"talking"
thinking
Kyuubi talking
wWw
Naruto sighed, turning back to his book as they waited for Kakashi Hatake, better known as the "copy ninja;" and now their apparent sensei.
Two hours pass.
"WHERE THE HELL IS HE?" – the pink one
"Hn." – the emo
Another hour.
"WHY ARE WE STILL WAITING HERE?" – the pink one
"Hnn." – the emo
FOR KAMI'S SAKE MAKE THEM SHUT UP! – the fuzz
We both know I can't do that
Pleeease
No.
But-
No.
Psh… I swear, you're worse than the blonde prick that sealed me in here in the first place
Please don't mention my father… ever
Oh, did I touch a nerve?
I'm warning you fox,
Ooooh I'm so scared… not
… whatever you say… fluffers.
I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT
*mentally grins*
Sakura and Sasuke looked curiously over at Naruto, confused by his silence, only to see him slightly cringe at (apparently) nothing. The wince aside, the usually rambunctious child hadn't moved further than occasionally turning pages in his book. As it was, he was well aware that they'd likely be waiting several hours every time it was necessary to meet with the copy nin.
How did he know this? Well, immediately beyond learning of his tenant, she (kyu-chan) had thought it fitting to demonically enhance Naruto's senses. All of his senses, and following the initial shock of the overwhelming… everything, Naruto began using his new gifts for information gathering. Unfortunately for the young container, the more the learned, the more he realized just how little he really had known about the world of his chosen profession beforehand.
That was when he'd come up with the perfect information gathering plan:
paperwork.
Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE knew how much the Hokage detested his paperwork. In reality, it wasn't just the Hokage, every Kage despised the sheer continuity of papers presented for their approval, the overwhelming amount of useless shinobi mission – paperwork that needed to be filed just to keep the economic commerce of a hidden village running.
Surely, the aged kage thought, paperwork was created by none other than a demon.
…
Speaking of demons, the day after his 'discovery,' Naruto made a point to go over to the Hokage's tower and request specifically to help out with the paperwork.
By help out, he'd assumed to find himself slowly siphoning information (valuable or not) from a small workload.
After all, he's only twelve here.
But alas, Naruto did not take into account the idea that no one had ever volunteered to do the paperwork, inevitably causing the office workers to give him everything.
Suffice to say, he ended up with a lot more information than expected and he wasn't entirely sure whether it was really worth it.
Anyway, one of the things these habits left the young boy with was a fairly accurate grasp on many of the 'coping quirks' the jonins of the village exhibited: an example being Kakashi's perpetual lateness & porn addiction.
Among other things
Not that the young jinchirukki would ever admit to partaking in such work…
But that's beside the point,
Feeling his teammates gaze's, Naruto glanced up from the book, "Can I help you?"
"STOP TRYING TO ACT SO COOL NARUTO-BAKA, IT'S NOT WORKING,"
He shrugged before turning back to his book.
Right… why did I ever like her again?
You wanted attention… But that doesn't matter, you should kill them all
Kyuu-chan, we both know I'm not going to senselessly kill people. So please, be constructive with your words.
But why won't you!
Honestly I don't see the point… it's not that I don't want to for all they've done to me, it just seems excessive and I don't really have the means to without detrimental consequences.
But-
No. even you have to understand that the seal is too strong for me to access more that a fraction of your power. So seriously, if I, and by association you, are going to do anything we're going to have to bide our time and get stronger. Forget petty goals and what not. This is only for survival.
…
Naruto was pleased with the newfound silence of his mind.
Unbeknownst to the blonde, one Sasuke Uchiha was diligently churning away within his mind at possible triggers for the 'dead last's' attitude change; and coming up with nothing. Don't misunderstand, the brooding child was abundantly thrilled with his classmates change; the silence, for one, was amazing as he truly wasn't sure if whatever was left of his sanity could deal with two screaming banshees; the reading, as well, prompted the thought that the 'dobe' had given his studies (or lack there of) a one over, deciding to lose former frivolous ways in favor of strength, something the young Uchiha could respect.
Given the less than fortunate events that welcomed Sasuke into the age of six, he found himself hating just about everyone surrounding him in the leaf village. What the hell were they doing, doting over him, while his murderous brother was out there getting stronger? Sure, a large part of the raven-haired child strived, no, hungered for the power to veritably destroy Itachi's life as his 'nii-san' had done his, but he wasn't in any way delusional in the belief that the former leaf nin would allow his own skills to placate as the sole survivor of his rampage trained on. For gods sake, Itachi had been an ANBU captain when he was Sasuke's age!
If that didn't illustrate his rapid growth abilities, the more or less loyal Uchiha wasn't quite sure what did.
Yes. Sasuke Uchiha did not like the village of Konoha whatsoever. It's values were all but a farce that it's citizens (both nin and not) found proper to preach rabidly before just as ardently spitting on them. Something he noted particularly in the village's general treatment of his new teammate.
As far as he was concerned, the blonde didn't seem like a demon; and really, if he was, wouldn't his tormentors have been killed or something? The only reason Sasuke didn't approach the blonde in question was the reaction such a occurrence would've likely ensued, i.e. 'the demon has corrupted the Uchiha!' or 'we must help the Uchiha kill the demon!"
Ridiculous.
He'd also come to notice that he'd unlocked the sharingan the night his family was murdered, as he could feel the chakra reflexively gravitating toward his eyes every time he trained. It was troublesome since he wanted to be a good ninja without his bloodline, having it as a trump card and only that. From how easily his brother murdered the clan, he could see just how overdependence inspired complacency, that of which inspired death.
It is for this same reason that the young Sasuke Uchiha did not it appropriate to mention the activation of his bloodline to anyone. At all.
To be truly honest, since the fateful night that placed him in the graces of Konoha's elders, Sasuke found himself once or twice trying to analyze just why his brother found massacring the clan an apt representation of his skill. The same train of thought forced him to ask himself why on earth his brother had decided to leave him alive...
It just didn't make any sense.
Fifteen minutes later, a silver haired jonin lazily opened the classroom door. Allowing his gaze to pass across his new students, he could only sigh,
"As a first impression… I hate you."
He was met with silence,
"Right," the jonin hesitantly continued, "meet on the roof."
wWw
Kakashi had to give the kids credit:
They were fast,
Well, two of them were.
He'd barely had five minutes of reading time with his precious Icha Icha when Naruto and Sasuke appeared pointedly before him, another five minutes later and the third member of his 'team' arrived, slightly winded from the run.
God how he didn't want to be a teacher.
"So…" the copy nin began, "why don't you all introduce yourselves"
Sakura glanced around nervously, having sufficiently caught her breath, "what do you mean sensei?"
"oh, you know name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams,"
"why don't you go first, so we can get an idea of what to say,"
Kakashi raised his revealed eyebrow, "eh? Fine… My name is Kakashi Hatake; I have no intention of telling you my likes and dislikes… My dreams… I have some hobbies."
Two of the three genin deadpanned, the third sighed,
"Kakashi Hatake. Jounin." Naruto muttered, accessing the mental image of his new sensei's file, "Obtained the sharingan through unfortunately deceased teammate, leading to reputation of having copied over a thousand jutsus. Reads porn in public… often. Leaves one to assume he likes porn,"
Sasuke frowned slightly, ah, so they've assigned this one as my sensei for his ability to help me 'master' the sharingan… no doubt they expect him to express blatant favoritism,
Kakashi's eyes narrowed, "since you're so open about those you've never met, why don't you start us off, whiskers."
"why not," he began monotonously, "my name may or may not be Naruto Uzumaki. I live my life one day at a time, for now at least… do you happen have any sake Hatake-san?"
Almost immediately after the words left his lips, a screech was heard,
"WHAT THE HELL NARUTO-BAKA, CAN'T YOU EVEN GET AN INTRODUCTION RIGHT!"
Kakashi nodded thoughtfully, choosing to utterly ignore his pinkette student for the time being, "now Naruto, what makes you think I'd have any sake on me?"
Sakura blanched, "WHY ARE YOU ENCOURAGING HIM?"
"Correct me if I'm wrong, Hatake-san," Naruto piqued, "but I found it appropriate to assume a certain level of, albeit well masked, depression on your part, given the loss of just about every quote unquote precious person you've ever encountered. That is unless you count one Gai Maito as a precious person… which I'd personally find hard to believe."
Kakashi blinked, this was not at all what he expected from his sensei's son, nor was it what his student's file prepared him for, "I'm sorry Naruto," he sighed, "I do not have any sake on my person, perhaps next time… so, pinky, you're next,"
Sakura frowned internally at the nickname but resolved to apply a sickly sweet smile to her features, "I'm Sakura Haruno, the things I like… I mean the person I like-"
There was a squeal as she glanced at Sasuke,
"my hobbies-"
another squeal,
"my dreams for the future-"
a louder squeal, prompting several birds to leave their perch,
"So what do you dislike, Sakura?" Kakashi asked, hesitantly,
"NARUTO-BAKA!"
"Right…" the copy nin commented, "why don't you finish this off, broody,"
Sasuke furrowed his brows slightly, why did people insist of making fun of his generally darkened demeanor? His entire family had been killed right before his eyes, didn't that account for some level of assumed discontent? Did they really expect him to adopt some sort of joy-shitted mask for their own selfish benefit?
Apparently they did.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I like very little and dislike quite a lot; more specifically those who faultily try to mitigate their own mistakes and those who disregard strength for more… shallow purposes," he glared at his pink-haired teammate who, didn't notice. "I have some goals to accomplish, most centrally solving a difficult case to avenge various innocents."
Sakura stared at the object of her affections dreamily, no doubt lavishly recanting his speech in her own mind,
Naruto glanced at both of his teammates before exhaling softly,
This is a most unfortunate turn of events… if anything my future prospects have already been set back… ah shit,
Oh hush, you're already more talented than them,
That's only because I've been buffed up with near continuous knowledge from my clones,
Come visit me in the seal later, we need to have a talk,
He frowned, not used to hearing more than one sentence at a time from the demon that didn't involve mindless slaughter,
Sure, I'll be there after this meeting,
What did he have to lose, right?
"all right you three," Kakashi droned, arms crossed, "we're going to be meeting tomorrow at training ground seven at… lets say six am,"
"what are we meeting for, sensei?" Sakura asked,
The copy nin tapped his chin lightly before breaking out into a slight chuckle, "you guys aren't going to be pleased if I tell you,"
"why's that?" Naruto muttered, "cause you've failed all your previous students?"
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT NARUTO-BAKA!"
"He's right!" Kakashi said, startling the students slightly as his visible eye turned into an amused crease, "tomorrow you three will embark in a survival test to see if you're really genin material that has an overall fail-rate of sixty six percent… however, my personal fail-rate as Naruto so aptly mentioned is one hundred percent!" He was grinning at this point, not that anyone could see it,
"b-but we just passed the genin test!" Sakura stammered,
"don't you see," Sasuke spoke up, "that was just to weed out the hopeless, tomorrow is the real deal,"
"you've got it!" Kakashi said, still smiling, in truth this was his favorite part of the assignment, as it was the only legal way he could get out of teaching for the year,
That and it was funny to watch them squirm,
Jonins of his caliber didn't have time to get out much, and therefore didn't see much humor in their day to day lives,
"All right then, kids," he said, "I'll see you then, and don't eat breakfast… you'll puke."
With that, he disappeared in a poof of smoke,
After waiting a few moments, Naruto stood and left, not checking if his teammates were following, it was unimportant after all.
wWw
Back at his apartment, Naruto sat cross legged on his bed, meditating until his felt a now familiar pull on his consciousness. Within seconds he was sitting before a large cage in his mindscape,
"I'm here, Kyuu-chan!" he called out,
"coming, coming," a feminine voice replied, as a figure walked toward him, stopping at the edge of the cage, "come closer, it's so awkward with you sitting all the way over there!"
Standing at 5'10" she looked to be no older than seventeen, with thick crimson hair flowing to the center of her back, matching the blood red shade that flooded her eyes less the slight black slits along the centers in place of pupils.
She wore a small black kimono that ended around the center of her thighs, it was decorated with similarly crimson accents, adding a more or less formal look to make up for her bare legs and feet.
Her delicate yet plush lips twitched in response to Naruto's inaction, threatening to fall into a guilt-inducing pout, before she abandoned such efforts in favor of a feral grin that promptly displayed her sharpened canines,
"don't tell me you're actually afraid of lil old me?" she sang, attempting to goad the indifferent teen,
He sighed, getting up and moving until he was standing opposite her in front of the cage.
"why have you asked me to come here?" he inquired,
"can't I just want to spend some time with my ah-dorable little host?"
"no. from what I've heard and seen of you so far, all you ever want is continuous destruction; so tell me, why the sudden change?"
Her grin widened, "well someone's gotten perceptive~"
He stared at her blankly,
"Fine," she sighed, "as you know, all of your senses are reflected within the seal. I see what you see, hear what you hear, feel what you feel etc…" she looked away, her eyes gaining a far-off glaze, "I want to feel the splash of blood against my face, hear the crunch as neck joints fall to the pressure of my hands," she glanced at her hands, "see as blood cascades from human vitals," she faced Naruto, who's expression hadn't changed, "are you catching my drift?"
He nodded, "this is nothing new, you want me to torture and kill people senselessly."
"it's not senseless!" she snapped, "it's art!"
"Sure." He said, "you want me to take up art… this is nothing new."
"I haven't gotten to my proposition."
"okay, what is it?"
"you're going to start getting missions soon, and no doubt eventually you will come to points where you are given an option between sparing your opponents or terminating their miserable lives. What I'm asking you to do is simply choose the latter. Every. Single. Time."
Naruto looked around, his eyes gaining a thoughtful presence, "what would I get out of this little accord of yours?"
Kyuubi's eyes crinkled as she smiled broadly,
She was starting to like this container, he was more interesting than most flesh-bags she encountered.
DUN DUN DUNNN
I wanted to experiment with Sasuke's character more than the usual "I'm an Uchiha avenger, fear me" cliché so he's been given his own little expose. I truly do believe that if he'd used his brain a little, he could've been a half-decent character.
In other news~
I've always been a little torn at the concept of a "nice, loving" Kyuubi. I mean, I absolutely love the pairing in itself, I'm just unsure about her personality.
As such, you may come to notice in this story there will be no lovey-dovey shit.
Frankly, the essence of their relationship with be that of reluctant "fuck buddies,"
Then again, that could just be because I like the term "fuck buddies"
Whoever coined it should be proud
Also, I will say now (before anyone decides to ask) that it is unlikely for Kyuubi and Naruto to procreate much before the time-skip… since… you know… he's twelve -_-
Bye now