the secret and told no one…

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't hear the other girls slip into the water and gather themselves around her in a small circle.

"Naruto-kun…" cooed a voice.

Noriko's head shot up in the familiar fox grin and she had a hand behind her neck, the action had become a reflex whenever some had said her male form's name.

The instant her eyes opened she knew she was caught…

The other girls looked on with smug looks, although some of them were now growing angry, after all, for all they knew, Noriko was just the name of the henge that 'Naruto' was using.

"Why…?" asked Sakura, shaking her head sadly. "Why would you do something like this Naruto? Are you a closet pervert and somehow got Hokage-sensei to give you a mission like this?"

Noriko shook her head, her eyes were wide and she pulled her legs up to her chest, curling into a little ball.

They all looked on, waiting for an answer from the girl.

"Why…?" asked Ino, and it was echoed by the other kunoichi. "Naruto… why?"

There was a very uncomfortable silence and Noriko stared at them with wide eyes, then a flash of realization flashed across Hinata's eyes.

"You aren't a guy are you…?" asked Hinata.

Noriko shook her head, burying her head into her knees.

"Then why would you hide like this…?" asked Sakura, she was looking at her teammate like she had never seen her before.

"Don't you see…?" asked Temari, unbelieving. Even she knew of the Kyuubi and how the others in the village hated him… her for being the vessel.

They looked at Temari blankly.

"You don't mean…" gasped Hinata, she was always the more perceptive one of the group.

"I do…"

Hinata, looked over to the girl, and kindly said. "I understand Noriko-chan."

"But we don't…" said Tenten; Sakura and Ino nodded right behind her.

"If it was common knowledge that I was a girl…" said Noriko, but she couldn't get the rest of it out.

"… you'd be raped." Finished Temari, looking at Noriko with sympathy.

The other girls shuddered at the very thought of that and Noriko burst into tears.

Any animosity that they had held towards the girl had vanished from them as Sakura pulled the sobbing Noriko onto her shoulder and embraced her. They all looked at each other, there was a silent pact between the five of them to make Noriko's transition from male to female comfortable and easier than it would normally be.

They waited for a few moments as they waited for Noriko to calm down, it wasn't all that long, but eventually she did; though it took a far shorter time than it should have. The mask had slid into place, and they knew it; after all, we all know that women are more perceptive than men.

"Noriko-chan…" sighed Ino, shaking her head and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Stop hiding from us… There's no reason to pretend around us. We're here for you."

"I-I don't know h-how…" whispered Noriko. "I've never been able to j-just be me… always been alone…"

"Well you're not alone anymore, you've got five girlfriends here for you and we'll always be here for you." Said Temari. "and if I know my brother, he'll stand beside you as well, though I wouldn't count on him being nice t you…"

Noriko looked at them with watery eyes and a small, real smile. "Thank you… so much…"

The others smiled at her kindly.

"Hey… sorry to break the mood and everything, but can we change the subject?" asked Tenten. "This is a little depressing."

They all looked at her incredulously…

Then a sound broke through the silence…

A sound that was foreign to them all…

It was a small giggle, then a full blown laugh.

It was coming from Noriko, she was laughing at the look on Hinata's face- the poor girl had just realized that her crush was a girl- she was laughing so hard that she slid off the underwater bench she was sitting on and completely submerged under the water. When she emerged from the water all the other kunoichi were laughing as well, even the shocked Hinata.

After the laughter had died down they were all smiling, and Noriko was reclining on a rock, she looked more relaxed than she ever had been, though her ears twitched every now and then.

"So… now what…?" asked Noriko, she was new to this kind of thing, both being a member of the fairer sex and having friends with whom she didn't have to hide.

"Well…" started Tenten. "Normally we'd gossip here for about an hour."

"Then we'd go back to the room that I had one of the servant prepare for us" said Hinata, still a little flushed.

"…and stay up late and gossip some more…" said Sakura, "After all, there's much that we have to find out about you."

"Soo…" started Ino, she was the big gossip among them. "You do like boys right? After spending the most of your life as one you know them pretty well, then there was that huge crush that you had on Sakura here."

Noriko looked at Ino as if she had grown an extra head. "It completely depends on the boy in question here Ino-san. As for Sakura-chan, I'm sorry, but that was oji-san's idea."

"Oji-san?" it was Sakura.

"Sandiame." Was the simple reply. "I mean, there's nothing wrong with most of the Shinobi here in Konoha, but most of them are either stuck up bastards or just plain stupid…" she trailed off, her eyes going distant.

"Well I'm sure that no one cares who you like as long as you don't take… Noriko-chan? No-Riko-chan?" Ino was waving a hand in front of the girl's face. "I think we lost her girls."

Sakura heaved a sigh and pushed the fox girl off o the bench she was sitting on… again. She came back up sputtering and spitting water.

It was the most fun any of them had had in a long time; they had all loved 'Naruto' as a brother, sometimes as a little brother, and had loved spending time with the hyperactive Ninja. 'Naruto' had always been a bundle of fun and Noriko was proving to be just that, though she had a darker side to her than most other girls.

After about a hour they all got out of the spring and they all dressed in pajamas. Noriko, having been recently introduced to the female side of underwear was having a hard time putting on her bra before Sakura could stop her. She had pulled a fresh pair of panties and the new pair of sleep pants; they were a light pink color with little foxes eating bowls of ramen all over them.

"Don't put one of them on before you go to bed…" said Sakura taking the offending article of clothing out of her hands and placing it back in the bag with her other clothes, then pulled a plain white t-shit and pulled it over the girl's head, the shirt contoured to her every curve and stopped about an inch above the tops of her pants. After she was dressed as well, Sakura took Noriko's hand and led her out into the hall, the other kunoichi were waiting for them, they were dressed similarly to Noriko but had differing tops and patterns on the bottoms, or in Ino's and Temari's case their shorts.

As a group, they all went into a large room that had several futons laid down all over the floor, a table with drinks and several things to snack on through the night, evidently the Hyuuga servants knew how to do a sleep over right. The group of them all flopped down onto the numerous futons and cushions, Noriko on the other hand, was looking about.

"What'cha-" started Ino, biting the end off of a stick of poky.

"What time is it?" said Noriko, cutting through the other girls conversation.

"Its about… ten, why?" said a confused Tenten.

"Oh… Hinata do you have a radio?"

"Uh… sure, just a second…" said Hinata, a little confused, but asked one of the servants to bring a radio for them. The radio was there in under three minuets.

Noriko wasted no time in turning the radio on and tuning it to a particular station that was just finishing a heavy metal song.

"It's ten 'o clock folks" said the announcer. "And it's story time for my little kunoichi, Noriko-chan here you go…"

The music started and the kunoichi looked at Noriko with even more questions, but she was too absorbed in song, her tail was tapping in time with the music.

"Once upon a time at the foot of a great mountain,

There was a town where the people known as Happyfolk lived…"

What the hell…? This wasn't even a story, it was a mockery of music and story telling set to a simple tune, what was going on? No one dared to make a sound as the song continued to play, Noriko sitting in front of the radio watching it like she would a T.V.

The song was over, and in the opinions of the other kunoichi it had not ended too soon.

"Good night my little Noriko-chan, now for the rest of you people, here's-" the announcer tried to say, but was cut off as Noriko turned off the radio, and looked at the rest of them. They were staring at her with wide eyes and open mouths.

"What?" she asked looking a bit worried that they might be mad.

"What the hell was that?" asked Ino, being the first one to pick her jaw up off of the floor.

"What to you mean?"

"What was with that… song thing? How does the announcer know you? The real you?" Ino had worked herself into a rant.

"It's Iruka-sensei. Ano… When I was little, oji-san ordered someone to come over every night to read me a story. There were several people who came, many just came to beat me… it took forever to get back to oji-san, but when it did, there was hell to pay. He realized, that no matter what he did, there would always be those people who would hate me no matter what. So he set up a deal with the local radio station to play a story song for me every night, though they wouldn't know who it was for. Right now Iruka-sensei is the announcer, being on an undercover mission for the Hokage, so he does it for me now."

"Wow…" said Tenten. "That's really cool…"

"Yeah…" sighed Hinata, the others said similar things to this.

Noriko looked at them all like they were crazy. "Ano… excuse me if I'm wrong… but isn't it better if you had someone to come in at night read you something, tuck you in, and then tell you that they love you?"

The kunoichi flinched back as though they had been slapped.

"I didn't think of it like that…" said Sakura, looking very displeased with herself.

"Look, don't worry about it… hey… someone change the subject, I don't want to talk about my past anymore…" said Noriko waving her hand as though all the pain in her life had been nothing.

"Fine…" said Ino a mischievous glint coming into her eyes. "So… who gave it to you…?"

Noriko immediately grabbed her right hand and hid her knuckles in her other hand, clearly she was hiding something. "Ano… I-I'm not hiding anything…"

"Right…" said Hinata sarcastically, who knew she had it in her? "and I'm the daughter of Kakashi. Tell us… who gave it to you?"

"Gave what?" asked Sakura, she had been sitting on the side of Noriko and could not see her hands.

"If you had been paying any attention at all you would have seen the ring on her right middle finger." Said Temari, with Tenten nodding next to her, Temari was playing with Tenten's hair. "Even we could see it from all the way over here."

"Come on…" cooed Tenten handing Temari a comb. "Show us the ring…"

Noriko, slowly pulled her hand out of her other hand and showed the other girls the ring that was on her hand. It was a thick, solid band made of white gold, there were no markings on it of any kind, not even the normal scratches that would've appeared on any other ring.

Ino whistled in appreciation of the fine ring, then asked. "Who gave it to you?"

But before Noriko could answer, the door to the room that they were "sleeping" in opened, revealing a young man with the white eyes of the Hyuuga and long-ish black hair.

"Neji-kun…" squeaked Noriko.

Author Notes:

Well I hope that we've sparked your interest.

This was co-authored with a friend of mine, she goes by Kitsune no Noriko, and nothing else. This is also a sort of gift to her and hopefully she hasn't been lying to me about the things that I don't know about, namely those things that pertain to the female body and other things of that nature…

Cheers

Aengus and Kitsune no Noriko.