Naruto: Revelations

Naruto was actually enjoying his final year at the academy. His new sensei didn't have a serious grudge against him and a couple of the clan kids played truant with him now and then. Inuzuka Kiba even joined in with a couple of his pranks. His main problem was Iruka-sensei's uncanny ability to track him whenever he wasn't in kotai-henge. This cut in on his time at the Mitsusha, forcing him to only work in the evenings. Interestingly, Iruka-sensei was somewhat sympathetic after pranks, so Naruto began working on some more outrageous ones. He'd promised the dead Uchiha chunnin he'd do a big one at the end of this year, but he had to work up to it so it would be a proper finale.

His classmates were sort-of okay; at least the boys were. All save one of his female classmates were fangirls chasing after Uchiha Sasuke, the survivor Hibana-nee had told him about. Naruto could almost see the pain and anger condensing around the silent boy.

Sasuke was a very good student whose accomplishments were aided by all the various sensei's eagerness to help 'the last Uchiha'. Naruto was a little envious of that helpfulness, but was very, very glad not to be the target of fangirls like the Uchiha had.

Fangirls were a plague, Naruto decided very early on; a squealing, fluttering horde of obsessive social butterflies completely unsuited to the shinobi lifestyle. Only one of them, the Yamanaka, actually worked hard enough to eventually graduate. And even she dieted. Haruno Sakura might also make it, since she competed with Yamanaka Ino with a frighteningly obsessive zealotry.

The only non-fangirl in the class was Hyuuga Hinata, who was cripplingly shy. She also had a crush on Naruto and stalked him after school hours, making it even harder for him to get to the okiya without being followed.

Naruto acted oblivious for two reasons. The first was to remain in character; the idiot he pretended to be would completely overlook someone as shy as Hinata. Secondly, he felt that the person she admired so much did not really exist. He was a mask the real Naruto wore; no more real than a character in a book or a play.

He did wear the goggles she left him anonymously on his birthday, though.

Oddly enough, his favourite classmate was the antisocial Uchiha. Sasuke clearly hadn't a clue how to be friendly and had suffered too much to risk opening up to his peers. Naruto had talked to Hibana-nee about it and she had recommended he offer Sasuke whatever support he thought the younger boy would accept. With this in mind Naruto proclaimed himself the Uchiha's rival.

While still extremely poor at any kind of written work, Naruto was in the upper echelons of the class in weapons and taijutsu. This enabled him to physically challenge Sasuke almost every outdoor lesson. Despite openly putting him down as the 'dobe' or dead-last, Naruto could tell that Sasuke genuinely enjoyed their spars. The fact that Naruto put up a solid fight before losing probably helped, and the younger boy seemed to find his outbursts about how 'next time I will prevail!' amusing.

It was in an attempt to fan that spark of black humour in the classroom that Naruto set his eyes on Haruno Sakura, Sasuke's most rabid and hated fangirl. While physically the weakest of the potential graduates, her high intelligence and perfect memory pulled her grades up into the pass zone.

Naruto was positive his supposed infatuation with the pink haired banshee was a product of temporary insanity. It had overtaken him one afternoon when he was contemplating Sasuke's hate relationship with his fangirls. He had wondered if the Uchiha would find their antics more amusing as an observer rather than a participant. By the end of the school day the thought had contaminated his entire decision-making process, and as soon as class was over he bounced cheerfully over to Sakura and loudly asked her for a date. The look on her face had been hilarious; her acid screech of refusal and punch to his head less so. But Naruto had seen Sasuke's reaction from the corner of his eye and it had been perfect: Sasuke did indeed find the idea of his most irritating fangirl having a fanboy of her very own darkly humorous.

Encouraged, Naruto persisted doggedly. The cheerful imperviousness that was the basis of his idiot-persona was used to optimum effect and as a result of his persistence Sakura was forced to dial back her pursuit of the last Uchiha. This of course did nothing for his chances of actually getting a date, but since he didn't want one that wasn't an issue. Sasuke found him amusing and enjoyed fighting him, so he felt he was improving the quality of life of a fellow orphan. Plus he felt he sort of owed it to those dead Uchiha chunnin who'd been nice to him to keep an eye on their clan heir for them. If he ever met the bastard who'd killed them off and hurt Sasuke he'd prank the hell out of them, Uzumaki style!

The only other person of note in Naruto's class was Nara Shikamaru. The boy was scary smart and definitely had suspicions about Naruto's idiot-persona. He was however too lazy to investigate whether his suspicions had merit. Naruto was clearly too 'troublesome' for Shikamaru to deal with. The blond didn't mind either way; Shikamaru was probably the only person in his class he'd feel comfortable sharing his secret with anyway, seeing as the boy was smart enough to understand and respect his motives.

At the okiya his time was far more productive. As a maiko with a well-known onee-san Benihime was earning a steady income, which went towards paying her debts to the Mitsusha. She attended civilian gatherings, entertained in tea houses, played her shamisen or danced while Hibana-nee interacted with her clients. Sometimes she served tea or sake while Hibana-nee danced. Benihime had even attended a party hosted in Konoha by the Fire daimyo at new year, where she had made witty conversation with some samurai she found shifting uneasily in their formal clothes at the edge of the throng. She'd made some deprecating jokes about geisha and ninja, praised their bravery and honour and received enough money by the end of the night to halve her remaining debt to Himitsu-okaa-san.

But four days after the new year, Naruto's life took a left turn.

He arrived at the okiya after an early dinner -as usual- changed into his Benihime kotai-henge and dressed for the evening, but instead of being given a commission was instructed by the minarai on secretary duty to wait for 'Hibana-san' in one of the secondary suites. Nervousness compounded when Momo-chan served tea and retired behind a screen to play shamisen. Benihime had never been treated like a client before and wasn't sure what to do. Hibana-nee's arrival, in full formal garb, was both a worry and a relief. "Hime-chan," Hibana-nee said after Momo-chan served another round of tea and left the room, "I need to talk to Naruto-kun."

Naruto released his henge, revealing grey hakama bandaged at the ankles and a short kimono top in the same colour. His blonde hair was worn fairly short, so it stuck up all over the place. He was still not very tall -and was shorter than most of his classmates- but looked far less skinny and malnourished than he had at six.

"Good. Now Naruto, a lot of what I have to say will shock you and some you will probably find distressing. Please express these emotions, as no matter what I love you like a brother and will never reject you. Understood?"

Naruto steeled himself for the worst. "Hai."

"Arigatou. Naruto, I am not a real person. I am a bunshin, a special type of flesh and blood bunshin with the independence to look after itself without its maker needing to be in the vicinity. My thoughts, memories and emotions are all copied from my maker."

Naruto's bottom lip trembled and his eyes filled with tears. "You don't exist, nee-chan? But-but-" he sniffled, unable to go on without breaking down completely.

Hibana-nee swooped around the table and hugged him close. "I love you dearly, my Naru-chan, and so does my maker. Every night before I go to sleep I share my day's memories with her, so she knows you and loves you just as much as I do; or I love you because she does, seeing as she is who I am copied from. You are family, Naruto, otouto and henge-imouto both."

Naruto clung to his bunshin-nee-san tightly and sobbed his shock and relief away, wiping his eyes on the clean hanky she offered him.

"W-why are you telling me now?" he eventually managed to ask.

"Ah," Hibana-bunshin looked embarrassed. "The original managed to get pregnant by a Konoha shinobi, and will be coming here in a few months. She needs me to see to things elsewhere, since she will be based in the village for the foreseeable future and able to take over my various responsibilities here. You being the most important of those," she said, flicking his nose playfully, "Can't have our otouto being left to fend for himself, can we? Onna-bozu has a really huge adopted family, so you can be Naru-ji-chan and Hime-ba-chan to the chibi."

"Family?" Naruto breathed, hardly believing his ears.

"Of course! She won't be here for about another four months, however," Hibana-bunshin explained. "You'll manage, won't you? Takemaru is here is you need guy-talk and Himitsu-okaa-san will offer you assistance in anything okiya related. Between you and me, I think she wants Benihime as her atotori."

"Wow," Naruto breathed reverently. "I'll behave for her, I promise!"

"Now for the formal bit," Hibana said, resettling herself across the table from Naruto, face becoming blank and serious. "Since the daimyo's new year's party people have been asking for Benihime personally, and both I and Himitsu-okaa-san feel you have learned everything we can teach you. Are you ready to end your apprenticeship and become a full geisha after your six years of formal training?"

Naruto stared, blinked, opened and closed his mouth twice before stuttering "H-hai!"

"In that case, as your onee-san it is my duty to see that Benihime is suitably initiated in sex," Hibana-bunshin said firmly. "Take note Naru-kun that this is only girl sex, as while Benihime is physically sixteen and old enough to enjoy it, your male body won't be mature enough for a few more years yet. I'm sure you've noticed the pleasant tingly feelings Benihime gets around certain people?"

Naruto blushed deeply. "Hai, nee-san," he whispered, "some of the ladies at the party and two of the samurai made me feel strange like that."

"Good; your girl-form is definitely ready, then. I'll give you the full talk, then show you what the fuss is all about. The original has been experimenting with your kotai-henge and has found a way for girls to physically transform into boys, so I can teach Benihime what to do with men as well since I suspected you'd feel uncomfortable having sex with Takemaru."

"Arigatou, Nee-san," Naruto said gratefully. He'd spent most of his time with Take-nii as a boy, so sleeping with him as a girl would probably feel really strange.

"you're welcome. Now change back into Benihime and I'll start."

Naruto was very late arriving at the academy the next morning, could not concentrate at all and blushed randomly throughout the day. Iruka found the speculative way his most unpredictable student was eyeing him extremely uncomfortable, and was grateful when Naruto's behaviour returned to normal later on in the week.

This was also a defining moment in the creation and establishment of Uzumaki Naruto's brain-breaking attitude to sex and sexuality, which would later be the cause of much confusion, repression, mental trauma for enemies and allies alike, as well as an eventual bingo-book warning.

Relationships

oji-san = uncle

oba-san = aunt

ojii-san/jiji = granfather/gramps/old man

obaa-san/baa-chan = grandmother/granny/old lady

note: atotori = heir/successor to the okaa-san of an okiya

A/N: Behold! The madness begins! Note to all you people objecting that Naruto is only twelve: his kotai henge turns him into a flesh-and-blood sixteen-year-old, brain development included. He's been that older, more mature girl for half of the last three years (hence Hime's getting hot and bothered over people) so when in girl-form he is old enough. Besides: my story, my rules.