Inverted-

Chapter four

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Sakura was working furiously, draining her chakra reserves to practically nothing.

It had been over two hours since Naruto's collapse and though she tried time and time again- she still couldn't seem to stablize her friend. Don't give up Sakura. Naruto would never give up if your places were reversed. In fact she doubted that he ever taken the time to learn the true definition of the word 'defeat'.

That was simply just one of the things that she had come to love about him.

But at the same time she couldn't ignore the fact that there was something horribly, horribly wrong with him. The changes taking place were subtle. You had to really know what you were looking at in order to see it. But about an hour ago Naruto's face had softened and started to take on a more feminine appearace.

The grinding of bones shifting and changing position under his skin had caused the blonde so much pain that his eyes had opened just long enough for him to let out a howl of agony so blood curtling that everyone had nearly fallen off of Sai's bird in shock.

Shortly after that he had started clawing at his own throat- As if he couldn't breathe and had had to be pinned down by Kakashi and Yamato before he had started to cough up blood before his azure colored eyes had rolled up in their sockets and he had lost consciousness again.

It was very shortly after that that Yamato had pointed out that Naruto's blonde hair was slowly growing out. After which Kakashi had grabbed one of his hands and studied it before telling Sakura to take the other and tell him what she saw different about it. Sakura had done as her sensei had bid her, carefully picking up Naruto's hand and holding it in hers as she stared at it.

Aside from the grinding of the bones moving under the skin, the flesh itself felt...off. Softer. Naruto's normally blunt nails had grown out an inch or so and now closely resembled Tsunade's oval shaped nails.

Which meant that whatever was happening to Naruto was definitely unnatural.

Shifting her position a bit, she sat back and tried mentally going over the list of symptoms that led up to Naruto's illness and frowned when she realized that she hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. Sure Naruto had been unnatrually quiet and would move away from the rest of them the second they made camp- but he had taken up that habit ever since the Sasuke incident three years ago.

Deciding to try looking at things from a different angle (and hoping to god to get some frigging answers) Sakura asked Kakashi to help her remove Naruto's jacket so that she could look for physical evidence that would hopefully explain what was happening to her friend.

Kakashi's movements as he stripped Naruto of his jacket were painfully slow in Sakura's opinion, but she said nothing since she understood all too well that the Hatake was taking things slow deliberately so that he wouldn't end up hurting Naruto even more since his bones had finally started to crack and snap as if they were being broken over and over again before resetting themselves.

Using the palm of one hand to gently cushion the blonde's head, Kakashi had just finished hearing a cringe worthy crack from somewhere in the middle of Naruto's torso and stopped in mid motion, his dark blue eye flickering to Sakura's face as the bottom dropped out of his stomach. Oh shit! Had he just accidentally broken a rib or something?

Sakura shifted forward so that she was leaning in over the blonde again and ran her hands along Naruto's torso to see what had just cracked and frowned when she felt the chest under her hands.

It felt...different. The torso was more slender, the stomach flatter, the muscle naruto had gained from all his years of training seemed to have disappeared to practically nothing.

Taking another glance at Naruto's face she noted that it looked more like his sexy no jutsu in appearance though his hair just barely reached his collarbone, and had lightened to an ash blonde that reminded her of Ino's. His bangs had grown out to frame his face, his skin had gone from a healthy light tan to a soft peach.

And the whisker marks that he was so notorious for were completely gone.

What was going on here? She wondered as she double checked Naruto's chest just to make sure that nothing was broken and scowled when her fingertips came into contact with two very peculiar swells that if she didn't know any better were the beginnings of breasts.

Blinking she ran her hands over the area again just to double check, then hooked a finger in the collar of Naruto's navy colored shirt and pulled it away from his body as she leaned over and peered down it and made an automatic squeaking sound as her eyes widened in shock.

Kakashi, seeing Sakura's reaction- narrowed his eye at her then demanded, "What is it?"

Sakura looked at him, her mouth opening and closing for a moment as she tried to compose herself enough to speak when Sai moved from his spot and mimiced what she had done before she could so much as grab at him to stop him. He peered down Naruto's shirt for a moment, froze, blinked, then asked quite clearly, "Are those breasts?"