Salutations! So, I got a review that questioned why Naruto couldn't breath despite the fact that Hidan was perfectly fine after being decapitated. Well, I'm glad you asked! You see, in the immortals, normal bodily functions still take place such as repertory, and they will face ill effects if the system is damaged enough; they just can't die because of it. Basically, Hidan can breath because his lungs still have access to oxygen via the gapping hole where his head should be. Since Naruto was in a situation where his lungs where deprived of oxygen, repertory functions couldn't take place. In essence, imagine Hidan or Naruto being shot in the head with a 50-caliber bullet. They would be dazed and confused for a few minutes depending on where it hit the brain, but would remain alive. Or, if they lose enough blood, they pass out. Hell, when decapitated muscular functions can't take place, but others can I know this explanation is confusing, so bare with me and let's continue with the story.
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Disclaimer: "Has the jury reached a verdict?" asked the judge who sat high in his stand. A slightly overweight man stood up at the end of the jurors' booth.
"We have, your honor. We of the jury find the defendant, Mr. Acolyte, guilty of all charges."
"Ahh, fuck you, Mike." This came from the gloomy Acolyte who sat hunched over at the defendant's desk. The bang of the gavel sounded throughout the courtroom as the judge spoke once again.
"I would remind you, Mr. Acolyte, to watch your mouth in my court. Now, I sentence you to six months in Otter Creek Correctional Facility."
"WHAAAT?!?" shouted Acolyte as he stood up and grew even paler than he already was. He began to sweat and didn't even notice as two guards came up behind him and dragged his limp body out of the room, loading him into a truck. Yes, it seemed that the consequences of lacking a disclaimer were severe, indeed. Acolyte owns nothing, not even his new cell, but he does own original concepts that grant him no monetary gain.
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Chapter 4: Trouble on the Horizon"Class, settle down! I have several announcements to make!" this shout came from Yakasu who stood in front of his desk, hands folded behind his back and face set in its usual neutral state, his demeanor all but screaming to the world, 'I-really-don't-care-about-what-I'm-going-to-tell-you-because-I'm-to-good-for-that-but-I-need-to-come-off-as-if-I-do-just-a-bit-to-ensure-that-the-faculty-doesn't-bitch-me-out-even-though-I-don't-even-care-for-that'. Yes, it would appear as if Naruto's assumptions about Yakasu's ego were correct.
Speaking of which, he was in homeroom conversing with both Mizore and Zetsu, the latter of which had opened up a bit more after the events yesterday and allowed a ghost of a smile to grace his bi-coloured face every now and again. However, what shocked the other two was the fact that Mizore had decided to cut her hair shorter, giving it a sharper look. When Naruto, who thought she looked as lovely as ever (though wasn't about to admit it), questioned her about her change in hair style, she just responded that she felt like a new person ever since she met them, and thus thought it would better reflect how she felt.
The three were mostly talking about the events of days previous and little else, all still a bit on edge seeing as they just met and didn't know much about how the others really were. Except Zetsu. He knew most everything about the others, he just didn't care about the awkwardness that much.
Other groups were like this as well. The class was a buzz with sounds of constant chatter. It seemed that the whole class just didn't give a shit about their sensei's plight to get their attention. It was then that the science teacher relized this and, with an eye twitch, grew pissed.
Throwing caution and personal safety to the wind, he slammed a fist down onto the hard mahogany desk with more force that it seemed he should have possessed. A resounding crack rang through the room. Everyone jumped and turned to the source of the sound and silence prevailed. Yakasu, calm face still in place, lifted his bleeding hand from the splintered desk, a slightly satisfied look in his eyes, though most wouldn't mention it to him.
"Lovely. Seeing as now that I have your attention, allow me to tell you the news. As you probably have failed to notice, five of your classmates are currently out. That is because two of them are dead and the other three are hospitalized. The cause of them being so is unknown." He took in a breath here and let the class murmur about deaths this early in the year. Yakasu himself stared pointedly at Naruto and his group, his gaze telling them he knew. He soon hushed the class once again. "Regardless, as soon as they heal, the other three will be handed over to the Public Safety Committee. I hope this will teach the rest of you a lesson that violence won't be tolerated."
There was a moment of silence as the students pondered this. Naruto used this time to think. How had this happened? He knew he didn't kill any of the lizard men, and the one Mizore froze was still breathing once he had thawed out, so that left the ones Zetsu took care of. The man didn't seem to want to fight in the first place, so he doubted it was intentional. Maybe they had died of their injuries? As much as Naruto tried to make himself believe this, he knew that he couldn't. He snapped back to attention when Yakasu spoke again.
"That brings me to my second announcement. As you know, the basis of this school is to integrate you into human society. As such, you will be required to join a club in order to be stimulated socially and experience average human life. Club sign-ups are later this afternoon, so be thinking about what club you want to join."
At the mention of clubs, the class once again burst out into excited conversation. Instead of intervening as usual, Yakasu took this time to slip out of the room and go to the infirmary. His hand was still bleeding, after all, and quite frankly, he didn't feel like intimidating a bunch of screaming brats at the moment.
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"So, what type of club are you thinking about joining?" asked Mizore after class. The day had proceeded as normal after Yakasu had gotten his hand wrapped up, much to the disappointment of the students.
Naruto gave a shrug as he put his hands in his pockets and continued on his walk to lunch. "I'm not sure. Probably one that lets me stretch my muscles and stuff. What about you two?" he attempted to avert attention away from himself, something he has been doing ever since he arrived here. He felt the less people knew about him and his past, the better. That included his friends, unfortunately.
Zetsu was the first to respond. "I will most likely end up joining the gardening club I heard about." Both Naruto and Mizore turned to stare at him. "What? I like plants, okay?" was the slightly indignant response he gave as the two shrugged it off. Zetsu was defiantly good at putting up the image of a gentle giant. "And what of you, Shirayuki-san?"
Mizore finally spoke what she was thinking. "I was thinking that maybe the three of us could join a club together." Naruto quickly jumped in on this.
"This is a chance for us to get out there and meet new people, you know, make new friends. I like you both, really, but you guys need to get out there! Besides, I doubt the three of us have much in common in the way of hobbies!" the blonde's rushed explanation didn't escape either of his friends.
"Do you think you could elaborate a bit more, Uzumaki-san?" asked Zetsu. Mizore shook her head in agreement, both eyeing him curiously. The Jashinist was starting to sweat.
"It's just that… well, it's obvious that we have different talents. Zetsu has already said he likes plants, and I already said I want an athletic club. Mizore, you remember the way you dropped in on me during lunch yesterday? You're great at hiding! Hell, you'd make a great investigative journalist! Maybe you should find a club like that." As Naruto finished, he prayed to Jashin that his friends would buy his excuse. He hoped they wouldn't question him further. He didn't want them to know the truth just yet.
Kyuubi knew the truth. 'They'll find out about your past eventually and you know it.'
'I know, and I'll tell them when the time comes. It's just that…' Naruto didn't need to finish; they'd gone over this before.
'You don't want to put yourself through the pain of loss again, but more importantly, you don't want harm to come to them.' Naruto was silent and Kyuubi knew he was right. 'You're immortal; loss is inevitable for you. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The only thing you can do is have fun, be loved, or it will haunt you for eternity. You live for them, your friends, your lovers, your family, and the only way you can ensure their happiness is to protect them, grow strong.' Naruto was still silent after this. Kyuubi could sense what was going on. 'Just remember what I said. Haku was a mistake, okay? You're human. You're bound to make many mistakes, just don't let one of them be thinking you're righteous because you denied yourself happiness to protect those you love.'
Naruto was relieved at that moment, both because Kyuubi had left and because his friends had bought his excuse. He let a silent sigh escape just as Mizore said he was right, though she sounded a bit down. "That's great. You know what, I'm not feeling hungry at the moment. I'll catch you guys later in class." And with that, Naruto trotted down the hall away from his friends. He had some thinking to do.
Mizore just then turned to Zetsu. "What's wrong with him?" for a moment, Zetsu was silent. He had a pretty good idea of what was going on, he had seen Naruto's final moments in his home world. He was trying to protect them.
"I don't know," he finally answered. "But we're his friends. I suspect he will eventually tell us; it just might be hard for him. I can see the way he looks at you; he truly does care, you know. I think we should just leave him be." Mizore was silent for a second, wondering if what her tall friend had said was true. She finally gave a sad nod as they continued on down the hall.
'I hope you're right, Zetsu. He was my first friend here, and I don't want anything bad to happen to him. Please, Naruto, open up to us. Open up to me.'
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A few hours later found Naruto in gym class. True to his earlier guess, the red-haired man that stopped his fight on the first day was, in fact, a gym teacher. His, more specifically. "Pick up the pace, damnit! C'mon! Move it! Move it! Move it!" yes, he was also quite cruel, having the whole class do laps around the schoolyard the first day.
Naruto, with his previous training, really didn't have much trouble with fulfilling the demented teachers regime, and thought that all the other students, who he thought were supposed to be a race of superior monsters, were a bunch of pussies. At least five had already collapsed from exhaustion and several more were on their last leg, praying to whatever false god they worshiped that this would end soon. The rest were slightly behind Naruto, doing a rather good job of holding their own.
At last, it seemed, the red-haired demon had had his fill of seeing the students suffer and blew on his shiny metallic whistle, sending a shrill noise through the air. Everyone took the signal to stop, many hunching over to put their hands on their knees or just flat out collapsing, taking in gulps of air and trying to get their hearts back into a normal rhythm. Naruto just wiped the sweat from his brow and mentally scoffed at most of the pathetic (in his mind) students.
'Are you sure these are the fearsome monsters I need to be cautious around at all times?' Naruto sarcastically asked the demon residing inside of him.
'Okay, perhaps monsters aren't as powerful as I remember them to be in their human forms, but rest assured, if you attempt to face one of the higher ranking in their true form, you will most likely lose without help. You remember that vampire girl, do you not?' a slight shiver went down the blonde's spine at the recollection of all the power the girl had unleashed.
'Unfortunately.'
'Well, even in human form, she is naught but a weak and sentimental schoolgirl. It just goes to show you can't always judge someone by what you see them do the first time around. Now go, the teacher is talking.'
Sure enough, the gym teacher was once again yelling at everybody. "Alright, hit the showers you pathetic meat sacs! Go wash the blood and shame away before the tone rings!" as the students went through the doors behind the teacher they seemed to relax as they escaped his gaze. Naruto was the last one to make his way through, but just as he was about to enter the cool gym, a hand landed on his shoulder. He looked up from the offending appendage to see it attached to the teacher. When he spoke, his voice seemed to soften a bit. "Nice hustle out there, Uzumaki. You're one of the better students I've had the pleasure of teaching."
"Thanks Kotsubo-sensei."
"You know, club sign-ups are later today. You'd be good for the baseball team. I supervise it, I would know."
"Thanks for the offer. I'll look into it." Naruto shrugged the hand off and was about to once again make his way through the doors. Kotsubo's voice stopped him yet again.
"You seemed depressed. Anything you want to talk about?" Naruto didn't even turn to face him. His hand was on the door, ready to push it open so he could shower and change. The question stunned him, though. Was he really that readable?
Finally, he found his voice. "It's… complicated."
"I understand. Listen, if you need anything, come find me. I don't want a great athlete to have their mind on other things during something important. And maybe you could talk it out with some friends or something. They'll be there when others can't. Now get going, you only have a few minutes left." Naruto gig leave. He took a quick shower and changed back into his school uniform.
As he walked through the halls, waiting for the tone, he couldn't stop thinking about what the gym teacher said. 'See, even he has common sense. You seem to be the only one lacking it seeing as you're ignoring the answer that's right in front of you. You'll need to tell them eventually if you value them. Better sooner than later.'
'The time will come; it's just not now. Please, just let me make this decision on my own.' Kyuubi heeded his request and all was silent.
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Naruto traversed the assorted rows of booths set up to attract potential students into joining various clubs and activities. Even though it was his idea to join different clubs from his friends, he was rather alone. Then again, it's not like he wanted to separate from his friends, it was more in case of an unforeseen problem with a foreseeable consequence. I.e., the man in the cloak showing up and killing everyone.
The blonde clenched his fists and grinded his teeth at the thoughts, shutting his eyes as slight tremors of rage and remorse shook through his body. He didn't know it, but he was unconsciously releasing a respectable amount of youkai (1). His canines started to elongate and his nails grew, piercing the delicate flesh of his palms and letting the blood flow freely.
He didn't notice any of this, however, so intent on ridding himself of the negative emotions, or the fact that people were giving him a wide birth as he passed them, staring at him with shock and a bit of fear. It took the intervention of a certain Bijuu for him to stop focusing so much. 'Naruto! Snap out of it!'
"What?!?" he unintentionally let out, not expecting the sudden voice or burning sensation in his skull, as he reverted to his normal appearance and dropped the youkai he was generating. He took a look at his surroundings to see many students staring at him with confused looks on their faces, sweat on some brows. Realizing that he was somehow the cause, he quickly moved along through the stands, escaping the public eye.
'What the fuck were you thinking! Generating even that much of my youkai without training! You truly are an irresponsible dumbass, you know that?!?' as soon as Naruto stopped at a booth, Kyuubi went off on him for what he unintentionally did. Naruto growled slightly, sort of freaking out the person at the soccer club's booth. Seeing as he may be about to cause another scene, Naruto moved on.
'Look, I didn't even know I was generating youkai! You never taught me how to do it! So don't be going off on me for something I didn't even intentionally do!' Naruto moved through the throngs of people, the frown on his face putting off potential future members of clubs he may join. Kyuubi heaved a great sigh as he spoke once again.
'I suppose you're right and I'm sorry. I'll start training you right away so we can avoid this in the future. But, that aside, you need to get that guy, along with the past, out of your head. It's obviously not helping you with the situation at present, even if it is the whole basis for your argument.'
'I know, it's just…' Naruto stopped, not wanting to continue.
'You're scared, I know, even if you don't want to admit it. Now, let me put this in a way you may better understand it. It's something I learned personally in my millennia of existence.' The Bijuu took a dramatic pause, and then all but roared out his next sentence, causing Naruto to hold his head in pain. To him, it felt like his frontal lobe was being submerged in molten lead, and he received more than a few looks. 'SHIT HAPPENS! Then sooner you learn that you can't control your life to an unlimited extent, the better. I know this may be hard for you, but it's the truth. I just want you to be prepared for the worst,' Kyuubi finished in a much softer tone.
'Damn, sometimes I'm confused as to if your trying to teach me to let more people into my life, or get ready to let them go.' Naruto idly rubbed his head as he inspected the judo club's booth. He eventually moved on from that to. Right now, he was trying to weigh all his options before he made a decision. So far, baseball actually wasn't such a bad idea.
Kyuubi gave a slight chuckle. 'Here's another thing for you to learn; you still have many things to learn.' Despite himself, Naruto couldn't keep the small grin off his face. It quickly vanished as he heard a voice call his name.
"Naruto-san!" the aforementioned blonde turned to see none other than a pink-haired vampire dragging a brown-haired human behind her racing towards him. In his head, he groaned.
'Fuck, just when things were starting to look up.' As they reached him, he nodded curtly to them both. "Akashiya-san. Aono-san."
The two were panting as they stood in front of him. Moka let out a light laugh, confusing him slightly. "You don't have to be so formal with us, Naruto-san. We're friends, after all."
Naruto just gave them a blank look, wondering if he heard the bubbly girl correctly. "We are?" he just got another laugh in response. Tsukune was also chuckling a bit, though he was also rubbing the back of his neck in an awkward way. His face also held a look that said, 'Sorry-about-this'.
Just then, the brunette was pressed into the rather sizable chest of a short, blue-haired girl dressed in a yellow sweater. She was also very loud, Naruto noticed. "Yahoo! C'mon Tsukune-kun, let's go look at more clubs." The boy apparently tried to say something, waving his arms about, but it was muffled.
"Kurumu-san! Let him go! You're suffocating him!" shouted a rather concerned Moka. The girl, Kurumu, smirked at her.
"Oh, are you jealous that that your puny breasts are no match for mine? That you can't please Tsukune-san the same way I can?" all of a sudden, a bed pan appeared out of nowhere and landed on her head, sending her to the ground.
"Let go of him you cow! Desu!" a little girl, no older than eleven, appeared, dressed in a brown dress and pointy brown hat. She was waving around a pink wand. Just as Kurumu was getting up, another bedpan crashed into her skull.
"Umm, I think that's enough, Yukari-chan." Tsukune was apparently back to normal. It was when the eleven-year-old grabbed Moka's chest and started talking about sex with the two of them and Tsukune that Naruto had enough. He approached the boy and put a hand on his shoulder, just as Kurumu was getting up and began fighting with the other two girls, causing the human to jump a bit.
"Tsukune, I think we need to… talk." Naruto had an unreadable look on his face, freaking Tsukune out more than he already was. He was just a bit edgy around Naruto, seeing as he knew virtually nothing about the blonde besides his name and religion. He reluctantly shook his head and allowed himself to be led off to a more private location. "Tsukune," Naruto started off very seriously. His eyes seemed to bore into Tsukune's very being, causing him to sweat. "Are you running a sex ring?" Tsukune fell flat on the ground at the absurdity of the question and due to the sheer seriousness of which the question was asked. Though, when he thought about it later, he relized that unfortunately it wasn't that unreasonable of an assumption. Naruto continued, unperturbed. "Seriously though, what are they to you?"
"Well… as sad as it may be, they're my friends." Naruto turned around so he wasn't facing him as he got off the ground. It was silent before Naruto asked his next question.
"Do they know you're human?" Tsukune tensed, ready to flea if necessary, before Naruto calmed him. "Relax, I haven't snitched on you yet. I have no need to."
Tsukune gulped as he answered. "Yes, they do. But it wasn't of my choice. They sort of… found out. Moka's the only one I told."
Naruto seemed to nod. "Thank you, Tsukune." Just as the boy was about to ask another question, a round of female voices shouted his name. He turned his head for a second to see his friends coming, and, when he looked back, Naruto was gone.
'Just what are you, Naruto?' he thought before he was once again whisked away into the giant marshmallows that are Kurumu's breasts. Naruto, meanwhile, went back to perusing the booths. He let out a sigh, realizing that there was nothing else here of interest to him. He began to double back, intent on finding Mizore and joining whatever she was. Sure, baseball was fine and all, he just didn't see the point, and all the other athletics clubs seemed so… pussy-ish.
As he was walking between two booths in an attempt to find a shortcut, he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. It was a small stand, and poorly put together, but he could care less about that. What did catch his attention was the small banner on the front of it.
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"Welcome to fight club. There are three rules you must know and abide to if you want any future in this club," began the tall blonde-haired man at the center of the room. It was the first day of club activities and Naruto along with a dozen others were in a dimly lit warehouse. "The first rule; don't talk about fight club. The second rule; you don't talk about fight club."
Naruto mentally scoffed as it became apparent that this was a less than legitimate club. Not that he cared. But still, they had already found this place, hell; they set up a booth, almost like they wanted to be found. It would have been safer if this thing were invite only.
"Finally, despite the fact that we have less restrictions than the other clubs, you may not revert to your monster form, kill your opponent, and you must obey when someone calls a fight. We will not protect you if you get caught and shit hits the fan. Now then, today will mostly be introducing ourselves." Yes, it seemed Naruto might have found the perfect club.
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Yakasu was walking down the abandoned road to his little cottage on the school grounds, brief case in hand. It was unfortunate for him that he didn't notice he was being tailed. He barely felt the syringe be injected into his neck and by the time he grabbed it, the plunger had been fully emptied into him. The reaction was instant.
His pupils contracted fully, leaving behind only his irises. Trembling, he fell to the ground, hacking up blood. His arms soon gave way and he lay there, motionless. "Hmm, apparently that wasn't the right formula. Damn. But wait, what's this?" asked a voice as Yakasu started to twitch before he gasped and shot up. He didn't say anything as he looked at the man that had technically killed him with no emotion or recognition on his face. You could tell the man was grinning. "You may still be of use to me."
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And I'll end it there. What exactly happened to Yakasu will be revealed next chapter. Yes, I know it took more time for Tsukune to meet everyone, but fuck it. Yes, Naruto is in fight club, but it's mostly a plot device for future events. Well, I believe that's it, so see ya. This chapter was 4,453 words long.