A New Beginning
Chapter 1: Team Seven
This is my first Fanfic, I really hope you guys like it. Please review. Also, I do not own Naruto whatsoever. So please don't sue me.
LEGEND: "…" speech
'…' thinking
(…) probably authors notes
- Scene change
It was Naruto's tenth birthday today and Hinata wanted to do something for him. Even though she was so shy and had no idea what to do, she knew she had to do something for the orange clad academy student. Hinata watched him from a distance as he practiced his cloning techniques, which failed miserably every time he tried to use them. She knew his chakra control was terrible, that's why he failed to replicate with a simple clone every time. She watched on as Naruto tried and tried but failed every time. Finally she gathered up all of her courage and decided to act, walking over to him. Little did Naruto know that he was being watched as he tried to replicate once again. This time he put as much concentration as he could into the jutsu, pushing so much chakra out that the attempted clone exploded in a huge cloud of smoke. Naruto fell back from the explosion and cursed under his breath.
"Argh! Why can't I ever get this right?" Naruto question himself angrily.
"Umm, N-Naruto-kun?" said a quiet voice through the smoke.
Naruto jumped up and yelled, "Who's there?" The wind picked up and carried the smoke away to reveal Hinata twiddling her fingers together and blushing as she usually did when she was around Naruto. "H-Hinata? What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Umm… I was watching you practice…" she said blushing.
"Really?" asked Naruto confused.
"Because I want to help you get better. I hate to see you fail Naruto…" she trailed off.
"Hinata… that's the nicest thing anybody's ever said to me," Naruto told her smiling, making her blush deeply.
"Really? T-thanks…" she was quiet for a moment. "Naruto-kun, happy-" she was cut off as somebody yelled coming into the training ground.
"You won't beat me this time either Rin-nechan!" a kid wielding a short katana yelled. The boy had dark raven colored hair and his eyes had a slight shade of purple to them. He wore black pants with a matching black shirt and a long black coat that reached to his ankles, all with light grey outlines. His boots were also a similar black color. An empty black sheath with the same light grey outline as his clothing was tied to his waist under the coat. His sword clashed against another sword of similar size.
The person he was facing was quite a few years older. She had purple hair that was tied in a ponytail all the way down her back. Her eyes were paler in comparisons to the boys; almost like Hinata's eyes, although they weren't devoid of pupils. She wore clothing of white with red outlines in the same patterns as the black clad boy with boots of white and a bigger heel. Her pants, however, came to mid-calf and were also a half dress that only covered the back part of her. The dress part came down to her ankles like the boys coat. The shoulders of her top were also missing, leaving it to be held up by the front and back only; and a typical chunnin flak jacket was worn over top, and it also was white with red outlines instead of the traditional dark green. She also wore a sheath of pure white with red outlines on her hip.
"You always say that Tatsumi," his older sister yelled back and blocked a small flurry of blows.
"Charge, Seraphim!" Tatsumi yelled. His sword became covered in black lightning as he lunged toward Rin who smirked in return.
"Fine. We'll play that way," Rin said calmly as she raised her sword to her eyes. "Charge, Cherubim!" Her blade became wreathed in pure white lightning as soon as her younger brother's attack reached her. As the two blades collided with another, a loud burst of thunder tore through the air, knocking Hinata and Naruto back a few feet. They watched in awe as the two siblings battled it out right in front of them. The had never before laid eyes on two people fighting with such force before, especially not a chunnin and what looked to be an academy student.
The battle went on for a little while before the siblings were facing each other, forty feet apart, both panting heavily, holding their swords at eye level. Lightning was no longer visible on their blades.
"Charge!" they called in unison
"Seraphim!"
"Cherubim!" both swords lit up in an instant.
"You won't win this time little brother," Rin raised her sword into the air and began charging an attack.
Tatsumi did the same with his sword and called to his sister, "You've never beat me before and you certainly won't this time, Rin-nechan!"
Their attacks finished as the sky settled into a deep gray. Lightning forked across the sky and melded together at two different points in the sky. Two dragon-like creatures formed out the lightning that was gathering as Naruto and Hinata watched on they felt the air filling with static. The two other academy students also noticed an unfamiliar presence behind them. They turned and looked up only to see a Leaf jounin standing there watching the battle rage on. The man had gray hair that flopped to the right and a mask covering his neck and face up to his nose. His clothes, flak jacket, and shoes were all a navy blue color. He was also wearing his Leaf headband over his left eye only leaving his right eye, which was trained onto the battle, and a small area around that uncovered.
The sibling's attacks finished charging leaving a dragon of black lightning and another of white flying in the sky. "Now face the wrath of the Sky! Kirin!" the siblings yelled in unison as they sent their respective attacks at the other. The dragons roared in unison and flew down at their opponent. Just before the attacks reached each other the jounin appeared in between them with two handfuls of blue lightning in the palms of both hands. The dragons and balls of lightning meet each other just before any damage could be done to the siblings. The jounin yelled and destroyed the dragons easily as he pushed them back with his own attack. The blasts from the dragons knocked the sibling and the other two academy students on their backs.
"What are the two of you doing!" yelled the blue clad jounin as the siblings recovered from the blast. They both stood up slowly, sheathing their swords as they did, and came to stand in front of the jounin. Anger flared in his eye as the siblings bowed their head.
"We're sorry Kakashi-sensei," the duo mumbled.
"Sorry wouldn't cut it if either of those attacks had landed," Kakashi said angrily as he motioned to a stunned Naruto and Hinata. "What if that attack had hit either of them and they died?"
The siblings looked ashamed as they noticed Naruto and Hinata for the first time. Kakashi sighed and put his hands on his student's shoulders. "I know that the two of you are only trying to get stronger, but using attacks like that on each other will only get you and others around you killed. Now go apologize to those kids over there." The siblings walked over to Naruto and Hinata, hanging their heads low.
Rin was the first to speak up "We're sorry for getting the two of you caught up in that."
"It's just once we get into training mode we kinda forget about everything that it around us," Tatsumi chuckled nervously. The two academy students simply smiled.
"THAT WAS THE COOLEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN!" exclaimed Naruto, startling the other three. "You've gotta teach me how to do that!"
"It's not something we can teach," Tatsumi said as he drew his sword from his sheath. "It's all thanks to these two. This is Seraphim by the way." The sword glowed and a spectral image appeared beside Tatsumi in the shape of a wolf with all black fur.
The wolf yawned and looked up at Tatsumi, "What do you want, baka?" the wolf speaking made Naruto and Hinata jump back. Tatsumi shot a glare at the wolf.
"Seraphim, you really shouldn't pick fights with you master," a female voice stated from out of nowhere. Another spectral image appeared beside Rin, only this one was a lynx with snow white fur.
"Shut up!" the wolf yelled.
"Umm… who are they?" Hinata asked quietly, scooting closer to Naruto.
"These two are our swords," Rin said. "This is Cherubim," she motioned to the lynx, who licked her lips in response, "and that over there is Seraphim." The wolf looked at her hearing his name.
"I'm a 'Who' not a 'That'!" he said angrily, almost snarling.
"Yes, yes. Whatever you say," Rin chuckled "By the way, my name is Rin Uchia. And this is my little brother Tatsumi." She ruffled his hair a bit. "We just transferred to the Leaf from the Hidden Flower village."
"Our adopted father grew tired of us being there to disturb his "perfect" life," Tatsumi murmured angrily.
"Let's just say that he wasn't a very good father figure for these two to look up to," Kakashi said as he walked up to the group. "Tatsumi here will be starting at the academy tomorrow. I hope that the two of you will show him around tomorrow," said the jounin kindly to them. "And now if you will excuse me and Rin, we need to go and finish their registrations." The jounin and chunnin disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Tatsumi looked over at Hinata truly for the first time since their encounter. 'Wow! She looks so pretty!' he thought to himself and began imagining himself on a date with her. It was then that he noticed the way her body language showed him that she clearly had feelings for the blonde boy beside her. Tatsumi smirked to himself, 'He clearly has no idea what's going on.'
"You can fight against your sister pretty easily, even for just being an academy student. I would never be able to fight like that," Hinata said.
"Yeah! That's awesome! I can't even make a simple clone, let alone release a large attack like that," Naruto said, disappointed about it.
"The clone jutsu?" Tatsumi inquired. "It's really simple, but then again you may not be able to do the clone jutsu due to the fact that you may have way too much chakra in your body. Here why don't you try this jutsu instead?" Tatsumi questioned as he reached into his weapons pouch and brought out a scroll and handed it to Naruto.
"What's this?" asked Naruto taking the scroll and unfurling it.
"It's the jutsu formula for the Shadow Clone jutsu. It may be suited better to you than the Clone jutsu," Tatsumi said. "Well then, if you shall excuse me, I need to get back to my sister and Kakashi-sensei. See ya 'round." He said as he too disappeared in a cloud of smoke only to leave a small log where he was just standing.
"He substituted away," Hinata said turning to Naruto. "Are you gonna need help with that?"
"You don't have to help me Hinata-chan, nobody ever does anyway. I'll be fine," Naruto said quietly.
At those words she embraced Naruto, her courage flaring up like a roman candle. "I want to help you Naruto-kun!" she said almost crying at his words.
Naruto was stunned to hear this. He had never heard words like that directed towards him. He was too stunned to move, let alone speak. "H-Hinata-chan?" he managed to choke out after a few moments.
Hearing his voice made her remember her shyness as she released the boy, blushing very brightly. "I want to help you get stronger, Naruto-kun. It is your birthday after all," she said quietly.
The boy looked at her with eyes full a pain, but more importantly, happiness was also making an appearance. Happiness he had never felt before until now. He grinned great big and hugged Hinata tightly, making her blush an even deeper crimson. "Thank you Hinata-chan!" Naruto beamed. She smiled at him and sat down in the grass prompting him to do the same. As he did she took the scroll from him and began to explain the workings of jutsu.
Meanwhile in the tree line a short distance away, Rin and Tatsumi stood against a tree and watched the exchange. "Why'd you do it? You could've won her heart if you truly tried to, ya know?" Rin asked to her little brother.
"Yes, I realize that, Nechan. But she clearly had her heart set on him and I couldn't ruin that," he said simply. His older sister was always amazed and her younger brother's maturity despite his age.
"Hmph. Let's go and leave them be," she said smiling and lept into the trees towards the Hokage's office. Tatsumi did the same, following his sister.
A few years later in class at the academy Iruka was giving his usual lecture to his class. As usual Naruto, Hinata, and Tatsumi all sat together. The three had all become great friends over the last few years. They had become much stronger, even more mature. Naruto had learned of his wind chakra nature and Hinata her water nature. Now they sat together listening to Iruka as he explained the graduation test to his students.
"Alright, your final test is going to be over the clone jutsu," Iruka told the class. A few groans were produced from the class, but Naruto looked confident. "When your name is called you may proceed into the testing room. First up is Tatsumi Uchia," Iruka said. He stood and followed him into the testing room. At hearing the name Uchia, a boy with darker colored raven hair perked up.
"Uchia…" the boy murmured. "I thought I was the only one left besides…" he trailed off and put his hands up to his mouth.
The testing went on well into the hour until Naruto's name was called. He stood and Hinata smiled at him encouragingly. He followed Iruka into the testing room and stood in front of him and another teacher with white hair wearing his Leaf headband around his neck. His name was Mizuki. "Alright Naruto, let's see the clone jutsu," Mizuki said rather bluntly.
Naruto simply nodded and formed his stance. He made a cross with his index and middle fingers from both hands and called, "Shadow Clone jutsu!" A perfect replica of Naruto appeared right beside him.
The two teachers were stunned that the boy who could hardly create a regular clone was able to make a solid Shadow Clone. "That's not the jutsu we asked for Naruto," Mizuki said rather coldly toward Naruto. That particular teacher has always been cold toward Naruto.
"He was still able to replicate like the others, Mizuki-sensei," Iruka stated. "Even if it was a much higher jutsu than the others he still gets the passing grade from me. And I'm sure the other teachers would agree with me."
Mizuki grunted and nodded, "Very well. He gets a passing grade, but I still think his cockiness should lose him that grade." Without another word from Mizuki, Iruka walked out of the room with Naruto and back to the other room. "Looks like I'll have to get the Scroll of Sealing another way…" he pondered to himself.
As Naruto walked into the classroom Iruka called another student to go and take the graduation test. The orange clad boy walked back to his seat beside Hinata and Tatsumi and sat down. "That went great! And I even stuck to baka Mizuki," Naruto beamed.
Hinata smiled at him, "Good job, Naruto-kun." She grabbed his hand and kissed him on the cheek, making him smile brightly.
"Thanks, Hinata-chan," he replied warmly.
The rest of the people who hadn't tested yet finally finished. The last person to test and Iruka walked back into the classroom. "Congratulations to all of you! You graduate!" he said happily as the entire class erupted in cheers. Shortly after the commotion died down and each student had their Leaf headbands on them, Iruka stood in front of the class. "Alright, now that you've all become genins you're going to be put on squads of three and two squads of four. We had an uneven number of students this year, so only one squad will be receiving four people. I'll now announce those squads. Squad one…" Iruka began calling out the squad teams.
"Now for Squad Seven: Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuuga, and Tatsumi Uchia," Iruka said. The three of them all looked at each other and grinned. "Squad Eight: Sasuke Uchia, Sakura Haruno, and Kiba Inuzuka." Sakura cheered loudly in her head and turned to her rival grinning evilly.
"Rrgh!" the girl growled at Sakura.
"What's your deal?" a boy with his hair tied into a tight ponytail towards the top of his head asked lazily.
"She got Sasuke on her squad! But of course your too lazy to understand something like this Shikamaru," the girl said.
"Of course I don't understand. It's 'cause I'm not a girl," Shikamaru stated with a slight yawn.
"Man I'd really hate to be stuck on a team with you," she said.
"And now finally Squad Ten: Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara…" Iruka began.
"HAH! What was that about hating to be on my squad?" Shikamaru laughed.
Ino glared at him as Iruka finished naming the people on that squad. "And Chouji Akimichi." Ino put her head in her hands and sighed loudly in frustration. "Now for the final two people to be placed on squads. Shino Aburame, you will join Squad Eight and Karin Uzumaki, you will be joining Squad Seven." Shino simply pushed his sunglasses up more onto his face. Karin sort of blushed when she heard the squad she was being put on. "Now class is dismissed for lunch. Afterword's you will all meet your jounin instructors." Iruka left the room as the class began to talk some of the teams got up and left. Sasuke, however, got up and walked over Tatsumi and blocked his path as Squad Seven got up to leave.
"Hang on. I need to talk to you. Why is your last name Uchia?" demanded Sasuke.
Tatsumi was a little shocked at this sudden approach, but held his ground. "Because my Otosan was an Uchia," he said simply.
"What was his name? Was your mother and Uchia as well?" Sasuke was getting angry.
"Actually no my mother was actually a Hyuuga. Just like Hinata-chan," he smiled at her shocked face. "As for my father, his name was Itachi."
Hearing that name Sasuke grabbed Tatsumi by the collar of his shirt and threw him up against the wall. Every eye in the room turned to see what was happening. "Did you just say Itachi Uchia was your father?!" Sasuke asked angrily.
"Yes. Now could you let me down? Clearly your anger is aimed more towards Itachi and not me. Would you care to tell me why?" Tatsumi inquired.
Sasuke calmed down a bit and released Tatsumi, "He's my older brother. The man who murdered the entire Uchia clan in a single night. The man who I am going to murder with my own hands."
Tatsumi was shocked to hear this, knowing every word of it was true from the way Sasuke acted. "I'm sorry. I had no idea what Otosan did…"
Sasuke shook his head and left the room. Meanwhile the rest of Squad Eight had gathered together and were leaving for lunch. Karin made her way slowly to Squad Seven and tapped Tatsumi on the shoulder lightly. Tatsumi turned to see a very pretty girl standing behind him. She had red hair that went past her shoulders. She wore a set of plain grey glasses over a pair of naturally light pink eyes that Tatsumi thought looked really good on her. The jacket she wore was purple and she was wearing short shorts with thigh high boots. "Umm. Can I have lunch with you guys?" she asked quietly, pushing her glasses up her nose nervously.
The trio grinned and in unison, "Sure!" Karin smiled and the four took off to Naruto and Hinata's favorite training ground.
As the four new comrades sat together at the memorial stone training ground they chatted amongst themselves. Naruto turned to Karin "Iruka said that your last name is Uzumaki, right?" he asked.
"Yes, it is. I think that the two of us are actually cousins like Sasuke and Tatsumi here," Karin replied to Naruto glancing at Tatsumi as she did.
Naruto smiled, "It's good to know that I have at least one person out there that I'm related to that isn't dead."
Karin looked at him, "Is everyone that was closely related to you dead too?"
Naruto simply nodded, his eyes pained at the thought of it. But they quickly changed as he looked up from his cup of instant ramen. "But I've got Hinata-chan too look after me! And now I have a cousin I didn't know I had until today," he grinned brightly.
Hinata blushed at his comment, and then remembered what Tatsumi had said earlier about his mother being a Hyuuga. "Tatsumi-kun, you said that your mother was a Hyuuga. Do you know her name?" Hinata asked him.
Tatsumi nodded, "Actually yes I do. Her name was Mariko. Rin-onesan said they left us in the care of the leader of a group of spice traders from the Hidden Flower village when I was only three; so I don't remember much about her, my father neither. Today I received a bit of shocking information about him though…" Tatsumi trailed off. "I wonder if Onesan knows."
They ate the rest of their lunches in silence before standing up and started to head back to the academy. Naruto then decided to try and cheer everyone up. "Hey, we just became genins!" he shouted and raised his fist in the air.
"Believe it!" both him and Karin yell in unison. The whole group laughed at that.
"I guess that verbal tic runs in the family," Naruto said laughing.
"It probably does, ya know?" Karin chuckled.
Meanwhile in the Hokage's office, a group of jounins gathered around his desk. The Hokage was quite old wearing the traditional white kimono with red patterns symbolizing him as the Hokage. His hat was also white except for the front of the hat, which was red and had the kanji for fire on it in black. In that group of jounins stood Kakashi and Rin. "You've all got your teams are there any questions?" the Hokage asked. Rin raised her hand. "Yes Rin?"
"I was wondering if it would at all be possible if I could trade with Kakashi-san?" she asked.
The old man took a puff on his pipe and blew smoke out from his mouth. "Only if it were ok with Kakashi." The Hokage looked to said jounin.
Kakashi shrugged, "I don't have a problem with it my old subordinate." Rin smiled at that.
"Very well. Any other questions?" the Hokage asked and looked around the room. When nobody else said anything he nodded. "You're all dismissed then." All the jounins bowed and left his office leaving the Hokage to his duties. "Hehe. Rin, I have a feeling that you're gonna have a tough time with that squad," he chuckled to himself as he went back to his paperwork.
Back in the classroom after lunch had ended and all the other squads had left, only one remained. That would be none other than Squad Seven. The four genins all sat together talking when Naruto stood up. "This is bull! All the other teams have left and are probably going on their first missions while we are here stuck waiting for our teacher to get here," he fumed. "That does it!" he walked over to the chalkboard and grabbed an eraser and poured some powdered chalk down into the bristles to give extra effect before positioning it between the sliding door and the wall tightly so that when somebody entered the room, it would hit them in the head. Naruto grinned evilly at his plan as he got down from the chair he was standing in.
"Baka, our teacher is a jounin! There's no way they would fall for something like that, believe it," Karin told him.
Just as she said that a hand reached into the door and pulled it open. Everyone was shocked to see the eraser hit and obscure the head of the jounin who walked in with a cloud of dust. The jounin instantly started to cough and hack up the chalk dust. "That's unpleasant," a female voice said making Tatsumi perk up.
"Nechan?" he asked as the dust cleared, revealing Rin covered in white chalk powder. Tatsumi and Naruto then proceeded to burst into laughter at the look of her.
"I can't believe that actually worked," Karin said stunned. 'Is she really a jounin?' she and Hinata thought at the same time.
"Please forgive Naruto-kun for that," Hinata asked her quietly
"Well, first I'd like to say to anyone who isn't my little brother, I'm sorry you have to be on his team," Rin chuckled, earning a glare from Tatsumi. "Second," her voice from behind everyone said as her shadow clone covered in chalk powder disappeared, "you couldn't have possibly thought I'd fall for something like that."
Karin smirked and Hinata looked a little surprised. 'I guess she really is a jounin,' they thought in unison again.
"Now let's go to the roof. I'm sure you're all tired of being in this classroom," she said and the disappeared in a puff of smoke. The four genins all rose and quickly went to the roof to find Rin sitting against the railing watching the clouds lazily. As the four walked up she looked to them and motioned for them to sit on the stairs directly in front of her. "Alright, that's better. Now let's begin with introductions. My name is Rin Uchia, Tatsumi's older sister. I like to sit under the sky on nice days like this and just watch the clouds roll by. I'm not too fond of Tatsumi sometimes, but I really can't stand perverts. My dream for the future is to find mine and Tatsumi's mother and father and bring them back to the Leaf. Now it's your guys turn," she said.
Tatsumi looked up, "Well most of you know me. I'm Rin-nechan's little brother. I like training with Naruto, Hinata, and Rin-nechan. I really don't like people who abuse their power. And my dream for the future is the same as my sisters."
Rin smiled at her brother. "Alright, you in the orange. Your turn," she said.
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen from Ichiraku Ramen and I really like Hinata-chan," he said grabbing her hand, making her blush; something she rarely did anymore. "I don't like being looked down upon people who don't me very well, but I put a smile on my face anyway. And my dream for the future is to become the Hokage. That way I will know I earned the respect of everybody in the village!" he finished casting a glance to Hokage monument of the Leaf village.
"That's a tough dream to reach. Good luck," Rin said, turning her attention to Hinata, nodding for her to go.
"My name is Hinata Hyuuga. I like spending time with Naruto-kun and Naruto-kun himself. I don't like the way people of the village treat him at all and I especially don't like the Caged Bird seal of the Branch family of the Hyuuga. My dream for the future is to abolish the seal in hopes that the Main and Branch families will get along in harmony," Hinata finished looking at Naruto and smiling.
'Hm, she must be the girl mother spoke about…' Rin nodded and turned to Karin. "Alright you're up," she said to the girl.
"My name is Karin Uzumaki; I'm Naruto-kun's cousin. There is a person that I like but I'd rather not say who it is. I don't like the fact that I don't have enough courage to confront said person, but I hope to gain more confidence in myself to say something. And my dream for the future is to become a great medical ninja like Tsunade of the Sannin," Karin finished.
'Oh Tatsumi, you can always tell when other people have their hearts set on each other, but when it comes to you, you are completely clueless,' Rin chuckled to herself then stood up from where she was sitting. "Alright, you four. Tomorrow we are gonna have our first mission. It'll be a simple bit of survival training," Rin said.
"Survival training?" Naruto questioned.
"But I though we already learned that back at the academy? Aren't we full-fledged genins?" Karin asked.
"Yeah, what was that graduation test for then anyway?" Hinata stood up.
"Oh that? That was to see how many of you might become genins. Of all thirty-two of you who just graduated only three teams usually pass. Rarely does more than three pass. And also the chances of you failing are about sixty-six percent," Rin said with no emotion in her voice.
The other three stood up beside Hinata and started to question why this was happening, but Rin's raised hand silenced them. "Meet me tomorrow at the Memorial Stone training grounds at 7 am. Oh and you better not eat any breakfast, or else you'll puke." With that she vanished in a cloud of smoke.
"That's so unfair!" Naruto yelled to nobody in particular. He was calmed down as Hinata slipped her hand into his.
"Don't worry guys; she just said that to make the match harder on us. I remember Kakashi-sensei talking about a similar exercise when we first came back to the Leaf village. If my memory serves me correctly it'll be a bell snatching exercise. We need to use teamwork to get them. But here's the problem: there are only two bells. This test is designed to pit us against one another. Tomorrow morning we need to overcome that fact and put the mission before us instead of deciding who gets a bell and who doesn't. I say we all go over to Naruto's apartment tonight since his is the biggest place, I'm guessing. That way we can plan out for how we are going to take the bells from my sister tomorrow." With that everyone agreed and left to go to their respective homes.
Karin went to her apartment and packed herself a bag and put a good amount of her weapons into it, knowing she'd need them tomorrow. Meanwhile Hinata strode into the Hyuuga mansion and did the same. Once she was finished packing she went to the Hyuuga records to look for anybody named Mariko, but found nothing. Tatsumi made sure to pack a lot of his traps into his bag then looked at a picture of his father, mother, sister, and him before everything was ripped apart. He sighed inwardly, 'I'll bring you both back. I promise.' He then departed to Naruto's.
Naruto on the other hand instead of packing, he was cleaning up his very messy apartment. Instant ramen cups were strewn everywhere along with multiple chopsticks. Naruto frantically cleaned as best as he could, finally getting all the trash bagged up. Now he had to work on getting all of his clothes off the floor. An easy task, yet very large. He needed to do laundry soon. Once that was finished he decided to put some tea on to brew before everyone got there. He grabbed the trash and headed for the door when he heard a knock. Naruto quickly hid the trash in his closet not wanting any on his team to see it all. Once he finally forced the door shut, he wiped his brow on his sleeve then went to the door. He opened it to find Hinata was the first one to arrive.
"H-Hinata-chan," he said surprised. He just remembered that Hinata had never been over to his place before. "Come in," he smiled.
She smiled back and walked in kissing him on the cheek as she did, her shyness mostly gone from all the time she spent with him. She took her shoes off by the door as Naruto shut it behind her. "Hello, Naruto-kun," she said to him as she set her bag down by the couch.
"Were Tatsumi and Karin not with you?" Naruto asked.
"They were still a ways behind me when I got here. I wanted to be the first one here to spend some alone time with my Naru-kun," she said smiling and blushing slightly.
Naruto blushed slightly at this turning to her. "WH-what?" he choked on a drink of his tea, nearly dropping the one he had for Hinata.
"I said I wanted to spend some time alone with my Naru-kun," she told him still smiling.
Naruto smiled at her words and set her tea in front of her. "So, if I'm your 'Naru-kun' does that make you my 'Hina-chan'?" he asked her as he sat down beside her.
She blushed when he said that and took her tea to sip on it. "Y-yes. Yes it does," she murmured quietly into her cup of tea. She set the cup down on the coffee table and turned to Naruto. "Um, Naru-kun?" she asked blushing deeply.
"Yeah, Hina-chan?" Naruto replied sitting down and watching her closely.
She leaned towards him, eyes locked with his. 'I've got to show him how I truly feel about him,' she thought to herself as she leaned even closer. Their faces were only inches apart. Hinata's heartbeat was in her throat, her face was redder than a tomato, and sweat dropped from her forehead. She had never been this close to Naruto before, well this close and alone with him. She closed her eyes and gathered all of her courage together before she closed the distance between the two of them. She lightly kissed Naruto on the lips then pulled away from him, cheering loudly in her mind.
Naruto was stunned when she kissed him. "H-Hina-chan, what was that for?" he asked her, choking on his heartbeat almost.
"B-Because, I love you. I always have, Naru-kun," she said quietly, blushing deeper.
He smiled at her words, "I think deep down I have always loved you too, Hina-chan." He then leaned over and kissed her himself, startling her before she returned the kiss.
At that exact moment, Karin and Tatsumi stopped by Ichiraku to grab a bite to eat before heading to Naruto's apartment. They sat down and ordered when Tatsumi turned to Karin. "So… who or what was the thing that you liked earlier?" he asked inquiringly.
"That's for me to know and for you to find out," she said smirking at him.
"Oh come on! Please tell me," Tatsumi pleaded. Karin simply shook her head and started to eat as the ramen was set in front of them. Tatsumi looked over to a wall and noticed Naruto's picture hung up with a banner over it. The banner read "Customer of the Month".
"Hey Ojisan," Tatsumi called to the owner, turning his head back in the direction of him.
He turned around to look at Tatsumi, "Yes sir?"
"I noticed you have Naruto's picture on the wall over there. Does he come in here very often?"
"Oh yeah. He's been coming in here every day since he was five. He was always so bright and cheery even after the way people always treated him. He never took that bright smile from his face," the old man told Tatsumi and Karin.
Tatsumi smirked, "That sounds like Naruto." He turned his head to his bowl of ramen and began eating. Once the meal was finished and paid for Tatsumi and Karin started to walk towards Naruto's place. They soon arrived since Naruto's apartment was only a five minute walk from Ichiraku. They walked up to his floor and knocked on his door.
Naruto opened the door "Yo Tatsumi, Karin! Where'd you guys go?"
"We decided to stop and get something to eat before we came over. Can we come in?" Tatsumi asked.
"Yeah sure. Want some tea?" Naruto asked the. They both nodded as they walked inside taking their shoes off by Naruto's and Hinata's. The two sat down as Naruto brought them both a cup of tea each. "Tatsumi, since you know more about this exercise tomorrow than we do why don't you explain it to us," Naruto inquired.
Tatsumi set his tea down on the coffee table and looked to the other three who had their eyes trained on him. "Basically, the whole thing is based on teamwork. When me and Onesan fought Kakashi-sensei, he had us use teamwork to take the bells from him. Even though I had chunnin level amounts of chakra at the time and Onesan had jounin amounts, we had an extremely hard time doing so. It took us until after midnight before we finally got the bells. Luckily this time though I know how the jounin fights," Tatsumi smirked to himself.
Tatsumi leaned forward, producing a scroll from his weapons pouch and a pen to write with. "Alright, my sister uses lightning based attacks; the same as me. I know a lot of her jutsu, but she may have learned some new ones. She is a jounin after all. Hinata won't be able to go up against her very well since her chakra nature is based on water. She should only use taijutsu against Rin. Onesan was never good at taijutsu ever. And since Hinata's specialty is Gentle Fist, we can use that to block off her chakra points."
Tatsumi then turned to Naruto, "Naruto since you use wind style ninjutsu, you can reflect her lightning back and keep on attacking better than me since mine and hers will only cancel each other's out. I can face my sister using Seraphim up to an extent, but she's always been better than me at swordplay. Although she's never beaten me in sparring matches, she always trumps my sword fighting; but in the end my stamina wins out."
Tatsumi was silent for a moment then turned to Karin this time. "As for you Karin, what kind of fighting style do you use?"
"I prefer to use medical ninjutsu and support type jutsu," she said. "I have a special Kekkei Genkai that allows me to heal people through biting. I can also sense people's chakra. For instance," she turned to Hinata, "Hinata's chakra is kind and gentle but it's also strong and protective. Tatsumi's chakra is strong; it's almost at jounin level. It's a very warm chakra with what feels like a guardian angel watching over it."
Tatsumi shot a quick glance towards her, "It must be Seraphim's chakra infused with mine."
Karin looked at him with a slightly worried look but shrugged it off, "Maybe so. Anyway," she turned to Naruto, "Naruto's chakra is warm as well but also-" she cut herself off as she felt the demonic chakra encircling Naruto's chakra network. She began to shake uncontrollably as she felt the dark presence inside of Naruto. Every set of eyes turned to Karin who was speechless. She looked like she had just seen Death.
"Karin-chan, what is it?" Tatsumi asked worried.
"She's in a state of shock," an unknown voice said as Seraphim manifested in his pure black wolf form. "She felt the demonic chakra of the Kyuubi. His chakra is very evil and full of hate. Now as to why she felt that chakra is because the Kyuubi is sealed inside of Naruto. And from what I can tell the Kyuubi has been sealed inside of the boy since the day he was born."
Everyone turned to a shocked Naruto. "Did you say the Kyuubi?" Naruto asked quietly.
Seraphim nodded, "Yes dear boy."
Everyone was silent for a moment. Then Hinata spoke up, "Well even if he has the Kyuubi sealed away inside of him, he's still Naruto-kun! That's all he'll ever be!" she said angrily but not directed towards anyone in the room.
"Yeah that's true," Karin said. "Besides if he was the Kyuubi don't you think he would've destroyed the Hidden Leaf by this point? There's no way Naruto is that demon."
Tatsumi turned to Naruto, "I have a very important question to ask you. What day were you born?"
"What does that have to do with anything?" Karin asked confused.
"Just tell me please," Tatsumi said to Naruto.
"October 10th, thirteen years ago. Why?" Naruto was confused at this.
"I was born on the same day. I also became a Jinchuriki the day I was born. And I'm guessing you did too," Tatsumi told him.
"I guess so. All this is news to me," Naruto shrugged. "I don't see why any of that is relevant though."
"Because that would make us twin Jinchuriki. When two people who are born on the same day also become Jinchuriki on that day the two are twins in a way. Here, bump fists with me everybody. There's someone I'd like you all to meet," Tatsumi said as he raised his fist. The others all did the same as Tatsumi did a half tiger seal and closed his eyes.
The four teammates opened their eyes to look around a dimly lit cave; torches lined the walls on both sides. Tatsumi stood in the center of the cave and made a few rapid hand seals, ending in the ram seal. Instantly the scenery changed to a forest in the middle of winter. The others were wowed at the quick scene change.
"You've brought visitors today, little Tatsumi?" asked a female voice from behind that seemed to growl as it spoke. Everyone turned to see a huge wolf with nine tails lying in a clearing like a sphinx. Naruto, Hinata, and Karin all jumped back and took defensive stances, ready for an attack. "Oh please. I'm not gonna attack you. I'm not like the other tailed beasts. I'm actually pretty docile," she said calmly.
"Everyone," Tatsumi said getting the others attention, "This is Larka. The tailed beast sealed inside of me. My guardian angel," he smiled at Karin. "She's been sealed inside of me since I was a baby. And we've become great friends in that time." He walked over to her and leaned against her paw.
"So is that why Seraphim manifests as a wolf?" Hinata asked.
"Actually no. it just happened to be a lucky coincidence. It's also a lucky coincidence that me and Naruto have tailed beasts sealed inside of us that have exactly the same number of tails," Tatsumi replied.
"Wait a second here," everyone turned to Naruto. "You're saying that I have something like this sealing inside of me as well?"
"Kurama, my twin brother is nothing like me anymore. He used to be very caring and kind to everyone until our father, the Sage of the Sixth paths, was killed. But that's a story for another time," Larka told them.
"Who's Kurama?" Naruto asked.
"The Kyuubi," Larka replied.
"Oh. I never expected him to have a name."
"We all have names. All ten of us," Larka looked to Tatsumi. "Anything else you needed, my dear?"
"Nope. Just thought I'd drop by and show you off," Tatsumi grinned.
Larka nodded, "Very well then."
Everyone opened their eyes back in Naruto's apartment. "Well, that was eye opening," Karin said.
"Sorry if she scared anyone," Tatsumi chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head.
"It's fine," Hinata said kindly to him.
"Yeah. Larka seemed to be really nice for being a tailed beast," Karin smiled at him.
Tatsumi chuckled, "Yeah she is pretty nice."
"I have the Kyuubi sealed away inside of me," Naruto mumbled. Everyone turned to him.
"Naruto. This isn't gonna be easy to deal with. It took me some time before I accepted, but I'm sure if you tried to get to know Kurama it'd be fine. Here, let's go meet him," Tatsumi put his fist up to Naruto, "It'll probably be better if just me and Naruto go. That way Kurama isn't overwhelmed." The others nodded as Naruto bumped fists with Tatsumi.
Naruto and Tatsumi blinked into a dark room. There were a few torches on the walls and a giant golden cage in front of the two of them. On the cage there was a huge sealing tag with the kanji for seal written on it. A deep growling was heard instantly. "Who's there?" a deep growling voice said angrily.
At that moment Larka appeared beside Tatsumi in a one tailed form. "Kurama, what happened to you?" she asked him with sadness in her voice.
"Who are you, she-wolf?" the Kyuubi snarled revealing itself behind the cage. The orange fox stood about fifteen stories high, each of its nine tails swished lazily back and forth as it glared at the trio.
"Your twin sister, Kurama."
"There was no wolf amongst the nine of us when we were born," the fox snarled.
"Foolish little brother," she said, "You don't remember me because I chose not to be seen. Our father agreed and helped hide me from you all. I wanted to be the guardian angel over all of you. And I always was."
"Kurama!" Tatsumi yelled making the fox turn his gaze to him. "This is Naruto, your Jinchuriki." He motioned towards Naruto who in turn waved slightly up at the fox.
The fox only growled at Naruto. "I hope one day we can work together Kurama," Naruto told the fox.
"That will take quite a long time before I ever trust a human ever again," Kurama growled.
Naruto nodded, "I'll find a way to make you trust me, believe it." Then the two boys and wolf disappeared.
"Naruto hmm? Maybe he could bring us all together again…" Kurama pondered to himself before lying back down in his cage and dozing back off.
Naruto and Tatsumi opened their eyes to see the girls sitting on Naruto's couch chatting. "So it's Tatsumi that you like?" Hinata asked.
Karin nodded, "Ever since he came to the Leaf, I've always thought he was a wonderful person."
Tatsumi cleared his throat as he watched the two girls. Karin instantly blushed the same bright red Hinata blushed after she had kissed Naruto just hours before.
"How much of that did you two hear?" Karin quickly asked, shocked that they had come back so quickly.
"All I heard was that you thought somebody was a wonderful person," Tatsumi lied not wanting to put Karin in a bigger spotlight than what she already felt she was in.
Karin sighed slightly, "Ok, good."
"So who is it?" he asked her smiling.
"Like I told you earlier, it's for me to know and you to find out," she smirked.
They all laughed. "Well we had better get some sleep for tomorrow morning. It's gonna be a brutal exercise," Tatsumi yawned. The others nodded in agreement.
Naruto stood up, "Do you guys need any blankets or pillows?" They all nodded when he asked. Naruto then went over to his closet and opened it up forgetting about the few bags of trash he had stuffed in there earlier. As he opened the door they all fell out and on top of him. The other three genins laughed as Naruto fell back. 'Oh crap!' thought Naruto to himself, 'I had completely forgotten about these being in here.' He stood up ashamed "Sorry I was in a rush earlier and didn't have time to go take these to the dumpster before you guys showed up," he said looking down.
Hinata stood up off the couch and walked over to him. "It's ok, Naru-kun. I'll help you take it out there." She smiled at him and grabbed one of the bags and walked to the door with him in tow carrying the other two bags.
Naruto looked at Karin and Tatsumi, "Well the blankets and extra pillows are in there. Help yourselves." Naruto shut the door behind him and Hinata as Tatsumi stood up and grabbed a few blankets for them all to use. He handed them to Karin, brushing her hand with his in the process.
She blushed at his touch and jerked away slightly. "Oh sorry," Tatsumi said, locking eyes with her. His heartbeat caught in his throat as she looked at him with her light pink eyes. He had slowly been falling in love with them over the years. He had noticed her the very same day that he first went to the academy, he just never said anything.
They watched each other for a few more seconds before Karin blushed and turned away setting the blankets on the couch. Tatsumi watched her for a couple more seconds before turning to get some pillows out of the closet. Karin spread a couple of blankets out on the floor to lay on as Tatsumi set the pillows down. He tossed on and accidentally hit Karin with it. "Hey watch it, you," she said smiling his way and throwing it back at him hitting him in the face with the pillow.
Tatsumi laughed and grabbed the pillow and blocked a strike from Karin who grabbed her own pillow to use. She laughed as Tatsumi hit her with his pillow. She blocked a few more hits before hitting Tatsumi back. Tatsumi ducked and blindly hit her in the face with his pillow knocking her and her glasses on the couch. "Oh crap! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to knock your glasses off," he said dropping the pillow and sitting beside her. Tatsumi picked up her glasses and turned to face her. Their eyes locked again, causing each one of them to blush.
"Tatsumi… Do you really want to know who it is that I like?" Karin asked him.
"I have a guess," Tatsumi replied not taking his eyes off Karin's. She swallowed as he leaned towards her, brushing her lips slightly. "Ah, here goes nothing," Tatsumi said as he closed the gap between them and kissed her deeply. She gasped slightly before returning the kiss to him. As he broke the kiss they both sighed, felling accomplished at taking such a big step.
"W-We should get some sleep," Karin said taking her glasses from Tatsumi and setting them on the coffee table.
"Yeah. I guess so," he stood up and walked over to the place he was going to sleep for the night. Karin stood up and went to the bathroom to change. She came back out a few minutes later wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top. Tatsumi went in after and changed into a pair of shorts. He walked out and Karin had already laid down, she looked up at him. Her eyes instantly widened.
'Wow. He looks good without a shirt on,' she thought to herself. He smiled at her and laid down in his spot. "Good night, Tatsumi," Karin said to him smiling.
"Night, Karin," he told her, returning the smile. They both soon fell asleep.
As Naruto and Hinata walked back to Naruto's apartment, he stopped and pulled her close to him. She was shocked at the sudden action but then smiled as she realized he was kissing her. "I think I'm in love with you, Hina-chan," Naruto said quietly to her after breaking the kiss.
"I love you too, Naru-kun. But, unfortunately, we should get back before those two get worried or worse," she said smiling. Naruto couldn't help but smile back at her. They soon made their way back to Naruto's apartment. They walked in to find Karin and Tatsumi already asleep. However, they didn't expect to see them asleep with Karin nuzzling into Tatsumi's chest and Tatsumi's arms around her. Hinata suppressed a giggle as she noticed the two of them. Naruto just smiled at his friends.
"I'm gonna go change into something to sleep in," Naruto said as he walked into his bathroom. He came back moments later wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Hinata quickly went in after and changed as well, coming back into the main room wearing a long t-shirt that covered her shorts she was wearing. Naruto laid down in another area of the room since the middle was occupied by Tatsumi and Karin.
"Umm, Naru-kun… would… would you care if I slept next to you tonight?" Hinata asked shyly and blushing deep red. She was glad it was dark so Naruto couldn't see her blushing.
Naruto blushed slightly, "S-Sure."
She nodded and grabbed a pillow and laid down next to him. She nuzzled herself into his chest wanting to feel his warmth. Soon the both of them were asleep.
The next morning after Squad Seven got up and got ready and after a quick breakfast they all went to the memorial stone training ground. They arrived ten minutes before 7am. As they waited Tatsumi went over the strategy he had come up with last night so it could be fresh in everyone's mind. "Naruto and I will use our ranged ninjutsu to hold Rin-onesan at bay while Hinata engages her in close combat. Karin will use her support ninjutsu to provide cover for me and Naruto while strengthening Hinata's attacks. I'll also be covering Karin myself incase Onesan decides to attack Karin directly. If Hinata can attack quickly enough to close off her chakra points we can end this match with ease. If not it's gonna be hard getting those bells off sis. Not saying Hinata won't be strong enough, I'm saying Rin-onesan is super-fast."
"Before we actually engage in fighting though, me and Hina-chan have a cool new jutsu we want to use against her," Naruto said.
Tatsumi and Karin turned to the two of them, "What kind of jutsu is it?" Karin asked him.
"It's a surprise," Hinata told her.
The other two shrugged, "Alright then. Let's win this so we can become genins!" Tatsumi said encouragingly. They all bumped fists and began waiting.
Three and a half hours later Rin walked onto the training ground, "Yo!" she called to them.
Naruto and Karin instantly stood up from where they were sitting at the same time. "Hey! You're late!" they said in unison.
"Well, I accidentally dropped a mirror earlier so I took extra care to get here," she said smiling.
'Yeah. I'm sure that's what it was,' Naruto and Karin thought in unison.
Rin cleared her throat, "Well then. Let's get this started." She set an alarm clock on a stump. "It's set for noon. You have until then to take the two bells attached to my waist; if you can't then you'll go without lunch. You'll be tied to one of the posts here on the training grounds and you will watch while I eat my lunch in front of you. You may also use any means necessary to get them from me, including shurkien." The four nodded and stood in an attacking stance. "Ready, start!" Rin yelled.
Instantly Tatsumi charged Rin, unsheathing his sword. Meanwhile, Naruto and Hinata had clapped their left and right hands respectively together and began forming hand seals with the other two. They each finished forming seals and placed their other hand together. Naruto finished with a half boar hand seal and Hinata with a half ram seal.
"Gale Style: Blizzard Storm Jutsu!" They call in unison. The sky darkened as a storm approached, instantly blowing icy winds around the training ground.
Karin made a few set of hand seals and focused her jutsu on Naruto and Hinata. "Heat wave support field!" she called. Naruto and Hinata instantly warmed up. Once the storm had finished approaching, Tatsumi jumped back to where Naruto was standing. As soon as he landed, Hinata rushed Rin with her chakra covered hands. Hinata began attacking Rin's chakra points as Rin drew her sword to block with the flat of it.
"Wind Style: Severing Wind!" Naruto yelled and sent a blade of wind produced from his arm at Rin. She easily ducked out of the way only to have Hinata send a kick towards her head. Rin jumped back and sent a bolt of lightning at Naruto from her sword.
'Wow! These guys already have great teamwork. Tatsumi must've told them how I fight. But that was when we first came to the Hidden Leaf. I've learned some new tricks since then,' Rin smirked then formed a quick set of hand seals. "Earth Style: Ruptured Earth!" she slammed her hands down on the ground and split the entire battlefield, knocking everyone from their positions. At that moment she jumped to Tatsumi and locked eyes with him, "Genjutsu: Paralysis!"
Tatsumi instantly froze, "Damnit!" He tried to struggle against the Genjutsu but to no avail.
Karin moved from her hidden position and straight to Tatsumi's side, "Release!" Tatsumi instantly fell to his knees.
"Thanks for that," he said to her. She nodded and Tatsumi drew his sword. "Time to get serious. Charge, Seraphim!" Seraphim, lit up with lightning, "Let's go, Karin," he lept towards his sister before waiting for an answer.
She lept after him making a few hand seals, "Heat wave support field!" Tatsumi instantly warmed up. He hadn't even realized that he was cold until the warmth from Karin's jutsu heated him up. "Support jutsu: Strengthen!" she called directing her jutsu to her teammates. Each one of them instantly had an increase in strength.
Hinata blocked an attack directed at Naruto with a Gentle Fist strike as Naruto charged up another Severing Wind and sent it towards Rin. She dodged it easily and kicked it towards her little brother.
Karin saw the incoming wind attack and jumped in front of Tatsumi, making a few hand seals. "Protective Barrier jutsu!" she called. Naruto's wind attack skidded off and flew up harmlessly into the air as Tatsumi jumped over Karin.
"Chidori Spear!" he yelled and pushed his blade at Rin. The lightning that was surrounding Seraphim shot towards Rin at deadly speed, who barely had enough time to dodge the attack. It lightly grazed her shoulder.
She growled in frustration, 'I really hadn't expected these four to push me this far. But for being on a team for such a short amount of time, they have excellent teamwork. Well either way…' she jumped up into the air. "Charge, Cherubim," she said calmly. As she reached the peak of her jump before stalling in the air a moment, she quickly flipped over and flew straight downward with a blade covered in pure white lightning. Gravity gave her the momentum she needed to strike the blade all the way to the hilt into the ground. She held her body straight up as wires shot out of her boots. She instantly electrified them. "Lightning Barrage!" she yelled as she spun herself and the wires around. The wires all struck the four teammates, zapping them all with high powered electricity.
Once her attack was done she quickly lept up into the air, bringing Cherubim with her as she did. She withdrew the wires in her boots and landed on her feet as swiftly as a cat. Tatsumi began to chuckle causing Rin to turn around to him. "What's so funny little brother?" she asked irritated.
"You fell for everything. You were only fighting me the entire time you know?" he said as the others dispelled in a cloud of smoke. (And you thought they had been defeated.)
'Shadow Clones?' Rin thought to herself stunned, "But how?" Rin thought and said the last part.
"During that last attack, right before you flipped in the air. They all switched with my clones," Tatsumi smirked standing up. He locked eyes with his sisters. "Genjutsu: Paralysis!" he called as his sister tried to attack him with Cherubim. She stopped immediately before her blade hit his open arm.
"Damnit!" she cursed as she tried to move.
"Game over, Onesan," Tatsumi said confidently.
Rin only smirked, "You know you're not the only one…"
"…who knows how to use shadow clones!" the real Rin finished the clones statement as it dispersed. Tatsumi turned to block a sword strike from his sister, but then vanished in a cloud of smoke as her blade went right through him. 'Another Shadow Clone?!' Rin cursed angrily to herself. (Don't you just love shadow clones?)
"Eight Trigrams! 2 palms!" Rin felt two of her chakra points closed off. "4 palms! 8 palms! 16 palms!" Hinata yelled as she emerged from the smoke that the clone had created, aiming the last palm strike at Rin's chest. Rin quickly lept away from the last palm strike, already feeling the effects from all the other strikes. Hinata's last attack simply hit the ground. Rin went to attack Hinata but felt a blade up against her throat and two more at vital points on her body. She looked around to see Tatsumi behind her holding Seraphim to her neck and Naruto and Karin to her sides wielding kunai.
"Your teamwork is incredible." She commented, smirking, "But a ninja must always see through deception." Rin then exploded into arcs of electricity zapping her nearby opponents. "Now face the wrath of the Sky! Kirin!" A dragon of pure white lightning appeared out of the clouds and charged towards the four stunned genins. The dragon hit the ground as a gigantic bolt of lightning sending all four of them flying through the air. As each one collided with an object, however, they blew away in a puff of smoke, with the exception of Hinata who substituted with a log before the attack struck the ground.
"My turn. Face the wrath of the Sky! Kirin!" Tatsumi yelled from the tree line as his own dragon of completely black lightning raced towards Rin. It struck in the same fashion as Rin's did just a few moments ago, sending her flying into a tree. As she collided, she coughed up blood from the impact. Tatsumi rushed over to her. "Onesan!" he screamed fearing the worst. As he reached her she blew away in another cloud of smoke. (Ok, maybe there a few too many shadow clones. But we all Naruto uses them in the hundreds all the time, so I don't think I'm hurting anything here.)
From behind Tatsumi, Rin held Cherubim at his throat, "Like I said earlier. I ninja must always see through deception. I figured Kakashi-sensei would've drilled that into your thick skull." Her tone was very threatening.
Tatsumi smiled to himself, "I thought he taught the same thing to you too, Onesan. I have been the decoy all this time." The other three jumped behind her holding kunai to three vital points on her body. "And I know this one isn't a shadow clone," Tatsumi said triumphantly. (HAH! Tricked you! You thought it was gonna be another shadow clone I bet! *insert Might Guy's "Nice Guy" pose, complete with shiny teeth and all*)
Rin smiled down at her little brother and lowered her sword from his neck. He stood up and turned to her smiling like an idiot.
"Baka," she said to him, ruffling his hair. "Your teamwork was incredible you four."
"Well me, Hina-chan, and Tatsumi have been training together since you guys came here to the Leaf. And we just found a way to incorporate Karin's support ninjutsu into that," Naruto said proudly.
"Yeah, it was really easy once we all got to know Karin better," Hinata said encouragingly.
Karin smiled at her new teammate, especially Tatsumi. Rin nodded proudly. "Now would you guys kindly remove these kunai away from me?" she asked, almost nervously.
"Why would we do that, Onesan? A ninja must always see through deception and we're not about to take these kunai from you until we have the bells," Tatsumi smirked as he grabbed the bells from his sisters waist.
She shot a glare at him as the other three took their kunai away from Rin.
She sighed, "I guess Kakashi-sensei drilled that into your head better than I thought he did." They all laughed. "Alright then! Let's go have some lunch! Where shall we go, my treat since you all passed."
The four genin all glanced at each other then said in unison, "Ichiraku Ramen!"
Rin just laughed at the four of them, "Alright, Squad Seven. Mission complete! Let's go get lunch!"
As the five of them walked off of the training field, an unknown figure watched them from a tree limb, "You've become fine ninja, Rin, Tatsumi. I hope one day I can return to you…" the figure then disappeared.
Tatsumi stopped and turned to look at the branch the figure was perched on only to find it empty. Karin grabbed his hand to bring him out of his daze. "Hey silly, what are you looking at?" she asked.
"Huh? Oh it was nothing, just thought somebody was there," he replied.
Rin looked at him then to the branch and shrugged, "Probably got the feeling from the adrenaline still working through your body from the match."
"Maybe so…" Tatsumi trailed off as he resumed walking to Ichiraku.
The five of them chatted to one another as they walked. "Hey did you guys eat breakfast this morning even though I said not to?" Rin asked all of a sudden. Then the entire group laughed as they went back into town to eat. Tomorrow they would begin life as ninja in the real world.
I tried to not overpower them and I apologize if it seems like they are. Tatsumi in this has no connection to the Tatsumi in Akame ga Kill, if any of you guys watch and/or read it. The Rin in this also has no connection to the Rin that Kakashi grew up with, I just liked the name. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Leave questions and I will try to answer them all in the next chapter. Until next time, this is ForsakenAng3l signing off.