[Naruto] "The Other Side" 02/?
Title: The Other Side (02/??)
Rating: PG13 (AU, OOC, Language)
Archived @ Master List
Summary: [Sequel to Never Ever] Spending a lifetime in the Sand Village has taught Naruto everything about being ideal shinobi, but upon his return to the Leaf Village, he will learn that there are still far too many things he does not know.
Chapter 02: Head Over Heels
When Naruto woke up to the unpleasant sensation of sweat in uncomfortable places that had greeted him every morning during the Chuunin Exam, he knew he was back in hell. It appeared his body would take slightly longer than his mind to adjust from the arid climate of the Sand Village--not too long, of course; he prided himself on his ability to adapt.
His grocery bag from last night was empty, and so was his stomach. Naruto swayed between risking another standoff for food or going hungry. It didn’t take much thought-he quickly elected starvation to be the better option. Denying the intake of food to strengthen the mind sounded like something Baki-sensei would do.
There was a rustle behind him, and without turning around:
"Whaddaya want, Kurosaki?"
The girl bowed her head so low her spine was parallel to the floor. "Our presence is required at the Academy."
"Mm." Naruto opened the refrigerator door and made a face as a blast of cold hair hit him. At least the power was back on.
"...Naruto-san?"
"They can wait forever as far as I'm concerned. Want breakfast?"
---
They ended up being on time anyway because as it turned out, Kurosaki was not hungry and by the look on her face (or, rather, the unconcealed half of her face), she was the type who followed orders. Naruto firmly believed that people who could not see outside the box would die a premature death, unremembered by history. Kurosaki was no exception.
Nubou was already waiting in the abandoned classroom, still and unmoving like a doll. His face was still completely wrapped, and when Naruto offered a greeting, he responded with only a twitch.
The school bell signifying the start of the hour sounded out and when the tenth chime sounded, a Konoha Jounin stepped into the room. Naruto vaguely recognized him as the proctor for the Third Exam.
"Good, you're all on time," the man said, ignoring the sudden decrease in temperature. "My name is Shiranui Genma. I have been assigned by the powers-that-be to inform the three of you of the...arrangements the council has made."
Stony silence greeted this news. Undaunted, he continued.
Naruto sighed and took his focus off the man, allowing his eyes to glaze over. He missed waking up in the morning to Temari-nii walloping him with her fan to test his reflexes--training, she called it, before sauntering off to make breakfast. He missed Kankurou, who always went to him whenever he wanted to test out a new modification to Karasu; Naruto never lost, but it was something new and exciting and fun every time. He even missed the sand and its eternal success in getting inside his shoes despite his best efforts to keep them out.
Mostly, he missed Gaara, who shared complete understood that pain. It was almost fitting, in a cruel, ironic kind of way, that he would find his family only to be taken away by the very village that wanted him dead...
"...Uzumaki Naruto has thus been granted the rank of Chuunin--"
Wait.
"What?"
"Due to his outstanding demonstration of shinobi arts," Genma repeated, "Uzumaki Naruto has thus been granted the rank of Chuunin."
Naruto gaped in disbelief. Then, slowly, as if he were speaking to an infant: "I tried to annihilate your village."
Genma shrugged. "Just the messenger, kid. And because of his promotion," he went on, addressing the other two, "the Council has made the decision to place him and the two of you on separate teams. Uzumaki Naruto, you have been assigned your first mission as a Chuunin. Kurosaki Uematsu and Nubuo Wataru, you two will be placed on a Genin team under another instructor."
The Jounin proceeded to explain their assignments: where Naruto would meet his team, directions for Kurosaki and Nubou; but Naruto wasn't listening anymore.
I tried to destroy you, he wanted to shout, to Genma, to Konoha, to Sandaime Hokage. I tried to destroy you. Doesn't that mean anything?
---
Chuunin. Chuunin. Chuunin. Chuunin.
It was a mission, only a mission. He did not take the Chuunin Exam to become a Chuunin, he took the Chuunin Exam because it was his role to play in a mission. He never cared to officially participate because to the shinobi of the Sand, rank was irrelevant. He, himself, had taken down scores of 'Jounin' because they couldn't grasp the concept that, for all their sparkly techniques, their speed could not outclass a simple kunai-to-the-neck.
And now he had a label. Like cup ramen. If he ever got a chance to meet with the powers-that-be, he'd tell them to take that title and shove it up--
"Ah, so you were elevated as well."
Naruto opened one eye lazily. The speaker was a very pretty...girl. Or boy. It was a very pretty human. It also looked very familiar.
"And you are...?"
"How rude," It laughed. "You do not remember me?"
Normally, Naruto would have played along (if It were a girl, flirted). But he was not in the mood and the utter freshness of the surrounding forest that was booming with life and all things natural was making him nauseous. "No."
"I took the Chuunin Exam with you," It said, taking a seat just outside his personal space. "I am Haku."
Naruto decided that Haku was a boy. If he was a girl...well, all the better.
"I am Naruto of the Sand Village."
"I'm surprised to see a Genin from the Sand Village become a Chuunin of the Leaf Village."
"I could say the same thing about you, Haku from the Mist." The air around him chilled considerably. "Your clothing during the Chuunin Exam was traditional Mist."
A team from the Mist had ambushed them once--he and Baki-sensei didn't leave a single one alive.
"So you do remember me," Haku said with a pleasant smile, the atmosphere warming again.
Naruto gave an indifferent shrug of the shoulders and reclined back, basking in the warm glow of the midday sun.
"Why have you come back?" Haku asked quietly, seriously.
"Spoils of war," Naruto answered with a hoarse chuckle. "The Leaf saw something shiny, so here I am."
"That's not what he said."
"That's not what who said?"
Haku did not respond. Naruto cracked open an eye and the other was standing.
A second later, Naruto felt it too.
”Konoha Sempu!!”
He blocked it, just barely. The second kick came out of nowhere and, had his reflexes been any slower, Naruto would have been rendered a vegetable. The force sent him skidding into the trunk of a tree, away from the sun.
“Lee-kun!”
Naruto recognized the name was the Taijutsu user, also from the Chuunin Exam; the one with the ridiculous jumpsuit who leaked with potential.
The boy with the thick eyebrows acknowledged Haku with a curt nod, but his attention remained on Naruto.
“Uzumaki Naruto," Rock Lee said courteously, "I hold no ill will against you, but if you continue to cause mischief here, I will have no choice but to defend my village.”
Naruto wiped at the cut on his lip. You wanna mess with me, Eyebrows? he thought, blood pounding in his ears, summoning the uncontrolled whirl of wind that was his trademark.
“Both of you, stop,” Haku commanded sharply; neither listened. Naruto charged, with all the malicious intention of smashing Rock Lee’s ridiculous face into the ground when, suddenly, he ran headfirst into an invisible wall. Thrown back onto his base, blinking the stars out of his eyes, Naruto became dimly aware that Lee, too, had hit the same ‘wall’.
“I told you both to stop,” Haku said coolly.
The barrier was still there when Naruto stretched out his hand; frosty to the touch, unseen to the eye, but very much concrete. He and Lee both opened their mouths to argue, and then, out of the blue, came an unmistakable sound of clapping.
It came from a toad sitting on its hind legs, clapping from beside the memorial tablet.
“My,” it croaked with amusement, “what an interesting team I have been given to work with.”
---
The toad, to no one’s surprise, was actually a man-an old geezer in outlandish attire that Naruto could not identify who had a face Naruto was certain he had seen once before. His forehead protector had the kanji for ‘oil’, but Naruto sensed that this man was from this accursed village.
“Save your energy for the mission, you brats,” the man said, with an approving nod in Haku’s direction. “You’re Chuunin now, you should know better than to attack your teammate.”
“Teammate?” Lee asked in genuine confusion; Naruto wanted to rip the word in two.
The man nodded confirmation. “I am Jiraiya, I will be the leader of this cell. We must depart soon; I'll explain later. Your teams have been informed of the severity of this assignment. Meet up at the North Gate in an hour.”
Without a parting word, the Toad-man disappeared.
Naruto knew the name Jiraiya--Jiraiya the Toad Sennin, Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin. He never had the pleasure (ha!) of meeting the so-called Legend, but after that, he was left fairly unimpressed.
Well, if he had an hour, he would spend it eating ramen.
I wonder if Ichiraku still tastes the same…
“Naruto-kun!”
The voice belonged to Jumpsuit Boy.
“Naruto-kun, I apologize for my previous behavior,” Lee said, glowing with such sincerity that Naruto had to look away.
“Sure, sure,” he replied. Turn yourself off, you lighthouse.
“How is your wound?” Lee’s eyes widened as Naruto turned to look in his direction.
"It's fine."
The cut had already healed.
---
An hour later, satiated with the still-delicious flavor of Ichiraku Ramen, whose owner thankfully did not recognize him, Naruto and the rest of his...unit set out.
“Before I begin the briefing,” Jiraiya began as they raced across the upper-level of the forest. "I think a little storytelling is in order."
He began:
"Fifteen years ago, the Yondaime Hokage sealed away the Kyuubi into an infant child using a Hakke no Fuin Shiki, which allowed the Kyuubi’s chakra to mingle with the infant’s chakra."
Hm. That would make sense.
"Five years later, some event occurred that triggered a severe weakening of the seal and the child disappeared from Konoha.”
Lee and Haku nodded. Naruto’s strides stiffened.
“His whereabouts were unknown for ten years; we thought him lost or dead, and then, in the last Chuunin Exam, he reappeared before us under the command of another shinobi village--the Sand.”
He could practically feel the realization dawning on the other two.
“A month before the Third Exam, the vessel was ordered by the Kazekage to ‘summon a kyuubi’ to assist in the strike.”
How does he know this?
“What he managed to do instead, was a form of seal release. By emitting a large concentration of the Kyuubi’s chakra, the Kyuubi could take form in that chakra and escape his human prison.”
…what?
“There are a lot of details that intelligence hasn’t gathered yet,” Jiraiya continued, “but one thing is for certain: we need to catch the two chakra forms the vessel accidentally (or so we think) released. To do so, we required the vessel. Thus, we requested his return in the peace agreement and he joins us now today.”
The other two glanced in Naruto’s direction and by the look in their eyes, they had caught on a long time ago.
But why? Naruto thought, Why would Kazekage-sama order me to…
“Our mission,” Jiraiya’s voice cut into his thoughts, “is to find the two chakra forms that the vessel-Uzumaki Naruto-released, and beat them into submission so he can reabsorb them into his system. The three of you were chosen because of your unique abilities in each field of shinobi arts.”
Jiraiya caught a branch and hoisted himself up. The three boys followed in his example.
Looking each of them in the eye, his gaze lingering on Naruto's, he added, grimly: "We'll need all three to even hope for success."
T . B . C
Any thoughts? =3
Rating: PG13 (AU, OOC, Language)
Archived @ Master List
Summary: [Sequel to Never Ever] Spending a lifetime in the Sand Village has taught Naruto everything about being ideal shinobi, but upon his return to the Leaf Village, he will learn that there are still far too many things he does not know.
Chapter 02: Head Over Heels
When Naruto woke up to the unpleasant sensation of sweat in uncomfortable places that had greeted him every morning during the Chuunin Exam, he knew he was back in hell. It appeared his body would take slightly longer than his mind to adjust from the arid climate of the Sand Village--not too long, of course; he prided himself on his ability to adapt.
His grocery bag from last night was empty, and so was his stomach. Naruto swayed between risking another standoff for food or going hungry. It didn’t take much thought-he quickly elected starvation to be the better option. Denying the intake of food to strengthen the mind sounded like something Baki-sensei would do.
There was a rustle behind him, and without turning around:
"Whaddaya want, Kurosaki?"
The girl bowed her head so low her spine was parallel to the floor. "Our presence is required at the Academy."
"Mm." Naruto opened the refrigerator door and made a face as a blast of cold hair hit him. At least the power was back on.
"...Naruto-san?"
"They can wait forever as far as I'm concerned. Want breakfast?"
---
They ended up being on time anyway because as it turned out, Kurosaki was not hungry and by the look on her face (or, rather, the unconcealed half of her face), she was the type who followed orders. Naruto firmly believed that people who could not see outside the box would die a premature death, unremembered by history. Kurosaki was no exception.
Nubou was already waiting in the abandoned classroom, still and unmoving like a doll. His face was still completely wrapped, and when Naruto offered a greeting, he responded with only a twitch.
The school bell signifying the start of the hour sounded out and when the tenth chime sounded, a Konoha Jounin stepped into the room. Naruto vaguely recognized him as the proctor for the Third Exam.
"Good, you're all on time," the man said, ignoring the sudden decrease in temperature. "My name is Shiranui Genma. I have been assigned by the powers-that-be to inform the three of you of the...arrangements the council has made."
Stony silence greeted this news. Undaunted, he continued.
Naruto sighed and took his focus off the man, allowing his eyes to glaze over. He missed waking up in the morning to Temari-nii walloping him with her fan to test his reflexes--training, she called it, before sauntering off to make breakfast. He missed Kankurou, who always went to him whenever he wanted to test out a new modification to Karasu; Naruto never lost, but it was something new and exciting and fun every time. He even missed the sand and its eternal success in getting inside his shoes despite his best efforts to keep them out.
Mostly, he missed Gaara, who shared complete understood that pain. It was almost fitting, in a cruel, ironic kind of way, that he would find his family only to be taken away by the very village that wanted him dead...
"...Uzumaki Naruto has thus been granted the rank of Chuunin--"
Wait.
"What?"
"Due to his outstanding demonstration of shinobi arts," Genma repeated, "Uzumaki Naruto has thus been granted the rank of Chuunin."
Naruto gaped in disbelief. Then, slowly, as if he were speaking to an infant: "I tried to annihilate your village."
Genma shrugged. "Just the messenger, kid. And because of his promotion," he went on, addressing the other two, "the Council has made the decision to place him and the two of you on separate teams. Uzumaki Naruto, you have been assigned your first mission as a Chuunin. Kurosaki Uematsu and Nubuo Wataru, you two will be placed on a Genin team under another instructor."
The Jounin proceeded to explain their assignments: where Naruto would meet his team, directions for Kurosaki and Nubou; but Naruto wasn't listening anymore.
I tried to destroy you, he wanted to shout, to Genma, to Konoha, to Sandaime Hokage. I tried to destroy you. Doesn't that mean anything?
---
Chuunin. Chuunin. Chuunin. Chuunin.
It was a mission, only a mission. He did not take the Chuunin Exam to become a Chuunin, he took the Chuunin Exam because it was his role to play in a mission. He never cared to officially participate because to the shinobi of the Sand, rank was irrelevant. He, himself, had taken down scores of 'Jounin' because they couldn't grasp the concept that, for all their sparkly techniques, their speed could not outclass a simple kunai-to-the-neck.
And now he had a label. Like cup ramen. If he ever got a chance to meet with the powers-that-be, he'd tell them to take that title and shove it up--
"Ah, so you were elevated as well."
Naruto opened one eye lazily. The speaker was a very pretty...girl. Or boy. It was a very pretty human. It also looked very familiar.
"And you are...?"
"How rude," It laughed. "You do not remember me?"
Normally, Naruto would have played along (if It were a girl, flirted). But he was not in the mood and the utter freshness of the surrounding forest that was booming with life and all things natural was making him nauseous. "No."
"I took the Chuunin Exam with you," It said, taking a seat just outside his personal space. "I am Haku."
Naruto decided that Haku was a boy. If he was a girl...well, all the better.
"I am Naruto of the Sand Village."
"I'm surprised to see a Genin from the Sand Village become a Chuunin of the Leaf Village."
"I could say the same thing about you, Haku from the Mist." The air around him chilled considerably. "Your clothing during the Chuunin Exam was traditional Mist."
A team from the Mist had ambushed them once--he and Baki-sensei didn't leave a single one alive.
"So you do remember me," Haku said with a pleasant smile, the atmosphere warming again.
Naruto gave an indifferent shrug of the shoulders and reclined back, basking in the warm glow of the midday sun.
"Why have you come back?" Haku asked quietly, seriously.
"Spoils of war," Naruto answered with a hoarse chuckle. "The Leaf saw something shiny, so here I am."
"That's not what he said."
"That's not what who said?"
Haku did not respond. Naruto cracked open an eye and the other was standing.
A second later, Naruto felt it too.
”Konoha Sempu!!”
He blocked it, just barely. The second kick came out of nowhere and, had his reflexes been any slower, Naruto would have been rendered a vegetable. The force sent him skidding into the trunk of a tree, away from the sun.
“Lee-kun!”
Naruto recognized the name was the Taijutsu user, also from the Chuunin Exam; the one with the ridiculous jumpsuit who leaked with potential.
The boy with the thick eyebrows acknowledged Haku with a curt nod, but his attention remained on Naruto.
“Uzumaki Naruto," Rock Lee said courteously, "I hold no ill will against you, but if you continue to cause mischief here, I will have no choice but to defend my village.”
Naruto wiped at the cut on his lip. You wanna mess with me, Eyebrows? he thought, blood pounding in his ears, summoning the uncontrolled whirl of wind that was his trademark.
“Both of you, stop,” Haku commanded sharply; neither listened. Naruto charged, with all the malicious intention of smashing Rock Lee’s ridiculous face into the ground when, suddenly, he ran headfirst into an invisible wall. Thrown back onto his base, blinking the stars out of his eyes, Naruto became dimly aware that Lee, too, had hit the same ‘wall’.
“I told you both to stop,” Haku said coolly.
The barrier was still there when Naruto stretched out his hand; frosty to the touch, unseen to the eye, but very much concrete. He and Lee both opened their mouths to argue, and then, out of the blue, came an unmistakable sound of clapping.
It came from a toad sitting on its hind legs, clapping from beside the memorial tablet.
“My,” it croaked with amusement, “what an interesting team I have been given to work with.”
---
The toad, to no one’s surprise, was actually a man-an old geezer in outlandish attire that Naruto could not identify who had a face Naruto was certain he had seen once before. His forehead protector had the kanji for ‘oil’, but Naruto sensed that this man was from this accursed village.
“Save your energy for the mission, you brats,” the man said, with an approving nod in Haku’s direction. “You’re Chuunin now, you should know better than to attack your teammate.”
“Teammate?” Lee asked in genuine confusion; Naruto wanted to rip the word in two.
The man nodded confirmation. “I am Jiraiya, I will be the leader of this cell. We must depart soon; I'll explain later. Your teams have been informed of the severity of this assignment. Meet up at the North Gate in an hour.”
Without a parting word, the Toad-man disappeared.
Naruto knew the name Jiraiya--Jiraiya the Toad Sennin, Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin. He never had the pleasure (ha!) of meeting the so-called Legend, but after that, he was left fairly unimpressed.
Well, if he had an hour, he would spend it eating ramen.
I wonder if Ichiraku still tastes the same…
“Naruto-kun!”
The voice belonged to Jumpsuit Boy.
“Naruto-kun, I apologize for my previous behavior,” Lee said, glowing with such sincerity that Naruto had to look away.
“Sure, sure,” he replied. Turn yourself off, you lighthouse.
“How is your wound?” Lee’s eyes widened as Naruto turned to look in his direction.
"It's fine."
The cut had already healed.
---
An hour later, satiated with the still-delicious flavor of Ichiraku Ramen, whose owner thankfully did not recognize him, Naruto and the rest of his...unit set out.
“Before I begin the briefing,” Jiraiya began as they raced across the upper-level of the forest. "I think a little storytelling is in order."
He began:
"Fifteen years ago, the Yondaime Hokage sealed away the Kyuubi into an infant child using a Hakke no Fuin Shiki, which allowed the Kyuubi’s chakra to mingle with the infant’s chakra."
Hm. That would make sense.
"Five years later, some event occurred that triggered a severe weakening of the seal and the child disappeared from Konoha.”
Lee and Haku nodded. Naruto’s strides stiffened.
“His whereabouts were unknown for ten years; we thought him lost or dead, and then, in the last Chuunin Exam, he reappeared before us under the command of another shinobi village--the Sand.”
He could practically feel the realization dawning on the other two.
“A month before the Third Exam, the vessel was ordered by the Kazekage to ‘summon a kyuubi’ to assist in the strike.”
How does he know this?
“What he managed to do instead, was a form of seal release. By emitting a large concentration of the Kyuubi’s chakra, the Kyuubi could take form in that chakra and escape his human prison.”
…what?
“There are a lot of details that intelligence hasn’t gathered yet,” Jiraiya continued, “but one thing is for certain: we need to catch the two chakra forms the vessel accidentally (or so we think) released. To do so, we required the vessel. Thus, we requested his return in the peace agreement and he joins us now today.”
The other two glanced in Naruto’s direction and by the look in their eyes, they had caught on a long time ago.
But why? Naruto thought, Why would Kazekage-sama order me to…
“Our mission,” Jiraiya’s voice cut into his thoughts, “is to find the two chakra forms that the vessel-Uzumaki Naruto-released, and beat them into submission so he can reabsorb them into his system. The three of you were chosen because of your unique abilities in each field of shinobi arts.”
Jiraiya caught a branch and hoisted himself up. The three boys followed in his example.
Looking each of them in the eye, his gaze lingering on Naruto's, he added, grimly: "We'll need all three to even hope for success."
T . B . C
Any thoughts? =3