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
-x-x-x-
'Cause we never learned to keep our voices down, no
We only learned to shout
So we fight our way in (we fight our way in)
And we fight our way out
We earned what we could from the ground up
And tried to lift the whole damn crowd up
So we fight our way in (we fight our way in)
And we fight our way out
-We Fight (Dashboard Confessionals)
-x-x-x-
Dreamscape
"Get off of me Katsumi! Kiba is waiting for me!"
Katsumi refused to let go of Naruto, holding him in a strangle hold, she tightened her grip. "You took it, where is it!?"
"Ack! I...no way! I'm not gonna hand it over!"
KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK
The twins looked to the door, neither expecting anyone. As Naruto struggled to the door, his sister still strangling him, he brought a hand to one of her legs to keep her from falling despite wanting her off his back. He opened the door and looked up curiously at the bane of his existence. "...I haven't done anything...today."
"Genma!" Katsumi blushed and tried to get off her brother, but his hold on her suddenly tightened and she was forced to stay where she was or risk falling.
Genma raised a brow as he looked to the girl on Naruto's back, then back at the boy. "Aren't the two of you too old to be fighting like this?"
"We aren't fighting, what do you want?" A hand popped him painfully across the head and he yelped out in pain. "Damn it, Katsumi! What the hel-!"
Katsumi grinned, her hand over her brothers mouth as she looked up at Genma with bright eyes. "Did you need something, Genma?"
"Ah...I wanted to take the two of you out to eat...as a congratulations for passing your Survival Test."
Naruto narrowed his eyes and his tongue darted out across his sisters' hand. He grinned when she let out a squeak, but before he could say anything to Genma, she had already replaced her hand. "MMmph!"
"We would love to! Although, I believe Naruto was about to leave. Something about meeting Kiba?"
Naruto's eyes widened as he remembered his training buddy. Dropping his sister, he darted backwards and grabbed his jacket before racing outside. "I'll see you later, Katsumi! Genma! You are responsible for her if you take her anywhere! If she gets hurt, I'll beat you into a pulp!"
Katsumi who was rubbing her arm after hitting it on the ground, looked up and glared at her brother who was already out of her line of sight. "...stupid."
Genma glanced down at her before holding his hand out. He watched her eye his hand for a moment before he sighed and leaned down to take her hand in his and pull her up onto her feet. "I said I would..."
She tilted her head curiously and frowned, "you never said anything about a congratulations meal. That was just..." she blushed, "ah, never mind. I'll grab my shoes and we can go!"
"Katsumi,"
"Hm?" She pulled her shoes on and looked over at Genma.
"Katsumi!"
She jumped and frowned at the yell.
"KATSUMI, WAKE UP! WE'RE LEAVING!"
-x-x-x-End-x-x-x-Dreamscape-x-x-x-
"..." oceanic eyes looked up into a lighter shade of blue, and Katsumi let out a long and tired sigh. They had braked a few hours after the attack of the Shinobi who'd offed themselves before their team could get any viable information. She had taken that opportunity to get a short nap in...clearly...she was more tired than she'd originally anticipated.
"We thought you were dead..." Shikamaru scoffed, pocketing his hands from where he was standing a bit a way waiting for her to wake up.
"You look rather at ease for someone who thought I was dead." Katsumi stood and yawned. Grabbing her bag and shouldering it before walking over to Kakashi and Shikamaru, Sasuke was a further ahead of them, but he too was waiting for her. Placing a hand in her pocket, she glanced down and checked her little containers of aromatic poisons and healing balms.
Ino walked up behind her and frowned, "what were you dreaming of? Your cheeks were...red…"
Katsumi's head shot up and she felt four sets of curious eyes on her. "...I was...dreaming of a fight with my brother..."
"Oh?" Shikamaru smirked, "was it realistic or fabricated? Well, either way, I can imagine what the fight was about." He walked closer and with a teasing smirk, he leaned over a bit and whispered in her ear so that only she could hear. "...but is that all you dreamed about?"
She fisted her hands at her side and lunged, moving to punch Shikamaru who easily dodged her and laughed under his breath a bit. "Shikamaru..." she narrowed her eyes, "...just wait...I'll get you!"
"Right, right..." he calmed down from the high of sudden adrenalin.
"Are we ready?" Kakashi raised a brow, watching his team nod, he sighed, "good. Tazuna?"
"Hm?"
"We should arrive in a few hours, so please stay alert of your surroundings...and if you can think of anyone who might want to intervene with your return to the Land of the Waves...that would be great."
Katsumi walked past the group and made her way to Sasuke who watched her with narrowed eyes. "Careful Sasuke, you could kill with a glare like that..." she grinned, "what did I miss?" She knew they couldn't be heard, they were quite a distance ahead of the others.
"...our client is hiding something. While you were resting, Kakashi had decided to dig for some answers, but the guy just said "I don't know who these men are, or what they'd want with me" ...but it's obvious he's lying."
Nodding, she resisted the urge to turn around and yawned, "what a pain...that really was turning out to be a great dream."
Sasuke raised a brow, side stepping a stone in the middle of the dirt pathway, he glanced around the forest, "Fighting with your brother? I didn't realize that you enjoyed it so much."
She blushed, "that's...not the part I was enjoying. I liked the part after he left."
"While I find myself curious, I don't know how much I really are to know." He chuckled, "however, if what happened a moment ago was anything to go by, I can imagine who it was that you were dreaming of...besides Naruto."
"...I'm pretty obvious...and I don't go out of my way to hide it. However, I don't just chase his heals...I need to work hard to become a Kunoichi that will be useful to Naruto once he's become Hokage."
"Once he's become Hokage?"
She shrugged, "he'll do it. You can just wait and see...he'll succeed for sure."
He huffed, but the conversation was over as they continued walking in silence. The two were on high alert, neither willing to let another attack take place on their way to the Land of Waves.
-x-x-x-
(Elsewhere)
"Seriously Naruto, could you relax a bit?"
Grinning madly, Naruto jumped beside Asuma and scratched behind his head. "Sorry Sensei! When will we arrive at Tanzaku?"
"Tanzaku isn't too far away, thankfully. We will arrive before the nights end, so we will rest there once we arrive."
Chouji looked back behind them as he popped a handful of chips into his mouth. Finishing what was in his mouth, he called out, "Hey, Hinata!"
Blushing fiercely, Hinata jumped and looked up, "y-yes!?"
He sighed, "...are you okay? You are really far back there..."
"O-oh! I'm sorry...I w-was just...thinking."
"Oh?" Naruto ran back to Hinata's side and slipped an arm around hers. "Let's think a bit closer to the group!"
Her cheeks were burning, her head was spinning. She felt like she might pass out if he didn't get away from her soon, and by the way he was holding her arm... "N-N-N-Naruto! P-please…l-let go!"
He paused in her trek, glancing at her, he let his arm slip away from hers and almost immediately, her wabbly legs gave out and he caught her before she hit the ground. "Hinata! What...what's wrong?"
Asuma sighed. They were only three hours out from the village, and they still had a good thirteen or so to go. "Let's stop here. I need to fill my canister, and there's a stream." Asuma bluffed as he pointed to a creek that was only a few feet away.
Naruto nodded and helped Hinata against the trunk of a tree. Kneeling before her, he watched her with worry, placing a hand on the ground beside her, he leaned in a bit and pressed the other one to Hinata's forehead. "Are you...maybe...sick? Wh-What!? Hinata? HINATA!?"
Chouji laughed out loudly as Hinata's heart finally gave out and her body went limp against the tree.
'This kid...' Asuma shook his head as he pulled a smoke from his pack and lit it, "she'll be out of it for a bit, when she wakes up, give her some space, Naruto."
"Right...but..." Naruto frowned and stood up, "what's wrong with her?"
"Nothing you need to worry about, just relax for a bit until she comes too." He looked at the sun and a few clouds drifted carelessly above. It was such a relaxing day, he wouldn't have minded those D-Ranked missions...it was too bad his didn't appreciate them for what they were. ...a break.
-x-x-x-
Me: Here is chapter nine. I am trying to divide the time between the twins, but at some point, I'll have to jump away from that just so a plotline can flow. I hope you all enjoy, and next chapter won't have ANYTHING to do with the twins…so…yeh. Review~