Ficbits: Legion
Title: Legion
Author: Rei Mei Juunana
Fandom: Naruto, Naruto Shippuden
Pairing: None, in this snippet
Rating: PG
Title: Legion
Author: Rei Mei Juunana
Fandom: Naruto, Naruto Shippuden
Pairing: None, in this snippet
Rating: PG
The afternoon is lazy, windless, and the perpetual summer of Fire Country is a pall hanging over the landscape, heat settling like a shroud. In the shade of the plum trees that grow at the base of the tower lies a boy, asleep. He’s on his side, curled up with his knees to his chin and his head on a moss-covered root.
Uzumaki Naruto is napping, but not for long.
The leaves rustle above him and twin pairs of eyes peer from the foliage, identical faces grinning down at their brother. Naruto shifts but does not wake. They smirk, smiles edging just that much wider, that much sharper. Strong teeth stand out pale against skin dark from the sun. The basket they hold between them is waterproof, wax over wicker, and full to the brim. They tilt it, ever so slightly.
“Gah!”
Naruto bolts upright, drenched. He’s as furious as a scalded cat, water dripping from his nose and ears and fingers and hair, collecting in a pool at his feet. The clones break into guffaws. For a hundred heartbeats, the scene holds: Naruto glaring up at his other selves, hands clenched, and them in the throes of laughter. One is doubled over, basket held tight to his chest, the other barely supporting himself with the trunk of the tree, tears of mirth in their eyes.
An unkindness of ravens take off from other side of the grove, making their raucous way away through the first shadows of twilight, strong wings buffeting leaves loose from the trees. When the last leaf settles to the ground all three clones are gone.
When he was still in the academy, Naruto spent most of his spare time dodging the many chuunin set to discipline him for his mischief. Naruto had gotten very good at losing pursuit, but unfortunately for his other selves, Naruto is the one doing the chasing this time. He knows all of their short-cuts, all the hiding places in this part of the village, every tactic they’ll use.
The chase is epic, at least by Naruto’s standards. They race through the trees, up and down across the sides of the tower, lay traps and false trails, bluff and double bluff. In a few hours it winds down, Naruto’s sodden fury giving way to his sheer joy in life and the feel of the wind against his face. They end up back in the plum trees, now numbering five. Not from summoning, for they’ve learned the peril of clones making clones, but they’ve been joined by their brothers who’d speaking with Tsunade and Ayame.
“Shizune,” says a Naruto, biting into a plum, and lets the juice run down his chin and drip to the grass below. “Huh.” He has a leaf in one hand.
“Shizune’s nice!” crows another Naruto, slurping at one of the two bowls of ramen Ayame had sent with him.
“Ino,” contributes the Naruto who finished the other bowl. He leans out precariously to snag a plum. A chorus of groans breaks out and the first Naruto waves his leaf in irritation.
Sakura-chan is better.” He scowls. “Shikamaru said Ino’s terrible.” He brings the leaf to his forehead and grins when it stays as he lets go.
“Shikamaru says everyone’s terrible.”
“Shikamaru thinks we’re terrible, too.”
The third clone and the fourth both pause, looking at each other, then the fourth continues. “Who’s Tenten?” The first uses his teeth to scrape the last bit of flesh from the stone of the plum, and tosses it carelessly to the left.
The second Naruto scrunches up his face. “I think she’s the girl I saw visiting Neji in the hospital.”
“Oh,” the third Naruto sits down, plum in one hand. “I remember her. The one Gaara’s sister beat.”
“Didn’t she visit Lee, too?” The second uses one chopstick to prod at the fifth, sleeping on his lap. “Oi.”
The fifth only frowns in his sleep. The first snickers, one hand covering his mouth and the second glares at him. The third reaches over and pinches his sleeping brother who wakes instantly, shooting up and slamming his head against the second’s bowl. The second curses, jumps up, hot broth slopped all down his front and the fifth falls and vanishes, impact with the ground enough to make him dispel.
He can smell oil. There’s a slight sputtering, light flickering over his closed eyes. Oil lamps, then, and the air is still, no drafts save the tiny ones caused by the flames in the lamps.
He’s underground.
“Waste of good ramen,” says the fourth.
The first cocks his head. “He had that dream, too.”
Author: Rei Mei Juunana
Fandom: Naruto, Naruto Shippuden
Pairing: None, in this snippet
Rating: PG
Title: Legion
Author: Rei Mei Juunana
Fandom: Naruto, Naruto Shippuden
Pairing: None, in this snippet
Rating: PG
The afternoon is lazy, windless, and the perpetual summer of Fire Country is a pall hanging over the landscape, heat settling like a shroud. In the shade of the plum trees that grow at the base of the tower lies a boy, asleep. He’s on his side, curled up with his knees to his chin and his head on a moss-covered root.
Uzumaki Naruto is napping, but not for long.
The leaves rustle above him and twin pairs of eyes peer from the foliage, identical faces grinning down at their brother. Naruto shifts but does not wake. They smirk, smiles edging just that much wider, that much sharper. Strong teeth stand out pale against skin dark from the sun. The basket they hold between them is waterproof, wax over wicker, and full to the brim. They tilt it, ever so slightly.
“Gah!”
Naruto bolts upright, drenched. He’s as furious as a scalded cat, water dripping from his nose and ears and fingers and hair, collecting in a pool at his feet. The clones break into guffaws. For a hundred heartbeats, the scene holds: Naruto glaring up at his other selves, hands clenched, and them in the throes of laughter. One is doubled over, basket held tight to his chest, the other barely supporting himself with the trunk of the tree, tears of mirth in their eyes.
An unkindness of ravens take off from other side of the grove, making their raucous way away through the first shadows of twilight, strong wings buffeting leaves loose from the trees. When the last leaf settles to the ground all three clones are gone.
When he was still in the academy, Naruto spent most of his spare time dodging the many chuunin set to discipline him for his mischief. Naruto had gotten very good at losing pursuit, but unfortunately for his other selves, Naruto is the one doing the chasing this time. He knows all of their short-cuts, all the hiding places in this part of the village, every tactic they’ll use.
The chase is epic, at least by Naruto’s standards. They race through the trees, up and down across the sides of the tower, lay traps and false trails, bluff and double bluff. In a few hours it winds down, Naruto’s sodden fury giving way to his sheer joy in life and the feel of the wind against his face. They end up back in the plum trees, now numbering five. Not from summoning, for they’ve learned the peril of clones making clones, but they’ve been joined by their brothers who’d speaking with Tsunade and Ayame.
“Shizune,” says a Naruto, biting into a plum, and lets the juice run down his chin and drip to the grass below. “Huh.” He has a leaf in one hand.
“Shizune’s nice!” crows another Naruto, slurping at one of the two bowls of ramen Ayame had sent with him.
“Ino,” contributes the Naruto who finished the other bowl. He leans out precariously to snag a plum. A chorus of groans breaks out and the first Naruto waves his leaf in irritation.
Sakura-chan is better.” He scowls. “Shikamaru said Ino’s terrible.” He brings the leaf to his forehead and grins when it stays as he lets go.
“Shikamaru says everyone’s terrible.”
“Shikamaru thinks we’re terrible, too.”
The third clone and the fourth both pause, looking at each other, then the fourth continues. “Who’s Tenten?” The first uses his teeth to scrape the last bit of flesh from the stone of the plum, and tosses it carelessly to the left.
The second Naruto scrunches up his face. “I think she’s the girl I saw visiting Neji in the hospital.”
“Oh,” the third Naruto sits down, plum in one hand. “I remember her. The one Gaara’s sister beat.”
“Didn’t she visit Lee, too?” The second uses one chopstick to prod at the fifth, sleeping on his lap. “Oi.”
The fifth only frowns in his sleep. The first snickers, one hand covering his mouth and the second glares at him. The third reaches over and pinches his sleeping brother who wakes instantly, shooting up and slamming his head against the second’s bowl. The second curses, jumps up, hot broth slopped all down his front and the fifth falls and vanishes, impact with the ground enough to make him dispel.
He can smell oil. There’s a slight sputtering, light flickering over his closed eyes. Oil lamps, then, and the air is still, no drafts save the tiny ones caused by the flames in the lamps.
He’s underground.
“Waste of good ramen,” says the fourth.
The first cocks his head. “He had that dream, too.”