Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I do own the voices in my head that influence me to write these stories. I – ooh there's a good idea. I'll have to remember that for later. What? Oh, you'll see. On with the story!
Chapter 4 – Scatter! Clones on the Loose
-x-
Later on Training Ground 7, Naruto stood in the training grounds again, kicking his foot against the ground. While he'd been training, he'd been constantly…distracted. At first that was fine, allowing him to test his awesomeness against distractions. However, he soon found that he was quite easily distracted as he would pause in his training to yell at the voices in his head.
Were he more aware of how insane that sounded, he'd have been glad no one was able to see him.
As it was, Naruto was becoming quite annoyed. He understood why they were talking and badgering him, but the constantly increasing frequency of two of their voices was driving him bonkers.
"I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna!"
"CAN I COME PLAY TOO?"
"Will you – just – for the love of – STOP!"
"Then let us out!"
Naruto slammed his head into one of the wooden posts. Hearing the laughter from the voice, Naruto figured they didn't feel it, which meant he'd just given himself a throbbing pain in his head for nothing. Scowling, he quickly dropped into a cross-legged sitting position as he thought that over.
He wanted to let them out – he really did! The only problem was knowing who was whom. In his head they all sounded like him, which meant only the way that they talked was the only way he knew when different people were talking. Scratching his head, he considered creating clones again and just seeing where things went from there. It wasn't the best idea, true, but then Naruto wasn't really known for his 'good ideas' so much as his 'crazy ideas'.
Nodding to himself, he gave in and formed his hands into the slowly more familiar handseal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
With a sharp pop, five clones popped into existence. As the cloud cleared, one of them jumped to his feet and let out a whoop. "Finally! Freedom!"
All of the others stared at him flatly before returning their gaze to Naruto. "Sorry, it gets…frustrating when we're cooped up. Your head isn't exactly roomy."
"At least he can now counter anyone who says he has an empty head." Another clone said, shrugging when they all gave him a dirty look. "You know someone will eventually."
"Whatever. Weirdo's aside, it's good to be back in a body again."
Naruto stared between them as they began poking and moving around. Just like he'd thought, they were all…him. The only variation was in their eyes, and that was so small that if they looked away he didn't know who was whom. Looking back and forth from one to another, he soon developed a tick mark on his head before he threw up his hands. "Okay, hold up!"
Everyone went silent and all eyes fell on him. Naruto actually had to pause at that, taken aback by the rapt attention they were giving him. He was used to all eyes on him; his pranks had more than prepared him for that. What he wasn't used to was the real and genuine curiosity in their eyes. They wanted to hear what he had to say.
Blinking slowly, he soon snapped out of it and jabbed his finger at them. "Okay, that's enough of that! Who's who here? I can't tell any of you apart!"
They all looked to one another, blinked, then turned to look at someone else. Three of them suddenly realized what Naruto meant and suddenly looked just as confused. Slowly, they scooted away from each other with suspicion in their eyes until they were in a wide enough circle to be able to see everyone equally. The other two sat in the center, completely oblivious to how things were until they were essentially surrounded.
"Hm? It appears we've been volunteered." The first one said, his deadpanned voice the only indicator to Naruto that it was the 'emotionless' Naruto.
"Really?" The other clone said, his eyes bright with determination. "Well then, should we introduce ourselves then?"
"…how? We don't have names."
Everyone face-planted at that, and Naruto's eye twitched rapidly. Apparently some of the clones had inherited his lack of forethought. "What do you mean you don't have names? What the hell?"
"We're you. We don't have our own names." The 'emotionless' Naruto explained, crossing his arms in thought. "Though, to be fair, we already have our own personalities. So, there's that."
"Not helpful!" Naruto shouted, pointing at him angrily. "How can I tell you all apart if you all look the same? I can't just go giving people names when I won't be able to know who's who anyway!"
"Oh, is that all?" Forming handseals, the 'emotionless' Naruto was enveloped in a puff of smoke, and his appearance changed. "Henge (Tranformation)."
As the smoke cleared, a 'new' figure was revealed. Having the same basic build as Naruto, they instead wore a dark tan coat over an orange shirt with a black spiral drawn on the front. He had a pair of dark blue pants on along with the standard blue sandals. His face still had Naruto's whisker marks, but his hair was longer on top to the point that rather than stick up in all directions it fell down around his face. There was a small window between his bangs for his eyes, helped by his hiate, but otherwise the rest of his face hadn't changed much. (1)
"There, is that better?" 'Emotionless' Naruto asked, motioning to his new appearance.
Everyone's eyes stayed on him for a second before the other four grinned wildly. Putting their hands together as well, Naruto was surrounded by plumes of smoke.
The second clone in the middle of the 'circle' was the first one Naruto saw. His hair was buzz cut short, and his eyes were narrower than Naruto's normally was. He wore a loose black shirt like Kakashi's that came up to mid-forearm, bluish-black pants, with a pair of heavy orange fighter's gloves. With a feral grin, he punched his fist into his palm, looking eager to start something.
On his left, the clone twisted and turned and seemed to struggle until it somehow wraps the jumpsuit around their body until it becomes entangled and his arms are locked in front of him. While he struggles, Naruto takes in their appearance further. His hair is long, extremely long, his bangs almost covering his eyes, and his hair going down arounds his shoulders. His whisker marks on his face seemed…darker, more pronounced, though not overly so. The clone hummed softly, his eyes distant as the hiate around his head seemed to come loose and dropped around his neck, causing it to squawk and fall on its back, flailing childishly.
To Naruto's right, the clone had shifted and stood, his form remaining somewhat shadowed by the smoke as it somewhat obscured his form for a moment. When it passed, he was the most feral looking of the clones, with his whiskers darkened and eyes seemed somewhat formed into slits. He wore an open black vest with a fur lined collar over a skintight black shirt, skintight black pants with an orange belt that had his hiate as the belt's buckle. (2) His hair was longer, shaggier, but only slightly more so than Naruto's own unlike the clone on Naruto's right. Cracking his neck, the clone put his hands on his hips proudly, clearly pleased that his dramatic actions had held some effect. On the back of the clone's left hand was the kanji for 'oni' or 'demon' – likely the one who'd said he'd be a demon during the fight with Mizuki.
The final clone across from Naruto –
"Holy crap you're a girl!"
Was a girl. Similar somewhat to Naruto's Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy technique) in that she was a girl with pigtails, there wasn't much else besides that to put the two together. Unlike the intentionally exaggerated proportions of the jutsu, she was more 'normal'. Her hair was done up in pigtails, but unlike those of the jutsu hers were tied at the base of her neck rather than the top of her head. She wore a loose blue shirt that – somewhat surprisingly – covered her entire chest without revealing anything. She had an orange miniskirt that were she standing it would barely reach her fingertips in its length, and wore her hiate around her leg over her weapons pouch.
Naruto glanced between them all, the girl Naruto one that kept grabbing his attention. He had not expected that at all, so he ended up gawking for a moment before the emotionless Naruto finally spoke up. "Well, we're here, and we look different. Is this better?"
Naruto nodded numbly, unsure if he should believe his eyes. Then again, they were all using a henge; why shouldn't they be allowed to look as they wanted? If one of them wanted to look like a girl, that was for them to decide.
"Hey!" The other, more exuberant clone with the fighter's gloves said, moving forwards and slapping an arm around Naruto. "Good to see ya! Nice choice on ramen by the way, big fan. Ah, it tasted so delicious~"
"Eh?" Naruto asked (such an intelligent question) as he put two and two together. "Oi, was that why it took me so long to eat my food? Sasuke got ahead start on training because of that!"
"Hm? Well, yeah kinda. Sorry, it's just not something we get to experience much, and~ I'm not sure how much we'd even be able to do seeing how we're…well we're in clone bodies."
Naruto deadpanned at that. "Yeah, I noticed." Crossing his arms, he frowned further as he looked between them all. "So…you're all me."
"Yup." The demon Naruto said, pulling on his vest as he looked it over.
"And you want me to…give you all names?"
"Whatever you feel is best." The emotionless clone said, eyes never leaving him.
Naruto slowly looked over them, he leaned back and hummed. Putting a moment's worth of thought into it, he suddenly perked up and grinned. "alright, I got it!"
All of the clones looked at him expectantly, the one on his shoulder moving off him to sit back in the middle of the circle eagerly. "Eh? Well come on, don't keep us in the dark! What are they?"
Since he'd spoken first, Naruto jabbed his finger at him with a proud and pleased grin. "Tonkotsu!"
"…what?"
Pointing to the clone next to the newly dubbed Tonkotsu, Naruto continued. "Negi!" Turning to the demon Naruto, he paused for a second before nodding to himself. "Memna."
"…are you kidding me?"
Once more ignoring the stunned expression on his clones faces, he pointed to the girl Naruto across from him. "You'll be…Miso! And…" Looking at the flailing clone on the ground, Naruto blinked before shrugging. "He can be Shoyu."
For another moment there was silence.
"Did-did you just name us all after ramen?" Miso asked, looking between the other clones. "Did he just name us after ramen?"
"This dude is a frickin' genius." Tonkotsu said, eyes glinting before he rose with a roar. "I am the might 'pork legged' ramen!? Yes!"
"I see no issues with the name Negi." Negi said, shrugging absently.
"He's an idiot." Memna said, his smirk having quickly fallen to a scowl. After a couple seconds though, he flopped down next to the others and huffed. "But it's not like I have any better ideas right now. If I think of anything, I'll kick your ass later."
"Well it could be okay, but…Miso? Really?" Miso asked, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "Honestly, you just thought of the first thing you could didn't you?"
"Hey!" Naruto said, jabbing a finger at them. "You said you wanted names, and those were the first ones that came to mind!"
"Because you'd just eaten ramen." Miso grinned, pointing at Naruto victoriously.
"…that's besides the point!"
The clones all laughed at him, but it was friendly enough and after a couple of seconds Naruto found himself relaxing and laughing along with them. It was different, somewhat relaxing to see them all like this. The idea that they were happy and were friendly was novel to Naruto, and he was enjoying the feeling immensely.
"Alright, so…" Naruto looked between them before his eyes fell on Negi again. "You said your personalities are different. How…so?"
"We are…" Negi started, pausing as he thought over his words. "We're pieces of you, given your memories, but with our own choices made over them. Nothing changed about your life in our minds, but we just…chose differently."
Naruto stared at him blankly, trying to process that. "…what?"
Tonkotsu raised his hand with a smirk. "What I think he means is that we chose different answers on a multiple choice test, but the test still ended up here regardless. Our grade is just different."
"Oh okay." Naruto nodded, understanding perfectly. "So, you're all me, but you're different people. So, what makes you different?"
"Oh! Oh!" Miso bounced in place eagerly, raising her hand. "Maybe we should do the likes, dislikes, and dreams thing that Kakashi-sensei had you and your team do?"
"…uh, sure?" Naruto blinked, glancing between them all. They all had a variety of likes, dislikes, and even dreams? That was new.
"Okay, okay I'll start then! My name is Miso! And since I only know a few, I'll just say my likes and stuff now. I like ramen and games! I dislike people who don't appreciate others. And…" Miso tapped her cheek for a second before shrugging. "I don't have any dreams yet. I'll get back to you on that."
Naruto nodded, glancing to Tonkotsu who was bouncing in his seated position. "Uh, can you go next?"
"Sure!" He slapped his hands on his legs, puffing up his chest. "I'm Tonkotsu, the future Konoha no Shura Monsuta (Fighting Monster of the Leaf)! I like fighting and kicking ass! I dislike cowards." Jumping to his feet with fire in his eyes he pointed as though at someone. "Stand and fight cowards! I am not one who will strike a foe in the back!"
Naruto blinked and perked up. "Oh hey, yeah I remember you! You were the one who kicked Mizuki and kept him from killing us and who grabbed the bell!"
If it were possible, Tonkotsu's chest got more puffed up. "Of course! I would never allow anyone to do something like that! I may be training to be a monster, but that just means I can do what I want when I want. Nothing will stop me!"
"Yes, because that tells us so much about you." Miso said, puffing out her cheeks in frustration.
Tonkotsu pulled down his eye and stuck out his tongue. "Nya, like I said. I do what I want."
"Oi," Memna said leaning over and smacking the back of Tonkotsu's knee. "Sit down. You're embarrassing us."
"No I'm not." Tonkotsu said with conviction, though he still sat down.
"What about you Memna?" Naruto turned to the vested clone, somewhat amused by the choice. It looked like he was trying to be a badass or something. Maybe he was trying to look cool like Sasuke? Better not mention that; if he didn't like that idea, Memna probably didn't either.
"Me?" Memna scoffed, crossing his arms slowly as he shrugged. "I don't like anything, I dislike very specific kinds of people, my hobbies are finishing a list I've been working on, and my dream is to become the demon everyone sees me as."
"People see you as –" Naruto started to say, the froze as understanding crossed his face. Looking away, he slowly nodded. "I see. That makes sense I guess."
The others all looked at each other, seeming to ignore Memna's hard eyes. Like Naruto, they all knew and understood what he meant by that. Hell, they understood what Tonkotsu meant by being a 'monster'. Naruto's memories were present in all of them, which meant every word said to him over the years was far from forgotten for them all.
"I suppose that makes me next." Negi said, nodding to himself. "I'm Negi. I like a challenge and learning. I dislike anything easy. My hobbies are pointing out the flaws in others. I don't have any dreams."
Naruto felt a sweatdrop go does the back of his head at that, not sure what he expected from that. Where had that come from? Turning to Shoyu, he opened his mouth to tell him to go next, only to realize that the clone had somehow managed to roll away and was bumping up against a stone monument repeatedly. "Um…"
"Don't bother." Memna said with a roll of his eyes. "That one's not alright in the head. He's…"
"He's weird." Negi said, starting at the clone as it continued. "Just ignore him."
"Um…okay?" Naruto winced at that knowing what it was like to be ignored. Still, they seemed to understand him better than he knew. Hell he didn't know any of them in any way currently. "So, should I go next?"
"No, we already heard yours from yesterday." Miso said, waving her hand dismissively.
"Oh okay." Naruto nodded to himself, grinning since that simplified things quite a bit. Pausing though, he tilted his head in confusion. "So, uh, what now? I mean, now I know your guy's names and stuff, but…what does this mean?"
"What do you mean?" Negi asked, unperturbed by Naruto's confusion.
Naruto slowly shrugged at that. "I mean, you guys are here, and you're…part of me? So, what do we do about that?"
"You do nothing." Memna said, turning to walk away. "We're going to go out and look at things. See the world and everything."
"Huh? Oh wait!" Naruto moved to stand, but Memna was already leaping away into the trees. Turning to the rest of them, Naruto suddenly looked panicked. "Guy, we gotta stop him! He's…"
Pausing, he stared at a nearly empty field, all of the other clones having ran off after Memna. Over to the side, Shoyu kept bumping into the monument, clearly not realizing that everyone except for Naruto had left. Staring at the crazy clone, Naruto slowly sighed and walked over to them. He could leave them here, but somehow he felt that ignoring the clone wouldn't be smart. Beside…
He had clones to find.
-x-
Memna
Memna shot out of the forest, hands in the pockets on his vest as he raced around. He had no real destination in mind, just rushing through and enjoying everything. Pausing on a tree branch, he took a deep breath and sighed in content.
Freedom. Sweet, glorious freedom. Granted, he didn't exactly remember any time when he wasn't, but going from being a clone to being stuck in Naruto's head hadn't exactly been the most comfortable experience. It was like he was haunting someone and then losing control of the body that he swore was his own. Running his hand through his hair, he paused and looked at the kanji on the back of his hand.
Demon. The word had been burnt into his mind, repeated throughout his childhood by adults from all over the city. They hated him, shunned him, dragged their children away from him until he was left alone. All alone…and left to stew in his rage.
Clenching his hand, his face twisted in a snarl. He'd never forgotten any word that had been said. And he'd watched. Oh, he'd watched. He'd kept both eyes open, listened to every word, and gone out of his way to remember every one of them.
He'd even kept a list of the people of import who he felt should be remembered. Mizuki had been one of them. And he'd been so close, so very close to cutting his name off the list, to digging a kunai into him for his words. But, Naruto had held him back. He'd stopped him from fulfilling the vengeance that they so rightly deserved.
MIzuki had even signed his death warrant hadn't he? He'd spoken of a secret that no one had been willing to tell him, and Iruka had certainly been frightened when Mizuki had mentioned that. But Naruto…he'd held him back. He'd kept him from killing him. Why?
Eyes still on his hands, Memna slowly blinked as he turned it over. Looking at his other hand, he looked between them slowly before he smirked and began laughing. One might call it manic if anyone heard him, but then he was alone. So he laughed till his stomach was sore and he was bent at the waist.
"Oh, of course!" Memna shouted, straightening and holding his hands up into the air. "His hands. These are his hands. My hands, his hands, it doesn't matter! Ah, I should've known. How can I just kill anyone I please if these are your hands?"
Dropping his hand down to his face, covering it and his smile. As he did so, the smile dropped, his eyes distant and aloof. "I wish I could've…just ended it. But until I find a way out of it, I'll play by your rules. You don't need to get your hands dirty."
Staring ahead, he smirked, leaping into the forest once more. "As the demon, that'll be my job."
What was he looking for? Well, to be fair he didn't really have any sort of 'plan'. He had ideas, and possibilities, but he couldn't do anything just yet. He had to get stronger, focus harder, and find a way to overcome his current 'weakness'. Perhaps find a way to crush foes without killing them? Yes, humiliating them might work. It would certainly make for something memorable, but it wouldn't make for an amazing reputation if he just left everyone alive right? He'd be called merciful but he would have a lot more people who would curse his name. The paradox of that was quite an annoyance.
But, with the current 'rules' set by Naruto, Memna needed to determine a way to accomplish that. There was always the Kyuubi –
Memna chomped down on his lips, eyes flashing with rage as he banished the thought with no remorse. No. Not the Kyuubi. If the village wanted to call him a demon, he would make sure they feared him, not some god-like creature sealed in Naruto. Tasting blood, he spat it to the side, grimacing as he realized he probably shouldn't do that. Too much damage to his body might eventually dispel it.
Come to think of it, how much damage could his body take?
Hopping along, he eventually came across a long gate surrounding an engorged forest. Pausing, he stared up at the amazingly large trees, he hummed softly. "A gate? What kind of place has a gate?" Thinking it over, he slowly grinned and leapt over it. "Whelp, whatever is in here is worth gating off, so might as well see what all's in here!"
Were he to have gone a bit further around the gate, he'd have seen a sign that named this particular place as Training Ground 44: Shi no Mori, otherwise known as the Forest of Death.
Well, if he was going to try and find his limits, there were few better places to test them.
-x-
~Negi~
Heading into the city without delay, Negi ignored anyone and everyone on his way to his destination. His mind worked with only the mildest of sluggishness, but even that was more than he wanted. There were to many holes in his knowledge, to many things he didn't know.
Unlike the others, he'd chosen to distance himself from showing emotions early on. The looks and words of the people around hurt much less when one ignored everything. It wasn't a 'zen' or a 'peaceful' mindset, but it allowed him to see things in their truth without emotions to cloud him. Regrettably, there was one issue with his mind that he currently needed to fix.
Naruto hadn't studied. That wasn't to say Naruto hadn't tried, but he'd been frustrated, impatient, and as such Naruto had missed out on learning a great deal. Negi could not allow that.
As such, he ducked and weaved through Konoha as he made his way to Naruto's apartment. He'd much prefer to go to a library, but without ensuring that he could enter without anyone questioning whether or not he was Naruto – which technically he was not – he'd considered and decided to refresh his memory of what Naruto might have forgotten. Who knew, maybe he'd find something actually worthwhile.
"Hey, is that Naruto? Hey Naruto!"
Negi paused when he noticed that ahead of him a group of three people were headed towards him. Going over the people Naruto had met, he soon put a name to a face. "Ah, Kiba."
Kiba strut up to him, looking him over curiously. "Hey, what gives Naruto? When'd you decide to grow out your hair like that?"
"Hm? Oh." Negi shook his head, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "I'm not Naruto. I'm Negi."
"What?" Kiba blinked at him, then smirked. "Pfft, yeah right. You think I can't catch your scent? I can totally tell that it's you Naruto."
Negi shrugged, staring Kiba in the eye unmovingly. "Be that as it may, I am not Naruto. I'm Negi."
"Yeah whatever." Kiba paused, looking him over. "Nice transformation. I almost didn't trust my nose there."
~I'll have to remember that. ~ Negi thought, shifting his weight as he glanced to the other two with him. Hinata and Shino, two other members of his class. Of course, who else would he be with? They were his teammates after all. "Hello Hinata-san, Shino-san."
"Ano, hello Naruto-kun." Hinata said, looking him over skeptically. While her eyes clearly said that this wasn't Naruto, she also couldn't just ignore the words of her teammate.
"Negi, please." Negi said, silently glad he didn't show his ire. "Naruto currently is elsewhere, likely looking for the others, so please call me Negi."
"Hm?" Shino's eyebrows raised slightly at that. "You mean that you truly are not Naruto?"
"No. No I am not."
"This is not a prank of some sort?"
"No, I have no inclination towards pranks, nor do I desire to be made a part of them currently."
"Very well then Negi-san."
"Hey, Shino!" Kiba growled softly, jabbing a finger at Negi. "I already told you, this is Naruto!"
"True. However, he insists upon being called by 'Negi'. I see no reason to badger him, seeing how I cannot think of any way that this might be a prank or how he could gain any advantage from such a deception."
Negi perked up at that, staring at Shino idly before pointing at him. "I've come to the decision that I like you." He turned to Kiba. "You not so much." Finishing with Hinata, he paused for a second longer before continuing. "I haven't decided on you yet."
"O-oh. I see Negi-san." Hinata frowned at that, processing both the situation and Negi. She seemed to be rather perplexed by him, and it pleased him inwardly to note how little she seemed to get from it. Good. He wanted to remain a mystery.
"Really? You're just going with this?" Kiba asked, clearly unhappy by their attitude towards this.
"Well unlike you, they're willing to believe me." Negi glanced around, noting that he was getting fairly close to Naruto's apartment.
…only to remember that Naruto had the key.
Oh he technically had it as well, but that was when he was untransformed. While that could be an easy fix, he didn't really want to dispel the transformation. He was unique, his own person for once, and it was an experience. That, and with the way Kiba and his team reacted to him, it would be a challenge to prove to them that he truly wasn't just Naruto.
And he loved a challenge.
"Whatever, I'm still calling you Naruto." Kiba growled, glancing up at Negi's forehead. "Heh, so you got done with your test?"
"Hm?" Negi asked before noticing his gaze. Reaching up, he shifted the hiate, moving his hair slightly to allow it to be shown more prominently. "Of course. Neither Naruto nor myself would've come around for quite a while if we'd failed. And it was such a simple test too."
"Simple?" Kiba asked, raising a brow at that? "Kurenai-sensei had us almost pit against each other to fight over the two bells she had. It was crazy!"
"It wasn't so bad." Hinata said, recalling how she'd gotten them out of a few genjutsu binds. "Her test of our skills was the hardest part, especially the genjutsu."
"Why is that?" Negi asked, recalling how Kakashi had removed Sakura from the equation with one jutsu.
Hinata seemed startled a bit at his question, but she relaxed after a second. "Because Kurenai-sensei is a genjutsu specialist. She did show that she's skilled in taijutsu, and has a few ninjutsu as well, but her genjutsu was quite difficult to get around at times."
"You're telling me." Kiba scowled, with Akamaru suddenly poking his head out from under Kiba's hood to bark in acknowledgement. "She knew how to lay down a bunch of trick sot affect my smell so it was harder to find her. Luckily we all know how to dispel genjutsu, and Hinata could see through the rest."
Negi almost asked how that was, but stopped himself. Unveiling such a glaring weakness in himself was unveiling one in Naruto. While it likely wasn't unknown to anyone who gave it half a moment's worth of thought, handing that information over to them thoughtlessly wouldn't do him any good.
The pause also allowed him to see the clear embarrassment from Hinata. "It's not that big a thing. Anyone with enough skill would've been able to dispel the genjutsu."
"Not everyone." Negi said after a moment, remembering Sakura's reaction. "Sakura got caught in one and passed out."
"Wait seriously?" Kiba asked, eyes lighting up with a familiar light. "Oh this I've gotta hear this!"
Despite himself, he felt the mischievous he 'inherited' from Naruto rising to the surface. Grinning inwardly, he decided he could give the apartment a look later. First and foremost, he wanted to have some fun. He should also try to get some more information on them as well, but…later. Definitely later.
Besides, he still had plenty of time to have fun. Why waste such a good opportunity?
-x-
Tonkotsu
When he'd started running off, Tonkotsu had a clear cut idea. Find an empty training ground, and figure out what he could/couldn't do, then train until he passed out. Or dispelled, whichever came first. Unless it didn't, which would be weird, but then thinking and considering things like that wasn't big on his 'to do' list.
Tonkotsu was a fighter. He'd watched so many loses in hand-to-hand combat turning the Academy, and yet he'd also noted that there had been more than a few times when he'd out sped chunin and pulled of nearly impressive fighting feats. Not supremely great ones, but hey he wasn't going to judge.
However, shortly after going through Training Ground 7, he'd eventually heard the most inspiring shouts he'd ever heard. Such gusto, such enthusiasm. Who could be the source of such a thing?
Leaping through the trees, he looked around wildly for the source. Come on now, where could it be? Where – oh look, there they are.
Down in a clearing where another training field was, a young man was striking a log repeatedly, each strike punctuated by boisterous shouts. There were two others in the field as well; girls maybe? But while the one girl was throwing weapons – which he found interesting, the other was doing a taijutsu style that simply didn't match what he envisioned as what would fit him. Still, that didn't stop him from leaping down into the clearing and announcing his presence.
"Yo!"
The noise of training stopped, and all eyes turned to him. Looking between them all, Tonkotsu found himself grinning brightly. They were all fighting specialists in one some way or another. Perfect.
The boy who didn't hold much of his attention – he could see that it was a boy now, oops – had pale milky eyes, a near-white shirt, with long hair that was tied towards the bottom. He wore his hiate on his forehead, and a flat expression that could go toe-to-toe with Sasuke's best. Such a shame the two of them haven't already met…maybe he'd had to introduce them?
The girl had her hair done up in buns, a blue sleeveless qipao-style blouse with red sleeve trimmings and yellow fastening buttons and dark green pants. She had a weapons pouch tied to her right leg, which seemed somewhat bulkier than the average weapons pouch. In each hand, she was spinning a pair of kunai; not one in each hand, a pair in each hand. It was rather impressive all things considered.
The final boy was the one Tonkotsu was most interested in. Decked out in a green jumpsuit with orange leg warmers, bandages wrapped around his hands, and red banded forehead protector worn as a belt, he was quite the sight. He also had a shiny black bowl cut hairstyle, the roundest eyes he'd ever seen, and very, very thick eyebrows.
Staring at them, Tonkotsu tilted his head to the side. "…what?"
"Who are you?" The unhappy body said, looking him over. Clearly he didn't realize he was talking to someone who was unperturbed by his stare; he could stare that stare down with the brightest of smiles and the aura of a monster ready to eat him up. Well, eventually he could. He still wasn't certain how to pull that off.
Pointing to himself, he stared him down. "I am Tonkotsu. And you," He pointed at Lee. "I heard you training and wanted to see what you were doing!"
"So, you decided to jump into the middle of our training session and interrupt us?" The girl asked, perplexed by the weirdo who'd interrupted them.
"Yes!" Tonkotsu snapped his head towards her with a gleam in his eyes that made her jump slightly in surprise. "I am not the sort of person who'd spy on you. After all, if I was caught, I'd simply not learn a thing as you would mistrust me and that would simply set me back on finding out anything!"
The pale eyed boy let his lips curl in a smirk – so he wasn't emotionless! – when he heard that. "So, you knew better than to spy on us. That's good."
"Of course." Tonkotsu said with a nod. "Spying is a good shinobi skill, but even that has its time and place."
"Um, right." The girl said, glancing towards the pale eyed boy. "And you realized that it'd be rather dumb with a Hyuuga around right?"
"What?" All of them stared at him as he shrugged. "What? I don't know what a Hyuuga is, or why I should care." Seeing the twitch that was developing on them, Tonkotsu smacked a fist into his palm. "Oh, that's right! You didn't tell me your names!"
That held them up from going off on him in some ways. Moving to lean against a tree, the pale eyed boy spoke first. "Hyuuga Neji."
"I'm Tenten."
"And I –" The bushy browed boy seemed to be bursting with enthusiasm as he spoke, throwing an arm forward in a 'thumbs up' pose. "Am Rock Lee, Konoha's self-proclaimed Beautiful Green Beast!"
"Beast?" Tonkotsu perked up, grinning at the enthusiastic boy. "Haha! I like that. My self-proclaimed title is the Fighting Monster!"
"Oh?!" Lee's eyes lit up at that, looking him over. "Are you also a taijutsu enthusiast?"
Tonkotsu crossed his arms and nodded sagely, his arms clearly not defined as most taijutsu specialists might be. "I am one in the making. I have just become a full-fledged genin, and have been looking for a training ground without anyone there. However, you were here instead, and I think that I'd much prefer the company of such an excited training companion, if you would be willing to have me!"
"No wait." Tenten said, suddenly looking worried. "You don't know what you're –"
"Let him." Neji said, rolling his eyes at Tonkotsu's enthusiasm. He'd learn soon enough.
"Yosh!" Lee shouted, rushing forwards and suddnely appearing besides Tonkotsu. "If my most youthful of friends desires, I would be most happy to assist you in achieving your dreams. And if I cannot help you achieve your goals of this training day, I will do five hundred push-ups! And if I cannot do that, I will run five laps around Konoha – on my hands! And if I cannot do that –"
"Oi, Bushy Brows." Tonkotsu jabbed Lee in the side, getting his attention. "You say that like you expect me to fail!"
Lee's eyes widened at that, the comment causing him to grip his head in dismay. "You're right! How dare I speak in such a way that might quiet the flames of my new friend's youth! Please, forgive me Tonkotsu-san!"
"Lee…" His eyes darkened, as though he had something angry to say. Instead, his eyes were filled with determination. "All I ask is that you help me to achieve my dreams. And, in return I will help you with yours!"
"Of course Tonkotsu-san!" Lee said, clenching his hand into a fist resolutely. "Come, there is much work to be done!"
"Yes, Bushy Brow-senpai!"
Lee froze at that before turning to the logs, not doing a very good job of hiding the fact that he was very flustered by suddenly being called someone's senpai. "A-alright! Let's begin with five hundred kick with each leg! And then, five hundred punches!"
"Yes, Bushy Brow-senpai!"
The other two looked at each other and decided to let the two of them do their own thing. Neither one of them were going to deal with the insane training regime of their teammate/teacher right now, and so they decided to do their own thing for the time being. The training ground filled once more with the sound of training, and all was right with the world.
-x-
*Miso*
Of the group of Naruto's clones, Miso had the least interest in training or finding anything to do. She just wanted to go out and enjoy things, to look at the village again and see if what she thought she knew was right. There was a lot of trouble being the clone of Naruto – a boy, and being a girl.
For example, she found that while she felt she knew how to carry herself, the more she walked through the village the more she could see that she didn't quite match how everyone else moved. She knew how to pose in such a way that would attract attention, but not so much how to 'blend in'. It didn't hurt her much, seeing how she wasn't really doing anything suggestive or forward to try to get attention; however, as she watched people move, she couldn't help but feel that she was missing certain elements of how to move that others knew.
So, after walking around for a bit, she'd jumped up to a slightly higher vantage and just watched people walk by. Yes, it was clearly obvious, and yes it was highly likely that people thought she was crazy or weird for doing so, but she didn't mind. Seeing how everyone moved around was good practice for her, especially when kunochi walked by.
How they moved turned out to depend a lot on who she saw. Some, like the purple haired woman she'd seen walking by, walked with a lazy abandon, even with the fitted mesh body suit showing off every curve she had. Though admittedly with the trench coat, that would make seeing her body a bit more difficult. The black haired Jonin with the red dress seemed more casual with how she moved; less imposing or trying to stand out, yet still having enough coordination to make her seem to move gracefully through the crowd. Or the Inuzuka – she could only assume based on the red marks on her cheeks similar to Kiba's – who walked lightly, but briskly, as though constantly ready to shift her weight to her toes and run. There were also others too, but then watching her old classmate Ino walk was…well boring. She just didn't have any kind of spring in her step to make her catch the eye.
Although, she likely did know more about being a kunochi than Miso did.
Keeping that in mind, she idly weighed her options. On one hand, Naruto was a known prankster, and as such her form likely was one that was known to the girl and her team. Scratch that – they definitely had seen Naruto use the technique; he'd been too proud to keep it hidden and had shown it to Iruka-sensei on several occasions. But that didn't mean they'd just turn her away right? They'd just think that she was Naruto running from some prank and was using his 'perverted jutsu' (seriously, with the variety of jutsu out there, how was it he seemed to have the only perverted jutsu?) to escape any pursuers. Then again, Inio might attempt to hit her if she tried just jumping down to say 'hello'. How troublesome.
Down below, Shikamaru sneeze and glanced around, muttering under his breath.
Figuring that she had better chances elsewhere, Miso stood up to go. As she did however, she lost her footing and fell head over heels onto the ground with a painful smack. Needing a moment to take that in, she winced and groaned as she realized how hard she'd hit the ground. Weird, her body didn't seem to have taken much damage at all.
"Huh? Naruto?"
Miso glanced up, blinking as she noticed the large shadow looming over her. "Oh, Choji-san."
"Are…you okay?" Choji asked, looking rather concerned. It had been a rather substantial fall after all. Cautiously, he reached down to help her up.
To Miso's minor ire, Naruto hadn't seen much of Choji, which Miso thought was a shame seeing how nice Choji was. Nodding slowly, she took his hand and let him help her up. This proved to be not so great when she got lightheaded and needed to take a few deep breaths as she righted herself. Realizing she'd leaned on Choji accidentally, she sheepishly smiled and pushed herself upright off of him. "Thanks."
"Uh, no problem." Choji muttered, blinking and looking at her again. "Uh, why are you using a henge?"
"Hm?" Miso grimaced, looking down at herself. "Is it that obvious?"
"What? Uh, no it's not." Choji said, scratching his cheek awkwardly. "It's just, I can kinda tell that it's you since you look like your oikore jutsu."
Miso perked up at that, smiling happily at that. "So, you're saying it looks good?" When he gave her a nod, she punched the air enthusiastically. "Awesome!"
"Naruto! What are you doing?"
Ino stormed over, already deducing who it was as well and was clearly not happy with what she saw. How dare Naruto try to be a shinobi and then walk around disguised as a girl. One might take a moment to considered how silly that might sound considering how deception was one of the shinobi skills, but considering the look of promised pain in her eyes they'd be more concerned with running in the opposite direction.
"Oh, hello Ino-chan." Miso said, waving cheerily. She was not an idiot, but she also figured that running would mean she'd be chased, and that would absolutely ruin her day.
Ino paused in storming up to Miso, perplexed by the lack of reaction. Placing her hands on her hips, Ino looked her over skeptically. "Well, at least you decided to wear clothes on it this time. Still, what in the world are you doing?"
"I'm watching people." Miso admitted, glancing down to her clothes. There wasn't anything wrong with them in her eyes; if anything, she thought she'd done well forming the image of clothes that helped accentuate her figure without being a skintight body suit. "I needed to change how I walked to get it smoother. It's more a little thing, but I wanted to see what I was doing wrong."
"Well, let's start with the fact that you're a boy, not a girl." Ino said, lifting her hand to tick off reasons. "You've never had to walk like a girl does. And no one would ever take you seriously if you're still wearing orange."
"Hey," Miso scowled at that, looking down at her skirt. "What's wrong with it? I happen to like it, and I feel it looks good on me."
"Hm, maybe." Ino looked her over, completely unabashedly seeing how she seemed to presume that it was Naruto. "But not in that shade. You don't even look like you're trying to be fashionable."
"I was just picking what would be effective and efficient." Miso said, shrugging. Looking Ino over, Miso smirked. "What does your fashion statement say? That 'bandages' are in? I doubt your stomach was injured in some way unless your test went worse than ours."
Ino flushed a bit at that, glaring at Miso. "It went perfectly fine, thank you very much! And –" Ino's eyes widened slightly before she grinned again. "So, you know about the test? How did it go?"
Miso linked her hands behind her head, grinning impishly as she decided to fill Ino in. "Eh, I was bored, Sakura passed out from a genjutsu, Sasuke touched a bell, and Naruto got one of them."
The first parts were about what Ino had expected, and after she mentioned Sasuke Ino opened her mouth to say something – probably something about how she knew he'd pass. However, it quickly snapped shut at the last bit, which got Shikamaru and Choji to silently take a step back. "Wait…what? No, no that can't be right."
"You can just ask Sasuke or Sakura. Naruto totally got a bell." Miso frowned at that, remembering how it had actually gone down. "Actually Tonkotsu got ahold of it first, but Naruto was the one who had it in the end."
All three of the other genin looked at each other in confusion, clearly not understanding a word of what she was saying. Miso's smirk deepened, looking between their expressions. Oh yes, this was perfect.
"What, does not understanding confuse you? Kinda sucks when you assume things doesn't it?" Miso asked, rolling her eyes when Ino scowled at her. "And to make it clear, I'm…'related' to Naruto, but I'm not Naruto. I'm Miso."
"…no, you're definitely Naruto." Ino pointed at Miso in an accusatory manner. "Only he would try to name himself after ramen."
"…you're not wrong about that there…" Miso blushed in embarrassment, looking away with a soft huff. "He did name us after all."
"Troublesome." Shikamaru said, rubbing the back of his neck. This entire conversation as giving him a headache. "Look, why don't you try giving us a full explanation somewhere else? We're holding up traffic and we'd like to grab something to eat."
Both Ino and Miso looked around at that, noting that they were clearly not blocking anyone since Miso had fallen to the side of the building out of the way. When they turned back to Shikamaru though, he'd already grabbed Choji and was helping guide him away from the two crazy women. Glancing to each other, they both sighed and followed after the boys.
-x-
Naruto and SHOYU
Naruto silently debated on whether he should leave Shoyu behind, but again was pushing that out of his mind. Kakashi's 'those who betray their friends are worse than trash' talk had gotten in his head, and he wasn't going to just abandon that. Especially seeing how it hadn't even been half a day since he'd told them that!
That being said, it wasn't that Shoyu was terrible so much that he was impossible to pin down and then was incredibly inconvenient for Naruto. On many, many occasions as they were jumping along with Naruto, he'd slipped on a branch and fallen towards the forest floor. Thankfully, after the first few times, Naruto had a clone on standby to help him accelerate faster than Shoyu fell to catch him. The first few times he caught Shoyu just inches above the ground, but as they progressed Naruto began catching him seconds after he first slipped.
Idly Naruto wondered if that was what some protection missions would be like. Would they end up trying to keep some of the most clumsy, uncoordinated people safe from dangerous enemy shinobi? or would they be too busy attempting to save their clients from themselves? If it was more so of the second, Naruto was concerned for his mental wellbeing.
"Are we getting more waffles?" Shoyu asked. For the fifth time…since he last fell.
"No, we need to find where everyone when first." Naruto muttered, looking around with a soft groan. "Aw man, I let everyone run off and then they immediately run off! Why am I so stupid?"
"Is it me?"
Naruto groaned, patting Shoyu's head. "No, it's not you. You stayed with me, so you're okay."
"Okay." Shoyu said, looking distant as Naruto pat his head. Leaning forwards, he tilted his head curiously. "Are you our kaa-san (mother)?"
"…what?!" Naruto stared at Shoyu, an aghast look on his face. "Why would you ask that?"
"We came from you? So, you're kaa-san." Shoyu said, slowly looking more resolute about that.
"I…" Naruto had no words for that. Technically he wasn't wrong about that seeing how he was in a clone's body, and that meant he was made out of Naruto's chakra. Right? Which meant that all of the clones were in some way connected to him like a parent to their child – just like Shoyu said. That's how it worked wasn't it?
"Hey, kaa-chan!"
"Oh don't you start with that!"
"I see green people."
Naruto stared at him for a moment, eyes slowly forming into a squint. "What? What does that even mean?"
"There they go. Bye green people!"
"…okay, clearly I need to keep you focused. Come on Shoyu, let's –"
"YOOOOOOOOTH!"
Below them, a pair of green clad people raced off, one looking substantially more winded than the other. Were they closer, Naruto would've been able to notice that the slower person had a very clear blond haircut. As it was, they were far away when Naruto noticed them, though thankfully for him they were just barely visible enough for him to realize that they were 'green people' like Shoyu said.
Blinking, Naruto slowly rubbed Shoyu's head again. "Good boy."
"Thank you kaa-san."
Hopping after the two, Naruto soon found that the 'green people' were much faster than he and Shoyu were and within a few minutes they'd lost them. Growling, Naruto tried to think of how to catch up to them to see if he'd seen them right. To the side, Shoyu was wavering from side to side before suddenly slipping and beginning to fall. Not even looking, Naruto gripped him by the front of his jumpsuit and pulled him upright.
…he'd fallen a lot of times by now.
"Maybe if I cut into the city, I could figure out where they're going and…" Naruto shook his head. "No, that wouldn't work unless they were going in a circle." Gripping his head, he jostled his hair roughly. "Ah! This is so annoying!"
"Maybe if we ask the girl people, they'll be able to help us?"
"Not now Shoyu, I'm trying to think."
"Yes kaa-san."
"Don't call me kaa-san."
"Okay kaa-san."
Naruto tried not to let his frustration grow toward Shoyu. He wasn't at fault for this, and if anything he was just trying to help. Glancing to Shoyu, he pat the 'trapped' boy on the back. "Come on, let's try looking in the city. Maybe they went there."
Shoyu shrugged, allowing himself to be guided along once more. Naruto idly noted that he seemed to be stumbling less the more they ran. Still, he had to stop to drop down and catch him quite a few more times before they got back to the city.
Once they did, Naruto and Shoyu took to the rooftops. While the higher view gave them an advantage, the more slippery tile didn't seem to do much for poor Shoyu. Naruto eventually had enough of that and had a clone basically 'hold his hand' – even though both his hands were tied away in his jumpsuit.
Looking around the city, Naruto slowly came to a realization; he had no idea where his clones would go. Er, his 'mind friend's' would go. Yes? What did he even call them?
Smacking his cheeks, he tried to refocus. They'd given him tidbits to follow, and he'd have to work off of that and that alone if he had to. Except…
"They didn't tell me anything useful about what they like did they?" Naruto asked, glancing at Shoyu.
"Uh…" Shoyu shrugged, the motion causing him to slip backwards onto the clone who helped prop him back up. "What about the book of learning? There are onions that like those."
"The book of…" Naruto stared at him. Was there any kind of sense Shoyu was trying to make? Unless… "You mean Negi? And…the book of learning? What's that?"
Shoyu shrugged. "I'unno."
Naruto facepalmed, dragging his hand down his face. "Okay, that still doesn't make any kind of sense to me. What sort of place has book of – wait, the Academy?"
Brightening, he nodded to himself. "Yeah, the Academy! It's probably not open now, but I've broken in there so many times to prepare pranks he probably knows all the good places to get in from!" Patting Shoyu on the head again, he grinned. "You know, I don't care what the others said, you're really helpful!"
Jumping to the next roof, Naruto began swiftly making his way towards the Academy. His clone paused, gently motioning for Shoyu to follow. As he watched, Shoyu's eyes seemed distant, almost as though he were feeling nauseous about something. Slowly though, he seemed to come back to himself and he hopped along after Naruto…only to have the hop be far too short and he almost flew face first into a wall.
With a sigh, the clone pulled Shoyu up and helped him continue on their way. It was going to be a long, long night.
1. Think somewhat like Negi's hair from Maho Sensei Negima
2. Think Greed's first outfit from Full Metal Alchemist.
AN: *cackles* Yes, yes they are all named after RAMEN! I thought it was fitting seeing how the anime bad Naruto (Road to Ninja) was known as Memna. That does not mean that my Memna he will act like Road to Ninja Memna; though there might be a few things that are similar.
I also have helped show who is whom among the clones during the transitions; so now when they're in his head you'll be able to know who's talking! Hurrah for some kind of continuity!
Possible pairing
Naruto/Hina/Haku/Karin 3
Naru/Haku 6
Naru/Hina 6
Naru/Tenten 1
No pairing 1 (That vote was a surprise)
Live or Die?
Zabuza live/die: 5/3
Haku live/die: 8/1
Haku's Gender
Haku boy/girl/undetermined: 0/6/1
Harem
Yes/No: 2/4
So far, it looks like Haku is almost certainly a girl who lives, while Zabuza's still iffy. I'll keep the poll for a bit longer, possibly till Wave, but we'll see if I decide to change that or not.
Also, Superwin actually did bring up another good point on the fact that Naruto's clones could possibly date people too. Whether romantic or not, or something else, it's something I'm currently weighting my options on. I have them currently with the people they are as both slight highlights of their personality and to show who they'll likely spend the most time with. They can swap between them, obviously, but their primary groups are there.
