AN: Arg…. I'm dissatisfied with my style of writing but I really do want to finish this… even though I have absolutely no idea where I'm going with this right now…. I might be a little slow, especially now that I find it really hard to find time to type. So I'm sorry in advance for any delay in updates or any decline in the quality of my work that may appear.
I don't own Naruto, yada yada
Oh yeah… a line of "" is a scene change.
The Glass
Chapter 5
And since
you know you cannot see yourself,
so well as by reflection, I,
your glass,
will modestly discover to yourself,
that of
yourself which you yet know not of.
William Shakespeare
Naruto was woken up courtesy of an ice cold bucket of water. He jerked awake and glared at his counterpart. "Damnit, Fuwa! What the hell was that for!"
Fuwa grinned. "You wouldn't wake up. I had to take drastic measures… Plus, it was fun."
"Bastard…" Naruto got out of bed and searched for some dry clothing. "Why are you waking my up, anyway? Ero-sennin said we would start training tomorrow."
Fuwa crossed his arms across his chest and watched Naruto's search. "We have some research to do… Don't you ever clean? This place is a mess. You can't even find clean clothes."
"Shut up… I don't care about that. And what's this about research?" Naruto paused, looking at Fuwa.
"Aren't you curious about how you can be split into two different people? It should be impossible." Fuwa raised an eyebrow and looked at Naruto expectantly.
Naruto gave a triumphant laugh as he found some pants. "How are we going to find out something like that?"
Fuwa, getting impatient, started to help Naruto in finding a shirt. "We go to the library. We'll try to find anything about Kyubi and any seals that are like the one that the Yondaime used and the one Orochimaru put on you." Fuwa grabbed a shirt off of the floor and sniffed it cautiously. Finding it clean, he tossed it at Naruto. "Here. First things first… we're cleaning this apartment." Seeing that Naruto was about to protest, he continued. "Whether you like it or not."
"Yes, mother." Naruto grumbled as he headed to the bathroom to get dressed.
"Stop complaining! We'll use clones and be out of here in no time."
"Oh, yeah! Clones! Never thought of that…"
"You wouldn't have…"
"Hey!"
Naruto slammed the book down on the table, ignoring the glares of the other library patrons. "Damnit!"
Fuwa glanced up from his reading. "Calm down and shut up. What's wrong?"
Naruto looked confused. "You can usually tell what I'm thinking. Why not now?"
"I wasn't trying. I can only look into your head when I want to look. That's why you haven't gone into mine: You haven't tried. This situation does work both ways, you know." Fuwa explained before returning to his book.
"Oh! I never thought of that!" Naruto exclaimed, again receiving glares.
Why don't we just talk like this? We might be thrown out if you make anymore outbursts. Fuwa glanced up to see Naruto nod. Anyway… why are you pissed?
I can't find anything in these shitty books! Naruto pushed the book away from him roughly. They all say the same thing: Thirteen years ago, Kyubi attacked Konoha, killed a lot of people and then was killed by the Yondaime. There's nothing about the fight or anything about the seal.
Fuwa sighed and leaned back in his chair. I'm not having much luck here, either. Maybe if we look at some older books, there'll be something.
How will older books help?
Ever notice that history lessons just skim over the facts? Maybe we'll find a book from just after the attack that will give more information.
Uh… yeah… okay. Naruto agreed without really understanding.
Fuwa gave Naruto an exasperated look but only shook his head as he stood up. "Come on. Let's just find some older books."
Fucking hell! This has got to be censorship! Fuwa was pissed off. Very pissed off. He hurled a book at the wall but Naruto caught it before it hit.
Now who needs to calm down? Naruto put the book back in its spot on the shelf then grinned at Fuwa. You're lucky this area is deserted or you would have gotten in big trouble for that….
"We've looked through every book we could get our hands on but we can't find any information!" Fuwa growled, clenching and unclenching his fists, trying to calm down. "Doesn't that piss you off? Why are you smiling?"
Naruto's grin widened. "Because seeing you freak out is funny. We usually act so different, it's funny to see you reacting like I would."
"Naruto?" Both Naruto and Fuwa froze as they heard a familiar voice. They slowly turned to see Sakura walking towards them with a book in her hand. "I thought I heard your voice."
Naruto grinned, looking slightly nervous. "Umm… hi, Sakura-chan."
Sakura was about to respond when her attention was drawn to Fuwa, who had moved to make sure that his face was covered. "Oh! You're that boy from yesterday, aren't you?"
Naruto gave her an incredulous look. "How can you tell? He's all covered up and isn't even wearing the same clothes."
Sakura looked smug. "Well, yesterday I noticed that you two had the same eye color. That shade of blue is kind of rare, so I just assumed it was him."
She's observant. Fuwa commented, cautiously.
I think it goes with being smart. She's good a both. Naruto started. "Oh! I didn't introduce you, did I? Sakura-chan, this is Fuwa. Fuwa, this is Sakura-chan. So… what are you doing here?"
Sakura blinked at the sudden change of topic. "Well… I ran out of books at home, so I came to get some more."
"A scholar?" Fuwa asked in a low tone, helping to disguise his voice.
"Not really." Sakura shrugged. "I like learning, so it's more of a pastime."
Her form of fun is… learning? Naruto questioned dryly.
Are you sure you like her? She doesn't sound like fun to me? Fuwa gave a quick glance at Naruto.
"Sakura-chan, do you know anything about seals?" Naruto asked.
Sakura got suspicious. "No… why? Are you planning something?"
Naruto held up his hands defensively. "No! No! Nothing planned! I just saw one somewhere and I wanted to know what it does." Naruto turned to Fuwa and started whining. "Let's give up! We can't find anything and I'm really hungry. I want to go to Ichiraku."
"Fine. We can probably get some training in before sundown, too." Fuwa agreed.
"Yeah!" Naruto cheered, then he dragged Fuwa out of the library. "Bye, Sakura-chan!"
"Tarim!" Naruto greeted as he and Fuwa reported for training. "Where is Ero-sennin?"
Tarim rolled her eyes. "Who know? Damn pervert. Probably peeking at women." Tarim suggested with a slight grin.
"Why are you so happy, wench?" Fuwa kept his distance just in case whatever she had planned was for him.
"Nothing…" Tarim shrugged. "Just a little… security for the women's bath.
Naruto and Fuwa shared a look but didn't say anything. Fifteen minutes later, Jiraiya walked dejectedly up to his new students with tears streaming down his face.
"What's wrong, Jiraiya-sensei?" Tarim asked, kindly.
"Someone posted pictures of wrinkly, naked old men over every good peep hole into the woman's bath."
Tarim had to beat down a grin but eventually managed to make a straight face. "Hn… serves you right, pervert."
"Oi! Ero-sennin! What are you gonna teach us?" Naruto started to bounce around Jiraiya.
"Nothing." Jiraiya said, holding Naruto in one place with a hand on his head.
"What! What about our deal!" Fuwa protested while Tarim grinned at the prospect of being able to maim Jiraiya.
"Do I get to kill him?" Tarim's eyes glinted evilly.
Jiraiya backed away from Tarim with a nervous laugh. "Ehehehe… nothing TODAY! I need to see what you've got, so you will be sparring." Jiraiya gestured at the clearing. "You're to stay within the clearing. You can team up if you want, but I'm not assessing that, since you really aren't a team." Jiraiya settled on the branch of a tree. "Start!"
Should we team up against the wench? Fuwa asked as the three looked at each other, waiting for someone to make the first move.
Fine… I don't really wanna fight myself anyway. Naruto activated his Kage Bunshin and made four clones, which charged at Tarim with their kunai drawn.
Tarim smirked and unsheathed the sword strapped to her waist. She made a swift side slash that killed one of the clones and caused the other three and Naruto to break formation.
One clone got behind her, while the other two charged from the sides and Naruto came from the front.
Tarim waited until they were close to her before she quickly jumped up and over Naruto's head. Without any time to react, two of the clones hit each other and disappeared.
"You're fast." Fuwa commented as he attacked Tarim while she was still airborne. A kick to her stomach sent her flying into a tree at the edge of the clearing.
"Shit…" Tarim slowly stood up, clutching her stomach. "That hurt."
Naruto started to go through the hand seals for a jutsu but Tarim started to charge at him. Naruto stopped the jutsu and pushed Tarim's hand up as she came close to slashing him. He swung his foot up to kick her but she twisted out of range.
"Earth Jutsu: Capture." Fuwa yelled as the earth under Tarim came up and wrapped around her ankle.
Fuwa? What was that jutsu? Naruto thought to Fuwa while pulling Tarim's arm behind her back.
Tarim kicked back at Naruto with her free leg, which caught Naruto in the knee. With Naruto off balance, Tarim pitched forward and flung Naruto to the ground in front of her. She grunted as her shoulder dislocated.
Just something I thought of… you alright? Fuwa came forward to help Naruto up.
Yeah. Naruto allowed himself to be pulled to his feet.
Tarim put an explosive tag on the ground around her ankle. She ground her teeth as the tag went off. "Shit. It's not nice to beat down on a lady. I think I'm losing." Tarim grinned at the boys.
Naruto gave her a concerned look as she inspected her dislocated shoulder. "Are you okay?"
Tarim jerked her shoulder into place. "Fuck… that hurt… yeah, sure, Naruto. I'm all good. Want to go again?"
"Are you sure you can take it?" Fuwa asked as he readied himself for another fight.
Jiraiya returned to the clearing. "That's enough. Good work. But, Tarim, you should have forfeited before you got hurt. Why don't you go to the hospital and get your ankle and shoulder checked out."
"Hn… I could have won if we had continued." Tarim tested her ankle by slowly twisting it.
Jiraiya sighed. "Sure. Now get out of here. I have to get some research done." Jiraiya disappeared before anyone could say anything.
Tarim growled. "Half-assed bastard! He didn't teach us anything!"
Naruto blinked in surprise. " But he stopped us because you were hurt. Why are you angry?"
Fuwa shook his head. "Don't you remember, Naruto? Tarim told us that she knew medical jutsu. Stopping because she's a little hurt is –"
Tarim cut him off. "A lame ass excuse. The bastard is just upset that he didn't get to peep today!" Tarim grinned. "I say we drag him back here and force him to teach us something."
Half an hour later, the trio managed to drag Jiraiya back to the clearing. Fuwa looked over Jiraiya's injuries and laughed. "Those women didn't look all that strong… You're not much of a ninja, are you?"
Tarim shook her head. "Never underestimate the power of an angry-woman stampede!"
Naruto started poking Jiraiya in the head. "Hey! I think he's unconscious. Is this guy really worth it?"
Fuwa shrugged. "He should be if we can get him to teach us." He pulled out a water bottle and poured the contents on Jiraiya's head. "Wake up, already."
Jiraiya shot up into sitting position. "Huh? What happened?"
"You ran off before you finished teaching us." Naruto accused, crossing his arms and glaring at Jiraiya.
"What the fuck? You brats were done for the day. Why are you bugging me now?" Jiraiya complained.
Tarim rolled her eyes. "Aren't you supposed to… oh, I don't know… teach? You know: tell us what we did wrong, what you're going to teach next, that kind of stuff."
"If I do that, will you shut up and go home?" Jiraiya asked, hopefully, eager to get back to peeping.
The three gennin nodded silently.
Jiraiya took a deep breath before starting. "Alright. Now, Naruto, you use the same crap over and over again. You need to learn something new. Also, your reaction time when Tarim dodged was slow. You need to work on your speed. Fuwa, you barely fought. And even when you did, it was defensive or a distraction for Naruto." Jiraiya rolled his eyes. "You have to fight to be a ninja."
Jiraiya sighed and shook his head while turning to Tarim. "What didn't you do wrong? You left yourself open to Fuwa when you were fighting Naruto. Actually, you have no defense at all. You got seriously hurt within five minutes."
Tarim cut him off. "I'm fine. I don't worry about defense because I can heal myself when I get hurt."
"That doesn't work. Healing takes time and chakra that you may not have in an actual battle. Also, is taijutsu the only thing you know? You didn't display any ninjutsu or genjutsu."
Tarim pouted a little. "What? I like taijutsu. I'm not good at ninjutsu and I can't seem to learn any genjutsu."
"You'll work on the ninjutsu tomorrow. Now get lost, all of you." This time, Jiraiya waited for his students to leave before leering and taking off for the bathhouse.
To be continued…
AN: Yay… this is my longest chapter yet… actually… it was going to be two chapters, but I noticed how short it was going to be and kept writing. Man… I really cut into Tarim for her fighting… I really didn't mean to make her that bad… I just wrote the battle then went back over it and picked it apart. Anyway… Jiraiya is a bit off from how he is in the manga. This is intentional… I doubt he would be happy about how he was forced into teaching and I also think he would act differently when he has a team instead of just one student.
The next chapter is going to have a bit of a time skip. I really don't want to drone through an entire month of training.
