Positive and Negative Aspects of Life
Written By KuroshiroNoKitsune
Chapter 3 – Four Years
I own NOTHING
EDIT- I fixed the spelling of Neji's name.
So, I should probably tell you that when I say 'as soon as possible' I really mean 'as soon as I want to'. Ya. Sorry about that. I hope you guys still remember what happened and are still willing to read this. And aren't afraid that I died. I'm a horrible person.
Any who, let's get this show on the road. Sit back, relax, grab yourself a bucket of popcorn, and commence your journey into my insanity.
Four years is a long time. Quite enough time, in fact, for things to change drastically in a hidden village. It doesn't, however, mean that that happened.
As Zen stared stoically over the edge of the Hokage monument, everything seemed exactly like it was before. The people were happy and the children ran around playing. She had even spotted one that looked exactly like the picture of a young Third Hokage that she'd seen in a book.
She hated it; hated the fact that they could act so innocent and happy when just four years ago they had driven two innocent six year-olds out of their village. She wanted them to feel the amount of pain they had dealt on her and her twin. She hated them.
"Zen, are you going to mope there all day?" Jiraya. He'd really taken to bothering the twins. Zen more so than Naru.
"It was my intention, yes." Zen replied in her usual monotone.
Jiraya sent her a flat look before grabbing her by the legs and hoisting her over his shoulder.
Zen's eyes widened and she let out a short shriek, "Oji-san! Let me down!"
Jiraya chuckled heartily, "No can do, Zen-hime."
Zen glared at him as he ran across rooftops. Being able to observe things at top speed was always so cool; the way they sped past your field of vision, leaving blurs of color in their wake.
She was jerked out of her thoughts as she was dumped onto the ground on the grounds of a building that was eerily familiar. The ninja academy.
"Now that you're back, Ero-sennin, mind telling us why we're here?" Zen looked up at the angry face of her sister. It was obvious they'd been dumped there the exact same way.
Jiraya chuckled and helped Zen up, "You'll see," He said before disappearing.
Zen looked in her hand where her godfather had left a letter sealed tight. It had the name "Umino Iruka" on it.
Zen blinked and looked up at the academy, "I'm going to go ahead and assume he's a teacher here."
"Do you thin-" Naru started.
"Yes." Zen intervened, knowing already what her twin was thinking.
The Hokage and their Godfather had sent them here to become students.
Zen and Naru exchanged glances and nodded. The two culprits would definitely have something to answer when they got to them, but for now they had a mission. And they never failed a mission.
Naru led them confidently into the building. It had always been a bit of a habit to let Naru lead, even if Zen wasn't the naive, shy little girl she had been in the past.
They walked down hallway after hallway until they found a room labeled "Umino Iruka," just like the envelope. Zen was about to knock on the door when Naru extended her leg into a powerful kick that sent the door off its hinges.
"Message to Umino Iruka from the Hokage," Naru announced easily.
"There is a thing called subtly, Naru-chan," Zen reprimanded lightly.
Naru glanced at her sister and smirked. She obviously had a plan that could very well turn out the exact opposite of what they wanted.
Naru turned her head to see a shocked looking teacher and class, before grasping Zen's wrist, fixing a grin on her face, and walking up the teacher.
"I'm very sorry for the interruption of your class, sir," Zen said, releasing herself and bowing formally, "We were sent with a message from Hokage-sama," She straightened herself and handed Iruka the letter.
The stunned teacher reached out to grab the letter before reading it quickly, "So you two are to join my class? My name is Umino Iruka. Could you please introduce yourselves?"
Naru took the initiative to go first, "Of course, Iruka-sensei! Hi, my name is Naru Uzumaki and my dream is to be the first female Hokage, dattebayo!"
Hokage? Dattebayo? Naru hadn't said either of those in years.
As Naru bounded up the stairs to two empty seats, Zen inwardly smirked. So that's what she's planning. Deception.
Zen bowed lightly towards the class, "Ano, my name is Zen Uzumaki. Please excuse my sister's flamboyancy," just to get the wanted effect of 'shy girl,' Zen allowed herself to blush in embarrassment before heading over to her sister.
Later that day, right before it was time to leave, their year in the academy was scheduled to have a fight with the class one year ahead of them. Apparently, they did this at the end of each week to check what they needed their students to improve on. This week their elders got to choose their sparring partners.
Zen sat calmly in the shade of a nearby tree, watching them fight silently, while Naru stood a few feet away cheering loudly. Zen smiled in amusement at her sister's childish antics.
She noticed that the only one from their year to actually beat one of the older kids was an arrogant looking boy named Uchiha Sasuke, who was fought by a boy who was too confident for his own good. The Uchiha boy looked proud of his win, but Zen saw how badly the older boy was at fighting.
Soon enough, a girl with buns in her hair was told to choose her opponent. Tenten, Zen could have sworn that was what she heard for the girl's name. Tenten scanned the crowd before her eyes landed on Zen's jumping sister. Or, more precisely, they landed on the pair of tonfas hanging from her utility belt.
"You," Tenten said, pointing directly at Naru, "Let's see what you can do with those tonfas."
Naru grinned and bounced up to the circle they were to battle in.
Giving her tonfas a little spin, Naru got into a very shaky and incorrect form of the first fighting style she'd ever learned for the tonfas. Zen got the feeling she was trying to look like an amateure.
Iruka yelled start and Tenten took a bow staff out of a scroll. Naru twirled her tonfas a few times before running at her sparring partner, unleashing a volley of twirling hits, all of which Tenten blocked easily before going for a hit to the stomach. Naru saw and swung her tonfa down to block too early. Tenten changed the course of her attack and sent Naru flying through the air with a powerful blow to the jaw. Naru allowed herself to fall flat on her back and block another attack by Tenten, who had come running after her.
Naru growled lightly and swung one tonfa up at Tenten's face, which she blocked, but the other quickly followed down at her stomach. Tenten stumbled back holding her stomach and Naru flipped up from her position on the ground, stumbling on her feet. Tenten took a chance to attack Naru with a jab to the stomach followed by a swing to the head. Naru blocked the jab but had to jump back to avoid the hit, effectively ending the match by exiting the arena.
"Oh, man! That was just getting fun too! Maybe we can spar again next week, Tenten. I'll train real hard!" Naru exclaimed.
Tenten smiled, both panting heavily, "I'll look forward to it."
They both walked over to the sidelines to talk about weapons as the next person was called up.
This 'Rock Lee' kid seemed… interesting, to say the least. When he walked out, everyone seemed to laugh at him and he seemed almost… lonely. But he was determined. Zen could see it in his eyes as he picked a young Hyuga girl named Hinata.
"This could be interesting," Zen said, sitting up taller than usual.
There was a scoff from nearby, "Don't count on it. Lee is a weakling who can only use Taijutsu and Hinata-sama is afraid of her own shadow."
Zen jumped slightly. She hadn't really expected anyone to sit near her. Or reply to her, for that matter. She looked over at the person, who was sitting against a tree a few feet away. He had pure white eyes and long black hair with white bandages covering his forehead.
She shook herself out of her musings to reply quietly, "You never know, they could surprise you."
He scoffed again before turning his attention to Zen, who had already turned hers back to the soon-to-start brawl.
Over the years, the girls had changed their appearance to make them seem more like the ninja they had been trained to be. Their hair, once long and beautiful, had been cut short, half in attempt to keep it out of their way, half to help rid themselves of the memory of Orochimaru. They wore clothes that Zen had used her extra time to design and give to Jiraya, who had them made by his favorite tailor.
Lee seemed to attack solely using brute force, while Hinata, being a Hyuga, used her families style, albeit shakily. Zen noticed that Hinata's fighting style looked like she had spent hours practicing it, but she didn't seem to be capable of actually doing it. Jiraya had taught them once that while most believed there was only things like speed and flexibility that went into fighting, there was also confidence that went into fighting. Hinata's fighting made it obvious she didn't have that.
Lee, however, was overly confident, but his style was messy as if someone taught him it wrong. Zen's eyes narrowed, watching the fight like a hawk. The fighters obviously both had something they were afraid of.
Hinata seemed to be very uncomfortable using her fighting style, and jabbed tentatively, like she feared hurting Lee. Lee, however moved speedily, punching and kicking more like he was street fighting or boxing. He didn't seem to be able to get a hit on Hinata, who brushed away many of his attacks with one hand while jabbing out with the other hand. They exchanged many attacks, none of which seemed to hit, until finally Lee's body seemed to just stop moving and he fell over.
The boy sitting near Zen scoffed and turned to her, about to gloat about being right before seeing the dark expression on her face as she furiously wrote down something on a note pad. He stared at her as she returned her gaze to the two fighters, glaring as if she thought something were wrong.
Zen growled lightly before barking out for Naru and staring into her eyes. Naru and Zen stared at each other for a moment before exchanging nods and turning back to their previous engagements.
Zen watched as many other people were called to fight before finally getting bored and standing.
"Where are you going?" The boy asked, causing Zen to jump lightly, having completely forgotten about his presence.
Zen looked back at him, "Does it really matter?"
He stared.
She glared back before turning away and continuing her walk into the small forest of trees on the school's grounds. Or, at least, she would have, had she not been grabbed around the wrist and sat back down by the boy who had been near her.
"You aren't allowed to leave until you've fought," He said simply before standing up to hear the next person called.
"Hyuga, Neji," Iruka called.
The boy smirked and grabbed Zen's wrist again, pulling her with him into the ring.
Zen glared as he let her go and dropped the bag she'd brought with her onto the ground near her sister. "Where do you get off treating other people and their things like that?" She growled.
He simply smirked.
She sighed and replaced her anger with the timid girl from in the classroom. She just stood there across from him as he entered his stance and was told to start.
Neji rushed forward upon seeing that she wasn't about to begin, seeming to be more interested in a passing blue bird. He sneered at her before launching an attack at her.
He'd expected to hit a solid wall and hear a startled noise, but was surprised by the open air where the girl had just been. He was startled yet again as he has drop kicked from above. Zen followed her kick by flipping swiftly away. He glared at her and activated his byakugan before going in for another attack. This time, he smirked as she simply jumped back, lading lightly on the very edge of the ring, and he sprinted forward for another attack.
Zen smiled lightly as he ran forward and upon him appearing a few feet away, she jumped down, rolling into his legs and causing him to fall face first behind her, one foot placed just barely out of the ring.
"Winner, Zen Uzumaki!" Iruka shouted in awe, startled at how the timid new girl had easily beaten the Hyuga prodigy. No, he thought, Neji wasn't beaten, he was outsmarted. Zen hadn't gone to hit him once.
Neji stood slowly, glaring at the girl who had beaten him, who looked even more shocked than the collective audience, sitting on the ground with no sign of getting up. He stood in front of her and held out his hand for hers, deciding that since they were going to the same place that he would at least help her get there.
She stared up at him for a moment before taking his hand gently and letting him pull her up. "I'm sorry," She said quietly, "I really thought that wouldn't work."
He stared at her, confused. "Why apologize?"
She looked at him for a moment before turning away, "No reason. Thank you for helping me up," she replied before grabbing her bag and walking away from the group just like that, followed closely by her sister, who waved at Tenten as she left.
Jiraya and Sarutobi stared at the girls through the Third's looking glass, sighing. Yes, a lot of things could change in four years.
