I do NOT own Naruto or any other Anime/Manga/etc. If I did, I'd definitely not sit writing this, that's for sure.
Chapter 4:
Lifechanging News!
"You performed something dangerous out there, Uzumaki-san." Currently, Naruto was sitting in front of one of the most powerful men in Konohagakure, one called Hyuuga Hiashi, Clan Head of the Hyuuga. Besides the man was his daughter Hinata, who looked a little bruised but no less worse for wear. "You were lucky this time, you caught the man off-guard. At your age, while the speed was impressive I doubt you could've taken him were he prepared. Well, one could say he underestimated you, meaning you did a good job as a ninja."
Naruto was a little confused, was the head of the Hyuuga clan praising him? "Uhm... Hyuuga-sama, if I may..? I'm not sure I understand... Why aren't you trying to kill me, or run me out of here like all the others?"
Hiashi smiled softly at the demon container. "Two reasons. First, you showed remarkable control over... elements... that you never chose to have, and second, you saved my daughter. Also, the Kumo chunin has been sent to the I&T department, so we will find out who did this. I and my clan are in debt to you, Uzumaki-san. You'll always be welcome here for your deeds this day."
'The Hyuuga are powerful allies, Naruto. You did a good thing, and the first great step to getting a good reputation in this world.' Naruto smiled and bowed thankfully, silently nodding to the Kyuubi and giving himself a pat on the back. "Thank you, Hyuuga-sama..." "Please, call me Hiashi." "Only if you call me Naruto, Hiashi-san."
"Naruto-kun, I'm not sure I've introduced you to Hinata yet, my apologies. Hinata-chan, why don't you thank Naruto for saving you? I have to go talk to some guardsmen about proper routines." And with that, Hiashi excused himself and left the two kids together. "Uhm... N-Naruto-kun..." The young girl was blushing softly and lowered her head. "T-thanks for s-saving m-m-my life, N-Naruto-kun!"
Naruto was sitting there, looking at the young girl slightly perplexed as he wondered how a creature could be that cute. "N-nothing to thank me for... Uhm... M-may I call you Hinata-chan...?" As the girl raised her head, she nodded at him, before shyly poking her fingers together. "I... I w-would like to... I m-mean... W-would you... Ahm..." The girl took a deep breath, which made Naruto blush from the cuteness of it. "I would like it if you could return some day."
The Uchiha District...
"I hear you're going to start at the Academy next year, Sasuke?" A teenager with raven hair and dark eyes, the obvious trademark traits of the Uchiha family, as well as tear troughs under his eyes giving him a sleep-deprieved look. "Yeah! I'm gonna be as famous as you, brother!" The smaller of the two brothers replied eagerly in the affirmitive before starting to pester his brother to train him again. "Alright, why don't I show you my training?"
Later, while training, Sasuke keeps talking about how he'd like nothing more than to be like his brother, and Itachi cant help but grow a little worried about this infatuation. "Little bro, come here." He waved his hand slightly, and as Sasuke ran up to him, tapped the little boy on his forehead. "You shouldn't dream too much about power. As Uchiha we'll always be strongest, so why not find another dream, one you have to work for?"
"Then, what do you dream about, brother?" Sasuke asked, looking hopeful to which Itachi replied with a smile. "That's a sec-ret." He said in a sing-song voice to tease the boy, the reply to which was Sasuke clinging to the elder brother's leg and pouting. "Tell you what, keep thinking about what you might want to pursue as you live, and I'll help you realize it. If it's a really good goal, I'll even tell you mine."
Back with Naruto after leaving the Hyuuga compound.
'Naruto, we have got to talk.' The Kyuubi sounded a little distraught, which in turn made Naruto a little worried. If an all-powerful demon was stressing over something then it couldn't be good news. 'What's wrong?' No reply. He sped up towards his home, the looks of hate and disgust that normally stung him so and made him take back alleys and secret passageways completely forgotten making him a target for annoyed Konoha citizens and stupid ninja, which in turn dictates that something bad would happen.
Which it did. A black and grey tornado hit Naruto from the side, sending him and his assailant deep into an alleyway, Naruto crashing into dustbins as the spinning attacker stopped. He was a rather large man, scars criss-crossing his face, feral eyes and two long purple teeth-like tattoos down the corner of his eyes, one on each side. An Inuzuka. "Lucky! Seems like I caught myself a runaway fox!" The man was boasting, loud and clear enough to be heard outside the alley, but nobody seemed to care after a single glance and seeing who was there. "So, mind telling me why you were running away from the Hyuuga compound, little mutt, or should I just beat it out of you?"
Naruto shook his head to remove the starts infront of him, groaning as he got up. That really hurt. He looked up at the large man and whimpered. He looked creepy, and so that blurted out of him which enraged the Inuzuka. "Huuh! I look creepy do I? The fuck, I really should beat you up!" He stalked towards the cowering child who crawled back until he couldn't anymore. "W-wait, can't we talk about this?" Naruto pleaded looking like he was about to shit his pants. The Inuzuka man only grinned madly and as soon as he came within reach of the boy he launched a kick that would break some bones.
Naruto looked up from his position only when he wondered why the pain didn't come, and saw the man's leg frozen, no the entire man frozen mid-attack. "Naruto, run!" Shikamaru Nara yelled to his friend, and it got him going. Naruto got up and rushed out of reach of the man and over to the young Nara. "Come on, we gotta run Shika!"
Both turned tail and ran as soon as Shikamaru dropped his jutsu, the Inuzuka tripping over his own feet as he got control of his body again. "Damn brats!" He yelled and took after them, running on all fours to catch up. He never got out of the alleyway as he was stopped by two ANBU whom he had the distinct feeling were grinning and looking pissed off at the same time, the cat and dog masks they were wearing making it impossible to know for sure though. He knew he'd regret this for a long time. "Uh... c-can't we talk about this..?"
Cries of pain and pleas of mercy could be heard for a good five minutes before two shadowy blurrs jumped up out of the alley and vanished across the rooftops in the direction of the Hokage's Office.
Naruto's apartment.
"Oye, Naruto... what was that all about?" An exhausted Shikamaru was resting on Naruto's couch, panting for air while Naruto himself had collapsed onto the floor. "The reason I'm never around." He muttered from his face down position, the words muffled but audible.
"Man, it must suck having the Kyuubi sealed inside you if this is what you're going through." "Yeah, but it's not too ba..." Naruto stopped talking and sat up, looking wide-eyed at the Nara boy. "You know about her?" A torrent of mixed emotions was running through him right now. Fear, anger, despair, hope and he looked at the black-haired boy who seemed to know all those emotions and the questions behind them. "I didn't. I guessed. I've heard the way others talk about "the Demon Brat" when they think I can't hear them. You've got whisker marks on your face similar to a fox. There's only been one demon close to Konoha the past decade, and your birthday is the 10th of october, the day the Kyuubi attacked."
"I'd read a bit about sealing some days back because my dad wants me to become a shinobi like him, so I just took a leap of faith." Naruto sighed and flopped back down onto the floor. "I didn't know it was a she though." Naruto stiffened. "How would you know, Naruto? I mean, what I understood was that the demon wont be capable of contacting it's host unless the seal is bad or the host allows it. Is Konoha in danger, Naruto?" The blonde boy turned over onto his back and looked at Shikamaru. "Maybe. Hopefully not. The seal isn't ruined or anything, I won't dare to touch it. But I am talking to her. Learning to use her power. Since I dont have any family or something I can learn how to become a shinobi from, I asked if she couldn't help and she agreed in return for not being in a stuffy cage. The seal works like a cage no matter how it looks I figured, so I'm working on changing the way it looks to me."
"Ah, that's right. She needed to talk to me." Naruto said, sitting straight up and closing his eyes. Shikamaru looked slightly interrested in this. "Is there anything I could do to help?" He shrugged when Naruto shook his head. "Ah well, I'll stick around and wait if you don't mind then."
Naruto's mindscape.
"Hey there." Naruto looked up at the Kyuubi. Since Naruto had little to no knowledge of how seals works, despite him trying to keep a constant mindscape it kept collapsing in on him. Sometimes it would be a sewer, other times a bright, sunny forest, sometimes even Konoha, or a massive mansion. Today it was a large field, grass stretching as far as he could see in all directions. Kyuubi was sitting under a single tree, the only one nearby, though in the distance he could percieve a forest which he knew was actually all his memories. But this tree was not one of Naruto's memories, it looked different.
"Take a seat, Naruto. We need to talk." He did as asked and sat down under the tree, next to Kyuubi. She was human-like, wearing dark orange clothing that hid next to nothing, and with fox ears sticking up out of her long, crimson and white tipped hair. She placed her eyes on him, looking more serious then Naruto had seen before.
"Naruto, there's something I have... avoided to tell you so far, about the way you're using my power. It shouldn't have been a problem at all, but because of your earlier escapade and use of my powers, there might be a... small... complication." Naruto could sense that she was avoiding telling Naruto exactly what was going on, but let her continue. It was probably difficult for her, judging by the tree's fluctuating colors. Her emotions, if Naruto was to guess.
"Naruto, do you know about hormones?" He shook his head. He'd been reading some books at the library whenever he bothered to use a henge and enter, but no medical books so far, only books about social behavior and guides for aspiring ninja and stuff like that. "Not really, Kyuubi-san. Why?"
"Well, had you been five-six years older, then this would not have been a problem, because when a human child enters puberty, their hormones run rampant, causing boys to become men and girls to become women. It's a long process and lots of hormones are needed. Growth hormones, sexual hormones and more. It's a lot of details but it's summed up as this. Hormones are the building blocks of your body."
"Now, from the start of puberty, this couldn't have happened, but after you tapped into my powers, you recieved hormones along with my chakra. Us Biju demons are chakra that can manifest into physical form, and being the strongest, my chakra is the most potent. When you called upon my raw power, some of it turned into hormones that are now surging through your body. By all rights it should hurt like hell, but I'm doing what I can to deaden the pain for you."
Naruto looked up at the tree and saw streaks of orange and blue crash here and there, regardless of the ever-changing colors. "That's what the tree is for, isn't it?" He asked, and Kyuubi just nodded. "I'm glad you're as observant as ever. But the problem, as you may or may not see, is that I'm a female. You're a boy. But the demonic hormones within you will most likely change that very soon. As far as I know, I cant reverse this so I thought you needed to know what will happen to you within a week's time."
Naruto blinked.
He blinked again.
He shook his head from side to side and knocked on it, then probed his ear with his pinky before returning his attention to Kyuubi.
"I'm sorry I think I've been more hurt by that Inuzuka then I normally am. It sounded to me strangely like you were telling me I'll become a girl within the week, and that cant be right, can it?"
He looked at Kyuubi with a mix of desperation, hope and fear. She didn't return his look.
"You're serious...?"
A slight nod of her head.
"Holy... I'm gonna be... gonna be a... girl?"
Another nod.
Naruto promptly fainted, and Shikamaru looked confused as Naruto suddendly just collapsed onto his back, but shrugged it off, continuing his vigil. He only reacted when Naruto's hair suddendly grew visibly in length. Not by much, but it wasn't continously over time, rather instead a sudden jump from shaggy and semi-short, to shoulderlength and smooth. "O-key... Naruto, that's some wierd stuff you're doing. Mind waking up now, before I... freak out or something? Tch, troublesome."
Naruto did wake up a few minutes later, shaking his head before remembering the talk with Kyuubi. He cursed and looked around. When he saw Shikamaru sitting there with a strange look he had to ask. "What?"
"Naruto, mind explaining why you suddenly had a growth spurt?"
Haruno residence.
"Sakura! Are you alright?" Sakura's mother looked frightened at the young girl who was bleeding quite profusely from a cut in her hand, but the young girl just smiled. "It hurts, but a ninja has to be used to pain, ne?" Her mother felt a sense of pride welling up inside her at her daughter's bravery, all the while fuzzing around trying to mend the cut with bandages and sterilizing agents. "Silly girl, a ninja also has to be careful, you know." The pink haired child nodded. "Yes, mother. I'll be careful."
A/N: Hey guys. I was gonna add a bit more, some more insights into the other members of the Konoha 12, but I've been sidetracked a good deal by fascinating games. Then I got word that one of my friends had died, which left me a bit shocked. I guess I still am. But I'll try to finish up the next chapters. The school years is coming, and Naru-chan is going to turn Konoha upside down! It's about time I got this off the ground *sagenod* Or maybe it should be down to earth...? *ponders*
Ah well, hope you enjoyed this... somewhat random chapter.