I do not own any of the Naruto characters or Kuroko no Basuke. Their ownership resides solely with Mavashi Kishimoto and Tadatoshi Fujimaki.
Normal speech - "Kurama"
Flashback – kurama
Sound effects – kurama
Chapter 3
"Hn… Please remind me again why I'm dressed up in this ridiculous outfit?"
"Troublesome… For the last time, everyone else has their job assigned to them. Frankly speaking, you were the only one left."
"Choji?"
"In charge of food and the cake."
"Kiba?"
"With his mom making sure the present is secured and ready to be given."
"Naruto? He would be perfect for this job."
"Too bad he has to keep Himawari busy until the house and everything is ready." Came the lazy reply. "And before you ask, all the girls are busy with decorations so they also had to be scratched out."
"So if all that's left is you and I, why aren't you the one doing it?"
"I'm in charge of all the co-ordination. I can't be tied down to one job incase I am needed else where."
"…Hey Shika, I have a question."
"What is it?"
"If you are in charge of everything," the sound of someone taking a deep breath is heard, " why the hell are you lounging by the pool looking up at clouds?!"
"Troublesome…"
The sound of a car stops outside a quiet house. Getting out of the car, Naruto pulls back the driver's seats and leans inside. Unbuckling and picking up Himawari, he places the seat back, closes the door and locks the car.
"Daddy, why are we are we home so early?"
"Well, I thought that we might come over for an early supper. Tomorrow Daddy has to start big people school with Uncle Shika." Naruto, who is carrying a lavender princess dress wearing Himawari, walks up to the door and walks right in without knocking. As he walks into the living room, everyone yells out.
"Happy Birthday Hima-hime!" Himawari jumps in fright before the biggest smile appears on her face. She wiggles her way out of Naruto's arms and runs into the middle of the room.
"You all remembered!" Himawari goes up to each and every person, and gives them all a hug. Everyone returns it with gusto since she is loved by all in the room. "But where is Sasuke-kyoufu? He didn't forget did he?"
Before anyone can reply, they all hear singing coming from the second floor. Everyone standing behind Himawari start struggling to hold back their laughter so they wouldn't ruin the moment. Himawari listens to the song with hearts in her eyes as a big purple dinosaur walks into the room.
"I love you
you love me
we a happy family
with a great big hug
and I kiss from me to you
won't you say you love me too"
There is a lot of shuffling and mumbling going on as everyone but Himawari, who is staring at the figure awe-struck, try their utmost not to laugh while waiting for Himawari to say something.
"Waaaaaah! Sasuke-kyoufu is Barney!"
After everyone recovered from their laughter, except for Sasuke who was sulking in the corner, they all sang happy birthday and ate cake. When someone mentioned it was time for presents, Himawari looked around in confusion.
"But where are they?" Just then Kiba walks in with a large cardboard box and sets in down in front of Himawari. Before she can open it Naruto kneels down next to her.
"You are only getting one super special gift this year Hima-hime, but it comes from everyone here and we all chipped in to get it for you."
Himawari opens the box and everyone could see the pure joy that appeared on her face. Reaching inside, she pulls out a small orange fox kit (think chibi kurama but with only one super fluffy tail).
"He's super duper cute!" Himawari giggles as the little fox kit licks her nose as he wags his tail. Looking up at her father, she asks, "Daddy, what's his name?"
"Well Hime, since he's now yours, you get to give him a name." Naruto replies with a smile.
"Hmmmm…" Himawari holds the kit up to her face and stares into its eyes as she puts on her thinking face. Everyone leans in, in anticipation as her smile reappears on her face. "Kurama," she looks at Jiriaya, "like from the books that Grandpa rights about."
Everyone looks at Naruto with a knowing look as he looks down at his daughter with pride. Kiba then walks over and leans down next to Himawari.
"Before I forget, I took Kurama to my mommy. She's good at working with animals so I asked her to make him like Akamaru. Now Kurama will be able to live just as long as you do." Kiba receives a big hug as a thank you.
After that, the party continues. Lots of photos and videos were taken. Lots of cake was thrown around. Unsurprisingly, Jiriaya was knocked out again for making a perverted remark to Tsunade. The highlight of the night was when Himawari walked up to Sasuke with big innocent eyes, Kurama following right behind her.
"Kyoufu, when were you going to tell me you were Barney?"
Later that night, as he is tucking a sleep Himawari into bed, Naruto hears a whining sound from next to his leg. He looks down to see a Kurama struggling to get onto the bed with Himawari. Naruto picks him up and gently places him on the bed.
"Look after her, okay Kurama?" He receives a quiet yip in reply. Naruto turns around and walks out the door. Looking back, he sees Himawari wrap an arm around Kurama who licks her cheek before going to sleep.
Naruto walks into UCLA's basketball gymnasium for the first practice of the season. He sees the rest of the team shooting hoops and generally fooling around. He looks around until he spots the heads of his blue and green haired friends sitting in the front row bleaches. Walking over to them he sits down between them.
"Yo, Daiki, Shintaro."
"Yo" "Good afternoon, Naruto"
Naruto met Daiki Aomine and Shintaro Midorima when he first started classes. After finding out they were both here from Japan on basketball scholarships, Naruto approached them since they would most likely be teammates in the near future. At first they were a bit cold to him since they thought he couldn't be as good as them. But, after playing a couple of games after classes, they were pleasantly surprised to find out that he was just as good as them.
After another couple of minutes that main doors to the gym bangs open and in walk two figures who Naruto knows very well.
"Kakashi-nii and Obito-nii? What are you two doing here?" Naruto asks his two brother figures in surprise.
"Yo, Naruto. Didn't Kakashi tell you that we were offered jobs to coach here?"
"No! He didn't say I heard." Both Obito and Naruto look towards Kakashi and sweat drop when they see he is ignoring them by reading a pornographic novel written by Jiriaya.
"Alright, listen up! I want everyone sitting down in the bleaches so we can get introductions out the way!" Obito shouts out to everyone. When they are all sitting down, he continues speaking. "Yo, my name is Obito Uchiha and the porn reading idiot next to me is Kakashi Hatake. We are your new coaches that have replaced last season's ones since the results produced by this team were so terrible." The older players all bristle at the jibe at them but remain quiet. "I will be handling the strategic side of things while Kakashi will be focusing on the physical part. Practices will be five days a week, twice a day, unless we are playing games. All previous team line-ups will be scrapped and we will start from fresh. Any questions?"
A third year from the back row stands up. The rest of the older team all pay attention so the newer members assume he is last year's captain.
"Yes. What if we don't agree with the way you do things? Some of us have worked hard for years to get our spot on the team. I'm not just going to allow some freshen straight out of high school to come and take away my spot!" The members around him all nod their heads while the new team members, besides Daiki, Shintaro, and Naruto, look around nervously. Naruto is sitting down with his arms crossed and eyes closed. Shintaro is applying fresh tape to his fingertips. Daiki… is sleeping.
The older students, seeing how the three freshmen are act and thinking it's a sign of disrespect, are about to get hostile. A lazy voice stops them in their tracks.
"Then leave." All eyes, besides the three freshmen, turn towards Kakashi. "No one and nothing is forcing you to be here. If you want things to continue how they were the seasons before this, I would just like to point out one crucial fact…" Kakashi pauses as he turns the page. "It's been years since UCLA has even been in the Top 4 of the NCAA with last season being the worst season this institute has had in decades. So if you want to continue that losing streak then please just leave. Changes are going to be made whether you want them to or not. Team members for games will be chosen on work ethic and how well you work with the rest of your teammates, not seniority." He looks up from his book to gaze at all the players. After a minute of no one leaving he looks book down. "Warm-up. We play a game in 20 minutes. Seniors vs Freshmen."
Even though no one was keeping score, everyone could see that the seniors were absolutely destroying the freshmen. Looking at the freshmen bench, only Naruto, Daiki, and Shintaro looked calm and collected. So far they haven't played a single minute. In fact, everyone was pretty sure that Daiki was still fast asleep. Naruto, who barely opened his eyes, and Shintaro spent their time observing everyone.
"What do you think, Shintaro?" Naruto asks without opening his eyes.
"The horoscope for Cancer today indicates that I'll be having a good day by using the bare minimum of effort." Shintaro replies while pushing up his glasses. The rest of the freshmen look at them in disbelief.
"Are you both insane?! They are destroying us out there! There is no way we can compete with them!"
The sound of laughter reaches their ears. They glance over at the seniors to see them laughing and joking about how easy the game is going for them.
"Don't you just hate when weaklings think they are great?" The lazy drawl of the person everyone thought was simply sleeping cut through the seniors' happy mood instantly. "You beat on those weaker than you and yet you go on like you just won the championship. Winning must really not happen all that often for you guys if this is the way you going on after dominating one quarter against people too nervous to fight back. Honestly, you dumbasses are just simply pathetic."
The seniors, angered by the three freshmen, make their way over to teach them a listen. Expecting the freshmen to get scared and back down, they are surprised when they do absolutely nothing, almost as if the seniors hold no importance to them.
Before things could escalate a whistle cuts through the tension in the gym, signaling the start of the second quarter.
As the seniors set up for the inbound, all of them suddenly feel as if a pressure has been put on them. Looking towards the freshmen they see Naruto, Daiki, and Shintaro step onto the court, all of them looking bored.
Daiki inbounds the ball to Naruto who waits just in front of half court for everyone to get to their positions. Once his satisfied, he slowly walks toward the three-point line while dribbling the ball with his right hand. When a defender charges out to try and steal the ball, Naruto drives towards the right, angling his body so that everyone thinks his trying to get to the corner. As he sees all the defenders shift their position to deal with him better, he uses his hand to throw a no look, behind the back pass straight in to Shintaro's hands. While he jumps to take the shot, Naruto and Daiki turn around and start walking back to their side of the court. Shintaro releases the ball with a high arc and turns around to follow his teammates. Getting to half court, he hears the sound that he has become so familiar with hearing after he shoots the ball.
Swish
Everyone stares at the ball bouncing under the hoop and then turn their gazes over to the three freshmen, who are ready and waiting for the seniors to attack. None of them believing that they had so much confidence in Shintaro's shot that they didn't even have to wait for the result.
As the seniors attack, their PG, who happens to be the captain who spoke out earlier, throws a pass to a teammate who looks open. Out of no where, Daiki is there to intercept the ball. Passing the ball to Naruto, Daike races up the court towards the hoop. Naruto drives towards half court and then throws an alley-oop to Daiki, who slams it down with one.
At the end of the practice game, all team members are on the floor trying to regain their breath while the three super freshmen are still fooling around by shooting the ball from a number of weird positions.
Obito glances over everyone before turning to Kakashi.
"We have a strong team. We can definitely win this championship after we refine some of their less game ready skills."
"…You say something Obito?"
The crowd cheers and chants in the arena. Waving almost all of them waving flags in support of their team for the opening game of the season.
After that first practice there were a lot of changes. Then seniors, after having their pride smashed in by the three super freshmen, tried to rebel against Obito and Kakashi. That was quickly put to an end when Kakashi, with the backing of the Headmaster of the institute, kicked them right off the team. This meant that the team was now essentially made up of just freshmen, with three or four older members who didn't get involved in all the drama.
"And now, introducing UCLA's new Trio of Aces, Shintaro Midorima, Daiki Aomine, and your new captain, Naruto 'Kitsune' Namikaze!" The crowd roars their approval. After the whole senior fiasco blew out of proportions, the rest of the team came under heavy scrutiny. Almost everyone now knew of the 'Trio of Aces'.
Jogging onto the court to the sound of cheers from the home fans, the team gives them a smile and wave, although only Daiki, Shintaro, and Naruto weren't showing any nerves. Due to all the drama that occurred, everyone had high expectations for the team. When asked why they weren't as nervous as everyone else, Naruto had this to say.
"You get used to it. When I'm on the court, all I care about is beating my opponents."
As the team took to court for warm-up, they could hear their opponents making snide remarks.
"Dude, this is going to be such an easy win. We wont even have to start our main players.
"Don't you think it's a sign of disrespect? I mean, why play a team of freshmen who know they are going to lose. They are just plain pathetic."
They more comments that were made, the angrier the team would get. Yes, they were a young team but that didn't mean that they weren't serious about winning the championship.
With five minutes left until tip-off, Obito called for one last strategic meeting.
"So lets go over the game plan one last time for those of us who need it." All eyes turn towards Kakashi and Daiki, both of whom aren't if paying attention. "Daiki and Shintaro will be our main attacking force. Once the other team starts to focus on those two, we will use them as decoys, get into clear air so that Naruto has better options. Naruto will only be allowed 20 points per game unless stated otherwise. We want to keep him as a sort of secret weapon for when we make it to the play offs."
"You don't have to worry about anything Obito-nii." Naruto stands up and tightens the bands around his wrists. "We are better than them. Once we get our rhythm going, the other team won't know what hit them."
It was almost scary how true Naruto's statement came to be. Right from the tip-off, UCLA controlled them game. If it wasn't Daiki driving to the hoop or performing jump shots, and Shintaro's random three-point shots from within the opponents half of the court, it was the other players on the UCLA team that would somehow end up with the ball as soon as they found open space.
The only time the opponents seemed to be gaining any kind of momentum was during the final 3 minutes of the game when all three members of the Trio of Aces were on the bench. However, by that time it was already too late to do anything since UCLA had already tripled their opponent's score.
When the final buzzer went off the team went to go shake hands with their opponents. The fans, seeing the teams show of sportsmanship, clapped and cheered. Daiki however, couldn't help but get one last dig in before walking off the court.
"You know, you guys weren't wrong. This match was too easy."
While the team was celebrating their win and the amazing start to their season, the scouts that came to the game to check out the competition left the arena feeling very nervous. With both Daiki and Shintaro scoring over 40 points this game, all of scouts had the plan to tell their respective teams to focus on shutting down what they thought to be the biggest threats.
The season basically followed the first game, with the team winning most of their games easily. Only struggling against the top four teams in the country. Even then, they managed to pull out three victories, losing only to last year's champs by a small margin.
Due to having such a good season, the team was getting lots of publicity, especially Daiki and Shintaro. With the team averaging over 100 points per game, with Daiki and Shintaro leading the team in scoring, it was no wonder that everyone wanted to know what happened to change the UCLA basketball team so drastically compared to previous years.
In an interview given before the play-offs, where fans and opposition were hoping to get some much-needed answers, Daiki and Shintaro just managed to confuse everyone to new lengths.
Sitting in a conference room after the final practice before the play-offs, Daiki and Shintaro were giving out answers calmly when a question was posed that changed the mood in the room entirely.
"So, out of the two of you, who do you think is the best player on the team?" All the reporters we leaning forward in anticipation, expecting so tension to form between the two players. The reaction the got was not one any of them were expecting at all.
Daiki and Shintaro looked at each other before bursting out into laughter. The reporters looked at each other in confusion, not knowing what caused this reaction. Eventually it was Shintaro that shed some light on the matter.
"Neither of us hold the title of best player on the team." This shocked everyone in the room besides Daiki. "Does anyone have a stat sheet of the team on them? If so, I would like you to read out the stats of Naruto Namikaze."
One reporter in the back stands up, confused but complying with the request made.
"Naruto Namikaze's stats per game for the season are as follows: 20 points; 17.3 assists; 11.8 steals; 4.2 blocks." The rest of the room is shocked after hearing this, wondering how they could have over looked a player with such amazing stats.
"After hearing all that, I would just like to point out a few things. In every single game he has played this season, Naruto has scored exactly 20 points without fail. The reason for not scoring more is that Coach Obito put a restriction on him. In fact, he has ended most of his games this season with a triple-double. The coach wanted to keep him a secret as much as possible so he told Daiki and myself to score and be flash as much as possible. Now however, with coach not wanting to take any chances so late in the season, he has been given permission to stop holding back in matches. In all honesty, Naruto is undoubtedly the best player on the team."
After giving that very enlightening answer, Shintaro and Daiki left a stunned and silent room of reporters, Daiki still unable to contain his snickers.
The play-offs and finals would all be happening in one week, with the finals on Sunday. The top 32 teams for the regular season would be competing. Even with an incredible regular season, due to previous seasons' track records, UCLA were only ranked 12th in the nation. A lot of people thought that their run this year was nothing but a fluke.
The team, however were not letting all the negative comments get to them. In the locker room before their first game, Obito was going over some last minute instructions.
"Our opponents today are ranked forth for the play-offs. Even though we have beaten them previously, I want know one to get complacent and make any silly mistakes." He looks around to see all the players nodding their heads. "Naruto," said boy sits up straighter at being called, "you have free reign to go all out again. You, Daiki, and Shintaro will only all be on the court together for the first quarter. After that I'll be rotating you guys so that you are well rested for upcoming matches. You also don't have to old back anymore since we have achieved our goal for this season so go wild."
A very particular smile slowly started to form on Naruto's face. The entire team felt shivers run down their spine as they have only ever seen that smile when he was about to pull-off an outrageously elaborated prank on someone. Usually, his victim would have to endure a week of humiliation as pictures would be handed out around campus the next day.
"Don't worry Obito-nii, they wont know what hit them." Naruto then leaves the locker room with a skip in his step. Everyone turns to Obito with blank stares as Kakashi voices the question on all their minds.
"What have you done?" Turns out that the team had every right to be scared.
After tip-off, which was won by UCLA, Naruto was slowly dribbling the ball down the caught. The smile he had on his face was so big that it looked like he had his eyes closed. Seeing as the opponents were marking both Daiki and Shitaro very tightly, Naruto just jumped up and mad the shot before he got any near the three-throw line.
Swish
Everyone turned to Naruto and watched the expression on his face chang from happy-go-lucky, to a predatory grin.
"The Kitsune has finally been let loose."
After the game, a lot of people who put a bet on UCLA losing were shocked into silence. UCLA completely dominated the game with both Daiki and Shintaro scoring over 30 points. Even more surprising was the stats that Naruto put up: 54 points; 14 assists; 17 steals; 3 blocks. People were finally starting to give credit to the interview given by Daiki and Shintaro.
In the locker room after the game, Naruto was skipping around in a circle, happy that he was finally able to play without restrictions. The rest of the team were watching on in amusement. Things became funnier when Shika came in with HImawari, who as soon as seeing the way her father was acting, climd out of Shika's arms and joined her dad in skipping around. This just added to the team's good mood as they took pictures and videos of the pair.
In the post-game conference, Naruto was sitting in front of a room full of sport reporters with Himawari on his lap.
"Naruto, can you explain to us the strategy that was used during today's game? It was very different from the one UCLA used for the entire regular season."
After putting a sweet in Himawari's mouth so that he she wouldn't speak out of turn, Naruto answered.
"Well, the strategy we used in the regular season was because we decided we didn't want to give away all our secrets. The plan was for me to provide support for Daiki and Shintaro. Now that we are in the play-offs, I don't really have any reason to hold myself back. Plus, not to sound conceited or anything, we knew that other teams would have focused their practice sessions on stopping our two highest scorers, who are both leading the NCAA in points per game this season, so having me play with no restrictions throws a spanner in the works."
"What are your thoughts on North Carolina, the only team that managed to beat you this season so far?"
"Booooooo-hmmmmm" the rest of the room laughs as Naruto covers Himawari's mouth after her outburst.
"Honestly speaking, beating us when we aren't playing our best isn't really that much of an accomplishment. If we were playing at our best then I have no doubt that we would have won that game. I'm not saying that North Carolina is a bad team, they are number one in the country, but to celebrate like you just won the championship is a bit immature."
"So you are pretty confident that you will beat them if the two teams meet in the semi-finals?"
"If everyone on the team is at full health and plays the way we have been playing this season then I don't see why we wouldn't win. What a lot of people fail to see is that it's not just me, Shintaro, and Daiki on this team. We are 15 players on this team, all of whom have played this season. Yes, the three of us are the core but we can't play every single minute of every single game. If you watch the games closely, even when the three of us are resting on the bench, in most games the rest of the team has done just fine without us. We are a team based on teamwork, not individuals." Naruto lets that sink in before standing up and putting Himawari on his shoulders. "Thank you, no more questions."
In the quarter-finals UCLA dominated their match again. All three Aces score over 30 points with Naruto finishing off with another triple-double. The next day they would play North Carolina, the most anticipated match of the season thanks to all the hype its been getting by both fans and players alike.
Jogging onto the court full of confidence, Naruto and the team were expecting to play their toughest match yet. Having made it to the sem-finals, they were to play against North Carolina; last season's champions and this season's number 1 team in the NCAA.
As soon as the match began North Carolina proved that it was possible to stop UCLA's seemingly unstoppable offense. By giving up their first and second quarters to force Daiki into receiving four personal fouls, essentially taking him out of the game, they spent the rest of the game double-teaming Shintaro. This basically meant that Naruto was the sole attacking force for the team due to everyone else just not being able to play at such a high level so soon in their collage careers.
North Carolina then shifted their focus onto rough housing Naruto as much as possible, whether he had the ball or not. At the end of the third quarter Naruto was covered in bruises, almost every movement he made caused him to either wince or flinch in pain. Due to the game being so evenly matched, even with Daiki sitting on the bench, Obito couldn't take Naruto out.
The crowd, noticing the dirty play being done started getting behind UCLA. The cheering and chanting grew to fervor pitch as the buzzer for the fourth quarter went off.
The quarter started off well enough with UCLA with Naruto pushing through the pain and creating opportunities for the rest of the team. Shintaro also managed to put away a few shots on the rare occasion he got free. Just as things seemed to be looking up, everything came crshing down…
As Naruto drove to the basket for a lay-up, a North Carolina defender jumped in the air to contest it. As both players came down, the defender hooked Naruto's arm between his own arm and body, leaning his full weight down upon Naruto…
Snap
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah"
okay so a few things about this chapter and the next one or two. i won't be going into a lot of detail for the basketball matches as i want to get to the NBA as quick as possible. naruto's stats won't change to drastically from what they are now but i am thinking of having him focus on a particular playing style or skill that will most likely be his signature move. yes, naruto will date later on in life but right now its just about basketball. and no naruto isn't OP. a lot of players in collage, especially against weaker schools put out high stats almost every game. until next time