Twins of the Seal – Chapter 2: Midnight Lavender
- Uzumaki Apartment – 2 years after the "Discovery" -
The two little orange and blonde bundles stirred awake as the sun hit their eyes. Naruko opened her eyes to see an identical pair of half-lidded eyes looking back at her as her and her brother were waking up.
Naruto yawned sleepily, making his female counter-part giggle at the cute action.
Naruko rose up first and stretched, yawning like her brother did, "Good morning, Naruto-nii," she said with a yawn as she ruffled his spiky hair, causing the blonde to groan and turn over... in the wrong direction it seemed as he rolled off the bed and onto the carpeted floor, hitting it with a dull thud. Naruto yelped as he hit the floor, cursing under his breath as he got up to a kneeling position, rubbing the back of his head that hit the floor.
Naruko on the other hand was giggling at her brother's misfortune, as this was a common happening because he slept at the open-side of the bed, as opposed to Naruko who got the wall to her back. Nevertheless it always seemed to amuse her, as he could have just asked her to sleep there, because they both knew that she was the most awake in the mornings.
Naruto just looked at his sister and rolled his eyes as he pouted, making said girl want to scream out 'Kawaii' and then glomp him, as him doing that was just too adorable in her eyes. Yet she restrained herself, so as to not make her look absolutely crazy in front of her brother... she was supposed to be the mature one after all.
"Let's go fix breakfast," Naruko said, breaking out of her giggling fit. "Hai, Naruko-nee," the boy responded drowsily to his sister, his mind still a bit hazy from sleep. Naruko used a chakra enhanced jump to fly onto the ceiling stood there for a moment, getting her balance right as she walked through the house and into the kitchen, her hair swinging around as she did, Naruto following after her, still in a daze.
Their apartment was average, containing only basic luxuries, such as a microwave, stove, dishwasher, refrigerator, etc. with mostly bland colors, seeing as this was where they slept and ate, mostly spending all other time outside, at the academy or in the library.
Naruko stood upside down in the kitchen as she walked over to one of the cupboards and pulled out a couple of bread slices, before stepping away and cutting the chakra flow in her feet, letting gravity pull her down to earth as she gracefully flipped down, as she had trained to do for a long time.
She put both of the slices of bread into the toaster on the kitchen bench as her brother walked in, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, again making his female counter-part want to glomp him. They waited for a while until the now toasted bread popped up from the electrical device.
The twins got out some butter, cheese and ham and made their sandwiches, which they enjoyed shortly thereafter, after they had gotten some apple juice and a couple of cups from a cupboard, which Naruto reached by wall walking like his sister.
"Alright, let's get going!" Naruto called out energetically as finished his juice with satisfied sigh, completely awake. Naruko promptly bonked him on the head, "You need a shower first!" she shouted at him, being the responsible sister she was.
Naruto groaned, but complied as he was lead into the bathroom for a quick shower, stepping out a few minutes later with their long hair hanging down to the small of their backs and framing their faces in a golden frame as they were drying it.
Naruko performed a couple of hand seals, ending in a tiger sign, "Katon: Kansō-ha," the girl called out as she let out a slow breath, letting the pent-up heat escape from her body and into the room, drying her and her brother with the low-level fire Jutsu.
"Arigatou, Naruko-nee," the blonde boy said to his sister as he went to get their clothes from the closet, not bothering with a towel as they were both comfortable with their sibling, and they lived alone, aside from their surrogate-mother, who lived inside them, so she could see through their eyes and talk to them, but she saw nothing wrong with this either, so they kept doing it either way.
Naruto got back with their clothes and they got dressed, having changed their wardrobe slightly by adding an orange sleeveless Haori with black flames and a black whirlpool on the back, and Naruko wrapping her chest in bandages as her chest was starting to grow; apparently she was an early bloomer in that regard, possibly due to who was sealed inside them.
"Alright, now we can go," Naruko said as she threw on her Haori, her male twin doing the same with his, the usual grin in place as they ran to their bedroom, shooting out of the open window and onto the rooftops; the cold morning air flying by their faces.
The twins' apartment was in a two story building; with them being on the second story.
The twins ran through the alleys and backstreets of Konoha to avoid the common populous; who they were less than popular with because of their pranks and their surrogate-mother, who still had not told them why she had attacked, saying the usual "When you're older" line.
Eventually the arrive at training ground 24, a barren field, with a few trees here and there, and a stream running through it was what people would see from just outside the fence. The place was ideal for sparring and Ninjutsu practice because of this; a few things that can be cut down, not much that can burn, an abundance of soil, a constant stream of water and an open sky, nothing could be better.
The twins walked over to the stream, the water gleaming in the orange light of the morning sun.
"Alright, let's try it out," Naruto said with a grin as he looked over at his sister who nodded and smiled in agreement as she held out her hands to her brother. Naruto understood the prompt and focused chakra into his palms and placed them a few inches over his sister's hands. They both closed their eyes and focused on connecting their chakra and warping it into a coil at the center of their palms.
A few seconds passed before a faint connection of glowing blue chakra appeared between the twins' palms, before suddenly increasing in strength and forming the resemblance of a coil of chakra strings. The strings disconnected from the two hands and formed into a light blue, almost white, glowing sphere that seemed to spin rapidly before a thin membrane of chakra formed around it, keeping it inside.
The two opened their eyes to see the spheres spiraling in their hands. Both of them smiled at their accomplishment, seeing as they just performed an A-rank Jutsu in co-operation, a feat not even most Jonin tag-team specialists could accomplish. They were proud of what they could do with all of their training, and a pair of lavender eyes had seen it as well.
A very young short-raven-haired girl with a heavy white coat (Quick A/N; No, this is not the one she has in the show, it is similar... a bit longer (almost knee length) and snow-white in color, from there it is generally the same) and light lavender eyes stood behind a tree outside the fence, in awe at what she had just seen. She may not have known what this technique was called, but she could easily see the pure force that the chakra carried was immense, much stronger than anything she had seen before.
She was Hyuga Hinata, heiress of the Hyuga Clan. And she was stunned that her classmates, who both seemed so bright and cheery, were so powerful all along. Of course she had noticed their abnormally large chakra coils when she had looked around with her Byakugan, her all-seeing eye, which saw chakra and chakra points all over the body, but she never knew that they could do something like this.
Naruto and Naruko were starting to sweat over the mental load of synchronizing chakra was bringing. Twins they may be, but chakra flow was still hard to keep constant when you have another flow interfering with your own.
They were both able to keep it constant for another half a minute before they let go, panting as they fell backwards onto their backs.
Hinata saw this and took the opportunity to get closer, easily jumping over the fence and walking closer with a cautious step, prodding her fingers together in a nervous fashion. Both of the twins noticed her arrival as she got within a few feet of them, but decided to ignore her in favor of catching their breath.
"A-ano..." the young Hyuga spoke quietly; nervous as to their reaction upon the fact that she had been watching them.
"Hey... Hinata..." Naruko panted out in between shallow breaths, still exhausted from the absolutely humongous strain on her chakra coils and mind.
"H-hello, N-Naruk-ko-chan, Na-Narruto-kun," she said a bit louder.
"Hello, Hinata-chan!" Naruto said excitedly as he was an absolute stamina freak, even compared to his own sister who had above average stamina, and was up on his feet immediately.
Hinata blushed at what he called her, 'He called me Hinata-chan... No one but mother has done that,' she thought with a smile, still blushing madly.
Naruko got of her back and sat cross-legged, still panting slightly. She saw the bright blush on the cheeks of the young Hyuga and smiled, 'Wow, either she's really shy, or she has a crush on Naruto-nii...' the female Uzumaki thought, '... why don't I like the latter?'
"Simple Kit," spoke the voice of the woman the twins called mother, on her side of the seal, "it's called sibling protectiveness... I've not had much experience with humans, but I've seen it through the eyes of my first Jinchuuriki, Mito, when she had children, and eventually grandchildren," her mother said in a wistful tone, remembering past memories.
'Oh, thanks Kaa-chan!' she mentally thanked her as she looked back at the Hyuga girl.
"Ano... wh-what was t-that you were... d-doing?" Hinata asked cautiously, still being her shy, timid self.
"Oh? That was a technique called the "Rasengan", a Jutsu based on a move that only a Bijuu can Perform, a "Bijuudama"," Naruko informed their classmate, "It was created by the Yondaime Hokage, although... it seems he was never able to complete it," she finished her little lecture.
"I-it's not co-complete?" Hinata asked, timidly, but curiously.
"Right, we don't know what he really intended to do with it, the scroll we learned it from never mentions anything except that it's incomplete," Naruto explained.
"O-oh..." Hinata trailed off, not knowing what to say.
"Eh, so what are you doing out here Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked, making the timid girl blush again by his affectionate suffix for her.
"A-ano... I-I was j-just..." she stuttered off as she blushed an even darker shade of red, "I-I w-was-", "You don't have to tell us if you don't want to, Hinata-san," Naruko interrupted her, possibly saving some of her dignity. Hinata nodded embarrassedly, silently thanking her classmate, while the blonde boy looked between the two girls in confusion then shrugged it off as a girl thing.
Naruko got up on her feet, still panting slightly as she dusted her pants off and straightened her Haori and making the black flames at the dance in the light breeze that flew by at that moment.
Hinata looked at the flames with a sparkle in her eye, admiring the simple, yet beautiful design of the sleeveless battle coat. "Umm... I've a-always been w-wondering, w-where did you get th-those c-clothes?" the raven haired heiress asked timidly, yet somewhat more forcefully than before.
Naruko smiled at the question, "We actually made these ourselves, and we've been making our own clothes since we were six years old," Naruko said with a small grin. "Yeah; and Naruko-nee is the one that has been making them all this time! She's amazing!" Her brother praised her as he waved his arms around excitedly with a huge grin on his face.
Hinata sat there dumbfounded,"A-ano," the white-eyed girl stuttered out, "W-why d-do you m-make y-your own clo-clothes?" she asked, not sure if she wanted to know or not.
"Well..." Naruto started before a sullen look came to his face, losing his grin as it turned into a sad smile. He looked to his sister, "should we tell her, Naruko-nee?" he asked cautiously, noting that a similar look had taken over her usually happy expression as she slowly nodded her head.
Hinata was confused. Why would talking about something like this make the two happiest kids in class get so depressed?
Naruto sighed and removed his Haori, while loosening his black Gi-top enough to let his arms out, letting it fall off his back, held up by the belt. This action caused Hinata to blush an even darker crimson as she looked away, confusing her as to why he needed to be half-naked to show her why they made their own clothes.
Naruto closed his eyes for a second before channeling chakra through his stomach and into the seal, causing its black swirl to cover his abdomen, centering on his navel; the seal matrix appearing seconds later as he opened his eyes again.
Naruto looked up to see Hinata looking away with a red that he couldn't begin to describe, "Hinata-chan," he called her, making her look back to him, still blushing madly, "This," he gestured to the seal on his stomach, "Is why we have to make everything ourselves," he said with a sad undertone.
Hinata looked confused at first before she actually saw the seal. She had seen seals before, the Hyuga curse seal being one, as well as storage seals; but she had no idea what this one did, though she could tell it was very complex.
"Hinata..." Naruko said nervously, but seriously, "... w-what do you know about the Kyuubi attack?" she asked hesitantly, fearfully.
Hinata cocked her head to the side and frowned in thought, "... W-well, The f-fourth Ho-Hokage f-fought an-and k-killed it, d-didn't he?" she asked, stuttering in the process.
Naruto shook his head in a negative, "No, that's the problem; you can't truly kill any of the Tailed-beasts. It's impossible,"
Hinata stood there in silence, contemplating what they could mean by bringing up the Kyuubi attack. Hinata looked between the two twins, trying to understand what they could mean by all of this.
"The only way to defeat a Bijuu is to keep it at bay; keep it locked up; keep it sealed..." Naruto said as he subconsciously touched the seal on his stomach, making the heiress finally realize what they meant, making her eyes go wide, not in fear, but realization.
"S-so... yo-you'r-re keep-ping us s-safe? F-from th-the Ky-Kyuubi, I m-mean?" Hinata asked apprehensively, not sure whether to be scared or grateful.
Naruko chuckled mirthlessly, "If only the rest of the village thought that..." she said sadly while shaking her head, "no, they believe us to be the Fox, not the ones keeping them safe from her..."she trailed off, catching that she had given info that she probably shouldn't have, which Hinata picked up on.
"H-her?" the young Hyuga asked, confused. Most people would think that the Kyuubi was a 'he' from the way people described the humongous beast.
Naruto sighed, "yes, 'her'. Not that surprising, considering many foxes are depicted as females in legends and myths, it would be logical if she was as well," the blonde boy shrugged, "and to be honest, she's not that bad... she has been there for us during this whole time after all," he smiled.
Hinata was now even more confused, "Umm, w-what d-do you m-mean?" she stutteringly asked.
Naruko stretched, "What he means is that the Kyuubi has been helping us during our entire lives, even if we didn't know before we found out two years ago," she said, "during our whole lives, her chakra has been affecting us, making us strong enough to survive and thrive. Making Naruto into the stamina freak he is, and turning me into the more intelligent sister," she giggled at the last part, lifting the mood a bit, making Hinata give a nervous smile, poking her fingers together in her usually shy way. Naruto huffed at the humorous comment, but knew it was inherently true.
"U-umm, w-why wo-would y-you t-tell me t-this?" the pale-eyed girl asked meakly.
Naruko threw her a deadpan stare, "You asked, we answered," she said with a bored tone, "And you were the first one to do so. So? What now?" Naruko asked back.
"W-what?" Hinata stuttered out.
"Are you... are you going to dislike us for the Kyuubi?" Naruko asked with a sad frown, hoping she was wrong.
"N-no! I-I would n-never dislike you for s-something like t-that!" she stated vehemently, stuttering less for a second.
Naruto and Naruko both grinned at her answer, suddenly disappearing and then glomped the Hyuga out of nowhere, throwing them all sprawling to the ground in an embrace, causing the shy girl to let out a startled 'eep'.
"Thank you, Hinata-chan!" said Naruto with a genuine smile, making said girl blush a whole new crimson. "Yes, thank you, Hinata-san, for not judging us," Naruko smiled at the girl, who had earned her respect at least.
Hinata, not being used to such physical contact, promptly fainted with a full-body blush.
"Ahh!" Naruto panicked when he saw the heiress fainting, causing his twin to chuckle at his obliviousness, 'I wonder if he'll ever get it?' she internally mused.
Naruto picked himself up, his sister following shortly thereafter, and ran over to the stream, unsealing a bowl from in under his clothes (FOR EMERGENCY RAMEN (among other things)) and filled it with water, then ran back in a flash. He poured some of the water on the girl's forehead, careful not to soak her white coat. The girl winced at the cold wetness before blearily opening her eyes.
Naruto looked on in worry for the girl. He didn't know why, but he felt compelled to help this Hyuga... he felt the need to care about her. For him this was strange; seeing as the only two people that got this reaction out of him were his mother and his sister.
"W-... what happened?" the young heiress asked, disorientated by her temporary absence from the world.
"Oh, you fainted," said Naruto sheepishly. "Sorry, we didn't know you would do that," Naruko rubbed the back of her head embarrassedly, "Anyway, we should probably head to the academy, we start in an hour," the blonde girl said as she stood up, the other two following her lead.
Hinata was still blushing but was happy that she actually made some new friends.
-Half-an-hour later – Ninja Academy-
Naruto, Naruko and Hinata arrived at the academy. They were early, so the two Uzumakis pulled out a few scrolls about sealing and read up on a few matrixes that could be used for directing chakra outwards, the Hyuga on the other hand decided to watch the two work, even if she didn't understand how sealing worked, it was always good to recognize seals when you saw them.
Another half-hour passed them by as more and more people started filing into the classroom, one of the earliest being the Aburame of the class, Aburame Shino, who came in just a few minutes after them. He sat down a row in front of the three, greeting them with a nod of the head as he did. The group responded in kind.
When pretty much all of the students were in the classroom, a Chunin instructor with tanned skin, a scar across his nose, his brown hair in a pineapple hair-style and coal-black eyes scanning the room. He wore the regular Konoha gear, consisting of a blue bodysuit, green flak-jacket and a Konoha Hitai-ate/Forehead protector resting across his forehead.
This was Umino Iruka, a relatively young Chunin; only having graduated two years earlier, when he was 16. He loved teaching, unlike many other ninja who loved battle and death; and unlike many of the instructors of the academy, he volunteered for the position. His two favorite students (no special treatment, mind you) were the twins of the class, Uzumaki Naruto and Naruko. Yes, he knew what they contained, but he wasn't blinded by hatred like the other instructors; he simply saw two kids that were willing to learn, even if they absolutely LOVED pranking people and occasionally skipping history class to do so.
Iruka looked over his class and noticed that a majority of them were being loud, as usual, while a few were either watching him or reading some scrolls; the twin Uzumakis doing the latter as per usual. He had no idea what they were actually studying; but from what he had seen, it was something more advanced than what most students usually studied.
"Alright class, settle down!" the scarred Chunin shouted at his class, only to be ignored. Iruka's eye twitched for a moment, followed by a tick-mark.
"I SAID, SETTLE DOWN!" he shouted again, utilizing his infamous 'Big-head no Jutsu' to amplify the sound, effectively shutting the whole class up with a unanimous cringe.
"Alright, now that that's over," the Chunin sighed, "today we'll cover the basics of chakra form," he explained, earning a groan from some of the less theoretically inclined members.
"Alright, would anyone care to explain how chakra form can be used?" instantly the twins hands shot up, "Yes, Uzumakis?" Iruka nodded to them.
"Would it be alright if we could demonstrate?" Naruko asked, gaining a nod from their instructor.
"Alright, come down and show us then," he approved. If anything, this would be interesting.
The twins grinned as they jumped over their fellow students and landed side by side with their haoris flapping around from the movement. They turned to each other and Naruto placed his right hand, palm-up in front of his twin as she did the same with her palm facing downwards, towards her brother's. The whole class was confused to the fact that there were no hand-seals used.
They gathered chakra and synchronized their flowing chakra to create a light-blue Rasengan between their palms, confusing the whole class as to what that was.
"Alright, so 'this'" Naruko said pointing at the glowing ball of chakra with her free hand, "is the Rasengan. A high level technique created by the Yondaime Hokage, it's concept is based completely on Chakra Form," she explained with a grin, a grin that knew that what they were doing was way beyond the level of their fellow students; in other words, smug.
Iruka was stunned. He knew these kids were extraordinary, but he would never have thought that they could do something like this... and at this age! Their potential was amazing; even greater than the War Legend, Hatake Kakashi's and the Infamous Prodigy, Itachi Uchiha's!
The rest of the class was in a similar state of shock as their instructor; they thought the two were just troublemakers, but this... oh lord, they were internally praying that they don't get on their shit-list anytime soon! Because if they could do something like this and act pretty nonchalant about it... none of them wished to know what they could do.
A boy with scruffy brown hair, tan, brown fur-lined, zipped-up jacket and a small white dog sitting atop his head stood up, "Hey, how come you know that jutsu?!" he shouted at the two.
"Good question," replied Naruto who was slowly reducing the flow of the Rasengan's chakra, "becoming proficient in sneaking around at the age of five helps immensely to get past the Chunin guards at the library," he explained as the Rasengan dissipated, "really helps in getting information on techniques and exercises."
The rest of the class seemed somewhat dumbfounded. And now they kind of understood why they were supposed to stay away from the twins. They were scarily powerful.
A black-haired boy with his hair looking like a duck, two bangs framing his face, and charcoal black eyes set to glaring at the two Uzumaki, was silently fuming; how were these two clanless nobodies able to outshine him! The last Uchiha! He continued to sit there brooding away, like always.
Both of the twins looked at each other for a few moments before nodding. They both jumped high into the air and flipped as they did, setting themselves to hit the ceiling with their feet. They hit the wooden ceiling... and didn't fall down. Their hair hung down as they stood there, with their clothes, somehow, staying straight according to their bodies.
Everyone in class stared at them with expressions that basically said 'What the Fuck?!' Hinata in the back had what could be described as, 'Starry Eyes' (how a Hyuga manages this is completely unknown to me).
Iruka just looked at them with a blank expression. He really should have expected them to show off, and he did. But that they would do something like this? He sighed, "Alright you two, enough freaking everyone out," he admonished, "but, if you would; could you explain to everyone what you are doing?" he instructed the two blondes.
"Of course, Iruka-sensei," Naruko bowed, upside down. "What we are doing is a chakra control exercise called 'Tree Climbing' by some; but a more accurate name would be 'Surface Sticking', since that is what's happening," Informed Naruto. "But what we are doing is using our Chakra as a suction cup of sorts to hold onto objects, like we are using our feet to stick to the ceiling right now," continued Naruko for her brother.
Iruka nodded, "That is correct, well done." He praised, "Now, get back to your seats," the instructor instructed, to which the students followed; by walking all the way to their seats, upside down, and in an impressive show of acrobatics, falling from their upside down position and righting themselves in mid-air to land, sitting, on their chairs.
A pink-haired girl, with a bigger than normal forehead and emerald eyes, raised her hand up. "Yes, Sakura?" Iruka pointed her out.
"Ano... Iruka-sensei, why haven't we been taught that? It looks really useful" the pinkette asked a bit shyly.
"well..." Iruka trailed off, he honestly didn't know why they weren't taught this in the academy, "it is considered by many to be a Genin level skill that should be taught by the Jonin instructor. Aside from that, I see no reason not to teach it in the academy..." he nervously admitted while rubbing the back of his head in a fashion reminiscent of a couple of Uzumaki.
Naruto looked like a proverbial light bulb had gone off above his head, "Oh, I know! Me and sis can have extra lessons during the weekend!" he suggested in an upbeat tone while waving his arms energetically, his sister also smiling at the idea.
Iruka on the other hand was not 100% sure of the idea. It wasn't part of the standard curriculum, so he was not meant to teach it; of course, nothing said he couldn't teach them.
Iruka sighed, "I'm not all for the idea, but I can't stop you from teaching any volunteers," he said tiredly, a smile playing across his face, "Anyway, moving on with Chakra theory..."
And so the class went on, many of them mulling over the offer of the two Uzumaki; the majority of the class thought of it as 'cool' and 'a neat trick', and they all wanted to learn it. Some were just too stubborn to admit it.
Class finally ended, so Naruto and Naruko dragged Hinata with them outside. She didn't protest; just blushed a bright red and did her best to follow them.
A/N: this is not a full update... just look at my profile...