Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, and favorite thus far!

A huge thanks goes to Nu Hiep for all their help with this story and Sasuke's characterization for these next chapters!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I profit from the creation or distribution of this fanfiction.

Henge – Underneath the Underneath

Chapter 9: Making It Up As We Go

Sakura was first to the bridge, as always. With a sigh she settled down to wait for the rest of her team to arrive. She was dead tired, but being early was a habit drilled into her as deeply as brushing her hair in the morning. Some families were just like that, she supposed. It was a few minutes later when Naruto came trotting down the path, just before the official meeting time at seven. She could already see from the bridge that the smaller boy had his hitai-ate around his neck instead of his forehead, so she leaned forward and squinted hoping to get a better look at why. For a moment she thought he was bleeding, but then when he was closer she realized it was makeup.

"Moring Sakura-chan!" Naruto called as he trotted up. Once he was in front of her, Sakura took a moment to study the makeup. Red around the eyes and branching out across the forehead, just like when they took their team picture. Sakura realized she was staring when Naruto chuckled weakly and rubbed the back of his head, face flushed. He opened his mouth to say something, but Sakura was already speaking:

"That's the makeup I helped you with for our team photo. Why are you wearing makeup?"

"It's war paint!" The orange-wearing boy protested before quickly deflating, his cheeks turning bright red. He mumbled something, but all Sakura caught was "Haku." That was the name of the fake hunter-nun, wasn't it? The one Naruto met in the woods.

"You really liked Haku, huh Naruto?" She didn't get how the blonde could become so attached after meeting the older boy just once, but then Naruto's ears and neck turned red to. It couldn't be. No way. Hadn't Naruto liked girls? Haku was a guy.

"Y-yeah," Naruto looked down, losing his blush somewhat, and Sakura felt her eyes widen, "In the end he even said 'if we met under different circumstances we could've been friends' and Haku was really pretty and strong at the same time, and then when I was getting ready this morning I just kinda saw the paint sitting there and, well," He trailed off, and Sakura felt her eyes misting over. And then he'd remembered 'pretty and strong' Haku who could've been his 'friend' under different circumstances. It was just too tragic!

Sakura launched herself at him with a squeal. She didn't even notice when Sasuke arrived precisely at seven.

Kakashi slowly blinked as the sunlight cleared the topmost leaves of the trees lining the training field and chased away the last of dawn's grey. He should probably go meet with his ducklings right about now. Giving his body a quick stretch he pulled out Icha Icha. Hopefully he could get through a few pages before he started working the kids and by the time he arrived his muscles would be significantly cooled down. Idly he wondered what they would do if he ever showed up on time. Best not. Children were known for having fragile constitutions.

He arrived at the usual bridge to the usual commotion, eyes not leaving his book. Sakura and Naruto sent him the usual "You're late!" and Sasuke was glaring at Naruto from afar and… wait. Sasuke normally glared at him from afar when he arrived late. Kakashi glanced over the top of the book to find the commotion wasn't Sakura beating on Naruto, but rather squeezing the poor boy to death. That was unusual. Almost as unusual as the red makeup the blonde had on. Kakashi let his book lower, holding it loosely at his waist.

"Well you see, I was on my way when…" It was the same 'war paint' Naruto had put on for the team photo. Should he say something? The jōnin wondered idly how Sasuke and Sakura initially reacted to the makeup, but decided against drawing additional attention to the change. Sasuke looked curious enough without his teacher's prompting, and Sakura seemed to have taken it well. Naruto was certainly enjoying her attentions, anyway.

"Alright, run a lap around the grounds to warm up, then come back in for stretches," Kakashi waved them off and took the moment to find a good stopping place in his book. When the kids arrived he tucked it away and settled in to lead stretches. They spent a good twenty minutes stretching then Kakashi began drills. It was the same basic routine from before the wave mission, but with higher intensity. Kakashi could feel the shift in mood once the kids were done warming up and settling into their drills. He'd wondered if the effects of the wave mission would dissipate in the safety of the village, but for now all three approached their training with solemn faces. Given time, the sting from the mission would fade and they would return to their earlier habits, but Kakashi had no intention of allowing that. This was the perfect opportunity for them to adjust their attitudes and there was no way Kakashi would let the opportunity slide.

By the time two hours had passed, all Kakashi's ducklings were sprawled across the grass panting. Bangs were glued to temples with sweat and the ripe scent of preteens permeated the air. Why does this particular age group have to be so smelly? the silver-haired tracker lamented. Naruto's face was covered in pink rivets from where the paint had run and turned the sweaty wisps of baby hair in front of his ears orange.

"You've got fifteen minutes, then we start on teamwork," Kakashi drawled over the edge of his book. His words were met by a chorus of groans, and Kakashi watched, amused, as the kids rolled themselves over and dragged their way to the stream to splash their faces with cool water. It was obvious when Sakura noticed the state of Naruto's makeup by the hooting laughter and broad gesticulations. Apparently they recovered quickly, as otherwise Sakura wouldn't have had the strength to dunk Naruto's head underwater or scrub at his face with her handkerchief. He could hear her lecturing about product qualities as the cowed Naruto re-applied the paint and Sasuke watched just a little too sharply.

Curious about what the results would be, Kakashi ran his team through nearly the same trust exercise he had on their first official practice. Deciding Sakura was the most likely to set a good tone to the activity, the jōnin had each boy tie their hitai-ate over their eyes. It only took a moment to scatter a few dozen shuriken across the training field, then he nodded to the pink haired kunoichi. "Get them to the training posts and back," was the only direction he gave before pulling out his book and settling against a tree to observe.

She was doing a better job of guiding both boys equally, and the boys had both improved in taking direction. Once they made it across and back, Kakashi had Naruto remove his makeshift blindfold and switch places with Sakura. When her sight was satisfactorily blocked, Kakashi cast his eye around for a moment.

"Naruto, guide them to the top of those two trees over there and back down again." And with that they were off. Naruto definitely lacked in leadership skills if the number of bonked heads and painful cries were any hint, but this time he didn't purposefully try and throw Sasuke off. While they worked, Kakashi collected his shuriken and tossed some ninja wire between a handful of saplings. On the far side he placed four bento boxes. Once everyone was on the ground again in relatively one piece, Kakashi called Sasuke for his turn.

"Have them retrieve our lunches," he pointed. Like Naruto, Sasuke lacked in leadership skills. While accurate, his directions were too vague and the boy became frustrated and impatient when his teammates didn't understand. Eventually, they all sat down to tuck into their tossed-salad style bento. They'd only been dropped a half dozen times each.

Half an hour later they were off for a shiny new D-rank mission. For the first time since Yūgao took her photos the kids were looking forward to the low ranked job. The mission itself wasn't anything special; weeding the edge of a training field meant to simulate a desert. When the genin had spread themselves out, Kakashi ambled towards the smallest member. Not bothering with small talk the jōnin squatted down and grabbed the base of the nearest weed's stem:

"You don't normally go through the effort of painting your face. Any special occasion?" The blonde looked at him for a moment before rubbing the back of his head with his dirt-caked fingers.

"Hehe, Sakura asked me the same this this morning. It's just, after meeting Haku…"

"Ah, so its to honor his memory then." Hearing this, Naruto's face scrunched up and the blonde hummed for a minute while he decided on what he wanted to say.

"Haku dressed like a girl, but he didn't wear any makeup," Naruto poked at a weed. After a few moments he gripped the plant and yanked it violently from the ground. In a hushed voice he asked: "Kakashi-sensei, can you keep a secret?"

"Sure, Naruto, what is it?" the jōnin watched as his student shook the dirt from the roots and knocked the plant against the ground to disperse the more stubborn clumps.

"It's just, I've been wanting to try it out for a while, y'know? Back before the Wave mission. And when I met Haku I thought he was a girl and he was so cool, and he wore girls clothes all the time and was super strong and said why don't I try it sometime and—" The poor weed's stem had turned an awful puce green as Naruto twisted and pulled until it was bruised beyond recovery and drooped from the boy's fingers like a boiled ramen noodle, "—and so I just kinda did," he finished with a helpless wave of his hands.

"Well," Kakashi smiled, "it looks good." The masked jōnin stood up and ambled towards Sakura to give his next duckling a hand, not waiting to see the blonde's reaction.

They were done after an hour or so and Kakashi dismissed the genin for the day. Before Naruto could even initiate his pre-Wave routine of asking Sakura out, the girl had grabbed his arm and was tugging him towards the market center.

"Your face will break out if you put just any old paint on it! If you're going to wear makeup, you've got to actually use makeup," Kakashi could here Sakura clearly despite the rapid increase in distance. He could also here Naruto's protests, although they were rather empty. Kakashi let his eye slide to the side, where Sasuke's feet remained planted where they were with an equally stuck scowl on his face.

"You could always join them…" the jōnin ventured, but hearing him the dark haired boy just gave a huff.

"Like I care what they do."

"Well if you insist…" but the raven's protest sounded even less convincing than Naruto's.

Hiruzen had been concerned when the report came in that Kakashi's supposed C-rank had involved several A-rank jōnin battles with the infamous Demon missing-nin of Kirigakure. Granted he knew it ended well enough given the team's safe return, but even in wartime the genin weren't exposed to that kind of fight or that amount of death so early. They were meant to scare off a few street punks for a drunk architect, not watch the massacre of a platoon of mercenaries! Kakashi had also decided to let the rogue ninja slip away as quietly as possible, and if the jōnin's report was as accurate as always Naruto had formed a bond with the unaffiliated ice-user, meaning to some extent the child was also experiencing a personal loss.

He'd seen the team briefly when they reported in, but had been distracted by the gravity of the mission itself and the potential repercussions. Now, as he watched the team file into the mission room, Hiruzen could spot several distinct changes, the greatest of which were reflected in the blonde he'd been so worried over.

It was hidden well for a genin, behind a loud grin and boisterous voice, but the first thing that Hiruzen noticed was that Naruto was anxious. Before he could even wonder why blue eyes flickered in his direction and the Old Hokage caught sight of red makeup – or was that supposed to be battle paint? – dramatically lining the blonde's eyelids and forehead. Before he could comment, Naruto had shoved the nervous gesture to the side and bounded forward with a cheerful call:

"Hey Jiji! You're handing out missions today!?" Hiruzen smiled. Perhaps Naruto was doing better than he'd thought.

"Indeed I am. You're looking well," and there, the blonde's shoulders sank minutely as the tension holding them up bled out, "I trust you've adjusted to being back home?" And then came Naruto's spirited reply followed by his teammates violent correction and Kakashi's exasperated silence as he'd long given up on policing the familiar outbursts. Hiruzen felt a thrill shoot through him. Naruto, who had blamed years of maltreatment on gender related feelings, who not that long ago hid behind a door and refused to come out, petrified by the thought of rejection, pushing the boundaries of recognizable 'battle paint.'

It wasn't his doing, but Hiruzen was proud. He'd have to find the time to catch up with Naruto sometime soon.

As quickly as it came, the feeling fled. Naruto was right to be weary. Hidden villages held perhaps the greatest capacity for eccentric individuals, but that didn't necessarily mean it had an 'anything goes' mentality. As a jinchūriki, Naruto knew this well. He would have to meet with the child again soon.

The next morning Kakashi found Sakura huddled together with Naruto around a compact mirror chatting away. Assorted brushes and powders were scattered around them on the ground and on a carefully laid out handkerchief. Sakura's enthusiasm was palpable, and although Naruto seemed much more hesitant than normal, the blonde was also smiling genuinely and carrying his part of the conversation. Sasuke was seated apart from his teammates showing them his back rather than the scowl on his face.

Kakashi worked the genin to the brink of collapse, only to grant them a short break before switching to focus on teamwork. Despite the amount of sweat pouring off each of them, there was no running makeup. Naruto's 'war paint' was as dramatic as ever, but Kakashi had also noticed a thin red lining along Sakura's upper eyelid as well. Once the kids rolled over and got a drink of water, Sakura pulled her compact out again to show her blonde teammate the effectiveness of the new product.

Several times Sasuke made as if to say something, but each time his face would close off and he would turn away. Eventually Kakashi had enough and walked over with his book held firmly in place before him.

"You don't have to wear makeup to talk to them, you do realize, don't you?"

"I'm not interested in what those two idiots do in their free time, so long as it doesn't interfere with my ambition."

"You seem pretty interested to me," the jōnin hummed, watching the Uchiha from the corner of his eye.

"It's a passing curiosity," Sasuke crossed his arms defensively over his chest, "There's no reason for me to care."

The mission they took that afternoon wasn't strenuous, but it lasted well past dinner. The customer, a shot-handed restaurant owner, fed them each a late dinner; then the jōnin let the ducklings drag themselves back home for a shower and sleep. Even Kakashi was weary after a double shift waiting tables. Sakura had given up complaining of sore feet half an hour before closing, and swore up and down she would never be a waitress. Having been deemed lacking in skills pertaining to customer service, Sasuke and Naruto were kept in the back, preparing drinks and washing dishes, respectively. The restaurant owner shot Naruto a look when they first walked in, but weather that was due to the makeup or being a jinchūriki, Kakashi couldn't tell.

Kakashi ran through the second half of his daily workout on autopilot, then moseyed home for a shower and some rest.

The next morning Kakashi approached the bridge from the trees. As had been the norm since the mission to Wave, Naruto and Sakura were huddled together and Sasuke remained a ways off. The jōnin was a good half hour earlier than usual and settled onto the branch of his tree with Icha Icha in front of him.

"It's fine to put on a thin coat because we'll put another one on after that. If you just dab a ton on all at once it'll chip off sooner and wont look as good."

"Oh. Okay, I guess." The voices of his more colorful ducklings drifted over to Kakashi.

"The third coat will be a clear one, just to finish it off. We should have just enough time for everything to dry before Kakashi-sensei shows up."

"Hey, hey! Next time d'you think you could paint a spiral on one of my fingers!? I don't need some lame flower—"

"—Hey!"

"—but a spiral would be epic!"

"Flowers aren't lame, baka! See! Just look at this one! It's really cute, isn't it?" Kakashi glanced over idly as Sakura bonked the blonde on the head.

"It's cute on you, but I don't want it on me, y'know?" Kakashi could hear the pout in his voice.

"Hmm, I guess that's true. Once this wears off I'll show you how to make a spiral. You should paint it on your ring finger like I did with my flower."

"Why does it have t'be the ring finger?"

"Its all about aesthetics…." At which point Kakashi stopped listening in. He had a solid half hour before he needed to do anything with his ducklings, and dropping down earlier would just be cruel at this point. He could teach them to always be on guard another day.

Kakashi waited a few minutes after Sakura declared Naruto and her nails dry before looping back through the trees to approach from the ground. When spotted, both Sakura and Naruto greeted him with cries of 'You're late!' and Kakashi decided to go with the old lady excuse. Predictably, Sakura's nails were coated in a shiny layer of pink, and a crude flower was painted in the corner each of her ring fingers. A bit more surprising was the bright orange on Naruto's. He hadn't expected Sakura to allow the color, let alone posses a bottle of it, but it was just so typically Naruto that he had to smile. The jōnin wondered how early they started, because each sported the same makeup as before on top of their painted nails. "…laps around the field, then come in for stretches," Kakashi concluded his spiel, waving the preteens off.

Group training that day proved to be a bit more of a challenge. The jōnin had introduced a new formation, and the genin were getting frustrated. Sasuke and Sakura were able to pick it up right away, Sasuke after seeing Kakashi demonstrate with clones and Sakura after he gave a verbal breakdown of the formation and sketched a few diagrams on a blank scroll. Naruto, however, needed to run it repeatedly until it clicked, then a dozen times more until it stuck. There was nothing wrong with that type of learning, but his teammates couldn't relate to it and as usual were getting frustrated with the blonde.

"You come in after Sakura pulls back, not before! Oi siss—Dobe! Are you even trying!?" Sasuke shouted at his teammate's back. Naruto kicked the ground in frustration, but otherwise refused to respond. Kakashi noted that the dark haired boy's lower lip rippled in a way that suggested he was biting the inside of it. He'd been doing a good job of avoiding sexist insults, but they'd made the backbone of his and Naruto's interactions for as long as they'd been a team. Without that, the Uchiha was left floundering, adding discomfort to an already aggravating situation.

"Maa," Kakashi decided an intervention was in order, "it's getting better. A few more tries and you'll have it. After that we'll break for lunch," I think you need it. Hungry kids are a pain to deal with.

"Tch, whatever. Just get in position!" Naruto and Sakura trudged to their respective posts and settled into place to repeat the exercise.

The mission that day was walking a group of pet dogs. Naruto, being Naruto, insisted on taking the largest dogs. Perhaps he'd thought successfully walking them would be impressive or defeat Sasuke in some way, but hadn't noticed or paid attention to the dog's age. The largest was clearly old, and decided after about ten minutes of walking that he was done and settled down in the middle of the street. Being twice Naruto's size, no amount of tugging or shouting on the blonde's part could get the large animal to budge.

"Si—Dobe! Hurry up or we're leaving without you!" The Uchiha called back, biting the inside of his lower lip and causing his face to scowl. After a moment his mouth smoothed into his regular scowl. He'd probably end up biting his lip the next time he tried to eat, given how much it had probably swollen out already. Kakashi had caught him flinching a few times eating around Tsunami's table in Wave as well.

"I'm c-coming!" Naruto grunted from beside the large canine. Standing next to the jōnin, Sakura gave a sigh. The dog did not want to move. After another minute of Naruto wrangling with the old animal, Kakashi called it over. He'd practically been raised with dogs, and even dumb civilian pets were no match for him. Once Naruto drew level with the rest of Team Seven Sasuke sent him a smirk.

"Can't even handle one old dog, Dobe?" The blonde predictably shouted a retort, but the reaction wasn't as strong as when he was called a sissy and Sasuke quickly lost interest in trying to rile him up. Kakashi watched him slowly deflate before turning away. The rookie genin was making a consistent effort to switch insults despite the obvious discomfort, but Sasuke was still watching Naruto closely, so Kakashi doubted the Uchiha's motives were entirely innocent. After nearly two hours the mission was completed and they returned to Hokage Tower to report their success.

It was on the way back out after receiving pay that they ran into trouble. Kurenai's team was just coming in from their mission and the Inuzuka boy sniffed his team out.

"Kakashi!" The jōnin turned to see his peer waving amicably in his direction, "we were just on our way to hand in a mission receipt and file our report," the genjutsu specialist stopped in front of his team.

"Ahh, we just finished handing in ours," Kakashi waved behind him where his ducklings were standing in a line. Sakura was looking around him curiously, but it was Naruto's awestruck face that surprised the silver haired shinobi.

"What the heck, Naruto? You look like a girl!" Kurenai's genin, the Inuzuka, finally noticed Kakashi's team.

"Shut up Dog Breath!" Naruto's attention snapped from Kurenai to his year-mate.

"What, are you turning into a sissy now!? I haven't seen you since graduation and now you turn up all dolled out!?"

"K-kiba-kun!"

"It's War Paint—"

"Look! You've even painted you nails! What the heck, Naruto? Not even Hinata paints her nails," Kiba's dog barked in what could only be taken as agreement, "You look like a clown!"

SMACK!

"Anoying." Sasuke tossed two more pebbles in his hand as he stared down the Inuzuka, who was now sporting a thimble-sized bruise on his nose just under his hitai-ate. Naruto watched wide-eyed as his teammates stepped up to come between him and the feral boy.

"Shut up, Kiba," Sakura cracked her knuckles, "you're wearing just as much makeup as he is!"

"They're clan markings!"

"I don't care! Don't pick on Naruto! And don't call him a sissy!"

"Hn, Sakura's right. The only one who gets to insult the dobe is me." Kakashi didn't really know how to respond to that one. In his peripheral he could see Naruto was staring at Sasuke with his mouth hanging open.

"Kiba-kun." Kurenai apparently knew how to respond though. "You shouldn't insult your comrades. Naruto-kun can dress however he likes, and you need to respect that," Kurenai's eye took on a frightening glint, "or should I send you back to Gai for more lessons on just what a shinobi can wear?" The boy gulped, and his eyes darted around as if expecting said Green Beast to suddenly appear before returning to the blonde.

"Sorry, man. It's not really that bad. Just different. Yeah." His puppy whined in agreement.

"…It's cool," Naruto eventually acquiesced, before a grin split his face, "I'd still beat you in a fight!"

"Pft, as if I'd lose to a dead-last like you!"

"I could beat you any day! Bring it!"

"I'd like to see you try—" the boys lunged for each other, leaving their respective instructors to pry them apart.

"Alright, time to go turn in that mission report," Kurenai huffed as she pulled Kiba away.

"I-I don't mind your war-paint N-naruto-kun," the small Hyūga offered. It was as she began trailing after the rest of her team that Kakashi noticed there was a fourth member. Had he said something during the exchange? He couldn't remember. The boy seemed to be the type that was easily overlooked.

Once team seven was alone again Naruto's hesitant voice broke the silence:

"Hey, does it really look that weird? Do I look really stupid?" He grabbed at his jacket and bit his lip.

"Dobe," the Uchiha scoffed, "since when do you let that dog get to you?"

"Sasuke-kun's right," Sakura piped up, "What does Kiba know about fashion anyway? I wouldn't let you walk around the village with a bad makeup job, it's my pride as a woman, so don't listen to him." Naruto gave a watery smile and rubbed the back of his head.

"Thanks guys." For a moment Kakashi's memory of the bell test flashed through his mind. Sasuke gruffly extending the olive branch and Sakura backing him up. Have their bonds deepened since then? Kakashi had never counted himself a good judge of relationships, but watching his ducklings stick up for one another brought a genuine smile to the veteran's face. Somehow they all ended up at Ichiraku's for dinner, but Kakashi wasn't complaining. His brats were smiling and laughing, and even if Sasuke was still distanced from his teammates he'd given himself a break for the night from studying the blonde and let himself smile at their backs again.

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I don't know if I ever said this, but I update Henge on Thursdays, typically every other week.

Published: June 5, 2014

Words: 4,739