The Yin Yang Twins

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Disclaimer: Naruto and its universe \ canon are property of Kishimoto... And whoever owns Kishimoto I guess. The rest, meaning most of the ideas and what you're about to read, is mine. Enjoy.

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1. Genin Days: Academy Graduation

In which Naruto learns a whole lot of things he already knew

There was a blond kid walking in the middle of the streets of Konoha. Now, blonds weren't actually a rare thing in the Fire Country, in fact, there was are renowned clan of blonds in the Hidden Leaf. The thing was, this blonde wasn't a Yamanaka, and if you weren't a blonde from the Yamanaka clan, then you could only be this one kid – Uzumaki Naruto, the most hated brat in the village. This kid was expertly ignoring the negative vibe around him. On the contrary, he openly smiled at the people glaring at him, which only worsened their mood and improved his. By the time the crowd had figured it out and chose to ignore him instead, he had arrived at his destination – the Konoha Academy.

"This is going to be a great day!" Naruto told himself. And what a day this would be! This was the day of the Genin examination. He had failed two times already, but this time, he had a gut feeling the Konoha forehead protector would finally be his. He couldn't contain his excitement – he would be a shinobi, a real, genuine, ass kicking, princess saving, badass shinobi.

There's just no way things could go wrong!

The first clue Naruto had that things might actually go wrong came with the arrival of Iruka-sensei, their class instructor. Their teacher was explaining the details of the Genin test, but no one was really listening. Instead, all eyes were on the girl right next to Iruka. With hazel eyes that bordered on green, and a braid on the left side of her oval face, she left a somewhat novel impression, but the consensus was she had no business being here, so Naruto was a bit worried when he realized he knew her somehow.

Naruto, being hated by pretty much everyone, knew very little of the children his age. Orphaned, he never hung out around people much, and the orphanage... well, the less remembered about that hellhole, the better. So that, along with his short attention span, made it that he only 'knew' the people of his class – and even then only the people that stuck out. There was the class clown Kiba, his dog Akamaru, the sloth Shikamaru, the chips eating Choji, the creepy guy wearing shades and a trench coat named Shino, Hinata, who for some reason couldn't keep a single conversation with him, Sasuke, the all-around prick and genius of the class, Sakura and Ino, his staunchest fangirls and Aya and her gang of bullies. Further thoughts about the newcomer were interrupted by Iruka-sensei's change of subject.

"Today, we have someone who will be taking the Genin test with you. While it is uncommon, it's not extraordinary. A few clans don't send their kids at the shinobi Academy at all."He turned to face his temporary charge."Why don't introduce yourself?"

And so she did. Her name was Kurama Yakumo, and from her poise, you could tell she was from a clan. All in all, the boys seemed to like her, while most girls were trying to somehow protect their Sasuke from her. Naruto was too focused on the excitement of finally being a fucking shinobi to pay mind to the class dynamics. However, as somewhat of an attention freak, he noticed that everyone was looking at him, including the new girl. Naruto really wished for a mirror.

He looked back at them with a hint of suspicion "What the hell are you all looking at? Is there something in my face?" He then snapped his fingers. "I see. You finally noticed that I look way cooler then Sasuke-teme! Well it's about—" A sudden pain between the eyes interrupted his monologue. The blonde let out a yelp and furiously rubbed his head while the rest of his peers laughed.

He waited for the pain to dull a bit before glaring at his sensei. "What the hell was that for, Iruka-sensei?"

"Stop daydreaming." His teacher chided, playing casually with another piece of chalk. He then returned to his new charge.

Naruto tuned out his teacher and focused on his examination and future as a Shinobi of Konoha... for about thirty seconds, then started to plan his Final Prank. There was no way he would be able to get away with property damage – or any kind of damage – after he became a ninja, so he decided to out with a bang. As he pondered on the more intricate details of his art, a telltale grin appeared. He made mental calculations, pondered on the logistics, covered his bases... He wasn't even done and Naruto was sure that this prank would go down in history, and judging by the way most of his classmates paled and shuddered, they thought the same as well.

His dastardly plot was nearly plotted to perfection when he was distracted by a, "Good luck, Uzumaki-kun." The blond nearly fell out of his chair. There was only two, maybe three people willing to say such nice words to him, and the only girl in that group always called him 'Naruto-kun'. That left the new girl and looking at her he could see that she was smiling – at him! It was so wrong on so many levels that even the children near them were giving the two of them funny looks. By the time Naruto's mind rebooted the written test had already started, so he focused on the paper on his desk instead, muttering about his luck while he made up for his late start – With his luck, he might actually pass this time.

All in all, the Genin exam went about as well as he expected to. He had managed to pass everything, only to fail to make the Clones Iruka-sensei had asked. That hadn't surprised him much. Mizuki taking his defense, and wanting him to pass, that needed some thought. And that's why Naruto was sitting on a swing looking somber, while most kids were being congratulated by their parents.

Again, the new girl tried to interact with him, but thankfully this time her clan members stopped her. Besides her, Kiba, Choji, Shikamaru and Hinata all came to cheer him up. Well, Kiba was trying to get himself punched in the face, but Naruto guessed that was his way of cheering people.

He got off his swing once he thought he had sulked long enough and headed for Ichiraku's Ramen. Maybe Iruka-sensei would try to cheer him up with a bowl or five. That would make things easy. Instead, he walked into Mizuki again. One thing led to another and now he was tasked with the mission of stealing the Forbidden Scroll of Seals. Once upon a time, Naruto would have jumped at the idea of showing his expertise and learning a cool jutsu at the same time. He still liked the idea of sneaking into the Hokage's office. In many ways, it was a legitimate test of skills, and the blond was itching to see how good he really was.

His choice almost made for him, Naruto went home to prepare instead of paying a visit to his favorite ramen stand. In his room, Naruto planned for everything and set out to enter the Hokage's office. A couple of minutes later and Naruto wondered if this whole sneaking in stuff wasn't becoming too easy. Where were jiji's elite guard, the ANBU? As good as he thought he was, Naruto couldn't help but think that if someone like him could infiltrate the Hokage's most secure building without a sweat, that could only one thing. He was becoming too awesome for his own good. Or that the ANBU really sucked, but that couldn't be right, so it had to be the former. He unlocked the door to Jiji's main office and found the scroll on the side, under a glass panel.

"Naruto, what are you doing here?"

Finally, a challenge, and not a small one either – the fucking Hokage himself. It was the perfect opportunity for Naruto's new jutsu.

"Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Technique)!"

And just like that, the match ended. Naruto was proud of his new technique, but kind of wished Jiji hadn't fallen for such a perverted trick. What did it tell you when the strongest shinobi of Konoha was unconscious and bleeding from his nose because of naked lady? With a sigh, Naruto sat on a couch a waited. Sure enough, the Sandaime came to and blinked when he saw Naruto.

"Naruto, what did you do?"

"Nothing yet, besides proving once and for all that you are a pervert." The Hokage had the good grace to blush. "I just figured there was something wrong with the test and wanted to run something by you."

"What test, Naruto?"

"You know, the one where I have to learn a Jutsu from the Forbidden Scroll of Seals?"

The look on his face was enough to know that the test never existed. Well shit.

"Before you ask, this was all Mizuki-teme's idea." The Hokage raised an eyebrow. Naruto was suddenly very nervous."I think, I'll explain from the beginning. See, I failed to make the Clone Jutsu to pass the Genin examination."

Sarutobi nodded once. Apparently he already knew of the examination results. So when Naruto made the handsigns, he was satisfied to see Jiji's pipe fall from his mouth when the room filled with his doubles.

"That's amazing Naruto! But then why did you fail the test on purpose?"

Naruto rubbed his head. "Because I can't make less than what you see here."And there was a good chunk of clones in the room–about fifty, give or take. How they all fit in the Hokage's office was a puzzle in itself. "The teachers keep asking for three. I wasn't sure I'd pass, so I thought I'd wait till after the exam and show it to Iruka-sensei, you know?"

The Hokage shook his head sadly before returning to clones that were starting to vanish. "So why are you able to make so many clones, but not just two or three?"

"Well you see, at the beginning my clones always looked sickly and sort of died after a few seconds. And then Choji said maybe I should focus on making just one clone, but that was even worse! So then Shikamaru said that if three was bad and one was worse, maybe I should try to do a lot more. I told him he was stupid, and then we kinda fought, and in the end my twenty clones still looked sickly but a lot better, so in the end I had to make two hundred clones for the jutsu to work properly."

"And now you only need fifty," added, the old man, finishing Naruto's thought. "Well done, Naruto."

Naruto beamed. "Anyway, I was going to find sensei, but then Mizuki-teme said I could still pass. All I had to do was steal the Forbidden Scroll of Seals and learn a jutsu in it and give it to him." He then looked eagerly at the Hokage. "Hey, can I still learn a forbidden jutsu?"

"I think not. You get into quite enough of mischief without the use of kinjutsu." The old man ignored Naruto's pout and smoked his pipe. "However, I do think that, reviewing the events of today, someone just earned themselves their Konoha headband."

Naruto's smile lit up the whole office that night.

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The next day, Naruto entered the academy classroom like it was Christmas. Now that he was a registered shinobi, the next part was as crucial to his future as the Genin exam. He was referring of course, to the team assignments. Would his teammates help him reach his full potential, or would they get him killed? With his luck, he was banking on the latter. Good thing he hadn't left anything up to luck.

"Team Seven will be Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke." A loud crash interrupted Iruka's announcement. Startled, everyone turned to see the resident prankster breathing loudly, and if the desk split neatly in front of him wasn't a clear sign that he was not happy with the results, one had but look at his face – there was a storm brewing behind his eyes.

He raised his hand in rebuttal but only air came out of his mouth. Naruto shook his head and let out a snort. "You know what? Screw this! I'm going home." And to put weight on his words, he walked out of the room.

The others must have been surprised... or not, it's not like they knew him anyway. He was just so pissed. More than that he felt betrayed. Once again he had been let down by the village. Once again the rules didn't apply to him. Naruto was used to unfairness. He had grown being hated by almost everyone – receiving the short end of the stick was something he had learned to expect from his neighborhood, from his landlord, and even from the academy. He had hoped that once he became a shinobi things would be different. Apparently it wasn't too be. Even Iruka-sensei was bending the rules when it came to the demon brat. Oh well, a lot had changed – he wasn't that naive six year old kid anymore, and his goals had matured along the way. In fact this would make his future plans easier to achieve. Maybe he should just quit.

"Naruto!"

The blond scoffed. It was the first time Iruka-sensei came to his house, and coincidentally, it was at the only time Naruto didn't want to see him. "Must've spent all my luck yesterday," he muttered has he went to door. He was only proven right when behind his sensei, he could see the Sandaime as well.

"Jiji, what are you doing here? No matter, come in." Once one inside, they settled in the kitchen. He offered them some instant ramen, which they politely refused. Naruto shrugged and prepared his own.

"So," he said between slurps, "why are you here?"

"Because you can't just quit! What happened to the loudmouth blond that wouldn't stop until he became Hokage?"

Naruto paused. "He realized that becoming Hokage was really hard when the whole fucking village hates you." Naruto knew he had won the argument when his sensei started spluttering, but he wasn't done yet. "Also, I didn't quit, or else I would've left my headband on your desk."

Iruka blinked. It seemed he failed to notice that little detail. "But I thought..." he then groaned and slapped his forehead.

Meanwhile Naruto turned solemnly to the Hokage. "Why are you here, Jiji? Do you want to convince me to remain a shinobi as well? Well I didn't quit, so there."

The old man looked at Naruto for a long time, like he was assessing someone he was unfamiliar with. And it was about damn time, too. He felt bad enough that Iruka-sensei hadn't found out until now, but for the man he had known the longest to not have seen the signs, it had hurt. Maybe they weren't as close as he thought.

Finally, he spoke. "No, Naruto-kun. I was going to talk to you sooner or later about this, but I guess what happened today only hurried the matter. I'm going tell you why the village treats you the way they do."

Well shit. He was only looking for that very answer for most of his life. It's not like he hid it as well, and now he was going to tell him? "I'm listening."

And so, the Hokage told him what really happened on the tenth of October, all these years ago. When he was done, Naruto sat there, hands on his knees, as if to brace himself. He seemed in deep reflection. "So the legendary Nine Tails is currently sealed in my gut. I guess that's why people keep calling me 'demon' behind my back." There was a sharp intake of breath as well as a rise in killer intent. Naruto ignored both. "So, like, everyone in Konoha knew except me? Feels like a bad joke – a very bad one." Needless to say, the kid was angry. He grasped his visibly shaking knuckles together. "So why couldn't have I known about this?"

"This information is top secret, Naruto. Even if most people know about it, they are forbidden to tell anyone – even their children."

Naruto mentally noted, quite bitterly at that, this didn't prevent the children from disliking him. Or their parents from outright hating and mistreating the blond. Or the shinobi, that should have known better, of doing the same. In other words, whatever reason they never told him, it didn't do shit but have him wonder for the longest time what the hell was wrong with him. At one point he had even thought the villagers were right, that he was a lost cause.

This did nothing to calm him down, and both adults exchanged a glance. Finally Iruka spoke. "Naruto, are you OK?"

He blinked. "Ok...? Seriously, do I fucking look 'Ok', to you? None of the things you're saying are making sense!" He really wanted to yell, to break things, or to punch someone. But the Hokage was here, and now wasn't the time to get on his bad side. "OK, pretend that I don't get it. Not telling anyone did jackshit for me. So why hide the secret in the first place?"

Sarutobi looked serious and Naruto tensed in response. "There is a name for people with your predicament, Naruto – Jinchuriki. As Jinchuriki, you have the potential to use the Kyubi's power and make it yours. In other words, a super shinobi." He liked the sound of that. He didn't like the name, nor the scorn that came with it. "The other villages would love to get their hands on you, especially since you're not trained yet. At best, they would brainwash you and turn your against Konoha. At worst, they would kill you and take the Biju for themselves."

Naruto was pale at the end of the explanation. And Jiji might have been nice about it, too. You could never truly know with shinobi. So it wasn't to protect him from the people of Konoha, but from the external threats that they hadn't told him. "That's not good enough, you could have explained it to me. I can keep a secret, you know?"

"Perhaps, but you were – are still a child. I didn't want your life to revolve around that thing in your gut. "

Naruto wondered if the Hokage had really thought about that. To him, being upset at the village because they were stupid sure as hell beat being upset because the village hated you for the sin of existing.

Instead he asked, "So what, you want me to become a shinobi so I can protect the Kyubi?"

"I want you to become a shinobi so you can protect yourself. You should know by now that I care more about your than about the Biju."

Naruto looked chastised and pleased at the same time. He might still be angry with the man, but he was still his Jiji.

After a pause, Iruka rejoined the conversation."Naruto, could you tell us why you stormed off like that?"

And, there was that anger again. "Why am I teamed up with Uchiha and Haruno?" he countered.

"Well, it's for balancing issues, usually, the student with the lowest grades is paired with the two graduates with the highest marks, in order to help the..." Iruka paused before changing the line of conversation. "You know, I could have told you this if you hadn't made a scene earlier. Why were you so angry, Naruto?"

Naruto shrugged. If they didn't want to be honest with him he had ample reason to do the same. He turned to the Hokage, with the question he wanted answered the most. "What about my parents? Is it like the Kyubi thing? I'm not supposed to know about it yet, to protect me or something?"

There was something like a frown on the Sandaime's face that quickly went away, but in the end he nodded. "When you promote to Chunin, I will tell you."

Chunin? How long did it take to become Chunin? He hoped it wasn't another three years because he'd probably die from an aneurysm before then. "Fine. You'd better get your answers ready, because I'll be the fastest promoted Chunin ever, you know!"

The two visitors took it as their cue to leave. Still, he had one parting shot as they all left his apartment building.

"I'll see you around Iruka-sensei, Hokage-sama."

Once again, Jiji's reaction was almost unnoticeable, but Naruto knew the jab had found its target. After all, just because Naruto was glad to know the people that cared for him still cared for him, didn't mean he wasn't beyond pissed because of what they'd done. As for Iruka, he looked forward to seeing him tomorrow. For now though he needed to calm down, so he headed towards his favorite place in Konoha – the Hokage monument. When he got there someone was waiting for him. Oh great he knew he had it coming, but he had thought it would wait till tomorrow.

"Not. A. Word." He muttered vainly. All he got in return was a scoff.

"You quit being a shinobi? Seriously? How did you think that would work? No wait, you weren't exactly thinking were you? What part of 'keep lying low until you become proper shinobi' didn't you understand?"

Naruto groaned. "I didn't quit damn it!," he wanted to add more, but then he saw the barely concealed smirk "Asshole."

"As far as I'm concerned, your pranks suck, so we're even."

Naruto bristled. "I'll pretend I didn't hear that. I'll have you know that my pranks are awesome. End of discussion."

His friend rolled his eyes, Naruto twitched, but let it go. "So we both know you didn't quit, even though you wanted to. I also know that you got the worst luck I have ever seen. Did you have to be all dramatic about it?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I was pissed, OK? I really wanted us to be on the same team, you know? They at least needed to know I wasn't going to take their bullshit anymore. And seriously, it's like Jiji only noticed now about the change now. I mean, I changed my fucking clothes and almost no one noticed."

And he had, gone was the garish orange jumpsuit, it had been burned, and replaced with white shinobi trousers, an orange shirt, and a white sleveless jacket , with the Uzumaki symbol on the back. Much more awesome if you asked him. His friend didn't have his refined tastes, but he forgave him, because he had his own ways of being awesome. For him it was clothes and sheer manliness, for the other boy... Eh, he was still looking.

And speaking of his friend...

Naruto gave him a narrow look. "And don't think I don't know you were as pissed as I was. For a second there I thought you were going to kill that girl who cheered when I left."

"Of course I wanted to, which is why I left her a present in her locker."

Naruto still wasn't used to someone caring to the point of taking his defense like that, so he couldn't prevent the red in his cheeks. "Damn it, Shikamaru-teme! Stop saying stuff like that! It's embarrassing, you asshole."

The young Nara grinned. "Tell you what, you stop grinning like a fangirl when I say something embarrassing and I'll stop doing it."

A comfortable silence followed. Naruto sat next to the boy and together they watched the village in silence. He seeing Konoha like that. From afar the village looked so peaceful.

"Are you still angry?"

"No, but I'd still like to know why Pinky and Uchiha-teme, though."

The other boy blinked. "...Right. You couldn't have known. It's kind of funny." Naruto groaned inaudibly; Shikamaru had a stupid sense of humor. "You have an idea who your Jonin-sensei is going to be?"

Naruto nodded. "Kakashi, because doujutsu can go fuck themselves."

The other boy grinned. "Here's the part that wasn't mentioned. Apparently, Hatake Kakashi is the only living student of the Yondaime."

Naruto looked very unimpressed. Misguided sense of duty was a pain. "You got to be shitting me. It's like they're trying to get me to hate them. Hell, it's not like I was away for the last twelve fucking years. What gives them the right the mess everything up like this!"

Shikamaru interrupted before he could work up his rant properly. "You're getting angry again..."

"Damn right, I'm angry! Those bastards didn't even tell me about the Kyubi when I graduated. The only reason Jiji even bothered to tell me is because he thought I was going to quit." And if you couldn't tell this was the reason he was angry in the first place.

This got his friend's attention. "Wait they really didn't? I don't know what to say, Naruto. I thought they trusted you a bit more than that. Want to talk about it?"

Naruto deflated. Shikamaru knew him too well. "Nah, it's cool. But it fucking sucks, the way they basically told me 'you're the Kyubi – tough shit, kid' and they never explained why I never got decent training. The Academy basically left me to die and it's like he even didn't care, it's like Jiji didn't even know!"

A hand grabbed his shoulder. "Naruto, I know it's been a shitty three years, but we made it. I know it hurts that they don't see you. But that's why I'm here. I see you Naruto."

Naruto took the time to absorb the words and nodded. This is what family meant. He had to admit, it had almost been five years and he still couldn't get enough of this sibling relationship. It was like an addiction. It was so bad that on most days Naruto wondered what he'd do if lost his brother. The answers he came up with frightened him sometimes.

"And most importantly, Aniki sees you. I think it's time Konoha finally got acquainted with him, what do think?"

The blond grinned back. In spite of his sucky team, that promised to be fun. Naruto frowned. His friend hadn't mentioned his team at all.

"Oi Shikamaru, who's on your team?"

The boy kept a perfectly straight face and said, "...Choji and Ino."

"Fuck you, Shikamaru."

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A/N: Hey readers it's been a while. For those who know me because of Shadow and Wind, I'm sorry but I have a massive writer's block. I don't know when I'll actually finish it, but as soon as I can find the inspiration I will. Now the basis of this fic is – what if Team Oblivion had become Team Oblivion sooner? Well keep reading to find out!