Naruto: Confermation

Three weeks before the genin graduation exam Benihime had tea with a new client who asked for her personally. Amemai was new to the village, had some kind of doujutsu, was rumoured to be involved with one of the village's handful of elite journin and was definitely pregnant. Benihime was almost certain she was Hibana-bunshin's 'Onna-bozu'. With this in mind, the henged redhead had rather been looking forward to this particular session.

Amamai was exactly the same height as Hibana-nee and only slightly curvier, which could be attributed to the pregnancy. Her hair was thigh length rather than waist length and caramel coloured rather than Hibana's dark coffee, and in the place of Hibana-nee's green-grey eyes Amemai's eyesockets were filled with inky blackness littered with hundreds of tiny stars.

The facial structure and skin colour were also fairly similar, but no one who had only ever seen Hibana-nee in her geisha makeup would ever associate the two women. Where Hibana had been calm, gentle and patient, if implacable when angered, Amamai was friendly, scattered and slightly manic with chakra reserves so vast Benihime could feel them pressing against the edge of her perception even when she wasn't actively sensing chakra.

"Benihime-chan!" the woman squealed as soon as she entered the room where the geisha was waiting for her, enfolding the red head in an exuberant hug. "It's wonderful to see you firsthand at long last. I've wanted to meet my imouto for so long! Oh, where are my manners," she let go, stepped back and bowed slightly, "watashi-wa Amemaihana desu, but please call me Ame-nee."

Benihime couldn't help smiling; Ame radiated vibrant joy the same way Naruto radiated sheer energy. "Of course, Ame-nee. It is lovely to meet you at last."

"I'd like to meet my otouto soon as well," Ame added obliquely, calming down a bit as she settled on a cushion, "could you organise it?"

Benihime was grateful for Ame-nee's discretion. Considering her responsibilities it would be catastrophic -for both her personally and the entire okiya- were it to get out that Mitsusha no Benihime and Uzumaki Naruto were one and the same. The past four months had tempered Naruto in ways his classmates would never understand; he realised now that he needed Benihime to keep him balanced.

"Naturally, Ame-nee-san," Benihime said, quietly happy for her new neesan's recognition of her other self. "Can I offer you some more tea?"

Ame accepted the tea, drank it slowly and left, agreeing to 'meet her otouto at at his place tomorrow after school'. Benihime was glad the next day was a Thursday with no personal clients at all, enabling her to cancel all appointments without upsetting anyone.

The first thing Ame-nee did upon meeting Naruto was to wrap him in a tight hug. It was so like Hibana-nee, the first and only woman to hug him while he was boy shaped, that Naruto promptly burst into tears. Ame-nee didn't show the slightest irritation at his breakdown, just closing the front door behind her, carrying him over to the couch and sitting down with him still wrapped around her rather swollen middle. She did not in any way indicate that his behaviour was wrong or shameful, quietly rubbing his back and crooning until he'd got control over his emotions again then asking what he'd been up to since Hibana-nee left.

Naruto instantly plunged into a monologue on the wonderful books on Uzumakis he'd been given, how he'd been practicing his katas 'real hard' and expounding his budding understanding of fuuinjutsu, as well as the pranks he'd pulled and how he thought Sasuke was warming to him a little. Ame-nee listened, nodded, laughed in the right places and corrected him here and there on seals. Naruto wondered as he spoke if this was what having a mother felt like. Hibana-nee had always advised him, listened to his woes and offered solutions, but she had been a geisha to the bone. She had never snuggled with him and let him ramble on like Ame-nee was doing now. His new neesan was acting like mothers he had seen behaved towards their children and it was even more wonderful than he'd imagined it to be.

By the end of the conversation Naruto determined that Hibana was to Ame-nee what Benihime was to him, just a facet of a larger whole, and the pregnant, dark blonde woman slid effortlessly into the space in his heart Hibana-nee had only partly filled. That gave him the courage to ask the question that had been bothering him since he began reading about his heritage.

"Ame-nee? If my mother was an Uzumaki, who was my father?"

"I'm not really allowed to say, Naru-kun, but I'm sure that -given your appearance and what I've told you- you can make an educated guess."

Naruto blinked, shocked but not really surprised. He had suspected, but... "Yondaime-sama? Bu-but! Why does everyone hate me and treat me like shit?"

"Language, Naru-kun," Ame said calmly. "They don't know, or at least they haven't been told. Your parentage was hidden to protect you from vengeful Iwa-nin out to exterminate the family of the Konoha no Kiiroi Senkou.

"So why do they hate me?"

Ame-nee-chan shrugged. "You were born on the day the Kyuubi ravaged Konoha and when both it and the Yondaime lost their lives, look just like their hero did as a child yet also have whisker-marks and a few other foxy mannerisms."

Naruto thought about it. "They think I'm Kyuubi? That's just stupid!" he protested.

"Very true. But the Kyuubi no Yoko was the most powerful of the bijuu, all of which are ridiculously strong. It killed many and completely terrified those fortunate to survive its rampage. The villagers fear that it is not truly defeated and may rise again, while some of the shinobi are resentful for the loss of their loved ones. But that in no way excuses their treatment of you. You suffer unjustly. Life, however, is not and never has been fair, so you will just have to live with their idiocy."

Naruto snuggled closer to the woman who had filled the mother-shaped hole in his heart and helped him learn so much about his birth parents. "Arigatou, Ame-nee." He paused. "If no-one knows how do you know?"

Ame-nee pointed to the dark starry pools that filled her eyesockets. "My bloodline enables me to see the past, as well as events occurring great distances away from wherever I happen to be."

"Sugoi! Will the baby be able to do that?"

Ame smiled wryly. "I sincerely hope not; It is a rare combination bloodline and very difficult to deal with. They'll probably get one of my other latent kekkai genkai. Besides, Naru-kun, it's babies. I'm going to have triplets."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Can I be Naruto-ji-chan?"

"Of course! You are my one and only Naruto-otouto, aren't you?"

Naruto smiled so widely it hurt. He loved his new Ame-nee-chan so very much.

Naruto did not see Ame-nee very much in those last few weeks before graduation; she was busy organising all manner of grown-up things and spending time with her journin boyfriend, who's name the blond still didn't know. Likewise, Naruto was also busy with lessons, training and planning his ultimate prank. His chakra control, while greatly improved, still wasn't precise enough for the stupid bunshin jutsu. He channelled his frustration into creating a prank version of his kotai-henge; the adult magazine he'd found in jiji's office was very helpful, although a small part of him would have been happy not knowing his grandfather figure was a bit of a perv.

The blond had acquired by osmosis his geisha onee-sans' disdain for porn and perverts. Women were companions, helpers and attractive distractions from life's hardships, not sex toys. Plus, perverts were icky. His Orioke no jutsu was a prank technique, but he could also see its potential as a distraction. More usefully, if people thought it was a rather crude prank, they wouldn't even think to look into its more practical applications.

The day before graduation Naruto pulled his prank masterpiece: painting the faces of the hokages on the side of the mountain overlooking Konoha. He made a point of ensuring his additions were artistic. Getting chased around the village by chunnin, various journin and half-a-dozen ANBU was also great fun; he spotted a lot of familiar faces, many of which were having trouble holding back laughter.

He let Iruka-sensei catch him just after lunch -the man was the best academy sensei he'd ever had- then compounded his mischief by using the chunnin as a test subject for his centrefold technique. Of course Iruka-sensei was horribly embarrassed by his reaction to girl-Naruto and gave him detention, but the blond knew his other self was actually very, very beautiful even for a woman and didn't hold the nosebleed against the chunnin. Naruko-chan was tall, curvy and very sexy indeed. She even got a reaction out of Sasuke, firmly disproving Naruto's theory that the Uchiha might be gay.

The only catch was that the girls in class were jealous of his 'girlish figure', which made them angry and, sadly, violent. Thankfully his detention with Iruka-sensei prevented them from pounding him to mush, although washing the Hokage mountain was not how he'd wanted to spend his afternoon. He did get ramen out of it afterwards, though.

Benihime's evening at the Mitsusha was most entertaining, as she got to listen to Shimon-san's recount of the chase as well as his appreciation of the stealth and sheer balls Naruto had shown in pulling the prank. The Uchiha chunnin and Obito-san in the afterlife must be laughing themselves sick...

Shiman-san also gallantly accompanied her to the graves of the dead Uchiha so she could leave flowers. She told the curious chunnin that she'd only known them in passing, but that they'd enjoyed 'Uzumaki-kun's pranks'.

Take care of yourself, Benihime-chan," Shimon-san told her before taking his leave on returning her to the okiya, "You're something special."

Graduation day was... difficult. He woke up late and had to dash out without a proper breakfast. Ame-nee had warned him she couldn't pick him up afterwards as she had an urgent appointment, but had promised to make it up to him the next day and celebrate his joining the ninja ranks together. He was also very worried about the bunshin jutsu.

His written test was much harder than it had been in previous years, which was weird since it wasn't just a genjutsu like some previous would-be-senseis had done once or twice. The poorly balanced kunai he was given for his weapons test compounded his suspicions and being asked to perform the bunshin as his ninjutsu test was the fishcake on top of the ramen: His genin test was being maliciously sabotaged. His stupid, ignorant, blind chunnin instructors had confused him with a mountain-sized fox demon and wanted to prevent him from ever becoming a ninja!

He tried the bunshin jutsu, failed miserably and slouched despondently outside to the swing, ruthlessly suppressing the urge to cry.

Ame-nee will be back tomorrow. I can cry then. Thank goodness Benihime has no clients until tomorrow evening, I'd be useless tonight.

Naruto sighed heavily. At least he could still be a geisha. Even if nobody -except Ame-nee- ever acknowledged him as Uzumaki Naruto, Benihime would still be appreciated and that was almost as good. Even though that 'almost' hurts inside.

When Mizuki found him to commiserate with his failure, Naruto only listened with half an ear to what the assistant teacher had to say about Iruka. But when the silvery haired chunnin offered him a last-ditch chance to graduate, Naruto leapt for it. It was his last chance to live life openly without having to lie about who he was just to get people to treat him normally.

It was only after he had knocked out hokage-jiji with his orioke and opened the scroll out in the woods that Naruto began to feel misgivings. The kage bunshin no jutsu was incredibly useful -and fairly easy for a person with chakra reserves like his- but it definitely wasn't a genin level technique. Neither were the other jutsus in the scroll, one of which looked suspiciously like the seal on his stomach. I really have to get around to asking Ame-nee about that thing. He quickly memorised the handseals and descriptions for the kage kunai no jutsu, kage shuriken no jutsu and bunshin bakuha -he really liked the look of that one, however chakra intensive it was- before rolling up the scroll and slinging it over his back, seething with anger as he leapt into the trees. This was the real forbidden scroll! Mizuki was trying to get him into trouble with the hokage!

Naruto quickly formed two kage bunshin -he loved this jutsu already- and has one henge into the forbidden scroll. The Naruto clone sat down in the middle of the clearing, its scroll-henged fellow laid out before it, and settled down to wait and see what would happen next. The original Naruto in the tree suppressed his chakra as far down as it would go, unfolded a fine gauze sheet over himself and the real scroll and used kakuremino no jutsu, the false surroundings technique, on it to hide his presence. Now all he had to do was sit still and wait until the conspirators came to find him.

To his great personal disappointment, Iruka was the first to burst into the clearing. However, when confronted by the Naruto-clone's feigned clueless enthusiasm he seemed genuinely surprised. Maybe it wasn't a conspiracy after all...

The hail of kunai Iruka took protecting the clone and Mizuki's subsequent arrival confirmed that it really was all the other chunnin's fault. Then Mizuki dropped the bomb, figuratively speaking, by informing the Naruto-clone that it was the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko. Of course, the idiot said that Naruto was really the fox, but the blond hidden in the tree knew better than to believe that garbage. He'd studied jinchuuriki as part of his education on other nations and cultures with Himitsu-okaa-san. At least that explained why he had the aforementioned big-ass seal over his navel gate. It is also a far more likely explanation of why the morons are so convinced I'm a demon in human form.

The clone froze at this point, undecided as to an appropriate course of action, which Mizuki took advantage of to throw one of his fuuma shuriken at it. Unfortunately Iruka-sensei, not knowing that it was a clone, shielded it with his own body, which both clone and original found deeply distressing. Mizuki then revealed Iruka's hatred of the Kyuubi -prompting Iruka's own avowal that he didn't hate Naruto, who wasn't the fox at all- and the clone seized the opportunity to leg it out of the clearing. Once out of sight of the two chunnin both clone and scroll-clone dispersed.

The sudden influx of memories from both gave Naruto all kinds of interesting ideas, making him wish he carried a notebook to write them down in. He dropped quietly from the trees as soon as both chunnin took off towards where they thought he had gone, hid the scroll in a bush and followed after them at a jog. Mizuki was a traitor to Leaf, that much was clear, so he needed to be dealt with. Naruto wasn't sure that gentle, caring Umino Iruka was up to killing his former teaching assistant.

Naruto knew he could kill someone who threatened those he cared for; as Benihime he had slashed the throat of a would-be rapist attacking Momo-chan. Hibana-nee had held him through the tears, soothed him through the rage and helped him find peace rather than succumb to depression. He had hated it, still hated the idea of killing, but Mizuki had admitted to being a traitor to Konohagakure and broken what was apparently a major law. For that he would die. When he found the two chunnin he almost tut-tutted. Fooled by henge? Real henge, a mere genjutsu? They were getting lax.

Mizuki's second attempt to murder Iruka-sensei made Naruto angry. Luckily he caught the feeling on its way up and converted the dangerous surge of berserk Uzumaki fury into several hundred shadow clones, which pounded Mizuki into the ground with little effort while he centred himself and regained control. Then Iruka put his own hitai-ite on Naruto, pronouncing him a genin, and the blond jinchuuriki's heart nearly burst with joy. He had made it!

Word list

Onna-bozu = boss-lady

Sugoi = cool!

Orioke = centrefold

Kage bunshin = shadow clone; creates solid clones of the caster with working chakra systems. The caster's chakra is evenly divided among the clones and himself.

Kage kunai/shuriken = shadow kunai/shuriken; creates solid replicas of the chosen weapon.

bunshin bakuha = clone explosion; creates a shadow clone that detonates on the caster's signal. Highly chakra intensive

A/N: We are officially in canon! Of course, with Naruto's different experiences he is a good bit more on the ball and far more mature. If anyone really wants to know how Naruto decorated the hokage monument I might do an outtake. Of course, if no-one is interested in outtakes, I won't bother... (hint hint!) As Always, Please Review!