A/N: Here we go chapter 3... Catching up to the manga's starting point. Now I've pushed out the chapters so far in a fairly high rate for me... But I've been in a very literary mood. Here's hoping it holds! It's funny, I have another story that's like, 4 times as long as this one (currently) and I've almost caught up to view wise... Naruto readers vs. Megaman readers, I suppose... To those that reviewed and have enjoyed: You guys rock! That said... Please enjoy...
Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto I would attempt to find a way for Naruto to be with all the girls... except Tsunade, that'd be disturbing.
Chapter 3
-6 years later outside the gates of Konoha-
Two figures slowly approached the gates, one wearing a blood red t-shirt matching his hair color, and black cargo pants. A massive sand filled gourd rested on his back. His companion with wild blonde hair and piercing blue eyes smiled beside him. He was dressed in a white muscle shirt and white cargo pants, a bright orange fox emblazoned on the back of his shirt.
Following closely behind them was a red-haired girl wearing a burgundy t-shirt under a long sleeve fishnet shirt. She was wearing black cargo shorts to go with it. Beside her was tall figure with soft purple hair that matched his clothing. A purple leather trenchcoat, over a dark, almost black, purple t-shirt and burnt orange cargo pants. He waved at the Chunin guards who were just staring at the... Unique... group approaching them. One of the guards held up his hand, "Name and purpose for visit?"
Jace looked at them, one hand stroking his chin. "Jace is my name... You don't need to know theirs... Oh, we're here to see the Hokage. Then I think what, we're moving in here? That is what you guys wanted right?" He said looking around at his 3 adopted children who all nodded at him. Jace turned back to the guards and smiled, "We good? Or do we have to be... difficult..."
The Chunins shook their heads and motioned them to continue. Jace turned to his family and happily started to skip, yes skip, ahead of them. He reached out with one gloved hand and snapped his fingers, a large slurpee appearing in it. The 3 kids sighed and followed him into the village.
-An hour later at the Hokage tower.-
The Sandaime sighed as he looked at the mountains of paper work before him, weighing the benefits of a minor Katon jutsu when his door was kicked open by a very loud blonde youth. "Hey Gramps! I'm baaack!"
The elderly Sarutobi sighed, his thoughts of combustible work gone as Naruto burst into the door followed by Gaara, Tayuya and Jace. He smiled though, happy to see the blonde as energetic as ever. "So I-"
He was cut off as the Tayuya smacked her little brother upside the head, "And now everyone around fucking knows it! Fuckin' A, bro! Stealth is part of being a ninja." He looked up sheepishly at her and grinned before jumping onto the couch.
"Dad, Sis is picking on me again." He said with an exaggerated pout.
"I'll stop picking on you when you smarten the hell up!" She retorted. Both of them glared at each other before Gaara sighed and stepped between the two.
The container of Ichibi looked at Jace and half nodded. The purple clad man sighed and sat beside the blonde and kicked his feet up on a small table in front of him. "Both of you. Try to be.. Somewhat respectful... I mean try. For me."
The two trouble makers sighed and were about to launch into a he/she started it war when Jace cut back in, "Or I'll sic Gaara on you..." They both shut up. Gaara smiled and looked to his adopted father and half nodded.
Sarutobi leaned back in his admittedly comfy chair and sighed audibly, grabbing the attention of those in the room. "So Naruto I recognize, Tayuya I remember from your last visit... But the red headed boy here... Where's he from?"
Jace froze, "...Gaara's origins are not of consequence, suffice to say he won't be missed and..." He gestured between Naruto and himself, "He's one of us..."
The Hokage nodded, "All right then... So I take it they wish to enrol in the academy? How are their skills?"
A short laugh from Jace at that comment, "Easy mid Chunin level separate, together? They've taken down Jonins. If I didn't think they needed some time at least to get to know possible teammates, I wouldn't have brought them here for another 6 months... But they chose to come to Leaf. I said 'Hey anywhere you guys want. Mist is always fun.' But noo, had to be Konoha, right, Naruto?"
The blond smiled, "Believe it!" SMACK on the back of his head. Jace glared at him.
"Hey! What did I say about that? It irritates everyone." He sighed as the blonde laughed. He knew the boy only did it to piss him off now... But hey, signs of a good personality. Jace shrugged absentmindedly at the thought and took a long slurp from his drink. He paused for a moment and then looked at his daughter. "Tay... Do you want to go to the academy, become a Genin... All that crap?"
She looked around the room, never focusing on anyone thing while thinking of an answer. "Fuck no. Too old for that Genin crap and you know I'm better then that..." Jace smiled and nodded. "Especially since you gave me-" She stopped as her father motioned with his hand.
The Hokage raised an eyebrow as his curiosity piqued, but he decided to let it slide. "Well, if you want to become a shinobi... I could arrange a probationary Chunin period, lasting about 6 months. You'd be partnered with one of our Jonins."
She mulled it over, "Hmm, Sure... Leaf wasn't my first choice but my little brothers like it here. So anything that helps them I'm good with." In truth, she would rather be like her father, he hailed on neutrality between the clans. He got along with all sides and had friends everywhere. His sons had wanted to go to Leaf and he had admitted it was a decent enough place. Prejudiced, but that was mostly the civilians. The fellow shinobi were all good. Jace looked at her with a questioning look. She simply nodded in response.
"Well now that that's all done with... Gaara, Naruto report to the academy on Monday, Tayuya, if you could report here on Monday for a judge of your abilities and to be assigned to a Jonin." The Sandaime said in a firm, yet somehow gentle voice. "Jace, I hear you have arranged a place to live?"
Jace smiled, "I did. Bought a nice penthouse apartment. 4 bedroom, kitchen... Balcony..." He started to drift into his own thoughts at this. He'd never had a home; always wandering. Not that he didn't enjoy that lifestyle, but he was 31. About time to settle down... Somewhat anyways. "C'mon, kids. Let's leave the old man to his reading." He laughed and watched the three youths exit the room. He turned back to look at the Sandaime, "Thanks Ol' Man." And with a half wave over his shoulder, he left the room. The Hokage smiled slightly to himself, then frowned, looking at the stack of paperwork and realizing he'd just caused more for himself.
"Maybe I can make it look like an accident..." He mused going over another Katon jutsu mentally.
-2 days later, Monday-
Gaara and Naruto walked towards the academy engaged in what looked like a battle of... Silence... Which if you knew the two was something that didn't happen often. Especially with Naruto. The reason for said silence had been at breakfast that morning...
Flashback
Naruto yawned rubbing sleep from his eyes. He would never get bored of sleeping in a nice comfortable bed. He looked lazily around the kitchen; his Dad was, unsurprisingly, drinking a slurpee while eating what appeared to be cold canned ravioli. Tayuya was eating a similar meal, only with it being noodles in the shape of Kunai. Ninja-ghetti or something like that. The blonde made a face in disgust. "How do you eat that... Crap?"
Jace shrugged, "Tastes good at any temperature, lasts for a decent amount of time, And someone was hogging the stove."
Tayuya raised her hands in defence, "Hey don't look at me. I like mine cold."
It was at this point Naruto's gaze fell upon his brother, who was sitting quietly eating a bowl of ramen. Naruto paused; the last time he had checked, there had only been one serving of ramen left. One serving of HIS ramen. As it was the unspoken rule of the family that if there were less than 4 packages of ramen available they went to Naruto. The blonde was lost for words; he simply gaped at the green eyed boy in shock. Gaara looked up at him innocently, "What? I was hungry. They ate the last of the pasta and I don't do cereal." Which was true, the boy had a borderline neurotic phobia with breakfast cereal.
Naruto just started to twitch funnily, unmoving aside from involuntary spasms. Tayuya grabbed the last of her food and ran for the door, "Catch ya later, Dad! Gotta go before he blows all over my good clothes." And with that she was gone and off towards the Hokage tower.
Sand leaked from Gaara's gourd forming a shield around him... and his food, protecting it from any possible remains.
Jace was torn between 2 very large issues. On the one hand it would be cool to see someone's head explode from mental shock alone, on the other this was his kid and more importantly he'd just cleaned the house. He sighed and put down his slurpee and shook the blonde gently, "Hey! Hey it's ok. I'll buy more ramen later today... And we can go to Ichiraku's for dinner, all you can eat. Sound good?"
Naruto awoke from his state, a good thing too; only 30 seconds before critical failure. He looked at Jace. "A-all right."
"Good, now the both of you have to go off to the academy. Go on, I gotta go meet up with your sister. See you guys after all right?" Both boys nodded at him and slowly made their way to the school. Naruto still in a half daze.
End of Flashback
Gaara poked Naruto as they walked through the academy entrance, finally coming back to life the blonde snapped to attention. The first thing he did was glare at his brother then sigh dramatically. "Whatever... I'll just get you back somehow." He grinned at that, causing his brother to shudder slightly. He knew what that grin meant. Naruto glanced down to check what he was wearing, forgetting he hadn't really been paying attention that morning. He was wearing a black t-shirt with an orange fox on the front, and light blue jeans. He shrugged and looked at what his brother was wearing. Gaara had adorned himself in a black t-shirt as well, only his had the kanji for love in bright crimson on the front, also wearing blue jeans. He paused and looked up to see they had arrived at their assigned class room. He looked at Gaara and gave him a 'you first' motion.
The red head sighed, grabbed Naruto's shoulder and shoved him into the classroom. Gaara looked at the men he assumed were teachers and half bowed. The one with the scar across his face looked at the two and smiled, "You must be the new students. Class, we have 2 new kids joining us today." He looked at the blond and red head, "Your names are?"
Gaara answered for the both of them, "I'm Gaara, just Gaara... And the idiot looking one is Naruto." Naruto nodded along, and then paused.
"What whatya mean idio-" Gaara's hand clamped over the blonde's mouth as he smiled at the teacher. With that the two went up to the back of the class grabbing a couple of empty seats. Sasuke eyed them as they walked up. New students... I wonder how strong they are; bah they can't match the power of me, an Uchicha... The red head is pretty cute though, same with the blonde... Now if we remove their- And that's where his line of thought slowly degenerated to, along with a few girls in the class. Iruka sighed and started in on the class lesson.
Half an hour in, Gaara had fallen asleep sitting straight up with his eyes half open. Something that even Jace never quite figured out how he did. Naruto just stretched out his feet in boredom. Mentally sizing up the other students as possible teammates. Eh... They all look... Kinda weak, though after Dad's training I'm sure anyone would be whipped into shape. But... Some of them look good; kid with the dog on his head looks fun. Wonder if that guy with hair like a duck's ass is strong, the way all the girls ogle him. Fangirls... kinda irritating, though that blonde is kinda cute. He shrugged it off and resumed his inspection of the class.
-At the Hokage tower-
Tayuya was sitting in a corner swearing, and swearing with just a touch of swearing, waiting for her supposed new teacher. Her dad had shown up a while back and in the interest of father daughter bonding, the two were coming up with better ways to insult someone. Jace sighed after awhile checking a clock, he glanced at the red-haired girl, "So, how's your, uh," He said gesturing at a spot on his neck.
She widened her eyes and then nodded, "Good, hasn't tired me out at all, feels great, tested it a bit the other day and works like you said it would." Jace sighed in relief.
"Good to know. I'll be working on new ways to improve it over time. Right now it gives you more than enough power to match your brothers before they go all... But I should be able to push it up so it can match them afterwards as well. But I still don't want you relying on it ok?" He said as he mussed with her hair a bit.
The Hokage had been half ignoring them, though he did try to pick up on what they were talking about. He shrugged it off and checked the clock; the Jonin he had requested should be arriving... BAM the door flew open and a very irate looking woman stepped through. She was clad in fishnet, a trenchcoat and a skirt. If Jace had been a lesser man he might have fallen over with a nosebleed, but instead he just raised an eyebrow and looked at her hair. Hey. Purple hair. Cool... Though is it sad she has a darker shade then me?
Anko (like none of you figured that one out) looked at the Hokage and smiled, "So I hear you got a mission for me old man? Is it any good? Maybe an assassination or forced removal?"
The Sandaime looked at her wearily and gestured at Tayuya, "She's going to be on a probationary period for the next 6 months and I want you to watch over her, maybe train with her a bit."
"...You want me to fucking baby sit some brat?" Anko hissed.
"You want me to hang around some fucking hag?" Tayuya growled.
They both glared at each other.
"Brat!"
"Hag!"
"Brat!"
"Hag!"
This continued for awhile. Jace just smiled, got up, stretched, and looked at the Hokage. "Looks like they'll get along great. See you around, Sarutobi!" He said walking out the door laughing to himself.
-6 months later-
Mizuki ran through the forest triumphantly, he had managed to steal the Forbidden Scroll; Lord Orochimaru would be most pleased. What he didn't realize was that Jace had managed to switch the scroll with a list of karma sutra positions, yaoi style. What neither of them realized was the Snake Sennin would still appreciate this almost as much.
But on to more important things. Iruka looked at the class room of the newly appointed genins and smiled; "All right now we're assigning teams. Team 1..." This continued on until he reached the important teams. "Team 7, Sasuke Uchicha, Sakura Haruno, Kiba Inuzuka. Your sensei will be Kakashi Hatake. Team 8 will be Shikamaru Nara, Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuuga; your sensei will be Asuma Sarutobi. Team 9 will be Naruto Uzumaki, Gaara and Ino Yamanaka. Your sensei will be Kurenai Yuhi." Sakura cheered, Ino sighed, Naruto and Gaara shrugged indifferently. Iruka continued on however, "Rookie of the year goes to..."
Sasuke perked his head at that one. Gonna be me. We all know it; I'm so much superior to the rest of them. After all I'm an Uch- His inner monologue was cut short, "Gaara!" Everyone deadpanned.
Gaara half nodded as Naruto gaped at him. He looked at his blonde brother, "Just because we know all the work doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. Dead Last." He chuckled, a rarity for the redhead as Naruto fell over. Naruto of course had dismissed all the work as irrelevant as they already knew all of it. After congratulating the class once again Iruka left as the new Jonin instructors came in and picked up their teams.
-At the Hokage tower-
Jace looked at the Sandaime. "You want me to what?"
"Well you see the council has heard of your... Reputation and has asked if your unique skill set be put to use in helping the training of one of our genin teams. Not full time but just coming by and assisting the regular teacher, maybe going on a few missions with them and such." The elderly leader said softly.
"Ok... Which team?" Jace said, taking a sip form his omni-present slurpee.
"Team 7... They want you to help Kakashi Hatake with the Uchicha-"
"FUCK. Are you fucking kidding me they want me to babysit an Uchicha? I hate Uchichas! The only one I liked up and killed the others." Jace fumed, being asked to be an advanced babysitter was not on his list of life goals. He'd met the kid a few times and really did not like the boy.
"Please... I would consider it a personal favor..." Jace perked as the Sandaime said that. He smiled with only a hint of evil in it.
"Favor eh? All right then. I'll do it. But you owe me one..." He laughed he said that, getting up and leaving the office.
The Hokage thought for a moment. Wait, did I just agree to owe him? Crap...
...
A/N: And there we have the end of chapter 3. Hope you enjoyed it and it wasn't too rushed in the pacing. You might notice I totally left Chouji out, why? Because I hate him. He's overly sensitive about his weight and annoying. Hey when your fat your fat! Get over it, I did! Anyways, seeya all next time...
Next on Children of Fire... Ehh, I can't think of a good dramatic description. Ooh well.