The next day Team 7 plus Haku started to make their way back to Konoha utilizing tree-jumping to get there faster and they were assumed to be there by the end of the day.
Naruto was of conflicting opinions about returning home. He was glad to be back among people he could, at least marginally, trust. He was excited to tell the several people who knew the 'real' him how the mission had gone.
On the other hand, he was unhappy that so many of his skills had come to light. He was a realist above his optimism and he knew that no matter how much the mist during the fights had hidden he knew that either Sasuke would blab or someone would begin connecting dots and drawing better pictures of his abilities and skills.
Also there was the matter of being hated by nearly every villager and those that didn't actively hate were apathetic and that was almost worse.
To keep his mind off his imminent return he began thinking about Haku and the problems she presented. He wouldn't be able to keep her around him for several reasons but that left the question of who could sponsor her. He needed someone who he trusted which narrowed down his options heavily. He needed someone who had good standing in the eyes of the Hokage and was liked by the ninja that knew them. He would prefer that they had the support of the ninja they knew but that wasn't necessary. That left two ninja that knew him: Sakura and Hinata. Of the two Hinata knew him better and he was more inclined to have Hinata take Haku because she would be more able to answer the difficult questions that Haku would ask. Actually that would be the perfect place for Haku. With a totally loyal confidant Hinata might gain some confidence and Haku would be able to help Hinata with her ninja skills.
With that problem all but solved and after some healthy mental pats on the back, Naruto turned his mind to how he would handle the questions regarding his skill. The improved taijutsu he could handle because Sarutobi-sama already knew about his new instructor in that area. His bloodlust would be harder to explain. He knew that he would have to tell the old man about the changes to his body and mentality but first he needed a way to spin it away from the captive fox. That would be hard to do, if not impossible, without Sakura's permission to reveal her operation.
Naruto kept secrets with a nearly religious zealotry. He knew the value of restricted information and what that could mean for a person on an intimate level so it was only natural to hold secrets with that highest honor. The bigger the secret the more sacred it became in Naruto's mind and he had even developed several countermeasures for jutsu like the Yamanaka clan was rumored to have.
There was also the problem with Sakura being able to throw a kunai and have it turn into himself. That would be impossible with a normal henge as those were just illusions meant to trick the eye and nothing else. If someone used a normal henge to change into a kunai they would still have the same mass and volume as that person. A normal henge wouldn't make someone any easier to throw though it might distract the target thinking it was a normal kunai. Naruto's henge classified as a ninjutsu as opposed to a genjutsu because it affected the physical not just what a person perceived as the physical.
He finally decided to ask Sakura for her permission to reveal her secret just in case he couldn't pass off his trick as a kawarimi with the kunai while it was in flight. The more he thought about it the more plausible the kawarimi trick seemed. After all, his hero was the fourth Hokage and the Yondaime had a jutsu that was similar, pulling himself to a thrown kunai. Naruto nodded to himself. That explanation should work.
--
Sasuke couldn't wait to get back to Konoha where he could begin training to the fullest extent again. He wasn't happy that Kakashi had forced them to restrain their training and now that he had two new fire jutsu he was going to take advantage of them to improve his control over the fire element.
Another thing that was driving him to Konoha faster than he might have otherwise exerted himself to was the silent kunoichi next to him. He had been soundly trounced by her but she had been beaten in turn by Naruto which he was having a hard time with. The only thing that he could come up with to sooth his pride was that he had softened her up for Naruto but he knew deep down that wasn't true. Naruto had defeated an opponent that had been toying contemptuously with him and that rankled Sasuke. So he was pushing hard to Konoha to escape the awkwardness of the situation as soon as possible.
--
Sakura was chomping at the bit to get back to Konoha. She had several things that were practically gnawing at her. She was both excited and nervous about what would happen to Haku. Whatever happened she hoped that she would be able to see and talk with the older kunoichi again. There was so much she could learn about being a ninja by picking the brains of the more experienced kunoichi even if Haku didn't seem to embrace her gender as an advantage.
She also needed to know how Naruto had gotten much better at a taijutsu style she had never seen before. She wasn't jealous of him she just wanted to know how he had learned it. She decided after seeing him fight that she needed something better than the academy standard which would mean that she needed to talk to someone who knew a better style. She also had seen the problem of revealing too many of Naruto's, and her own, secrets in their mission report. She didn't know how much Kakashi had seen but nobody who had been an ANBU captain could miss how quickly they had picked up the exercises he had given them. If that didn't tell him outright that they were better than they let on then it would at least alert him to watch them closer. She actually resigned herself to revealing her physical strength. It made the most sense between the two important techniques that could be revealed here. Her strength would come out eventually anyway and it would probably be soon so it made sense to explain her strength as the reason she was able to throw a henged person. Naruto's version of henge was made to fool people so it didn't make sense to reveal it when he could most certainly cover it up for much longer until he got to a point that he could realistically pass it off as a very advanced genjutsu henge.
The thing that was most important to Sakura however was Naruto's attitude while fighting. She knew that he sometimes got far more excited in dangerous spars than he probably should but what she had seen during the fights on the mission was taking it to a whole new level. She wouldn't ever voice her concern to anyone before talking to Naruto about it but it worried her nonetheless. She found after much introspection though that it wasn't how dangerous he could become to his allies while under a bloodlust high that worried her but rather that he might fight through serious injuries and in the post-battle high forget to get them healed and accidentally kill himself.
The idea that she was more concerned about Naruto's safety and wellbeing than her own health or Sasuke's or Kakashi-sensei's was a rather shocking revelation. Rather than worry about that though she decided to talk to Naruto about his behavior changes and what they might mean to her and maybe more of her feelings towards her blonde teammate would be defined more clearly.
--
Haku wasn't sure what she was feeling.
She wasn't all that used to letting herself experience her feelings at all so that was probably part of it.
She was glad that she still had a purpose but she had the feeling that her purpose didn't want her. At the same time he informed her that he would not be the best person to wield her he had promised to take care of her. Yes, she decided she was happy about that.
She was also confused and worried. He had said he wasn't well liked in his home but that she mustn't do anything about it. How would she be a good tool if she was constantly blunted or her wielder was hesitant to use her? She was confused about how to be of use and worried that she might no longer be.
She finished up her cocktail of emotions with a generous dose of curiosity. She wondered what her new home would be like. She wondered what she would do when they got there. She wondered what Naruto would have her do. She wondered what he meant by taking care of her even if he wasn't the best choice. She wondered about a lot of things.
--
Kakashi was becoming more and more eager for this mission to be over. He was being presented with things that didn't mesh with what he knew to be true at increasingly frequent intervals and he didn't like it. So far his prize student had been beaten by a rouge shinobi that had been subdued by his worst student. The kunoichi that he'd thought would be a worthless fangirl at the beginning of their interaction as a team was turning out to be surprisingly competent. Most irritatingly at the moment however had to be the enemy shinobi that they were bringing back to Konoha. If that was going exactly as described it wouldn't be a problem but they were bringing him back as 'spoils of war' which confused him greatly. It wasn't like the boy was a weapon or and incredibly lifelike puppet that you could claim as spoils. It just didn't make sense and as soon as they got back and made their initial report he was going to go back to his apartment and take the time he would normally use to write a more complete mission report to think about all the inconsistencies that had been revealed in the last two plus weeks preferably with a large bottle of sake to help smooth out the gaps.
-- break --
Team 7 plus Haku trudged into the Hokage's office at 6pm and were escorted immediately to the Hokage. The old man looked them over carefully and decided that the look of incredible stress on the jonin's face merited a much shortened debriefing.
"Welcome back Team 7. I assume that your mission was successful?" he asked. After receiving nods from all of the members he continued. "Well I'll wait for your reports to determine exactly how successful you were but tonight I think we'll just stick to the major issues. Who is this new person in my office and why are they here?"
Kakashi took responsibility for answering and even though Naruto probably knew more about the situation the blonde wanted to see what his sensei knew about it so he could keep his story similar enough to not be questioned. At least not questioned in company he didn't fully trust such as the kind that was represented in the room by Sasuke and his sensei.
"Hokage-sama this is Haku a shinobi that was hired to kill Tazuna-san." Here Kakashi paused for Sarutobi to scowl and focus his sharp gaze upon Haku; having a shinobi attack was not part of a C-rank mission. "We brought him back to Konoha because the shinobi who trained him was a missing-nin at the time and after his sensei and partner was killed by myself, Haku had no allegiance or animosity to any village. Naruto has agreed to take responsibility for Haku's presence and it was he who suggested bringing him back with us."
The Hokage swung his gaze to the blonde teenager in question his gaze demanding an explanation.
"Haku's training has been much different from ours ojiisan. He was trained to be nothing more than a tool and as such responded accordingly when I claimed Zabuza's other weapons as spoils." Here Naruto was interrupted when Sarutobi turned to Kakashi and demanded an answer.
"You continued the mission after making contact with one of the seven swordsmen of the mist?! What is your problem? That is at least and A-rank mission at that point and even if you knew you could defeat Zabuza bringing a genin team along is the height of foolishness!"
Naruto had very seldom heard the kindly Hokage yell but when he did he remembered why the nickname 'the Professor' was feared during the Great Shinobi Wars. He didn't want to be in Kakashi's shoes as the student of both the Nidaime and the Shodaime stared him down.
"With respect Hokage-sama, the genin agreed to continue the mission after meeting resistance in the form of the much less dangerous Demon Brothers on the road to Wave and Zabuza would have tracked us down and killed us after we saw him use Haku in a clever deception to escape death by having Haku impersonate a mist hunter-nin and interrupt the killing blow by putting Zabuza in a state of false-death." The Hokage nodded at that. Any high-level missing-nin who had found a decent way to evade the hunter-nin's of their country would kill to keep the secret hidden.
"So you were effectively locked into the mission after meeting Zabuza then." Sarutobi nodded in reluctant acceptance and motioned Naruto to continue.
"Anyway, with no allegiance to a hidden village and a mentality like his, Haku would be used to make some minor thug or yakuza boss very dangerous so it made more sense to take him with us when we left wave. Unfortunately while Haku remains convinced he is a tool and not a person with his own individual will, dreams, hopes, etc. he will only be loyal to one person and since I was the one to defeat him I was his logical choice as a new master. Unfortunately I can't take care of him as I should so I was hoping to talk to you after this is over to get him transferred to another shinobi I have in mind."
Sarutobi nodded and pondered this new development for awhile. After a moment's thought he decided to hear out Naruto's suggestion and decide further from there but to do that he had to finish the overall debriefing. He motioned for Kakashi to continue.
"After meeting the Demon Brothers and fending off their attack the decision was made to continue the mission in light of the possible importance of its completion. We were engaged by Zabuza without Haku once we were nearly at our destination. I fought Zabuza to a point where he could be finished off but Haku playing the roll of a hunter-nin jumped in. Haku put Zabuza in a near-death state with several senbon and hauled off Zabuza to heal him. After Haku had left I collapsed from chakra exhaustion. We then guarded Tazuna both at his house and at the bridge for twelve days until Zabuza made another attack this time with Haku alongside. Naruto was at Tazuna's house where he protected the family from ronin before using Shunshin to join us at the bridge. Sasuke made the initial contact with Haku while Sakura gave support from a distance via sense impairing genjutsu while she guarded Tazuna. I fought with Zabuza himself during which he covered the battlefield with mist so I wasn't able to see Sasuke's fight nor did I see Naruto's arrival. From descriptions by my team I can assume that Haku used a bloodline jutsu that allowed control of ice to beat Sasuke when Naruto jumped in from outside the area of effect of the jutsu and after a while defeated Haku. After I killed Zabuza with my Chidori and the mist cleared Gatou, the person who hired missing-nin to kill Tazuna, showed up with fifty thugs and ronin. Naruto killed Gatou with a thrown kunai and scared off or killed the rest of the men with several Kaze: Daitoppa which he has mastered well enough to add wind blades to. We then spent the next two days recovering enough to return home." Sarutobi nodded to all this as Kakashi made his report in a dispassionate tone. Naruto and Sakura were amazed at the sheer volume of information that the jonin was leaving out of the report and they hoped that his written report would be much more comprehensive if not more complementary towards them.
"Thank you Kakashi. Team 7 you are dismissed I expect to see individual assessments of the mission on my desk in two days from each of you. Kakashi will of course help you with how you are supposed to do them. Naruto stay behind; I wish to speak with you about our new visitor."
Naruto nodded and retook his seat as the rest of the team shambled out. Once they were out of the door and had closed it Sarutobi looked at Naruto as if to demand an explanation.
"Okay ojiisan several things. First, Haku is a girl not a boy. Second, Haku doesn't actually consider herself a tool but she is very violently loyal to only a single person. Those two things should help explain why I can't keep her around my place. I don't have the money to feed her. She would also be under constant observation to make sure I'm not trying to get any convoluted sort of revenge vicariously though her." Sarutobi wasn't surprised with Naruto's suddenly improved vocabulary. He knew from several sessions of watching his taijutsu training with their mutual summons that Naruto was hiding most of his abilities and sadly Sarutobi still couldn't think of a good reason for Naruto to stop. He almost shook his head at the ridiculous lengths some would undoubtedly go to prove that Naruto was actually the demon that he housed. "I was thinking of a kunoichi that would be able to handle having Haku as an assistant of sorts."
"Go on Naruto," sighed the Hokage.
"Hinata-chan is the best person I can think of to help Haku. She already knows the relevant details about me to answer Haku's foreseeable questions. She knows how much I'm hiding from everyone and most importantly I trust her implicitly." This raised the Hokage's eyebrows.
"You mean that you have somehow corrupted a generation of my ninja by teaching them to hide things from everyone including their academy senseis? You know of her crush on you? Or is that a fantasy too? Should I be worried about more of my new genin knowing much more than they should?" asked Sarutobi in a mildly joking tone of voice.
"We actually met because of her crush. I wasn't as adept at hiding when she found me and later she was the one who helped me improve. It's thanks to her that I can now hide from the Hyuuga. She was my first friend and although she used to have a crush on me she's now using that common knowledge to hide something else that she thinks could possibly harm her even more with respect to her clan. You know I won't reveal any more of her secrets unless I have permission. If there are any more genin hiding things I don't know about them either." Sarutobi nodded at the flippant way Naruto addressed the possibility of his classmates hiding things (like the boy fully expected them too and would be disappointed were they not) and focused on what Naruto said about Hinata's secrets. He knew that secrets were sacred to Naruto and nothing short of the apocalypse would make him talk… even that was no guarantee though.
"Hinata is influential and well liked. Haku wouldn't be under suspicion with her. The only downside is her father and her clan. If you made it an order or some sort of extended mission the Hyuuga influence would be negated. The upside is that Haku would learn how to be more human and Hinata would learn to be more kunoichi." Naruto continued as Sarutobi chuckled.
"You say that as if they are different."
"They aren't?" asked Naruto with genuine surprise. "I know that all kunoichi are technically female but that doesn't make all girls kunoichi nor does it make kunoichi act like girls."
"True… but you have forgotten to ask Hinata and Haku about this. If you want Haku to act like a girl and not a tool you must treat her as such." Naruto hung his head at this. "But your idea has merit and I will call for Hinata to come here now so we can work this out. In the meantime I'd like to talk about how you're doing after taking a life."
"I know how you might be concerned but I think I'm handling it well. I'm a little worried that I enjoyed it at the time and my bloodlust frightens me a little but I did feel remorse after until I could tell myself it was necessary. Before you say anything I don't think the Kyuubi is responsible for my actions I'm sure I would have felt that."
"It sounds like you're doing fine and are being normal about it if we disregard your unusual eagerness for battle, but we've discussed that before when you entered the academy. Hinata should be here in about ten minutes. I suggest you talk to Haku about what she can expect and perhaps if you trust her you should explain more about your condition." Naruto nodded at this and waved Haku over from the corner of the room she had been standing in to talk to her in whispers.
-- break --
Hinata walked into the room with a confused look on her face. She blushed when she saw Naruto.
"H-h-Hokage-sama what c-can I do for you?" she asked.
"You can drop the crush and stutter Hinata-chan."
"Naruto! How could you tell him?! It might get back to my father!" she yelled at Naruto as she whirled around simultaneously changing drastically from the introverted eleven-year-old she had been when she walked in.
"There is a situation that I need your help with that you might benefit from but it meant that I had to tell Hokage-sama about us knowing and trusting each other. It's pretty hard for the Hokage to believe that we trust each other completely if I pretend to be oblivious about your readily apparent crush on me and he assumes from that evidence that you haven't told me about it."
"Still Naruto-kun, we decided to keep that fiction going to mislead my father and with his seat on the council he might hear something about this. You know how much trouble I could get in if he thought you returned it! Which he would think if he heard you knew about it and I still professed to have a crush on you." Hinata was becoming hysterical at the thought of her father finding out. Sarutobi was beginning to get angry and worried about the possible explanations for Hinata being that scared of her father's disapproval.
"It's okay Hinata-chan; nobody's going to tell your father." Sarutobi assured Hinata. She started to calm down enough for Naruto to take over the explanation.
"You know that I had a C-rank mission right?" asked Naruto. Hinata nodded in affirmation. "Well it got upgraded in route to a high A-rank because we met some powerful shinobi. We continued with it anyway and succeeded. Now we're back and this is where you come in. This is Haku." Naruto indicated the kunoichi behind him. "She was one of the ninja that attacked us. Before you freak out!" added Naruto in a rush. "She doesn't have any allegiance to anyone except the guy who trained her to be a ninja and he died at Kakashi's hands. She thinks that ninjas are just tools to be used by other ninja and as a ninja herself that's her fate or destiny or whatever. Long story short I need you to take care of her for me. She's agreed to the switch and you can use her help more than I can. She can help you with your father and improve your ninja techniques. Ojiisan would make it a mission so your father can't do anything about it."
Hinata looked stunned at that for a moment and turned to Haku and began looking her over. To the Hokage it might have looked like she was attempting to divine how much truth there was in Naruto's statements or perhaps how much trouble Haku was going to be for her and if it would be worth it. Naruto however knew differently and because he knew differently Naruto knew the truth of that stare.
Naruto knew what Hinata was hiding behind her fake crush for him. Hinata was a lesbian and the stare she was using to look at Haku told Naruto that Hinata found Haku attractive and was wondering how close they would become over the course of this 'mission'.
Hinata herself had already decided to do whatever Naruto needed of her as soon as she heard him say 'I need your help'. It wasn't often Naruto asked for help, but when he did, it was always important and he truly believed that the person he asked would be the best qualified person for whatever he needed. Now she was just trying to decide how to introduce Haku to her family and what she would say to ease the process as much as possible. The fact that she was using the intervening time to check out this tasty looking piece of female flesh was just a bonus for her. It was a good thing that she had long ago learned how to control her blushes on command or she would be beet red and possibly panting slightly as she took in Haku's elegant neck, slim figure, delicate hands, long fingers that she could think of so many naughty uses for… NO Hinata! You promised yourself that you wouldn't be a pervert like Naruto-kun! Although, I do wonder what Naruto has to say about her, he's probably seen much more of her than I can see right now. *giggle*
"I'll take this mission Hokage-sama." Hinata said in a strong voice while nodding to herself. "If you said that she was the candidate for an arranged marriage or something similar that we were trying to bring into the village it would go over well and he would leave us mostly alone about it. He might even leave me alone about being weak if it seemed she were important and I was asked for specifically." The last part was said in a whisper that even being incredibly soft was heard by all the ninja in the room. Sarutobi barely managed to hide a severe frown caused by this new bit of information. He would most certainly be looking into the Hyuuga clan practices; in fact maybe he could use Haku in that capacity if she proved trustworthy and willing.
"There is no need to pretend anything Hinata-chan. Haku is the possessor of an advanced kekkei genkai that allows the mixture of water and wind elemental chakra to create ice jutsu. So we could be totally truthful about wanting her to join the village and not have to worry about Hiashi discovering our subterfuge." Hinata looked surprised at this and decided that she could justify taking another look at Haku under the pretense of checking the validity of the previous statement, so she did. She smiled to herself as she took in Haku's overall figure this time. The loose masculine kimono hid her curves well but once she knew to look for them Hinata could certainly appreciate their subtle evidence. It was like guessing what was in a present based on the size of the gift. The anticipation was sweet agony. Hinata tuned back in to the Hokage's explanation of how Haku might be presented to Hiashi to lessen the unpleasant backlash.
--
Naruto almost rolled his eyes at Hinata. He knew she wasn't listening to the Hokage. As much as she tried to deny it Hinata was a pervert of the same magnitude he was. He idly wondered if he should have warned Haku but he brushed this aside with the knowledge that it would require he break Hinata's confidence and he wasn't going to do that no matter what. Actually now that he though about it he'd have to make sure that he was around the Hyuuga compound occasionally during times that Hinata and Haku were mostly alone, that could be very enlightening. Naruto broke out in his lecherous grin that tended to make him look disturbingly like an impish fox about to pull a prank.
--
Hinata caught Naruto's lips twitching before they curved up into a smile she recognized from when he wore it looking at her. Oh dang, he figured out that he can come and watch what Haku-chan and I get up to when were alone and I've persuaded Haku-chan that there are some additional duties involved in helping me. But that has a whole different kind of excitement to it as well. *giggle* Maybe we should just let him watch. Hinata turned back to the Hokage and continued listening to what he was going to explain to her father when he came the next day so she would know what to tell him when he got back.
--
Soon they were finished ironing out the details and it was decided that Haku would go home with Hinata that very night. The working explanation was that Team 7 had found a wandering-nin that had shown an unusual proficiency in ice jutsu, when questioned she had told them that her family had always been able to use ice jutsu before they were killed in the mist bloodline purges and Team 7 had assumed that to mean she had a kekkei genkai and had subsequently offered her a home in Konoha where she would be welcomed for it. She would be assumed to be high chunin-level but they would have to test her later to make sure. Since she showed an interest in medical jutsu she would be tested at the hospital later in the week and prior to that Hinata was to accompany her there to take lessons and review what Haku already knew. Because she had received most of her training from Zabuza she had decided to take the clan name Momochi in honor of the generosity that had likely saved her life as a young girl.
When they were totally finished and satisfied with the result Hinata left taking Haku with her.
"Is there something else you wanted to talk to me about Naruto-kun?" asked Sarutobi.
"There is something but I'll need permission from Sakura-chan to reveal her part in it. I'm not sure how much I can tell you without her permission beyond that she was there when it happened so I just wanted to give you a heads up I suppose. Regardless of her answer I'll be in here later this week probably with my report to talk to you about some changes I've been going through." With that cryptic statement Naruto got up and left the office.
-- break --
Sakura had taken off to find Ino as soon as she was dismissed by Kakashi. She needed to satisfy her need for local gossip, learn what she'd missed while on the mission, and some help sorting through her feelings for her blonde-haired teammate. It didn't take long to find the other important blonde in her life eating at a barbeque with her teammates.
"Ino, I need you to come with me!" exclaimed Sakura even as she pulled Ino out of her seat. Even being careful about how hard she gripped her, Sakura was not about to be resisted. "Sorry about the interruption Asuma-sensei but it's really important that I talk to Ino."
Asuma chuckled a little. He didn't honestly think that it was important but he was far more observant than most with regards to his genin and he saw that even pulling away as hard as she could Ino couldn't break Sakura's grip. Actually now that he thought about it, that seemed weird. Ino was visibly straining for a bit before she bowed the inevitable but Sakura didn't even look like she could tell the difference. Given Ino wasn't very strong but she should still have enough force to break out of a one-handed grip on her upper arm. Apparently Sakura was much stronger than she looked and given the evidence she was much stronger than was naturally possible too. This deserved looking into, but since it wasn't being bragged about he assumed there was a reason to keep it quiet and therefore he would have to keep his inquiries subtle as well. He would ask Ino when she got back, her response would determine the nature of his actions. "That's fine Sakura. We were done for the day anyway."
"Forehead, you better have a very good reason for this!" yelled Ino as she was pulled away.
"We'll talk when we get somewhere quiet, Ino-pig!" whispered Sakura harshly.
-- break --
Ino looked around Sakura's room as was her habit when she was over there. Much had changed since the last time she was up here though. She was a little intimidated by the overwhelming number of medical books, technique scrolls and other ninja perihelia. It was still a girly room done almost entirely in different shades of pink but there was now a strange and pleasant dichotomy with the feminine overtones and random dangerous tools lying around.
"So what is so important that you have to drag me off like I'm some sort of luggage? And when did you get so strong? You didn't even strain when I tried to pull out of your grip, I better not have a bruise by the way."
"I know we're not really all that great of friends anymore Ino but I needed someone to talk to after that last mission." Sakura admitted. "Lots of things changed when I was out there and I don't want to fight with you all the time anymore. But mostly I want back my best friend so we can talk about boys and cosmetics tell each other our secrets and just be able to pretend for a little bit that we aren't paid to kill people and that we aren't risking our lives on nearly every mission we take." All of this came out in a fast rush that left Sakura breathless and feeling like a huge weight was off her chest. She also found, possibly to her detriment, she couldn't stop once she started.
"Our last mission was a total fuckup. Nothing went right and now I know exactly what ninja are and even though I'm going to stick with it and not quit I need to have an outlet. I watched Naruto kill thirty mercenaries using three of the same jutsu and I know for a fact that he went out at night and hunted down the other twenty… You can't tell anyone about this! Not even your sensei or teammates this falls under girl-talk! I don't know why but Naruto isn't well liked here and I don't want to make it worse. But Naruto killing isn't the worst thing! I've killed too! Just once and I talked to Kakashi-sensei and Naruto about it but I'm still a little freaked out about it." Sakura was rambling now and quickly ramping up to hysterical and Ino, who had been very shocked at first (and really still was), needed to calm her down if she wanted to get a comprehensible story.
"Whoa, slow down Sakura! You need to take a deep breath and tell me all about your mission slowly." Sakura calmed down at this and started to tell Ino about their mission to wave.
-- break --
"…and now I'm talking to you but after we're done I need to go talk to Naruto." Sakura finished with a gusty sigh. She had managed to tell Ino all about the mission and a little about how she'd gotten so strong and how she'd changed without going into Naruto's secrets. After that incident in the forest, which she had left out of her story, she now felt that it was very important to keep Naruto's secrets.
"Wow, that's just… that's… I dunno Sakura. I'm still shocked that you killed someone. How are you not freaking out about that?" asked a very shell-shocked Ino.
"I told you Ino. I talked to Kakashi-sensei, but he just gave me the same crap the academy tells you. I guess it worked for him but it was Naruto who explained it better for me. He said that I should ask myself what the mercenary would have done if he had lived. When I told him that he would have probably gone out and killed or stolen from someone else Naruto told me to think about that someone else as my family or someone who was precious to me not just someone I didn't know. Then he asked if it would be worth it for that merc to die then and I said it would and he told me that that was the way I should look at it from now on."
"That's pretty deep coming from the dobe."
"Don't call him that! He's not an idiot, Ino-pig."
"Sorry, it's just that's what everyone has always thought. I'd still think so if you hadn't told me this. But I'm glad you told me. I want to be friends again too but Sasuke's still gonna be mine!" said Ino trying to add some humor to a conversation that had been serious far to long for her tastes. Really, talking about death and killing and potentially psycho teammates was important but she wanted to get off those topics for now.
"You can have him, piglet. After seeing him on this mission I don't want him anymore. Anyway it's late and I've got to catch Naruto before I can go to sleep so I'll see you later. Remember, nobody is to know anything about this conversation. When we're not alone it's like this never happened okay?"
"Yeah, yeah I get it forehead."
The girls got up off the bed they had been laying on to have their conversation and went downstairs. Ino said a distracted goodbye after leaving towards her home and Sakura turned to head to Naruto's house. Soon as she was able to Sakura jumped up to the roof of a shop and started to go the quick way to Naruto's apartment.
As she roof-jumped towards Naruto's house in the poor part of Konoha Sakura spotted Hinata walking with Haku back to the Hyuuga compound. Sakura frowned a little at that but didn't stop to greet them as she leapt from roof to roof to get to Naruto's house.
-- break --
When Naruto arrived at his apartment he had a surprise in the form of his pink-haired teammate standing in front of his door.
"Good evening Sakura-chan! What brings you here? I thought you would have wanted to rest after our long day of running."
"I actually wanted to talk to you a little about some of the stuff that happened during the mission. If that's okay of course!" she amended quickly.
"Yeah that's fine. Let me get the door and we can talk inside with some privacy." Naruto turned to open his door. Once he got it opened he showed some of what little ninja etiquette he knew by stepping though first while keeping his hands in sight at all times. Sakura followed him inside not commenting about or needing his gesture proclaiming it was safe to enter his apartment. She went and sat on his couch and sat there looking at him putting away his things after he'd locked the door. Naruto finished and turned to look at her before speaking. "So what's been bothering you about the last mission?"
"Well actually lots of things but I'm not sure what we should talk about first."
"Perhaps we should go back to what we used to do when we first began asking serious questions. You ask a question and I tell you what the answer will cost you."
"That's actually probably for the best then. But only as long as you keep your prices to questions where you feel you can."
"I will only promise that the price will be fair." Sakura sighed at this statement. She had always been willing to pay Naruto's favors and answer his questions because in the end his answers were worth it but there was always the nagging feeling that there would come a question that she would ask that she couldn't pay enough for.
"Fine, the first question is: what are the extent of your physical changes and why cover them up if they make you more effective?"
"That's a little difficult to explain without revealing more so why don't you ask all your questions at once so I know what to tell you." Sakura frowned a little at this. She knew that Naruto wouldn't lie to her but that didn't mean that he told the truth outright. Usually when they skirted around a topic he didn't much like he would answer the question directly and literally but not say anything more about it or elaborate on his answers. She didn't like playing verbal gymnastics with him where she tried to twist and bend her questions around to get a real answer that satisfied the nature rather than the letter of her curiosity.
"Well the ones I was thinking of were: why aren't you liked very much in Konoha? Why was Hinata leading Haku to her clan house? Where is all this new aggression coming from? Why weren't you bothered by killing those mercenaries? Who is helping you get so much better? Can I tell Ino anything about our practices and sparring together?" asked Sakura in a rushed stream sounding almost like a forceful sigh.
"Those are some pretty costly questions…" stated Naruto slowly as he pondered what would be worth the information. Each one of the questions would either be skirting something he couldn't tell her about or directly walked on secrets that could change her whole opinion of him. "I would say that you can tell Ino some of what happens when we're together. Like the fact that we spar with each other or that we help each other with jutsu after team missions or you would be okay hinting that I'm better than I look like I am. I would caution you though, because I hold secrets sacred. If you tell Ino too much there could be consequences for both of you. You are my friend Sakura-chan and a very close one at that. You know more about me than most people will ever know but if you break that trust you are basically telling me that you don't think I'm worth being a friend to and that I'm worthless at best or your enemy at worst. To me breaking someone's trust is a mortal sin and there isn't much that is off limits in regards to punishing someone who proves themselves less than trustworthy."
Sakura nodded. She understood what Naruto wasn't saying which amounted to 'if you break my trust I will hunt you and whoever you told down to the gates of hell themselves' and she thought that meshed with his personality well. She still wanted to know the answer to the rest of those questions though. She moved closer to Naruto hoping that he might hurry up and decide on a price.
"Your question about Hinata and Haku I can answer for cheap. You have to tell me your honest reason for your crush on Sasuke."
"That's easy; there was no real reason beyond him being attractive. But I don't like him like that anymore. Too many things changed during our mission and I think I saw what you were talking about with his arrogance and entitlement issues."
Naruto nodded before he spoke. "I can't provide a good home for Haku nor can I spend enough time and effort changing her outlook on her life so I had to find another place for her to live. I trust only two people more than I trust Hinata-chan and with her genuinely kind nature and abundant resources she was the logical choice." Sakura seemed a little skeptical about that. "I know about her crush on me she told me herself. I'm not allowed to say more about it, I'm bound by secrets and promises you are not privy to."
"Your question about who I'm getting my training from is another comparably cheap question. You must tell me your best jutsu or technique, how you got it, and how far you have mastered it."
"It's close because one is a powerful jutsu if used right but has limited application. The other is lower level but has many more applications." She looked at Naruto for him to decide.
"The first then," he said.
"Doku Gasu it creates poison gas that you breathe out of your mouth. I found it in an old medical scroll I got secondhand; it was written in the back where they leave blank space for notes. I know the handseals, chakra molding, process, when, and where to use it but I've been afraid of performing it without someone on hand to fix me if something goes wrong."
"If the poison type is changeable then why don't you try a minor poison until you think you've mastered it?" asked Naruto.
"I think I'll try that next but I'd still like someone who could revive me at least nearby if not watching."
"We can probably arrange that if we choose a field near where some of the medic-nin go to practice. The person that I'm training with is actually a summoned creature. He's this really old ape that goes by 'Sensei' so I don't know his real name. I got the ape contract from the Sandaime when I told him that Kakashi was neglecting my training. I wouldn't say I'm anywhere close to mastering Kuchiyose because I've only managed to summon three different apes and never in combat but I'm still working on proving I'm a worthy contract holder."
Sakura was shocked. Summoning at such a young age? That was almost unheard of. The vast majority of ninja went their whole careers without ever getting a contract; many didn't even see a contract in their career. If she remembered correctly the Sandaime himself still used the taijutsu style the ape clan had taught him despite knowing dozens of other styles which meant that Naruto was learning the same taijutsu that a famous Hokage used. She took a moment to sit back and savor that. Now she would really have to step up her taijutsu training if she ever wanted to touch Naruto, never mind actually harm him.
"The rest of your questions are all interconnected and require a much higher payment. Let's see…" he was thinking aloud and Sakura waited anxiously for his decision. She'd already decided to do whatever he decided. Whenever Naruto's face got that serious it was worth whatever price. "…it's important but I doubt that she has anything quite so big… …maybe… …no, that's not enough… …well that might have a certain symmetry. Yes I think that's what we'll do." Naruto nodded to himself as his decision was made.
Sakura watched as he got up and moved towards his kitchen table where he kept his fuuinjutsu supplies. She wondered what exactly he was doing. He turned to her and looked at her carefully as if reaffirming his decision.
"This is my price: you have to reveal what is most intimate to you and you have to be sealed to silence about what I tell you." Sakura wondered what he could mean by what was most intimate to her and her eyebrows rose. "If you don't want to then I'm afraid you will have to live with your curiosity until you do agree to my terms."
"Can you tell me more about what I'm agreeing to?" was the hesitant question from Sakura.
"I can tell you that whatever you hear while inside the seal I draw you won't be able to tell anyone even under interrogation once I've finished it. You will sit inside the array with it partially activated while I explain things to you and when I'm finished explaining I will complete the seal which will forcibly repress your memories of this conversation. You will be able to remember it but if you try to tell someone or if someone goes prying for the information you will forget it temporarily. I learned the seal from an ex-ANBU captain. He used to use it on people he and his team had to reveal their identities to."
Sakura thought about that for awhile. Actually she thought this could be very good because it eliminated the risk of telling someone she shouldn't. She nodded eagerly in acceptance.
"I'll do it. What do you need me to do and what am I supposed to tell you?" she asked.
"You don't need to do anything yet and you won't be so much telling me as showing me." As Sakura pondered this cryptic wording Naruto cleared the floor in his living room. She watched as he laid down several long and wide strips of paper side by side to form a two meter by two meter square. He then took out a paintbrush and a large bottle of ink that was marked 'special'.
He began drawing a large circle that spanned the entire breadth of the paper drawn entirely out of kanji and other special characters she couldn't recognize. With that circle finished he started on a square whose corners just barely touched the inside of the circle he had completed. With the square drying he started another circle whose diameter was the same as the side of the square and again the outer edges of this new shape just touched the innermost edges of the old. Inside that circle he drew a pentagram and left the inside blank before he began drawing more circles and triangles that were much smaller but were now centered on the connections between the larger shapes.
Before her very eyes Sakura witnessed Naruto draw the most complex seal she'd ever seen or even heard about. In the really in-depth medical procedures there was often a fairly complex seal drawn to keep the patient from dying during the operation but even those complex patterns had nothing on this despite their tendency to fill an entire room.
Naruto finished up the seal by connecting the last small circle that was inked around the topmost point of the inner pentagon to a smaller chain of symbols and kanji that swung a wide spiral anticlockwise around the inside of the pentagon forming a full five turns before stopping precisely in the center. Once he'd marked the last kanji, 'seal' she noted, he stood and seemed to wait for it to finish drying. Once he was sure that it was done he turned to Sakura for the last portion.
"This will hurt quite a bit I'm told. There is still time to back out." When she shook her head no he continued. "Well then, as soon as you strip off all your clothes we can begin." The seriousness of this statement was slightly marred by his lecherous grin.
"WHAT?!" screamed Sakura.
"Before you try to deck me you agreed to reveal what is most intimate to you and I imagine that it doesn't get much more intimate for you than standing around in the nude. That was part of the price, do you want to know or not?"
Sakura grumbled and stood. She had a sudden attack of nerves that her anger and irritation couldn't hope to suppress when Naruto took a seat on the couch she had just vacated and looked at her intently.
--
Naruto took pity on the pink-haired girl when he saw she was nearly terrified. He decided to try something that he'd been eager to repeat since that day in the woods. He was truly glad that he'd kept the chakra concealing seals from when he'd helped Sakura with her ijutsu.
He reached up and slowly drug the top of his mask down until it pooled around his neck while he released his mental reign on the chakra his suppression seal allowed him and allowed it to suffuse the room. He noticed Sakura's eyes roll back and her eyelids flutter half closed as he saturated his chakra with his lust and eagerness to see her naked before him.
--
Sakura was terrified at the thought of being naked in front of a boy. She'd been having 'those' sorts of thoughts for a while now and she was sure that this was some sort of taboo. She wasn't actually sure what scared her about it though. She thought she might be scared that Naruto would do something to take advantage of her but she discarded that. She thought that she might be scared because nobody had seen her naked since Ino and her had compared the effects of puberty at their last slumber party. But she thought that the scariest thing she could imagine was Naruto thinking she wasn't pretty or sexy. This thought scared her even more. Why should she care what Naruto thought about her body?
She was working herself up into a fine fit but further introspection was ceased by a new feeling. It was actually a little like getting doused with a bucket of ice water. Well it was in the sense that both experiences were drastic and had an immediate effect but that was about where the similarities ended.
This feeling was warm and incredibly pleasant. But it was also very insistent. She had to do something and it needed to happen right away if she could just remember what it was. She tried to concentrate but she felt that slipping away too. Suddenly she was thinking clearly again, of sorts. The restraint that she always kept her chakra under had come undone without her concentration and she was bleeding her pink-tinged chakra into the light-blue chakra Naruto was suffusing the air with. With this buffer she realized that the feeling she was experiencing was being brought on by Naruto. Instead of getting mad that he was influencing her she accepted those feelings. She embraced what he was sending her and soon her mind told her what needed to happen and inner-Sakura decided to be the most helpful she'd been since the special kunoichi only lessons and instruct her on how it needed to be done.
She smiled a sultry smirk at Naruto and slowly turned around holding his gaze by looking back over her shoulder.
--
Oh wow, I may have overdone that. She seems like she's handling it better now though. What's she doing? Oh Kami-sama, is she actually going to do what I think she is? Naruto practically barred his newly bestial teeth in a lecherous grin that had the muscle control been possible would have stretched ear to ear.
He watched Sakura turn her back to him and look at him over her shoulder. Her own chakra flared and he could feel its affects on his own libido. She's radiating lust too! That's certainly a far cry from the acceptable isn't it? Naruto settled back to enjoy the show. Her hair flared out in a gentle wind caused by her chakra and her hitai-ite which was holding it back slipped out and hit the floor with a metallic clank.
He watched her hands as they gripped her shoulders and slowly stroked down her sides smoothing out the fabric covering her until they got to the slits in her red dress. She bent over gracefully showing her ass prominently as she pulled off the sandals she'd forgotten to remove when she'd come in. She turned towards him as she stood straight again and her hands caressed herself on their way up to the zipper on her collar. She slowly unzipped her dress, lingering almost coyly between her breasts and averting her eyes from Naruto's to add to the image of innocence. She slowly dragged the zipper down to her left hip where it met the high slit on her thigh. She turned away again before she slid the garment slowly off her shoulders and finally dropping it to pool around her ankles in a soft shushing sound.
Naruto was surprised to find that she didn't wear a bra under her dress but appreciated the glorious expanse of bare back all the same. She locked eyes with him as she turned around to reveal her braless breasts. The heat in the room spiked up again as Naruto took in their pale form with the small rosy pink nipples looking painfully hard. Her hands came back up to cup them slightly before they trailed down her flat toned stomach to hook her thumbs into her tight black shorts.
--
Sakura bit her lower lip as she began inching her last item of clothing down her legs. Her kunai holster fell with a thud and a clatter as the knives spilled out over the floor beside her. She bent forward sliding her shorts down her legs and allowing her hair to come forward over her shoulders to lightly cover her breasts.
She stared into Naruto's eyes as she rose back up standing straight and baring herself for his scrutiny. He seemed to approve as his eyes swept over her lingering on her bald pussy that was already leaking some of her juices to indicate her arousal in response to his lust. She stood still barely succeeding in not covering herself with her hands as Naruto looked at her.
Finally he opened his arms in a clear invitation to join him and she practically flew across the short distance into them where she snuggled into his lap. She was far too gone to care about the implications or meaning in this type of position, she just wanted acceptance and comfort and she only saw a place that offered both.
--
Naruto liked what he saw. He spent what must have been five full minutes just appreciating the view. Eventually he'd seen enough and opened his arms inviting Sakura to hug him. He was very surprised at the speed with which she took his offer and almost before he knew it she was sitting firmly in his lap with her arms wrapped around his ribs and her legs straddling his own as she pressed herself close to him.
He felt her burry her head in his shoulder before turning to breathe deep his scent from the crook of his neck. He felt some moisture on his neck soon and he realized with a start that she was crying. He wrapped his arms for firmly around her and questioned her.
"What's wrong Sakura-chan? Why are you crying?" he was now thoroughly worried. He thought it was a fair trade but he hadn't counted on a reaction like this.
"I'm just happy Naruto-kun. I know I'm not the prettiest girl around but when you look at me I feel so beautiful anyway. So I'm happy and I want to thank you for that." She explained as she nuzzled his neck with her nose trying to get beneath the irritating fabric.
With her breath on his neck distracting him, Naruto absently dropped his partial henge. Sakura felt the change immediately and changed her position to take his ear into her mouth and gently nibble at it with her lips. Naruto groaned and ran his lengthened and sharpened nails down her spine. Sakura moaned directly into his ear and pressed herself firmly against him even as she began grinding her hips down into Naruto's lap.
Naruto's head darted down and captured her neck in his teeth. Sakura leaned back slightly and barred her neck more in a display that screamed to Naruto's instincts that she was a willing and submissive female and that he should mate her right away. Naruto growled possessively before he jerked his head away and turned to look away from Sakura.
"No, not like this, not drunk on each other's chakra," Naruto gasped out. Sakura turned to face him and reached out to cup his cheeks in her hands. She slowly but firmly turned his head back to her and when he was facing her she kissed him hard.
It was clumsy, she had never been kissed before, but it made a connection deeper by far than a normal kiss might. Their lips mashed against each others and soon Naruto's tongue found its way into Sakura's mouth. She instantly began sucking lightly on it while running her own tongue over his. When he managed to coax her tongue into his own mouth something unexpected happened. There was a chakra surge and the two hormone-driven ninja were mixing chakra via mouth with Sakura absorbing some of Naruto's and Naruto absorbing some of Sakura's.
They remained lip locked and transferring chakra for ten minutes before they stopped and reluctantly pulled away. Sakura still had her hands fisted in Naruto's hair and she idly wondered why none of the bells had fallen out. Naruto moved back to Sakura's neck and she tilted her head to allow him better access once more as he grazed her flesh with the tips of his incisors.
--
Sakura sighed contentedly. That kiss had told her much of what she wanted to know about her feelings towards her blonde teammate. Her crush had shifted teammates and deepened considerably. Naruto had stopped them from going further but she knew that if they hadn't stopped she would have no regrets were she to wake up next to him in the same mode of dress she was in now. This was where she belonged, in the lap of her mate with him claiming her as his.
She smiled slightly at the now familiar problem that was currently soaking Naruto's pants and making the insides of her thighs sticky. She arched her back slightly to try to tempt Naruto towards her boobs. She almost ached for him to use those deliciously sharp and dangerous teeth of his to mark them as his property as was proper.
The teething on her neck was slacking off and she resigned herself to waiting until after he had explained whatever he needed to before she would try again to get him to mate her. She was slightly surprised at the directions her thoughts were taking with the whole mate issue but she tossed the confusion aside quickly in favor of how these new thoughts and instincts made her much happier than she had been before.
--
Naruto succeeded in calming himself down and now had to explain to Sakura about the Kyuubi, if that wasn't a buzz-kill he didn't know what was.
"It's time for you to sit in the seal array Sakura-chan." She responded reluctantly by slowly getting up while making sure he had an uninterrupted view of her crotch and the evidence of what he did to her. Such was the repugnant nature of the upcoming conversation that he couldn't even manage a self-satisfied smirk. This was what truly clued Sakura in to the seriousness of the upcoming explanation.
"Okay, kneel in the center like you would for a tea ceremony. I'm going to start channeling chakra to the seal. Everything you hear will sound kind of funny for awhile but that's normal and it means the seal is working. When we're finished the seal is going to crawl across your body and condense down to about two centimeters in diameter before it fades away. That's the part that's going to hurt. I'm sorry but I can't do anything about the pain."
--
Sakura moved into the circle and knelt down unashamed of her nudity not covering herself beyond how her legs covered her in this position naturally. She even went so far as to brush her hair back with her hands so it was no longer covering her breasts. She sat straight-backed and proud even as Naruto paused in his preparations to look at her again. She even smiled slightly at the attention.
This isn't so bad at all. It's kinda exciting to have him staring at me like that. Whew, kinky girl, good for you. We should be proud of our body! Ya, and as long as Naruto-kun likes it then we have nothing to be ashamed of. Sakura nodded at those thoughts and when she felt chakra molding she refocused her attention on Naruto. She soon felt the sensation Naruto described. It was kind of like hearing things through a thin wall or as if the speaker was far away. Everything was kind of muffled but not like whispering and her ears weren't ringing like something loud had temporarily partially deafened her.
She heard Naruto asking her questions trying to figure out if she could hear him. Sakura waited until her ears cleared enough for it to sound just a little softer than Naruto's voice was normally before she responded.
"I can hear you just fine Naruto-kun."
"Okay then, I suppose I should start with what you already know. What do you know of the Kyuubi attack?" he asked. Sakura was a little confused. Why is he asking about that? That has nothing to do with this. We weren't even alive at that point and if he was he would have been a baby.
"That it attacked Konoha thirteen years ago and the Yondaime killed it, but what does that have to do with anything?"
"That's not entirely correct. The Kyuubi did attack thirteen years ago but the Yondaime didn't kill it. You can't kill something that's truly immortal so his only option was to put it someplace it wouldn't cause harm." Sakura's eyes widened at that. The Kyuubi is still out there somewhere? She hoped that wherever it was it couldn't get out. "His idea was to seal the beast into something but with something that powerful you need to seal it in a living creature. The problem was what to use. Nothing besides a human would be able to fully contain the beast but an adult would have their chakra coils ripped apart before the seal took hold and the entire effort would be in vain. The solution was to use a newborn baby to seal the bijuu into… I was that baby, Sakura-chan.
"That's the reason that everyone hates me around here. I remind all the people who saw the Kyuubi's attack of the night they were helpless and they thought they were all going to die. I represent over one hundred dead ninja to them. People don't see me they just see what I hold and they try to get their petty revenge. It's kinda funny really because if I really were a demon they wouldn't dare attack me like they do but if I'm not then their revenge serves no purpose.
"The Hokage made a law that no one could speak the truth about the Kyuubi to anyone who didn't already know about it. You and the two classes above you along with everyone not old enough to remember the fox doesn't know what I hold. It's an S-class village secret; to speak of it is treason. Your thoughts about me might change but remember I'm the container not the demon."
Sakura took all this new information in and found she didn't care about that. Her feelings for Naruto were unchanged.
"That answers one of my questions but how does that relate to the rest?" she asked trying to coax the downcast blonde back on topic.
"The changes you've seen were caused when your ijutsu backfired up my arms when you crossed over my hands. The changes started from there and I know that the Kyuubi's chakra, if not the Kyuubi itself, interacted with the chakra you released back into the hand over your hara. I have the feeling that more drastic changes were counteracted by the discharge from the hand over your herutsu which seemed to stay normal if a little darker in color and blue-shifted. I'm not sure of all the changes beyond the obvious visual ones so if you could do a diagnostic jutsu on me later that would probably help when I have to explain them to Hokage-sama next week sometime. I'm going to need to know if you're okay with telling the Hokage about your self-ijutsu or if I'm going to need to dance around the truth about that, by the way. But we can talk about that later. That should answer about the extent of the changes as much as I understand them.
"I have to hide them because they connect me further to the Kyuubi and I really don't need any extra animosity from the villagers. Yes they do make me a more effective shinobi and I'm getting help working on a seal that will mimic Tsunade's youth genjutsu that I'll be able to hide with and still use them. With any luck I can claim that it's a jutsu or bloodlimit skill when I do drop the genjutsu to use the claws and such.
"I've always had a problem with my aggression and now that I know about the bijuu I can link it back to the Kyuubi. I had an easy time killing because it's part of my more insistent than average predator instincts. Don't mistake that for me not having a problem killing. Sure it was easy at the time while I was still high on my bloodlust but afterwards I felt the same regret as you did. I've lived a much less sheltered life than you so I probably had an easier time rationalizing the guilt because I've seen the worst parts of people. It's actually my aggression and eagerness to fight that got me into the shinobi academy. Ojiisan noticed I was always starting fights and he decided that since I was going to fight anyway he might as well give it a purpose. The first couple years of academy I could beat anyone in straight taijutsu because I hit harder and could soak up more damage than everyone else. It was only when the teachers started to teach me wrong on purpose that I became a dobe. The only teacher who taught me anything correctly was Iruka-sensei but by then I was much too jaded to pick anything up."
Sakura was horrified. Her ijutsu was going to cause Naruto problems and possibly physical harm. She needed to find out what all had happened and what parts of it could be fixable. But maybe Naruto didn't want to be fixed, in which case she didn't know how to help him but she knew that she had to. She was also appalled with her academy senseis. How could they deliberately hinder someone that they knew was going to be relying on their teachings to stay alive?! As she thought about it though it began to make more sense, even Kakashi had been passively punishing Naruto for the Kyuubi. Well she was not going to stand for it anymore.
"Well just because you have something evil sealed inside you is a stupid reason for anyone to hate you!" declared Sakura eliciting a shocked glance from Naruto. "Now can you please finish this seal so I can check you out?" she asked. This elicited a very strange grin that she was coming to know intimately and she immediately though back over her question. Oh damn, I didn't mean it like that you pervert. Didn't you? Well… not at first anyway.
She saw Naruto lift his hands off the seal and form two more handseals before slamming his hands back down on the paper. The ink of the seal shone brightly and suddenly began moving. Sakura watched as the spiral she was kneeling on unraveled and slid over the paper to her left ankle.
Sakura screamed.
Oh Kami, it burns! It's like fire!
--
Naruto watched with a sympathetic wince as the line of kanji crept up her leg. He knew intimately what that felt like. He had been trapped in one while an old and mutilated shinobi offered him a position in his own personal ANBU as a weapon. He had been told to make a decision before he passed the genin exams but a year later after another failure Iruka had taught him this very seal as a way to keep his secrets. When he recognized it and told Iruka about it they had gone to see an interrogation expert named Morino Ibiki and the large and heavily scarred man had broken it before taking a transcript of Naruto's experience to the Hokage. He didn't know what had happened after but he hadn't been approached by the cripple again.
He watched as the symbols, kanji and shapes slide slowly up Sakura's nude form like the caresses of a sadistic lover. It looked almost erotic having such a large seal array sliding across a pretty girl's naked body but the effect was ruined by the screams of pure agony that ripped themselves clawing out of her throat. Naruto wouldn't wish this pain on anyone and he never used this seal lightly. He had used it only once before on Hinata when he told her about the Kyuubi and this time didn't look any better, though he hoped he wouldn't vomit this time.
The seals crawled further up Sakura's body until the entire array was covering her whole head, unseen beneath her hair. The seal began spinning as pieces unlocked and shifted separate from the overall movement. The entire thing was a rather intricate puzzle box and it was now closing to hold tight the memories contained within it. Soon the seal had shrunk to the size of a thumbnail and rested on the center of Sakura's forehead. The seal burned a bright red before fading to black and finally fading from her skin altogether. It was still there and active but it wouldn't be much of an information repressing seal if it advertised to the world that something was being repressed or hidden.
--
Sakura allowed herself to go totally limp and fall to the side in an ungraceful slump. The pain was gone but she could still feel the phantom memories of it and her muscles twitched weakly in response. She looked up at Naruto and saw his regret in his gorgeous sapphire eyes. She allowed herself to fall deeply into those eyes because anywhere was better than her own body at the moment. She saw deeper and felt more of his emotions until she finally found one that made her feel fantastic, pain and all. She felt his pride in her. He was proud of her for taking that pain willingly for him.
She practically glowed at knowing Naruto was proud of her. She felt herself lifted and taken out of the kitchen/living room and taken into the bedroom where he gently laid her down on the bed. Weakly she managed to grab at Naruto and pull him into the bed with her and she smiled when he stretched out beside her. She snuggled into his chest totally unconcerned by her nakedness as she tried to get as close to him as possible.
"You can't fall asleep here Sakura-chan. You have to go home or your parents will worry. If your mother does indeed work for the council she will hear of your return and it will raise questions about you not being home the night after a mission."
Sakura groaned a little but accepted the truth of the statement. "What time is it?" her voice was hoarse as she asked from all her screaming.
"8:30pm time for you to go home."
"Alright, will you help me find my clothes?"
"Of course"
"We need to meet after practice tomorrow or sometime during the day if we don't have a team meeting. I need to see what I did to you and if I can fix it."
"You will not dare! I like how I look, thank you very much."
"Still I'd like to know what my mistake did to you."
"You're welcome to find out but I don't want you to agonize about what you did to me. I like it and barring any serious long-term health problems I'll even thank you for it."
Sakura smiled and snuggled further into Naruto before deciding that talking about his changes wasn't all they were going to do tomorrow. She reluctantly pulled herself up off of her teammate and went out to search for her clothes. Naruto, predictably, wasn't much help and spent more time looking at her bending over repeatedly than actually gathering her clothes.
She left his apartment soon after and walked slowly home hoping that the disheveled state she was in from the pain and the intense kissing earlier would fade enough to be unnoticeable before she made it to her door.
