Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Candy ❯ Part I ( Chapter 1 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
Candy
By: Kibou32
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Summary: Sakura thinks she has the means of changing things. Naruto is dead and Sasuke is estranged. She finds a hybrid technique and decides to use it in the heat of battle. Instead of what she had thought would happen, her spirit gets sent back in time. Except… things are more than different than what she had at first thought were possible.
Warnings: there will be sexual relations between girls and boys. Mentions of homosexual relations, etc.
Pairings: FemNaruto + Harem.
Part I.
Sakura woke up groggy and disoriented. That jutsu surely took a lot of her chakra for her to be hospitalized. Wait. She wasn't on a hospital bed. In fact she wasn't anywhere near a hospital! This was… this was her old bedroom! She stood up quickly and went to the mirror and gasped.
She was wearing bunny pajamas and her hair was as long as it used to be when she was at the Academy, before the Chunnin exams macabre show. She found herself standing there looking at the mirror, in a younger than thou body and wondering about the nature of things. She knew she loved Naruto. She knew it like she knew her hair was pink. This was her chance to make things right! She could do it! And thankfully, by the look of her calendar, she had two weeks before the genin exams.
She wasn't thinking when she decided to look for Naruto so early in the morning, instead of going to the Academy as she got out of her house. She knocked on his door and when he came out looking so adorably sleepy, she realized that she had missed him so much! What she didn't expect after her jumping him for a hug, was to be sidestepped and held at arm's length.
“Sakura-chan?” - she heard his voice, a childish voice that was in no way the low husky tenor it had been in the future and she sighed inwardly. He didn't look all that happy to see her.
“Un!” - she said in her preppy tone of voice of her youth. She hadn't used that tone in years after being Tsunade-sama's apprentice.
“Whaddaya want?” - he asked grouchy looking like a deer caught in the headlights.
Sakura realized Naruto was anxious of her visit. He wasn't happy and he wasn't likely to let her in. She realized with a pang in her heart that he didn't trust easily. The villagers had seen to that.
“Um… I…” - she honestly couldn't think up a reasonable answer and when she thought all was lost, she remembered.
“You asked me for help for the written exams, right?”
“Yeah… what of it?” - he asked still looking untrusting and she sighed wondering what she could say to get him to agree to her wishes.
“Well… I can tutor you if you want…” - she let the question hang and waited a moment while she looked to the side.
“I'd really like that, except… I haven't got money to give you.” - he said looking aside in embarrassment.
“Well… if I tutor you, you have to tutor me in taijutsu.” - she said all the while crossing her fingers behind her back, hoping it would work and that she didn't have to fib anymore.
He looked at her from a cocked to the side head gesture and narrowed his clear blue eyes at her. After a minute or two, he said…
“You do know that I'm considered the dead last of the class, right?” - he said and she was sad to acknowledge the fact that she did know.
“Well… that is true, but of all of our classmates, you clearly have the more stamina.” - she said.
His eyes widened and then he grinned. She was excited to see that it was a nice happy grin rather than the fake one.
“Ok. I'll help you out.”
:-:
After the first three tutorships in books, she decided to see if it were possible for her to sneak into the library and get higher than normal jutsus. She found it to be quite easy! She sneaked those in his daily readings to see if he would study them and was glad to hit jackpot when she covertly watched him at night practicing ninjutsu. But she knew things wouldn't work out to his advantage and in a way to hers, if he didn't learn Kage Bunshin no jutsu before the genin exams.
It was to her great surprise that the one time he goofed off in front of their sensei that she realized what was missing.
:-:
Her plan didn't work at the time she wanted it to. But she did discovered the traitor that was Mizuki even before he went to Naruto with the offer. This had been a subject that had been sort of taboo to Naruto even after they began to be friends when he came back from his training with Jiraiya. This time he flunked because Mizuki had graded the tests. If Iruka-sensei had graded them, he'd have realized that Naruto was doing okay! She snarled silently to herself. The village was in an uproar and she knew, she just knew what was going to happen next. She wavered undecided if letting it happen was worth a shot and then pumped up her fist. If she could save her best friend, then she would.
:-:
She had done it! She had saved Naruto by letting him have more time to look at the scroll and Naruto had learnt Kage Bunshin, gotten the idea that Mizuki was lying to him, saved Iruka-sensei and gotten Iruka to recognize his worth, all in one night.
Only when she directed herself to her bed, did she remember that she had left something behind and went to get it. Iruka-sensei was still there lying next to the tree trunk where she had seen him last with Naruto next to him, but she thought she saw something wrong. Was there a genjutsu around them?
No. The genjutsu only covered Naruto as he pressed a hand softly on to the wound Iruka-sensei had on his back. She discovered that Iruka-sensei had a nice chest and wasn't too shabby either… she shook her thoughts out of the gutter and saw the shimmer. She concentrated some chakra into her feet and whispered out a soft `kai'. When she raised her eyes to Naruto she noticed two things.
One, the Kyuubi was in a much closer contact with Naruto than she thought was possible, after all… Naruto had just met up with the idea as to why the villagers hated him tonight. And two, Naruto wasn't a boy… but a girl.
:-:
That morning she still couldn't wrap her mind around it. She had seen through the ruse and gotten her first shock ever. Naruto was a girl. And that wasn't even a prank jutsu! No wonder she had been able to build up a pretty convincing image of a naked chick! Her head was beginning to hurt. First things first. First she had to make sure that her mind had been playing tricks with her. So she got up and got ready for the day. Today, the team assignments were given and she hoped - although she knew it was useless - that she'd be put with Naruto and someone else.
When she arrived by Ino's place, she sighed. This was another thing she needed to fix. But this had to be done in baby steps, much like her friendship with Naruto. And if they did end up being part of the same Team 7, she wanted to be ready.
:-:
Uchiha Sasuke hadn't so much as twitched when he saw the high probability that he was going to be teamed up with the `supposed' to be dead last. If he'd be truthful to himself, he had nothing against the blond idiot who sat next to him. But lately, he'd been privy to some weird dreams in his head. Not the dreams of an evil Itachi wanting to kill him, but more or less like hormonal dreams that made him wonder if he really liked boys as the dreams so put it. Did he like boys? He looked around the classroom and decided that no, he didn't like boys.
Did he like girls? No, he didn't like girls. Especially if they acted like his fangirls.
So then why was he dreaming perverted dreams?!
He didn't get it. But he didn't dare show that he was this consternated.
Only to get the surprise of a lifetime for not paying attention to his surroundings. He was kissing, lips to the soft luscious lips of one Uzumaki Naruto.
There was one death glare from a person he didn't think would be angry at him, ever. And there was doom to come for the person who was busy retching and trying to get rid of the flavor of his lips. But he couldn't help but think that a boy like the dobe in front of him shouldn't have such soft and luscious lips as a girl's should be.
:-:
Sakura decided that today was not her day. Seeing the kiss made her really mad. But not at Naruto like in the past, more like at the Uchiha jerk that hadn't been aware of his surroundings. If he had, maybe none of this wouldn't have happened. She was morose up until they named team 7 - to which she was highly glad - to hear her name followed by Naruto's, even though she didn't show it. And then she felt herself sour in thought at being once again put up next to Uchiha Sasuke. She had hoped that if Naruto aced the written test, things might have changed between them.
No such luck.
Although, seeing as they had gotten the same sensei as the last time - she wasn't completely adverse to that - she thought it was a 2x1 type of deal. She looked at Naruto sleeping on the seat next to who once used to be her first and only crush, and decided she'd winged it. Perhaps in inciting teamwork between them both from the get-go might make their bonds stronger than a bond forming between Naruto and the Uchiha idiot sitting there looking out the window.
“Say Naruto…” - she asked tentatively and looked at those gorgeous blue eyes staring back at her. Her heart gave a flutter and she gasped inwardly. Why had she not noticed that Naruto had the bluest eyes she'd ever be likely to see!!?
“Yes… Sakura-chan?”
“I know you're still sleepy from last night, but do you have that scroll I lent to you the day before? The one on seals?”
One moment Naruto was looking sleepily at her and the next he - or dare she say it, she - was up and about as if nothing had happened.
“Un! Can we study it together?” - he asked chirpily, before crumbling a little thinking she'd want it back. As if! After all the trouble she went into getting it for him, no; she didn't want it back.
“Sure! Just because we're out of the academy now, doesn't mean we shouldn't continue studying! But… remember! No asking me out on dates!” - she reminded him although inwardly she wished he/she would ask her out so she could say yes.
Except that if she wanted him to trust her enough to let her in on her secret - of the Kyuubi's and her real gender - she had to go slow to gain her trust. On the other hand, it might look really suspicious if she suddenly began to being openly amorous to him in the get-go. During their stamina training, she had taught him more than he did her. But she didn't mind. She loved teaching so much…! She loved teaching him much more. They'd already advanced a long way and she was certain her friend's skills - as hers - had grown up to a quarter of what they were when they met back after the three year training trip he partook with the Legendary Jiraiya of the Sannin.
She watched from the corner of her eye how the Uchiha sat up looking over at them. She wondered what he could be thinking. Briefly. Before remembering the time she lost fawning over the last Uchiha to actually entertaining a real relationship with the person sitting next to her.
“By the way Naruto… how did you get the hitae you're wearing at the minute. I thought you had botched up the attempt at making a Bunshin at the genin exam?” - she said in a way that was blatantly asked for information, but at the same time let her friend know she cared about him… a little.
“Eh? Oh! Well… it's a actually a long story… but Iruka-sensei revised his opinion and said I had written the exam's answers right! And decided to overlook the fact that I couldn't make a bunshin to save my ass!” - and here he laughed that laugh that indicated he was lying and nervous and hoping she'd take the bait so he would stop having to fib before he dug himself a hole he couldn't get out of.
“Souka. Thanks for telling me. Now I feel proud to say that the tutoring sessions I gave you have started to pay off!” - she said looking like she was proud of that. Inside her mind though, she was actually glad that her teachings had made a profound change in her friend.
“Sakura-chan! You're the greatest!” - she heard him exclaim and she blushed saying `it was nothing'.
Meanwhile this went on, Sasuke harrumphed to himself.
:-:
Hatake Kakashi came in around the same time he had first come in the first time around, for Sakura at least. She could see Sasuke wanting to kill him. Naruto however, was so entertained with the book that she really didn't want to make him stop. Luckily, her own sensei did it for her when he signaled that they should move to the top floor.
Now, she began to fret at what she could say as an introduction. Two weeks of hanging around with Naruto did not make enough of a reason for her to shift her full-blown crush to the Uchiha into the one she was sitting next to. She hemmed and hawed in her mind for a reasonable response, when she got it! She would say…
“Me? My name is Haruno Sakura. I like to read scientific books and medical techniques scrolls. I dislike people who think of themselves as mightier than thou, and my dream is to become the greatest medic-nin there is.”
“That's a lofty dream, Sakura-san!” - Kakashi said and she glowed inwardly at the praise. Her sensei seemed impressed with her. That was good for her and in the long run for Naruto.
“What about you, blondie?” - she turned to look at the reason as to why she turned up here in the past and watched her future friend bristle at the pun.
“My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like my friends, eating ramen, studying scroll jutsus and reading books with Sakura-chan. I dislike stuck-up people. My hope is… my dream is to become a great shinobi that the people that care for me can be proud of and trust.”
Sakura was shocked. Her past Naruto hadn't said that. He had said he liked ramen, learning new cool jutsus and that his dream was to become Hokage! Had she changed him/her that much? No. Perhaps this was what Naruto had wanted to become all along. She hoped she hadn't changed her friend too much. It was - after all - what he/she got people to acknowledge the possibility of a dead last becoming Hokage.
She turned to look at Kakashi and found the endearing smile beneath his mask to be heart warming. And she sighed in relief. Apparently, what Naruto hadn't conveyed in a loud manner, he understood the bright and clear meaning.
“And you?” - turning to Sasuke and Sakura waited for the avenger spiel with a roll of her eyes. But if she thought Kakashi-sensei had missed it, she was wrong.
“My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I don't have many likes and have few dislikes. My dream is… to kill a certain man.” - and then he stopped for a minute before getting his wits together and glancing towards the blond sitting in between Sakura and himself, blushed.
“And I hope to be able to rebuild my clan once I kill that man.”
Sakura gaped at the Uchiha. Naruto ignored the Uchiha completely, although Sakura could tell he/she was disturbed by the attention the young Uchiha was paying him/her.
Kakashi - on the other hand - was amused.
“Well then. Now that we've introduced ourselves, I'm going to tell you that tomorrow we're going to be doing some survival training.”
“Survival training?” - Sakura used her cue at the right minute hoping that she wasn't ruining it.
“Ah. I should warn you that the survival training we're going to do tomorrow morning, is really a test if you should continue on to becoming genins or not.”
It was Sasuke not Sakura who protested it and they went back and forth, without Naruto not even inputting a single word. Sakura noticed after awhile that Naruto was lost in thought. She recalled everything about the test and deemed it necessary that she and Naruto make up some sort of strategy for the next day. It wouldn't hurt to be prepared for the unknown.
“I suggest you don't eat breakfast or you'll be sorry. Ja ne.” - he said before he poofed away leaving them alone to their own thoughts.
Sakura wanted to ask Naruto why he/she seemed so pensive when a chunnin she had only met in passing once or twice came up to the roof and said…
“Uzumaki Naruto?”
Naruto shook him/herself from his/her stupor and said: “Huh?”
“The Hokage wishes to talk to you.”
“Un!”
Sakura panicked and said out loud for everyone within their space to hear, something she didn't want to.
“Naruto! Let's meet at your place at 8pm, ok?!”
“Un!” - she heard her friend say and sighed in relief that he had heard her.
In the meantime, she was about to go when she was about to leave by her other teammate.
“Sakura.” - the great Uchiha Sasuke said.
She turned around wondering what the boy could really want with her. Had she been the Sakura of late, she would've been so happy that the Uchiha was noticing her, but now she wished it weren't true.
“I wish to have some words with you. Come home with me.”
She didn't want to follow, but she sighed and nodded. The least she could do to - at least try and promote teamwork - was to listen to what he could say.
:-:
“Sit down. I'll be right back.” - he said and she was left looking in on an almost bare apartment.
He came back after two minutes and sat in front of her. There was silence for a whole full minute. With her patience wearing thin, she wondered what could he want to talk about.
“I have a feeling that Naruto is a girl.” - he said in the end and Sakura almost choked.
“What?!” - she said.
“Yeah. It's actually not a feeling, I do have physical evidence so to speak of it. So, if you're trying to win me over by pretending that you like Uzumaki like that, you aren't going to get me to ask you out on a date.” - he said looking at her with onyx eyes.
Sakura ground her teeth against her lip and growled like an animal. She couldn't believe the nerve of this guy! The ego, by Gods!
“You're mistaken. I'm not doing this to gain favor on you. I just had a rather frightening wake-up call about you and decided to get out while there was still light ahead. And what kind of evidence is that?! Naruto isn't a girl!” - she bluffed at the end. She knew Naruto was a girl, but until the person itself told her the true facts, she wasn't about to pinpoint fingers at anyone.
He stood up and retrieved what seemed like a box, but in reality was an envelope filled to the brim. He pushed the envelope in front of her and bade her to open it with his eyes.
She touched the envelope and found pictures upon pictures of a blond girl… in various states of undress. The girl in the picture also had the three fox-like marks on each of her cheeks, Sakura gulped.
“Whe- where did you get this?” - she whispered concerned.
“I went to the hospital yesterday, for my yearly check-up. Due to an unexpected turn of events, I wasn't treated at all and was left to wait there. Iruka-sensei arrived at exactly 5 minutes after midnight, I had fallen asleep on one of the waiting chairs and woke up to see him cradling a bandage on his back. Naruto was with him. He didn't seem - at first - to be injured, but I don't know what happened because the next minute I see a doctor taking pictures of the dobe in various states of undress. He seemed kind of manic and… well… I made some sort of ruckus and just grabbed the pictures before anyone else came about.”
Sakura blushed as she found a picture of her friend lying on one hospital bed totally naked. The doctor, apparently; was a big pervert and a mean old bastard with a grudge against the Kyuubi. She deduced that he had begun taking the pictures so that he could blackmail Naruto into serving him - here she gagged at the thought - in exchange for keeping her secret.
Naruto was unconscious on all of the pictures.
“Did you see them all?” - she asked in a soft tone.
Sasuke turned his head away and nodded, blushing to the back of his neck. Sakura looked up and over the distance to find his eyes and said firmly.
“If you don't have copies of these… burn them.”
Sasuke looked at her for a minute and then said: “The camera was of the disposable kind and I've already gotten rid of it. The photos though… I can't burn them.”
“Why the hell not?!” - she asked in a rage. “Are you some sort of pervert?!”
“Iie. I was thinking we should give them to our sensei so he'd do something in favor of Naruto.” - Sakura was stumped for a minute realizing that the boy in front of her had no desire to use them against Naruto.
Sasuke, on the other hand; wasn't going to use it against Naruto. but he wasn't about to tell his other female teammate that he was saving the best shots for himself. For his nightly exercise that had begun exactly two weeks ago. He'd be lying if he said that Naruto wasn't attractive. She had bigger boobs that he was sure the girls at the academy could ever have. She was curvy but lean. Sasuke hoped Naruto didn't ever used that Sexy-no-jutsu on him again, or he might faint from the excitement his… penis was sure to receive at the sight.
“Ok. But if I learn you're lying… so help me god, you will find I'm a worse nightmare than your brother could ever be!” - and then she turned away and prepared to leave through the door.
:-:
Sakura went home and celebrated with her family for being part of a genin team. And then she told them that she was going to Ino's to talk. Since her mother didn't know that she had parted on not so good terms with the blond due to her mutual crush on the Uchiha, she got away with her lie.
At eight p.m. prompt, she arrived at Naruto's door. She knocked twice as was their custom and waited for Naruto to open the door. She had stolen one of the Uchiha's pictures - right under his nose, served him right the bastard - and was hoping that with the physical evidence, she might be able to pry the information out of Naruto.
Naruto opened after a couple of minutes. He looked the same and Sakura sighed in relief. She had hoped nothing bad had come out of his/her meeting with the Hokage.
Halfway towards their tutoring session - this time on other issues such as traps and how to get out of them - she took the picture out of the fold of her dress and slid it across the table. She felt Naruto stiffen and look up slowly towards her. Naruto's eyes shut themselves off from her and she felt a little cold.
“So you know…? How did you…?” - she whispered.
“I… I found out from the unlikeliest sources…” - she said after a minute of deliberating as to whether or not she should tell her friend about it.
“Really?”
“Un.” - and proceeded to tell Naruto about it. By the time her diatribe had ended, Uzumaki Naruto resembled a tomato.
:-:
Sasuke and Sakura walked into the bridge at exactly the same time… seven o'clock. They looked at each other and nodded. Sasuke took out the envelope and followed Sakura to where she thought Kakashi might be. And behold, he was where he should have been. They didn't try to hide themselves from him, indicating that they wished to speak with him privately.
“Well? What is it that you wished to talk to me about?” - Sakura knew he looked bored and upset that his time with the dead was being cut short, but she knew he was really impressed that they'd manage to find him.
“It's about Naruto.” - Sasuke said and then thrust the envelope to him.
They watched silently as he took in the contents of the envelope and shuddered a minute before Kakashi stopped looking at them.
“Where on earth did you get these?” - he asked, his voice hard and promising punishment if they so dared to lie.
“A doctor at the hospital. The night before… I don't know what was going on, but in the late hours of the night, well…” - Sasuke looked to the side and relayed all that he had told Sakura the night before and the few pieces he hadn't told Sakura the night before.
Sakura projected some minor killing intent at Sasuke whilst Kakashi took in the information. He then proceeded to dismiss them and went over the Hokage tower with a new mission in mind.
:-:
Naruto arrived at the bridge at ten thirty a.m. She knew she was late, but she had had nightmares the night before and hadn't been able to sleep a wink until the wee hours of the morning, to which she overslept and had breakfast when she knew she shouldn't have. But when she saw that it wasn't her teammates who were awaiting for her, but a frowning Iruka-sensei she panicked.
“Iruka-sensei? What is it?”
“We're going to see the Hokage.” - was what he said, his voice soft and worried, and she could tell he was a bit upset.
“But what about the test…?” - she stopped and gasped when Iruka-sensei - the man who she regarded as her older brother - took her in his arms in a hug and poofed away to the Tower.
:-:
Sasuke and Sakura sat side by side at the waiting room outside the council room. They had watched the village council step in looking harried and upset, the clan council looking worried but unhurried, and then the elder council stepping inside the room looking cool and unbothered. Sakura worried what they might say. Sasuke worried what they might do.
It was hours from when they came in by the summon of the Hokage himself and told him all they knew of the subject, although it was Sasuke who knew the most and had made the most investigation with another genin by the name of Nara Shikamaru, who was also summoned after he completed his genin test with his team. Sakura told the Hokage what she knew and what she had also - seemingly - come to terms with after thinking and putting things together in a way that came out with the truth.
Nara Shikamaru came in two seconds after the elder council made their way into the room and said as he looked at Sasuke in boredom: “This is so troublesome.”
:-:
Sarutobi Sasuke hadn't wanted to let this little tidbit of information be known. But after a most thorough although quick investigation by his ANBU from the moment Hatake Kakashi walked into his office at 7 past 7a.m. to 10a.m. when he summoned both the three genins outside and Iruka so he'd fetch Naruto himself, he had realized that Naruto herself was in danger. So he said that Uzumaki Naruto did not exist and this was true because there were no records of Uzumaki Naruto in the register records and so on.
The village council went into an uproar after he had laid down the idea pretty well. Uzumaki Naruto was an alias for Suki Kibou Namikaze Uzumaki, daughter of the late fourth Hokage and a jounin who allied herself to Konoha from the altogether left in the dust Whirlpool Country named Kushina Uzumaki. After a couple of minutes of the clans council deliverance, it was proven that Uzumaki Naruto was the Yondaime's daughter. The DNA tests confirmed it even as the village council continued to deny it. Finally, the elder council decided to make a decree. The village council shuddered in fear and with bent heads and against their will they agreed, signing a contract in blood. Should any of them forfeit the contract, the answer to that was death to all of those that forfeited it. Sarutobi didn't think it'd get to that, but things had to tighten up if he wanted Naruto to be able to fend for herself even under the village's bureaucracy.
The next issue came in the form of where did the young lady in question would live. Yamanaka Inoichi said that the place where `Uzumaki Naruto' lived was an inhumane punishment. The rundown apartment lacked the usual commodities that it should have been a given in any household. Akimichi Chouza piped up that the stipend to which the girl lived was also so small that it was no wonder the kid was so skinny. Nara Shikaku narrowed his eyes and said that the girl needed a guardian that wasn't part of the clans council nor part of the villagers council to avoid being swayed by one party or the other in favor or against the living of the person in question.
Sarutobi agreed and said he already had a person in mind. Koharu and Homura - the two elders that were part of the elder council - said that the person should take an oath to make sure that he or she would insure the safety of the Yondaime's legacy. He said this was possible as the person in question was just outside the door.
So he called Umino Iruka in. With him, came the visit of Danzo. Sarutobi grimaced inwardly and hoped nothing went wrong due to his appearance.
Themes and whatnot were thrown into the scheme of things. Iruka swore he'd take up the mantle of being a legal guardian to Naruto until the day he died in which - should Naruto still be considered a minor in the eyes of the law, applicable even to shinobi - this mantle would be passed on to the next best ideal person to be a legal guardian to Naruto. Inuzuka Tsume suggested that the name to be put forth should be Hatake Kakashi.
Danzo asked in what seemed to be curiosity, but in what Sarutobi could tell was actually interest, why the man.
It was Nara Shikaku who settled the issue saying that though Hatake was a little `fruity' so to speak - that earned a chuckle from everyone who knew the guy up close and personal - he was also quite intelligent and capable of handling the girl. Moreover, during the past few hours; the man had also become her jounin sensei. Danzo defeated - although he didn't show it - agreed with the notion.
By the end of the night, Suki Kibou Namikaze Minato alias Uzumaki Naruto, would move in to the Inuzuka compound to live in, would receive etiquette classes from Hyuuga Hinata and study all those kunoichi classes she had missed under the guise of being a boy. Sarutobi was glad that he had managed to do some good for the girl his predecessor had left behind in his care.
:-:
Part II.