Twins of the Kyuubi
A/N: The return of the mishaps of the Kyuubi vessel and his reborn side kick (or is it the other way around) I thought I did more on this story before I noticed the 3 chapters only done….heh, let's fix that. Sorry for the long wait.
Chapter 4: We're Ninja? It's that Easy?
"ZZZZZZ," Masaru snored happily in his bed as Naruto was stirring around, about to wake up. After enough thrashing around and the general sense something was wrong, the blond eventually awoke, staring around on what was going on. His vision, after rubbing his eyes clear, turned to the calendar, where he focused on today's date.
"Hmmm," Naruto said to himself while focusing, "Free Raman day….raaaa! Free raman, oh" Naruto's hopes quickly vanished as he realized that he was looking a week ahead, "Hrm….ahhh! the exam is today!"
"Don't strangle me!" Masaru shot up awake as he looked around after hearing the scream, "Why'd I say that?"
"We're going to be late for our exams!" Naruto panicked as Masaru shot out of bed, and fumbled his way into the closet, where he quickly came out with his usual clothes and cloak. Naruto attempted the same thing, but he eventually became entangled in the clothes. Eventually, after getting on and piling on a few random pieces of clothes, which oddly all were orange, the two rushed out of the door, both grabbing a random fruit off the table, Masaru accidently grabbing a single grape while Naruto a peach. The two began sprinting at high speed, bypassing many villagers who were amazed at the energy of the two kids. Naruto, who was eventually done with his peach, threw the seed at a garbage can, which missed, bounced off the can, and struck a Kanoha resident across the head.
"We can even outrun the stalkers," Masaru said as the two jumped over the academy wall. Oddly enough no one followed them the entire run, but them being blurs helped immensely.
Speeding through the halls, the duo eventually made it to the examination room. Oddly enough, even though the transformation exam happened the day before, they completely disregarded it as it was extremely too easy…
The Day Before….
"Well, this is the first day of the graduation exam for you all to become genin and leave us sensei's alone with new students," Iruka said as Masaru blinked.
"Uhhh…." Masaru was about to ask before Iruka cut him off.
"Yes, I actually gather that some senseis are relieved to be done with this generation… I still don't know why though," Iruka said looking around the class and staring at the two friends, "but teacher's relief aside, you've all come a long way learning the will of fire, but it's time now to boil down your training. This first exam will test your ability to use transformation jutsu."
"Who's that guy with the unusually happy expression on his face?" Masaru said pointing a finger at the person next to Iruka, who responded with a confused blink.
"This is one of my friends that will help with the examinations, Mizuki…but why the second part of your statement?" Iruka asked as Masaru pondered a bit.
"His smile is sort of creeping me out," Masaru said before the targeted sensei blinked again and some class mates snickered.
"Well, Iruka already told you my entire name, and it's an honor to help with the next generation of shinobi," Mizuki said as he gave a lingering stare to Naruto.
"Errr, why is he looking at me like that?" Naruto whispered to his brother…or best friend, they still hadn't exactly sorted that issue out.
"And he's giving another creepy happy expression," Masaru whispered back as he turn to the back of the class and raised his hand.
"Yes Masaru," Iruka said before Masaru stood up.
"I know I know my brother over here is good looking, but it's odd when a guy is staring at another male for so long Mizuki," Masaru said as the class bursted out laughing and the said man looked at another direction and Iruka just blinked.
"… I'm not going to even comment," Iruka muttered as he looked through the log of students and marked who actually came….before he realized he was holding an actual log, "not again." Yet again, the class began laughing, "… Naruto…."
"Hehehe," Naruto snickered as he looked at his handy work and Iruka blinked a second.
"Well, today's exam involves transformations….and apparently Naruto already demonstrated his ability, so I guess we'll have to pass him for the exam today at least.
"Yes!" Naruto pumped his fist into the air, before more transformations were dropped and the brothers swapped places, "Hehe, fooled you didn't we?"
"Uhhh…." Iruka said staring at the class as more transformations began dropping. Eventually the class began shifting positions. Where one person was sitting, they appeared in the other side of the room, and one person that was marked absent was transformed into a piece of paper on someone's desk.
"I uhh… sort of told everyone today's test was on transformations and we decided to pull this off," Masaru said smiling sheepishly as the two proctors were both dumbfounded at the situation.
"Hmm, Iruka?" Mizuki said turning to the other sensei, "do we really have to do the exams at this point if they all already used a transformation jutsu and managed to fool us?"
"I uhhh… guess not," Iruka said as he turned to the class, "You've all found a new innovative way to do this exam, you all pass today's exam!"
"Raaa, early dismissal!" a bunch of students roared as they flooded out of the room before Iruka gave the okay.
"You are dis- oh never mind," Iruka sighed looking at the emptying class. Masaru had to turn back to where Mizuki was and noticed the slightly more angrier stare at Naruto.
"He's giving you another look over….be afraid," Masaru whispered as Naruto shuddered a bit.
"Eesh, what did I do to receive that kind of attention?" Naruto said as Masaru shrugged.
"Ah whatever, let's go eat some raman."
"Ah, and now the world is normal again," Naruto said as the two walked off to find the nearest raman shop.
Now waiting at one of the large examination rooms, the two boys arrived at the extremely long lines of eagar and fearful students. The two boys sighed and took their place in the back of the line. Eventually the sensei's arrived, Iruka and Mizuki. The pair of adults turned towards the students and began addressing the class.
"today is the last examination for the Genin exams," Iruka addressed and everyone cheered, "The exam involves your mastery over the cloning jutsu."
"Haven't we abused shadow clones enough throughout our education to pass this already?" Naruto asked his partner and he just shrugged and turned his attention to the instructors, and names began being shouted out for.
One by one, each student entered the examination room. The two boys watched as each student came out with an excited or relieved face along with a headband on their head, or were looking down at the ground and sulked in the nearby cornor. That actually became a small social group as a few more students joined the sad pile.
"Guess they failed," Naruto commented as they saw another person sit with the group, no headband anywhere.
"Well, a lack of practice or care will do that to you," Masaru yawned as another name was called.
"Masaru Uzumaki," called out Mizuki and the cloaked boy walked into the room where Iruka was waiting.
"Please perform a- uhhh?" Iruka was about to order before Masaru vanished from his sights.
"Was I called?" Masaru asked back in the waiting area where Mizuki gave a surprised expression.
"What the… didn't you just go-"Mizuki said attempting to make sense of anything.
"Ugh, my clone went in again while he was holding my spot in the room, that jerk," Masaru shouted as he charged into the examination room and Iruka was caught there blinking.
"Was that a clone that was just here?" Iruka asked Masaru who was looking around the room for the clone.
"uh-huh," Masaru nodded and Iruka shrugged, "Well, you already accomplished the task, and I sort of guessed that since you and Naruto usually mess around the class with clones."
"We haven't abused them that much," Masaru said before Iruka shook his head.
"Filling up the class full of transformed clones, ditching class to go eat while the clones took notes, taking all the stalls in the bathrooms, getting extra food for lunch by transforming and cloning yourself into a line, and let's not forget the second running of the mice," Iruka listed as Masaru blinked.
"Wow… that's it? I thought we did more mayham than that," Masaru said as Iruka pulled out a headband from the pile on the table and handed it over to Masaru.
"Anyway, congratulations on graduating the ninja academy, you are now a genin of the leaf," Iruka said as Masaru went out of the room cheering, followed by a bunch of class mates, though mostly female, squealing out the usual fangirl sayings which Masaru gladly put In earplugs before running out. Mizuki looked at the young cloaked boy with disdain but went back to staring at the list of names.
"I see, it's random order for this exam," Masaru said walking up to Naruto as Masaru was fixing his newly acquired piece of clothing to his forhead, "now I wonder who's next."
"Yawn…. I'm going to go somewhere to take a nap," Naruto said making a shadow clone, "Wake me up when it's my turn, all right?"
"Got it," the clone replied and Naruto curled up in a cornor and began to drift to sleep. Masaru sat down and watched more students go in. Next went Shikimaru, who, as sleepy as he was in class, was capable of doing the test without problems. Then Choji went in, the large but fun loving (and food loving) kid that usually was referred to whenever a snack was needed during class. The question is how many pockets does this kid have and how'd he fit all the food in them. Next up: Fangirl club leader of the two most loathsome clubs: Sakura. Though people had to admit at least she studies and knows what she's doing after you get through the usual fan ranting… Enter Hinata, one of the few females now bareable to stand next to without being looked at oddly, but could barely speak. Meh, better silent than one who screams your names to the heavens. Then more names followed, Kiba and Akamaru… who I still believe is the one responsible for chewing one of my sandels to non-existance, Ino, Fangirl club leader #2, who has a parent in the interrogation unit of the ANBU so must… resist… playing prank. Then….
"Sasuke Uchiha," Mizuki said as Masaru was still in an observative daze before realizing the name.
"Oh no wait, let me get on my, where are they! AHHH!" Masaru said as the squeals already began and he was now in writhing pain on the ground, "Ack… where'd I leave them." Masaru then turned to Naruto's sleeping form. He wondered why the boy wasn't awakened by the noise before looking at his ears. 'Of course… that little thief!'
"I forget, why are we reading his thoughts again?" The Seal Reaper asked his brother who turned to the figure.
"Uhhh, I'm not hearing anything," Shinigami admitted before thinking, "Did you fully restore his soul?"
"Yeah," the reaper said looking in his large cloak, "I made sure to animate the form I gave him with his entire soul-"
Shinigami then focused on his brother and stared intensely at him. After three minutes of this, the Shinigami sighed.
"Well, this is bad," Shinigami said as the death carrier looked oddly at his brother, "His soul was restored, but fading."
"Huh?" The reaper asked as the Shinigami reached over a clawed hand and poked the being in its head.
"Oh, apparently something's forcing him back to the afterlife….now what might be causing that."
"You idiot," Shinigami said as the reaper looked confused again, "did you accidently put someone else's soul in the form as well?"
"…you know, I sort of did a sloppy job with infusing, and might of required a piece of another soul to finish up the jutsu, and now I'm hearing entire dialogues," the reaper said as he put a charred finger on where an ear would be.
"Well, it means I have to now give that person passage to at least be a conscious to them," Shinigami sighed as he had to now let a dead soul free, "Who did you use to making the binding ritual finish?"
"Errr, this individual," the reaper soon pulled out a glowing white soul from his cloak, then flinched and dropped it, "Ow, it bit me!"
"It what?" Shinigami said picking up the soul and also flinching, "Ow!"
Oddly enough, the soul began jumping angrily on the ground and Shinigami had a depressed countenance. The soul acted as if it was yelling at the god itself.
"Why did you use that one?" Shinigami asked as apparently he was able to hear the angry threats, and remarks of the soul.
"First one I was able to grab...forgot it was also one of the recent deaths at the time," the reaper admitted chuckling to itself, "now what was this about a conscious?"
"Nevermind that, having this specific being tell you what to do would be more torture then the demons of the underworld digesting your soul," the Shinigami said as he kicked the soul aside, who promptly rolled back and the god flinched again, "Arg! Reserect this one please."
"You….willing to actually let someone live?" The reaper said as he poked the soul with his scythe then grabbed it, "Come on, and don't be angry…."
"Yes….I can't endure the insults and the gnawing of my anckle…why I told you to put that in the deepest part of your cloak," the Shinigami groaned as the Reaper nodded and went off to do a reserection.
"At least I have something to listen to as I do this," the reaper muttered as he enjoyed the audio novel known as Masaru's new life to listen to as he began channeling life energy…
"Weird," Masaru said as the Uchiha came out with a headband, and more people squealing at the accomplishment, "I just had the sudden feeling I'm being watched."
"What, Mizuki's now looking at you funny?" The Naruto clone asked as Masaru turned to the being.
"Nah, something else….like something greater was observing on what we do.
"Don't get religious or phillisophical on me now Masaru," Naruto said as the blonde's name was called out.
"Well, time to wake up-"the clone said as a loud popping noise was heard and the clone dispelled. Soon, a small earthquake followed, shaking the building and Masaru went sprawling into the air.
"So this is how it feels to fly- ow," Masaru thought to himself before he met a nice, sturdy concreet wall.
"Wha?" Naruto said waking up in a panick and being tripped over by a bunch of students who were looking for the exit. Soon, the troubles stopped and everyone was sighing in relief.
"What happened?" Iruka said running out of the examination room, "everything began shaking!"
"Thank you Sensei Obvious," Mizuki said in response ending up receiving a mutter and a stare from Iruka, "All the children are fine, but I have no idea what caused that small earthquake."
"I oddly feel drained," Masaru said rubbing his head, "so that's what head injuries do."
"What the hell!" Shinigami shouted as the reaper returned with an ice cream cone at hand.
"I sort of found a faster way to do the resurrection," the reaper explained as he began licking the cone, "but I needed to do it near where Masaru was since he had a part of the soul being brought back in him, reapply the seal on him, bring back the soul, and sort of fill in the name on the test sheet and make a genjutsu to make people think they have a vague rememberance of the person."
"And you decided on an earthquake?" Shinigami added as a soul from a cockroach and mouse floated by.
"Errr….okay, a bit too extreme I guess considering some minor beings were killed," the reaper chuckled as he offered the ice cream cone to the departed pests who floated towards the food but couldn't eat it.
"And why the ice cream?" Shinigami said hyper ventelating a bit at his brother's actions.
"…I was hungry," the reply came from the figure and the Shinigami muttered something about a box, lock, and an abyss to throw the box down, "but at least now we have no danger of a premature return to the afterlife of Minato, and we got rid of that other annoying pest.."
"So I did do something right!" The reaper announced as the Shinigami just stared at his brother.
"Give me the ice cream and go do something productive," ordered the god as the seal carrier just threw the cone at the god's head and teleported off, "Ugh, it's strawberry."
"Okay, well, here I go," Naruto said as everything went back to the academy and the Blond charged into the room.
"Ah shut it you hyperactive panzy," Masaru noted something odd after hearing an insult. Being very observant, the now genin ninja was able to keep track of everyone in the class by voice. He thought of a name that would match that voice and felt funny. Soon, he performed a quick handsign jesture and then the memories of the person vanished oddly. "Some of us are doing last minute studying here."
"You always wait until the last moment to do everything, you're worse than that Naruto kid," one of the students said conversing with the individual. Masaru attempted to look for the owner of the voice, but too many people were scattered in front and Masaru guessed that it wasn't worth looking around at. Maybe what he dispelled was just some random genjutsu someone placed on him, and he just didn't talk to the person enough in to bother remembering.
"All righty, that was easy," Naruto said charging out of the room with a headband, "And I'm now an official genin!"
"Congrats….now 5 more ranks til Hokage, or so," Masaru grinned evilly as Naruto stared back at him.
"I'm going to be Hokage soon and you know it!"
"No I am oh great weapon screw-up," Masaru teased as the two joined in a staring contest.
"You two are way too girly to be Hokage," a person said from behind them.
"Uhhhh?" The two turned and stared at someone where an odd vague memory began and attempted to confuse them. Masaru didn't feel as fogged as Naruto, but turning to his brother, it looked like another light was lit for his reality…. Masaru turned to the gne that was giving off a strange feeling to his brother, him and probably many others. The girl had her hair tied and braided with hairbands, and it was red in color. Masaru could have guessed that her hair had to be extremely long to require that many bindings. Her eyes seemed unusually odd, as they seemed to be very distant and slightly pale, as if she just saw light for the first time in a long while. What scared Masaru a bit was the lslight lack of an iris for the girl adding to the ghostly appearance. She had on a tattered black shirt that seemed clean….but looked like she's been wearing it for awy too long with all the wrinkles and torn sections. Her pants were also black, with red stripes adorning it. But like the shirt, it was torn and worn, yet oddly new.
"And how are we girly?" Naruto said charging up to the red-headed student who laughed.
"Look at your face, you put on make up for those whiskers!" the girl laughed as Naruto stammered a bit and nearby students began snickering, "and the cloaked wonder over there, has a feminine appeal to him for odd reasons….you sure you're a guy?"
"What!" Masaru said charging up to the girl who pushed Naruto extremely hard, and sent the two blondes colliding into each other.
"Ouch, being owned by the odd one in our class," Shikimaru commented from afar as the two got up and Masaru noticed Mizuki looking at Naruto with a slight grin after the accident.
"Ow….not called for!" Naruto said as Masaru held back his brother from mauling the girl.
"Ah, let him fight," the girl said in a fighting stance, "this wait has been getting too boring."
"Let me at her Masaru, let go!" Naruto said thrashing around in Masaru's grasp, he was having a tough time restraining the blond.
"Ack, you're going to be Hokage and you can't escape from that hold?" The strange female student said before placing a kick to the side of Naruto's head, sending the two blonds sprawling towards the ground. She then leaped onto Naruto, and began mauling him in front of everyone.
"Uhhhh, Mizuki, shouldn't you do anything about this?" Kiba said watching the brutalization of the class misfit by the girl he has talked to only once….sort of….maybe….
"Err, it's Iruka's doing to handle these situations, I'm not allowed to get involved," Mizuki said as he called for said instructor, "Iruka, there's a fight out with your class."
"What?" Iruka said coming out of the room and looking as Masaru was trying to restrain the red-head as she continued to attack Naruto, who was trying to escape the onslaut.
"Kokoro!" Iruka yelled as she flailed and smashed her elbow in Masaru's face, which caused the room to flinch.
"Arg….that, ah!" Masaru groaned as he was sent flying with a well placed kicked from the girl.
"Errrr….I have no idea how this happened," Mizuki muttered as he enjoyed the situation.
"Kokoro, stop!" Iruka shouted as he ran over to her, and grabbed her arms.
"Arg!" The girl struggled as she tried breaking Iruka's grasp.
"That's it, if you can't compose yourself for the examination, you might as well leave now," Iruka said as Kokoro stopped struggling and stared.
"Wait….no," Kokoro said as Iruka looked down at her with a menacing stare.
"Leave now….consider yourself to have failed the genin exams."
"But….uhhh, don't," Kokoro said as Iruka ignored the pleading and turned to the scattered student body that consisted his class. Iruka eventually got the class in order. Kokoro just kicked over a chair and stormed out of the examination room.
"Ow," Naruto said standing up rubbing himself as Iruka remembered the two boys that were beaten, "that wasn't needed."
"Nor was the elbow to the eye," Masaru said rubbing a bruzed and blackened eye from the impact.
"You two okay?" Iruka said as the boys nodded, "Ugh, just forget about her for now, you two are moving on."
"Yeah….less head aches I guess," Masaru said stretching, "meh, leave the angry ones and washouts behind."
"Oh well," Naruto said looking at the knocked over chair and then at Mizuki, who was staring at the exit where the girl stormed off and seemed to be deep in thought. He seemed too concentrated, as if plotting something and then turned to the class.
"Well, for those who failed the exam this time around, we will be able to spend more time together on your return if you wish to improve at your abilities, everyone else, congratulations, team assignments are next week."
"Hey, that was my line," Iruka said running at the other sensei.
"You took too long."
"Ack, well what Mizuki said, team assignments next week."
"Raaa!" most of the students cheered and charged away and outside. The two brothers sighed and walked off, glad to have an annoying day of school, and hopefully the final day, done with. The two walked off, planning for a celebratory Raman meal. But ahead of them the same girl was sitting on a tree, thinking.
"Great….I screw up any chance of being Hokage….maybe I'm actually useless and a washup as everyone said."
The red headed girl just looked down at the passing students, and she began dropping leaves on their head to see how long it would take them to notice this. Eventually the activity got boring and she felt tired.
"Okay, this is beginning to suck," Kokoro said as she heard her stomach growl, "Hmmm," she looked through her pockets, and found some money, "raman time I guess…might make me feel better afterwards." Jumping off her perch, she made her way to the Raman shop she vaguely remember where it was and planned on what to buy.
A/N: Sounds like a nice place to stop at for now. And yes, the Seal Reaper was being very unusual on his actions….that's just how he rolls in this story. Don't blame him; blame the personalities of the souls in the afterlife.
Oh, and it's obvious to wonder who Kokoro actually is. The idea for the problem the reaper was having with listening in came from a book I began reading where someone started hearing the thoughts of the person they brought back to life and began to realize that the person brought to life was fading back to death. Same concept, done in thhe way a multi-personality reaper would do it.
Well, to finish off this microscopic rant, thank Dragonwolf-Tamer for the editing!