Iruka looked up from his notes and smiled. He always enjoyed graduation assignments. It was bitter-sweet, but as a teacher he reveled in the excitement of students putting their talents to use.
This year his students were even more exceptional. With Naruto joining his graduating class, he expected three excellent teams from this class. But now he had to announce the...peculiar circumstances of Naruto's graduation. "Alright, settle down. We have a few announcements before I get to teams. First, it is my pleasure to tell you that Naruto has graduated."
That had the expected impact. "Where is Naruto?" Kiba asked. "Or Hinata?"
A few ninja blinked and realized the shy Hyuuga was missing, too. "That is the second announcement," Iruka declared. "Following Naruto's graduation there was an accident with a certain secret jutsu. Naruto and Hinata were aged about a year in the accident."
“They were what?” Sakura yelped.
Shikamaru lased his fingers together and ducked his head. “Troublesome.”
Choji forgot that he had a chip in his hand, causing him to fumble his bag when he went for more.
Sasuke didn’t care.
Kiba scowled. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”
Iruka sighed and looked to the door. “Well, come on.”
Naruto and Hinata walked in. Naruto was suddenly the tallest kid in class, and he grinned hugely. “Hey guys, long time!”
Hinata bowed slightly and blushed. “Ano, Naruto? They saw us yesterday.”
“Huh? Oh yeah, that’s right.”
Iruka shook his head. This was going to take some getting used to. He glanced at his notes. “We also have a new…this can’t be right. Naruto?”
Naruto shrugged at Iruka. “Not my idea, Iruka-sensei.”
“Right,” Iruka muttered. “As I was saying, Naruto now has a…sister. She’s passed the genin exam and will join Naruto’s team. Everyone welcome Naruko Uzumaki.
The foxgirl formerly known as Kitsune walked in and bowed. “Nice to meet you all!”
Dead silence.
Naruko had been told to adjust her outfit to something less conspicuous. Protests that Arf-sempai said this was appropriate garb for familiars were unheeded. As such, Naruko was wearing a bodysuit of red so deep it was almost black that covered her from mid-thigh up to her neck and down about halfway to her biceps with fishnet on the rest of her arms and legs and heavy fingerless gloves and open-toed shoes. She wore her long blonde hair in the classic twintails and had her orange-furred ears and tail prominently displayed, not that she had much of a choice. Around her neck was a blue collar that could have been a choker, except it had the Konoha leaf dangling from it as a green metal tag.
Sakura threw a book at Naruto. “Naruto! What kind of perverted prank is this!?” About half the class relaxed as the familiar pattern reasserted itself. Naruto did something, Sakura hit him, Naruto whined and/or declared himself the next Hokage, move on.
Then a reddish-orange circle of chakra flashed between Naruto and the impromptu projectile. The book hit the glowing fuinjutsu, sizzled for a moment, and rebounded with as much force as it hit with. Sakura barely ducked in time as the book retraced its original trajectory.
Naruko lowered her hand, scowling at the pink-hair. “I’m no prank, I have a name, and if you ignore me again you and I are going to have issues, Pinkie!”
Hinata laughed uncertainly and waved at Naruko. “Ano, that might be a bit much, Naruko-chan…”
“Just a bit,” Iruka said dryly. He was glad both Uzumaki were leaving his class. Less than a minute and they were already loud, disruptive, and generally causing headaches. “Take your seats, please. Naruko, just take an empty seat in the back, please.”
Naruto sat next to Sakura. Sakura was weirded out by the larger Naruto. This didn’t make sense. He wasn’t hitting on her. His sister or clone or prank or whatever was being more annoying than he was. Was that what had happened? A jutsu to suck the annoying out of Naruto? That would explain why it went wrong; Naruto wouldn’t have anything left without his annoying.
Iruka tried to regain some semblance of control. “Alright then. The team rosters have changed slightly because of this incident. Team Seven, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Shino Aburame.” Sakura jumped up and whooped. Sasuke seemed to consider the merits of stabbing himself.
“Sakura, sit down. Sasuke, put the kunai away. Team Eight, Hinata Hyuuga, Naruto Uzumaki, Kiba Inuzuka. And of course Naruko Uzumaki and Akamaru.” Kiba suddenly realized that everyone on his team was staring at him. Even the new girl with the strange smelling chakra. Great, assigned to a team of weirdos. Well at least Hinata was smiling at him; maybe she could help whip the Uzumaki dobes into shape.
Iruka shook his head at that team. Something weird was going on, but he didn’t survive this long by asking about secrets above his paygrade. “Team nine, Honoka, Tochumaru, Nijima. Team ten, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji. Team eleven, Clucky the Battle Chicken, Abukunai the Ninja Mouse, the Log. Team…wait. Naruto!”
Naruto grinned. “Gotcha.”
“Ugh,” Iruka groaned. “Alright, those of you on teams that actually exist, you’ll now head out to meet your jonin-sensei. Team seven, you’ll go to room…”
Naruto, Hinata, Naruko, and Kiba all gathered in the empty classroom. “I wonder who our sensei is going to be,” Naruto sighed. He had his hands behind his head and stretched lazily.
“I want to know what happened to you two,” Kiba demanded, hot on his heels. So Naruto was bigger than him now, he wasn’t that taller and Kiba had always kicked his ass before. “So start talking, baka.”
“Ano, Kiba-kun,” Hinata tried. “You really shouldn’t…”
“Did ya think to ask nice, mutt?” Naruto growled.
“N-Naruto-kun!”
“You want me to ask nice? That was nice. Next step I beat it out of you,” Kiba growled, grabbing Naruto’s shirt.
Naruto’s hand went to the bracer that held Gungnir’s standby form. “You want to try it?”
Next thing Naruto knew, Kiba had vanished and he was looking at a girl who looked way too exactly like the Book of Darkness before Hayate woke up. He froze with indecision as a thousand ways he was quite dead flashed through his mind.
[Alert. Boss’s chakra unstable. Call healer.]
“I think that’s enough of that,” came a new voice. Suddenly Kiba replaced the book.
[Chakra stabilizing. Cancel alert.]
Naruto looked at Gungnir. “What are you talking about?” he asked the jewel. “Where did she go?”
“It probably didn’t know what to make of my genjutsu,” the voice said again. Naruto looked up to see a fairly pretty black-haired woman with red eyes. “It was a variant on the Hell Viewing Genjutsu that evokes the person you’re most afraid of rather than your greatest fear in general. I’m your new sensei.”
“Naruto-kun?” Hinata asked softly.
Naruto shivered slightly. “The Book of Darkness,” he answered.
Hinata eeped.
Kurenai got the distinct impression that these two had seen things most genin couldn’t handle. “Um, right. Sorry about that, but you’re a team now and beating up eachother isn’t good teamwork.” Usually. “Let’s get to the introductions. My name is Kurenai Yuhi. I am the newest jonin in Konoha, and you are my first genin team. My specialty is genjutsu, but I requested a team that can specialize in gathering information and reconnaissance because in my experience that is a critical skill in any ninja mission. My hobbies are things children shouldn’t worry about, and my goal is to be the best sensei I can. Now, why don’t we start with the loud one?”
Naruto and Kiba looked at eachother expectantly.
“The blonde loud one.”
“Oh,” Naruto said. “I’m Naruto Uzumaki, licensed freelance mage, B+ rank. I like pulling pranks and protecting my friends. My goal is to become the Hokage and get everyone in this village to acknowledge me.”
Kurenai wondered at some of that. Kiba scoffed openly. “I’d get your head on straight before you try to make Hokage. What’s any of that supposed to mean, anyway?”
Kurenai smiled slightly and looked to Hinata. “I suppose that makes you next, Hinata.”
“Eh, ah, you all know me…oh but I’m also a freelance mage, B rank.”
“Hah?” Kiba asked, suddenly realizing the large volume of foot in his mouth.
Akamaru yapped a few times.
“Who asked you?” Kiba raged. “Right, Kiba Inuzuka. This is my pal, Akamaru. We like anything good and chewy and a decent fight.” He grinned mischievously. “My dream is to become the Hokage and save us all from the reign of the dobe here.”
“Why you…!” Naruto growled.
Hinata giggled, then blushed and covered her mouth.
Naruko coughed. “Before we get into another testosterone fueled spat over the alpha male position? Naruko Uzumaki. Not a ninja, really, but close enough. My goal is to support Naruto however I can. I like small animals, especially with teriyaki. I am not fond of ketchup and hate slobs. I’m also like cooking.”
Akamaru sniffed Naruko and yapped.
“Really?” Naruko asked. “Do you know the recipe?”
“Arf yap rrr yip.”
“I’ll have to try that. Although have you considered rotisserie squirrel? It holds the juices better.”
“Uh,” Kurenai interrupted, looking a little disgusted, “trade recipes later.”
“Where’d you come from anyway?” Kiba asked. “Long lost sister doesn’t explain…well anything really.” He gestured at her ears.
Naruko opened her mouth and closed it again, turned to Kurenai. “Which version of the story is he cleared for?”
“Stick with the public one until he passes the genin test,” Kurenai advised.
That caused a reaction. “Hey, we graduated already. We are genin!” Kiba objected.
“No, there’s one more test. Tomorrow. Pass and you become genin. Fail and it’s back to the academy.”
“We weren’t genin yet?” Hinata mumbled. She’d been lying to friends for over a year! The shame!
“Not yet. Now you three had better rest up. Tomorrow you need to be ready for anything. Training ground seven.”
Naruto frowned. “We don’t get to know what kind of test it is?”
Kurenai smiled. “A ninja needs to be ready for any eventuality. I can’t tell you what the test is.” And then she was gone.
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(Posted Tue, 12 Jul 2011 23:41)
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