"Talking"
'Thinking'
Jutsu/ Bijuu/ Summons
Flashbacks, Letters, and Setting
I don't own Naruto
Chapter 45: Smooth Sailing?
Narumi dashed through the trees towards the source of commotion and despair. She didn't know what was going on to who, but she knew the person needed help, and while they were still in a competition, the genuine fear and anguish she sensed made her want to see if she could help.
When she finally arrived at the site of the distress she sensed, she found a red-haired girl up in a tree, throwing whatever she could get her hands on towards a growling bear that was as ginormous in scale as all of the other creatures of this particular forest were in comparison to their regular counterparts.
The girl in the tree continued to scream as she threw small branches and twigs she was able to break off in desperation. She seemed to have terrible aim, as barely any of her makeshift projectiles hit her mark, and even the ones she was able to land didn't seem to do any damage, as twigs didn't necessarily make for good projectiles, especially considering the massive size of the bear.
The bear growled and tried to climb the tree again, even though its massive size prevented it from being able to scale this particularly young, and therefore small, tree.
The girl continued to scream, both in fear and to attract help, when she sensed a massive chakra signature quickly approaching. Though the chakra was warm and soothing in general, its sheer size, which even dwarfed the incredibly massive source of chakra her teammates died to, and the bit of malicious chakra that lay hidden or suppressed beneath it, briefly scared her more than the bear.
Narumi jumped towards the bear and used its head as a platform to jump up to land on the branch the other red-haired girl was taking refuge on.
"Hi! I heard you screaming for help, so I came to see if I could do something for ya. What's the problem?" Narumi asked the girl.
The girl looked at the girl incredulously. She looked down at the still growling bear, and then back at Narumi. Was she crazy or was it not obvious what her source of distress was? Also, why was she so nonchalant about this whole situation?
"Ummm… you DID see the bear down there that's STILL trying to kill me, right?" She asked Narumi.
Narumi looked down at the bear and scratched the back of her head as she looked back at the girl sheepishly.
"Ooohhhh… right! The bear!" Narumi replied as if it was obvious. However, she was still a little confused.
"Sooo… you're hiding from the bear? Up here?" Narumi asked in curiosity.
The girl couldn't understand the purpose of the question. Was this girl stupid or something?
"Ummm yeah? Isn't that obvious?" She asked barely managing to not sound condescending.
"Ok, maybe I should have put it differently." Narumi said as she tried to ask what she was wondering in a clearer manner.
"I guess what I wanted to ask was WHY are you hiding from a bear in this tree, instead of just beating it up, or running away?" Narumi asked. Wasn't this girl a shinobi? What kind of shinobi was scared of some forest animal? Even if she was, what kept her from simply running away?
While it was true that Narumi had a point, her judgement of what shinobi should be capable of was biased due to being surrounded by extraordinarily powerful shinobi that did in no way set the standard for what average shinobi should be capable of.
As such, she genuinely could not understand the girl in distress. To Narumi, it was like a child crying that the flames of a candle is hot while not removing their finger from the fire.
The other girl, however, still felt a little embarrassed. Were Genin like her expected to be able to take on such a gargantuan beast? She couldn't help but feel a little incompetent at Narumi's innocent question.
"W-well, I'm not exactly the combat type you see. Besides, the bear surprised me, and in my rush to climb this tree, I dropped my glasses, so I can't see anything properly." The girl answered, trying to come up with some legitimate excuse.
Right around then, Sasuke and Hinata caught up with Narumi.
"Don't run off on your own like that, you idiot!" Sasuke yelled as he huffed to catch his breath.
When the bear saw two easier to access prey nearby, it turned its attention from the two redheads up the tree.
The bear growled ferociously as it fell upon the two pre-teens, swiping at Hinata with its nearly 15-centimeter-long claws.
Hinata easily dodged under the blow and used her Jyuken to deliver multiple quick strikes into one of the forelegs of the bear, paralyzing it temporarily, much to the shock of the bear.
Sasuke then leapt up into a flying roundhouse kick which struck the side of the bear's face, and the combination of lack of balance from one numb limb and kick to the face sent the bear crumpling to the floor.
The girl in the tree could barely make out what was going on, but she was shocked to see Narumi's teammates easily handle the giant bear as if it were an academy student.
"Can't let you guys have all the fun!" Narumi yelled out as she jumped down from the tree with an excited smile. "Let's goooo!"
When the bear saw her excited face as she ran towards it, it realized she was probably like the other two, also not to be trifled with, and quickly scampered away before it was forced to take more damage than it needed to.
Narumi didn't see any point in bullying a scared animal that was already running away, so she stopped chasing it once it left the small clearing. "That's right! Better think twice before you attack a redhead next time!" She yelled out at the fleeing bear.
"Yeah, yeah. Don't pretend like you had anything to do with it running away, idiot." Sasuke told Narumi. "And don't run off on your own like that. What if you ran into someone dangerous?" He scolded as he walked towards her.
"Pshh. Whatever. You know I could have handled that bear too, so don't let it get to your head, pinkie." Narumi snapped back.
Sasuke growled in annoyance when she called him that, before he noticed a shiny thing next to his foot, which he picked up and examined.
Meanwhile, the girl saw that the coast was clear and tried to climb back down, but her lack of clear vision resulted in her falling midway.
Sasuke quickly reacted and leapt to catch the girl before she hit the ground.
"AGHHH!" The girl screamed wildly as she fell from her perch, before she fell into Sasuke's arms.
However, even in his arms, she continued to kick and scream in fear, not realizing she was safe now.
"Hey, I caught you, you know. Why are you still screaming?" Sasuke asked the girl in annoyance, who was still screaming and flailing around.
"Huh?" The girl looked around and realized that she was indeed safe.
"Whew. I thought I was a goner. Thanks for catching me."
"Mhmm." Sasuke replied. "Also, does this happen to be yours?" He asked as he held up the glasses that were still in his hand.
"Are those my glasses?" The girl asked as she quickly took the object out of his hands and put it on.
The world seemed to snap back into focus when she put her glasses on. Now that she could see again, she took a look at her surroundings.
When she looked towards her savior to thank him, she was shocked at how handsome he was, and her words died in her throat. An Adonis who was surely chiseled out of marble by the gods was before her.
Her cheeks turned red when she realized she still being held by him bridal style. She covered her red cheeks with her hands and turned her face away from him, unable to deal with all of the handsomeness right now.
What luck! She always knew all of her terrible luck so far meant she'd have to get lucky eventually! Here she was, in the arms of her dreamy knight in shining armor who saved her from a savage beast! She wondered how she could thank him.
'How should I thank him? Maybe with a hug? No! Come on, this is a golden opportunity! I shouldn't waste it with something stupid like a hug! Should I reward him with a kiss? Yes… that sounds good… hehehe… on the lips? No, that's too forward. We've only just met. I might scare him away. A kiss on the cheek maybe? Yes… that sounds about right… it's just enough to get him thinking about me, while showing that I appreciate his efforts… Kyahhh!'
She closed her eyes and smiled as she daydreamed, sometimes clenching and shaking her fists close to her chest in excitement as she squealed as her daydream became racier.
Meanwhile Team 7 looked at her like she was a little crazy. Had she taken a hit on the head from the bear? Or maybe she bumped her head on the way down?
"Ummm… can I put you down?" Sasuke asked when his arms were starting to feel the strain of holding her up. "You're starting to get a little heavy.
"Huh?" The girl opened her eyes and remembered the situation she was in. She quickly, but a little reluctantly, got out of Sasuke's arms and stood before Team 7, a little embarrassed.
"Ahem. Sorry about that. I was… lost in thought for a second. Anyway, I want to thank you guys for saving me."
"That's alright!" Narumi replied. "It looked like you could use the help. Where's your team anyway? Rude of them to just leave you alone like this."
Karin sobered up when she remembered. "Oh… well they sorta abandoned me and got themselves… killed. I was actually trying to leave this forest to forfeit, when that bear attacked me."
"Oh… sorry to hear about that." Narumi replied.
The girl shook her head. "Don't be. They were big jerks anyway. Besides, I warned them not to go towards the danger, but what do they do instead? They ignore me and go and get themselves killed. That's on them."
"Aha… I see." Narumi answered back awkwardly, not knowing what to say.
Luckily for Narumi, Sasuke interrupted the awkward silence with his own question. "And I'm guessing one of them held your team's scroll?"
The girl nodded.
Sasuke shrugged. "Eh. It's not like we needed yours anyway. We already have ours. Just thought it could be useful if we happened to come across our friends who didn't get one."
The girl's eyes widened. Weren't they supposed to be one of the rookie teams? How had they already gotten the second scroll on the first day? They didn't even look the least bit scratched. She began to wonder if all the Konoha rookies were strong.
"So, what do should we do now?" Narumi asked her teammates.
"Well, we saved her, didn't we? Let's get back on finishing this part of the exam. If we finish today, we'll be able to rest longer than the others, and it might give us an advantage for the later stages. Besides, I'd rather not have to sleep out here in the forest if I don't have too." Sasuke replied.
"What about her?" Narumi asked as she pointed towards the spectacled redhead.
"What about her? I'm sure she can walk herself out. It's not like we're her bodyguards or anything. We got her out of danger. We have our things to take care of too you know." Sasuke pointed out.
The girl in question stood there awkwardly as they discussed what to do with her, and much to her dismay, her handsome savior was all for letting her fend for herself in this dangerous forest.
She understood they had no obligation to help her, and she'd just be a burden to them, but she still wanted to be protected. However, she knew she was not in the position to demand anything.
"But she's not much of a fighter! What if on the way out, she- " Narumi paused when she realized she never even got the girl's name.
"Umm… what was your name again?"
"I'm Karin. Uzumaki Karin."
"Right, so anyway, what if on the way out, Karin-"
Narumi's eyes almost bulged out of her head, and her neck almost snapped when she turned her head to look at Karin in surprise when she realized what she had just heard.
"D-did you just say you're an Uzumaki?" Narumi stammered out, not sure if she had heard properly.
Karin just looked at her in curiosity. Why was she freaking out?
"Umm… yeah? Is that a problem?"
The rest of Team 7's eyes widened in surprise. What were the chances of meeting another Uzumaki? Especially one hailing from Kusa? They had thought that clan was comprised of just Naruto and Narumi.
"Y-you're from Narumi-chan's clan?" Hinata asked in surprise.
It was now Karin's turn to be surprised. She had a wider clan she was from? That was news for her. She had never heard in Kusa about anything related to the Uzumaki Clan, and her mom had kept quiet on her family history.
Looking at Narumi however, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. She had already felt some sort of connection to Narumi from their shared hair color, but she thought it would have been very presumptuous of her to assume any relation based on simple hair color. It wasn't like the Yamanaka were out there claiming all blondes as their own after all.
"Y-you're also an Uzumaki?" Karin asked Narumi with a trembling voice. She thought she had no more remaining family members, but if this were all true, that meant her family, though extended family it may be, were still alive, and they lived in Konoha.
With a voice shaky with emotion, both Narumi and Karin began to speak as they slowly approached each other.
"T-that means…"
"We're cousins!
"We're sisters!
Both yelled out together.
"Huh? Sisters?"
"Huh? Cousins?"
They wondered at the same time again.
"You know that's not how it works, right? We don't have the same parents you know." Karin corrected Narumi.
"Well, who cares about the details! You're part of my family, and we're similar in age, so we're sisters now!" Narumi yelled as she embraced Karin in a hug.
Karin wanted to correct Narumi once again to explain that wasn't how the concept of siblings worked, but it had been years since she had last been embraced lovingly by anyone, let alone family. She decided to quash her desire to correct Narumi so she could enjoy the moment. She'd let it slide this once.
Hinata smiled as she looked at the meeting of the two Uzumakis, happy for them. Sasuke was happy for Narumi as well, but he couldn't feel a bit jealous. He wondered if he had any other Uchiha members who were still alive out there that he didn't know about. It wasn't too preposterous to wonder if there were some Uchiha that were out of the village at the time of the massacre, was it?
"Hate to break up your little family reunion, but we're still in the middle of the second exam." Sasuke reminded them. "We need to get going."
Narumi glared at Sasuke. "We can't just let Karin-chan walk out of here by herself! It's dangerous! She's family, and I'm not going to abandon her!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You know it's more condescending to assume she can't fend for herself, right? I'm sure she doesn't appreciate the fact that you consider her weak, right Karin?"
"I'm weak and can't fend for myself." Karin replied quickly without missing a beat. She really wanted to be escorted out.
"Ah." Sasuke replied, not sure what to say now. "I see."
"Could we use one of your clones to escort her while we continue on?" Hinata suggested.
Narumi clapped her hands together. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that? Duh!"
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
With a small puff of smoke, two clones of Narumi formed next to her.
"Alright guys, you two take her out of this forest, and take her to Naruto nii-chan!"
"Naruto nii-chan? Who's that? Is he one of us?" Karin asked hopefully. How many Uzumaki were actually out there? Was she part of a big clan?
Narumi gave her a smile and a nod. "He's my brother! And head of our clan, if you want to be all technical, I guess."
Karin gulped. Clan head? Now she was getting a bit nervous. Wait, was she even under his… jurisdiction? I mean, she was part of a different village, right? How did that all work anyway? What did it even mean to be part of a clan? Should she even be nervous? Her mind was racing through at a 100 miles an hour.
Hinata could see that she was nervous and spoke up to try to ease her mind.
"Y-you don't have to be nervous. Naruto-sensei is quite kind and understanding. I'm sure he'll be h-happy to see you."
"Wait, Naruto-sensei? You mean he's your Jonin sensei too? Gosh, how many roles does he play? What's next? Are you gonna tell me he's Hokage?" Karin asked in surprise.
Sasuke smirked. "Heh, I mean, he should be Hokage if you ask me. But no. Unfortunately, he's not Hokage. At least not yet."
Karin could see that each of the members of Team 7 had the utmost respect for this Naruto person and hoped everything would work out fine when they met. She didn't want some messy political quagmire to happen because of her strange status.
"Alright! Let's get going then everyone! Looks like we've got a couple hours before it's completely dark. You two, dispel yourselves AFTER you get her to Naruto-nii, ok?" Narumi shouted out before the two parties went their separate ways.
On the way back to the Uchiha Compound
"Are you sure you don't want to eat with us? I'm sure Kaa-san would love to have you over again." Izumi asked Mikoto as they walked back after a day of work.
Mikoto gave her a smile but nodded. "It's alright. I have some leftovers that I need to get to before they go bad. I appreciate the offer though, Izumi-chan."
"But that means you'll be eating alone, since Sasuke is out on his exams! I'd hate for you to eat alone, Mikoto-sama. I insist you come over. My Kaa-san would be mad if she knew I left you to eat alone! You don't want me to get in trouble, now do you?" Izumi asked persistently.
Mikoto chuckled at Izumi's attempt to get her to come over again. "Alright. You got me there. I didn't want to be a burden by going over so often, but if you insist, how can I refuse? Besides, I don't want you to get in trouble with your Kaa-san."
"Great! I already told her you'd be coming over, so she's been braising some pork belly for kakuni! It'll be deeeelicious!" Izumi said with excitement, causing Mikoto to giggle at her antics.
The two women headed towards Izumi's house, with the younger lady linking her arm into the clan matriarch's.
"You've trained with him a bit, right? How do you think he'll do in the exams? Worried at all?" Izumi asked Mikoto.
"I was surprised with how quickly he picked up techniques, and how quick he was on his feet. I can tell he's put in a lot of hard work. I imagine he'll do quite well. Still, as a mother, I can't help but to be a little worried, especially with him out in Training Ground 44 with all of those other people who won't hesitate to hurt him."
"I can see that, but I'd say you won't have to worry too much. I've trained with Narumi and Sasuke, and those kids! Woo! I mean, I was considered pretty strong for my age, but these guys are definitely stronger than I was at their age. I doubt any Genin is going to be that much stronger than them, especially with the teamwork they have." Izumi replied.
"I hope so. It would be best if he became Chunin this time around, or he might be disappointed when he gets a new sensei."
Izumi raised one eyebrow in confusion. "Huh? New sensei? What are you talking about? Why would they get a new sensei? What about Naruto?"
Mikoto's eyes subtly darted around to see who was around them. Seeing that there weren't too many people around, she quietly began to speak to Izumi.
"It hasn't been publicly announced yet, but Hokage-sama has chosen Naruto to be his successor. He'll start training under Hokage-sama to take over after the end of the Chunin Exams."
Izumi couldn't believe her ears. Naruto? As Hokage? What?
"Wait, what? Naruto? As Hokage? Are you sure?"
Mikoto gave Izumi a glance. "Yes. Why? Is there something wrong?"
"No, it's not that. It's just that, I can't believe he actually agreed to be the Hokage… He hates that position…"
"He might not like the position, but I'm sure he's aware of what it means to be in that position. He knows it's the best place for him to be for him to be most helpful to Narumi-chan and the village."
Mikoto saw a frown form on Izumi's face. "Why? What's wrong? You don't think he'll be a good Hokage?"
Izumi shook her head. "No, I know he'll be a good Hokage… but he'll also be… miserable…"
She couldn't help but frown.
With Narumi's Clones and Karin
Narumi's clones and Karin chatted as they headed towards the exit.
"It's nice to see how well you get along with your teammates." Karin told Narumi.
"What? Get along? Did you hear the way Sasuke talks to me? He calls me an idiot all the time!" Narumi complained.
Karin chuckled. "Well, I wouldn't put 100% of the blame on him though."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean!"
Karin quickly skipped over that question by continuing to speak. "It's obvious it's just friendly teasing. You know he still cares about you. It's different when they say stuff like that when they actually hate you, like my old teammates did. When they wish you weren't there. When they wish you didn't exist. After you spend so much time with them, you sometimes start to think they might have a point."
Narumi frowned. This didn't sound like somebody else's problem. She knew what that was like. So, she wanted to help out if she could. Maybe she could try what worked for her.
"You know, those guys didn't deserve your time anyway. I say you shouldn't bother with people like that. You should just hang out with your other friends. Maybe you can ask to be moved to another team?"
Karin laughed, but it wasn't a laugh that made Narumi smile.
"Hah! Moved to a team with who? Hang out with who? That whole stupid village never accepted me as one of their own, though they like to keep me around for my abilities. My best friends there are books. Can you believe that? My best friends are basically ink that has been printed onto paper. Or maybe it's the imaginary characters the ink describes. Either way I don't think they'd make for good teammates."
Narumi felt awful. She thought she had it pretty tough, with people avoiding her or hating her, but she had friends like Sasuke or Hinata, or even the other members of the 7. She never had to rely on stupid books to keep her company. She even had a brother who valued her more than anything, while Karin's mother died when she was young. Narumi realized that some people had lives that were worse than hers, which made her sad.
"Why don't you live here? In Konoha with us? This is where your family is, right? Besides, those jerks in Kusa don't deserve you anyway. I'd love to be your friend, and I'm sure my friends would too!"
Karin thought about it hopefully for a second, but then a quick realistic thought made her realize that this was just a pipe dream.
"You know, it's not like I can just live wherever, whenever I want. It doesn't matter if people like me or not. At the end of the day, I'm an asset to Kusa, even if they just see my powers instead of seeing me as a person. They'd never give me up for nothing."
"Then why don't you pretend you died in the forest with your other teammates? Then they wouldn't look for you, right?" Narumi asked.
Karin shook her head. "First of all, there's no guarantee that would even work. Second, even if it somehow worked in the beginning, the moment they found out, it would be a political disaster. Imagine how the rest of Konoha's allies would view Konoha if they just randomly took and hid assets from other villages. Even if the smaller villages couldn't attack Konoha directly, they'd be prone to backstabbing once the trust between them is gone. It's not possible."
Narumi frowned again trying to come up with other solutions. It made her head hurt.
"You know what? We should just ask Naruto nii-chan! He always seems to have solutions!" Narumi suggested.
Karin shrugged. She didn't see any solutions, but if this Naruto person was as great as Narumi said he was, maybe he could come up with something else. It didn't hurt to ask, right?
With Team 7
Sasuke smirked when he saw the tower in the distance. It looked like it couldn't be more than 30 minutes away. His team could thank him for his brilliant strategy soon, when they arrived at the tower on the first day without any difficulties or snags.
"Man, this has been smooth sailing the whole time! Honestly, the first exam was tougher than this one. This is too easy! All we did was fight a weak team that underestimated us, and a scaredy bear. Give me that over a written test ANY DAY!" Narumi commented.
Hinata giggled at Narumi's comment, before she activated her Byakugan for her periodic checkups of their surroundings, to see if there was anything that slipped by the ring of clones that was around them, and Sasuke's Sharingan.
She didn't notice much, and was about to deactivate it, when she noticed a chakra signature quickly approaching them from beneath the ground.
"S-Sasuke-kun! There's something approaching us from underground!" She shouted out as she pointed in the direction it was coming from.
"Huh?" Was all Sasuke and Narumi could manage to say as they turned, when a massive snake exploded out of the ground, aiming to swallow Narumi whole.
Narumi drew her sword on reflex as she stepped to the side.
"Grrrraahhh!" She shouted, as she held her sword tightly with both hands, holding it sideways to use the snake's own momentum against it to cut deeply into the side of its mouth and down its side, like a pair of scissors might glide down a large sheet of paper, as it passed by between her and Sasuke.
The snake promptly vanished in a puff of smoke, shrieking in pain as it vanished.
The fact that it vanished instead of dying at their feet was not lost on the members of Team 7.
'What the…? Was that a summon or something?' Sasuke wondered, being the only one of them who was familiar with ninja summons. 'But what kind of Genin has a summon?'
"Kukuku… I wanted to get you out of the way while I had my fun with these two, but you're proving to be interesting too. How fun." A kunoichi who appeared to be from Kusagakure with a wide straw hat covering her eyes commented as she stepped through the cloud of dust that resulted from the lunge of the massive snake.
The 3 members of Team 7 were immediately on guard as they fanned out around the sole kunoichi to make sure they had the better angle of attack.
Though they had the numerical advantage, something about the way the kunoichi carried herself as if she had nothing to fear made Team 7 feel on edge. They didn't even realize they were slightly trembling, scared for some unknown reason they couldn't quite put their fingers on.
"You know we outnumber you 3 to 1, right? Do you really think you can take all three of us on at the same time?" Narumi asked the kunoichi in a voice that sounded less sure than she thought it would sound. Though she tried to sound tough, her asking the question instead of attacking the Kusa kunoichi right away secretly revealed their subconscious fear to the kunoichi.
The kunoichi laughed as she licked her lips with her strangely long tongue. "Kukuku… the question you really should be asking is…"
She tilted up her hat, revealing her yellow, slitted eyes to the three shocked Genin. "Is the three of you enough to handle me?"
Sasuke angrily gritted his teeth. "Tch, don't underestimate us just because we're rookies!"
"Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu! (Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Flower Technique)"
Sasuke sent several balls of flame flew towards the Kusa kunoichi, coming at her from various angles that was meant to make it difficult for her to dodge them all.
The kunoichi, however, chuckled as she easily dodged each of the fireballs in a strange manner that Sasuke didn't expect, as she twisted and moved her body in a disturbingly flexible way which seemed like it shouldn't be humanly impossible.
"Kukuku… I hope that's not all you got in your bag of tricks, Sasuke-kun. I'd be very disappointed if it was." The Kunoichi cooed out, surprising Sasuke at the fact that some random foreign kunoichi knew his name specifically.
However, that attack was just the cover for a set up. With a smirk he pulled his hands back, revealing ninja wire which bound up the Kusa kunoichi.
"Heh, how'd you like that for a bag of tricks?" Sasuke said with a grin.
"So, you attached ninja wire to the shuriken that were hidden in the Hosenka, eh? Kukuku… not bad. Now that's more like it." The Kusa kunoichi commented, without a hint of concern in her voice, even though her movement had been completely restricted by the ninja wires.
"You do realize you're all tied up, right? Now hand over your scroll before we have to take it from you by force!" Narumi shouted out at her.
"Oh? Is that right? Why don't you come and show me how exactly you'll do that?" The kunoichi said jeeringly.
Narumi quickly looked at her teammates for confirmation, and when Sasuke nodded back, she walked up to the tied up kunoichi, intending to intimidate her.
"Don't test our patience! Hurry up and give us your scroll!" Narumi shouted out, glaring at her menacingly.
"Oh, you mean this little thing?"
The kunoichi chuckled before regurgitating a scroll from her mouth, wrapped around her strangely long tongue.
"Ewww! Gross! But, yes! Hand it over!"
The kunoichi smirked before replying. "Or what?"
"Or we'll be forced to hurt you!" Narumi shouted back.
For a few seconds, the Kunoichi said nothing as she stared at Narumi with a creepy smile on her face. Then she swallowed the scroll whole.
Narumi looked back at Sasuke and Hinata, unsure of what to do in such a strange situation.
Sasuke gestured for her to rough up the kunoichi.
Narumi turned around and half-heartedly slapped the kunoichi. "Bring it back out!"
"Oh, come on now, Narumi-chan. Don't tell me this is all you've got? Will you hit harder if I killed sweet little Hinata-chan over there?"
Narumi's eyes tightened in fury. How dare she!
"If you wanted me to hurt you, you could have just asked!" Narumi shouted as she stepped in to deliver a devastating front kick into the tied up kunoichi's sternum.
The kunoichi didn't even attempt to move, meeting Narumi's kick with a smile on her face.
Narumi landed her kick with a sickening thud, which lurched Sasuke slightly forward as the wires pulled him when the kunoichi was sent tumbling to the ground.
Sasuke and Hinata were rather surprised at Narumi's brutal kick, as she would have usually not been so hard on an already bound up captive, but they too felt slightly off and felt uncomposed from the Kusa kunoichi's uncanny behavior, so they couldn't blame her.
They almost thought the situation was over but were shocked when they saw the Kusa kunoichi crumble away into mud.
"W-what? What the heck?" Narumi said in shock as she took a step back.
"Oh, come on now. You didn't really expect to be the only one who could make clones, now did you, Narumi-chan?" The Kusa kunoichi asked mockingly from behind Narumi, which caught all of Team 7 by surprise, as they hadn't seen her move behind Narumi.
The kunoichi struck with her first offensive move, delivering a lightning quick roundhouse kick, which was a blur to even Sasuke's activated Sharingan, to Narumi's side before she could even turn around to face her, sending her tumbling on the forest floor.
"Now, what were you saying about me being all tied up?"
Hinata activated her Byakugan and flew at the kunoichi, going all out on her with a flurry of Jyuken strikes aimed at key pressure points.
The creepy smile never left the kunoichi's face as she twisted and bent her body in unnatural ways to dodge all of Hinata's lightning quick strikes.
Sasuke tried to help by throwing well-aimed shuriken at spots his Sharingan predicted the kunoichi would move to next, but her strange, unconventional movement hampered his pattern reading eyes' effectiveness.
When Narumi picked herself off of the floor and flew at the kunoichi with her blade, the Kusa Genin easily dodged her slash by leaning back so far as to almost touch the ground with the back of her head, before she grabbed Narumi by the wrist of her sword arm.
The Kusa kunoichi then spun around as she straightened back up. Displaying an unexpected amount of strength from her lithe frame, she swung Narumi at Hinata, who was still striking as quickly as she could, hoping to land at least one proper hit so she could slow down this mysterious attacker.
When Narumi came flying at her, Hinata was able to duck underneath the arms of Narumi and the kunoichi, and used the brief moment where Narumi blocked the kunoichi's vision to lunge forward like a fencer to jab the kunoichi's forearm which was holding onto Narumi.
Hinata was able to land a successful hit for the first time, and not wanting to waste the opportunity, she pumped a deadly surge of chakra into the kunoichi's forearm, enough to permanently damage her chakra coils there. She thought she could maybe even blow off the kunoichi's arm if she put in a little more.
She was surprised when the arm did indeed explode, despite the fact that she thought she didn't put in enough chakra to achieve those results. She looked at the kunoichi in shock, as she didn't intend to be THAT brutal, only to see her once again melt away into mud.
"Oh my. That's quite the strike, Hinata-chan. Just what I'd expect from the Hyuga Clan heiress." The kunoichi commented, before she jumped down from the tree branch she emerged from to avoid a hail of shuriken Sasuke threw at her.
"Well, if you liked it so much, there's more where that came from! Let's go Hinata-chan!" Narumi yelled out before she charged at the Kunoichi with Hinata.
Narumi, Sasuke, and Hinata showed exceptional teamwork as they weaved between each other's attacks to attack the kunoichi from various angles, heights, and distances, coming at her like a storm that would have devoured most Chunin.
However, the kunoichi still easily glided through each attack, twisting and bending her body at unexpected angles to let the punches, kicks, shurikens, slashes, and Jyuken strikes glide past her, not even bothering to hit back at Team 7, as if she was merely dancing with them instead of fighting.
"How is she doing that!?" Narumi growled out as her well-practiced sword slash missed her mark again. "It almost feels like I'm fighting nii-chan, but just… stranger!"
"Kukuku… you can't dream of defeating me with your pathetic half-assed attempts of defeating me. If you want even the smallest chance of laying a finger on me, you'll need to come at me with the intent to REALLY kill me." The kunoichi said condescendingly.
Sasuke had enough of this game. If she wanted to die so badly, he'd indulge her.
He began to weave through a string of handseals to use a jutsu he had been working on refining.
"Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu! (Fire Release: Dragon Flame Technique)"
A thick stream of fire starting from Sasuke's mouth flew towards the 3 fighting kunoichi, burning everything in its path as it threatened to do the same to the combatants.
Narumi and Hinata kept the kunoichi busy until the last second, before they kawarimied out of there, hoping to catch her in the flames.
The silhouette of the kunoichi writhed in the flames before it melted away into mud again.
"Shit! When did she get out of there?" Sasuke wondered, as he was sure Hinata could tell the difference between the original and the clone, and had been keeping the original busy this whole time.
The kunoichi emerged from another tree, unharmed once again, with a manic smile on her face.
"Now that's what I'm talking about. That's the kind of killing intent I want to see from you."
Team 7 grimaced as the strange kunoichi lectured them on how they should try to kill her.
'However," she began. She tilted up her hat again to show her predatory eyes.
"Why don't I show you what true killing intent is supposed to feel like?"
With Karin and Narumi's clones
Karin and Narumi exited the forest after Karin signed the forms for forfeiting at one of the gates of Training Ground 44.
They then began to search for Naruto, so they could get Naruto and Karin introduced, and to come up with a solution on what to do with Karin.
"I'm actually not 100% sure where he'd be right now. What does he do when we're not around anyway?" Narumi wondered out loud.
"Could he be at your house?" Karin asked.
"Hmmm… maybe. We could try looking for him there." Narumi replied before she turned around to lead Karin home. "Let's go! Uzumaki home, here we come!"
A few minutes later, they arrived at a large house.
Karin looked up in awe, as the somewhat modest 2 story building was still quite large with numerous apparent rooms and a wide yard. It was nothing like her tiny, dilapidated house in Kusa.
"Is this our clan compound?" She asked Narumi.
"Compound? Umm I guess? It's more like our house. We didn't really have too many members, so we didn't need too big of a house." Narumi replied as she opened the door. "Welcome to your clan house! Make yourself at home, since it might actually become your house soon!"
Karin stepped into the house and took a look around.
She was greeted by a clean, spacious, well-managed home, which was spotless, but still cozy.
"Wow… this is nice…" Karin mumbled to herself, as she took in the sight.
She assumed Naruto was very different from Narumi, judging by the numerous books that lined the shelves in the living room.
"Sealing? Is your brother into that?" Karin asked.
"Yup! So am I! It's supposed to be our clan specialty, so maybe you could learn it too! We could learn together! Oh, it'll be so much fun! I'm excited already!" One of Narumi's clones replied, while the other one opened up a pack of instant ramen.
"Hey! We're supposed to be looking for Naruto-nii, not eating ramen!" The other clone shouted at the clone who was preparing the instant ramen. "Besides! We're clones! What's the point!"
The clone with the ramen lazily waved off the stricter clone. "Yeah yeah, whatever. We can still taste you know. Might as well make the most of being home. Go and look for nii-chan while I eat for the both of us, will ya?"
The stricter clone rolled her eyes as she began to look for Naruto further inside the house, while the other clone sat at the table to wait for her ramen to finish cooking.
A few minutes later, the stricter clone emerged from the rooms.
"Yeah, he's not here. Let's go guys. Let's look somewhere else."
The clone with the ramen looked up at the stricter clone with sad puppy dog eyes.
"B-b-but the ramen JUST finished cooking!"
She stuck out her lower lips and let her big eyes sparkle sadly.
"Yeah, no. I'm not nii-chan. That face isn't going to work on ME, sister! Let's go!" the strict clone told the other clone, as she grabbed her by the arm and pulled.
"Noooo! My ramen!" The hungry clone wailed as she was dragged away.
"Wait, we're just going to leave that ramen there?" Karin asked the strict clone.
"Yes. We've got to find Naruto nii-chan. Let's go!"
Karin's stomach growled loudly right at that moment, causing Karin's cheeks to go red, matching her eyes and her hair. She had forgotten she hadn't eaten anything since before the 1st exam.
"Ummm… you mind if I grab that then? I mean, it'd be a shame to let a perfectly fine cup of ramen go to waste, right? I can eat while we walk! I promise I won't slow us down!"
The stricter clone sighed. She wasn't about to let her newly found "sister" go hungry.
"Fine. You can have that. I guess we can wait for a moment while you eat."
"Oooh! Sweet! In that case, I'll use that time to prepare another cup!" The less strict clone sang as she broke out of the strict clone's grip and ran for the ramen closet.
The strict clone shook her head as she sighed.
*sigh* "Make me one too, while you're at it…"
With Team 7
The Genin of Team 7 were absolutely frozen in terror as the mysterious kunoichi unleashed her frighteningly powerful killing intent. It felt like they were rats in the presence of a snake that wanted to swallow them whole. They had never felt anything like this in their entire lives.
"Kukukuku… now, which little rabbit should I eat first?" the kunoichi wondered to herself as she licked her lips.
The 3 Genin of Team 7 all had the same thought as they trembled in fear.
'What kind of Genin was this?'
*OMAKE*
Shizune sat at the table wondering when Izumi would come. Sure, she had known Naruto for years now, but this was her first time being alone with him. Usually, Narumi and Tsunade would take over the conversations and interactions with their big personalities, and people like Naruto and Shizune would be more of a secondary character, reacting to Narumi or Tsunade's antics.
Now that they were alone, she realized she didn't really know Naruto all that well apart from Narumi. She really hoped Izumi would come soon and be that big personality that would help them mesh.
Meanwhile Naruto was annoyed. Did Izumi think he was stupid? Not only could he sense her, but he could also see her in her stupid oversized trench coat looking at them through a stupid newspaper with holes in them. She wasn't even that far away. How did nobody else notice her? She was basically asking to be seen.
He couldn't understand what the hell she was doing, but he stayed quiet about it. For now. He knew he was gonna spend big bucks on this thank you meal for Shizune, and it would be better if he didn't have to pay for Izumi too, since he knew Izumi would have chosen something expensive to mess with him.
An awkward silence hung over the table with Shizune subtly looking towards the door, waiting for Izumi to show up, and Naruto subtly giving Izumi the stink-eye.
As such, they were both relieved when the waiter finally brought them the menu.
That relief, however, was short-lived, dying as soon as they opened up the menu.
Naruto had been ready to spend a lot of money, but it was still shocking to see how expensive the food was. He was glad he wasn't here with Narumi and vowed to keep her away from this part of town when he saw the price for the wagyu ramen.
He didn't want to overspend if he didn't have to by buying something unnecessarily expensive, but he didn't want to look cheap either by buying the cheapest thing on the menu, which was still somewhat expensive. He decided he would just buy something that was close in price range to whatever Shizune chose.
He looked up to see if Shizune had chosen.
"Huh? Are you serious? The sushi set is over 30000 ryo? What are they putting on there, gold? Oh my gosh… they actually do put gold on some of them… what a ridiculous way to raise the price. It doesn't even do anything for the taste. That's totally a scam. Maybe I'll go for something more simple like a donburi… Hmmm…. What?! The unadon is 10000 ryo? Fine… I guess unagi is somewhat expensive… wait, why is the tendon so expensive too? Is there anything that's actually reasonably priced here?" Shizune mumbled quietly to herself as she flipped the pages of the menu back and forth.
Naruto smiled when he saw Shizune raging at the menu prices like he did. It was nice to see a woman that didn't enjoy spending his money so much, unlike everyone in his life, including Narumi. He still had nightmares when he remembered the bill from Narumi's 7th birthday lunch.
"Hehhh? They even have grapes that cost over 20000 ryo? Grapes? How is that even possible? Are the grapes going to cure cancer?"
Naruto smirked. Yeah, she was alright with him.
"Listen, why don't you let me order something for us? Is there something you don't like or can't eat?"
"Not in particular, but it's really fine. I don't want to spend too much money here anyway. I'll just choose something reasonably priced, if they have anything like that here, that is." Shizune replied.
"Don't worry about the price. I'll be paying for it. I wanted to thank you for training Hinata and for being so nice to Narumi anyway."
"Are you sure? I didn't train Hinata for any kind of reward you know. Same with Narumi. I'm nice to her because I like her. I don't think it's something I need to be rewarded for."
Naruto gave her a rare smile that Shizune saw for the first time. She realized he was actually kind of handsome when he smiled.
"It's not a reward. It's just me trying to say thank you. I insist on paying for it." Naruto replied. He picked up the menu and looked over it, picking a few things in his mind. "I hope you're ok with the kaiseki set?"
Shizune nodded. Even if she didn't eat it often, she definitely could enjoy gourmet food when presented with it.
Izumi had to try so hard not to squeal in glee when she saw Naruto giving Shizune one of his genuine smiles and ordering food for her. It was like they were on an actual date! This was going great!
She put down the newspaper and opened up the menu once it was brought to her. She didn't really care about the prices, since she had already planned on putting it on Naruto's tab. 'Hehehe… I'll just consider this my commission for helping him find the perfect girl for him.'
Everything was going to plan. Good show? Check. Good meal? Check. Life was good.
She had just ordered a delicious looking sushi set, and put down her menu with a smile on her face, when she noticed a familiar face in the restaurant.
"Wait… is that…?"
At the other side of the restaurant was a man named Jiro she had arrested a few weeks ago, a man who had been obsessed with a girl and had been following her around, against her wishes. He had gotten himself a restraining order and was ordered not to be within 100 meters of her.
But here he was, wearing an oversized trench coat, hiding behind some stupid newspaper. Did he really think that was a good disguise? What a loser.
She followed his line of vision and saw the girl he was ordered to stay away from.
"Oh hell no. This is not happening. Nuh uh. Not on my watch."
She got up and walked quietly over towards the man.
The man nervously looked around the room to make sure the woman he was following didn't see him, and to make sure nobody he knew was around, when he spotted a familiar angry face approaching him.
He squinted his eyes trying to remember who it was, before he realized who it was.
"Oh shit! It's the cops!" he shouted quietly to himself, before he took off, escaping from the restaurant.
Now Izumi was pissed. She wanted to quietly and discretely warn him and go back to enjoying her dinner while watching the show that was Naruto and Shizune's date, but now she had to go through the effort of chasing down this slippery eel. She sighed before followed him out of the restaurant.
Once she exited the restaurant, she looked to the right and left, trying to see where he went.
Damn. For a civilian, he was pretty damn quick. Was he a dropout from the Academy or something?
She activated her Sharingan to pick up any clues and spotted some shoe prints that suggested someone had run away towards the alleys.
*sigh* "I'm gonna hurt this guy when I find him for making me go through this crap again."
One hour later…
Izumi ran back to the restaurant as quickly as possible, after dropping off the man. She didn't want to miss what was going on in Naruto and Shizune's date.
Izumi was worried that she might have spent more time than she intended to, giving the man some "friendly" punches as a warning, and picked up the pace.
When she returned to the restaurant, she was allowed back into the restaurant after explaining what happened.
However, when she finally entered the restaurant, she saw no sign of Naruto and Shizune. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't even leave at this point, since the chef had already made her food.
She grumbled angrily as she ate her delicious sushi. She wished she gave that man a few more blows for making her waste her precious time while she was off duty.
"Freaking Jiro… what part of stay away from her didn't he understand? Making me miss the whole show… Grrr…"
Still, the food was good, so she consoled herself with that. At least she wouldn't have to pay. She got up and prepared to leave when the waiter brought the bill to her.
"Wait, I thought I told you to put this on Naruto's bill? We were a party of 3!"
"Well, you see, Uzumaki-sama made it clear that they were a party of 2, and that he wouldn't be paying for anything else. I'm afraid you will have to foot this bill."
Izumi opened the cheque with trembling hands.
Her eyes widened when she saw the bill.
"DAMN YOU JIRO!"
Life was not good.
*Author's Note*
Back with another chapter of the Jinchuuriki's Brother! I hope you guys liked the latest chapter!
The story is not abandoned! I was just late with the update. I won't abandon the story, and if I ever do, I'll let you guys all know.
But I'm still sorry for the late update everyone. I'll be honest with you guys. I was indeed busy with my new house and setting things up and had a writer's block at some point, but I won't lie, I also used the free time I had with playing games, watching movies, and meeting people. With things being so unsettled, it was hard to get into the groove of things or have a scheduled life, and it was difficult balancing my other hobbies as well. But things with the house are close to being finished now, so I'll be able to make a schedule so I can write more regularly now! Thanks for being understanding guys.
Anyway, I see some of you guys leaving me questions on guest accounts. If you have any questions you'd like me to answer or any suggestions for the story, please leave me a PM or join my discord! I love to interact with my readers and explain things if I didn't make them clear. Here's the link for the discord. ( /HetEMkjYAv)
Thanks for reading guys! I hope you enjoyed it! I hope you guys all stay safe and have a great day!
Until next time!