Then There Were Two
Summary: Naruto Uzumaki...Katsumi Uzumaki...are the twin children of the Honorable, Late Fourth Hokage...both outcasted by Konoha, the two find strength in one another that is incomparable and irreplaceable. The Teams...are quite different now, and the future...is looking more than a little bit brighter…or is that but the calm, before the storm?
Anime/Manga: Naruto
Genre: Romance/Humor/Adventure
Pairing: I... know who will be with who. I'll let you guys fidget and wonder.
Rated: M for Mature
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They say you get stronger in the broken places
When you lean into the crisis that your facing
In your weakness your made strong
They say when you've fallen off a horse
The first thing you gotta do of course is
Climb right back on
-A Fighter (Gwyneth Paltrow)
-x-x-x-
Naruto turned from his place on the bed, the sound of his studious sister coming through the door drew his attention away from the task of removing his gear. "Hey," he barely managed a murmur as he finished pulling off his shoes and tossing them next to the bed.
"Did you just get home?" Katsumi frowned, "it's almost two."
"Ah, yeah...you've been studying so hard, I have made it a point to work just as hard training. Shikamaru and Asuma started playing Shogi with me, but for the most part, I train."
"Alone?"
"No, no! It's a group of us. Since you are studying your plants, Shikamaru and Kiba, along with Chouji, Hinata and I, have taken to training after hours."
"Kiba?"
"Mm...he's having difficulties adjusting with his team. You got Shikamaru and I got Chouji, Kiba is alone as far as friends go. He has Shino and Sakura. Though, they aren't horrible, his words, he says it's really hard for them to see eye to eye."
"Kiba..." Katsumi frowned, "I miss him."
"Yeah, well...he misses you too." Naruto sighed, "he really is like a puppy. You know?"
"Give him so much attention, when you stop, he whimpers?" She chuckled, "I think it's cute. He lost his sparring partner, as for me? I'm irreplaceable."
"How did I end up with such a cocky sister?"
Katsumi shrugged and finished removing the loose gear she carried daily, tossing her orange and blue jacket on a chair, she was honestly too tired to shower, but she dragged her feet all the same.
"Be quick!"
She laughed to herself as her brother yelled at her. Closing the door, she started the shower and tested the water before she pulled off the remaining clothes, her orange shorts and black crop top. The shower seemed to be washing all the muscle aches away and she fought off a yawn as she washed her hair. She was having so much fun learning from Magire. Though, sadly...Genma wasn't tagging along for her lessons anymore. He'd only done so the first lesson because she had felt nervous about training with some stranger. Over the last couple of weeks, she'd also taken Ino up on her offer and met her mother who, to Katsumi's surprise...was more then willing to provide a few of the plants she was looking into at slightly lower prices. Over the last few weeks, she had only seen her brother at night or in passing at the Hokage's tower, not much else though. The missions that her and her team were getting were all mostly D ranked, but today...
"Hey!"
Katsumi jumped and finished washing the conditioner out of her hair, "I'm getting out!" She called back, silently hoping that she and her brother weren't waking anyone up, but doubtful that they weren't disturbing someone. She turned the steaming water off and rung her hair out before grabbing a towel and drying off. She scoffed out of irritation when she realized she'd forgotten her clothes, "...damn." She walked out with the towel tightly secured around her body, "it's all yours."
"What took you so long?" Naruto watched her for a moment, not missing the fact that she was completely distracted. "Hey, Katsumi..."
"Hm?" She pulled her clothes out of the dresser she shared with her brother, "yeah? What is it?"
"Well, you look unfocussed...what's on your mind?"
"Ah, nothing really. My team and I received a C-Ranked mission today, so I'm going to be away for a bit."
"Wait...what?!"
"Shh~!" She turned around so fast; her hair whipped dangerously around her as she glared at her blushing brother. "Why are you yelling?!"
"...well...I want to go on harder missions too!"
"You know the saying, "Ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you" right?" She smiled when her brother nodded, "well, Sasuke asked this morning, and the Third told him he'd look into it while we were taking care of the missions we currently were assigned...or so the story goes. I was running an errand for Kakashi-Sensei when this happened. I heard about it through Shikamaru. Now, go shower...talk to the Third tomorrow if you really want a C-Ranked mission."
"Right, right..."
She yawned again. Exhaustion starting to set in as she pulled the towel off at the sound of the bathroom door closing, dressing in her undergarments and one of her brothers oversized black t-shirts. She climbed into bed and passed out before her head even touched the pillow.
When Naruto came out, he found her laying asleep on the bed, the blanket in a ball still in the middle of their bed as she was too tired to pull it over her. "Katsumi, you are studying too much. You need to take care of yourself too." He sighed, taking the balled-up blanket and lifting it before unraveling it in the air and letting it drift weightlessly down over the bed, successfully covering his sister before he climbed into the bed and fell into his own desperately needed sleep.
-x-x-x-
(Next Day)
"Come on, I know you've got to have something!"
The third Hokage looked at Naruto and smirked, "so desperate to move on to the harder missions? I guess you heard about your sisters' mission." Shaking his head, Sarutobi sighed and shifted through scrolls before taking one and tossing it to Naruto. "I knew you would come to me, so I kept this one...it's a C-Rank...nothing all that hard, a Jeweler in the Tanzaku Quarters...he needs an escort from Tanzaku to the Hidden Waterfall Village. This is an easy mission of getting from point A to point B with your Client."
"...do you mind if I ask...what kind of mission Katsumi was sent on?" Naruto was honestly curious, but not desperate to know.
"Similar to yours, Team Seven was sent off on an escort mission, her client was in Konoha, so they are delivering him to The Land of Waves."
"Alright then..." he worried, but he knew his sister had somewhat of an advantage over his team. Since there were four Genin on Team Seven as opposed to the normal three...he knew she'd be fine. "when do we leave?" He grinned.
"Preferably, immediately."
Asuma nodded, "then we will meet at the Village gates in two hours."
"Hai, Asuma-Sensei!"
The Third watched the three Genin vanish and smiled, "Shikamaru had been right on the money."
"Shikamaru?" Asuma raised a brow.
"After we gave the mission to them, Shikamaru commented how Naruto would be pounding at my door as soon as he realized they got a C-Ranked mission. I'm just glad he waited till morning. Asuma, just curious, but how is their training going?"
"It's going great, actually...I was a little worried at first."
"About?" Iruka, who'd been quiet up until now, looked away from a list of the missions they still had to assign.
"Their introductions had me a little worried."
"Oh?"
Asuma looked at the Third and chuckled.
-x-x-x-Flashback-x-x-x-
Looking over his shoulder at the three Genin that followed him outside and to the rooftop of a nearby lookout, Asuma wondered what they were thinking. They each had excited looks on their faces, but one was nervous, another seemed restless...while the last was looking a bit impatient. Once they were all sitting and he was able to get a better look at them, he relaxed against the wall behind him. "Let's go ahead and get to know one another. Since we will be a team, we should take time to learn a bit about one another."
"What should we say, Sensei?"
Looking to the blonde, he felt relieved that they weren't just staring blankly at him. There was interaction, and none of them seemed against having one another on their team so far. "Let's do the basics and start with your name. You can follow up with a couple things that you like and dislike, what your hobbies are, your future goals, and what your dreams for the future are."
"S-Sensei...c-could you start?"
'She's a shy one...' he smiled, the girl looked to be kind enough, but that shy disposition worried him. He'd have to work with her on that. "Sure, my name is Asuma Sarutobi...as you can probably gather from my last name, I am the son of our Third Hokage. Things that I like? I like my smokes, my time off from missions and Soba with tororo...I dislike anything with Asparagus. My hobbies include playing Shogi, and taking strolls in the Village streets of Konoha. Goals...hm...I currently don't have any, but I guess, my dream for the future...is to see to the growth of my team...and the success of your dreams. Now...let's start with you..." he made it a point to call out the girl.
Bowing her head, she twiddled her fingers. "M-my name...it's Hinata H-Hyuuga...I like...to look out at the l-lake...and to...um...well...th-there are some...who...inspire me...a-and I like...to w-watch them t-train." She blushed horribly and ducked her head as she started to shake.
"Geeze Hinata," the blonde laughed, "take a breath, you're going to have a heart attack."
"R-right! Um...I-I don't...really...dislike anything. I w-wish I was better...at a lot of things, so I-I guess you could s-say...I dislike...myself." Again, her head bowed down, this time, she wasn't shaking, she was staring sadly down at her feet. "I don't know about my h-hobbies...m-mostly I just practice a-alone...and..." she shook her head, "I have...I have many goals...p-personal goals. I-I want to be m-more confidant...a-and...I w-want to be a b-better me!" Tears swelled in her eyes as she said this, "I want to b-becomes a stronger Hinata! Until I r-reach my goals...I-I can't even think about m-my dream f-for the future."
Asuma stared at her and watched as a hand settled on her shoulder from both sides. The two boys said nothing until she looked up at them.
"Hinata...if those are your goals, then as your teammates, we will help you...Believe It!"
"Yeah, all of us have things about ourselves that we wish we could improve. You aren't alone..."
"Y-you guys...thank you...N-Naruto...Ch-Chouji...thank you!"
Asuma sighed but smiled as he watched the two calm her down. Finally, after a few minutes, she calmed herself, still blushing, still bowing her head, but much calmer. "Who wants to go next?"
"I'll go. I'm Chouji Akimichi...I love food, all foods, but my favorite food is Korean Barbecue and Pork Fat Flavored potato chips! I dislike when people call me Fat or Fatso...I also dislike training. My hobbies include buying different snacks and trying and comparing them, the same with Ramen and Meat! Naruto and I are always comparing Ichiraku's Ramen but we clearly have different views, not like that's bad..." he laughed when his friend gave him a glare. "My goal is to try every type of Ramen and Meat...and my dream...for the future? Hm...I don't have one." Chouji shrugged, "though, if we are talking about the near future, I'd say my Dream is eating at Ichiraku's tonight."
"I think we can do that,"
Asuma watched the blonde laugh, "very well...what about you?"
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, Believe It!" Naruto stood up between Chouji and Hinata, "I like Ramen, and while I don't like studying, I like improving! I enjoy training and train often with Kiba! I dislike when my sister nags me to study, and I absolutely can't stand Genma! I mean, alright, that's not true. Genma is pretty cool, I just don't like him around my sister!" Naruto formed a fist and glared at it.
"…uh…huh. Hobbies?"
"My hobbies? Those include training and trying to learn different Jutsu in my free time. I'm not quite as good at that as Katsumi is, but I'm not horrible at it. Trying different Ramen's, and reading...if the topic is interesting. My goals...I guess, as far as my goals go, I want to better my Ninjutsu, Taijutsu and Genjutsu...my Chakra Control too...I suck at Genjutsu, so focusing on bettering that would be great."
"What about your dream for the future?"
"Oh...that's easy...I'm going to be the next Hokage...Believe It!"
"...N-Naruto..." Hinata blushed as she glanced at him from the corner of her eyes.
Chouji was smiling at the confidant blonde, "you sure you're cut out for it?"
"Of course I am! I will show everyone, my sister and I...we are just as good as anyone else in the village. More than that, I want to show them that they can trust us to protect them. We aren't monsters! We are Shinobi of Konoha…and we will protect them...watch us!"
'...such an interesting set. Hinata...needs to work on her confidence...she's so shy and mellow...whereas Naruto has enough confidence that the other two can ride his coat tails, he's got so much to spare...Chouji has no interest in training, but it looks like he will work well with Naruto. This team...will be interesting to say the least.'
-x-x-x-End-x-x-x-Flashback-x-x-x-
"Yeah, when they introduced themselves, I wasn't worried about them listening to me or even their teamwork...I was worried about how their styles would mesh together. Needless to say, they surprised me. Naruto has stepped up into a position where Hinata looks up to him and Chouji listens to him. However, Chouji will argue flaws in Naruto's logic when he sees them, Naruto is open to it and listens. He's a bit headstrong though, especially when it concerns his sister. She's a focal point for his drive to push himself and succeed, which pushes his team to succeed. Yeah, it's going well..."
Iruka grinned, "Naruto is great. Katsumi is, much like Sasuke...a prodigy in her own right. However, Naruto had to push himself harder to keep up with her, and now the two of them are neck and neck in their training. Katsumi will always be ahead of him in her studies, but that's because it's something she enjoys, whereas Naruto can't really stand studying and only does it if it concerns something that directly affects him. I look forward to seeing how they grow."
"I as well, am looking forward to seeing their growth..."
Asuma looked at his father before thinking back to his team and excusing himself. He liked his team, so for them, he would also push himself to see to it that they succeeded where they needed to and wanted to. It was a promise...
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Me: Here is chapter seven of Then There Were Two~! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!