Chapter 2: The Uneventful Forest
Finding the bears was actually really easy. Knowing the general direction, all one needed to do was follow the blood and gore and there was a lot of it Ripped up clothing soaked in blood, small pieces of flesh stuck in the trees. It's times like this that make me glad that I'm a clone. I pity the original, he's going to get all the memories of this and he lacks the ability to dispel. Poor bastard.
"Stop," I commanded and pointed to a clearing with more than a few giant bears. This must be where Karin's team was camping… at least I hope it is. The floor is coated in slick mud and blood, some bones and clothes were strewn across the area.
Crap. Finding a scroll in this area was going to be a nightmare and that's if the bears haven't destroyed it. Pointing to the clones, I began to organize them. There were about six… no, eight bears down there. With our current number, that would leave us with a ratio of three clones to a bear and an extra two clones left over.
Right, those clones can stay up in the trees and summon more if any of us get dispelled in the fight… not that I think that's going to be a problem. Most of the bears were currently sleeping with only a few that were awake and they looked drowsy.
The clones began to stealthily surround the clearing. We need to do this quickly and efficiently. The shadow clone jutsu is great for information gathering, assassination and learning, but our bodies are quite fragile, we can only take one hit before dispelling. In a drawn out fight we're at a disadvantage.
As one we moved. First targeting the bears that were awake, we made short work of them, the only sound coming from their bodies thumping to the ground. Moving on, we took out the remaining bears. It didn't even take 10 seconds before we were finished.
Not a single clone was dispelled. If this had been against Shinobi, things probably would have gone differently. The bears weren't expecting an ambush and were tired from hunting Karin's team, they were actually quite slow, not to mention they didn't have jutsu.
Searching the area from top to bottom, we couldn't find a hint of the heaven scroll. Not only that, there weren't enough bones here. If the scroll had been destroyed, then there would have been pieces of it around here. No, the scroll was probably in…
"You there, check the bears stomachs," I pointed to a clone and then the nearest bear.
"Fuck no, you do it," The clone shot back.
"You're already the dirtiest clone," I said, pointing out all the blood on him. "And at least one of us is going to have to deliver the scroll to the original and that one is definitely not going to be you."
"Then why don't you do it, you've also got blood on you," The clone pointed out. "Hell, those clones up there in the tree are the cleanest, why not have them deliver the scroll to the original!"
Seeing more and more clones agree with the dirtiest one, I sighed. He makes a good point, but I really don't want to go rooting around in bear intestine. "How about we all play rock, paper scissors and the losers have to do it?!"
Mistakes… had been made and they all stemmed from me and my stupid mouth. It seemed I still had Naruto's desire to look cool, because I was randomly spouting the most random bullshit. 'I'm keeping you,' was definitely going to have me waking up five years from now in the middle of the night and cringing.
The worst part yet, it seemed to have worked. Karin kept glancing at me and blushing as I ran back to camp, it made for an awkward trip.
"What's your name?" Karin asked quietly, still blushing.
My name? I came to a stop on a branch as I realized that we hadn't introduced ourselves yet. Crap, I was one slipup away from calling Karin by her name and having her realize I already knew who she was.
"I'm Naruto… Uzumaki Naruto and you?"
"O-oh, my name's Karin," Karin blushed, looking to the side with a smile.
Kicking off the branch, I continued heading towards camp. We traveled in an uncomfortable silence… well, uncomfortable for me because I kept thinking about what I'm going to tell Sasuke and Sakura.
"I'm back," I announced, landing in our campsite.
"Naruto, what the hell!? You left without any explanation while… we… were," Sakura trailed off, her anger fading as she noticed Karin in my arms. "Who's that?" Sakura shrieked. She began marching towards me, but was stopped by Sasuke.
"That might not be Naruto," Sasuke said, before his gaze landed on me. "What is the name and occupation of the client of our first real mission?"
Wait, is he talking about… "Tazuna and he was a bridge builder… a super bridge builder," I said, tilting my head at that memory.
"He was a carpenter, but that was close enough," Sasuke added, letting go of Sakura.
"Naruto, you've got a lot of explaining to do," Sakura growled, marching angrily towards me.
Ah crap, I've still got Karin in my arms, so I can't make shadow clones and I really don't feel like running away or getting hit. "Sakura stop," I commanded, giving her a short glare that stopped her in her tracks.
Sakura seemed momentarily stunned with the look I gave her, before crossing her arms and glaring right back at me. "Fine," Sakura huffed.
"Are you fine to stand on your own," I asked Karin.
"Yes," She said, glancing worriedly at Sasuke and Sakura, as if she expected to suddenly be attacked.
Placing Karin on her feet, I let out a sigh as I finally stretched my arms. Sure my body was much stronger, but that didn't mean my arms couldn't get stiff.
"Right… this is Karin," I introduced her as she stood behind me, peaking her head out to glare at Sakura. "I saved her from a giant bear," I explained. "Karin, this is Sakura and that's Sasuke, my teammates."
"A giant bear?" Sakura asked skeptically. "And just how did you know that she needed help."
"I sent a shadow clone to scout the river," I replied immediately. The memory transfer of shadow clones wasn't exactly a secret, so I didn't have anything to worry about. "As it turns out, when a shadow clone dispels, it's memories return to the user. I've never really noticed, because I only used them for overwhelming people in fights."
"Wait-" Sakura began, before tiredly shaking her head. "Only you, Naruto."
"Is that why you sent all those clones towards the bears?" Karin asked.
"You sent some clones after a group of bears?" Sasuke said, joining the conversation.
I nodded. "Yep. One of…" I coughed awkwardly into my hand, "Karin's teammates had a heaven scroll on him before they were attacked, so I sent my clones to retrieve it. If the bears are too strong then my clones dispel and I'm still safe here."
"That's actually pretty smart for once," Sakura noted.
I could only sigh at that, I couldn't really argue with Sakura on that point. Naruto was great at coming up with plans on the go, but he absolutely sucked with general thinking.
"A heaven scroll…" Sasuke trailed off before his gaze snapped to me. "Which way did your clones go?"
"That way," I pointed into the woods. "It was more towards the outer rim of this forest, but if the bears moved then my clones could be anywhere right now. None of them have dispelled ye…"
I slapped my palm to my head as I suddenly gained memories from a recently dispelled clone. My clones… where absolute idiots. Taking out a group of sleeping bears had been incredibly easy. It had literally been the fastest part of the whole ordeal.
No, the longest part was when they decided that none of them wanted to search through the insides of the bears so they played rock paper scissors to decide who would do it… not realizing that they're all clones and playing rock paper scissors with a clone was the equivalent of playing it with a mirror and expecting to win.
From there, my clones just kept trying to come up with more ways to decide until one finally lost his temper and decided to 'just get it over with' and began searching for the scroll in the bears.
"They've got the scroll and they're on their way here," I announced.
"Then… what about the bears?" Karin asked, tugging on my orange jacket. "They might try and follow your clones here."
"They're all dead so…" I trailed off as I briefly considered the bears coming back to life and hunting us. "They might find it difficult to do that."
Sasuke snorted and Sakura… she seemed unsure of how to react in this situation.
"Really… there were so many of them and… and… I'm the only one left of my team," Karin said, gripping me tightly.
"Aah… I'm sorry about your team," I apologized.
"Don't be," Karin replied. "They only saw me as a quick way to heal their wounds… It's just… I was almost eaten too and…"
Right, Kusa was basically using her as a quick healer. She's upset because she was almost killed in one of the more… brutal ways. Being eaten alive.
"Oh… well, I'm glad that you're ok," I said awkwardly. Spotting her blush again, I let out a relieved sigh, I'd rather deal with a blushing girl than a crying one.
A few trees rustled as an orange blur appeared in the clearing. "Boss, I've got the scroll," The clone announced, holding the scroll out to me. The scroll was in… remarkably good condition for spending a day in a giant bears stomach. The white paper was clean, but the center piece of paper with the heaven mark was dyed red.
"I know. One of the others dispelled, I've been waiting for you," I said, giving my clone a pointed look as I took the scroll. Ah, the scroll itself is made of waterproof material while the band is just paper, that's why it doesn't look so bad.
"You, aha… you saw the rock paper scissors?" The clone asked, chuckling awkwardly as he scratched the back of his head.
"Yep," I said, popping the p.
"Ah… would it help if I said that the scroll was dirty and smelled horrible so I washed it off for you?"
I let out a sigh, pinching my nose. "It's fine… everything seemed to work out in the end after all," I replied. Really, I feel like I should be more worried with how my clone seemed to think that I was going to scold him. Those clones are me, I'm not going to scold myself… was I being hard on myself. "Um… thanks for all the hard work," I said awkwardly.
"Ah… thanks boss. I'll just let the others know they can dispel," The clone replied just as awkwardly before dispelling.
Memories of killing the bears flooded through my head, it was no wonder why Naruto never figured out the memory transfer, everything looked the same. There were eight bears, but when I really thought about it, it only felt like a killed one bears with a group of clones at my side taking down the others. The memories were too similar for me to differentiate between them.
"What was that?"
"Hmmm," I looked to Sasuke. "Oh, I was just being kind to myself."
"I wasn't talking about…" Sasuke sighed in irritation. "You zoned out after your clone dispelled."
"Oh, that. The rest of my clones dispelled as well and I was just going through their memories," I replied, handing Sasuke the scroll. "Good news, we have both scrolls, so we can finally leave this forest."
Sasuke grunted in approval, pocketing the scroll. "We can leave in a few hours."
"A-ah, what about me," Karin asked nervously, tugging on my arm. "You said you were going to k-keep me. You're not going to leave me in this forest, right?"
"YOU SAID WHAT?" Sakura shrieked.
Damnit Karin, why did she have to bring up my past cringe? "I'm still taking you with us," I said, blushing lightly. "I'm sure that you'll be able to stay in the tower at the center until the end of the chunin exams."
"R-right. After that, I'll have to go ho- go back to Kusa," Karin stuttered as she stared at the ground.
"You could do that," I nodded, before leaning in close to whisper to her. "Or you could pretend that you died in the forest, fake your death and live here in Konoha. Just think about it and tell me what you've decided when we get to the tower."
"O-okay," Karin stuttered, eyes wide with shock.
"Cool," I said, but inwardly grimaced. I'm… not talking like I normally do. Sure, I did intend to try and convince Karin to move to Konoha, but the way I worded it was… unlike myself. Personally, I blame Naruto, or rather his personality that's influencing my actions.
Getting to the tower was easy… scratch that, it was super easy. We rested for a few hours and headed for the tower. Ordinarily, we would be on the lookout for teams and ambushes, but we had two major advantages that saw us through safely. The first was a group of four shadow clones that were transformed to look like everyone that was currently traveling ten seconds ahead of us that would trigger any traps others might have left.
The second advantage we had was Karin who announced to us that she's a sensor. I already knew, but I didn't consider having her help us. With Karin's help, we were able to know exactly where the teams were and which direction they were heading.
Almost anticlimactic, we arrived at the tower. Sakura looked relieved, Sasuke seemed to relax slightly and Karin… She gave me a pointed look before nodding and blushing.
Me on the other hand, I felt stressed. I'm not sure if I was doing the right thing. Because of Naruto's need for companionship, I had already screwed up an important part of Shippuden, Karin's crush on Sasuke that would have led to her following him in his team.
No, I can't think like that. If preserving canon meant that I would be sending Karin back to Kusa who abused her healing ability and then to Orochimaru who definitely experimented on her, then I'd rather completely do away with it.
There was so much that could be changed for the better or prevented. For instance, the death of Orochimaru and Kabuto meant the loss of edo tensei, which in turn would make Obito's army much weaker and remove an immortal Madara with infinite chakra from being on the battlefield… It even meant no Ginkaku and Kinkaku to revive the ten tails in an incomplete state.
Things didn't even need to progress that far. Knowing the secrets of Kamui and having Kakashi on my side actually made Obito an easy opponent. I just needed to get stronger, before I could take advantage of Kamui's weakness and kill Obito.
"Naruto, focus," Sasuke snapped.
"Right," I said, looking up at the writing on the wall. It was the message about how having both strength and wisdom would make the most dangerous path safe. "Ah, we need to open both scrolls," I muttered.
"You figured it out already," Sakura squawked.
"Um, yeah," I lied. In actuality, I was really just recalling how they originally passed this test.
"You really are different, aren't you?" Sakura mumbled softly to herself, but we all heard it.
"Lets just get this stage of the exam over with," I began, steeling myself. For Sasuke and Sakura, the end of this round meant that they could relax, for me, it meant that I was about to get really busy. "Sasuke, hand me a scroll!"
"Here," Sasuke said, passing me the heaven scroll.
Of course he passed me the heaven scroll. Sure it was cleaned off by my clone, but it still smelt faintly of blood and crap.
"Alright, let's do this," I announced, opening the scroll in one motion as Sasuke opened the earth scroll. Copying canon, I threw the scroll to the center of the room and Sasuke followed. The kanji of the scrolls overlapping, before smoke exploded from them.
"Long time no see, you three," Iruka announced, standing on the scrolls.
Joy flooded my veins as I saw Iruka. He was the first person to truly acknowledge me… I mean Naruto. Damn, it's probably going to be a while before I get used to this whole merged personality thing. Naruto really loved Iruka, he looked up to him like a father figure and that transferred to me.
"Iruka-sensei, it's good to see you," I greeted happily. I'm actually glad that I have Naruto's memories. If it was just me, this might have turned out very awkward… well, more awkward than it was already. Iruka, Kakashi, the old man, they all would have been able to tell that I wasn't Naruto, rather than there being something different about him… me.
"It's good to see you too Naruto," Iruka chuckled, before his gaze snapped to Karin. "And who's this? I'm sorry, but arriving here without your team or your scrolls is grounds for disqualification."
"T-that's ok. My teammates are both dead, so I wasn't expecting to continue the chunin exams," Karin replied.
"O-oh, I'm sorry," Iruka apologized, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "In that case, you can stay in the tower until the second phase of the chunin exams are over."
Karin let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you."
Well that was a relief. I thought I was going to have to argue with Iruka to let Karin stay here for now. "Um, Iruka-sensei… I kind of need to talk to the old ma… to the Hokage about what happened in the forest."
Sasuke gave a short glare at me, Sakura looked concerned, Karin worried and Iruka looked mostly unconcerned.
"The Hokage's very busy with the chunin exams. Whatever it is, I'm sure that it can wait until after they're complete."
It seemed Naruto's prankster nature was something that was still with me, because I couldn't wait to see the look on Iruka's face as he ate those words. "We ran into a man named Orochimaru and he hit me in my stomach, doing something… not good to-" I trailed off, lifting my shirt to reveal the seal on my stomach.
Iruka's eyes widened as he paled. "We need to get you to the Hokage, immediately!"
"Iruka sensei, surely it can't be that bad?" Sakura asked, worriedly glancing between Sasuke and myself.
"This is extremely bad, Sakura. It could mean…" Iruka froze, worriedly glancing at me. "Never mind that. I just need to get Naruto to the Hokage immediately."
"Then what about Sasuke," Sakura cried suddenly.
"Sasuke?" Iruka asked.
"Sakura, shut up," Sasuke grunted angrily.
"That Orochimaru guy did something to Sasuke as well. He bit him and then-"
"SHUT UP," Sasuke yelled, full on glaring at Sakura.
Well damn, I wasn't expecting Sakura to actually tell anyone. It seems Iruka's worry about my seal freaked her out.
"Sasuke, calm down. Sakura's just worried about you," I said, before turning to Iruka. "Orochimaru gave him this weird mark that made him stronger, but also made him a little… prone to violent outbursts and fits of rage."
"NARUTO!" Sasuke roared.
"See," I gestured to Sasuke. "And Sasuke, you really should realize that Orochimaru's mark is screwing with you. You're extremely quick to anger now."
Sasuke's harsh glare began to fade, before all that was left was an annoyed scowl. "Why did I get angry impulses and you got clarity of mind," He grumbled to himself.
I smiled at that. Sasuke's actually not that bad. From Naruto's memories, I could see that most of the conflict between Naruto and Sasuke were actually started by Naruto. Sasuke was a pretty relaxed guy before the curse mark.
That's it. Among the changes I'm making and already have made. I'm not going to let Sasuke go to Orochimaru. I've already changed a lot just by rescuing Karin, I may as well change a few other major points.
"Sasuke, is this true?" Iruka asked, walking towards him.
"Yes," Sasuke said, a look of pained conflict on his face. Pulling his shirts collar to the side, he revealed the curse mark to Iruka.
"I don't get it. What's so bad about those marks?" Karin mumbled just loud enough for me to hear.
"They were put on us by a missing-nin in the forest of death. In all likelihood, the marks are not good for us… hell, they could be fatal to us," I whispered to her, recalling how the curse seal had a very high death rate for those that were marked with it and also Orochimaru's own five element seal which is not doing my chakra control any favors
"WHAT?!" Karin screamed. "You, Chunin man, take Naruto to your Hokage now. I don't want him to die."
"Die?" Sakura asked, startled.
"Naruto said that those marks could be fatal," Karin blurted.
I slapped my palm to my forehead. Maybe I should have phrased that differently. In all honesty, I hadn't expected Karin to react like that.
"Is that true, Iruka-sense? Are those marks dangerous to Naruto and Sasuke?" Sakura asked worriedly.
"I…" Iruka began, not knowing what to say.
Great, now I feel a little bad. Iruka obviously doesn't know how to answer that. All he knows is that I'm a Jinchuriki and one of the most infamous missing-nin has tampered with my seal. I'd be surprised if he knew anything about the curse seal.
"We've already spent over a day with these marks and nothing major has happened, so they're probably not going to kill us," I explained. "Still, I don't trust what Orochimaru did and would rather have the Hokage look at my seal… just to be safe."
That was actually a lie. The reason I'm going to the Hokage is to get this five element seal off and to convince him to allow Karin to join Konoha as a genin… or at the very least have her live here.
Sasuke's curse seal on the other hand… I was content to let Kakashi handle it, but now that so much attention has been brought to it, I suppose there's no other choice, but to involve the old man… the third Hokage.
"Oh," Sakura mumbled, looking a little relieved.
"Sooo," I glanced at Iruka. "Are we going to the Hokage now?"
"Yes. Sasuke you're coming too," Iruka said, grabbing Sasuke and myself by the shoulders.
"Um, sensei. What about me?" Sakura asked.
"Oh, sorry Sakura. You've all officially finished the second stage of the chunin exams. If you go through those doors over there and down the hallway, you'll find a set of bedrooms and a communal space for all the teams that passed," Iruka explained quickly, pretty much dragging Sasuke and I towards the pair of doors.
"Karin, please stay with Sakura. There's something I want to discuss with you when I come back."
That is if the Hokage doesn't realize that I'm not fully Naruto and imprison me while having a Yamanaka look through my head.
And there we have it, Chapter 2. I really enjoyed showing the clones point of view. I'd honestly say that the shadow clone jutsu is one of the most broken abilities in Naruto. The more I think about it, the more I consider how versatile and useful it is.
I was super excited to see the positive reception this fic gained. The favorites, follows and reviews I've been getting have made me feel all giddy, like Inosuke around Tanjiro, so thanks for that.
To give a general answer to the reviews. Thank you all for reading my story, I've already got a pairing that's revealed in a later chapter and planted a few seeds that might grow it into a Harem, but I wasn't sure if I should follow through with it. Right now, Karin is on standby for joining in, but that'll only happen in shippuden when she's older.
Anyway, I'm up to chapter 7 on the spooky P word website that fanfic is afraid of saying, so if you want to read ahead, go and check it out. Also, I'm going to be updating this story here every day until chapter 10 and then it's going to be a weekly release. The P word site will always be 5 chapters ahead.
If you want to read ahead on this story, I'm five chapters ahead on
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