Chapter 11: Strict Discipline

4 years, 9 months later...

They were still dressed in their sleepwear for breakfast when the greatest of curiosities struck him.

Really, he was fairly curious about that one oddity among them all. Today, he took it upon himself to find out if her taste buds could handle the heat, much like her hot-headed personality. But now he knew for sure—

"FISHFRY, YOU'RE DEAD!"

—Tayuya could not handle raw garlic.

"Catch me if you can!"

Naruto had bolted out of the dining quarters the moment she realized what was wrong with her dumpling. Not long after having taken a rather large bite out of it and chewing her food thoroughly, a slight tingling sensation tickled the gums of her mouth. The same feeling gradually, but quickly became more and more uncomfortable for Tayuya as it reached borderline painful.

"GET BACK HERE YOU ASSHOLE!"

She had chugged down her cup of water to extinguish the furnace that her mouth was, but it did nothing to alleviate her situation. If anything, it only made it worse by reviving the stinging sensations. Palm clamped over her mouth and eyes beginning to water, Tayuya had muttered a quick string of curses as she sought for a new source of relief; bread, milk, ice cream... anything.

"No way!"

Fortunately, a single, unattended breakfast across the many tables from her own became the remedy for her inflamed taste buds. Without hesitation, Tayuya had chucked several ice cubes from the only lonesome cup into her mouth, slowly numbing the powerful sensations as her eyes peered back at the half-eaten dumpling at her table. A puff of smoke however, revealed it to be none other than garlic. Features twisting into a vicious scowl, only one person came to mind.

"FUCKING FISHFRY!"

Naruto mentally congratulated himself for succeeding with results above and beyond his expectations. The frantic look on Tayuya's face was absolutely priceless, forever immortalized in memory along with the rest of her short skit of mixed expressions after that single bite. The best part: all it took was a clever transformation, an accidental bump and some sleight of hand to pull it off. It was just that easy, and Tayuya couldn't see through it until the damage was done.

The chase had been taken out of the academy and into the village's busy streets. The raging outbursts from the two had startled many of the busybody villagers, prompting most to a sudden halt. Unfortunately, they couldn't just stop and look.

Naruto zipped in and out—laughing all the while—between the pedestrians, though he occasionally bumped into a person or two as he hurriedly weaved through the street.

"Whoops! Sorry m'am! Make way, coming through!"

Not too far behind him was a bulldozing, hate machine intent on grinding him down to smithereens, and then some.

"OUT OF THE WAY! MOVE IT!"

Tayuya on the other hand disregarded the civilians standing between her and the bringer of her misfortune. She charged through the crowd, shoving away passerbys who unfortunately got in the way.

Naruto quickly checked behind him to gauge the distance, and immediately, his laughter ceased. She was close all right, and very pissed. Oh damn, she's gaining!

"Quit running you coward!" Tayuya bellowed as she started to close in.

"Oi, I'm not running! I'm just advancing in the opposite direction!"

"Bullshit!"

Realizing just how dangerous his current situation was, Naruto took towards a different path in a meager effort to gain some distance. Unfortunately however, things were not looking good for him.

"Ah crap, dead end!"

Naruto made to turn around, but the glimpse of Tayuya still closely tailing behind forced him to press forward deeper to the end of the line. A tall wooden fence obstructed his narrow path to escape.

"You're so fucking dead, Fishfry!"

Eying the draping clothes that hovered over him, Naruto withdrew a single shuriken, and as an act of desperation, flung it up and ahead of his way. The spinning projectile had successfully cut a few of the multitude of clotheslines above as it traveled, causing several sheets and clothes to rain from the sky. With the momentary diversion in place and a steady stream of chakra focused at his feet, Naruto quickly scaled the towering fence with relative ease.

Landing on the other side, he took a short moment to look back, re-gauging the distance between him and her. Hopefully that slows her down.

As soon as he finished the thought, Tayuya barreled through the fence mostly unscathed, her pace unhindered by the temporary distraction. She looked absolutely livid.

...or not.

Naruto started to panic; she was catching up—fast—and he couldn't think of any way to lose her. As crazy as he thought it was, he decided to try reasoning with her.

"U-uh, any chance we can resolve this without resorting to violence?" he hollered back.

"Hell no!"

It didn't work out as he hoped it would. Once more, he took another turn, but cursed that it was no different than last time.

"Damn it, another dead end?!"

Indeed, it was another one, only shorter. Lacking the available options of escape, Naruto drew upon his chakra in anticipation of one Kawarimi. A tug on his being signaled its success as he found himself back at the turning point, his now-distractive clone still on the run with Tayuya dangerously close to it.

"Hah, snooze 'ya lose!" Naruto snickered, heels turning and mighty confident in his escape. But as soon as he made to break for it, a resounding shout he dreaded to hear stopped him dead in his tracks.

"GOT 'YA!"

Fist met face and he knew no more.

The village head of Kusa found himself busy, and unfortunately much more so than usual.

He once was a man who believed that change was subtle, that the effects of evolution could only be felt after many generations of adaptation and acclimation. It was important for stability, and this was because Kusa's current regime worked on a 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' policy. As such, it was only natural that he and his village took propositions promising great change with a grain of salt.

The proposition from seven years ago was one example.

It was a sketchy one, but it wouldn't have been the first of its kind either. The leaders before him had dealt with such situations and adapted accordingly. Play it safe and take it in stride; in a sticky situation, cut your loses and salvage what you can.

It was definitely one of the reasons why Kusagakure still stood where it is, rather than in a heap of rubble and ruins.

And so the new sprouts came shortly after, one by one, all of which he had paid half a mind to. They were children, of all things, so he couldn't help but wonder how that was going to push Kusa closer to its former glory, let alone make a difference. However, he had quickly discovered that the fresh blood—quirky as they were—could change things more than they let on, and in more ways than one.

The new workload was one of them.

"...to supplement for the property damage caused by your actions, quarter-pay from all missions until the end of the month. Furthermore, you are both bound to four hours of disciplinary training on the academy grounds each day for a week... again," the man dully stated, features quickly dripping into a frown.

An audible groan and snort followed in response.

Repressing a sigh, he continued, "Instructor Funeno will be expecting you at the training quarters in two hours. You are both dismissed." A loud thump on the leader's desk was heard as he finished. "Roku, take these forms to Funeno Daikoku; he'll know what to do."

The silent Kusa ANBU who had apprehended Naruto and Tayuya earlier stepped forward to receive the papers. Acknowledging the leader's orders with a bow, he disappeared in a flicker of grass. Following this, the dismissed teenagers quietly ushered themselves out of the village leader's chamber, making their way down the several flights of stairs of Tenchi-jō in a gloomier mood.

"Here we go again," Naruto sighed, resting both hands behind his head.

Tayuya shot him a dirty look. "Yeah, and it's all your fault, Fishfry."

"But you just had to go and bulldoze your way through the square, didn't you?"

"Oh, I don't know... maybe if you had just stood still like I told you and let me beat you to a bloody pulp... No, actually, if you hadn't done that shit in the first place, none of this would've ever happened!" she harshly quipped, hands balled into tight fists.

Naruto mulled the thought over and found himself grinning in amusement. "...Oh well. Now that I think about it, it was totally worth it."

"Fuck you. I sure as hell don't look forward for disciplinary training," Tayuya replied as she involuntarily caressed one of her arms.

His grin immediately disappeared. "Ah," he sighed, "disciplinary training..."

The rest of the descent was met with total silence between the two aside from their footsteps, though a few people heading up would gasp or give Naruto a mixed expression before going about their business.

Noticing this, Naruto scrunched his nose in confusion, lightly wiping his chin and mouth. "Tayuya, is there something on my face or what?"

Her eyes grazed over his facial features, but found herself needing to hold back a volley of laughter. Quickly, she tore her gaze away from his face before it was too much.

"Nah, it's probably because you look like a girl."

Naruto scowled at her. "I do not!" he replied indignantly.

"Really? Then what's with this, prettyboy?" she retorted, tugging one of the longer side bangs that framed his face.

He pulled away from her intrusive hand, lightly smacking it away. "Leave it alone! Who cares if it's sort of long, anyway? As long as it's not in the way or a bother, I don't need to cut it."

Tayuya grunted dismissively at his reasoning. "You still look like a girl."

"Whatever..." Naruto grumbled as they continued going down.

When the two had split, Naruto made his way to the residential quarters with the intent of loafing around his room for the time remaining. Once again, he brushed off the odd looks sent his way; he did not look like a girl, and he was not pretty by any means. That Tayuya, leave it to her to come up with ridiculous answers.

He lazily strolled down the empty hallway, passing by Karin's room in the process. However, a nagging thought in the back of his mind stopped him, prompting Naruto to do a double take and walk back to her door. He did not see his bookworm of a cousin at the crack of dawn—as usual—and knowing her, she was most likely still in bed. If it weren't for him being such an early bird, Karin would've missed out on too many breakfasts to count.

Standing before the door, Naruto gave the wooden surface a few test knocks before calling out, "Karin, are you still asleep in there or what?"

The scuffling of feet met his ears from behind the door and an effeminate voice answered back, "no, I'm awake, Naruto."

"Okay, just checking." Naruto begun to move away—

"Wait, stay there for a second!" Karin's muffled voice insisted.

—and stopped.

There was some more scrambling to be heard before the door finally clicked open.

"Sorry, the room was a bit messy," Karin sheepishly admitted, brushing a few stray bangs to the side. "Did you already—" a shocked gasp escaped her lips as her face crumbled into that of worry and concern. "Oh Kami, what happened to your face?"

"My... face?" he softly parroted, though immediately, realization struck him. "I knew it! There is something on my face isn't there? Damn it, I should've known Tayuya was lying to me!" he growled.

"It looks real nasty, Naruto. Here, I'll fix it up for you." Without warning, Karin took his hand and pulled him into her room before quickly shutting the door behind them. Naruto, who didn't protest against the sudden gesture, found himself being ushered towards the bed.

"Uh, Karin, what's on my face exactly?" He sat on the mattress, guiding a hand to one of his cheeks. However, he failed as it was caught by Karin's own.

"Don't touch it," she sternly replied before releasing her hold on his hand, "you'll make the bruise worse. Just what were you doing that got you that anyway?" Sitting right next to him, Karin turned his face towards her with one hand, and with the other, drew it to cup Naruto's injured cheek. Shortly after, a jade aura cascaded over her extremities.

"A bruise, huh? That was definitely all Tayuya."

Karin winced. "What did you do this time? You didn't peek on her or something, did you?" she asked suspiciously.

"Nooo..." he groaned, "it was nothing like that. I was just wondering if she could handle spicy food. It matches her personality, don't you think?"

She frowned—more so at the implication than the comparison—and left it unanswered. "Why do you keep antagonizing Tayuya any way? You know how she is, don't you?"

"I know, I know. But I guess it's fun or something, giving her a taste of her own medicine once in a while. It's not like she doesn't deserve it, right?"

Karin sighed as she continued to mend his bruise. They didn't speak for a time as Naruto distracted himself by running his eyes around the room. Eventually, his gaze landed on the largest object in her room—the bookshelf.

It seemed that she had added yet another tier to it, pushing it to a grand total of five tiers standing tall. Even with the extra textual storage space, there was hardly any room left on its shelves. What did catch his attention were a few—maybe four or five—stray books lying on top of the fifth tier shelf; they were out of place, considering Karin was organized in just about everything. If only he could stand, maybe he could get a glimpse—

"Open your mouth."

Naruto blinked, retracting his focus back to Karin. "Huh, what for?"

"Just say, 'ah', will you?"

He complied, and thinking it would only be for a mere moment, closed it shortly after.

"Hey, I never said to close it!" Karin snapped.

Naruto held his hands up in submission. "Well sorry, jeez."

There was a sigh before silence fell between the two once more, aside from the faint humming of his cousin's restorative technique. Karin had her head tilted slightly towards the side as Naruto held his jaw open, giving her a better view of the internal damage—no doubt caused by the scraping of teeth against flesh—done to his cheek. It took a few moments before she deemed her work satisfactory, allowing the soothing chakra to slowly fade from her digits.

"Done; all better now," Karin declared, pulling herself away. She sighed rather contently as she put the hand that recently worked to heal Naruto's cheek over her heartbeat.

"Finally," Naruto replied as he absently shifted his jaw left and right, before laying back upon the bed. "So, what did the bruise look like anyway?"

No response.

Confused with the lack of a simple answer, he sat back up. "Hey, are you—" Naruto started, but ceased as he observed her face.

"Oh... Karin, you got that funny look on your face again," he stated, poking her cheek with his index finger twice before it was lightly swatted away.

"Huh? I don't make funny faces."

Naruto's brow twitched in disbelief. "Yeah you do... you always do when you patch me up, like that last time... um," he tapped his chin in thought, "oh yeah, last week when we had that taijutsu-ninjutsu sparring session. And then the session before that, and the one before that, too, and then—"

"T-that's not true!" Karin indignantly denied, face reddening ever so slightly.

A twisted gleam twinkled in Naruto's eyes at this. "Huh, do I have to show you then?" He pushed himself off the bed to face her, and at the same time, clasped his hands together to form the Ram hand sign. "Henge!"

Smoke quickly dispersed around him, temporarily veiling his form before the gaseous haze dissipated. In his place stood the exact replica of Karin, outfitted in her usual white mid-sleeved collar shirt, pitch-black shorts and matching knee-length shinobi boots. With his form aesthetically correct, Naruto quickly fell into stance of what was to be his cousin's 'funny look'—both hands resting over the chest as if having received some heart-warming praise, and eyes closed with a glossy or dreamy smile to accommodate it.

"Ah, Naruto, did you know? Your big sis makes funny faces like this—all the time," Naruto teasingly stated in Karin's voice. At this, his cousin was quick to bop him upside the head, and several more times for good measure.

"Idiot, idiot, idiot!" Karin cried in between hits, "I do not make faces like that all the time!" she exclaimed, half from irritation and half from embarrassment. Her blows were seemingly strong enough to force Naruto to drop his current form, who was now rubbing his head from the silly assault.

"Eesh, that hurt, Karin," he complained in a mock-hurt tone, to which Karin simply harrumphed and turned away childishly with her arms crossed. Naruto let loose a small sigh; there was only one solution to this.

"Fine... Karin does not make funny faces all the time." It pulled no visible reaction from his cousin, so he pressed his efforts again.

"...she never makes funny faces..."

No response.

"...she's always right... really smart... super nice..." he added, but to no avail. Naruto paused, giving his next statement some thought. He quickly made up his mind through the addition of a few choice words to complement it.

"...and she's also the bestest, prettiest and most awesomest girl. Ever."

There was a brief moment of silence, but this time, Naruto did not need to break it.

"...you really mean all that?" Karin slowly began, turning her head so that she could observe his form through peripheral vision.

Naruto sighed, but gave her a small smile nonetheless. "Yeah, sure. Why wouldn't my big sis be kick-ass anyway?"

The words appeared to be magical, for the distance between them quickly closed, with Naruto being on the receiving end of one, gleeful hug. Fortunately, he could still breathe normally unlike a few past incidents.

"Aw," Karin cooed, "how sweet of you."

Naruto almost groaned at her sudden change in attitude; she could be so weird at times. "Yeah... aren't you lucky?"

"Yep."

"Well," he began, lightly pushing Karin away, "thanks for fixing up my bruise, or whatever it was."

His response was a nod and smile.

"I'm off, then!" he called as he bounced off the bed. "See—"

"Hey, wait! Did you already have breakfast? I didn't eat yet, so I was just wondering..."

"Yeah, I did... sorta," Naruto honestly replied, the events from earlier morning replaying in his mind. Karin seemed to slightly deflate, though he was too busy staring at the ceiling and tapping his chin to notice. "But I got nothing better to do for a while. I'll just... watch you eat, I guess?" he lamely asked.

"Sounds good to me!" Karin beamed, sliding off the bed and skipping past Naruto. He was quick to follow in tow lest he get left behind.

"By the way, Naruto," she giggled.

"What's up?"

"'Bestest' and 'awesomest' aren't words."

Naruto's brow twitched when she pointed that out. "...I knew that."

Naruto let out a groan as he dragged his feet all the way to the training quarters. While nobody was in a rush for disciplinary training, being late to it held some rather unpleasant repercussions. The first time he was tardy was also the last—missing out the first ten minutes was not worth the extra two hours he had to stay.

The training quarters was similar in appearance to the residential quarters, the only key differences being that it was not multi-tiered or as big. Had it not been for the sign above the doorway declaring that the building was indeed for training purposes, it likely would've been dismissed as some unimportant unit for the time being. That's not to say it wasn't a structure without a purpose in the past, however.

Entering the facility, Naruto found himself alone in the wide space before him. Perhaps because it was approaching the time for lunch that the training quarters were unoccupied; that, or maybe this particular day was for relaxation purposes. Then again, it wasn't as if the quarters were in use all day long on a daily basis, given that not many students or shinobi were loitering around the academy grounds in the first place.

Regardless, it appeared that he was the first one there, having arrived fifteen minutes beforehand. Even so, he didn't count on being the only one present for too long. It was made crystal clear that the academy stayed true to one of its core ideals; to be on time is to be late, to be early is to be on time.

Naruto gave it five minutes tops before either Tayuya or his other sensei showed up.

And right he was, for only a mere three minutes later, Tayuya grumpily marched her way inside. She was no longer dressed for bed; instead she wore her blackened, short-sleeve collar jacket—most likely hiding a tank-top underneath—bearing zippers on its sleeves, along with long grey pants. Oddly, an arrangement of white wrappings hugged her torso as if to keep her jacket in place.

No, as a matter of fact, the wrappings were not weird at all. At least, for the pending punishment, it wasn't.

Their eyes met briefly before Tayuya took her spot several spaces away from him on the same side of the room. They didn't speak to one another, perfectly content with the silence settling between them for the time being. The remaining idle time was spent looking blankly at the wall across from them or the ceiling, whichever their attention found mildly interesting. Naruto had picked the wall to direct his eyes to; at least there, he could distract himself looking at the practice weaponry hung around the building.

Five minutes before disciplinary training was scheduled to start, their instructor for the day, Funeno Daikoku, made his presence known.

Though he had a larger body build along with a kinder mindset than what would be expected of someone in charge of disciplining students, the instructor assured those with doubts that he was more than simply just talk. Ever since demonstrating several times that he could in fact perform the exercises as dictated in his disciplinary drills, nobody had the gall to comment on him being unfit for the job.

Daikoku scratched the back of his head as his attention drifted between his two trouble-makers for the day. Instant recognition followed, transforming his usual smiling features into that of a frown.

"Oh boy, you two again? Didn't you guys learn the first time?" he scolded. Tayuya shot Naruto a glare; the boy simply sighed in response.

The instructor shook his head in disappointment, absently brushing his goatee with his idle fingers. "Very well then, you know the drill—chakra usage is strictly prohibited while you are in my custody. We'll start today with inverted push-ups while reciting Kusagakure's code of ethics twice. If you recite the code improperly or out of order, you will start all over again." He motioned towards the wall they were sitting against, both who had stood up to take their places.

"Yes, Daikoku-sensei."

Tayuya gracefully flipped into a handstand position, her back and heels facing the wall; the wrappings kept her jacket from falling victim to gravity. At the same time, Naruto removed his shirt and attempted to get into the same position. He did it a little too quickly however, and instead slammed his forehead into the wall.

"Ouch!" Naruto cried as he fell onto his behind, both hands now rubbing the focal point of pain. Tayuya, who had witnessed the ridiculous display of clumsiness, released a mad fit of laughter at his misfortune. He directed a scowl in her direction before muttering, "shut up." Daikoku made no comment, merely sighing at Naruto's failure.

After having nursed his minor slip-up, Naruto carefully got into the handstand position—this time succeeding.

"Begin," the instructor commanded. "Grace."

Naruto and Tayuya shakily lowered themselves down, their heads nearly brushing the floor. "To achieve a level of elegance... and excellence!" they declared as their arms pushed their bodies back up. It was not very easy trying to recite the code upside down.

"Respect." Down.

"To acknowledge... ones' rights and... dignity!" Up.

"Accountability." Down.

"To... conduct one's self... with integrity!" Up.

"Sacrifice." Down.

"To forfeit one's... self for the benefit of... others!" Up.

"Service." Down.

"To impact... our village through... service!" Up.

"Two! Grace," Down.

Small beads of sweat began to coalesce around the face of a reddened Tayuya as she growled out, "...F-fishfry."

"...Y-yeah?" Naruto responded, directing a sideways glance at her. He was equally as red-faced as her.

"I..." she strained through grit teeth, "I... h-hate... you."

He could only give her a weak grin as Daikoku took this opportunity to reprimand them.

"Start over again; one!"

Tenchi-jō: Heaven and Earth Castle