Author's Notes: And we're back to Born Different! For those who have read it, I hope you've enjoyed Blade of the Blizzard's latest arc. For those who haven't, I hope this wait hasn't been overly painful, and hey, I am back to writing this story. Let's hope I don't get the different tones between the two different stories mixed up. Anyways, let's get into it.
Extra Notes: Since writing this section is something I'm doing quite a bit of as of recently, I'll just say a few things here about this story. First, this story may be scientifically based, but not all of it may be accurate to the real world, hence the "Sci-Fi" category I've added. Secondly, this chapter will serve as the lead-up to the Chunin Exams, and may or may not be used to introduce Temari. Lastly, it probably goes without saying by now, but Naruto acts completely differently in this story than in canon.
Q&A Section! (As Well as Other Responses)
Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: Glad you enjoyed it! And yes, though it may be a little crude by today's standard, I did find it quite amusing when I wrote it.
SPark681: Glad you enjoyed it! As for who's in the harem... I usually state who's in it at the start of the chapters right below the responses section.
Midnight Lost: Heh, that's a nice summary of that chapter. Glad you enjoyed the chapter, and yes, it was my mistake to not have Anko touch Haku repeatedly in front of Naruto. As for the updates... I've screwed that part up, haven't I?
Dragon and Sword Master: Glad you enjoyed it!
OmniHein: Well... Thanks? I suppose?
Beastyd22: Glad you enjoyed it and thought it was awesome! Well... I screwed that last part up again didn't I?
biginferno: Glad you enjoyed the chapter! As for those reactions... Stay tuned.
YeagerMeister31: Glad you enjoyed it! And yes, this story structure may not be the most original. Stay tuned for the Chunin Exams though.
Lightblade1121: Well... I suppose you could say that he's both incredibly lucky and that he's extremely intelligent, especially in terms of the multiple sciences.
xxPercyRoxxx: Thanks! And do stay tuned!
biob1: I do not intend to have Naruto intend guns and leave it at that. I do intend for Naruto to invent several different forms of chemicals and things to do with physics. Besides that, glad you enjoyed most of what you've read so far!
Harem - Kurama, Anko, Haku, Temari, Shizuka, Tayuya, Deidara. (I think it goes without saying at this point that all characters are female, I would have no problem typing Fem! if Grammarly didn't repeatedly insist I was typing incorrectly in Spanish.)
Ages are probably also important, so here they are!
Naruto - 16(altered anatomical structure)
Anko - 23
Kurama -?
Haku - 16
Temari - 16
"Talking"
'Thinking'
"'Talking or thinking by Kurama or berserk Naruto'"
Well then, time to return to Born Different!
-Naruto Apartment(Midnight)-
Awakening in the middle of the night, Naruto found the bed he was lying in cold, incredibly cold. Turning to his right, Naruto saw how the sudden introduction of a low temperature did not interrupt the sleeping Haku in the slightest.
'Well... Can't say that I couldn't see that one coming...' Naruto thought, getting out of their shared bed.
"You alright, Naruto-Kun?" Kurama asked, lightly yawning.
'I'm fine, Kurama-chan,' Naruto replied, 'I will need to investigate the sudden drop in temperature, though.'
"Maybe Haku-chan could explain?" Kurama suggested, "She does seem to be unaffected, after all."
'Well, it is highly unlikely that she could provide any logical answer...' Naruto began to say, 'She just so happens to use Ice Chakra and comes from a family of... Ice-users... Huh, didn't think that statement through, my apologies.'
"It's alright, Naruto-Kun," Kurama replied, "Now if you don't mind, I'll go back to sleep now."
Naruto nodded, before slowly walking towards the sleeping Haku. Without making a single noise, Naruto gently placed a hand over her forehead in an attempt to detect the amount of heat that her body produced, only to realize how cold her forehead was.
'Wait... Her body felt warm when we...' Naruto began to think, 'Well, when she was conscious, her body feels warm... That would mean that she subconsciously produces this cold energy, but I assume the rapid burning and breaking down of glucose and other nutrients in her body make it so that it heats up, which would mean that... She's probably the one that produced this cold environment.'
Coming to his conclusion, Naruto tapped Haku on the shoulder, prompting the ice-user to slowly open her sleepy eyes.
"Is it morning already?" Haku muttered.
"No, it just hit midnight," Naruto replied, "Probably would be considered morning if we both joined some sort of death cult," Naruto joked, getting a chuckle from Haku, "But that would just be illogical."
-Somewhere, in an Alternate Universe-
Sleeping in the same bed with Sakura and Anko, Naruto suddenly awoke from his slumber, before sneezing repeatedly.
"You alright, Foxy-Kun?" Anko teased, "Or is that Hanyou physiology letting you down?"
"It's probably some asshole talking about me, probably that damn Uchiha," Naruto dismissed, "As for my physiology, you should know by experience that it performs far above expectations."
"Well, you're not wrong there," Anko replied with a blush, as Sakura looked on from the side.
'I wonder when it'll be our turn...' Inner brought up, causing Sakura to turn a deep shade of crimson.
-Back in Born Different-
"Anyways," Naruto began to say, "Besides that, I wanted to ask you something."
"Before that, did you just use two different sentence starters?" Haku asked.
"What?" Naruto asked back.
"Well, usually we start sentences with just one... Either just 'Anyways' or 'Besides that'," Haku began to explain, "So I just got confused on why you used two."
"Well, I... Never exactly learned how to communicate properly with other people," Naruto replied, "Anyways, do you exert a cold temperature when sleeping?"
"Pardon?" Haku asked in a bewildered tone.
"It's just that... I'm pretty sure your body subconsciously produces some sort of cold energy, which might be an effect of your unique chakra working constantly," Naruto began to give his hypothesis, "Which could essentially be explained as a reflex action, or an involuntary action that's exclusive to you."
"Okay, that's cool and all," Haku began to say, "But could you use... Simpler terms to explain?"
"Well, first of all, that's not an explanation, that's a hypothesis," Naruto began to say, "Secondly, I'm not done yet."
"Wait, what?" Haku asked.
"Essentially, hormones in your body react to some sort of chemical reaction, which may be a result of the breaking down of excess Ice Chakra in your body," Naruto continued, "Your body does produce heat... As for how I know, well... We both know how I know, but essentially, your body produces more heat when you're conscious, due to the breakdown of chemicals like glucose to provide your body with enough energy-"
Before Naruto was allowed to finish, Haku placed her lips over his, before flipping him onto their bed.
"Will that shut you up, Naruto-Kun?" Haku asked with a smirk.
Naruto smirked in response, before dispersing into smoke and reconstituting his body above Haku, pinning her onto their bed.
"Wouldn't try that again, Haku-chan," Naruto replied, "Anko-chan already tried that once, and it didn't work before."
Haku flicked her hair backward, before biting her lip.
"What are you going to do now?" Haku asked, "Keep me in this position?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Naruto asked back, as he brought his face up to hers.
"Getting frisky now, are we?" Came Anko's voice, preventing both teenagers from 'escalating' the situation, "At midnight no less."
"Would you like to join?" Haku offered.
"Unfortunately, that's not why I'm here..." Anko replied, her voice in an unusually serious tone, "I appreciate the offer though."
Naruto sat up. "What's the matter, Anko-chan?"
"I would explain," Anko began to say, "But could you turn on the lights first? I can't see anything."
"Oh wait," Naruto replied, standing up and turning on the lights, "My apologies for that, now, what do you need?"
"I've always wanted to know..." Anko began to say as she pointed towards the marking on the left side of her neck, "Could you do anything about this?"
"What the hell is that?" Haku asked.
"The Cursed Seal of Heaven," Naruto replied, "It was applied by Orochimaru..." Naruto continued, spitting the name of the Snake Sannin, venom clear in his tone, "It grants the user great power, well, it's supposed to anyways... But it comes at the cost of the user's psyche and being at the mercy of Orochimaru."
"So, could you remove it?" Anko asked.
"I'll do my best," Naruto assured, walking towards his worktable and picking up a modified microscope. "Could you sit here for a bit?"
Anko nodded, before making her way towards the worktable and taking a seat next to it. Naruto placed the objective lens of his modified microscope onto one of the tomoe of Anko's cursed seal, scribbling down multiple notes on his notebook. Naruto analyzed the tomoe and the skin under it, taking note of the seemingly altered skin and the lack of any hairs on it.
'So the mark changed the skin it's on...' Naruto thought, not turning his eyes away from the microscope as he spoke up, "You once told me that it spreads across your body when you use it, right? Naruto asked, receiving a nod from Anko, "Now, this may be a little much... And you can choose not to do it, but could you activate it only on your left arm? I know it sounds strange, but I believe if you focus, it will only spread on your left arm."
With clear hesitation, Anko nodded, channeling her chakra across her left arm and through the Cursed Seal. To her complete surprise, the Cursed Mark only spread across her left arm.
'So that's how it works...' Naruto thought, placing the microscope on a part of the newly spread Cursed Seal, noting the altered structure of Anko's skin. "You can deactivate it now."
"So, what have you concluded?" Anko asked hurriedly, deactivating the Cursed Seal as she did.
"Well, believe it or not," Naruto replied, "I believe it's a cellular thing."
"What?" Anko asked in disbelief.
"Did you just make that up?" Haku asked.
"No, that's my hypothesis for now..." Naruto began to say, "There's only one way to find out."
Naruto picked up a needle, before piercing Anko's right shoulder and extracting parts of Anko's blood from it. Setting that sample aside, Naruto did the same to the back of the left side of her neck, where her Cursed Seal resided, extracting another sample of blood from it.
"I'll take a look at it..." Naruto replied, "Haku-chan, you should go back to sleep... Anko-chan, you could stay the night, I suppose..."
"Of course, I will..." Anko replied, "Haku-chan and I are gonna have the most wonderful time together..."
"Wait, what?" Haku began to ask, only for her to be dragged to her and Naruto's shared bed by Anko.
Naruto sighed at his partners' antics, before turning back towards his worktable. Placing a drop of the blood sample obtained from Anko's right shoulder, Naruto analyzed the cells within the drop of blood, perfectly seeing the white blood cells as well as the red blood cells and the platelets spread among them in a smear. Jotting his results down on a piece of paper, Naruto turned to his second microscope, before placing his eyes on the lens to analyze the second sample of Anko's blood.
"What the..." Naruto muttered under his breath.
Closing one eye, Naruto could see the actual extent of the Cursed Seal's alterations on Anko's cells. Instead of the regular colorless state of the white blood cells that only his Sharingan allow him to see, the white blood cells from this particular sample of blood had been colored black, and while the red blood cells remained red, the platelets had been completely removed and replaced with another substance.
'Fascinating...' Naruto thought, before raising an arm. "Anko-chan! Could you come here for a second?"
Anko came to Naruto's side, pressing her bare chest against Naruto's back.
"Yes?" Anko asked.
"Could you place your finger onto this sample of blood and let your chakra flow through it?" Naruto requested.
Slightly confused, Anko placed her finger onto the blood sample, before releasing her chakra into it as the blond had instructed. Naruto squinted, analyzing the movements of the cells he had predicted. To his surprise, the cells showed no change at all.
"Hold on..." Naruto asked, lifting Anko's finger before dropping a drop of the other blood sample. "Could you do it again?"
Anko nodded, as Naruto placed his eye back on the lens, right as Anko allowed her chakra to flow through the mixture of the blood samples. Naruto gasped, as the infected white blood cells began to infect and pollute the unaffected white blood cells before the platelets on the unaffected red blood cells began to blacken.
"Fascinating..." Naruto muttered, "You can stop now."
Anko lifted her finger, cutting the flow of her chakra to the mixture of blood. Naruto looked on, as the altered white blood cells began to revert to a form of normalcy, and the devoured platelets began to reappear, with only the white blood cells from the affected sample of blood remaining blackened.
"I get it now," Naruto stated, lifting his head before turning to Anko, "Why are you naked?"
"Well, umm," Anko began to explain, a blush clear on her face, "Haku-chan and I were having some fun... Then she passed out, and then you called me over here..."
"This is a strange situation..." Naruto muttered, "Anyways, I found a scientific explanation for how the Cursed Seal spreads. Going by the theory that every set of nuclei in the white blood cell is unique, the Cursed Seal works somewhat like a symbiote, and it mutates to adapt to these nuclei in each set. And since every nucleus is identical to another... It spreads by temporarily bonding to those nuclei, with your chakra acting as a catalyst."
"So is there a method to get rid of it?" Anko asked, her voice sounding resoundingly hopeful.
"Theoretically yes, I'll need to alter the nuclei within every white blood cell in that section of your neck," Naruto explained, "That should make it so that the Cursed Seal rejects your body and recedes by itself since I believe it feeds on your chakra, and it cannot do that if it doesn't bond to your nuclei."
"How are you going to do that?" Anko asked.
"I have no clue," Naruto replied, "As for now... I'll work on something else first."
Before Naruto was able to stand up and turn to another project, Haku placed a hand over his mouth, before dragging him onto their bed.
"No, Naruto-Kun..." Haku began to say, "You're gonna be joining us in certain... Activities."
Not being able to resist these enticing proposals, Naruto allowed himself to be dragged to their bed, where Anko would leap on several seconds later.
-Hokage's Office(Hours Later)-
With Anko and Haku still sleeping at his apartment, Naruto entered Hiruzen's office.
"Ah, Naruto," Hiruzen began to say, "Had a good rest?"
"Didn't face much combat at Wave Country..." Naruto replied, "So I suppose you could say I did have a good rest."
"Right... You do realize that contradicts Kakashi's report, don't you?" Hiruzen asked back.
"Well... Can't say I went through much combat if you consider that I repeatedly dodged, can you?" Naruto corrected himself, scratching the back of his head.
"In that regard... How would you describe the events that you all went through?" Hiruzen asked.
"Just the bridge mission?" Naruto asked back.
"Yes, just the bridge mission," Hiruzen confirmed.
"Well... Sakura still hates me, no surprise there, nor do I much care about it, but she did stick to the task and protect Tazuna at all times, even patching up Sasuke when he got injured," Naruto began to explain, "Onto Sasuke next, from what Haku-chan told me... He put up a decent fight against her before she used her ice mirrors, and then got beaten up pretty badly when Haku-chan used her mirrors, but I did hear that he activated his Sharingan in the fight."
"Interesting... And it does coincide with Kakashi's report..." Hiruzen murmured, "How well would you say you did?"
"Alright, I suppose..." Naruto replied.
"According to Kakashi's report, you defeated Haku and held your own against one of the Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist?" Hiruzen mentioned, "In what world is that just subpar? It's remarkable in terms of performance and becomes downright impossible when you consider that you are a genin, while Zabuza held his own against Kakashi, and Haku is qualified to be Konoha's Head of Poison Research."
"I just kept playing defensively, I suppose," Naruto replied, activating his Sharingan before pointing at them. "I mainly used these... And I kept using the Iburi Clan's ability to dodge... I beat Haku-chan that way, and now we're in this strange relationship."
"I see..." Hiruzen muttered, "Anyways, what brings you here today?"
"I wanted to request a larger house to live in," Naruto requested, "So I thought you could help out."
"I always could've, you just had to ask," Hiruzen replied, before standing up and walking towards the door. "I'll take you around a district."
-Hours Later(Hokage's Office)-
"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Naruto thanked, bowing slightly.
"Considering the things you've endured growing up, things that I could've done to improve it..." Hiruzen began to say, "It's the least I can do."
Naruto nodded, before leaving the office. Walking for a bit, Naruto came upon two unusual figures in Konoha's streets near the entrance. The female was a girl with sandy-blond hair tied into four consecutive pigtails, one who wore a light purple garment that only exposed her shoulders. The male was a boy around Naruto's age, one who wore a baggy, black one-piece suit, while bearing purple makeup on his face. Fully contemptuous of leaving the two alone, these original ideas were quickly scraped in Naruto's mind the moment the blond noticed the young boy being held by the collar by the foreign boy.
"Help me!" Konohamaru pleaded.
"I don't know, Konohamaru," Naruto replied, "How did you get into this position?"
"I'll tell you!" The foreigner yelled, "This brat bumped into me!"
"Kankuro, that's enough," The girl advised.
"I'll decide when it's enough, Temari," Kankuro replied.
"Did you bump into him, Konohamaru?" Naruto asked.
"I did..." Konohamaru admitted. "But it was an accident!"
"Whether or not it's an accident isn't important, what's important is that you apologize," Naruto advised.
"I'm sorry, mister," Konohamaru apologized.
"That's not good enough now, is it?" Kankuro asked, lifting Konohamaru into the air while clenching his open fist.
Before Kankuro was able to land his punch, a scream could be heard. Kankuro turned to Temari, only to notice that his older sister had a scalpel pointed to her neck, the user of said scalpel being none other than Naruto.
"Temari!" Kankuro yelled, dropping Konohamaru.
"Your move," Naruto stated, raising the scalpel to Temari's face. "Would be a real shame for this pretty face to be sliced off, wouldn't it?"
"You wouldn't dare!" Kankuro warned, placing a hand on the wrapped-up puppet on his back.
"From my experience, he's a man of his word," Came Sasuke's voice, as a rock was thrown onto the back of Kankuro's head.
Naruto suddenly lifted his head, before flinging the scalpel towards a tree, plunging it into the trunk.
"What was that for?" Sasuke asked.
"Oi!" Naruto yelled, "Get out of the tree!"
Sure enough, a red-headed boy with the kanji for 'love' tattooed on his forehead exited the tree.
"Kankuro, you're a disgrace to our village," The boy stated, as Kankuro paled.
"My apologies, Gaara," Kankuro replied.
"Be quiet," Gaara stated, "I truly despise the fact that you lost control of yourself in a quarrel with children. Do it again, and I'll murder you where you stand."
Kankuro took a large audible gulp, before nodding profusely.
"I apologize for the actions of my brother," Gaara said in a monotone manner, "My name is Gaara, and we're here to participate in the Chunin Exams."
"Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto identified himself.
"Sasuke Uchiha," Sasuke did the same.
"Kankuro, Temari, we're leaving," Gaara stated, getting nods from both of his siblings. As Kankuro and Temari left, Gaara stood in his place, staring at both Sasuke and Naruto. "You two are intriguing... The two of you hold the blood of the strong... Mother yearns for your blood..."
"Uh, alright?" Naruto replied, "I mean... If you wanted to, I could get you a blood sample, I have plenty of those, after all, the human body does contain about 1 to 1.5 gallons of blood... I don't think we would mind sparing some of it..."
"What are you on about?" Gaara asked.
"I was just commenting on the biological implications of you wanting our blood, I don't even know why you want it..." Naruto replied, "It's not that great... And better yet, you could just cut us, and you can get our blood... Just make sure to not cut any veins or arteries..."
'Even when faced with someone who seems completely psychotic...' Sasuke began to think as Naruto continued his explanation, 'Naruto still reminds me why I consider him the creepiest person I know...'
Author's Notes 2: And this chapter comes to a close! As said before, the science behind this story doesn't necessarily coincide with any real-world science, hence the Sci-Fi tag I've added. And yes, this is how Naruto and Temari meet, considering my current relationship... This doesn't seem overly farfetched.
And yes, I did make a crossover with Darkness Falls, written by Midnight Lost. The exact chapter I did this crossover with is Chapter 12 and takes place at the start of the chapter. Does this set up some sort of multiverse? Who knows. As for Midnight Lost himself, he seems to be going on some sort of 'writing-drive' as of late, will he update Darkness Falls? Again, who knows. And yes, I did get his permission to write that crossover.
Regardless, tell me what you guys thought about this chapter in the reviews down below! I'm eager to see what you guys have to say!
Super-Secret Note: Something to do with a multiverse may or may not be in the works.