Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any form shape or fashion. If I did, I would have already killed him and taken Hinata for myself…
Chapter 9. Synchronization.
Naruto woke up early for once. He'd been going to school here for a couple of weeks now, so it was to be noted that this was a first. He slowly moved his hand down to his shorts to confirm his suspicions. He felt something warm and sticky. Great. This had happened before, but never as a girl. He had hoped girls didn't HAVE this problem.
Naruto sighed and got up. It was still rather early. He could probably get up and get cleaned off before anyone else woke up. Naruto got up and winced at the pain from climbing down the ladder. Sensing something wasn't right; Naruto looked down at his shorts and then looked at his hand.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs.
Three other ninjas hit the ceiling, or in Hinata and Sakura's case the bunk bed above them. When one belongs to a profession inclined towards paranoia one doesn't like loud screams coming at you from a dead sleep.
Sasuke or rather Shiori was the next one down, admittedly for the express purpose of killing Naruto, when Sasuke saw his own shorts. "What the…" Sasuke said in astonishment.
"We've been injured!" Naruto wailed looking down his shorts.
Sakura and Hinata were sitting up on their beds. "Oh shut up you two." Sakura said testily. "I didn't think it would happen to the two of you but I guess your jutsu makes you FULLY functional as a girl. I'm two days early Hinata, how about you."
"Right on time." Hinata said holding her abdomen and groaning.
"Right on time for WHAT Hinata?" Naruto asked.
The look he got back from Hinata was vicious. "Naruto. Leave me alone or I will kill you."
The dreadfully low voice in which she said it gave Naruto a moment to pause. He had heard other people talk like that normally right before severe violence was involved. He hadn't thought Hinata capable of such a thing. Then and there Naruto suddenly associated another emotion with Hinata. Fear. Most men had fear of women to some degree or another whether it was the fear of rejection when you asked one out or the general fear of the unknown. Being able to change into one, and generally getting nothing but rejection from Sakura had pretty much helped Naruto to conquer those fears. This fear was something different that could only be classified somewhere between 'Sorry I forgot your birthday dear' and 'I swear honey, I've never seen her before in my life'.
Naruto therefore made one of his rare wise decisions. He backed away… slowly. Then he hid behind Sasuke.
Sasuke was having similar problems. "Sakura, could you please tell me why I'm covered in blood?"
Sakura looked up and Naruto was reminded why Hinata was considered the kind and gentle one. She looked at the two of them with a thinly veiled intent to murder. "Sasuke. For once in your MISERABLE life could you please just pretend for a few minutes that THE WHOLE BLOODY WORLD DOESN'T REVOLVE AROUND YOUR THICK SKULL!"
Naruto cringed back from her rage and then looked up at Sasuke. To his surprise Sasuke's lips were trembling and tears started falling down his cheeks. "Well you don't have to be so mean about it." Sasuke said breaking down into tears.
Naruto stood there in blatant shock. There was NO explanation under the sun that could explain this.
"PMS." Sakura said simply to Hinata. She turned back to the two boys. "It's a monthly thing guys. Welcome to the gender. And to answer your question, I didn't think you'd be going through this so I didn't give you any pads."
"Pads?" Naruto said stupidly.
"These were my favorite panties too." Sasuke bawled.
"Yes pads, to catch the blood. Girls bleed once a month. It's accompanied by pain, irritability, and," She looked at Sasuke, "mood swings."
Naruto looked at Hinata and tried to remain calm. "I'm changing back. I'm not about to go through this." It was then that he suddenly realized that he wasn't using chakra. His heart began to sink a he looked at Sasuke in terror.
Sasuke had a similar expression as he too had tried to race back to his male form. Sasuke jumped up with a sudden murderous rage in his eyes. "You and your stupid jutsu. What if we're stuck like this?"
"I doubt that." Sakura said sorting through some things in her drawer. "Your body is going through its cycle. You probably won't be able to change back until it's complete. I wouldn't let go of your chakra either. It could present some problems if your body was to return to normal and you suddenly changed back into boys in the middle of class."
"We can't go out like this!" Sasuke said shrinking back from Sakura who was on him in a moment.
"Can and will little girl. We have a mission to complete. We have to do it once a month, so now you do too. Take it like a woman, and get cleaned up." Sakura ordered.
A thought suddenly struck Naruto, the time had gotten later and he could already hear girls heading for the showers, most of them grumbling. Was the whole dorm infected?
"Uh, Sakura. I thought you and Hinata took your showers in the morning." Naruto asked lamely.
Sakura stared at him for a moment and then looked at Hinata who only shrugged. "Well I guess after the floor show we got a couple of weeks ago it'll only be fair. We haven't got time to take turns and still get to class. You guys just stay at one end with your backs turned or something and no peeking."
Naruto looked stricken and looked at Hinata. She was already getting undressed.
"Here. You're going to need these." Sakura said handing a couple of white cylindrical objects to the two boys.
"What are these for?" Naruto asked with a sinking feeling hitting his stomach.
"They're to stop the blood."
"No WAY am I sticking anything down there." Naruto complained, but one look from Sakura and Hinata told him that 'Oh yes, you are'.
Sasuke and Naruto turned around while Hinata and Sakura wrapped themselves in a towel. Naruto just prayed that he didn't go psychotic like Hinata or weepy like Sasuke. This PMS stuff was apparently a pretty powerful force if it could alter personalities that wildly.
The 'boys' then wrapped themselves in a towel and got ready to go to the showers. The girls didn't bother turning around, it wasn't like they were getting to see their boyfriends naked, at least not again.
The four of them headed for the showers. Thanks to having to be taught the 'way of the woman', they were some of the last to arrive. Kimi was just coming out of the showers as the four of them arrived. She looked over at the four of them and stopped.
"Feeling a little down today, Shiori." Kimi asked giggling.
"I'd rather not talk about it." Sasuke said sulking.
"Aw, here honey let me make it better." Kimi said.
The three of them watched as Kimi planted a kiss on Sasuke, or rather Shiori. Naruto looked at Sakura. She looked ready to kill, but any words like 'hey that's my boyfriend you're kissing wench' would probably end the mission right there. Naruto decided to try to come to the rescue for once.
"Get away from her you slut." Naniko said pushing Kimi away. Kimi looked at Naniko and then grabbed her. Naruto wasn't expecting the kiss that got planted on his lips either.
"Don't worry honey. I'm not going to leave you out. I wouldn't dream of trying to take away your girlfriend from you." Kimi said huskily.
Naruto was thankful that Kimi couldn't see Sakura holding back Hinata from tearing the girls apart. Trying to keep Kimi's attention, he asked the only thing that popped into his mind. "What are you talking about?"
"Don't think I don't notice you two peeking at me in the showers. You two are pretty obvious. Like that time Shiori got 'sick' and then you took her to the nurse, but you ended up skipping class. I noticed the two of you didn't have any underwear on in the locker rooms later. I'm not stupid, I know what you were doing." Kimi said looking down at Naruto's bust under the towel. Suddenly, Naruto felt very exposed and clutched his towel a little tighter.
"We're not like you…" Naruto said meekly. He could feel his emotions running away with him. He shouldn't be this frightened of a girl he could kill twenty different ways.
"Sweet innocent Naniko." Kimi purred. "You might not be, but I guarantee Shiori is. After all sweetie, teachers usually can't afford the tuition here, and even if they could they wouldn't pay for one of their students to come here, unless they were sleeping with them of course. No, I think little miss rich and powerful over here arranged to have you enrolled along with her so she could bring you along for some fun and then had this teacher hand you that line."
"So what if I did?" Shiori said as she pushed Kimi away and put her arm around Naruto. Naruto had to think of her as Shiori, because the alternative was making his skin crawl worse than Kimi.
Naruto's lips were moving but nothing was coming out. Shock was spreading through him at an accelerated rate.
Kimi shrugged. "Well, I guess I always figured you'd be the dominant one in the relationship. Well, you girls keep me in mind if you get a little bored." Then she turned and headed out the door.
Naruto jumped back from Sasuke. "What was that all about?"
"She saw through your cover story dope. We're just lucky she jumped to the wrong conclusion." Sasuke said simply. "I guess everybody's going to think we're an item from here on out."
"Why was she so…" Naruto started.
"Horny?" Sakura supplied. "Unfortunately, that also happens right around this time as well. I kind of suspected Kimi would swing that way. We're still going to have to kill her though."
"Definitely." Hinata agreed.
"From now on you two better shower with us." Sakura said hotly. I'd rather dance around you two naked than have her getting anywhere near…"
"We still have a mission to finish." Sasuke said getting everyone back into focus. "We still have an assassination to deal with."
The sudden gasp let everyone know that they had just screwed up. Everyone turned to look as the last person to leave the shower threw her hands up to her face and looked past them toward the only door out of the room. Takara looked ready to faint as she backed into the showers. "You're all ninjas. Please don't kill me."
It had taken a great deal of persuasion to convince Takara that they weren't going to kill her. They didn't have much time to shower after that, and Sakura and Hinata spent most of the time sticking like glue to Takara to make sure she didn't try to bolt for the school gates at the first opportunity, or say anything to any of the other girls.
For the most part the day was a bit easier than they normally were. Arts class was the worst as Madame Furucho had been just as merciless in her drills as she was during the rest of the month. Naruto had wondered about this until Sakura had explained menopause. Apparently that was one well that dried up a LONG time ago. Sasuke had been the worst off since Madame Furucho seemed to genuinely hate Shiori and worked her harder than she did most. Sasuke had been ready to cry all morning.
Home economics had been pretty easy. They'd had ramen for lunch (Naniko's turn to cook), and Junky had looked about as ready to go lie down as the rest of them. Soccer had consisted of some pretty easy drills while the coach sat in the stands looking over soccer strategies with Sakura. All in all it would have been an easy day if it hadn't been for the cramps and needing to talk to Takara so desperately.
Finally the day was over and Sakura and Hinata 'invited' Takara over for some tea. Takara looked ready to faint again when they finally shut the door to the room. "I thought you said you weren't here to kill me."
"We're not, but that doesn't mean that you're in any less danger." Sakura said bluntly. "Why did you think we were here to kill you?"
"Because of what Daddy does for a living." Takara said sadly. "He used to be a ninja. We had to move around from time to time until he found a place in the government. They gave him a job and we never had to move around again. He's an ambassador to one of the 'hidden villages'."
The four ninjas were looking at each other seriously. It was possible they'd found the target.
"That still doesn't explain why you thought we were here to kill you." Sakura insisted.
Takara sighed. "A few months ago, I heard Daddy arguing with some men downstairs. They told him that if he didn't get them the information they wanted, they were going to do something to me. They also said they'd kill me if he told his superiors. Daddy said a little later that he was enrolling me here. I think he's doing it to hide me from them."
"Well, it looks like they found you." Sasuke said seriously. "Any idea where these men were from?"
"They said they were from the land of waves." Takara told them.
"That means hidden mist ninjas." Sakura said heavily.
"So can you help me?" Takara asked.
"That's apparently what we're here for." Naruto said. "Some spies passed the information along to the Hokage of our village. I guess they must have been friends of your father. We're here to make sure you DON'T get killed."
Takara was smiling and crying out of happiness. "Thank you."
Takara had gone back to her room for the night when there came a tap at the window. Sakura opened it up and Kakashi stepped inside. "I bring news."
"Let me guess." Sakura said sweetly. "You did some checking on Takara's father like Hinata asked you to, and come to find out he's an ex-renegade ninja who has been working as a spy for the government. He's been approached by ninjas from the village hidden in the mist and told that if he didn't give them information that his daughter was going to end up face down in the lake."
"Impressive, but no. I just wanted to let you know that this jounin is proving more troublesome than we expected. Kurenai has tried to track him, and I haven't been able to spot him moving back and forth from the other school. You four need to be REALLY careful." Kakashi said.
"You mean you didn't know Takara was the target?" Sakura asked surprised.
"No actually we figured that out a while ago, shortly after you interrogated the girls. I just wanted to see if YOU ever figured it out, good job. Takara's father is an ambassador to the village hidden in the rocks. He was apparently exiled from there for some reason and was being hunted until he hooked up with spies from the government." Kakashi said happily.
Sakura looked crestfallen. "Oh well, at least the job is going to get easier now that we know WHO they're going to try to kill. I guess we all have a new best friend."
"Actually, I only want one of you to stay with Takara. If all of you do it, then it might start looking suspicious. Hinata, how about you?" Kakashi asked.
Hinata nodded.
"Well, all we have to do now is ride out the semester and see if we can catch the assassin. We're pretty sure that they'll try it at the ball, so keep on your toes. Oh and here." Kakashi said tossing a sack down. "Here's some special 'equipment' that Sasuke and Naruto are going to be needing."
Naruto looked in the sack and thanked him half-heartedly. At least they wouldn't be using up Hinata and Sakura's 'supplies' before the mission was over.