Two Sides of the Same Coin
Chapter Three
Chunnin Exams Part Two – The Forest of Death
"Welcome to the Forest of Death!" A woman who was wearing fishnets and a trench coat announced with an eerie smile. "This will be the site for the second test. All you have to do is make it to the tower in the middle of the forest in one piece."
"That's it, no secret traps?" A young genin from the waterfall village asked hesitantly.
"Nope, that's just some of it. Your team will either be given a heaven scroll, or an earth scroll. Your objective is to retrieve both scrolls and bring them to the tower. Your mission though has a time limit, three days. After that we send a team in after your butts and you fail the Chunnin Exams." Anko told the group.
"It won't be that simple, will it?" A boy asked as he made his way forward, stopping a few feet away from Narumi.
"You're right, it won't be that simple." Anko smirked. "The forest itself will be after you with its many inhabitants, and you will all be competing against each other for the scrolls." Without even a second pause after finishing, the proctor threw a kunai at the genin who had asked the question. Without so much as a blink, the boy caught the kunai between his fingers and sent it right back at Anko. Now the boy had Narumi's full attention.
The boy was wearing standard black cargo pants with a long-sleeved red shirt. Over the shirt was a black vest that had a self sewn Konoha leaf on the back. The leaf headband on his left arm only proved he was from Konoha. The strangest part of the boy was his head. Bandages covered his entire face save a hole for his mouth and eyes. Sunglasses hid his eyes from view, and a black hat hid much of his hair.
Snatching the kunai from the air with her fingers, Anko returned the knife to her pouch. "What's your name boy?"
The boy answered, "Maiko."
"WRONG!" A shrill voice could be heard from the back of the crowd and a small figure made their way through the crowd. Emerging behind the boy, Moegi proceeded to pull his ear.
"Your name is Numi." Moegi told the boy as he wrenched his ear free.
"But I don't like the name Numi, I want to be Maiko!" Numi/Maiko told her as he crossed his arms and stuck out his lower lip.
Moegi sighed and faced Anko with a small bow. "I'm very sorry for my teammate. He just recently recovered from a mental illness enough so that he could participate in the exam. He's only covered because he received some severe burns to his face while on a mission that left some unattractive burns. The Hokage put him with Udon and me as a replacement for Konohamaru."
"What happened to Konohamaru?" Sakura asked, worry evident in her voice.
"A couple of trees fell on him during our last mission and broke or bruised every bone in his body." Udon explained as he stood next to Moegi, his nose running as usual.
"Ouch." Anko winced to demonstrate what she meant. "Oh well, just keep this Numi guy in line." Addressing the crowd Anko continued. "Now I need every one to make there way to the table on my left and pick up a paper. Afterwards you will take said paper to the table on my right and receive a scroll. You will then go to a pre-assigned gate and wait for the signal to start."
"What are the papers for?" Udon asked.
"They're liability papers saying that is you die during this test, then the Village of Konoha cannot be held responsible." Anko responded and gave a small chuckle as Udon's face fell. "You have fifteen minutes to sign the paper, get your scroll, and arrive at your gate!"
Narumi, Sakura, and Sasuke walked over to the table on Anko's left and grabbed a form each. Signing them as they made their way over of to the other table they kept silent. After receiving their heaven scroll the made there way to gate fifty-seven. Once there Sasuke and Sakura took seats on some rocks.
"I think Sakura should keep the scroll." Sasuke finally said. "If anyone tries to get it off her, she can yell sexual harassment and kick them with a chakra enhanced kick."
"Very funny Sasuke," Sakura sighed. "I agree with me keeping the scroll but I will not yell sexual harassment."
"So you'll still kick them a chakra enhanced kick?" Narumi grinned as he saw Sakura's sly smile.
"Of course I will, I'll even kick their groin." Both Narumi and Sasuke winced as Sakura started laughing.
"Alright, all joking aside now, who should we go after first in order to get the earth scroll?" Sasuke asked. "I was thinking we should go after Moegi and Udon's team first."
"I don't think that would be a good idea. You saw how easily that Numi guy deflected Anko's kunai. Anko is jonin level and he returned it without blinking." Narumi explained. "What about a local team?"
"Nah, we know all of there moves, and they know ours, it wouldn't be any fun." Sakura answered. "What about a waterfall village team? We've never fought against waterfall."
"I like the idea. How about you Narumi, what do you say?" Sasuke asked.
"I'm in, though I should tell you that I spent two months in a waterfall village with Jiraiya while we were away." Narumi smiled. "They're techniques aren't that difficult, and have several flaws."
"That's alright. I mainly want to fight them so that I could say I did." Sakura sighed. "They probably won't be any match for us anyway. Do you guys know what the signal is?"
"No, but considering its Anko, we'll know when to start." Sure enough, a minute after Sasuke said that a primal yell rang throughout the area and gave fifty-seven burst open.
"I'd say that was the signal." Narumi said and Sakura nodded in agreement. Moving swiftly through the gate, the three soon began to race through the branches of the trees in search of their selected prey.
"There they are," Sasuke whispered to his teammates. "And they must me amateurs." The waterfall team that the three had staked out were in the middle of a clearing arguing over who should carry the scroll. The said scroll was laying in the middle of the little huddle in plain sight.
"Oh man, they have a heaven scroll as well." Sakura sighed. "I really wanted to get this exam over and done with in one shot."
"We still can. All we have to do is kick these guys butts, grab the heaven scroll, and bargain with another Konoha team for an earth scroll." Narumi suggested.
"Good idea. That way these losers get kicked out early, and all the real competitors will still be in next round." Sasuke grinned. "I'll actually get to participate this year."
"Yeah, beating up on a ball of sand isn't exactly fighting." Narumi ducked to avoid a punch that Sasuke threw.
"You two cut it out!" Sakura hissed. "They're getting ready to move out." Sure enough the three waterfall ninja had finally decided who would carry the scroll and were getting ready to move. "Can we use maneuver three on these chumps?"
"Sure, we haven't used that one in a while." To eliminate the need to devise a new plan for every mission, team seven had created five different maneuvers that could be changed only slightly to suit different mission needs.
Sakura stood up from their hiding place in the surrounding foliage and slowly walked towards the young boys, moving her hips seductively as she did. Meanwhile Sasuke and Narumi headed to the left and right of the small group.
"Hi boys," Sakura said in a seductive voice. "I've got something to show you, come here." Sakura used her index finger to lure them towards her.
"W-what d-do you w-want to sh-show us?" The apparent leader said as his tanned face flushed crimson.
"Oh nothing," Sakura's smile suddenly turned into an evil grin. "Only your heaven scroll." That's when Narumi and Sasuke suddenly jumped out and grabbed two of three and knocked them unconscious immediately. The third jumped at Sakura, and Sakura kept her promise. A minute later the young teen was on the ground passed out from pain.
"That was boring." Sasuke said as he rummaged through the leaders pockets and grabbed the scroll. "I had hoped it would be more of a challenge."
"Well what do expect after I had them completely under my spell." Sakura said as faked a hair toss.
"I guess you're right, remember what happened when you tried it on Shikamaru and Asuma." Narumi smiled at the memory.
"Alright, so now that we have this new maneuver, how do we test it?" Sakura asked. "And for the record I cannot believe you guys talked me into this anyway."
"Oh come on Sakura, you have to stop and think about how many of the male ninja population let their hormones come over them and cloud their thinking." Narumi said with a grin. "I just got an idea, let's test it on Shikamaru and Asuma."
"Good idea, those two are complete opposites, ten bucks says Asuma falls completely, but has no effect on Shikamaru." Sasuke said with a smirk.
"Ten bucks to the effect happening on Shikamaru and not Asuma. Remember, Asuma is married." Sakura grinned.
"Ten bucks says they both fall to the effect." Narumi adopted a grin as well. "Remember, they're both men."
Ten minutes later found team seven and they're two guinea pigs in an abandoned training ground a few miles away from the village.
"What are we here for?" Shikamaru asked a bored expression on his face.
"That's what I'd liked to know." Asuma took a long drag of his cigarette. "You told me that Choji had gotten stuck in a tree, but I don't see him."
"Actually, we need to test a new……..technique, and we need your help." Narumi explained. "Alright, now just be on your guard." With that Sasuke and Narumi disappeared into the surrounding foliage.
"Boys," Asuma and Shikamaru turned their attention towards Sakura and momentarily lost the ability to speak. Sakura had hunched over enough to give them a small view of her cleavage. Puckering her lips up just enough so that her voice sounded strained she continued.
"The zipper on my belt is stuck, I was wondering if you would be so kind as to help." Sakura indicating the belt which hung low on her waist, very low on her waist.
"Um….w-why don't you go and have your mom help you?" Asuma asked, his face a bright crimson, trying to tear his eyes away from Sakura.
"Because part of the material from my dress is also stuck, and it makes it hard to walk." Sakura took a step and winced, then looked up at the two with a look of desperation on her face. "Shikamaru, won't you help me?"
Shikamaru blushed a bright crimson as well and looked at the ground. "Wow…um….I would like to but…..you see…..Temari would kill me……..so I….." Shikamaru was completely lost for words and Sakura grinned. At that moment, Narumi and Sasuke and jumped from the bushes and pinned the two men fairly easily with no resistence.
"Oh man, I was waiting for an attack, but….." Shikamaru trailed off and buried his face in the ground.
"Kurenai's gonna kill me." Asuma said as he shook his head.
"Wow, it looks like we both owe Naruto ten bucks Sasuke." Sakura said with a smile, Sasuke only shook his head and took out his wallet.
"I remember that day." Sakura shook her head. "I have to say Naruto, it sometimes feels like you've changed."
Startled Narumi looked at Sakura with wide eyes. "And why would you ask that?"
"Because you never looked at how people acted to different situations. I mean you used your sexy no jutsu to get stuff from Jiraiya all the time, but ever since you came back from your training trip, you just don't seem like the Naruto we grew up with." Sakura looked at Narumi with a mixture of hurt and confusion written on her face. Sasuke only nodded and stared at Narumi with his piercing black eyes.
Narumi looked at the ground and tightened his hands into fists, his arms shaking. 'I can't lie to them anymore. Sorry Oji.' Narumi looked up and stared at his teammates, his friends. "My name is not Naruto Uzumaki. My name is Narumi Uzumaki, I am Naruto's twin brother." There was a long and uncomfortable silence after Narumi's proclamation.
"You're not Naruto." Sakura said with a disbelieving not in her voice.
"I'm Narumi, Naruto's twin brother." Narumi let his hands relax after he felt the blood flow down his hands from his hands biting into his palms.
"Then what happened to Naruto!" Sasuke said forcefully.
"Back when Orochimaru attacked he added a new seal to his already existing one."
"The one containing the demon fox." Sakura interrupted. Narumi nodded.
"Well after Jiraiya fixed the seal with another seal, the whole seal started to fall apart. In order to protect the village and Naruto himself, the Hokage decided to completely redo the seal. The process was a success, but it sent my brother into a comatose state, in which he has been in for almost three years now." Narumi finished and looked down at the ground once again.
"When did you first assume the role of your brother?" Sasuke asked.
"They started the sealing process one month before the final exam. I took my brother's place in the fight against Neji, and then on the training trip with Jiraiya. The medic nins thought they brother would be awake by the time we came back, but he wasn't. So I was still him from that day to now."
"How come we never knew about you?" Sakura asked in a quiet voice.
"As you've probably already guessed the village doesn't like my brother because of the fox. The Hokage thought it best if the village only had one child to take their anger on then two. I was trained as an ANBU from an early age in order to protect my brother."
"If you don't have the fox, then why do you have the whisker marks?" Sakura asked indicating towards his face.
"These marks are only a genjutsu, I don't really have these marks, only Naruto does." Narumi sighed. "Listen, I'm sorry that I lied to you, and made you think that I was my brother. I never wanted to lie, but the Hokage insisted. I'm not sorry though about spending time with you and becoming friends." Narumi finally looked up with a sad smile, and tear going down his face.
"You idiot," Sakura wrapped Narumi up in a hug. "I'm glad you told us, even though it's a direct violation of the Hokage's orders. I'm glad that you trust us." Breaking the hug Sakura looked at Narumi and smiled. "I happy that we're friends as well."
"I agree, going against the Hokage is a pretty big thing." Sasuke smirked. "You and your brother are more different then most people would think. I would like to see you to together, and see how you two interact just to compare and contrast."
"Is that you're way of saying your not mad?" Narumi asked.
"I guess so." Smirking Sasuke turned and started scanning the surrounding area. "Now where do you think we'll find a group of Konoha ninja?"
"Why don't we try to find a small river or stream? I overheard TenTen telling Lee that a gathering was planned there." Sakura said.
"I don't remember anything like that?" Narumi said with a confused look on his face.
"We haven't really seen the others in a couple of weeks remember? Kakashi's been drilling teamwork into our skulls." Sakura said, then smiled. "So how are we supposed to find this meeting point?"
"I'll handle that. Naruto and I inherited a kekkia genkai from our mother. It has two effects. One) it can allow you to copy something really fast. Two) it has similar properities to the byakugan that the Hyuga's use." Gathering chakra into his eyes, his eyes formed two ying yang symbols. "This is called the Aoiro Metsuki Douten, or just the Blue Eyes Transition." Looking at Sasuke and Sakura, Narumi adopted a very serious look. "There is a major downside though. When using the eyes the user sometimes loses all sense of time and his surroundings. That's why I usually have a partner with me on missions when I plan to use my eyes."
"Don't worry, we'll watch out for you." Sakura smiled and Narumi relaxed.
"Thank you." With that Narumi turned his attention to the surrounding forest and projected his eyesight. Soon Narumi was flying through the forest. Within what seemed like a couple of minutes he spotted the group of ninja and took notice of their location. Feeling a tug, Narumi knew that his friends were calling him back. Jolting backwards, Narumi blinked and saw Sakura in front of him.
"You weren't kidding about the zoning, it's been ten minutes already. Did you find them?" Sasuke asked from beside Narumi.
"Yeah, they're only about three miles to the north." Standing up from where he sat down on the ground sometime, Narumi patted off the dirt.
"Let's go then." Sakura said as she jumped into the trees. Sasuke and Narumi followed suit. When the group was in sight, Narumi stopped.
"What's wrong Narumi?" Sakura asked as she stopped next to Narumi, a worried expression on her face.
"Don't tell the others about me. Let them think I'm still Naruto." Narumi gave a small grin. "I don't want to be in even bigger trouble with the Hokage then I already am."
"All right," Sakura said, Sasuke responded with a shrug and the three set off again. A minute later they came upon a group.
"About time you guys got here." Ino told them the team as they made their way over. "We were just about to send Kiba in after you."
"Sorry we're late. I couldn't remember where Neji said we were meeting." Sasuke said as he lied. Neji's eyes only glared at Sasuke for a moment as way of acknowledgement.
"Anyway, somebody wouldn't have an extra earth scroll they're willing to trade for a heaven scroll, would they?" Sakura asked holding out their extra scroll.
"We do," TenTen said as she pulled out the said scroll. Quickly trading scrolls the girls made sure that their respective scrolls were secured tightly on their belts.
"How'd you guys get another scroll so fast?" Choji asked through a mouthful of potato chips.
"We just used our third maneuver on a couple of waterfall ninja." Sakura said glancing at Shikamaru. Said boy froze and looked away, a blush already apparent on his face. The whole started laughing much to his embarrassment.
"I still can't believe you got Shikamaru with that trick!" Ino said as she wiped a tear from her eye. "What did Temari say after she heard?"
"She stopped talking to me for a month." Shikamaru mumbled. "She thought something else had happened as well."
"I remember that, she came after me next." Sakura said.
"I want to know what went on between you and Shikamaru the other day!" A furious Temari yelled at Sakura.
"Nothing happened! I swear." Sakura said as she raised her hands to protect herself. "Shikamaru was just helping us test a new technique, he got a little flustered, but nothing physical happened, I swear!"
"Nothing had better happened." Temari hissed, then she abrubtly turned and walked away, slicing a tree straight through with her fan on the way.
"Temari can be scary sometimes." Sakura shivered at the memory.
"I'm so sorry we're late!" Moegi said as she burst through the surrounding foliage. "It took us forever to nail down those sound creeps."
"If we had just used my strategy, then we would have been done a whole lot sooner!" Maiko/Numi said as he came out behind Moegi. Udon followed silently behind the duo and greeted the rest of the group leaving Moegi and Maiko/Numi arguing.
"Can we assume that you guys have both your scrolls as well?" Narumi asked.
"Of course," Moegi told him. "So Naruto-boss, do you guys have a plan for getting to the tower?"
Narumi inwardly cringed at the title Moegi gave him. "Do you now where the tower is?"
"We didn't get a good look at the map." Udon told them. "Numi dragged us towards the gate the minute he got our scroll."
"Well sorry for wanting to get an early start." Maiko/Numi crossed his arms and pouted. "It's Maiko by the way."
"Whatever," Moegi rolled her eyes. Facing her sempais she continued. "Can we follow you guys to the tower?"
"Why not," Neji shrugged. "It's gonna take us the full three days to get there anyway. Half of us still need to find our matching scroll so we can take our time getting there."
"Then we don't have any time to lose." Kiba yelled as he jumped up. The rest followed his example and soon everyone was traveling through the trees. The group split the duties of making camp, finding food, and hiding their locations equally. The teams who still needed scrolls spread out during the night and attacked unsuspecting teams.
Three days later, the five teams arrived at the main door of the tower and entered. The interior of the tower was completely surrounded in shadows. A single window high up the south wall was the only source of light.
"Everyone make a circle in the middle and be careful." Shikamaru instructed the rest of the small party.
"What's up Shikamaru?" Neji whispered.
"I feel….for lack of better word…..something." Shikamaru said while he scanned the area. Neji and Hinata activated their byakugans and helped scan while Sasuke did what he could with his sharingan.
"There are hunched figures in the corners." Hinata whispered. "I count at least fifty."
"So that's three enemies for each person, with five extra enemies." Sasuke told the group. "How good is your blind fighting?"
"Hinata and I can manage with our byakugan, Lee and TenTen are weak in that area though." Neji informed Sasuke.
"Kiba and I can use our animals to guide us." Shino said.
"I can control the shadows of Ino and Choji." Shikamaru told the group.
"Udon and I are weak as well in dark fighting, but Numi's pretty good at it." Moegi announced.
"All three of us are pretty adept as well in this kind of fighting." Sasuke said after a moment of silence, after feeling a squeeze on his shoulders from Sakura and Narumi.
"All right, then how about the four older teams take the corner they're facing, then Moegi's team will take the middle." Shino said.
"I like it." Narumi was excited. He loved fighting in the dark, he could pull off some amazing moves and no one would see him.
"Should we make the first move, or let them?" Kiba asked. "I don't feel any bloodlust from them."
"H-how does bl-bloodlust feel?" Udon asked, a quiver evident in his voice.
"You can feel your enemies intent to kill you." Ino said.
"The tension in the area suddenly becomes so thick you can hardly breathe." Kiba added.
"Your skin creeps, and a cold sweat comes over your body." Maiko/Numi said in a low voice. "Terror races through your mind almost making it impossible to think."
"But I feel none of that." Narumi said, growing more concerned by the second. "I feel nothing from those lumps." To test his feeling Narumi threw kunai at one of the lumps and was rewarded with a resounding thud. "What the heck?"
Akamaru followed the scent of Narumi's kunai straight to the lump and began to investigate. A minute he came back to Kiba and barked softly in his ear.
"Akamaru says that those lumps are only logs covered by a black tarp." Kiba told the group.
"Logs, what are we supposed to burn this place to the ground?" Ino complained.
"That's exactly it!" Shikamaru and Neji said at the same time.
"This is a very complex genjutsu." Shikamaru explained. "The only way to break this time of genjutsu is to physically destroy it."
"And since the illusion was activated when we entered the tower, we have to destroy the tower." Neji finished the explanation.
"Is that all?" Sasuke sighed. Taking a stance right in front of one of the logs Sasuke did hand seals and activated his ninjutsu. "Giant fireball ninjutsu!" A large fireball escaped from Sasuke's mouth and headed for the log. The log and tarp immediately caught fire and the tarp send out sparks which ignited the surrounding area. Soon the whole tower was ablaze and the Konoha ninjas were smack dab in the middle.
"I thought the illusion was supposed to end once the log caught on fire?" TenTen said as she crouched low to the ground to escape the billowing smoke.
"The illusion won't end before the entire tower is consumed." Shikamaru told her. "I suspect that we'll be rescued before then though."
"I'm not going to wait for a rescue Shikamaru." Sakura said, gathering chakra into her fist. "That fire is getting awfully close and I don't want to be barbecue." Sakura punched the ground and opened a wide cavern underneath the tower itself. "Everyone, get in!"
The whole group wasted no time in jumping into the hole that Sakura had made. As soon as Sakura jumped in though, the fire vanished. A clapping sound could be heard from the rear of the cavern and electric lights suddenly turned on.
"Very good, you're the first group we didn't have to bail out of that inferno." Anko said, leaning against the sides of the cavern. "This group automatically gets to go to the next round of the exam with or without their scrolls."
"Wait a minute, you mean it doesn't matter now if we have our scrolls or not!" Moegi screeched.
"That's right." Anko grinned. "Now showers and guest rooms are just down the tunnel. At the end you'll find a set of stairs that will take you to the upper rooms of the main tower. The next round will begin in 24 hours so use your time wisely." Anko pointed to the right of her where a narrow tunnel could be seen. The group started wordlessly making their way through it. Narumi was about to go when Anko called him back. After everyone had left Anko rounded on him.
"Narumi, what the blazes do you think you're doing posing as your brother!" Anko yelled.
"I'm under orders from the Hokage to do so until Naruto recovers, and might I tell you that this is an S-Class secret!" Narumi hissed. Anko's eyes narrowed at the boy.
"You could have told me though. There were several occasions where I was about to call out your name earlier!" Anko sighed. "Listen, I know you love your brother and all, but why? Why are you suddenly taking over his life? And don't you dare give me the he's my brother routine, I want the truth." Her eyes narrowed even more as she rounded on Narumi.
Narumi sighed. "I guess I always wanted to know how it felt to be part of a team with people my own age. To see how they reacted, how a regular teenage acted." Narumi stared at the wall with a look of sadness. "I guess I wanted to see what Naruto was always talking about. How wonderful it was to have friends who understood you more then an adult ever could." Narumi suddenly felt Anko's arms around him.
"You idiot, you have every right to find out those things, but you don't have to hide behind your brothers identity. You should go ahead and show the village yourself, don't let them decide about whether you should hide or not." Anko broke the hug and stared into the teens eyes. "Next time you pull a stunt like this though, make sure you tell me so that I'm going around blowing your cover."
"All right, I'll tell you next time." Narumi smiled and gave Anko one last hug. Breaking the hug Narumi ran to catch up with his teammates.
'He's grown up so much since I first met him.' Anko thought, her mind drifting back to that day.
"Anko, Ibiki, this is Narumi Uzumaki." The third Hokage told the ANBU members. A small boy was standing next to the Hokage with his head down low. "I want you two to be his mentors. You will teach him how to fight, how to interrogate, and anything else you think is necessary." With that the Hokage turned around and left the group to their own devices.
Anko crouched down and looked Narumi in the eye. "Why does the Hokage want us to teach such high level stuff?
Narumi met her eyes and she could see a look of determination within them. "So that I can protect my brother from the villagers who would wish him dead." Was the simple answer from the small boy.
Ibiki smiled. "Sounds like a good responsible reason." Crouching down next to Anko he continued. "Is there anything you yourself want to learn, just for the sake of learning it?"
The question caught the young boy off guard, the blue which once held such a look of determination, were now lost. "I-I don't know what I want to learn." Narumi looked down once again but Ibiki caught his chin and pulled face up. Looking into the young boys eyes Ibiki smiled.
"Then we'll just have to figure that out." With that Ibiki took the boys hand and lead into the ANBU complex explaining what and ANBU is and what they're job is.
'Ibiki made me swear never to tell anyone about the soft spot he has for Narumi.' Anko thought as she made her way up the stairs. 'I sure hope Narumi knows what he's doing though.'
A/N: So what do you think of chapter three? It's kind of long but oh well. Next chapter will have catfight among others, plus a surprise at the end. Remember, reviews are a writers life blood, so review please!