Zaraki no Apprentice
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author's Note: All zanpaku-to have been decided. Thank you, all of you, for your input. A special thanks goes out to cmcwiki; thank you for all of your help. This chapter would have taken much longer to finish without your help.
Chapter Two
Exams and Rude Awakenings
**********************************************the next day****************************************************
The next day, nothing really happened. They all woke up and ate breakfast. Then Ikkaku and Kenpachi went out to train. Because they didn't have the patience for it, Yumichika began teaching Naruto and Yachiru kido and zanjutsu theory. They were told they weren't old enough to start physical training. At the end of the day they all ate dinner, then went about preparing for bed. The End.
*************************************************the next day, 6am*******************************************
It was a wonderful morning in the Clan District of the Leaf Village. Everyone was sleeping peacefully. However, it was not to last. The Clans were about to get a rude awakening. But they had no way to know what was about to happen. No way to prepare. If only they had sent someone to meet their new neighbors, they might have had a warning. They might have known how… eccentric their neighbors were. No warning, no preparation. This could not end well.
"MY HAIR! WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BEAUTIFUL, PRECIOUS HAIR! AHHHHHHHHHH !"
… Yes, a rude awakening indeed. Every head in the Clan District snapped up. They were all thinking the same thing; 'What the He** was that?' Little did they realize this was their new neighbor, and this would happen almost every morning. But they learned quickly, and took to wearing earplugs to bed. Of course, this was also good for invasions. How, you may ask? Well, Yumichika is so loud, he makes the ninja go deaf. And, therefore, become easy pickings for the Clans. They actually made a contest out of it. And Yumichika became known as the Leaf's Male Siren. Enemy ninja across the Elemental Nations learned to fear the auditory power of this non- Sound ninja. J Anyway, back to the story.
************************************same time, Kenpachi & Co.'s house***********************************
"YUMICHIKA!" resounded through the house, courtesy of Kenpachi and Ikkaku.
"WHAT!" Yumichika shrieks.
"SHUT UP! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!"
"BUT MY HAIR-," whines Yumichika.
"I DON'T CARE! BE QUIET!"
"FINE!"
************************************************2 hours later**************************************************
"Good morning, everyone! Time to get up!" chirps Yumichika as he glides across the second floor, hair now in presentable condition.
Ikkaku and Kenpachi emerge from their rooms, grumbling. All that can be heard from the children's rooms was snoring. Yumichika walks into Naruto's room, intent on waking him up.
"Naruto…" More snoring. "Naruto."
He waits a few seconds. "Naruto!" No response.
"WAKE UP! YOU CAN'T SPEND ALL DAY SLEEPING! YOU NEED TO GET READY!"
"nnnnn…"
"WAKE UP ALREADY! ARE YOU DEAF!"
"SHUT UP, FEATHER-BOY!" is heard from next door.
"JUST WAKE UP ALREADY! HE'S GIVING ME A HEADACHE!" echoes up the steps from the kitchen.
"OKAY, KEN-CHAN!" the patter of footsteps is heard as Yachiru gets ready for the day ahead. "Wait for me!" shouts Naruto, rushing around Yumichika.
Yumichika walks downstairs, eye twitching. "Kenpachi, from now on, you're waking them up."
"Hnnn…"
****************************************************an hour later**********************************************
"Alright then, is everyone ready?" asks Yumichika, in a good mood once again.
"Yup!" chorus Naruto and Yachiru.
Kenpachi and Ikkaku just glare at Yumichika.
"What did I do?"
"YOU WOKE ME UP AT 6 WITH YOUR SHRIEKING!" they announce.
"Then wear earplugs."
"…"
*****************************************30 minutes later, Hokage's office**********************************
"Ah, good. You're here." The Hokage handed Kenpachi a stack of papers. "Here are Naruto's adoption papers. Fill them out and then we'll head to the stadium."
Kenpachi grumbled, but got to work on filling out the paperwork.
****************************************************25 minutes later******************************************
"And here we are," announced the Hokage, "We're going to do this the simple way; you'll each have a one on one match with one of our jonin. Then we'll decide your rank based on the skills you show in your match."
"Got it."
"Naruto, Yachiru, you'll have to come with me; you're too young, you'll have to go through the Ninja Academy."
"'Kay," they chorused sullenly. They followed the Hokage up to the stands, taking seats close to the menagerie of people wearing the hitai-ate that declared them as Leaf ninja.
The Hokage cleared his throat. "You all know why you're here. Let's begin. Yumichika Ayasegawa vs. Hayate Gekko. Please make your way to the stadium floor." As he spoke, Yumichika made his way down the steps and onto the field. Hayate jumped from the stands, landing on the opposite side of the field. Yumichika took this chance to examine his opponent.
Hayate Gekko was currently coughing, which made others think he was unfit for battle. He had pale skin, it had a slightly green tint to it. Hayate chose to wear the normal attire for jonin, with his hitai-ate worn as a bandanna on his head.
"How ugly! How can you stand to go out in public when you look like that?" questioned Yumichika.
"…"
"Remember, no killing or permanent injury. Participants ready?" questioned the Hokage loudly. Hayate took a ready stance; Yumichika simply continued looking disgusted by Hayate's appearance. The Hokage turned his head, looking at the participants. Seeing Hayate's ready stance, and the fact Yumichika had never even bothered to change his stance at all, he assumed they were ready.
"Very well then. HAJIME!"
Hayate rushed across the field towards Yumichika. Yumichika, seeing this, took off, drawing his sword as he went. Hayate noticed the sword in his opponent's hand, and drew his own while continuing his headlong rush across the field.
They met in the center of the field, swords clashing. The 2 swordfighters began an intricate dance of flashing metal; feints, parries, slashes, and stabs reflecting the sunlight. After several minutes, they jumped apart to regain their breath.
The Leaf ninja were shocked. Not many people could match Hayate in a swordfight; most of them were in ANBU. Naruto watched in awe.
"Impressive. Very few people can last that long against me. But it's time to end this," announced Hayate.
"I agree, but I fear that you will not be the victor." Yumichika seemed to be gathering his energy. "Split and deviate, Ruri'iro Kujaku." As he finished speaking, his sword turned into multiple, iridescent blue tentacles, which wrapped around Hayate's limbs and torso. The tentacles began to grow flowers.
"What the He** is this?" exclaimed Hayate.
"'This,' as you called it, is Ruri'iro Kujaku's power," explained Yumichika, "It completely drains you of chakra, usually resulting in death. However, I can stop the process whenever I want."
"The way you talk, this isn't your power."
"While my zanpaku-to and I may be separate entities, Ruri'iro Kujaku cannot exist without me, as he is an extension of my soul."
"So it's a Kekkai Genkai?" questions Hayate, his head starting to droop.
"No, anyone can obtain a zanpaku-to with the proper training, but if you don't have the training, you'll probably die. I suppose it's like the Hijutsu many Clans have." After finishing his statement, Yumichika deactivated and sheathed his zanpaku-to. Hayate fell to the ground, drained of energy.
"Don't feel ashamed, no one can win against Ruri'iro Kujaku," announced Yumichika. Hayate started coughing again, this time much worse than before. Mednin rushed out and herded him into the infirmary, presumably to treat his cough.
"Well, that was weird." Yumichika made his way back to the stands, taking a seat beside Ikkaku.
"Next, Ikkaku Madarame vs. Chouza Akimichi," announced the Hokage.
Ikkaku and his opponent both used the steps to enter the field. Then proceed to size each other up.
"Why do you shave your hair off?" questioned Chouza.
"I don't shave my hair." A tick mark appeared over Ikkaku's eye.
"Then you're bald," stated Chouza.
"I'm not bald," Ikkaku announced bluntly. The tick mark got bigger. 'He's dead.' was the collective thought of Yumichika, Yachiru, and Kenpachi.
"How can you not have hair, not be bald, and don't shave it off? That makes no sense."
"Listen, fatso, I'm not bald. I don't shave my hair, either." Ikkaku was getting pissed. The tick mark got even bigger. 'He's dead.' was the collective thought of the Leaf ninja.
"What did you just call me, baldy?"
"Are you deaf? I called you 'fatso,' and for the last time, I'm not bald!"
"You're going to pay for that!" Chouza starts a headlong rush across the field, intent on turning Ikkaku into a pancake. But, up in the stands, there was currently a conversation going on, so no one was really paying attention.
A Leaf ninja turned to Kenpachi and Yumichika. "You're friend's as good as dead. Not even Lord Hokage will stand in the way of an enraged Akimichi. I hope the rest of you decide to stay."
There were a few moments of silence. Then, Yumichika spoke up. "Ikkaku won't die."
All the Leaf ninja stared at him in shock. "What are you talking about? There's no way he can survive. He called an Akimichi fat!" exclaimed Inoichi. "And not just any Akimichi. Chouza is the Clan Head. He's not a pushover."
"That may be, but the only person who ever got close to killing Ikkaku is Kenpachi," said Yumichika. "And that was years ago. Ikkaku's gotten stronger since then. Not to mention Ikkaku didn't have his zanpaku-to when he fought Kenpachi."
At this point in time, they all became aware of the happenings of the fight. Chouza's headlong charge made it sound as if a stampede had entered the stadium. They all turned back to the fight.
Ikkaku, seeing Chouza heading towards him at what was probably top speed, decided to actually start the battle. So, in true Eleventh division form (note: soul society does not exist in this fanfic, it's just a comparison), he released his zanpaku-to.
"Extend, Hozukimaru!" shouted Ikkaku. As he spoke, he unsheathed his zanpaku-to, then took the hilt and stuck that into the sheathe, and his zanpaku-to proceeded to change its form from sealed to shikai.
The Leaf ninja were shocked. Why were they shocked? Well, Ikkaku's shikai was not nearly as… unique as Yumichika's. No, it was only a naginata. There didn't seem to be anything special about it, except for the tuft of red fur on the end. They were honestly expecting something more impressive.
Ikkaku raised his naginata in front of him, a meager defense for the oncoming onslaught. The force of Chouza's charge flung Ikkaku backwards and into the wall. A large crater formed where Ikkaku hit, the rubble falling on top of him.
"That's what you get for calling me a fatso! I'm big-boned, not fat." And with that, Chouza began walking away, back towards the stands. He made it to within a few yards of the stands.
Then he heard the rubble shift, some falling to the ground. Ikkaku slowly stood up from the rubble. "Don't count me out yet," he rasped.
"Oh? And how do you plan on fighting me? Your weapon has been shattered. You won't stand a chance without it."
Ikkaku snorted. "It's easy enough to fix. All I have to do is reseal it. Or use bankai."
"Really?"
"Yep. But I'm not one for explaining things. So how 'bout I just show you?"
Chouza narrowed his eyes, glaring at Ikkaku.
"I'll take that as a yes. BANKAI!" shouted Ikkaku. A cloud of energy swirled around Ikkaku. Purple-black lightning flashed through the clouds, while dragons of red energy appeared from the swirl and crashed back down into it. When it cleared, the Leaf ninja were shocked. Ikkaku was holding what looked to be oddly shaped curved axes with tufts of red fur as hand guards of a sort. Weights were placed at the end of the bandage-wrapped handles. Thick chains connected the axes to a toothless saw blade with a dragon-shaped gauge on it. The end of the dragon's tail was glowing bright red, and the red was slowly, very, very, slowly, spreading up the design. Each blade was at least as long as Ikkaku was tall.
"Ryuumon Hozukimaru."
"What's this? It's quite large, but that doesn't make it any better than what you had before."
Ikkaku snorted once more. "That's debatable. But unfortunately, Hozukimaru is a lazy bum, and is still asleep. That's what the gauge is for. When it is completely red, then it's at full power." The red had reached the dragon's hind feet.
"Then I don't see how it's going to help you in any battle. What good will it do if it takes 10 minutes to start working?"
"I don't think you heard me correctly. I said it's not at full power yet, not that it hasn't started working."
Chouza said nothing more, opting instead to once again try to turn Ikkaku into a pancake. Ikkaku saw this and jumped, axes and all, over Chouza's head and to a little over the half-way point of the field. The red reached the middle of the dragon. Chouza stopped and turned around in yet another headlong charge to squish his opponent. This time, Ikkaku grabbed the handle on the saw like part of Hozukimaru and started spinning it in circles, causing the axes to fly in circles around Ikkaku. This, of course, is quite an effective shield, because no sane person wants to get close to axes that big when they're flying around like that. The red reached the dragon's front legs.
However, Chouza could not stop in time, and was slashed straight across his chest. 'Oh! That's gotta hurt!' was the thought running through everyone's minds. Then, gravity had apparently decided to take a vacation, because Chouza didn't fall nearly as fast as he should've, and got slashed across the chest once more. Chouza stumbled back a few stepped, dropped to one knee, and put a hand to his chest in a futile effort to stop the bleeding, breathing heavily. The wounds weren't really that deep, they were just long, and thicker than normal, criss-crossing his chest to form an 'x' shape.
He stayed in that position and watched as the red filled up the rest of the dragon. A slight explosion of power occurred when the gauge filled completely. Ikkaku grabbed the axe handles and swung one forward, bringing it to the side of Chouza's neck.
"Do you forfeit?" questioned Ikkaku, smirking.
"It would seem I have no choice," replied Chouza.
"WINNER! IKKAKU!" announced the Hokage.
Down on the field Ikkaku resealed his zanpaku-to, placing it back in the sheath and slinging it over his shoulder. Mednin once more rushed onto the field, helping Chouza up and into the infirmary. Ikkaku made his way back to the stands.
"Final match! Kenpachi Zaraki vs. Kakashi Hatake!" announced the Hokage.
Kenpachi chuckled. "Finally, my turn."
"I suspect they had you go last so that you had a chance to destroy the stadium without interfering with our matches," supplied Yumichika.
"Whatever."
Kenpachi walked onto the field, grinning like a maniac. Kakashi jumped onto the field. Both opponents were surprised to see the other wearing an eye patch, or, in Kakashi's case, covering his eye with his hitai-ate.
"Well, well. It looks like we're both hiding something," comments Kenpachi.
"Oh? And what's that supposed to mean?"
"I have 2 working eyes. And I doubt you'd be a ninja if you were missing an eye."
"A good observation," announced Kakashi. "So what do you say? Let's go all out from the start."
"You sure?" Kakashi nods.
"Alright then." Kenpachi's grin gets bigger. He rips off his eye patch, which is instantaneously followed by an explosion of chakra.
"HOLY SH**!" echoed through the stands. No one was sure how he had hidden that with an eye patch.
"You're probably wondering how he hid all that power with an eye patch," said Yumichika. All the Leaf ninja whipped their heads around so fast, they got whiplash. Ikkaku took over. "It isn't a normal eye patch. It was made to eat his excess chakra."
"Why would he do that? And who made it?"
"Ken-chan got it from the freaky penguin dude. He wanted to do a lot of painful tests on me." She said all this without taking her eyes off Kenpachi's fight.
"Why?"
It was Yumichika who answered. "He wanted to find out why she has pink hair."
"This guy sounds messes up."
"He is." Ikkaku looked disgusted.
"Definitely," agreed Yumichika.
As they were speaking, Kakashi had raised his hitai-ate off his eye, revealing the scar and his Sharingan. The 3 tomoe spinning wildly as he observed his opponent, waiting for his first attack.
"Hehehe, alright then. Let's do this." Kenpachi unsheathed his zanpaku-to. "Shred, Meitsukimaru!" Kenpachi's ragged-edged sword widened as the edge smoothed out. Crescent moon shaped blades appeared all over the sword, the points sticking out. It was one of the oddest weapons the Leaf ninja had ever seen.
"Well… I can't say I've ever seen a weapon like that. What did you call it? A meitsukimaru?"
"No, this is my zanpaku-to. Her name is Meitsukimaru."
"It's a girl."
"Yup."
"Why did you make it a girl?" questioned Kakashi.
"I didn't. I don't know why my zanpaku-to is a girl. She just is."
"So a zanpaku-to's gender isn't based on the gender of the wielder."
"Exactly. It's just more common for a zanpaku-to to have the same gender."
"I see."
"No more talking. Time for battle!" announced Kenpachi.
And with that, Kenpachi rushed forward, brandishing his sword. He slashed at Kakashi, who dodged, correctly assuming it would be quite painful, and deciding he didn't want to experience it for himself. Kakashi retaliated by using Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu.
It never reached its target. Kenpachi flared his energy, therefore protecting himself from the fire. Kenpachi once again rushed toward Kakashi, but this time, Kakashi was still in shock by Kenpachi flaring his chakra to block his attack, and didn't dodge in time. Meitsukimaru came down on his arm, tearing Kakashi's flesh into ribbons. Kakashi's eyes widened in pain as he jumped back to dodge Kenpachi's follow up strike.
After several minutes of Kenpachi attacking while Kakashi dodged, Kenpachi decided to up the playing field. "BANKAI!"
The Leaf ninja leaned forward in their seats, curious as to what Kenpachi's bankai would look like. After all, they wanted to compare it to Ikkaku's. What they saw was not what they were expecting.
Kenpachi's zanpaku-to glowed bright white, taking the form of a claymore, and the points on the crescents grew out into spikes. It was a very dangerous looking weapon.
"Odd. I was under the impression that bankai turned it into a different weapon completely," commented Kakashi.
"Some do, some don't."
And with that, the process continued on. Kenpachi attacked, Kakashi dodged. Kenpachi attacked again, Kakashi got out of the way. Once again, this lasted for several minutes. Kenpachi was starting to get annoyed. So, he decided to use a move he only used when his opponent refused to fight him head on.
Materialization.
AN: Sorry, I was going to finish Kenpachi's fight, but I've kept you guys waiting long enough. That, and it seemed a good place to stop. And just incase you didn't read the note at the top, ALL ZANPAKU-TO HAVE BEEN DECIDED. Please don't leave any more suggestions. And a hint for upcoming chapters, courtesy of cmcwiki: Anti-fangirl Syndrome: the interest of a fanclub is interested in a girl outside the fanclub, who has no interest in him. And Yachiru gets a named zanpaku-to!
REVIEW!