Almost 2 years later
Both Naruto and Natsumi were standing in front of a large arena positioned beside the academy waiting to perform their end-of-year taijutsu test. The second year of the academy was coming to a close, and both Uzumaki were eager to prove their skills to their sensei. As the rest of the students began to shuffle next to the arena, Iruka stood in front of the crowd of children and grabbed their attention.
"Alright, class today is the last day of this term, so we'll be doing one last taijutsu exam for everyone here." Iruka explained.
'Finally. I hope I get Sasuke as an opponent. As much as I hate it, he's better than me, but it would be a good way to measure myself.' Natsumi thought.
Meanwhile, Naruto was having slightly different thoughts.
'Oh, this is gonna be awesome! I can't wait to kick Sasuke's ass! Maybe it'll finally knock the prick's ego down a peg.'
"The rules for this test are simple. You win either by knocking your opponent out of the ring, getting them to surrender, or knocking them unconscious." However, if five minutes pass without a winner then the match will be called a draw."
"To start we'll have Sakura vs Kiba. Get to one side of the arena and I'll start the match." Iruka declared.
As Iruka called the match, Natsumi and Naruto both began walking over to their friend Hinata.
"Hey Hinata!" Naruto called out.
When Hinata heard the voice she quickly whipped around to see Naruto running towards her with Natsumi walking behind him, but the main detail she focused on was the blonde boy.
"H-hello Naruto."
"Are you excited for the exam?" Naruto asked excitedly.
"N-not really. I don't want to hurt our classmates if I don't have to."
Internally Natsumi was impressed. Usually Hinata stuttered over half of her sentence around Naruto, but apparently she'd gotten better at controlling it.
As Naruto and Hinata continued to talk, Natsumi turned her attention to the matches that were about to take place.
"Begin!" Iruka called out.
As soon as the call was heard, Kiba got down on both his hands and legs and quickly rushed forward towards his opponent. Unfortunately for Sakura, the Inuzuka was one of the best taijutsu users in their class, so far, surpassed only by Sasuke.
When the match was over, Sakura was on her back with a shallow gash on her left arm and leg.
As Naruto and Hinata kept talking with each other, Natsumi started focusing on the matches to see if she could find any interesting techniques. Unfortunately for Natsumi she was left disappointed for a while. Any students that had civilian parents only displayed the normal academy style and while some who had shinobi as parents performed better they still didn't do a whole lot different. The clan students however were a slightly different story.
"Ino vs Ayasa." The girls quickly made their way to the arena, both of them secretly hoping to impress Sasuke. While Ayasa put up a decent effort Ino had more training in general thanks to her clan, leaving her the victor.
As the match came to an end Kiba began to approach Natsumi.
"So blush head, you ready to admit I'm better than you?" Kiba asked loudly.
"We'll see." she replied, not bothering to look at him.
Kiba was irritated by the response. He had heard it numerous times over the last year of the academy. When the academy had only just started he had thought that they could become pretty good friends. But as the months went on, she began to seclude herself from everyone besides her brother. He had even noticed the redhead had been putting some distance between her and Hinata recently, who had seemed to be her only friend.
Then their class had begun physical training and Natsumi had been the only girl who was able to surpass him in their practice. Even though he was definitely physically stronger than her she kept on managing to do better than him. Every time they did laps or exercises she had always managed to come out of it barely winded if at all while everyone else, except her brother, Sasuke and the people who didn't try, were panting, sometimes on the brink of passing out.
A few weeks of Natsumi continuing to best him in training ignited his competitive spirit and started to manifest in somewhat of a rivalry between the two although the redhead never seemed to care all that much.
"Shino vs Ren."
As Shino got into position he stared at his opponent through his goggles unnerving Ren.
As soon as Iruka had called start, Natsumi noticed multiple small bugs crawling down Shino's back, likely preparing to assist him in some way. Moments later a small swarm of kikai swarmed the other boy draining him of just enough chakra to leave him unconscious.
While normally Shino would have been disqualified, Iruka knew from his time in the ANBU black ops that most Aburame used their bugs in their taijutsu styles with only the more ranged fighters refusing to use them in close combat. With Shino declared the winner, Mizuki this time called out the next combatants.
"Choji vs. Naruto."
At the call, the boys both got into position and prepared to begin. As Iruka's hand came down, Naruto started running towards Choji while the Akimichi just stood still. As Naruto began to unleash a flurry of blows Choji blocked all the attacks that he could while occasionally launching his own.
After almost two minutes, Choji landed a decisive punch to the blonde's jaw that lifted him off the ground and barely pushed him out of the ring.
"Hinata vs. Shikamaru."
"I forfeit." Shikamaru replied lazily. Even his mother ranting at him would be better than being hit by the gentle fist. Quietly Hinata breathed a sigh of both relief and worry. She may not have had to hurt her classmate but the main branch of her clan would likely get on her case about it despite it being out of her control.
"For the final match Natsumi vs Sasuke. Both of you get in the arena." Mizuki called out with a hint of excitement.
As the students walked toward their respective ends of the arena Mizuki smirked to himself.
'Finally, that demon can be put in its place. The Uchiha is a taijutsu prodigy, she'll be no match for him.'
Natsumi stared at Sasuke, as he stared back, both waiting for the word from Iruka to begin the duel. Thinking back to the start of the spars, Natsumi recalled her desire to fight the boy standing across from her. Now more excited for the fight to come, she looked over to Iruka ignoring the massive amount of noise being made by Sasuke's fangirls.
When Iruka saw Natsumi looking at him with a small grin, he turned to look at Sasuke, who while not as excited also seemed to be anxious to start. Deciding that both his students were ready, Iruka raised his hand and quickly brought it down signaling the start of the duel.
As quickly as his hand came down both students darted from their position, meeting at the center of the arena in seconds.
As Natsumi grew close to Sasuke she immediately brought her leg up intent on bringing it directly into the side of his head. Sasuke quickly brought his arm up blocking the kick before bringing his other arm forward aiming a punch directly at the redhead's stomach.
Natsumi brought her leg back while positioning her arms in an attempt to block the Uchiha's punch. As the blow connected with her arm, Natsumi felt the force behind it and flinched, giving Sasuke a chance to kick at her torso.
Moving through the pain Natsumi dodged to the right while throwing a low kick at Sasuke's still grounded leg. As soon as the kick was thrown, Sasuke used his leg to push himself into the air, dodging the kick and putting distance between himself and the Uzumaki in front of him.
As the two separated Iruka noted both of their expressions. Natsumi was grinning and Sasuke was smirking back at her. After a few seconds of staring each other down both rushed to meet in the middle of their positions yet again.
This time Sasuke went on the offensive aiming a punch right at Natsumi's chest. Seeing her opponent's fist coming at her, Natsumi ducked under the jab and threw her own fist towards Sasuke's stomach, making him sidestep the blow.
As soon as he regained his balance Sasuke spun around and launched a kick at Natsumi who was still trying to stand up, hitting her in the side and sending her flying over a meter.
As Natsumi impacted the ground the pain began to kick in in full force. She started to stand up before suddenly her head started to ache. It didn't feel like the rest of the pain shooting through her body. It felt as if something was literally weighing on her mind. That's when she heard something.
'Unite us.'
Unable to bear the pain any longer, Natsumi allowed whatever was speaking to her to take control. As soon as she did, a small orange glow surrounded her body for an instant before disappearing, going unnoticed by everyone but Iruka. Once the glow disappeared Natsumi began to stand up.
When Sasuke saw Natsumi on the ground holding her head and groaning in pain he had fully expected her to surrender. However, the girl started to stand up seemingly feeling fine despite her obvious pain a moment ago. As Sasuke observed her, looking for whatever might have stopped her pain, he noticed multiple details that had changed. Her fingernails had somehow elongated making her hands somewhat resemble claws. The marks on her face had somehow multiplied into several smaller but more distinct lines.
But the change that shook Sasuke most was the eyes. Her eyes had long slits he could only assume were pupils and dropped their usual violet color and had been replaced with a deep crimson. A crimson that seemed familiar to him. It reminded him of one man. A man he hated with all his soul. And with memories of that man came memories of one night. A night that changed him forever.
Flashback
It was a quiet night. Sasuke was returning home after training by himself for longer than he intended. He was returning to the Uchiha clan compound and was excited to see what his mom had cooked for dinner. As he approached the gates to the compound Sasuke noticed something strange.
The two guards that manned the gate were missing from their post. At first, Sasuke had dismissed the idea thinking they were just taking a break, but as he made his way further into the massive estate he began having second thoughts. There wasn't a single Uchiha in the streets. Sure it was night but it was only nine o'clock and there were always people awake and active later than that.
Then as he turned the street corner his worry quickly turned to horror. The street was lined with bodies. Some he recognized, others he didn't but he knew they were all Uchiha thanks to the clan emblem on all their clothes. Immediately Sasuke began making his way to his house.
'Mother, father, please be okay. Big brother, please get here soon.'
While Sasuke continued running he kept finding more and more corpses, but he kept on running, now desperate to find his parents alive.
As he finally arrived at his house he rushed inside to find his parents. When he finally found them, he was horrified at the sight that lay before him.
His parents were dead, their lifeless bodies piled on top of one another.
"MOTHER, FATHER!"
He was about to rush to their side when he noticed a third figure. Standing over the corpses was his older brother Itachi Uchiha dressed in his full ANBU Uniform, sword in hand.
"B-Big brother…"
——————
End Flashback
Forcing his memories aside for the moment, Sasuke focused again on Natsumi. She had assumed a new stance, on all fours and was now staring straight into his eyes.
"Copycat!" Kiba shouted from the sidelines.
Distracted for a split second by Kiba's sudden shout, Sasuke barely had time to react when Natsumi shot off the ground and slashed at him with her newly sharpened nails. Sasuke attempted to dodge but still got a shallow gash on his arm.
After regaining his balance Sasuke looked up only to see Natsumi charging him again. Expecting another slash Sasuke was caught off guard when Natsumi tried to hit him with a palm strike. Bringing his arms up into an x-shape Sasuke barely blocked the blow but was pushed back by the sheer force behind the hit.
'How did she get so strong all of a sudden?' Sasuke thought to himself.
Looking back at his opponent he began glaring at her, annoyed by how strong the blow was and how much it managed to hurt him. Natsumi began to stand up straight again before returning the glare.
Natsumi once again rushed at Sasuke this time with a flurry of swipe attacks that ended up cutting his cheek and left shoulder before leaving enough of an opening for him to grab her arm and throw her back.
When Natsumi quickly got back up Sasuke prepared for another barrage of attacks but was left confused when she just stood there. After multiple seconds of waiting for an attack, Sasuke was growing impatient waiting for her to attack. However, just as he was about to start another round of fighting, Natsumi suddenly collapsed to the ground, seemingly unconscious. Sasuke began moving towards the unmoving girl to determine whether or not the fight was over when he heard a sudden thud from the sidelines.
Looking over to find the source he saw Naruto also on the ground, unconscious. Once he saw Iruka rushing over to Naruto alongside Hinata, Sasuke continued moving over to Natsumi where he found that she too was unconscious.
"Iruka-sensei, the match is over, she's knocked out." Sasuke announced.
Before Iruka could respond a loud round of cheering and squealing sounded out from most of the girls in the class.
When Iruka got to Naruto's side he flipped the boy onto his back to better examine him. As he looked over the boy he realized Naruto was sweating profusely and was breathing heavily. Checking his temperature Iruka began to worry when Naruto felt extremely hot.
'That glow from Natsumi… could it be?' Iruka wondered.
Propping Naruto up on a nearby tree, Iruka rushed over to Natsumi and saw she had the same symptoms as her brother.
"Mizuki, I need to take Natsumi and Naruto to the hospital. Start giving out report cards and the yearly overviews and if I'm not back by then you can dismiss the students." Iruka said, lifting Natsumi onto his back before disappearing in a body flicker.
Seconds after activating the jutsu, Iruka was standing in front of the Hokage's office, still carrying Natsumi. Iruka quickly jumped up to the window of the Hokage's personal office and looked through the window. Seeing his village leader filling out paperwork Iruka knocked on the window to gain his leader's attention.
Hearing the knock on the window, Hiruzen quickly spun around to find Iruka crouched on the windowsill. Knowing that Iruka was usually very formal, Hiruzen knew whatever he needed must have been urgent.
As soon as the window was opened Iruka immediately jumped into the Hokage's office and set Natsumi on the floor before disappearing in another body flicker.
Wondering what had Iruka moving so quickly, Hiruzen looked down at Natsumi and saw her condition. A few seconds later Iruka reappeared this time with Naruto in his arms.
"Iruka what happened to these two?!"
"Lord Hokage, we were doing the taijutsu tests at the academy today and Natsumi got put into a match with Sasuke Uchiha. At first it was a fairly even match but after taking a blow from Sasuke…" Iruka paused. "Natsumi let out a small orange glow before going back to fighting. After about half a minute Natsumi as well as Naruto fell unconscious."
As Iruka continued his report the Hokage's expression grew more and more grim. The orange glow described exactly what he never wanted to hear.
"Understood Iruka. Thank you for bringing them to me. For now, come with me, we need to take these two to the ANBU hospital." Hiruzen said, picking up Natsumi. As soon as she was securely in his arms both ninja disappeared in a body flicker.
Half an hour later
"Ferret, how are the children doing?" Hiruzen asked worriedly.
"I'm afraid I can't say Lord Hokage. Both have a high fever and are rapidly sweating but we can't identify the cause. We've tried multiple medicines and jutsus that assist with the symptoms but nothing has helped." the ANBU reported.
"I see…" Hiruzen answered solemnly.
"Lord Hokage if I may, it's possible that someone else may be of more assistance to the children. If the nine-tails does have something to do with their symptoms, then there might be an unknown issue with the children's seals." Ferret suggested.
"It may be so but no one in the village knows the workings of the fourth's seal. If we had someone who didn't know how it worked tamper with it we risk the nine-tails escaping, and I'm afraid that if I call Jiraiya, Naruto and Natsumi might die before he even arrives."
"Perhaps they could, but right now my lord, I fear that recalling lord Jiraiya is our only option that holds some sense of certainty."
Nodding, Hiruzen left for his office. As he began to exit the secret hospital Iruka, who had been waiting for him to exit, ran up to him.
"My lord are they okay?" Iruka asked, worry in his voice.
"I'm not sure Iruka but I promise you, I will do everything I can to make sure that they come out OK. For now, get back to the academy and finish the end of year procedures."
"Understood, thank you sir."
As soon as Iruka left Hiruzen soon followed to write a missive for his student, the toad sage Jiraiya.
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Hey people. hopefully this chapter was solid. I'm not very confident about my ability to write fight scenes so if you have any advice i would greatly appreciate it. That being said I'm not going to take straight story suggestions. With this being my first time doing creative writing other than high school projects i want this story to be wholly my own. Still, i will gladly accept criticism to improve the writing that has yet to come. Hope this turned out enjoyable!