Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Hidden Meanings ❯ the land of fire and leaves ( Chapter 2 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

WE JUST ARRIVED YESTERDAY. LUCKILY, THE INN ALLOWED US TO STAY FREE, BEING THAT WE WERE TRAVELING ALONE AT SUCH A YOUNG AGE. TODAY, WE PLAN TO EXPLORE THE VILLAGE, MAYBE VISIT THE ACADEMY, AND TRY TO FIND NARUTO AND HIS FRIENDS. WELL, THAT IS, IF MAX EVER GETS OUT OF BED...

"I wish he'd hurry up," I yawned, waiting for Max to finish dressing. he walked out and we walked downstairs. "morning, dearies," said the innkeeper. "can I get you anything?" I replied, "no thank you, ma'am, we're going out for awhile." she said with a smile, "okay then, be careful", and we left. "well, where to first?" asked Kat. "I dunno, let's go get some ramen." so we walked to the ramen shop down the street, which was empty, except for a blond boy bearing a ninja headband with a leaf on it. I sat down next to him and he noticed my headband.
"whoa," he said 30 minutes later, after we answered his question, "so you ALL graduated from the misty-eye academy?" he asked, using my clever nickname for the school. we said nothing, just nodded. then I said, "so, we're new to this place, think you could give us the tour?" he replied, "sure, I'd be glad to," but then, another boy and a girl ran up to him. the girl said, "NARUTO! you were supposed to be there 10 minutes ago!" then I realized, with a jolt of stupidity, that the one we had been looking for was the one I had been talking to for the past half hour. "Uzumaki Naruto," I said. he looked up at me as I said, "Uchiha Sasuke, and Sakura, too. it's an honor to meet Gato's conquerors." Naruto looked confused, Sakura was flattered, and Sasuke grinned a little. "I'm Orphen," I said, shaking hands with the trio, "and that's Max and Kat," I said, pointing to them in turn. Kat said, "hey, nice to meet you all," and Max said, "yeah, I like ramen." the others gave him a quizzical look, and I said, "don't worry, I think he was just dropped on his head when he was born, or something," as he ran around in circles screaming, "RAAAAAAAAMMMEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I merely rolled my eyes. "so, how is the land faring?" asked Sakura. I said, "much better, thanks to you guys. the village finally looks more like yours. oh, and Tazuna and Tsunami say hi, I live next door. oh, and guess where Tsunami's son Inari is going next year?" they all leaned in closer, and I said, "the misty-eye academy. he decided that you were right, Naruto, and that he was gonna be a hero, too!" just then, a man with his headband covering one eye appeared, and I immediately recognized him as Kakashi, the copy ninja. he said, "Naruto, what are you-" then he broke off, taking note of me, Max, Kat, and our headbands.
"oho!" he said, "you must be Eon, Takeda, and Maxero, correct?" I gave a look of disgust at the mention of the name my parents gave me, and told him, "yes, but we go by Orphen, Kat, and Max." he apologized, saying, "I didn't mean to offend." "no, you didn't," I assured him, then I asked, "how did you know us anyway?" he said, "I have a contact in the village who overheard you saying you wanted to meet us, and he saw the whole exam, too." then, with a look of seriousness in his exposed eye, he said, "that was a good thing you guys did. it's like I told these three: in the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum. but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum. say, the chunin selection exams are in two months, how would you like to stick around and train for them? it's not often we have foreign ninja in our village." I thought it over, then said, "what do you guys think?", and Max and Kat agreed eagerly. turning back to Kakashi, I said with a grin on my face, "where do we sign up?" he chuckled and said nothing, but motioned for us to follow him. the seven of us walked downtown, till we reached the Hokage's dojo. Kakashi knocked and we heard a voice on the other side say, "enter," and we did. "lord Hokage," Kakashi said, "you remember the travelers I told you about, right?" the man nodded and said, "yes, the children from the village hidden in the mist." Kakashi replied, "yes, those are the ones. I was wondering, since the chunin exams just ended and, if you give your consent, they will have the full two months to prepare, if I might be able to train them along with squad seven." the Hokage was silent for a few seconds then said, "fine. however," he said, turning to us, "if you are to train in our village, you are to bear our insignia. you may still wear your own; I've seen students do very creative things with theirs, but you must wear the leaf headband also. do we have an agreement?" I took a step forward, said, "done and done," and shook his hand. he gave me three leaf headbands, two of which I gave to Kat, who tied her mist headband around her waist, and Max, who repositioned his at the top of his head, as Sakura did. I myself lowered my mist headband so it hung from my neck. then we each tied the leaf headband to our foreheads, where people normally had them. "so then," Kakashi said, "we'll take today to relax, and then tomorrow it's back to training!" and I said, "sounds good to me!'