Tsunami wondered if she should help Gai with Gaara. Despite only being a genin, she was uniquely suited as an Uzumaki seal user to help against a jinchuuriki. However, it looked like Gai had the situation well in hand.
A chirping sound filled the arena. Tsunami could see Kakashi standing with his arm crackling with lightning release chakra. Gaara obviously heard it as well, but as he turned to see what the sound was, Gai screamed, "Front Lotus!" and kicked the Suna nin into the air. Gai leaped into the air after him and caught him at the top of his arc. Gai spun Gaara around and used the inertia of the spin to catapult his foe towards Kakashi's feet. The Suna nin cratered the ground and moments after he landed, Kakashi speared him in the chest with his lightning technique.
A girl screamed. Tsunami could tell Gaara was still alive, but he was clearly disabled. She didn't know if Gaara would survive in the long run, but—according to her mother—jinchuuriki could handle injuries that would kill other shinobi. Gai and Kakashi moved on to handle other threats while Gaara's two teammates rushed over and dragged him off.
Tsunami's thoughts were quickly refocused as a team of three Oto nin approached the contestant box. She was now very grateful she had spared most of Shino's kikaichuu. The Ame nin that had been Sasuke's opponent had made himself scarce, leaving just the four Konoha genin—the Hyuuga having never made it back to the box. Sasuke charged the invaders, his eyes red with the Sharingan. Tsunami rolled her eyes and fell into a supporting role along with Shino and Shikamaru. Shino had to be used to his teammate's antics and Naruto was familiar as well due to the teamwork exercises that Kakashi ran them through when she trained with their team. Shikamaru was clever enough to pick up on what they were doing despite not having trained with them since the Academy.
A Shadow Clone initiated from her long-term clone dissipated, letting her know that "Naruto" was going to check on the purple box that had sprung up around the Hokage and Kazekage.
"Head toward the VIP boxes," Tsunami called to Sasuke.
He grunted in affirmation. The four of them spent the next twenty minutes dispatching any Oto or Suna shinobi that tried to approach the VIP boxes. They kept an outer perimeter with the Daimyo's guards and the other VIP bodyguards holding down the boxes themselves where their principals hunkered down. By fortune or poor planning on the invaders' part, the most difficult opponent they faced was chuunin level and easily dispatched by the four of them working together.
"The action has moved elsewhere," Sasuke declared once things had calmed down. "The invaders aren't attacking the Stadium anymore. We should move on."
"Let's head over to where those ANBU are gathered and see if they can tell us where to go," Tsunami said, gesturing to where a handful of ANBU stood guard outside the purple box that still enclosed the Hokage.
Sasuke scoffed, but started making his way over there anyway. When they had made it about halfway there, the purple box collapsed. A limp-armed man ran away at high speeds; four others followed him and were chased in turn by a moderate-sized group of ANBU. The remaining ANBU converged on the roof where the box had stood. Tsunami's Mind's Eye Technique told her that nobody living remained on the roof.
She collapsed to the ground as overwhelming sadness overcame her. "Jiichan!" she wailed. She wished she could afford to use her Byakugan to make sure for certain that he was dead, but kept the presence of mind to not do so.
"What is the problem, Tsunami-san?" Shino asked as her temporary teammates stopped and looked at her.
"My sensor technique tells me that the ANBU are the only ones left on that roof!" she whimpered. "The Hokage is dead!"
"Perhaps the Hokage is masking his presence?" Shikamaru offered weakly.
Sasuke snorted and looked at him like he was stupid.
"Yeah, I don't believe it either," Shikamaru muttered. "Troublesome."
Naruto stayed where she had collapsed and cried for her grandfather.
The rest of the day was a weak blur to Naruto. She hid herself in her apartment and ignored Karin when she tried to comfort her. She hadn't bothered changing back to her birth form—perhaps it was due to false expectations, but she preferred to wallow in her sadness as a girl. Her long-term clone had also changed into a girl and they simply held each other as they lay on Naruto's bed. She was avoiding the other bedroom she shared with Karin.
She was startled from her misery by a knock at her door.
Karin peeked her head into the room. "Jiraiya-sama is here to see you, Tsunami-chan."
"Tell him to go away," Naruto mumbled.
"Let me by, Karin-chan," her supposed godfather said.
She was weakly aware that Jiraiya had entered the room and Karin had withdrawn.
The old man stood silently for a while before he said, "I know how you feel, Naruto-chan."
She sat up and yelled, "Do you?" She stalked toward him and yelled, "Do you? How could you know how I feel? You don't know me! You have never been here for me! Where were you when I need you? Where were you when Jiichan needed you!?" She started to pound on his chest with her fists. Her clone stood behind her and glared at her godfather.
"I was making sure Orochimaru's giant snake summons didn't destroy Konoha," he said. "I also made sure that the Ichibi's jinchuuriki didn't cause anymore problems. I wish I could have been there for Sensei too. Listen, Naruto-chan… I do know what it's like to be alone… I was an orphan too. Sensei was the only one to care for me too, at times."
"If you knew what it was like, why did you abandon me?" she asked, looking up at him intently while he gently held her.
"Because you deserved better than me," he told her. "I'm not exactly role model material and if I had tried to change to be what you deserved, your enemies would have discovered who you were. I knew Sensei would take care of you."
"He did," she said quietly, "but he was always so busy…"
"I know, Naruto-chan," he murmured. "I know…"
He held out his arms and the clone burrowed into him as well. He held her silently for what seemed like hours, but was certainly much shorter.
He released her and said, "Sensei's funeral will be the morning of the day after tomorrow. I have a mission I need to go on when it's over. I'd like you to come with me."
He slipped out without waiting for an answer.
Tsunami decided that she was going to get all of her misery out of the way by confessing to her teammates that she was really Naruto. She was aware that she was doing it to emotionally flog herself for not being good enough to get through the purple cage that had held the Hokage and Orochimaru. Her long-term clone had seen most of the fight between the two while he tried to help the ANBU figure out a way through the box and she had gotten the memories while she slept. She was grateful that Snake Face had not been able to force her father to fight for him like the other two dead Hokages—although it would have been great to be able to see him. But seeing her grandfather figure offer himself to the Shinigami the same way her father had was a little too much. After the memory sync, her thoughts had been too scrambled to go visit her mother.
She figured that she would get the easier one out of the way first and headed to the hospital. She thought that Hinata would be more disappointed looks and less screaming than Sakura. While she wasn't looking forward to those either, at least Hinata wouldn't be able to leave the hospital to chase her down.
When she got to the hospital, she nervously knocked on the frame of the doorway to Hinata's room.
"Come in!" Hinata called.
Tsunami pulled the curtain aside and entered the room.
"What's wrong, Nami-chan?" Hinata asked upon looking at her. "Has something new happened since yesterday?"
"So you've heard about what happened yesterday?" Tsunami asked.
Hinata reached out her and clasped Tsunami's hand. "Yes, they told us. I'm so sorry Nami-chan. I know how close you and Naruto-kun were to Hokage-sama."
Tsunami bowed her head and sniffled. When she had composed herself, she said, "Thank you, Hinata-chan. No, nothing new has happened…. Only Ero-jichan…" Hinata smiled indulgently at the nickname. She had been shocked the first time she had called Jiraiya that. "…wants me to go with him on a mission after the funeral. I don't know what it's about, but I've been putting off telling you something that I should have told you a long time ago. If I don't tell you now, I'll keep putting it off, so I wanted to tell you before I left. Do you mind if we have a private conversation?"
Hinata looked concerned, but said, "No, that's fine, Nami-chan."
Tsunami pulled out a small scroll that had a privacy seal inscribed on it. She hung it next to the doorway and activated it.
She sat down in the chair next to Hinata's bed and slumped there.
Hinata reached over and clasped her hand again. "Tell me when you're ready."
Naruto smiled weakly at her and then sighed. "I suppose I should start at the beginning."
She sat and thought for a few moments before speaking. "I've told you that Naruto is the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, right? Or at least we think he still is. He's never actually used the Kyuubi's chakra and nobody has felt it in him since he was five years old."
Hinata nodded encouragingly.
"The Village has never treated him well due to that, as you know. He got really sick of it. When he was ten, he discovered his transformation bloodline." She gulped. "I say bloodline, but it's more proper to say that it's a side effect of being the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki. I know my mother could do it. We aren't sure if Aunt Mito could, but she probably could."
"If it's a jinchuuriki ability, how can you do it?" Hinata asked, steely-eyed. "Isn't Naruto-kun the jinchuuriki?"
Naruto tried to pull away, but Hinata kept ahold of her hand. Rather than trying to overpower her, Naruto just slouched back in her chair. "Yes, Naruto is the jinchuuriki, but Tsunami isn't real."
"I'm holding Tsunami's hand right now," Hinata said.
"I started changing into a girl to practice my mother's taijutsu style, which works a little better for women and to escape the stares and hate. I eventually got caught by ANBU and they interrogated me. I confessed who I really was to Jiichan and managed to convince him that I was Naruto. That would have been the end of it, except possibly as a disguise to use in order to go shopping, but that year at the Academy was especially bad and I convinced Jiichan to let me try an experiment. I would enroll as both Naruto and Tsunami. If Tsunami passed and Naruto didn't I could keep my Tsunami persona—otherwise she would just fade away. Needless to say, Naruto kept getting sabatoged and didn't pass. So here we are."
Hinata kept silent while Naruto sweated it out.
"So when I confessed to you about my feelings toward your other self and you said you wouldn't tell him…"
Naruto looked down in shame. "It was because I didn't need to." She looked up. Hinata was staring at her blankly, still holding her hand tightly. "I'm sorry, Hinata-san. I meant every word I told you back then."
Hinata wrinkled her nose. "Please don't call me 'san.' You're still my friend, even if I'm disappointed that you didn't trust me enough to tell me, Naruto-chan."
"It wasn't that I didn't trust you…" Naruto explained. "I just didn't want things to be awkward between us."
"Hmm. Yes, I can see that," she said softly. "How did you fool the Byakugan? Your chakra looks different than boy Naruto."
"My yin-yang balance changes when I'm a girl," Naruto explained. "Human sensors have a hard time ignoring that—although Karin-chan figured it out the first time she met boy me."
"So you weren't faking your monthly cycle?" Hinata asked.
"No, those are real. You might have noticed that I don't get them quite as often. That's due to switching back and forth."
"Karin-chan figured it out?"
Naruto nodded. "She's quite talented."
"Who else knows?"
"Kurenai-sensei was told when I joined the team. Jiichan convinced me to let Ero-jichan know. Now you. That's it."
"Are you going to tell Kura-chan next?"
Naruro groaned and nodded.
"She won't take it well."
"You are taking it surprisingly well, Hinata-chan."
"It may seem that way, Nami-chan," she said, "but inside I'm a gibbering mess. Clan heiress training was good for something." She looked at Naruto. "Can I still call you Nami-chan?"
"Please do. Can I still call you Nata-chan?" Tsunami asked hopefully.
Hinata nodded. "You… I mean boy you… doesn't see me as girlfriend material does he?" Hinata's old stutter made a reappearance.
"I'm the same person, Nata-chan," Tsuami replied. "Before we became teammates, it could have happened, but I had to wall that part of me off. Kurenai-sensei insisted that nothing like that could happen between us or between Kura-chan and me while we were teammates. I'm sorry." She gave her teammate a weak smile. "You're my best friend, Nata-chan. You would make someone an awesome wife someday… I'm sorry." Naruto couldn't think of anything else to say.
Hinata finally let go of her hand and rubbed her eyes which were leaking silent tears.
"I'm so sorry, Hinata-chan," she repeated. She was on the verge of tears herself.
"I'll be fine, Nami-chan," Hinata said bravely. "I just need a little time to get ahold of myself. Please see me before you leave with Jiraiya-sama."
Acknowledging the dismissal, Tsunami said, "I will, Nata-chan."
It took an emotionally-drained Tsunami several hours before she could work up the courage to face Sakura. Although they didn't have any team training due to the invasion, she knew that Sakura typically did some light training on her days off at this time of day. She was both relieved and nervous to find that Sakura was indeed at their training ground.
"Nami-chan!" Sakura called. "How are you feeling?"
"Hello, Kura-chan," she replied. "I'm feeling emotionally numb."
"I didn't have a chance to congratulate you on your win against Shino-san, yesterday—all things considered," she said. "You did very well. I wouldn't be surprised if you made chuunin."
"Thank you," Tsunami replied. "There weren't many matches, so they might not promote anyone." She paused and then steeled herself. "Can I use a privacy seal for a serious conversation?"
Sakura's smile vanished and she nodded seriously. Naruto took out a privacy seal and placed it on the ground and activated it. She knelt down beside it. Sakura knelt down facing her.
Naruto struggled to find something to say. Sakura had a devastating temper and she didn't want to fight her friend. Perhaps she deserved anything Sakura would dish out to her.
She opened her mouth to begin when Sakura said, "You've decided to confess then?"
"Confess?" Naruto asked confused. As far as she knew, she hadn't done anything that deserved confessing other than the big thing which she was pretty sure that Sakura didn't know anything about or she would have confronted her already.
Sakura just stared at her.
Naruto gulped nervously. "Yes, I have something to confess."
Sakura continued to stare at her. Naruto was feeling rather unnerved.
"I'm Naruto," she blurted out quickly, unable to take it anymore.
Sakura stared at her and then burst out into giggles. "I know, Nami-chan."
"Wait!? What!?" Naruto gasped. "You know?"
"I put things together after the awful C-Rank to Taki and I confronted Kurenai-sensei about it," she said.
Naruto shook her head in wonder. Sometimes, with her fangirlish tendancies, it was easy to forget just how smart Sakura was. "Why didn't you say anything to me about it?"
"At first I raged about it to Kurenai-sensei, but she pointed some things out to me and I calmed down."
"What did she say?" Naruto asked curiously.
"She reminded me that you had never gawked at us; told me that when you were girl-you, you were a girl completely including that your cycle wasn't faked and that you could get pregnant; and most importantly, she reminded me what you had almost sacrificed for me." She shrugged. "I decided it wasn't worth losing one of my best friends over."
"What was with checking me out with the Byakugan when I changed into a boy in the Chuunin Exam to make sure 'Naruto' couldn't peep on you?"
She giggled. "That was just me winding you up. I wanted to see how long it would take before you confessed."
"And if I never had?" Naruto asked curiously.
"I know you well enough to know that the guilt would get to you eventually," she said with a smirk.
Tsunami sighed in relief. "Still friends?"
"Still friends," Sakura answered. "Have you told Nata-chan yet?"
Tsunami sighed and told her how the visit to Hinata had gone.
That night, Naruto had a lot to tell his mom. He apologized for not telling her about the Chuunin Exam Finals the previous night.
"Don't worry about it, Naruto-kun," she said with a smile. "I was a little bit anxious to know how it went, but I know sometimes events will overtake you. I knew you were in good health and that's enough for me."
He started by telling her about the finals. After he described his match with Shino, she asked, "How many kikaichuu did you have on you at a time?"
"I don't know maybe a dozen toward the end. No more than two dozen." He wondered why she was asking.
She stared at him. "And the chakra drain didn't bother you?"
He shook his head, still not getting the point.
His mother sighed. "Naruto-kun, just five kikaichu are enough to disable a jounin after half a minute. You had over twice that many on you for several minutes, am I right?"
"Really?" he asked surprised. "I definitely felt the chakra drain, but I was replenishing it as fast as they sucked it out."
She stared at him for a moment before adopting a thoughtful look. "I wonder if this is a side effect of the Kyuubi and the seal we used on you. As an Uzumaki, you already have stupidly high chakra reserves. As the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi on top of that, you should have higher reserves than just about anyone. Chakra replenishment scales to a certain extent with your total chakra, but it shouldn't have allowed you to shrug of the kikaichuu like that. This bears investigating. We've purposely been avoiding the Kyuubi in order to not mess things up, but I think we should find out what's going on with it."
"Why bother, Mom?" Naruto asked curiously. "My chakra replenishment is interesting and useful, but don't the same considerations still hold? I don't want to risk damaging your environment here by digging into the seal."
"Don't you see, Naruto-kun?" she asked excitedly. "If your chakra replenishment is consistently high enough, we can power your father's Shadow Clone that he left in the seal without hurting you!"
Naruto awoke excited. There was a good chance that he could meet his father. Well, his father's Shadow Clone. Well, he had known he could meet him, but only for about two minutes. They had been saving the meeting for when Naruto was older, so that he could have the joy of telling his father about his accomplishments, but now he might be able to have him around permanently!
He wished he had someone talk about it with other than his mother, but the only one who knew about it was the Hokage…
Suddenly, his good mood evaportated. His surrogate grandfather's funeral was in a couple of hours.
The day was dreary and overcast. It felt appropriate to Tsunami as she stood next to Kurenai and Sakura. Her long-term clone stood behind her as Naruto. Her eyes were leaking. She wasn't unique in that aspect. Konohamaru was openly bawling as he stood not far from the large portrait of the Sandiame Hokage. He was next to Asuma and a pair of shinobi who might be his parents. Jiraiya stood alone on the other side of the portrait a few paces from the Daimyo of HI no Kuni and a pair of shinobi that Tsunami had heard had been the Sandaime's teammates. Most of Konoha's shinobi were present as well as some of the notable merchants of the village and Hi no Kuni.
Thunder boomed in the far distance, but the sky remained stubbornly free of rain. Everyone else was crying—shouldn't the sky cry too?
Author's Note: Some thoughts. It's been over a year since this story updated despite my best intentions. This is due to both having less time to write and being stumped on what to do about the invasion. Finally, I just powered through it. I get that in the original it was a big deal, but that kind of thing is not real the focus of this fic.
As for the long-awaited confessions, I hope I did them enough justice, big verbal blow-ups are not my thing (like drawn out fight scenes are also not my thing). I had been tempted to have Hinata already know due to her stalking, but decided against it, but then decided that Sakura already knowing was better than the alternative.
Anyway. Hoped you liked it.