Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Kishimoto and Co. I own nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Chapter Two
My Trouble Maker Uzumaki Naruto
...
Kushina was more than just a little aware of peaceful solutions to ending a fight.
This one certainly was not one of them.
Probably because it involved Naruto going up to the nearest boy, some innocent person with a black puppy sitting on his head, and socking him in the face, when he wasn't looking. Of course the puppy wearing boy wouldn't take this sitting down and immediately made a furious lung to tackle Naruto, only for Naruto to dodge it, letting the other kid slam onto another boy, a fat one this time.
That other boy, Kushina referred to him as pig, was not amused at being tackled by the puppy wielder and immediately punched the dogboy in the face, sending him crashing onto a lazy looking bum, who suddenly didn't look so lazily, and appeared to be contemplating running away, or standing to fight. Fortunately that decision was taken care of for, when some random kid stared punching his face. In fact, within a matter of minutes, the class overhyped children was more/less brawling each other, due to a few random missed punches thrown at Naruto, that ending up hitting each other instead.
The fact that it was soggy and raining outside helped immensely, since the students could barely see who they were fighting, heck there was another blond in the kid, and some of the kids went after him thinking it was Uzumaki Naruto, much to that other kid's ire.
Still, Kushina had to admit that the boy had guts if he could deal with this group of people without looking tired, in fact, if anything, he looked tremendously happy, as if he was just playing around with them. To her annoyance Namikaze Minato simply walked out of the field and took his group of friends with him. Too bad. She wanted to get into the massive school rumble and take him down a peg or two.
"You son of a bitch!" the puppy-wearing boy yelled. "Get back and fight me like a man!"
Now that Kushina got a better look at him, something was just plain off about the student. She just couldn't place it into words. The dogboy looked a little too short, not as short as Naruto, but pretty close. Instead of a strong sharp oval face, his face was a bit more triangular, with a soft contours that most boys lacked.
Then there was the boy's hair, that spiked worse than Naruto's, even if it was only half the size of Naruto's, with leaves and mud covering the top. On top of that the boy wore a large baggy grey jacket, something that confused the hell out of the redhead, since it was raining and wasn't even that hot. Below the jacket was a set of khaki cut off pants, and black sandals.
Over all the boy looked pretty normal, aside from the slit like eyes, the tattoo, and the fangs, but still..something was just not right about the whole situation. The way the boy acted, his posture, his temperament, and the fact that the boy had a high pitched voice in between deep growls, just something off…
In any case Kushina decided that right now it was in her best interest to get the hell away from this mess, before the class got the bright idea to pin even part of the blame on her. It wasn't that she was afraid. It was more that she was afraid of getting in trouble, and the idea of the Chunin instructor coming out of nowhere and seeing more than half his class demolished was not an appealing prospect to the new student.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Uzumaki Naruto.
"I think we should scat," he said, sounding cheerful. "That Inuzuka is gonna kick my ass if he sees me again."
"Well you did just punch him out of nowhere," Kushina replied, sounding annoyed. "He wasn't even doing anything, just standing there talking to his dog."
"True, but that kid was my best shot out of that situation," Naruto answered, sounding like he did the right thing. "You want to get a brawl started, you find one of those mutts, get them riled up, and wait for it."
"Still..I think you've made an enemy," Kushina said, looking back at the Inuzuka who was in the middle of the storm tearing up the inside of the crowd to hunt down Uzumaki Naruto. "I'd be worried about coming to school if I were you."
Naruto shrugged. "Been there, done that, believe me I am used to being a pariah." He grabbed her hand, and slipped it away due to the slippery rain. Then he grabbed it again and pulled. "C'mon we better get out of here before that bastard gets my scent."
"Where are you Uzumaki!" A roaring voice from behind them said, sounding like thunder. "Come back here and fight me, teme!"
Kushina shivered at the amount of rage in that yell.
Again, there was just something not right about the way the dog boy talked, it reminded her of someone. She just couldn't put into words. The girl looked ahead of her to see Naruto laugh, and scowled. The boy was clearly not taking the threat on his life seriously, and was simply getting away from a situation that would probably escalate to something fierce by the time they got out of there.
Fortunately for the two of them school was officially over so they were allowed to leave without being stopped, unfortunately for Naruto he slipped on something on the ground, taking Kushina down with him, making the two of them soaked. Kushina groaned at her beautiful new dress, well at least she thought it was beautiful, and scowled even more when she realized that Naruto didn't give a crap about what the state of his clothes were.
In fact the boy got up, pulled off his shirt and just threw it in a nearby dumpster.
"Man, I am glad to get out of there." He walked to a nearby stall and pulled out some change. "Give me two dango, please."
"Just two?" The cashier did not look amused. "You are kidding right?"
"Do I look like I am made of money?" Naruto emptied his pockets and Kushina noticed that there wasn't a penny in it. "Seriously, do I look like someone here to buy out the store?"
The cashier laughed, and pulled out two beans.
"Tell you what, kid. I'll give you a discount just for that." He pulled out two from a stick of red bean dango. "One for you, and one for you lady friend…or I think that's a lady, hard to tell with all that mud."
Kushina frowned, but didn't say anything. Instead she just accepted her gift and glared at Naruto from a short distance. She couldn't believe how casually he was taking this. Tomorrow when they went to school the entire class was going to be after his head, and hers by extension. There was no way she could take all of them. Sure the boys were one thing, but everyone else was another.
She walked next to him, trying to figure out what his angle was, and came up with blanks. He just didn't look like he had real motive to do this. It was more like a spur of the moment, even if it was successful, and he didn't seem to care how much this troubled her.
She punched him in the shoulder just to get his attention and he looked back at her with surprise.
"What's wrong?" Kushina glowered. He corrected himself. "Never mind, I know. I mean is there anything else you wanna discuss?"
"Yes!" Kushina said heatedly, grinding her teeth together. She breathed in and breathed out, just so she didn't wail on him at this very moment. "Kami, yes! You have to be kidding me. You just picked a fight with everyone! Sure they were probably going to rough you up a bit, but after what you just pulled back there, what do you expect to do now? They are going to destroy you, you've made idiots out of them! What can you possibly gain from that?"
"Er, nothing." He stood up and tossed his dango stick out into a bin and gave a thumbs up to the chef, who, surprisingly, did the same. He turned back to her and smirked. "But ya gotta admit that was pretty awesome."
Kushina tried not to smile, she really did, but a small one just had to come out. Then seeing Naruto's smile get larger due to that small win, she frowned again and beat her hands on her head.
"Ahhh! I am so dead tomorrow, I swear to Kami that dog boy is going to be after my hide thanks to you!" She got up and started shaking Naruto by the collar. "Do you know how nervous I was today? Do you have any idea how much I wanted to make new friends? Do you know you just ruined that for me!"
Naruto looked on in surprise, then smiled. "Do you know if you had acted like this today, you probably could have made friends pretty easily? Seriously, I am terrified of saying no to a friend like you. You come up to me with that attitude and tell me to follow, I'd get behind."
Kushina looked at him in puzzlement, then let him go slowly. Gently she put her hands on her face and sat back down on a chair. "I…was nervous today." She didn't him to see her sad. "This was my first time in a school. You don't know what it's like, being an outsider. This place, Konoha, I've never been here before. I had to move, they made me move, it isn't fair!"
"Life is not fair," Naruto said, shrugging. He leaned against a pole and ate Kushina's share of the dango stick when she wasn't looking. "Ya just gotta suck it up and go with it. Don't let anyone bring you down, don't let anyone tell you what to do, and follow your dreams."He paused. "Or at least that's what our sensei would say, personally I think that's a load of bullshit."
Kushina looked up and glared.
Out of all the people she could be stuck with in her first day of school, this boy should not have been one of them. He was rude, dirty, savage, violent, uncaring, crazy, and most of all, bizarre beyond reason. One moment his mind was on something serous, the next he just wanted to play. He seemed distant, ,yet when she felt worried he was so close. Almost like he could sense her discomfort.
"Can you tell me something?" Kushina got up and stood next to him. 'The kid is seriously scrawny, what does he eat?' "What was looking at you from the shadows today?"
"Huh, you saw that?" He tilted his head, letting a streak of water fall down on one side. "I thought I did a better job at hidin' em."
"What? Hiding a person?" That didn't make any sense, why would he have to hide someone. Bette yet, how could he hide someone? "Are you kidding me?"
"Afraid not." He walked past her, letting her know that the conversation was done. "I'll tell ya about those things hiding in the trees another day. Well, maybe, honestly I am not sure if I'll be here long enough to tell ya. But I guess it couldn't hurt, some of the Jounins know about it anyway."
With a leap the boy was on a roof. He turned to her, unmindful of the storm and grinned. "Hey, you wanna see something cool?" Kushina wasn't so sure she should. "Come on, it'll be so worth it. This'll make you super strong. I promise."
'Stronger?' Kushina's eye brows rose and she followed him immediately.
The two jumped from roof to roof getting to whatever location Naruto had in mind, once Kushina slipped and almost fell, but Naruto caught her and brought them both back to the right path. As they jumped Kushina could see it all. Her entire village. Konoha, the village of the hidden leaves. It was incredible, it was large, and it was so ordered.
In the east there was a giant compound with the Hyuga Seal on the largest building. On the west was an even larger district with its own little town in it. This one had the Uchiha crest, and Kushina was a bit hesitant to approach it. Especially when she noticed that it was the direction they were going.
"Er, Naruto." Kushina paused. This was the first time she had used his name. "Where are we going exactly?"
"Nowhere special, just a place where I setup some traps." He jumped over a pole and landed on the roof of the highest building. "Oi, hurry up, or I am gonna leave you."
"Coming!" she shouted, sneezing when a large splash went into her nostril. "But can you slow down just a little?"
The boy scowled. "If I do that, I am not gonna be able to activate it on time. Trust me, that would be real shame." Naruto picked up Kushina who slipped on a stray tile. "Watch it, those things can kill you, especially if you slip on them from this height."
"I'll try to keep that in mind," she mumbled. She wanted to call him a teme, but decided not to push it. The boy had a ruthlessness about him. "Wait a minute, don't tell me you are going into the compound!"
Naruto didn't answer. Instead he ran down the roofs faster and faster, making it hard for Kushina to keep up. "Now hold on, I didn't agree to this!" She flipped and almost broke her head on a chimney. Groaning she got up, and immediately started chasing. "Naruto, stop. You are going to get killed!"
Kushina was new to the village but even she knew not to mess with the Uchiha. They were one of the strongest clans in the elemental nations, and there was no way a mere boy like Uzumaki Naruto was going to just get away for assaulting them. To Naruto it could be mere fun, but if they took it the wrong way she wasn't sure what they would do to him. Running past the slippery roofs she jumped down to ground level and followed him on foot.
Soon they were inside the district. Fortunately not many people were out due to the rain, and no one made a comment on her running down their district. This gave Kushina chance to study the area and marvel at how impressive it was. It really was a small town within a town. They had everything a Ninja clan could ever want and more. They had their own restaurants, supplies, and weapon's stores as well. This was just incredible, Not even the Hyuga had this kind of a settlement.
Then realizing what she was here for, she shook those thoughts out of her mind and chased after her classmate, who was getting further and further away from her. She hated this, she hated how fast he was, and resolved to get faster next time. She had been slacking in her physical training and it certainly showed. Her chubbiness was one part genetics, but a large part was a lack of constant training. Her art of seals had prevented her from going out much, hence her nervousness around people, but now that she was at the academy she was sure she couldn't just keep living like this.
Still, she contemplated that her time at the academy would probably be cut short if she continued to follow around the urchin Uzumaki Naruto, especially with the way he was approaching the largest house in the entire district.
She shivered when she recognized what the place really was. This place, this monster of a place, was the Head House of the Uchiha District. 'This is where the Head of the Uchiha Clan lives.' "Naruto, teme!" she shouted. "You want to die? Get out of there!"
"Oi, red, you are here? I thought I lost ya." He jumped down from his place on the roof and grabbed her hand. She tried to pull away, horrified at his happy expression. "It's about time to activate, you gotta see this."
"No, I don't want to." She closed her eye and put all her strength into breaking his grip. It wasn't working. "Please, Naruto, we have to leave. I have a bad feeling about this." Her eyes shifted everywhere, one by one doors were opening
The boy snorted. "Please, I've done this a million times before. They don't even have half the security as they did the last time I did this." That got a raised eyebrow from Kushina, she wasn't sure what he meant by the last time. If he had pulled something like this previously, why wasn't there any measures to safeguard against him?
"Shit, he's coming out." Quickly he put his dirty hand on her mouth and pulled her into an alley. "Just watch."
Kushina looked to the side to see what he was dragging her away from and noticed a tall boy who looked older than his true age implied. The boy was probably a mid level Chunin, and maybe even higher than that. He wore the standard Konoha Chunin uniform, and eve had a headband. Kushina really didn't have a good feeling about this.
"If I let you go, will you promise me not to scream?" Kushina fumed. "Alright, alright. Take it easy. No need to get angry. Just a little joke, that's all."
The redhead coughed when he let go and touched her neck. For a boy so small, he had a firm grip. Giving him another glare, she turned back to the scene and crouched in the shadows of the alley with the boy behind her. Slowly, the Chunin looked to the ground and saw a box. With careful hesitation he picked up the box, and tipped it over a few times. It looked like a simple box, well as simple as one can make it for one that looked to be holding presents.
Still the boy was a lot more clever than that and was taking the threat of the box seriously. He used his Sharingan to see any Chakra signatures inside of it, then shook it up to see if it could be any kind of dangerous trap. Satisfied that it wasn't the boy looked at the tag, saw the name, and was even more curious.
"How do you know he is going to open it," Kushina asked. "He doesn't look like an idiot."
"I put a name of a certain girl on it, trust me we are gonna see the thing open." He placed his fingers in his ears and Kushina did the same. "Three, two, one…"
Nothing happened when he opened the box. In fact the Uchiha just found a piece of paper on it. Slowly he touched it, and that is when he realized how screwed he was. In a second the ground beneath him exploded, as explosive tags were activated by the seal array on the box. He tried to jump up only to find he couldn't move, due to the secondary function of the tag paralyzing him.
Kushina noticed the note was designed to look like some kind of love note, or something along those lines. She turned to Naruto who chuckled evilly at the boy falling into a pit a few meters from his own house. 'How did he manage to dig a hole that large on his own? Without anyone ever seeing him?'
Within seconds the entire clan was running out the door to see what the commotion was, and ran toward the direction of the noise.
"Yes, take that teme. Capture me will? Put me in prison will you? Don't mess with Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto was dancing in the alley, holding onto his side when more people started coming out. "They've taken the bait, yes! Come out you lousy temes!"
Kushina wasn't so sure of the boy's sanity and decided to back away from him. Then realizing what would happen to her if they found her she got angry, her blue eyes narrowed. "You are idiot!" She had to hiss this part so that they wouldn't be heard. Shaking from panic her eyes trailed to every exit. "We are trapped, do you know what they are going to do to us if they find us?"
"If enough of them are left to find us that is."
"Huh?"
She heard another yell as more tags exploded from the ground as the Uchiha families ran to help the boy, who was falling in the pit, only instead of these tags being filled with explosives to kill, it looked to be filled with explosives made from…droppings. She held in her breath so that she wouldn't smell it, and was sickened by the sight before her.
"I sealed shit, literally shit, I found in the Forest of Death," Naruto admitted, The boy pointed to some of the creative ones. "That one is from a giant centipede, that one from a giant rat, that from….no idea…err that was one I don't even want to say…that one from another giant centipede."
"The forest must have a lot of centipedes."
"That they do."
Naruto nodded at his handy work and watched as the parents and families of the clan tried to wash themselves off in the pouring rain, only to find that it spread much faster. "Oh, and I put an oily solution. This way it spreads if ya add water, kinda like how grease fires spread when ya add water."
"And you think they aren't going to kill you for doing that?" Kushina was literally shaking from both terror and anger. "Damn it! If someone looks this way, we are so finished!"
"Mikoto, get down here and help your cousin!" Kushina couldn't see the girl who was running down the street very well, but she was pretty sure she was a classmate. "Renji, Kenji, Ichi, go get the scouts. We are going to hunt those little bastards right now."
"Yeah, I think it's time to go." Naruto grabbed Kushina by the shoulder. "Ever been long distanced switched before?"
Kushina noticed his hands form some kind of strange seal that she was unfamiliar with. Before she disappeared she turned around and saw it. Uchiha MIkito. The tall, dark haired girl was standing there looking at them with a nervousness unfamiliar to a ninja. Before the female Uchiha could say something Kushina felt a shift in her mass and literally felt herself vanish.
…
She coughed when she felt smoke enter her lungs and looked up to see Uzumaki Naruto holding out his hands. She took it and stood up…in a room? This didn't make any sense. She was pretty sure she was inside of a room.
It was the dankest room she had seen in her life. The wood at the top was wet, with drain drops falling through the cracks. The walls had holes in them, and termites were crawling out from the cracks. There were no windows, and there were seals in every inch of the place. Like this was some kind of fortress.
A very ugly one at that.
Not only that but there was a giant scroll, a totally humongous one even, hanging on the wall. She recognized the design somewhat, but something was off with the seal array, as if someone had added a design she already knew. Sighing she decided to ask about it later, and looked at the boy sitting on a chair, dabbing ink into paper and writing something.
Slowly she walked behind him and saw him make a sealing scroll. 'Interesting.' So he was sort of a Seal apprentice like her. 'Then again, with a name like Uzumaki, that isn't that big of a surprise.'
"By any chance are you from the Uzumaki clan?" she asked, hoping that she had found another in this shithole of a village. "Your last name is…Uzumaki."
"Plenty of people with that last name." He spun around on his desk and smiled. Kushina cringed at the amount of mud on his face. "Wasn't aware there was a clan called Uzumaki. Is it in Konoha?"
"No, it's not native to fire country. The clan is based in the Hidden Village in the…never mind. You can probably look it up. I just thought with your seals, and with your name, you might be a member. But then my great-aunt didn't say I would meet another."
"You aunt?" Naruto looked genuinely curious. "What's her name? The only other Uzumaki I know of in this place is that old crone Mito who lives near the Hokage Tower."
"…that's my great-aunt."
"Oh." Naruto paused, scratching his chin. "Er, I still think she is an old crone."
Kushina glared. "I don't care what you think!"
"That's kinda mean, don't ya think?" The boy went to a fridge, that looked like it had stopped working a very long time ago, and looked through the freezer part of it. "You want anything to drink?" He pulled out a bottle of water, and a bottle of orange solution. "I have spring water, or orange juice." Take your pick."
"Orange."
Naruto looked reluctant to pass that over but shrugged and tossed it to her. The chubby cheeked girl caught it and opened the cap with a quick twist. She took a seat at the only place in the broken down looking place that wasn't wet and noticed that the rain had destroyed so much of the wood. The place was so beyond ruined that it wasn't even funny. Then a thought came to her.
One that she should have realized earlier.
"Where exactly are we?" She looked out in a crack and noticed something large slithering. "This isn't the town sector is it?"
"Er, no, it's not." The boy pointed a snake coming out from the ground nearby. "You normally don't have to use pet snakes to keep out big game like rats the size of dinner plates, a cat could easily do that job."
Kushina nodded while simultaneously shifting away from the snake that was chasing a rat nearby, a rat that looked like it could beat up a dog. "I have to admit that your escape was kind of a surprise." She looked at the broken fort. "I thought for a moment we were goners."
"Nah, impossible. I usually keep small bases like these around the village. Makes for a quick way to escape. We aren't even that far from the Uchiha District. Long Distance Body Switch doesn't work very well if you are than half a kilometer from the location you start with. Any further and you might need to use a Shunsin."
"What's a Shunsin?" she asked. "Sounds familiar."
"Long distance teleportation jutsu. You'll learn about it next year. Not sure when you'll learn to perform it." He went to a nearby closet and pulled out a white shirt. Kushina was surprised to see now normal he looked with it on. Even more surprising was the Uzumaki Clan symbol at the centre. Before she could ask him about it however he clicked his teeth and scratched his head.
"Son of a bitch!" He yelled. "I told that bastard not to be so obvious! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
"What's wrong?" Kushina asked. "What's got you so worried?"
Naruto looked back at her with shock in his eyes. "Oh sorry, I forgot you were here." He looked up, ahead of him to the thunderstorm outside, and sighed. "Hold on, I am going to meditate for a second over there."
He took a seat near her and started to hum. Slowly his eyes began to twitch every few minutes, and he would later hold his head and groan every time his eyes twitched. "How hard can it be not to get hit? These idiots know that if they get one hit they smoke, kami you shits are utter morons!"
"Who are morons?" Kushina honestly didn't know what to think, was he menta.? "Who are you talking too?"
"In a minute," Naruto answered her. "Just give me another minute." With that he continued to curse every few minutes, until he was done and stood up, holding his head.
"God, I have such a massive headache," he said. He looked at her and grimaced. "No, don't worry it has nothing to do with you. Are you hungry?"
She nodded, realizing that she hadn't eaten since their entire ordeal. "Yes, if it isn't too much trouble."
She waited for him to make a comment about her chubby cheeks, but he didn't. Instead he went to a broken looking fridge and pulled out a cup of ramen. He placed the cup of ramen between the two of them and pulled out some sticks from a shelf. He decided to give her the sticks, and took a spoon from another location and used to turn on some kind of grill on the floor.
He put the cup of ramen in the grill and added the water he was going to drink inside. 'Weird.'
Slowly the food began to melt in the slow cook grill, and Kushina started to hunger for the food inside. "That's pretty good? What brand is it?" She really wanted to know. As far as she knew cup ramen didn't smell that appealing. "Can I get it from here?"
"Probably." Naruto stirred the food looking absently out the top crack-window in thought. "That's where I got it from."
"Oh, right." She knew she sounded kind of stupid. Where else could he have gotten it from? It was she who was the outsider after all. "Um, I think it's done."
"Heh, sure is." He pulled the food out with the spoon he held and then put it into the cup he had earlier. He carefully made sure not to drop a single one and handed it to Kushina, who pushed it back to him, albeit reluctantly.
"Aren't you going to eat?" She didn't like how he was so skinny. Kushina still had a lot of belly fat and baby fat on her cheeks. She could have done to lose a few pounds, or at least that was what her great aunt told her. Naruto, on the other hand, was the opposite, his cheeks looked so hollow, his body thin. "You probably need it more than me, I wouldn't want to eat all your food."
"…you think this is all my food?" he asked. He got up, and broke a piece of hardwood. Kushina looked in and noticed that it stored with hundreds of packets of rations. "Yeah, let's just say I have enough to feed me for a year, if I ever need to turn this place into my own Military Fort."
"Why?"
"My own reasons, red," he closed the hardwood seal, and looked up to her seriously. "I am not shittin' around. Don't tell anyone you saw this."
Kushin nodded her mane of messy red hair. It was a strange request but she didn't see any reason not to comply. "So, you have these little forts all over the village." She paused to think up more. "And you keep them around important locations for…pranks?"
"Something like that." He didn't go further. Instead he scratched his head. "God damn it! Another screw up!" Kushina had no idea who he was talking to and decided to just not say anything. "Well, that is the last of them." He looked back to her, sadly. "I am gonna to have to take you home. There is something I really need to do. Nothing personal, but…well, let's just say something did not come out right."
Kushina decided, for her sanity, not to ask what his make believe mission was and just held out her hand.
"Do you even know where I live?" Seeing his blank expression she sighed and wrote down an address.
The boy grinned. "Wow, no shit? You live here!" She nodded. Not understanding what was so special about her one bedroom apartment. It was a simple enough place. "Okay, just hold on. I only need one switch for this one."
Slowly she wrapped her arms around his stomach and held in a breath as she was warped out of there. The girl tripped when they landed and hit her head on her bed. Groaning she got up to see Naruto holding out his hand to her, this time she pushed it away and stood up.
Looking around she noticed in astonishment that they had warped directly into her room.
"How…how did you do that? You don't even know what my room looks like…" She trailed off, now seriously worried that she had just been led astray by some stalker. Was this boy keeping tabs on her? "Well?"
The boy scratched the back of his head. Pulled out some more leaves and smiled. "Kinda hard to believe but I used to live here, sort of." He looked at the place thoughtfully. "But it was never this clean when was around that's for sure."
Kushina looked at him oddly. He wasn't that old. What kind of person let a boy younger than her live in an apartment by himself? "How long ago was that?"
"Believe me, you wouldn't believe me if I told ya."
Slowly he walked towards the exit, played with a secret crack on the wall, and then opened the door.
"I'll see ya at school, if that bastard of a Jounin manages to catch me." He gave her a thumbs up, which she didn't respond too. It was just too uncool. "Wish me like, chubby."
'Chubby?' Immediately a tick formed on her forehead and she ran towards the door. The boy laughed shut the door tight and before she could open it, she found herself slipping and hitting the front of the door. 'What the hell?'
Getting up she noticed that there was a slip of paper on the floor, and picked it up to see Naruto's face with a peace sign, saying Better luck next time. Kushina crunched the paper with her hands and threw it into the fire. "I am going to soo get that son of a bitch!" Slowly she walked to her shower, sighing as she felt cramps form on her stomach, and scenting the horrible smell in her hair. "But first I got to get that horrible stench off. Feels like I got fungus growing out of my scalp…"
…
"Where is he, where is the bastard, that asshole, that prick. I am gonna kick his ass when I see'em." The boy in front of Kushina would not stop. Then he got way from his musings and pointed to her. "Bitch, you better tell where you are hiding him, or so help me I am a gonna sick Kuro-chan at ya!"
Kushina had seen rude people in her life.
Big ones, small ones, short ones, fat ones. One thing they all had in common was that they annoyed her, and when she was annoyed she had this habit of trying to annoy the hell out of the person who annoyed her first. Forget peaceful resolution, if the guy was trying to pick a fight with her, then that is exactly what that person was going to get.
No exceptions.
"You get the mutt anywhere near me and I'll have a new fur coat." She pulled her kunai from her pocket and gestured to the beast. "Come here doggy-chan. I've got a present for you."
"Stay away from my dog!" The feral looking boy jumped onto her desk and crouched down to her. Kushina refused to budge, even when his horrid breath touched her nostrils. "You threaten my pal again, and I'll make you wish you never transferred here, newbie."
"Oh, big talk." Kushina noticed that the boy wasn't backed up by anybody. Either he didn't have any friends, or they just weren't here today. "You and what army? Flea bag!"
Normally Kushina wasn't this mean, but after the bullshit Uzumaki Naruto had put her through, she wasn't in the mood to just be pushed around by anyone else. If Naruto could stand up to the entire class, and solve his problems without having to get too violent, she could too. Didn't Naruto also say to be more assertive?
Well, she was going to start being more assertive, starting with this one.
"I'll take you on, any time, any place." She smiled, closing her eyes. "Just name it!"
"Fine!" The boy's sharp teeth grit hard, there was fire in his eyes. "Today, outside, in the field. No witnesses. Just you and me. Come alone."
"Nice try, I am bringing in one person." She paused and looked at his doggy partner, who was wagging his tail. Honestly, it was such an adorable animal. 'Why did it have to be with such a horrible boy?' "You bring your puppy, I'll bring in one other person. This way it's fair."
"Hah, you don't know anyone in this class." He gestured to the class full of people who were ignoring the two. "Only that slimeball Naruto would possibly come with you, and the teme is off skipping class."
"So what?" Kushina didn't like Naruto that much, but she didn't like the idea of people calling him a slimeball. Plus he was probably the only friend she had in the class, sort of. "That slimeball is probably the best student in the class."
That got a growl from the dogboy.
"Best student? Who gives a shit. We're Ninja! I don't wanna be no best students. I wanna be the best Ninja around!" The boy sneered at her with his tiny nose. Once again Kushina was struck by how odd his appearance was. For a boy he had some distinct girlish features. "Give me a break, Baka-Kage."
"Take that back!" Kushina didn't like the idea of anyone making fun her, just for that one moment. So what if she wanted to be a Kage? What was wrong with that?
"Arrgghhh!" She got up and slammed her forehead onto the Inuzuka, who also rammed his forehead unto hers. Their eyes were filled with self-righteous anger. "I am going to be the next Hokage, watch me!"
"The day you become a Kage, is the day I become a vegetarian, and stop chasing cats," the boy answered back, leaning towards her, giving her a leer.
Slowly the boy's face looked thoughtful, which was weird, and he leaned against her further.
"How about you cut the crap?" he asked, trying to sound like a friend. "Just tell me where the teme hides out. I went to the bastards house and found the place empty. The place hadn't been lived in for months."
'What makes you think I know where he hides out? Heck, what makes you think I would ever tell you, doggy boy.' "So what?" She backed away from the boy, who was the exact same size as her, and sat on her desk, arms crossed. "Uzumaki has got nothing to do with me. I am not his mommy, I don't keep track of where he goes."
The boy growled, slammed his fist on her desk, turned around, and hopped off. He made a thud as he hit the ground, and walked away from her.
"If you ever see the bastard, tell him I am hunting for him. If I ever see his face in class, I am going to beat his ass down. Inuzuka style."
That got a giggle from a dark haired girl who sat three seats ahead. Kushina noticed that it was the same girl she saw at the Uchiha compound. The doggy boy took a seat at the front and pulled out his bags.
"Crap! Kuro," the boy shouted. "Why didn't you remind me to bring my books? Ahhh!"
Kushina blanked out the moron from the rest of her musings and read the notes in the front of the class. So far the day was starting out okay. Most of the attention was focused on "Where the hell Uzumaki Naruto was?" and Kushina was surprised to see an amazing amount of whispers about how the class was going to get him back when they next saw him.
Part of the girl was worried for his safety, but the larger part had to admit that he had it coming, especially after learning that the entire class had to sit out a detention. With the exception of all those who left the battle before it began, namely Namikaze Minato and co, along with that Uchiha girl who she spotted yesterday at the compound.
Without Naruto in class though, she felt like things were both kind of boring and lonely. None of the girls dared approach her for some reason, probably because of her association with Uzumaki Naruto, and none of the boys wanted anything to do with her, probably because of the comment she made about being the next female Hokage. It certainly didn't help that they called her Tomato when she thought she couldn't hear them.
The one good thing about class today was that the number of traps setup for her were low. Most of the boys seemed to be saving it for the blond haired trouble maker, and she even heard something about "Jumping him" when he got to school, whenever he did. Kushina made a note to warn the boy that he was going to be ganged up on if he ever took the front door.
But for some reason she had a feeling the boy wasn't the front door type.
That feeling was proved true when someone smashed through their window in the middle of class, eliciting shrieks of terror from girls who saw large pieces of glass get embedded on their wooden desk. Kushina cringed at the sight of one of Minato's friends running around holding his arm because of a small glass spike, and silently thanked the gods that it wasn't her
The body that broke through their window rolled on the floor, knocking three or four desks out, while making girls and boy run away screaming. The body was covered in dirty and blood. Kushina silently chided herself for screaming when she thought it was a dead body, and chided herself even further when the supposed dead body started to violently shake. The Chunin instructor was out since he had to get some marking stamps, thus the class had been left to finish their quiz on their own.
So the only ones that would be able to help out the small body were the students, who more or less knew nothing about medical jutsu.
"Is it dead?"
"Nah, it's moving."
"What the hell man! I almost died!"
"Troublesome!"
"Er, is it lunch yet?"
"Bark Bark!"
Kushina jumped down to where the body was and crouched next to it. As she got closer, she noticed something: the mop of spiked blond hair that only one other person in the class had.
"Naruto!" She turned him over, and saw that he was having a hard time breathing. Something was stuck in his throat. "Quick, someone can the Sensei!"
"I am on it!" Namikaze Minato bolted down the hall before she could say anything.
"Holy shit, someone really fucked him up?" The dogboy was crouched next to her too. Kushina wanted to punch him. "What the hell is that?"
"Looks like Senbon Needles." She didn't like the implications of this. "We should probably pull them out."
"Not a good idea." The Inuzuka ripped a piece of paper from nearby and crunched it into a ball. "Well, not without using something as a stopper. The teme might bleed to death otherwise."
Kushina looked at the boy carefully. Her eyes narrowed. "Why are you being so helpful?" She had to admit that his attitude was refreshing, better than the hesitant actions of her classmates, but this was just too suspicious. "You said you were going to kill him, why the change of heart?"
The boy looked around, and then leaned towards her, whispering in her ear. "I am not sure if you noticed but some of the guys here, don't like him." Kushina waited. "And they really don't like you."
"What did I ever do to them?" she hissed. "I just said I want to be the next kage."
"Ora, ora, keep it down," the Inuzuka whispered back, slapping Kushina in the back of the head. "There is a lot going on in this academy that you do not know, Tomato-teme. Old grudges and feuds. Not everyone here are friends, and you better pray you don't get in the wrong side of those with power."
Kushina didn't get what the Inuzuka was talking about, but decided that now was not that time to worry about that. She had a potential friend to save. "Okay, whatever, let's stop the bleeding." She pulled out the senbon from the boy's throat, and the Inuzuka was going to stop the flow. "Ready, get set…Go!"
Yet before the Inuzuka could do that, the blood flow stopped. Before their eyes the wound completely healed. Instantly, with no hesitation whatsoever. The two looked at each other startled, and then looked back at the class who didn't seem to notice. Kushina didn't know what to think and pulled out the needles one by one, and the same thing happened again and again.
It was almost like the wound was never there to start with.
Behind her the Inuzuka dog started to bark, and bark plenty. Then it whimpered and backed away to the back of the class. "That's not good." Kushina turned to the Inuzuka. "Kuro-chan isn't scared of anyone…what is going on?" The last part was said with a whisper.
Before Kushina could make reply, something grabbed her hand. Uzumaki Naruto leaned up and almost slammed his head on her forehead.
She backed away in time, and tripped on the Inuzuka behind her. "Hey, watch it!" The dog boy pushed her off and the chubby cheeked girl hit the floor with a thud.
"Damn you!" Kushina's dark blue eyes glared at the Inuzuka. Her teeth gritted. "What the hell is your problem?"
"What's yours? Is it so hard not to slam me onto the floor? Get your eyes checked, girl!" was the boy's smart reply. The boy turned to Uzumaki Naruto, who was pulling out pieces of metal from his flesh. His clothing he wore from yesterday looked totally destroyed. "Teme, I've been looking for you! We are going to fight!"
Naruto turned to the boy, and gave him a blank stare. Slowly his eyes narrowed, and he seemed to be concentrating on something. "Do I know you?" The Inuzuka boy howled and was about to lung. "Er, you look familiar, yes?"
"Teme, you sucker punched me in the face while I was talking to Kuro-chan," he said, shaking with anger. "The two of us were just minding our own business, hell we were not even pissed off at the extra work, and you just come along and break one of my teeth." The boy pulled out a fang from his pocket. "See." Kushina had to admit that the boy took good care of his teeth. It was pearly white. "Now I am gonna take one of yours as payback."
"A fair trade." Naruto got off the ground and then fell back down. "Ahh, I think I need a minute, hold on." He tried to stand again and fell. His knees looked so wobbly, like he had been running all this time. "Can ya give me another few seconds, just one more…ahh, right, got it."
He now stood up straight and walked towards the bigger Inuzuka, who looked at the Uzumaki oddly.
"Now tell me what ya want." He scratched his butt once. "Arrghh, poison Ivy! -I mean, you were lookin' for me, I heard from my neighbor. So tell me what you want?"
"I want to settle the score. Man to man." Kushina noticed the boy used the word man a lot. He must had serious gender issues. "I challenged that bitch, Tomato, already. So one more round with you ain't gonna be a skin off my back."
"Seriously, a challenge?" Naruto looked at Kushina skeptically. "You actually accepted this?"
"Inzuka-san was annoying, it was the only way to get him to shut up." Her classmates started to chuckle. Apparently she wasn't the only one who thought the Inuzuka had social problems. "What do you say? I said you were my second, kind of. His is the dog. I think we have a shot against the dog."
The blond Uzumaki smiled. "Bring it!" He bounced up and down a made a few swings. "I am gonna show you young whippersnappers what's what!"
Kushina glowered at his humor. It seemed to be centered around his victims being younger than him, which was impossible since everyone here was more or less in the same age group, at least to her knowledge. Then again she had only been here for a few days, so perhaps her analysis was a bit off. For all she knew Naruto could be a repeat, but from the amount of surprise the others had for him she doubted it.
"Right!" The Inuzuka boy clenched his fist and pointed it to him. "Then tonight I am gonna beat your ass down!"
"Try it," Naruto answered with his own savage grin. "I'l turn ya to kibble's n bits."
"No way," barked the dogboy. "Teme!"
"Yes way," Naruto answered, grinning. "Dogshit!"
As this was going on, Kushina noticed one important thing. Naruto was in a very, very good mood. Something must have happened after she left because he no longer held that horrible contempt and that desire to escape his class. Whatever he was supposed to do yesterday, he had done it, and done it right. She hoped that he would be this jolly, and less violent.
Even if he had to break through a window to get into this mood.
Then she looked out the window and shivered. Standing outside was that same Uchiha that Naruto had pranked the day before. He was covered in feathers, droppings, glue, crayons, spray paint, paste, the works. He didn't look injured at all, but the fury in his face was pure picturesque, and the trembling rage was beyond priceless.
The man looked at the laughing Naruto, then looked at her with some confusion, and turned away to clean up.
Probably.
"Naruto, what the hell was that?" Kushina pointed to the walking-away-Uchiha. "What the hell did you do to him?"
Naruto laughed, and shook off glass from his destroyed shirt. "The baka got me outside the village while he was on patrol. He tried to get me to some hospital, but I told him no way, and he got this smart idea to incapacitate me with sleepingsSenbon." Naruto pulled out one from his bum. "So I lead him through a set of traps around the village. -Oi, you should have seen the look on his face when he walked in front of the Military Base covered in orange paint."
"Why orange?" the dogboy asked.
"Will of Fire, baka!" Naruto folded his arms shook his head. "Kids today, no respect for the old ways. He was like a giant beacon of flaming orange light in these dark rainy days."
Kushina had to admit it had been raining a lot. "Still, that doesn't explain what you were doing outside of the villag-"
"Can we not talk about this here?" Naruto interrupted cheerfully. "I mean, I think you guys were doing a test weren't you?"
"I wasn't," said a drowsy voice, who hadn't even gotten off his chair when Naruto almost died. "But I wouldn't mind if everyone got back and went on with it." He yawned. "You guys are making a lot of noise."
"Everyone makes a lot of noise to you," a girl who looked a lot like the voice said. "And if I ever hear you say troublesome one more time, I am going to tell auntie."
"Troublesome."
"Why you little-!"
"Enough of this!" Someone slammed a fist on the desk. Kushina turned around. 'Oh, shit.' "Everyone get back in your seats, get back in your chairs, and get back to writing the test. Sensei left me in charge and he has trusted you all, please do not let his trust be in vain."
"Oi, what's shoved up his ass?" Naruto asked Kushina, as they walked towards the back of the class. "You know him?"
Kushina looked at Naruto strangely. "Are you retarded? Of course I know him! Everyone knows him!" Kushina couldn't believe this. There was no possible way that Uzumaki Naruto could not know the boy who just told everyone to sit down.
"Hard to say who he is," Naruto admitted."Sure I know what he is, what Clan I mean, but who is difficult, no?"
"Weren't you here the first day of class?"
"I slept through the introductions, anything important?"
Kushina sighed and pulled out a seat for Naruto sit on. "Here, take your seat." Kushina frowned. "What, why are you making that expression?"
"Huh, I thought I sit there." He pointed to a seat a desk away. "Was I promoted today? I am a really worthy to sit next to your Lordship, the future first female Hokage, the Yondaime Uzumaki Kushina?"
"Shut up before I break your face." She pushed him into his seat and pulled out a sheet of test paper. "Here, I got a spare. For some reason the teacher didn't collect this extra. See if you can answer it, the test ends in 20 minutes."
Naruto picked up the paper, and looked at it.
"What was the name of the Shodaime's opponent in the valley of the end…wow, this is real hard." He turned to her. "I was plowed through a window just for this?"
"Just finish the test!" she shouted. "Some of us have a hard time doing this you know." Internally she was jealous at how easy Naruto found the test.
"Tomato-san, no talking while the test is in session." The one in the charge of the class, the boy Kushina was somewhat afraid of glowered at the two with his pupilless eyes. "There will be consequences if you do otherwise."
"Sure thing, Hyuga-san," Naruto answered. He picked up his test. "I'll be sure to answer every question on my own. Shouldn't take too long. A, A, B, A, C,B, D, and D. Yeah, it shouldn't take too long at all."
Kushina was furiously scribbling down the answers. Sure she didn't agree with Naruto was doing, but a perfect score was a perfect score.
…
Namikaze Minato came in with their instructor, who yelled at Naruto for breaking the window, then proceeded to collect the tests. He looked impressed at the class's grades, but didn't say much more on the subject. Instead he told everyone to settle down, and to ignore the birds coming in from the cracked window. He had a very important announcement to make, one that would affect their hidden village immensely.
"Class, yesterday something tragic happened." He paused to let the words sink it. No one talked, one person yawned. "At 13:00 one of the Hokage's students, Orochimaru, disappeared."
That got a gasp from everyone, including the boy he woke up. Kushina herself gasped because everyone else was doing it, but in reality she didn't see what the big deal was. People disappeared all the time in the Ninja World especially when there was a war going on, what made this event so special?
"Perhaps a few of you better know Orochimaru for his exploits in exhibition matches or may have read of his research?" There were blank stares from the majority of the class from the research part, well aside from Minato. "Well, in any case. He is a powerful Shinobi, one of the most powerful in this village right now, and a key player in our forces."
"Er, sensei, can we get to the point." The Uchiha girl had her hand raised. "I have to get home soon, my mother expects me to start Tea Class immediately."
"You and your damn Tea Class can wait, Mikoto." The man grit his teeth then calmed down. "Sorry, I shouldn't have done that." He paused. "Anyway, what makes this case so horrific is that this is said to be an inside job."
He let those words sink in. Kushina wondered why they were telling her this. Seemed like something that should be kept secret. "The reason I make this announcement is that the kidnapper, or culprit, wrote down what he did all across key locations in the village. He made notes of his crime all over the Clan houses."
There were shocks and gasps from more people. The most enthusiastic gasp coming from Naruto. "How dare he! What kind of monster does such a thing!" Kushina thought that the was being a bit too over dramatic. "Let's find that fucker and kill him!"
"Yeah, kill him!" Dogboy jumped onto his desk.
"Eat him!" a fat boy answered.
"No, not Orochimaru-sama! How could they?" A feminine looking blond boy cried. He stood up, holding his arms around his chest. "He was my idol."
"Seriously?" a lazy voice asked.
"No, not really." The femboy sat back on his desk. "But it sounded like the right thing to say."
The sensei pointed a shaking finger to Dogboy. "Tsume, get down off your table, and take a seat." He turned to the three stooges. "Shut up, you three, or I'll send you to detention, again!" Their teacher was not amused. "Well, the main reason for this announcement is that the culprit is said to be an insider. A spy, possibly."
More gasps. "No, say it isn't so, sensei!" Naruto shouted again. " A spy? Here, in Konoha? Damn, I never woulda' thought."
The man looked at Naruto stupidly, then shook his head and looked the sage. "I know, I know," the man said. "I know it is hard to believe, but that is what happened. The culprit did not defeat Orochimaru-sama with strength, no, it is said his food was poisoned. During his trip to a ramen stand…I probably shouldn't be telling you the series of events, it's rather embarrassing, ask your parents if you have time."
"I don't have parents sensei," Naruto answered, making some fake tears, much to Kushina's annoyance. "So I'll never get the story of his demise, woe is me!"
"Shut up! Uzumaki! I don't have time for your jokes." Kushina hated that they shared the same name. She almost felt like she was getting in trouble. "What I want to tell you all is to be on the lookout for this."The teacher pulled out picture of a tall man wearing in a black cloak and an orange mask. "If any one you have any information about this man, please send word too…"
And so the day ended with the class being dismissed. Since everyone was so surprised by the disappearance of the Hokage's students, they didn't try and attack Naruto as they said they would. The Hyuga boy that Naruto angered glared at the orphan furiously as they walked out of the class, and Kushina was almost balled over by the running Uchiha Mikoto, but over all things could have been worse.
Then, on her way home, she remembered something.
"Oh crap!" She turned around and ran down the rainy streets back to school. 'I forgot about my match with Dogboy.' "Noo! It has already been half an hour."
…
Author's Notes: As you can tell I had to self-beta this chapter. Hope you can forgive me for a few errors here and there. Sorry for taking two weeks to update. I answered every last one of your reviews, all 200 of them. I think I have 9 left. Don't think I forgot you guys, I am just waiting for the 100 pm rule to die down. Anyway here it is. The second chapter. As I said before updates will probably occur weekly now that I have a story planed out. I plan to write this for one year. So we are looking at something looking a 400,000 word fic. I know, huge isn't it? Well, here is hoping this fic doesn't die out. So onto the story. If you are wondering what period Naruto comes from, well, some of you guys in the PM guessed right. Some of you even predicted that that this is really Yami Naruto. I'll tell you right now that this isn't Yami Naruto. If you are wondering why I haven't added a lot of Minato in this chapter it is because I have to save him for other chapters. He is so overused that you don't even feel that amazed when he shows up. There are so many interesting characters in this period and I am going to give each of them an arch to develop them. School Days is going to be the arch that is focused on this fic, for now, but trust me when I say that I am going to develop the plot slowly. If I go too fast I will ruin the story and I know you guys will not like that.
Anyway, thanks for your reviews! I'll reply to each and every one of them, as you already know, so don't be afraid to give me a click.
Sincerely,
Avg. Naruto