Naruto (U): Okay guys. New chapter! What do we got?
Naruko: Hinata found out our secret
Menma: Is this where we begin freaking out?
Naruto (U): Only one way to find out!
United I Stand
Chapter Five: Hyūga's Curiousty and Uzumaki Answers
"Got any fives?"
"Gold fish."
"Damn it!"
Hinata began to squirm and open her eyes. What she thought she would see when she opened them was the clear blue sky but instead, she found herself looking at a dull gray ceiling.
"Got any tens?"
"Gold fish baby!"
"Aww damn it. Here y-Oh, she's waking up!"
Hinata turned her head to see Naruto, Menma and Naruko at the table, each of them holding cards in their hands. "Hey Hinata-san, come join us!" Naruto exclaimed with a wave of his hand.
Hinata blinked in confusion and slowly rose up from the couch she was sleeping on and muttered "Where am I?"
"You're at our humble abode," Naruko said cheerfully. "You gave us a huge scare when we found you fainted so we brought you here."
Hinata blushed furiously.
She was in Naruto-kun's home?!
"I-It looks nice and cozy," Hinata said and she wasn't lying. The apartment was slightly small but it had orange painted walls with a gray sectional couch that she was currently sitting on, with pale orange and red pillows.
The kitchen looked to be furnished with brand new equipment with marble counter tops and it was a nice bright white paint on its walls.
And the trio were sitting at a cherry wood circular table with six chairs around it, three of which were occupied.
"Thanks, we really worked hard to make it look nice," Naruko replied.
"Had to steal a damn bunch though," Naruto grumbled.
"Y-You stole all of this?" Hinata asked.
"We did," Menma said. "But I'm pretty sure you already know why."
Hinata grew quiet as she thought over what she had heard.
"Y-You three were originally the true Naruto-kun…And you three have the Kyūbi sealed within you all…" Hinata murmured.
"Man, you have some really good hearing," Naruto said with an impressed smile.
"You bozos were also pretty loud," Naruko said.
"Yeah, yeah," Menma mumbled.
"But yeah, that's the gist of it," Naruto said. "Come on. Take a seat. Play cards with us."
Hinata nodded and slowly walked to the table and pulled out the chair and sat down. "We were about to start a new game. Menma, do your magic," Naruko said.
Menma took the cards and began to shuffle them as he looked at her and said "So Hinata, what you heard was true. The three of us used to be Uzumaki Naruto but a jutsu gone wrong happened and split is up into the three you see before you forever."
"B-But how c-could that be?" Hinata asked. "There isn't a jutsu that can do that…Is there?"
"There is and it's called Tamashī no Cerberus: Bunretsu," Naruto said as Menma began to dole out the cards. "So this jutsu is a Yamanaka Kinjutsu that Inoichi-sensei's great-great-Grandfather created during the Warring Period before Konoha was founded essentially to keep their clan strong since death was very abundant during that time."
"It essentially works like a Bushin jutsu where we could make copies of ourselves but where they really differ is while a clone can be dispersed, any copies that come from this jutsu doesn't," Naruko said.
"They d-don't?" Hinata asked with surprise.
"Nope, not at all. Instead, they become one-hundred percent real and independent of the caster of the Jutsu," Menma said. "But they don't start off as a blank slate. From what Inoichi-sensei explained, it takes our strongest personality traits and attributes and splits them to three independent beings but all the memories from the original Naruto is still remembered as well as his skills and chakra level and this jutsu even allows us to be stronger than ever. There is the downside of sharing one life force so if one of us dies, we all die but other than that? All upsides."
"S-So you three were Naruto-kun and now because of the jutsu, there are three of you…But why is Naruko-chan a g-girl?" Hinata asked as she looked at Naruko.
"Well we have a theory that when we did the jutsu, when they were being created, the jutsu used his Oiroke no Jutsu form as inspiration for one of the bodies it had to form," Menma said.
"I-I see…" Hinata murmured. "S-So who is the closest to the original Naruto-kun?"
"Honestly? I would think Menma," Naruto said. "The OG Naruto was pretty sad and bitter about a lot of things. Menma is bitter but a bit of melancholy is still there."
"You think I'm the closest to the real one?" Menma asked with surprise. "What about you Naruko? You think that too?"
"I mean all of us were close to the original but the emotions we see you have is a lot closer to him. Only difference is that we aren't lonely anymore," Naruko replied.
"Just melancholy and bitter," Menma said.
"But at the same time, in different ways, we are closer to the OG Naruto as well," Naruto said.
Menma and Naruko nodded in agreement.
"So…Do you three recognize yourselves a-as separate people?" Hinata asked.
"Yes and no," Naruto said. "I mean, we are the same person. We share the same soul and life-force but personality wise, we are pretty different. Like Menma said earlier, we're independent beings with our own thoughts and emotions but…Well, these are the same thoughts and emotions the OG Naruto had. I mean the OG Naruto always found you, Sakura-san and Ino-chan cute."
"Y-Y-You f-found m-me c-cute?" Hinata stammered out in alarm, her face growing a deep red.
"Yeah. We weren't blind," Naruto said.
"Yeah, you're very cute to us Hinata-chan. especially your eyes. They are like pearls!" Naruko added teasingly.
Hinata silently stared at Naruko and Naruto with her face redder than before.
They found her eyes cute?!
"O-Oh…U-Um…A-Ano…S-So if I decided to…Um…" Hinata paused as she began to blush harder. "I-If I decided to date one of you…W-Would I be dating you two as well?"
"I mean…If you wanted to be shared betw-" Naruto began but Menma smacked him upside the head immediately. "Ow! What was that for?!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Pervert," Menma said but Hinata saw his cheeks redden lightly. "Admittedly I wouldn't think so…If any of us dated you, you'd be dating a part of Naruto, not the full OG one so no...However If we ever combined back into one however, then yes?"
"So, I'd like to point out that all of your questions so far have been about us being a trio instead of a one-some…And not about the Kyūbi," Menma said.
"Well w-why should it be?" Hinata asked with a confused tone. "I-In hindsight, the Y-Yondaime defeating a powerful d-demon w-without any backup seems o-odd so sealing him w-would be a good method…Also, You aren't big and red with n-nine tails…N-None of you are so why should it m-matter? The d-demon is sealed in you, i-it doesn't mean you a-are the demon."
"Holy shit..." Naruto said. "Y-You're like the second person to say something like that…"
"A-Am I? I mean, i-it's obvious you are human…" Hinata said.
"Not to many it isn't," Menma said with a frown. "They all think of us as the demon out there."
"Well t-they are wrong," Hinata said. "None of y-you are the demon and i-if anyone says different, I will hurt them!"
She then shrunk in her chair as her blush deepened. She didn't mean to sound so angry but it was true.
"Well look at this little spitfire," Naruko said teasingly. "If she's brave enough to fight for the three of us, maybe she's brave enough to actually ask us out next."
And that was the trigger where Hinata lost consciousness.
"Did you have to say that?" Menma asked Naruto with a sour expression.
"I couldn't help it," Naruko said. "She was so precious and adorable. I had to but she brings up a good question. I mean, we are separate people with our own thoughts and feelings but we're also three parts of OG Naruto and we still think of us that way but if we did decide to date, should we share?"
"It doesn't matter because who would want to date us of all people?" Menma asked.
"Apparently Hinata-chan," Naruko said. "Considering she just fainted when I asked that question."
"She got you there," Naruto said. "But I kind think this. If we are forever three beings, then yeah, we shouldn't share because even though we feel that we're all Naruto, they'll see us as different people and no sense in confusing them…but if we ever become one, our feelings for those we date would be shared between us anyways and they would have to share us in return right? Boy did that give me a headache…"
"So it's complicated is basically what I'm getting here?" Naruko summed up.
Menma and Naruto both nodded but it was Naruto who said "But I'm surprised honestly. She was more concerned with how we became three than the Kyūbi. She brushed that off so quickly."
"I wonder why she was so concerned with that over our bigger secret?" Menma asked.
Naruko shrugged and said "Because Hinata has a crush on us."
"I'm sorry what?" Menma asked with alarm.
"Cool," Naruto said happily. "She proved you wrong again Menma but what makes you say that Naruko?"
"Well considering she followed us, listened in on us and actively said "What if I went on a date with us" and the whole thing about worrying more about us being triplets than the fucking Kyūbi?" Naruko explained. "Not to mention, Ino kind of hinted at it earlier when she said and I quote "Hinata has a thing for orange wearing boys" and guess what? We all wear orange."
"And thinking back even further, I she was always watching us and following us...How the hell did I not see this?" Naruto said with a blank look on his face. "Like seriously? Are we that stupid?"
"Holy shit," Naruto said. "But why would she have a crush on us?"
Menma and Naruko shrugged.
"So if this is true, what do we do?" Naruko asked.
"Well…She's super cute," Naruto said. "And I kind of like her."
"She is cute," Menma said.
"Yeah…I agree with both of you" Naruko added. "So…What do we do?"
"I don't know…We could be looking too deeply into this and she may not like us at all," Menma said.
Both Naruto and Naruko stared at him for a moment. "Every party needs a pooper, that's why they invited you," Naruto sang with a dry tone.
"Party pooper…Party pooper," Naruko sang, her voice equally dry.
"Yeah, yeah, blow me," Menma said as he picked up Hinata off the floor and carried her to the couch and gently laid her down but his eyes rested on her face and hesitantly, he caressed her face and murmured "Yeah…We must be looking too deep…There is no way…"
Menma turned around to see Naruto and Naruko smirking at him. "We saw that," they said in unison.
"Saw what?" Menma asked with narrowed eyes.
The smirk the pair had merely grew but they remained silent.
"Well if it's true, how about we each take her out on a date? Wouldn't hurt anything and if she likes one of us and one of us likes her back, awesome but if not, at least we have a friend," Naruko suggested.
"What if all three of us like her?" Menma asked.
"Then she's our girlfriend," Naruto said.
"But wouldn't that be weird? I mean for us, who the fuck cares but out there…" Menma drifted off.
"Who the fuck cares, whatever makes us happy, right?" Naruko said.
"Right!" Naruto said. "So when she wakes up, we can each ask her out. Simple and effective."
"But we schedule it after the mission tomorrow," Menma said.
"Then let's ask her after the mission then," Naruko said.
"After the mission, we shall ask Hinata-chan out on a date!" Naruto said. "The Uzumaki Trio meeting is adjourned."
Rain: So I decided this chapter was going to be a little more lighthearted and to kind of answer a few questions to the pairings. Now for me to add on something. This means Naruto, Naruko and Menma will be paired but they will have their own harem and when combined (which will happen sometimes) it will become a true Naruto/Harem so I hope that answers that. The next chapter will be to Taki so until then…
Bruno Bucciarati: Arrivederci!
Menma: Bruno…That's my spot!