Greetings from the other side!
Its me, your good old neighborhood retard, and I'm back with a brand freakin new story. There's not a whole lot to say except review. I can't possibly tell you how much I enjoy reading your comments. I even have a little prayer I say each time I get online to check my reviews. NOW READ AND REVIEW OR ELSE A MAN WITH PARALYSIS IN HIS RIGHT HAND WILL HAUNT YOU! HAUNT I SAY!
I don't own Naruto. I do own my new, secret, ultra-kool, slightly creepy, OC!
Hatake Kakashi met the Hokage in Naruto's very home. Though he didn't know why the hokage had chosen to meet here, he obeyed well enough. He happened to look down at a carton of milk that was expired. He had a feeling his genin team was going to drive him off the walls.
"Ahh, Kakashi. You're here." The hokage greeted warmly from his seat on Naruto's chair "I'm giving Uzumaki Naruto to you. With your skills, I'm sure you'd be able to handle it."
"I will do this mission to the best of my abilities." Kakashi said obediently as he bowed and prepared to leave. The voice of the hokage was the only thing stopping him.
"Before you got Kakashi, you should know something about your team." The hokage said with a smile, as if he enjoyed what he was doing "Due to numbers of students, I had to give you an extra one."
"I have a four man team now…" Kakashi said uneasily "Who, pray tell, did you decide to add?"
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura awaited their jounin instructor patiently in the classroom. He was over an hour late now, and everyone was beginning to get irritable. Out of sheer boredom, Naruto decided to put an eraser between the door and the wall, which he hoped would catch their sensei unawares as he walked in.
Naruto didn't even have time to get yelled at by Sakura when the door opened and the eraser fell onto its victim, kicking up a cloud of chalk dust as it did so.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry for Naruto." Sakura began, not seeing who it was "I tried to stop him but-who are you?"
"Um, hey I'm Himura Reiko and stuff…" Said a boy their age who was waving the dust away from him with one hand. "They told me that I was going to have to be sent in with a three man team, thereby making us a four man team. I think your eraser just hit me on the head."
They all studied Reiko up and down. He was fairly tall and lanky, his long limbs fitting his height. His hair was a very bright shade of red and stuck out in every direction conceivable. He wore his hitae-ate on his forehead like normal, but seemed to be anything but. He didn't wear a shirt, showing off his slightly puny arms and torso. He did wear a pair of heavy looking black pants that seemed to be endlessly full of pockets. His stance was pretty relaxed, despite his odd appearance.
"Well I'm Uzumaki Naruto, your future hokage and generally all around awesome guy!" Naruto yelled to him, striking a cool pose as he did so.
"Wow, you're exuberant." Reiko said, his voice almost genuine "And who might this lovely young lady be?"
"My name is Haruno Sakura, I'm very glad to meet you Himura san." Sakura said with a slight bow as inner Sakura bellowed 'Like hell it's nice to meet you, you shirtless freak!'
"For some reason I'm picking up a hint of hostility from you." Reiko said idly, not showing any real hint of emotion "What's with broody over there in the corner?"
"Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke replied flatly. He hadn't quite decided if he liked Reiko yet or not. The boy seemed to be pretty normal, but looks can be deceiving. He would just bide his time and wait until he proved himself to be an idiot.
It was at that point when Hatake Kakashi walked into the room. At the mere sight of Reiko, he winced. He knew exactly who the boy was and knew what he had in store for him.
"Allright, I've just decided that I hate you all." Kakashi said offhandedly then looked directly at Reiko "Especially carrot top over here."
"Hey!" Was Reiko's objection to the insult, but it didn't mater because Kakashi had walked off. As he was turned around however, the other members of team seven got a good look at a tattoo of an eye, sitting square in the center or Reiko's neck, below his hairline. Nobody seemed to want to comment on it as they followed their new sensei to wherever it was he was taking them.
"Allright." Kakashi said lazily as they all sat in front of him "I'm your new jounin instructor. Let's start by telling us a bit about ourselves."
"Why don't you start sensei? After all, you're a complete mystery to us." Sakura said sweetly to him.
"Allright." Kakashi began "My name is Hatake Kakashi. My likes and dislikes are none of your business. I don't like to talk about my goals. But I do have lots of hobbies…"
"He talked a lot but we didn't really learn anything about him." Sakura whispered to Naruto, who concurred.
"Now, let's start off with the orange kid over here. Tell us about yourself." Kakashi said, pointing boredly at Naruto.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto began with a yell "I love instant ramen, but hate the three minute wait for it to cook. I like to play pranks on people and my dream is to someday be Hokage so that everybody respects me."
"Um…okay…" Kakashi said. Naruto appeared to have little else on his mind besides ramen. "Now the young lady."
"My name is Haruno Sakura." Sakura said sweetly "I like a certain someone and I hate Naruto. My hobbies include shopping and putting on make up. My dream is to make a certain someone fall in love with me."
"Whatever." Kakashi said, having not really listened to her at all. "It's your turn to go broody."
"My name is Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke said coldly "There's not much I like, but there's plenty of things I hate. I don't have any hobbies and my goal is to kill someone."
"That's interesting…" Kakashi said, making a mental note to stay away from Sasuke. He sighed when he looked at Reiko, who was staring off at nothing in the distance "Shirtless, it's your turn."
"My name is Himura Reiko. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not under the influence of illegal substances." Reiko started with a smile, making everybody raise an eyebrow at him "Just so you know, I suffer from delusions. This means I see things that the rest of you don't. If I'm ever acting strange in any way, it's probably something I'm seeing and you're not. Just confront me about it and tell me what's going on so I can keep a grip on reality. My likes involve training with my family's arts and staring at sunsets. My dislikes involve waking up to demons that sever my limbs as soon as I open my eyes. I enjoy looking at different weapons, especially swords and plan to get one someday. My goal is to be the greatest shinobi from my clan, fall in love one day, and marry an extremely gorgeous woman who accepts my flaws and loves me for who I am."
"You're just plain weird kid." Kakashi said to him, causing Reiko to face fault into the ground almost immediately "Tomorrow we're having a mission. I suggest you don't eat breakfast tomorrow, unless you enjoy throwing up."
"Why would we be throwing up?" Naruto asked, a little more worried than everybody else.
"Has our milk gone bad? Have enemy shinobi poisoned the water supply? Are strange men wearing black robes with red clouds on them planning to kill us?" Reiko asked with wide eyes.
"Um…no spas…The mission just has a sixty six percent rate of failure. Just what kind of delusions do you have?" Kakashi explained slowly, a little creeped out.
"The very, very serious kind." Reiko said with a smirk, acting like it wasn't a big deal. In truth it wasn't to him, he had seen them his whole life. His strange behavior just made everybody else want to take a chemical bath.
"At any rate, just meet me at training area seven tomorrow at six o'clock sharp. Remember, no breakfast." Kakashi said as he suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"Well, it's about time I hit the ol' dusty trail." Reiko said, stretching and getting up "I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow. Stay awesome."
With that weird little declaration, Reiko wandered off. Soon after, everybody else did to, all of them preparing themselves for the next day.
The next morning, everybody gathered at training area seven, like instructed. The first to show up was Sasuke. He was quickly followed by his stalker, Sakura. Naruto came in not long after, greeting everyone loudly. A little while later, Reiko showed up with his hands in his pockets.
"Sorry I'm late everyone, I was having tea with a rabbit and a guy with a large hat." Reiko said as he sat down on the grass "Then this rabbit in a petticoat came by and we had to fix his pocket watch by putting different condiments into the gears. I had a smashing time."
"I think you might have been seeing things Reiko san." Naruto said to him with one eyebrow raised.
"I probably was. But nonetheless, I enjoyed the experience." Reiko replied with a smile "Sometimes you just gotta go with the flow, you know?"
"Um…Reiko san? What kinds of things do you see?" Naruto asked, inching closer to him as he took out a can of something and began drinking it.
"Well." Reiko said with a grin as he took a swig of whatever he was drinking "If you want to see, just close your eyes and touch the tattoo on the back of my neck. If you get scared or anything, just let go."
Sakura and Sasuke watched Naruto anxiously as his trembling hand reached for Reiko's tattoo. That's right, Sasuke was watching for once. It would be interesting to see Naruto's reaction to this one. Naruto closed his eyes and touched the tattoo. Nothing seemed to happen to him so he opened his eyes ready to boast that he didn't see anything. As soon as his eyes became opened however, he started trembling all over. Sweat was pouring down his face and his eyes looked like they were going to burst out of his skull.
"What the hell is happening to him?" Sakura exclaimed as she rushed in and pulled Naruto away from Reiko.
"Man I love Tuesdays…" Reiko said to himself peacefully as he took another drink. "He'll be fine, he's just a little shocked."
Naruto was curled up into a little ball and shaking. He appeared to be trying to mumble something but the words wouldn't come. It took about ten minutes for him to calm down enough to say anything.
"Naruto, I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell them what you saw. If they want to see, they're more than welcome to touch the tattoo." Reiko said before Naruto could get any words out "Besides, I'd like to see if big bad Uchiha san could handle it."
Sasuke didn't feel the need to dignify him with a response. He felt that he was above Reiko, Naruto, and whatever it was that Reiko saw. Sakura however, didn't seem to show the same feelings on the subject, and quickly stood up for him. God her very voice was grating his nerves.
"Sasuke kun isn't afraid of anything! He'll touch your stupid tattoo and wipe the floor with your ass after he does it!" Sakura yelled at him.
"Princess, the guy doesn't care." Reiko said to her with a grin "I'm also pretty sure he doesn't like you very much by the way he winces every time your voice hits a high note. I've got nothing against you personally, but I have to ask you to let him defend himself."
"Sakura chan…" Naruto said softly, his eyes still wide "Reiko is right. Just sit down and let's be very quiet for a while."
Everybody except Naruto stared at Reiko for a long time, wondering how he could have gotten Naruto to shut up. Reiko seemed to be in his own little world however, and quietly sipped his drink.
"Yo." Kakashi said suddenly as he appeared in a puff of smoke. At that moment, Naruto and Sakura proceeded to yell at him for being late.
"Sorry guys, I got lost on the road of life." Kakashi said, knowing he was lying just as much as everybody else. "Reiko, what are you drinking?"
"Canned sake from a vending machine." Reiko said calmly as he took another sip of his sake. Everybody stared at him again.
"You can't even legally drink!" Sakura yelled at him. The whole time Reiko sat there quietly as if he didn't notice her yelling at him.
"Do your parents know that you drink?" Kakashi asked him suspiciously, wondering what kind of household he grew up in.
"Not around my mom. My dad and I drink though." Reiko said with a smile as he finished off his sake and crushed the can "If my mom caught either of us drinking…well lets just say it wouldn't be pretty."
"Well…just don't get drunk before we go on missions." Kakashi said to him, not really knowing what to do in this situation.
"Don't worry sensei dude, I'll keep the drinking to a minimum." Reiko said as he gave Kakashi a thumbs up sign.
"All right everybody. Today, your mission is to get these bells" Kakashi said, holding up three bells and tying them to his belt "Away from me before noon. If you don't get a bell, I'm going to tie you to a stump and eat lunch in front of you. On top of that you will be sent back to the academy. There are only three bells, so one of you is definitely going back."
"Any rules as to what we can and cannot do?" Reiko asked politely, now standing up.
"There are no rules as to the techniques you can use." Kakashi said with a sly look in his visible eye "You have to come at me like you're going to kill me, otherwise you won't stand a chance. Now, ready, steady, GO!"
As soon as Kakashi said go, all of them disappeared, hiding themselves well. It wasn't long before Naruto proved himself to be an idiot and went to face Kakashi on his own. While Sasuke and Sakura stayed to watch, Reiko meandered off to set up a plan of some sort.
It wasn't long before Kakashi was off in the woods, looking for Reiko. He had dispatched of everybody else and couldn't seem to find the boy anywhere. Thinking about his character and his family history, he decided to go and make sure the others were in the same place he left them. Upon checking Sasuke and Sakura, he found neither of them to be where they were supposed to. He grinned to himself and went to the stump where Naruto was tied.
He chuckled when he found Naruto tied to the stump still. He saw the trap coming already. He slowly walked toward Naruto, hoping to set it off and see what Reiko had in store from him. He was no more than five feet from Naruto when his body suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke and several other Narutos jumped out from behind the stumps and attacked him.
It was a simple thing for Kakashi to beat them off using only taijutsu, but then Sasuke came in and tried his hand at the getting the bells. Together, they were keeping him on his toes. Something seemed out of place though. Reiko had yet to show himself. Kakashi didn't know what hit him as Reiko seemed to appear out of nowhere and do nothing but touch his forehead.
The three boys slowly backed off and Naruto dispelled his clones. Kakashi thought it strange that they did that, but when they suddenly caught on fire, he realized what had happened. Reiko's family was known for their genjutsu abilities. Reiko used a technique that allowed him to put his opponent into a genjutsu just by touching them. He looked at his hands and they caught on fire. He quickly put his burning appendages together and dispelled the genjutsu.
Kakashi found himself tied to a stump with his four genin sitting in front of him. In Reiko's hand was the three bells which he held smugly in front of Kakashi. Kakashi could only chuckle silently to himself at their ability do defeat him under Reiko's supervision. It was ironic how such a weird kid could get a grasp of the whole mission. The only thing left was to see if he took it any deeper.
"The first bell." Reiko said, holding a single bell up "Goes to Naruto for being the bait. Doing something like that takes guts. You earned it."
"Thanks Reiko san!" Naruto said as he caught the bell that Reiko threw at him. He was surprised that Sasuke teme didn't get the first bell, but was pleased with the result all the same.
"The second bell." Reiko said, letting the suspense hang "goes to Sasuke for distracting Kakashi just enough to allow me to slip in for the finisher."
Sasuke didn't say anything as he caught the bell Reiko threw to him. In his mind he thought he deserved it more than anybody, except Reiko, who came up with the plan. But even then, he saw them as equal for it.
"The last bell." Reiko said, looking at it with a far off look in his eyes. He then looked to Sakura who was looking at the ground in disappointment. She knew that since she didn't do anything, she wouldn't get the bell. At first she didn't even notice as the small bell jingled on the ground she was looking at.
"Reiko san!" Sakura exclaimed, seeing the bell and picking it up in confusion "Why did you give the bell to me? I didn't do anything but weigh you all down. You should get the last bell."
"No Sakura chan…" Reiko said, leaning back on the grass with a smile "To be blunt, you suck. But you suck in a way that I think can be fixed. If I were to take the bell, you would go back to the academy and not learn anything. If I give the bell to you, you have a chance to learn from a very experienced jounin. You need it more than I do. Now you can show everybody that behind your beauty you have some skill as well."
During the whole thing, it was all Kakashi could do to stay completely neutral. He was trying not to show emotion so he could surprise them with his sentence. He cleared his throat with authority, signaling that he was going to speak now.
"After watching you all, I have concluded that…" Kakashi said, trailing off for dramatic emphasis. Reiko didn't seem to really care though. He could tell that Reiko didn't know he had played right into the skillful jounin's hands, but he just didn't really care. It was as if becoming a genin didn't matter to him "All of you, Reiko included, pass."
"WHAT?" Naruto exclaimed, his yell permeating the trees that surrounded him. Naruto was way too loud.
"You heard me." Kakashi said with a grin under his facemask "While I don't think you three understood the meaning of this exercise, I believe that Reiko did. Reiko, would you be so kind as to explain it to these three."
"Well, the object is teamwork, obviously." Reiko said with a shrug "Any genin who thinks he can go against a jounin by himself is either nuts, or already planted six feet under. I think big bad Uchiha san missed that mark by about two or three feet actually. Sakura was merely concerned with Sasuke and nobody else, so she got herself caught in a genjutsu. Naruto tried to prove himself and got tied up for being a moron."
"WHO ARE YOU CALLIN A MORON YOU SHIRTLESS FREAK?" Naruto bellowed at him, only to be silenced by everybody else.
"I knew from the get-go that I didn't have a chance alone, and a very small one as a team." Reiko continued, ignoring Naruto completely "I simply kept myself hidden until I could get you all out of your own messes and set up a plan most devious indeed…You three would be nowhere without me."
"Just as I thought, you didn't understand why there were only three bells instead of four." Kakashi said to him with another grin "There were only three bells to see if one of you would sacrifice yourself for the other. The whole thing was set up so that you would try to go in with an 'every man for himself' train of thought."
It was at this point where Kakashi stood up, having freed himself from his bonds long ago. Everybody but Reiko stared at him in awe. He had gotten free right in front of their faces and they didn't notice.
"Those who ignore their teammates when they need help are lower than trash." Kakashi said "In the end, your team is all you have. You have to take care of each other, or you'll only tear yourselves apart."
"Wow…I never would have thought of it that way." Naruto said, mystified at the speech Kakashi had given.
"I'm just glad to know we all passed." Reiko said, "My old man bet me ten bucks I wouldn't make it. Now I get to collect the cash."
"Your own father made a bet against you?" Sakura asked him as if it were the craziest thing in the world. "I thought a father was supposed to support his son."
"Of course he made a bet against me. He didn't think I could do it so he's obviously not going to bet that I'll be a genin." Reiko explained, rolling his eyes. "What kind of gambler are you?"
"Never mind all of that." Kakashi interrupted "Now all of you go home and eat lunch. We'll meet here tomorrow for our first mission."
Naruto jumped into the air and shouted in joy. Everybody else stood up and stretched a little before congratulating each other before heading home. Sakura even went so far as to smile warmly at Reiko before going off and following Sasuke. With such a small effort, he had instantly gained his teammates trust.
Kakashi couldn't help but smile. They were all good kids. Reiko had far outshined his expectations as well. Kakashi had expected a lazy, spaced out, idiot that wouldn't be able to learn a thing. He had been wrong, and now was actually pretty glad Reiko was in his team. Without him, they might not have passed the exam…
Hokay. My thoughts on this chapter, since I have no reviews as of yet.
This chapter seemed a bit rushed and a tad bit cliche. I don't know why, but it just doesn't have a real good feel to it in my mind. It also makes Reiko come off as a complete Mary-sue, which I had no intention of whatsoever. I just hope people would keep on reading after they read this...It's really not the best portrayl of Reiko as a whole...or maybe it is and I'm just a janitor. Who the hell knows.
Well, that's my momma! Keep on tranglin!