2.Like a Natural Woman

On days like these, Kurenai hated being a genin-team leader.

Today, Kiba's mother was teaching him more advanced Inuzuka jutsu. Shino's father was teaching him a method for holding their contracted insects in jugs. Even Hinata was training with her father, something she'd been doing ever since the chuunin exam.

Since Kurenai couldn't take high-class missions while she was a team leader, that meant that on days when her team was training, instead of doing missions, she had nothing to do.

Asuma, with this year's Ino-Shika-Cho team, had the same dilemma. Except he enjoyed spending his days doing nothing but smoking.

Kurenai did not.

Kakashi, on the other hand, had the opposite problem. All three of his students had only him to learn from. And Kakashi was a terrible teacher. The only one that could learn anything from him was the one with the Copy Eye.

So, when one of the little mission-assignment birds came to her window, she was more than happy to see what exactly the Hokage wanted.

Tsunade pursed her lips, frowning slightly. "It's not a mission exactly, but you have to maintain absolute secrecy. Even if you refuse, don't breathe a word of this to anyone."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Kurenai responded. It was intriguing, to be sure.

Tsunade sighed. "The problem is simple. The two strongest kunoichi from Stone and Cloud are going to be at the Cute Polar Bear Hot Springs Festival this year. We want to insert an agent." Tsunade sat back, shrugging. "But, we can't send anyone they could potentially recognize. That means all kunoichi above the genin level."

Kurenai frowned. "So... you want me to train a genin kunoichi up to an acceptable level before then? I don't think that's possible, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade grimaced. "Not quite. There's a shinobi in Konoha that possesses a genjutsu that gives him the appearance of a girl."

"It had better not be Jiraiya." Kurenai said darkly.

Tsunade chuckled. "No, no, not him. But, this person will need intense training, not only in feminine behavior, but also in certain spying techniques and genjutsu. I want you to be his adviser and teacher in this."

Kurenai frowned. "I don't like working with perverts, but I'll do it for the sake of the village."

Tsunade snorted. "He's not a pervert, actually. I don't quite now why he developed that weird jutsu in the first place." She smiled, then. "Still, I'm glad you'll do it."

Kurenai nodded, slightly demure.

"His identity is Uzumaki Naruto." Tsunade said abruptly.

Kurenai's eyebrow started twitching. "Is he even capable of this?" Naruto wasn't what she thought of when she thought of 'spies.'

Tsunade grunted. "He's our only hope in this matter."

Which was a good way of saying that the answer to her question was no, and that the answer didn't matter. "Couldn't he teach this jutsu to some more capable ninja?" Kurenai asked.

Tsunade snorted. "Yes. But who? Jiraiya? Kakashi? Asuma? Genma, or Raidou?"

Kurenai sighed. "I guess it is a jutsu we don't want falling into the wrong hands." Perverted hands, that could use it to sneak into women's bathhouses. The information probably wasn't worth that price.

Tsunade nodded. "You'll want to get started as quickly as possible. He's eating at Iruka's house tonight at seven, and discussing details of the mission. Why don't you drop in on them?"

Kurenai agreed and left. It was kind of arrogant of Tsunade to tell Kurenai to interrupt their dinner, but orders were orders, even if they were implicit.

Kurenai remembered Iruka from when they were in the Academy together. She particularly remembered the bugs in her hair. She'd held a grudge over that.

She also remembered the body-covering bug genjutsu she'd used on him in the chuunin exam. He'd laughed it off, after he stopped screaming.

She saw him in the mission office quite regularly, and was always struck by how nice he was. She couldn't quite believe anyone was that nice. Until she saw him tearing into a group of students one time.

When he'd asked her, off-handedly, to assist in genjutsu training one day, she'd been a little surprised. Iruka wasn't good at genjutsu, but he wasn't bad either.

That had been the day she met Hinata.

Kurenai paused in her roof-hopping. That sneaky little... he'd set them up. Sometimes it was easy to forget that the ever-responsible Iruka had once been the class prankster.

She couldn't exactly blame him, though, considering what a wreck Hinata had been.

Kurenai landed, and rang the doorbell to his apartment.

She smiled softly. Umino Iruka was a pretty good guy, really.

Which was why she was surprised when a buxom, teenaged blonde answered the door wearing only a too-large shirt.

"Can I help you?" The girl had said politely. Warmly, even.

"Um, yes, I was wondering if Iruka was home?" She said, slightly flustered. That sounded so suspicious, but she couldn't exactly divulge why she was really here.

"Come on in!" The blonde said brightly. "Irukaaa-kun! There's a beautiful woman at the door for you!" She sang out, drawing out that last note.

Iruka smoothed the frown off his face as he came into the front room. "Good evening, Kurenai-san." He paused. "Er, would you like to join us for dinner?"

Kurenai raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't want to... interupt." She said, slightly snide. "But, the Hokage asked me to discuss an important mission with you that came up today."

"Oh?" Iruka said, not quite following. "Oh!" He smiled. "Naruto, you can drop the jutsu."

"Sure thing, Iruuuka-kuuun!" The blonde said. With a burst of smoke, she vanished, and Naruto struck a silly pose where she had been. "Did I fool you, Kurenai-sensei?"

Kurenai's eyebrows went up. "Actually, yes."

"Yeesss!" Naruto said, pumping his fist. "See? See? I told you I was incredible at this skill, Iruka-sensei, but you didn't believe me!"

Iruka sighed. "Okay, Naruto, I admit, you're better at pretending you're a woman than I thought. But, that doesn't exactly make me feel better."

Kurenai frowned. "What I want to know is why he was flouncing around wearing only that shirt."

Iruka hastily deflected the glare to Naruto. "That's a good question." He said in his most teacher-like voice.

Naruto, unconcerned by the scrutiny, rolled his eyes. "Please! I still have to maintain some of my prankster reputation! I have my pride, you know."

"..." Iruka just dropped his face into his hands.

The oven timer went off.

"The mushroom puffs!" Naruto cried, dashing into the kitchen.

The dinner was surprisingly good. Kurenai thought two guys wouldn't be able to cook well, but they proved her dead wrong. It was probably the most pleasant surprise she'd had all day.

Naruto summoned a few Kage Bunshin to deal with the dishes while they sat around the table to discuss strategy.

"First, we need to establish an alias that won't draw too much attention." Kurenai said. "Any spies from Cloud and Rock are probably being extra-sensitive to anything that could break through security at this Hot Springs Festival, so we need to do this in absolute secrecy."

Iruka frowned. "Naruto, can you do the Oiroke no jutsu without the whisker marks? Come to think of it, could you change your hair and eye color, too?"

Naruto frowned, cupping his chin. "I've never tried before." He admitted. "Well, one way to find out! Oiroke no jutsu!"

With a puff of smoke, Naruto transformed. She was taller than he was, with a black page-boy haircut and green eyes. Her complexion was quite pale, and she didn't have the marks on her cheeks. She looked, in short, like Sasuke's cousin.

Kurenai frowned. She placed her hands on Naruto shoulder, and with a muttered "Kai," tried to release the genjutsu. It failed.

Naruto looked at her oddly.

Kurenai explained. "Most genjutsu, like henge, can be broken with that." She knitted her brows for a moment, before they came apart. "That's not a pure genjutsu."

Naruto shrugged. "Well, I was really bad at Henge, but I found I could do it if I filled my whole body with chakra, instead of just layering it over me, it worked!"

Kurenai stilled. "Naruto... that sounds like a ninjutsu." Using pure ninjutsu to change the body directly was incredibly dangerous. Molded chakra didn't usually react well with body tissue; that was the foundation of the Hyuuga Jyuuken.

Naruto frowned. "Well, I still do the same seal, and everything, but through my whole body." She released the illusion and returned to his normal gender and appearance.

Iruka spoke up. "So, instead of changing your outward appearance, you change your whole body, inside and out, with that illusion?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah!"

Kurenai shrugged, surprised. "Well, I guess it's possible... I've never heard of it being done. I guess that's why the Kai didn't work, then, if your chakra system itself was cloaked."

Naruto frowned. "Eh?"

Iruka sighed. "If I've explained it once, I've explained it a hundred times."

Naruto sighed. "Ah, not another lecture..."

Iruka, with a glance to Kurenai, frowned. "Well, maybe later."

Naruto sighed with relief when that bullet was dodged.

"Anyway," Kurenai said, "we need to develop an alias for you to use while you're training. Also, we need to explain where Naruto is, while you're gone."

Naruto shrugged. "I'll just leave a note saying I got dragged off by Jiraiya. If Tsunade tells him to, he'll play along with that."

Iruka raised an eyebrow. "Just like that?"

Naruto sighed, and crossed his arms. "Are you kidding? That big pervert will be jealous." 'Probably demand I take pictures in exchange, though.' Naruto thought.

Kurenai twitched. 'Better not to think about that part just yet.' Teaching a boy how to spy on women in the bath was not something Kurenai had ever expected to do.

"So, we need a name, an appearance, and an explanation for why you're here." Kurenai said, trying to pull them back on task.

"How about... Motoko?" Iruka said. "Since we don't want anything to connect her with him, we shouldn't call her 'Naru' or 'Naruko' or something obvious like that."

"True." Kurenai frowned. "Motoko should probably be a chuunin, so we don't have to explain away a genin team. But, a new one."

Naruto pursed his lips. "Then, how about..." and he used his jutsu.

In a puff of smoke, she appeared. She was just as buxom and curvaceous as Naruko, but had less hair, neck-length, and held back on the left side with a hair clip. Her eyes were still blue, but much darker. Her face was more heart-shaped, with more pronounced cheek-bones than Naruto had. She also looked to be about 15 or 16, older than Naruto by several years.

"That's good." Kurenai said, noting the tight miniskirt and tank top. It would be less revealing when she had a chuunin vest on.

"Thank you." Motoko said, slightly demure. Her voice was soft and smoky. Totally different than Naruto.

'That's just uncanny.' Kurenai thought.

Iruka nodded. "That should work great."

Abruptly, her demeanor changed. Motoko squealed, clasping her hands together as she leaned in. "Really? Do you think so, Iruka-sensei!"

Iruka blushed, "Uh, yes I do, Na—I mean, Motoko... chan..."

"Kyaaa!" Motoko shouted, leaping forward to hug Iruka.

"I think I'll be going, since you two seem to be getting busy." Kurenai said darkly.

With a puff of smoke, Naruto appeared where Motoko had been. "I'm gonna go home, too. I need to talk to ero-sennin tomorrow."

Kurenai nodded. "After that, meet me at the Hokage Tower, at..." Kurenai paused to think about her next day, "one in the afternoon, alright?"

"Sure thing, Kurenai-sensei!" Naruto said. "Well, goodnight, Iruka-sensei!" And with that, he was out the door.

"He certainly is energetic." Kurenai said.

"Yeah." Iruka sighed. "He's a real good kid, though, at heart."

"Mmmn." Kurenai said. She remembered something that occured to her earlier. "Why did you set me up to meet Hinata like that?"

Iruka stiffened for a moment, before relaxing. "Figured that out?" He asked, rhetorically. "I did that because Hinata needed a positive role-model. A kunoichi she could look up to."

Kurenai frowned. "Why not just ask me?"

Iruka smiled a little half-smile. "Hinata doesn't believe in herself, but she's a smart girl. She probably thought you were trying to be her friend just to make you feel better, even when you honestly trying to connect, right?"

Kurenai raised an eyebrow. "That's correct, she did." It had taken a lot of earnestness to convince Hinata that Kurenai really did care about the girl.

"Hinata is a strong Hyuuga... maybe not as strong as Neji, or Hanabi, but she has good control of her byakugan relative to the whole clan. She would've known you weren't being honest." Iruka said. "Besides... it's what she expected, since her self-esteem was so low."

"That's remarkably insightful, for you." Kurenai teased lightly.

"Thanks." Iruka said dryly.

"But, why be so circumspect?" Kurenai said. "That seems like an awful lot of dancing around."

Iruka sat quietly for a moment. "The Hyuuga clan doesn't quite approve of me."

"Why not?" Kurenai asked, surprised.

Iruka shrugged. "Hyuuga Shirota lost all of his children and seven grandchildren to the Kyuubi. Hyuuga Kaede lost her husband, her brother, her children, her nephews, and all but one of her nieces. Hyuuga Gendo lost his leg, his wife, and three of his four children. His son still can't walk." He paused, and let that sink in. "There was a lot of opposition over letting Naruto into the Academy."

"That seems a little unfair." Kurenai said, savagely.

Iruka shrugged. "Sandaime-sama had the ANBU escort them out of his office, when they suggested I be removed because of that."

Abruptly, Iruka grinned so broadly his eyes were nearly shut. "Well! That was a fun evening. Do you want some tea or anything?"

Kurenai smiled softly. "No, no, that's ok. It's late, I should go home."

AN: A little more serious this time than I expected. All sorts of hijinks next chapter, though. Jiraiya makes an appearence. And, Sasuke has a close encounter of the Motoko kind. Is love in the air?