Part Two

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The nightdress felt like a tent around Naruto when she woke up in the morning, and it was rubbing on her in a weird way. She was used to scratchy cotton boxers, not this light and silky smooth material that brushed against her distractingly.

Talking about scratching... she dropped her hand down between her legs to get rid of an itch, and stumbled into the bathroom. Loaded her toothbrush up, and lifted her face to look into the mirror.

He'd let the oiroke no jutsu slip sometime in the night.

Well that, combined with the fact that he'd just woken up, explained why it was rubbing distractingly down there. It actually felt sort of good, this sort of material against him, but it looked completely stupid.

He quickly transformed into a she, rapidly filling out the nightgown and changing from looking embarrassingly ridiculous into, well... into something that Jiraiya definitely would have approved of. Not her definitely not her. Hastily she rearranged the garment properly on her frame.

Boy, it must have been colder in here than she'd realized.

This was all stupid anyway. How the hell was she supposed to keep up the Oroike no Jutsu while she was asleep? She didn't really understand how she could be exected to focus on anything while her mind was busy dreaming, but the old man had been pretty adamant about it.

"If you want to be a Super Pervert like me then you have to make everything training!"

"I don│ft want to be a pervert, you stupid old letch!"

"If you want to be a Great Ninja like me then you have to make everything training!"

Sighing, Naruto finished brushing her teeth, and started going about the other tasks of getting ready for the morning. Really, she wasn't sure if she should be looking forward to the old man's training, or fearing his next dose of stupidity.

---

By late afternoon that day Naruto was actually able to walk on the water and only get the soles of her feet wet. She was sore, wet and tired, and moving to the centre of the stream where the water was moving faster still gave her trouble.

Only a couple of hours into the next day she had it down pat. It had actually been pretty easy. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the orange bikini and sarong that she'd picked up made her feel much more confident and like herself, maybe it was the fact that the old letch had actually started offering useful hints and reminding her of them when she started to panic, or maybe it was just that he wasn't leering as much at her anymore... Well, she wasn't noticing it as much, at least.

This was her third day with the sanin, and already some of his antics were starting to seem normal. The way he watched her was uncomfortable, but she'd learnt to block out both his stares and the control that the oiroke required out of her conscious thought, and to focus solely on the task at hand.

"Congratulations Naru-chan!" the old man gushed as she easily stepped back onto dry land again, "I think you might be ready for the next step now."

Reverently the old man held out a bundle wrapped in fine rice paper to Naruto. What could it be, she wondered as she took it from him. A cool jutsu scroll? Something to let her summon great big toads the same way she'd seen the old man doing that first time at the baths? She tore the paper back in one excited moment to find...

Sandals. Stiletto heeled sandals with girly little straps all over them.

It wasn't quite the cool gift she'd been expecting, but when she lifted her eyes from the gift to her sensei's face his perverted grin dropped away immediately to be replaced by what she was coming to think of as his serious teaching expression. It was much better than his 'he's looking at my ass again' expression, and it was enough to stop her immediately assuming the worst of him.

"Why the hell do I need sandals?"

"You're going to be walking on the water now while wearing those."

"Huh? Why should I do that? I already learnt how to walk on water."

"Don│ft be foolish," Jiraiya said, leaning forward to bring an intense stare to bare upon Naruto, "With high heels far less of your feet are in contact with the water, so of course the control over you chakra has to be even greater. And besides," he added, not quite as an afterthought, "Wearing high heels will make your calves look fantastic!"

It was, it turned out, much harder to water-walk in heels. In fact, to start with she even had trouble walking on land without wobbling, and when she had sorted that out she found herself rapidly reacquainting herself with the idea of frequent and accidental baths.

Jiraiya had little sympathy for her.

"Not only do the heels force you to refine your control, but they will also help you develop your balance further. Ahahaha, Naru-chan, your sensei is brilliant!"

Naruto had her doubts about it. There were plenty of women out there who wore high heels, and that didn't seem to make any of them excellent ninja.

"Couldn't I just walk along fences or something?"

Still, walking on water in heels was difficult, and if the old perv was correct this might be a step towards defeating Neiji, and a step towards becoming Hokage.

---

The same ladies were in the bath house again that evening, for the third night in a row, and by now they were starting to treat Naruto in a way that made her almost feel like she was some strange sort of family member. Not that she really knew what family was like or anything anyway, but still. They were kind to her, seemed interested in what she was doing even if that was only so they had something to gossip about, and they treated her like she belonged. It was like putting on a dress and coming out this way just a handful of times had granted her entry into some sort of strange club. The Association of Female Familiarity, or something.

Well she could cope with being part of any strange club she supposed, as long as it didn│ft mean she was supposed to start crushing on Sasuke, writing stupid love letters, or going to the toilet in pairs. That would just be too creepy. Going to the toilet at all in girl form was quite creepy enough.

Her only real fear was that it wasn't actually a club at all, but instead a strange twilight world that she was stumbling into every night. That the people were really just malicious spirits, trying to trick her out of her soul, or into staying here for all eternity. If they ever offered her any food in here then Naruto would be certain to turn it down.

On the other hand it felt nice. It was good to have people who seemed to genuinely enjoy her company, instead of merely tolerating it, and they barely even knew her yet.

She was getting better at this whole bath house thing too, she felt. She was barely staring at their breasts at all anymore! It sort of felt good to know that she could teach her to look at the naked women less even while she was hanging around a letch like Jiraiya all the time.

She was really grateful to be able to slip into the hot water today. Her legs ached from the tips of her toes all the way up. Her feet were the worst of course, but the steep angle of the heels had forced her to use allsorts of muscles in ways she wasn't accustomed to. Even her buttocks and her lower back were aching, though not as badly.

Her sigh of relief must have been louder than she thought, because the two ladies who she always sat with, Miyu and Haruka, looked over immediately.

"You look sore." Haruka, the younger of the two commented.

She nodded, taking her time to enjoying sensation of the very hot water before replying. "Yeah... My legs hurt all over..."

"Oh I see... I suppose your sensei has been working you pretty hard then?"

"Uhh, yeah I guess he has," it was strange really, Naruto reflected, the way that Haruka and Miyu gave each other that strange look every time they said the word sensei, "He got me to do it all wearing heels today, and I've never worn them before."

She closed her eyes sinking down into the water until it was lapping at her chin. Beside her Miyu cleared her throat.

"Naru dear, do you really think it's alright for him to make you do all these things. I mean you are old enough now to decide how you dress for yourself, aren't you?"

"I guess," Nauto struggled for the words. It was pretty hard to think when the water was feeling this good around her, "But, uhh... He is my sensei, and he's just doing it because he's trying to train me to be better. Well mostly, at least."

It sounded like Haruka couldn't decide if she was giggling or choking. Miyu on the other hand snorted, like she didn't approve of training, or something. Well even if she really had been a proper girl, then Naruto still would have been a great ninja, so she didn't care what the other women thought. Still, she couldn't be mad, because the older lady was just trying to be nice to her really.

"Naru-chan, how old are you sweetheart? Seventeen? Eighteen?"

"Uhh... Yeah, I guess so." That was just a little bit older than she really was, but the idea of having to start trying to explain how she'd come to have a body older than her real age was a horrifying one. And besides, what if they started treating her like a kid when they found out she was younger?

"Well, I know you are old enough to decide for yourself now, but don│ft you think that maybe your sensei is just a little bit too old for you?"

"Uhh.. No, not really. I mean it's not like he's the sort of old geezer who's too tired to keep going long. Besides, if he was too much younger he wouldn't be as good at it."

"Oh, he must be really experienced!" said Haruka brightly, the mention of training always seemed to brighten her up a little, "Don│ft worry we understand. It can be really nice to have a talented sensei. Just be careful, okay?"

"If any thing goes wrong," Miyu added, her voice having lost its disapproving tone and gone back to being nothing more than soft and gentle, "Then you can talk to us about it. We'd be happy to help you out if ever need anything, or if he starts to give you any trouble."

She wasn't sure exactly why Miyo was so worried about her training, but the fact anyone was worried about her at all felt nice. She couldn't stop the traces of a blush from spreading across her cheeks. "Thank you 'baachan, neechan."

There was not much else but companionable quiet for a few minutes, until Haruka spoke up again

"You know Naru, I'm surprised it's just your legs that are sore."

"Huh? Why?"

"Well you never seem to have back pains, and well, with your figure... You must have really good support."

"Not really," Naruto confessed, confused once more to what it was these ladies were talking about, but comfortable enough in their presence to be open with them, "I'm an orphan, so there's not really anyone around to support me most of the time."

They both giggled at that, though their expressions were sympathetic, and Miyu reached out to hug her gently around the shoulders with one arm.

"Not that sort of support silly," Haruka told her, "Really Naru, you can be so innocent sometimes. I know, why don│ft we take you shopping sometime."

"My husband's away next week," Miyu added, "We could make a time, and then afterwards you can come over for dinner. Make a night of it."

It was nice to have someone offering to let her into their own home, Naruto supposed, but she still had no idea how they had got around to this. This weird secret girl language stuff was complicated. It would be nice, but she wasn't sure that it was a good idea. Besides, she only had three and a half weeks to train for the finals now. She was going to need every bit of time possible for training. She was going to have to turn them down.

"Okay... It sounds really nice."

She just knew she was going to regret this. But for now she just enjoyed the company and the warmth.

---

"Okay sensei. I think I've got it." She'd jogged from one bank to the other ten times in a row now without any sort of problems. Walking on water with heels had become almost instinctual, doing it without then was effortless. "So what's next?"

No doubt it would be something stupid.

"Now I want you to stand on the water, just near the bank facing me, and I want you jump up just a little."

Yup. It was stupid alright. She did it anyway, and found that her feet sunk below the surface of the water for a second, and suddenly the exercise made a little more sense.

"So still more control exercises sensei?"

"What?" Her sensei asked, sounding distracted, his eyes fixed intently upon something not quite at eye level, "What? Oh. You need complete freedom of movement in case you ever have to fight on water. Now just get back to bouncing. Uh jumping. I mean jumping."

One day, Naruto figured, she'd actually be grateful for listening to this stupid letch.

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