The Protagonist System

309 A New Life

Yugao Uzuki started to stir and felt a little stiff, as if she had been immobile for a while.

“Oh, good. You're awake.” A familiar voice said.

Yugao opened her eyes to see a cute baby face and a full head of blond hair. “Naruto? You died, too?”

Naruto giggled his cute baby laugh. “The rumors of your death were highly exaggerated.”

Yugao blinked her eyes at him. “But, the fast-acting lethal poison...”

“It was barely strong enough to knock you out for a few hours and stiffened up your joints a little.” Naruto told her. “Once they brought you out of the Hokage's office, I switched you out with a life-like dummy and tucked you away in a hidden underground base.”

“A what?” Yugao asked, surprised.

“An underground base.” Naruto said and waved a hand around, intentionally ignoring her asking about the life-like dummy. “It used to be one of Orochimaru's.”

Yugao caught her breath and sat up to look around, only she didn't see what she expected to see. “Where are all the pods and failed experiments?”

Naruto giggled. “I wouldn't leave all that garbage sitting around to clutter up our new home.”

Yugao whipped her head around to look back at him. “Our what?”

Naruto laughed at the expression on her face. “You were declared dead, Yugao. Killed by order of the Hokage, which everyone knows, because I was right there in Yui's arms and wailed about the bad man taking you from me.”

Yugao's stare softened and she scooped him up into her arms. She started crying and kept crying as his little arms hugged her neck. They stayed like that for quite some time before Yugao composed herself and eased her hold on him. She didn't let him go, though. She sat him on her lap and smiled when he wiped at her face with a napkin.

She also noticed she still wore her basic black bodysuit that she usually wore under her ANBU uniform and armor. It was a small relief that he hadn't stripped her off completely to dress her replacement dummy with all of her remaining physical possessions.

“This isn't going to be much of a home life for either of us if we have to stay down here for the rest of our lives.” Yugao said as her eyes roamed over the living room they were in.

“Only if you don't want to look like someone else.” Naruto responded.

Yugao shook her head. “We can't live our lives under a Henge, or body image replacement technique.” She warned. “It's only a chakra construct and if you lose concentration, you lose the technique.”

“It's like the Bunshin, or clone image technique?” Naruto asked.

“It's almost exactly like that, only applied to yourself and not as an external distraction.” Yugao said and smiled at him making the comparison. “They can also be dispelled by more powerful shinobi when they release a burst of chakra, either directed at you or into a small area around themselves.”

“That doesn't happen often, though.” Naruto said.

“No, it doesn't. Most ninjas want to conserve their energy, since it's their life on the line if they run out of chakra too soon.” Yugao informed him. “It's still quite difficult to keep the technique going for an extended period of time, because it does slowly drain you of energy and any lapse in concentration will give you away.”

Naruto nodded. “Then we change you for real.”

Yugao blinked her eyes at him and then glanced around their home. “You don't know how to use any of Orochimaru's equipment, do you?”

Naruto giggled. “No, I'll just heal you and change your appearance.”

Yugao sucked in a sharp breath. “That can't possibly work!”

Naruto pulled a hand mirror out of his pocket that shouldn't have held it and passed it to her. “Do you want to be a blonde like me?”

Yugao softly chuckled. “You want me to look like the only other blonde clan members in the entire village?”

“If you want to.” Naruto said and put a hand on her neck. “Is there someone you admire? Can you describe them for me?”

Yugao started talking about once meeting Tsunade and how she had the guts to tell the village to go fuck itself and left. The curse made Naruto giggle and Yugao smiled at him, then stopped breathing as she watched her features changed slightly.

Her cheekbones shifted down a little and expanded, rounding her face slightly, then her eyes changed color to bright blue. Her nose slimmed and smoothed out, her ears shrank a tiny bit, and her eyebrows changed from black to blonde. The last change was her hair going from dark purple to a honey-blonde, shortened to her mid-back, and changed from straight to natural waves.

“Oh, my.” Yugao whispered, because she was gorgeous. She could easily be mistaken for a distant cousin of Tsunade, a member of the Senju Clan, and she took in a breath as her breasts grew two sizes. She was going to complain about it, then realized she wasn't wearing a bra and they were fully supported. In fact, they were almost gravity-defying and had the mass without the weight.

“I had to pop your butt out a little, too.” Naruto said, sheepishly. “You'd look odd if I didn't match you up.”

“Uh huh.” Yugao said with a deadpan expression. “I bet you thickened my thighs, too.”

Naruto's face went a little red. “They balance out your rounder butt.”

“Sure they do.” Yugao said and stood up with him in her arms. She felt the slightly different mass of her body and how her center of gravity hadn't changed, so it wouldn't be too much of a pain to relearn her fighting techniques for her reworked physical form. “Is there a full length mirror around for me to see exactly what you did to make me into your ideal woman?”

Naruto really blushed at that and pointed to a closed door. Yugao carried him over to it, opened it, and went inside the large bathroom. She caught her breath at the luxuriousness and couldn't believe it, then she was really surprised they were still underground, because the window had a moving painting behind it that gave the illusion they were looking out at an open field.

“It's behind the door.” Naruto said and pointed back over her shoulder.

Yugao closed the bathroom's door and caught her breath. She had thought her face was gorgeous and now she could see the rest of herself. Her black bodysuit hid nothing from the imagination and she had to admit that the boy had good taste. She turned to the right, then to the left, then turned to show the mirror her back and stared over her shoulder at the fantastic ass it showed.

“See? You needed the thickness to not make you look like you had sticks for legs.” Naruto said, his face still red.

Yugao wanted to tease him about that, only she was too impressed at the figure he had given her. She could still feel all of her muscles and her chakra pathways hadn't changed, which meant whatever he did to heal her into this shape, wasn't detrimental. Also, not one single person was going to recognize her, even if she kept her same voice, which reminded her to ask about it.

“My voice...” Yugao said.

“Do you want sexy, smoky, raspy, high pitched, breathy, or just a tweak to change the tone?” Naruto asked.

Yugao turned away from the mirror to look at the baby in her arms. “Could we try them all? I don't know what would be best to keep us safe.”

Naruto nodded and Yugao turned around to face the mirror as Naruto adjusted her voice box to different tensions while she talked at the mirror about normal everyday things, like buying groceries or clothing, pretended to be excited over a sale, and then whispered to her new friends about work.

“I think the first one, the sexy one, fits this look the best.” Yugao said, half an hour later. “Both the normal tone and the whisper won't make me stand out or have people wondering why my voice doesn't match what I look like.”

Naruto made the proper adjustment and nodded. “I also took away your ability to grow hair anywhere but on top of your head.”

Yugao gasped and stared at him.

Naruto giggled at her shocked face. “Before you ask, your eyebrows count as fur.”

Yugao wasn't sure what to say after hearing those things. The only hair on her body was on her head? How could such a miracle happen and she didn't even realize it?

“We need to pick a new name for you, too.” Naruto said. “Maybe I can drop you off outside the village wall and you can come back in and...”

“You need to fake your death.” Yugao cut him off.

“Wh-what?” Naruto asked with wide eyes.

“They are never going to leave you alone after what just happened.” Yugao answered. “I'm not sure what to do about Yui and Akiko, though. They can't be let in on the secrets you are involved in.”

“But...” Naruto started to say.

“I was dismissed from my position and sentenced to death, which released me from my oaths and obligations. I no longer have to obey the orders I was forced to accept.” Yugao said with a smile. “The Hokage said we are to keep the secret that you don't have the Kyuubi inside of you, to protect the village from retaliation. If anyone knew that Konoha doesn't have the strongest Tailed Beast under its control...”

“They'll gang up on us to get rid of the threat.” Naruto said with a sigh, then thought about what she said. “Yugao, wouldn't me dying do the same thing?”

Yugao opened her mouth to respond, then sighed as well. “Damn, you're right. I hoped we could sneak away and leave this place to handle its own problems and put it all far behind us.”

Naruto caressed her cheek. “We still can.”

Yugao shook her head. “No, we can't leave innocent people behind to die for no reason.”

“Even if they're all mean to me?” Naruto asked.

“Just because they're ignorant, that doesn't mean they are all bad people.” Yugao said and hugged him. “You know there's more people like Yui and Akiko out there.”

“Ramen.” Naruto said instead of saying the man's name, Ichiraku.

Yugao smiled. “He and his daughter are good people.”

Naruto nodded. “Then we stay for a while and clean up some of the mess.”

Yugao nodded back. “When they try to enroll you into the ninja academy in five years, everyone will know you don't have chakra, because they test all the new recruits to sort them by class.”

Naruto looked thoughtful. “Can't they fake it and put me into school anyway?”

“No, if anyone interferes, it's their chakra the testers would feel.” Yugao said and then chuckled. “Also, I'm sure at least some of the testers are going to look for any excuse to not admit you to the academy.”

“Even if I was the Kyuubi?” Naruto asked.

“Especially because of that.” Yugao said and turned away from the mirror as her stomach let out a little growl. “I'm both hungry and need a bath.”

Naruto somehow took out two MRE ration packs from his tiny pocket. “We can do both!”

Yugao barked a laugh and walked over to the large tub. “You're so smart.”

Naruto beamed a smile at her and they added a bit of water to both meals and let them warm up on the sink as they stripped off. Yugao added the bubble bath before she sat Naruto right into the growing bubble pile, making him laugh and he tried to splash her with them.

Yugao easily dodged, grabbed their food, and slipped into the tub with him. The two of them sat there and soaked as they ate the surprisingly delicious ration meals. When they were done eating, they had fun washing up and playing in the water. Yugao didn't bother asking where the toy boats and ducks came from, even if they were made of a material she never saw before.

Naruto pretended to tire out and Yugao rinsed off herself and him, dried both of them, and carried a naked Naruto into the large master bedroom. She saw the brand new crib there and thought about it, then ignored it and climbed into bed with her little bundle of joy.

“Goodnight, Naruto.” Yugao said and kissed his forehead.

“Goodnight, Mom.” Naruto said back and cuddled into her side.

Yugao stiffened for a moment and then let out a happy sound as she hugged him tightly. She hadn't considered that aspect of her becoming a new person. She could easily walk into the orphanage, chose Naruto to live with and test and see if she would like to be a parent to him, and it didn't violate the Hokage's order to stop all adoption paperwork, since she wasn't going to file any.

“You really are a smart little man.” Yugao whispered and kissed his forehead again.

It would only take a few fake papers and a quick trip outside the wall of Konoha to pretend she was immigrating from a nearby town to settle in the much better protected Village of the Leaf. She would have to raid one of the lesser used ANBU safehouses for some spending money, too.

*

The guards on the main gate stared at the model-gorgeous blonde woman as she approached them wearing an expensive outfit that the Fire Daimyo's wife would be envious of. Neither of the two ninja's bothered to check her paperwork and just stared at her breasts that were barely contained inside her kimono.

The woman's laughter was like music and did wonderful things to her chest, which was all the two men needed to approve her entrance to Konoha. There was no chance at all that she was a spy, not with how beautiful and eye-catching she was. She knew they would react like that and used it to her advantage, and she gave each of them a very happy and sexy smile as she was waved inside.

Since there were so many older and abandoned homes, especially inside the empty clan compounds, it was a simple task to slip the paperwork into the civilian offices to have them send it to the Hokage Tower. The Senju Clan had a distantly related civilian member return and she would be taking up residence in their clan compound.

Several minor missions were filed to clean up the place, D-Rank mostly, and a C-Rank in case there were any loose animals or creatures that needed to be taken care of. It barely took a week before all of the missions were accepted and completed, except for the C-Rank, even if all of the current academy graduate teams had applied to take it.

The beautiful blonde named Tsuru waltzed into the main orphanage and looked around, talked to the workers, made most of them blush from her beauty and poise, and she eventually found who she was looking for as he hung on the hip of another worker.

“That one.” Tsuru said and pointed at Naruto. “I'm not sure I can handle a rambunctious child, so I need to try with the easiest one first.”

“Miss, I'm sorry. No one is allowed to adopt him.” Yui said and felt terrible that she had to deny Naruto such a great chance to get away from being an orphan.

Tsuru chuckled and shook her head. “Didn't you hear me? I'm not here to adopt him. He's a test to see if I can handle raising a child before I make any kind of life-changing decision like adoption.”

Yui looked embarrassed about it and Tsuru smiled at her.

“You seem to have a great relationship with him, so why don't you come along and make sure I'm not messing anything up, like where he's supposed to sleep and what foods he's allowed to have.” Tsuru said with a soft laugh. “I probably don't even have what I need back at the house for taking care of a child. Having you there for a few hours and giving me advice will be great.”

Yui really couldn't deny such a sincere request, so she agreed and the two women left with a happy Naruto with them. When they arrived at the Senju Clan Compound, Yui was impressed at the single-level home she chose. As a civilian, she had made the best choice for taking care of a young child and the potential mother was also right. She was missing a lot of the essentials and Yui told her all about them and where to get them.

Tsuru convinced her to help and they left again to do some shopping, having the things sent back to her address, and they brought Naruto back to his temporary home. Yui stayed for several hours and really did teach the potential mother what she needed to do to take care of a baby, then she went back to the orphanage.

Almost as soon as Yui left, Naruto and Tsuru went to the civilian offices and registered Tsuru's new family name, Uzumaki. Just because she wasn't allowed to adopt him, that didn't mean Naruto wasn't allowed to live with her as she practised being a mother. He was the most well-behaved child in the orphanage, after all. The records there proved it.