Further revelations
Naruto stood nervously behind the door as she heard laughter and talking outside. She had undone her henge and was clothed in her swimsuit waiting for either Sasuke or Sakura to call her out so she could show them she was a girl.
The rookie nine were all outside in the garden of the Uchiha compound where they were holding the pool party. Once she heard Sasuke call for her she let out a breath she had been holding and made her way out.
All eyes fell on her, Kiba and Shikamaru were smirking, Chouji was still eating and she had the sneaking suspicion that he had had his suspicions as well. Shino look the same as always, Hinata was confused and flustered, and Ino looked confused whilst slightly annoyed.
Sakura turned around and gave her a smile, "Hey Naruto! Did you know that Chouji can cook a really mean meaty lunch? It's to die for!"
She gave a smile with a nervous chuckle, "I knew his family could, but I didn't know you could cook Chouji." She smiled at the boy who was trying to hide his blush behind his packet of crisps.
"Okay, are we all gonna ignore the elephant in the room? Naruto why the hell are you henged into a girl? There's no need for your perversions to rub off on Sasuke." She sneered at the other blonde and Naruto sighed.
Sasuke took it from there, "I highly doubt any of Naruto's perversions will rub off on me. I mean, they haven't so far so I think I'm good. Secondly, she is a girl. Her male form was a henge."
One could easily see the struggle in Ino's eyes. She was warring between telling Sasuke off for siding with the blonde and fawning over him for being so cool.
"So Uchiha. How long have you known?" asked Kiba as he slung an arm over her shoulders, grazing her mark causing her to flinch involuntarily.
That went unnoticed by everyone as he replied, "Since forever. She was in the Uchiha compound a lot since she was engaged to my cousin."
This caused several pairs of eyes to turn towards her, causing her to look away, not used to their staring at her like that.
"Oooh do tell. Which one you stick-up-the-ass cousins was it exactly?" Kiba chuckled at his comment, Chouji and Hinata snorting at him.
"The one cousin who didn't have one actually. Shisui no shunshin." He stated as he forcibly removed Kiba's arm from around her, causing her to rub at the seal on her junction. It seemed to have heated slightly under his hand, perhaps due to the chakra he had been channeling.
"Why didn't you tell us before you were a girl Naruto?" asked Chouji, but she knew he knew the reason why.
Shrugging she sat between Sasuke and Sakura, "Well an orphan boy likely to suffer less than an orphan girl. Especially when said child is hated by the village so much."
"Care to elaborate." This time it was Shikamaru who spoke up, fully interested in the subject at hand.
"You guys know when my birthday is right?" when she received nods from everyone she continued, "Right, besides my birthday, what else happens that night?"
This caused several people to begin thinking harder, "We-well… th-the villagers… they celebrate the nine tails defeat, a-and some b-began raiding a certain district." Spoke a red-faced Hinata, hiding behind Shino slightly.
Nodding she gave the Hyuuga heiress a smile, "Right. The night of my birth signifies the night of the nine tails defeat. Now, what do the village civilians call me?"
This time everyone looked at each other nervously beside Kiba, "Well they call you the demon brat. Personally, I'd call you the queen of pranks since you can't be a king of pranks anymore."
"Right… now put all that together."
"The nine tails was killed. The yondaime killed it." Spoke Ino, confused where the conversation was going.
"No he wasn't and he takes offense that people think he can be killed that easily." She replied instinctually however refrained from cringing at her words. "And before you ask anything, the yondaime sealed the nine tails inside of me."
It was after that that everyone seemed to lose it. There was shouting, splashing, laughing and the distinct sound of squealing. She couldn't make out which sounds belonged to which people however it made her feel a little better to see Shino hadn't reacted nearly as colorfully as the others had.
It took twenty minutes before they all calmed down long enough to question her and it lasted another twenty minutes. It would have lasted longer had Kakashi not arrived and began growling at everyone, signaling he wanted Naruto to come with him as they left to get her ready to meet Jiraiya.
.
.
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She found her godfather where he could usually be found; the hot spring. Although he could also be found in the red light district for some rundown restaurant where he could meet his spy network.
He was sitting as he usually did, notebook in hand, perverted giggles, and a faint blush on his face. Despite her annoyance over his perversions, she couldn't help the smile that broke out on her face. Jiraiya would always be Jiraiya no matter what.
Making her way over to him, she covered his mouth as she spoke quietly, "Sorry. I need to talk to you. Also if you don't stop your research to talk to me, I'm sure dad would be pretty furious."
In retaliation, the perverted sage shunshined behind her in silence, "And do I know you brat?"
Turning around she raised a brow, "Of course. I'm your godchild, your student's child, and the jinchuriki of the nine tails. Should I go on?"
Jiraiya simply looked back at her with irritated eyes, "Look kid. I don't have time for your games. I don't know who you are, but I know my student didn't-"
"Minato Namikaze married Kushina Uzumaki. The night of my birth she was attacked at the nine tails ripped out of her by an unknown assailant who controlled the nine tails and forced him to attack the people. My dad used the shiki-fuin to seal half the nine tails within me and he kept the other half. Right now, I've merged both halves. I've met my father and my mother within my seal. So after that, do you still deny me as your family?"
She didn't receive a reply, instead, she merely got a hand on her shoulder before finding herself taken away to.
'Did he just reverse summon us to Mount Myoboku?!'
"Okay kid. I want to know all the details of what you know, I also get the feeling that's not all you've gotta tell Me," spoke Jiraiya as he took a seat on a rock across her before she dropped the henge and took a similar sitting. She hadn't noticed before, but she must have adopted this way of sitting because of him.
"Right. You're not going to believe me on this but I've been sent from the future to the past." She paused, assuming he would say something or laugh it off however he was in business mode and would do no such thing. Nodding to herself she continued, "Right. Um, let's start with Ame. Nagato and Konan are alive however Yahiko was killed roughly the year the third war began by Hanzo because Danzo said the organization they had established, Akatsuki, was evil. Skip a few years to Kannabi Bridge. Obito Uchiha survived and Madara Uchiha took him in and with the help of Zetsu, he brainwashed him into becoming evil and hell-bent on sending the world into a giant genjutsu. Obito was against it at first, however, he reconsidered the night he saw Kakashi kill Rin."
"Kakashi?" he raised a brow to her, a glint in his eye that made her want to keep her lover hidden under five blanks and six houses. And preferably in another nation.
"Yeah, as in dad's only living and sane student."
"Kakashi Hatake is hardly who I would call 'sane'."
"Rich coming from a perverted sage like you." Shaking her head she continued, "Time skipping again, Akatsuki now hunts down bijuu but you already know that. Now onto my time. My first chunin exam was ruined by Orochimaru attacking the village, putting a cursed mark on Sasuke Uchiha and killing the sandaime. Sorry I missed something. The Uchiha massacre was due to a coup they had planned and Itachi was ordered kill his clan. I'll go into detail later."
The rest of the conversation consisted of her telling him everything about her life, conveniently leaving out the parts bout Kakashi and her and it wasn't long till she had finished talking. He looked at her, got up and placed a hand on her head, ruffling her long hair, "I'm proud to have you as my goddaughter."
Those words caused her eyes to go wide as they filled with tears. The village had been proud of her as their savior, Tsunade obaa-chan had been proud of her as her successor and Kakashi had been proud of her in general. However, the only living family that had taken care of her had just told him he was proud of her. He was proud of her despite all her flaws, despite her weaknesses and despite her self-loathing.
She recognized this feeling, it was the same feeling she had when her father and mother had shown their pride in her as well. However, she felt a pang in her chest at the memory of Jiraiya being dead but she refused to allow it to bring her down.
Unbeknownst to her, she had lurched forward and latched onto his hiori and cried.
Not long later she had stopped crying, eyes red and puffy as she henged into her male form and they reversed summoned back to Konoha.
Which all led to the current situation. She had instinctually asked if he wanted to come over to her home for a late lunch, to which he immediately agreed. She hadn't noticed her mark was visible so when they arrived at Kakashi's apartment she hadn't been expecting the old pervert to attack Kakashi with his hair.
It had taken her a total of seventy-six seconds to get them apart, herself being in front of Kakashi whose Sharingan eye was spinning in its socket. Promptly she smacked the back of the sennin's head and told him to behave.
So here she was; between her lover and fiancé as they sat across her godfather. Sensei to the sensei of her lover who was twice her current age.
Chuckling nervously she asked Kakashi to help her in the kitchen to prepare some food and he hastily agreed to help, leaving Shisui and Jiraiya to play a round of shogi.
During lunch, Jiraiya had been staring holes into Kakashi's head and after lunch, it became worse with the sudden appearance of Itachi who he tried to kill however was stopped by her tails. They then promptly informed him that his inside source was Itachi and he had grumbled about being left out of the loop by his old man of a sensei who needed to retire and hand down the seat to a worthy successor.
Ignoring his comments, the three other males helped her with cleaning before Itachi bid them farewell in order to return to Kisame who was outside the village as he 'scoped' the area.
It had been somewhat peaceful after that as Naruto and Jiraiya had left in order for her to sign the summoning contract again. Once having done so, just to mess with everyone, she summoned Lord Fukasaku causing the old toad to whack her over the head with his staff.
The rest of the day had gone by without event as Jiraiya left to do some 'research' as she debated whether it was worth going to the Hokage and decided against it, instead choosing to go to where she knew the sand siblings were and seeing them.
.
.
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Sakura was out of place. She was sitting on the bridge where team 7 usually met up, however, Naruto was running very late and this left herself and Sasuke to deal with the stifling atmosphere surrounding Kakashi-sensei and Shisui.
The two weren't outright glaring at each other. In fact, Kakashi sensei was reading Icha Icha as usual and Shisui was reading a scroll on what seemed to a wind jutsu. She found it odd that an Uchiha was reading something other than a fire jutsu but was further confused as to why there was an Uzumaki swirl.
"Do you have to read that all day?" asked Shisui, eyes peeled on his scroll but it was clear he was talking to Kakashi sensei.
Sakura and Sasuke both took a step back unconsciously as they looked on, "Hmm, Maa maa, you don't see me reading this at my home now do you?"
"Well, you and I both know Naruto would kill you if you read that at home as well."
"And if she doesn't have a problem with me reading this in public then I don't think you have any room to complain."
"Do you believe she likes it when you read that crap?"
"Like is a strong word. But she really doesn't have any room to speak against them either considering she's read the whole series as well."
This caused a reaction from the remaining three, each of them spluttering with wide eyes as they stared at Kakashi who simply gave them an eye smile before turning around, "Welcome back Naruto. What seems to have kept you?"
She raised a brow at them before shrugging and giving him a peck on his cheek before moving over to where Shisui was sat and gave him one as well. "Nothing really. Gamabunta was insisting I go to the sandaime and tell him to make the announcement of my gender within the next few days. I wasn't planning on even asking him for a few days as well."
"Never mind why! Naruto, have you really read the Icha Icha series?" asked Shisui, the same question the other two wanted to ask as well.
Naruto looked on confused, "Well yeah, Jiraiya is my godfather after all so it makes sense that I've read them. That, and it's an interesting read. Besides all the porn in it, there's an actual storyline. From what I get, the series is basically Jiraiya's fantasy world where he and Lady Tsunade get together and blah blah blah. If you overlook that small detail, it's an amazing series."
No one chose to give a comment after that, instead favoring to get on with the meeting. Kakashi stating he would train Sasuke for the final rounds and Naruto would train with Jiraiya. Once the exam was over they would return to normal.
If you could call their predicament normal.
Sakura looked to Sasuke as they all parted ways after Shisui transformed into a hawk before taking to the sky.
The two of them were headed in the general direction of where they had first become a team when Sasuke asked for them to stop.
"Sakura," he didn't say anything for another thirty seconds causing her to feel unease. Sasuke wasn't one for very many words but he usually knew what he wanted to say before speaking. "I know that you like me, a lot. And despite the fact that you've become a better kunoichi, despite the fact you're a great team member I can't see you as anything other than a close teammate and friend."
Sakura blinked. And again. Then she shook her head and tapped her ears thinking she may have just heard things however the look he was giving her made her aware she hadn't. Placing her hands on her lap she shrouded her eyes with her hair as she looked down, "I'm sorry if this upsets you. I had tried. I tried to see you as more so that's why I've been spending time with you but when I overheard you talking to Ino I realized I didn't like you like that and leading you on like I have so far is cruel."
He bowed her head to her causing her to look up in shock before shaking her head, "No. I knew you didn't like me from the start and you've made that clear to everyone since day one, but I still let my feelings get to me. This won't affect our team will it?"
Sasuke let out a short mirthless laugh, "Considering the love triangle Naruto's got going on, any drama we've got cooking will seem pretty insignificant. That and she told me some confidential secrets. I'd tell you but they're not exactly my secrets to share." She gave a nod of understanding as they once again began to walk around the village.
Sakura had once believed that if she were to ever be dumped or outright rejected by Sasuke she would be far sadder than she felt now. As it stood, she felt like something had been removed from her shoulders and made her feel rejuvenated.
Smiling to herself she made a plan of what to do during the next month.