Author's Note: Another Chapter! I think reviews are broken, feel free to leave a review AND message me though! Thanks for the support everyone! I'm not a very good writer and I'm new to this so I hope you enjoy it!
Chapter: 4
Naruto was once again in his temporary new over sized room that'd he be staying in for the time being. He had a large book in his hand which appeared to be a normal book. While not appearing to be much, what he actually had was a history book that would tell him exactly what had happened to cause his Dad to rule the world, and what gave him the power. "Ugh! I don't get it! His reserves are huge! They're almost like a Tailed-Beast!... But where in the heck would he get that kind of power?"
Sitting down, Naruto wrapped 'her' tiny little legs into criss cross position. Folding his arms, Naruto squinted his eyes at the book which seemingly held no answers other than "Minato is almighty", or "praise be to his name", or even "he is a god that will smite you". He understood his Father was strong but his reserves were much higher than he anticipated. "I mean... It's pretty familiar... It's almost like he's a Jin-"
Oh, duh... Naruto face-palmed.
The Fourth WAS a Jinchuuriki! He held the other half of Kurama's power! But the question still was WHY did he take over the world? His father wasn't that sort of person! But with different worlds, came different rules. Well, h is Dad was a bit screwy in this world it seemed. Or maybe that's how he would have been if he raised him. Strange thought.
So now Naruto had his "how?", but what he didn't have was his "why?". He doubted the books he was reading would shed much light on that. After all, winners make history. They can make up whatever they want. Naruto unfolded his arms, placing his cheek into the palm of his hand with a look of boredom on his face as he flipped yet another page. Naruto still couldn't find his own role in the midst of all of this chaos. Apparently he was Princess. What does a Princess do? Yukie would know about that, but Naruto was a Hokage, not a Princess. He honestly wanted to keep it that way. Naruto decided some research had to be done, and the only way to do that was actually investigating.
Naruto found himself wandering through the halls of the mansion with his hands behind his head without a real purpose other than just to be anywhere but the plush covered pink room. He didn't really have a schedule, and thusly could do anything he wanted to do. Boredom was quite... boring. Talking to his friends- including Kurama- was the only thing that really kept him sane. Now, there was no one to talk to. He came across plenty of staff who would all bow to him, but he could easily feel their negative emotions hidden behind those neutral faces. To say it got on his nerves was an understatement, but there's was really nothing he could do about it. "This sucks... There's nothing to do here." Naruto paused, the answer to his questions coming to him.
"...If I can't find any answers here, then I guess I have to leave to find them. Dattebayo!" Naruto's grin stretched across his childish face, a cheshire grin. Naruto turned around, preparing to gather whatever tools he may have needed so that he could begin his long journey to finding his answer. Or hopefully, relatively short. Spinning on his heels, Naruto walked forward- only to bump into someone the moment he did manage to turn around. "Oof!"
"Ah, sorry. Ohayou, Imouto." Blinking at the words coming from the tall male, Naruto gazed upward with confusion to the one who called him their younger sister. "Are you well this morning?" Upon looking up, Naruto was greeted with a mirror image of his older male self, only his hair was a solid black color. His eyes were closed in an eye smile, similar to that of Kakashi's. He wore a regal gold guard armor, a fencing sword at his side- sheathed with expensive looking brown material Naruto couldn't name. Naruto instantly recognized the face of the accused.
"Menma?" Naruto gaped at the aforementioned Menma. Said person's eyes blinked at Naruto's question, revealing the familiar pair of onyx colored irises.
"Yes, it is I. But who else would I be? I understand most of our family looks almost just alike, but there's no reason to be so rude Imouto." Menma gave a half bemused, and half amused smile. "Where are you off to?"
"I'm not even sure anymore." Naruto revealed honestly, his concentration thrown off by the strange appearance of apparently his sibling.
"Would you like to join me for my daily training with my squadron? If you get bored, you may leave at any time." Naruto gained a confused look. Why would he be inviting a little girl(he resented calling himself that) to a place where they would be doing secret training.
"I mean... Sure, but why?"
"I suppose I have my own motives, Imouto. Though, I really want to confirm something I'd heard. It's for your own good." Naruto suddenly had a feeling that he hadn't actually had much of a choice of whether to go or not, which apparently showed on his face. "It's for your own good." Menma brotherly repeated, chiding. Naruto wasn't sure he really wanted to trust the guy that tried to kill him in another world, but he was just Menma's little sister here. He supposed it couldn't hurt. Without further ado, Menma had began making his way down the hallway, armored boots clanking with every tiny movement. Door by door, Naruto passed and he hadn't even seen most of these rooms yet. "It's to my understanding that you haven't began training yet. Am I right?" Naruto casts a look of suspicion toward the ever honest looking Menma. Naruto gave a slow nod. "...How peculiar. Father started my training much sooner than yours." To this, Naruto gave a look of confusion. "No matter. I'll be giving you your first lesson along with my class, and my squadron." Class? "I've heard a lot about you in these recent days, from Father, and even the staff. I'm going to see what's true and what's not today."
"What exactly did you hear?" Naruto gave a slightly nervous chuckle, unsure of his reputation with the mansion- castle, empire, or whatever it was.
"I've heard a lot. Some good things, some not so good things."
'Yeah, because I'm sure Dad was the one who said bad things.' Naruto thought sarcastically. "Well, how are you going to see what's true then?"
"You'll see." Naruto didn't like how ominous that sounded.
Menma came to an abrupt stop in front of a large doorway with two casually dressed people guarding the doorway. Upon spotting Menma, they came to quick salutes. Menma saluted back. They'd glanced down to Naruto with surprised looks, before quickly bowing in respect to her. "Captain Menma, Princess Naruto." The one to the left greeted.
After raising from their bows, they'd glanced back to Naruto, as if looking for something. They were, once again for some reason surprised when they didn't see whatever it was they were looking for. Even Menma blinked at Naruto. Naruto glanced back at the three with a frown. "What?" He questioned. The guards looked surprised once more, this time that they were caught staring. Apparently they'd forgot their basic common sense. Menma gave a small cough.
"Nothing Imouto, its just not your... usual reaction to being bowed to." Naruto said nothing, not quite sure what he would say to them. Letting them come to their own conclusion was much better than trying to create a horrible lie on the spot. He simply nodded. Menma gave Naruto a curious look. "Very well, let's head inside shall we?" Menma stepped forward-
"I guess, Dattebayo." Menma halted mid-step, causing Naruto to blink. He paused for a long silent moment.
...
Menma finally put his foot back down and advanced into the room without another word. The guards glanced at each other. Naruto was growing more and more agitated from not understanding what was going on. He was half tempted to turn around and go do other things, but was driven by his own curiosity to continue forward.
"I heard she's super spoiled, the most spoiled girl in the world and she gets whatever she wants." A boy with a white training Gi, spiky brown hair and goggles on his forehead gossiped. The whole room was filled with idle friendly conversation, children and adults alike excited for today's first lesson. The guards and teachers kept a watchful eye over the children, making sure no one strayed from the room.
"It is most unwise to speak ill of those in a much higher position to you, Dead-last." A Hyuuga boy stiffly informed the apparent 'Dead-Last'. "It is especially cowardly to do it while not in their company. However, not even you would be as stupid as to repeat it in her face." He said bluntly, causing the boy with the goggles to scowl.
"My name is Konohamaru, Neji-teme! And so what?" The apparently named Konohamaru grumbled. "It's not like everyone in the world doesn't know it. I heard that she hasn't even trained, and since all thirteen members of the main royal family started training at age six he may not even train at all." Neji refused to speak ill of Princess Naruto, for it wasn't his place, but the fact that she hadn't even trained yet did upset him internally.
"Neji-kun has a point, even if it IS true you can get in trouble even saying that." Another Hyuuga pointed out, this time it was a younger girl. "The only reason I know we're safe with everyone in this area is because we know each other. But with those other students we don't know from other schools, it isn't wise to say such things." Konohamaru scoffed.
"You worry too much Hinata, I doubt any of the guys here are spies for the Princess." It was Neji's turn to scoff this time.
"Truly you are a fool. I question why I even spend time with you sometimes. Of course she has spies, if she asks anyone to spy for her, they have no choice but to say yes. She's the Emperor's daughter, you can't say no." Konohamaru actually had to blink at that, a sheepish look on his face. "Come, Hime." Neji simply shook his head and walked away to join other students. Hinata gave a small sigh, waving at Konohamaru and going to join Neji.
"Jeez, I don't know why you always bother the guy. It's almost like you actually enjoy being called names, baka." A pineapple haired boy 'greeted' Konohamaru, giving a lazy yawn. Followed closely by him was a larger heavy set boy with brown hair, red swirls on his rounded cheeks, and slanted eyes whom of which was loudly enjoying himself a tasty bag of simple potato chips.
"I 'huv to agree with Shikamaru." He spoke through a mouthful of chips before swallowing. "Why do you talk to that guy anyway? He's cool sometimes, but he's mostly a jerk." Konohamaru gave a shrug.
"We get stronger every time we fight together!" Konohamaru defended.
"You mean YOU get better at fighting every time HE mops the floor with your face." Moegi pointed out, joining them being followed by Udon, Sakura, and Ten-Ten, once again Neji and Hinata. Konohamaru pouted.
"Your face often does hit the floor and clean it after a well aimed palm." Neji smirked.
"Why does everyone pick on me so much?" Konohamaru grumbled. Shikamaru smirked, Choji laughed, the girls giggled, Udon and Neji simply shook their heads.
"Because you make it too easy." Several voices informed Konohamaru at once. Blinking, Konohamaru was greeted to the sight of his friends joining them, apparently done mingling with groups. The Konoha Rookie group.
"The original rookies are back together again!" Konohamaru pumped his fist upward, giving a grin. Shikamaru gave a small frown, rubbing the back of his neck with a sigh causing Konohamaru to blink. "What?"
"You're completely right. The original Rookies ARE back. Including one Sasuke Uchiha." Konohamaru's jaw dropped.
"Sasuke is here? I thought they moved him to the prodigy program?" Shikamaru grimaced at Konohamaru's idiocy.
"You dunce, this IS the prodigy program. Or at the very least what they put you in after you graduate. Prodigy or not, when you graduate you go to the same place. Sasuke is here, I saw him in the halls earlier."
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go find him!" Konohamaru grinned, looking like he was ready to rush out the door.
"Konohamaru wait!" Shikamaru tried to stop him, Konohamaru was however, stopped in his tracks when he'd heard the entrance door open and the room once filled with chatter completely go silent.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Heavy armored footsteps was the newest sound to crowd the room. "My, what a promising looking batch of students I have before me." A kind voice greeted the group. Konohamaru instantly spotted the man to enter the room. He gaped.
"No way! You're Captain Menma of the Royal Family!" He gasped out. Menma gave a sheepish rub of the back of his neck, laughing heartily.
"I suppose that would be me. Menma Namikaze! I'm your new Sensei. Nice to meet you." Everyone was locked in a stun silence, Menma drank in the surprised looks on their face with glee.
"WHAAAAAAAT!?" Konohamaru may have been the loudest, but he summed up in only one word exactly what everyone was thinking. "You're a living legend! We're LEARNING from YOU?" Menma gave a gentle laugh.
"That's right Konohamaru." Said boy was surprised to hear his name coming from the Captain. "After all, everyone in this room has the potential to be one of my elite squadron. I've personally selected each and every one of you in this room to be my student, adults and children alike. I know each and every one of your names, and your talents. I look forward to working with you all- Um, is something wrong?" Menma glanced down at Konohamaru, who's fists were balled up and he was profusely shaking. Though Menma wasn't sure, he had a pretty good clue about what was going to happen.
"THAT'S SO COOL!" The boy gushed, causing his friends to be embarrassed for his high spirits, but couldn't fault him as they felt the same way. Right as Menma was about to comment on the boy's enthusiasm, he'd heard tiny footsteps coming from behind him. Feeling for their presence, he knew exactly who it was. He turned around, causing everyone to try to look at whatever he was looking at.
"Ah, Imouto." Konohamaru's heart skipped a beat in fear at the title. "Nice of you to join us. Does the Gi fit well?" Menma kindly smiled. Konohamaru spotted a younger girl that looked to be about nine or ten, golden twin pig tails, and ocean blue eyes.. A fair complexion with whisker marks on her cheeks.
The spoiled princess herself... Naruto Uzumaki.
Uh oh...
The Gi fit well for Naruto, that wasn't the issue. The issue was, he was supposed to be trying to find a way out of here, but instead he was being shell shocked to see his friends chibi-fied once more. Konohamaru looked especially pale, with his surrounding friends looking worried as well. There was a terse silence, Naruto glared at Menma- which actually caused him to step back.
"...Never seen that one before." Menma muttered, apparently never have seen Naruto actually look angry at anything. "Imouto, what's wrong?" He looked concerned, but Naruto wasn't having any of that.
"Why exactly did you bring me here?" Menma looked impressed and ashamed, before giving a sheepish smile.
"Ah, I seems what Father has said is correct. You pay way more attention now than you did a few days ago. However, I told you, we're going to train today. I want you to see what combat is like, so I'm going to put you in a light sparring match. I need to see what level you're at, after what I heard from the Council today. From there, we can determine your level and where you need to start your training." So that's what this about, Menma had heard about what Naruto had done earlier that day and the council probably asked him to get a gauge on Naruto's strength. Naruto scowled, causing Menma to raise his hands defensively. "For your own good of course!"
Naruto simply sighed. 'What should I do? Should I show how strong I am? No... Well, maybe I should pass just enough to where he'll leave me alone. Yeah, that'll do.' Naruto confirmed to himself, unaware of Menma's watchful eye, Konohomaru's fear of being spied on, and the surprises that lied waiting for him in the very near future.