/|~{ (- Author's Note -) }~|\
Disclaimer - The same as chapter one.
Update 2018-02-16: Slight rewrite of some parts. Along fix some error here and there.
Update 2018-02-17: Grammar & Spell check
/|~{ (- Author's Note -) }~|\
Chapter 2 – The Princess and the Beetle
Years later in a Classroom a Konoha's Ninja Academy, a class was currently waiting for their sensei to arrive, and the eager young aspiring shinobi were chatting adamantly among themselves, and in one case, sleeping. This year's batch of students saw the highest number of heirs and heiresses from the most prestigious clans in Konoha graduating in the same year and suffice to say many saw them as the greatest generation Konoha has ever produced.
Most noticeable were Nara Shikamaru of the Nara Clan, who was currently dozing off at the end of the class; Akimichi Chōji of the Akimichi Clan, who was munching on a bag of chips; Yamanaka Ino of the Yamanaka Clan, who was currently having a glaring contest with her rival and friend Haruno Sakura over who gets to sit with the last of the Uchiha Clan, Uchiha Sasuke, who was brooding beside the window while tuning out the argument that was beside him and thinking about how he would kill that man. There was also Aburame Shino of the insect-using Aburame Clan, who remained emotionless throughout the waiting session; Inuzuka Kiba of the Inuzuka Clan, who was petting his ninken Akamaru who was in his jacket, and last but not least, Hyūga Hinata of the Hyūga Clan, who was busy holding conversing with her two best friends Tekiō Satsuki and Fū.
Hinata had always been somewhat very shy around others due to her status as clan heiress, and her father's strict attitude towards her ever since her mother had died. Which had often lead her to wallow self-pity and sorrow because of it...
But that was before Satsuki and Fū had come into her life, which gave the poor girl the friendship and kindness the shy girl needs to get the strength she needed to do what she believed in, and not only what others expected of her. In a short time after befriending the girl, Satsuki and Fū had worked on breaking Hinata out of her shell and instilling the confidence she so desperately needed. After that the Hyūga Heiress become a force to be reckoned with during the Academy, sweeping aside almost all opposition aside. She had also earned her father's respect after the man saw her progress in the Academy, much to her joy and happiness. She couldn't repay her friends for what they did that turned her life for the better…
It had been a cold winter day when Hinata's had met first meet Satsuki. She had been bullied by three older boys, because of her Byakugan eyes, and making her break into tears. Satsuki, who been nearby had come to Hinata's defense, and had quickly beaten the boys up, but hadn't ended there. The next day got Satsuki had been called to the Hokage's office because the boys had told their mothers that Satsuki had apparently just appeared out of nowhere, and had suddenly just started to beat them up without any reason. When they had heard that the mothers had become enraged and had demanded that the Hokage to exile Satsuki, as she was clearly a danger to those around her. Even going so far call her liar when she told them her side of the story, for according to them their sons would never do something like that, meaning that Satsuki must be lying.
It had ended with the having to call in Hinata and her father, Hyuuga Hiashi, which were also the head of Hyuuga clan. When Hinata's story collaborated with Satsuki's, they called her a liar as well or claimed that Satsuki must have threatened her tell her that. Because if she could beat up three innocent boys without reason, what then stopped her threatening from Hinata, so would the girl would lie to protect Satsuki. At this point, both the Hokage and Hiashi almost had had enough and had asked for the boys to tell their story.
When boys meet Hokage's scrutinizing gaze and the leader of the started to tell their side of the story, one of them suddenly broke down bawling. He confessed that they had lied, and told everyone what really had happened, all the while the other two boys glared at him with looks of anger and betrayal clearly shown on their faces. At the end of it all, the boy's mothers were shocked, angry, and mortified, and had immediately begun apologizing to both the Hokage, the Hyuugas, and Satsuki, before they started to drag their offspring home by their ears, all while scolding and lecturing them on the way.
Satsuki was then formally introduced to Hinata's father, which thanked her for standing up for his daughter, and Satsuki and Hinata had close friends ever since. Although Satsuki had never told Hinata about her being born as Uzumaki Naruto, or being the Kyuubi's jinchūriki, as the Hokage had forbidden her to talk about or spread that fact, although Fū knew that was mostly because she had found out by herself, as she carried a burden similar to that of Satsuki, which had clued her in.
They were then later joined by Fū, who had been originally been born in Takigakure no Sato but had been giving to Konoha in exchange for an alliance, and some trade agreements, as Fū contained the Nanabi no Kabutomushi, the seven tailed beetle. Which was a bijuu, a chakra beast, similar to that of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, which Konoha had lost when its latest jinchūriki, Uzumaki Naruto, had died. Or at least most people in Konoha thought he had died, but Fū had soon learned the truth.
-| Flashback |-
It had been the day after Fū had arrived in Konoha, while Fū had been on her way to meet the Hokage, when she had bumped into Satsuki, quite literally. After they both had apologized and introduced themselves to one another, Satsuki had decided to tag along, as she wanted to see the Hokage as well. As they walked Chomei, which was the name of the Nanabi, got a strange feeling from the dark-haired girl they had just met. It felt somewhat nostalgic, almost similar to itself, its something it hadn't felt in a very long time, and if it was this could mean trouble.
After a bit thought Chomei informed Fū of what it had discovered, and that it still couldn't identify what it was it felt, only that was powerful and felt?familiar. It suspected that it was another bijuu, but which one, it didn't know. It then told Fū, that she should be on her guard, just in case. Satsuki tried to tentatively chat a bit with Fū, on their the way there, mostly small talk of none significant importance, but kind Fū had been wary of the other girl, especially after being warned by Chomei, which had led to quite a one-sided conversation, but the other girl didn't seem to care.
When they had arrived Fū had been little taken by, with how much familiarity the dark-haired girl had greeted the wizened Hokage. After some more introductions, and the Hokage asking them how they both were doing, he got down to business about why they were here. He explained to Satsuki who Fū was and why she had been transferred here, which quite frankly had surprised Fū somewhat. That the leader of a village divulged that kind of a secret, to a young child no less. He then asked her if she would willing to Fū's guide, as well as if she to share her apartment with Fū.
Which once again surprised that a girl not even ten lived on her own, even owning her own apartment. Satsuki had agreed to that, stretched out her hand asking if Fū was comfortable with that. After a moment of brief hesitation, Fū had clasped the girl's hand in a firm handshake, also agreeing with that plan, thinking it was probably better than being in an orphanage or living all alone.
A tiny spark of chakra suddenly surged, when their hands were clasped, making them shiver slightly, as they felt something pulling them in. Blackness, that was the first thing they saw as they felt pulled, the place they were in now was not quite a room as it was a space, really. There are no walls, no ceiling, just a stretching blankness that goes on and on and on. With a small shudder, Fū forced herself up, quite confused about her surroundings, how she got here and where here was. As she looked she saw that Satsuki was none the wiser and just as confused as her. But Fū got only more confused when she quite a familiar towering figure of what looked like huge a blue, armored rhinoceros beetle, behind her.
It had six green insect wings, along with an actual tail, all growing from the end of its abdomen. The stem of the tail was green but the wings are orange. Its eyes seemed to be covered by a helmet-like skull, from inside of which, an orange glow could be seen. It also had spike protrusions on its shoulders and a row of slits on each shoulder, and six legs — three on each side. The legs are also covered by the blue armor, with the exception of extreme ends which were green in color. It had two pincers with three parts on its face, covering a mouth full of sharp teeth. On its back behind its head, it had a large two sectioned horned protrusion. It was the Nanabi, Chomei.
But before Fū had managed to ask the bijuu any questions, Chomei suddenly burst out into full laughter. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. It, not even that funny, let's get it all out of your," Fū heard a childish and cute voice then say sarcastically from somewhere behind Satsuki.
And she went closer to look who had spoken she found what looked like a grumpy little girl, with deep frown set on her face. The girl was a bit shorter them and looked a little younger then they were now. She had orange hair, that barely reached her shoulder, with a pair long bang going down her front passing her shoulders, and a shorter bang that stopped before it reaches her eyes, hanged bang between a pair of small horns. Her face was narrow and angular in shape, with a pair of short and thick orange eyebrows, large sharp almond eyes, with a feral look to them, which were deep red in colour and had vertical slits as pupils, a pair of pointy canines could be seen sticking out the corners of her mouth, and pair of large rabbit-like ears resided on the top her head.
From the end of her spine she two large fluffy fox tails, along with the stump of third one could be seen. She wore what looked like a black kimono, with a collar around her neck and body harness covering her upper body. That along with some spiked cuffs that were wrapped around her wrist and ankles. In the middle of the harness and attached to her collar were what looked like sturdy, metal padlocks, that had the kanji for 'seal' engraved on them. All in all, Fū thought the girl looked quite adorable, and couldn't quite understand why Chomei as hard it was.
"Okay, that's enough," the fox girl snapped irritated. "Stop laughing you overgrown bug, or I'll make you," she threatened, which only made Chomei laugh even harder. "It's not even that funny," the girl huffed, making Chomei laugh so hard it even started to choke.
"So that's the Nanabi no Kabutomushi, Chomei, huh?" Satsuki asked Fū, completely ignoring what was happening between the giant beetle and little fox girl.
"Huh. Oh.. Yeah, that's is Chomei," Fū answered weakly, still confused about what was happening, but she could see that Satsuki had started to piece things together.
"Where are we and who the fox girl?" Fū asked confused.
"I think we're in a mindscape of some kind," Satsuki replied. "And for the girl is, believe it or not, she is actually..." but before Satsuki could say anything more, the girl in question had clamped her hands tightly over Satsuki mouth. "You say nothing, and that goes twice for you, you damn insect," the girl had then growled threateningly with a glare, although her cute and adorable appearance, took out of a lot of the sting in her threatening atmosphere.
"Oh, don't be so grouchy," Chomei said with a repressed giggle. "I don't how this has happened, but I think this new look suits you, Kurama."
The little girl, which Fū now know was named Kurama, just huffed and pouted with a sullen look on her face. Which just made her even more adorable, Fū thought, not dared to voice that thought aloud, as she was the would appreciate it. As her gut told her that this girl was a lot more dangerous then she looked, meaning it was in Fū best interest not to upset little fox girl.
"Fū, do you remember how I told you how felt some kind of familiar coming from Satsuki, and how I told you how told I thought she was a jinchūriki, although not sure of which one?" Chomei then asked Fū, turn from Kurama to her.
"Yeah, sure... You to be on guard because of that..."
"Well, I can confirm that Satsuki id indeed is a jinchūriki. I can even now tell you, what she contains." Chomei informed Fū with glee, and Fū feels how fox girl's glare only intensified for each word Chomei spoke.
"Really?" Fū asked, looking at any another huge chakra beast. But when she couldn't find any, she asked. "Which one is it? And why can't I see it or isn't it here at all?"
"Ohh... It's here alright, right in front of you in fact," Chomei said mysteriously. Kurama, who on until now only glared at Chomei while using her hands to keeping Satsuki from saying anything, now let go of the girl and started to rush at the beetle. Fū was quite surprised at how fast the girl was, and mention seemingly immense strength the girl possessed, as she was able to push the giant insect back a bit when she attacked Chomei.
"Hmm.. so you still have some power, even in this weakened state," Chomei pondered out loud.
"You see, Fū. This girl here is, like me, a bijuu," Chomei said as it lifted the struggling girl by the scruff of the neck on her clothes, and dumped her on a befuddled Fū. Who had a hard time associating the cute little fox girl, with giant chakra beasts like Chomei.
Seeing the confusion on Fū face, Chomei sighed and started to explain. "Like I said before, I don't have happened to make her look like this, but this without a doubt is the nine-tailed fox, Kyuubi no Kitsune, Kurama, the strongest of the tailed beasts."
This only made Fū even more confused, as from what she had heard the Kyuubi had disappeared when is jinchūriki had died. Which was the reason she, the Nanabi's jinchūriki, was in Konoha to replace the bijuu they had lost. But now she found out it wasn't as lost, as everyone thought it was. Not knowing what to do, and wanting answers, Fū asked how this could be, and why everyone thought the Kyuubi was gone. While Kurama had refused to answer, Satsuki had more than happy to tell them her tale, and at the end of it, most of Fū's question had been answered.
Then question when back to where they were, and they had ended up here. This time it was Chomei who explained it was it who dragged them here, and something like shared mindscape, that jinchūriki enter, but only if the were in physical contact with another jinchūriki. It then explained it had dragged them here because it wanted to know what it was that Satsuki contained and this was the fastest and easiest way to do that.
When they returned from out of the mindscape, they discovered that only a few seconds had passed in real time. The Hokage noticing that something had changed with girls, under the few seconds they shaken hands, got worried and asked if they were alright. After a brief moment of hesitation, Satsuki told him what Fū had discovered thank Chomei, but without saying anything outright just in case anyone was listening in. The old man sighed deeply as he had not foreseen that complication when dealing with another jinchūriki. But after Fū had given him and Satsuki a promise to keep it a secret, it alleviated his worries at it slightly.
-| End Flashback |-
The door to classroom then opened, and it was into this chaos that the chunin instructors, Umino Iruka and Mizuki, walked as they entered the room. Walking slowly, they made their way to the teacher's podium, Iruka noted all of this classes usual idiosyncratic oddities, with a small sigh and shake of his head.
Iruka then expanded his head and roared, "SIT DOWN NOW!" causing the entire class to come to order at last. "Hello, class as many of you know, we will be taking our final exam today. We will begin with the written portion. Then we will continue on with taijutsu, and then is the ninjutsu portion of the test, which will conclude the day."
Iruka quickly passed out the test, and began the exams. They had 30 minutes to finish it up. As soon as the test was collected. Mizuki led them outside for the Taijutsu portion, while Iruka graded the written portion. As they came outside Mizuki began to explain the rules;
"Alright simple enough. I will challenge each one of you inside this circle. Your objective is to stay inside and keep up for at least 3 minutes. I will continue until you're either forced out, or you reach the 6-minute mark. The longer you stay in the more points you will score. As well you can't use any weapons or jutsus. Just taijutsu."
Many kids nodded their heads. Some of the civilians looked nervous. Though all the clan kids were relaxed. They normally did this with their families. As well it was just three minutes.
Most of the civilians ended up barely passing the mark. There was one or two that made it up to the five minutes. When a clan kid finally went up, Shino, he only managed four minutes. Which was reasonable enough since his clan specializes in bugs, usually in long distance. Then came Shikamaru who could have made it farther, but just stopped after three minutes. Then went Chōji who did the same since he was too lazy to continue. Fū only lasted four minutes.
So did Satsuki, but Hinata knew they had been holding back. They usually did while they were at the Academy, Hinata had once asked them why did that, but they had only responded with that the most basic of all ninja arts was deception. Meanwhile Ino and Hinata just barely missed the six-minute mark. Kiba and Sasuke though did manage to last all six minutes.
"Ok, that was the last one," Mizuki called out, after finishing with Kiba. "Let's move along to ninjutsu portion of the test, everyone back inside."
"Alright everyone it's time for the last exam, one at a time I will call you and you will enter the room and perform the jutsu we ask of you if you have any clan jutsu or other jutsu you will receive extra credit. First up we have Chōji Akimichi." Iruka says as everyone has made it back into the classroom. Chōji walks forward towards the room for the examination.
"What do you think the jutsu are Fū?" Hinata asks.
"Probably the most basic of the academy jutsu. I swear it's like the civilian council is just trying to make sure that their children can make it through the academy and weaken our forces."
"That may just be what they are doing," Satsuki says.
"But that could be a real problem," Hinata says. Over the next twenty minutes everyone went in and passed, and then Iruka called out.
"Satsuki you're next." Satsuki gets up and walks over to the room, she walks in and then stands in front of Iruka and Mizuki and waits for instructions.
"First up is the Henge no jutsu, please take the form of the third Hokage."
"Henge!" a cloud of smoke envelops Satsuki and when it clears a perfect replica of the third Hokage, asking them how they had been. She even had gotten the voice, and the general aura the old man often exuded, mostly correct.
"Excellent Satsuki." Iruka says smiling.
"Next test is the Kawarimi no jutsu." Mizuki throws a kunai at Satsuki, but Satsuki uses the substitution technique and a log appear in her place, she then uses it again, putting herself back in her original position.
"Nicely done Satsuki, the Kawarimi no jutsu passed."
"The final test is the Bunshin no jutsu." Mizuki says.
"Iruka-sensei the test requires at least three clones right? So if do more the three I will still pass right?" Satsuki asks inquisitively.
"Yes, that is the test. Actually, if you can pull off an advanced bunshin technique, you'll receive an extra credit to your score," Iruka informed.
"Ok, was just checking." Satsuki then brought her hands in a cross shape and exploded out her chakra. "Bunshin no Jutsu!" She called out as a cloud of smoke enveloped the room, when it cleared there were several dozen of Satsuki's in the room, each wearing identical vulpine grins. "Senseis~" They cooed in unison. "Did we pass~?"
"Yes, congratulation you have passed the test as there are thirty perfectly healthy clones here, which more the required," Iruka said, handing her a forehead protector with a black cloth. Satsuki ties it around her neck and walks out smiling at her classmates. Fū looks over at Satsuki.
"So you passed. What jutsu did they ask for?" Fū asks.
"Of course I did. Transformation, substitution, and clones; you know the basic stuff. But you get extra credit if you use advanced techniques."
"Useful to know."
Satsuki had lot had had a lot of trouble with the Bunshin no jutsu in past, no matter what she had done it always seemed to somehow fail. Fū had suffered the same problem, but it had been Hinata who identified what her friends had done wrong. After yet another failed attempt from Satsuki and Fū to do the jutsu, Hinata had offered use her Byakugan to see if it was the way they were molding their chakra that was the problem.
It was then she saw that while that there was no problem with used their chakra, they use way too much of it, overpowering the jutsu, and thereby making it fail. To test this theory, she had asked her friends to instead creating one, they should try create as many clones as they could using the amount chakra. The result had astonishing as the training ground they had been using, was suddenly filled black and green haired little girls.
Hinata then explained what she discovered with her Byakugan, along with anything she thought might help her friends with this particular problem. But neither Fū nor Satsuki had yet managed to create less the thirty clones, but at least they had managed reduce it from being in triple number as it had been in the start. Which was a great progress for them, they thought.
"Fū your up." Iruka calls out. Fū stands up and walks into the room, to pass her test.
/|~{ (- II -) }~|\
TBC
/|~{ (- II -) }~|\
