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“Kakashi-sensei? Why aren’t there more than one girl on most teams?” Sakura asked one afternoon, trudging back toward the village after yet another uneventful D-rank mission. Her voice was soft, but the question had clearly been weighing on her.
Kakashi didn’t even bother lifting his eyes from his book. He just gave a loose, one-shouldered shrug. “Mm. Dunno. Probably not enough girls in your year.” His tone was breezy, but he’d been making an effort lately ever since Sasuke left, so after a beat he added, “Why do you ask?”
Sakura kicked at a pebble. “No reason… I just… I was thinking about how lonely it gets. Being the only girl on the team.”
She knows ‘feelings talks’ make Kakashi uncomfortable, and that is only reinforced by how much Kakashi stiffens beside her. She feels a little bad for bringing the topic up; it’s not their fault they are boys… Before she could sink further into her thoughts, Naruto practically exploded with excitement.
“OH! Sakura! You don’t HAVE to be the only girl!”
Neither Sakura nor Kakashi had time to ask what he meant. Naruto was already forming the hand seals, grinning ear-to-ear. A puff of smoke later—
A girl Naruto stood before them, beaming proudly.
Well… “She” was still in the same awful orange jumpsuit, at least. And thankfully not in the older, sexy version he normally used for pranks. This one looked like Naruto as he was usually—boyish energy, round cheeks, big bright eyes—just with pigtails bouncing at her shoulders.
Naruto waited expectantly, clearly waiting for praise.
Sakura blinked. The transformation was ridiculous. Dumb. Completely unnecessary.
But… the earnestness behind it softened something in her chest. Instead of lecturing him, she found herself offering a small, half-hearted smile. “Thanks, Naruto.”
That was the exact moment Kakashi finally lifted his head. He blinked at girl-Naruto. Looked at Sakura to gauge whether this was a problem. Then, seeing that Sakura wasn’t offended, he nodded as if this all made perfect sense.
“Well,” he declared, snapping his book shut, “I’ll leave you girls to your team bonding. I have other places to be.”
And then he quickly vanished in a puff of smoke.
Naruto stared at the spot where he’d been. Slowly, the pigtails drooped.
“…So, uh.” Naruto scratched her cheek nervously. “What do girls do?”
—
Naruto had been hovering around her a lot since Sasuke left—or maybe Sakura just noticed it more now. Either way, she told herself that was why she was even considering entertaining his ridiculous plan. Hanging out with Naruto wasn’t unusual. Hanging out with Naruto while he was stubbornly transformed into a girl… well, that was another matter.
But, she reasoned, it wasn’t that different. Same Naruto. Just… pigtails.
“Close your legs, Naruto! Girls don’t sit like that—it’s unladylike!”
The words left her mouth before she could stop them. Oh no, she thought, I sound exactly like my mother.
Naruto—despite the soft face, bright eyes, and surprisingly cute pigtails—was still very much a boy underneath it all. Sakura knew this; she had to remind herself of it constantly. But Naruto seemed determined to forget. Or ignore it. Or—more likely—didn’t understand it in the first place.
Case in point: she still couldn’t believe she’d had to explain to him why unzipping his jacket in public was not acceptable when he was only wearing his usual light chainmail underneath. And that ridiculous cropped shirt he’d found somewhere? It barely counted as “clothing” at all.
She had nearly wrung his neck.
But Naruto had refused to budge, proudly insisting that he looked good ‘like this’ and he wasn’t going to hide it. Sakura honestly couldn’t decide if she was disgusted by how much effort he’d put into making himself look “cute,” or if she desperately wanted to bottle the ludicrous, enviable confidence he radiated without even trying.
Still… despite the headaches, despite the scolding, despite how often she had to say things like “No, girls don’t do that” or “Naruto, absolutely not, change that right now,” Sakura was having… fun.
She’d tried telling him that they could just hang out normally, like always. But Naruto was stubborn—stubborn and bull-headed and infuriatingly earnest. He insisted he was going to spend time with her as a girl so she wouldn’t feel lonely.
It was sweet. So painfully sweet, she didn’t know what to do with it.
This wasn’t anything like hanging out with Ino or the other girls. Their schedules never lined up, not anymore. Different teams, different missions, different training routines. Even after reconciling with Ino, Sakura barely saw her. She barely saw any of the girls these days.
So here she was—sitting beside Naruto, who kept forgetting how to sit like a girl, kept tugging at his pigtails, kept making everything harder than it needed to be—
—and somehow, against all odds, making her laugh.
—
Kakashi raised an eyebrow when Naruto arrived at training still transformed into a girl, but that was the extent of his reaction. A pause. A blink. And then the matter was promptly dismissed.
He was their teacher, not their judge. How his students chose to express themselves wasn’t his concern, especially if it kept Sakura occupied and less lonely. He had no desire to wander into the thorny gender politics of why kunoichi were so often outnumbered on three-man squads; his offhand explanation from the other day had been simple… but not entirely wrong.
Naruto bounded into the clearing with pigtails flying, striking a triumphant pose and announcing she was “ready to train hard, y’know!” It hit Kakashi harder than he expected.
He looked so much like his mother, like this.
He took after his mother more than he’d ever know. The brightness. The stubbornness. The way he loved so fiercely and so loudly and so without hesitation… and it stood out even more in this form.
It hurt to look at… In a good way.
Training went fine. It was chaotic, loud, disorderly, very much like training with Naruto always was, but by the end of it, Kakashi found himself saying, “I think training went really well today. I suppose I should treat my girls to ramen for such a job well done.” with a careless shrug, in that same tone he normally reserved for “the boys” when referring to Sasuke and Naruto together, as though it were nothing special.
Both of his remaining students stared at him, matching looks of suspicion.
Well. If he decided his team deserved a treat, that was his business.
—
Ichiraku’s greeted them with its familiar warmth. Kakashi slid into his usual seat and let the comforting smell of broth settle around him while Sakura and Naruto took the stools beside him. Naruto was halfway through her first bowl before Kakashi even got comfortable.
He closed his eye and listened.
A young, excited voice chattering through a mouthful of noodles. Wild gestures. Uncontainable enthusiasm. That loud, infectious laughter.
For a moment, he heard another voice layered beneath it… Kushina’s.
He opened his eye again just in time to catch Teuchi’s gaze. The old ramen chef was already smiling fondly at the transformed boy—girl—no… just Naruto, in whatever shape he chose to be today. With a casual air of innocence, Teuchi announced that the “cute Uzumaki girl” deserved a second bowl on the house.
Kakashi inclined his head. Teuchi’s eyes widened slightly, the moment he realised Kakashi had caught him in that small lapse of judgment.
Both of them silently prayed Naruto would never notice how thoroughly he’d wrapped them around his little finger like this. That kind of power in Naruto’s hands would be… dangerous.
“HEY, Sakura!” Naruto yelled suddenly, cheeks stuffed with ramen. “I heard getting sweets is a girly thing to do! Think we can get Kakashi-sensei to take us for sweets after this?”
Sakura immediately launched into a lecture about talking with a full mouth—and added a pointed comment about sitting more ladylike. To be fair, Kakashi doubted Naruto would know how to act ladylike even if he’d been born a girl. Kushina herself only managed it when she absolutely had to.
Kakashi hummed and flipped a page in his book, mind drifting… Was that old dango place Kushina liked still open?