And I'm returning!
The fourth chapter of this series.
I own nothing as usual.
The same warnings apply.
And the fourth wall is a tool.
Now, the good thing is: I am alive.
Bad news, this chapter is kinda a filler.
Unfortunately, my writing might get worse.
But might see how far (or little) I can push until then.
Chapter 004: Graduation (and it's technically a filler chapter)
A sound of ringing slowly awoke the two children from their sweet sleep.
Slowly rubbing her eyes, Kyoko looked at her dear brother who looked half-asleep.
Looking around them, they yawned as they became fully conscious.
Going to do their daily morning routine before school, they started to remember some of the changes in their ninja-education; namely preparing them to kill.
To be honest, it wasn't as gruesome as some people thought, but it might be because the civilians are held to different standard than those trained for ninja life, but...
True, they didn't start dragging murderers and rapists or any sort of deranged psychopaths, while throwing children with them while saying that unless they killed the criminal they will stay there forever.
Nope, the ninjas were smarter than that and had more common sense than you think (you're still dumb though, Danzo, because stripping people from their feelings is such a brillant idea! Although making a 'professional' killer without any feelings except loyalty to their village can be useful sometimes), they won't cripple possible future ninjas like that.
So the best way to help children become used to blood was to make them have tours.
Tours to forest areas that are pretty close to the vilage, and having said children hunt some small wild animals like rabbits and chickens and the likes of (relatively) very harmless animals, along with with supervision from multiple teachers and even a jonin and an anbu or two in hiding to make sure no unfortunate accidents occur.
So Kyoko and Naruto had to live for a little while in the wild (along with many others) and get food by themselves.
Their first vict- ahem- I mean meal was a wild rabbit that went too close with a net trap the sibilings made, afterwards, it ended up being stabbed and cooked and directed into their stomachs.
It was a little overcooked, but it was delicious anyways.
And that was how life in the 2nd year was, every two weeks or so, the students go to the forests to kill some non-threatening - or a less-than-harmless - animals to kill and use as food.
It was not as repulsive as outright killing a human being with no conditioning to get used at the sight of blood and corpses.
And, that was how the konoha ninja conditioned their future soldiers.
Anyways, the whole conditioning thing aside, life was more or less normal if you ignore the fact that Naruto's barsh nature was slightly affecting his sister and making her slightly wilder than normal, as she slowly started getting more involved with his pranks.
She felt that something's out of order.
But she enjoyed spending time with him anyways so she wasn't that bothered by it.
Not to mention, it's a very good stamina and agility training, and it helps them improvise their plans and think quickly.
So all in all; Kyoko wasn't as persistent about Naruto's pranks as she was, although there were some limits imposed on how insane Naruto's antics can be so Konoha can be happy nothing too crazy will happen anytime soon (coughdefilingthehokagemonumentcough).
Today was friday, which meant that Kyoko had kunoichi classes.
So Naruto, being completely uninterested in those (seriously, what would tea ceremonies and flower arranging help them with when it comes to kicking ass?) had no choice but to wait for his sister's boring class to end.
Returning home, he looked at the food they had in the fridge to take something to eat while doing his homework, because he knew his sister will raise hell if he didn't try working on it by himself at least. It was one of the things she drilled into his head, as she tried to make him more serious in his studies telling him that he might not become a hokage if he was a slacker in the ninja school.
At least he understood her opinion and made an effort although complex mathemathics kept spinning his head everytime he tried solving them.
Time went fast as he tried to finish his homework, and to be honest he was sure he still needs to look at it from his books just to make sure that it's correct.
He enjoyed it when his sister helped him with his work, but he knew he that her opinion wa true; he can't depend on her all the time so he should get smarter with or without her help (regardless of how difficult it is for his hyperactive child-like mind).
The sound of the door caught his attention, with a voice he knew very well saying "Naru-nii, I'm home!".
He stopped doing his homework and practically ran to his sister, tackling her to the floor while he was hugging her.
"Kyo-nee!" He squealed at her happily as they stood up.
Kyoko's mouth curved into a smile.
"Geez, I was only away for an hour, no need to be so dramatic as always."
"Even one hour's too long~!" came his cheeky answer.
She rolled her eyes at him, smiling gently at him.
"Maybe, I missed you too."
He laughed with her.
Kyoko went to make lunch for them.
"You better behave yourself while I'm preparing food, or I may not allow you to eat ramen okay?" Kyoko ordered him in a mock-strict tone.
Naruto stuck his tongue out at her but still knew he has to behave.
His sister really goes to make her threats real when she can be a little petty at him.
"But really sis, those kunoichi lessons sound sooo boring, why are you going to them?"
She rolled her eyes at this question; her brother never seemed to understand that those classes were fun to her.
But then again, she didn't see the excitement in trying to make ridiculous pranks that involve filling someone's house with butter as much as her brother did, so it balanced things in a way.
Not that he did that. she won't allow him to cause that much trouble. Except if the target was an enemy village or something like that, then she will allow him to cause a lot of trouble.
The lunch atmosphere was quite a normal occurence at this point, from Naruto talking about how boring class was -except the animal hunting part, those were delicious- and Kyoko slightly laughing at his near pathological dislike for studying.
The second year had just finished and the ninja teachers proved to be a bunch of jerks; sort of. Because even at the break between school years they still gave the ninja-in-training brats some sort of homework, which involves reading and training on what was necessary for jutsus to work, at least initially.
Hand seals and chakra.
"Now, repeat again dear sis; what are the twelve basic hand seals and what do they do?" Naruto asked Kyoko, looking smugly at her.
The reason for that was mostly because his sister was glaring at him, drowning in her own unyielding cute and childish anger and jealousy as he took a bite of the apple he has.
The apple he took from her as per the bet they made.
Her apple.
"This isn't funny!" she told him a little louder than usual, her glare becoming harsher at the look of his smug face.
"Oh it sure is~!" his voice and tone made it obvious that he enjoyed this way more than necessary.
She grumbled at his attitude but answered anyways "There are twelve basic hand seals, they are; monkey, dragon, rat, bird, snake, ox, dog, horse, tiger, boar, ram and hare, they are used to help moulding chakra to perform ninjutsu or genjutsu."
"Correct."
"You sound disappointed." the deadpan in Kyoko's voice was clear as she quickly took the second apple on the table. She won't let him take her second apple damn it!
Naruto pouted at her.
"But I wanted to 'help you memorise' more~!"
"You simply want to torture me more by eating my apples because our bet involved me giving you my apples as punishment for not memorising well enough."
She was being overdramatic, and she knew it.
But those are her apples!
If only Kyoko convinced him to spank her instead of taking her apples...
"That too." came his cheeky answer.
"You better not be too happy or I'll show you. How did I agree to this anyways? I thought I was the more rational one." she muttered.
Yeah, it was her brother's fault that she is getting corrupted by his attitude!
Right...
After an hour or so of rereading about what chakra was, they took a break from reading, doing whatever they pleased in their home, mostly Naruto reading whatever comics he bought from the stores, and Kyoko either reading with him or reading one of the ninja legend books she found interesting.
The sibilings fell into a routine while at school break.
Waking up, breakfast, and then covering another subject their teachers told them to; afterward 'taijutsu training' which really meant physical activities like running, push-ups, throwing a punch or a kick and sparring, they kept doing so until lunch and they either ate ramen at Ichiraku or cooked something at home, relaxing for an hour or so before they start their daily training on hand seals, afterward working on whatever part they didn't study and at night, they have their so-called 'memorisation sessions', more like a rare chance for Naruto to frustrate her when she makes mistakes.
Of course most of the saturdays and sundays, they go visit Kuroka -which more often than not they end up as dressing dolls, even though they could probably wipe the floor with her by now if they actually tried and worked together.
Naka who most of the time gave them some candies.
Their 'jiji' as Naruto put it, although he was busy most of the time, or simply go with their friends to the parks, buy some treats, or simply relax entertaining themselves watching whatever comedy /children /documentary series they find on the television, or making pictures and images and downloading them on their computer which was a gift from the Sandaime on their birthday.
And yes they have TVs, if they have computers in the hospitals, and cameras and radios used sometimes in ninja work, what's some measly TVs or PCs for entertainment?
And about the academy lessons, Hand seals were quite difficult. Other than the fact your hands required a high flexibility, you need to make sure the hand seals were more or less perfect.
Some of them were difficult than the rest, but they tried to take things slowly because the last thing they need is breaking/twisting their fingers/hands before they even graduated.
Which was difficult, especially when you are a child with too much energy in your system.
This... willl take more time than they thought.
The time went fast and it is now the third year at the academy for the Uzumakis.
Their teacher was the same teacher of their second year.
The first week was nothing more than a quick revision to the previous year.
Afterward, it was learning chakra and how to unlock it, which required at most a few days since all that physical training that the kids were doing in the previous year helped their young bodies open their tenketsu points.
Naturally (and unknown to them), thanks to their Uzumaki blood and their tenant, Kyoko and Naruto didn't need more than a few days to unlock their chakra.
And it was awesome!
That, and the fact that Naruto was so happy that he went shopping for new clothes with her without complaining.
It definitely helped that he found some orange and blue 'cool' jacket along with orange pants.
Kyoko liked a set of grey clothes; they were comfortable and suited her well enough, and she just liked them too so they bought them.
Although the cashier tried to get them to wear something more fashionable than those, the ninja children and their tastes, she lamented.
And those clothes became their normal ones to wear everywhere they went.
A month passed, and the training regime started to increase even more.
the shuriken and kunai throwing exercices now used targets that looked vaguely human instead of a bunch of circles with colored lines.
The hunting tours became once a week instead of two.
And the physical training was slightly amped up, and all the present children were put to spar with each other at least once a week.
And of course, this year, the ninja-in-training are given ninjutsu and genjutsu training.
"Ugh, sis, this is difficult!"
Naruto groaned in annoyance to his sister, failing in another attempt to successfully use the henge (transformation) technique.
"I know, but we have time to train, we can do this without worrying about the graduation."
Kyoko told him, a little frustrated at another failed attempt to cast the henge as well.
Learning jutsus was difficult, it took time and effort.
Naruto and Kyoko managed to properly learn the henge after a week or so, the kawarimi and the bunshin... not so much luck.
But in the end they have a little less than two years so they were sure they could pull it off.
Needless to say, just learning even one single jutsu made the two children giddy, although some of their uses of said jutsu after Naruto and Kyoko became good at it, especially Naruto's, left much to be desired though.
But then again, who would think of transforming into a piece of clothing and furniture to make a perfect hiding method in a hide-and-seek game other than two brats with too much energy who aren't exactly supervised in their own home?
Hopefully neither of them will think of transforming into apple or ramen.
(The next year)
It was the fourth year of the sibilings at the academy, and the Uzumaki children were themselves.
And the Uzumaki children now had a new teacher; some guy named Umino Iruka.
He was a nice guy... more or less, if you disregarded the fact that he seemed tense whenever the Uzumakis were close to him or when he is paying attention to them.
At least he was fair, even if he was seemingly more annoyed and worried around them.
Kyoko believed it was because they were pranksters (she had at some point stopped fighting Naruto's opinion when it comes to pranks, though that didn't stop her from imposing limits to the amount of craziness he has, and punishing him for crossing the craziness line... and him doing the same to her when she crosses it by eating her apple).
Naruto believed it was mostly because of the few pranks he pulled in the academy, the rest was because Iruka looked like a meanie to him.
And generally, they tried their own methods on how to befriend him.
They mostly were friendly, except the times where they thought Iruka was too tense and should loosen up.
And Kyoko had decided at some point to put an apple every morning for him on his desk, because she believed that was the nice thing to do.
Naruto was more or less happy woth doing the same, he would have probably given Iruka some ramen but he doesn't like doing that, so generally, apple it is. (that, and he heard that teachers who eat apples are jerks so...)
The training program in this year was more or less the same as the one of the previous years, but more focusing on everything.
Which was not that difficult as long you pay attention, train well and behave while in class.
Not that hard for Naruto and Kyoko, especially since they have no interest to leave each other behind.
And now after months of training, reading the academy materials, and making some back-up plans, they both felt they were prepared to pass the huge challenge that was now in front of them!
"Start the test now."
The voice of the instructor was clear in the silent room, and just as he finished, the room was slightly filled with the small noise of the ink written on paper.
'What are the names of the current strongest villages in the elemental nations?'
'What are the main three branches of the ninja arts and their definition?'
'State the main five elements.'
and another five or six questions like these, and you get what kind of questions the graduation test.
The questions weren't by any means difficult, but they required some basic knowledge about the ninja world.
Nearly an hour later, all the students exited the rooms to take a much needed break before continuing the other portions of the exams.
"Hopefully, HOPEFULLY! We scored well in the written part!" Naruto looked as if he was going to die anytime soon along with Daisuke, as Kyoko and Akane rolled their eyes.
Studying haters those twos.
Kyoko, putting aside her worry than her brother might get a bad score, was quite amused at her brother's dislike towards reading in general.
"Hopefully you won't, Naru-nii~!" She promptly hugged him, as he casually returned the hug.
"You are very lucky I had you read the history of konoha again yesterday, aren't you?" she happily asked him.
"Yeah, I am, but really, why should a question about some of the acheivements of the 4 hokages cost fifth of the test's total score though?" he pouted a little.
Yeah, he didn't get it.
The first hokage was apparently the strongest because he can make huge twigs.
The second can literally cry a river if he wanted.
His jiji can... Well he can spit a lot of cool jutsus?
The fourth killed a big furball. Big deal.
So yeah, he didn't care as much, especially since HE will become the best, believe it!
"You won't become a hokage if you can't even remember what the previous ones do, you know?" Akane asked with humor in her tone.
"It doesn't matter, because I will be the best!"
"Then you will definitely not slack now, future hokage." the teasing was strong in Kyoko's voice, causing him to give her a look.
"Anayways! we should return now, it's about time."
In the end, both sibilings got a 7/10 at shuriken and kunai throwing.
Akane and Daisuke got more or less the same results.
Not extraordinary, but good enough for a new genin-in-training.
"Kyo-nee, I'm really worried. We're not that good at the bunshin, you know?" Naruto murmured to his sister.
They were now to be tested on how good they were with the academy three jutsus.
And while Naruto and Kyoko were good enough at the henge and the kawarimi, they had quite some problem with the bunshin jutsu.
Oh sure the two could make it work , but it required some effort and patience and concentration, and even then, they would at least make ten clones.
And it was not guaranteed that they would pull it off when they are nervous in the middle of an exam, or that the proctors.
"Just... Just try your best, Ok? If you can't make a single one just make as much as you can. If you did well in the rest, then you will succeed anyway." she whispered to him as she gave him an encouraging smile that made him relax.
Yes, he can do this, he can graduate, and his sister, Daisuke and Akane can too.
(A few minutes later)
"Uzumaki Naruto!" the teacher's voice rang in the classroom, calling to the genin-hopeful.
"Transform into me."
With a beating heart, the boy formed the handseals, visualising himself looking as the teacher as much as he can.
A poof of smoke later, and a near identical clone of the teacher.
There were few mistakes, but this level is passable. The teacher nodded, and asked the boy to use the kawarimi.
He replaced himself with an empty chair that was there.
"Good, now make me some clones."
Naruto breathed deeply, focusing as much as he can, he slowly amassed and focused his chakra into the jutsu.
He shouldn't be impatient here.
"Clone technique."
What he got was ten clones that looked quite healthy instead of the near-dead ones he and his sister made when they started.
The teacher simply raised his eyes at the number, then shrugged.
Whatever, the brat succeeded, his Jonin teacher will train him in chakra control and anything else he needs.
"Great, you pass!"
"I.. I passed? ...YAY!"
Naruto's surprise made way to excitement.
"Yeah, yeah, go away, other students need to be tested."
And it got dampened by the teacher, so he just took his headband and stood on a chair in indignation.
(a few minute later)
Kyoko was gripping the headband she got after she managed to score more or less as much as her brother.
"You did it Kyo-nee!"
"Yeah!"
They both were beaming from happiness.
"Good to know you two passed as well."
Daisuke and Akane congratulated them as they sat next to the sibilings.
"Was there any doubt!?"
Naruto was in a very excited mood.
"Well, " Akane mused "I know Kyoko wouldn't have a lot of trouble, but to think a school haters such as you and Daisuke passed so easily~" she gave him an innocent smile.
"HEY!"
Both boys were clearly disagreeing with her, while Kyoko was smiling to herself.
It's a shame that the teams are made of 3 genins instead of four. They might have been all together in the same team then.
Now, she and her brother are just one step closer to acheiving their dreams.
AN: Well, I guess I should tell you that my update schedule is not going to be consistent, but you have probably realised that already.
That aside, the sibilings succeeded and they will get a team next chapter!
And yeah, they passed the so called "impossible bunshin test". Because it doesn't make sense that Naruto failed in Canon just because of the bunshin, when it's more likely the boy failed because of his poor manners and abysmal knowledge and skills in almost everything else. And Lee's existence proves that the "he couldn't make a normal clone" excuse makes no sense.
And a little spoiler, I'll be messing with the timeline and age of some characters to suit my story.
Well, "see" you later, and stay safe!
