"Kage Bushin no Jutsu!"
Five days. It had been five days since anyone had seen either Uzumaki or Uchiha. The only signs that they were still alive, or at least pretending to be holed up in the Uchiha manor as they were, were the unusual cries of words that meant little to most of the younger ninja of the village. Some of the chuunins, most of the jounins, and most definitely the Hokage knew what they meant though when Naruto's voice rang through the air. They were the ones who then also understood why it sounded as if there were thousands of Sasukes saying 'baka.' It worried them, of course, that two boys, not even genins, could produce so many copies of themselves after such a short time span, but when one looked at the boys' ancestry, muddled as it was, the surprise lessened into amazement. Of course, none of them could say they were happy about the scroll being in those two's possession, but there was nothing to be done about it. The Uchiha manor was like the most fortified military base – even the Hokage would be hard-pressed to break in. The scroll wasn't going to kill them, probably, so the boys would be left alone. It would take them a while to reach the most dangerous seals. Hopefully they wouldn't be able to perform those jutsus. Only the Hokage knew just how much danger those could be, as only he knew just what was inside that scroll, but when asked he simply shook his head and replied that they would only go as far as their limits. That was the end of that.
Inside the manor, as could be expected, two boys were lying on the floor, nearly unconscious. The blonde haired boy grinned, turning his head to face the other.
"Told ya I could do it."
Sasuke grunted and rolled over to his stomach. After a few minutes he pushed himself to first his knees, then his feet and stood there shakily. Even with his balance so unsteady, he still offered a hand to Naruto, who was still lying on the floor panting. The boy slapped the hand away. By himself, Naruto rolled over and grabbed the scroll. It had taken them five days to learn the stupid jutsu. That was already more time than Naruto had ever spent on one thing in his entire life. Before, he'd always scraped by because he was the Hokage's son, adopted or not. It felt good to finally do something on his own. Slowly he pulled the scroll open and peered at the next jutsu. He barely managed a glimpse at it before a foot slammed down on his hand. The assault didn't particularly hurt, since the owner of said foot was exhausted, but it did stop him from reading on.
"Sasuke!" whined Naruto, but the foot didn't move.
"You still haven't even learned how to do it without the words. How are you going to fight if you're always telling the opponent what your next move will be?"
Naruto sighed and struggled to his feet. He glared quickly at Sasuke and blinked. Suddenly five more Narutos appeared behind him. Sasuke stared. How could he still do anything at all? Five of them too. . . . "That's," he started, amazed. The clones disappeared as Naruto lost consciousness. "Really stupid," finished Sasuke, aggravated. After a quick struggle with his own body however, he too collapsed onto the hard wooden floor, unable to continue standing after five days of almost continuous charka use. In his sleep, he curled against the scroll, hiding it from any who might take it away.
***
"Sasuke! Open the gates! Sasuke! Naruto!"
Sasuke cracked one eye open. Who the hell was calling him at such an ungodly hour?
"Sasuke! Naruto! Get your asses out here now!"
Iaka. Only Iaka-sensei would speak that way to them. There was a poof of smoke and Naruto appeared in front of him with Sasuke's double. The two clones shuffled tiredly toward the door while the originals crawled stealthily away. Really. Would it really have hurt her that much to give them another two days to recover from the charka use? Or a week. A week definitely would be appreciated.
Outside, Iaka blinked as Naruto and Sasuke stumbled closer. There was something suspicious about them, though she couldn't pinpoint it exactly. Her eyes narrowed. Could someone have attacked them while they were spending the week alone? "Naruto, are you all right?" Her only answer was a half-hearted nod and a yawn. She scowled. Jeez. They could have a bit more consideration for her. She was holding off announcing the teams just for them.
"Sasuke?" The boy didn't even bother to glare before pressing for the gates to open. He didn't ask for a password. Without another thought, Iaka threw kunai at the pair, blinking when they exploded in a cloud of smoke. Shadow clones? 'So the rumors were true,' she thought happily. If those two had really spent the week learning that sort of jutsu, they'd be dead tired now. It certainly looked that way at least, by the state of their clones. Grinning, she slipped towards the imposing house.
"Hello Sasuke! Rise and shine!" Iaka poked the clone with a stick once before lopping off its head merrily. "Come on boys! I've gotta give you your exam now!" Not that they hadn't already passed it by producing so many shadow clones, but it'd be fun to make them think they're work was for nothing for the few minutes before she handed out their hitai-ate – their forehead protectors that symbolized their rank as true shinobi of the Hidden Leaf village of Konoha. At this rate though, they wouldn't be able to make any more clones for an exam. Each pair she ran into was even more poorly made than the last.
Finally, upon stumbling around a pair that didn't even remotely resemble Naruto and Sasuke, she left. She'd just have to give them their forehead protectors some other time. One eye slid open on the yellow scribble passing for Naruto.
"Is she gone?" asked the black scribble. The yellow one nodded as best it could without a head. In a puff of smoke, each turned into their respective counterparts – the yellow scribble into Naruto, the black into Sasuke.
"Man! That was close – I thought she'd try decapitating us too!" exclaimed Naruto. Sasuke rolled his eyes, hoping Iaka-sensei was far enough away to miss the sudden racket. It seemed too suspicious that she would stop at that time.
"Let's get to work on the next one," he muttered, pulling the scroll away from Naruto. He frowned. It felt different. Ripping it open, he stared in horror at the seal taking up the entire page. "Naruto! Run! It's a summoning –"
"- Thank you Sasuke!" chirped Iaka. The boys groaned and turned to face her. "I've gotta say, you did a good job hiding from me. But!" –and here she pointed at Naruto- "The scribbles looked way too much like your first attempt at Bushin no Jutsu. So I knew it had to be you. By the way, here are your forehead protectors. Congratulations."
Naruto stared at the cloth and metal headpiece in her hands in elation, and then glanced at Sasuke. The youngest Uchiha was biting his lip and glancing right back at him. He shook his head. Naruto's eyes widened – Sasuke didn't want it? Naruto did though. He'd spent his entire life with that as his goal in life. He wanted to become a strong ninja recognized as Naruto, not as the Hokage's possibly adopted son.
"No thanks."
Sasuke and Iaka's stared at Naruto, their eyes wide in shock. "Why," started Iaka. Naruto shook his head, smiling ruefully. He turned and slipped into the hallway, leaving Sasuke to choose what he would do. If Sasuke took the forehead protector, they knew Naruto would reconsider and take one as well. If Sasuke chose not to. . . .
Author's Note: So is this any good so far? As a lot of people have pointed out to me, I know that I could make the characters as far out of character as I want without hurting the story. Why? Because it's an absolutely different timeline. Sasuke has a friend, Naruto isn't hated, Sakura... Well, Sakura's still Sakura, but she hasn't grown up hating Naruto. However, I really don't want to change their basic personalities. That would be like writing a fic about a bunch of original characters with the names of the canons. I can't, won't, do that. So if you find me starting to go out of character, please tell me. Sometimes I might want a little shift, in which case I'll just try to make sure to explain said shift, but otherwise I'll be sure to fix it as best I can. Thank you.
Five days. It had been five days since anyone had seen either Uzumaki or Uchiha. The only signs that they were still alive, or at least pretending to be holed up in the Uchiha manor as they were, were the unusual cries of words that meant little to most of the younger ninja of the village. Some of the chuunins, most of the jounins, and most definitely the Hokage knew what they meant though when Naruto's voice rang through the air. They were the ones who then also understood why it sounded as if there were thousands of Sasukes saying 'baka.' It worried them, of course, that two boys, not even genins, could produce so many copies of themselves after such a short time span, but when one looked at the boys' ancestry, muddled as it was, the surprise lessened into amazement. Of course, none of them could say they were happy about the scroll being in those two's possession, but there was nothing to be done about it. The Uchiha manor was like the most fortified military base – even the Hokage would be hard-pressed to break in. The scroll wasn't going to kill them, probably, so the boys would be left alone. It would take them a while to reach the most dangerous seals. Hopefully they wouldn't be able to perform those jutsus. Only the Hokage knew just how much danger those could be, as only he knew just what was inside that scroll, but when asked he simply shook his head and replied that they would only go as far as their limits. That was the end of that.
Inside the manor, as could be expected, two boys were lying on the floor, nearly unconscious. The blonde haired boy grinned, turning his head to face the other.
"Told ya I could do it."
Sasuke grunted and rolled over to his stomach. After a few minutes he pushed himself to first his knees, then his feet and stood there shakily. Even with his balance so unsteady, he still offered a hand to Naruto, who was still lying on the floor panting. The boy slapped the hand away. By himself, Naruto rolled over and grabbed the scroll. It had taken them five days to learn the stupid jutsu. That was already more time than Naruto had ever spent on one thing in his entire life. Before, he'd always scraped by because he was the Hokage's son, adopted or not. It felt good to finally do something on his own. Slowly he pulled the scroll open and peered at the next jutsu. He barely managed a glimpse at it before a foot slammed down on his hand. The assault didn't particularly hurt, since the owner of said foot was exhausted, but it did stop him from reading on.
"Sasuke!" whined Naruto, but the foot didn't move.
"You still haven't even learned how to do it without the words. How are you going to fight if you're always telling the opponent what your next move will be?"
Naruto sighed and struggled to his feet. He glared quickly at Sasuke and blinked. Suddenly five more Narutos appeared behind him. Sasuke stared. How could he still do anything at all? Five of them too. . . . "That's," he started, amazed. The clones disappeared as Naruto lost consciousness. "Really stupid," finished Sasuke, aggravated. After a quick struggle with his own body however, he too collapsed onto the hard wooden floor, unable to continue standing after five days of almost continuous charka use. In his sleep, he curled against the scroll, hiding it from any who might take it away.
***
"Sasuke! Open the gates! Sasuke! Naruto!"
Sasuke cracked one eye open. Who the hell was calling him at such an ungodly hour?
"Sasuke! Naruto! Get your asses out here now!"
Iaka. Only Iaka-sensei would speak that way to them. There was a poof of smoke and Naruto appeared in front of him with Sasuke's double. The two clones shuffled tiredly toward the door while the originals crawled stealthily away. Really. Would it really have hurt her that much to give them another two days to recover from the charka use? Or a week. A week definitely would be appreciated.
Outside, Iaka blinked as Naruto and Sasuke stumbled closer. There was something suspicious about them, though she couldn't pinpoint it exactly. Her eyes narrowed. Could someone have attacked them while they were spending the week alone? "Naruto, are you all right?" Her only answer was a half-hearted nod and a yawn. She scowled. Jeez. They could have a bit more consideration for her. She was holding off announcing the teams just for them.
"Sasuke?" The boy didn't even bother to glare before pressing for the gates to open. He didn't ask for a password. Without another thought, Iaka threw kunai at the pair, blinking when they exploded in a cloud of smoke. Shadow clones? 'So the rumors were true,' she thought happily. If those two had really spent the week learning that sort of jutsu, they'd be dead tired now. It certainly looked that way at least, by the state of their clones. Grinning, she slipped towards the imposing house.
"Hello Sasuke! Rise and shine!" Iaka poked the clone with a stick once before lopping off its head merrily. "Come on boys! I've gotta give you your exam now!" Not that they hadn't already passed it by producing so many shadow clones, but it'd be fun to make them think they're work was for nothing for the few minutes before she handed out their hitai-ate – their forehead protectors that symbolized their rank as true shinobi of the Hidden Leaf village of Konoha. At this rate though, they wouldn't be able to make any more clones for an exam. Each pair she ran into was even more poorly made than the last.
Finally, upon stumbling around a pair that didn't even remotely resemble Naruto and Sasuke, she left. She'd just have to give them their forehead protectors some other time. One eye slid open on the yellow scribble passing for Naruto.
"Is she gone?" asked the black scribble. The yellow one nodded as best it could without a head. In a puff of smoke, each turned into their respective counterparts – the yellow scribble into Naruto, the black into Sasuke.
"Man! That was close – I thought she'd try decapitating us too!" exclaimed Naruto. Sasuke rolled his eyes, hoping Iaka-sensei was far enough away to miss the sudden racket. It seemed too suspicious that she would stop at that time.
"Let's get to work on the next one," he muttered, pulling the scroll away from Naruto. He frowned. It felt different. Ripping it open, he stared in horror at the seal taking up the entire page. "Naruto! Run! It's a summoning –"
"- Thank you Sasuke!" chirped Iaka. The boys groaned and turned to face her. "I've gotta say, you did a good job hiding from me. But!" –and here she pointed at Naruto- "The scribbles looked way too much like your first attempt at Bushin no Jutsu. So I knew it had to be you. By the way, here are your forehead protectors. Congratulations."
Naruto stared at the cloth and metal headpiece in her hands in elation, and then glanced at Sasuke. The youngest Uchiha was biting his lip and glancing right back at him. He shook his head. Naruto's eyes widened – Sasuke didn't want it? Naruto did though. He'd spent his entire life with that as his goal in life. He wanted to become a strong ninja recognized as Naruto, not as the Hokage's possibly adopted son.
"No thanks."
Sasuke and Iaka's stared at Naruto, their eyes wide in shock. "Why," started Iaka. Naruto shook his head, smiling ruefully. He turned and slipped into the hallway, leaving Sasuke to choose what he would do. If Sasuke took the forehead protector, they knew Naruto would reconsider and take one as well. If Sasuke chose not to. . . .
Author's Note: So is this any good so far? As a lot of people have pointed out to me, I know that I could make the characters as far out of character as I want without hurting the story. Why? Because it's an absolutely different timeline. Sasuke has a friend, Naruto isn't hated, Sakura... Well, Sakura's still Sakura, but she hasn't grown up hating Naruto. However, I really don't want to change their basic personalities. That would be like writing a fic about a bunch of original characters with the names of the canons. I can't, won't, do that. So if you find me starting to go out of character, please tell me. Sometimes I might want a little shift, in which case I'll just try to make sure to explain said shift, but otherwise I'll be sure to fix it as best I can. Thank you.