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! [Rest in Peace, Stan]
What has gone before:
Sand and Sound attacked Konoha during the Chunin Exams. Gaara of the Sand attempted to kill the Sandaime but the old man proved more than the junchuuriki could handle. The wall guards bought time for the clans to mobilize but at a fearful toll on both sides. Naruto joined in the fight when it reached his apartment house; escaping before the building was destroyed. Meanwhile Narumi defended the Arena beside Ino and Sakura under Shizune's command. Notably absent from the fighting was the Kazekage. Also not seen was Orochimaru.
The day after the fighting found Narumi helping Tsunade and Shizune with her shadow clones at the hospital. Naruto was brought by his rescuers / fighting partners Izumo and Kotetsu to a military bar when they were let off duty. After a brief encounter with the bartender which Naruto did not fully understand, they toasted the survivors and the dead.
Naruto struggled up to consciousness. His mouth felt dry and his stomach was churning. His head pounded with each beat of his heart and he wondered why he had thought it was a good idea to get drunk last night. Izumo and Kotetsu had done the same but they had experience on drinking he lacked. He had not wanted to just back down after the trouble they had getting into the bar.
"What did the bartender mean back there?" Naruto asked before they started the third round of sake.
"Look around discreetly Naruto," Izumo stated "This is a private bar. All the people allowed in have fought in battles and earned their place here among their peers. The bartender doubted your right to be here. My saying you were on My Team was me telling him you earned that right. You stood, fought and killed beside us in battle where the future outcome was grim. You could have bolted and run off but you stood. That action earns the respect of the others in this bar. They do not have to like you as a person but they will respect your actions by standing and fighting."
Naruto also realized he had expected the negative effects of drinking would simply pass him by as before any illness and hurt would vanish overnight just a month before. He no longer had the same life or recovery ability he did then.
'Remember thou art mortal,' he thought as his stomach lurched as he sat up in his borrowed sleeping bag. The spare room in Izumo's apartment held the sheet full of all he had left in the world. Some clothes, a few pots and pans, some singed scrolls and a few other personal items. Some of what he lost would be missed but after a moment of thought, he saw it all as unneeded now. The majority of items had been 'old Naruto's' things. Letting it all go was another way to make his new life his by replacing the lost items the way the 'new' Naruto wanted.
His stomach complained again as he stopped thinking and went about his morning tasks and prepared to meet with Team 7 in an hour. He did not look forward to spending time making repairs and carrying debris again but that was a genin's place in things. A pleasant surprise waited with a small plate of food waited on the table with a note saying it was for him.
Naruto strapped his nearly empty weapon pouches and holsters in place and headed out to meet his team. He avoided the areas damaged the most along his route and he arrived at the bridge Team 7 favored as a meeting point just in time. He nodded to Sakura and Sasuke before sitting on the railing to wait for Kakashi. Sakura looked at him strangely and she looked like she wanted to ask questions but a bleary eyed glare stopped her. Sasuke just sneered and made his normal dismissive sound and continued to brood.
The blond was surprised to see the masked jonin arrive at the stated hour with a mission scroll in hand.
"Good, you're here. Is everyone ready for our assignment today?" Kakashi said with forced cheerfulness. The genin looked at him in shock from his early appearance. "What? Is something on my face?"
"You're on-time, Kaka-sensei," Sakura stated. She looked at her teammates. Moments later all three genin pulled weapons and attacked the white haired man. They were quickly subdued by the jonin.
"Mah, mah, I can be on-time without being a fake you know," Kakashi said once order was restored. "But that was a good reaction for the three of you. Out of habit behavior should be noticed and acted on." His visible eye crinkled in a smile as he looked at each genin in turn.
"Now, we are assigned a patrol sector outside of the village today. We are to be looking for traps, lost weapons, and hold outs or bodies left behind by the fighting. The experience finding or not finding traps is good training for raw genin," Kakashi said in a more serious tone.
Naruto nodded and was glad they had not been assigned a combat mission but the possibility remained of there being a fight. "Kakashi-sensei, could I get an advance on the payout to pick up a few weapons. My stock got depleted in the fighting."
Sakura and Sasuke both looked at Naruto with different expressions. Sasuke looked disgusted and dismissive. Sakura was more a wondering look as she had been present for the fighting at the arena but not actually done anything past what Shizune had assigned her to do.
Kakashi nodded. "I heard about that. Word got around on who did what and a couple of chunin talked to me this morning." He pulled out a scroll from somewhere and opened it out on the ground. A drop of blood activated a seal and several bundles of high quality shuriken and kunai appeared along with a small pile of explosive tags.
"The quartermaster is issuing reloads to people who fought in defense of Konoha during the Invasion. Izumo dropped these off with me this morning after filing their after action report yesterday. He only got a glimpse of your total supplies when you joined them but everything they used and a little more is here. Well done, Naruto," Kakashi said in a solid voice with a hint of pride behind it.
Sasuke looked to take some shuriken but his hand was slapped back by Kakashi. The jonin glared at the Uchiha and let out a hint of malice. "These are Naruto's replacement weapons. He used his entire mission pack of supplies during the fighting. Sakura was at the arena helping out. What were you doing during it, Sasuke?" Kakashi asked.
Sasuke just glowered at Kakashi. He stayed silent as the jonin looked at him. He would not tell the man of the offer he had received from a white haired ninja in the Uchiha district. The offer of power to take his revenge on Itachi was a strong lure to the Uchiha.
"I was guarding my home," Sasuke merely stated; which in itself was the truth. Kakashi could not detect a lie from that statement but knew there was more unsaid. He let the matter drop for now.
During the short discussion, Naruto had been reloading his weapon pouches and storing the rest in a personal storage seal until he could get them home. Sakura merely looked at Naruto working. She noticed him altering his loadout slightly and wanted to ask a question but paused.
"Something on your mind Sakura?" Naruto had noticed her almost asking a question.
Sakura blushed slightly and decided to just go with it as she was not intruding by being asked.
"I noticed you are loading your pouches different. I had to repack a lot during the fighting in standard fashion so I noticed the difference," she managed to get out. She figured 'shop talk' was the best way to go for now.
Naruto nodded. "During the fighting I got into a lot of close battles helping out Izumo and Kotetsu. With the normal layout I kept grabbing the wrong weapon when I was rushed. So I am putting the ones I would be using where I was naturally reaching for it rather than where 'standard' has it. I figured it would be a good idea to try during training."
"That is a good idea Naruto," Kakashi said with an eye smile showing. "It shows critical thinking and working with what you can already do to improve your efficiency. A second faster in battle can be the difference in living and dying."
Naruto nodded in agreement as he understood that concept better due to having now been in a life and death fight. Sakura made a note to go over her own pouches soon. She noticed her ability and speed increasing during her repacking efforts during the fight. More practice could only help. Sasuke grunted in dismissal but noted he would do similar; when none of these losers was around to see it.
Kakashi was glad his students were learning but the reason behind it saddened him. Well, enough of those thoughts. He ushered them out of the village to begin their assigned sweep area for the morning.
Narumi woke slowly. She wanted to hold onto the feeling of her 'dream' for as long as she could. She could remember it all as if it were real. Her mother had died on her birthday just hours after giving birth to her. This would be her only memory of being held by Uzumaki Kushina and she wanted to ingrain it deeply into memory. She grabbed a piece of paper and began to make notes of her experience. She had so much to pass on and it would help to have a record of it to aid in that report.
After several pages, she finally stopped writing. She looked back over the notes before grabbing a clean page. The personal things Kushina said were going to remain personal. She might tell the boy ... tell Naruto about them but no one else for now. Despite their dislike of each other, they were still connected as family after a fashion. Tsunade and the Hokage could be told the important information they needed.
Once she was ready and cleaned up for the day in her standard uniform, she made her way to the hospital to let Tsunade know about her 'dream'. The Sannin looked puzzled but the more Narumi explained the more she understood. Tsunade realized it had to have happened as some information the redhead told her could only have come from Kushina. When Narumi handed over her notes, a momentary look of shock followed by a small nod of approval from Tsunade warmed the girl. The girl was put back to work helping the hospital staff for a few hours until Shizune took her out for some combat and weapon training.
Team 7 finished the sweep of their assigned area and found nothing of consequence. Some used weapons which Naruto held on too, some recent animal corpses and a skeleton that appeared to have been there for years with an unknown clan symbol headband the only legible marking. The locations were turned over in the report. Kakashi pointed Naruto toward the quartermaster's office to get new assigned lodgings once the Team was dismissed.
The chunin in charge merely glared at Naruto and bypassed him several times for other people waiting even though Naruto had been waiting longer. When it could no longer be avoided, the chunin deigned to help Naruto.
"You already have assigned lodgings, Genin Uzumaki," the chunin said looking at the file.
"They were destroyed in the battle," Naruto insisted but the chunin would not budge. Naturo was getting frustrated and began to raise his voice which gathered the attention of another chunin in the office. The man frowned and came over to the first chunin to pull him aside. Naruto could not hear what was said completely but when the first reared back as if hit whispering 'Koga-san served him a shot at the club?!' was followed by a nod from the second.
After composing himself, the chunin returned and spoke in a less brusque tone to Naruto. "I was just informed that your residence indeed was destroyed in the battle. I will temporarily assign you an apartment in the barracks until other arrangements can be made or your building is repaired." The chunin passed Naruto a key and a paper with an address and apartment number on it. Naruto nodded respectfully to the other chunin as he made his way out.
The new apartment was much smaller than his old one. It as little more than a room large enough for a single person to sleep in and a food prep area but all the amenities worked and it was clean. Naruto smiled and headed back to Izumo's to reclaim his remaining things.
Days passed into weeks as repairs to Konoha were accomplished with surprising speed. Genin earned their pay lifting and carrying out debris to be sorted while carrying back supplies for skilled laborers to make repairs. The only respite from this was the daily combat training after the missions for the day were carried out.
Sakura had received another wakeup call from the battle. She pressed even harder in her physical training than before while Kakashi was beginning to enjoy actually teaching the willing; running both Sakura and Naruto through forms and sparring practice in their taijutsu retraining. Sasuke kept to himself going over Uchiha style forms as he fought imaginary opponents who all looked like Itachi.
For Narumi working under Shizune, the training was to refine and adjust the skills she once had to her new body. She needed to be combat ready for genin level duty by the end of the coming month and Shizune enjoyed putting her new 'little sister' through the wringer. The jonin was proud to say that the girl would be able to fulfill her duties on schedule.
One surprise was a complaint from the civilians in Naruto's old neighborhood that Naruto was responsible for destroying his old apartment building. This complaint was promptly dismissed with prejudice by the Hokage and his advisors. All the leaders would say was that Naruto did his duty attacking invaders and the building being destroyed was collateral damage to the Invasion. Even several member of the civilian leadership that personally disliked Naruto supported him in this regard as doing one's duty properly carried more weight than any personal grievances.
Sasuke merely kept training and asking Kakashi for more personal training but the white haired jonin focused on teamwork and bringing up the training level of Naruto and Sakura. Sasuke merely saw it as Kakashi was ignoring his needs for a pair of losers who would never amount to anything. He thought back to the Invasion and the events that happened in his home during the fighting.
Sasuke heard the sound of explosions coming from various parts of the city. The Uchiha compound had been located near the center of the village near the main police station. He initially thought of running out to fight but his old anger returned. All the Uchiha had died and no one had come to their aid. He would wait until summoned and protect his legacy in the process. He did seek out the border of the compound to see what was happening. The smoke and explosions rose mainly near the wall but isolated pillars of smoke were scattered around the village.
"Magnificent, isn't it Sasuke-kun," called out a voice behind him.
Sasuke spun to face the speaker but there was no one there.
"Show yourself," Sasuke replied.
"If you wish, Sasuke-kun," came the same silky voice from the shadows.
A white-haired Ninja wearing a Konoha headband stepped into view. Sasuke recognized Kabuto from the First test of the Exams.
"What are you doing here?" Sasuke demanded. He readied for battle with a person he assumed was weaker than him. He rushed to subdue Kabuto to force answers out of the trespasser.
Kabuto lightly sidestepped the rush attack and snatched the kunai from Sasuke's hand. "Ah ah Sasuke-kun, you could hurt yourself with these weak techniques Konoha is giving you. I am only a messenger here to make you an offer."
"What kind of offer?" Sasuke growled out trying to figure how this Kabuto was so much stronger than he seemed.
"The people of the Leaf do not wish you to grow strong. They hinder your training by pairing you with a failure and a fangirl. Your sensei wastes time standing and grieving for his lost teacher and friends with a stolen Uchiha eye in his possession. They mock you each day they hold you back."
"Orochimaru intends to destroy the Leaf village, Sasuke-kun. There is no reason for you to side with them and be destroyed as well," Kabuto spoke in quiet but slick tone. "He wants you to forsake this haven of weaklings and grow strong with him. He can give you the power you need to deal with your brother."
Sasuke glared at the white haired teen in front of him; looking for signs of weakness but seeing none he could exploit. The offer was tempting. It was more than tempting in fact. "I will consider the offer," he stated.
Kabuto smiled an oily smile in response. "Consider carefully, Sasuke-kun. Your life might just hang in the balance." Kabuto departed after speaking but vanished as if he had never been there.
'This is getting unbearable,' Sasuke thought as he watched Naruto spar at Kakashi with a live blade as the jonin defended the blonde's feeble attempts. Minutes passed as the blonde was instructed in proper stance and weight shifting he should have learned in the Academy. 'This loser is cutting into my training time.'
Kakashi's voice cut into his thoughts.
"Sasuke, your turn," the white haired man said with his visible eye seeming to reflect a smile.
Sasuke rose to his feet and pulled his blade for his spar with Kakashi. As he assumed his ready position, he activated his Sharingan.
"Leave your doujitsu deactivated during our sparring Sasuke," Kakashi said in a command tone.
"I need to train it as well," Sasuke insisted. "It is not fully activated."
"We will train your eyes later on this afternoon, Sasuke. Right now we are working on making sure you can do everything physically. If you can see the attack and defense cues of your enemy without your eyes activated, it makes it more effective when you are actually fighting."
Sasuke waited over 30 seconds but Kakashi waited as well. With a glare, Sasuke shut off his doujitsu and resumed a ready position fuming inside.
When the time came to train his doujitsu, Sasuke felt that just using it to track and dodge thrown kunai was a waste of his time. He could be using it to instantly learn jutsu instead. Kabuto was right. They were trying to keep him weak.
Narumi grinned like the old Naruto as she ran to pick up her own weapons from the target range. She was close to mastering her new throwing style at last. All the daggers were embedded in the target, most in areas that indicated severely damaging hits. Shizune nodded in satisfaction at the girl's efforts showing solid progress.
"Well done, Naru-chan. You are finally up to full genin ability with your thrown kunai," Shizune said happily.
"Yay me," Narumi grumped as she resumed her position on the throwing line. "Now what?"
"You keep practicing of course," Shizune said still smiling. "Now with moving targets."
The dark haired jonin pointed to a different set of targets on ropes that moved from side to side and seemed to reverse direction at random intervals.
Narumi sighed and resumed throwing. After a full dozen misses in a row the red headed girl shouted in frustration.
"How am I supposed to hit these darn things!" she yelled.
Shizune smiled again. "The correct question, Naru-chan. Watch the pattern. When the target changes direction, then you throw and make sure to lead the motion. The jonin demonstrated a few times.
"See? I am throwing where the target will be. A normal enemy is moving in combat so you must learn to time throws accordingly. A quick reaction to a direction change with your throw means that they cannot always change again before it hits them."
Narumi frowned but threw once more, getting closer to the target each time until one hit a target just before the movement reversed itself.
"Good," Shizune said. "Keep working on your reaction times and learn to judge the speed of your target. In time, it will get easier."
Narumi frowned but nodded and kept throwing.
Jiraiya decided he could finally take a break. For weeks, he had been working on modifying the seal holding the Ichibi within Gaara. The modified seal would keep the tailed beast confined and no longer able to affect the boy's mind. One additional precaution of not allowing the Ichibi to be willingly released by Gaara was just as important. The chakra would still come out of the seal to prevent it from overloading but the beast was truly trapped for now.
The Toad Sage looked at the diagram of the original seal in disgust. The shoddiness of it grated on his nerves. It allowed the beast to drive the boy insane by denying sleep. Well, at least thte boy could recover somewhat now that his mind could rest. Weeks of forced sleep had helped some in that regard but the mental damage still remained. With luck, some counselors could aid the boy back to a level of sanity.
Konoha would be holding the boy for some time. It was one of the concessions they demanded from the Sand for peace. Eventually, the boy would be ransomed back but for now he was no longer a threat.
At least now he could go back out on the road. This town might be home but it was no longer where he belonged. He planned to depart the next morning.
Naruto growled to himself as he wrung out his sodden jacket. The teams had been split up to take care of minor damage missions around the city that did not need a full squad. During the D rank mission today, some civilian had dumped a night jar all over him. Of course the man apologized profusely, but his insincerity was obvious. The bigger indignity was that Naruto had to wait over an hour before he could rinse out his clothing. The civilian had claimed the plumbing work needed to be accomplished then and there or he would consider the mission a failure. Once Naruto went back to work, his tools and materials kept being moved about when his back was turned. Limited work space also prevented Naruto from using a shadow clone to assist.
The obstruction of the civilian kept Naruto from even finishing the mission today. The man was almost gleeful in reporting a failure in spite of Naruto's protests to the contrary. The chunin at the mission desk looked at Naruto sadly; knowing he could do nothing to help the genin.
Once he left the mission office, Naruto headed to his new apartment to rest. He was getting frustrated more and more each day. He was barely sleeping as nightmares of death and destruction plagued his sleep.
Hidden deep in his subconscious, an entity chuckled to itself 'A few more nights and this fool will try to run away. Then I can be free to regain my stolen power.'
Narumi was walking back to the Senju compound after running an errand for Shizune. It still surprised her how different things had been for her since the incident that split her and Naruto. The populace of Konoha treated her so differently now. Naruto was still treated poorly but she was not. They only knew what the Hokage had said. Naruto's twin sister was not Naruto to them. Raised by Tsunade in hiding was all they knew. A few older citizens and ninja were making connections to who their parents might be and treating her well even if Naruto still got a hard time from most. She did not like it and stood up for her 'brother' every chance she could.
"Narumi!" a voice called out to her. The redhead looked behind to see Ino and Sakura walking up behind her.
"Hey Sakura, hi Ino," Narumi said slightly hesitantly. She was still put off by the friendliness of Ino. The blonde girl kept going on about the fight with Naruto when she could get control of the conversation.
"Heading back from training?" Ino pestered the redhead. "Well, anyway, I figured we needed a break so I want to organize a girls' night for everyone we know."
Sakura looked more nervous than Narumi at the suggestion. "Are you sure that is a good idea? The pink haired girl asked her best rival.
"Of course it is!" Ino chirped in a happy tone. "I mean Narumi needs to be introduced to people and with everyone so busy the past few weeks I bet we could all use a girls' night."
Narumi blushed as images of girls the old Naruto had perved on dressed in tiny night things flashed in her mind. "Um, I would need Tsunade-sensei's permission," Narumi hedged. "I am not sure she would go for it."
"Well, why don't we ask her!" Ino almost cheered. The blonde headed off to the Senju compound with Narumi looking weakly at Sakura.
"Um," Narumi tried to express her reluctance to which Sakura just nodded. They then rushed to follow Ino who was already ducking approaching Shizune about her plans.
Shizune nodded in appreciation of Ino's idea and called over Tsunade to brief the elder blonde.
"I think that would be a good idea for Narumi to meet and make new friends. In fact, I'll host this night of yours, Ino," Tsunade said with a glint in her eye. "I know a few others to invite to it. Kurenai mentioned her student Hinata needs more group interaction."
"What do you think, Narumi?" Tsunade said with a sly grin at the redhead.
Narumi just muttered. "Okay fine." not really meaning it.
The 'girls' night' happened the very next evening. The guest list was still rather limited. Many of the older people Tsunade tried to invite were busy with missions or work so only a half dozen genin from the graduating class were involved. Narumi did not even know the names of three of them past that they were Sasuke fan girls. Kurenai and Shizune ended up being the chaperones while Tsunade got more and more drunk.
Narumi just groaned and tried not to blush as much as Hinata was. She noticed that Hinata kept stealing glances at her and blushing all evening.
Naruto woke from another nightmare of pain and torture at the hands of the civilians of Konoha in the early morning hours. The dreams always ended with Naruto leaving town. The Nine Tails chuckled as it pushed the dreams back to the front of Naruto's mind each night.
'Almost there,' it thought. 'Another frustrating day for the boy and he will snap back at these insects.'
A/N: A transition chapter to set up the next arc of Split but more will be coming. It has been a long time between posts. Life always comes first but I am making time for writing again and less on video games and plain reading. Work sucks but that is the nature of work.
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