The Author Says: I have been DEPRIVED!!! No internet for almost a month! It was driving me crazy, and I'm sure I had withdrawal symptoms and everything!
On a more serious note, I really apologize for the huge delay in updating. I know I warned that updates would be erratic and sporadic, but I do try my best to update whenever I can. What happened was this: my family moved to a new place. Our phone line got transferred pretty fast, but the lousy ISP took their own sweet time to get our internet fixed up. Those weeks without internet were torture, I tell you!!! The time hasn't exactly been wasted, though, coz I did do a bit of writing in my free time (beams proudly). Thank you to all who reviewed! I hope your interest hasn't died down :-p and in apology I've uploaded two chapters! Hope you enjoy :-)
U/L: 24th January 2008
I Think I
by TooDarnLazy
Chapter 10 - Tests
Naruto grinned to herself as she pulled on her favourite orange and black jacket over her Konoha flak vest. Underneath that, she was wearing a snug, short-sleeved orange t-shirt that had the Uchiha-Uzumaki symbol on the sleeves and back over a mesh shirt that went halfway up her neck and halfway to her wrists. She was wearing black long pants that had an orange stripe down the sides of each leg.
Tsunade-obaachan had warned her against too much orange yesterday when she went to confirm her team. She had sulked about it, but obaachan had said that she was now the role model for her team, and orange was not a colour a shinobi should be wearing. She had agreed to tone down the orange only after Tsunade-obaachan threatened to burn all her pants and stick her in skirts.
So here she was wearing her flak vest (a women's vest with the scroll pouches across the abdomen instead of across the chest like the men's, which she hadn't worn before) over her orange t-shirt so that not too much orange would be obvious, and she'd traded her orange pants for black-with-orange-stripes pants. She nodded in satisfaction. That would have to do – no way was she getting rid of all the orange.
Black fingerless gloves were slipped over each hand, and Gaara's bracelet was safely tucked under the material. She affixed her weapons pouch to her rear, and strapped her shuriken holster and double kunai pouch to her thigh. She had loaded the second holster with the tri-pronged kunai to the max, i.e. 6 kunai. The rest, another 94 kunai, were sealed into batches of ten in two sealing scrolls that she put in her flak vest. She hadn't perfected the jutsu yet, but she was definitely getting there. It wouldn't be too long before the legend of the Konoha no Kiiroi Senkou would be reborn. For you, otousan, okaasan.
Her father's original kunai she kept rolled up in a piece of velvet cloth in her cupboard. Satisfied, she bounced excitedly out of her room and out of the house with a cheerful 'ohayou!' and 'ittekimasu!' to Sasuke, who was in the kitchen.
She bounced happily all the way to the Academy, and saw Kiba and Temari waiting in the teacher's lounge. Kurenai and a few other jounin she had seen around but didn't know personally were also sitting around.
"Yo Naruto!" greeted Kiba, and Akamaru woofed cheerfully beside him. Temari waved her fan in greeting.
"Hey guys," greeted Naruto as she dropped into the sofa next to Temari and stretched.
"Who've you got on you team?" Temari asked. Naruto blinked at her.
"Me? I've got two Hyuuga and one girl… Tanake, I think. You?"
"I've got this year's Yamanaka-Nara-Akimichi combination. Tsunade-sama has a huge sense of humour," Temari said dryly as Naruto laughed. "Just because I'm married to the lazy bum doesn't mean I want to be leading lazy bum, junior."
"Heheh! I've got a cousin of mine on my team, another Hyuuga, and one of Shino's cousins, I think. Hokage-sama must have wanted to revive the old team eight, seeing as how good we were," Kiba puffed out his chest proudly, and both Naruto and Temari snorted. Temari was about to retort when a teacher's aide announced that they could go get their teams.
The younger jounin waited for the others to leave with their teams before moving to the classroom. Temari went in first, and came out with a blonde boy, a plump boy and a bored-looking brown-haired girl. Kiba announced himself noisily, as did Akamaru, and Naruto heard a corresponding noisy human and doggy greeting, before Kiba herded his team out and gave Naruto a thumbs-up and a grin, which she returned. She had her hand on the doorframe when she heard a boy speak.
"I hope our sensei is not a girl," came a drawled, cultured voice that reminded Naruto of Neji, except that this voice was arrogant.
"Yes, kunoichi jounin are a joke," the same voice spoke again. Naruto raised her eyebrow in confusion.
"Don't underestimate kunoichi, boys. You know that Hokage-sama is a woman, don't you?" Iruka's voice chastised.
"You take that back! Girls are every bit as good as boys!" a shrill voice shouted at the same time.
Naruto rolled her eyes. It looked like her team didn't get along too well, what with someone who seemed to be a chauvinist in the team. Naruto herself personally detested the chauvinistic attitude of some shinobi, and usually challenged them to fights and kicked their asses as well as she could. She loved it when she stood over their prone bodies with fellow kunoichi cheering her on, and the male shinobi shouting desperately at their representative to get up. Unfortunately, Tsunade-obaachan banned her from challenging fellow Konoha nin to fights again, unless it was for sparring or training purposes.
The blonde jounin frowned, then grinned mischievously as an idea popped into her head. A few handseals, and a soft 'kage henge!' later, Uchiha-Uzumaki Naruto the man stood in her place. She'd teach that chauvinist! Nihihihi!
"Team Seven!" she called loudly as she stepped into the class. Iruka-sensei looked up in surprise at the deep voice, and his eyes widened at Naruto's male appearance. Naruto winked at him, and he stared for a moment, before catching on and smiling back at her.
"Hey Iruka-sensei!" she greeted out loud.
"Ohayou, Naruto."
Naruto turned to the remaining three students in class, and saw a pair of Hyuuga twin boys. The boys were even dressed identically, and had long dark-brown hair tied loosely in the back. Their hitai-ate were around their necks and their foreheads were proudly bare. They had on a white haori top and dark brown cargo pants. The girl had long, wavy honey-coloured hair which she tied high behind her head. Naruto blinked at her dressing – the girl was wearing a short, bright pink halter neck top, and a blue miniskirt that had slits up both thighs over a pair of dark blue tight shorts that came halfway to her knees. No wonder the Hyuuga twins had such a low opinion of kunoichi.
The blonde clapped her hands. "Meet me at the roof, now." She waved goodbye to Iruka and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
On the roof, she sat on the balcony like she remembered Kakashi-sensei doing six years ago and waited for her genin-to-be to arrive. A few minutes later, the Hyuuga twins appeared, walking with their heads high, and behind them trailed the kunoichi. They sat themselves down on the steps in front of Naruto and looked expectantly at her.
"Alright, Team Seven. I'm Uchiha-Uzumaki Keimei Naruto. You can call me Naruto-sensei or Keimei-sensei – I don't mind. I like ramen, especially Ichiraku ramen, and getting stronger to protect my precious people. I dislike waiting three minutes for cup ramen to cook, and I hate people who abandon their friends and teammates. My dream is to become Hokage, and surpass all previous Hokage, keep my precious people safe and to live up to my father's name. My hobbies are training and… playing pranks, I suppose." Naruto gave them a goofy smile. "Now introduce yourselves, starting with the Hyuuga on my right." She pointed to one of the boys.
"I am Hyuuga Ichiro. My likes are training and the Hyuuga main family. I dislike some of the Hyuuga branch family members who think they are better than the main family." The boy didn't notice the dark look that passed over Naruto's face when he mentioned his dislike, and continued. "I also dislike girls who think they can become good ninja. My dream is to become as strong as Hiashi-sama, and surpass him. My hobby is reading classical poetry."
"Next," Naruto barked shortly. Her mood had taken a downward turn.
"My name is Hyuuga Nichiro, younger twin of Ichiro-niisan. I like training and the Hyuuga main family. I also dislike Hyuuga branch members who think they are equal to the main family." A vein popped out on Naruto's temple and started twitching, but her students didn't notice, and she remained quiet. "Similarly, I dislike kunoichi because they are weak. My dream is also to become as strong as Hiashi-sama, as well as to maintain the Main family and Branch family order. My hobby is reading classical stories."
"Sl–girl." Naruto barely stopped herself from saying 'slut'. She breathed a sigh of relief when her students didn't notice.
The girl perked up and sent Naruto what she obviously thought was a pretty, seductive smile. The jounin rolled her eyes mentally and just smiled goofily back at the girl, pretending not to realize the obvious meaning of the smile.
"I'm Tanake Eriko," she said in a sultry voice – or at least, as sultry as a twelve-year-old could make it. Which was not appealing at all. "I like handsome older boys and men, shopping, clothes and makeup. I dislike boys who look down on girls because they think girls are weaker. My dream… is to marry a rich, handsome, high-ranking shinobi and be pampered all day long." Naruto resisted the urge to gag, and saw that the girl's teammates were rolling their eyes. "My hobby is to collect pictures and information on all the bishounen in Konoha and the surrounding villages to put into my catal–I mean, my scrap book." She batted her eyes at Naruto, who quickly looked away.
The jounin put a finger on her chin and pretended to think deeply. "My first impression of you guys…" she gave them a huge smile, "is that you are one screwed-up bunch." The smile turned so fake even the girl realized it. Naruto abandoned the smile and frowned at her team, effectively silencing the Hyuuga and the girl who were about to speak.
She took out three paper planes from her weapons pouch, smoothed them and flicked them towards each student.
"Tomorrow you'll be having a survival test with me. This test has a 66 percent failure rate." She smiled maliciously at them, and enjoyed the shocked looks on their faces. No wonder Kakashi-sensei got a kick out of screwing with their minds. "If you fail this test, you'll be sent back to the Academy." The jaws dropped even lower and Naruto's spirits rose. She cackled out loud at their horrified faces.
She pushed herself off the balcony and stood with her hands in her pockets. "Read the papers for further information and meet me at Team Seven's training grounds at 10am sharp tomorrow. It's the one with the Konoha Memorial. Bring your weapons and whatnot." She backflipped to stand on the railing with her back facing them.
"Oh, and by the way," she said, looking over her shoulder at them as if she just remembered something. "A word of advice – don't eat because you'd probably throw up." And she freefell down the building to the sound of the girl's horrified scream, grinning manically all the while.
Xx
Xx
Naruto hummed to herself as she prepared a few bento boxes for lunch after the survival test later that morning. The sun had just risen, and she was already in a good mood as she thought of all the traps she had prepared for her students. She grinned to herself, still not down from her high of mentally scaring the Academy graduates yesterday.
She tucked the bento boxes into her bag, hefted it over her shoulder and left the house, roof-hopping till she reached the familiar training grounds. The nine o'clock sun glared on her back and made her hair gleam like spun gold. Naruto quickly put down her bag and dug out her trap equipment. She made a few kage bunshin and started setting up the traps. All the Narutos had a maniacal smile on their faces, and evil chuckles could be heard sporadically.
Xx
Xx
Eriko skipped up to where three log posts were standing in the ground facing a clearing. Her Hyuuga twin teammates were already there, but there wasn't any sign of their sensei. She stopped in front of the Hyuuga and flipped her honey-coloured hair.
"Ohayou, Ichiro, Nichiro," she chirped. The twins looked at her down their noses with an air of disdain, and muttered their replies. Eriko bristled and opened her mouth to chew them out, but a puff of smoke appeared between her and the twins.
"Ohayou gozaimasu!" Naruto greeted her students cheerfully, still in her male form. She turned to Eriko with a raised eyebrow. "Why are you coughing? You not feeling well?"
Eriko coughed again and glared at the blonde, tried to say something, and coughed again. Nichiro snickered quietly at the girl, and she glared at him. Naruto shrugged and pulled out an alarm clock seemingly from nowhere. She put it on top of the middle log. Ichiro raised an elegant eyebrow.
"This clock is set for noon," Naruto said, and an evil smile started twisting her lips. Her students' faces were starting to show their unease, and Naruto cackled inwardly. "Your objective is to retrieve a bell each," she pulled out two bells with a flourish and tied them to her belt loop that would have held Sasayaki, except that she had sealed the katana in a scroll now in her vest under her orange jacket, seeing as she wouldn't be needing it for the test, "whoever fails to get a bell by the time the alarm goes off fails, will be tied to the log, denied lunch and sent back to the Academy." She laughed evilly at the look of hunger and horror on her students' faces.
"Well!" Naruto exclaimed. "Hajime!"
Eriko disappeared into the trees, but the two Hyuuga slipped into Jyuuken stances on either side of her. Naruto put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow at them.
"And why haven't you hidden yourselves like Eriko has?"
"Hyuuga have no need for hiding," Ichiro intoned.
"Is that so?" Naruto drawled, a little ticked off at the arrogant tone. She smirked at them. "Time for a lesson you've obviously missed in the Academy – hiding successfully. Let me refresh your mind." She gave them a two fingered wave and disappeared with a teasing, "Ja!"
Naruto watched her team from her spot in the trees as the twins glared in surprise at the spot where she had been. She laughed to herself, then quickly took off her orange and black jacket and hopped through the trees to where she had set up one of her traps earlier that morning, and hung her jacket on a tree branch in such a way that it seemed she was trying to hide in the branches, so that anyone who tried to grab the jacket would set off the trap.
Eriko crawled through the bushes in an attempt to find Naruto-sensei, grimacing and grumbling under her breath about all the scratches and dirt she was getting in her hair and clothes. "I've had enough of this dirt!" she said disgustedly to herself, and pushed up off the forest floor, only to come face to face with her sensei.
Naruto crossed her arms and looked down at her student, who was sporting leaves and twigs in her hair, dirt all over her clothes, and a sheepish look on her face. Eriko looked uncertain for a while, then pulled out her kunai and charged at Naruto with a shrill battle cry. Naruto snorted in amusement and disappointment, and easily stepped to the side to avoid her student's charge, and nonchalantly stuck out her foot to trip the girl. Eriko went crashing to the ground and howled.
"My makeup!"
The blonde jounin's features twisted into a frown, and she turned around to regard her student, who had stood up and whipped out a pink, lacy handkerchief and was furiously wiping her face. Naruto's eyes hardened, then gleamed in sadistic amusement as her hands formed the seals to her most-used jutsu.
"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Then came another set of handseals, one that she hadn't used since she discovered her real gender. "Harem no jutsu, Otoko no Version!"
Eriko's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and her jaw dropped at the sight of a horde of copies of a naked black-haired, pale-skinned man advancing coolly towards her with seductive smirks on their handsome faces and wisps of clouds covering what mattered. Her thoughts became jumbled up and her mouth formed incoherent words as the men came nearer and nearer, and stretched out to touch her face and hair and hands. She screamed loudly and fainted with a dazed, goofy smile on her face.
The men straightened and stared disdainfully at the sight of the girl on the ground, then stared at each other hard, and before long each turned away with pink-tinted cheeks. Then all but one disappeared with a big puff of smoke, and the remaining one released the oiroke no jutsu to turn back into a blonde male.
Naruto forced the blush on her face to recede while mentally berating herself. Why on earth had she chosen Sasuke's image, of all people, for her harem no jutsu? Thinking of Sasuke's face, black hair, pale skin on his well-built chest that she could see because of his open kimono-like shirt (though she had to imagine the rest of his body)… her heart beat faster and the blush returned to her cheeks.
What the…?! I'm not some swooning fangirl! Naruto berated herself frantically. Eew eew eew!!
She shook her head hard as if to fling the thoughts out of her mind and turned to face Eriko on the ground. Heaving a huge sigh, she purposely dragged the girl (instead of carrying her, so that her clothes would dirty even more; Nihihihi) and set her in the middle of one of her traps, so that she'd set it off the moment she got up, if she wasn't careful. Naruto clapped the dust off her hands, shoved her hands into her pockets and strolled out of the forest area into the clearing.
She casually walked up to where the alarm clock was sitting on the log posts although in fact she was spreading her senses and on alert. Naruto glanced at the clock and saw that only about half an hour had passed. She half-frowned to herself, then turned around and leaned against the post and stared at the clouds.
Suddenly, four hands shot towards her back and managed to make contact. Naruto stiffened for a moment before disappearing in a puff of smoke and leaving a log in her place.
"Kawarimi no jutsu!" Nichiro said in disgust. He thought they'd nail her for sure. Ichiro hastily turned around when he heard the faint sound of zori crunching the grass.
"Well?" asked Naruto, her hands crossed loosely across her chest. The Hyuuga twins glared at her, then without warning, they attacked using jyuuken. To their surprise, their sensei was able to dodge and block their attacks easily, which was a feat for a non-Hyuuga. They weren't able to close even one tenketsu of their sensei's or even get their fingers near the bells.
Naruto stepped back and smirked at the surprise and irritation on the face of her students, who had leapt back to catch their breaths. Ichiro and Nichiro glared at her in return. While their chests were still heaving, Naruto darted towards them with chakra-charged hands and tapped a spot on their arms before they could even blink.
"Nani!" Nichiro bellowed as he felt the familiar sensation of a tenketsu being blocked. Ichiro quickly pushed back the sleeve of his haori to see that there was indeed a red mark where their sensei had tapped him, showing that the particular tenketsu had indeed been blocked. He looked at their sensei, who was grinning somewhat maliciously at them.
"How…?" Ichiro stared at the blonde.
"Lesson: Never underestimate your opponent, and be ready for anything," she told them, and clinked the bells together with a finger while grinning at them. Both the twins narrowed their eyes at her.
A loud scream broke the silence, and the twins looked up in surprise and a bit of fear. They activated their Byakugan and looked around for the source of the sound. Ichiro was the first to spot Eriko hanging upside down on a rope tied to a tree covered in some liquid substance, the nature of which he couldn't tell from this distance.
"Ah. Eriko must have woken up," Naruto grinned.
"What did you do to Tanake?" Nichiro demanded. Naruto smiled airily.
"Nothing bad, I assure you. Just gave her a glimpse of her heaven."
The Hyuuga twins looked at each other, then darted at their sensei in another round of jyuuken attacks. Naruto adopted a slouched pose and easily dodged and blocked them for a while before getting bored.
"Oi. I'm getting bored here. Aren't you going to use anything other than jyuuken? It's getting too predictable." she asked while blocking Nichiro's hands from her neck and Ichiro's hands from her chest. They work well in tandem, mused Naruto. Now if only they'd work with Eriko.
The twins were busy coordinating their attacks and didn't answer her. Naruto sighed.
"I've had enough," she declared, and with a simple wrist movement, sent a chop to their necks and knocked them out. She sighed at them and their Hyuuga stubbornness, shoved her hands into her pockets and went to sit on one of the logs, smiling to herself as she remembered how she was the one who had been tied there, and Sasuke had actually offered her half his bento…
The smile slipped off her face as she couldn't help but contrast the old Sasuke with the one she had brought back. Naruto felt her heart grow heavy. She missed old Sasuke whenever she had to deal with the current Sasuke.
Xx
Xx
Sasuke stared angrily at the back of the silver-haired jounin walking lazily with his nose buried in his little blue book. The man had been extremely late in picking him up from the house, and his excuse had been a flimsy "I had to report to Hokage-sama, and she was drinking sake, and offered me a cup, so I couldn't decline, seeing as she was Hokage…"
It was about half an hour to noon, and they were just reaching Team 7's training ground. The whole morning had been wasted. Sasuke ground his teeth in annoyance, but kept his mouth shut.
Kakashi and Sasuke stepped into the clearing in front of the log posts, and right away they could sense four other chakra signatures – one strong one and three weaker ones.
A burst of loud, familiar laughter came from the forest, and a split second after that came two outraged cries and one outraged scream. The laughter rang through the training area again, and Naruto burst out of the trees, laughing her head off.
"Eh? Kaka-sensei? Sasuke? What are you doing here?" she asked between breaths when she had noticed them. She jogged up to where the two men were.
"The bell test, Naruto?" Kakashi asked, pointing at the bells hanging from her belt without lifting his nose from Icha Icha Dreams. Sasuke glanced at Naruto's waist to see a couple of silver bells there. Is she testing genin? Since when was she a jounin sensei? And why is she male again?? he wondered.
Naruto grinned a huge grin at Kakashi. "Yup! The bell test, Naruto version!"
"Sou ka?" Kakashi said idly, his eye curving upwards. He closed his book with a snap and slipped it into his rear weapons pouch. "Better stay on your feet, then."
Three figures ran out of the trees from where Naruto had emerged a few seconds earlier, and Sasuke stared at them. One was obviously a girl and the other two seemed to be twin Hyuuga boys. All were covered in a sticky-looking light brown substance (honey?) and had feathers, pink and purple sparkles, leaves, twigs, flour and even eggs all over them.
"Naruto-sensei!" screamed the girl, pointing at the blonde. With another scream from the enraged girl, all three charged towards Naruto, who grinned widely in response and waved to the two men. "Gotta go, crazy genin-to-be after my hide. Ja!"
She ran in circles around the perimeter of the clearing, making sure to keep only a tantalizingly small distance between herself and the lead pursuer, evading the occasional kunai or shuriken.
Kakashi shook his head in amusement and went to lean against the logs. Sasuke followed and glared at him.
"What about training, Kakashi?"
Kakashi looked lazily at him. "It can wait a few minutes. Naruto's about done."
Sasuke stiffened in annoyance. "You were already late today. The whole morning has been wasted!"
The jounin lazily flapped a hand at him. "Life's not all about training, Sasuke. Let's just watch your wife for a while, ne?"
The brunet released a huge load of killing intent in anger, but the jounin wasn't even fazed. The genin, whoever, had stopped dead in their tracks, and the girl had started whimpering in fear. Naruto stopped and turned around, and easily pinpointed the source of killing intent to the brunet.
"Oi!" she shouted in annoyance. "I'm trying to conduct a test here! Do you mind?"
Sasuke turned to stare coldly at her. "You're getting in the way of my training, dobe."
Naruto bristled at the insult. "What are you talking about? This is Team Seven's training grounds and I'm Team Seven's sensei! You're the one getting in my way!" she shouted back, arms flying around.
Kakashi made an indistinct noise beside Sasuke. "Oh yeah, I forgot about Naruto taking over our training area."
Sasuke's hands balled into fists.
"Oi! Tone down the killing intent! My genin are about to piss in their pants!"
"No we're not!" Ichiro yelled shakily, but was relieved nonetheless when the oppressing feeling abated somewhat. Naruto turned to grin at them, and they cowered. Before they could move, however, she had a kage bunshin beside her crouched behind each twin. Her eyes glinted evilly and her hands were raised in the tora seal.
"Where did sensei disappear-"
"Double Sennen Goroshi!"
Ichiro and Nichiro went screaming into the air clutching their butts, and Eriko stared wide-eyed and limp. Naruto's kage bunshin dispelled and she stood laughing uproariously with her hands on her hips.
"Hah! Always wanted to do that!" she shouted, and laughed again as the Hyuuga twins limped back to her with outraged and pained expressions. The boys growled at her angrily and she stuck out her tongue at them and grinned.
The alarm rang loudly behind Kakashi, and Sasuke knocked down the clock in annoyance.
"Oi teme! That's my clock!" shouted Naruto angrily. She produced three kage bunshin, which quickly tied up the genin and tossed them over their shoulders, and followed the original back to the log posts, where they tied one genin to each post.
Naruto crossed her arms and stared at them in disappointment, ignoring the two men for the moment.
"Not even one of you managed to even touch the bells," she told them. Ichiro and Nichiro looked away in embarrassment, but Eriko shouted at their sensei.
"You're a jounin! We just graduated yesterday! Of course we aren't up to your level just yet!"
Naruto shook her head. "I wasn't using jounin level skills during the test. Not even once. All jutsu and traps I used were those I learned from the Academy and used to set when I pranked people."
All three genin stared at their sensei incredulously. "It's true!" Naruto said in response to their looks. "If you had worked together from the beginning of the test, you might have been able to get at least one bell."
"But what's the use of getting only one bell? Then two others would have to be sent back to the Academy!" Ichiro argued, and his teammate and twin nodded in agreement.
"The test was set up to see if you'd fight amongst yourselves or work together. While I'm pleased that you at least learned to work together at the end," Naruto said, "Ichiro and Nichiro – you rely too much on jyuuken and Hyuuga skills. You won't be able to get far if you depend too much on them, because you won't be able to anticipate your enemies' attacks, since you're so used to sparring only with Hyuuga. Also, you looked down on Eriko, thinking that she was just a useless girl instead of a teammate."
The blonde turned to Eriko. "And you, for shame! You shouldn't be distracted by a such a simple technique! I developed the jutsu when I was still in the Academy, and defeated Iruka-sensei, Sandaime-ojiji and the Closet Pervert with it… but still! You worry too much about your appearance. Get this into your head – ninjas will get dirty. You'll have to sleep on the ground, in caves or in trees during missions, you'll have to go without baths for weeks on ends, you won't have time to put on you makeup while on missions!"
"Kunoichi are useless," muttered Ichiro, and Nichiro murmured assent. Naruto frowned at them.
"So you think you would have gotten the bells if I was a female jounin instead of a male?" she asked, her eyes glinting dangerously. The two boys nodded confidently, and Naruto smirked at them.
"Kai!"
Suddenly their sensei's features became female, and her chest protruded out, and her hips became more curvy than earlier. The genin stared open-mouthed, and Kakashi chuckled lightly behind them.
"Guess what, boys," Naruto said dryly in her real voice, "I'm female. 100 female – two X chromosomes and everything. Before you ask, Ichi and Nichi," she said, seeing that they were about to speak, then ignored their indignant protests at the nicknames, "That was a kage henge. A Kage level henge that the Byakugan and Sharingan cannot see through because it uses the normal chakra flow of the person's body to maintain the henge, which physically transforms the person. But of course, even with the physical transformation, I was still female, with a female's capacity and ability."
The Hyuuga twins flushed in shame, and Eriko followed suit when she remembered thinking that her sensei was very handsome, and was on the verge of adding him to her catalogue.
"Never underestimate your opponent! Let your opponent underestimate you, but you should never relax your guard, and you should never discount your teammate, because they could be the ones who pull you out of sticky situations that you would never get yourselves out of. I learned one thing early on – those that disobey the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are lower than trash."
Eriko looked at their sensei to see that she seemed to be talking to someone behind the posts more than to Team Seven. Her eyes were a little sad.
Naruto took a breath and closed her eyes. "Should I, or shouldn't I?" she murmured to herself. The genin stared at her hopefully, trying to impart their wishes into her mind.
The blonde's eyes opened and stared at them. Ichiro, Nichiro and Eriko stared back at the beautiful cerulean blue eyes. For a long, tense moment, they stared at each other, then Naruto's whisker marks crinkled as she smiled at them. Eriko melted at the smile, and Ichiro and Nichiro found their usual cool attitude weakening at their sensei's beautiful smile. Behind them, Sasuke stared at Naruto's smile, never having seen such a genuine smile on her face.
"You pass!"
"Huh?" Eriko blurted out intelligently, then her eyes widened. "We pass? We pass! We pass!" she chanted happily. Ichiro and Nichiro exhaled in relief on either side of her.
"Don't be too happy just yet," Naruto warned. "I passed you because you managed to work together towards the end of the test. Now that you're officially a team, I expect the teamwork to get better. You'll learn to respect and work with your teammates and me, and if I don't see any progress, I might just send you back to the Academy."
The genin nodded dumbly. Naruto became even more serious than earlier, and sat down in front of the three.
"Now… I've passed you, but you have to decide whether you want me to be your sensei or not," she began. Eriko cut her off.
"Of course we want you, Naruto-sensei!"
Naruto glared in her direction and she kept quiet. "There's something you need to know about me first. I'm sure you know that eighteen years ago the Yondaime managed to defeat the Kyuubi no Kitsune at the cost of his life?"
Kakashi lowered his trashy novel and narrowed his eye at his former student. "Naruto," he said sharply; warningly.
Naruto looked up at him. "I know what I'm doing, Kakashi-sensei. They have the right to know if they're gonna be my students."
Kakashi didn't continue, but Naruto could tell he wasn't very happy about it. Eriko strained against her ropes trying to look behind her.
"Kakashi? As in Copy Nin Kakashi?" she asked excitedly. Even the Hyuuga twins perked up. "He's like, one of the most handsome men in the village! And he was your sensei? Kyaa!"
Naruto rolled her eyes and glared at her. "He wears a mask across his lower face and covers one eye, Eriko. I don't understand how you can tell whether he's handsome or not. He could be hiding buckteeth or fat lips under that mask."
She cleared her throat and ignored Kakashi's mock-hurt "Naruto!".
"Now, back to the Kyuubi. What I'm about to tell you, you are not allowed to tell anyone else without my permission. Eighteen years ago, Ot- the Yondaime defeated the Kyuubi by sacrificing his life to seal the youkai into a newborn child – the only way to defeat a demon. I was that newborn child. In other words, I'm the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi."
A tense silence filled the training ground.
"Are you done, dobe?" Sasuke's cold and indifferent voice stated after a while. "I need to train."
Naruto bounced up and bristled. "Don't call me that, teme! I'm working with my team here!"
Sasuke's upper lip curled faintly. "Your team? That's a joke. They must have made a mistake promoting you to jounin."
The blonde pointed angrily at him. "Hah! You're just jealous, Mr. Genin!"
Sasuke snorted. "I don't care about rank. I may be a genin in rank but I can still beat you, dobe."
"Oh yeah? I can kick your ass anytime, Sasuke! Bring it on!" Naruto yelled, and shunshin-ed to the middle of the clearing. "What'cha waiting for, yarou?"
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her, and Kakashi warned him, "Don't underestimate her." Sasuke scoffed and shunshin-ed to where Naruto was waiting. If she wanted to be embarrassed in front of her prospective students, he'd be more than happy to put her in her place.
With a loud cry, Naruto charged at him with two kunai in each hand. Sasuke dodged her easily, then whipped out a foot towards her head but missed as she fluidly bent down as she spun on her foot. Sasuke whipped out his Kusanagi and started thrusting in her direction. Naruto jumped clear of his range and unloosened a scroll pouch on her vest so that a small summoning scroll fell out. Without handseals, she created a kage bunshin to occupy Sasuke as she bit her thumb and smeared the bit of blood on the scroll as she opened it.
"Katana no kuchiyose!" she said, and her students watched in awe as a beautiful katana with a red spiral hilt-guard and orange wrappings on the hilt appeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto quickly tied the katana to her belt loop and unsheathed Sasayaki. She smirked at Sasuke and dispelled her kage bunshin. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her, Sharingan spinning.
They engaged in a swordfight, and Sasuke was chagrined to find that even with the Sharingan, he couldn't predict Naruto's movements accurately enough. For starters, she wasn't using any Konoha-styled kenjutsu that Orochimaru had taught him. Also, her movements on the whole were unpredictable to the point that even though her chakra shadow indicated that she was moving in one direction, she could actually suddenly change her movements at the last second – something no one else he had encountered before had been able to do. He frowned at the smug smirk on her face.
"Chidori Nagashi!"
Sasuke stared at Naruto, their swords crossed. Sasuke's chokuto was crackling with chidori nagashi, but Naruto's katana was glowing a pale blue and seemed to have wind whirling around the blade. Most of all, chidori nagashi didn't affect it in the least. Naruto grinned smugly at him, and pressed her blade onto his. Her glowing katana sliced through the metal of his chokuto like butter, leaving a shallow, fine cut since she hadn't pressed hard. Sasuke's eyes widened a fraction, then narrowed in anger and realization. Fuuton chakra!
He leaped back and sheathed his Kusanagi in one movement, then flashed through some handseals.
"Katon: gokakyou no jutsu!"
A large fireball flew towards Naruto. The flames blocked Sasuke's view of the blonde, but he suddenly felt her chakra signature and killing intent behind him, and quickly closed his mouth and turned around with a kunai in hand. How could she have moved in time? He noticed Naruto was using an unusual tri-pronged kunai as well as the normal ones as they engaged in a taijutsu battle.
From his position crouched on the middle log, Kakashi stiffened and narrowed his eye as he saw Naruto throw a kunai to land behind Sasuke, then disappear in a yellow flash as the fireball came towards her.
"How'd sensei do that?" Eriko wondered below him.
"I thought the Yondaime was the Konoha no Kiiroi Senkou…" mused Nichiro.
Kakashi smiled to himself and chuckled. The noise startled Eriko, who strained her neck upwards to look. Her eyes widened at the sight of the famous Copy Nin Kakashi crouched above her.
"Watch the spar," he said without looking at her. "You might never get to see such a fight again."
"Is Keimei-sensei really that strong?" Ichiro asked. Nichiro added, "Who is that man? I've never seen him in Konoha."
Eriko peered at the black-haired man, trying to observe his face, but the man was moving too fast. "I seem to have seen him before…" she trailed off.
Kakashi didn't answer the genin, but kept a close eye on the two former members of Team Seven.
Naruto just used a Doton jutsu to summon a wall of mud to protect herself from Sasuke's ryuuka no jutsu. Her hands flashed through some handseals and she concentrated hard to find and sift through the faint signals of her own chakra that were in the hiraishin kunai she had scattered about. That one! She decided, and in a flash of yellow, she disappeared from behind her mud wall to appear to Sasuke's left, instead of directly behind him like she had originally intended. She muttered a curse, then created some kage bunshin without handseals and vanished into the ground while Sasuke was fighting her bunshin.
Sasuke attacked and blocked the kage bunshin and quickly dispelled two of the Narutos, and was left with one who seemed to be the original. She had taken a few hits but was still solid, though she was panting with exertion. Without mercy, he threw unsheathed Kusanagi and pointed it at her heart in one smooth movement.
"You lose, dobe, as always."
Sasuke smirked, then stiffened as he felt cold metal against his neck.
"I don't think so, Sasuke," Naruto's voice was triumphant. The Naruto in front of him vanished in a puff of smoke.
From the log posts, Naruto could hear her genin team gasp in astonishment, and she grinned to herself. She was about to lower the kunai that was against Sasuke's throat when he spun around and hooked a foot behind her shin and tugged forward, causing her to lose balance and fall backward. Her hand that had the kunai was now around the back of Sasuke's neck, and his eyes widened a fraction in surprise as he was forced forward with her. Onto her.
Glossary-of-sorts
- Ittekimasu: I'm off; see you later
- Hajime: start
- Otoko: man
The Author has More to Say: Darn I'm longwinded. That was one heck of a long chapter. Don't expect all chapters to be this long! Heheh. And sorry bout the sucky fight scenes. I suck at fight scenes.
Reviews and constructive criticism much appreciated!