Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Raising the Curtain ❯ Superior Nose ( Chapter 2 )

Raising the Curtain

By wiiTneSs

Beta'd by the awesome and wonderful: Seraphina2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did...mwahahaha

 

Summary: Sasuke's back. Konoha is in peace, for Naruto turns to more pressing matters:finding a cure for his secret illness. Neji seems 2B up to something! FemNaru

Spoilers alert to those who don't know team Hawk.

 

 

Chapter Two.Superior Nose

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Naruto wiped the blood from her mouth. Her sage mode time limit was up which, she berated herself once again, was because she wasn't spending more time training with natural chakra.

Drenched in sweat, Naruto wearily watched her opponent. Not even a scratch marred his navy attire.

Her body felt like it weighed a ton. Even standing was an effort, but seeing those mocking red eyes gave her the adrenaline she needed. Naruto took off.

“Dobe. Still as slow as ever.” Sasuke flipped backward with a bored expression as Naruto attempted to kick him. He dropped and did a swift sweep with his left leg, tripping Naruto, who fell with his rasengan still spinning in his hand.

“Teme!” Naruto jumped up and back, quickly forming two clones to attack Sasuke while the real Naruto dove underground.

Naruto grabbed onto Sasuke's feet and to her surprise was lifted up and thrown against a tree. A sickening crack was heard.

Time seemed to go at a snail's pace as Naruto lay against the tree, paralyzed. She watched in horror as Sasuke appeared before her and slowly brought his kusanagi down, cutting into her skin and slicing her clothing in half.

Naruto grabbed her bloody clothes, trying to keep from revealing any more, but it was too late.

“I-I can explain!” Naruto looked up as the shock in Sasuke's red eyes turned to disdain. He turned his back and walked away. “Wait! Sasuke!”

“What?! Naruto is a girl?!”

Naruto snapped her head around to see Sakura standing there and staring at her in disbelief. The whole team 12 was there.

Naruto scrambled up, wincing at her wound. With great effort she managed to have her signature grin in place. “Ahaha. Hi guys! Why are you all here?”

But with each step Naruto took towards them, they backed away as if she had a contagious disease.

“Guys?” Naruto look at each one of them searching desperately for a face of acceptance. Tears threatened to spill. Even kind Hinata was looking at her with fear and disbelief!

“Naruto-kun. How can you lie to us? To me?” Hinata sniffled.

Naruto felt her heart break at seeing one of her best friends cry - and worse the one who'd caused it was her. “No, I didn't mean to. Please, this is just temporary! I'm still me! Uzumaki Naruto! I'm not a girl!” Naruto tried to talk some sense into them, but even what she said began to sound like gibberish.

She caught sight of the Hokage and relief flooded Naruto, only to be crushed in despair when Tsunade shook her head.

“Sorry, brat. There's no cure.”

“You were my idol…”

“Konohamaru,” whispered Naruto holding onto his feet. “Not you too.”

Villagers at this point began to gathered and tossed Naruto the all too familiar glared of hate, fear, and rejection.

No. No. No. Ji-chan where are you? Naruto cried racing towards the park. Somewhere in her subconscious, she knew that no matter how many times she called out to him he would never be able to answer back.

“Ew, a weird cross dresser.”

“It's the demon!”

“Freak!”

“It's a demon AND a freak!”

“Don't get too close! It might contaminate you!”

“Kill it!”

No. No. NO. Naruto covered her ears and hid under the swings.

“Hokage has been too lenient!”

“Danger to the village!”

“NO. NO. You're wrong! It's not true! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!”

Naruto jolted awake. Mouth opened in a silent scream. Her eyes were wide and alert. Her heart was pounding against her ribcage.

She brought her forearm up, shielding her eyes from the rays of the morning sunlight. Unbeknownst to Naruto, her usual blue eyes bled red.

She laid there panting for how long she did not know.

Of course that was just a dream, she chided herself. Her friends were more understanding than that, she hoped.

Nah. Naruto shook her head as if the action will shake off the pessimistic thoughts.

My friends are understanding people.

Besides, how could she not even land one hit on Sasuke? She smiled, remembering them both in the Konoha hospital beds several weeks ago being yelled at by Sakura.

But she rarely sparred with anyone during this time of the month, preferring to lay low and train by herself or to take refuge somewhere far from Konoha. Was this dream a premonition? Her heartbeat accelerated at the thought.

It's not the first time you had a nightmare like this, a part of her reasoned. True…but Naruto couldn't shake off the uneasiness.

“I'll just be super careful! Everything will be alright!”

When her breathing and heartbeat calmed down she glanced at her Gama Clock: 10:55am.

Crap.

Naruto reluctantly got off the soft bed to perform her morning rituals.

*****

Naruto twirled around and scrutinized the mirror in front her from top to bottom.

“Chest looks normal.” Well, in her case it would be consider normal.

“Do re mi fa sol la ti do.” Her voice was a pitch higher than in her boy form but still deep enough to not be a ventriloquist. ,

“Face is normal. I hope,” she added inspecting her face side to side. “Hm…maybe my jaw line is a bit less angular?”

Actually, Naruto's face did become softer, but at first glance not too different from her male form. In both forms she had been consistently losing baby fat as she matured, showing the promise of a dashing man or, in this case, a beauty with no equal.

Of course, since Naruto looked at her face and body every day, she was oblivious to her gradual physical changes.

“Alright! Let's get some training done!” She was delighted at the fact of being one step closer to being a great and powerful Hokage. Putting on her jika-tabi, her eyes wandered to the calendar hanging by the door, absently noting today's date. It was a little more than a month until her eighteenth birthday.

*****

Sasuke easily dodged Karin and Suigetsu's attack. His eyes gave the barest twitch of annoyance. Naruto was late.

He was not eager meet up with Naruto. He was just itching for a good fight. None here but Naruto could give him that.

It was two minutes and twenty-seven seconds past noon.

He jumped up as Juugo attempted to swipe at him with his transformed monstrous hands, his sharingan eyes spinning and scanning the field.

Near a large bush, Sasuke caught a familiar chakra.

Hyuuga Neji.

His chakra level was lower than normal.

Did the Hokage send him to spy on them? They still did not trust him and his former hawk members who decided to follow him.

Hn.

Hyuuga was of no concern. Sasuke jumped higher up this time as Karin charged at him with a weird expression. Ah, there was the golden mop of hair.

“Would you stop looking at Sasuke like a piece of meat?! You are making me sick!”

“Wh-what?!” Karin pushed her glasses up.

“Besides, you're not even seriously training. You just want to-”

“You- you stupid waterboy!” She was splashing the daylights out of Suigetsu when another inference appeared. Arghhhh! Not him again. He was going to hog all of Sasuke's attention! “Nine-tailed beast! You are not welcome here! Shoo! Shoo!”

“Aha. Hello to you, too.” Naruto scratched the back of her head. The red head was very hard to get along with. It has already been over half a year since they settled into Konoha. It wasn't until five months ago when Naruto had built up the confidence to “join in” their training. To tell the truth, without the full cooperation of everyone, Naruto still felt awkward, and a bit like an outcast.

Karin seemed really protective of Sasuke. It wasn't a bad thing though. Naruto glanced at Sasuke's bored expression. Yup. Sasuke needed more friends.

Juugo muttered a “hi” to him, earning a smile from Naruto.

“Hi, Juugo!” At least he's friendlier.

Juugo look down at the thousand-watt smile aimed at him and felt his cheeks heat up. He tore his gaze away, feeling undeserving of the holy light emitting from the beautiful blonde. He had committed too many sins.

Okay, maybe not. Naruto inwardly sighed mistaking Juugo's movement as wanting no further contact with her.

“Yo, blondy! Back from the mission?” Suigetsu took advantage of Karin's distraction and reformed in front of the cute blonde.

“Hi, Suigetsu.” Naruto couldn't help but stare at the sharp teeth, marveling at the similarities to the teeth fish he had for dinner few nights ago.

She did not notice Suigetsu's wandering hands hovering dangerously close to her ass.

“Yeah, we just got back yesterday. I was planning to spar with...! Eek!” Naruto jumped ten feet up the air, her hackles rose, and she was about to punch the pervert when someone else beat her to it.

“Suigetsu, never turn your back against your opponent.” Sasuke glared at the offending puddle of liquid.

“Soft and firm…just like I imagined,” bubbled back the puddle of water.

At hearing this, Juugo's blush, which had finally died, came back, full-force.

Only those with the third eye would be able to see the sudden darkening aura surrounding one the called Uchiha Sasuke.

“Serves you right!” Karin proceed to pick up where she left off before; stomping poor Suigetsu into oblivion, who at the moment was reveling at the texture of the blonde beauty.

Naruto stared in shock at the chaos between the former Hawk team, and the way they seemed to have no care for each other. Then again, her own team fought like cat and dogs.

These people were weird, but not bad. Orochimaru must have put them through some traumatic events. Naruto suddenly had the urge to help them.

“Suigetsu, Juugo, Karin,” Sasuke voice was sturdy and commanding.

“Commmingggg, Sasuke-kuuuun.” Karin turned to Naruto. “See? Sasuke-kun has us. He doesn't need other sparring partners. He doesn't need you. Right, Sasuke-kun?”

Sasuke did not answer and started dodging Juugo's powerful swings as if there was no interruption to begin with. The corner of his lips tugged up ever so slightly. Knowing Naruto's temper, that taunt should have Naruto jumping in to fight any second now, just like before.

Five seconds.

Ten seconds.

Twenty seconds.

Thirty seconds.

What was taking the dobe so long? Sasuke made the mistake of hesitating to look at Naruto and got plowed into the air several meters away.

“Sasuke-kun!” Karin frantically (and happily) offered her arm to Sasuke. “Bite me!”

Naruto eyes widened in worry and amusement. Bastard finally got knocked down. A part of her wanted to go see him, but something kept Naruto rooted to the spot as she watched Juugo, Karin, and Suigetsu swarm around Sasuke.

He doesn't need you.

He doesn't need you.

He doesn't need you.

A bark brought Naruto out of contemplation.

From the dense forest, Kiba and Akamaru emerged.

“Naruto!” Grinned Kiba, his fangs glinting. “Uchiha Sasuke and his groupies,” Kiba added.

His nose twitched. Along with the smell of jasmine and mountain rain after thunderstorm scent that was solely Naruto was the smell of iron.

“Hi Kiba! Long time no see! Looks like Akamaru gotten bigger again.”

Akamaru tackled Naruto, giving her face a generous wash.

“Yeah.” Kiba eyes trailed along Naruto. “You okay?” There weren't any visible wounds.

Naruto fidgeted uncomfortably. Why was Kiba looking at her like that? “Of course, the future Hokage won't get hurt that easily!” Naruto's chest puffed up adorably.

Naruto's grin faltered when Kiba was still looking at her body with concern and confusion. Did she somehow cut herself without realizing it? Naruto glance down at herself. Everything looked okay. What was the matter?

Sudden realization hit like a bucket of cold water. Perhaps Inuzukas with their superior nose could smell out the difference in genders?!

Naruto panicked and lunged at Kiba.

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A/N: Feedbacks are greatly appreciated =O. Peace.