Hidow, this is the first chapter of Team Prince which will now be known as 'Secrets of the Masked' and I'm happy that I've actually got some people following this story. I understand not favoriting it right away as you don't know how it'll turn out, but I'll thank you for your support anyways.
I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!
Chapter 1
Naruto's Pov
While Meno and I were chatting we traveled and it passed the time for us, and a lot faster than I thought it would happen, we ended up on Tazuna's doorstep. A little boy answered and then a woman came running from the back and would've tackled Meno had it not been him carrying Kakashi-sensei with me. She ushered us in to the house and once Kakashi-sensei was set up in a bed to rest she scolded Meno for about fifteen minutes straight. I could tell she was really worried about him, and she forced him to go upstairs and change as soon as possible.
Once he was down in a dark blue baggy tank top my team and I found out some things. First, Meno has a caramel skin tone and based on his arm coloring it's natural. Second, is that he has black intricate tribal-like tattoos from the shoulder to the wrist. Third, he does not take off his beanie unless threatened by Tsunami because his hair is long, spiky and one piece covers his right eye and he just feels like something bad will happen with it out. His hair is also very shiny almost like it's well taken care of, but I can't even begin to fathom how he styles it and I wonder if it's natural (Super Sayain level 4 Goku's hair with piece covering eye = Meno's hair). His eyes are a lighter brown color almost golden colored, and I can see scars peeking out from his clothes showing that he had a rough past.
He then helps out Tsunami with dinner and I also offer to help but they said I was a guest and I didn't have to, and Sakura put in a comment about how it would be terrible anyways. I ignore her comment and keep my mask up even though it hurts to hear her say that, not like I'm not used to it anyways. After dinner is done and Kakashi-sensei calls us in to tell us that Zabuza is in fact alive I go out on the roof to think and look out at the sunset.
"Oi, Naruto-san, you like high places to?"
"Hai," He sits down next to me, "in my village there's this monument on the side of a mountain, and I used to always go up there and look at the stars."
"Naruto-san, what's your family like?"
"Meno-san you can call me Naruto."
"Ok, Naruto, but only if you call me Meno."
"Alright Meno, anyways I wouldn't know about my family, my parents died in a big battle the day I was born, a demon attacked our village, and I'm not sure how they died, or anything about them really."
"Naruto, you can quit with the mask, and I can tell you're lying to."
"You would probably make a good ninja Meno, and yeah I wear a mask it keeps me alive, and sane, and you're right I do know who my parents are, but I just found out, and I kind of feel betrayed."
"Sorry won't dig too far in it, soo my mom wants an herb that grows in the forest, do you want to help me with them, I can tell you need time away from those b*stards you call a team."
"Sure," and we go back inside via the window and Meno voices the fact that we're leaving and collecting our shoes dart off in to the darkening forest.
As we kept walking we talked and it seemed that we were relaxed enough to let our carefully placed barriers surrounding us slip a lot. It turns out that Meno can in fact remember his past perfectly, but when he was first saved by Tazuna and his family he was a real amnesiac. He like me has an increased healing factor and he remembered everything within a week, but for once Meno wanted to be a kid, at least in till his relatives came. They still haven't come to get him; he thinks that they're probably in some tight spot, but is too afraid of the disappointment in their eyes when he finally comes to save them.
Once we arrive at the clearing we discover we're not alone and we see a boy about our age there picking some herbs. He was wearing a pink kimono and had long hair and most likely could have easily been mistaken for a girl. He looked up at us and I observed him while trying to act casual. He was about an inch taller than Sasuke, with similarly dark hair and eyes however he was much paler, his hair longer, and his eyes a warm brown that reminded me of chocolate.
"Good evening," Meno and I said.
"Good evening to you as well, what brings you here to the forest so late?"
"Herbs for cooking, my mom's been running low on them and with the ninja protecting my jiji we're going to need to restock, right Mr. Hunter ninja?"
"How?"
"Both of us have keen senses of smell, and you smell exactly like the hunter ninja, don't worry I don't want to fight you, I just want to ask, why?"
"Well, I guess I should start at the beginning, after the last shinobi war, Kiri wasn't doing so well, most of the people destitute from enemies invading there lands and the military using the scorched earth techniques so our enemies would gain nothing, and then the Yondaime Mizukage started to change, and blamed the bloodline holders for the horrors of the third shinobi war."
"He used desperate people to do things that they normally wouldn't do."
"Like a mob," Meno adds.
"Exactly, my mother was a bloodline holder, the last of her clan in fact, but she managed to hide her past and she moved to my original village, and she married my father and I was born, we were happy in till I activated my bloodline, I showed my mom thinking that I would get praised for it, only to be smacked and told to never do that again, that was the first time I saw my mother truly scared, we tried to hide it, but my father had already seen it, and afraid of what I might become gathered almost the whole village, and they killed my mother, when I saw my father's eyes I saw grief and sadness, but what overpowered it was fear, and I got angry, lost control of my powers and killed the entire mob, I fled living on the streets in till I met Zabuza, he took me in and trained me, but not long after he did his failed attempt at assassinating the Mizukage to end the civil war quickly, and we had to flee since then we've been traveling and taking jobs from people to survive, and that's how we ended up here."
"Interesting, well trust us we won't tell my team who we are, and if we can we'll try to prevent your deaths, but be warned a man like Gato is not to be trusted, he'll most likely turn on you after we fight next when he feels that you'll be weak."
"I shall keep that in mind, so Meno-san I bet you would usually go out here alone, why did you bring, shinobi-san? And sorry if it freaks you out that I know your name Gato makes it a point to know his targets."
"Oh, my name is Uzumaki Naruto, you can call me Naruto, Meno brought me because I needed a break from my team, you see our sensei is really only ducka*s' sensei, and my female teammate has a superiority complex even though the only thing she's good at is theory, chakra control, studying and I wouldn't be surprised should she be like her mother, meaning screwing anyone with the slightest amount of power, and I keep up an idiot mask because I don't want to be killed by some superstitious villagers and shinobi that can't pull their heads out of their a*ses long enough to see reason."
"Oh but Naruto-san, I thought Konoha was 'love everybody' and 'we won't let anyone down or treat anyone differently'."
"Totally wrong, if you're a jinchuriki you're mobbed and almost killed, and if you're a bloodline holder, the civilians will kiss you're a*s from day one, especially if you have a doujutsu, like that Uchiha teammate we have, his ego has been stroked since his family died and Sandaime-jiji seems to have forgotten that a ninja village is just that a ninja village, and while I love the old man, he's like a grandfather I never had, he's old and exhausted."
"Ah so far the mighty have fallen."
"Amen, on that one."
"So, Naruto-san do you need any help with shinobi training, I promise I won't sabotage you, and from what I heard you wouldn't care if you're team was killed off, only Meno-san's jiji."
"Actually that would be great, you think you could help Meno with that to, he's a great martial artist, and uses dual swords but he can't use chakra at all."
"Sure, so I'm guessing chakra control? Do you know the tree-climbing exercise?"
"I don't, but that's pretty normal, I've never been taught about chakra."
"I know it, but I don't know the next one."
"Alright Meno, Naruto, tomorrow let's say six we start chakra control training, I wish Zabuza-sensei could help, well we'll figure that out later let's go Naruto!"
We run back to the house with the herbs promising to meet tomorrow in the morning, and we got there quickly with everyone none the wiser. Once back we all of us had to go and find our sleeping accommodations. Sasuke and I were given the room next door to Meno, Kakashi-sensei got his own, and Sakura got the room next door to Tsunami's. Sasuke moaned and groaned about not getting his own room, but Kakashi-sensei told him to deal with it because he'll have to in the future to which Sasuke replied in a grunt. Once we got in to our beds I collapsed and fell asleep almost instantly like almost every other night because of the emotionally taxing experience of my everyday life.
8
Naruto's Pov
I get up really early in the morning, put a reinforced shadow clone in Meno and I's places and leave as quietly as we can via Meno's window. I was a pretty large window so we had to trouble getting out, and we both managed to land relatively quietly. Then we took off in to the forest going back towards the clearing we saw Haku at yesterday and there he was luckily in his hunter nin clothes but without the mask. He sat Meno down and told him to meditate to find his chakra, and he started to teach me how to walk on water and it was a slow going process because of my large chakra reserves but Haku was patient. Meno mastered the first exercise of just gathering chakra very quickly, but from there on out it was going to be a hard process.
"Meno, I want to test something out, I think that you might have enough for shadow clones but I have to teach it to you first."
"How could shadow clones help?"
"You know anything that they know once they dispel."
"Okay," and I taught him the hand sign and since he already knew how to gather chakra about twenty a little too pale Meno's appeared in the clearing.
He practiced that and got it at the end of the day which was very impressive for someone that hasn't really used jutsus all that much. I taught it to Haku to but he had to be sworn to secrecy and would never use it unless we were training alone or it would seem normal for him to know it. He managed to create two clones on his first try, but it nearly depleted his chakra luckily he managed to cancel them fast enough that he didn't pass out.
"Let me guess, never again?" He nods in agreement.
"Sorry Haku-san, I didn't know that it would hurt your reserves that much."
"It's… alright… Naruto… Meno," he pants out and Meno helps him in to the shade while we keep going.
Then we went home and replaced our clones with ourselves and went to eat dinner with everyone else, and luckily they didn't suspect a thing. This went on for the next week of being at wave. All of us finally let all our masks down and I finally told them everything, my parents, how I truly look, my real skills, including sealing and kenjutsu, and just about every injustice Konoha has done to me, and my family. Meno told us of his life, the experimentation, how his aunt died getting him and his cousins out, and how he lived as a mercenary for two years in till Orochimaru wanted him as a potential body and he was thrown off a cliff when he wouldn't cooperate bringing him here. Haku also told of all of his life and everywhere he's been and what he's done even if he's ashamed of it. We even got to meet Zabuza and I apologized for my sensei even though he was technically only Sasuke-san's sensei.
Zabuza was actually a good guy and while on the outside he seemed like a man who enjoyed death he does regret killing innocents like any other human being should. He practically raised Haku, and despite his best attempts to taint the boy has come up empty. Of course he learned what Zabuza is talking about he just won't lower himself to that particular enjoyment. Apparently he along with my sensei loves Icha Icha and when I told him it was my god father that wrote them he begged me to get a signed copy of his next work. I told him that I could try but I wouldn't promise it which he accepted reluctantly hoping to get the promise perfectly full-filled and he pouts like a child that didn't get the dessert after a dinner at a restaurant.
I was a little worried over the fight that would start tomorrow, because I could potentially lose two friends that I've made, and Meno was freaked out too. I feigned sleeping in while the rest went to the bridge. I then heard a crashing downstairs and pulled off my covers, under which I was fully clothed, and ran downstairs. I managed to knock out the two criminals and tie them up with pretty good rope and went to the bridge in a hurry leaving a shadow clone behind.
When I got to the bridge it was foggy and I saw some mirrors that I immediately recognized as something from Haku's ice jutsu, and I run towards it seeing Meno and catching his eye. I go inside the ice dome and find an angry Sasuke inside with senbon poking him in non-vital places and possibly very close to unlocking his kekkai genkai. I run in pretending to be an idiot and act like I could save Sasuke in my stupid manner. I just hoped that our plan worked like it was supposed to.
Hazah! I found the most awesome title now! Anyways hope you like chapter 1 and ER MAH GOD! I can't wait for the chunnin exams, even if it is a little bit far ahead.
