Naruto: The Summoned Soul
By I.K.A. Valian
Disclaimer: I Don't Own!
Chapter Two
The ninja placed me and Naruto down after we entered the second floor apartment of a rather old looking building just down the road from the Hokage Tower. I'm sure if I stood on the roof, I'd be able to see the tower itself. As soon as the ninja had put our things down, they vanished. A cough drew our attention to the kitchen area of the small apartment.
"Anba-kun, Naruto-kun, welcome to your new apartment," the Hokage said. He spread his hands out wide in a gesture to draw our attention to our surroundings.
I blinked. I was going to live with Naruto now? We were only three years old (Naruto's birthday was only a few weeks away). What the hell was the Old Man thinking?
"Really?!" Naruto shouted. I couldn't resist rolling my eyes. Of course Naruto would be excited about this. Then again, we were both getting shafted pretty bad back in the orphanage, so maybe a little excitement wasn't uncalled for. "This place's all for us? No old peoples or mean kidses to boss us or be mean?"
"Yes, Naruto," the Hokage said with a warm smile on his face. "Though you are a bit too young to be taking care of yourselves full time. Therefore, I'll be having some of my ninja stay with you until you are old enough to take care of yourselves."
"Meh," Naruto said dismissively, "we dun need your ninja, Old Man. I'm ta be t'ree soon. I can take care myself. So can Anba-nii."
"I have no doubt that you can take care of yourself, Naruto," the Hokage said. "Or Anba. But please, Naruto, just let this poor old man do this, for his own peace of mind?"
Naruto grinned and said, "Yeah, okay. If it makes you better, Old Man. You can send your ninja, but they just be bored cause me'n Anba-nii are awesome. Right Anba?"
I smirked. The Hokage just played Naruto like a fiddle and he was asking me to back up the Old Man's request to let ninja watch after them. Yeesh, this boy needs awareness help. Or perhaps I am expecting too much from someone who was still not quite three years old yet.
"Old Man, if it will make you feel better, then I have no problem with it," I said. Naruto grinned up at the Hokage. The Hokage smiled back and ruffled Naruto's hair with one hand.
"Well then, I must be getting back to the Hokage Tower," the Hokage said. "All that work won't be doing itself. As much as I wish it would." That last part was mumbled quietly.
"Hey! Hey! Old Man! Can we come too?!"
The Hokage shook his head. "No, I'm afraid not." Naruto looked down, his enthusiasm lost. The Hokage continued. "Besides, I would think you and Anba-kun would be more than busy for the rest of the day checking out your new apartment."
Naruto's eyes widened comically and his grin was back. "Oh yeah!" He was vibrating with energy now as it was visibly clear he was resisting the urge to run around and scream like the little kid he was.
The Hokage laughed as he said his final goodbyes and left. Naruto started giggling and ran deeper into the apartment. I turned and followed at a more sedate pace. From what I could tell, this apartment had two bedrooms, a sort of mini kitchen with a refrigerator, a living room that also was the dining room and the entryway into the apartment, and a bathroom with a shower, sink, and toilet. It also smelled rather nice too.
"Hey! Anba-nii, dis place's awesome!" Naruto shouted from inside one of the bedrooms. He quickly appeared at the door, a huge grin on his face. "This room has a huge closet! I never seen a closet as huger as this! And the bed is huger too! And the bathroom was clean! And, and, and… Wow! This place is so awesome!"
His overenthusiastic display felt neither forced or childish. And truthfully, I was a bit taken in by how nice of a place this was. As an added plus, the oppressive smothering of negative emotions from the orphanage was lacking as well. It felt peaceful, which after the last two months, was a godsend.
"I call this room!" Naruto shouted.
"Hey," I shouted, suddenly realizing he was claiming the bigger of the two rooms. I ran into the room and shouted, "Don't just go deciding that stuff on your own!"
The next day, and every weekend thereafter, a ninja had come with food. He didn't speak much, and he did glare at Naruto and me a little, but he was silent and stocked the fridge and kitchen cabinets with the food before he left as silently as he came. Naruto watched the whole thing, surprisingly, in silent awe. It was more food than either of us had ever seen at the orphanage and it was all for us. We only had to share it between the two of us.
Most of the cabinet food was instant ramen, but the ninja had put fresh fruit and vegetables into the fridge. Now, in the Naruto story, which I was referencing from memories gained before I was born into this world, Naruto didn't eat very well. In fact, his diet mainly consisted of ramen. Instant ramen cups that take three minutes (which he hated) to heat up and Ichiraku ramen (which he especially enjoyed when Iruka paid for his order). Ramen, of course, is easy to make and cheap, while fruits and anything fresh tended to be more expensive and the store owners weren't very kind to Naruto so he might not have gotten the best service either.
Seeing as how I was here now, and I had no intention of living off of ramen twenty-four seven, that part of the story was going to diverge from reality. That night, and every night afterword, we had a home cooked meal. Ramen was reserved for lunch and special dinners (wherein I would add meat and vegetables and try my hand at being a Ramen Chef, Naruto decided that I was the second best Ramen Chef in Konoha, not that I would ever say mine was anywhere near as good as Teuchi's). Both Naruto and I learned how to cook and since Naruto still seemed to have trouble in the markets, I ended up being the one to go out and buy fresh stuff.
The people of Konoha didn't really like me, since I hung out with Naruto all the time. But when I went shopping, they didn't seem to have much trouble selling me what I wanted. I got the feeling that some of the shop owners felt that I was being used by Naruto and were sorry for me. Whatever the cause, I ended up getting discounts (which was awesome) at some stores and extra fees (which was not awesome) at others.
Turns out Naruto likes curry. I tried my best to recreate the only curry recipe I knew from by previous life and the results weren't spectacular. There is no such thing as Curry Powder here, so I had to make do with another kind of pepper and improvise from there. The first few times sucked so bad that the pot had to be thrown out and the stove scrubbed clean by a genin team hired to do the job (not to mention the smell that has since never left the apartment).
Once I got the hang of experimenting with food, I ended up with what I like to call Pepper Curry. And as the saying goes, there's nothing you cannot curry. Chicken and Pork were the easiest protein to acquire, so most of my home made foods employed those. While I'd finally gotten the basic recipe down by the time I was four, I still wasn't happy with it and was determined to improve it somehow.
Naruto discovered, on his own, how to make stew. Very good stew. It seemed that while I was away, he had taken me cooking a new dish as some kind of challenge and decided to try one himself. So he filled a pot with water, threw in some chicken, every kind of vegetable we had, and salt. Then he set it to boil. All day.
When I got back home, I found Naruto standing in the middle of the kitchen with a grin on his face. When he shoved the steaming bowl of brown goop at me, I was suspicious, but tried it anyway. The flavor was good. It didn't make my tongue dance, but it was good enough for me to want more. The texture stuck to my mouth and just seemed to extend the life of the flavor. It was, for all intents and purposes, a good stew. When we ended up inviting the Hokage over for dinner, the Old Man enjoyed it so much he asked for the recipe. Naruto was ecstatic that the Hokage wanted something that he had made.
When Naruto and I first moved into the apartment, we were essentially living off of the Hokage's good graces. I don't know who paid for what, or when, but we got food, other goods, and money on the first day of every month. On that day, like clockwork, one of our ninja minders arrived early in the morning, around six, with several bags of groceries. If we ever needed to buy anything, we only needed to ask for it and one of our minders would go fetch it, were the request not unreasonable.
I knew that this was how it had to be, because we were both too young to do anything on our own. This new lifestyle of being allowed to run free for many hours of the day with virtually unlimited material support offered a unique opportunity. I, and Naruto, could concentrate on training to the exclusion of almost anything else. Naruto didn't understand why I wanted to go play at the park every single day for several hours at a time, but he certainly never argued when I said we should go.
My plan was simple. We had two or so years before we entered the academy at six years old. In that time, I wanted to get our bodies conditioned so that we were athletically inclined before we ever set foot on the academy grounds. That alone would give us an advantage over most civilian-born children.
So, every day, I dragged Naruto to the park. It wasn't hard once I got Naruto going, but he quickly started to develop the bad habit of sleeping into the afternoon. You'd think anyone with that much energy would be awake for more time than not. No one told Naruto this.
"Naruto!" I shouted, banging a pan with a wooden soup ladle as I stomped around his room. "Get up! It's time to go to the park!"
"I dun wanna!" Naruto moaned, burying himself under his blankets and pillow. "Go away!"
"We could find someone who wants to be friends today," I said, more quietly. It was the same excuse I used every day. I would always wince, internally, when I said it. It was a dirty trick to use Naruto's yearning for more people to acknowledge him as motivational material, but it worked every time. This morning, Naruto peeked out from under his pillow at me, those big blue eyes shining slightly.
"Do you really think so?" he asked. The way his voice wavered made my heart crack from the pressure, but I forged ahead.
With a frown, I said, "Yes. Today's the day!" I raised my fist into the air.
Naruto quickly shouted, "Yatta!" and jumped up. "We're going to find a friend today!" With that, he raced from his room into the kitchen to eat the eggs I'd just scrambled.
I slumped my head a little. It went like this every morning. It felt like I was lying, but at the same time, seeing that excited, optimistic look on Naruto's face gave me hope. Maybe we really would find someone to befriend today. Maybe…
We arrived at the park that day, one year and five months after moving into our apartment, with a shout of challenged. "I challenge you to a race!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.
"I accept your challenge, Dattebayo!" Naruto responded in equal enthusiasm.
And like two bolts of juvenile lightning, we were off running through the park. I don't know if Naruto was using chakra consciously to go faster or not, but I wasn't. I wanted to train my muscles to get as strong as possible without chakra so that later, when I learned to control it better, I could move even faster still. In Naruto's case, I wasn't sure if he could move without adding chakra. He has so much of it, after all.
On this day, as we raced along our customary path, we decided to cut through the playground and over the hill to the small forested area on the other side of the park. There was a small lake on the other side of the forest that we jumped in to cool off before we raced back to the starting point.
I was in the lead, bent forward, my legs pounding like mini pistons beneath me. My arms were angled back, along my side, to reduce as much air resistance as possible. My heart was pounding in my chest, but it felt awesome to be moving at high speeds. High speed to a five year old, anyway.
Naruto was right behind me, running in a similar fashion. I knew he was just biding his time until we got to the top of the hill. Once we crested the top of the flower covered hill, Naruto would use gravity to pull himself downhill faster so that he could pull ahead. I grit my teeth and pushed my legs harder, willing myself to move faster. I heard Naruto chuckle as he sped up as well.
"This race isn't going to end in a tie! Not today!" I shouted as we raced through the playground. We blazed past the swings and see-saw where kids paused to watch us pass through their midst. I noticed the parents and other minders that accompanied these kids scoffed when the noticed us, but they didn't seem too upset at our presence when they saw me and Naruto leaving as fast as we arrived.
"That's right!" Naruto shouted back, "cause I'm gonna win this time!"
We left the playground behind quickly enough. We both started to slow down as we began to ascend the long, slow incline of the hill. My breath became even more labored than it was before and next to me I could hear Naruto's huffing and puffing. Nevertheless, we both got to the top of the hill, surrounded by flowers of all colors, shapes, and scents in record time.
And that's when Naruto pulled ahead. I knew it! "I knew it!"
"Hahah!" Naruto crowed as he pulled further and further away from me. "Smell ya later! Nya, nya!"
I made a face at the back of Naruto's head. I could cheat, like I'd done before, and push chakra into my legs to get rid of the burning ache. The pain had been growing steadily stronger ever since we started up the hill, but now it was reaching a fevered pitch. I knew that if I cycled chakra into and out of my legs, the pain would go away. But I decided not to do so, this time, because it would defeat the purpose of the exercise.
Muscles grow stronger by being torn apart and then rebuilding stronger than they were before. The body naturally strengthened the muscle tissue as it healed to try and prevent the tear from happening again, inadvertently making the muscle stronger in the process. That theory of muscle building was the same here as it was in my old life. There's two ways to grow muscle, high stress and quick fatigue, or, low stress and slow fatigue.
With the first method of exercise, you get tired faster and your muscles grow bigger faster. You can lift more weight in explosions of force, but only for short periods of time before you get tired again. This is what body builders do.
With the second method of exercise, you don't get tired as fast and your muscles slim down, or don't grow much at all. You may not be able to lift as much weight, but you can do more work for longer periods of time. This is what long distance runners, swimmers, and bikers do.
Chakra, apparently, adds a whole new layer to that equation. The physical energy portion of chakra could potentially strengthen muscle cell walls beyond what they normally would be, making the muscle harder to tear. This made the muscle stronger when you used chakra. The side effect was that the muscle never gained any strength in the long run, because it was the same muscle as you had before, and you end up becoming dependent on your chakra for any increase in strength. Becoming dependent on anything was dangerous, especially for a ninja.
So a body builder who used chakra could conceivably use his explosive strength and power like a long distance runner does. So long as he has the chakra to support and strengthen his muscles, he could continue to use that power. However, the longer he would need to call on that impressive strength, the more chakra he would use.
A long distance runner type would also be able to fortify his muscles with chakra and make them stronger, making it possible to imitate a body builders explosive power and strength. Once again, it would only last as long as the chakra did. Unlike a body builder, the long distance type would instead be using his chakra to boost the maximum lifting power of his muscles and the more weight he would need to lift, the more chakra he would have to use.
This is how ninja work. It was what gave them the appearance of being super human. But ninja who relied only on chakra to be stronger and didn't exercise their muscles at all, leaving them small and weak, were usually overpowered by ninja who made their muscles stronger.
I knew that if I applied chakra to my legs, I would blast past Naruto and win the race, but my muscles wouldn't get any stronger. It probably didn't matter which way I trained my muscles, long distance or body building, so I ignored the intensifying burning in my legs and pressed ahead. Naruto laughed and I grinned as we bolted down the side of the hill.
We were just about to cross the path that ran along the side of the hill and the edge of the forest when I caught a flash of pink. I turned my head to look and missed the small rock jutting out of the ground. My foot caught on the rock and the world started to spin.
The next thing I knew, I was looking up at the sky. My head hurt, but the image of clouds was kind of relaxing. It felt like if I looked at them long enough, I could drift away and all my problems would be solved. Then a patch of bright blond hair appeared in my vision.
"Hehe, you lose," Naruto said. "I'm the winner! Me! Uzumaki Naruto is the winner! Oh yeah! I win! Anba loses! Naruto wins! Dattebayo!"
"By all means, keep gloating," I said when Naruto stopped to grin at me some more.
"Why did you trip on that rock?" Naruto asked curiously. "It was kind of obvious."
"I thought I saw something pink," I said as I sat up. I felt the world start to spin and put a hand on the side of my head. "Oww.. dizzy."
"Pink?" Naruto stood tall and looked around the field. Then he spotted something back the way we'd come, near the top of the hill. He pointed and said, "That girl has pink hair. Is she the one you saw?"
I forced the pounding my head to go away with a quick rush of Chakra. It wasn't a perfect fix all, by any means. At the same time, I could move without feeling like the world was going to fall sideways now.
I turned and looked in the direction Naruto was pointing. Then I saw who he was talking about. A little pink haired girl wearing a green kimono with Cherry Tree petals floating across it. It took my addled brain a moment to supply the name I knew I was looking for.
"Sakura," I said. It had to be her. I didn't know anyone else who had pink hair, in this world anyway.
"Hmm… yeah, she does kind of look like one of those trees," Naruto said. "I've never seen anyone with pink hair before."
"Let's go say hi," I said. "Maybe she'll be our friend."
"I don't know," Naruto said. He took a step back, but looked at me before moving further. I stood up and dusted the grass off my clothes. Then, with a look of confidence, I started walking forward, back up the hill. "H-hey! Anba! Wait for me!"
We trudged slowly up the hill. It was so unlike how we normally moved past this part of the park that I was noticing things I'd never seen before. The number and type of flowers here were more amazing than when we were running past them. I saw blue ones, pink ones, white ones, and red ones. Bugs of all kinds flew around in the warm summer air and bird tweeted in the trees.
As we got closer, I noticed a group of girls approach Sakura. As the group of girls started to talk, I slowed down, but didn't stop. Naruto slowed and move closer to behind me. I frowned and looked over my shoulder at him.
"What if they all run away?" he asked. His voice was high with tension and worry.
"Then we try again with the next group," I said. "No one said making friends was easy."
"It looks easy for the other kids," Naruto replied petulantly.
"The other kids aren't as awesome as us," I said, still moving closer. I began to make out bits and pieces of what was being said.
"Ugly… Forehead… Pink hair… Stupid…"
I nodded. Definitely Sakura. I broke into a run, Naruto hot on my tail. As soon as he heard what the girls were saying, Naruto put on a burst of speed and shot forward like he was ejected from a canon.
"Shut up!" Naruto shouted as he shoved his way past the gaggle of girls surrounding Sakura. "Leave her alone!"
"Ew! It's that boy!"
"My mom said never to talk to you!"
"You're a bad guy!"
"My daddy says you hurt mommy!"
Then I arrived, and shoved my way passed the girls. I found Naruto, with his arms stretched out, standing over a crouching Sakura, who was crying. I joined him on the other side of Sakura in the same pose.
"Who are you?!" one of the girls asked.
"Look at his hideous hair!"
"Is that green even normal?"
"I bet he's a loser just like Sakura!"
"Shut up!" I shouted, so loud that I shocked the gaggle of girls surrounding us into silence. "Haven't your parents ever told you little shits that if you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all! Get out of here before we call ninja and get you thrown in jail!"
"As if you could-"
"Ahhh!" I screamed. I lunged at the nearest girl with the angriest scowl I could produce.
"Ahhh!" the girl screamed as she turned and ran away.
"Run away! He's gonna get you!" one of the other girls shouted. And suddenly, it was like a damn broke and all the girls started running away, screaming. When the last screaming girl ran over the top of the hill, I turned around and inspected what was going on behind me.
"Hey," Naruto said softly, crouching down in front of Sakura. The girl was hiding her face in her knees. It was clear from the sobbing and shaking that she was crying. "Hey, are you okay?"
"Go away!" Sakura wailed.
"What?!" Naruto said, loudly.
"Naruto," I said. He looked at me. "It's clear she's just as afraid of us as she was of the girls calling her names."
"But we chased those mean girls away!" Naruto said, as if that explained everything. "We're the heroes!"
"Please," Sakura said, softer this time. "Please just leave me alone."
"But-"
I held up my hand and stopped Naruto from speaking. "If she doesn't want to be our friend, we can't force her," I said. "Friendship can't be forced. We'll just have to keep looking."
"Aww…" Naruto hung his head and clenched his fists. I patted him on his back as we started to walk away.
"Don't feel too bad," I said, "we got to be the good guys! That's important!"
"Hmm, yeah!" Naruto said with a shout. He threw his fist in the air and grinned luminously. "We did get to be good guys. It was like we were real ninja!"
"Wait!"
Both Naruto and I turned around and saw Sakura behind us. It seemed she followed us. She was looking down and to the side as if unsure what to do or say now that she had our attention.
"Is your name Sakura?" I asked.
Sakura looked up at me, her eyes wide. "Y-yes!" she said. "But how did you know?"
"I heard the other girls say that name and made the connection," I said. I pointed at myself. "My name is Anba and this is Naruto."
"What did you want, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked. It sounded like an innocent question, but I picked up a certain flavor of uncertainty hidden in his voice.
"Did you really mean…" she said, falling silent near the end.
"Mean what?" Naruto asked.
"What you said?" Sakura asked. "About being friends?"
Naruto and I both nodded. "Do you want to be our friend, Sakura?" I asked.
"I… I'd like that very much," Sakura said, bowing down in front of us. "Please let me be your frie-ND!" Sakura's last word ended in a squeal when Naruto pulled Sakura into a hug.
"Of course we'll be your friends!" Naruto shouted jubilantly. He clung tightly to the little girl in his arms as he started to hop and giggle. "But you gotta be our friend too! You're our first friend ever, Sakura-chan!"
I grinned at the shocked and bewildered look on Sakura's face as well as Naruto's excitement. And if I was honest with myself, I was happy too. We weren't alone anymore. "Naruto's the kind of person that likes to hug his friends," I said in an attempt to explain Naruto, "it's how he shows he cares."
"N-Naruto-san!" Sakura squealed as she tried to get Naruto to let go.
"Hey!" Shouted someone. Someone older and angry. I spun around and spotted an older man running at us. "Let that girl go, you monster!"
"Quick," I shouted, "run!"
Naruto let Sakura go and we all ran away from the shouting old man. I fell in behind Sakura while Naruto took the lead. Together we ran away as fast as we could, right into the woods toward our original destination, the lake. I think the old man stopped chasing us as soon as we entered the wood, but I never stopped to look back and find out. We ended up running all the way to the lake.
"Woo hoo!" Naruto shouted as he ran straight into the water. Sakura, huffing and heaving, slowed to a stop at the edge of the water. I stopped long enough to shuck my shirt before I joined Naruto. The two of us splashed around in the water before Naruto noticed that Sakura was sitting on the shore, watching us with a sad look on her face. "Ne, Sakura-chan! Aren't you going to come in?"
"I can't!" Sakura said. "My kimono will get dirty."
"Then take it off!" Naruto shouted. Sakura blushed at the same time that I smacked Naruto upside the head.
"Naruto," I said, "girls don't get naked in front of boys unless they're married or really good friends."
"They don't?" Naruto said, his expression dumbfounded. He stared at me for the longest time before he turned to look at Sakura, who nodded. Naruto clenched his fist and shouted, "Why didn't anyone tell me this before now?! This is ridiculous!"
"It's common knowledge," I said flatly, moving toward the shore. Naruto continued shout about the unfairness of it all while I sat down next to Sakura on the shore. I think we shared the idea that watching Naruto piss and moan about the unfairness of life was amusing because we watched him do so for a full five minutes.
Finally, Naruto came back to shore and slumped to the ground in front of Sakura and I. "Did you get it all out of you?" I asked.
"Ungh…" Naruto grunted. Sakura giggled and I rolled my eyes.
"Let's spar then," I said. Naruto, like the fount of energy that he is, hopped up and started bouncing around.
"Yeah!" he shouted, throwing punches and kicks at imaginary foes as he moved around the shore. "Let's fight! I'm gonna beat you this time!"
"Wh-why are you going to fight?" Sakura asked. She was eyeing Naruto's antics warily while I stood and dusted the dirt from me.
"We're going to be ninja and enter into the ninja academy when we turn six," I said. "We're not going to have a mean fight. This is just training. All the other kids from clans get training before they enter, so I figured why not us. That's why we were running through the park before."
"Yeah!" Naruto shouted, doing a three kick combo followed by a punch that unbalanced him and sent him to the ground with a face full of dirt as a consolation prize.
"You need to focus on keeping balance, Naruto," I said. Then I turned to Sakura. "You can do this too, if you want."
"Hey, that's right!" Naruto shouted, once again on his feet and doing punches and kicks. "Do you wanna be a ninja too, Sakura-chan?!"
"I-I don't know," Sakura said quietly. She took a few steps back from Naruto, who continued to spring around the beach area like a hopped up hyper bunny. "Ninjas are scary."
"It's okay," I said. "You don't have to become a ninja to be friends with us, right Naruto?"
"Oh, yeah, that's fine I guess," Naruto said, stopping his very strange punch-kick dance so that he could look at Sakura directly. "Not everyone can be a ninja. So what do you want to be, Sakura-chan?"
"I don't know…" Sakura trailed off, looking down at the ground. Then she looked up, her eyes bright. "Maybe I could be a shop owner like my Mom. She always seems to be having fun. She always talks about how much her back hurts, but then Dad comes in and makes her smile and she's happy again. I think I want that."
"That's awesome," Naruto said with a big bright smile. Then the smile dimmed somewhat. "I wish I had a Mom and Dad."
"Now now, Naruto-chan," I chided in my most fatherly voice. "Don't go getting down and out like that."
Naruto rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue at me. "Whatever, Anba-tou-san," Naruto sarcastically threw back at me. I just grinned and started my warm-up by doing crunches.
"Sometimes I wonder if having Anba for a brother is what it's like to have a Dad," Naruto confided in Sakura with a particularly loud whisper. She giggled and Naruto soon joined in.
"If you have the energy to complain," I said in my fake father voice again, "then you have the energy to train. Go, young man. You're not getting any stronger."
"See what I mean?" Naruto said with a flat, unfocused expression on his face.
"Anba seems to care a lot about you, Naruto," Sakura said. "Maybe you should do what he says."
"Yeah, he's like my bro-wait!" Naruto shouted, staring wide eyed at an astonished Sakura. "You just did the mother voice! Not you too Sakura-chan!"
Sakura stared at Naruto for several silent seconds before a small, teasing smile appeared on her lips. "Ne, you should do what your mommy and daddy say, Naru-chan," Sakura said in the most motherly tone she could.
"I don't wanna!" Naruto turned around and sat down on the ground. There he hugged his legs and glared like a petulant child. At this point, I couldn't contain myself anymore and stop my crunches so I could just lay on the ground and laugh. Sakura joined in soon thereafter. Eventually Naruto was laughing as well. We all laughed for a good long while until we were all lying on the ground to recover.
"Why do you two want to become ninja?" Sakura asked as all three of us stared up through the canopy at the clouds drifting across the blue sky.
"Cause I can't be Hokage if I'm not a ninja," Naruto said.
"You want to try and become Hokage?" Sakura asked, somewhat surprised.
"No," I said with a measure of surety in my voice. "He will become Hokage."
Naruto grinned in a devil-may-care fashion. "Yep. I will. No doubt about it. At first, I wanted to be a ninja cause it sounded cool. I wanted to go around, save princesses, and beat up bad guys. But then Anba told me his reason, and I guess his reason is better."
Before Sakura could ask me, I said, "The world is full of danger. Dangerous people and dangerous places. I want to be able to protect the people I care about with my own power. I don't like the idea of relying on someone else who might not be willing to work as hard as I am to protect who I want protected. Right now, that's Sakura-chan and Naru-chan."
"Hey!" Naruto shouted. "Don't call me such a stupid name!"
I ignored Naruto and continued. "The only way to gain the power I need to protect you two is to become a ninja. Even if that means I have to become more powerful than Naruto over there, I'll do it. I really don't want to be Hokage though. Naruto can have that all to himself."
"Hehehe, it's all mine, baby!"
"Naruto," I said, "you are a dork."
"I am not!" Naruto shouted as he rolled over onto his haunches and launched himself at me. "You take that back!"
I grabbed Naruto and started to grapple with him. Sakura, meanwhile, remained quiet and ignored the two of us in favor of watching the sky. After a cloud or two passed, and I finally managed to get Naruto into a headlock, Sakura stood up.
"I think… I think I want to be a ninja too," she said to the both of us. Naruto stopped struggling and I watched her with a raised eyebrow. Sakura saw our reactions and shrank a little into herself. "Th-that is, if it's okay."
Naruto grinned, despite the headlock I had him in. "That's okay with me!" Naruto shouted. "Do you want to be Hokage too?"
"N-no," Sakura said. She shook her head. "I don't think I have what it takes to be Hokage."
"I think you do," I said.
"Hey, Anba, shut up!" Naruto muttered. "Don't go making her think she wants it."
I looked down and half frowned, half smirked at Naruto. "Oh, are you saying you think she's a threat to you becoming Hokage? I guess that means you think she could too."
"What?!" Naruto started struggling in my arms again. "No way! I'm gonna become Hokage! Then I can protect you!"
"I don't think I want to become Hokage," Sakura said. "I just… I want to be strong enough to keep my mom and dad safe. And… and you two… as well."
"Alright!" Naruto finally got free of me and hopped to his feet. Then he thrust his fist toward Sakura. "I swear I'll do everything I can to keep you safe, Sakura-chan! Just like Anba! And your mom and dad too! I'll keep everyone safe, no matter what! And I never go back on my word! Dattebayo!"
"I couldn't have said it better myself," I added, pushing my fist up against Naruto. Sakura, catching on, pushed her small her, softer fist against ours.
"M-me too!" We grinned at each other. As we did, a shiver ran up my spine. Was this the beginning of some kind of super ninja team?
"There they are!"
"Sakura!"
"Get away from her, you little monster!"
"Let the girl go, and that other kid too!"
I reacted on instinct. I hardly even realized what I was doing, though in retrospect I probably knew full well what I was doing. I grabbed Naruto and Sakura around the waist, leaped backwards and away from the dozen or so people emerging from the woods, right onto the lake. The adults probably thought we were about to fall into the lake. Instead, I stupidly put to use all of the chakra training I'd done up over the last three years.
The moment my feet touched the water I was channeling chakra through my legs, strengthen my muscles throughout my body, and running across the surface of the lake as fast as I could with both my friends under my arms. Sakura squealed and clenched onto me as tight as she could. Naruto looked paler than normal and had his eyes squeezed shut. I ignored both of them as I bolted across the lake as fast as I could.
I wasn't fast enough to evade an actual ninja, who appeared in my path on top of the lake. "Take a deep breath I shouted." I heard Sakura stop screaming and Naruto gasped in such a large lung full of air I thought he would explode. I gasped for my own breath of air, and without stopping for the ninja in front of us, I stopped water walking and dropped below the surface of the water.
The momentum we had gained slowed instantly, but we did move straight past the ninja on the surface. I thought we'd made it until I felt a steel grip on the back of my shirt. The ninja, it seemed, was not being fooled this day. I and the two under my arms were lifted from the water like a sack of wet potatoes and held in the air before the masked ANBU ninja.
"Uh…" I said hesitantly, "Parlay?"
I sat next to Naruto and Sakura on the shore of the lake. The ninja had dispersed the crowd of people that had come chasing after us with the exception of the old man who'd chased us into the woods in the first place and a blond woman who I assumed was Sakura's mother. The three of us sat together, soaked and shivering in the cool afternoon breeze, as the ninja talked with the woman and the old man.
My suspicions about the woman were confirmed when she approached the three of us and Sakura said, "Mommy, I'm sorry," almost as soon as the woman was within hearing range.
"I don't believe you have anything to be sorry for, Sakura-chan," her mother said, glaring at me and Naruto. Though I think her glare was mostly at me. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"I regret nothing," I said.
"Oh ho?" the woman said. "So you think kidnapping my daughter and nearly drowning her is acceptable behavior?"
"We didn't kidnap her!" Naruto shouted.
"Be quiet, boy," Sakura's mother snapped. Naruto, unused to the biting tone of a pissed off mother, glared back defiantly.
"We didn't kidnap her and that's that," Naruto said. "Sakura-chan's our friend and we'd protect her forever!"
"Really?" she asked incredulously. She pointed at the lake and demanded, "Then why did you run out onto the lake like that when we appeared? Why did you jump in when you knew you couldn't get away? Those aren't the actions of someone trying to protect my daughter. Those are the actions of a stupid little boy!"
"Why you-"
"No," I said, cutting Naruto's response off. He looked back at me with a heated glare, as if begging to continue arguing. I shook my head and stood up. "She's right, Naruto. I wasn't thinking clearly enough to know what I was doing. Sakura might not have even known how to hold her breath underwater, and I took a chance with her life. I put her and your life in danger by what I did and I must be punished."
"But Anba-"
"No, Naruto," I said. "I panicked. I shouldn't have, but I did. I need more training."
"I'm glad to see one of you has some sense," Sakura's mother said as she glared at me. "So what are you going to do about it?"
"What else," I said, staring back evenly. "I'm going to train harder and make sure I never panic again. Beyond that, it's above my pay grade."
"You don't have a pay grade," she responded waspishly.
"Makes things simpler then, doesn't it," I responded.
Sakura's mother glowered at me for at least a minute, then she turned to her daughter. "Sakura, why did you run off with these two?"
"I…" Sakura immediately felt silly. How could her mother make her feel this way with just a look? Her first instinct was to just call off the friendship. It was clear she'd gotten into trouble just by being near the two boys and Anba did just admit he'd nearly gotten her killed. But then she clearly recalled the way Anba and Naruto had laughed together with her, how they talked about why they wanted to be ninja together, and how they all swore to protect each other.
For the first time in her life, she'd felt like she belonged with others her own age. She was also quite aware, for the first time, that she wasn't as afraid of her mother as she usually was. And it was because the two beside her weren't running away or afraid.
Sakura blinked once and said, "Because they're my friends."
"That's right!" Naruto shouted. "And we never leave our friends behind! No matter what!"
"I acted like an idiot before, but I agree with Naruto," I said.
Sakura's mother put her hands on her hips and glare down at us. Finally, she just sighed and began to massage her forehead. "Fine, fine, whatever," she said. "I don't have any problem with you three playing together, just make sure you never do anything as stupid as this ever again, understand?"
"Of course," I said with a nod.
"Yes, Mom," Sakura said contritely, her gaze fixed on the ground. Despite that, I could see the grin on the pinkette's face. And the tears.
"Hah!" Naruto crowed, pointing at Sakura's mom. "As if you could stop us!"
"Care to repeat that, brat?!" Sakura's mother said in deep, menacing voice I never thought a woman could make. Holy crap I felt a shiver run up my spine. I watched as Sakura's mother pounded a fist into the palm of her other hand. Then she began to crack her knuckles, radiate killing intent, and glowering at us.
I looked over at the panicked Sakura and whispered, "Now it's time to save Naruto from himself. Take one arm and let's get out of here."
"I said-urk!" Naruto was cut off from whatever he was about to say when Sakura and I grabbed his arms and jerked him with us as we ran away.
Sakura's mother, apparently, didn't feel like being generous. "Get back here!" I heard her shout.
"We should stop," Sakura cried, though she kept running. Naruto go his feet underneath him after making faces at Sakura's mother for a few seconds. When he was running under his own power, he grinned and then laughed as he got into the chase.
"No way," Naruto cried. "This is way more fun!"
I smiled, dodging a tree and then a frying pan that was thrown past my head. Holy shit! Where did that woman get that from?!
"If you don't stop, you're punishment's only going to be worse!" Sakura's mother cried.
"As if saying that is going to make us want to stop," Naruto shouted back.
We ran around the forest for at least an hour. It felt like that anyway. I think Sakura's mother was just playing with us, but it was hard to tell with all the kitchen appliances being thrown at us. Naruto was having the time of his life. I'm not afraid to admit that I was enjoying the chase myself. And by the end of it, when we were too exhausted to continue and slumped to the ground, Sakura was grinning too.
"He's here, Hokage-sama," said the pretty secretary that had escorted me to the Hokage's office. Naruto was out playing at the park with Sakura today. I had been too, until a ninja came and said the Hokage wanted to see me. I told the others to continue playing without me and I'd be back as soon as I could.
"Thank you," the Hokage said as he motioned for me to move and sit in the chair before his desk. I made a little bow at the secretary and moved to the seat indicated by the old man. When I sat down, I patiently stared at the old man while he stared back at me. I think he was trying to study me, or perhaps intimidate me. I think having staring contests with Naruto and Sakura was playing off because my face didn't twitch at all.
Finally, the old man spoke, though he didn't look away from me. "Anba-kun. Do you recall what you did over a year ago at the park?"
I blinked and tilted my head. A year ago was the day after Naruto and I met Sakura. I recall going to the park that day and meeting her there before we ran off into the woods to train again. Well, play and train. Sakura's mother had made her dress up in something more fitting for her daughters newly professed desire to be a ninja, namely a pink shirt and a blue pair of shorts. That day stood out to me because Naruto and I scaled back a lot of what we normally did so Sakura could keep up. And in the end, we all ended up back at Sakura's house for dinner. It was the first "mom" cooked meal I'd ever had in this world.
I blinked again as the memory finished replaying within the moment it took to recall. I instead set my mind on why the Hokage was asking. Something about the day a year ago was important if the Old Man was asking about it. It couldn't have been the exact day, because that day wasn't that impressive at all. No, the Old Man probably meant the day before, when I walked on water.
"Yes," I said.
"Would you mind telling me?" The Hokage asked. Reassuringly, he added, "So that I know for sure that you do remember."
I decided not to play around. To be frank, I was tired of playing make believe. And besides, this was the Hokage. If I couldn't trust this man with even a few of my secrets, then who could I trust? "You mean the day I walked on water," I said.
The Hokage's eyes darkened a little as he nodded. "Yes, that day indeed. When my ANBU informed me of what happened, I could hardly believe it. Yet, I place a great amount of trust into my operatives, my very life and the welfare of the village in fact. So I had you watched a little closer. And do you know what I found?"
"You found me pushing Naruto and Sakura on a training regime preparing us for our entrance into the Ninja academy, at least physically," I said. "I wasn't actually trying to hide what I was doing. Anyone who cared to pay attention, such as you, would have seen what I was doing. In all the years since I've been doing this, you're the first to actually pay attention."
"It would be hard not to pay attention when a child younger than five displays an advanced ninja technique," the Hokage said. With what I could barely perceive as purposeful slowness, instead of actual slowness due to age, the Hokage removed his pipe from his mouth and emptied the ashes into the trash next to his desk. I only noticed the forced slowness because of the twitching muscle on the Old Man's neck. With more deliberate slowness, the Hokage refilled his pipe with new tobacco and lit it with a flick of his fingers. After three long draws of the smoke, the Hokage settled back into his chair. "How did you come to learn such a technique?"
"I can tree walk because I saw a ninja run up a wall once," I said. "You might remember me trying to run up the wall at the orphanage." The Hokage arched an eyebrow. He remained silent and motioned for me to continue. "When practicing and attempting to get that down, I learned how to use my chakra. From there, I naturally progressed to water walking, which wasn't that much more difficult. I've been doing other things, like hanging from the ceiling by my fingertips, or if you looked into our apartment in the morning, you'd see me doing push-offs on the walls."
"I see," the Hokage said. He took three more long puff of his pipe. "It's obvious that you wish to become a shinobi." It was a statement. Really, it was the only conclusion he could come up with short of saying I was a spy, which was impossible considering where I'd come from. This old man certainly knew exactly where I came from and how I came to be in the village. He was there when I arrived, after all. "Pray tell, why?"
"Isn't it obvious?" I asked, rather perplexed that the Old Man hadn't figured it out.
"Indulge me, please."
"To protect Naruto and Sakura," I said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "And I know I can't always be there to protect them, so I'm doing my best to push them to getting strong enough to defend themselves as well."
"And they don't even know you've manipulated them onto the paths they walk?"
I looked away, for the first time, embarrassed. "For Sakura, perhaps," I said. I looked back at the Old Man. "For Naruto, no. He told me he wanted to be a ninja before I even brought the idea up. Personally, I thought he wanted to be a ramen cook." I smiled. Some things never change, I guess. Looking at the Hokage, I said, "Perhaps I'm not the only one manipulating people."
The Old Man snorted loudly. "You're far too young to be reading into things beyond your comprehension."
"Perhaps," I said, letting the subject drop.
"You and your friends will be eligible to enter the Academy in six months time," the Hokage said. "But I would like to have you take a test now, if that is acceptable."
"I don't mind," I said. The Hokage nodded and raised a hand but frozen when I continued. "But I'd rather not. Let's keep what I can do between the two of us and the three men hiding in the corners of the room and behind the bookshelf."
The truth was, I couldn't actually sense the ANBU in the room. Rather, it was more like I just knew they were there. It was a weird feeling, but I always could tell when a ninja was repressing their presence, even though I couldn't sense the presence itself. I really had to put some time aside to figuring that feeling out.
The corners of the Old Man's mouth twitched. Finally he shook his head and stood. "Fine, have it your way. You may go. Please let Naruto know that we can go out for Ramen this Friday."
I grinned as I hopped out of the chair. "Okay. See ya later, Old Man."
It was the first day of classes at the Konohagakure Ninja Academy. I sat in the back row of the class next to Naruto and Sakura. The entire entering class was split up between three classrooms. With about thirty kids between each room, that was ninety hopefuls to weed through between now and when we graduated in six years. That was a lot of people, if you ask me, but the instructors did this work day in and day out.
Our first instructor was some old as hell, bitter, mean man with a long beard and a super serious squint. I only knew about the old man's disposition because as soon as the old fogey laid eyes on Naruto, his face turned red. After that, he did everything in his power to exclude Naruto from the lesson, even sending the poor guy outside to stand due for a made up reason.
I stayed in the class and took excellent notes so that after classes, I could teach Naruto everything he missed. It wasn't really hard for me to remember, rather, the notes I took were for Naruto and Sakura. Sakura had amazing memorization skills and she helped me tutor Naruto once she had a hang on the things we were learning, which didn't take very long.
Every lesson from every day was punctuated by the nasty old Firon-sensei sending Naruto outside for something he didn't do. Naruto was okay with it at first, what with me and Sakura helping him keep up, but then we had our mid-year exam. Naruto was sent outside before it was handed out and afterwards, he was marked down as failing utterly. It seemed that sensei had forged Naruto's signature on the test and filled in all incorrect answers.
I went to the Hokage the next day and asked if I could get Naruto and Sakura to help me prank the asshole before he was "reassigned". The Hokage didn't see anything particularly wrong, but he gave me a stern, "Nothing too dangerous now, Anba." I agreed, of course, because waking up with your head shaved completely bald and painted with permanent marker to look like the buffoon we thought he was, hardly counted as dangerous.
The next day, we got a new teacher. This time, we got Salla-sensei, an elderly looking woman who was just as mean and bitter as Firon-sensei. The only difference was that she was mean and bitter to everyone equally, which was marginally better. At least she didn't send Naruto outside for stupid reason and actually let him take the tests when finals came around at the end of the school year at the beginning of summer.
Naruto didn't get the best scores in the class, that was Sakura. She just blew past everyone and nearly scored perfect. It probably helped that I purposely answered incorrectly a few times to get closer to Naruto's score. Besides, all of the information we had gone over for the whole year was basic arithmetic, basic writing (including calligraphy), and basic language skills. With my perfect memory I had all of the lessons memorized and ingrained into my being after the first month. And asking a boy with the mind of a grown man to do basic arithmetic was insulting. Needless to say, I failed most of those math questions as a point of pride.
"Man, that test was hard," Naruto said from above me. He was lying on the branch of a tree in the park, resting from our little run. Sakura was spread out on the ground in front of me spread eagle with her eyes closed. I was leaning against the side of the tree with my arm over my head.
"After all that time in the academy, running hurts more than it used to," Sakura said from her spot. "It's a good thing we have all summer to get back to how we were before. But what I don't understand is how you and Naruto could have failed to get at the top with me on those tests. They weren't that hard."
"As long as you don't use chakra, your muscles should get stronger again in no time," I said. "As far as the tests go… bleh. All of that stuff was so easy it was insulting. Besides, I'm training to become a ninja. Why would I want my official record showing exactly how good I am when just about anyone skilled enough could get into the records office and steal that info?"
"Yeah, what Anba said," Naruto piped up.
"Naruto, on the other hand failed so spectacularly because he just didn't give a damn about studying," I said.
"Yeah… what Anba said," Naruto agreed, though I could hear a bit of heat in his voice. "Studying is stupid. I want to learn ninjutsu and taijutsu! All those words and numbers aren't going to teach me how to be a ninja at all!"
"Of course, he's wrong," I said.
"No I'm not!"
"A ninja is capable of performing in all fields of combat," I said. "That includes propaganda, which requires words, and strategy, which requires numbers. So, yes, you are wrong."
"Grr, why do you always talk about everything like you're a know-it-all?!" Naruto shouted.
"Because I can memorize anything after looking at it once?"
"Yeah, yeah… whatever. Stupid perfect memory."
On the ground, Sakura was giggling from our antics. She always giggled at our antics. Personally, I didn't know what was so funny. But whatever, the giggling was kind of cute and entertaining on its own.
"Well if it isn't that giant walking forehead and her gang of ugly idiots."
I groaned and knocked my head backwards against the tree. "Go away, Ami," I said.
"Shut up, you stupid tree head," one of Ami's flunkies shouted.
"Oh, like that's insulting," I said with a roll of my eyes. "Real nice originality there. Maybe next time you can comment on the fact that my eyes are yellow. Or how my arms are big and muscled, or maybe comment on my chiseled chest and abs. You might get farther if you go that route, not that I'd ever consider any of you ugly fat hoes."
"Eww," one of the girls squeled. "Like anyone would want to be with a freak like you, stupid tree head."
"Yeah," another girl agreed. "You're so stupid."
"And you're all really smart," Sakura said. Ever since hooking up with Naruto and I, Sakura had learned sarcasm. It didn't take long for her to start using it against her former tormentors. It was surprisingly effective, usually. "Oh wait, none of you scored at the top of the class, did you? Now who could that have been? It wasn't Anba or Naruto."
"Hah, I scored number three on the list of the whole entire class," Ami boasted. "I saw the list. Stupid forehead girl and her friends all scored near the bottom."
"Man, how dumb can you get?" Naruto questioned from the tree.
"Not as dumb as you, retard," Ami snarked.
"Now, now," I said, "it's not nice to make fun of the mentally challenged."
"Yeah," Naruto agreed. Then five seconds later, "Wait, what?"
"You are all morons," Ami said with her nose in the air. "Feel free to drop out of the academy at any time. Konoha has no place for idiots like you."
"You do not realize how deep the hole you're digging is."
Everyone turned to new person entering the conversation. I immediately recognized him. Long coat, glasses, spiked hair, monotonous voice, and bored expression. This was Aburame Shino.
"Aahh, it's the bug boy!" one of the girls screamed.
All of Ami's posse turned as one. They screamed shrilly and loudly as they ran. It didn't take long before Shino was left alone with all of us.
"My apologies for butting into your conversation," Shino said. He lifted a hand to push his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose as Sakura stood to greet him. I just pushed off of the tree I was leaning against to stand straight. Naruto remained in the tree. "However, it did not seem the courteous thing to do to walk away when I could participate in the defense of my fellow students."
"You're name is Aburame Shino, right?" I asked.
"That is correct," Shino said. "But I do not know how you know my name when I do not know any of yours. In fact, I have never seen any of you before aside from travel to and from classes."
"Anba has this stupid super memory that lets him memorize everything," Naruto said dully from the tree. "It's stupid and lame, but he probably heard you being called Shino, or something, at some point."
"Something along those lines," I said. "You're in class room 104C, right? We're in 104A. It's nice to meet you. My name is Anba."
"Naruto," Naruto said with a lazy salute from the tree.
"That's Uzumaki Naruto," Sakura said with an annoyed growl. "How can you be this lazy?! My name is Haruno, Sakura," Sakura said. She bowed lightly before sitting back down on the ground.
"Feel free to join us," I said. "We're taking a break before we go running again."
"You… run?" Shino asked as he sat down in the shade of the tree. It was a rather nice summer day out with a particularly pleasant warm breeze blowing constantly. Such lovely early summer weather in Fire Country. It would turn into burning hot hell in a few weeks. Best to enjoy it now.
"We're training so that we can be strong ninja when we graduate," Sakura said.
"Tch," Naruto scoffed. "It's not like we actually are learning any jutsu or how to fight. All we do is run, punch the air, and spar. I can't wait till they teach us taijutsu and how to throw kunai! Or how to blow stuff up with exploding tags or… or… how to shoot fireballs from our eyes and lasers from our fingertips!"
"Naruto," I said, "That stuff comes at the end, when we're twelve or so."
"I know! I know!" Naruto whined. "But I can't wait!"
"Why did you come to the park, Aburme-san?" Sakura asked.
"I came to find new bugs to add to my collection," Shino said. "The Aburame use insect partners in combat. If I can increase their number and variety, then I'll be a more capable ninja."
"Huh, I guess that's pretty cool," Naruto said. I noticed Sakura shivering, but trying to hide her reaction. "So does that mean when I set those wasp nests on fire, I was hurting your clan?"
"No," Shino said. "Wasps are an enemy, or rival, to the bugs the Aburame cultivate, which are Destruction Beetles. Though… I don't think it would be a good idea to upset the wasps by setting their nests on fire."
"Yeah…" Naruto idly rubbed the back of his arm. "I learned that."
"So that's where you got all those red bumps from," I said. I looked up into the tree and saw Naruto looking away, but also scratching the back of his head. "Whatever possessed you to set a wasp's nest on fire?"
"It was a stupid idea," Naruto said defensively. "I don't want to talk about it."
Sakura and I laughed. Shino, I couldn't tell, seemed to be amused. He didn't laugh, but I could swear I saw him smile a little.
A/N: Chapter 2 of the Summoned Soul! New characters are introduced and those characters are, Sakura and Shino. Sakura, cause she's so badly utilized in the manga it's criminal. And Shino, because he's also criminally underutilized.
Now comes the part where you review!
~I.K.A. Valian