A freak accident during the Five Point seal of Orochimaru had an unexpected result. Instead of one Naruto there are now two; one male and one female. The girl was forced to change her name to Narumi. The boy remained as Naruto but something is off about him.
EdStargazer presents: Naruto: Split!
Uzumaki Naruto woke up sore for the first time in his months. His muscles seemed to protest his every movement as he rolled of his bed and climbs to his feet. The blond boy stumbled to his bathroom to deal with morning issues before looking into the mirror. The sight of nearly faded black eyes and a still livid pink line on his forehead was what he noticed most of all.
'Well, the cut will leave a mark but not scar too much,' he thought in disgust as he returned to his main room to stretch out his sore muscles. It took about five minutes of work before the muscles loosened up and he could move without much pain. Once that was done he went back to his bedroom to dress.
He spent his two days of confinement reading his older school texts and working on his chakra control. He moved away from leaves and used a trio of paper spitballs instead. He placed one on his forehead, one on his nose and one on his chin as he read. He chose to work on math problems while he did this exercise to make him need to focus on two different things at once.
Even so, the time passed more quickly than he thought it would. He did not mind the forced time off as the aches from his fight led to naps each afternoon. He could see what Shikamaru found enjoyable about the short breaks.
A much more subdued and grumpy Narumi woke and looked at the mess she had left the night before. She had stripped the bed and gotten herself cleaned up the night before but the dirty sheets remained in the laundry hamper.
The first few hours were spent going over the finer points of feminine hygiene. Narumi was required to wash her bedclothes by hand as an object lesson. Shizune disappeared into Tsunade's study with her teacher for a private 'discussion' about Tsunade's actions the night beforethat included a lot of yelling by Shizune. Later in the morning, Shizune was more caring on the subject than Tsunade had been the night before but the elder blonde reminded both her apprentice and student that they had gone over the fact it would happen at some point. Narumi yelled back at Tsunade that she did not expect it that soon.
After the morning had passed and the household settled down, Tsunade dragged Narumi out to the practice yard.
"Okay brat it is debriefing time. You will break down your fight with your brother and tell me what went right, went wrong and areas that you need to improve upon. Then I will tell you where you are wrong in your assessment," Tsunade instructed.
Narumi grumbled because she only felt like sitting and doing nothing but she complied. It would be a long day. Cramps only made it worse.
Narumi spent her next two days sweating in the Senju compound under the keen eyes of Tsunade and Shizune.
Naruto's confinement was over two days before the Chunin Exams were to take place. He was almost looking forward to a mission today since Kakashi-sensei said a lot of genin squads were on escort duty.
All of the orange pants he normally wore were in a box near the door. He had immediately written them off when he had undressed two days prior. Instead, he pulled a new pair of dark pants from his drawer. The money from the last Tora capture had left him enough to buy several sets of new pants after he took care of living expenses. He had enough weapons for the moment and would make sure to practice throwing them in an area he could recover his errant tosses. He was glad that he used areas that were favorites among genin and chunin. In the past, Naruto always seemed to leave with a few more weapons than he arrived with by carefully looking when he chased his own misses.
The teen chose a dark blue undershirt and slid his orange jacket over his shoulders but left the zipper open today. He began to tie his forehead protector in place when he bumped the still healing cut. He quickly tied it to his bicep instead. After one last look around the apartment to make sure his intruder tells were set up, he was off with the door locking behind him.
The small bridge where Team 7 met each day was occupied by a silent pair of brooders. Sasuke was his normal self. Sakura was more quiet than normal as she worked on braiding the grass whip she had been working on since the team had been let go after the Forest. Every so often she would brush her long hair back from her face as her fingers became more adept at her braiding.
The girl looked up at Naruto when he arrived but quickly lowered her head in shame.
"Hi Naruto," she said loud enough to be heard.
"Good morning Sakura," he replied out of sheer politeness. The boy then walked up a nearby tree and sat on a branch to wait. He plucked a leaf from it and placed it on his forehead to get some kind of training in while waiting for Kakashi.
The minutes crawled by in silence. Sakura plucked a few more long blades of grass to add to her rope and fussed with her hair a few times. Naruto shook his head slowly before commenting.
"Why not braid your hair, Sakura?" he asked.
The pink haired girl nearly jumped at the sound of Naruto's voice. She had expected something other than helpful words from him. It took her a moment to calm down and look at him with questioning eyes.
"Braid it?" she asked with a hint of hesitation.
"Yeah, braid it so it stays out of your way. That or chop it all off. Either one would work," he said in a dismissive tone.
Sakura didn't know how to respond. She did know how to braid hair but she always kept it free and flowing so it could look good for Sasuke. She had heard years before that he liked girls with long hair. That was why she, Ino and several other girls in their class and year had grown long hair.
She glanced at Sasuke and the reminder of her fading crush on the Uchiha motivated her to put down the grass rope and reach up to start braiding her hair. She started about the point of a high ponytail and worked down so the sides would pull back away from her face. Her headband got moved down to her neck for the moment as it was no longer needed to function as a hair band. She would adjust the cloth later so she could wear it as she normally did.
Sakura finished by tying off the tail end of the braid with a bit of wire since she did not have any elastics to work with. Naruto had spent the whole time watching in silence and Sakura glanced up a few times to see him just staring each time she peeked. The blond never looked away from meeting her gaze a single time.
Sasuke watched all of this in silence. He had heard about the fight between Naruto and some redheaded girl but knew nothing past that. Sakura and Ino had both been eye witnesses but neither was talking about the battle. For a pair of gossips, the girls were remarkably silent on that but he didn't press the issue. Uchiha did not beg. The brooding boy noticed the still livid pink line on Naruto's forehead and the lack of a protector on the wound while it healed. The Uchiha's rival never had a cut last that long and it make Sasuke think.
'Naruto has changed a lot since the Forest,' Sasuke thought. 'The civilians talking about the fight said he was using jutsu and still got beaten. But the girl involved was beaten badly as well.'
The dark boy decided then and walked over to the tree Naruto was sitting in.
"Naruto, fight me," the Uchiha demanded.
Naruto looked down at the glaring Sasuke and waited for about thirty seconds before replying.
"No," was Naruto's only reply.
Sasuke frowned. Naruto never turned down a shot at him. He felt he needed to prime the blond idiot a bit more before the boy would fight.
"Why not? You're not scared are you, loser?" Sasuke taunted.
Naruto arched an eyebrow and pulled out a kunai to clean his fingernails, blatantly ignoring the Uchiha.
"I'm talking to you," Sasuke growled out.
Naruto smirked down at Sasuke.
"You're not talking. You're just posturing and want to see if you can get me to fight you. I just got fined for brawling once this week. I am not going to lose another mission's pay because of you, Sasuke," Naruto replied calmly.
"A fine, is that your only worry? I can pay any number of fines and it would not dent my bank account. If we get fined I'll pay it for you," Sasuke said with a sly grin. 'That should get him,' he thought.
"Not interested," Naruto said as he slid the kunai back into his leg sheath.
Sasuke growled in annoyance.
"Get down here and fight me!" the dark haired boy shouted as he unconsciously activated his bloodline.
Naruto leaned over to one side and peered down looking bored with his left eye closed.
"Did you say something?" he casually asked in a good imitation of their teacher.
Sakura giggled at the way Naruto replied that time.
Sasuke turned red and was about to run up the tree to attack Naruto when their sensei arrived with a 'Yo' and a wave.
Sasuke turned and glared but was surprised to see Naruto hop down from the tree and casually walk to their teacher.
"Kakashi-sensei, can we skip team building exercises today and go over basic taijutsu? It seems mine is quite flawed and I need to work on it," Naruto asked in a serious tone.
Kakashi had heard about the fight a few days prior and been briefed on the outcome by the Hokage. The deficiencies in Naruto's taijutsu and other flaws had been heavily commented on. A point was also made to check in Sakura's skills as well due to some taijutsu instructor being charged with treason.
"An excellent idea, Naruto. All three of you line up in a ready stance," Kakashi said fearing the worst.
Kakashi groaned as he finally finished for the day. He had spent hours just working on and correcting the basic taijutsu stances of both Naruto and Sakura. Sasuke had learned the basic katas of his clan taijutsu before the massacre and had technique scrolls to help since then.
Kakashi had been ashamed of what Sakura and Naruto had to show for Academy training. Fortunately the girl had taught herself some basic moves after the taijutsu instructor in the Academy had ignored his students. Naruto caught on to the changes more quickly than he normally did before the Chunin Exams so that was a benefit. Kakashi felt that the team accomplished something today as two of his students showed significant progress once they had a correct basic stance to work from. They would each need a new taijutsu style eventually but the Academy style would continue to work for now.
'Was I really that neglectful that I never noticed how bad I was as a sensei for them?' he thought as he had watched the blonde and pink teens improved rapidly with proper instruction.
He frowned at the glares Sasuke had been sending at Naruto all afternoon. Something new had entered into the mix with this change in Naruto. The Sandaime had told him to watch for more behavioral changes in Naruto and he had noticed many so far. The team dynamic had already shifted immensely.
Before this, the situation had been consistent. Naruto would pursue Sakura and challenge Sasuke. Sakura would blow off Naruto or hit him and pursue Sasuke. Sasuke would ignore the other two. That situation was no longer happening.
Now, Naruto was ignoring both Sasuke and Sakura unless he needed to say something. He would offer his opinion when asked but made little small talk outside of 'business' matters. Sakura had stopped pursuing Sasuke and no longer attempted to hit Naruto even if she did not like what he was saying. Today, the rest of the new dynamic solidified with Sasuke attempting to get a rise out of Naruto and pushing the blonde haired boy for a reaction.
Naruto had finally turned on Sasuke.
"Sasuke, stop pushing me for a fight. The only way we will ever fight is in a spar overseen by Kakashi-sensei. A spar. Where we fight and stop when he says so. One where you keep your thieving shortcut eyes turned off," the blond said with venom in his voice.
"My Sharingan is not a shortcut or thieving. It is the proud dojutsu of the Uchiha clan and other clans are jealous of our gift," Sasuke snarled back at Naruto as he took a fighting stance.
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that Sasuke. Whatever helps you sleep at night," Naruto said as he turned to leave.
"Don't turn your back on me, Naruto," Sasuke said in a threatening tone as the Uchiha flushed in anger.
Naruto just kept moving. Without warning, Sasuke began to go through hand seals for his grand fireball jutsu. He was lifting his hand up to his mouth when Kakashi grabbed it and stopped the technique.
"That is quite enough Sasuke. Naruto is right that you should only spar with one another under supervision. The idea is that you all get better and support ones another's growth," Kakashi said to Sasuke with a hint of a smile in his eye.
"I don't need his help, Kakashi. I just need him and everyone else to stop holding me back. Every day I don't get stronger I fall further behind him," Sasuke growled out.
Kakashi's eye lost the look of a smile as his voice grew hard.
"Sasuke, you are getting stronger each day. And in time you will be strong enough to deal with your brother. But you want everything right now and it doesn't work like that. You need more than just power. You need to ability and training to use that power effectively," Kakashi said reasonably.
"Then teach things to me and stop passing me over for people who will never amount to anything!" Sasuke yelled as he activated his Sharingan and glared at his teacher.
Kakashi glared back at his student.
"I am teaching you with every action I take," Kakashi replied as he was beginning to lose his temper from being yelled at by a mere genin.
"You're late for training every day! You make me wait with these losers doing nothing for hours at a time while you are off doing other things!" Sasuke continued in a raised voice.
Behind him, Sakura looked upset while Naruto was frowning. Neither teen liked being insulted and this outburst killed the last thread of Sakura's crush.
"Have you even noticed what your teammates are doing the past few days while they are waiting, Sasuke? Ninja work entails a lot of waiting so you need to learn patience. Sakura is working on her finger dexterity by braiding grass. Naruto is doing chakra exercises and improving greatly in his skills there. All you have been doing is brooding. I have been trying to ease the three of you into things so you do not burn out or hurt yourselves by overextending your training. You forget that the three of you are barely out of the Academy and are still rookies," Kakashi stated firmly.
"We completed an A-rank mission. We were entered into the Chunin Exams," Sasuke tied to counter argue.
"You survived a mission that was mistakenly listed as C-rank because the client lied. If it had been hired as an A-rank you would never have been near it. As far as the Chunin Exams, I entered you because it was being held here in Konoha. I wanted this team to see what they would face in the future while still in the relative safety of our home village. It was intended as a learning experience for the three of you. If the exams had been held in another village, Team 7 would not have been entered into this most recent one," Kakashi explained in a firm tone.
Sasuke glared at Kakashi but said nothing more. The dark haired boy simply turned and walked off.
Kakashi sighed softly and shook his head slightly.
"I guess this means practice is over for today?" Naruto inquired.
Kakashi turned to his other two students and gave a weak smile. His sole visible eye did not seem to have as much humor in it as normal.
"Yes, that is all for today as far as team practice. There is nothing scheduled for tomorrow as the Chunin Exam finals are being held in the arena," the white haired teacher said before leaving quickly.
Naruto turned to gather up his gear when Sakura got up the courage to speak.
"Naruto, can we talk for a few minutes?" she asked somewhat meekly.
"What do you Sakura?" Naruto snapped out slightly annoyed.
"I just wanted to say something," she said slightly firmer. Her pride did not like being snapped at but she needed to keep a calm mind for this.
Naruto turned and stood looking at her with arms crossed. "What?" he asked bluntly.
"I know about … about you and Narumi," Sakura began.
"Duh, you saw it happen," Naruto said snidely. "Is there a point here?"
"I met Narumi the day before your fight with her. She was running from some boys that were bullies back in the Academy. She was scared and confused and she ran into me. I ended up scaring off the bullies away from her and then went to help her."
Sakura began crying. "She cringed away from me, Naruto. She was afraid of me too. She was terrified of me and looking at me like I was about to beat her to death. I had realized who she was, well had been, right then. I was getting angry at her. An ANBU stopped me and the Hokage talked to me before I could do anything else. I decided that I would make it up to her, to both of you actually. I just didn't run into you until the fight."
"What you said during your fight made me think a lot. I don't like the way I have been to you. I realized how badly I had hurt both of you and I have been trying to figure out a way to make it up to both of you," Sakura said softly.
"You can't," Naruto said breaking into Sakura's rambling.
"What?" Sakura said looking up.
"You can't make up for it. Nothing you can say or do can make up for all the abuse you heaped on me for simply trying to be nice and boost your spirits," Naruto said in a cold voice.
"Oh," was all Sakura could say in reply.
"But," Naruto said before pausing. "But, you can change how you deal with things in the future. I have been giving people a chance to change before getting back at them. I guess you deserve the same chance. I just want you to be fair to me. If I am right about something, then give me the credit for doing something right. Don't think it was a fluke and tell me someone else could do it better. If am wrong about something, I expect to be told that I am wrong, not simply be called a baka and get hit over the head. Get it?"
Sakura could only nod in reply before Naruto turned and walked off to leave Sakura standing in the training field alone with her thoughts.
Kakashi left the tree he had been hiding in and realized he had a lot to think about as well.
The Chunin Exam finals started off with a parade of daimyos in ceremonial ox drawn carts. The minor lords relished the crowds along the parade route as they rarely got that much in their own lands. The biggest disappointment so far was the no show by the Kazekage. A messenger arrived that morning stating the man was delayed and would not be arriving until much later in the day.
Since there were fifteen genin competing that meant a lot of fights for the entertainment of the spectators. A time limit of fifteen minutes was placed on each fight but most knew that the bouts would not take that long. A ninja fight rarely lasted more than a few minutes if that long. The pairings had only been made that morning so the genin only had an hour to plan their strategy.
A jonin named Hayate was the referee in the arena and announced the first matchup; Nara Shikamaru against Sabaku no Kankuro.
The bout was over in just under a minute. Kankuro began boasting about his prowess while Shikamaru simply stood and listened. After the Sand village boy made a comment about Shikamaru's mother, he dropped to one knee and held his hands in the sign of the rat and his shadow changed. It flowed like it was alive toward the hooded boy and latched onto the wrapped package on his back.
Kankuro simply fell over and a burst of chakra smoke revealed the boy was actually a puppet. Shikamaru held one hand in place to maintain his focus on the jutsu as he stepped up to the wrapped package as it lay on the ground. The wrapping fell away as the Nara heir got closer to show the true Kankuro.
Shikamaru pulled out a kunai and poked Kankuro lightly on the neck with it.
"You're dead," was all he said before looking at the judge.
"Winner, Nara Shikamaru!" was the call.
When he returned to the stands, Choji leaned over whispered to his friend. "I thought you were going to give up."
"I had planned on it," Shikamaru replied. "But he had to go and make a comment about my mom. Do you know how troublesome she would be if I did nothing about that in front of everyone?"
Choji just chuckled and nodded in agreement.
"Second Match: Hyuuga Hinata against Tenten," the announcer called out.
At the call to start, Hinata rushed towards her cousin's teammate. She knew that her defense against thrown weapons was weak and needed to get in closer. Tenten began throwing her arsenal at the Hyuuga heiress as she constantly retreated and keep out of hand to hand combat.
The crowd made appreciative sounds at the battle. Hinata was graceful and clean in her moves as was expected of a Hyuuga in combat. She almost seemed to be dancing as she dodged and deflected the weapons coming at her while she pursued her opponent.
On her part, Tenten was getting frustrated. Neji always put down his cousin and she thought it would be an easy match. Her practiced eye could see how some of Hinata's moves were sloppy compared to seeing Neji make the same ones but even so Hinata was quite a bit better than she had been told. Tenten reached into her scroll and pulled out explosive tags.
'Time to turn it up to 11,' she thought as she primed the tags attached to kunai.
The spread of kunai headed towards Hinata as the normally gentle girl scowled. She had been training harder the past couple of weeks since running into Naruto during one of her stalk-, um, recon trips. The notebook he had left her was interesting and she wanted to prove to him that she could be like that for him as well. But she needed to impress her crush before anything else.
'There is only one way past this attack' Hinata thought as she flared her chakra the moment the first tag exploded in front of her. The powerful detonations threw up smoke and dust obscuring the heiress from view.
Tenten flinched as the shockwave hit her. She landed and skid backwards some on the dirt. The crowd gasped at the explosion and its size. She was not prepared for what came out of the dust and slammed into her.
The moment before the explosion, Hinata flared her chakra and jumped. She had begun to meld the idea of the Hyuuga Kaiten with the Inuzuka Tsuuga attack. Both used a rotation but the Inuzuka jutsu was an attack while the Hyuuga jutsu was mainly for defense. It was still very raw and wasteful of chakra but it protected her from the explosives. She spun in midair much like a figure skater as she focused on her direction; which was right at Tenten. The blue sphere of chakra slammed into the bun haired teen and pushed her into the ground. The spinning chakra tore into Tenten leaving behind numerous cuts and knocking her out.
Hinata landed awkwardly but kept her feet as she was quite dizzy from the move. Pulling out one of her few kunai, she staggered over to Tenten and touched the blade to her unconscious opponent's neck in a symbolic move.
"Winner, Hyuuga Hinata," the announcer called out.
And the crowd went wild. Most of the Hyuuga sat in shock.
For nearly five seconds, Hyuuga Hiashi could have caught bugs in his mouth as he could only look and try to process the move his daughter had created. He regained his composure and schooled his features into his normal stoic façade.
'That move … has promise,' he thought as he joined in on the applause for Hinata.
The rest of the first round matches were nearly as quick. Gaara crushed one of the Rain ninja. Choji rolled over a second Rain ninja while Lee handily defeated the third. Shino easily beat Kiba with his destruction bugs swarming the dog user. Neji faced off against Ino and the girl quit before the start could be announced. Only Temari did not fight in the first round and she was matched up against Shikamaru to start the second round fights.
"Troublesome. The gods must hate me," Shikamaru muttered as he trudged down to the arena floor.
Once there, he forfeited his match.
Hinata had recovered and now stood facing Gaara. She was scared of this redhead facing her but she had to go through with the fight. Her clan's honor demanded it since she was capable of fighting.
Gaara just glared at the small girl in front of him. In her previous match she had been strong but now she quivered like a scared rabbit but still stood her ground. If nothing else, that impressed him.
The match was started and before Hinata could even move she was trapped in sand. It held her tightly and she could not escape. Slowly it pulled her close to Gaara and held her inches from his face. His green eyes peered deeply into her pearl colored ones and he saw what he needed to know.
"You have the potential to be strong. In time you might be able to prove my existence but not yet. Become strong because one day I shall find you and you shall have your chance. Then one of us will die," Gaara said in his raspy voice.
The sand cocoon lifted Hinata to the waiting area and deposited her there as the announcer called Gaara the winner.
In the silence that followed, Gaara walked out of the arena to wait for his next match.
Choji laced off against Lee but it was another quick match. Lee used his superior speed and striking power to pummel Choji until the larger boy called it quits.
Shino faced Neji but once more his destruction bugs proved a deciding factor. Since all of his best attacks were chakra based, Neji could do nothing to hold off the bugs and he soon lay on the arena floor panting and drained of nearly all his chakra.
Temari quit against Gaara before the announcer could even call them down to the arena floor. She knew better than to even let the match get called down.
Lee was excited to face Shino. The bug user had defeated a person that Lee considered his greatest rival. Shino was going to use his normal tactic but his bugs were confused since they could not detect chakra from Lee. Lee's condition that prevented him from using Ninjutsu or Genjutsu left him a blank spot to the bugs. Lee rushed ahead and leveled Shino with a single punch.
The final match would be Gaara against Lee.
Lee was bouncing in place while Gaara looked bored. At the sound of the announcer starting the match, Lee rushed ahead once more. Before he could get halfway to his opponent, the sand flipped Lee high into the air and surrounded him in a cocoon. Ten seconds later, the crushed corpse of Lee spilled to the ground while Gaara continued to look bored and having not moved from his spot.
Sarutobi sighed at the death of Guy's pupil but some deaths were going to happen. Gaara was responsible for the only deaths in the Finals as well. Sarutobi got up from his place and looked at the empty chair next to him. The Kazekage had never arrived for the Finals. This did not bode well to the old warrior. He turned and headed for the stairs to descend to the arena floor.
Gaara waited calmly but still looking bored as the Hokage emerged from the stairwell. The plan had gone well and now it would reach fruition.
"Daimyos, Citizens of Konoha and guest from all nations," Sarutobi spoke in a loud voice. "I present the winner of this Chunin Exams with the trophy and my personal congratulations on his fine performance today."
The aged leader stepped up to Gaara but the sand floor of the arena rose up around the Sandaime Hokage, surrounded and crushed him
Next Chapter: Battle Royale
Author Notes: Yes, it has been a while. PErsonal issues aside, I intend to finish everything I have started at some point.
The end of the chapter seems forced but I did not want to go into detailed fights as all too often redoing the Chunin Exam fights. It gets tedious but I highlighted a few things that would affect the future plot.
The opening bit before the story is an homage to old Marvel Comics. Back in my youth, they always had a header at the top of the opening page with the Stan Lee presenting the issue. That may continue in future chapters.