When they got to Naruto's apartment, they headed up to the roof. Ranma always liked to do katas to calm down and think things through. Naruto had picked up the practice from her. Naruto lost herself in running through her favorites.

"When did you want to talk to Sakura and Kakashi?" Ranma asked her.

"Tomorrow," Naruto said. "If they come look for us to apologize, fine. If not, they can wait."

"What's got you upset, Imouto?" Ranma asked.

Naruto sighed. "Same as always. I like Sakura, but she thinks I'm stupid. She never listens to me or takes what I say seriously. Same with Kakashi—I always get the feeling he's just humoring me."

"You knew they were going to be like this," Ranma said, chiding her gently.

"I guess," Naruto said with a sigh.

"How long before today's performance spreads the fact that Narumi is Naruto?" Ranma asked.

Naruto shrugged. "I bet my friends and their senseis all now by now. The other important ninja in the village too. For the random civilian?" She frowned. "A few days at most. Rumors always spread about me quickly."

Ranma slapped her on the shoulder. "Cheer up, Imouto. We can always use 'boy time' to avoid attention. We don't have anything else to use it on until our yearly is done other than fading into the background if you want to avoid the stares."

"I know," she replied. "I just hate hiding, Neechan. They should accept me for me."

Ranma smiled wryly. "I know, Imouto." She grinned. "My offer to pound anyone who looks at you funny is still on the table."

Naruto giggled. "You've been talking to Mom again haven't you?"

Ranma smirked. "I've been wanting to try that hair trick on someone who would recognize it. It worked great on Ero-sennin, but on someone who isn't sure who I am?"

Naruto laughed. "I can see how Mom would appreciate you putting the 'Fear of the Habanero' into Konoha."

You got that right, commented said woman emphatically.


After dinner as the two of them were discussing sealing, a knock was heard at the door. Ranma activated a seal which let them see who was at the door. The seal produced an image that was tied to a seal placed outside their door, resulting in something with the same function as a security camera from the outside world.

"Looks like Kiba's mom," Naruto said.

"Think she's here to cause problems?" Ranma asked.

Naruto shrugged. "I only know of her from Kiba's stories and she seems the type to enjoy a good joke. As long as we assure her that we haven't done anything permanent to Kiba or Akamaru she should be fine."

Naruto opened the door. "Mrs. Inuzuka?"

"Hello, pup," she responded. "May I come in?"

Naruto shrugged and gestured her inside.

Since Naruto's apartment lacked a lot of furniture, they each sat down on the floor mats.

"I'll get straight to the point, pups," Kiba's mom said. "I came to discuss what happened to Kiba and Akamaru this afternoon."

"I assume Kiba hasn't figured out how to remove the curse yet?" Naruto asked.

She shook her head. "It is removable then?"

"Yes," Naruto said. "Unlike the kind that Ranma and I got, his is completely removable."

"So you're permanently a girl now?" the Inuzuka woman asked.

"No," Naruto answered. "The normal version of the curse of Jusenkyo is activated and deactivated by cold and hot water, respectively."

They both felt there was no point to hiding the trigger since Kiba would figure it out eventually.

"So Kiba and Akamaru just need hot water and they'll turn back to normal?" said boy's mother asked.

"That's right," Ranma said. "We hope you won't drop any hints to your son unless he doesn't figure out for a few days. He was quite vocal in blabbing to everyone within earshot about the most embarrassing aspects of our condition."

"You're Naruto's cousin?" Mrs. Inuzuka asked.

"Yep," Ranma responded. "Saotome Ranma, but I also answer to Uzumaki Ranmi when I'm a girl."

"How come you two haven't used hot water to turn back into boys?" Mrs. Inuzuka asked.

"Because we're stuck in our feminine cycle right now as I'm sure you can tell," snapped Naruto.

"I can smell that you're in heat," Mrs. Inuzuka said, "but you smell like foxes in heat rather than humans."

Naruto sighed and explained about the different pools at Jusenkyo. Both foxgirls shifted so that their ears and tails were showing.

"This doesn't have anything to do with what happened the day you were born, Naruto, does it?" the older ninja asked cagily. She was obviously trying to ask about the Kyuubi without breaking the Sandaime's law.

Naruto sighed and glanced over at her sister. Ranma was scowling at the Inuzuka fiercely. Her stance had loosened into what Naruto recognized as her ready stance.

Mrs. Inuzuka raised her hands and said, "Whoa, pup. I'm not making accusations or anything. I'm just trying to understand."

Naruto put a hand on her shoulder and said mentally, Peace, Neechan. The Inuzuka favor loyalty above all else and she knows that the Hokage holds me in close regard.

Ranma relaxed out of her ready stance—not that it mattered a whole lot—Ranma could attack or defend at a moment's notice regardless of her stance.

"If you're referring to the Kyuubi?" Naruto paused long enough for the older woman to nod. "Then not directly. We've been told that the pools of Jusenkyo while not being actually aware, have a component that preys on one's fears and weakness. My biggest fear since I graduated from the Academy has been people confusing me for the Fox." She gestured to head and tails.

"And the girl part?" Mrs. Inuzuka asked.

Ranma scowled and Naruto giggled.

Naruto said, "Ranma's father believes in motivation by insults and his most common insult was to accuse him of being a 'weak girl.' I tried to stop Ranma from falling into a pool after seeing his father cursed to turn into a panda. That meant that we ended up falling into the same one."

Mrs. Inuzuka snorted and looked at Ranma. "If you need any help showing your father what a woman can do, let me know."

Ranma chuckled wickedly. "Pop has since learned the error of his ways, although he tends to backslide on occasion. Mom was planning on keeping him away from Konoha, but if you do run into him, I only ask that you don't do anything permanent to him."

Mrs. Inuzuka laughed and said, "I like you, pups. You can call me Tsume when not in public." She grinned wickedly. "Even if you do have the forms of inferior canines."

Naruto grinned back, just as wickedly. "Becoming part fox has only increased my mischievousness. Are you sure you want to start something?"

Tsume blanched.

Ranma chuckled. "That doesn't even consider that she's now heard stories about what her mother did as a young woman."

Tsume's eyes widened farther.

"You knew who my mother was!" Naruto accused.

Tsume sighed. "Yes, I did. You share enough of her scent that Inuzuka familiar with her knew that you were her son." She held up a hand to forestall a protest. "Before you ask why we never said anything, you must know that the Sandaime commanded us not to say anything or to act on it in order to protect you from your parents' enemies. A few of us kept an eye on you when we could, but that was the most we were allowed to do."

"That old man did more damage to you out of good intentions, Imouto," Ranma grumbled.

Seeing Tsume's frown, Naruto waved off Ranma's complaint. "What's done is done, Neechan." They had long determined that they were going to disagree on their views of the Sandaime. Ranma resented how isolated and unhappy Naruto's childhood had been because of him while Naruto could not help but have fond memories of her grandfather figure. In some ways it was similar, but in reverse, to their feelings for Ranma's father.

"So how are you two finding the distaff side?" Tsume asked.

Naruto smiled and allowed Tsume to move away from the topic of the Sandaime's decisions regarding Naruto. "It's not too bad, other than having our feminine cycle once a year and having to deal with idiots who won't take 'no' for an answer."

"You only have your cycle once a year?" Tsume growled.

Naruto and Ranma both smirked at her.

Tsume rolled her eyes and then slapped Naruto on the back, which caused her to stagger a little. "It was nice to meet you, pups. I need to go make sure Kiba and Akamaru haven't gotten into too much trouble."

"Thanks, Tsume," Naruto said. "Come and see us any time. We'd love to hear any embarrassing stories you'd like to tell about your son."

Tsume laughed heartily as she left.


The next morning, Ranma was relieved to discover that her and Naruto's estrus was over. Just two more weeks until they would be back to what passed for normal for them. The middle week of their yearly cycle was a breeze; the only issue was that they could not transform into any male forms via the curse or their natural shapeshifting while their bodies discovered that they were not pregnant and then prepared to clean out their wombs.

The two of them ate breakfast and then did some light exercise as a warmup. Technically they were supposed to be meeting their team, but since Naruto said that Kakashi would be at least two and a half hours late, they practiced on their building's roof instead.

When they showed up two hours after their nominal meeting time, Sakura yelled, "You're late!"

As they had expected Kakashi was nowhere to be seen. Ranma glared at her and said, "Not hardly. By my watch we're at least half an hour early."

"Kakashi-sensei said to meet at seven!" Sakura exclaimed.

"If Sensei says to meet at seven, he really means nine or ten, Sakura," Naruto chided.

"Look underneath the underneath, Sakura," Ranma added with a malicious smirk.

Sakura opened her mouth to say something, but closed it instead. She looked at the ground in embarrassment. When she looked up she said, "I wanted to say sorry about the other day, Ranmi."

Ranma folded her arms and glared at her. "Why didn't you believe us when we said I had bad interactions with cats?"

Sakura hunched over and said, "I thought it was one of Naruto's pranks in order to get out of a mission no one liked. I just wanted to get it over with."

"You think my imouto would lie to get out of a mission?" Ranma said piercingly.

Sakura gaped at her before saying, "Not when you put it like that, but Naruto's a goof. He always exaggerates things and messes around."

You don't need to lay into her so harshly, Neechan, Naruto sent telepathically.

I'll let up in a minute, Imouto, Ranma sent back. She just needs to get over her prejudices.

"It's been three years since you've seen Naruto, Sakura," Ranma said pointedly. "You don't think she's matured in that time?"

"I haven't matured that much," Naruto whined.

Ranma rolled her eyes. "I'm not saying we won't goof around, Sakura. Naruto is Naruto. I will promise you that we won't intentionally mess up missions—even the stupid ones."

"Alright," Sakura said. "I get it. Forgive me?"

"Of course!" Naruto exclaimed, hopping up and down a little.

Ranma nodded sharply, letting the pink-haired girl know she was going to watch to make sure she treated her imouto right.


Twenty minutes later Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Hello, my cute little genin!" he exclaimed.

Naruto smirked as Ranma scowled at their team leader. Her sister had accepted the fact that she was female a lot of the time, but still hated to be called "cute" unless she was doing it intentionally in order to scam or prank someone.

"Now it has come to my attention that some members of our team have not been completely honest with the rest of us," Kakashi chided. "Isn't that right, Narumi? Or should I say, Naruto?"

Ranma had browbeat her into taking a hard line with Kakashi. It was in Naruto's nature to let the past be the past and to let old grievances go, but Ranma had convinced her that Kakashi would not change unless they forced him to. Naruto thought that Ranma was pretty hypocritical in insisting on this, since she tended to be the same, but had discovered that her surrogate sister had a pretty fierce protective streak where she and Konoha were concerned. The fact that someone cared that much for her meant that Naruto tended to give into her on these matters. The fact that Naruto's mother agreed with Ranma only meant that she gave in all the quicker.

After some discussion in their seal-scape between her, her parents, and Ranma, they had decided to act as if they thought Kakashi did not care what happened to Naruto. Her father had insisted that he did and that he just had a hard time showing it and that he had never related well to genin—even when he was that age. Her mother had acknowledged that that was true but insisted that Kakashi still had to pay for his neglect.

Naruto shrugged her shoulders. "Don't pretend that you care, Sensei. You only took our team because the Sandaime threatened you."

Sakura gaped at her while Ranma smirked. Kakashi crinkled his eyes in the way he always did to show he was smiling.

"Now, now, Naruto," he said. "It's true that the Sandaime encouraged me to accept your team, but never think I didn't want any of you."

"If that were true," Naruto drawled, "how come you never taught us anything?" She tapped her temple to show that she was thinking. "Oh, that's right. You did teach us tree walking and team building and. . ." She tapped her temple some more. "Nope that's it. In eight months, that was all you taught Sakura and me."

"Let's not forget your poor judgement in teaching an A-rank assassination technique to an obviously unstable pre-teen," Ranma added snidely.

Kakashi sighed. "I can see why you would resent me for that, Naruto, but there are things that were going on that you don't understand."

"Why don't you enlighten us then, Sensei?" Sakura demanded. Now that Naruto's issues were out in the open, she must realize that he had ignored her just as much.

"Unfortunately," Kakashi said, "I don't think the answers are going to satisfy you. The Hokage and I both had our reasons for wanting your team to succeed, but you were barely a team. While I passed you on a technicality, it did show that you could work as a team. However, your growth as a team was very sporadic. This is why I emphasized team building so much. I didn't teach you many other practical skills because Sasuke was too unstable. I needed him to depend on you. Because of his instability, I couldn't teach either of you anything without him getting jealous."

"Sasuke wasn't unstable!" Sakura shouted.

Naruto and the other two teammates just stared at her incredulously.

Sakura huffed and said, "Well, maybe he was a little unstable, but he had a reason!"

"No one says he didn't have a reason, Sakura," Kakashi said, "but the fact remains that there was a tight balancing act I had to walk as your sensei."

"Why did you end up teaching him that assassination technique he later used on Naruto?" Ranma demanded.

Kakashi sighed. "I regret that, but I felt at the time that I didn't have a choice. The odds of him surviving the fight with Gaara were low even with the Thousand Birds Technique. Since it was a Lightning Release Technique, I thought it was the best way to give him a chance against Gaara's sand shield. If I had insisted that he forfeit, the odds were too high that he would resent me and flee Konoha."

"Which he did anyway," Ranma snapped.

Kakashi shrugged. "Things are more obvious in hindsight. The Sandaime and I thought he would handle the cursed seal better than he did since it rarely effects Anko."

"Crazy Snake Lady has the cursed seal too?" Naruto exclaimed.

"She does," Kakashi confirmed, "but keep that on the down low. She hates being reminded of what Orochimaru did to her."

"Why did you nominate them for the Chuunin Exams when they obviously weren't ready?" Ranma asked.

Kakashi said, "They made a lot of progress as a team in Nami no Kuni. I was hoping some mild danger would bring them closer together."

"Mild danger!?" Naruto exclaimed

Kakashi nodded. "There is always danger in the Chuunin Exams, but with Konoha hosting it, I believed it was minimal. After surviving Nami, the Chuunin Exams should have been easy. No one could have foreseen Orochimaru's interference or that Suna would send their jinchuuriki."

Ranma scowled in response. "One more question. Why did you never correct the holes in Naruto's skills that were put there by traitorous Academy instructors?"

Kakashi shrugged. "I tried, but he mostly ignored my advice."

"What!?" Ranma and Naruto exclaimed.

"I kept showing him the right way to do things, but he never copied it," Kakashi said.

Looking through your memories, Naruto's dad said, I can see that he did show you the correct stances and motions. It was just a little too subtle for you at the time, Naruto.

"Argh!" Ranma exclaimed, glaring at them both. "I don't know which of you is the bigger idiot! You for not realizing what your sensei was doing or you for realizing that you needed to spell things out for her!"

Naruto leaped on her sisters back wrapped her in a tight hug. "Ah, Neechan. Think of how much fun you would have missed out on if you hadn't had to teach me taijutsu?"

"It may have saved you getting your insane teammate's fist through your ribcage," Ranma grumbled.

Kakashi wrapped an arm around the two near twins and another around Sakura. "Now that we've had our little heart-to-heart. How about we go do a rousing mission?"

All three genin groaned in response.