Chapter 2, Introductions

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"

Erupting from the mouth of a undetermined man. He wore a black coat that hid his entire body from view with a white, dog-like mask that had four eyes.

The powerful fireball technique rocketed at its target, the technique's provider confident in its completion. When the flames died down from its explosion upon impact, the unknown agent made his way to the zone.

Upon arrival to the impact zone, the only sight to be seen was that of scorched earth with no other remains present. His body quirked, either from surprise at its power or any other, was unknown.

'I only used enough chakra to slightly burn him.' He thought to himself. Examining the spot once again, he began to scan his surroundings for any misdemeanors.

Jumping up to a tree branch, he calmed himself to the point where his senses would be at their sharpest point. Steadily trying to find anything out of place, he could only find the cold night's air that reached his exposed skin. Beginning to get impatient, he crouched down on the branch to make his wait bearable.

Sighing. 'He's not dead.' Was his quick thought as he began to go through a series of hand seals.

'This will find him, though.' He thought before announcing his technique:

"Sensing Hexagram Seal!"

Sending a shockwave of his chakra throughout the area, he was quickly alerted of a presence.

"Found you!" He said before throwing several shuriken at the direction. Hearing the shuriken get deflected by metal, he once again began another set of handseals.

Once he finished his handseals, he threw a couple more shuriken before sucking in a large amount of air.

"Fūton: Daitoppa!"

The shuriken were sent flying at unrelated speeds by a gust of wind, swiftly to its target. Smirking under his mask at hearing the cutting of flesh, which was followed by a blood curdling scream, he made his way to his target.

Once in front of him, he could see the bloodied body of his target, which in hindsight, was merely a six-year old boy with chin-length red hair that parted at the sides of his face. He had a pale skin tone and he wore that of a plain white T-shirt, though, it was now red from his own blood stain.

Seeing the child seemingly dead upon the ground, he nodded his head before speaking in monotone:

"Mission Complete. Uzumaki Hamura, deceased."

As he was about to dispose of the body, he heard the ribiting of a from. This caught his attention as he looked to the sounds direction. Shaking his head at the distraction, he looked back at the 'deceased' Uzumaki to only widen his eyes.

With his hand in a singular hand sign, and his violet eyes wide open to the world; the boy whispered:

"Clone Great Explosion: Release."

By the result of only three words, an explosion surpassing that of the previous fire jutsu encased the area in a bright light. Unable to escape the destruction, the masked agent was on the receiving end of its power. Howls of pain were let of by the man, inwardly causing many birds to fly from the nest, disturbed by the man's shrieks.

Once over, the only thing left was the mutilated body of the man. His cloth being destroyed by the impact, he was left scarred and bloodied. His body was black and scorched, even so that the boy himself winced at the sight.

'How cruel.' He thought to himself in a bit of a humorous tone before calming himself and focusing on sensing anything. After a minute of searching and finding nothing, he looked at the scorched man once again.

'.. how troublesome.' He thought to himself before walking away. Unlike the man, he was left unscathed. Wearing a pair of grey-pants to compliment the T-shirt, he also wore a pair of traditional, shinobi sandal with some bandages wrapped around his lower shins.

Quickly taking to the trees, he sped through the branches on his way home. Once at the small apartment that he shared with his older brother, Uzumaki Naruto, he went into their room before falling onto the bed. He closed his eyes before leveling his breathing, allowing the goodness of sleep to take him abliss.


Uzumaki Hamura was a very calm person. Not much would be able to tarnish his smooth nature. So, saying this, one would be surprised to see the red-head turning

as bright as his hair.

"Wake up, wake up, WAKE UP!" Came the bolstering voice of his blonde brother.

Throwing the pillow of his head, he looked at the blond with so much anger that it seemed as if steam seeped from his ears. With bloodshot eyes, he snapped at the boy:

"WHAT?!"

Recoiling back at his brothers tone, Naruto was quiet for a moment before speaking his mind.

Scratching his arm, he looked at the redhead. "Well.. we start the Academy today!" He jumped, regaining his joyous personality.

Hamura just sat. Looking dumbfounded at the boy, he thought:

'Sometimes I ponder if your bipolar, now I know why.'

Getting up from his bed, he made his way to the bathroom. Closing the door, he could still hear the excitement of his brother, causing him to shake his head.

'Troublesome.'

After finishing his 'personal business', he left out of the room to see Naruto already dressed and ready. Running up to him, the boy shook his head in mock disappointment.

"Did you even clean yourself?" Ask Hamura, and in every way, he was serious.

Nodding his head with such ferocity, he thought it was going to snap off. "Of course! I'm waitin' for you!" Was his joyful response.

Sighing, Hamura went off to the room to get dressed. Walking out, he wore a white fishnet T-shirt with grey linings around the sleeves. He had on grey pants that complimented his shirt and a pair of grey and black waraji sandals. Also, around his lower shins and lower forearms was white bandages. Moving to the apartments door, he ushered Naruto to come.

"Let's go."


Their walk to the Academy was by most, plain. The two would usually receive hateful glares from the civilians of their village. While this would not effect Hamura, not at all, Naruto was different. Even a fool would see the venom in their eyes when they laid sight upon Naruto. Sometimes, villagers would even look at Hamura with pity; arising the red heads suspicion.

Looking at Naruto, he thought to himself, 'Sarutobi, what are you keeping from us?'

Finally, with the Academy building in sight, Naruto ran with his head high.

"I'm going to be a shinobi!" He yelled in excitement, leaving Hamura in his dust.

'..why me?' The red-head thought as he increased his pace.

Half-minute later, both children were infront of the large Academy building, Naruto being the first to go in. Shrugging, Hamura followed suit. Walking up to the front desk, Hamura pushed Naruto to the side before questioning the lady who sat their, conveniently reading a magazine.

"Excuse me, I'd like to know where the classroom for new students is." Said Hamura in a soft voice, smirking when he saw the lady visibly shiver.

"D-down the hall and to your left, it's Room 15." The woman said without looking up her magazine. Thanking the lady, the two jogged down the hallways - well, at least Naruto did - arriving at the room. Naruto opened the door before walking inside.

The room was fairly simple, there was a teachers desk in the front, with a blackboard behind it. The desk were arranged in a rising position, allowing the teacher to see all of the students. There were children their age already in the room, sitting down and chatting with each other. Eight of them stood out, however. Three girls and five boys.

The first boy was sitting towards the back of the was wearing a grey coat with a color that hit everything under the black shades he wore. He had spikey brown hair like his own. Naruto thought he spied a small beetle crawling across his hand, but shook it off.

'An Aburame.' Thought Hamura in curiosity.

The next boy was a...round boy with a bag of chips in his hands. He was wearing a green jackacket with spiral markings on his cheeks. He had spikey brown hair on his head.

The third boy was sleeping on his desk. As far as Naruto could see, he had his hair styled like a pineapple. He was wearing a grey shirt with a clan marking on it. Naruto thought that he was just tired from not getting enough sleep. After all, Naruto woke up every three hours because of his excitement last night! Though prayers never went out to the reciever of it.

The fourth boy was wearing a grey hoodie with the hood down, revealing his shaggy brown hair. He had slitted pupils and red fang-like markings on his cheeks. Sitting on his head was a small white puppy.

The final boy was sitting in the corner of the room with a bored expression on his face. He was wearing a blue shirt with a crest on the back of it that looked like a fan. He had hair that was spiked in the appearance of a duck's butt. Naruto had to stiffle a laugh as he thought about that.

Looking at Naruto, seeing him trying to keep in his laughter, asked:

"What's so amusing?"

Pointing at the boy, Hamura widened his eyes but for reasons that were left undisclosed. "C'mon." Said Hamura before picking their seats.

The two sat in the middle of the middle row - get it? - but before Naruto could continue his search, the class room's door opened; catching his attention. Two shinobi walked in. They were wearing a Chunin's uniform and were carrying boxes full of books. One had his hair in a pineapple style with a scar across the bridge of his nose. The other just had silvery blue hair that fell to his shoulders.

"Hello everyone!" Said the one with the scar as he sat the boxes on the desk and faced the class. "My name in Umino Iruka, one of your instructors for your classes at the Academy."

"I'm Touji Mizuki, another one of your instructors." Said the other man.

"Now before we start with getting you all settled in for your classes, why don't we all introduce ourselves? I'll call you in alphabetical order and you'll come to the front and tell us your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, and dreams for the future," Iruka explained.

"First up, Aburame Shino."

The boy with the large coat walked to the front of the room and faced everyone. As he spoke, Hamura just spaced out, caring-less about their introductions. By the time he was about to doze off, a familiar name was called.

"Eh.. Uzumaki Naruto."

Not missing the small hints of disgust, Hamura watched Naruto jump in front of the class, looking ahead with a big fox-like grin.

'You're making it worse.' Hamura thought with a sigh before pondering on why he put up with his antics.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo! I like ramen and spending time with my brother, Hamura! I dislike mean people and those who think they're better than people. My hobbies are hanging out with my brother and my goal for the future is to become Hokage!"

'As if anyone would let you rule the village you tried to destroy!' Were the thoughts of the two Academy instructors. Once he was back in his seat, Iruka called up the second-to last name of the list.

"Uzumaki Hamura."

Moaning in frustration, the boy looked at his brother before making his way to the front. Sighing, he began:

"As you may already know, My name is Uzumaki Hamura. And yes, he is my brother. I like my brother, obviously and I tolerate a game of shogi. I don't dislike many things and my hobbies are meditating and training. My 'dreams' for the future are to become an Elite Jōnin and live out the rest of my days traveling." He said before quickly moving back to his seat.

"Good job!" Barked Naruto, giving Hamura a thumbs up.

Sitting down, Hamura gave his reply:

"Yup."

'It seems he hasn't been influenced by the demon.. yet.' Thought Mizuki, though, he shook those thoughts away.

Looking at his clip board, Iruka called up the last name on the list.

"Yamanaka Ino."

"I'm Yamamaka Ino. I like all types of flowers and spending type at my family's flower shop. I dislike mean people and idiots who think they're better than me just because I'm a girl. My hobbies are working at the flower shop and helping my parents. My dreams for the future are to win the affections of Sasuke-kun!" Sasuke just banged his head into the desk again, making a nice indentation of his face on the wood.

Iruka could see that she was a fangirl, but wasn't lost to the forbidden side of the kunoichi just yet. A simple push in the right direction would help her.

"Well it's a pleasure to meet you all, I hope that you all achieve your goals and become strong shinobi who will work to make Konoha prosper," Iruka said.

"Now then, how many of you know a jutsu?" Hamura, Sasuke, Hinata, and Shikamaru raised their hands.

"Okay then, come up to the front of the room." The four kids did so and Iruka continued. "Can you demonstrate them to the class please?"

"I'll go first, that way it won't be to troublesome," Shikamaru said as he stepped forward and faced Sasuke. He then held his hands in the Ne seal and everyone watched as his shadow went and connected to Sasuke.

"Shadow Possession success," Shikamaru droned as he rested his hands at his side, making Sasuke do the same.

"What is this!" Sasuke barked, struggling to control his movements. Shikamaru then reached behind himself, making Sasuke reach behind himself. He then made Sasuke grab the ruler on the desk and use it to poke Hamura. Though, he missed, it still caused the boy some frustration.

He looked at the Nara with disappointment before taking the ruler away from the Uchiha and throwing it at the pineapple haired boy. Having to dodge the ruler, his jutsu was deactivated.

"Hamura, enough!" Iruka snapped, glaring at the red head.

Looking at him with mock boredom, he replied to the man, "What do you mean 'enough'? That's all I planned on doing." Said in a flat voice.

Twitching inside a-bit, he returned to what he was doing.

"Okay, enough with that, now let's get onto seeing what the others have to show," Iruka said, looking at Sasuke.

"I suggest that we go outside for my jutsu, it's big," Sasuke told him.

Iruka nodded and said to the class, "We're going outside to view the rest of the jutsu."

The class cheered as they stampeded out the door, leaving behind a large dust cloud. After clearing away the dust, Iruka and Mizuki saw that Hamura was still inside, dusting himself off. When he was done, he began walking behind the other students, though, they were obviously far gone. Iruka and Mizuki just performed a Shunshin to get there.

"Okay Sasuke, perform your jutsu," Iruka said once he was sure that everyone was outside.

Sasuke nodded and performed several hand seals before taking in a deep breath and declaring, "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" A large fireball shot out of Sasuke's mouth and went into the sky where it evaporated into the clouds.

"Impressive Sasuke!" Iruka said as he and most of the class cheered. The ones who didn't cheer were Shino, becasue it roasted a few insects in the sky, Shikamaru, because it was to troublesome, Hinata, because Hyuuga's don't like Uchiha's, and Hamura, because he didn't care.

"Hamura could make a WAY bigger fireball!" Boasted the blonde Uzumaki, causing his brother to groan in response.

'Why me?' He thought.

"Alright, Hamura, how about you go next?" Iruka suggested.

"Do I have to?" Asked Hamura, causing Iruka to nod his head. Knowing it meant, 'yes'.

Grumbling, he walked in the middle of the training grounds and began his technique.

Using one hand, he went through three hand signs before announcing the technique:

"Katon: Gōenka!" A fireball that was five times the size of Sasuke's, shot from his mouth. Once it was high enough in the air, Hamura used his other hand to form the release seal. Whispering 'release' the fire ball, splitted into 5 different fireballs that were the size of Sasuke's own.

"See!" Said Naruto as he pointed at the fireballs that were slowly disappearing in the sky.

Awed for a second, Iruka gave his opinion, "Very impressive, Hamura. Where did you learn it?" Asked Iruka as he jotted down on his clipboard.

"I trained." Was the only thing he said before quickly making his way back to Naruto, hitting the blond on the side of his head.

"Think before you speak idiot!" Yelled Hamura.

"Hey! What I do!?" Retorted Naruto as he rubbed his head.

Pinching his nose, he shook his head at the boy, "Nevermind."

Looking at Hamura, his face slumped, "Gah!"

While they were play-cating with each other, the others students sat dumbfounded at the redheads prowess.

"How is that even possible!" Barked a Inuzuka Kiba, with his doggy companion wipping along.

"I don't know, but he's strong." Said Akimichi Choji, though, he seemed more interested on his bag of chips.

"Troublesome." Was the only thing that Nara Shikamaru had to say but his thoughts told a different story:

'The way he executed that jutsu should be beyond the comprehension of an Academy Student and even so, he still pulled it off, with little difficulty. And also, the fact that he knew that if I had to dodge, the jutsu would deactivate. This kid is definitely something else..'

Unseen to everyone, the heir of the Uchiha seethed, 'This makes no sense! A clanless orphan competes better than the almighty Uchiha? Unacceptable!'

"Now Hinata, let's see what you can do," Iruka said as he and the class faced the shy girl. She took a deep breath before walking to the front of the class and made a chain of hand seals.

"Byakugan!" Hinata cried as the veins in her eyes bulged and her Byakugan activated.

"Good! You can already activate your Doujutsu," Iruka said as he made a mark on his clipboard.

"Um, I-I can a-also pe-perform the E-Eight Trigrams: E-Eight Palms," Hinata said.

"Is that so? Use Hamura as an example of what it can do. Consider this punishment for almost causing a alteration," Mizuki said. Unsurprisingly, both children had a problem with this.

"I-I d-don't want t-to hurt h-him.." Studdered Hinata with her head low.

"This is troublesome.." Looking at the instructors, he sighed to himself.

'Looks like I've been doing that a lot lately.' He thought before walking in front of the Hyūga and holding out his hand.

"Let's do this Hyūga-chan." He told her before she slowly shook his head. Stepping back, she got into her stance before beginning her sequence.

"Eight Trigram: Eight Palms!"

"Palm One!"

"Palm Two!"

"Palm Four!"

"Palm Eight!"

By the end of it, Hamura was laid out on the ground, breathing heavily. Looking at the boy, Hinata realized something that was left unnoticed.

'I didn't use any chakra..' She thought to herself before noticing the red head making a 'hush' motion while his hand dropped from the release hand sign.

'Genjutsu?' She thought before being interrupted by Iruka.

"Now let's go back inside so we can go over what you'll be learning." Said Iruka while Naruto helped Hamura up as they made their way back to the class.

Left behind in the dust of her class, Hinata looked at his retreating figure in confusion before starring at her hands.

"I d-didn't even h-hurt him."

Catching up with the class, she made her way in. Once they were back inside, Naruto was dying on the inside. Why? Because from what Iruka and Mizuki were telling them was that most of their classes would consist of going over theories, mathematics, and history. What did theories have to do with becoming a ninja? He did lighten up when he heard that they would be doing some Taijutsu sparring every two days, and that they would be doing chakra control exercises every day. Kami knows that he needs it desperately.

"Stop complaining Naruto, remember, great shinobi have brains." Said Hamura with a bit of humor.

Naruto just looked at him with a tempting stare before shaking his head, 'Whatever.'

They were let out for lunch an hour later and everyone went to their own corners. Naruto and Hamura sat under one of the trees that was littering the area to eat their lunch. Naruto had brought some of the sushi that Hamura made yesterday. The boy himself just ate some celery before shifting his position into that of a meditative one.

"That's so boring!" Said Naruto, trying to interrupt Hamura's concentration, or lack there of.

Not allowing the boy to get him, Hamura ignored him for the time being. Looking at him, Naruto knew he wouldn't budge so he left his corner before going over to some other kids.

Walking up to three boys, he stopped in front of them.

"Hey!" He said, gaining their attention.

"Wassup." Said a boy with roughish brown hair and red fang-like markings on his cheeks. He had white dog on his side that wipped with its owner in a greeting.

"Hey." Said a boy with a pineapple hair style. He seemed to be bored out of his life as he looked up, watching the clouds as if they were an intense battle.

Waving his hand at him was a rotound boy with spiky brown hair and red swirls on his cheeks. It seemed that the only reason he didn't speak back, verbally, was because his mouth was full of chips.

Looking at the three boys, he gave off a big, foxy grin.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! What's your names?" He asked the trio.

"I'm Inuzuka Kiba, and this is my partner, Akamaru!" The dog boy bloated with a grin that might've equaled Naruto's own.

"Nara Shikamaru." Said the bored boy, completely indifferent.

Swallowing his chips, he answered the blonde boy:

"I'm Akimichi Chōji, it's nice to meet you Naruto-san!" He said as he shook the boys hand.

Smiling at his friendliness, he had a question, "Thanks! So.. what're y'all doing?"

"Cloud watching." Answered the Nara.

Looking on with confusion, the Nara noticed the blondes tension.

"Try it." He said before telling the blond to lay down.

Doing as he was told, he become entranced alike to the others.

"Wait.. that cloud looks like ramen!" Said Naruto, pointing a specific.

Looking at the cloud, Kiba to respond, "Yeah, it does!"

"I wish was ramen." Said the Akimichi of the group, causing a spurr of chuckles through the group.

"Troublesome."

After everyone had lunch, they moved into the courtyard where there were fighting rings in the dirt. Iruka and Mizuki were standing before the entire class waiting for everyone to gather around.

"Okay everyone, we're going to hold Taijutsu matches to see how skilled everyone is. When your name is called, step into the arena," Iruka explained to them. "You will fight until one of you ends up outside the arena, one of you gives up, or I call the match."

"First pair up is Choji amd Shikamaru," Mizuki announced as he read the names off of the clip board. The two friends stepped into the arena, but Choji looked extremely nervous.

"Iruka-sensei, I don't want to hurt my friend," Choji said.

Iruka sighed and said, "It's just a Taijutsu match Choji, and I highly doubt anybody here can hurt somebody too much."

Shikamaru sighed and said, "I forfeit, it would be too troublesome to fight anyway."

Iruka sighed and gave the win to Choji. Mizuki just put some marks on his board and called out the next pair.

"Kiba and Renji." Kiba jumped into the field after he left Akamaru underneath a shady tree. His opponent was a civilian who had a smug look on his face.

"Didn't want you weak little puppy getting hurt?" Renji sneered. Kiba just growled and glared at him.

Iruka, not wanting to see an angry Inuzuka get angrier, just started the match. Kiba lept forward and delt a punch to Renji's chest and sent him flying. He landed just short of the ring and lept to his feet with a snarl. Renji ran towards Kiba and sent a sloppy punch at him.

Kiba just scoffed at the attack and knocked the punch away before he tripped him and held a fist to Renji's face.

"Forfeit!" Kiba growled.

"I give up!" Renji cried as he looked at Kiba with fear.

"Winner, Kiba!" Iruka declared. The Inuzuka got off of the civilian and walked back to where he left Akamaru and put him back on his head. Iruka then decided to call out the next set of fighters.

"Sasuke and Naruto." Many of the female portion of the class cheered when they heard the Sasuke's name was called. Naruto walked into the after getting a tap on the shoulder from Hamura, and somehow he felt immediately different.

"Don't disappoint." He whispered in his ear before pushing him to the the arena.

"Are you two ready?" Iruka asked.

"Let's get started already!" Naruto shouted as he settled into his stance. His knees were bent and his legs were wide and apart, the left side of his body was facing Sasuke, and his left arm was positioned in a horizontal angle across to Sasuke, with his palm slight open. His right arm was left placed behind his back, on his hip bone.

"Hn," was all that Sasuke said as he slipped into the Uchiha's Interceptor Fist.

"Begin!" Iruka began the fight and stepped back, waiting to see what would happen.

Neither of the two boys moved, each one was waiting for the other to start first.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto smirked and said, "I'm not gonna make the first move, that would be stupid unless you are absolutely sure that you're going to win."

"Then I guess I'll start us off," Sasuke said as he darted forward and aimed a punch at Naruto's chest. The blond boy ducked under Sasuke's outstretched arm and kicked at his shins, causing the boy to stumble. Taking advantage of this, Naruto quickly grabbed Sasuke's leg before throwing him to the other side of the ring.

Getting up, Sasuke looked at Naruto with rage in his eyes before dashing at the boy.

'Good.' Hamura thought, watching the fight intently.

Throwing a punch at the blondes head, the hyperactive boy dodged the strike before retaliating with a elbow to the Uchiha's head. Wincing at the blow, he gripped his head before glaring at the boy.

'How dare he!' He thought, gritting his teeth.

Getting back into position, he rushed back at Naruto with his arm outstretched, intent on beating him to a pulp. Shifting his body to the right, Naruto delivered a quick jab to Sasuke's jaw before kicking him in the stomach. This sent him out of the ring, where he laid there.

Walking up to Sasuke, Iruka could see the boy's heavy breaths. Knowing that the boy wouldn't get up on his own, he announced the winner:

"Winner, Naruto!"

Everyone stood quietly as they just thought about what happened. Especially the Uchiha boy's fan girls:

'Sasuke-kun lost?'

Walking over to the boy, Naruto attempted to reach a hand out to him but the Uchiha blankly ignored him, finding it better to seethe to himself. Brushing off the ignorance, he made his way back to Hamura where he was greeted with a smirk.

"You did well." He said, making the blonde gain a grin.

"I think it's your turn." Said Naruto before pointing at the instructors.

Nodding, he waited for his chance.

"Hamura and Renba." Called Iruka before having to change his plans.

"I forfeit!" Yelled the civilian boy as he began to sweat cold bricks, something Hamura had to chuckle for.

"Well, to bad." Said Hamura.

The rest of the fights went on, with nothing special to see. After all of the fights were finished, they were sent back into the class. After their day at the Academy, the two siblings headed home.

By the time they got back, it was already night. Getting into the apartment, the quickly rushed to their room, crashing down upon their beds.

Looking to his side, Hamura could see that Naruto was out like a rock. Getting up and stretching, he made his way outside. Feeling the cold, nights air touch his skin, he could all but shiver in its presence.

Smiling up at the stars, he relinquished in its glow, its glory.

"Beautiful. Isn't it, Danzo?"