Disclaimer: see "Prologue"
The story so far: After a long day of important discoveries, Naruto cannot find sleep and decides to try to summon a clone with the new Jutsu he's just learned, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. What should have just been a way to cure loneliness for a bit, devolved into quite the strange conversation between original and clone, and ended with Naruto falling asleep together with his clone in female form. The Third Hokage is watching and worries about Naruto.
Chapter 1
The next day, Naruto woke up alone and with a new set of memories. The feeling of talking to himself and the slight headache it gave him disoriented the boy for a moment as he sat up in his bed. After a moment of confusion, he realized where the unexpected addition had come from, and spent some time sorting through the complete rendition of his clone's memories from the previous night – which, well, turned out to be pretty repetitive all things considered (but he wasn't complaining, his prankster self having quickly realized the sheer potential of this aspect of the jutsu).
As soon as the memories were all sorted through, he realized he had trouble discerning which Naruto he had been. Anyone else would have been greatly disturbed by this discovery, but Naruto decided not to delve on it (more accurately, to ignore the issue) and focus on making sure to tell each clone he produced from then on that he was the original. He wouldn't have a clone try to replace him and become Hokage in his stead!
On another note, he didn't know for certain how his clone had been dispelled, but a blurry memory of being violently kicked out of the bed made him sheepishly realize that he may or may not have terrible bedside manners. Still, now that he knew what happened to a dispelled clone, he felt a bit less guilty about it.
As he dressed for the day and put his goggles on in order to preserve his beautiful shiny hitai-ate, he almost regretted the fact that he had fallen asleep at all last night. It had been the first time he'd ever shared his bed with someone else, and even if the hugging part had been great, he hadn't nearly had enough before he was lost to the world. Oh well. He figured he could always use the jutsu again.
His day after that saw him trip over the pile of pajamas left on the floor before rushing to get his registration papers done. It continued with his unwilling acquisition of an apprentice, and as the days went by and Konohamaru's training to replicate the Oiroke no Jutsu progressed, Naruto's mind was elsewhere, divided between his soon-to-be team assignment and that one night spent with his clone.
There was a strange longing when he thought about it.
He had yet to experiment again, hesitating every night when he got to bed. But each Naruko transformation he did to coach Konohamaru kept on reminding him of another version of the Henge, clad in comfy pajamas, snuggling under thin sheets and holding a blond boy close in order to share warmth.
Two set of memories who wanted the same thing, but were in fact slightly different. Just different enough to confuse the heck out of him. Because he could remember her arms around him, but she could also remember his arms around her. He could remember almost feeling like a brother, and she could remember almost feeling like a sister.
It had been the first time he'd produced a clone for so long.
But it had also been the first time he'd maintained his Henge for so long.
All in all: he was confused.
So he ignored it all and focused on giving Konohamaru's tutor a lesson without batting an eyelash, even as he performed his masterful newly-named Harem no Jutsu.
And then the day of the team assignments came.
Naruto could feel the excitement coursing through his veins, and his knee bounced uncontrollably on the classroom's floor. His new team and him were the last people in the room, Sakura-chan grumbling from time to time (was she talking to herself? weird) and Sasuke-teme brooding as usual, although his stoic behaviour occasionally broke when he rubbed his mouth furiously as if remembering prior... events.
Ew. Kissing Sasuke-teme... Naruto wished he could forget already, but since the terrible accident had happened that very afternoon, it was proving to be somewhat challenging. Nevertheless, it turned out he had all the time in the world to try to forget, because hours passed slowly, and still no sign of their new sensei.
As excitement slowly dimmed and gave way to restlessness, Naruto could bet five bowls of ramen that even Sasuke was getting antsy. Conclusion: distraction was needed.
That's around the time the blond Uzumaki had a brilliant idea.
Was it because he was in a pranking mood (as usual really)? Or was it because the subject had stayed on his mind throughout the whole week despite his best attempts at ignoring it? In any cases, Naruto decided that the one prank he'd been thinking of wasn't enough. A back-up was necessary.
"Oiroke no Jutsu!"
His new pinkette teammate turned his way at his whisper-shout, glad that there was a distraction even if it came in the form of Naruto. Sasuke positioned himself slightly to the side in order to feint not being interested and still be able to see – boredom truly makes you do crazy things indeed.
"Naruto! What the heck are you doing!" Sakura hissed when the smoke of his jutsu dissipated and she could see the transformation.
"Pranking sensei of course!" Naruto replied enthusiastically with a thumbs up, "We're gonna pretend that I'm a girl and surprise sensei so bad, they're gonna flip!"
The newly Naruko-ed boy nodded to himself with conviction, before examining his Henge for any defect. Instead of the usual naked woman the jutsu was tailored for, he had succeeded in transforming in a female version of himself with his own clothes on, which were luckily baggy enough to accommodate any new assets. He twirled on himself once and grinned in satisfaction before strutting to the classroom door. Quickly checking the corridor to find it empty still, he grumbled a bit and decided to go through with his first prank as well. He dragged a chair close enough and strategically placed the blackboard eraser above the entrance.
"Hn... Like a Jounin is going to fall for such a simple booby trap..."
Naruto paid no attention to Sasuke-teme and put the chair back in place, just in time for a masked man to cross the threshold and receive a good amount of chalk on his messy grey-haired head.
The blond Uzumaki laughed loudly at their new sensei, proud and slightly incredulous that it had worked so well. But the real challenge was coming now: would his real prank work just as well...?
So there he stood, hopping from one foot to another excitedly, giving off sparkles and eyes wide open in anticipation. And all that Kakashi did was raise his one visible eyebrow and declare that he didn't like them, before telling them to join him on the rooftop and disappear.
"Disappearing after making us wait for so long..." Sakura grumbled, and the downtrodden Naruto could only agree.
This hadn't gone according to plan.
"Hey Naruto..." his crush's voice interrupted his thoughts of failure, "Of course I'm not involved in any of this, but what if when we reached the roof, you didn't release your Henge and continued to pretend that you have been a girl all along?" she suggested quietly.
"Heh...? But didn't you say-"
"It's only fair that he's pranked again since he was so rude and didn't even succeed in dodging your trap even though he's a jounin." Sakura cut off with a clenched fist and a tick mark.
"Hn, it could indeed confirm whether that man is truly an incompetent or not." a certain Uchiha got up and strolled closer.
Sakura squealed at Sasuke's unexpected approval and Naruto gaped for a few seconds before grinning brightly.
"... OK then, I'm counting on you to back me up!"
Let it not be said that Naruto would refuse an offer to prank anyone after all.
"Hey! I said I was not involved, don't include us in your plans! Right Sasuke?"
"We'll go along with what you say but don't expect anything more."
"Y-yes, exactly!"
Naruto grinned at the team-like feel this gave off.
"OK let's do this Team 7!"
Kakashi was beginning to wonder what the hell his maybe-team was up to, when the door to the rooftop finally opened.
"You're late." he drawled as seriously as he could.
"As if you could say anything!" the pinkette of the group protested while rudely pointing at him.
Yes little girl, but he was a jounin, thank you very much.
As they all sat on the steps not so far from him, he just decided to get them going on the topic of introductions and basically told them nothing about himself, because why would he even bother? It didn't matter whether they were his late sensei's son or an Uchiha, they hadn't graduated by him yet, so they weren't Team 7 either.
"Now it's your turn, from the ri-" Kakashi paused, "...ght?"
"Me! Me! My name is Uzumaki Naruko!"
The blond stopped there with a large smile, looking at him intently as if waiting for something.
But despite being momentarily taken aback, Kakashi wasn't a former Anbu for nothing, so he just acknowledged the name change, took the massive blonde pigtails in considerations, and resumed.
"So? Likes? Dislikes?"
The sharingan user saw the moment all three of the youngsters in front of him concluded he was a lost cause, most likely because he 'hadn't seen through the prank despite being a jounin'. How cute.
"Er, I like cup ramen, though Ichiraku's are better, especially when Iruka-sensei pays for them, and... I dislike waiting the three minutes it takes the cup ramen to cook... and! I dislike being told Sakura is cuter than I, because that's so untrue, and I was the best-looking girl in the whole Academy back in the day!" Naruto tried once again to get a reaction out of him, leaning eagerly in his direction.
The most he got in return was a very unsubtle kick in the shin from Sakura, although it didn't quite reach and ended up hitting Sasuke who was in the middle instead.
After a profusion of excuses from the young girl to the last Uchiha, Sakura's glare focused again on the poor boy. The message in them was very clear: I'll get you later...
Naruto cringed a bit at that once he had finally stopped laughing at Sasuke, but decided to carry on with his role-playing and deal with Sakura's wrath later on; what was she even mad about anyway? She had been the one to suggest he carried on with his prank!
Kakashi just watched on, wondering if the youngsters thought they were being discreet.
Nevertheless, Naruto finally got to the end of his, or her, introduction.
"... Aaaand, my dream is to surpass all the previous Hokages-...and- and become the first female Hokage!"
Kakashi felt his heart stop.
"-and then, everyone in the vill..a...ge ...w..ll a...owl...ed...-"
The blow was too sudden.
Without warning, the sounds around Kakashi became muffled, but he didn't realize. He felt himself grow impossibly still as a pang in his chest ripped open one of the old wounds residing in there, one of the many that had never truly healed. His surroundings narrowed down to tunnel vision and all he could see was the grinning Naruto.
The resolve in his eyes proving that his words weren't just part of the prank, but his true life goal.
The unique style of speech, not quite the same but similar enough.
The feminine features that he hadn't expected in the slightest...
When he had accepted this mission from the Third Hokage, he had been prepared for heartache, for seeing a prankster kid version of his sensei whom he would have to train without letting his emotions get in the way.
But that was the thing: he had been prepared.
What he got instead and hadn't been prepared for, was the ghost of her crazy, caring, lovable, stubborn girlfriend.
Kushina.
/I'm gonna be the first female Hokage!/
His breath hitched.
The one he had failed to protect when it really mattered.
...Damn that kid's timing.
Kakashi took in a great breath. In. Out. Slowly. Forget it. In. Out. He'd think about it later. In. It wasn't fair of him to blame the kid. Out. The kid couldn't even know what he did wrong. In. He had no idea. In. No idea and yet... In. He was just the same as her despite the fact that he had never known nor would he ever- In. In... In... In- Out.
Okay, thinking like this was not a good idea. He had to remind himself that this was not Kushina despite the uncanny similarities. No red head, for one. The bright yellow he had for hair was the same shade his sensei had always tried to convince him was blond and-
He wasn't helping his case.
The whiskers; the whiskers weren't from either of his parents. They were a trait from the fox demon that was sealed into him in order to protect the village. He was a Jinchuuriki. A human sacrifice. Just like his mom, maybe, but Naruto… Naruto was his own person.
Kakashi breathed out and the world around him became focused again.
That the thought of the Kyuubi would help him center himself again even though it had caused his last loved ones' deaths was not lost on him. Oh the irony.
"K-Kakashi-sensei..."
The voice of the true Naruto was what pulled him out of any more precarious thoughts, and in front of Kakashi's very eyes, scarlet finally faded out completely from the boy's hair.
"W-what-was that...?" the boy's trembling voice whispered, immediately putting him on edge.
Something was wrong.
"You... suddenly... it felt like... pain and,... fear..."
"What...?" Kakashi startled at the blond's words, and finally took in the members of Team 7's' appearances.
All three were leaning away from him, as if frozen in an attempt to bolt. All three had tear tracks on their cheeks and were shaking like leaves, reduced to quivering messes as tremors traveled through their entire bodies. If one had had in mind to determine which one had lost the most color, they would have been hard-pressed to actually figure it out: the kids were all as pale as death itself.
Kakashi immediately understood what had happened and reigned in the killing intent he was subconsciously leaking out. At that level it was far from potent, but the gray-haired jounin was horrified. What had he done...?
"Kakashi-...sensei?"
Naruto was relieved he could now breathe easier, but he was still shaking uncontrollably, and his technique had been released. Their sensei looked stunned – or at least as stunned as one eye could be – so the blond Uzumaki turned to check on his teammates instead of insisting on getting an answer out of the unfamiliar man. Sasuke was breathing heavily, head in his hands, and Naruto didn't know what to do. This was Sasuke-teme, who was always cool as a cucumber and had never displayed this level of emotional distress in... ever! He turned towards Sakura next, and felt his throat tighten; the girl was staring unseeingly in front of her, mouth open and sweat trickling down her jawline. Her arms where hanging limply at her sides.
What could he do?!
Unbidden, a not-so-distant memory arose from the confines of his mind, as if it had been there all along, waiting to be noticed at the right time.
The feeling of a warm pair of arms around him, a body snuggling under the covers and holding him impossibly close. The sheer peace he had felt in that moment...
And then Naruto knew what he had to do.
He rubbed his wet eyes, and it took more than one try to move because his legs were so unsteady it felt like he hadn't walked in months, but he did get up in the end, and slowly but surely walked to his destination.
Kakashi was lost (that's why he never got teams! He didn't have the faintest inkling on how to take care of children!) and had risen to his feet, but he didn't know what he could possibly do in this situation so he let Naruto do whatever he had in mind and let himself hope for the best, ready to intervene at the first sign of things going wrong...-er.
When he'd reached his goal, Naruto plonked tiredly down between his two teammates and rubbed his cold hands against one another. Just as his fingers warmed up a little, he formed the correct hand-seal and summoned two clones – the 'poof' of smoke not even getting a reaction out of the other two, which was, to Naruto, a very clear sign of how far gone they currently were. His two clones then performed the Oiroke no Jutsu, while he himself tentatively stretched his arms to his sides, and oh so gently laid his left hand on Sasuke's left shoulder, and his right hand on Sakura's right shoulder.
He was afraid of the reaction this might have gathered on any other occasion, but that it still didn't provoke a reaction bothered him even more so.
Eventually, he gathered the two remaining members of Team 7 closer to him, slowly, mindful of any sudden move, and felt the warm pressure of his Oiroke-ed clones huddled behind and embracing all three of them in that tender manner he had missed all week.
No, this was different. This was even better, and Naruto decided group-hugs were now only seconds to Ichiraku's ramen on his list of favorite things in the whole world to do (Iruka-sensei was still his favorite person though, mind you), even if two-thirds of the group wasn't technically actively participating.
As close as they were, the boy could feel the unsteady pulse of both of his teammates, even above his own wildly beating heart, and the slow and steady ones of his two clones behind them. Seconds passed in silence, giving way to minutes, and as he copied his clones' breathing rhythm and held Team 7 close, he could hear Sasuke's breathing quieten and feel Sakura's frozen form loosen up.
He thought he would have a heart attack when Sasuke-teme leaned against him on his own accord – a temporary lapse of judgment? – and Sakura-chan hid her face in his shoulder while clutching his jumpsuit.
He felt the dampness on both his shoulders and decided there and then that no one was really in their normal states right now anyway, and that for the time being it would have to do.
(His heart had never beaten so fast before, yet he somehow knew it wasn't quite from fear anymore.)
To be continued...
A/N: So I'm super sick and this just wrote itself?
I don't know anymore, I can't even-
Anyway, that was a lot of angst from Kakashi; he's such a tragic character isn't he? And a lot of fluff from Naru-chan who decided to replicate what felt good for him in order to comfort his teammates. Maybe Kakashi will be able to have his group hug too one day?
Not much from the clones on this chapter, mostly because Naruto has decided to ignore the issue.
(Spoiler alert: it won't last.)
Would you guys like to see another chapter or have you already been disgusted by the emotional roller coaster of today's? ;)
Special Thanks to Lord Redshocker (the name sounds so badass and I have no idea where it could come from?), Chase Network, Oblivion196, and Silently Watches (whose name kinda creeps me out haha) for their kind reviews! ;) 38 followers so far and 18 favorites, I can't believe this has had so much success, let's see if it continues after this chapter haha (cries)
Anyway, please leave a review on your way out so that I know what you guys think?