Aljan Moonfire does not own Naruto. But you already knew that didn't you.
"Speaking."
'Thinking.'
"Demonic Speaking."
'Demonic Thinking.'
"Mental Conversation."
"Demonic Mental Conversation."
Flashback and/or Dream
Chapter 6 –
Dreams and Teams
Two Years Later…
It was a dream.
Noriko knew it was a dream; in fact it was one she had quite frequently over the last several years. Even as the memories compounded themselves and spread across her subconscious mind she knew it was a dream.
But that didn't stop her from being afraid.
Because no matter how hard she tried she couldn't wake up and as the flames licked around her feet she knew…
This was a nightmare.
.-.
She was running. From what and to where she didn't know. But she was terrified and small and weak – something she had sworn to herself to never be again – and she kept on running, the terror she knew so well pushing her ever onwards.
Then she tripped and fell and suddenly she was surrounded by what she had been running from. As they closed around her and she looked up at the blank black faces and evil white grins she couldn't help but wonder why she had bothered to run at all.
They stretched clawed mockeries of hands towards her and just as they might have touched her and she opened her mouth to scream –
She was Falling. Not just falling but Falling.
Falling, falling, falling, and with a thud she landed spread eagled on the ground. Glancing around franticly she recognized where she was and –
- the weight of a grown man's body pinning her to the ground as something - something sharp and pointy that hurt and hurt and hurt - drove through small hands, pinning them to the floor –
- and the pain went on and on and on…
Reliving the pain she had felt so long ago she opened her mouth to scream but what came out was a voice that wasn't entirely her own - "KITSUNE-BI!"- and everything around her went up in frantic flames that reacted to her panic and spread, engulfing everything she could still see. She closed her eye against glare.
On opening the eye she was startled to see she was no longer in the burning apartment she remembered so well, even after all these years, but on top of the Hokage Monument, facing the trees behind it. Feeling something drip down the side of her face that was normally covered by her mask she raised a trembling hand to it. The scars on her face that she knew should be long since healed were open and bleeding.
Her right eye widened in shock she clenched her hand – one that was still small and delicate despite all of her training – and didn't even notice the small tear that trailed from her working eye.
Then suddenly there was a shadowed figure in front of her and still holding her hand against her eye she snarled out, "Who are you?"
The figure, one that towered above her own still small stature, didn't reply immediately but when it did it completely ignored her question. "It's your fault isn't it?" was all he said, in a mournful tone.
Confused she just stared blankly at the shadow. "What's my fault?" she asked warily.
The man didn't speak again – and the voice he had spoken with sounded awfully familiar – but pointed over her shoulder, behind her and down towards the village. Her right eye widened and she tried with everything in her body not to turn herself around but as if to spite her normally exquisite control of her body she turned nonetheless.
She stared in horrified shock as the village she loved beyond almost anything else burned before her. The blue-white flames of what she recognized as fox-fire stretched to unimaginable highs as they fed on the wooden bones of what had been the strongest hidden village in the Elemental Countries. Frozen in an awful combination of horror and terror and awe she was unable to even collapse to her knees before her destroyed home.
The familiar voice of the shadowed stranger echoed around her with a tone of unfathomable sadness as the flames began to lick around her feet, "So, it's your fault after all then, Noriko."
Just as she tilted her head back to scream in grief –
She woke up.
Sitting up with a jerk and a gasp she immediately raised her hand to the left side of her face and let out a sigh of relief at the familiar feel of the scars beneath her fingers. 'So, it was that dream again then.' She thought. Relaxing a bit but still breathing hard she ran the same hand through the soft cascade of her hair, pulling it over the marks that marred the majority of her face to pool in her lap.
Sighing again she turned to the digital clock that sat on the small table beside her bed and groaned at the time. 4:30 in the morning was not her preferred time to rise and meet the day. In fact, when she didn't have nightmares, she loved sleeping and slept whenever and wherever she got the chance. Sarutobi had often compared her to the Nara when he learned of this habit of hers.
Seeing no point in going back to sleep now though she rose and made her way in a zombie-like fashion to the bathroom that connected to the master bedroom, her hair trailing on the floor behind her. On that day, over six years ago now, when she had first slept in the Tower she had claimed the cloud room for herself. However, that simply decorated room that she had felt so safe in wasn't actually the master bedroom. She had known this though and when she finally became a genin two years ago she had moved herself to the room she now inhabited
The real master bedroom was decorated with a mix of silver and pale blue giving the place the feeling of ice and water and snow. It was actually very soothing. The main part of the room was at least twice the size of the cloud room and contained an emperor bed, in contrast to the queen sized one of her previous room. The bed itself was more like a giant futon raised onto a platform and soft white sheets covered it like a blanket of snow. Along with the snowflake wallpaper it reminded her of her mindscape and made her feel very comfortable.
The soft plush carpets that covered the floor of the room were the same white color as the sheets but were randomly interspersed with soft splashes of different shades of blue. The accents of the room, such as lamp shades door handles were in soft shades of blue as well. The room itself had a wedge shape that came from where it was positioned. The whole back wall of the room was the outside wall of the tower and was covered with random and wide windows that gave an awe-inspiring view of the Forest. On the two sides of the wedge were the walk-in closet and the bathroom she had just entered.
The bathroom was a massive structure that was more like a hot spring than anything else. Along the side of the wall that held the door that opened onto the bedroom was a long counter made of an ice white marble that complimented the color scheme of the master bedroom. It contained three sinks and held all of the grooming supplies that a girl, or even three girls for that matter, could ever need, from make up to hair curlers and a straightening iron. Above the counter a long, high quality mirror reflected the rest of the room and the tired form of still waking kunoichi.
The tiled floor of the bathing room was a mix of icy swirls that tilted down on a slight incline towards a drain. On the other side of the long room a truly massive bath tub was sunk into the floor. It resembled a small swimming pool more than any thing else and smooth water-proof cushions covered the edges as well as the sides and bottom of the tub, making it an excellent place to relax.
With a snap of her fingers Noriko had the hot water pouring into large tub but she herself made her way towards the shower stall at the end of the room. Ten minutes later she got out of the shower and after squeezing the excess water out of the ridiculously long strands of her hair she pinned them above her head with a large clip she grabbed off of the counter. She then made her way over to the steaming bath and sank down into the hot water with a soft sigh, leaning her head back against the cushions in contentment.
.-.
An hour later Noriko, feeling completely refreshed and awake, emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a think white yukata that hung off one of her shoulders loosely. Shrugging the robe like garment back onto her shoulder she secured the garment about her waist with a sash and opened the door of the walk-in closet on the other side of the room.
The walk-in closet was one of the things that showed that this house had mostly been inhabited by women, and powerful women at that. In fact it almost couldn't be qualified as a closet. It was more like a private mall. If it weren't for storage and space seals the amount of clothing in the place would take up almost two floors of the tower.
It had every kind of clothing or costume you could ever want (or need) and was periodically updated every few months with the latest fashions (and non-fashions) in every size and for every gender that you could ever imagine by automated seals. It was due to this closet that Noriko never had to worry about clothes shopping again.
Considering how the villagers treated her she wouldn't have been surprised if she had been forced wear something of the likes of that awful orange jumpsuit again. Closing the door behind her she went to chose her out fit for the day. Observing the racks of clothes and shoes and scrolls she sighed. This might take awhile.
.-.
It was another hour until she finally was ready to go and prepared to leave the Tower. As she pulled on her shoes she looked at the clock and realized that it was almost eight o'clock. She knew that if she didn't move fast she wouldn't make it to her appointment with Jiji at said time.
Sitting up she put her hands together under the long sleeves of the outfit she had finally decided on to form the seals of a jutsu she had conned out of one of the older jounin. With a light poof of smoke she disappeared from the room.
.-.
Sarutobi glanced around the room as he waited for the arrival of one of his most promising genin. In the two years since she had graduated Noriko had progressed in leaps and bounds. He knew that it would be impossible to give her the title of anything but genius. Graduating early was one thing, especially when you entered early in the first place, but to complete any mission from D to mid B-rank with an almost flawless record had turned a lot more heads.
He knew that in order for her to go to the Chuunin Exams this year, and she would have to with the pressure from the 'new' council to promote her, she would need the best of the class. That meant the Rookie of the Year, Uchiha Sasuke, would be put on her team.
He had a few reservations about that, but because it was only based on what he had gleaned of Noriko's opinion of 'the Last Uchiha' (as the civilians called him) it didn't really hold much weight; especially since it had become much harder to read what Noriko was really thinking over that last few years.
The other would have to be able to work around the personalities of the other two members of the squad and be able to think on his feet almost as fast as Noriko can, otherwise he wouldn't be able to keep up. The only ones he could see who might fit that role would be Aburame Shino and Nara Shikamaru. The Aburame however had already been requested by Yuuhi Kurenai to form a tracking team with the Hyuuga and the Inuzuka.
With the Nara's just barely passing grades it would be easy to put him on the same team as the Rookie of the Year if it weren't for the original Ino-Shika-Cho trio pushing for a reformation with their children taking their spots. However, after some careful and discrete observation it quickly became apparent that despite Shikamaru and Chouji's long standing friendship they found it hard to get along with Ino's bossy and fangirl-ish attitude. It was eventually decided that a team of consisting of Uchiha Sasuke, Nara Shikamaru, and Uzumaki Noriko held the most potential, even if the odds were stacked in their favor.
If they did this however they were going to need to do something about the last team. Having Ino and Sakura on the same team was clearly a disaster waiting to happen. They eventually decided to switch out the Hyuuga with the Haruno with the hopes that Yuuhi might be able to turn the pinkette into a decent kunoichi, especially with her promise in genjutsu.
Hinata would be placed on Team 10 with the Akimichi and the Yamanaka in the hopes that being around a more confident girl like Ino would help to shore up the Heiress' confidence. Despite Kurenai's wishes he knew what could happen if a team was too specialized and the young jounin needed to get over her failure with Yakumo; perhaps breaking in a young fangirl kunoichi could help her with that.
He was pulled from his thoughts by the puff of white smoke that heralded the arrival of his favorite blonde who, with a silent nod of greeting, sat on the chair in front of his desk and crossed her legs in front of herself. However, before he began to speak he took a double take at what the genin was wearing. Her legs were covered only by long stockings made of a dense mesh fishnet and her feet by high-heeled ninja sandals much like those his former student, Tsunade, wore, except in a dark purple color.
Over them she wore a loose yukata much like her old one, except this was in a deep elegant royal purple with icy blue accents. The bottom of it flared away from her legs, baring them to the world but hiding anything too private, and ending over a foot above her ankles.
The upper part of the causal kimono was bound with a wide obi that ended right beneath her, not inconsiderable for her age, chest. The shoulders of the garment hung stylishly off her shoulders leaving only her long hair to cover them. The sleeves themselves were long enough to cover her hands and then some, hiding the ever-present gloves that Sarutobi knew would be there. Her half-mask was there, much as it always was, though this one was the same icy blue as the accents on her yukata.
Her hair, bright as ever in the slightly darkened room, shone from where it was gathered into a loose bun on top of her head and secured with a few ornamental hair pins he was sure were probably senbon. Long locks of hair that when compared with the rest of it might even qualify as bangs framed her face and hung in front of her shoulders, obscuring them from view.
He knew that she loved to get a reaction from people but this was a little much, even for her. He supposed she wanted to provoke an interesting one from her new teammates. He sighed as he raised an exasperated eyebrow at the pre-teen in front of him. He knew very well by now that most of what she was wearing was probably almost indestructible or could be used as a weapon despite its beauty but he still couldn't help but stare every time he saw her like this.
She gave a light cough to shake him out of his slight trance and her gave slight shake of his head and turned his attention to briefing Noriko on what she could expect from her new teammates.
.-.
Fifteen minutes later found her staring at the building she had graduated from two years ago. A sad glint appeared in her eye as she caught sight of the wooden swing that hung from the branch of a tree in the main courtyard.
She remembered claiming that swing as her own on her first day as she, surrounded by new friends, chattered and smiled, dodging questions about her mask the whole time. The next day though over half of her new friends were avoiding her and over the next few weeks the rest were convinced to abandon her as well.
By the next month she was left stare out across the playing children that almost immediately abandoned any game she attempted to join them in. Quickly noticing the glares of the civilian adults when they came to pick up their children she deduced what had happened. Peer pressure was a horrible thing and she couldn't really blame the children.
She blamed the parents.
Over the next year or so she had resigned herself to a lonely school life and when she found the Kage Bunshin Jutsu in the Tower library she had never been so grateful. From that point on she had sent a Bunshin reinforced with her kitsune chakra to class and spent her time on other – better - things.
"Feeling nostalgic, Noriko-chan?" The familiar voice that echoed from the depths of her consciousness broke her out of her remembrance of the years she had spent here.
Her face immediately lost its sad look. "No." Shaking her head as if to rid it of the memories she continued her leisurely walk to the building.
.-.
Meanwhile, inside the building…
Iruka stood in front of the podium in his classroom, eyebrow twitching as the majority of the excited class in front of him chattered on, oblivious to his darkening mood. 'Why did I take this job again? Oh yea, because the pay's good and I just love children.' Giving a mental sigh at his sarcastic thoughts he returned his attention to the mob of children in front of him.
"SHUT UP YOU BRATS!" the effects of his widely known and feared (at least in the academy) Demon Head Jutsu rocked through the room. As if by magic all of the newly graduated genin were quietly sitting in their seats with a slightly shell-shocked look.
With a slight smile he began the speech he gave to every one of his graduating classes. "Congratulations to all of you who have managed to make it this far. However, the road ahead of you will only get harder from this point on. You are now genin, the lowest of the low, and as such adults. I'm proud of you all for making it this far and I wish you luck on the journey ahead of you. If you remember nothing else, remember this; you now represent our village, the oldest and strongest of all shinobi villages. Take pride in that."
As Iruka finished his speech several cheers sounded throughout the room from the more exuberant students. After they died down however Iruka was quick to speak up once more.
"Now then, as per tradition you have been divided into teams of three along with a jounin instructor. Team 1…" He began to list the names of the teams and their members. Then he got to Team 7.
"Team 7: Jounin Instructor, Hatake Kakashi. Members, Uchiha Sasuke," at this name quite a few of the girls in the class, including Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino, leaned forward in anticipation, sure that they would be paired with their true love.
Iruka however, ignored this and continued, "Nara Shikamaru," At his name Shikamaru raised his head from where he had been pretending to sleep in surprise. He had thought he would be placed with Chouji. He gave a sigh and thought. 'Well, even if he is troublesome at least he's not Ino.' Sasuke had similar thoughts though his were more in the range of all his fangirls.
"And –" he was cut off both by his own shock at the name and the door of the classroom sliding open. The girl framed by the door was quite familiar, even if what she was wearing wasn't. "And, Uzumaki Noriko." He finished, giving the girl a nod.
She gave him a smirk and spoke, "Well, your as stiff as ever aren't you Scar-sensei?" She stepped into the room, giving everyone there a good view of her.
He just sighed at the familiar nickname and replied, "What are you wearing, Noriko?"
"Oh this?" she said, twirling, the sleeves and bottom of her yukata spreading around her as she did so. She stopped after a single rotation to reply, "Just something I threw on this morning."
He sighed again at the girl's familiar antics, "Well, go sit with one of your new teammates I suppose, I'll have to talk with you after I finish assigning the teams."
She turned to do just that when she finally noticed the reactions of the rest of the class to her sudden appearance. The females in the room, aside from the ever shy Hinata, were glaring at her with repressed killing intent and jealously. Most of the males were either drooling slightly or staring with unabashed shock. In fact, the only reaction she couldn't judge with a glance was that of the Aburame.
"Who the hell are you?" the question erupted in a screechy soprano from the throat of one Haruno Sakura as she seethed in jealousy. Who was this bitch that stole her place on her Sasuke-kun's team? The same sentiments were quickly echoed by the rest of the females (aside from Hinata of course) in the room.
Noriko's visible eyebrow twitched in irritation at the high pitched screech. She took one look at the pinkette and came to an obvious conclusion. 'A fangirl.' "I'm Uzumaki Noriko," she said. "And you, fangirls that you are, clearly shame the name of every serious kunoichi that has ever graduated from this academy. I hope you're proud of yourselves." She finished, punctuating her last statement with a small dose of killer intent and scorn.
The rest of the class could only gape at her as she, smirking again in satisfaction at the shocked looks, strode up the raised bleacher-like desks to sit on the same row as Uchiha Sasuke.
.-.
Shikamaru's first impression of his new teammate was something he had never thought of a girl before. 'Beautiful…' Then he shook off the effect of her appearance to discretely analyze her as a shinobi. Her movements were precise and balanced; carrying the grace only archived by one highly trained in taijutsu and the ninja arts. As she moved, despite her high heels, she didn't make a sound.
Her appearance carried with it a weight he had only felt once before, in the presence of the Hokage. When he had later asked his father about it he had said that that kind of feeling hung only around those of truly immense chakra capacity. It was like your instincts flashing a 'Dangerous!' sign over their head, because anyone with that much chakra was, or had the potential to be, truly dangerous.
Her outfit, while flashy, was also clearly designed to allow easy movement and he had no doubt the she had many weapons hidden about her person. He came to the conclusion that this young girl, clearly his own age, maybe even younger, was far more skilled than the chuunin she had just finished speaking with.
As he watched her chew out the girls of his graduating class with a few pointed sentences he could only come to one conclusion.
'This girl is going to be… Troublesome.'
.-.
Uchiha Sasuke had never been even remotely attracted to anyone of the female gender.* Before the Massacre he had simply been too young. After said disaster he had been far too focused on achieving his revenge against his traitorous elder brother. That changed the moment Uzumaki Noriko stepped into the room.
Long golden hair piled onto her head in a deliberately messy fashion. A single amused blue eye taking in everything with a glance. The elegant twirl showing off her strong and graceful limbs. He could tell that she was not a fangirl. She was a kunoichi. And she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
When she made her way up to sit at the same desk as him he could barely breathe, and when she turned to give him a wink in greeting he felt his heart stop for a second before racing again. He had to look down at his desk to gather his composure before nodding in reply.
This girl…she was different. When she had caught sight of him a flash of something familiar in her demeanor caught his attention, something he knew he should recognize.
It wasn't until she had left to talk to Iruka that he finally recognized it as the loneliness he had felt so often since the night his clan had been eradicated. What he couldn't figure out though was why someone as…as…stunning as her would know the taste of something like that.
And he would do everything in his power to figure out how and why.
* - Or of the male gender, despite rumors to the contrary.
~ Author's Note ~
So, in this chapter I think I given you a bit more of Noriko's personality. If you've noticed I have kept a few things from the original Naruto here. First is quite obviously her pranking and with a shadow clone taking care of her classes they only increased over time, both in size and effect.
Second is her attitude. Much like the original Naruto she wants to be noticed and though she goes about it a different way she certainly gets the attention she wants. One the downsides of this sort of attention though is the increasing number of fan clubs devoted to her. Fanboys are a terrifying thing.
Simply because she is female a lot of her thought processes have changed as well. While Naruto would simply charge headfirst into a problem without thinking it through first Noriko is much more likely to think things through so they come out more to her advantage.
As a result a lot of the scrapes Naruto tumbles into won't be much of a problem for her, but you'll find out more about that, and how it effects Noriko's fighting style, in the next few chapters. All I'll say is that unlike Naruto she won't end up a virtual clone of one of her parents in any way.
I think I'll stop here before I ramble too much and, my dear readers, please, please REVIEW!
~ Aljan Moonfire ~
