I am Uzumaki Naru!
Hidden Village of Konoha. A peaceful place. Even if a ninja village, it's more peaceful than most of the usual villages. It lies in the heart of the Fire Country, producing guardians and warriors that, above all else, should perform their missions and stick true to the shinobi rules. But it's a peaceful village nonetheless.
This morning it's particularly beautiful. The sky is sapphire blue, the sun is golden and bright, there is hardly any cloud in the sky and the trees with flowers in blossom fill the air with a most soothing scent. It's Spring, the birds are chirping...
"Ahh! What are you doing up there? Get down immediately!"
Maybe the village was not so peaceful that particular morning.
"Ahahaha! No way in hell! If I stand here, everybody will be able to see the great me!" yelled playfully a girl's voice.
A crowd filled with pre-teens watched as the girl made this little act of her.
"If you want me to go down, come get me, Udon-sensei!"
This isn't being easy for Udon. The chuunin academy teacher had taken his students to one final field trip to the Hokage Monument before the Genin Exams. This would be easy and it would be mostly to relax after the hardworking year that the last one was.
It was Udon's first year as academy teacher. The previous teacher, Umino Iruka, was known to be quite strict with the students, so they were kept in line. When the kids caught, inadvertedly, a teacher as passive as Udon, wreck was to be made. But the ex-chuunin, now jounin, had abandoned his so peaceful teacher life to (finally) become a jounin, something Iruka had wanted for years, but his love for his work always had prevailed. This time was different.
The teacher looked up to the monument. He was now tall, taller than average, and skinny, but he much like remained the same: he still wore his brown hair the way he always used to, still used the same kind of round glasses and still looked very much asleep while standing, with that extremely passive, lazy expression in his face. Of course, the nose drip was still there aswell.
What in fact had changed was the Hokage Monument. Now, in the imponent mountain that was the landmark of Konoha stood 5 faces craved in stone. The sixth one was still being made, the face was almost complete but the hair and everything else was still missing. The first ones were very similar, although the first looked to have long straight hair and the second spiky hair and a sort of helmet all around his face. They were next to each other, brothers. Shodaime and Nidaime. The third was the one that stood highest of the 5 already made. The sixth was to be standing even higher than the third face when completed. The third face had a mighty look. A big but strong looking nose with a big crack going diagonal from the forhead to the left cheek were the trademarks. Sandaime. The forth face was the lowest one. His face looked young, as the fifth and the sixth face-to-be. His hair seemed spiky and pointing everywhere and the face was reasuring. Yondaime. Finally, the fifth face was the only female face on the mountain. A very young woman with a pleasant and kind-looking smirk plastered on her mouth and a losang scraped on the forehead. Godaime.
A loud yell woke up Udon from his apparent letargy. "Oi, Udon-sensei! You're no fun! Are you going to be there just standing?"
Hearing this, Udon lifted his face a little and looked to the loud voice's owner.
A small pre-teen girl stood on the third face's hair. She wore an orange sleevless jump dress with a whirlpool symbol on the back, the skirt going to her midthighs, with a large blue stripe near its low collar. She had rusty goggles around her neck and wore blue sandal-boots. Her shiny blond shoulder lenght hair was straight, ending in what seemed like spike locks of hair. Her eyes were sapphire blue as the sky, very deep and released a wave of warmth and kindness to whoever dared to look directly at them. Finally, she had 6 whisker-like birthmarks, 3 on each cheek.
The girl leaned front, looked down to the crowd of kids (and the teacher) and grined widely, almost like a fox.
While Udon was pondering on what to do, one of the kids stood up from the crowd and yelled back at the girl.
"'Nee-chan, come down or I'm telling dad! We're not supposed to climb up there!"
The kid, the girl's younger brother, was in everything different from his sister. The boy was also a bit short for his age. He wore dark purple pants that reached his mid-leg, dark purple sandal-boots and a fishnet shirt under his light grey coat also with the whirlpool symbol on the back. His face was very similar to her sister, even with the same birthmarks, but his hair was pure black, short and spiky, pointing everywhere, and his bangs were covered by the same kind of goggles the girl wore at her neck. But the greatest difference between them was their eyes. The girl's eyes were blue, but the boy's were pure white, as if he could either be blind or see everything, this last one being the correct option.
The boy had a concerned look on his face. He called his sister again. "Come on, 'nee-chan! You can end up getting hurt!"
"Ahaha, what? I'm not like you, Hide-chan, I can take care of myself!" replied loudly the blonde and started jumping up and down atop the third face's hair. "See? Ahahaha"
The crowd gasped at the sight of it and even Udon seemed to be out of ideas. He could go up there and get her, but that could be too dangerous for him, right? Yeah, that's it...
"You shouldn't talk to your brother like that, Naru-chan." came a calm boyish voice from beside the girl.
The girl immediately stopped jumping and slowly turned her head to her left to face the man who had spoken. "'T-Tou-san..."
A young adult sat beside her, sitting comfortably on a rocky lock of the third face's hair. He wore a black and orange high-colared shirt. The left sleeve was orange while the right sleeve was black. He wore mid-leg length black shorts and black sandal boots. His hair was as gold as the girl and as spiky as the boy, but it was longer. His locks of hair were now bigger, pointed everywhere and he had a small spiky ponytail. His eyes were blue and kind, even deeper than the girl's, and the birth marks were also longer than the girl's, but very similar. Apart from that, he wore a big white cape with red flames at the bottom and the kanji for Fire on the back. Although already 33 year old, Uzumaki Naruto's, the Rokudaime Hokage, face looked as young and as joyful as ever.
"Hokage-sama..." were the words heard from the crowd downstairs, as they looked in awe at the man sitting on the top of the mountain. Naruto grined slightly.
The girl grined foxly to her father, puting her hand behind her head as in a guilty sign. She had been caught red-handed.
"Sorry 'tou-san, you know I didn't mean that. I meant to say that he can't be a crybaby forever." The girl explained.
"I know that" said Naruto, now standing up and looking down to her daughter. "But that's not what you said. He may be feeling kind of down. Let's go down there and you'll apologize, Ok?" Finished Naruto, with one of his trademarks foxy grins, which the girl replied with another one, as foxy as her father's.
Then, Naruto grabed her by the shoulder and leapt from the top of the mountain, landing swiftly and graciously on the ground, as if what he had done was the easiest thing in the world. The students crowd awed even more, if that was possible.
The Hokage let her daughter go and grined to Udon, who looked passively to Naruto. This dude still freaks me out. Thought Naruto, sweatdropping, as he looked to Udon. The teacher finally let a smal smile go.
The girl, realeased from her father grip and walked to the crowd, that was still pretty much speechless, then turned to her younger brother and, looking at her feet and blushing a little, apologized. "Sorry, Hide-chan, you know I didn't mean that. It's just..." "It's ok" the girl was cut by the boy's soft voice. "I'm not sad. Just upset that my big sister doesn't acknowledge me that much." Said the boy with a sad foxy grin, to what the girl immediately answered "That's not true! I acknowledge you Hide-chan... Sorry, it was just a spur of the moment. I'll make it up to you, I swear!" Begged the girl. But the boy kept smiling to her, now a true happy smile. "I said it's Ok. You don't need to apologize anymore, Naru-chan."
The girl let out a relief sigh and looked smiling to her little brother. The crowd also seemed to awake from the awe state and looked more relieved, now that Naru was finally down with them. They also smiled at the scene.
"You're really a show-off, aren't you?" Spoke a harsh female voice. A girl with long pink hair, the bangs falling over her eyes from each side of the forehead, sharp emerald green eyes, wearing a sleevless black jump dress, with a fan symbol on the back and on the front skirt, with red sidelines and pink shorts that reached her midthighs stood up from the crowd and looked amused to Naru. "Iie" she shook her head "I think the best word to really describe you is 'idiot'" She smirked.
Her smile grew wider as she watched Naru getting more and more red, almost blowing up because of her rage. Then she laughed uncontrolably "I'm just kidding!" said the pink haird girl while grabbing her belly trying to stop her laughter. "I mean, it's really fun to see you pissed off like that, Naru-chan!" She said, now a pleasant smile on her face, her green eyes once sharp and cold, were now wide and warm.
"Grrr, you didn't need to do that, Sakuya-chan! You know I hate it." Said Naru while fuming, still a little bit of rage coming out of her.
"I don't know who's worse, if 'nee-chan or Sakuya-chan..." said Naru's brother with a said voice. Everybody bursted into laughing while Sakuya had a slight blush on her face - Hideki-kun... - which did not please her fanboys and even some fangirls.
This three, Uzumaki Naru, Uzumaki Hideki, twins, and Uchiha Sakuya were the most popular ones in their class. Well, Naru and Sakuya were, Hideki only was because he was always with his sister. While Sakuya had many admirers because of her skills, looks and cool pose, Naru and Hideki were the Hokage's children, so they had to be popular, even if, as in Hideki's case, they didn't want to.
"What the hell are you doing there?" Out of nowhere came a loud yell. "Shit, they found me!" cursed Naruto.
Four ninjas were jumping from roof to roof coming in the direction of the crowd. The students at the beggining were startled but noticed almost imediately whose were the voices. Four masked ninjas with katanas on their backs, ANBU members, finally halted in front of the students, Udon and Naruto. All had dark hair. The first one, with shoulder length raven black hair and had what seemed like a snake mask, was wearing a black trench boat with a red fire kanji on the left shoulder. The tallest, one with fair skin and long dark brown hair tied to a ponytail almost at its end, had the mask of a bird. The third, the only woman, with also dark brown hair tied in two buns on the top of her head, had the mask of some kind of lizard or dragon. The last one, a short male with short dark grey hair, had the mask of a cat. All of them seemed to scare the Hokage to no end. He was almost petrified.
The first one, the commander, talked first in his cool voice. "To think they had to call the ANBU to get you, even I was assembled because the Hokage disappeared with no apparent reason and you here all the time, Naruto." The commander shook his head.
"It's been like this for the past 9 years. Ever since you were promoted to Hokage you've been doing this. You can't runaway forever."
Naruto snapped out and answered back, as loud as any kid that was watching the scene. "But I don't want to do it! It's boring! You know that, Sasuke!"
"Please, Hokage-sama, your presence is required. The paper work has been piling up, you really need to fill in those forms." The woman almost begged.
"Cut it, Tenten. If you're not coming willingly, Naruto, we're taking you with us!" The long haired ANBU finally lost his patience.
"No way! You'll never catch me alive!" Yelled Naruto as he disappeared in a flash.
Everybody stood in awe at the scene. No one talked or even moved a muscle for what seemed like a minute. Finally, the last ANBU spoke, almost in a sigh. "Shunshin no Jutsu again, huh? It's really becoming a bother..." "Come on, let's find him." Stated half-heartedly Uchiha Sasuke, the commander. And they disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"Ok" started Sakuya, breaking finally the silence but still pretty much paralized. "You're not an idiot" she said, turning to Naru "Your father is."
Naru didn't say a thing. She only frowned and looked away, her face completely red from embarassment.
-----------------
Later that day, Naru found herself wandering through the lively streets of Konoha. She was still pretty much angry at Sakuya, and at a her father, for the scene earlier that day. What kind of Hokage was that one who would run from his own duties? She knew her father was strong and all of his friends always told her and Hideki about how great their father was, but, when the time came for her to confirm everything she had heard, her father would always look like a fool.
She sighed.
No use in keep thinking about it. She thought. Maybe I should go home. It's getting pretty late. She looked to the sky. The sun was already setting, going towards the horizon, the last natural light of day fading out slowly but nonstoply.
She had just turned left at the corner of a quieter street, already heading home, when she saw the last thing she wished for that day: trouble.
Four teenagers were surrounding a boy who was apparently the same age as Naru. They were all taller than the boy and they looked to be several years older than him. By the looks of their actions, the way they moved, and by the look of fear on the boy's face, Naru quickly concluded that those guys were bullying the kid. She was the Hokage's daughter, she couldn't leave them unpunished, and so, she stepped up and called for the bullies.
They quickly looked for the source of the voice and saw only a girl who apparently looked pissed off. The boy being bullied was stuned and a hint of hope appeared in his eyes.
Naru faced the bullies. They were wearing ragged clothes, but they had shuriken holsters on their thighs and all of them had a Konoha forehead protector. They were genins. True ninjas. They should not be bullying harmless kids.
The one at the front of the group stepped towards Naru, leaned forward, looking with disdain at the girl. "And who the hell are you to tell us what to do?" he sneered. "Scram, kid! Don't get into trouble!"
They all scorned at Naru, but the girl kept her pose and looked angrily at them. "Why are you bullying him? I bet he didn't do anything to you! He's just a kid, you're ninjas, why don't you mess with someone who can offer some resistance? You're just a bunch of cowards!"
They all bursted into laughter, Naru was getting angrier and angrier. "And who could that be?" Said the one at the far left of the group, walking to Naru. "You? You're just a little girl so... Uff..."
Naru had snapped. She quickly disappeared and appeared behind the bully and kicked him in the head, immediately knocking him unconscious. Then she turned to face the other bullies, her blue eyes now filled with anger. The bullies seemed to lose their stance, looking stuned to Naru. The leader took a step backwards and the one at the far right, the tallest and most quiet, finally spoke.
"I know who you are. You're the Hokage's spoiled brat." The leader smirked. "Is she? Well then, this makes things interesting. If we beat her then we beat the Hokage's spawn."
At these words, Naru grited her teeth. They could insult her, but not her father, their Hokage.
"So, just because you're the Hokage's brat you think you can come here and order us around?" The leader said and signaled to the others to walk towards Naru. It was time for some payback for what they did to their friend.
"I'm not just the Hokage's daughter! I am Uzumaki Naru! And I'm going to kick your ass!"
She took a fighting stance and made some hand seals as the gang stopped in their tracks and looked somewhat fearful at what the girl would do. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Immediatelly there were three Narus instead of only one. They all had a confident smirk on their face. The bullies lost all their confidance and looked frightened at the girls. "What the hell? That's kage bunshin! It's a jounin level jutsu! How the hell can you perform it!"
It was the Naru in the middle who answered. "Being the Hokage's brat has its high points! Now, either you scram or I'll kick your ass! You shouldn't have been bullying someone younger than you. That pisses me off. You shouldn't have insulted me. That pisses me even more. But you definetely shouldn't have brought my dad's name here!" She lifted a hand "Now, at my signal, attack, Narus!"
"Retreat!" commanded the leader as they ran, scared shitless, for their lives. "You'll pay for this, I swear!" shouted the leader, already in the distance.
With a puff of smoke, the two kage bunshins faded and the true Naru stood, looking into the distance, making sure they wouldn't come back. Then she turned to the boy. She blushed.
Leaning with his back to the wall, with a slight bruise on his left cheek and some scratches on his arms, stood a tall boy (tall for his age) with short light brown hair that spiked upwards and intense leaf green eyes. He wore a light blue tank top over a fishnet shirt, bandages on his left arm, and baggy earth brown pants, tied to his legs at the bottom by bandages, that matched perfectly his eyes. Naru noticed that he was looking intensely at her and was that a blush?
Naru felt her face becoming red and hot, so she snaped out of it and finally talked to the boy. "Hey, you Ok?" She asked, not so loudly as usual.
The boy seemed stuned for a second, but finally answered back "Y-yes... Y-you're U-Uzumaki Naru, a-aren't you?" he answered as if he was looking to some kind of wonderful illusion.
Naru blushed again, only this time slightly. "Y-yes." Then it came to her. "Hey! Aren't you in my class at the ninja academy?" she asked, recovering her loud-mouthed atitude. "Yeah, you are! Why were they bullying you? Why didn't you defend yourself?"
The boy flinched and looked sadly at his feet. "Well, they don't like me because I'm not originally from Konoha. They think foreigners who don't even come from a ninja lineage shouldn't be taking genin exams, so they thought it would be better to prevent me from going tomorrow. At least that's what they said to me." He then smiled sadly and lifted his head to Naru, never looking her in the eyes. "But I guess the truth is because I'm really weak and a coward who could do nothing to defend himself and had to wait for a girl to come save his ass." He laughed at his own pitty. "I don't even know why I'm in the academy taking the exams to be a ninja. I'm a good for nothing, I'll make an awful ninja and..."
"That's not true!" Naru snapped "Even if you're weak and talentless, if you put your heart into it you can become a fine ninja!" She then gave one of her very own foxy grins to the boy. "If you were admited at the academy, it means that at least you can't be all bad."
The boy looked amazed at her and finally a wide smile appeared on his face. "Thanks! I really needed to hear that. I guess I will try my best tomorrow!"
"Yeah" answered Naru, her sapphire blue eyes gleating in the sunset. "Be sure to do that. And the day after tomorrow, I want to see you at the class room, waiting for the genin teams to be sorted. Promise?" She then lifted her pinky at the boy. He looked from her pinky to her face and her beautiful eyes and back to her pinky again. He intertwined his own pinky with hers and grined. "Promise!"
Naru was now preparing to leave, her hands behind her head, when she turned to the boy, who was starting to head home. "Hey what's your name? You know mine, but I don't remember getting yours." She said.
The boy turned with an embarassed look on his face and slight blush and answered "It's Yuusou... Oozora Yuusou."
Naru grined, turned her back to him, and walked home, her hair shining like gold at the firey sunset. "Well then, good luck to tomorrow, Yuusou."