Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Red and Blue Makes Purple ❯ Introductions ( Chapter 8 )

A/N: I feel loved. Anyway, as those who have been to my profile recently know, I am currently in search for a good beta. This person needs to be a fellow writer, whether of fan fiction or not isn’t important, but they do need to be well versed in my writing fandoms, and preferably my style. Email or PM me with a link to your work or a writing sample. Now, onto other business. I claim no ownership of either Naruto or Gundam Wing. I hope you enjoy the new chapter. Read and review!

“Red and Blue Makes Purple”

Chapter Eight

Introductions

“Naruto, how can you not know this?” Sakura asked, getting the courage to speak. “You grew up in Konoha. It’s really not funny.”

The boy scowled, the expression strange on the joker’s face. “No, what’s not funny is the fact that you keep calling me Naruto and acting like we’ve known each other for more than two minutes. My name is Duo, Maxwell Duo, and I grew up on L2, which you could never mistake for a village in the woods. I don’t ever remember being blond except for the time I had to bleach my hair to blend in among Cat’s sisters and I’m pretty sure that I’ve never bounced around in the trees like Elphaba’s bloody flying monkeys before. Definitely not laughable material.”

“Duo, your hair’s not the only think that’s changed,” Quatre said softly. “Your eyes, your face…”

Naruto’s tan skin paled and Sasuke noticed him looking just above his eyes, apparently staring at his reflection in the Uchiha’s hai-ate. “Fuck.” He ground both heels of his hands into his temples. “Someone up there really hates me.”

Sasuke took a step closer. “Naruto, you-”

“I told you morons, my name is Duo!” the currently blond pilot snapped, fangs practically visible as he did so. “I don’t care who I look like, or how many of you I’ve seen in those shitty, knife-induced dreams, but I’m not this Naruto guy!”

There was a moment of silence before Tsunade cleared her throat, drawing attention away from Duo. “Would you mind joining us in my office before a crowd starts to gather? Jiraiya’s only going to be able to be enough to keep them away for so long.”

“A moment,” Trowa said, pulling a small, black band from his pocket. He shrugged at Duo’s raised eyebrow. “In the circus, you never know when you’re going to need one.”

Nodding his permission, Duo allowed Trowa to plait his long hair, sighing in relief at the familiar weight. No matter the color, a braid always made him feel more like himself. “Thanks, Tro. Alright, Baa-chan, lead the way.”

Trying not to react to the familiar nickname, Tsunade took front point while Sakura and Sasuke took left and right around their ‘guests,’ Duo’s friends staying close to his side in attempt to keep him at least partially out of sight.

They hadn’t gone too far when the white-haired forms of Naruto’s two sensei blocked their path. Jiraiya slung an arm around his old teammate’s shoulders. “So, what happened with the Kyuubi? I notice you’ve got some new friends.”

“Just meet us in my office,” the Hokage said with a tired sigh. She could already feel the headache coming on, and the paperwork that would only serve to make it worse. “You too, Kakashi. And start warming up some sake. We’re all going to want it before too long.”

“Hey, Baa-chan, can we hurry it up?” drifted up a voice from behind them. “This isn’t exactly the warmest of outfits and I’m freezing.”

Kakashi’s one visible eye widened and both he and Jiraiya dodged around Tsunade to stare at the long-haired blond in disbelief. He stared back at them, taking in the sannin’s hai-ate and the jounin’s mask. Face blank, he turned back to Tsunade, who looked as though she were about to start twitching. “Is everyone in this village of yours so freaky?”

He found himself suddenly dodging as Jiraiya leapt to embrace him. “Naruto! You’re back!” The old pervert was about to make a second attempt when two cold, metal cylinders were pressed to his temples. “Geh?”

“Step away from Duo,” Trowa said, voice void of any emotion.

Quatre giggled, making the shinobi shudder. “Or we pull our triggers and two pieces of lead will shoot out and imbed themselves in your brain.”

“Not that there’d be much brain left at point-blank range,” Duo said with a snort, eyeing his comrades. “Tro, no falling back into Nanashi mode, and no Zero for you, Cat. It’s just plain creepy.” He kept staring at the two of them until they gave in and returned their guns to wherever they’d had them tucked away. “now, for the last time, my name is Duo. Not Naruto, not baka, not dobe.” This last bit was clearly directed at Sasuke, who’d regained his smirk. “So, we’re going to go and have a nice chat in the nice lady’s office and then me and my friends are going to have a nice trip back through the woods home.”

By the time they’d reached Tsunade’s office, Duo was seriously considering borrowing someone’s gun and going on a killing spree. It’d be a short spree, for sure, as Preventor guns only held six bullets, but it’d do wonders for his mood.

Pink kept sending him these sorrowful glances while Sasuke kept on smirking. Horns kept trying to poke him, while one-eye (blond had called him Kakashi?) tried to pretend he wasn’t staring at him from behind the orange book he’d pulled from nowhere. Blond actually looked like she might like to borrow whatever weapon Duo didn’t and join him.

In the meantime, she made a bee-line for the chair behind the desk, sitting down heavily in it. “I should have never agreed to take this job.” The woman took a calming breath. “Alright, I believe introductions are in order. I’m Tsunade, the fifth Hokage of Konoha. You’ve already threatened Jiraiya, my former teammate. The moron who needs to put his stupid book down is Hatake Kakashi, and the brats are his former students, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. They were once the teammates of one Uzumaki Naruto.” Coming to a decision, she reached across her desk to turn around one of the few photographs to show them.

Duo stared at the grinning face so like the one he’d seen reflected in Sasuke’s headband. Reaching toward the frame, he paused to glance at Tsunade, and then picked it up when she nodded her permission. The boy, Naruto, had n arm slung around the shoulders of a younger kid in a scarf and goggles. Both gave the camera a victory sign. A paint bucket with two brushes sat by their feet, the same color as the spots on their hands and clothes.

“He… vanished from a fight when he was twelve, and would be your age now,” she continued softly as the boy who bore the face of the-one-who-would-have-been-her-brother stared blankly at the picture. “He, Naruto, had a nine-tailed fox sealed inside of him.”

“Well, I can certainly see where you’d make the mistake in think that I was him, but I’m not,” Duo said, setting the photo back into the desk and lifting his eyes to eventually meet each of theirs. “So let’s start over. My name’s Maxwell Duo, and these are my friends Barton Trowa and Winner Quatre. It’s nice to meet you.”