Disclaimer: It's really simple, I don't own Naruto, and I write only for fun.

O0O

Author Notice: I want to thank everybody that left a review, and / or put me on a story alert. That is really giving me some courage to keep on.

Warning: English is not my native language, so I write it very slowly. Can't without a dictionary and I'm really happy with the spellings corrector.

Have fun…

O0O

Chapter 2: Secrets revealed.

The other ninja's couldn't still find Naruto, and it was very obvious for them, that this was growing to a really big problem. With the scroll in the hands of Naruto, it was possible that he could release the fox demon. They gathered together and began to talk with each other, about other possible hiding places.

"We should have killed that brat, while we had still the chance," one of them grumbled.

More death threats were following fast. Afraid that the boy would release the monster, they had no longer the intention to get him alive.

It was really sad; fear could truly made humans do stupid things and acting like idiots.

O0O

Somewhere in the Hokage's house, Sarutobi had found the boy in the crystal boll by following Iruka. The guy had really a knack to find the tricky boy, and it didn't matter where he was hiding.

But after the revealing of Naruto's secret, he was just as flabbergasted as Iruka and the new found traitor. Even he couldn't believe it that the boy was hiding a secret this big. And to think, that he was just worrying a moment before, afraid that Naruto could break the sealing. It seems that it already had happened, maybe months or even years ago.

It could be that she was a full blood youkai now, or she could have merged with the fox, he didn't know for sure. There were too many uncertainties and many possibilities. But one thing was for sure! They were very lucky, that he… eh, she was still Naruto in person. And she was a beauty for sure; Naruto looked like her mother after all.

O0O

While the Ninja's were out for blood, and the Hokage was still puzzling about a certain Kitsune, the pressure somewhere else was very heavy.

Mizuki managed to take a step back from the now very threatening danger, while he was sweating from the tension that crackled in the air. The former boy, who was in fact a monster girl took the scroll behind her back, and let the thing drop it beside her with a bump.

"You really are trash, you know that?" the girl almost shouted.

The traitor was frowning while he glared at the strange girl. She looked a lot older now, and he judged her age around fifteen or sixteen, maybe much older. Because of this he took her instinctive more seriously. But it was not only because she looked older, it were also her dangerous looking eyes. But to ignore the situation, if the circumstance wasn't so serious, he would laugh about her condition. Do imaging, a twelve year old child locked up in an almost grown up body. Ninja children mature fast, but not that fast, and they don't change genders at least.

But he began to realise, ignoring the deadly intent, that Naruto was indeed an inexperienced kid. Mizuki's arrogance came back fast, and he took a better fight pose.

It seems that Iruka wasn't too concerned, but Mizuki filed this fact away for later.

"Trash you say, huh? I can still take you kid, even if you look like a stupid 'Icha Icha Paradise' reject."

Naruto had no idea what he was talking about and she glared at him, like the vixen she was.

Strange enough, the wounded teacher who sat on the ground against a tree, was red in his face. Talk about innocence... Iruka got the odd feeling that the writer of that book just earned himself a new enemy.

The girl took a stance, and used as a habit a hand seal for her next step. "Cheap talk trash! I will kill you, for trying to kill Iruka sensei!"

"Then try it, you demon fox! I kill you in one shot!" the traitor shouted.

She was very serious now. But she didn't want to use her special ability, because it was too easy to use it. No, she didn't want to use some cheap tricks to win this battle.

"Feh, one shot he says," muttered the Kitsune girl, while she began to realise what she was doing with her hands. "Let me show you what I learned from the Scroll of Sealing. I will you pay the pain a thousand times over," she said grinning now.

Her deadly intent and the red glow in her eyes disappeared. Then she put her hands behind her back, and took an innocent girl pose. This really angered the traitor.

"You stupid girl, what do you…."

The rest of his words didn't come, because hundreds of Naruto clones around him came in existence, all in boy form, all clothed in their orange jumpsuits! No hand seals were made, no technique was announced.

For the second time in a short period, Iruka and Mizuki were shocked, again.

The traitor fell on the ground, while he looked around him. "Wha? What is going on here? Are they real?!" To create so many of them, the girl must have a large amount of chakra.

Every Naruto clone began to laugh. "What's wrong? Come on, kill me with that one shot of yours!" a clone said. "Still speechless heh?" All the eyes from the clones began to glow with a blood red colour. The killer intent from them together was a thousand times worse.

It was useless to say, that Mizuki had a change to escape when the clones began to attack. The whole situation changed in a living nightmare for the 'poor' ex-teacher.

Iruka began to realise what Naruto had done. He... she had really divided herself into a thousand clones. It was in fact a high level technique, the 'Kage Bushin', a clone version with a real body. But the most amazing fact, she created them without even a hand seal, and all of them were already transformed in her original boy form. The girl learned them all from that scroll... She had really from her weakest skill, something created that was far better.

"Yes, she deserves really a graduation."

The Kitsune girl crouched over the unconscious and beat up body of Mizuki while she poked it with a stick. "Maybe I went a little too far?" she said a little guilty.

It was an understatement. Much later the ANBU would be cursing the idiot who had done this, because Mizuki's mind was complete broken. It would take month's maybe years to recover. There was probably only one person who could help Mizuki, but that person was not in the village.

The unknowing teacher could only smile. Naruto was Naruto, even as a girl, or sort of. However, her new appearance did give him a little trouble. Even with her nine tails, her fox ears, and her red eyes, she was still easy on the eye, or worse, it made her more exotic. But she needed really a wardrobe, and fast. And more important, Naruto needed to talk with the Hokage and it wasn't because the traitor.

But for now he had a surprise for a new graduated ninja. He made a hand gesture to the girl. "Naruto come over here. There's something I want to give you."

O0O

Sarutobi had missed nothing from the whole scene in his crystal boll. The old man looked up from his spy tool and sighed while he shook his head. It was amazing how the boy had done it, or better said, the girl. Yes, 'he' was a girl, a Kitsune now. After this he couldn't longer think Naruto as a boy, even if she disguised herself as a one.

The story behind this would be very interesting. The life of the boy was really messed up. A gender change, a body change, and the loss of some years of his youth; the kid must be truly headstrong to go on in life. A normal person would crack under the mental stress. Yes, Naruto had really earned the respect of the Hokage in that aspect.

The old man stood up, and began to walk around. He had to think about an important decision. The question was, must the masquerade go on. It was a fact that Naruto was just a twelve year old kid, mentally. She was just graduated to genin ninja by her teacher and had received the personal head plate from Iruka himself. But that was just the first step, because after that, the real test came.

Still, it was important that Naruto got the training as a ninja. The only problem was that everybody knew her as Naruto, the boy. It was risky, but she could hold up her disguise, until she promoted after the chuunin exam. Than she had hopefully enough experience to defend herself with the harsh life as a ninja. After that, she could always take a new identity.

It was better that Naruto would make the choice of her path. But it could still change if Naruto failed with the next upcoming test.

The Hokage nodded with this decision and he began to walk to the front door. He needed to warn the other men, that the search for the boy was over.

"Oh my dead old friend, if you would knew that you had no longer a son. Worse, your son became the creature that you had fought so hard. How sad…" the old man said with a heavy heart.

O0O

The next day, it was business as usual, as if nothing had happened. As a new graduated genin ninja, Naruto had to take a photo shoot, of course in her disguised form.

(To keep it simple in the future, Naruto will be called as a 'he' when she looks like a boy. It is to spare us the strange image of a girly boy...)

After that, he went back to school where he had to fill in a form. It was a little strange, that he was the last when it was his turn to enter the room for the registration. It wasn't even the same room and there were no windows. Behind a desk sat the Hokage himself together with an assistant, whose name Naruto didn't know.

A few long steps from the desk, was a wooden chair where Naruto took a seat. He took an easygoing pose, while he waited for a reaction from the Hokage. Inwardly, he did feel a little nervous. He fumbled with his new head protector. First he wanted it to save it for tomorrow, but somehow he was afraid that he would lose it. The head protector was something special to him. It was from Iruka, the teacher that had saved his life.

Sarutobi was reading the last document of the boy that sat in front of him. Naruto was remarkable quiet for somebody that was known as a loudmouthed kid. There was nothing interesting in the document. His hobbies were pranks and his favourite food was ramen, it was very childish and simple. But he was surprised too see that the photo of the boy was normal at least. Too bad, it still needed some rectification.

The Hokage looked up from the document. "Retake it. The photo..."

"Huh?" Naruto was surprised. "Why must you have a new photo? It's a good one! Do you think that I'm crazy, old man!?"

"No, but I need a photo of the real you, as a girl."

Naruto fell backwards from shock, with chair and all. Still lying on the ground, he looked up at the Hokage.

"Wha? What?" he stammered, unbelieving that the secret was exposed. "How do you know?"

The old man was smiling. "You know, I'm not the Hokage for nothing and I know what you are. And that beside, it was your teacher that told me about you, too. I want just a picture of the real you, don't be shy for what you are. It's important for the archive, but your secret is safe if you want to know. The man from the photo shoot has a professional secrecy duty, so he wouldn't talk."

Naruto stood up shakily. "And the other man?"

"If he would blab it around, than he's a dead man," the old man told the boy while he was looking at the now sweating assistant. "We all have our secrets."

With a sigh, Naruto took the chair from the floor, and placed it back in his original position.

"Yes, we all have our secrets," the 'boy' said with a sigh.

With a defeated feeling, Naruto released the transformation and showed her older true self before the Hokage.

The old man didn't look surprised, but he was just very good in hiding his emotions. The assistant on the contrary, was astounded and went beet red. Yes, a good looking human female Kitsune with big fox ears and nine bushy tails did that with most people. And still dressed in just a long black shirt and sandals wasn't really helpful.

"Iruka was right. She needs some help with female clothing. Oh man, she doesn't even wear a bra," the Hokage thought, almost getting a bleeding nose. "Naruto please, use your ninja transform technique for something more decent clothing."

After a few puzzling seconds, the kitsune girl understood what the old man wanted. A little red in her face, she transformed herself in the same orange jumpsuit, but she kept her original kitsune form. She couldn't help it with the choice of her clothing, she didn't know something else.

The old man had noticed that she had transformed without a hand seal, just as he saw it in his crystal boll yesterday. He knew about the theory, but it was very surprising to see it in action. It was refreshing to see that one person had managed to do it at least. It was also very hard to unlearn some things if you have done it for a long time, just as him.

Naruto wrapped her nine tails around her middle, took a seat again and fumbled with a few red hair strands. The old man talked about some registration things that she didn't understand and let her eyes wander. Then she looked doubtfully at her red hair in her hand. She had really long wild unkempt hair that reached to her middle. She never thought about it, because she was always transformed. She must look like a wild girl or something like that now.

"Man, why am I even thinking about this stuff!" The girl swore inwardly and shook her head. "I was born a boy. What have I done to deserve this unlucky life?"

Her thoughts were interrupted when suddenly the door opened with a bang.

"Fight me old man!!" shouted a kid, while he was running to the Hokage. It was a nine year old boy, with brown eyes and hair that wore a long scarf and a strange childish helmet on his head.

"Oh no. Not now! Not now please," the Hokage thought embarrassed while he looked away. It was his grandchild and it was already the twentieth attack this day.

Naruto's left eye twitched, when she saw the kid. It was Konohamaru.

The boy halted suddenly in his attack and looked at the kitsune girl in the chair. "You! It's you again!" he shouted surprised while he pointed to the girl.

She jumped up and she pointed to the boy. "You are the stupid little brat!"

A second later another man came running in the room. It was the personal teacher of that little boy, and his name was Ebisu, the man with his eternally black glasses on his nose.

"I will defeat you this time, you nine tailed enemy," the kid shouted, and he tried to attack the girl, who was running around now. "Yes, I will be the next Hokage if I defeat you!"

"Sorry old man, I must go now," Naruto said fast, and than she disappeared through the door, with Konohamaru following next.

The surprised teacher looked at the Hokage. "Who, who was that girl Hokage-sama. It's a girl, isn't she?" he asked uncertainly.

"That was Naruto, and she is a girl," the Hokage answered with a deep sigh. It had no longer a benefit to hide the secret, if it was keeping up at this rate.

O0O

After running over a few roofs, Naruto managed finally to lose the little boy. It wasn't that he was strong or something like that, but he was just too persistent. It was not the first time that they had met each other.

She remembered the day, two months ago.

She was sleeping somewhere on a branch of a tree. It was a strange habit, but it was a safe place to rest when you wanted to hide. Try to keep up a transformation a few days long and you will know that it is very taxing on your chakra, even if you were a kitsune with nine tails. You could only restore your chakra naturally with sleep or rest.

But at one of those fatefully days, a little boy was walking through the wood. Playing ninja without somebody else was of course not very interesting. Out of boredom he threw some shuriken here and there in the trees.

It was bad luck for Naruto, or pure luck for that kid, depending on which side you were, that one of the shuriken almost hit her.

The kitsune girl crashed with a yell out of the tree, and a few seconds later she stood up while she was cursing like an idiot.

"Who did that!? I'll kill that idiot!" she yelled around. It wasn't really nice to interrupt a nice dream about food. Yes, it was about a lot of ramen…

Her eyes fell on the boy that stood before her all along, and she bended a little over to look at the boy. "It was you?" she asked a little surprised, while she completely forgot that she was in her real form.

Konohamaru couldn't believe his eyes, when he looked up at her. With big eyes, he stared at her ears and red eyes. She had even a tail too. No, correction, she had even nine of them!

The Hokage's grandson was not stupid. He knew the stories about the evil nine tailed monster fox that had attacked the village, twelve years ago. Even with his young mind, he could still made the connection with what he saw.

"You're really the evil red fox, aren't you?" he said without a trace of fear, while he pointed at her.

The mouth of Naruto dropped wide open but she recovered fast. "I'm not what you are thinking, you brat! Do I look like a fox to you? Huh!" Naruto said, while she pointed to herself with her thumb.

But the boy nodded his head fast. "Yes, you look like a fox! You have big red fox ears and you have nine hairy tails behind your backside. Even your face has the whisker stripes of a fox."

Somehow, he got a kunai in one of his hands and took an attacking stance. "I'm the grandson of the Hokage and my name is Konohamaru. It seems that they didn't manage to kill you, so I take it as my duty to do it. When you are dead, it will prove to everybody that I am strong enough to become the next Hokage! You're just a big girl now, so it will be easy…"

Of course was Naruto very angry after hearing this. "You, stupid brat!!" the girl shouted, while she smashed the boy on his head.

A few seconds later she stomped away, leaving a dizzy boy on the ground while she muttered about the idiot.

It was too bad, that the nine year old boy didn't want to give up. Even after his first defeat, he was every day in the wood, searching for the kitsune girl. And after a few unfriendly meetings, Naruto could only move out, to her regret.

O0O

It was a little later after Naruto's hasty disappearing, that the Hokage was looking at the big statues on the mountain from the open place on top of the school building. It was done with the peace when somebody turned up behind him.

"Hokage-sama, I've found you at last."

"What is it, Iruka," the old man asked without turning around. He recognised him by his voice alone.

"Did Naruto show up for the Ninja Registration?"

"Yes, she did," he answered.

Iruka noticed that the Hokage was in one of his thoughtful moods. "Yesterday I lectured Naruto at her favourite Ramen place. She still wants to become a ninja, but I have the feeling, that she lost most of the fire for it…"

The Hokage could only sigh about this and looked up at the statues again. "Naruto knows that her dream may be impossible. I know that she wanted to become the next Hokage. But how long you think, she could hide her true self?"

A small smile appeared on his old face. "It's very surprising, that she hided it for two years, as you told me yesterday. It's quite ironic that it was revealed at the test; her last test. It was her third time and her last chance to become a ninja. But you let her pass, after all. She proved herself with the fight against Mizuki."

"But," the Hokage said a little frowning. "Now we know that she is a powerful kitsune, it will all change. We can't leave her alone and unchecked. And then there is the risk with the adults in this village; the rule that I created, is not enough anymore. They will try to kill her if they knew, because they see only the monster and not the person. I cannot foresee what will happen if Naruto's anger know no bounds. It's even a possibility that she will turn in that, what they so fear."

The wind blew with the dramatic silence that followed.

"We need to know what happened with Naruto. I missed the chance with the registration, but it is very important. Iruka please, find the girl and bring her to my office. Oh, and do better first a medical examination. I need the medical reports too."

"Yes Hokage-sama," the teacher said, still shaken about the information. He could only guess what the future held up for Naruto.

"And I need to talk with my grandson," the Hokage muttered.

O0O

Five hours later, the Hokage looked up from his desk when the door opened.

"Yes, I know that it was important, but was that really necessary!" a girl yelled irritated to her teacher. "I hate that place and the smell there, and they were poking and prodding over my whole body. They were even pulling on my tails and ears! Ugh, and those embarrassing questions, they were really the last straw! Man, I really hate hospitals."

Iruka looked a little apologetically to the old man. "Hokage-sama, we are here as you asked," the teacher said, while he handed over the medical files of Naruto.

"Old man," Naruto said stubbornly with crossed arms, while glaring like the vixen she was.

The Hokage ignored the glare calmly and made a hand gesture to the chairs. "Take a seat, you both."

He folded his hands and he looked serious at the girl. "You know, hiding such an important secret is very dangerous Naruto. I wanted to talk about it earlier, but as you know, my young grandson interrupted this. It seems that he did already know about it for a few months. And I must say that you were very lucky. He was afraid that everybody wanted to hunt you, so he kept it as a secret for himself. Do you understand what I mean?"

Naruto lost her brass posture when she began to understand the seriousness of this problem. "I didn't realise it," she almost whispered. The floor looked very interesting now.

"No, you didn't," the old man said. "You look almost like a young adult, but you're still a twelve year old kid. It's not an everyday occurrence to see a kitsune girl here in my office. I'm sure that there is a whole interesting story behind it. Your teacher and I are very curious about it."

"Oh well," she sighed. "No point to hide it anymore."

She began to fumble with one of her red tails that she had wrapped around her middle. "I was ten years old, when I was walking in a shopping street…"

O0O

Yes, it was two years ago, when this happened.

Two shoplifters were running away from a few storekeepers. They had stolen some food but were caught in the act. They couldn't loose them but when they saw a ten year old blond kid wearing a white shirt with a fire symbol and blue pants, the thieves recognised him as the 'demon child' and the two nodded fast at each other.

"Here, catch boy," one of them shouted while they throw the stolen goods in his hands and disappeared around the corner.

The surprised Naruto looked at the food in his arms, and he did wonder what the meaning of this was. But before Naruto could see through the trap, he was encircled by four angry storekeepers.

"Now you are collaborating with thieves huh! Don't expect mercy from us," one of them said, while cracking his fingers.

Naruto was not stupid and didn't wait long. He dropped the food fast, kicked someone between his legs, hard, and he escaped by jumping away using the back of the bented and groaning storekeeper.

The other three men took off in pursuit, after the escaped kid.

Naruto swore angry, while he was running for his life. "Why me! When I find these bastards, they are dead meat, I swear!"

The boy could loose them eventual by escaping in the woods. He did climb high up in one of the trees, and jumped from tree to tree so that they couldn't even find his footprints.

"I lost them at last," he panted on a branch while leaning against the trunk. "Aw man, that was really close. Why do they hate me so much! They are even using me as a scapegoat for their own stupid things now."

He looked up to the sky and sighed. "I wish that I was really strong. Yes, even stronger than the four Hokage's. Then the people would respect me at least."

Sometimes it is good to have some wishes. But there is a saying that you must be careful with what you are wishing for…

It was at that moment that Naruto slipped clumsy on the branch and fell backwards down the tree. After crashing painfully trough some other branches, he fell unconscious on the ground.

"Wha. What happened?" the blond boy asked, when he opened slowly his eyes. "Ouch," he whimpered, when he stood up slowly. His whole body was aching. This was not something he wanted to experience again.

He didn't recognise this place. It was like a sewer, with low water everywhere, not more then a puddle. It was really a very dreary place, but the most irritating situation was that it looked like maze.

"The last thing that I could remember, was falling down," the little boy muttered.

At first Naruto thought that he had fallen through the ground, into a sewer. But when he looked up, there was no hole in the ceiling. A second thought was a water flood, but his body and clothing were not completely drenched from the water, so he wasn't washed away.

Still puzzling, he began to walk around until he felled something strange. He felt a strange power in one of the corridors, something he couldn't ignore. When he walked through the passage, he entered a hall with a gate. It was not just a gate, but an enormous gate that looked like as a prison with all the bars. High up on the gate was a piece of paper with the word 'seal' written on it.

He had no idea why there was gate, but his eyes fell on a strange glowing giant red sphere behind it. It was like a beautiful red pearl, and it was really attractive. Naruto walked to the gate so that he had a better look on it. He wanted really to touch it, but whatever he did; he could not open the gate.

"I can only open the gate when I remove the seal," he muttered, while he was looking up. He didn't even thought about it why there was a seal in the first place.

It was too high to jump and he could do only one thing. He began to climb, using the bars of the gate. A few seconds later he ripped the seal off, but then something happened unexpected. With a scream of pain he fell on the ground and began to roll over the floor. It was as if his stomach was on fire, but after a minute the pain was gone, thankfully. Sweating and panting, the boy stood slowly up and pulled his shirt up. Strange enough, he couldn't see a trace of it on his body. But he would have sworn that it was real fire that he had felt.

A little shaken, he shook his head and looked at the gate. He was very surprised that the gate was open now. The path was free, and a he got a satisfied feeling. The giant glowing sphere was calling out to him and Naruto walked to the strange object. Yes, he wanted really to touch it. His hand was almost on the red surface, when something was nagging him. Why had he the feeling that it was dangerous and wrong if he would touch it. Yes, it was powerful and almost sweet, but why had he a bad feeling about it.

The thing was still calling out to him. 'Touch me, take me… I'm yours only…' That was the feeling that Naruto had, if it could talk.

Naruto ignored his bad feelings. "What would go wrong," he said stubbornly while shrugging his shoulders.

They were his famous last words, as a human…

The little boy was screaming now. The pain of fire was nothing with what he felt now. Yes, the pain was a thousand times worse when he had touched the surface of the sphere. And he could not take his hand back, because he was completely paralyzed of the pain. It was really too late for regret.

The blackness that followed was blissfully accepted.

Naruto opened his eyes. He was lying on his back and was looking at the night sky. The cicadas were chirping in the trees and there was a calm breeze.

How long was he unconscious?

Slowly he came in a sitting position and began to look around. "Was it all a dream? What has happened?" But there was something not right. When he looked down, his eyes grew very big, because there was an unpleasant surprise.

His clothes were in shreds because he had grown. Naruto had grown from 135 to 165 centimetres long now. But there was something that a little boy never should have grown. Breasts! He was no longer a boy, but a girl!

A high pitched scream of a girl was heard all over Konoha.

The Hokage looked up from his desk with a sad face. "A girl must just have lost something precious to her…"

O0O

"And that is what happened," Naruto told sadly. "It took days before I could overcome my shock, while I was hiding in my house. I was lucky that I knew the 'Henge no Jutsu', the transformation technique, or it would be a lot tougher for me."

She shook her head and sighed. "Clothes were a pain in the ass too. I had to alter my boxer shorts for my tails and money is still a problem too. But I figured out that I didn't need the clothes, because of the transform technique and the fact that I can keep myself warm without them. It's because I'm a kitsune, I guess."

"But something is still bothering me," Naruto said frowning. "I know that it had something to do with the nine tailed fox Kyuubi. But why was he not there?"

The Hokage and Iruka were looking at her with strange thoughtfully eyes.

"Yes, there are too many unanswered questions," the old man said tired.

O0O

To be continued.