Title: The Transformation

Pairing: Not confirmed yet, open for suggestions

Rating: PG-13 - R

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto this is merely for entertainment purposes.

'Italic' Thoughts

"…." Speech

'Bold' Kyuubi talking

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CHAPTER FOUR

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Tsunade yawned and rubbed at her sore eyes. She was up early in the morning to discuss about Natsuko's future plans here onwards and to find out about what had happened three years ago when Natsuko mysteriously disappeared from Jiraiya's care. But before anything could be discussed, she had gone to check out the condition of the Kazama manor. Then there was the incident with Kakashi. And now they were back to where they started out in the morning, to discuss about Natsuko's plans from here onwards. But first she and Jiraiya needed to know what happened over the past 3 years.

"Before we start, Jiraiya and I have a few questions for you, Natusko. One, what happened to you that night 3 years ago? Two who was the person whom altered the seal? Three why didn't you contact us when you could? Did you know how worried I was when that stupid pervert over there told me he lost you? I thought you were being captured by the Akatsuki or something. And four why are you so close with Gaara?" Tsunade and Jiraiya were now staring intently at Gaara.

"I'll answer the easy one first. Last year I was sent on a special mission by my granddad to prove that I was strong enough to take care of myself before he allowed me return to Konoha. It was on the mission when I met Gaara since then he has been with me for the past year because of his sleeping problems. When we heard that the Leaf and Sand had signed an alliance and was going to exchange a shinobi, Gaara decided that he would be the one to be exchanged so that he could catch some rest and keep his sanity in check with me close by.

As for the rest of the questions they are sort of linked together. You see that night before I went missing I was mediating to keep Kyuu's chakra in check which also prevents him from overtaking my mind. This was the only option I had at that time when the seal was weakening. Ero-sennin and I had gone to the Hidden Village of Sand since Gaara was the only one we knew who had another demon in him…."

…FLASHBACK…

AN: Before altering the seal Naruto is still a male hence I'll still be using the name Naruto until the seal that the Third put on him when he is still a babe is unlock…

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Five years ago…

"Oi, oi! Hurry up would you! Why are you so slow? Is finally old age catching up?" Naruto smirked knowing it never fails to get on the Ero-sennin's nerves.

"You fail to realize that keeping up with a person like you is quite wearisome. How could you still be full of energy after travelling for 2 days straight?" The older male retorted as he drew nearer to the energetic child.

The young boy pouted slowing down to allow the white-haired man to catch up with him. "Why don't you just admit that you. are. getting. old. Ero-sennin. Soon you'll be asking for help with your pack!"

"Shut up brat! Even if I were to die of exhaustion, I won't ask you to carry my pack!!! You can slow down a little you know considering the speed we're going at we're likely to reach the Sand Village in an hour."

An hour later, one hyperactive blond boy and one exhausted white-haired man walked into the Sand village on the intent of meeting up with Gaara. Both of them had questions they needed answers from and Gaara was the one person who could provide them. Not a moment too soon before the two travellers spotted a head of red hair passed by before them.

"Gaara!" Naruto yelled causing the people to stop in their tracks to look at the one who had shouted

"What are you doing here?"

"I needed to ask you some things, can we go a more private place." Gaara nodded before telling them to follow him.

At Gaara's house…

"So why are you two doing here?"

"Err… You see I actually have a problem and I was thinking that you might be able to help me. You see the battle with Sasuke during the retrieval mission a month ago had caused my seal to be weakened. Ero-sennin and Tsunade-baba wasn't able to find out the reason. So I was wondering whether you would know how I could strengthen the seal."

"I see no wonder Shukaku and I had sensed a suppressed rage. Kyuubi must have known that the seal was weakening. He must have thought that this is the perfect time for him to overtake you but you seemed to have caught on pretty fast on what he was planning to do. Hence you were able to suppress his rage.

The only advice I can give you is to mediate so as to suppress Kyuubi's rage and that it would not be wise to sleep for it is your weakest moment in which Kyuubi might try to overtake your mind. The situation you are dealing with now is the same as what Shukaku and I have been dealing with since I could even remember."

"Thanks we appreciate your help, we'll be leaving now." Naruto replied disappointed, he was hoping that Gaara would be able to help him even more though.

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TWO YEARS LATER…

Ever since their visit to the Sand village, Naruto had taken Gaara's advice to heart and had not slept a wink, fearing that the Kyuubi would capitalised on the opportunity to overtake his mind when he does. Nowadays he could often be seen mediating late into the night entering a trance-like state. However, when he mediates his defence would be lowered due to the huge amounts of concentration needed to keep the Kyuubi's rage in check causing him to be unaware of his surrounding.

It was in the late afternoon, Jiraiya and Naruto had just arrived at a small village around the border of the wave country. They were there for the opening of a new hot spring because Jiraiya had been invited as the guest-of-honour for the ceremony by the owner who was a huge fan of his Icha Icha Paradise series.

It was the third day since the opening when Jiraiya had claimed that he was going to do some research and collect data for his latest book. Naruto having nothing better to do started to mediate in the room. Little did Naruto know that a masked shinobi had been spying on him ever since he stepped into the village.

The masked shinobi was travelling past through the village headed for home when he had met the pair. He had heard the guards that were checking their passes called out his clan name, Uzumaki. At first he had been sceptical about that as there wasn't anyone named Naruto in the clan. However, he knew too well that he couldn't take any chances that the teen may actually be a member of their clan that had survive the massacre. Hence with that thought in mind, he had sent a message back to the clan to consult the elders on what he should do. After a day of waiting, he finally receive the reply saying that he should knock him out before bringing him back to the village. This was to safeguard the village whereabouts if the medical tests came back and he wasn't a real Uzumaki.

After observing him for the past few days, he knew that the best time to take the teen was when he was mediating as that was when his defence was the weakest. He had been waiting to strike ever since he received the orders from the elders but the white-haired companion was always with him when the blond mediates making it harder for him to do anything. However it seemed like today was his lucky day, the white-haired man was gone hence he had used this opportunity to take him away. The masked shinobi had cast a jutsu on him paralysing him which would last for at least a day or two allowing him enough time to get back to the village.

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'Ach… why is my whole body is aching? It feels as if I've been stepped on by Gamabunta several times. Where the hell am I? This room wasn't the same one I was in before I started to mediate. Wait, don't tell me I've been captured by the Akatsuki? But they would have tied me or at least restrained me right?' Questions racing through Naruto's mind.

"I see that you're awake, how do you feel?

"W-who are you a-and where am I?

"Don't be scared child we mean you no harm, you're now in our village, Junkei or better known as the Hidden Village of Bloodlines. I'm the current head of the Uzumaki clan and also your grandfather, Kimura. These are the elders of the clan. While you're the next head of the Uzumaki clan, we did some tests to verify it. What is your name child?"

"N-naruto, Uzumaki Naruto Y-you mean I have a family? But why didn't you come for me then why now?" Naruto was trying to cope with the turmoil of emotions that he felt, knowing that from now onwards he wasn't alone anymore.

"Yes. As for why I'll answer you later now the most important thing is to adjust your seals. It seems like you see you not only have one but two seals. The first seal is made to contain the Kyuubi while the second seal that was placed on top of the first seal seems to be some kind of Henge. It seems to draw chakra from the Kyuubi to enforce the henge so that in any case the caster were to die, the Henge would still be in place. It seemed to be design to break only when you are strong enough to protect yourself. But it looks like the person who did the seals did not take in account of the first seal which caused your bloodlines to be bind as well.

The problem now is the second seal. It must have been weakened sometime ago when you used a great deal of the Kyuubi's chakra. However the second seal did not break but only weaken under the false impression that the Kyuubi's power was yours. Now in its weakened state it seems to be slowly driving the Kyuubi insane which is the cause for it raging madness in there. If the seal is not removed immediately the sanity of the Kyuubi may never be recovered. While we're removing the second seal we'll also alter the first seal which traps the Kyuubi so that you would have better access to his power. But I must warn you that the process of doing so it very painful."

"I'm ready. The most I could do for the fur ball is to return its sanity." Naruto said with determination.

In an hour's time, the elders had prepared everything needed. Naruto was now lying in the middle of a pentagon on the floor with an elder on each end of the pentagon. The elders started to chant an incantation and allowing their chakra to flow to where the seal is on Naruto. When the chakra filled up the pentagon, Naruto started screaming out in pain as he felt tendrils of chakra burning into his skin as they wrapped around his body strangling him before they started moving toward the seal on his stomach. After half an hour of screaming, a loud shriek followed by a blinding flash of blue signalled the end. When the blue light faded, a blond-haired girl was lying in place where Naruto was supposed to be.

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Naruto woke up to the dripping sound of water in the dark hallway. She knew subconsciously that she was in her mind, the part where the Kyuubi was being seal away. She slowly ventured through the dark hallways until she spotted an opening at the end. When she entered the opening, she saw the Kyuubi sitting behind the bars of its cage.

"I see that you have found some people who are competent enough to remove the second seal that the Third had placed upon you. I thank you for returning my sanity but this does not mean that we are even brat."

"Why am I here and why does my voice sounds so weird? It's like I'm a girl."

"Brat did you even looked at yourself even once when you arrived?" Kyuubi asked enjoying every moment of torturing his vessel.

"What? Aaahhhh!!!! What the hell happened? What did you do to my body fur ball? I a-am a g-girl!" Naruto scream as she looked down at her body.

"I see that you've finally notice the obvious brat. I must say that compared with your previous body, I prefer this one more. But as it is, I had nothing to do with it, you were changed by nature to accommodate me when I was sealed in you. You see I was sealed in the male form of you 14 years ago but since that I too am a male, the balance was being disrupted. This was the reason why you were transformed into a girl in order for the balance to be restored.

However these past 14 years you have been living as a boy due to the seal placed upon you by the Third Hokage. I remembered hearing him said that it was to keep you safe from the villagers that if ever the villagers were to find out about you being a girl that who know what might happen."

"So the old man had my best interest in mind when he placed that seal. But why didn't he even tell me about it. This whole thing is so screw up. Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!"

"As much as I would like to carry on this conversation, it time for you to go back. Hahaha…" With that Naruto was thrown out of his mind.

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"She seems to be waking up, give her some space to breath."

"Argh…"

"How do you feel? Do you feel pain anywhere?" It was the same elder who asked everyone to give Naruto some breathing space.

"I'm fine. I had just spoken with the fur ball." Naruto then proceed to explain what the Kyuubi had said to her in her mindscape. After she finished explaining, her grandpa spoke. "Now that the second seal is removed I'm going to alter the seal that contains the Kyuubi to allow you to better access to him. I need you to slightly lift up your shirt and to also mould your chakra so I can see the seal. "

While Naruto lift up her shirt and mould her chakra her granddad started to form some seals and slam into her stomach gaining an ear-piercing scream from her yet again. Unlike the last time, the alteration of the seal needed only 10 minutes. But to Naruto, this 10 minutes was unbearable in addition to the fact that her body had not yet recovered fully since the breaking of the second seal, she fainted straight once the seal was altered.

When she woke up, she was lying on a bed with her clothes changed. Feeling her stomach growling rather loudly, she ventured out of her room making her way toward the sweet aroma of food. "Good morning, don't just stand there you must be starving come sit and eat something." Her grandpa spotted her the moment she stepped into the dinning room.

"Let me introduce myself again, I'm the current clan head of the Uzumaki clan and also your grandfather, Kimura. You see 16 years ago, we did not stay at Junkei but rather the Hidden Village of Grass.Our clan had been targeted because the Kage of the village ever since its establishment had always been from our clan. This had caused some resentment among the other stronger clans. And because of that, they had came together to bring down our clan so that they could claimed the position of the Kage for themselves. At that time we were about to sign an alliance with the Hidden Village of Leaf but a few days before I was supposed to leave for the Leaf my clan and I were being poison through the water supply. My daughter and her team were one of the few that weren't affected hence she was sent instead along with few others.

That was the last time I ever saw my daughter. The day that they arrived at the Leaf was the day that we were attacked due to our weakened state. More than half of our clan members were killed. During the attack I sent a message to my daughter to lay low and stay at the Hidden Village of Leaf until we found a place to settle down. I didn't want to endanger my only daughter's life nor risk our whereabouts location hence I decided not to contact her until our enemies had given up hope.

The rest of the clan and I escaped to this legendary village. We were lucky that we chanced upon a group of shinobis going back to their village, when they heard about situation they offered to bring us here where the rest of the clans openly accepted us. Like its name suggests Junkei is made up of only clans with pure bloodlines. Our clan's bloodline was the reason that they accepted us readily. We are able to manipulate chakra one of the most common method is the ability to solidify chakra. Our bloodline are the originator of this abilities although there are other bloodlines that have evolved from our bloodline like the Akadou clan which has the exceptional ability of absorbing chakra, allowing them to suck out the mind and body energy from an enemy's body by placing their palm onto the enemy's skin.

Anyway, by the time we have settled down in this village and ensured that we were not being hunted, I had sent my sons to the Leaf only to have them come back empty handed saying that my daughter and her team were killed during the Kyuubi's attack…

You should know that this village does not have any civilians, everyone here are shinobis hence the village does not have the need of a Kage but rather a council with all the clan heads. The council would decide all major decision such as the acceptance of a clan or in the case of war, whether to rent our assistance. Other than that, the clans are all self-sufficient, we provide our own food either by growing or trading. You could see that the shops opened in the village are all by shinobis that have either retired or have no missions at the moment. This system allows us to trade for stuff that we may not be able to grow. On top of that the clan also decides what kind missions to undertake.

But enough of that, you'll find out about the village more in depth once you get to know them when you stay here. So now Naruto seeing as you're now a girl I thought that it would be inappropriate to call you by this name therefore I've already thought of another name for you called Natsuko, Uzumaki Natsuko." Kimura explained.

"Thank you. But how do you know that I'm your granddaughter? Like you said you have not seen your daughter ever since the attack so how could you be sure that you're my grandfather?" Natsuko questioned, not willing to bring her hopes up.

"When you were brought here we ran a few tests in order to verify if you were indeed a Uzumaki. One of the tests that we ran was a DNA test, we wanted to see who you were related to and the result was an almost perfect match to my DNA. So I would say that there is no mistake in that..."

"R-really? I have a g-grandfather! Could I call you grandpa? Wait till Ero-sennin and the people back home hear about this!" Natsuko cheered happily while bouncing around the room. That action alone had livened up the atmosphere in the room as everyone grinned at the childish actions of their new-found member.

---END OF FLASHBACK---

"But that still doesn't explain why you didn't contact us these past 3 years after the initial letter?" Jiraiya said rather hurt that his student didn't bother to contact him.

"Actually the letter you received wasn't written by me but rather the very same person who had captured me that day who copied my style of writing. In addition, there was a matter of safeguarding the whereabouts of the village. You have no idea how many people out there are still looking for them and also what those people will do to the village when they found it. Moreover I wasn't allowed to leave the barrier that protects the village except during missions but even if I was allowed to send a letter I can't guarantee that the message wasn't intercepted by anyone. This could endanger both Konoha and Junkei. They could threaten to destroy Konoha forcing me to disclose the location of Junkei…"

"I see. I understand that you won't risk endangering both villages." Tsunade replied.

"So what are planning to now that you're back? Will you be going back to Junkei? You know I still want to pass the Hokage title to you right?"

"I'm not planning on going back to Junkei anytime soon, I mean they are family but my very first family I had is down here. Before that I'm going to be the Roukudaime first, I'm still waiting for that day to come so when that happens I'll just move my whole clan here. I don't really know what I'm planning to do now that I'm back."

"You know technically you're actually a jounin. You see after Sasuke's retrieval mission, everyone involved in the mission were promoted to become a chuunin. On top of that, during the training you had with Jiraiya for two years, you have already fulfilled the minimum criteria for the promotion to be a jounin hence with his recommendation you were being promoted a few weeks after you disappeared. However we never let anyone knew that you were missing. So now you could either take a genin team if not I'll just attached you to a jounin team. The other option is that you could undergo the special training to become a hunter-nin or the Anbu."

"Actually old hag there's something I need to discuss with you all. You remember the letter I show you all this morning about needing some ritual to access Shizenkai. Apparently Kyuu found a way for me to enter it."

"What do you mean brat? Explain yourself."

"You see Shizenkai is actually a realm where spirits, demons and summons live in concert. There is a council that preside over the spirits, demons and summons. It seems from what Kyuu told me on the way to the manor is that the council is spilt up into two portions. The council which has the most authority in Shizenkai consists of only three members, they are known as the high council. An individual that has the most respect over each species is chosen to be on the high council. Kyuu is actually on this council along with two others.

The other part of the council consists of the all the boss summons, the spirit leaders of each element and last but not least all the nine tails saved for Kyuu for the demons. They are the members that would bring up any disputes or any news that would affect Shizenkai. Sometimes they would also bring up new regulations. These would then be presented to the high council to determine what actions would be taken.

Now the next part is that some people in the Kazama clan on rare occasion are born with the ability to placate the demons allowing them to bond with them. The ability allows the person to soothe the demons even when one is agitated. Due to its rarity, usually when one that has the ability is born, one of the council members would be sent to bless the child with some of their abilities. Kyuu was sent but due to his size, Konoha had mistaken it for an attack instead. During the attack, he had sensed that I was in danger which would match the time-frame when the umbilical cord had twined around my neck. He had tried to help me but unfortunately, at that time he had been restrained…

Anyway Kyuu had mentioned that since he was one of the high council members, he is able to travel to Shizenkai without the rituals but we need the help of Gaara and either Ero-sennin or Baa-chan to send us there. This is why the ritual exists as it minimise the amount of raw chakra needed to pass through the barriers that contains Shizenkai. It's the same principal when one summon a boss summon, the scroll minimise the amount of chakra being utilised. Therefore without the ritual, a massive amount of chakra is required. Although I could use Kyuu's chakra, I'm not able to fully utilise his chakra with backlash so I would need some help just in case."

"I see. In that case do you want to go on missions for the next two months or would you like to take a break?"

"I was thinking about taking some time off to look through the scrolls that my parents had left me plus clean up the manor as well as catch up with the rest of my friends because I'm not sure how long I would be staying at Shizenkai. It seems like the duration differs for individual, the stronger the spirit that bonds with the person the longer time is spent training. And since Kyuu is a member of the high council I'm not sure how long my training would take."

"What about Gaara? Without you around, he wouldn't be able to get a night rest-"

"I think you misunderstand Tsunade-sama, even without Natsuko I'm still able to contain Shukaku's rage through mediation, besides I've been doing it all these years. It shouldn't be a problem." Gaara snarled.

Natsuko's expression fell when she heard him say it. "Gaaaarraa…you know you don't have to face this alone. There are always people who would support you even if there isn't. You could always rely on me to stay with you all the way!"

His expression softens as he expertly put his hand on top of Natsuko's head, softly patting her hair. To a stranger, it would seem that the gesture was endearing but since those that are present know them only too well. The gesture only shows how much Gaara had changed since the chuunin exams. It seemed he had come a long way from a cold-bloodied killer to the person he is today. The three were brought out of their thoughts when Natsuko's stomach started to grumble.

"Hee hee hee…well you can't blame me, this just shows that we're missing dinner and my stomach isn't too happy about it. Can't we finish up and go get some food please…" Natsuko pleaded using her irresistible puppy eyes that never fails before.

"Okay okay… just a little bit more and we're finish then we can all go for dinner, my treat."

"Yay!!! Baa-chan's the best…"

"But no ramen. You and Gaara are still growing so you'll both need more nutrients other than what ramen has and no arguing." Iruka stood firm with his decision. The lack of support on her side kept her from continuing her protest.

"Now that we got that settle, Natsuko you should know that the jounin team are rotated every few months, this is to optimise their teamwork with different jounins. So if you ever want to join a team, just let me know I should be able to arrange something for you."

"Okay. Baa-chan but I doubt so, I'm planning to look through the manor's library to see if there's any way I could do anything about Shukaku or if there's a way for both of us to enter Shizenkai since Shukaku was on the council if we combine our chakra along with both Ero-sennin and Baa-chan's chakra we might just be able to but I still need to run through this with Kyuu to see if it's doable I wouldn't want us dying even if he means getting us to Shizenkai.

I was also wondering you know about me being like this…I should let the rookie 9, Neji's old genin team and the Konohamaru corps know about my transformation as well as Kyuu but-"

"I believed that they won't mind it and if really they do. It would only strengthen the fact that they were never your true friends if they couldn't accept it. But no matter what you must remember that you'll always have us." Iruka said trying to ease Natsuko's worries.

"Yeah, I'll arrange for them to be here tomorrow so you can tell them yourself, don't worry too much I don't think they'll mind it and if the guys dare look at you any differently I'll personally introduce them to my fist." Tsunade along with Iruka and Gaara grunting in agreement, Jiraiya on the other hand having the chance to meet with Tsunade's fist hours ago wasn't keen on saying anything.

"Thanks you all."

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