Had a full chapter done, 12 pages on Word (my usual chapter length), then I noticed that 99% (well, more like 90%) or it was just filler and explanations.
Again.
So threw away most of it and tried to adapt the relevant parts plus some that would have ended up in the next chapter.
By the way, you may have noticed that Haku's views of Naruto's body last chapter line up more with how he becomes is Shippuden than in the original Naruto. The few times we see him shirtless before the timeskip he is more thin than muscled.
I forgot I did not address his body changes.
His body changed visibly, not just earning the suit. For those not into Metroid, Samus is buff. She can jump (well, summersault) about twice her (tall) height from a standstill even without the suit in Zero Mission, for example. And it is not low gravity, since the enemies are as mobile in there as in the planet before (which canonically has higher gravity than Earth, about 25% higher according to someone who made the math with official guidebook data. The enormous value from Prime seems to have been a conversion error).
The reason she can do this is because she was genetically modified as a young child, plus some involuntary ones as she grew up.
And the whole idea of this story is that the genetic modifications she had passed forward, dormant until Naruto awakened them. Including in here her physical shape.
Which is where we arrive to their conversation in Ichiraku's!
By the way, a rant about a scene I am doing myself in this chapter is on the closing notes. I usually dislike it, but I hope it's not as bad in my case.
IIIII
"It is not that special," Kakashi shrugged. "I'm more surprised that it took so long for someone to comment on it."
*poke*
*twitch*
"Not like I had a reason to," Sasuke pointed out from his ramen bowl. "I don't really care."
"There go my fantasies…"
"What was that, Sakura?" a very surprised Sasuke turned to the now paling girl, giving her attention for the one thing she did not want him to.
"Eh? Uh, but even after you two trained for so long in the woods… alone… Wouldn't you notice it?"
"I don't like what you're implying, Sakura-chan," Naruto joined in, looking up from his own ramen bowl.
"Wha… but… You see… Sasuke-kun!" she sputtered, before going to the one she hoped would be on her side.
Said boy just looked at her, raising an eyebrow.
Ah, right. She remembered what exactly she was asking to help her about, and just looked away with an embarrassed blush.
"Sakura's exposed personal preferences aside," Kakashi interjected, saving the rapidly blushing girl, "the body changing when someone unlocks their Kekkei Genkai is a very common thing, really. It is like a second, parallel puberty. I think Tsunade-sama once described it as activating epigenetics or something like that."
*poke*
*twitch*
"Did my body change like that?" Sasuke asked, now a bit curious.
"It did, just not that visibly," Kakashi answered. "While it may look the same when the sharingan is inactive, your eyes are now very different internally. It is the reason that one without can't just pop one in someone's head without lots of drawbacks, for example," he finished, pointing at his own covered eye.
"I see," Sasuke nodded. "So you are not half Uchiha. I heard people born in families with different dojutsus may be born with one eye from each side, instead of them combining into a third eye."
"Sorry. Last gift from a dying teammate, he asked our third member to put it in place of the one I had lost earlier that day. Don't want to talk more about it right now."
The students nodded at that. And thought. As much as they complained about how much he focused on teamwork instead of more hands-on training, maybe there was a reason behind that.
With a frown, Naruto went back to his ramen.
"A-and Naruto-kun's made him… hot?" stuttered Ayame, worker at Ichiraku ramen stand and daughter of the owner even as she kept poking the orange-clad boy's newly-muscled body, earning a shocked gasp from the girl of his team.
"Ayame-san, saying it out loud like that?" Kakashi teased, making the girl give an awkward jump away while Sakura giggled with him.
Her father's eye gave yet another angry twitch, still glaring at a very confused previously favorite customer.
"I feel kinda cold, to be honest," said customer replied, not understanding everyone's reactions. "The suit may seem warm, but it doesn't warm me up that much. Felt kinda cold while we camped at night."
"Hm, interesting," Kakashi noted.
As in, actually took a notepad out of his flak jacket to take a note.
"Then why are you still wearing it?" asked Teuchi, the owner of the stand, while he cooked the boy's next serving.
The question startled the blond boy. Not because of what was asked, but because of how it was asked.
"Uh, hmm, I was kinda too hungy after getting back from the hospital so I wanted to come here first?" he replied, weirdly uncomfortable in a way he had never felt about that particular stand.
His only reply was an angry grunt.
He looked at Ayame, trying to ask if there was something wrong, only to see the girl glaring at her father.
"Also? It may be a bit cold, but it is really comfortable. It may be snug, but it doesn't feel snug, you know?"
"You said before it felt like you were 'wearing nothing at all'," Sauske pointed out.
A loud sound came from the kitchen at those words, but besides the confusion no one said anything.
"It's almost that, yeah," he nodded. "I mean, I can feel something, especially if I rub my fingers and the like, but… it's close to how you feel your hair on your head? I'm guessing it would be like how someone with long hair feels it on their back?" he asked aloud, looking between Sakura and Ayame. "But I don't feel like I'm wearing gloves while holding the bowl, and Ayame-neechan's pokes feel the same as they would on my skin, I think."
"Is that so?" Kakashi replied, still taking notes. "Ayame-san could you poke his face please?"
"What?" he turned quickly to his teacher, eyes wide and a blush forming.
"It is important to be sure, Naruto," was the reply, but the mirth at his embarrassment was clear.
With an annoyed growl, the boy turned away.
Giggling at that, Ayame did so, poking his whiskered cheek. "Oh, I was always curious how they felt," she giggled again.
"How do they feel?" Sakura asked, now curious too.
"Honestly, no more different than the rest of his cheek," the older girl told her, continuing to rub. "I guess for as different as they seem they are birthmarks."
"What about for you, Naruto?" Kakashi joined in.
"I'm feeling mostly the same, but I think the suit kinda numbs the pressure," the blushing boy said back.
"Really?" was a fake-incredulous answer. "I thought you would react a bit more to having a cute older girl rubbing your cheeks."
"Damn it, Kakashi-sense—"
THUNK
The sound of a new bowl of ramen being put harder than it should in front of Naruto stopped his train of thought.
Looking in that direction, Teuchi seemed angry.
At him.
He flinched.
IIIII
"Dad, behave!" Ayame growled at him, earning just a huff from the man.
"Did… did I do something wrong, Teuchi-jiji?" Naruto asked, confusion and hurt clear in his voice.
That question entered the man's ears, and he opened his mouth to reply…
And paused. What did he do wrong? Get more fit? Favor visiting them over going home and get changed? He was not even noticing how Ayame was fawning over his new looks, taking it as just curiosity it seemed.
Well, that made the man feel guilty.
Finally looking back at Naruto, at the boy's actual, sad and hurt face… he saw that, under that physical growth, it was still Naruto. The boy that came to them since he was not even in the academy yet, the boy he had served his ramen not just to stop his hunger but also to wash down his sorrows and to feast for his happy times.
He let out a suffering sigh. Why was he angry? All the boy had done was grow up in his own way. He didn't act different, his personality was the same as ever… his daughter was the one—
Ah.
"No, Naruto-kun, you did nothing wrong," he admitted with a tired sigh. "I guess I'm just noticing how my daughter is growing up, and I'm just angry at the messenger."
The boy looked at him in confusion, and… it was the same way he always did. No malice, no plans, no nothing. Everything from the neck up was the same as always, it seemed.
It was…
He laughed.
"I should feel relieved that it is you my daughter is acting like that for."
"Daddy!" a mortified daughter yelled.
Naruto did not get it, though. "Huh? Like what?"
Teuchi looked at Naruto, saw he was being honest with that question…
So he laughed more. "Nothing Naruto, don't worry about it." He then slid him another ramen bowl, "this one's on the house."
"Sweet! Thanks Teuchi-jiji!"
It was a much happier Naruto that left the ramen stand later with his team…
And Teuchi promptly got an iron-clad grip on his daughter's ear as soon as they had no more clients.
"Ow ow ow! Dad! That hurts!"
"Yeah, yeah. Let's have a talk at the back," he said, pulling her along.
"But why?" she asked, confused.
"Oh, I don't know," he asked back, dripping with sarcasm. Then he poked her arm, hard. "I have no idea what you may have done wrong recently." Then he poked her again. "I wonder…"
"It wasn't like that—"
IIIII
"I will come with Haku at around eight so we can take her to our training grounds later. It is when stores open up," Kakashi told Naruto at the door of his apartment, as he handed him a closed package of briefs. "Got a clone to buy them while we were at the hospital."
"Not even going to pretend you try to get to the training grounds at six like you tell us to?" Naruto shot back, earning a shrug from said teacher. "Why are we going to the stores?"
"To buy new clothes for you, of course," the teacher said as if it was obvious, pointing to Naruto's current clothing consisting of his suit, backpack with supplies and nothing more.
Which earned him a frown from the boy. "I have more clothes at home. And they—"
"They are the same hard-to-remove pants as before," Kakashi shot back. "It is unfortunate, but unless we can figure out how to move you back and forth from your suit modes without destroying whatever you are wearing you need to wear something easier to remove."
The boy opened his mouth to reply… but then closed it with a sigh. "I guess…"
"Don't worry Naruto, I'm sure we can find something easy to remove that you wouldn't mind wearing instead. I mean, you're not getting rid of the orange even if you wanted to, right?"
Naruto could not hold back a small laugh at that. "At least there's that. Goodnight Kakashi-sensei."
"Sleep well, Naruto."
IIIII
As Naruto ate breakfast after his morning exercises (and no, as much as he wished to it was not ramen, just toast, eggs and milk – not spoiled today, he checked), he wondered…
Would Kakashi really arrive on time?
He never did for their training. Ignoring the bell test, since that was part of the test. But he did for the mission to Wave.
He looked at the clock. Three minutes to eight.
He wore his clothes. As they hoped, the briefs did stay unburned under the suit. So he worn his pants and jacket on top of it too.
A knock on the door. A look at the clock showed it was exactly eight.
"Wow, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said happily as he opened the door. "I was kinda doubting you… would… Kakashi-sensei is not going to arrive on time, is he."
On the other side of the door was Haku, wearing her battle clothes but without the mask or mist forehead protector.
And only Haku.
"I'm sorry, Naruto-shishou," she told him respectfully, even though she ignored the twitch at her mode of addressing him. "He told me he would be a bit late, so he gave me an address and asked us to go ahead without him."
Naruto facepalmed at that. "Of course he did. Why did I think he would not?"
Either way, he took a deep breath. At least he would have company in this. "Anyway, good morning Haku-chan!"
"Good morning, Naruto-shishou," Haku said back, with a smile as cute but much happier than the one he had given him when they parted ways that morning in Wave. Enough for him to ignore how she called him this time."
IIIII
"Oh, that's simple, actually," said Suzume, someone Naruto had only seem before as an academy teacher. She taught girls how to act when undercover, if he was remembering right?
Apparently she was also the owner of this clothing store aimed mostly towards shinobi. It was… kinda hard to concentrate on her when just beside her was a mannequin head wearing a floral version of Kakashi's facemask. A manequim head with a very familiar style of wig and eyepatch on the left eye.
Her glasses shone as she adjusted them, hiding her eyes as she visualized him in the options she had. "We could give you something like a loose yukata for now, with hidden pockets inside to take the place of your holsters and a simpler thread instead of an actual obi so you can untie it easier. Or a long coat with pressure buttons that you can just pull open, and that one can have pockets inside and outside. But… I don't think you really want the coat."
"Why not?" he asked, confused. From what she said, the coat seemed like the best choice.
Then she pointed out to where the coats were.
"Oh."
Black. Grey. Dark grey. Dark blue. Dark green. Beige. Tan. White, but there was a sign of "exclusive to medic-nin".
He sighed.
"We can get you some in more… alive colors," she told him, "there was a woman that bought a blood red one and a hat to match for example. But they'll have to be custom-made, so will take some time to arrive. Plus more expensive."
He nodded, and she guided him to the yukatas with hidden pockets she mentioned before.
Where Haku was also taking a look at some, holding a pink one that looked a lot like the one she wears casually.
"Oh, I'm sorry I—"
"Oh don't worry, Hatake told me about you," Suzume waved her off. "Get anything you think you would like, we will talk about your clothes after I'm done with orange boy here. No offense, but we would rather you not look like a Mist hunter-nin without the mask while you live here."
Haku nodded, clearly understanding her point. And Naruto nodded with her, since he just noticed Haku seemed to only have her currently-worn hunter-nin disguise (and if it was anything like their ANBU uniforms it would draw attention from anyone that knew about them) and the one pink kimono.
"Now, since you already have plenty of orange underneath I think it better if you thought about other colors," the older woman said aloud. "Maybe we could go with blue, since it is the complementary color. Like your old jacket had some blue details, but we make it the main color of your yukata. But blue and orange combinations are so overdone nowadays…"
As she talked mostly to herself, Naruto looked around at the options already there.
"This one!" he told her.
Behind him, Suzume looked at Naruto's choice and nodded. "That works, I guess. Give it a try while I help your friend."
IIIII
"Sasuke-kun, I couldn't help but notice you enjoyed the tomato ramen more than you usually do when we go there with Naruto," Sakura started prodding. "And thinking about it, in the Bell Test too when you were sharing your food with Naruto I'm pretty sure you ate all the tomatoes first too. Are tomatoes your favorite food or something?"
"Or something," the boy answered. Not like he kept it secret.
Neither did he hide his dislike for sweets. He wondered what his "admirers" were really looking at when even after all the years at the academy they still tried giving him them all the time.
"Hey Sakura-chan, bastard!" came Naruto's voice approaching the training ground. And right on cue:
"Don't call Sasuke-kun "bastard", Naruto-ba—kuh."
Well, that was new. He quickly turned around and—
Activating his sharingan.
"…You are not wearing orange."
Naruto, or rather the person with Naruto's face, looked down. "Yes I am!" he said, pointing at his exposed chest—wait, no. Not exposed, just very form-fitting.
That was Naruto, wearing his orange bodysuit. It was just hard to notice right away because of all the red.
A red yukata with black trimmings, open loose in the chest – his sharingan could notice some kunai inside there so it was not just to show off the orange. It was also tied at the waist by a simple black sash, allowing him to untie it easily if he ever needed to wear the heavier version of the suit.
Less attention-grabbing, the singed cloth of his forehead protector had also been traded for an elastic black material that held it snugly onto his head, and his sandals were a black version with a low top also for easy removal.
"It's all the red, isn't it?" Naruto asked, looking at the yukata. "I kinda want a version with black flames on the bottom so the red isn't as much compared to it, but it would have to be custom-made, so I'd need to pay extra and wait some more time."
"Like the red flames on the Hokage robes?" Sasuke asked. "Is that allowed?"
"The colors are not any real kage's, so it is not not allowed,"he shrugged with a smirk.
"You look… more mature," Sakura admitted. "Especially after… filling up."
"Thanks, Sakura-chan!" he smiled at her with his usual grin. But then he frowned. "I still need to get used to move in it though."
He then moved to the side. "And neither of you said anything about Haku-chan!"
The two blinked, looked at each other, then at the black-haired girl. It was true, they were so… confused about Naruto's change they didn't even notice her by his side.
At first glance she did not look that different, her hair still in a bun but without the white bun-holder and her haori now a shade of dark green more common in Konoha, still with white trimmings. But under it, as if to show off her dedication now to Naruto, her brown high collar pinstripe sweater and long skirt were exchanged for a black collar on her neck and a tight black yukata with red trimmings, the opposite of Naruto's, and under them she wore black pants reaching slightly past her knees. Her sandals were also the usual style of Konoha, in the same shade as her haori.
"She looks fine," Sasuke shrugged. "Not that attention-drawing compared to you though."
Naruto blinked at that.
Looked to one side. Looked to the other.
"Sasuke. Buddy. Bastard. Did you forget who I am?"
At that, Sasuke nodded. "Ah yes, good point."
Haku blinked at that interaction, confused.
Feeling some pity, Sakura tried to explain. "Naruto is the kind of guy that just… just craves attention, I guess. Always playing pranks and being loud, he was basically the class clown in the Academy. Yet—"
"Yet he can be quite stealthy when he feels like it, like when playing his pranks, like the one time he invaded the Hokage tower or painting the Hokage Mountain in bright daylight and only being caught after a lot of work had already been done, all before being able to walk on walls with chakra."
"He invaded where?" Sakura screamed, eyes wide. "When? How? No one at class said anything about that one!"
"The how and when are something to be kept between him and Hokage-sama," Kakashi told her, and this time his tone was serious. She was clearly being ordered to not ask Naruto himself about it.
She nodded. Probably a security flaw he found and that could have been disastrous had someone used it without just pranks in mind.
"Anyways, there is a reason I had described him as the number one most knuckleheaded, unpredictable shinobi in Konoha," he continued, his friendly aloofness back. "He is somehow at the same time stubborn and extremely adaptable. Attention-seeking and stealthy. Impatient and observant. I would say that I don't doubt he would someday be able to turn one of his pranks into a way to save lives, but if you recall when we first met he already did."
Haku nodded at that. "I would never have expected someone to henge into an object, a weapon at that, and be launched mid-fight," she admitted. "I didn't even know it was possible."
"Eh, people get so used to copying people with henge and forget that it is not a jutsu to copy someone's looks but to transform," Naruto joined up. "I even made my own original transformations that don't really look like anyone real, just a combination of people. Turning into a copy of a fuuma shuriken with one in front of you is much easier, it's just a bit more tiring."
Kakashi resisted the urge to shudder. What Naruto considered "tiring" most others would call "suicidal".
Just look at how many clones he can make with a jutsu that splits the user's whole chakra pool and is still able to fight properly with them.
"Anyway, now that we have you three knowing how to walk on trees, and walls, and two of you even unlocked your bloodline limits, I went ahead and got you a mission that will let you three test your new skills, and Haku will be able to watch your teamwork when not in a life or death situation."
"Oh no, please tell me he doesn't mean—"
Sasuke and Sakura put their hands on his shoulders.
"We are in this together," Sakura reminded him.
"This time it will be different," Sasuke said confident, flashing his eye.
IIIII
"AAAAH! SOMEBODY STOP ME!"
"Damn it Naruto!" Sasuke yelled at him, having troube breathing already. "Why did you turn into a ball?"
"I thought it would be faster and I'd be able to enter the holes the demon uses to escape!"
"It is faster alright, deadlast!"
"MROWNNNN!" the cat howled desperately as it instinctively ran backwards on the ball, clearly both scared and confused.
"Naruto, try turning to the left! No, the left!" Sakura screamed on her own communicator, trying to guide the chase unsuccessfully to somewhere the ball of madness would hopefully get stuck.
Meanwhile Kakashi and Haku watched from the trees, the girl as red from laughing as Naruto's clothes she was holding, both with their own bucket of popcorn courtesy of the jonin.
"Damn it Naruto! Can't you just turn back human or something?"
There was no reply for a second. Even his screams stopped.
Then…
"Nooo! We need it alive!" Sakura yelled, running as fast as she could to where Naruto's transformation back catapulted Tora the cat.
"Damn it Naruto!"
"What? It was your idea bastard!"
"Uhm, should we—"
"Don't worry, Tora already lived through enough chases to be able to remember to cat in situations like this," Kakashi calmed down his watch companion.
"…remember to… cat?"
"Cat's don't just 'always fall on their feet', they also can easily fall from high places with no big issues," he clarified.
"Oh. …will we tell them about this?"
The jonin only raised an eyebrow… well his only visible eyebrow at her.
So she just shrugged and followed the action. She got the impression her shishou would do the same in her place, after all.
IIIII
"So, what did we learn today?" Kakashi asked the team, after they delivered the cat and had the cathartic vision of its reunion with the… affectionate owner.
"That being seen walking on walls while chasing someone only makes them more desperate to escape," Sakura replied.
"That my eyes being able to see in slow down does not matter if my body is not able to keep up with the real speed," Sasuke admitted.
"That cats are lousy drivers but amazing at falling with style," Naruto nodded, wisely but with a wide grin on his face.
All four looked at him at that… but even Sasuke could not resist smirking at it after a few seconds to sink in.
"Anyways, I think you guys deserve a break for today," Kakashi told them, opening his book again.
"Sweet! Haku, I have to take you to Ichiraku! You'll love it!" Naruto told her excited, pulling the girl's arm along him. "I bet you'll love Ayame-neechan and Teuchi-jiji!"
"I'm sure," Kakashi nodded in agreement, even as the other two looked at each other sharing a look of dread.
IIIII
Haku knew it was ridiculous, but she could not stop the feeling flooding inside her.
She knew of the feeling. It was new, she had never felt something like this for Zabuza-sama. But she knew what it was.
Jealously. As if someone was trying to take her place by the side of her shishou.
Yet she smiled, even as she stepped closer to her Naruto-shishou, trying to now appear possessive but still being. She hoped her real thoughts were not showing on her face but the idea was being communicated enough.
In front of her, her rival raised his hand, a grin in his face.
The nine years old, googles on his forehead and a blue scarf longer than he was tall, looked at her… not innocently, as he had a prankster-y spark in his eye, but with no idea of his still-unknowingly fellow apprentice's thoughts.
IIIII
I know it is weird, since I just did it myself, but I don't like when people give Naruto a wardrobe change in their fics. I was kinda annoyed at myself when I noticed that… well, in making it accurate enough him wearing the suit destroyed his clothes I was kinda forcing him into needing replacements.
Probably because most of the time it is split into two categories:
It is to show that he is either "more mature", "more professional" or "darker".
Or it is because people say his orange clothes are too visible and attention-grabbing. Nevermind that two of the most common people I saw doing so are Sakura, who wears mostly vibrant red, and Kurenai, who wears white with vibrant read details.
They also very frequently make his pants and jacket be a jumpsuit, and claim he either only wears it to draw attention or because it is the only thing he can afford.
Either way, the end result is him ditching his signature orange clothes for what is usually edgy mostly-black clothes or generic jonin or ANBU with just small personal details. With barely any orange if at all, a sash or vest or other small thing.
Thankfully, since his Zero Suit is his signature orange he already had something that could work, even if it would have been only introduced in Shippuden and not stay for long there. So I just made a few changes so it looks a bit more generic, so he can buy it at a store.
Basically, this is heavily based on his red-with-black-flames cloak from the Pain fight. Just without the black flames, thicker, and became a yukata instead of a cloak – it got a black "belt" that he can use to close it, perfect for when he feels cold.