Thank you everyone for your reviews! I love seeing the same names pop up in the reviews and love ready what you have to say, thank you so much for your support!
I do not own Naruto or anything you recognise.
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Shikamaru let out a sigh as he looked over to Naruto, "Well I don't know about you but I think I'm going to call it a night.. Don't do anything stupid yeah?" In the glow from the moon he could see his childhood friend shift and give him a sour look. The two of them had moved from the bathroom floor to the roof hours ago and had settled down watching the stars. Since they had come up they had seen Asuma walk out to the front deck and smoke a few cigarettes and had also heard everyone move off to bed not too long after that.
They hadn't spoken since coming up here until now.
Thinking Naruto wasn't going to reply Shika stood and started to make his way down, "Night Shika.." Looking back he let a little smile slip onto his face.
As he left, Naruto sat up and got into a meditation pose. It was time to try and find out what had actually happened and what was going on. It only took Naruto a few minutes to clear her mind and soon found herself walking through the familiar hallways of her mindscape.
"Kurama?" Naruto followed the usual path to where the seal use to be. "Kurama can you hear me?"
Naruto rounded the corner and entered the large room that use to contain the sealed cage and gasped, laying in the middle of the floor was a fox, around the size of a horse. Kurama had been compacted down into the size equivalent of what her paw had been.
"Naru? I was wondering when you'd show up.." The fox morphed into a human shape and Naruto welcomed the large grin that seeped onto her face.
"Rama!" The two of them fell into what could only be described as a bone crushing hug. Kurama finally pulled away after a few minutes and took a good look at the young boy, now young woman in front of her.
"Oh I'm so sorry Naru.. The thought of this happening did cross my mind but I never thought it would be completely possible..."
"It's ok.. honestly we will get through this and we will do it together Rama." Kurama looked up to see pure determination in Narutos eyes.
"Well ok then... I guess this means we had better figure out everything that's changed, yes?"
Naruto looked down and nodded, "Well one things for sure, it's gone."
Kurama burst out laughing, "Oh honey, you're still stuck on that? You will survive, trust me it's more fun being female." The look in her eye told Naruto of all the mischief they could get up to and she too grinned. Noticing Naruto was distracted Kurama quickly and quietly added, "Sometimes."
The two of them sat down and began listing any changes they'd noticed so far. Past the obvious change in gender and appearance they had listed her reflexes, hearing and sense of smell as well as her predatory instincts.
"So you mean I'm becoming more fox like?"
"Well considering what I am I guess it's only natural, but we will keep an eye on it and if it continues to change and become more 'fox like'..." Kurama used quotation marks as she used Narutos terminology, "Well I'm guessing that since the merge has only recently happened any improvements or changes are either still developing or possibly even have yet to show."
"If I grow fox ears and a tail I'm coming in here and kicking your arse."
"Oh they'd be gorgeous! Besides, think of all the endless possibilities you'd be able to use them for... I'm thinking your sexy no jutsu but with a twist?"
"Rama! Goodness I'm not going to use my new body for that... I mean I do have some nice curves to me but Rama, that's too far."
"Oh Naruto you will have to answer that calling eventually and trust me, your voice alone is enough to make any man shake." Naruto hit Kurama on the shoulder who just laughed it off.
"Kurama! I was a male myself up until recent!"
"Don't make me tease you more hmm?" She said with a wink.
The two continued to talk over things a bit more and came up with a game plan on how they'd approach the long overdue conversation with team seven and team ten. It was decided that Naruto would definitely tell them over breakfast the following morning and then depending how things went she would either encourage Kakashi to train them or she would leave for the day and train herself. It wasn't a good plan, but it was better then going in completely unprepared.
They continued chatting away even to the point where Kurama told Naruto about the things women have to do and about what she learnt about being a woman from observing Kushina.
Naruto was thoroughly embarrassed.
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"Everyone get your arses out of bed! Breakfast is almost ready!" Asuma took satisfaction in their reaction. The three male genin woke shocked and panicked as they were yelled at. Much to his dismay it didn't take long for Shikamaru and Choji recognise his voice. The Uchiha on the other hand, looked at him trying to be tough but Asuma could still see the panic deep in his eyes.
Laughing he turned and exited the room heading down to where the girls were staying, knocking on their door he called out, "Ino, Sakura, get up! Breakfast is ready and I'm sure you guys need something to keep you going... If not then you still better bloody come down."
Asuma turned on his heel to go back downstairs, thoughts lingering on what was about to go down. As he once again reached the landing, Asuma saw that breakfast had already been served and that Naruto and Tsunami were eating. Kakashi was just sitting there staring at his student.
Walking over towards the man Asuma tapped Kakashi on the shoulder and gestured towards the food, "Eat up, you sure need it after your chakra exhaustion." The scarecrow just hummed in response but quickly ate then set his mask back in place before anyone could notice. How the man ate so fast and with out anyone noticing still amazed Asuma to this day. 'There must be genjutsu involved. A very good genjutsu..."
It wasn't long before they heard sounds of the genin on the stairs. Every instinct was telling Naruto to run, but a look from both jounin kept her in place.
"Ohh, what's for breakfast? I smells amazing!" Choji was the first down and as he turned to where the food was he faulted for a second before Shikamaru came behind him and pushed him on.
"Food first Choji.. Don't make this harder for Naruto." His voice was only a whisper but Narutos ear twitched as she over heard the sentence.
As the rest of the genin entered the room the reactions were mixed. The two girls halted in their tracks, one silently raging that her male teammate had bigger breasts then her while the other instantly fussed over 'how cute her kimono was' and 'where did she get it?'
"Uhh... Tsunami let me borrow it. It's a bit small though, so I will have to find something else to wear soon." Was Narutos awkward response while Tsunami also answered, "Oh it's nothing special, just one I've had for years.."
The Uchiha's attention had pulled away from brooding as the new yet slightly familiar voice spoke up. He turned his gaze towards the new woman finding she looked strickinly similar to how Naruto had looked yesterday. Except this person was very obviously female. Sasuke couldn't stop his eye from wandering to her very obvious and partially visible breasts.
"Sasuke-teme..." His eye was quickly pulled up to meet the woman face to face. Sasuke found himself staring at crimson eyes and very familiar whisker marks.
"Are you growling?"
She instantly stopped and moved back to her breakfast as if nothing had happened.
'Oh Kami, Rama, I just growled at Sasuke-teme.' I the back of her mind she could hear her cackling.
"Everyone eat up, we have a long day a head of us." Kakashi spoke as if there was nothing out of the ordinary but was silently twitching impatiently waiting for everyone to eat.
As they were part way through the food Inari appeared giving them all a harsh look. "I don't know why you're doing this, you're all going to die."
"Inari!" Tsunami stood and turned towards her son, "Don't day things like that!" The boy just dropped his bottom lip and ran away crying. "I apologise for Inaris behaviour..."
Silence had over taken the group as they sat around eating the meal Tsunami and Naruto had prepared and once everyone had finished they all shared their 'thank you's. As Tsunami moved to clear the table the ninja fell into an awkward silence, no one knowing what to say.
'Naruto..' Naruto blinked, 'Speak up missy, or I wil test what it's like for me to be out..' Narutos eyes widened slightly just picturing how that'd turn out.
"Well... I'm sure you are all wondering what happened." Naruto couldn't bring herself to look up but could feel the eyes on her, although she wasn't sure if it was because of her terrible attempt of starting the conversation or because she actually started this conversation. Taking a deep breath she continued, "Uh well when we were attacked by those chunnin, I remember seeing one going for Sasuke and I guess I just jumped in the way... I got cut but the blade was poisoned."
"I don't remember what happened but I could hear Sasuke talking, then I think I fell unconscious..." She stopped and looked around as she felt the air change in the room. "What? What happened..?"
"You... uh well you died on us Naru..." Kakashi looked shattered as he said it.
The reactions of the group varied per person, Sasuke instantly became uncomfortable remembering the blood that was on his hands while Sakura looked like she was going to puke. Part of Team 10 looked at Naruto completely astonished while Shikamaru and Asuma gave an understanding look, one pointed to Naruto and one at Kakashi.
"Oh, well I'm sorry if I scared you?" The now young woman looked down once again thinking things over before she continued, "I had a choice, ya know? I could have died, I could have stayed in my mindscape and just left everything here behind but I was given to choice."
She looked up determined, "Twelve years ago our village was attacked. The Yondaime Hokage and many of our ninja fought hard to protect their home and everyone in it but the force of the enemy was too much. That enemy was the Kyuubi no yoko. The Yondaime was forced to to take things further, he sealed the chakra beast. As kids we were taught it was killed but that's wrong you can't kill chakra, so he sealed it, half into himself and half into a newborn baby." She took a small break letting the information sink in.
"I was that baby.. That's how I was given a choice, I trust in the Kyuubi and the Kyuubi trusts in me." Asuma sent a look to Kakashi but didn't speak up. "I am no longer just Naruto Uzumaki. I am Naruko Uzumaki-Namikaze. My blood is of the Whirlpool and my heart is of the wind, and behind me I hold the title of the beast, not just as a jinchuriki."
Ino went to open her mouth but Shikamaru promptly covered it with his hand. "Perhaps we should keep this all between us?" He looked over to the two jounin. "And anything else that comes up..?"
The two jounin nodded before Kakashi spoke up. "Definitely. When we return to Konoha we will report to Hokage-sama and sort things out then. I, just as much as the rest of you, want to know everything else but perhaps Naruto- uhh Naruko, has reasons for not telling us everything." He turned and gave his student a long hard look but she didn't crack, instead she returned it.
"Perhaps we should use this curious energy and put it towards training? I don't know about you lot but I think it would be good to keep busy!" She pulled her award winning smile, somehow even more bright then what it was when she was a he. As everyone agreed, albeit some unwilling, she couldn't keep the smugness of her success from reaching her face.
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Sorry if I made Asuma out to be a sadist or something... definitely not my intention but oops if I did.
I'm not as much a fan of this chapter... think I repeated myself a bit!
Hope you enjoyed anyway, let me know what you thought
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