Gender Bender Naruto: The Series
By: KioKat
Summary: We all know Naruto, the #1 knucklehead, loudmouth ninja, right? Well, what if He had been a She? What if the whole Naruto world had been flipped around – the kunoichi now shinobi and vice versa? Join us on the adventure of a lifetime with Uzumaki Nariko, Konoha's #1, knuckleheaded kunoichi!
xox
Chapter 15: Home, Sweet Home?
(Completed: 08-05-10)
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Yuzuna eyed the three children before her with amusement as they whispered quietly to themselves. The blonde appeared to be doing most of the talking, for the other two would only nod and speak every once in a while, seemingly to question some part of the little "plan" they were cooking up. The enemy kunoichi almost laughed at the solemn expressions on each of their features.
'Look at them,' she thought mockingly in her mind, 'playing as if they're real ninja…'
Not one to keep a perfectly good taunt to herself, Yuzuna spoke up, grinning with a dark sense of glee beneath her mask.
"Aw, how cute…" the dark-haired jounin sneered. "The little Konoha brats think they're really shinobi." Her grin widened. "What a joke. How long ago did you become leaf nin anyway—a week?" She cackled loudly at that.
However, not one member of the trio responded to the jab, much to her displeasure. In fact, they didn't even look up from their conversation to acknowledge she had spoken. It was with narrowed eyes and an irritation that burned within her that Yuzuna realized the genin were ignoring her.
That was definitely not a sensation the female criminal was used to. Momochi Yuzuna simply did not go ignored. Civilians cowered in her presence, and even the most seasoned of jounin kept on their guard when in a battle with her. She was a feared criminal, and her appearance at least managed to capture the attention of those who did not recognize her for the missing nin and member of the Bingo book that she was.
Yet, even with all that, these three newbie ninja were paying no mind to her whatsoever—even knowing how dangerous she was, even knowing she had managed to take their sensei, the Copy Cat Kairi, captive. These three Academy babies were snubbing her: Momochi Yuzuna, infamous silent killer and rogue kunoichi of the Mist!
The thought absolutely infuriated her, and the Ex-Mist nin ground her teeth, eyes narrowing with displeasure. 'Little bastards…'
As she opened her mouth to give the nuisances a piece of her mind, courtesy her sharp tongue, they finally returned their gaze to her, determined and apparently with some sort of plan of action.
The enemy nin grinned now that she had become the center of their attention once more. "Eh, what's this? A bunch of little kiddies like you think you're going to fight me?" The very idea amused her greatly, so much so that she tilted her head back and sniggered. "Don't make me laugh! What's a bunch of brats like you going to do? Drool on me? Need a diaper change?" She giggled hysterically, seeming to find her own joke extremely funny. Her face tilted toward the sky and her eyes shut as she laughed harder.
"Now!" Nariko cried to Sakaye.
Yuzuna's chuckles abruptly stopped as the Uchiha whipped out a slew of shuriken, but a smirk consumed the jounin's features as they slammed into her unsuspecting clone. The original kunoichi easily avoided a few of the stray weapons as they slipped past, and she cackled yet again that day. "What? That's it? You went after my clone?" The enemy kunoichi laughed even harder. "You amateurs! You don't think I can make more?" She even went to do so, moving her hand to make the proper seal.
Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof!
She froze as several Narikos appeared from behind, in place of the shuriken she had dodged only moments before.
"Hey, we're not that dumb!" the crowd cried as they descended upon the bandaged woman.
Unable to do more than whip her head around in shock, Yuzuna grunted as the five blonde genin collided with her back. However, she did not fall to the ground or release her grip on the orb containing their teacher as they had intended. Instead, she turned her head and snarled at them, using her free hand to fling them from her form and force them to disperse in clouds of smoke.
She then returned to the other two genin before her with a nasty grin, realizing too late that there had been a sixth girl. She only discovered that fact when a foot slammed into her shoulder, startling her and forcing her to unintentionally snap her hand away and jerk it from the liquid orb. The water prison instantly dispersed, and Yuzuna leapt back to escape the now-free jounin.
The criminal gritted her teeth angrily as she landed, her shoulder throbbing, and she felt suddenly grateful that she had chosen to learn how to wield her sword with both hands and not simply one. Even so, she clenched her jaw, grinding the bones together, as she curled her fingers in the damp earth and cursed the grinning blonde and her smug little friends.
Kairi straightened from her crouch and briefly stretched her muscles, which had begun to groan about remaining in one set position for the period of time she had been captive. She frowned at the ache; had she really allowed her body to fall into such a state after taking a genin team?
However, she shook the thought from her mind and glanced at said team, surprised by how quickly they had managed to liberate her from the uncomfortable confines of the water prison she had been encased and trapped in. She really hadn't thought they'd had it in them to create and initiate such a course of action given how they had reacted to her capture—Nariko especially…
The Konoha jounin shook her head in disbelief. That unpredictable little blonde had surprised her most. Nothing in the girl's Academy record, or her behavior during the past month, had led Kairi to believe in any way that she was capable of thinking up or following through with a plan. The whiskered preteen was loud, brash, and impulsive; nothing that would give someone the impression that she could be a tactician of all people. Of her three students, she would have thought either Seiichi or Sakaye to be the one to take up that role. Nariko would have undoubtedly been the distraction, not Sakaye. Seiichi she could somewhat understand as being the defense while the other two took care of Yuzuna, but still…
Speaking of Yuzuna though, the bandaged woman finally stood once more and glared darkly at the three genin, before turning the expression on Kairi. The criminal then released a disgruntled and enraged "tch" before leaping onto the expanse of water behind her, hands moving together.
The silver-haired jounin immediately followed, fingers flying, as her sharingan observed the shinobi signs Yuzuna flew through. A plan began to form within the Konoha kunoichi's mind at the wild anger that seemed to be already overtaking the dark-haired criminal's features.
'Someone's reaching the end of her rope~!' Kairi thought in an almost sing-song voice
to herself, smiling beneath her mask, before finally initiating her plan.
It took two seconds for both kunoichi to complete the technique at the same moment, another ten for Yuzuna to begin her furious panic, thirty seconds total for Kairi to corner her, .2 for a pair of needles to pierce Yuzuna's throat and bring her to a clean but violent end, about a minute for them to converse with the strange Hunter nin that disappeared with the criminal's body, a second for odd suspicions to stir within Team 7's masked sensei, and three small steps for said sensei to finally collapse.
'Overused my sharingan…' Kairi thought sleepily as the voices around her faded, and then, she fell into unconsciousness.
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Tazuna had not expected much to come of that day. Certainly he hoped it would be the one where his son returned safe and unharmed, but he didn't necessarily expect it. Even if Gatou and his goons were skulking about, the bridge builder didn't think anything particularly special would happen. The town had become so terrified of the businessman that there was no need for an example to be made like the exhibition one year ago; the thought made him shudder and he had to grind his teeth together to keep from saying something he knew would frighten his granddaughter had she been close enough to hear.
Tazuna had expected nothing of that day. Thus, it came as a surprise when he answered the door to find three foreign-looking children and his son carrying an equally exotic-looking woman on his back.
The elderly man blinked at the strange sight, his gaze slowly shifting to the bottle in his hand; the very one, in fact, that he had been downing mere moments before as if it held the very elixir of life within it. Glancing at the scene before him once more, he shook his head and rubbed his eyes wearily as he walked back into the house. "I think I need to lay off a bit…" he grumbled as he made his way down the hall.
Toshirou couldn't help but smile at his father's words. "They are an interesting bunch, aren't they?" he said lightly as he stepped inside, following his father and leading the three genin behind him.
"Interesting is an understatement," Tazuna grunted, glancing Seiichi over and peering skeptically at his hair.
The male genin frowned and subconsciously straightened his shoulders and lightly shifted his chest forward, altering his posture as he walked into a slightly more masculine one.
The elder shook his head again and halted at a shoji door somewhere down the hall of the small house. He stood beside it as Toshirou maneuvered his hand out from under the jounin's knee to slide the door open, quickly replacing the appendage as he felt the woman begin to slip down his back. The three genin trailed after, as he made his way inside and placed the unconscious Kairi on a messy futon near the back of the room.
"I've been meaning to put this up," the dark-haired man spoke aloud, referring to the futon. "It's clean, but I suppose it's a good thing I didn't." He grinned wryly. "Saves me the trouble of having to set it up again for your teacher."
"Will she be okay?" Nariko finally blurted as she looked up at Toshirou, blue eyes shining with concern.
The other two watched him as well: one with worry reflecting in his eyes and the other with a blank, but intense stare.
Their client smiled reassuringly at them, the expression coming easily after having used it so many times with his daughter. "I'm sure she'll be fine. It looks like she's just suffering from fatigue, probably from having to battle that woman earlier. Just give her some rest and I bet she'll be awake in no time."
Nariko bit her lip and Seiichi looked uncertain, but the three genin seemed to accept his words.
Toshirou then stood and left the room, his father following behind as he made his way to the kitchen.
"What happened to her?" Tazuna questioned, jerking his head back in the direction from whence they had come and taking another swig from the bottle in his palm.
The younger male paused for a moment in his perusal of the tiny refrigerator, where he had been searching for something his young escorts might be able to eat, and simply stood there for a long moment in silence.
"…We were attacked, Dad," he finally sighed.
The elderly man stiffened, his eyes instantly snapping towards his son as he stared quietly at him.
"…by bandits?" the bridge builder questioned almost hopefully.
But Toshirou shook his head. "No, Dad. Shinobi." He locked gazes with his father solemnly. "They know."
"Everything?"
"Everything."
Tazuna frowned. "When?"
"A few days in," Toshirou sighed again, reaching for a container and opening it to observe its contents. He wrinkled his nose at the foul smell that pervaded his nostrils, and with a groan, he reluctantly tossed it in the trash, eying their small store of food helplessly.
Tazuna's eyebrows rose at his son's answer. "A few days? Then… they still went with you?"
Toshirou nodded, eyes lighting up as he recalled the supplies stored away in his pack. He slipped out the packages from within and carefully looked each one over, before making himself busy with stocking their shelves. However, a frown toyed with his lips as his gaze flicked back to the refrigerator.
"I was surprised too, especially considering I'd lied to not only them, but their missions board as well," Toshirou continued with a wince. "I'm afraid I pulled something you might have done when telling them why they should continue with me–" He grimaced at the memory. "–but even then, their teacher—the silver-haired woman," Toshirou explained, "I'm pretty sure was considering turning back to Konoha anyway." The spiky-haired man sighed and rubbed his forehead. "It was only because of Nariko that they agreed to continue, I think."
"Nariko?" Tazuna questioned.
"The blonde," Toshirou clarified, a grateful smile tugging at his lips. "She defended my case, took my side, made this whole little speech about why they should continue, questioning their honor as shinobi and everything if they chose to turn back." He shook his head and grinned. "She's an interesting girl. I'm glad she was there."
The gray-haired man frowned. "That little girl? She did all that?" A dubious expression manifested upon his features as he swallowed another mouthful of alcohol from his bottle.
The dark-haired male glanced at his father from where he had been placing the last of their new supplies on the shelf. "They really were quite incredible, Dad. All three of them, even for being so young…" His expression suddenly tightened, but he shook himself and turned back to the aging man. "By the way, where's Isano? I haven't seen her yet."
Tazuna jerked his head back towards the hallway. "In her room, where she always seems to hide away nowadays." He sighed and tilted his head back for another swig, only to be disappointed when nothing emerged. Lowering the bottle, he frowned and peered inside, as if he might have missed some.
Toshirou frowned at the action, but said nothing about it. "Has she been there the entire time?" he questioned with concern, eyebrows knitting together.
"Yeah, pretty much," Tazuna replied, releasing his breath in an annoyed huff, as he dropped the bottle on the counter, where it wobbled for a moment before settling.
Toshirou pursed his lips at that and sighed through his nose, placing a hand over her eyes.
"…How long are you going to let her do that, Toshirou?" the elder questioned quietly.
"As long as she needs," the younger instantly responded.
Tazuna frowned. "It's been a year, Toshirou. Don't you think–"
The dark-haired male cut him off with a sharp look and a scowl. "Now is not the time for a lecture, Dad. She is my daughter; I will decide what's best for her." Removing the new bag of rice from the cupboard where he had just placed it, Toshirou set to work cooking it before rummaging in the fridge for something to go with it.
The aging man sighed, walking to the cabinet to sneak another bottle. "Check the bottom shelf. Koharu-san brought something over yesterday."
Toshirou reached down and pulled the suggested container from the shelf, but did nothing else to acknowledge his father's words.
Tazuna simply sighed once more and left the room.
oxoxo
"What do you think she looks like?"
Seiichi blinked and lifted his gaze from where he had been tapping his fingers listlessly on his knee, the other hand cupping his cheek, to his blonde-haired teammate.
"...What?" he questioned, giving her an odd look.
Nariko motioned to the sleeping woman before them. "You know, sensei. I've never seen her without her mask, so what do you think she looks like?"
The pinket narrowed his eyes at her, seemingly annoyed, but already the gears in his mind were whirring, and his curiosity grew as the green orbs flicked towards their sleeping sensei. Come to think of it, he had never seen sensei without her mask either—Did she ever take it off?—so he wondered...
"I think we should take a peek," the girl whispered, though it seemed a bit too loud to be dubbed as such, and she glanced at the woman as if she could hear.
Seiichi eyed his teammate and said slowly, "You... want us to slip off her mask... while she's unconscious?"
The blonde nodded. "Yeah, pretty much. I mean, who's to say we'll ever get another chance, and I really wanna know what's under there..."
The boy frowned and crossed his arms. "I don't know... What if she wakes up?"
"She's completely out of it!" Nariko claimed, poking their sensei to prove it.
The silver-haired woman remained motionless, and the pinket's frown deepened, him seemingly torn between the fear of being caught and the desire to remove at least one mystery from the older kunoichi.
"...Fine," he finally said, "but you're doing it."
"Eh?" the blonde cried. "Why me?"
"It was your idea," the boy retorted, eyebrows drawn down with irritation.
"Well, yeah..."
Sakaye rolled her eyes at the two's conversation. "Idiots..."
Nariko flushed and scowled. "Oh, shut up, Sakaye-gaki! You know you're curious too!"
The Uchiha snorted, but didn't respond.
The room went silent for a moment.
"...You do it," Nariko said with a swallow, glancing at Seiichi.
"What? No!" the male genin cried, glaring at her, though he seemed nervous. "You do it!"
"Y-You're the guy here! Don't you want to be all chivalrous and stuff?"
"For you?... No. Besides, it's because I'm a guy that I'd probably get in more trouble. What if she thinks I'm being... perverted or something!"
"She's not going to wake up! So, you know, if you just slip it down a little..."
"If it's so easy, do it yourself, because I'm not!"
"But Seiichi-kun–!"
The two halted in their argument as Toshirou knocked on the doorjamb, expression faintly amused. "I hate to interrupt, but if you three are hungry, I've made dinner..."
Nariko immediately perked up and leapt to her feet. "Did you say dinner? Great, I'm starved!" On cue, her stomach released a loud growl. The blonde giggled and sped her way out of the room, having completely forgotten her wish to see beneath Kairi's mask.
Seiichi rolled his eyes at his teammate's actions, and both he and Sakaye stood to follow after their overenthusiastic teammate.
"I swear," the pink-haired boy grumbled, "her brain's connected to her stomach." He made a face and headed towards the kitchen with the dark-haired Uchiha not far behind.
Toshirou grinned at his young guests' behavior as he walked after them.
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It was after everyone had seated themselves at the table and that dinner had been served that Squad 7 finally met Toshirou's daughter.
She was a slender girl, obviously the age of 8 that her father had claimed her to be if the softened cheeks and small stature were any indication. She seemed to have derived her dark hair and eyes straight from her father, though her skin was lighter than his own and left the impression that she must have inherited that much from her deceased mother.
Yet, another thing that set her apart from her father, and a strange one at that, was her clothing.
Toshirou dressed simply, his clothes likely meant to do no more than keep him comfortable and clothed; not one article of his attire, while not necessarily distasteful, could be labeled as looking... "nice." Given what he had said about their lack of money, it was understandable.
Isano, on the other hand, wore a navy-blue, sleeveless jumper that reached to her knees and zipped up in the front, similar in style to her father's shirt, with pockets near her hips. Beneath the dress, she wore a long-sleeved white shirt, a thick red stripe wrapping around the upper sleeves with a thin line of space cutting horizontally through its middle. To top it all off, a white headband sat behind her bangs, which could do nothing to conceal the apathetic expression that seemed distinctly out of place on her young face.
Sakaye narrowed her eyes ever so slightly at the child's attire. If they were so poor, why didn't Toshirou's daughter wear clothes as simple as her father's?...
"Isano," Toshirou greeted with a grin, eyes lighting up as he finally caught sight of his daughter.
The girl simply stared silently at him, flicking her gaze only briefly over their guests, from the entrance of the room.
Tazuna glanced sideways at her. "Aren't you going to hug your dad, Isano? He's been gone awhile..." He drank heavily from his bottle after making the suggestion.
The words seemed to finally spurn the dark-haired girl to move, and she quietly made her way to the table, seating herself beside her father. Without hesitation, Toshirou wrapped his daughter in a warm, one-armed hug.
"Told you I'd be back," he murmured.
Isano gave no response whatsoever, instead accepting his gesture passively until he released her, the man outwardly giving no indication that her reaction troubled him. However, Tazuna's eyebrows furrowed and he sent Toshirou a pointed look, which his son deliberately ignored.
Nariko frowned at the interaction, eying the dark-haired girl across from her strangely. After a moment, she shrugged it off and dug into her meal.
'Weird girl...' Nariko thought.
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Fun Facts:
– The question in the title refers to the life you have already gotten a glimpse of at Toshirou's home. As you may have noticed, Toshirou's daughter is... well, a bit cold even towards her own father. Though Toshirou seems happy enough, their home life—Toshirou's, Tazuna's, and Isano's—is obviously not perfect. It brings to mind Toshirou's comment in Chapter 12.
Normal; he wondered if he should consider that a good thing.
– The brief moment where Sakaye questions Isano's clothing in comparison to Toshirou's was originally supposed to be done by Kairi. However, I only realized later, after rereading the chapter again, that Kairi was still unconscious in the guest room and hadn't woken up yet, so I quickly changed it to Seiichi. It didn't feel right with him though, so I replaced him with Sakaye instead.
– "What happened to her?" Tazuna questioned, jerking his head back in the direction from whence they had come and taking another swig from the bottle in his palm.
Yes, I was thinking of the song Don't Trust Me, by: 3OH!3 when choosing that wording. Grins.
"B-b-bruises, cover your arms/ Shaking in the fingers with a bottle in your palm..."
– I had a tough time determining how to alter Team 7's plan in taking down Yuzuna. In thinking about it, I remembered that they cleverly avoided the Water clone and instead went straight to Zabuza. Thinking on that, I wondered what if Team 7 did the reverse and tricked Yuzuna by appearing to make the amateur-ish mistake of heading for the water clone instead of her. I liked the idea as it certainly switched things up a bit and am fairly pleased with how it turned out. I hope it is found to be acceptable by others.
– I skimmed over the conclusion of the Yuzuna vs. Kairi battle and the Haru conversation because it pretty much followed the same trail as the original.
– Has anyone else noticed how easily Nariko forgets things once something more interesting pops up? Grins. One, (Chapter 4) once Hajime brought up knowing why the villagers hated her, she forgot he had been attempting to kill her, wanting to have him explain instead; Two, (Chapter 8) she forgot Seiichi had been speaking to her once Kairi entered the room and she recognized her; and Three, (Chapter 15) once Toshirou told them dinner was ready, she instantly forgot her desire to see under Kairi's mask. Laughs. Nariko may very well have ADD.