~*~
Bonds of Blood
By: Animeroxsmyworld
Chapter 14: Graduation
~*~
Kyoko inhaled as she closed her eyes, focusing on the task at hand. She focused on breathing before her eyes snapped open and she ran forward. She jumped up with all her energy, reaching the high bar easily.
The muscles in her arms worked with remembered strain as she flipped upright in the air, holding herself suspended for ten seconds before flipping over the bar, the momentum bringing her up for another flip.
She let go of the bar, flipping in the air and catching the bar once more. She did one more flip, legs together, before letting go and catching the smaller bar.
She continued her routine, switching her hand positions as she flew through the air. As she fell into routine, she forgot about her predicament.
Fuji was staying at the Inuzuka’s to recover for awhile while Kyoko was permitted back in her house. The burned body, and any evidence of it, was gone, taken to the Hokage tower.
The Hokage had been kind enough to hire a small team of ninjas to fix the rooms up for her, ranking it a D mission. They had finished quickly, and the place was good as new. The Hokage had also sent out a search team for Hari, having promised to let Kyoko know if they found anything.
But Kyoko forgot all this as she flew off the bars, landing perfectly on her feet. She grinned to herself, glancing at her hands momentarily. Her hands and her feet were calloused from having done this so often.
Finished with the uneven bars, Kyoko went onto the balance beam, placing one foot in front of the other. This had always been a bit of a challenge for her. She was a bit clumsy and when it came for her to flip off the beam, she always smoked her head on it.
Hoping for the best, Kyoko began, placing her hands back onto the beam and flipping backwards. She felt her spirits rise as her feet kept hitting the solid beam, her flips consistent.
The end of the board was coming. Oh if she could do this Hari would be so proud!
‘Hari-san…’
She froze up and her feet hit the beam much harder then intended, her legs shaking as mild pain shot up them as she toppled off the beam. Thankfully, her instincts kicked in and she landed on her side properly, even though the mats Hari had bought were still in place.
“Settle down. They’ll find something.” She told herself as she picked herself off the mats. She got up on the beam again, but this time, she couldn’t even do two flips, her feet missing the beam and sending her hitting her butt on the beam rather painfully.
She managed to do that a few more times, bruising her tail bone.
She knew deep down, her concentration was shot.
~*~
“Is this a bad time?” Jiraiya asked as he came into Sarutobi’s office, said Sandaime was for once, starring out the window. At the familiar voice, Sarutobi turned his chair around.
He looked tired.
“I figured you would be in the Village somewhere.” Sarutobi sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Jiraiya blinked as he shut the door behind him.
So Sarutobi wasn’t surprised to see him…that’s a first.
“Why would you think that?” Jiraiya asked as he came over to the desk, a frown setting over his face.
“Iwa nins snuck into the Namikaze house.” Sarutobi told solemnly. He didn’t have to look up to see the flash of emotion shooting across Jiraiya’s face. Surprise, worry, and then anger.
“Fuck! What happened? I knew it!” Jiraiya snapped, black eyes ablaze as he now seemed to bounce on the balls of his feet, eager to dash out of the office and find those stupid Iwa bastards. He had heard a small rumour that a group had left towards Konoha, and so he had left as well, heading towards his home Village.
“Settle down. Kyoko’s fine.” Sarutobi placated as he held up his hand. That only seemed to settle the white haired Toad Sage a little.
“They snuck into the house while Kyoko was at a friend’s house, so they took Hari away forcibly for questioning…we believe.” He confided as he laced his fingers together in front of his face, eyes on the surface of the desk.
Jiraiya continued to cuss colourfully as he began pacing around the small rotund office.
“We’re doing all we can to track them down at the moment.” Sarutobi continued. Jiraiya growled, running a hand through his hair.
“Yeah ok.” He mumbled before sighing. “I’ll stay in the Village for awhile longer. In case those damn Iwa bastards decide to come back.”
Sarutobi nodded, giving his consent to the slightly taller man. In the meantime, he would make sure that the security was tightened along the Konoha wall.
~*~
“We will now start the final exam.” Iruka said as he held a clipboard in his one hand. “I hope you all are ready.”
“Yosh!” Naruto declared confidently as he slapped his hands together. He wasn’t scared anymore! Not with the jutsu Ero-sennin taught him under his sleeve.
He would do it this time! Not like those other two times he had failed! He could feel it.
“Shh!” Someone insisted, giving his chair a quick kick.
“When your name is called, head over to the testing room. The jutsu your going to be tested on is the Bunshin no Jutsu.” Iruka said as he looked out at the class.
Naruto blinked in surprise before he grinned.
Iruka was caught of guard when he saw the huge grin on Naruto’s face.
That was odd. The Bunshin no Jutsu was Naruto’s lowest jutsu.
Where was all this confidence coming from?
Pushing that thought to the back of his head, Iruka began calling names as he walked over to the entrance of the testing room, the names in no particular order this time.
One by one, kids began going into the room where Iruka and Mizuki would wait for them.
“I don’t see why we have to do it in a separate room?” Sakura whispered to Kyoko, catching the other girl’s attention. She had been zoned out again.
Kyoko just shrugged her shoulders.
“Maybe privacy helps people concentrate.” She offered. Sakura just frowned, tapping her fingers on her desk even though inside her stomach was flying with nervous butterflies.
She needed to calm down. She knew this jutsu inside and out. She could pass this thing easy.
“Hyuuga Hinata.” Iruka called out as the door opened, Misora stepping out with the Konoha forehead protector grasped tightly in hand. Hinata meekly rose from her desk and entered the room, her steps faltering nervously.
The time passed before the door opened again, Hinata exiting with the forehead protector in hand and her face looking chalk white.
Kiba passed, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Shino too.
“Yamanaka Ino.”
Ino stood up quickly, nearly fretting when her chair came close to toppling over. Only Kyoko knew how nervous the blond actually was about this. Ino tried to remain collected and cool as she went into the room.
Both Kyoko and Sakura waited, eyes trained on the door. When Ino came back out, she had the most smug look on her face that Kyoko couldn’t help the small smile that appeared on her own.
Sakura was next to go in, coming out quickly and dangling her forehead protector in Ino’s face.
“Cha! Look at that Ino Pig!” Sakura bragged.
“I’ve got one too forehead!” Ino shot back, shoving her forehead protector right back in the other female’s face.
“Uzumaki Naruto.”
The blond shot up with a shout of excitement that deafened the class. He looked about ready to explode as he leapt down the small steps, to the front of the room, and over to the door.
“If he’s anything like before, he’s not going to pass.” Sakura remarked as she took up her seat next to Kyoko, already putting her forehead protector on in place of her red ribbon.
~*~
Naruto stood in front of Iruka and Mizuki, bouncing on the balls of his feet as his eyes looked over at the table of forehead protectors, the metal gleaming in the light of the room.
One of those was going to be his.
“Ok Naruto…” Iruka started as he looked over the boy slowly. “Are you sure you’re ready?”
“Aw c’mon Iruka-sensei! Just let me go!” Naruto pleaded energetically. The two teachers shot each other knowing looks before Iruka sighed, his pencil ready in his hand.
“Ok Naruto. Start when you’re ready.” He commanded, nodding.
Naruto grinned as his hands flashed through the seals, Iruka’s brow rose as Naruto’s last seal differed from the normal hand seal needed for this jutsu.
“Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!” Naruto cried, smoke filling the room. The two older men closed their eyes, waving the smoke from their face before cracking their eyes open.
“How’s that?” Three voices chorused smugly, the echo vibrating through the room.
Iruka’s eyes bugged, his jaw slackening as Naruto stood between two other’s just like him, the one in the middle having his arms crossed over his chest while the others had their elbows resting on his shoulders.
His eyes were shining and his smile was smug, stretching the length of his face.
“How…I…what…” Iruka stammered in shock.
“You did very well Naruto.” Mizuki smiled, having recovered from his mild shock quickly while Iruka just continued to gape at the knucklehead student in front of him. The same student who was just inches from flunking every test there was.
“Alright! That means I pass right?” Naruto asked excitedly, his voice booming as his clones jumped into the air, hugging each other in joy.
“I believe you said Kage Bunshin right?” Mizuki asked as he laced his fingers together in front of his face.
Naruto just nodded vigorously.
At this tidbit, Iruka came around.
“But that would mean that the clones are…” He trailed off before taking a closer look at the copies.
They were solid. They casted shadows and were interacting with each other. They actually existed!
“That’s a very hard jutsu to master. I believe then Iruka…” Mizuki trailed off as he turned to look at the tan teacher. Iruka caught his eye and then looked over at Naruto who was holding his breath.
Iruka’s eyes then softened, knowing that Naruto was dying to hear his next words.
“Congratulations Naruto. You pass.”
~*~
Naruto came leaping out of the room like a bullet, jumping in the air.
“THAT’S RIGHT! LOOK AT THIS! I’M ON MY WAY TO BECOMING THE HOKAGE!” Naruto cried as he waved his forehead protector in the air violently, the piece of metal and blue cloth just looking like a big blur with how fast he was waving it.
“No way…Naruto passed?” Sakura whispered in surprise.
“Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan! Look! I passed!” Naruto declared as he bounded over, leaning in too far into her personal space and laughing like a mad man as he shoved his forehead protector in her face.
“DON’T GET SO CLOSE TO ME!” Sakura reprimanded, shoving Naruto’s face away from her.
He staggered backwards before continuing to laugh and continuing on his way. His spirits were too high to be brought down.
“Uchiha Sasuke.”
Sasuke rose without incident and went into the room, multiple girls wishing him luck as he passed by them.
“Idiots. There’s no way Sasuke-kun will fail.” Ino scoffed as she came next to her friends, her arms crossed lightly over her chest. As if proving her point, Sasuke returned in mere minutes, forehead protector already tied around his head as he exited the room.
“Told you.” She smirked.
“Namikaze Kyoko.” Iruka called.
Sakura gave Kyoko a tiny shove as the blond got up from her seat and went into the room as well, where the future path to becoming a ninja awaited her.
~*~
“Ok Kyoko, the Bunshin no Jutsu when you’re ready.” Iruka instructed as he found her name on his clipboard and watched her.
She nodded slowly, her eyes fixated on the desk the two men were sitting at instead of them.
She had to concentrate. She couldn’t lose focus.
She began going through the hand signs, her fingers feeling strangely awkward.
She had to pass. She couldn’t think about Hari or Fuji, or those stupid Iwa nins. This was all that mattered right now.
She landed on the last sign and she felt the flare of chakra leaving her to complete the jutsu at the same time she thought ‘Don’t think about Hari’.
The smoke around her cleared and Kyoko looked over at her sides.
She had one clone, but it was deeply off color. Everything about it was a deeply faded colour, and it looked like it wasn’t supporting itself, about to fall over any second.
Kyoko’s eyes widened as she quickly looked over at the two men who were frowning, their brow’s furrowed before Iruka wrote something on his clipboard.
“Wait! I can do better. You know I can! I did a perfect one in class the other day!” She pleaded, rounding on the two teachers quickly. Her eyes were desperate for them to give her another shot.
What the hell had happened? Why hadn’t it worked?
“Please! Let me try again!” She begged, clasping her hands in front of her. They looked at each other before Iruka nodded his head. She was one of the better students in class and he had witnessed her Bunshin no Jutsu before.
She tried the hand signs again as frustration and anger built up inside her making her teeth grit together.
‘Work work, come on, work this time damnit!’ She thought hurriedly to herself as she performed once again. The result was the same, if only a tad better.
It was standing straight this time.
But it still looked like someone had faded all the color from the clone, very very badly.
She fell into shock as her heart thumped loudly as she realized what this meant.
She had just failed graduation.
~*~
It felt like slow motion as Kyoko walked out of the room. Her face was one of shock as she walked forward, Iruka calling out Roku’s name. Everyone glanced at her momentarily like they had the others before a few actually did a double take, noticing the difference between her and the other people who had emerged from the room.
“Hey, where’s her forehead protector?” Someone whispered, the same whisper echoing through the room.
Kyoko tried to ignore them, but it was like they were shouting the comments to her as she stumbled to her seat. She had failed. Failed something she had known she could pass!
How could that happen?!
She folded her arms on her desk and buried her head into them, hiding her face from the rest of the class that was passing easily.
“Kyoko…hey Kyoko, where’s you’re forehead protector?” Ino asked with a frown as she looked at the bent over girl. Kyoko mumbled back why she didn’t have one and Ino’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“What? What?” Sakura asked, having not been able to hear the Namikaze. At Sakura’s voice, Naruto, and Sasuke even, walked over.
“What happened to Kyoko?” Naruto asked.
And for the first time, in four years, Kyoko didn’t try to leave at his voice or presence. She just stayed rooted in the same position she was in. Ino turned to all of them, laying one hand on Kyoko’s shoulder as she did so.
“She failed.”
~*~
“Remember, orientation is tomorrow!” Iruka called out as everyone left class. His eye caught Kyoko as she dejectedly packed up, her head bent and her shoulders slumped.
She had been the only one who hadn’t passed.
Her whole behaviour had worsened, the blond not even attempting to crack a smile the rest of class.
He felt bad for her, really he did.
She was a good student, always above average in class.
“Hey Kyoko, are you sure you don’t want to come with us for ice cream?” Ino offered, both Ino and Sakura waiting beside Kyoko’s desk.
They had originally planned to go out for ice cream to celebrate passing, but now they were changing their reasoning for going to cheer up the blond.
“No, that’s ok.” She mumbled as she closed her pack, slinging it over her shoulders quickly.
“…You sure?” Sakura repeated, the two girls a little surprised that Kyoko, the sugar addict, was refusing ice cream. Usually you would have to fight her off with a stick if you even mentioned anything that tasted of sugary goodness.
“Yeah. I think I’ll just head home.” She replied as she brushed past them.
Getting out of the building, she was greeted with the sight of happy parents and family meeting their kids who were now Academy graduates.
Kyoko’s shoulders hunched up by her ears as she tried to pass by them, loneliness and coldness settling in her stomach.
She made a beeline for the exit of the school ground when a hand reached out and grabbed her shoulder.
Startled, she turned to look at who had stopped her leaving.
“Oh…Mizuki-sensei.” She replied, relaxing as she saw the silver haired teacher.
“Hello Kyoko. Do you mind if I have a word with you for a moment?” He asked, flashing her a deceptively kind smile.
Her brow furrowed in confusion for a second as she nodded.
He gestured for her to continue walking with him, Kyoko complying as she kept stride with him.
“You see, there’s actually another way that one can pass the test and become a ninja. I know that you can pass easily, I’ve seen you in class.” Mizuki started, Kyoko straightening up at his words.
“There is?” She asked, Mizuki nodding in reassurance.
“Yes, there is. You see, there’s a scroll in the Hokage tower called the Scroll of the Forbidden Seal. All you have to do is learn a jutsu from the scroll to pass. Then when you’re done, just hand the scroll back to me.” He explained simply.
He looked over at Kyoko, his eyes narrowing slightly at the deep frown set on her face. She didn’t seem as eager to agree as he had hoped.
“Don’t worry, everyone knows about it. They’re just…uncomfortable about letting Academy students look at the scroll.” Mizuki tried to persuade cheerfully. “Trust me, you have nothing to worry about.”
“So all I need to do is get the scroll, learn a jutsu, and then put the scroll back?” She asked, unsure of the plan.
“No, no. You get the scroll, learn a jutsu, show me the jutsu when you hand me the scroll, and I let you graduate.” He explained, gesturing with his hands as he talked.
“Where will you be?”
Mizuki had to smother the smug smile that threatened to crawl across his face. “I’ll be in training ground six.”
Kyoko bit her bottom lip, thinking it over, before nodding her head.
~*~
Naruto yawned as he slowly pushed his bedroom door open. Night had already fallen in Konoha, and Naruto had fallen asleep early, deciding that he needed his rest for orientation tomorrow.
His bladder however, had decided to wake him up.
He ran a hand through his messy hair, smacking his lips as he trudged through his dark apartment.
He blinked sleepily as something shifted on the couch. He looked over and didn’t even bat an eyelash as Sasuke slept on the worn piece of furniture. His back was to the blond, a pillow and blanket that Naruto had found necessary to buy over the years, his only accessories beside the pyjamas he wore.
“Didn’t even hear him come in.” Naruto murmured to himself as he continued on his way to the washroom.
Sasuke still lived in his own apartment, his nightly break-ins having decreased dramatically as Sasuke grew older.
The Uchiha was finding that he could sleep more easily at his own place eventually, but there were those rare nights, maybe three times a month, that he just couldn’t for the life of him, fall asleep.
And so he’d come back here.
Naruto had picked up on the weird habit and had bought Sasuke an extra pillow that was always just sitting on the couch, the spare blanket always folded on the armrest.
Because Sasuke never told him when he would come by. He’d just be there when Naruto got up in the morning.
Sasuke shifted in his sleep as the bathroom door clicked shut.
~*~
At the same time, at the Hokage tower, Kyoko shut the thick door behind her as she deftly moved into the room were the scroll was kept. She moved like a shadow across the floor, not a single sound emitting from her.
“This must be it.” She whispered to herself as she crept to the huge scroll, the papery material of it looking a tad worn and old. That was the only scroll not shoved in a stack of boxes that lined the walls of the room.
This whole operation though, that Mizuki had told her about, she still felt uneasy about it all. Something just wasn’t right.
It almost felt like stealing.
Maybe it was.
Grabbing the scroll, she unrolled it then and there, looking at the first few jutsus as the paper spread out across the cold tiles below her.
The first couple didn’t seem to catch her interest as her eyes skimmed over them quickly, but she found the fifth one and she stopped, blinking before her head perked up, quickly trying to memorize everything in her head.
Jinkouteki Zetsumei no Jutsu (Artificial Death).
It was a very risky jutsu that allowed the user to stop their own heart, their body surviving off of chakra from the jutsu for minutes at a time. This gave the appearance of death as the user’s heart and breathing stopped, before starting up again when the jutsu ended.
It would fool enemies if she was every in a sticky situation.
Her brow furrowed as she read why it was so risky.
It took up a great deal of chakra and if it wasn’t done right, the heart could actually have trouble starting itself back up, resulting in heart damage.
Suffocation was also big, if your heart started back up, but your lungs didn’t. You could actually die in seconds.
Kyoko skimmed over the hand signs, storing them into her memory quickly before rolling the scroll back up. There would be time to practice later.
She strapped it to her back, the weight throwing her off balance for a second, before she made her way over to the door again. She grasped the handle before she picked up on footsteps down the hall.
Cursing to herself, she surveyed the room for another exit. There was no window, and this was the only door.
“Aw damnit!” She grumbled before her eyes riveted to the metal grate in the wall.
The air vent.
She starred at it before looking down at herself.
Would she fit?
She glanced back at the door before sighing in defeat. She let go of the handle, walking back to the boxes under the air vent and making herself a small stairway to her choice of escape.
Although Mizuki hadn’t said, don’t get caught, it just seemed natural.
Like a ninjas second instinct one would say.
She struggled with the metal front, cringing horribly as it creaked in protest before it popped off into her hands. The momentum of which it came off almost sent her careening backwards, Kyoko surprisingly able to keep her balance as she flailed about wildly like a hyped up monkey.
She awkwardly held onto the metal front with one hand while she used the other hand to slip the scroll off over her head, shoving it into the air vent before herself.
When it was a decent ways in, she set the metal front on a box below her, before she squirmed into the vent, her small frame fitting into the metal contraption and giving her just enough space to not feel the need to be worried about getting stuck.
“It’s a good thing I’m not claustrophobic.” She told herself as she pushed the scroll along, crawling through the vents.
The downside of taking this escape route was…she had no freaking clue where she was going.
After several minutes of crawling through the vent, she saw an exit, and inched towards it, careful not to breathe too loudly in case someone happened to be occupying the room.
Her blue eyes scanned the room and she smiled when she saw no one was there. Instead of trying to struggle and reason with the metal framework of this vent, she just kicked it repeatedly, the metal eventually giving way and letting her out.
She flipped out of the vent, landing on top of a rather tall filing cabinet.
Reaching up, she grabbed the scroll and pulled it out of the vent, slipping it onto her back as she crawled off the cabinet.
Several more of them filled the room, along with boxes, and mounds of paper and folders.
‘A filing room.’ She thought dully as she looked at all the paper stashed everywhere, the female casually pulling one of the drawers open.
She was greeted with the sight of folder upon folder, crammed inside the tiny drawer, names scrawled across the small tabs. What was being organized and filed though, she had no clue.
She was about to shut the drawer and get the hell back to her objective when a familiar name caught her eye.
Yamanaka Ino.
Now curious, the blond female took the folder and opened it, revealing several documents. Birth certificate, Konoha citizenship, a picture of the female, other official documents that rambled about boring stuff.
Kyoko, with Ino’s folder still in hand, peered into the drawer again. She was surprised that she recognized quite a few names in the drawer, Kyoko grabbing Sasuke’s idly.
She skimmed through it before looking in again, her eyes brightening as her name starred up at her.
Tucking Sasuke’s and Ino’s folder under her arm, Kyoko grabbed her own folder and leafed through it. She smiled as her parent’s names starred up at her from the birth certificate, Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina.
‘Wait…Uzumaki…’ A small frown pulled at her lips. She had never given her mother’s family name much thought before.
It seemed eerily familiar and she felt completely stupid for pulling a blank when it seemed to be on the tip of her tongue.
Did she know an Uzumaki?
She closed the file, looking into the drawer again.
This time, one name stood out to her.
Naruto’s.
What information would they have on him?
She grabbed his folder, tucking her own under her arms with the others. There was surprisingly more paperwork in his than the others, all reporting incidents about harassment or complaint from the villagers.
Then…she froze.
‘UZUMAKI!’ Her mind yelled at her in realization.
Her eyes widened and the other folders tucked under her arm fluttered to the floor, their contents spilling from their cases.
There, on Naruto’s birth certificate…were her parent’s names.
Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina.
~*~
[Reviews - 35]Chapter or Story
Table of Contents
- Text Size +
Chapter notes: Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto