Chapter 06: Experimental Shift, Recruit the First Minion!
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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, it is the property of Masashi Kishimoto
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Kabuto watched as the young whisker marked boy hopped up on the table before introducing himself, "Hello Naruto, my name is Kabuto Yakushi, an Apprentice Medic. I will be the one administering the tests for your abilities, some at the request of the clan heads and others at the request of several high ranking shinobi that Lord Hokage has cleared for these tests. Any questions?"
"Yeah, why isn't an actual doctor doing this?" Naruto asked, squinting at the gray-haired boy who just laughed.
"I'm only a month away from taking my certification test, but it was decided that I should administer the tests because I have the necessary level of skill and I'm the closest to your age. All to make you more comfortable. Now then, we'll start with requests from the Clan Heads."
At first everything went quite slow as Naruto didn't know much about human anatomy, but Kabuto coached him through it with patience. While most of it was simple stuff, changing his nails and teeth to claws and fangs at Tsume Inuzuka's request or the slightly harder concept of changing his skin or hair colors, they did find limitations.
Naruto's chakra signature stayed the same no matter what he did, it was only his physical features that changed. He was limited by his knowledge of the human body, and how tiring activating the transformations became after several quick or extreme changes. They also discovered a benefit being that unless Naruto wanted to change back, he stayed the same way he was after each transformation without a time limit, showing how he could have passed as Shikamaru's twin brother while he ate a big lunch to recover his energy. When Hyuuga Clan Head stepped forward, and the true tests of Naruto's ability started.
"Uzumaki-san, I want you to imitate my eyes, the Byakugan," Hiashi stated. Everyone leaned forward in anticipation. If Naruto could mimic Kekkei Genkai, they could easily slip him into a clan from a foreign village as an infiltration mission, giving him greater access to the village than he would get posing as a normal civilian or shinobi.
When Naruto had made the changes, they found out that he could not utilize the Byakugan at all. None of its abilities would activate for him, despite knowing what it could do from the brief descriptions that Hiashi had given him. Then a silver haired jounin stepped forward from the back of the crowd and revealed his Sharingan eye hidden under his headband at the Third's command. The results were the same. He could copy the physical attributes of either of the two the Doujutsu, but he couldn't use them despite knowing the basics of what they did.
"It's because your body is not made to use those abilities." Kyuubi had replied when he had silently questioned the fox, "Your body is suited for the use of your shape-shifting, meaning you could possibly mimic some of the more benign physical bloodlines when you become more experienced, but at the moment anything you try could harm you beyond my ability to repair."
The tests went on as the gathered crowd came up with more ideas. They had tried to get him to copy the First's Mokuton abilities, but he couldn't change his chakra elements to fit the needed nature transformations. They had been running out of ideas and quietly discussed any others while Naruto took a break to replenish his energy. That was when Kabuto got an idea.
"Naruto, this may be dangerous for you to try, but there was once a clan from Kiri that utilized their own bones as weapons. I want you to try to make a bone spike come out of the palm of your hand. Stop if it becomes too painful or too much for you to handle."
Naruto ignored the Kyuubi's previous warning and tried to form the spike, seeing as all of the doctors that were watching the tests were on standby the moment Kabuto had said it may be dangerous to him. As soon as his bone started to move, he screamed in pain, stopping the movement. Kabuto and two others quickly restrained him and put the bone back in place, numbing the pain.
"The final conclusion for this portion of the test is that Naruto cannot duplicate any known Kekkei Genkai because his body is not suited to use them, either because his can't duplicate the chakra paths and natures required, or his body is physically unable to handle the transition. We have one more test for today but we won't get any results until the day after tomorrow. If everyone would be so kind to escort yourselves out, I have to finish up and record our findings."
That night Kabuto had Naruto preform a couple of simple transformations, turning his hair brown and his skin pale, to see if when he turned back to his birth form after the next twenty four hours or if the transformation would stick. The next day was spent seeing if Naruto could duplicate all the results, minus the attempt at the bone spike, from the day before. Naruto had been able to do so, but she griped and grumbled about how boring the day had been. They discovered the next day that Naruto was back to his normal blond hair and tan skin.
Kabuto hypothesized that every time the gender shift happens Naruto's form is reset to that gender's basic form, and Naruto would have to be careful when using his abilities in the field, or he might be discovered while infiltrating an enemy camp.
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The rest of the month went by rather quickly, with Iruka re-teaching everything from day one of the Academy to Naruto because he was going to give Naruto the final test again at the end of their training. Iruka had a gut feeling that Naruto's time at the Academy was sabotaged and with how fast Naruto picked everything up, he was right. Guy and Lee started teaching Naruto the basics of a Taijutsu style Guy had created in his tenor as a chuunin which he called Avian Strike.
"Now Naruto, I helped create this style with a squad mate from when I was chuunin. He used it up to the day he died in the last war, and I have continued to add to and refine this style in his memory. It requires a lot of leg strength to use this style as several of the maneuvers send the enemy into the air where you deal the finishing blow. When he died he left the scrolls to me hoping I could find someone to teach his style. Every week, at the end of the week, you and I will spar. If you have made a good improvement from the previous week, I will give you the next scroll and help you learn from it."
"How will this help me with my own style?" Naruto asked, seeing as he had explained to the jounin what he wanted to do.
"Simple, my young student. Learning and creating a Taijutsu style are similar, yes, but you need a good base before you can create a masterpiece. The Avian strike is an unfinished style and it will serve as the base for the Jihatsu Shifuto. Work hard to master what we currently have and take it beyond my old friend's wildest dreams! Now, let's start with 50 laps around the field and some stretching to warm up!" Guy cried out as he posed, arm extended with a thumb up and his teeth shining. Naruto started his laps before the spandex clad jounin could devolve into his usual extreme work out rants.
Guy had kept his word though. While Lee mostly helped him set up a physical workout routine, it was Guy that helped Naruto improve his Taijutsu the most. This, along with Iruka's imposed diet, both of Naruto's forms had hit a growth spurt. While it had brought his male form up to the average height in the class, Shino and Shikamaru being the tallest of them, the real improvement was his girl form. Gone was the eight year old child-like figure, she was still naturally shorter than everyone else in the class, but she now looked like an eleven year old who was about to begin puberty. Naruto shuddered at that thought.
Neji and Tenten also assisted in the training, Tenten to a greater degree than the stoic Hyuuga. Neji had helped Iruka teach Naruto all of the Academy level chakra exercises when Iruka couldn't figure out why Naruto kept failing them and had started the Tree Climbing exercise. Naruto never hated a tree so much before now, but he hated the one he practiced on with a passion, he could only make it a quarter of the way up.
Tenten helped Naruto relearn the correct ways to use shuriken and kunai after seeing his sloppy technique. She was surprised he managed to hit as many targets as he did when he had been holding them wrong or flicked his wrist at the wrong angle or speed. She also trained him in the use of the jian long sword, a double-edged straight sword that fit with his straight attack mindset. The blade itself was actually Tenten's, but Ryu was working on his weapons that were put in as special orders.
The sword was still too unwieldy in his female form, even after 'her' growth spurt, he was making great strides in learning how to use a gunbai as his female form's main weapon. The weapon 'she' was practicing with was also Tenten's, but apparently part of the order was weapons of similar measurements for him to get use to wielding them. The gunbai was about the size of 'her' torso, but was surprisingly light for its size. It would work well with Naruto's natural wind element at range, and doubled as a shield/club if the enemy got to close.
Naruto had also spent a lot of time around the rest of the graduating class, at least the ones that had visited him and the others in the Hospital. Shikamaru was the first one to leave the hospital. When he did, he thanked Naruto profusely because the amount of Kyuubi's chakra that had been released that night had acted as the catalyst the needed to turn his clan's shadow techniques into a true Kekkei Genkai. This had earned Naruto an invite for a celebratory feast at the Nara Compound. It was the most active he had ever seen in the clan members, as they were acting like normal exuberant people instead of their normal sloth-like demeanor.
Sakura and Ino had been downright terrifying when they came across Naruto and Tenten during one of his female days, and Tenten had abandoned 'her' to their clutches. Naruto could not look at wax or paper strips the same way ever again. Hinata had also had a run in with Naruto on the next girl day after that, and found that she could talk to Naruto like an old friend, only slightly stuttering. The next day saw her back to normal around the male Naruto though, fainting when he came into skin contact by clapping her on the shoulder.
Shino and Sasuke had left the hospital just recently as well, both looking no the worse for wear. Shino's increased reserves had become apparent even to Naruto as the normally stoic Aburame was practically buzzing due to his suddenly hyperactive hive. He often ended up releasing small swarms of his beetles and would send them off to do something if they got too restless. Sasuke on the other hand, returned to doing what he did best. He trained himself into the ground trying to figure out what had changed with him. The doctors had said that it might have affected his Sharingan, so the raven-haired avenger tried his hardest to active them to see if it was true.
Choji and Kiba had also started hanging out with him more, Choji actually asked Naruto to spar with him to help improve himself while Kiba joked around a lot, but was hard headed enough not to get the message about Naruto's female form. He tended to stick his foot in his mouth every time his was around 'her'...
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A week after Naruto's training starts
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"Hey Naruto!" Kiba yelled as he noticed Naruto, in female form, waiting outside of Iruka's office in the Academy, "What's up? Why are you doing here?"
"Hey Kiba, Iruka-sensei needed to find something to help with my training," Naruto began to pout, which Kiba thought it was funny at how cute it was on her face, "He's teaching me everything from year one of the Academy again!"
Kiba smirked, but understood her irritation, "Yeah, but from what I know of your grades, you need it. Where are you at now?"
"Finishing up year two. Two more to go." Naruto groused. Kiba idly realized Naruto was wearing a girl's V-neck shirt with mesh armor underneath, and a pair of matching pants, "Why are you here?"
"Dropping off a couple of things for the Academy to use when it starts up again, the new class has three of my little cousins in it, and they have five ninken between them." Kiba said as he pulled a scroll out of his pocket. His eyes kept wandering Naruto's slight frame, constantly being drawn back to the newly developed borderline B-cup bust.
"You know what Naruto?" Kiba asked, acting like he just realized something, not noticing Iruka walking up behind him.
"What Kiba?" Naruto may have been through Anko's 'class', but she was oblivious to Kiba's roaming eyes. She was just too hungry to worry about it.
"You should stay in this form and be my girlfriend, because you're fucking hot!" Kiba said before he felt something clamp down on his shoulder. Looking over and following the arm up to his Academy teacher's face, Kiba realized that he had screwed the pooch one this one. Akamaru had abandoned him the second Iruka had grabbed him and was sitting in Naruto's lap, slowly being turned into a pile of mush as she scratched his head in the one place he couldn't quite reach, the space between his ears.
"Akamaru you traitor!" Kiba yelled as Iruka preformed a perfect spiral throw with him as the ball out of the open window at the end of the hall.
Akamaru looked up to see his partner exit the building and gave a shrug. He still didn't really understand the concepts of human relationships. Why didn't Kiba just act cute like he did if he wanted to get his ears scratched?
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Naruto still didn't know what that entire incident had been about because he had been ignoring what Kiba had said in favor for daydreaming about swimming in, and eating, a giant bowl of ramen instead. At the moment he was sitting in front of the Hokage waiting on approval of his identification photos.
"This is actually decent for you Naruto, I'm surprised." The Hokage said, impressed at the well-groomed and impressive looking shinobi in the picture, as well as chuckling at the slightly angry kunoichi in the second photo.
"Iruka-sensei was at my apartment to make sure I didn't try anything." Naruto mumbled, causing the elderly Hokage to chuckle. He could imagine that if the chuunin hadn't, Naruto would have shown up covered in face paint and looking like a clown.
"I'll beat you today Grandpa!" came a yell as the door banged open. Naruto twisted in his seat to see a young boy with an abnormally long scarf charge in with several blunted shuriken in hand, but he only made it halfway across the room before his scarf wrapped around his legs, tripping him up and it sent him tumbling to the floor.
Sarutobi watched as his grandson bounced back to his feet quickly and started yelling at Naruto, who picked him up by the front of his shirt and yelled back. When Konohamaru informed Naruto about being the Hokage's grandson, Naruto looked back and forth between the boy and himself, declared he saw no family resemblance, and brought a fist down on the boy's head.
Chuckling, the Third spoke, "Thank you for volunteering for Konohamaru's babysitter today, Naruto."
"Huh?" was Naruto's eloquent response before the boy asked, "What's in it for me?"
Sarutobi sighed, trying to think about how he could make it worth Naruto's interest without having to actually pay the boy. Ebisu was needed for a mission and he had a council meeting after this to discuss the long term effects of the spikes of Kyuubi chakra that have been happening lately.
"Every Hokage must be able to teach, to be able to pass their knowledge onto the next generation. If you can teach Konohamaru one of the Academy jutsu before I pick him up today, you'll be on step closer." Sarutobi said, lifting his chin wisely while gesturing grandly with his pipe. Naruto fell for it as if it had been baited with ramen.
"I'll do better than that! I'll teach him my special Henge!"
"Not that one!" Hiruzen barked, fearing the worst immediately.
"No, the crazy lady explained why I should never use that one again, before stabbing me with needles. My solid Henge! Iruka said it had to be a mid B to low A rank depending on how much chakra is used." Naruto crossed his arms, "He said it's like the Kage Bunshin to the Bunshin, solid or illusion."
"Very well then. If you succeed in this little endeavor of yours, then you have taken another step towards becoming the Hokage of Konohagakure." Sarutobi felt pleased that he found a way to twist the boy's dream into becoming his prize for taking care of his grandson for the afternoon. Naruto had bought right into it.
"Alright! I'll teach it to the brat, if it's the last thing he does!" Naruto exclaimed causing Konohamaru to pale. Sarutobi chuckled as he pushed the two of them out of the office, he needed to gather the rest of his reports for his next meeting.
Konohamaru, on the other hand tried to figure out what was so special about the jutsu, and Naruto had told him he could turn into anything with it.
"So, I could transform into a monkey?" the child asked, and when Naruto nodded Konohamaru let out a whoop of joy, suddenly motivated to learn it, "I'm gonna be a monkey! I'm gonna be a monkey!"
Naruto watched as the boy swung around a low branch on a tree about four feet off the ground, chanting the phrase over and over again, with a slight exasperated look.
"With the way you're acting you're halfway there!"
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Kabuto sighed as he leaned back in his chair. Being the son of one of Konoha's Head Medics had its perks, including his own private lab in the hospital where he could conduct any necessary experiments. While he had to keep it pretty humane, he didn't mind. The Hokage had set him up with the perfect job, tracking, testing, and cataloging the effects of these so called 'random' spikes of the Kyuubi's chakra.
The ROOT operatives that had been posted to following Naruto, ensuring no one tried anything had noticed that these spikes occurred when Naruto came into physical contact with several people over the month, and each of these people had been asked to go to him for a checkup.
Now one would think that the effects of the Bijuu's chakra would produce immediate noticeable results. This was anything but true. So far, only three noticeable changes had happened while everyone affected by it all gained a little something. The three obvious cases, those known by the public anyway, were the Nara heir's newly minted Yoruton Kekkei Genkai, the mutation of the Aburame heir's beetles, and Naruto's shape-shifting, which he had named Tenkan. Everyone else who had been affected only gained a slight increase in their chakra levels and a boosted healing factor
Kabuto looked over the names in the file; Choji Akimichi, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuuga, Shino Aburame, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Naruto Uzumaki. These nine children where the first to be affected, and they were in the newly graduated batch of Genin. But they were not the only ones affected. Guy's team, Rock Lee, Neji Hyuuga, and Tenten had spent a large amount of time around the Naruto and absorbed quite a bit of the chakra while Konohamaru Sarutobi had begun showing symptoms early last night and Iruka Umino, the Academy teacher, had received the largest dose of the Bijuu's chakra besides its container.
The grey-haired medic sighed as he continued his attempt to decipher the seemingly random effects the chakra was having on the DNA of the blood samples he had taken during each of the physicals. He was so absorbed in his work he never noticed a shadow detach from the wall until a kunai was held to his throat.
"My my, Kabuto, it's never been this easy to catch you off guard before." A voice hissed in his ear as the kunai's blade withdrew from his neck. Kabuto, who had frozen, sighed in relief.
"Lord Orochimaru, what an expected surprise," the medic said as he knelt before the Snake Sannin.
"Of course," Orochimaru replied as he examined the normally spotless lab in its current state of disarray, "Please, tell me why you've called me here, given the trouble it takes me to slip in unnoticed, it must be something truly extraordinary."
"It is indeed, everything started over a month ago when Mizuki attempt to steal the Scroll of Forbidden Seals and defect to Otogakure when he was kill by an Umino Clan Member, one who had regressed into the Blood-lust..."
Orochimaru listened in idle amusement as his spy went on to explain the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki's involvement with the incident and how the Kyuubi's chakra was, for the lack of a better term, 'infecting' certain people its container came in contact with. Flipping through Kabuto's notes on the subject, Orochimaru frowned at the notes on one Sasuke Uchiha.
"Kabuto, I want to be kept informed on this situation. Because of the Kyuubi's meddling, it may be impossible for me to use Sasuke as my next body. Keep an eye on both of them, it seems as if the Kyuubi has unknowingly meddled with my plans so I must tread carefully. Make sure everything you report is as accurate as possible without blowing your cover."
As the Snake Sannin turned to leave, Kabuto offered a low bow, "Of course Lord Orochimaru."
When he was sure he was alone again, Kabuto straightened up, pushing his glasses back into place with an evil gleam passing over his eyes, "But then again, this might just help me find who I truly am."
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Author's Note: And this is the last chapter of the rewritten part! The next chapter will finish up the first arc and Chapter eight is when the Team Assignments take place. Mini rant time!
1) Many have asked about pairings and Naruto's sexuality. My answer is not until Shippuden. I do not find myself comfortable with writing those types of scenes so I will put it off until then. Also, Naruto will only be paired with a girl, sorry to all of you readers who wanted Naruto to stay a girl or have a boy on boy relationship. First off, I will not write boy on boy, it scares me slightly, and I won't write girl on girl to make it fair. Now if it's a canon relationship, say Uranus and Neptune from Sailor Moon, I mention it and skirt the topic.
POLL TIME: For this chapter I am only going to ask one question.
I am planning on two different missions for Team 7. The first is to go to the ruins of Uzushiogakure and recover everything that's still of use. The second mission is the Kyuubi wishes to warn the other Bijuu about the future events, and the Hokage arranges a diplomatic mission to allow Naruto to meet every jinchuuriki, excepting Yagura as he needs to stay in Kiri and it's too dangerous to send Team 7 to Kiri.
My question is this, I plan on having one of these two missions happen before the Chuunin exams, as both will have an impact on the exams. Which mission do you, the readers, want to happen before the exams. The mission that loses this poll will happen in a later chapter, most likely during or after when the Sasuke retrieval arc is supposed to happen, depending on what I do with Sasuke.
This is Dingo saying goodnight!