A/N: Hello people!
I don't own Naruto.
I have no beta.
Enjoy!
NEVER be ashamed of a scar. It simply means that you were stronger than whatever tried to hurt you.-Unknown.
"Okay, so you need to have certain qualifications in order to perform this jutsu. First you must either, be an Uchiha, a Hyuga or have perfect chakra control. Second to accompany the first, you need to have a high rank in my book. I don't count because I'm the creator. And third, you must have high, strong and flexible chakra reserves in order to properly achieve the effect necessary for it to work."
Itachi watched as Naruko walked back and forth. She repeatedly smacked her right hand into her left as she rattled off the rules for her jutsu.
"You need to have great skill at multitasking. If you lose focus on the jutsu, it can damage your face and you don't want that. Now, when I first developed the jutsu, I had to make sure my speed was up to snuff, because I couldn't hold it for that long. I still use that speed, because it's fun to mess with people. For beginners, high level speed in a necessity so they don't have to try and hold the jutsu for too long. Permanent damage to the face can have bad repercussions, especially in our profession. Building your endurance takes a couple of months, so long as you dedicate time every day to perfecting the technique."
She paced back and forth, telling him everything that was needed. He was internally shocked at how much concentration one jutsu required. To think that a child had come up with it at such a young age too. Once again, impressive.
"Uchiha and Hyuga will have an easy time learning this jutsu. Hyuga can see the chakra and naturally have perfect chakra control. An Uchiha can watch someone perform the jutsu and gauge the amount of chakra used, then replicate it on the first try. The speed is really only necessary for non Uchiha and non Hyuga. Still, having good speed is always a plus. Now, I'll show you the hand sign."
Naruko formed a seal that he had never seen before.
"I must confess to never seeing that particular hand sign before," he admitted, slightly annoyed.
She nodded, "That's quite understandable. It isn't taught to humans."
His head tilted slightly to the left to betray his confusion. Not taught to humans?
She nodded to his silent question, "You're an Anbu captain. You know about the Kyuubi being sealed inside me. Well, lets just say that Kyu and I train together often."
His eyes widened uncharacteristically. "You know?"
Naruko sighed. "I was ambushed when I was little. Let's just say, that the event was so bad, Kyu knocked me unconscious so I wouldn't feel anymore. That was when I met her and we've been friends ever since."
Itachi was surprised. The greatest of all the Bijuu was a female? Not something he expected.
"Anyway, Kyu taught me some demonic jutsu, which requires demonic seals. So, I use one to perform the jutsu. This is Kitsune," Naruko said, making the very sign.
"How apropos right?" the blonde asked with a twinkle in her eye.
Itachi let a smirk grace his lips. She was definitely interesting.
"Memorize the seal. Now, focus your chakra into a thin covering over your face. Your mask and your chakra will blend and become one. The chakra must be thinner than the mask. Imagine reaching through the mask as if it wasn't there. Imagine your hand passing right through, even though the mask is still clearly there. This isn't a Genjutsu, though to anyone watching, it may seem that way. To stop the jutsu, just stop your chakra flow."
Itachi slipped a childs mask on. One that he had had for years, but couldn't bring himself to get rid of it. Mimicking the sign she had used, he activated his Sharingan to monitor the chakra required. It was actually a small amount, but many ninja had trouble shaping such small amounts of chakra because of high reserves. This jutsu required skill and precision. Multi functional brain capacity and skill.
He was able to mimic her movements perfectly and was finally able to move on to the envisioning part.
Naruko stood before him, holding out some Onigiri. "Eat it," she ordered.
He took the item and brought it to his masked lips. He was shocked when the riceball entered his mouth with the mask on.
"See, it's cool. Just do all that I've told you, and you'll be good. Oh! I don't have a name for it. If you can come up with a name, by all means, do it."
She turned and walked toward the large house.
Itachi was a little sad. He had hoped to get something to tease his brother with. But Naruko Uzumaki was all about business during their time together.
She paused in her gate and looked at him over her shoulder, "Do you know where I can find Ducky?"
What?
"Sasuke," she clarified.
He gave her a questioning look.
She shrugged one shoulder, "He's the only person I know to have the butt of a duck on the back of his head. And it's natural too!"
Itachi had to hold his composure, at least until she left. "He may be in the kitchen. Sometimes he like to assist mother in cooking."
"Thank you!"
When she was finally gone, Itachi allowed himself to snort out a chuckle, out loud.
"What has you in such a good mood?"
Itachi looked over at his best friend. "Shisui, I have something new to tease Sasuke with."
His fellow Uchiha smirked as his eyes widened, "Ooh! Do tell!"
Naruko and Sasuke stood beside their sensei in front of the Hokage's desk. Jiji was about to assign them a new teammate.
"This person was selected by a high member of the council. Because I have nothing negative about this man, I can't argue with his decision, so I decided to agree."
The Hokage gave them all a smile, "He will meet you at Training Ground Seven in an hour, don't be late."
Naruko and Sasuke took their time walking to the usual training field. It wasn't too far from the Hokage's office and they had an hour.
Naruko was trying to get a clip to hold back her bangs. But for some reason, femal things didn't like her and she couldn't get it to work.
Sasuke sighed and grabbed the clip. Sweeping her bangs off to the side, he maneuvered the clip through them with expertise. Stepping back he found himself assaulted by large beautiful blue eyes.
Gorgeous pools of sapphire that just seemed to draw him in. The golden hair just making them pop even more.
"Thank you!"
Those eyes twinkled in that moment. So lovely. He had to fight off his blush. He didn't even know what her whole face looked like and he thought she was the most beautiful person in the world. How pathetic!
But she was more than looks. She had a wonderful personality and a great drive to do anything she set her mind to. She was an amazing person and he just liked everything about her. Now, he had 'the most beautiful and expressive eyes', to had to his list. His list that consisted of her most admirable qualities.
"Am I interrupting something?"
They both looked over to see Kakashi. He was looking at them expectantly.
"Sasuke helped me pin my bangs back, because girly things hate me," Naruko informed the Jonin.
Sasuke looked away with a huff. "Hn."
Kakashi wanted to giggle at the embarrassed look on Sasuke's face. Naruko wasn't too bright in the romance department, so she didn't notice the strange things Sasuke did. Very strange. Teenage boys never did what Sasuke did. If Naruko didn't find it strange, then that meant he'd been doing it for a while. Like how their nicknames for each other sound like insults to others, but to them, it's a sign of friendship.
Sasuke was a little romantic at heart and Kakashi planned on using it to embarrass the young Uchiha even further.
They made it to the training ground a few minutes later, after finding out that Sasuke knew how to do hair, because he was the only one home to help his mother in the mornings and he had to learn when he was young. Enter Naruko's giggle here.
Naruko and Sasuke stopped walking when they noticed someone sitting on the ground in front of the Memorial Stone, drawing.
It was a boy, about their age. He was extremely pale. Paler than Sasuke, who could practically glow in the dark. He was wearing a grey high collared midriff shirt that had a zipper in the center. Over that was a short black jacket with the left sleeve stopping at his bicep and the right, reaching to his wrist. Black pants, sandals and gloves accompanied the look. His thumb and forefinger were exposed though. A tanto poked out from his right shoulder.
He looked the very definition of goth. Without any make up. When he looked up at them, she was surprised to see that he had black eyes.
She briefly thought that he and Sasuke looked kind of similar, but then dismissed it.
He stood and bowed, "Hello, my name is Sai."
Naruko nodded, "I'm Naruko Uzumaki, nice to meet you."
Sasuke grunted, "Sasuke Uchiha."
Kakashi waved, "Yo!"
Sai studied Kakashi for a second. He looked at the man's appearance and the book in his hands. "Homo."
Naruko snorted as quietly as she could. That was great!
Sai looked at Sasuke for a second, "Emo."
Once again Naruko snorted. Sai had said it with such a deadpanned expression. It was so great!
Finally, she was the object of Sai's attention. She wondered what kind of insult she'd get. And hoped it was funny.
"Beautiful."
Kakashi looked over at Sasuke, who immediately glared at the boy. This wasn't going to end well, especially when Naruko seemed so flustered over the compliment.
Sensei, help me!
Sasuke hated him! Hated! The damn bastard just came in from nowhere and decided to call his Naruko 'beautiful'! Sasuke wanted to rip the pale asshole apart. How dare he!
Sasuke looked over at Naruko and nearly fainted from horror and shock. The only parts of her that were visible, were a dark shade of fuchsia. She was blushing! Blushing! Naruko Uzumaki was blushing over a simple word that a nobody had uttered.
Sasuke had always complimented her skills. He always made sure to push her when she trained and to give her much encouragement. He had never said anything like that to the girl! He knew that she didn't care about her looks, having seen her once chop all of her hair off in school just because a fan girl put gum in it. She then said that it was only hair and it would grow back eventually. And eventually was pretty damn fast too.
She insisted on their last mission, that she not wear makeup and even stressed to having an abnormal body. Still beautiful, but not by normal standards.
Though Sasuke admired everything about her, he had never said anything like that! What would she have done to him if he did?! And he couldn't just start doing it otherwise, she's think that there was something wrong with him.
He wanted to tell her what her thought of her hair and her eyes. How he had admired her for so long, but he just had a feeling that she wouldn't understand him.
He saw the way she acted around the villagers. They hated her, for some reason and she smiled like nothing was wrong. Of course he knew that it was all an act. She'd been alone her whole life. While some may think that that's the greatest thing in the world, she for one didn't.
She got to watch as families with little children went to parks and laughed and played with each other while she stood by wishing that it could be her. She got along with the Hokage, but didn't want to bother him with every little thing that went on. The Ichiraku's were also her friends, but she refrained from dumping her load on them. Even the boys in school didn't know the depth of her sorrow.
Shikamaru, being the smartest probably picked up on it, but if he did, he never approached the issue.
Sasuke had watched her for all of those years. He knew the girl like the back of his hand. She loved ramen. All ramen. She despised veggies. She had a hobby of watering plants when she was down. The girl hated her birthday and refused to tell anyone what day it was. Of course Sasuke knew.
The way he found out wasn't the greatest but he still knew. He once caught Shikamaru pulling Naruko aside and handing her something while muttering, "happy birthday". Naruko had told him she hated her birthday but accepted the gift anyway. Whatever it was, she loved it and actually jumped up and down. He made an effort to get her something ever since.
Naruko loved to stand atop the Hokage monument and watch the sunset. Setting impossible goals for herself and then achieving them in record timing was a stress reliever for her.
The only things he didn't know, were, what she looked like beneath the mask, why she wore the mask at all and how she felt about relationships. Naruko never once mentioned a crush on anyone ever. She never spoke of guys like that.
Sasuke had pretty much laid claim to the girl and every other boy in the Academy knew to stay away. Most were too afraid to approach the blonde anyway. Sasuke had successfully steered off all other males for the last five year, with complete ease. Only to have this, this douche come in a try and wreck all of his hard work!
And now, said douche was smiling at Naruko in a creepy way. Like he was painfully constipated, but was trying to put on a happy face. It was so fake.
Sasuke vowed in that moment. He vowed to win this contest. To pound this new teammate into the ground. This Sai, was dead meat!
Kakashi watched as Sasuke's face went through a myriad of emotions. The boy went from down right pissed, to contemplative, to nostalgic and back to pissed again. Except this pissed, was a lot more malicious and was accompanied by a devilish smirk.
Oh no!
Kakashi watched as the three talked. Naruko was trying to get Sai's whole background and Sasuke was making condescending grunts at every answer the new boy gave.
"Do you like drawing? How long have you been drawing? Are you any good? Do you have a favorite artist? What inspires your art? What kind of pencil do you prefer to use? Is that summoning ink? Can you summon with it? Can I see?"
The questions went on and on.
Sai looked lost on how to answer. Kakashi took pity on him and decided to come to his rescue. "Naruko, let the boy breathe. One question at a time."
She managed to look bashful and embarrassed even with a mask obscuring most of her face. "Sorry Kaka-sensei."
Sai looked between them with a somewhat confused expression. It was almost as if he was confused over being confused.
"I do draw, since before I can remember. It is something I do in my spare time. I'm efficient at it. I draw what I see. I tend to use graphite pencils for my works. Yes, it is summoning ink and I can animate my drawings with it," Sai said, answering all of the blondes questions to the best of his ability.
He bent down and picked up a scroll. He whipped it open with a flourish, a calligraphy appeared between his fingers. His hand blurred across the white of the scroll and he made a quick hand sign, "Ninja Art: Super Beast Scroll."
The ink pulled away from the scroll and formed next to Naruko in the shape of a large lion.
"You drew that that fast?!" the girl asked in amazement.
Sai just nodded.
Kakashi found it odd that he didn't try to brag about his skills. In fact, the boy looked completely emotionless. He didn't seem to understand Naruko's fascination with his abilities nor did he seem to notice Sasuke's scathing glare.
"Well kids, we're going to have a test today! As a way for you to get used to each other for teamwork purposes, you have to get these bells from me."
Kakashi held up three silver bells and gave a carefree laugh. "And Naruko?"
The blonde gave him a 'what?' look.
"No Hiraishin."
She grumbled and folded her arms at the injustice. So...not...fair!
Kakashi pulled out an alarm clock. From where? The Genin had a feeling that they would never know.
"This is set for noon. You need to get these bells from me. That's all. Any weapons are allowed. If you don't strike to kill, you'll fail. Now, on my mark," Kakashi said, putting his porn away.
"Ready, set, come find me!"
The Genin watched as he disappeared using Shunshin.
Naruko got serious, "Okay, we need to give each other a good idea of our skills s that we can come up with an idea. We have about an hour, so this has to kick his ass and soon too."
Sasuke and Sai nodded.
"Sai, what can you do?"
"I can create a variety of animals with my ink. I can write messages that form into small animals as a way to pass secret information. I'm skilled in Kenjutsu and a certain level of Fuuinjutsu, which I can use to seal my enemies in my paintings, so long as I have competent comrades that can watch my back. It takes time to draw the specific animal for the sealing, and I can't pull my brush from the scroll once or else I lose chakra and I'll have to start over because of a failed attempt. I'm proficient in Taijutsu, though I prefer to stick to my painting and I'm good at Shunshin."
Naruko nodded absentmindedly. "I'm also good at the Shunshin. I can finally do the Hiraishin without throwing up now, but sensei said not to use it, cause I have one of the seals on him and we have to work together. I can do the Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, the Kawarimi, the regular Henge, plus my special one. A handful of wind jutsu. I can mix each of the previously stated jutsu in many ways. I also have tons of weapons on me. My Taijutsu and Genjutsu are perfect."
Sasuke sighed, "I know several fire jutsu. My Taijutsu and Genjutsu are perfect as well. I have a knack for weapons and wire. And, this." His eyes changed, becoming bright red in color, with a single tomoe.
"You got your Sharingan! When?!" Naruko asked, feeling impressed.
"Our last mission. When Sakura collapsed, I had to fight four strong ninja on my own. The stress and combined fear for our safety pushed it forward. You were busy on taking care of the enemy, so you didn't notice. I want to keep it secret though, so maybe we can try winning without it," Sasuke informed her.
Naruko nodded, "Okay. I'm going to create several Kage Bunshin and Henge two of them, to look like you two. We need an explosive jutsu to make a big bang. My others clones that can be hiding out, can rush in and Henge into rubble. We need a good attack. Sasuke and I can combine attacks well enough, but we need to get Kakashi cornered. Sai, I'll need you to create as many fast animals as you can and have them jump Kakashi. Then we can use our attack to get him. He'll probably use Kawarimi, so we'll need to get him back in the area where my Bunshin will be. They'll poof back to normal and get a good hold on him. I'm pretty good at pickpocketing, so I'm going to try and get Icha Icha from him. With that in our possession, we can blackmail him into giving us the bells. But we need to prove that we can work together. Are you guys willing to do this?"
Both nodded. She found it interesting that neither disagreed with her plan nor complained that she took the reins.
"Let's do it!"
Kakashi lounged in a tree, reading Icha Icha. He was sure that the three Genin were coming up with a plan to take him down. He would just wait and see what they were up to.
"Caw!"
He glanced at the sky. Birds.
He looked back at his book and turned a page, ignoring the weird looking birds.
Wait! Weird looking- OH SHIT!
The birds dive bombed him and he jumped away in time. However, he wasn't planning on them moving so fast! Tied to their legs, were several exploding tags and Kakashi realized that this was Sai's jutsu at work. He couldn't let any of those birds hit him, or he'd be done for.
He dodged every which way, throwing kunai and shuriken at his assailants. More kept on coming though.
"Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu!" "Futon: Reppushou!"
He twisted his body, dodging the ridiculously huge balls of fire. They connected with the ground along with the birds and everything exploded.
Kakashi waited for the smoke to clear before making a move. When it was finally gone, he could see the debris from the large explosion everywhere! The ground was ruined.
"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"
Kakashi jumped forward whilst spinning mid air to avoid Sasuke's attack.
He had a feeling that the young Uchiha was a pyromaniac with the way he threw those damn jutsu around.
He landed in the wreckage and sighed, wondering where the other two were.
"Hi Kaka-senseI!"
Pillars of smoke burst around him as hundreds of Naruko's appeared and jumped at him. She had disguised the clones in the rubble. Tricky little Genin.
He dodged, punched and kicked the clones. Creating poofs left and right.
Something glomped onto him from behind, "Nice to see that the seal is still here."
He grabbed her arm and threw her away, while expertly kicking another clone.
Naruko rolled over, rubbing her side. Despite the pain, she grinned as Sasuke and Sai dropped down from Sai's bird transport.
They waited for Kakashi to finish off the clones.
"So, now what?" the masked man asked.
"You're going to give us those bells sensei," Naruko stated triumphantly.
"Oh ho ho! I am?" the Copy Ninja laughed.
"Yes." the three Genin nodded.
Naruko held up and orange object and Kakashi felt his world freeze. How did she get it? He patted his pouch and found it considerably lighter than it should've been.
Sasuke began the make the seals for a fireball and Naruko held the book out, "Give us the bells, or the porn gets it."
Kakashi watched as Sasuke's cheeks puffed up.
"NO!"
"Yes!"
"NO!"
"Yes!"
"NOOOOOOOOOO! I'll give them to you!"
Sasuke turned away and shot his jutsu at the ground.
Naruko held out her other hand, making a 'come hither' motion.
Kakashi sighed and pulled the bells from his waist. He tossed them across the way, just as Naruko threw Icha Icha at him. Both parties had what they needed.
RRRRRIIIIIIIINNNNNGGGGGG!
Kakashi cursed, "Damn it!"
His addiction caused him to lose. How pathetic.
"We'll meet at the Missions Assignment Desk at nine tomorrow. See you then!"
The Genin watched as Kakashi Shunshined away.
"Hey guys, lets go for ramen! I'll pay!"
Naruko didn't give either boy a chance to answer as she grabbed their hands and dragged them off to her favorite ramen bar.
I think this'll be much better than with Banshee.
A/N: Another one bites the dust!
How was it?
Let me know!
Ja ne! :D
