The Demonic Duo

Pt. 1: The First

By: Shinda-Shikai + Dragondancer81

"You want to prank the hokage?" I demanded incredulously. "But he's like, your Grandpa!"

"Exactly!" Naruto answered excitedly. "It means, if he finds us out, we won't be killed!"

I face-palmed. What is with this kid?

"He'll be the most likely person in this whole village to find us out!" I pointed out, though Naruto just shrugged confidently.

It was midday, it was lunchtime. We'd gone into the academy for morning lessons because Iruka had managed to entice us with promises that we'd be learning a 'really cool jutsu', which actually happened to be learning to stick a leaf to our foreheads. A leaf. A leaf in the leaf village, gee so original Iruka. Such a 'fun' jutsu- ps I can see your propaganda! It's a conspiracy! A conspiracy I tell you!

Psht. Can't trust teachers. 'Cool' my ass, and I'm pretty sure it didn't even count as a jutsu.

Although Kiyoshi and Junko had really pushed for me and Naruto to go in this morning too, since they'd found out we'd been skipping.

"You will go in today, you will learn and you will come back and teach us what you learnt!" Junko had ordered harshly. Hence, here we were like the obedient Gang members we were. Even Naruto had been cowed.

And that was that. There was no disobeying the leader, after all.

But still, we had an hour lunch break, which if executed well we'd have the prank finished by the end.

"Alright, let's do this."

-Twenty minutes later-

We'd had to dash to Naruto's orphanage and slip in to grab our gear. I had been storing my Kuro Neko mask and wig here, which I was eternally grateful for otherwise Kiyoshi may have found it if I'd left it at his.

I'd pulled on my black and white cat pranking mask and wig, while Naruto did the same with his fox mask and orange wig. We'd thrown simple black cloaks over our clothes to cover them, hoods further enhancing our disguises.

"Ok, so this is going to be a simple prank. All we want is paint. Red should do."

And then we'd found ourselves hidden behind the hokage's tower, waiting for the patrolling chunin to pass.

"See, there's this air ventilation thing that we can get into…" Naruto whispered.

How did he know this? Don't ask me. I had discovered that sometimes it is better not to ask.

I crawled after him as he ducked behind a bush that was, indeed, hiding a ventilation shaft. Naruto delicately pulled the metal thing off the wall of the tower, behind which hid the shaft, then gestured for me to follow as he went in.

It was musty and dark in the shaft- it smelt strange too. Wonder what that smell is?

Scratch. Scratch.

"Did you hear something Kitsune?"
"Huh what… Who's Kitsune?" Wow- such an intelligent answer. I'm so glad that our pranking career is depending on this guy.
If I were Sasuke my answer would be: Kitsune is you you dobe! Pay attention- Blah blah blah I need to kill someone, blah blah blah I'm angsty and whiny. But lucky for Naruto, I am not Sasuke.

"You're Kitsune remember? It's your codename. We don't want people to know our actual names because if they did then they'd come after us."

"Oh yeah that makes sense."

I must resist the urge to face-palm… I must resist the urge to face-palm… I must… resist.

"Who's going to come after you kiddies?"

"Aiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

"Kitsune run! I swear it just touched my leg!" Ewww… Oh kami! What the hell is this thing? Why is it following us? Is it some enemy ninja?

Two powerful hands clamped down on the mouths of Naruto and I as twin snakes curled around our waists. Immobilizing us and leaving us to the mercy of whatever hellish creature had been stalking two children through the vents.

Ohmygod!Snakes!Orochimaru!HEFOUNDOUT!Helpwe'regoingtodieandthereisnothingwecandosomeonesaveme-

"Pipe down will ya kiddies? I don't want Ibiki to find me… not after that stunt I pulled this morning."

Excuse me?

It wasn't Orochimaru, it was...

There was no doubt as to who this was. I didn't know whether to cry with happiness or annoyance.

I struggled with the hand clamped over my mouth, my voice annoyingly muffled.

I think I'll go with annoyed…

After a few moments, Anko seemed to realise why there was no reply.

"Right, sorry kids, just don't go around screaming," and she finally removed the hands from our mouths.

I turned and sneered at the purple-haired woman behind us, tugging at the snakes binding my waist. They let up and slithered back into the sleeves of her beige trench coat.

What's she doing up here?

"Who are you and what are you doing up here?" Naruto demanded, similarly miffed at being cuffed and gagged.

Anko shrugged.

"I dropped a stink bomb in here this morning. Made all the rooms in this place smell like shit- er, poop. So I got assigned to clean this thing out as punishment. And who are you two brats? You can't just go crawling around the hokage's tower, anyone else would have slaughtered you," She drawled.

"I'm Neko, that's Kitsune," I told her, "and we're here to pull a prank too so don't get in our way."

"Really?" Anko said, eyes drifting to the paint Naruto was holding. "I never would have guessed. Sorry though, I should stop you and take you in for questioning. You could be spies, after all."

Naruto and I tensed simultaneously.

So much for the reign of Kitsune and Neko. Our prankster duo would be over before it could even start.

"We're not spies…" Naruto said weakly.

Anko grinned evilly. "Sorry kiddies, that just isn't gonna fly."

Crappiness.

I exchanged a glance with Naruto, something passing between us so fast I was moving before I really knew what I was doing. All I knew was that if we didn't get out of this situation, it would be bad.

I slammed my hand down on the panel of the ventilation shaft that Anko currently occupied, while Naruto opened the paint tin and threw the contents at Anko.

Anko let out a yell as the shaft panel beneath her gave away and she dropped into the unsuspecting room below, a litre of paint following her descent.

"…she seriously needs more punishment than just cleaning the vents-"

The voice from the room below was cut off as a young woman dropped from nowhere and landed on the tall, scarred man to whom the voice belonged, causing him to slam in to the desk before which he was standing.

The desk slid a good metre at the impact, causing the man sitting behind it to be rudely shoved over, chair notwithstanding.

Red paint rained from the heavens, splattering both the desk, paperwork on said desk, and the three figures.

There was a groan from the old man, who pulled his red hat over his face.

Naruto and I peeked timidly into the room, horror dawning.

Then we were crawling as fast as possible through the vents, as silently as possible.

"ANKO!" Ibiki roared.

Thus began the reign of the Demonic Duo.