The Cycle of Hatred: A Naruto Insert

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Having long since signed the stupid consent form, Fuu propped herself on her hands, stretching her right arm out of the shade and into the sunlight.

Chomei's voice buzzed between her ears. 'Oh, look! Someone's coming over, Fuu! He's… he's a Jinchuriki like you and that Gaara guy too. But man, his luck stinks even worse than Gaara's—the poor guy's locked up with Kurama.'

Fuu's jaw nearly fell. What kind of luck was that? For there to be not one, but two Jinchuriki—two potential friends who understood her like no one else. It was a dream come true!

It surprised her so much that she gasped, alerting Rukia.

"What's wrong, Fuu?" her friend asked; she sat further back, spine against the thick tree embracing them in its shade.

It was only the two of them for now. Shuji had wandered off to scout the enemy, leaving his waiver with Rukia, or so he said.

Fuu smiled. "Nothing's wrong—believe it or not, it's more like everything's going right!"

"...Is that so?"

She sat up completely, eyes pointed forward at the advancing figure. "Yep!"

Fuu could see him better now: blond hair lazily tied back, a brown flak jacket, and cool whisker marks on his face. He was a little too serious for her liking, but that was fine; once they became friends, he'd be smiling a lot more.

'I don't blame him for looking so glum,' said Chomei with a low chuckle. 'Kurama was never… how do I say it? The friendliest? Always grumbling and glowering. He took Dad's death the hardest. Only Matatabi could get away with making fun of him. Though by the looks of it, that jinchuriki seems fine.'

"What do you mean?" Fuu muttered. Rukia looked over, tilting her head, but Fuu shook her head with a smile. "Just talking to myself again."

Rukia accepted the explanation with a light nod and returned to staring at her consent form, taking glances at the approaching Jinchuriki with a complicated look. Fuu noticed it but didn't quite know what to make of it. The girl had been tight-lipped about her past despite their friendship.

'I don't know why you enjoy pretending to have lost your mind by answering me aloud.' Chomei snorted. 'Anyways, this guy seems less loopy than that Gaara fellow, I think. His seal's in a way better condition too, so maybe he might actually want to be your friend.'

The thought sent a grin racing across her face. Gaara had been... less than enthusiastic about her offer of friendship and his counter-offer wasn't something that sounded friendly. Hopefully, this other Jinchuriki would be a breath of fresh air after all of the fiddly mind games the Leaf Village chunin had pulled.

Honestly, these Chunin Exams were far less fun than she'd originally thought. Even if the survival exercise sounded fairly exciting, five days was too much. She was only here to make friends and tour the Leaf Village, which she intended to get back to doing in the afternoon until she found out she'd be stuck in a dark forest for five days.

She sighed, getting up and meeting the blond Jinchuriki in the sunlight with a broad smile. "Yo! I'm Fuu. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Naruto," he replied, seemingly surprised that Fuu had approached him. "Naruto Uzumaki."

'As in… the food?' Chomei remarked. 'His parents have got to be ramen lovers, otherwise that's just mean.'

To stop herself from laughing, Fuu's smile widened to the point that Naruto broke eye contact and his gaze slid to Rukia.

"You here to figure out what gate we're headed through so you can make us your first victims, Naruto Uzumaki?" Fuu asked.

He blinked right back at her without so much as a twitch. "I'm… scouting the opposition, actually."

Perhaps she'd have to change her mind on Shuji's tactics, after all—but at the moment, her sole interest was the boy before her. "And does that opposition include Gaara of the Sand, perhaps?"

He blinked again, this time visibly swallowing his shock. "...You know?"

"I do."

"How?"

"Well, my buddy is sort of like my conscience, if that makes sense. Technically, I'm not even meant to be telling you this, but Gaara sort of already knew because of his buddy, and you turned up out of nowhere."

"You talk to…" He trailed off, not quite finishing, leaving the question to hang in the air.

"Yep! I couldn't hear him at first, but we got closer over the years and now it's easy peasy." Fuu tapped her chin with a hand at her hip. "You're not like that, huh? Gaara seems to be, even if his has made him a bit… well, Chomei says loopy, and I can't lie, that Gaara needs to get his head checked."

A dark look passed over Naruto's face midway through her explanation but, like lightning, it vanished as quickly as it struck his face. He shook his head with a low exhale and said, "No. Me and my… buddy… aren't like that."

"Have you talked yet?"

"Once."

"You probably should do it more often. Company aside, they can be a real pillar when things get tough in a scrap."

"Where's your other teammate?" Naruto changed topic with about the same subtlety as Shibuki when trying to comfort her after his father's scathing lectures despite doing nothing to stop them. "There are only two of you here."

"Well, Shuji's scouting the opposition too, I guess. As for my other teammate… Hey, Rukia!" Fuu turned back and raised her arm high. "Get over here! I've got someone I want you to meet."

Bemused, Rukia folded her consent form, slipping it behind the black obi tied around her midnight-blue battle qipao's midsection. In the meantime, Fuu decided to ease up on the questions because whatever his experience with Kurama was like, it was obviously a sore topic.

While that sucked, he seemed to be an interesting sort of guy, so scaring him off would suck even more.

Rukia bowed to Naruto, all prim and proper, hands clasped in front of her. "Greetings, I'm Rukia of the Waterfall."

"Exam aside, it's nice to meet you too." Naruto considered her as if she was some kind of puzzle before returning her bow. "My name's Naruto—Naruto as in maelstrom, not the ramen topping."

Rukia gave a small twitch, but Fuu thought nothing of it. Naruto was a funny name, ramen topping or not, but the amusement faded when the two stared at one another in silence.

Awkward silence—maybe not for them, but for Fuu.

"Oh come on," she said, folding her arms. "No small talk? Rukia, I told you, right? That paper test put me off these exams completely! I'm here to see the Leaf and talk to its people, damn it. Here's a Leaf person, so let's talk to him!"

Rukia turned to her, tight-lipped. "Fuu… we're this close to starting the second stage of the Chunin Exams. Are you sure it's wise to be making friends with likely opponents?"

"...You're taking this way too seriously," Fuu replied, placing both her hands on her hips.

For that, she received an eyebrow raise in warning. She never intended to push things further, but she was so annoyed with her friend's stubbornness that she had to say something.

Rukia wasn't even a real Waterfall shinobi! Of course, once Shuji came back, there'd be no such thing as going off and making friends with people.

That's what being the village's genius got you.

'Am I sensing bitterness there?' Chomei asked with thinly veiled amusement behind his question. 'You declared that you were done letting people choose what you got to do, right? Wasn't that why you put yourself on the recommendation sheet for this exam even though you knew it'd land you in hot water with Shibuki's old fart of a father?'

It wasn't as if she expected it to work! Old Hisen was completely off his game for some reason that day. Coincidentally, it was the same day Rukia arrived, but that was beside the point.

"She's right," said Naruto, looking at Fuu with a similarly tight-lipped smile. "For all we know, we could be hunting you down for your scroll soon."

"Oh yeah? That sounds like you think you can win," Fuu shot back, just to be indignant.

Rukia coughed lightly.

"What, I can't even banter now?"

"No, that's not it," Naruto started to say, but he was cut off by a speeding kunai that he sprung out of the way before brandishing one of his own.

"Shuji!" Fuu whirled around, jabbing a finger in his face. "What the heck was that? You need to keep your pants on!"

He put himself between Naruto and the two of them, long brown hair tied into a loose bun and his bangs framing his needlessly intense face.

"I tried to warn you," said Rukia, returning to the shade.

Shuji pointed another kunai at Naruto. "What did you want with my teammates?"

"Nothing much. In fact, I'll be off now. My intention wasn't to cause a misunderstanding, but I can see how this looks." He bent down, picking up the thrown kunai and inspecting it for a second with a strange carelessness despite the weapon pointed in his direction. "But let me make one thing clear before I give this back to you."

Rukia slipped her hand into the pouch at her back and Shuji clenched his hand around his kunai.

"Oh, come on…" Fuu slammed her palm to her face, unfazed by the chakra literally howling out of his body.

Naruto frowned. "I don't appreciate you picking a fight with me this close to the second test. For all you know, I could hold a grudge and come after you just for that. Don't you care about your teammates—or, failing that, even think ahead?"

Shuji stuck out his jaw, but there was an apprehensive flicker in his blue eyes. "What's your point with all of this? I don't know what you're playing at, but I won't fall for it."

Naruto sighed, muttering something under his breath, and tossed the kunai to Shuji. After a lingering glare at the Waterfall's genius, he stared at Rukia and turned to Fuu. "It's a shame our chat was cut short, but there'll be plenty of time after the survival exercise. See you around, Fuu… Rukia."

He made a hand seal and a strong draft ripped through the branches above, pulling the discarded leaves towards his body. They swirled around him, a rustling emerald vortex until they dispersed with a second blast of air with Naruto nowhere to be seen.

'...I'll admit, that was pretty damn cool,' said Chomei. 'But did you notice, Fuu? That guy was no slouch to avoid Shuji's attack.'

Fuu nodded, addressing her teammates with a grin. "Well, wasn't that neat?"

"Hmph," Shuji sniffed. "It's a simple variation of the Body Flicker Jutsu. Nothing to ring home about, but you'd be one to be impressed by anything foreign."

"Always gotta bring the mood down, huh?"

He sniffed again.

"Now, now, don't fight." Rukia smiled her usual smile—the one that meant she was taking great amusement in their arguing but didn't want to say it. "Have you signed your waivers?"

Shuji nodded and Fuu did the same after a moment.

"Great. Let's move closer to the exchange area. I believe that loud proctor will call the start of the exam soon; we've waited long enough."

Fuu sighed.

'Don't be like that, Fuu, it'll be fun.'

"Yeah," she muttered, dragging her heels behind her other two teammates, "fun. Five days of fun in a dark forest supposedly full of man-eating beasts and people who'll happily kill me for existing."

Chomei snorted. 'That last one's not anything new.'

"I guess not," Fuu replied, sniggering. Rukia and Shuji stopped to look at her and she bit the inside of her cheek for being so loud. "Just talking to myself," she replied, once again tagging a dazzling smile on the end of the excuse.

The oh-so-lovable, stuck-up village prodigy scoffed and Rukia fired back a smaller smile. Both continued walking, leaving Fuu to trudge behind them with the so-called Forest of Death looming overhead like bad weather.

.

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Talking to Fuu was… an experience. There wasn't a negative bone in her body and she was so candid about everything that it initially threw me off. We'd just come from an exam where sabotage was hidden behind friendly faces and some comfort. In that case, her teammate's reaction wasn't out-of-line, but it was irritating when it occurred just as I made some progress on figuring out Rukia's true identity.

One thing was clear, she wasn't the peasant she'd introduced herself as when we first met.

She'd given a reaction when I introduced myself—and I purposefully used the same phrasing as when I first talked about my make-believe father. Granted, I didn't think she'd remember a conversation from a few years ago but it was a shot in the dark instead of some calculated chess move.

Did she care so much about Totsugi, or was I missing something here? Whether she did, her remembering the phrasing only begged the question: why enter the Hidden Leaf with a false story despite being from an allied village? Something wasn't adding up here. I didn't know what yet, but it was enough to keep wriggling at me like an itch I couldn't scratch.

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I let three people get within striking distance of me. They couldn't touch me yet but with shinobi, being within arm's reach was laughably easy. Before me stood three people I honestly wasn't expecting to see again. The Sound 3 seemed to want revenge after I'd thwarted their dramatic act with Kabuto, but to what end?

The one with the holes in his palms snickered. "All alone are we? Isn't that a shame, guys?"

"I wouldn't say it's a shame… more like it's a stroke of luck for us," said the long-haired girl.

Their one-eyed bandaged leader chuckled, and only then did I notice that all three of them were wearing snake-skin patterned combat pants, scarves and shirts. Though, the girl wore a vest-type flak jacket and the two guys decided to turn themselves into third-rate villains of some sort with their getups.

"Well, if it isn't the trio of soon-to-be chunin," I said, greeting them with as warm a smile as I could muster with the knowledge they were Orochimaru's lackeys. The details on their gear weren't something I'd noticed before—never took Orochimaru for a fashion man, really.

Through my narrowed eyes, I peered at our surroundings. They'd picked an area with relatively no people in comparison to some other populated areas outside the grounds. Unfortunately for them, the no-fighting rule continued across the stages, something Anko Mitarashi had heavily stressed with some serious killing intent to hammer it in.

"So," I tapped my chin, "what could you three scary Sound ninja want with me?"

Dosu gave me a one-eyed smile straight out of Kakashi's handbook with none of the warmth. "Just a friendly warning from us to you as fellow examinees."

"Please, do tell."

The girl and boy chuckled—part of me wanted to ask for their names, but none of us were on a first-name—or any name—basis.

"I don't know if you've read the consent form thoroughly, but death is a real possibility now. I'm sure you know better than us that this forest is full of dangerous things, but none more dangerous than your fellow examinees."

I grinned, letting a sliver of the chakra I'd moulded throughout our discussion seep out of my tenketsu. "Is that a threat?"

The spiky-haired guy with death plastered over his shirt scoffed, and he and the long-haired girl fired back with killing intent of their own.

"As I said, friend, it's simply a warning."

With that so-called warning, Dosu Kinuta added his chakra to the mix. I slowly ramped up the intensity of my own, dead set on nipping this thing in the bud before it became a problem. Instead, a killing intent far viler than anything I'd experienced slammed into me, as sudden and dense as a wave.

It receded instantly, but the three Sound genin were left pale and clammy and I wrestled my breathing back under control. As if we were still under its effect, the four of us turned to the source. Further ahead down the path I was initially walking before they'd cornered me stood a familiar figure.

Those long, pale garbs, the black collar… it was an outfit I recognised in a heartbeat. Just the sight of her—him? Who was he even possessing at the moment?—made my blood run cold. Those eyes were dead, no light nor life within them, just an endless empty pit more twisted than anything I'd ever known.

Straight hair flowed out from beneath a sedge hat and a ridged purple obi twisted and writhed like twin snakes around their midsection. "Apologies, gentlemen, lady—it's my nature to act up when so much killing intent is being hurled around. The feeling works me up like nothing else in this world."

Dosu Kinuta was the first among his team to gather his wits enough to speak, and just barely at that. I opted to stay quiet—rather, I didn't want to say anything that would draw that monster's interest in my direction.

Although I seemed to have failed on that count from the start.

"J-Just an argument heating up is all," he said, cautiously positioning himself in front of his teammates.

"Hmm…" Orochimaru tipped his sedge hat back, flashing the Hidden Grass forehead protector. "In any case, the proctor has announced the scroll exchange. It wouldn't do to spoil the fun before it can begin, right?"

He met my gaze and I suppressed a shudder.

Something in his tone immediately cowed the three Sound genin, so much that when he vanished from view, they walked away without a sound—though once they were far enough, Dosu Kinuta looked back, his expression too hard to read given the distance.

I exhaled long and hard, doing a final check of my supplies. I'd made sure to needle Asuma into grabbing storage scrolls for us; the big one I'd strapped to my tailbone with a securing function attached to my flak jacket, and then the small ones stowed in the various pockets inside the jacket itself.

My weapons were fully stocked, my chakra flow felt great despite the shadow of death that had passed over me, and it took a few moments, but my mind cleared. Rukia's identity, Orochimaru's fuckery, Dosu Kunita and his grudge… all of it ceased to matter.

The Chunin Exams were a non-factor after this stage; this was our chance to prove ourselves within the metrics of an exam. I wasn't sure if there were any records for this seeing that the Chunin Exams were a relatively new thing and their content and location changed with each one—but we'd break them.

Everything I'd learned, all my years of practice, was to make sure I put my best foot forward, and if ever there was a time to do that, it was now. So, placing one foot in front of the other, I walked towards the scroll exchange hut, the forest and its forebodingly dark trees growing broader until they blotted the sun from the sky.