Chapter 10: Rambunctious Clones

The nerve of that girl.

It had irked him so, with that awful first impression and vexatious aura. As far as Naruto was concerned, she—Tayuya as per her name—held no redeemable qualities; rotten to the core so far. But quite frankly, Karin seemed to brush off her atrocious demeanor as if it were an everyday occurrence. Actually, it most likely was if she was that used to it. The question he found himself asking was, why put up with it?

After their little rut with the hot-headed Tayuya, Karin had taken the liberty of breaking down and justifying her abrasive behavior to him. How such vulgarity could be justified, he didn't exactly understand. All he really got from it was, 'that's just the way she is', if that made any sense to begin with.

Really, how could someone naturally be crude and callous to others? Sure, he had his fair share of nasty individuals for a first impression, but this Tayuya character broke the scale. Easily. Some questions just didn't exactly have answers for the time being.

Naruto didn't stick to being in a foul mood for long—both he and Karin actually found his place of residence within the hour after a bit of wandering around. He had discovered that it was not that far from either the front gate or the village academy, much to his surprise. It was close enough that any normal citizen could probably reach each destination in a short span of fifteen minutes by merely walking, without taking any shortcuts of course. Scaling the rooftops and walls, shinobi could easily make due in a timely matter no matter where they were located.

Mizuki had been slightly worried about his student since the day before when he had left him to his own volitions. When Naruto did finally get back though, he was at first perplexed that his student didn't come alone. Regardless, he was happy that Naruto had indeed taken up his advice and got to know someone in the village. Odd that his first friend in Kusa would be a girl, but it was a start nonetheless. Naruto wasn't actively seeking out potential peers the entire time, but his sensei didn't need to know that.

It came to be an even greater surprise to him when he discovered the two to be not only friends, but cousins as well. Unfortunately, their introductions were cut rather short with Karin not having the luxury of time to stick around. With a hasty good-bye and promise to stop by at a later time, she had left the residence to attend to her own matters, leaving a slightly disappointed Naruto under Mizuki's watch.

After some embarrassing jabs from his sensei, Naruto strolled down the hall and into his room out of boredom. Sliding the door aside revealed a mosty-vacant space not too different than how he originally left it. Only this time, the sheets were neatly done and a new stack of clean clothes were put out for his use.

Naruto plopped down onto the bedding, ignoring the fresh garments pressed against his back as his eyes focused on the lines of the wooden ceiling. For a moment, he allowed his gaze to travel around the room, seeking anything to steal his attention away, until they were firmly set on the cylindrical object in the far, lonesome corner. Funny, how he had missed it the first time, but that was no longer the matter—it was noticed.

He had rolled off the white sheets, sluggishly making his way to retrieve the Scroll of Seals that he had left unattended to during his absence, and sat his rear before it. Naruto scooted backwards with the bulky scroll in both hands before allowing it to rest flat on the floor. With the seal already broken, he guided his hands to unravel it once more.

As the contents rolled out, Naruto's facial expression went from neutral to glum almost immediately. Oh great... I almost forgot why I called this the Scroll of Bunshins instead...

A disappointed sigh departed from his lips as he lay flat on his back, abandoning the scroll in favor of staring at the ceiling.

"Not going to indulge yourself with your gift?"

Slightly startled by the anonymous question, Naruto sat back up, head turning towards the direction of where the voice came from. Perched at the doorway stood Orochimaru, sans the blackened shroud Naruto recalled seeing; a simple white robe took the cloak's place instead.

"Oh, Master Orochimaru! Uh... well, I would, but most of the techniques in it are based on something I already suck at doing," Naruto answered, voice laced in mild disappointment.

The serpentine sage had frowned at the response. "You're not even going to try? Not every technique is the same; similar, yes, but unique nonetheless."

"Yeah, but—"

"You won't know for sure until you give those techniques a chance, Naruto. Most shinobi would kill hundreds just to learn the techniques locked away in that scroll."

Naruto stood silently as he mulled over his thoughts. It didn't take long for him to realize that he was allowing a previous experience to greatly discourage himself from learning. He wanted to speak, but the words meant to be spoken had died in his throat every time he tried. Oddly, Naruto was finding it difficult to ask, let alone piece together a seemingly simple question.

Orochimaru raised a brow at the boy's troubled and indecisive expression. "I take it that you don't wish to learn from the scroll?" The answer came with a hasty shake of a head for no from Naruto. "Good... so what's bothering you? If it's help that you're trying to ask for, then ask."

It seemed to do the trick. As he finished speaking, Naruto slowly followed with words of his own, though he still struggled to force the question out.

"I... it's just... if it wouldn't trouble you, I mean... could you guide me through... so that I may learn these techniques?"

"Now, that wasn't so hard, was it? But yes, of course." Orochimaru invited himself inside, making his way to the scroll. Naruto in the meanwhile scooted slightly to the side to allow room for the sage to peer over the scroll's contents.

"Let's see here... Kage Bunshin no Jutsu? Let's start with that." The boy frowned at the mention of the technique, no doubt replaying memories of failing the basic Bunshin countless times.

"As you've probably read about it, the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is a B-rank technique that is borderline kinjutsu. Why borderline, you might ask? The reason is simple. Should a shinobi or kunoichi perform the technique with inadequate chakra reserves, the technique will backfire with severe repercussions. The most common is chakra exhaustion, but chakra depletion is not too far behind either. Simply put, some who even try to attempt it find themselves at death's door, if they're not already in it, of course."

Naruto quirked a brow at that. "Well if that's the case, shouldn't I try learning a different technique instead?"

Orochimaru shook his head. "It matters not, for every technique in that scroll poses danger in its use. This one in particular, shouldn't be too difficult, however, let alone taxing for someone like you. Easy to learn, but difficult to master."

"Okay then... now let's see..."

Naruto brought both of his hands to form the cross hand sign, chakra pinging at the same time, as he called out, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Again, just as the five attempts before, his molded chakra had fizzed out of control and there were no tangible clones of himself anywhere. This time, though, a slight sense of fatigue overcame his body as he grumbled at another failure.

"Oh come on, why isn't it working?"

Orochimaru, who was currently handling the scroll, offered his input. "I believe you're missing a few important details as outlined on the scroll, Naruto."

Naruto groaned at that. "I did? Well, is it because I'm not pumping enough chakra into it, or what?"

The man had shook his head at that. "No, I don't think that's the case. But tell me, do you mold any chakra before or after making the hand sign?"

Confused at that, Naruto answered, "uh… after, why?"

"That's why it isn't working. You're proceeding usage of the technique too quickly."

"I am?"

"Yes. You're completely skipping the initial phase and jumping into the dispersive, which results in automatic failure because your chakra will have no physical form to take. You need to start the molding of chakra first and then form the hand sign. As you continue molding chakra after the sign is set, the rest of the chakra put into the technique will be used for the dispersive phase. The more chakra you mold in this period, the more powerful and self-sustaining the clones will be."

With the newly acquired information in mind, Naruto nodded to himself as he braced his being to prepare the technique once more. "Huh… okay, let's try this again."

This time, he began the process of molding his chakra and after some time, joined his hands together to form the respective seal required. Chakra pinging in response, Naruto continued to mold until a he felt the familiar sensation of chakra being evicted from his body. And once again, he called out, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Rather than having his chakra fizz out of control as it did before, the energy took on a physical manifestation. The result: four tangible copies of himself phased into existence—two on each side of him. Quickly looking to his left and right, Naruto began to feel rather giddy at his new accomplishment.

"Aha! It wor—hey, what the heck was that for?"

His temporary teacher—having long-abandoned the Scroll of Seals—had rapidly dispelled the clones in quick succession upon their momentary inception, much to Naruto's chagrin. The boy had rubbed a few spots where the clones had been hit due to phantom sensations.

"The first bunch are always the worst."

"Eh? Why's that?"

Orochimaru waved him off at that. "Ah, that's a story for another time. But for now, do disperse any future kage bunshins you make for a few weeks—immediately, I might add."

"Any reason for that?"

"You don't want to know. But... if you're so eager to find out, then I won't stop you."

He frowned at that, but didn't push further than he needed to. "Okay then…"

The man suddenly sat up and made his way to the door, almost as if in a rush. "Ah, forgive me for cutting this session short, but I have certain matters to attend to for the time being. I won't be back for a few days, but do practice while I'm away, will you?"

Naruto nodded at that; of course he would. He may as well anyway with the amount of free time on his hands. "Yes, Master Orochimaru."

Before he disappeared down the hall and out of sight, Orochimaru gave him one last look. "Then allow me to impart some useful advice, Naruto—don't do what I wouldn't do."

Alone for the time being, and already having the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu under his belt, Naruto started to feel rather curious about what Orochimaru meant about the reason for needing to dispel his clones quickly. Though the words of the sage pleaded him not to, he ultimately figured that it wouldn't hurt a little to find out the reason. After all, it couldn't be that bad.

And again, Naruto found himself going through the process of molding chakra, forming the sign and waiting for a short moment. In no time at all, the words, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" came from his mouth.

Just like last time, four clones had formed to each of his sides. But boy, it was starting to become rather tiring trying to use the same technique several times in a short amount of time. Wiping a bit of sweat that had formed on his brow, Naruto held a smirk of confidence as he spoke out to command his newest creations.

"Alright, now I want—" Unfortunately, he didn't get to finish as, for some reason, the clones began to interact with one another.

"Wha—where am I?"

"Oi, why do you look like me?!"

"I'm the real Naruto, duh!"

"No, I'm the real one!"

"Nuh-uh, it's obvious that I'm the real one here!"

"The real one is obviously smarter, which is clearly me!"

"Oh yeah? I bet you don't know which end of the kunai goes where!"

Sick and tired of the pointless bickering that was obviously going nowhere, Naruto slugged one of the clones nearest to him right in the nose. "Through your fake face, that's where!"

A puff of smoke signaled its demise as the clone count was reduced from four to three, and likewise the levels of idiocy as well.

The remaining three clones, however, slightly jumped in surprise and fear at his assault. "Oi, break for it! Every clo—I mean, every Naruto for itself!"

As fast those words came out, the clones had scattered and ran out of the room like cockroaches, fully intent on not getting hit by one irritated creator. Naruto palmed his face with both hands at this; now he had three rogue copies of himself gallivanting around the village freely, and it was all up to him to dispel them before he wound up in some serious trouble.

Indeed, perhaps it was best to take Orochimaru's advice seriously.

It had taken all day and well into the night before Naruto gave up his fruitless chase on the evasive clones. Fortunately though, he caught up to one of them after an hour of playing catch-up, but lost the other two in the crevices of Kusa at the same time.

A few times he would see them, but they were as crafty as slippery fish when they were finally aware of who was tailing them. They had even took to the rooftops when ground-level just simply wasn't enough, prompting many of the wandering villagers to look upwards to see the noisy ruckus above. Needless to say, they had found it a rather amusing sight to see identical twins playing tag with each other.

But, he would lose them every time. Naruto made no progress in terms of capturing his last two rogue clones even after the sun had set. He continued his pursuit for a few more hours, but the lack of proper illumination, courtesy of nightfall, just made it all the more difficult to find them. Sure, Kusa itself was not that large of a ninja village, but he was still trying to find two needles in a haystack.

When he had finally returned to the residence, the first thing that Naruto had done was collapse on top of the futon in his room. He was absolutely exhausted in all three aspects of himself; chakra, physically and mentally. Never again would he allow another kage bunshin to exist for more than a few seconds for a long time, or at least until he figured out how to make them more obedient as opposed to rebellious and simple-minded. Never again would he experience another exhausting episode of pacifying sentient, rogue clones.

"Stupid clones… so tired…" Naruto faintly rambled into the sheets, not caring that he was not in an ideal sleeping position. It was just too much of a chore to roll over onto his back and slip into the covers. Instead, he found himself rather comfortable and simply settled there as sleep finally caught up to him.

"Naruton, are you in there? There's breakfast if you want some."

Tsubaki waited patiently for an answer, but there was no reply beyond the sliding door. As far as she was concerned, Mizuki said that the boy was a morning person, and should've been awake by now. Since Naruto didn't show up in early in the morning, she had gone up to his room to check up on him. But, without an answer, Naruto could be one of only two things: sleeping, or not in his room. Sighing, she decided to invite herself in and, lo and behold, Naruto was indeed still asleep.

She smiled as she made her way towards the child, crouching down to lightly rub and pat his back. "Naruton, are you hungry?"

Naruto mumbled something very incoherently in his sleep, but made no visible sign of awakening.

Tsubaki, however, continued to press her attempts. "Hey, come on Naruton, you aren't going to sleep all day long, are you?"

No response. The child didn't even grace her with a groan to imply that he didn't want to be woken up.

Tsubaki frowned at that, but decided to let it go. Whatever Naruto was doing the night before must've been very exhausting, she figured, as he did come back at a later hour than expected. On the better half of her judgement, she allowed Naruto to rest since it seemed that he wouldn't be waking up anytime soon. Quietly, she departed from the room, hoping that the boy would wake up for lunch at the very least.

Rolling on his back, Naruto woke up to an agonizing headache while his hands instinctively went up to clutch his forehead. He groaned in pain as hundreds of images and thoughts began to quickly process in his mind, making it feel as if his head at any moment was going to explode from the mental pressure.

"Ugh... what the... ouch..."

Forcing his eyes open, a thick blanket of darkness settled over his vision. Ah, it was night time, or rather, it was early morning now that his eyes travelled to the window. The sun had not come over the horizon yet, so the only indication of morning approaching was the purplish hue of the sky—dawn.

'Well, that's just great. So I only got a few hours' worth of sleep or... nah, that's just ridiculous. There's no way I slept in for an entire day,' he thought to himself as he sat upright, hand cupping his belly in response to hunger. Naruto struggled to fight off his lingering fatigue and drowsiness as he forced himself to crawl out of the room, gradually picking himself up to deal with his daily necessities before everyone else was awake.

Somehow, he could tell that today was going to be a very long one.

For the umpteenth time that morning, Naruto lazily rubbed his eyes—intent on staying awake—as his prone form slouched in the seat near the kitchen. The headache did not subside completely, but it wasn't as painful prior to washing up. Aside from that, he still couldn't believe that he was tired; perhaps having only a few hours of sleep did that to someone.

Naruto sat there in silence for a while, at least until he gave up on sitting and allowed his head to rest flatly on the table. Not only was he tired, but he was starving. If he didn't know any better, he could say that he hadn't eaten anything for days. His stomach roared in anger as his face contorted in obvious displeasure.

"Oh, Naruton, you're finally awake?"

Naruto bolted up in surprise, not expecting anyone to be awake. "Who? What? Yeah, I'm awake!"

Tsubaki made her presence known at the table, fully dressed in what seemed to be the standard Kusa shinobi outfit. "We were all worried about you, you know? You didn't wake up all day yesterday."

He went bug-eyed to the news. "What?! I slept for an entire day?!"

Tsubaki nodded, making her way to the cupboards. "It's a shame, too. A cute girl stopped by asking for you, but I had to turn her away because you were still sleeping. She looked so sad when I told her that."

Naruto's cheeks reddened at that, but said nothing. Karin came over, huh? I hope she isn't too upset, me being asleep and all...

"Oh, drats. I forgot that we needed more food. Hope you don't mind riceballs, I can make plenty of those."

His stomach ground up another wave of pain. "It's okay, anything sounds good right now."

The room went silent for a moment as Tsubaki was busying herself with preparing the food. After some time though, she decided to probe Naruto about the cause of him sleeping like a rock for so long.

"So, what were you doing the day before? You came back pretty late that night."

"The day before...?" He took a somewhat-pensive stance, recollecting his most recent experiences as best he could. "Well... I was practicing using the Kage Bunshin no Justsu, but—"

"Wow, you can already do that?"

"Yeah! It wasn't too hard, heh. But... I sort of messed up on the last one I did. And well..." Naruto sighed in exasperation as he recalled the memory. "It was bad enough that I ended up having to chase the runaway clones all day long."

"Did you get them all?"

"No... I only got one, and the other two escaped..." he grumbled.

By then, Tsubaki finished the food preparations and set down a plate with three riceballs before Naruto. "Ah, that's a bummer. But cheer up, hm?"

"Thanks, Tsubaki! You're the best!" he exclaimed before wolfing down his breakfast. Tsubaki though, could only blink in surprise at his voracity.

"Dang. The food doesn't have legs, Naruton."

"Can't help it; haven't eaten in like forever," Naruto spoke in between bites and swallows.

"I suppose. You didn't wake up after all."

The room went silent again, sans the munching on Naruto's part. Tsubaki took her seat next to Naruto in the meanwhile, allowing him to finish up his meal. The silence was finally broken when Naruto swallowed the last bite.

"So, you ready to start at the academy?"

Stomach relieved, Naruto slouched comfortably in his chair. "Huh? I guess so, why?"

"Why? You're starting today, silly."

"Eh?! It's today?!"

"It is, don't you remember?"

Naruto groaned. "Oh man... this sucks. I'm still tired from yester—uh, I mean the day before." For sure, he preferred to be well-rested before entering the academy.

She offered him a sympathetic smile at that. "I'm sure you'll do fine. First days aren't too intensive, you know?"

He sighed. "I guess. When do I have to be there?"

"Soon, like in an hour or so. But, I can take you there now if you want."

Naruto slid off his chair as he groggily made his way out. "Sounds good to me. If I stay any longer, I'm just going to fall asleep again."

When the academy came to view, Naruto finally asked his chaperone a question that bothered him for some time.

"Hey, Tsubaki, is there a reason the academy looks the way it is?"

"What do you mean, Naruton?"

He hummed for a bit before responding. "I don't know, it's just that the place looks... old, and important I guess. I mean it just stands out, you know what I mean?"

Tsubaki took a moment to understand what the boy was getting at as her eyes scanned the contours of the buildings. "Oh, you're talking about that main structure on the academy grounds. Do you really want to know?" Naruto nodded eagerly, wanting to sate his curiosity, so she continued. "Well, it's a surviving castle from old Kusa's time, which was built before the Shodai Hokage was even around."

"Whoa, so that thing is really a castle?" he gaped.

"Yeah, it is. It's just been abandoned for a very long time is all. The village is trying to clean and fix it up so it can finally be put to use again, so maybe you'll be able to go inside one of these days."

Naruto let the information sink in for a moment before firing off more questions. "Does it have a name?"

"Of course," Tsubaki replied simply.

"So..." he drawled, pressing the question once more, "what is it called?"

"Oh, I'm sure your instructor will be able to tell you it later."

"Later? But I want to know now," Naruto said as he shot her an odd look.

A playful smile danced on Tsubaki's lips. "Ah, but that's the thing, Naruton. What is the fun in me giving you all of the answers? Learning should be fun."

"What? That doesn't make sense! Come on, I really want to know!" he whined.

"Do you now? Well..." Tsubaki looked thoughtful for a second before she reached an epiphany; at this, she clapped both of her hands together in light of her most brilliant idea. "If you ask your girlfriend very nicely and take her on a date, I'm sure she'll tell you all you want to know about it!"

"K-Karin isn't my girlfriend!" Naruto sputtered as his cheeks lit up. "She's my cousin."

"Oh, so is that her name? Well, that certainly must've been good news for you. But still, it would be fun, no?" she teased.

"W-what's that supposed to mean?"

She dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "Oh, nothing. I was just toying with you, Naruton."

Naruto childishly harrumphed at her response, crossing his arms and looking away with a pout. At the same time, he fought to expel the both the prospect of what his chaperone was implying and his reddened face. Tsubaki, who had watched his immature reaction with a hint of amusement, giggled lightly as she rubbed his back in compassion.

"Come on grumpy-pants, don't be like that!" she told him with a deep, comical tone, "you know that didn't mean anything." Dropping her droll vocals, Tsubaki continued to speak. "Besides, you can't look like that forever, you know? You got to look presentable in front of your new sensei and peers."

Naruto, unable to resist the urge to laugh at Tsubaki's weird voice when she used it, found his pouting reversed into a small smile. "Heh, I guess you're right. I'll just ask Mizuki-sensei then if I forget later, or something."

"Great, since we're already here and all, it wouldn't do you any good if you stepped into class all moody and stuff. But for now, I have to go finish up the last of the paperwork and registrations elsewhere. Do tell me how things go later on, all right?"

"Okay."

Stopping in front of the academy's doorstep, she kneeled down to Naruto's level and gave him a light hug. "Good luck, Naruton, and have fun! Don't fall asleep and pay attention." Tsubaki let him go, but not before giving him a reassuring smile, before flickering away in a puff of grass.

Naruto could only nod dumbly at her words, his eyes continuing to stare where she had once been before. He snapped out of his trance-like state and turned his gaze towards the single barrier barring him from his place of being. The scenario he found himself in invoked the feelings of nostalgia; the tingling nervousness, the burning excitement, and the slight tinge of fear came rushing back at him.

Indeed, it was all familiar for him, just like his first day at the academy in Konoha. In the end though, he got over the anticipation that day and realized that it wasn't as terrifying as he thought it was. As such, today would be no different and for a change, he came early even if he wasn't at his one-hundred percent.

Summing up his courage and with a deep breath, Naruto pushed the doors open.