Brothers
Chapter 3
Struggles
Kori woke up to hear the birds chirping. He heard Naruto still sleeping as he groggily rubbed the sleep out of his right eye with the palm of his hand. He walked to the bay window that had ramen cups all over the bench like platform. He placed his handson the edge of it and leaned in towards the window thinking about his first day back to the village of his birth. 'A lot of findings on my first day back. Let alone my first hour. Who would've thought my brother running into me my first five minutes back into the village? It's surprising how I remember so much resemblence to the home I remember, even though I was so small. Well it was Jiraiya-sama that was the first to say that I had a good memory. It's like he always said to me, "You have always had special gifts, one's that are special. One's that don't come from family. One's almost everyone has to train themselves to possess, or can not possess at all. Ever since you were small with your father still alive, you always had that memory of yours, you remember everything almost perfectly, or perfect exactly. Now you use it as a reason to get up in the morning, to find your brother. Also you had that ability to just freak people out, make them insecure, or give them a false sense of security. You even got Kakashi once, and that's a feat all in itself! Now you combine the memory and the psychological control into something amazing. You can destroy someone with words instead of a blade, if you feel like it. Last, the element control." He never said anything after that. He never did. I always understood perfectly clear. The thing that only a handful have been blessed with, or possibly cursed with. The first since the 1200's to possess such a power. Only people who have seen me use it believe in it. To believe it is fact not fiction. To believe it is a definate more than myth. *Sigh* anyway "training" today, what time is it? HOLY SHIT 10:57! Training is in 13 minutes!' he quickly grabbed clean clothes and ran into the bathroom. He took a shower and got dressed. He took a quick swig of mouthwash and ran into Naruto's room. "Nii-chan! Get up! We got 10 minutes til training!" he sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
"Don't worry, we got 10 minutes…" He yawned and was hit with a sudden realization. "10 MINUTES!" he jumped out of bed and started getting out his clothes to change in, while Kori ran out and collected his gear. He attached his katana unorthodoxly to his back. Instead of hilt over shoulder like the normal way is, he had it hilt under shoulder, for when he would take it off, he would hold it in stabbing position (think of the way most people will hold a knife). He kept it at his left side for his left hand to grab and handle it. Naruto opened his door "Finished! Let's go, we got 5 minutes!"
"Nii-chan, mouthwash first!" Naruto nodded, ran into the bathroom, took a swig, spat and ran back out.
"4 minutes!"
"Later Nii-chan!" Kori waved
"Oh no you don't!" Naruto lept for Kori but was too slow. Kori poofed his way to the bridge right before Naruto got there and as a result, passed through the smoke and slamed into his front door, rendering him increadibly dizzy unable to stand straight. He tried to walk a couple times, but kept knocking stuff over, or tripping over things. All Naruto could say other than "Fuck! My head hurts, dammit!" or "look at the pretty colors!" or even the rare "now I know what drugs are like." Was the most often "damn him!" Naruto finally came to and ran out the door to the bridge. His whole charade lasted 3 minutes giving him 1 left!
*3 Minutes Earlier*
Sakura and Sasuke were at the bridge waiting. "Where's Kori and Naruto-kun?" Sakura (obviously) asked, no one really in particular was it really designated to.
"Pfft, like I care where those losers are."
"That's funny, because if I'm a loser and kicked your ass without even getting a scratch, what does that make you?" Sakura and Sasuke turned around to see Kori standing on a tree limb. He jumped down to them. "Heh, nice bandages," said Kori pointing to his bandaged up hand. "You're so hardcore!" he said kinda nasily in a mocking sense sarcastically.
"Pfft, I held back!" retorted Sasuke.
"Oh really? Then I guess I couldn't possibly hurt you!" Kori said lightly poking Sasuke's hand, which was in fact thickly wrapped in bandages.
"OW!" Sasuke yelped, pulling his hand back.
"Guess not…" Kori said low, pretending to sound disappointed. "Let's try one more time!" he said beaming.
"NO!" Sasuke quickly yelled with a slight cowar unconsiously.
"My point exactly…" Kori half-mumbled, half-said. The three young ninja's heads turned to an orange dot running and yelling loudly at/to them, they all knew right away who it was, Naruto. He finally made it to them; he put his hands on his knee's and bent over, panting to catch his breath. "Hm…" Kori looked up at the sun. "Nii-chan, you're late." He casually said.
"You ditched me! And caused me to almost knock myself out!" Naruto yelled, pointing at Kori.
"Hey, it's not my fault you were stupid enough to jump straight into your door!" Sakura and Sasuke burst out laughing. "Why you laughing bandage boy?" Sasuke instantly shut up, Sakura laughed harder, now not just at her boyfriend's stupid moment, but Sasuke's embarrassment too, and Naruto began to laugh at Sasuke.
"I'm sorry, but I have to ask, did you call Naruto-kun 'Nii-chan'?" asked Sakura, looking confused. Kori opened his mouth to speak, but was instantly cut off before he even began by Kakashi.
"Hey guys!"
"You're late!" yelled Sakura and Naruto.
"Legitamate excuse!" instantly replied Kakashi.
"What is it this time?" Sakura asked skeptically.
"I had to see the elders for a special report…they held me up, I can't tell you what we discussed though." Kakashi looked at Kori, who nodded back. "Sasuke, what happened to your hand?" asked Kakashi, pointing.
"The idiot challenged me after your departure. Tried throwing a punch, but I caught it and squeezed (no pun intended) simple as that." Kori explained.
"Ugh, Sasuke you're strong for a genin, but no where the strength he has, not even close."
"Tsk." was Sasuke's only response. Kakashi sighed.
"Ugh, Kori, fix him"
"Fine" Kori did the basic one-handed handseal. The tips of his two pointed fingers began to glow green. He placed his glowing fingers on Sasuke's hand and it healed perfectly, instantly.
"…Wow…" Sakura and Naruto muttered in awe.
"Anyway, let's get to the training ground." Kakashi instructed and him and Kori poofed their way there, while the others walked. They arrived to see Kori and Kakashi talking serious matters. They went and hid qickly to do some spying. Kori placed a hand on Kakashi's mouth (or where it would be -_-) as soon as they went to hide.
"Sorry kids, better luck next time." Naruto jumped out
"How'd you know we were there? We didn't even make a sound! And you also have your back to us!"
"You forget I trained under Zabuza…you see, sound is made up of waves, which vibrates the air."
"And the ear picks up the vibrations, sends them to the brain which decodes and creates the actual thing that specific sound is."
"Good! Bonus cookie for Sakura!" Kori exclaimed
"Get back to what you were saying!" demanded Naruto
"Be patient, anyway, even I you make a little noise, which the ear can't pick up, that doesn't mean that there's no vibration."
"Hmm…so you learned to sense the vibrations through the earth or through the air?" asked Kakashi curiously.
"Both, even water Kakashi-san."
"WHAT!? Impossible!"
"Not for me Kakashi-san."
"But, in order to do such a thing, you need to have the chakra based element, and you don't have all 3."
"You're right, I don't have 3 chakra element bases…I have all 4."
"That's impossible! Everyone only has one."
"…Almost…everyone."
"I don't believe you! You may be strong, but there's no way you can be telling the truth!"
"I promise you Kakashi-san, on my father's grave telling the complete truth."
"But how?" Kori took a deep sigh.
"Since these are my new comrads I suppose I should tell you, all of you."
"I have a feeling this will end awkwardly…" admitted Sasuke
"Ha, I do too Sasuke, I do too. Anyway I shall begin with a question, who here has heard of the 'Element Master'?"
"I did," spoke up Sakura, "it is said that they have all 4 element based chakras in their body. The user can combine 2 or more chakras to make new one's such as water and wind to make ice and so on. They supposedly get this power through a genetic mutation in their chakra base gene that is like a one in 10 million chance of getting."
"Hmm, that's all correct. The last one described to have this power was a samurai 800 years ago in the 1200's." Kori added
"Well then why aren't there more to pass on the trait?" asked Sasuke
"Easy, the one's in the past have never had children, the myth is is that they all swore to not have children to keep only some that were gifted and granted by god to have and not their father. And being the first in modern times I'll show you the myth is true."
"Prove it…" suspiciously said Sasuke.
"I plan to, by showing you a jutsu I created." Kori performed sevral handseals fairly quickly. He said softly yet loud enough to be heard "Elemental Style: Manipulation Jutsu." He raised his arm halfway and threw nothing but air at a tree. A pillar of rock and earth flang from the ground and towards that tree struck it and sent the tree from the top of the trunk up flying. There was a line of earth from where it came to the trunk where it layed on it. "That was earth and now water." Kori whipped his arm around choreographically and the water from the pond/lake picked up and followed with his movements. He held the water still by by stiffening all parts of his hands, fingers with a slight curve in his fingers. Both were flat and straight out, as were his arms. He flicked his fingers and the water dropped. "You convinced, or do you need to see wind too?"
"No I'm good," said Naruto
"Me too, even I have to admit that was awesome!" said Sasuke
"Now you see why the mist valued me so much, well, one of the reasons."
"Well, I was going to say that we were going to get ready for your chunin exams, but it is obvious Kori here has the experience." Said Kakashi
"Experience? If you call triple S-class missions by myself experience than I have more experience in my little finger than the 3 of you do in your entire bodies!" Kori said a little sinisterly. All of them were surprised beyond belief including Sasuke and Kakahsi. Kori gave a gaze to everyone, including Naruto, a gaze that was worthy of belonging to a cold-blooded, heartless killer. What they didn't know however, Kori's shinobi profile was exactly that, a cold blooded, heartless killer, if that was even close to what one could call his profile. They were all petrified of his stare, yet for completely different reasons. Sakura thought he would kill her. Sasuke thought back to that same stare Itachi gave him all those years ago. Kakashi questioned whether he would be able to keep Kori under control if the need shall be. However, Naruto's were different. Instead of worrying about himself like the others, Naruto was scared because of the difference his brother resembled. Before, he was like normal teenagers, a little reserved, yet again aren't all teenagers reserved? Now out of seemingly nowhere, he was a new entity. This was pretty much exactly true. Ever since he witnessed his father preparing Naruto for the sealing, the 2-month-old infant choosen by the council to be the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, Kori swore to be like his father. To be willing to sacrifice anything, including your own humanity, or your reason to live, the greatest thing in your life to follow your orders, without showing or feeling guilt, no remourse or compasion. Why? Because this was the way of the shinobi in Kori's mind. In order to not go insane though, Kori 'split' his personality. What he did was act and think strictly like a shinobi with one personalitly, no matter the mission or spar or anything ninja related. The other personalitly was the one they all saw, completely normal, with some shinobi like qualities that never went away. It was all part of the job. He was a cautious person, ever since he was a child, and brought confusion in his parents, but his mother kept telling his father it was an Uzumaki trait. Even though he bought it, she was still curious herself as to why he was this cautious and this early in his life. He was always the most serious on missions even more than his infamous sensei. But when he met Temari, he retought his views and changed them a little. He did this even though he performed damage that was irreversable…deaths. This was when he really started to feel the guilt or a certain incedint, which will be revealed later. Kori continued his gaze for a few more minutes before cracking up and laughing hysterically. Their shroud of fear lifted and all took a sigh of relief. "Naruto"
"Yes?"
"Come with me?"
"That's what she said." Happily said Kakashi, causing Naruto, Sasuke and himself to laugh Kori to slap himself in the forehead and Sakura to try and contain her fury. Naruto started to follow his brother into a deeper section of the woods. Sakura attempted to follow, but Kakashi stopped her.
"Let me go!"
"No, this is a training for Naruto only."
"Why only Naruto?"
"He will tell you later, now lets get to training shall we?"
Temari was with Gaara and Kankuro in their hotel room being briefed by Baki on their mission to invade Konoha "wait, why are we attacking Konoha if they are a friendly nation?" asked Temari.
"Because of how weak they made us, they will attack us if we don't make this invasion." Answered Baki
"Why an't we just use diplomatic negotiations?"
"Because diplomatic negotiations are boring, no one dies." Answered Gaara.
"But that's my point Gaara."
"There's one problem" continued Baki, everyone gave their attention to him. "The Mist, they are warning us to not take part in this invasion, they say if we do, all of us including Gaara, will die…except for…"
"Except for who?" asked Temari
"You."
"M-me? Why me?"
"Because the Mizukage said the Mist's most prized possession now resides here…the prodige of the Uzumaki clan. I personally don't think he can possibly defeat Gaara, but why they said only you would survive his 'onslaught' I don't know.
'Kori-kun' "why must we attack the village?"
"Orochimaru."
"So Oni-san, how am I doing?"
"You're doing good for your first time training in the Uzumaki Taijutsu."
"I never imagined the Uzumaki Taijutsu to be so difficult to perform."
"Well, that's why Uzumaki have extraordinary stamina and endurance."
"That's so cool!"
"You almost got the basics down, we'll take a late lunch break and finish up after."
"Why not now? I'm feeling fine!"
"That's because you don't know it but your actually way past your limit, you've almost every bit of your chakra."
"Really? I feel fine!"
"I assure you that any normal person would have passed out due to exaustion a while ago."
"I'll take your word for it if we can go to Ichiraku!"
"You're kidding? Ichiraku is still in buisness!?"
"Yeah!"
"We're going!" they came out of the forest to where the rest of team 7 was training.
"Yo! Kakashi-san! Are you almost done with your training session?" asked Kori
"Yeah, we were waiting for you to come back for us all to go to lunch together I'm guessing Naruto wants to go to Ichiraku's?"
"I kinda promised we would go…"
"No problem, we haven't gone there for awhile."
"Let's go!" yelled an anxious Naruto, which was followed by a giggling Sakura.
"Calm down Naruto-kun!" she said clutching his arm and he followed the instruction. On their way there, the 3 young genin were in front of the two experienced ninja who were talking.
"So what did you train him?"
"The Uzumaki Taijutsu, that's it. I didn't tell him about his more powerful trait yet. He's not to learn about it until he meets Mom. You should know why…" he pointed to his brand.
"I understand."
"How's Sakura's training going?" Kakashi sighed
"Not good, she's pretty distracted lately, more so than usual."
"Why? Do you think Naruto has something to do with it?"
"Maybe"
"Want me to try and fix her mind?"
"How?" asked Kakashi suspiciously.
"Don't worry I wont use 'it'."
"Alright we'll see what you can do."
"So everyone knows what they're doing?" asked Baki
"Yes!" they all respond
"Alright dismissed. Temari you have the day off. Gaara, Kankuro, you need to do some spying."
"Alright!" they head out and Temari just walks along not really anywhere important. Off in the distance she sees Team 7 at Ichiraku's ramen shop. One image goes off in her head and she smiles at it sweetly. She walked up and whispered in Kori's ear "hey handsome, miss me?" Kori smiled and opened his mouth to say something but was caught off by Kakashi saying
"Kori, who's this?"
"I'm Temari, daughter of the Kazekage and you are?"
"Kakashi Hatake."
"You're Kakashi! The Copy Nin?"
"Correct."
"You're reputation has preceded you."
"Thank you! Now how do you know Kori?"
"He's my boyfriend!" Sasuke was caught off guard and spat out his mouthful of ramen in surprise.
"WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?" He shouted
"Um?" a confused sounding Temari sounded with her arms crossed.
"I just didn't think any girl would like him."
"Why would that be Sasuke? Cause I'm so much better than you?" Kori asked sounding cocky like Naruto (wow they are definatly related -_-…I just dissed myself didn't I?
Sasuke (shouting from background): yupp!---Me: SHUT UP OR I'LL KILL OFF YOUR CLAN!---Sasuke: Itachi already did that…---Me: Well I'll kill Itachi fucking up your revenge---Sasuke:…---Me: exactly)
"No because you have like no emotion, or looks." Kori did the anime wideeye while Temari was steaming.
'How dare he say I have no taste!'
"If you only knew..." said Kori mumbling
"Knew what?" asked Sasuke
"Nothing."
"Um? Kori-kun?" asked Temari softly and shyly
"Yea?"
"There's something I need to tell you…"
"And that is?"
"I-I-I'm pregnant." Kori choaked on his ramen (literally) and Kakashi was performing the Himlich while Sasuke was holding back laughter.
"WHAT?!? WE DIDN'T EVEN-uhhhh 'you know' yet…" Sasuke couldn't even hold it and burst out in laughter.
"Relax, I love messing with you!" she said smirking.
"You really are an evil woman, you know that right?"
"Yeah, and I love it! And I also know that you love me for it" she crossed her arms in victory
"Well care to join us?" asked Kakashi
"Sure" she sat next to Kori and the 6 of them had a conversation about muffins. Why muffins? I don't know. "I don't have anything to do, mind if I train with you?"
"Sure the more the merrier!" beamed Kakashi. They go to Team 7's training grounds.
"Naruto, we'll continue your training tommorrow, I want to see how well you can do in general."
"Alright! Shadow Clone Jutsu!" 10 Naruto's and all attacked
"Hmm, solid clones, and quite a few too impressive..." The clones convirged and Kori swung his katana in a whirlwind like fashion as they were in striking distance. All of the clones disapated and Naruto fell with a cut on his forearm. "But not that impressive." He threw the katana into the tree behind Kakashi at blinding speed and it stuck right at Kakashi's face, cutting the mask, but not his face itself making Kakashi's eyes wide in panic for a moment and sigh in relief. "You use your clones foolishly. You use them for straight taijutsu and with me knowing too. Don't use them that openly, you should use them for genjutsu and taijutsu together, maybe even some ninjutsu. Trick me, sneak up on me, use a diversion. It is much too easy to counter when you use them for a frontal assault." Kori was suddenly grabbed from behind, but was unmoved.
"Like this?"
"Sorta…" Kori disapeared just as Naruto was about to strike a punch
"Where did he go?"
"You are too predictable." Casually said Kori, who was above them on a tree branch, "I mean, doing what I suggest and exactly as I suggest it no less!" he appeared behind the clone, stabbed it in the back with a kunai and it disappeared. Kori put away his kunai and Naruto slid back
"Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!" 1,000 Naruto's appeared and converged on Kori
"Once again, impressive but not that impressive. Also you are too predictable again, doing the same thing after it already failed."
"Yeah, but this time you don't have your katana, and to defeat all of us you have to get in an unextended reach, giving me the chance to take you out too!"
"Good reasoning, but it won't work on me, regardless of you telling me your plan." Kori performed some handseals. "Wind Style: Force Release!" Hurricane force winds erupted from Kori in all directions. It flew all the clones back and destroyed them all. Naruto flew into a tree knocking the wind out of him. "Come on Naruto, show me something new, not the same old jutsu over and over again."
"Fine…" he said struggling to get up "but you asked for it!" he put his hands together "Sexy Jutsu!" he transformed and Sakura slapped her forehead, Sasuke and Kakashi went wide eyed idoling the figure, where as Temari went wide eyed in disbelief. Kori stood emotionless
"Are you serious? Do you think this is a joke?" he got angry now. "I can't believe I am related to you!" Naruto transformed back with tears and anger in his eyes.
"Related?" asked Sakura
"Yes he's my little brother, look! As a shinobi you need to be serious with what you do, if you think this is a game, quit, or you will be killed!" Naruto started being engulfed in red chakra and anger. 'The Kyuubi' thought Kori. He walked up to Naruto, who was being granted with power. Kori was unphased by the snarls the came from his brother. "Stop!" Kori commanded punching Naruto in the abdomen instantly stopping the Kyuubi's chakra for some reason (I will reveal why later.) Naruto passed out in Kori's arms who caught him.
"What was that?" Sakura and Sasuke asked hoping for an actual answer, but was only answered with Kori saying in a soft voice.
"A gift…and a curse."
