Chapter 4
The Start of the Prank Tests
Naruto grinned eagerly while sitting on top of the hokage tower as he anticipated dawn. After Michiko had left, he had immediately made a bunch of shadow clones to check out the village, prepare a few pranks to start with, and to watch out for the night patrol. He planned to do a few pranks for a couple days and then for the rest of the week he would sit back and watch how they would solve the pranking. He decided he would deliberately show a younger version of himself, minus foxy appendages of course, to people he knew in his former life. To make it even more interesting, he would place a weak henge over his fox features to see if anyone would notice and dispel the henge. If they dispel it, they would see the kitsune part of him and have to figure out what the connection is between the younger looking Naruto, the kitsune features, and the pranking. His planning was disrupted by a clone approaching him to give a map of the village and were the patrols took place.
Not much had changed physically in the village except that Granny Tsunada's youthful face was added to the Hokage monument and the ramen stand he use to visit in his previous life had grown into a full-fledged restaurant. The ninja academy was still the same and he found it surprising that there wasn't that many guards patrolling inside Konoha but instead focused on the outer areas of the hidden village.
He brought out a little pocket book from the inside pocket of his trench coat and jotted down a few notes on the security of the village. Shaking his head at the inadequacy of it; he closed the book and tucked it back into his coat's pocket. He got up from his position and carefully walked down the sides of the wall to the ledge that was underneath the hokage's mission office window. Checking his surroundings carefully, both chakra senses and physical senses, he then henged himself to look like a small native bird and hopped onto the windowsill. He positioned himself to be able to look into the mission assignment office and watch the hokage monument at the same time. He then waited for Tsunada to arrive so he could unveil one of his greatest pranks ever, the painting of the monument.
He decided to do that one first to see if anyone would notice the fog he had set up to cover the monument. He was glad that Zabuza had no hard feelings and was willing to teach him that jutsu in the afterlife. This would test his villages ability to notice things and to see how they would go about solving the mystery of the vandalism. Plus he wanted to do it since it was so cool and was one of the last great pranks he pulled in his previous life. Might as well announce himself with something he was well known for.
The sun rose steadily into the sky and finally Tsunada arrived at her office at around 7 in the morning. Naruto watched quietly as she walked in. She looked so tired and worn. She still had her genjutsu on but it looked like she was now into her early thirties instead of twenties. She still wore the same kind of clothes that she wore when he first met her. Tsunada shuffled in slowly and sat down in the chair with a sigh. Shizune was following after her, carrying a stack a papers. Some chunin that he didn't recognize was also following her and carried a stack of papers too. They arranged the papers and some scrolls on the desk for what looked to be mission assignments. While Naruto was not happy about how Tsunada was looking, he grinned over the idea of how she would act as soon as she saw the new decorations on the hokage monument.
If Tsunada, Shizune, or the unnamed chunin bothered to look behind them, they would have been treated to a strange sight of a small bird flexing its' wings into what looked to be hand signs. A trill could be heard that would of translated into 'dispell' and the fog that covered the monument slowly disappeared to show something that hadn't been done in close to eight years.
The painting of the monument was, in Naruto's opinion, a work of art. He had several clones work through the night and undercover of the fog to finish this up in time for the start of the day. The 1st was painted with a pure white face with black rings around his eyes and black lips. His hair was painted black and it looked like he had a couple nose studs and eyebrow studs painted on. The 2nd was painted with bright pink hair, pink mustache, and red lips. His face was bright green. The 3rd looked lifelike and normal until you notice that it looked like he had a gushing bloody nose and his eyes were painted to look like they were staring at Tsunada's face. The words Ero-kage were painted on his forehead. The 4th was painted to look like a clown with the red nose, bright red hair, white face and blue tear marks on his face. Tsunada's face was painted to look like her real age with wrinkles and the words Granny painted on her forehead. Definitely one of his best works Naruto thought.
Tsunada, Shizune, and the unknown chunin didn't notice the additions to the monument as they were facing away from the window and still sorting scrolls. Shizune and the unknown chunin settled down to either side of Tsunada and soon a knocking could be heard on the door to the room. Tsunada adjusted herself and said "Come in."
In walked an Anbu member with a cat face on. Even though Naruto couldn't see his face; he could tell that Cat could see his work and was trembling in attempting not to laugh. Tsunada, seeing his trembling, mistaken it for fear and asked: "What is wrong Cat?"
Cat didn't say anything but simply pointed his finger at the window behind her towards the monument. Tsunada craned her neck back to look behind her and at the glimpse of the monument, she stood up quickly enough to knock down her chair. She turned full body around and stared long and hard at the monument, her fists clenching tightly. A tic appeared on her forehead when she got a good look at her face and she spun around quickly to face the trembling cat Anbu. She started out quietly as she said:
"When did this happen, who did it, AND WHY DOES IT STILL REMAIN THAT WAY!!" Yelled Tsunada at the Anbu who now trembled in fear of her temper. She pointed a finger at him and with a fiery glare said: "Your mission now is to find out how this happen with the guards patrolling at night and especially, FIND OUT WHO DID THIS!"
"Hia!" replied the cat ANBU and eagerly disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Naruto was a little disappointed that Tsunada didn't start chucking things at the Anbu but was greatly entertained by the look on her face when she saw what was done to the monument. He had to use all of his concentration and will power to not let go of the henge as he laughed in his head. Luckily, Tsunada didn't look down on the ledge were Naruto was perched or she would have been suspicious of a bird lying on its' side and beating its' wings against the ledge while twittering in a laughing matter.
Tsunada settled down again in her chair, still clenching her fist in anger. She didn't look like she would calm down anytime soon. Shizune looked at her wide eyed and kept her mouth shut. The unknown chunin made an unfortunate mistake in saying "Is that what you really look like?"
With a terrifying roar of anger, Tsunada pulled her fist back and swung her fist to give the unfortunate, unnamed, and very stupid chunin a punch that sent him out of his chair and smashing through the window right over Naruto's head. Naruto watched as the chunin went sailing off towards the monument and the arch of his flight looked like his landing would be the ladies side of a bathhouse. Naruto wished him the best of luck of getting out of there unscathed.
Naruto then realized the problem at hand with him. He wasn't acting like a real bird would and didn't leave when the chunin came smashing through the window. He decided to leave the scene before Tsunada and Shizune suspected something. He hopped away from the ledge and went around a corner to dispel the henge in secrete. It was a pity he couldn't stay longer to see how Tsunada was going to be for the rest of the day. Naruto then got a bright idea and quickly made a clone of himself and henged it into a different kind of bird to hang around the office window. Orders given, the bird quickly hopped around the corner to continue on in observing Tsunada.
Naruto had then shifted his body to take the shape of genin aged Naruto. He lightly placed a henge on his fox features to make them disappear and henged his clothes to look like his old orange jumpsuit. This would definitely make him recognizable to anyone of his class age. He was kind of happy to be in his old jumpsuit since he loved the color orange dearly. The only reason why his clothes have less orange on him is his first wife forcible beat into him that a good ninja wears dark clothes if he wants to be stealthy. He did cheat by adding the flames and the orange shirt since he thought he looked good like that since wives 2 through 9 never complained about it. He then realized that he was reminiscing too much and quickly roofed hopped over to the academy in an orange blur.
In the night he had his clones break into the school to set up some pranks on his old teacher Iruka. It wasn't part of the testing but he thought it would be pure fun to see the look on Iruka's face when the pranks were unleashed. To his pure luck, one of his clones in the exploration of the village found out that Jiraiya was staying in the village right now. He had the clone pilfer a manuscript of an unreleased 'Icha Icha Techniques' from Jiraiya's pack when Jiraiya was busy in the red light district. The clone then hid the book in the academy and placed a genjutsu on the bookcover to make it look like Iruka's edition of the textbook. The book was then placed on the desk of where he remembered Iruka taught.
He was curious to see how quick Jiraiya would notice the manuscript gone and how he would find it. Plus he wanted to see the look on Iruka's face when he opened his book to find out that in its' place was only a graphic adult book. He wondered how much of a nose bleed Iruka would get. While this really wasn't much of a test and more of just doing it for the fun of it, Naruto wanted to see how the teachers would handle his pranks and what they were teaching to the students during times of war.
Thinking of war and his old teacher made Naruto very glad he made a deal with Upstairs to tell him if any of his friends or comrades died while he was away. So far, no one he knew had died yet. He looked forward to seeing how much everyone changed over the years. This brought many questions to mind. Did Sakura get prettier? Ino lose her screechyness? Chouji fatter? Does Hinata still act like a weird dark girl? Does Shikamaru still act lazy or does he act serious now? Will Shino say more than two words in a sentence and will Kiba ever get a life? Tune in next time on… He really wished his last wife wasn't so much of a soap opera fan cause now he's thinking like one.
Anyway another question brought to mind that was really important to him was how will he react when he meets Sasuke?
The last question dredged up centuries old memories, to him, of his fight at the Valley of the End. When he last saw Sasuke, before Martin took him away, he looked miserable and regretful of killing him. Did Sasuke still regret killing him? Upstairs did tell him that the seal that was placed on Sasuke actually altered the mindset of a person and made them express more of a darker side of the personality so Orochimaru could control them easily. Sasuke was already a dark person and the seal just exasperated his condition. He hoped that some part of Sasuke was still fighting the seal and he hadn't gone to Orochimaru yet. Upstairs didn't tell him if Sasuke tried to leave the village again or if his soul was already destroyed by Orochimaru but then again, if Orochimaru had Sasuke's body then Konoha would have fallen by now. It would be foolish to deny the practicality and strength of Sasuke's eyes.
His thoughts on the subject were brought to a halt when he found himself automatically sitting in a tree that had a branch level to the window of his old classroom. He banish those thoughts to the back of his mind for later and placed a mild genjutsu on himself to make people dismiss him automatically as unimportant. He didn't want to be disturbed until his pranks were done and only then would he release that genjutsu.
He watched as children came into the classroom. Laughing loudly and jostling each other about playfully made it was hard to think that this was a school that taught children to kill and maim at a young age. He looked at the children to see if any look like his old teammates or peers but then shook his head to himself. While it may have been a long time for him, all of his friends were around the age of twenty - twenty one and would be only starting now in having families if the war wasn't happening. Besides, this class held students that should be soon graduating.
He did something that would shock his peers if they saw what he was doing now; waiting patiently and quietly for his prey.. Ahem, beloved teacher to come. The sound of footsteps could be heard from the hallway and all the students quickly sat down. Naruto took this moment of time to quickly activate some seals that his clones placed on the bottom of the chairs. The activated seals resonated like magnates of different charges with the student's chakra and caused them to be stuck to there seats. The effect would last between a half hour to an hour depending on how much chakra the student has. None of the students had tried yet to get up from there seat.
The steps got louder and the door to the room slide open to reveal someone that wasn't Iruka, but Konahamaru.
The young seventeen year old looked so much like the Third's younger self. He was dressed in the typical chunin outfit of grey pants and long sleeve shirt covered with his green flack jacket. A long blue scarf was still wound around his neck that he wore when Naruto was alive. Konahamaru greeted the classroom while adjusting the forehead protector on his head.
Naruto's eyes opened wide in disbelief at the sight before him. Konahamaru teaching? What happened to Iruka?
He watched as Konahamaru walked to the front of the room with his hands clasped behind his back and stopped by his desk where the henged book was placed. Naruto could only watch dumbfounded as he saw Konahamaru give them a smile that reminded Naruto a lot of the Third and opened the book to go over some lesson plans. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you view it, he opened the book on a very graphic climax scene.
Konahamaru's face turned a bright red that could rival a fire truck and his eyes bugged out at the scene in the book. He held that look for a second and then a flood of blood from his nose rocketed him back into the blackboard hard and knocked him out. This vividly reminded Naruto of the time he took down the Third with his Sexy Technique.
Several students tried to get up from their seats to help out Konahamaru and see what knocked him out but to their surprise, they were stuck tightly to the seats which were stuck to the floor. Naruto left his tree when the students started yelling and screaming for help.
His thoughts were in turmoil with questions. What happened to Iruka? Why was Konahamaru teaching in his place? Did Iruka get some sort of crippling wound in a mission and forced to retire? Wait! It could be a simple matter of Iruka teaching in another classroom. Naruto took off to the front entrance of the academy and entered with his genjutsu still on.
Naruto carefully checked each classroom for Iruka. He watched as chaos erupted as his pranks were triggered. Mayhem abound everywhere and teachers had difficulty in keeping order as some found themselves sticking to their seats or experienced bright orange paint bombs going off in front of them. Girls screeched in one class as it looked like the Aburame clan had stored all their bugs there. Class after class was checked but no Iruka was found. He stopped at one last classroom to look for Iruka.
He carefully opened the door to see another room in disorder. Some students were stuck to their seats while others found themselves treated to buckets of swamp water dumped on them. A bad smell could be found drifting around the teacher's desk. Naruto frowned to himself; there should have be an illusion of spiders coming from the ceiling. The teacher must of dispelled it. He looked around to find the teacher only to hear a voice coming from behind him.
"Last time I agree to be a substitute teacher." The voice sounded annoyed, feminine, and vaguely familiar. A small "Huh" escaped the voice's lips and said "So you're the one who did this. No one else would be wearing a genjutsu like you are doing right now." The voice ended with the edges of fury on it. Naruto turned himself around to find Ino staring at him.
Ino had grown up to be a very beautiful woman. Her platinum blonde hair had grown to her waist and she wore an outfit that composed of a tight purple tank top and mini skirt which showed off her figure nicely. Bandages wounded up her perfect sculpted arms and fish net stockings covered her long legs. Shin guards melded into her ninja sandals. The whole look, Naruto thought, was very sexy and made Ino a total babe. It then became obvious to him that she couldn't see through his genjutsu but sensed it instead since she didn't sound shocked at the sight of him.
Naruto took a step back to get ready for his getaway via an open window in the classroom just as Ino got rid of his genjutsu of 'Ignore me'. She gasped at the sight of a person thought long dead and stepped back in her surprise. Naruto gave her a cheeky greeting: "Looking good Ino! Perhaps a date sometime later?!" and got out of the room quickly while laughing at the look on Ino's face.
He made it out of the classroom just in time to her Ino scream "Get back here you imposter!"
Naruto quickly exited the premise by teleporting and shifted his form into that of middle age civilian. He henged his clothes to be plain and walked away slowly from the Ninja Academy's ground entrance to avoid suspicion. He luckily teleported himself before Ino jumped out of the window to chase him. Two thoughts were running in his head: "What happened to Iruka?" and "Man, was Ino hot!"
A/N: Gah! I don't know how I manage to write this long of a chapter. I usually like to stop around 2,000 words but I wanted to make some things interesting and set up for the next chapter. Rest assure, there will be more pranks happening in Konoha.
Notes on the henge technique: Just to make a few things clear for everyone. I consider the henge technique to be only illusionary where the illusion surrounding the person can interact with their moves. I know that in the show and manga it was an actual transformation as seen in the Wave arc but for this story I will make it only an illusion techinique. Naruto is powerful enough as is with his ability to shape shift into people, various ages of people, and foxes. I wanted to limit him. So henge is simply an illusion technique in this story. Hope that's clear enough for everyone.
Pairings: People have already asked me to do certain pairings and this is all what I'm going to say for now. I already have a pairing in mind. I don't do harem or boyxboy since I don't have the mindset to write it. I won't say who the pairing is. I'll dedicate a chapter to the person who can guess the pairing. Here's a hint: It's not who you think it is and I may place hints that will deliberately throw you off as to who it is. The actual pairing won't take place for a few more chapters from the look of my writing. Happy guessing!
Savanor