hey, sorry about the wait guys. I got caught up in family matters and vacationing but things have finally settled down a lot. (hooray!) I've had a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head during this break so you'll definitely have some great stuff coming soon. So on with the show!
Disclaimer:
... do i really have to do this? i'm pretty sure kishimoto isn't a highschooler or ginger, so you lawyers back the heck up.
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"Speech"
'Thought'
"Demon/summon speech"
'Demon\summon thought'
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Konoha, 3 years after Kyuubi
All was quiet in Konoha as a lone Anbu patrolled silently among the rooftops. However, not everything likes to be quiet in the dark... As the sound of fighting reached the Anbu's ears, she groaned silently. 'Just a few minutes longer and i would've been off my shift.' So quickly turning around, the Anbu silently followed the sounds of flesh hitting flesh. As a patrolling ninja, any type of fighting observed had to be monitored in case there was a threat to harm the other fatally. So landing at the edge of the rooftop overlooking an alley way, it was safe to say that this Anbu was shocked to see a fellow Anbu mercilessly beating on a group of 6 ninja. Quickly jumping down into the alley, the patrolling Anbu landed just as the last ninja fell to the ground unconscious. Noticing the new presence arriving, the second Anbu looked up. This allowed the moonlight to shine across the mask, revealing the visage of a weasel.
"What the hell is the matter with you Weasel!" The furious Anbu shouted at Weasel as he knelt down and started removing headbands from the unconscious heap of groaning flesh. Looking over after tying up the unconscious ninja, he simply tossed the headbands over to the other Anbu.
"Take care of those for me, Neko-chan. I've got some other, more important things to deal with." Was the only reply that the newly identified Neko got. Walking over to Weasel, she got into his face. "I swear if you didn't have a real purpose for this, then you're going to hate your next training session." With her already short temper, well short when Weasel had a part in it, hearing a couple cans across the alley clatter as they rolled across the ground had her whipping out a kunai and turning around expecting a fight. It only took her a second to realize that, instead of the ninja her chakra sense was telling her was behind her, she only saw a small little boy with spiky blonde hair and a slightly dirty face with a bruise forming beneath his left eye. Even then, in the shadows of the ally she almost could barely see that he had three "whisker" lines on each cheek.
Neko felt a hand envelop the hand that was holding her raised kunai, and slowly brought it down. Leaning in close, Weasel whispered in her ear, "Like I said Neko-chan... There are other matters I need to attend to." With that he walked over to the blonde boy, and placed his hand on his shoulder. Suddenly, the boy grinned a great, foxy smile and quickly said, "bye-bye cat-lady!"
And in a poof of smoke, the duo was gone.
Smiling at the boys antics she turned back to the group of ninja on the ground, Neko sighed. 'You definitely owe me one Weasel.'
Back with Ryuu
Ryuu was starting to wonder whether or not he even needed to come to this academy or not. 'I mean sure preps, jocks, and nerds were the norm at any school, but seriously? Crazy chicks with bokken able to challenge any who they think disrespected them?What kind of madness is this?' Ryuu ducked under the swing of a bokken of one of the 'crazy chicks'. Sure he could rub people the wrong way, but looking around a courtyard and then sneezing is not a way to disrespect someone. Last time he checked at least. Parrying a blow from the right with the bokken the girl had tossed at his feet prior to the attempted beat-down she had planned. Ryuu took a step back as she did a vertical strike towards the ground. Not anticipating that he'd take that step, she over balanced and her bokken struck the ground. Not giving her a chance to start swinging again, Ryuu stepped back forward and trapped it on the ground with his foot. With two quick 'taps' to the inside of her elbows, she was forced to let go of the bokken. Letting out the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding, Ryuu gently tapped the junction of her her neck and collar bone. Knowing that he'd beaten her after 10 minutes of just dodging around her attacks, no attempt to block or strike back, made her angry, but he had shown her he was just as good or better than her just by that alone.
Looking at her with his green eyes, Ryuu simply said, "Ryuu Uzumaki." Puzzled at this for a moment, she finally replied, "Yukie Matsumoto." Grinning at Yukie, he knelt down and picked up the bokken that was still trapped under his foot. He tried to hand them both back to her, but she simply denied the one he had used and took back hers. A few seconds after he had handed hers back, the bell rang. When she turned and started to walk off, he asked, "Why wont you take it back?" She stopped and turned her head to grin, "because... you just might tick someone else off too. Its best to be prepared." and she turned and jogged off around the corner.
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'Swaying in the beat of the wind, thriving with the heartbeat of the world... man, i need to stop watching those nature documentaries so much.' Ryuu thought as he stared idly out the window of his class' window. He could just barely see past the swaying branches to the clearing where the academy's kendo team was going through practices. He glanced down to his satchel by his side and sighed. He had stuffed the bokken Yukie had given him under the straps on the flap of it, but even then he had people glaring at him for the sole reason he had beaten one of their best when he hadn't even been here the entire trial week. A nobody that waltzed in and had a great accomplishment, and he wasn't even specialized in anything yet! 'Yeah, great achievement my ass' And to make matters worse, he had been stuck in classes he couldn't blow off any energy in. In his old school, he at least had a gym class that he could expend some energy in. Now he just had before and after school to do that. Suddenly, the door was kicked in with a resounding crash, and revealed a giant of a man with his foot still raised. This man slowly lowered his leg and walked in and looked over the class with a gaze that just screamed, "go on, run... it'll be fun chasing you down like the prey you are". This man was at least 6' 4", and built like a wall. He was wearing black jogging pants and a sleeveless black muscle shirt with a white stripe going down the left side of the front. All of this was accented by the scary smile and the black spiky hair with little bells on the tips. Then the "mountain" spoke, "Which of you is Ryuu Uzumaki?" With a single uniformed motion, the entire class turned and pointed to him. With a grin that would scare a demon, and a turn of his head, the mountain simply said, "I'm taking the gaki. Headmaster wants to see him."
"Aah no problem at all, Kenpachi-san." His professor, the man he met before this morning, Urahara Kisuke, said while waving a small white fan that he had planned to peg Ryuu with for not paying attention. With the final permission from Urahara, Kenpachi walked over to Ryuu who still hadn't stood up and grabbed him by the neck of his uniform. Having just barely enough time to grab his bag, Ryuu was unceremoniously dragged out of the class room. All the while, he was made to hit each and every desk on the way out while Kenpachi feigned not realizing it was happening.
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outside headmasters office
Having been dragged all the way to the office, Ryuu was finally dropped on a bench beside two large oaken doors. "Sit here until someone comes to get you." and with those final words, Kenpachi strode through the doors into the office. After he was sure he was alone in the hall way, Ryuu vigorously dusted himself of the dirt that had accumulated through his journey through the school. after a good solid 2 minutes of cleaning, Ryuu sat back down and realized that to his knowledge, he wasn't in trouble. Sure he had that fight with Yukie, but even the teacher in the courtyard hadn't said it was against the rules. So doing what he usually did when bored and had energy to burn... he started doing pushups.
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20 minutes later
"1,052...1,053...1,054..." The double doors opened and a man with white hair in an older style with a thin mustache wearing a white turtle-neck and black dress pants walked out. "1,059...1,060... 1,061"
To say that he was shocked would be a bit of an understatement. They had expected him to be sweating bullets out here waiting for them to let him into the office. (though he was sure that the headmaster had a hunch this was going to happen) "Will you please stop that young man? This isn't exactly the place for that." He calmly stated as he extended a hand to help the boy up. Giving the boy time to retrieve his bag, he escorted the boy into the office. As they were walking in the man subtly patted him on the back to remove some dirt he had missed, earning him a quickly whispered, "Thanks."
Walking into the head office, Ryuu saw something that shocked him. "You! You're... the guy my dad plays chess with!" This statement earned him a small chuckle from the older man sitting behind the desk. As Ryuu walked forward he was able to read the nameplate situated on the desk, "Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryusai". He was an older man, most likely mid-seventies, late 60s, with a long beard that was kept under control by thin leather bands that criss-crossed down. He simply wore a mature version of the academy uniform with a white tie. Kenpachi was leaning against the wall next to a substantially smaller woman who had her black hair in two long braids ending tied to a ring on each one. Leaning forward and steepling his fingers, Yamamoto started to speak.
"I'm sure you are wondering why you are here, yes? The reason is simple. during the probationary week of a new students enrollment, we set up a series of...tests. These tests are made to understand what the student is bound to specialize in the future based off of their skills and occasionally, their attitudes. Throughout the week, these tests are applied to the new student, however they are not always a pass-fail test. You haven't even been here a whole day and you've been through over twenty already, although the most important of these are just narrowed down to 4 separate tests. Are you understanding what Ive said so far?" Yamamoto paused for a reply.
"Yeah... Probation week is testing week, and Ive been subjected to tests all day unknown to me... that about cover it?" Ryuu coolly replied with some disbelief laced throughout. Yamamoto grinned, 'nailed it on the first try... Albeit quite bluntly, but you are you dads son...' "Yes, that covers it all actually. So may I continue?" Yamamoto replied with a small smile tugging at his lips, and waited a polite second to see if Ryuu had any questions so far. Ryuu just nodded and gave the universal sign for 'Go on", his hand waving like it was reeling in a fish. "Alright then... Now where was I?... Oh, yes. The four tests. Now the first test you faced was not a Pass/Fail test. This test was administered when you first walked through the doors of this academy. As you might of noticed since you arrived, all the signs and directories have been reinstalled in the hallways. That was only part of the first test. when you were enrolled you were given your homeroom class number but nothing else, this was to lead you to, or close enough to, the start of the second part of the test. When you were chased by the wolves, you had one of two options... You could continue to run until you were too tired to move and then take what came to you, or you could fight back and defy till the end. Now between everyone in this room, me knowing your father, I knew that the second option is the one that you would take." Here at this last part, Yamamoto allowed himself a chuckle or two. "The point of this test was to determine your resolve and will in the face of danger."
At this point, Ryuu had a question. "But the wolves were fake! Yet they felt so real! I could feel their breath, i could smell them!... Shoot, I actually kicked one! How is that possible if they weren't real old man?"
At this the woman at Kenpachi's side finally spoke up. "You will watch how you speak to your elders boy! Now if you really want to know how that was done then go get the answers out of your father. Now watch your-"
With a gentle but stern tone, Yamamoto cut her off. "That is enough Soi Fon. It's good to have someone remind me how old I am every once in a while." Turning his gaze back to Ryuu,"but it will not be a privilege that will be abused." He finished in a No-Nonsense tone. A couple seconds later his gaze softened and he began again. "The second test was in your second class when a student-aid disguised as a student had asked you to pass a note across the room for her."
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2nd period, study hall
"Psst! Hey Ryuu, can you help me out for a sec?" A raven haired girl whispered over to him across the aisle between their desks. "Sure, what do you need?" he whispered back to her while keeping an eye on their hawk-eyed instructor. He had already spotted Ryuu doodling discreetly from across the room. With the pretense of going into her bag for something, the girl subtly dropped a folded piece of paper within range of his foot. As she acted like she was digging around for something, she whispered, "See that girl across the room? I need you to help me get this to her. But I'm not all that good at sneaking around, so i need you to do it. Can you help me?" All this time Ryuu had been watching their instructor, and he pondered whether or not to accept this "mission". Then with an unspoken answer and small grin sent to the girl, he slid his foot over to the note and pulled it to himself.
'Now, to figure out how to get this over there... hmm, we're not allowed out of our seats for any reason except for the bathroom, but that's not good because I'm on the side with the door. The 'target' is on the other side where the window is...' At the time he was thinking this, someones pencil lead snapped. With quick strides, the instructor walked over and held out his hand. The student who's pencil broke handed over the useless pencil and the instructor swiftly made his way to the front of the room. Once he had reached his desk in the front of the class, he started to sharpen the pencil in the electric sharpener... with his back to the class. 'That's it! Now how do I distract him long enough?... hmm... (light-bulb appears) I think i have an idea.' With a mischievous grin, Ryuu grabbed his pencil. A twist here. A twist there. Firmly tug on the lead, being careful not to bend it, and out slid the lead from his pencil. (note: This is harder than it sounds, but it can still be done. It just requires patience.)Sticking it in, but leaving enough for him to still hold onto, he set it against his paper, and pushed. SNAP! Just like before, the instructor quickly walked over to Ryuu and held out his hand. With a flourish that was slightly more extravagant than needed, Ryuu handed over the pencil, minus the stick of lead of course. With quick, purpose-filled strides, Mr. Instructor walked back to the sharpener and started to sharpen Ryuu's pencil. The moment he heard the sharpener start, Ryuu was out of his seat and sneaking as fast as he could across the back of the classroom.
Stopping only when Mr. Instructor pulled out the pencil to check it, Ryuu steadily made his way to the other side of the room. Stopping behind a desk, Ryuu thanked whatever deity out there in charge of his luck... Then cursed them to the pits of bloody hell. His 'target' was in the back of the class, luckily, but he had to do it so that she didn't know it was him. Otherwise, he would get in trouble and so would the girl that sat next to him. Ryuu looked over at the instructor. 'He's getting frustrated. I don't have much time...' Then, as if something had heard him, the girl started to space off while looking out the window. Dashing quickly over, Ryuu gently slid it underneath her slightly cupped hand. With quick steps, he backtracked to his seat and sat back down. Albeit, just in time too. less than a second after he sat down, Mr. Instructor turned around and walked back to him. As he was handing over a new pencil, he just said, "Make sure you don't break this one."
Walking away, he calmly snatched a manga out from inside someone's text book. Turning his head to the side, Ryuu grinned and gave the girl next to him a thumbs up.
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" Oh yeah! I remember her... she was an aid?" With a dejected look Ryuu hung his head. "She was so cute too... but if she's an aid, then there's no way she'd spend a moment- mumble mumble" With a collective sweat drop upon hearing that, the occupants of the room allowed him a moment to wallow in his self-misery. clearing his throat, Yamamoto snapped Ryuu out of it.
"Now Ryuu... If you would pull yourself together..." Seeing as how he wasn't listening, Yamamoto's eye started to twitch with annoyance. Suddenly out of nowhere, a large tome flew into Ryuu's forehead. This caused his head to snap back with the force of the throw... and flip over backwards. Soi Fon raised an eyebrow as Ryuu seamlessly went with the impact and while in the air, flawlessly performed a flip and caught the chair before it fully fell to the ground. 'interesting... perhaps he does have some amount of talent...' Slowly standing up Ryuu rubbed his forehead where the book had hit, only to be driven back to the floor again by the same book as it landed on his head. 'or maybe not...' Yamamoto let out a small chuckle as he watched Ryuu slowly peel his face from the floor and sit back down in the righted chair.
Leaning forward, Yamamoto began speaking again. "Well now that you have rejoined us, let us finish this meeting with as few interruptions as possible. Now, where was I? Ah yes... the second test. Now when you had completed this 'mission', you had showed a great deal of ingenuity and fast thinking. Even though you could have just thrown it at her like your father would have, you went over the top and hand delivered it to her. This entire test was to test, of course, your ability to plan ahead and above all, to test your how well you can accomplish a stealthy goal.
"During your break between your midday classes, you somehow managed to get yourself in a bit of a confrontation. By disrespecting Yukie Matsumoto-"
I didn't disrespect her! I sneezed! I didn't even see her until that bokken," Ryuu gestured at his satchel on the ground next to his chair. "Got thrown at me!" Slumping back in his chair, Ryuu let out a deep sigh. For once, things fell into place. "It was that note, wasn't it? I thought one of those girls looked familiar." Yamamoto let one of his eyebrows slowly lift up. 'like his father indeed…. No prompting at all and yet he still managed to put all that together….' With a sagely nod, Yamamoto continued.
"Through the staged note that you unknowingly passed to one of her close friends. Even though you were completely caught unawares by the duel, you were able to expertly defeat Yukie." Then, with a snort Kenpachi stated, "Expertly my ass. Give an ape a stick and it'd beat this boy. All he did was run around and then stumble onto her bokken. Shoot, he probably couldn't even land a decent hit on me if I sat there unarmed!" Lacing his hands together behind his head, Ryuu calmly said, "I accept your challenge."
Seeing a conflict brewing, Yamamoto quickly attempted to reign it in. "Now now…. You can duke it out next week during your class." Turning to Ryuu, he continued. "Now even though it is usually looked down upon, you shall be receiving your new schedule at the conclusion of this meeting. Now as I was saying, that impromptu test was staged in order to see what your aptitude for combat is. However, me knowing your father, I didn't have any doubts that you would 'pass' this test." That said, Head master Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryusai handed Ryuu a simple slip with his classes on it and he was dismissed. As Ryuu was walking out, satchel slung over his shoulder, he turned and asked a question that had been bugging him. "You said there was four tests…. You only explained three… What's the fourth?"
With a sly grin, Yamamoto slipped a tube out of a drawer in his desk and, with a tone that was telling of restrained amusement, stated, "That is the fourth test. You have till Monday to figure it out."
Hokage Tower- Night of the beat down in alley
Sarutobi Hiruzen, known as the God of Shinobi or simply The Professor, was having an uneventful night. He had managed to get a small pause in the bane that was evil to all Kage, paperwork, and was simply enjoying some of his students literature. Albeit perverted literature, but everyone has their ways to cope. However, as all good things must, his private break was disturbed. Sensing the chakra 'hook' that signified a shunshin, he quickly stashed his novel and straightened out his appearance. Arriving directly into the Hokages office was a privilege only granted to a handful of people. When the small poof of ninja smoke that accompanied the technique when bringing more than one person happened, there was a small pulse of chakra through one of the small seals on his desk. Easing the kunai he had hidden in his sleeve back into the holster in said sleeve, Sarutobi awaited the reason for this interruption. You can understand why he was shocked when a small yellow haired boy cried out "Jiji!" and gave him a beaming, fox-like smile. With a stern glare, Sarutobi turned to the Anbu next to him and harshly said, "Report."
Snapping to attention under the God of Shinobi's stare and leaking KI, Weasel quickly gave the report of what had happened tonight. "As of 21:32 tonight, Naruto Uzumaki was, again, roughly kicked out of the orphanage. This has happened on quite a few occasions and, this time, has resulted in Naruto receiving a beating. At 21:37, five minutes after being kicked out, A group of chunin and one jounin arrived and attempted to, I quote, "Show the demon some respect." Once their intentions were clear, I moved to intercept and was met by force. In self-defense, I incapacitated all 6 shinobi and temporarily removed them from their duties."
With a small nod, Sarutobi accepted this report. Looking back up from the written report that was given to him, he asked, "Where are these shinobi now?" Looking back up from the mission report that he just signed, Weasel told him. "they are currently in the custody of Neko. She is currently taking them to Ibiki as we speak." Sarutobi grinned, 'Ibiki's going to be in a good mood tomorrow.' "Very well, you are dismissed Weasel." Weasel saluted, then disappeared in a smokeless shunshin.
Turning to the amazed blonde sitting in one of the chairs, he cleared his throat. The unexpected sound snatched Naruto's attention from where the Anbu had just stood. Standing up, Sarutobi smiled warmly at his pseudo grandson. "Now Naruto-kun, what do you say to a bowl of ramen and then you can stay at my place for then night and we can see about getting you somewhere to live tomorrow?" He might as well of just stopped at ramen because Naruto was off like a shot the moment he heard the offer. The echoes of him yelling trailed behind. "WHADDYA WAITING FOR JIJI? ITS GONNA GET COLD!" Then the less heard chant as he was already out in the hallway, "RamenRamenRamenRamenRamenRam enRamenRamen!" Hiruzen smiled at that, and as he was leaving, looked at a picture on the wall. 'he's just like her, but mention ramen and I swear its like you possessed him.' With that, he went and joined one of his favorite blondes in his quest for the 'holy ramen'.
I know that this took a while, and you're going to have to get used to it. next chapter might come out in a day or maybe a year. Other than that, enjoy and review. i like to hear feedback