Thock!
“I won’t do it, Jiraiya-sama,” Naruto stated with a raised hand, eyes level with the older man while maintaining a respectful tone. It wasn’t often that he objected an order.
Jiraiya sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose, and turned around to walk a few paces away. This was wearisome. Honestly, he didn’t want something this grand to be put on Naruto’s shoulders. It wasn’t just any type of mission that Naruto would forget about in a day or so. Still, they’d been at this for over an hour now, and the blonde’s resolute ‘no’ was beginning to irritate him.
The blonde stared at the retreating figure, turned around, and began once again to throw punches and kicks at the beat-up post of wood used for such practices.
Thock! Koo!
A whiny moan came from the pit of the older man’s throat before he threw his hands up in frustration. He faced Naruto.
“You’re going to do it,” Jiraiya murmured authoritatively, effectively halting the blonde in mid-kick. “And I won’t take no for an answer anymore. You’re stepping out of line; you have no say in the matter. You’ve refused your last four missions. You’ve been lazy for the past two years.”
The blonde faced him once more as he lowered his leg, grabbing the towel hanging over the top of a nearby chair nimbly, toes outstretched. He kicked the towel up into the air, caught it, and draped the cloth over his shoulders. His eye twitched in a slow, uneven blink as he crossed his arms and proceeded towards the door of the training chamber room.
It was strange how Naruto’s years of training, backbreaking, and near death experiences never brought him a single step closer to the adroitness at which his mentor fought. “The day you surpass me is the day that I acknowledge you as something more than a tool,” Jiraiya once told him. So being said, the blonde found himself braced against the nearest wall with a well placed grip around his thin neck.
Naruto grabbed Jiraiya’s hand and stared at his mentor with an air of defiance, but with the demeanor of a child, his blue eyes wide and his pink lips trembling from exhaustion. After a few seconds, he blinked slowly again, and Jiraiya murmured something or another angrily. He knew that expression angered his mentor.
“When was the last time you got a haircut, brat?” the older man asked as his grip tightened, causing the blonde to give a barely visible wince. “It’s far too long for a boy.”
Naruto’s eyes glanced upward as he scanned his memory. “Eleven weeks.”
Jiraiya’s frown broke into a grin. “Good.”
Good? According to Jiraiya, “Long hair gets in the way of a good fight.”
“Because you’re going undercover.”
Naruto rolled his eyes, flexibly lifted his foot between the two of them, and broke himself apart from the other before throwing the sweaty towel at Jiraiya’s face.
“Your target goes by the name of Orochimaru Akito. Age 42, he is a vice-principle at Konoha Academy.”
“As Student Council President, I hope to properly address each and every personal school-related concern that each of you has.” The speaker sneezed quietly.
A girl threw a napkin package at him and promptly shrieked when he caught it with a stoic expression (Good reflexes…). A rumble of soft laughter arose, and the speaker rolled his eyes discreetly as he continued his speech undeterred.
This was Hell. This was going to be Hell, and he knew it would be from the moment he was forced to take the mission. He really had no choice in the matter, as Jiraiya had told him. Jiraiya threatened him with the words that always made the blonde relent to any unwanted mission:
“If you don’t do this, you’re out.”
Naruto had accepted the mission with no more objections. Not that he couldn’t survive on the streets; there were simply other reasons.
He stood there patiently and watched the mannerisms of the black-haired speaker, who betrayed no emotions of discomfort. Wasn’t public speaking the number one fear amongst people?
His attention turned to the pale, pony-tailed vice-principal sitting a few feet behind the speaker—Uchiha Sasuke, if he remembered correctly when the Student Council President had been introduced to the stand—before he glared darkly.
Orochimaru Akito. His target had a strange unearthly smile on his white lips that made the blonde glower. The light brown eyes of the man scanned the crowd of students, occasionally falling on one person and lingering for a time as if plotting, reading, gauging, before resuming the perusal.
Naruto almost jerked when the hazel eyes fell on his. Did he just…
No, the blonde was sure of it. Orochimaru’s eyes had actually dilated, and the pale man tilted his head as he scanned his memory. He studied the vice-principle’s actions—the unfurling of his folded hands, the gyrating movement his ankle (which rested on his knee) began, the hands folding again (Definitely a measure of discomfort), and…
A slight gust of wind blew about, broke Naruto’s concentration as his body reacted in a visible shiver, and caused a few choice girls to squeal embarrassingly as their skirts hiked up their thighs.
When this mission is over, that old bastard is dead.
“For those of you that are new this semester, we all hope that you become acquainted with the school system soon.” Naruto’s attention returned to the speaker.
“You are to go undercover for as long as deemed, as a senior of Konoha Academy in order to gather as much crucial information about Orochimaru Akito. Nice apartment, by the way, kid.”
He smiled darkly in misplaced glee at the thought of disemboweling his mentor before he was interrupted from his deadly thoughts by a poke on his shoulder. He turned to the student standing next to him and the other suppressed a wince.
“The line is moving, woman. Walk,” said the male student with a lazy, nasal tone as his eye twitched.
Naruto nodded as the wind blew onto his bare legs again, making him quiver. A strange look of discomfort came over his face.
“What—do you have diarrhea or something?” the other mumbled impatiently. “Or are you pmsing?” He noticed the blonde twitch. “Do you even understand Japanese, foreigner? Nihongo ga wakarimasu ka?” The last sentence was asked phonetically, as if Naruto couldn’t understand a single word.
Naruto pulled at the foreign-wear on his thighs, clenched his jaws, and quickly closed the gap that he had caused in the line.
Jiraiya’s dead.
Naruto decided. Jiraiya would die a horrible, slow, and torturous death. And then he would drink his blood as wine. And it would be delicious.
“Your undercover name will be Yamazaki Naruko.”
“Naru…ko…?”
“Yes, Yamazaki Naruko.”
“As in a girl…?”
“Yes. Here’s your outfit. You’ll be wearing it to school everyday. And here are your physical education clothes.”
“I’m not wearing that. And I’m definitely never wearing that.”
“We have a new student with us this semester, class,” Iruka-sensei stated with a smile as he held his hand out to the female standing next to him. She stood strangely, regally, and yet seemed horribly detached from everything at the moment. “You may have noticed her in the halls or outside. She also entered this school with the highest score in the entrance exam.”
“Waa! She’s a foreigner!”
“Her eyes are blue! Cute!”
“But she still looks a little Asian…Hen de yo!”
Naruto looked away quietly. Their strange state of elation baffled him.
“Please, Yamazaki Naruko, introduce yourself. Tell us where you are from, what you hope to do after high school. Your likes and dislikes. Your dreams. Etcetera,” stated the teacher enthusiastically, waving his hand during each statement.
Naruto tilted his head slightly at the quaint word he last heard. Dreams…? Without hesitation, he began, “Hajimemashite. I’m Yamazaki Naruko. Dozo yoroshiku,” Naruto said softly, bowing discreetly. He stood straight. How were girls supposed to stand? Anyway, he wanted nothing more than to sit down and blend into the walls. In fact, if he didn’t have to be undercover, things would have been so much easier.
Couldn’t I just kill Orochimaru and be done with it?
“Ano saa, Yamazaki-san,” began Iruka, closing the book in his hand and crossing his arms. The blonde had gone quiet. “Please, do continue. You’re from? Your likes?”
“I moved here recently from Germany. I like…” Naruto began as he tilted his head, catching his near-blunder. He had to be careful not to say ‘ore’. That was considered a rude way of speech. Besides, he was supposed to be a she. And a “she” apparently never says ‘ore’.
“It would cause gasps and murmuring and would slander your name,” said Genma dramatically as he listed off the “Do’s and Don’ts of Teen-talk and the Such”.
This took far too much concentration. Seconds passed. “…I dislike…”
Frustrated somehow, the blonde turned to his teacher stiffly. He blinked that slow, lingering twitch of a blink that so bothered everyone back at the governmental building and wordlessly walked to his seat, making sure to close his legs as he had been told numerous times.
“What are you doing? Never sit with your legs open! That will be an invitation for the eel to rest in the cave,” Genma said roughly, turning away with a blush on his cheeks.
Whatever that meant…
He ignored the piercing stares that he received from his peers and felt strongly that he had to adjust the breasts that weighed him down under his shirt, minimal as they were.
Iruka-sensei twitched as the blonde sat down quietly, the smile on his tanned lips never wavering. Strange girl… he thought. Even so, she was the epitome of respect. “A—Arigatou, Yamazaki-san…” he murmured. He pushed himself of the desk he was leaning on and gave a long-winded introduction to the class.
Naruto listened raptly, but noticed that no one else seemed to listen as soon as the teacher’s back was turned.
Someone tugged on one of the blonde’s pigtails, causing him to jump slightly. He silently wished that he had cut his hair weeks ago, and finally understood why Jiraiya wasn’t upset about his long hair when the mission had been forced on him three days ago.
“Style your hair in pigtails or something from now on, Naruko.” A snort. “You have to look cute.”
“Pigtails? Why?”
“Trust me—with your face, it’ll look hot, even though they’ll be sort of short.”
Naruto turned around and faced a girl with strawberry blonde hair. “Hey, I’m Sakura,” she whispered. “Are you an international student, too? I moved here from Ireland and—”
“No, I’m not,” Naruto cut her off simply, turning back around.
Sakura curled her lip in annoyance. Cocky… she thought angrily. Here she was, trying to be nice to the person that topped her entrance grade, and the blonde acted like a snob, just as she had envisioned. She promptly kicked Naruto’s chair.
“Holy crap. If I knew you weren’t a girl, I’d so lay you right now, Naruto…”
Naruto glared at Kotetsu from his reflection on the mirror. He tugged at one of the pigtails irritably, finding his face so foreign.
“Say, “Sensei, onegai shimasu!” the male ordered.
“Why?” he asked defiantly.
“Just do it! And say it like a girl in that voice that we taught you!”
Naruto glowered and said, “Sensei, onegai shimasu…” emotionlessly.
Ebisu, a bystander in the room, twitched, pushed up his sunglasses, and walked away with his hand over his nose.
Naruto turned curious eyes to Kotetsu and Izumo, who stared at him strangely, their cheeks pinked.
Was there something about teenagers that Naruto hadn’t been told?
Naruto stared into the cafeteria, cringed at the pure cacophony of undistinguishable chatter, and decided that there was something he did dislike: teenagers. In fact, he hated them—and school. He purchased a bottle of water with the allowance money he’d been provided with, not up to eating a meal. Unable to stand the noise, he walked out of the double doors and stood outside for a while before deciding to sit in the grove.
Naruto had been through worse situations: he’d been shot at (and guns are illegal in Japan), he had been caught and nearly tortured to death (Jiraiya had saved him, to his chagrin)—but his body was trained to endure such things. Even his heart had been trained to an extent.
But this was different.
He wanted pants back.
He didn’t want to have to deal with people his age on a daily basis.
He hated breasts, and somewhere deep within him, he felt bad for Tsunade, his physician. Her breasts were large. But compared to hers, his were barely conceivable.
“Can I squeeze them?” Jiraiya asked with wiggling fingers as he advanced toward Naruto.
“No,” Naruto answered bluntly. “I’ll kill you.”
“Hidoi…” Jiraiya mumbled.
“Good.”
The wind blew again, and the leaves made a scratchy sort of rustle in Naruto’s ears, like plastic bags rubbing against each other, and the grass tickled the senses on his legs. He closed his eyes for only one second.
The wind shushed him to sleep.
Sleep was such a rare commodity.
Sasuke dug his hands into his pockets as he readjusted his sac with the slight movement of his shoulders, annoyed and in a foul mood. Because of the small school population, everyone ate lunch in one hour-long sitting. Fifteen minutes through the lunch hour, he had grown tired of the noise in the caf and could no longer stand the advances that the girls (and daringly, a few underclassmen boys) made at him.
He had brought bento to school and didn’t need seven more meals, thank you very much. According to custom, though, it was rude—absolutely horrid—to turn down a gift (especially a lunch) from a girl. So after three sizeable bentos, he decided to leave the caf. He refused to spend the first day of gym with Gai-sensei on a full stomache. Suicide was not on his to-do list, and neither was an empty stomache and a mouth full of vomit.
A couple of underclassmen passed him as he walked toward the grove, bid him their hellos, which he returned (“Waa! Sasuke-kun is awesome! He won the basketball championship game for us last semester!” “I know! But forget sports; I wish I were as smart as him!”), and rushed off. It’s ‘he’, not him, Sasuke thought offhandedly as he shook his head.
He continued his amble through the school yard, looked at his watch once more, and decided that he would rest before his next class started. The large tree in the far end of the grove was, to his chagrin, already occupied by a girl (The new girl…), and he didn’t feel like being harassed by another of the opposite sex. Upon closer inspection as he neared, though, he realized that she was asleep—deeply, deeply asleep.
He rolled his eyes in annoyance and furrowed his eyebrows. “Whatever,” he mumbled, not in the mood to find somewhere else to relax. So he stepped over her, walked behind the tree, and, just as she, rested his back against the bark and closed his eyes.
He couldn’t think of anything other than the way Orochimaru-sensei had talked to him after his opening speech in his office. He knew that Orochimaru had been eyeing him, and couldn’t stand it to even think of it. It was disgusting.
“You’re our ichiban student, Uchiha-kun,” Orochimaru murmured with that smile that always made Sasuke shudder. He curled his fingers together and rested his chin on them as he tilted his head slightly, elbows on the desk. Those hazel eyes stared at the student up and down, stopped somewhere that Sasuke didn’t want to remember, and finally rested on his eyes.
“I know…” Sasuke gritted. “And you never fail to let me remember. Bastard.”
“Maa, maa, Uchiha-kun…” Orochimaru said slowly, feigning hurt in his voice with upturned brows.
“If you’re done,” Sasuke said as he turned around, hand on the door knob. “I’m late to class.”
Orochimaru gave another one of his amourous smiles, tilted his head backward slightly, and waved Sasuke away. “Just remember, Sasuke. Without me, you’re—”
“Shitsurei shimasu,” Sasuke interjected, giving a slight bow as he opened the door. He didn’t want to hear that voice any longer than necessary.
Sasuke’s lip curled in disgust. He hated that man, and hated him more with every waking hour of his life. He made his life miserable from the very beginning of the day right through to the end.
He sighed, took another look at his watch, and groaned. Fifteen more minutes. It was only the first day of the semester, so there would be no point in studying anything, even though he was in the advanced classes. He didn’t feel up to meditating—he was in too bad of a mood to do so. And he wasn’t about to fall asleep. Damn it…
But before he knew it, the bell had rung. He stifled a curse as he pushed himself up, dusted himself off, and walked away. No less than ten seconds later, he halted in mid-step, remembered the girl resting at the tree, and turned around. Still there…
Normally, he would walk away, as if he didn’t see her at all. But it’s the first day was his logic as he walked back, and no one deserved to have to stand out in the hallway whilst holding a bucket of water on the first day of class. He bent down in front of the sleeping blonde and sighed angrily. Irresponsible, nonetheless…
Completely open to any attack, the girl sighed in her sleep, her head slanting further to the side, leaving her neck exposed. She winced, tightened her fist around a tuft of grass, and (this Naruto would absolutely deny in the future) tightened her eyes as a stream of saltine water pushed past the closed lids.
Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance, reached out his hand, and slightly shoved her by her shoulder. “Oi.”
No response.
He rolled his eyes again (“They’ll fall out of your sockets if you keep doing that, Uchiha-kun,” his teacher once told him) as he sighed, shoved her as he neared her face, and said louder, “Okinasai.”
Still no response. He looked at the tag on her bag—What kind of name is Naruko?—and decided that if she didn’t wake up this time, he would let her stay there because, quite frankly, he could care less about her.
Besides, someone as smart as she was should know better.
He grabbed her by the shoulder this time, and shook her. “Oi.”
A hand grabbed his wrist tightly and another tucked under his neck, and before he knew it, the blonde was on top of him with wild, angry eyes. Her hand laced around his pale neck, and he stared up at her thinned, blue eyes.
Such a rare shade of blue it was that he was entranced for a moment with awe (after all, how often does a Japanese person see a foreigner in their school?).
“What were you doing?” Naruto asked darkly. He was slightly discombobulated and his memory hazy. It took a few seconds for the skirt, hiked up his thighs and revealing almost everything, the slight gusting of the wind, and the foreign surroundings to register in his mind.
School.
Mission.
Undercover.
Orochimaru.
Orochimaru.
Orochimaru.
“Waking you up,” Sasuke responded shortly in annoyance, breaking Naruto out of his thoughts. “You’ll be late.”
Naruto widened his eyes as he realized what he’d done. He quickly rolled off of Sasuke, straightened his skirt, and looked away shortly before biting out, “Sumimasen.”
“And please, Naruto. For the love of God…don’t attack your classmates.”
Naruto blinked, put his fingers against his cheek, and pulled them away, staring at the liquid on his fingers. He twitched slightly, stared at the Student Council President (he finally recognized him), and walked away without another word.
It was as if nothing had just happened at all.
Sasuke sat up and rubbed his neck, staring at the retreating girl.
Well, this was different.
No girl had ever raised a hand against him before. The blonde hadn’t even blushed, blabbered, or broken a sweat.
But, he thought absentmindedly as he rubbed his stomache where Naruko had been sitting, that girl most definitely had a bulge there.
“Naruto, if you botch this up in anyway, the game is over for you.”
Comments: I hope you enjoyed it :D Next chapter in about a week.