A/N at the bottom...
23. Can't Betray His Trust
Sasuke looked up suddenly, his eyes widened for a second, appalled that he'd let even the slightest weakness show. Eyes the colour of a cloudless sky peered back at him through thick eyelashes and he couldn't find a trace of malice or victory in her eyes, nor was there a hint of mocking laughter. She seemed genuinely interested in his secrets to satisfy her own curiosity and nothing more. There was something familiar about the level of trust he found within her eyes, but he didn't care to dwell on it for long. She had gained his trust for some reason or another, and that was something he rarely ever gave to people. Of course, he didn't acknowledge that to himself and, instead, chose to excuse his confessions as a way to unload his troubles on someone who would be gone within the next week and a half. He'd just have to keep telling himself that until she was gone.
She sighed softly and nodded in understanding, drawing him from his thoughts. He dropped his eyes and picked up a blade of grass, only just noticing how close she was. It didn't bother him, but he was surprised that he hadn't seen it, knowing neither of them had moved closer or further in the time they'd been talking.
"Do you ever wish...?" She trailed off; breaking eye contact to stare at the blade of grass he was still playing with. He wasn't sure exactly what she'd meant but something in him made him nod in agreement.
"Hai." She looked back to his face, startled before smiling hesitantly.
"I wish for a lot of things. Peace. Love. Family. I wish people would stop dying for me." She sighed.
"Why do you wish that?" He wondered aloud. Kashiya shook her head her lips curving in a sombre smile.
"I'm not sure exactly." A sudden brilliant flash of light startled them from their conversations, followed by the sounds of quiet stifled laughter in the bushes where the light came from. Within seconds, the blond girl had her fingers wrapped around a piece of the culprit's clothing and hoisted the small creature out into the open, kicking and screaming.
"Konohamaru?!" She exclaimed as the moonlight lit up the younger boy's face. He looked up at her and smirked.
"I see my reputation is large, even to visiting shinobi!" He cheered proudly, still struggling with her hold on his scarf. He was also trying vainly to hide away the Polaroid camera he'd used to take a snapshot of the two.
"BAKA!" She yelled at him, smacking him on the top of the head. "What are you doing, and WHAT IS THE PICTURE FOR?!" She pointed at the picture sticking out of the camera, slowly forming an image in the pale light.
"I'm using this to blackmail my Nii-chan's rival!" He grinned proudly and pointed at Sasuke. She looked at her dark-haired team mate and nearly sweatdropped at the smirk displayed across his features.
"Gimme that, you little baka." She grabbed for the Polaroid picture and let the boy go. "Keep it, I'm sure there'll be other chances for me to get you, ENEMY!" He yelled at Sasuke and was about to run off before Kashiya grabbed his scarf again.
"Matte. Do you know anything about the noises around this area? People have been complaining about murderers, but you wouldn't know anything abut that would you?" Konohamaru's eyes widened at this and he gasped.
"Mu-murderers?!" He squeaked, his knees trembling. "Chikuso..." He muttered under his breath and ran. The blonde watched the boy run off in confusion.
"So he wasn't the noise maker?" She wondered, looking back to Sasuke. He rolled his eyes and stood up.
"Of course not. Didn't you see the look of fear on his face when you mentioned it?" She was about to reply snidely when a rustling in the bushes caught their attention. Kashiya stuffed the photo in her jacket pocket and tensed in anticipation. They were right beside some of the houses and immediately the lights went out and the other background noises of radios and such was immediately cut off. In the distance they heard muffled cries alerting others the murderer was back.
"You go through the trees and I'll corner him by the pools." Sasuke ordered, and if it hadn't been a serious situation, Kashiya would have been angry with him. Instead she nodded and jumped into the cover of the forest branches. They both moved closer, noiselessly and came up behind the murderer, when Sasuke stopped abruptly. He straightened up and snorted loudly, keeping his eyes on the bushes.
"Sasuke, you bastard, shhh!" The blonde hissed from above. He looked up and shook his head. In the darkness she could see a faint red glow from the Sharingan wheel in his eyes. "It's no murderer, baka." He smirked, having seen through the foliage what was lurking near the houses. "It's a family of raccoons going through the trash."
Not believing him entirely, Kashiya scrambled closer to find half a dozen trash cans over turned with numerous fuzzy body parts sticking out from tails to paws and heads. She scowled at the boy's knack for being right, and jumped back to the ground in a huff. So the so-called murderer that was terrorising the hot springs area was nothing more than a few rodents. She grumbled under her breath at the outrage of such a pointless mission.
Stuffing her hands in her pockets, she prepared to go home when her hand wrapped around something she'd stuffed in there earlier. The Polaroid of her and Sasuke. She pulled it out and took a look at it. In some weird way they both looked... comfortable. Smiling softly to herself she flashed it to Sasuke who frowned, not impressed in the least and gave her a look that said 'So?'.
"Do you want this or can I keep it?"
"Do what ever you'd like with it. I don't care." He'd adopted his air of aloofness again. Kashiya bit her tongue to keep from lashing out at the boy.
"So then you wouldn't mind me making copies of this and showing the whole village?" A shrug was her reply.
"I don't care."
"And I thought maybe we were getting somewhere."
"Is that all you care about?" He asked incredulously. She shook her loose hair in frustration.
"I thought maybe we were becoming friends, but then you put up your stupid walls again." There was an uncomfortable silence before Sasuke sighed.
"I suppose we were."
"And what happened? Why do you always shut me out like this?" The dark- haired boy's head shot up at this and she laughed nervously.
"What are you talking about?" He asked, suspiciously.
"Ano..." She stalled, trying to come up with an excuse for her little slip up. "You've been like this to me ever since I came here. I'm getting tired of it." She would have cheered at her quick thinking if it wouldn't give her away.
"Hn." He shrugged again and shoved his hands into his pockets. "If I take you out for dinner will you stop annoying me?" He asked. "It's not a date or anything though, you're not my type." He repeated the words again. She nodded, not really focusing on anything except the idea of free ramen. She didn't even pay any mind to the last words he said before they started walking back to the village.
"My type isn't here."
***
When they got into the heart of the village, Kashiya immediately began dragging Sasuke to the Ichiraku Ramen bar. It was a purely instinctive thing, but Sasuke didn't protest too loudly. They had just settled in to their stools, and Kashiya had just snapped her chopsticks apart when a cold shiver ran down her spine and she realised something was terribly wrong. While the meal was perfect and everything, Kashiya wasn't.
In order to eat she'd have to remove her face mask. She watched Sasuke from the corner of her eye and realised he had noticed that little fact as well. The whole situation was vaguely familiar to her, until she remembered coercing Sakura and Sasuke into a situation similar to this one when they were a lot younger, only that time, the mask-wearer was Kakashi. She shifted her gaze to the background of the little ramen bar and noticed that Sakura and Ino were in the corner watching the two of them intently, and smirked seeing her opening. She quickly moved her chair closer to Sasuke's and wrapped her arms around one of his, whispering her thanks into his ear. Frowning, he pushed her away, but the damage had been done. In an instant the two girls had bombarded them cooing over 'their' Sasuke, giving Kashiya enough time to push down her mask and slurp up her miso ramen as fast as she could. When Sasuke finally had the chance to look past the two girls Kashiya had finished her bowl and was grinning at him.
"Sorry to interrupt you three, but I have to go home now." She snickered at the disappointment on the boy's face. "Thanks for the ramen, Sasuke-kun."
"Don't think MY Sasuke will be buying you ramen again, Kashiya!" Sakura called after the boy-turned-girl. "You might be my temporary team mate, but I will fight you for him." Kashiya nodded. Sakura was so passionate about her undying affection for Sasuke. She wondered briefly how she could hold out hope for so long, but then remembered she still had a crush on the pink- haired girl. Funnily enough, she turned him down as many times as Sasuke turned her down, and still they kept trying. She'd have to make a mental note to ask her out again when she returned to her normal body.
Sasuke watched the look of complete adoration cross her face and felt a creeping sense of déjà vu. He seemed to recall the look on Naruto's face daily as he followed the girl around like a puppy and all he previous feelings of suspicion came back to him, challenging the facts about the new girl. 'No.' He told himself. 'I'm not going to let my inability to trust cloud my judgement. Naruto has no reason to play a prank like this for so long.' He shook the thought from his head and nodded to the girl as she left.
Making her way out of the bar quickly, not noticing the look on Sasuke's face, she smiled in satisfaction, knowing it would all be over in a week or so and there would be so much she'd be thankful to have back.
***
The light poured into the room slowly, spreading from the window to the floor and creeping its way towards the bed on the other side of the room, where the blond girl lay fast asleep. Her hair was tossed every which way in a tangled mess and her breathing was slightly shallow as her hand was covering up half of her face. As the warm light made its way over her toes, she shivered in delight at the warmth. Her eyes opened a crack and she smiled serenely. Every morning should be like this. She was still in the place between slumber and consciousness and her memory hadn't caught up with her yet. The expression of bliss disappeared the moment she caught up with herself. She lifted herself warily from her bed and dragged herself groggily to the mirror to give herself a quick once over before she headed out of her room for breakfast.
"Ohayo." She mumbled to her reflection. The girl in the mirror glared viciously at her before the expression vanished in a deep sigh. "One more day closer." She muttered to herself, pulling on her orange pants to do some training later on in the day. It didn't matter that she jeep up her appearance as she was just staying at home for the day and the only visitors she had already knew about her temporary 'disability'. She sighed, opting to leave her face mask on the dresser for the time being and made her way to the kitchen for something to eat. Contrary to popular belief, she did have more than ramen in her cupboards, and although she loved the stuff, eating it so early in the morning didn't entirely appeal to her stomach.
She pulled out a bowl and a box of cereal, deftly preparing the food. She opened the fridge with her foot and pulled out a FRESH carton of milk and, kicking the door shut again, made her way to the table milk in one hand and bowl in the other. It was routine and didn't require much thought.
Halfway through her second bowl, there was a knock at her door. She frowned and considered ignoring it altogether, but the person persisted until she got up and pulled it open.
"Ohayo, Tsunade." She grumbled, leaving the door open for the Hokage to walk through and returning to her half-eaten cereal. The older blonde took the hint and stepped inside. It had been a couple of days since the mission, and Tsunade had felt slightly foolish about something that wasn't as big of a problem as the villagers had made her think. She shut the door behind her, ignoring Kashiya's impatiently tapping foot.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, getting straight to the point. Offering a shrug as a response, Tsunade made herself at home, sitting beside the young girl's half eaten, now-soggy cereal.
"It would make the villagers think I was cold if I didn't visit my niece, ne?" She grinned. Kashiya rolled her eyes and sat down at the table too, shoving the bowl out of her way in disgust. There was no point in finishing it now.
"Any day now I should be turning back, ne?" She muttered. "So you don't need to visit me anymore." The Hokage nodded in agreement.
"But for now I'd still like to appear to have a heart for a relation I don't have. So how has the village taken to Kashiya?"
"Okay, I suppose. Sakura-chan is pretty jealous I think, and Sasuke's opened up to me more than he ever did while I was a boy. I think he might actually trust me to some extent." The smile on her face was surprising. Tsunade had never seen such an intense look of pride cross Naruto's face in all the years she'd known him.
"Isn't that something you've wanted? Or were you only out to make fun of him by seducing him?" The young blonde shook her head.
"Maybe at first, but I don't think I can betray the trust he's put in me right now." She picked up the orange juice and took a small sip from it. "Plus, he's very suspicious of me, and if he finds out who I really am he might think his trust was misplaced. If I can just make it to the end of this stupid seal, then Sasuke will never know and I'll be able to build up that trust again." The woman nodded, thoughtfully. "It's hard to remember I've got a new start, especially knowing that within days it'll just disappear."
"So you're used to your old life, but not willing to give this up?"
"Don't get me wrong, Tsunade-baba, I never want to be a girl again as long as I live, but Kashiya has so much freedom in the village."
"Have I ever told you about Jiraiya when he was your age and younger?" Kashiya's blue eyes lit up, and she shook her head negative. "He was very much like you in everything he did, though he may take offence to my telling you that." She chuckled, remembering the fun they all had. "In fact, me, Jiraiya and Orochimaru are just about every way like your team seven is. Jiraiya and you, me and Sakura, and Sasuke and Orochimaru."
"Sasuke will never be like Orochimaru." Kashiya bit out defensively. The woman merely smiled and nodded, not taking any offence to the remark.
"No, of course not. But you're thinking of the Orochimaru you killed." The young blonde girl frowned, but kept silent. "I meant the younger version of ourselves. Jiraiya and Orochimaru were the best of friends, and the worst of enemies. Every time they were even in the same room they would butt heads, either physically or verbally, much like you and Sasuke did. Orochimaru was the genius prodigy, and Jiraiya was nothing but the baka clown of the academy, sure to amount to nothing in the future." Tsunade smirked hearing Kashiya mutter under her breath something about the 'pervert-sennin and his books'.
"Jiraiya would play a prank by summoning toads in the middle of class and Orochimaru would call him names like "Dead-last" or "weak-minded". There was even a little triangle between the three of us. Jiraiya professed his love for me every other minute, while I only had eyes for Orochimaru. I never even noticed him until Orochimaru started to show signs of darkness." Kashiya's eyebrows shot to her hairline in amazement. She never noticed how close their lives truly were to the Legendary Three's. This thought made her stop and consider the outcome of Team Seven's little love triangle.
"And what happened between you and Jiraiya?" She asked, knowing the idea of the two adults doing anything romantic should make him sick, but curious to her own love life's fate.
"Nothing actually." She smiled sadly.
"NANI YO?!"
"Yep. By the time I saw anything even remotely romantic about Jiraiya he was swept away by someone else." The grin returned to the young girl's face.
"So he found another girl? Then why is he alone now?"
"No, and I'm getting to that. Not a girl, he found solace in the arms of the one person he hated most." She continued on, ignoring the look of horror on the orphan's face. "Orochimaru and Jiraiya had so much tension between them that it eventually exploded right in their faces. One night Jiraiya went over to Orochimaru's, extremely pissed off about something the prodigy had beaten him in again or something, and they just went at it right there."
"WOAH!!! Too much information!!" The young girl waved her hands in front of her face, wildly, a look of utter disgust twisting her mouth into a frown. "I'm not homophobic or anything, but there is no way me and Sasuke-"
"Oh, no of course not." She smirked, and Kashiya eyed her warily, not entirely sure the woman wasn't being sarcastic. "They were lovers for a very long time until Orochimaru turned his back on the village and betrayed everyone, including Jiraiya. Sasuke did the same thing a few years ago, just when I came into office here, right?" She continued at the slight nod. "Jiraiya was torn up feeling Orochimaru's betrayal worse than anyone else." Kashiya bent her head knowing all too well what it felt like to be betrayed like that.
"Like you, Jiraiya tried to go after him, but the darkness was too great. Jiraiya beats himself up everyday for his failure, but Orochimaru had been corrupt for a long time, even while they were sleeping together. You're lucky you were able to bring Sasuke back from that edge. How did you feel about that?"
"I didn't feel like a scorned lover if that's what you're thinking." She snorted.
"Jiraiya wasn't betrayed in that sense; it had nothing to do with romantic love. He felt that their friendship had been false." Kashiya paused to think about it for a moment and Tsunade rose from her seat at the table.
"I hate to be leaving so soon, but I am the Hokage and I do have things to do. I really enjoyed talking to you, Naruto." She smiled softly, surprising the young girl by calling her by her real name. "You reminded me of my little brother; it was nice not to miss him for a few minutes." She turned to the door and her eye caught on a small photo that had been clumsily framed on the girl's wall.
"You two look... comfortable together." She commented. "You have a good thing going with him, even if it doesn't go as far as Jiraiya and Orochimaru's relationship went."
"Hai, he's my best friend." She turned back to study the girl for a moment before nodding stiffly.
"You should put on your face mask before Iruka comes over, again." A smirk made its way across her features as she remembered all the times someone had told her about Iruka's daily poundings.
"Hai, hai." Came the reply. She turned and left quickly.
It hadn't been more than two minutes since the woman had left when another knock came from the door. Kashiya was still sitting at the table, staring at her bowl absentmindedly, delaying the need to fetch her facemask. Pushing the seat back, noisily, she went to the door muttering loudly enough for Tsunade to hear her.
"What do you want, Tsunade-baba? I was just about to get my facemask, you're worse than Iruka-sen..." Her voice trailed off when she opened the door and found that the person at her door was definitely not who she'd been expecting. She should have known he'd be there. She should have known that today was not only the day she didn't answer the door without her face mask, but wearing 'Naruto's' orange pants with the jacket lazily wrapped around her waist, too. But the look on Sasuke's face told her that he'd finally figured everything out and she was in big trouble.
"Chikuso." She whispered to herself.
~~~~~~~
Yeah, I know I'm a horrible person for taking so damn long to post, I'm sorry. Well, at least this is the longest chapter to date! And yes, Sasuke has no more doubts about Naruto's identity, so no more running around. I was getting tired of the whole thing anyways... plus if I'd kept it going any longer it would definitely slip into the cliché. Course, Naruto still has a couple of days left in the femme body.
To Most Feared Assassin: Wow... you have no idea how flattered I am that you drew something for this part of the story!! (which reminds me I should too) I'd love to see it if you ever get around to scanning it.
To ghostninja85: I'm inclined to agree with you. Don't worry, there's not too much longer with Kashiya and then she's gone forever. I don't much like this plot line either, but it's crucial to the next part of the story.
Sakura basher's get ready.
23. Can't Betray His Trust
Sasuke looked up suddenly, his eyes widened for a second, appalled that he'd let even the slightest weakness show. Eyes the colour of a cloudless sky peered back at him through thick eyelashes and he couldn't find a trace of malice or victory in her eyes, nor was there a hint of mocking laughter. She seemed genuinely interested in his secrets to satisfy her own curiosity and nothing more. There was something familiar about the level of trust he found within her eyes, but he didn't care to dwell on it for long. She had gained his trust for some reason or another, and that was something he rarely ever gave to people. Of course, he didn't acknowledge that to himself and, instead, chose to excuse his confessions as a way to unload his troubles on someone who would be gone within the next week and a half. He'd just have to keep telling himself that until she was gone.
She sighed softly and nodded in understanding, drawing him from his thoughts. He dropped his eyes and picked up a blade of grass, only just noticing how close she was. It didn't bother him, but he was surprised that he hadn't seen it, knowing neither of them had moved closer or further in the time they'd been talking.
"Do you ever wish...?" She trailed off; breaking eye contact to stare at the blade of grass he was still playing with. He wasn't sure exactly what she'd meant but something in him made him nod in agreement.
"Hai." She looked back to his face, startled before smiling hesitantly.
"I wish for a lot of things. Peace. Love. Family. I wish people would stop dying for me." She sighed.
"Why do you wish that?" He wondered aloud. Kashiya shook her head her lips curving in a sombre smile.
"I'm not sure exactly." A sudden brilliant flash of light startled them from their conversations, followed by the sounds of quiet stifled laughter in the bushes where the light came from. Within seconds, the blond girl had her fingers wrapped around a piece of the culprit's clothing and hoisted the small creature out into the open, kicking and screaming.
"Konohamaru?!" She exclaimed as the moonlight lit up the younger boy's face. He looked up at her and smirked.
"I see my reputation is large, even to visiting shinobi!" He cheered proudly, still struggling with her hold on his scarf. He was also trying vainly to hide away the Polaroid camera he'd used to take a snapshot of the two.
"BAKA!" She yelled at him, smacking him on the top of the head. "What are you doing, and WHAT IS THE PICTURE FOR?!" She pointed at the picture sticking out of the camera, slowly forming an image in the pale light.
"I'm using this to blackmail my Nii-chan's rival!" He grinned proudly and pointed at Sasuke. She looked at her dark-haired team mate and nearly sweatdropped at the smirk displayed across his features.
"Gimme that, you little baka." She grabbed for the Polaroid picture and let the boy go. "Keep it, I'm sure there'll be other chances for me to get you, ENEMY!" He yelled at Sasuke and was about to run off before Kashiya grabbed his scarf again.
"Matte. Do you know anything about the noises around this area? People have been complaining about murderers, but you wouldn't know anything abut that would you?" Konohamaru's eyes widened at this and he gasped.
"Mu-murderers?!" He squeaked, his knees trembling. "Chikuso..." He muttered under his breath and ran. The blonde watched the boy run off in confusion.
"So he wasn't the noise maker?" She wondered, looking back to Sasuke. He rolled his eyes and stood up.
"Of course not. Didn't you see the look of fear on his face when you mentioned it?" She was about to reply snidely when a rustling in the bushes caught their attention. Kashiya stuffed the photo in her jacket pocket and tensed in anticipation. They were right beside some of the houses and immediately the lights went out and the other background noises of radios and such was immediately cut off. In the distance they heard muffled cries alerting others the murderer was back.
"You go through the trees and I'll corner him by the pools." Sasuke ordered, and if it hadn't been a serious situation, Kashiya would have been angry with him. Instead she nodded and jumped into the cover of the forest branches. They both moved closer, noiselessly and came up behind the murderer, when Sasuke stopped abruptly. He straightened up and snorted loudly, keeping his eyes on the bushes.
"Sasuke, you bastard, shhh!" The blonde hissed from above. He looked up and shook his head. In the darkness she could see a faint red glow from the Sharingan wheel in his eyes. "It's no murderer, baka." He smirked, having seen through the foliage what was lurking near the houses. "It's a family of raccoons going through the trash."
Not believing him entirely, Kashiya scrambled closer to find half a dozen trash cans over turned with numerous fuzzy body parts sticking out from tails to paws and heads. She scowled at the boy's knack for being right, and jumped back to the ground in a huff. So the so-called murderer that was terrorising the hot springs area was nothing more than a few rodents. She grumbled under her breath at the outrage of such a pointless mission.
Stuffing her hands in her pockets, she prepared to go home when her hand wrapped around something she'd stuffed in there earlier. The Polaroid of her and Sasuke. She pulled it out and took a look at it. In some weird way they both looked... comfortable. Smiling softly to herself she flashed it to Sasuke who frowned, not impressed in the least and gave her a look that said 'So?'.
"Do you want this or can I keep it?"
"Do what ever you'd like with it. I don't care." He'd adopted his air of aloofness again. Kashiya bit her tongue to keep from lashing out at the boy.
"So then you wouldn't mind me making copies of this and showing the whole village?" A shrug was her reply.
"I don't care."
"And I thought maybe we were getting somewhere."
"Is that all you care about?" He asked incredulously. She shook her loose hair in frustration.
"I thought maybe we were becoming friends, but then you put up your stupid walls again." There was an uncomfortable silence before Sasuke sighed.
"I suppose we were."
"And what happened? Why do you always shut me out like this?" The dark- haired boy's head shot up at this and she laughed nervously.
"What are you talking about?" He asked, suspiciously.
"Ano..." She stalled, trying to come up with an excuse for her little slip up. "You've been like this to me ever since I came here. I'm getting tired of it." She would have cheered at her quick thinking if it wouldn't give her away.
"Hn." He shrugged again and shoved his hands into his pockets. "If I take you out for dinner will you stop annoying me?" He asked. "It's not a date or anything though, you're not my type." He repeated the words again. She nodded, not really focusing on anything except the idea of free ramen. She didn't even pay any mind to the last words he said before they started walking back to the village.
"My type isn't here."
***
When they got into the heart of the village, Kashiya immediately began dragging Sasuke to the Ichiraku Ramen bar. It was a purely instinctive thing, but Sasuke didn't protest too loudly. They had just settled in to their stools, and Kashiya had just snapped her chopsticks apart when a cold shiver ran down her spine and she realised something was terribly wrong. While the meal was perfect and everything, Kashiya wasn't.
In order to eat she'd have to remove her face mask. She watched Sasuke from the corner of her eye and realised he had noticed that little fact as well. The whole situation was vaguely familiar to her, until she remembered coercing Sakura and Sasuke into a situation similar to this one when they were a lot younger, only that time, the mask-wearer was Kakashi. She shifted her gaze to the background of the little ramen bar and noticed that Sakura and Ino were in the corner watching the two of them intently, and smirked seeing her opening. She quickly moved her chair closer to Sasuke's and wrapped her arms around one of his, whispering her thanks into his ear. Frowning, he pushed her away, but the damage had been done. In an instant the two girls had bombarded them cooing over 'their' Sasuke, giving Kashiya enough time to push down her mask and slurp up her miso ramen as fast as she could. When Sasuke finally had the chance to look past the two girls Kashiya had finished her bowl and was grinning at him.
"Sorry to interrupt you three, but I have to go home now." She snickered at the disappointment on the boy's face. "Thanks for the ramen, Sasuke-kun."
"Don't think MY Sasuke will be buying you ramen again, Kashiya!" Sakura called after the boy-turned-girl. "You might be my temporary team mate, but I will fight you for him." Kashiya nodded. Sakura was so passionate about her undying affection for Sasuke. She wondered briefly how she could hold out hope for so long, but then remembered she still had a crush on the pink- haired girl. Funnily enough, she turned him down as many times as Sasuke turned her down, and still they kept trying. She'd have to make a mental note to ask her out again when she returned to her normal body.
Sasuke watched the look of complete adoration cross her face and felt a creeping sense of déjà vu. He seemed to recall the look on Naruto's face daily as he followed the girl around like a puppy and all he previous feelings of suspicion came back to him, challenging the facts about the new girl. 'No.' He told himself. 'I'm not going to let my inability to trust cloud my judgement. Naruto has no reason to play a prank like this for so long.' He shook the thought from his head and nodded to the girl as she left.
Making her way out of the bar quickly, not noticing the look on Sasuke's face, she smiled in satisfaction, knowing it would all be over in a week or so and there would be so much she'd be thankful to have back.
***
The light poured into the room slowly, spreading from the window to the floor and creeping its way towards the bed on the other side of the room, where the blond girl lay fast asleep. Her hair was tossed every which way in a tangled mess and her breathing was slightly shallow as her hand was covering up half of her face. As the warm light made its way over her toes, she shivered in delight at the warmth. Her eyes opened a crack and she smiled serenely. Every morning should be like this. She was still in the place between slumber and consciousness and her memory hadn't caught up with her yet. The expression of bliss disappeared the moment she caught up with herself. She lifted herself warily from her bed and dragged herself groggily to the mirror to give herself a quick once over before she headed out of her room for breakfast.
"Ohayo." She mumbled to her reflection. The girl in the mirror glared viciously at her before the expression vanished in a deep sigh. "One more day closer." She muttered to herself, pulling on her orange pants to do some training later on in the day. It didn't matter that she jeep up her appearance as she was just staying at home for the day and the only visitors she had already knew about her temporary 'disability'. She sighed, opting to leave her face mask on the dresser for the time being and made her way to the kitchen for something to eat. Contrary to popular belief, she did have more than ramen in her cupboards, and although she loved the stuff, eating it so early in the morning didn't entirely appeal to her stomach.
She pulled out a bowl and a box of cereal, deftly preparing the food. She opened the fridge with her foot and pulled out a FRESH carton of milk and, kicking the door shut again, made her way to the table milk in one hand and bowl in the other. It was routine and didn't require much thought.
Halfway through her second bowl, there was a knock at her door. She frowned and considered ignoring it altogether, but the person persisted until she got up and pulled it open.
"Ohayo, Tsunade." She grumbled, leaving the door open for the Hokage to walk through and returning to her half-eaten cereal. The older blonde took the hint and stepped inside. It had been a couple of days since the mission, and Tsunade had felt slightly foolish about something that wasn't as big of a problem as the villagers had made her think. She shut the door behind her, ignoring Kashiya's impatiently tapping foot.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, getting straight to the point. Offering a shrug as a response, Tsunade made herself at home, sitting beside the young girl's half eaten, now-soggy cereal.
"It would make the villagers think I was cold if I didn't visit my niece, ne?" She grinned. Kashiya rolled her eyes and sat down at the table too, shoving the bowl out of her way in disgust. There was no point in finishing it now.
"Any day now I should be turning back, ne?" She muttered. "So you don't need to visit me anymore." The Hokage nodded in agreement.
"But for now I'd still like to appear to have a heart for a relation I don't have. So how has the village taken to Kashiya?"
"Okay, I suppose. Sakura-chan is pretty jealous I think, and Sasuke's opened up to me more than he ever did while I was a boy. I think he might actually trust me to some extent." The smile on her face was surprising. Tsunade had never seen such an intense look of pride cross Naruto's face in all the years she'd known him.
"Isn't that something you've wanted? Or were you only out to make fun of him by seducing him?" The young blonde shook her head.
"Maybe at first, but I don't think I can betray the trust he's put in me right now." She picked up the orange juice and took a small sip from it. "Plus, he's very suspicious of me, and if he finds out who I really am he might think his trust was misplaced. If I can just make it to the end of this stupid seal, then Sasuke will never know and I'll be able to build up that trust again." The woman nodded, thoughtfully. "It's hard to remember I've got a new start, especially knowing that within days it'll just disappear."
"So you're used to your old life, but not willing to give this up?"
"Don't get me wrong, Tsunade-baba, I never want to be a girl again as long as I live, but Kashiya has so much freedom in the village."
"Have I ever told you about Jiraiya when he was your age and younger?" Kashiya's blue eyes lit up, and she shook her head negative. "He was very much like you in everything he did, though he may take offence to my telling you that." She chuckled, remembering the fun they all had. "In fact, me, Jiraiya and Orochimaru are just about every way like your team seven is. Jiraiya and you, me and Sakura, and Sasuke and Orochimaru."
"Sasuke will never be like Orochimaru." Kashiya bit out defensively. The woman merely smiled and nodded, not taking any offence to the remark.
"No, of course not. But you're thinking of the Orochimaru you killed." The young blonde girl frowned, but kept silent. "I meant the younger version of ourselves. Jiraiya and Orochimaru were the best of friends, and the worst of enemies. Every time they were even in the same room they would butt heads, either physically or verbally, much like you and Sasuke did. Orochimaru was the genius prodigy, and Jiraiya was nothing but the baka clown of the academy, sure to amount to nothing in the future." Tsunade smirked hearing Kashiya mutter under her breath something about the 'pervert-sennin and his books'.
"Jiraiya would play a prank by summoning toads in the middle of class and Orochimaru would call him names like "Dead-last" or "weak-minded". There was even a little triangle between the three of us. Jiraiya professed his love for me every other minute, while I only had eyes for Orochimaru. I never even noticed him until Orochimaru started to show signs of darkness." Kashiya's eyebrows shot to her hairline in amazement. She never noticed how close their lives truly were to the Legendary Three's. This thought made her stop and consider the outcome of Team Seven's little love triangle.
"And what happened between you and Jiraiya?" She asked, knowing the idea of the two adults doing anything romantic should make him sick, but curious to her own love life's fate.
"Nothing actually." She smiled sadly.
"NANI YO?!"
"Yep. By the time I saw anything even remotely romantic about Jiraiya he was swept away by someone else." The grin returned to the young girl's face.
"So he found another girl? Then why is he alone now?"
"No, and I'm getting to that. Not a girl, he found solace in the arms of the one person he hated most." She continued on, ignoring the look of horror on the orphan's face. "Orochimaru and Jiraiya had so much tension between them that it eventually exploded right in their faces. One night Jiraiya went over to Orochimaru's, extremely pissed off about something the prodigy had beaten him in again or something, and they just went at it right there."
"WOAH!!! Too much information!!" The young girl waved her hands in front of her face, wildly, a look of utter disgust twisting her mouth into a frown. "I'm not homophobic or anything, but there is no way me and Sasuke-"
"Oh, no of course not." She smirked, and Kashiya eyed her warily, not entirely sure the woman wasn't being sarcastic. "They were lovers for a very long time until Orochimaru turned his back on the village and betrayed everyone, including Jiraiya. Sasuke did the same thing a few years ago, just when I came into office here, right?" She continued at the slight nod. "Jiraiya was torn up feeling Orochimaru's betrayal worse than anyone else." Kashiya bent her head knowing all too well what it felt like to be betrayed like that.
"Like you, Jiraiya tried to go after him, but the darkness was too great. Jiraiya beats himself up everyday for his failure, but Orochimaru had been corrupt for a long time, even while they were sleeping together. You're lucky you were able to bring Sasuke back from that edge. How did you feel about that?"
"I didn't feel like a scorned lover if that's what you're thinking." She snorted.
"Jiraiya wasn't betrayed in that sense; it had nothing to do with romantic love. He felt that their friendship had been false." Kashiya paused to think about it for a moment and Tsunade rose from her seat at the table.
"I hate to be leaving so soon, but I am the Hokage and I do have things to do. I really enjoyed talking to you, Naruto." She smiled softly, surprising the young girl by calling her by her real name. "You reminded me of my little brother; it was nice not to miss him for a few minutes." She turned to the door and her eye caught on a small photo that had been clumsily framed on the girl's wall.
"You two look... comfortable together." She commented. "You have a good thing going with him, even if it doesn't go as far as Jiraiya and Orochimaru's relationship went."
"Hai, he's my best friend." She turned back to study the girl for a moment before nodding stiffly.
"You should put on your face mask before Iruka comes over, again." A smirk made its way across her features as she remembered all the times someone had told her about Iruka's daily poundings.
"Hai, hai." Came the reply. She turned and left quickly.
It hadn't been more than two minutes since the woman had left when another knock came from the door. Kashiya was still sitting at the table, staring at her bowl absentmindedly, delaying the need to fetch her facemask. Pushing the seat back, noisily, she went to the door muttering loudly enough for Tsunade to hear her.
"What do you want, Tsunade-baba? I was just about to get my facemask, you're worse than Iruka-sen..." Her voice trailed off when she opened the door and found that the person at her door was definitely not who she'd been expecting. She should have known he'd be there. She should have known that today was not only the day she didn't answer the door without her face mask, but wearing 'Naruto's' orange pants with the jacket lazily wrapped around her waist, too. But the look on Sasuke's face told her that he'd finally figured everything out and she was in big trouble.
"Chikuso." She whispered to herself.
~~~~~~~
Yeah, I know I'm a horrible person for taking so damn long to post, I'm sorry. Well, at least this is the longest chapter to date! And yes, Sasuke has no more doubts about Naruto's identity, so no more running around. I was getting tired of the whole thing anyways... plus if I'd kept it going any longer it would definitely slip into the cliché. Course, Naruto still has a couple of days left in the femme body.
To Most Feared Assassin: Wow... you have no idea how flattered I am that you drew something for this part of the story!! (which reminds me I should too) I'd love to see it if you ever get around to scanning it.
To ghostninja85: I'm inclined to agree with you. Don't worry, there's not too much longer with Kashiya and then she's gone forever. I don't much like this plot line either, but it's crucial to the next part of the story.
Sakura basher's get ready.