The Desert Fox
A/N: Welcome to chapter 7. The poll is closed, Gaara will be paired with Haku, who will be female. A little question for you, do you think Zabuza is still going to die? Why or why not?
-Begin-
"Dad," Tenten said after she came home from school one day, "why can't we go with Naruto? None of the people in my class like me. At least when he was here I had someone I could talk to."
"I told you Tenten," her dad replied, "your mom and I have a store here, we can't just pick up and move like that. I tell you what; I'll make you a deal. In two years if you are the best in your class in weapons and you can forge a katana then we'll move if you still want to. Until then, keep your mind on your schooling and focus on becoming a ninja. If you want to be taken serious as a female ninja you can't afford any distractions."
"Yes, father," Tenten replied, disappointed that once again he wouldn't let her move like Naruto and Anko had. At least this time she had got him to allow her a way to get him to move. "In two years I'll show you that I can make a katana and then you'll have to keep your word."
"Only if you're the top weapons user in your class," her father chuckled, knowing that in two years she wouldn't want to drop her life here to move to another village because of one kid anymore. All she needed to do was make some more friends her age in the village.
-break-
"What brings you to my office, ANBU-san?" The Kazekage stared interestedly at the ANBU operative standing before him wearing a wolf mask.
"I have a request approved by Hokage-sama to be transferred into your village, Kazekage-sama," Kyo replied, holding out a scroll.
"I see," the Kazekage took the scroll and read over it, before closing it and looking back up at her. "And pray tell, why is it that the Hokage has seen fit to bless me with so many of his ninja? Especially two Uchiha and an ANBU member?"
"It was not his choice except with me," Kyo replied. "The two Uchiha fled after a massacre that wiped out most of their clan, as I'm sure you've heard. The other two that came came because they were being discriminated against by the villagers and Anko-san was tired of having to fear for her son's life."
"What about you?" The Kazekage stared intently at her, as if he believed that he could make her melt away into a pile of sludge if he stared hard enough. "Why have you left?"
"I left because my brother was in the group of people who came," Kyo replied, perfectly composed under the leader's gaze.
"I see," the man replied, "I will allow your entrance into the village, but you will only be given the rank of jounin for the first year of your stay here. After that if you wish to enter the ANBU of our village you will have to sign a three year contract and start at the bottom of the ladder."
"Thank you, Kazekage-sama," Kyo replied, bowing to him.
"Now before you leave," the Kazekage stated, "take off your mask."
Kyo didn't really want to take off her mask in front of the man and reveal that she was a Hyuuga, a fact that she would have no way to hide short of a genjutsu, which he would obviously feel if she tried to cast. Nothing else to do, she simply reached up and removed her mask, slowly bringing it down and fastening it to her belt. Her face remained blank as she saw his eyes widening.
"You- Very well," the Kage said, quickly regaining his composure. He couldn't believe his luck! Two Uchiha, a Jinchuuriki, and a Hyuuga in one month, and as a bonus his son hadn't killed anyone since the Jinchuuriki had arrived. It was settled, first, he would get this woman some place to stay, and then, he would celebrate. "We actually have a place open on the outside of town for you to stay if you don't mind that."
"That will be fine," Kyo replied.
"Very well," the Kazekage concluded, reaching down into his desk and shuffling through it for a moment before pulling out a folder and a hitai-ate. "Here is your forehead protector as well as keys and a contract for the house you'll be staying in. Bring it to administration signed at your earliest convenience. Welcome to Sunagakure no Sato."
-break-
Four years later, the day before graduation for Naruto's class.
"Okay," Kayla whispered hiding behind one of the pillars that held up the porch in front of the academy, "you remember the plan, right? Here he comes, Naruto, go distract him; Gaara, get that nail polish remover ready."
"Hey, Yoshiro-sensei," Naruto called, walking up to his principal. "Akemi-chan said that you hide a dagger in that spike in your hair, is it true?"
"What?" the man replied, his voice still carrying that same melodic tune that earned him the nickname rocker-sensei. "That's preposterous, why I-"
Before he could finish, Gaara, who'd crept out behind him, soaked his head with a bottle of nail polish remover, and as he turned around to see who had soaked his head, Kayla sprung out from behind her pillar, now safely out of his visual range, and blasted him with a weak suiton jutsu. He was so surprised at this second attack that he lost his balance and was bowled over by the blast.
"The hairdo has been defeated!" Naruto cried victoriously, turning and running off towards the auditorium, where the principal was supposed to be giving his speech to the graduates, followed quickly by Kayla and Gaara.
-break-
"Has anyone seen Gaara and his friends?" Temari asked to those sitting on the bleachers around her.
"Who cares where those brats are," Kankuro replied, "they probably got into trouble again. I mean, they are always doing something to get themselves in detention. If the school had them cleaning instead of sitting in a room for detention they wouldn't even need a janitorial staff anymore."
"You're no better than they are," Tenten countered, whacking him upside the head. "How many times have I caught you peeking in the women's bath house?"
"Hey, that's different," Kankuro said, waving his hand in the air defensively. "Their pranks are just childish jokes, that's something that men do." This, of course, earned him a punch to the head from Temari as well.
"Being a hopeless pervert is not the sign of being a man," Temari said frustratedly.
"Hey, what did we miss?" Naruto asked, taking a seat right in front of Temari.
"Just Kankuro being an idiot," Tenten answered.
"Where were you three?" Temari asked, looking down at them suspiciously.
Before any of them could answer, though, the principal stormed into the room and onto the stage, his hair soaked and in disarray. "I had called you all here to congratulate you all on passing all four years of the academy and graduating, but since Naruto and his friends wanted to ambush me on my way into the school this morning, I am announcing a graduation test. You will be divided into two groups, and the last ones standing will be the ones to graduate. Naruto and his friends will be one team, and everyone else will be the other."
"What?" Tenten asked in shock. "He can't do that!"
"Sorry brat," Kankuro laughed, "looks like you won't become a gennin this year after all."
"Oh no you don't," Temari retorted, standing up. "Principal Yoshiro, Kankuro and I wish to be on Naruto's team as well."
"I what?" Kankuro shouted, glaring at his sister, who didn't even spare a glance in his direction.
"I want to be on Naruto's team as well,"Tenten shouted, standing up as well
"Does anyone else wish to side with this delinquent?" The principal asked the small crowd. When no one else spoke up, he continued. "Everyone out to the training grounds then! The last group standing will be the graduating class."
"What the hell did you do that for?" Kankuro growled. "Now we're going to have to fight everyone in our class or we will be stuck here another year!"
"Quiet, Kankuro," Temari replied, "this was obviously an attempt to keep them from graduating, and I'm not going to let Naruto and my brother fail because they wanted to pull a stupid prank on their last day here."
"Hey, they were stupid enough to do the crime," Kankuro countered, "let them pay the price."
"I'll remember that next time you go nosing around the women's bath house," Temari said coolly. "Until then, unless you want to fail,we've got to follow everyone else out to the training yard."
-break-
"All right," the principal called out when all eighteen of the final year students were in the training grounds behind the school. "Here are the rules: no killing blows, the last group standing wins. Begin!"
"Just great," Kankuro complained, pulling his puppet, Karasu, off of his back. "Now we have to clean up after your mess."
"If you don't like it," Gaara stated, "I'm sure the principal will let you change sides."
"No," Temari said, taking out her battle fan, "we're in this together. We either all win together or we all go back for another year."
They didn't have any longer to talk, though, as half of the group rushed forward towards them, weapons drawn. Tenten was the first to act, throwing two handfuls of shuriken towards the group, but Temari wasn't far behind with a blast of wind from her fan that both knocked the group back and increased the power of Tenten's weapons. The result was that four of the weaker gennin hopefuls were knocked out of the match immediately, and the rest knew to be much more careful.
"That's our cue," Naruto said, running towards the group, hands glowing blue with chakra.
Flashback no Jutsu
"Hey, Kyo-nee-chan," Naruto called out to his surrogate sister, walking up to her as she was entering the training area for her afternoon training. "Can you help me out with something?"
"Sure, what is it, Naru-chan?"
"Well, I want to learn taijutsu, but mom says that the only style that she knows uses summoned snakes a lot, and since I can't summon yet I wouldn't be any good at it. Could you teach me taijutsu?"
Kyo paused to think this over. "Well, the only style that I know is the Hyuuga's Gentle Fist Style. You could technically learn it, but with out the Byakugan you'd never truly be able to master it."
"It doesn't matter," Naruto pleaded, "I could make it work. You're the only one who could teach me. Kayla said that Itachi-san is teaching her his clan style, but ."
"Well, it isn't that bad for the Gentle Fist," Kyo mused, "you just wouldn't see the tenketsu, which means that you wouldn't be able to use the more advanced moves in the style. You would have to find something else to fill those gaps if you wanted to perfect it. There isn't even any guarantee that you wouldn't have to learn a different style later on to fight advanced opponents. In fact, I have another idea for something to teach you. I don't think it is right to teach you something that you have no hope of truly mastering."
"Aw," Naruto groaned. "I can do it. It doesn't matter if I don't have your eyes."
"Calm down," Kyo replied, "or do you not want me to teach you the other style I had in mind? One that could destroy a tree with a single punch?"
"Really?" Naruto asked, his eyes lighting up. "What is it? Teach it to me, please!"
"Okay," Kyo replied, grinning. "I'll teach you this technique, but the first thing that you have to work on before you can even start is chakra control. Without that, you would only hurt yourself if you tried using this. Also, I want you to start working out. It'll do you no good at all if you are only as good as your chakra reserves."
Flashback no Jutsu Kai
Naruto ducked underneath the strike of one student that ran up to meet him and struck him in the stomach. The student doubled over in pain from the force of the blow, and Naruto followed it up with a palm strike to the jaw, channeling chakra into his muscles as Kyo had taught him. He wasn't particularly adept at it yet, even with years of practice, but the ability to artificially enhance his strength was one that came in handy a lot. Looking at the student he had just put down, Naruto cringed. It wasn't a killing blow, but he didn't think that the kid was going to be getting up any time soon.
Meanwhile, another student was readying a jutsu to send a large blast of fire at Naruto, but the blast was intercepted by Gaara's sand, which overtook the student's position, forcing him to run to avoid getting swallowed up. Several of the remaining students threw weapons at him, but much to their dismay, they found that his sand blocked everything they threw at him without fail. While they were distracted, Temari send another wave of wind at them, knocking down two more, who would get up to find themselves face to face with a life sized puppet wearing tattered robes.
"Say hello to Karasu," Kankuro said with a grin. The puppet opened its mouth and shot two spikes out at them, which they narrowly dodged, followed by six kunai, of which two managed to land in their arms or legs. While they were tending to their wounds, Karasu belched out a huge cloud of green smoke which they found to be knockout gas when they breathed in.
"What are you," one of them asked as he fell to the ground.
Meanwhile, Kayla had jumped in to engage a student who was trying to sneak up behind Kankuro. She had caught the student off guard, hitting him in the face with an electrified punch, but he had still gotten back up. Before Kayla could stop him, he made five hand seals, and spikes of sand started shooting out of the ground at her. She quickly backpedaled, barely managing to avoid being impaled by the spikes. When they stopped, she dodged around them and went to meet him in close range combat again. He dodged one of her punches, but she turned it into an elbow at the last moment and caught him in the throat with it. As he was sputtering and trying to right himself, Kayla came around and dealt him another punch to the head, followed by a weak electrified palm, knocking him out.
Naruto looked around for a student that wasn't being engaged in battle already, then rushed forward. "Suna bunshin no Jutsu" he called, forming a sand clone on either side of him. When the student started rushing forward to face him, Naruto called out "Oiroke no Jutsu", transforming him and his two clones into well endowed women. The surprised student stumbled in his charge, and that was all Naruto needed to spring forward and land a strength enhanced palm strike to the chest, sending the kid flying into a training log behind him.
"Who's next?" Gaara asked, looking from the unconscious student that he had been fighting to the few students that were left. They both turned to run, but one wasn't fast enough and got his leg snared by Gaara's sand. The student was spun around in the air a few times before being launched upwards, and when he got low enough, the sand would slam into him and start the process over again, until finally Gaara allowed him to drop to the ground.
"Oh no you don't," Tenten growled, throwing kunai after kunai at the student who had managed to escape from Gaara. "I'm not going to be the only one who isn't going to fight in this match."
Already the student was wondering if he would have been better off with Gaara, as his arms and legs were now riddled with kunai that had lodged in his limbs or scratched from ones he'd barely managed to dodge. As Tenten kept throwing more pointy sharp projectiles in his direction, he never even noticed Temari's fan coming around like a club aimed at his head.
"Alright," Temari called out to the principal, "we've played your game. You won't be able to stop us from graduating, even if you do try to pair the whole class up against us."
"So I see," the principal said, slowly clapping. "You six put on an excellent show. That shows that your spirits are first class. It wouldn't have mattered if all of you had graduated, though. The majority of your teams would have been eliminated by your jounin sensei and sent back to the academy for retraining. Follow me and I will give you each your hitai-ate."
"You mean we still have to go through another test?" Naruto groaned at the thought of having to take tests even after he'd left school.
"You would have, but seeing as there are only two teams left, I don't think they have a choice but to take you," the principal explained. "The daimyo expects a certain number of teams to come out of the academy each year."
The six of them followed him as he went by the nurse's office to inform her of the injured students in the training grounds, then to his office.
"Congratulations," he said once they were all wearing their headbands, "you six are now the newest gennin in Sunagakure. Report to your homeroom teacher tomorrow to meet your senseis from here out. You all are dismissed, now go home and get some rest."
-break-
"Hey," Naruto said as they were walking away from the academy, "want to get something to eat before we go home? We usually aren't supposed to be home for a couple more hours anyway."
"Sure," Tenten agreed. "Come on, Kankuro, you're going too."
"Yeah, I guess we could go," Kankuro stated, "it's not like we didn't skip lunch because of the principal and his tests."
With the general sentiment to go to lunch agreed upon, they headed to their favorite restaurant, a small red building that had more seats than it looked from the outside like it should fit and the words "Shadow Cuisine" written on the outside of it.
"Welcome to Shadow Cuisine," the voice that came from everywhere at once greeted them.
In the four years he had been going to the restaurant, Naruto had still not figured out which one of the two were talking. Any time he would ask, the voice would just say 'that would be me'.
"Would you guys like your usual?" it asked. Looking behind the counter, Naruto noticed that both girls were smiling at them, obviously amused at the reactions everyone gave when they used the genjutsu technique to hide the direction their voices were coming from.
"Yeah," Kayla replied.
"So," Kankuro started, obviously about to make some boast, if the tone of his voice was any indication. "You two ladies are looking at the six newest gennin in the village."
"Oh, congratulations," a different voice said, still under the genjutsu. "Keep working at it and you'll be up here with the rest of us in no time. Come back when you get your first C-Ranked mission and we'll have something for you."
"Oh, really?" Naruto asked.
"Yup," the first voice answered, "but you'll have to wait until then to see what it is."
The blonde girl disappeared into the back to get to work on their food, while the silver haired girl was doing something under the counter that they couldn't see. With them going back to work, the conversation turned back to the six gennin.
"Thanks for helping us back there," Kayla said, turning to Temari. "We wouldn't have passed if you hadn't agreed to help us."
"It was nothing," Temari said dismissively. "Besides, we couldn't let our friends fail because the principal was mad at them and wanted to cheat them. Also, I bet that Gaara's sand could have taken most of them out even without our help."
"She's right," Gaara agreed, "but it was still nice to fight with you and not against you. You three are tough to beat when you are working together. That's why we won instead of them. We worked together and covered each other's backs while they each did their own thing."
"Besides," Kankuro cut in, "we were just too good for them."
"Shut up, Kankuro," Tenten said, bursting his bubble, "if Temari hadn't dragged you onto the battlefield, you would have failed with the rest of the class, or have you forgotten already?"
"Uh," Kankuro drawled, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "I wouldn't have deserted you guys."
"Right," Temari said sarcastically.
"So, who do you think the teams will be?" Tenten asked.
"If they're smart it'll be us three and Gaara, Naruto, and Kayla," Temari answered.
"I concur," Gaara agreed. "Those are the groups of us that have the most experience working together."
"Skill-wise, there are only two real possibilities," Kayla added. "Either our two groups or Naruto, Tenten, and I for one and Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara for the other. That way, our team would have two close range fighters and a weapons user to back them up, and your team would have two medium range fighters that no one could get close to and a wind user to back them up."
"I guess so," Temari replied, "but I think it would be better if they just took us as we are. I mean, we've already got a lot of experience working together these past four years, why change it?"
The conversation turned from who the teams were to who the two sensei would be, and they were so caught up in the conversations that they didn't even notice the food arrive. To be fair, even if they had been paying attention they would have seen that the food had just appeared on the table, so it wasn't that hard to miss. Gaara was the first to notice the food, which he started eating without making any real attempt to alert the rest of his friends that the food was already out. Kayla was the next to notice, but unlike Gaara, she actually decided to do the nice thing and warn the others, who were still to caught up in the conversation to have noticed anything at all.
"Guys?" Kayla asked, waving her hand at them. "First of all, like I was trying to tell you, it's unlikely that we're going to get some horrible slave driving teacher, and it is even less likely that we're going to get one of Kankuro's bath house fantasies. Most likely, we'll get one of the younger Jounin who has been tried enough to be sure that they will make an effective leader but isn't so experienced that they are needed on other missions vital to the function of the village. Secondly, our food is here, and it is going to get cold if we don't eat."
They all had to agree that Kayla's assessment was more likely than anything that Kankuro or Naruto had come up with, and the mention of food distracted their attention away from the conversation anyway. They still were left to wonder, though, for while Kayla's answer said a lot about who their sensei wouldn't be, it said no great deal about who their sensei would be. That was just something that they would have to wait to find out, though.
-break-
"Hey, brats," Anko greeted Naruto and Kayla when they finally got home. "I heard you and your friends passed the exam today. How'd the test go?"
"Well, the principle decided to spring a test on us at the last minute, and he put like fifty other class members up against us and Gaara's family," Naruto explained excitedly. "We whooped them, though. Gaara and I were awesome, and Kayla was good too, so they were no match for us. Right, Kayla?"
"Well, our two groups worked together very well," Kayla agreed, "but there weren't anywhere close to that many of them. It was us six against the rest of the class, so there weren't terribly many to deal with. Also, they got in each other's way more than they helped, so that gave them a disadvantage against us."
"Not to shabby," Anko replied, a hint of admiration in her voice. "Reminds me of a ninja from Kiri who defeated his entire class. That was a bit different, though. He actually killed all of them, which I'm sure you didn't do. Where are your training weights?"
"We left them at home," Kayla answered, trying to ignore that bit about killing an entire class of students for a graduation test.
"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "You told us that we could go without them since it was the last week of school, remember? Why would someone kill all of their friends, though?"
"The life of a ninja is difficult," Anko answered. "It isn't something to be laughed at, even as a student. You guys were sheltered throughout most of your academy years. Sometimes kids are brought up to kill from the beginning of their lives, and Kiri bred that in their students. To graduate they had to fight their best friend to the death. That one just took it a little further. Enough of that, though. As of tomorrow, neither of you are to wear your weights anymore. I know Itachi was already getting you off of the weights, Kayla, so this shouldn't be a big surprise to you, but I want both of you to start sparring together without the weights until you get used to fighting without them. Now that you're out in the real world, wearing those things is only going to get you killed. I guarantee you the enemy won't be wearing them, and I also guarantee you he won't give you a chance to take them off."
"How are we supposed to get stronger, though?" Naruto complained, crossing his arms over his chest.
"You'll get stronger as part of the job," Anko shrugged. "If you still want to work at it, do taijutsu practice in your spare time. That'll build up both your strength and speed. It'll also help you to master whatever style you're working on. I know that both of you have been working on styles already, so just keep at it. If you're not good enough at the art of fighting, you're going to get killed. There is no two way about it. Strength means nothing without skill. Now then, get rid of your weights tonight, and before school tomorrow I want you both to have a short spar. Tonight you get off as long as you don't go starting any trouble. Itachi's mission has been extended for another week too, so you shouldn't have any work from him either."
Kayla frowned at the last part, even as Naruto was cheering, but she nodded and put on a smile nonetheless. Tonight they could rest and prepare themselves for meeting their team in the morning, and tomorrow they would just have to take whatever happened as it came. She did hope that Naruto and her would be put together, though, if nothing else. Gaara would make a good addition to their team too, but she could live with it if they decided to put him and his siblings on a team of their own.
-break-
The next morning, when they arrived in their homeroom class, Kayla and Naruto found the rest of their friends already there, as well as two faces they hadn't seen before. One was a young looking blonde man with a sword strapped to his side who looked more suited to the position of a salesman than a Jounin instructor, and the other was a woman with messy black hair who had a dead look in her eyes that seemed to overpower the small smile on her face and a wooden dog with glowing eyes sitting beside her.
"Kankuro, Temari, Tenten," the blond man called, pushing himself off of the teacher's desk. "You three are the first team. Follow me to training ground seven so that we can introduce ourselves to each other; though, I'm sure you already know each other."
The black haired woman watched as her fellow instructor left the room, soon followed by his pupils, then eyed her own three. "You three are my team," she said flatly. "Our introductions will be this. You already know each other, I'm sure. My name is Mikoto, and this is my companion, Leo. I've spent the last decade working on him and improving him, and he is my best work, though far from my only. As of now, you are my students. You will report to me as I report to the leader of this village. That means that you are to take orders only from me, even if a messenger from the leader himself says he has something for you to do. You can expect to be out for days or weeks at a time, and your family will be your last concern. I will take care of you, but I will not coddle you. It is my job to train you to be soldiers, and that is what I intend to do. With that said, your friends will be doing D ranked missions to test them as a working team for the next week. You will have no such luck. We will be doing real missions from the get-go."
The woman paused for a moment as Naruto let out an excited whoop, then continued. "As I was saying, this is your only chance to turn back. If you choose to do so, I'm sure they will find another teacher for you who will go easier on you, since you are one of only two teams to pass. If you choose to work under me, however, report to the eastern gate in half an hour. Your gennin test will be to survive a C ranked mission, and you're only getting of that easy because I couldn't get them to assign me a B ranked mission for you. If you survive, consider yourselves official members of team two. If you don't, you will have your entire next life to prepare yourselves for a retest."
-End-
A/N: And that's our story for today. Thanks to my most recent reviews, I have decided to take this up instead of doing NaNo, since I'm late to start anyway. Hopefully I'll be able to push this story until it's over this time. Tell me how you liked this chapter, if you're so inclined, and hopefully we'll have another chapter out sometime in the very near future. ^_^ Also, the point to ponder on for today is what you think will come of our odd instructor and her wooden pet being thrown into the mix. A C ranked on the day they're let out of the academy? I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty sure that she's just out to kill Naruto and his friends off. We'll just have to see, though.
the-wandering-scribe
