Hi everyone!

As you can see, this isn't exactly a chapter... I mean, it is a chapter but just not Chapter 28. Also, it is a bit longer. Hope you don't mind.

The whole of last week my mind kept running over this one shot and didn't allow me to write Chapter 28. So I did just that. At least, hope this gives you all an idea on the one shots I have in mind.

Mr. Disclaimer: I'm don't any of the characters, they belong to Masashi Kishimoto; just this single plot going on is from my imagination.

Now, a view of an extra.

Extras #1: When Naruto tells the Rookie she is a Girl

Konohagakure no Sato, 21st September A.K.17 (refer to timeline-1)

It had been just over a day since Naruto had arrived back to Konoha. Yesterday, right after she had returned, Tsunade-oba had decided to test her skills and teamwork with her old sensei, Kakshi Hatake and teammate, Sakura Haruno. The teamwork was remarkably still present between her and Sakura. She had first thought that it might have worsened after… She didn't want to think about it. But she had assumed that they might have had a fall out. But it seemed like they could still work together. They knew each other's moves when it came to battle. So, now, she was back with Kakashi and Sakura as a team.

Yet, she wandered through the empty city streets with her face showing worry and her mind trying to find a solution and a way out after everything that had happened about two weeks back.

She hadn't even wanted to return in the first place. Not that she didn't miss Iruka-nī, Kashi-nī, Tsunade-oba, all her friends from the Academy and Chūnin exam and her little Kono-kun. But coming back and looking around this Village was torturing her inside-out. Even after almost 4 years, she couldn't erase any memories of what had happened. It pained her to look at the villagers. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't even accept them, let alone forgive them. She could only blame them. Blame them for taking away her chance of living here. Taking away her childhood. Every important thing of her's that they knew of.

Still, she felt like she had no choice but to come back here. She had to remain here for the safety of her kids. She could have taken them to Uzu, but it had a lot of dangers. If they were found, both Uzu and they would be endangered. Uzu didn't yet have the strength and resource to protect them. Also, she still couldn't get her hands on Ume's citizenship documents. So keeping her in Uzu could be considered as kidnapping from Konoha's political perspective. Also, she had her family here. She knew that Kashi-nī, Ruka-nī, Asuma, Gai, Kurenai, Anko, Shikaku-oji, Inoichi-oji, Shizune-nē, Iwashi, Genma, Anko, Ibiki, Yūgao-nī, Yamato, Raidō, Jiraya-ojī and even Kono-kun and his friends would be there for them. Even Itachi would help till the last minute he could. Also, at least some of her friends would, whether they knew it or not, help directly or indirectly at least while protecting a citizen of Konoha.

Coming to the topic of her friends, Naruto knew that she would have to see if she could trust them. Ero-sennin, Kashi-nī and Ruka-nī had been telling her that it would be for the best and they would support her. But she couldn't help but fear what would happen if they didn't. She held them as some of her precious people. Yet she was afraid to tell them. If they decided that they hated her, they would have information that she didn't want anyone to have. If they decided to help her, it would put them also on the risk and the target list.

She had thought it through over a thousand times in the last two weeks, yet, she didn't know what to do. After Konohamaru told her that he trusted Hanabi with the information, a part of her still feared Hanabi informing Hinata. The only thing holding her back was her trust in her son's instincts.

Now, though, she knew that she had to at least see if she could trust any of the Rookie-11. That way, she'd have an idea of what level of trust she could place on them later, if and when necessary. Hence, she contemplated throughout the night on what to tell and what not to tell.

As she looked around, she realised that it was time for sunrise. She could see the sun peeking at the horizon. So she just gave out a deep sigh and made up her mind to speak to them.

She headed to her 'apartment' in the red-light district. Luckily, both her brothers decided to stay with the kids, in the Uchiha household, last night. So, she had one less thing to worry about.

Next, she didn't want to go calling everyone to meet her, so she was wondering how she could call them to her apartment. Luckily, she didn't have to wonder too long. As she neared the Red Light District, she spotted Gai and Lee around the corner. Immediately, she henge-d into her male form and went to them with her 'silly' expression.

"Hey Bushy Brows! Hey Bushier Brow sensei!", she called out.

"Naruto! It's so good to see you exercising you YOUTHFULNESS this early in the morning!", responded Lee.

Gai gave his smile and nodded. Naruto realised that Kakashi must have told the others about what she was about to do. So she turned back to Lee with a slightly more serious look.

"Actually, Lee… I wanted to ask you of a favour", she started while she rubbed the back of her neck with nervousness. "I wanted to tell you all something. So I was wondering if you could bring the rest of our gang to my apartment in 2 hours".

Lee turned to Gai, as if to ask permission. "Go ahead Lee! You anyway had the day off! What else would be better than spending the day catching up with all your buddies! It shows YOUTHFULNESS!", answered Gai.

"Hai, Gai sensei!", replied Lee before turning to Naruto and answering, "I'll bring them there in two hours Naruto! Else, I will do a hundred laps of just squats all around Konoha."

"Thanks, Lee", replied Naruto with a genuine smile as he turned to leave.

Once he left, Gai just looked at her and wished her luck before he left. She headed to her apartment and did some cleaning to distract herself. She kept her Henge and added a Seal, just for safety.

By the time, she had cleaned the place to look as new as it could with all the broken and old hand-me-down junkyard items, she finally sensed their presence about a kilometre away. She took deep breaths and tried to compose herself. She would allow them to see a real part of her that not many knew. If they didn't accept, she would ask Jiraya-ojī and Kakashi-nī to remove their memory.

She made herself some instant ramen and tried to eat it until they arrived. But her anxiety didn't allow her to finish much by the time she heard a knock at her door.

For a second, Naruto froze. Her mind wanted to contemplate the situation again. Instead, she forced herself to do it. She tried to wear her best 'cover' expression and opened the door.

"Hey guys!", she said as she opened the door. She knew that everyone could also hear the nervousness in her voice. "Come on in!", she added quickly as she allowed anyone inside. In the next minute, once everyone was settled in her living room, she looked at all of them once. She saw that Neji was giving her a weird look. But she decided to ignore it, for now.

"What is it, Naruto? Why did you call us here?", asked Sakura.

"Actually, I wanted to tell you all something, Sakura-chan", said Naruto as she rubbed the back of her neck.

Some of them actually looked at her, 'him' with genuine worry as they hadn't seen 'him' acting like this ever before. She mentally told herself that she was doing it for the protection of her kids and then spoke to the group.

"Eh…. I actually wanted to tell you all a secret that I've kept for a very long time. I know that you guys might think I'm joking. But just hear me out first", she started. She first looked at Hinata, as if to convey her apologies. She had known about Hinata's crush on her male form from the very beginning. She actually wanted to tell her, but then the Uchiha massacre happened and she decided to not tell anyone.

Then she looked at Sakura. She knew Sakura the best in the lot. So she felt that Sakura was the first to have the right to know. So she wanted to focus on her while telling. "I've been lying about something major in my life to you all for a long time." She took a deep breath and just told it. "I'm actually a girl and not a boy".

Pin-drop silence covered the apartment for the next few minutes. Everyone looked like they were trying to process what she had said. Well, almost everyone. She saw Neji give her an unmistakably small nod with a wide smile. That's when she finally realised. He had known. Probably since he was a Jōnin and had to work a lot with their senseis, they might have told it to him already. She let out the breath she had been holding as she realised that Neji had already accepted her as a female and would support her.

"W-What?!", screamed Ino as she broke the silence. That seemed to have broken the rest of them from a trance. Kiba reacted second.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME? THIS IS A JOKE RIGHT? THERE HAS TO- " but his screams were stopped by Akamaru who had sensed and seen her pained expression and pushed him to the ground so as to shut him up. Akamaru barked at him.

Naruto felt very thankful for what the dog had done. It gave her a second of distraction to compose herself once again. But it looked like some had still spotted her expression. Sakura immediately had come front and held her hands. Sakura still had the expression of confusion but she also was conveying that she believed her and would support her, at least until she heard Naruto's reasoning. "Why?", she softly whispered during the commotion so that just Naruto could hear.

But before she could answer, Shikamaru interjected. "It actually makes perfect sense." This seemed to get everyone's attention.

"Could you explain, Shikamaru?!", asked Ino.

"Medokusē. It explains a lot of the excuses Naruto always gave. He- , I mean, She always gave us excuses. Like when we went to the bathhouses and when we guys started any conversation about girls or even when, she could suddenly not feel well. Why we used to never be allowed to meet her in the hospital, every time. Also, why she didn't allow anyone for a sleepover here when we were kids". Naruto gave Shikamaru a nod, grateful for his reasoning.

"But it doesn't answer why h- she would hide hi-her gender for so long and from us", questioned Lee.

"It actually makes perfect sense", started Shino, "why, you ask? Naruto-san was told to protect herself by Sandaime-sama. Just look at the location of her apartment. She stays in the Red Light District and from what she had told us, she has been living here all her life. So it wouldn't have been safe for her to stay here as a girl alone".

"Also, with the way the villagers treat her, it would have been better for her to be dressed as a guy, I guess", added Choji.

Naruto felt extremely grateful hearing Choji, Shikamaru and Shino's reasoning in support of her. Tears collected in her eyes. She wiped her tears away and spoke.

"Yes. When I was about three, I first started to live alone. The only place Jiji was able to get me was this, in the middle of the red light district. The council wouldn't allow me to have any other place or be placed under anyone else. So he was scared for my life. Luckily, only a handful knew that I was a girl at that point in time. That's why Jiji asked me to pretend to be a boy and placed a seal on me till he thought I could protect myself", she answered.

A wave of understanding went through the rest of them. "But why would the council not want you placed with anyone?", voiced Tenten.

Naruto stiffened. She knew that this question might appear in the conversation. Still, she was frightened. They were the only people, her age, to accept and be friends with her. The truth was worse than the first as they might treat her like the rest of the villagers. But she did it anyway.

She looked around once and realised that everyone was waiting for her to explain. This time, it seemed that even Neji didn't know of it. The council seemed, to have done at least this right. Seemed that none from her generation actually knew of the truth. She moved away from Sakura as she couldn't bear to see Sakura's reaction while she told the truth.

"For this, I will have to tell you all another S rank secret." "Another?", asked Sakura. "Hai. Even my gender was made an S rank secret by Jiji. So, it would be advisable that you all don't go around telling it." There was a pregnant pause with a few nods.

"As you all know now, I was an orphan, living alone since the age of three. But what you don't know is that I was orphaned the day I was born. My parents were killed in battle."

"Battle? But there were many battles in the year we were born", reasoned Kiba.

"Not a battle. But the Kyuubi attacked the same year", added Ino.

"Yes, Ino. I was born the day the Kyuubi attacked. But the thing is, we were all taught the wrong history in the Academy." "What do you mean, Naruto-san?", asked Neji. "We were all taught in the Academy that when the Kyuubi attacked, the Yondaime Hokage defeated it and died in the process. But the thing is, Bijus are all pure forms made of the only Chakra. So they can't be killed. The closest thing that can be done is making a Jinchchuriki. A human sacrifice. So, with no other choice, the Yondaime, did just that. He sealed the Kyuubi into a newborn child, the only one who had the chance of surviving, with the last of energy before he died." With that, Naruto let everyone take a moment to process all she had told. She didn't dare to look up at them as she spoke her last few sentences. "That was another reason Jiji wanted me to act like a boy. I was already a target as a Jinchchuriki and the villagers had taken their loses that night from the Kyuubi attack as my fault and he didn't want them to take any wrong action against me".

With the last of the truth she had planned to tell out, she remained quiet, awaiting their reaction. But she stayed as far away from them as possible. Though she kept telling herself that they wouldn't attack, her fear was too stubborn to allow her to trust even them.

The silence seemed to go on for an indefinite amount of time. Finally, around the time Naruto had decided to escape to find Ero-sennin and Tsunade-bãchan and get their memories of the last few hours erased, she was suddenly hugged tightly. For a whole second, her fear seemed to take over her and she wanted to attack the person. Then she sensed the Chakra and realised that it was Hinata. She was so shocked that she almost missed the "Thank you" that Hinata whispered.

"W-wh-what?", she stammered.

"Thank you for protecting us", repeated Hinata without a single ounce of stutter. This time, she said it while looking into Naruto's eyes. This finally gave her the courage to look up and see the others.

She could still see the shock and some anger in their faces. But she also saw sadness and gratitude. Seeing her expression, Shikamaru realised that she wasn't able to believe it. So he worded it out for her.

"Mendokusē. You might be a huge pain with all these secrets of yours, but that doesn't mean we'll abandon you. We are all ninja and before that, friends. We stick together through thick and thin, irrespective of you being a girl or a guy. We do know the difference between a kunai and a scroll it is stored in". The others started adding in their agreements.

It took a few minutes for Naruto to process all the things going on. She realised that they had accepted her. For who she was and why she had hidden so much from them. She was heart-touched by their acceptance. Still, she could only hope that they would forgive her when they learnt the whole truth another day as she didn't want to burden any more on them for now.

She was brought out of her thoughts once again. This time from Sakura's question. "Naruto, if you don't mind, could we see your real form? It's okay if you don't want to show us yet."

She chuckled at Sakura's antics. "That's totally fine, Sakura! Just a minute." With that, she removed her see and release her Henge.

"W-WHAT?!", Kiba shouted. Some of the other had their mouths hanging and a few with some small nosebleeds.

Naruto just rubbed the back of her neck and laughed at their expressions. 'This is going to be so much fun', she thought as she enjoyed their company and acceptance for just one day. She decided to relax as she had a feeling that she wouldn't get much rest and piece after that day.

The end.

What did you all this of this one-shot? I really enjoyed writing it.

Also, I would love to know all the other one shot you would like to read! Do let me know in the comments!

Hope this was good compensation for Chapter 28. I'll definitely update that next!

Just another random question, who is participating in NaNoWriMo? If so, how much have you finished?

That's it. See you all in Chapter 28 with Naruto vs Sasuke!