Bab 33: Chapter 32
The one thing that hit him after he'd had time to calm down, and recover from the shock of everything was a rather innocuous thing when taken into consideration on the grand scheme of implications Itachi's...present condition- translated to.
It could have been the fact that this meant any number of his friends could now be different genders, it could have been the fact that now, some people might not even be born at all if say the person's mother turned out to be a man and the father stayed a man no amount of time bending BS could ever recreate the genetic mix that had created them. It could even have been the fact that the "Itachi" he had known, or anyone he had known might have some fundamental differences that were absolutely beyond his control. If their genders could be switched around at the drop of a hat, why not their personalities? Their outlook? Who's to say Itachi wasn't a psychopath this time, or that Hinata wouldn't be shy or that Ino wouldn't be bossy?
Tsunade had changed due to cause and effect, Jiraiya dead, Dan alive so there was a 'reason' here it just 'was'.
But that wasn't what hit him hardest out of this whole thing. If anything it'd been a passing thought. If it was that way there was hardly anything he could do about it. He'd just have to roll with the punches as they came. If any of those things came to pass he'd have to 'grin and bear it' so to speak.
So no, that wasn't his biggest concern.
What hit him the hardest was the realization that he actually found Itachi pretty.
Now, Naruto had a difficult job. At the age of sixteen (Now eighteen if one added the years he's been living his 'new' life) he'd killed more people than most men killed in their entire lifetimes. But that doesn't change the fact that, from a maturity standpoint he was still very much a young man wholly inexperienced with the nuances of life outside of his duty.
So this realization brought forward a very important personal question in his mind.
"Does this make me gay?"
And this was the cause of his current state, sitting on his bed glaring out his window as the gears in his head ground on squeaky, rust covered hinges to try and answer this, most pertinent of life's questions.
He was so focused on his thoughts on this he actually jumped when he felt a tap against his shoulder.
Turning around, he was surprised to find his team standing in his living room.
"Huh? What are you guys doing here?" He blinked owlishly.
"It's one o'clock. You're over three hours late." Orochimaru drawled. "Care to explain?"
"Its day time?" Naruto blinked and it almost looked like he'd just come to the realization that it was, in fact, day time.
"What the hell were you doing?" Ryoko asked, crossing her arms.
Naruto opened his mouth to answer when he thought better of it.
"I was contemplating the universe."
The looks his team threw at him were just priceless.
The snake shook his head first. "We're late enough as it is. Get yourself ready and lets get to training.
His words brought another impending little worry that had been nagging Naruto for a few weeks now.
"Actually..." He ventured carefully. "We need to take some missions."
Orochimaru rounded on him. "I'm sorry. I believe I'm the one who decides what this team does or does not do."
"Fine." Naruto drawled. "Then decide where exactly I'm going to get the money to pay my bills next month."
The sannin opened his mouth then snapped it shut.
"Since I became a gennin I don't get anymore money from the village programs. I've been living off my savings for the last two months but by next month I'll be in the red. We have to take some..." He paused, almost cringing at the word. "D-ranks in order for me to get some money."
"We are not taking D-ranks." Orochimaru hissed and the snake actually looked dangerous, like the Orochimaru he'd been expecting for months now.
Kyofu's eyes glimmered with adoration for her new sensei. "We're not?"
He shook his head. If there was one person that hated D-rank assignments more than Orochimaru, that person had yet to be found. "How much do you need."
"Well with the rent its-"
"Nevermind." He dismissed with a shake of his head. "I'll dump sixty thousand into your account by weeks end."
Naruto's eyes bulged out of his sockets. "Si-sixty-"
"Shit we need money too!" Ryoko snapped gesturing to herself and the shocked Kyofu. "Toss some this way old man!"
The pale sannin rubbed a migraine forming between his eyes.
-0-
"You want to run that by me again?" Sarutobi blinked, curious. "He did what?"
The Uchiha princess shrugged. "If I had to liken it to anything I would describe it as being caught in a flashback. He acted without even thinking, didn't seem to register anything and he made a motion that, as an attack would have been a killing blow.
"What you're describing is an extreme case of post traumatic stress we normally see in long time veterans, not fresh gennin."
"You assigned me to him because of how someone managed to alter or fabricate memories, who's to say that this wasn't one of those fabrications?"
"It might very well be so. But the fact is none of us can prove that and Inoichi has never been able to mind walk him after that event. What you're asking for is extreme enough. Without proof there is no justification for taking him off the gennin roster and putting him under observation. Especially when the one person that could do this efficiently, Inoichi has already said that this case is the exception to the norm.
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Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone