The scenery was utterly repulsive and disgusting. It was a reminder that the only thing worse than the stink of rotting, burning human flesh was the stink of mountains of rotting, burning human flesh. Vivid images appeared, showing doomed men and women screaming for their lives as they were butchered by demons. Then, there were the droves of grotesque carrion birds that fed off mutilated carcasses of men, women and children that were strewn carelessly across the soggy, rain drenched land.
"The last of the human filth has been eradicated. What is thy bidding, Kyuubi-sama?" uttered one of the demonic beings with slavish servitude.
"Should we return to our lair to recover?" another offered. Unlike the first speaker, this one appeared unperturbed by its leader's awe inspiring presence. Its twin battered tails swished back and forth in agitation.
"Now? In our moment of triumph, you think we should retreat? I think not," thundered the nine tailed demon in anger.
"Hear me now, brothers and sisters! These human insects swarm upon the land like locusts, spreading their diseased presence like a plague! To think, they even have the audacity to strike at us, the immortal ones. No! We will exterminate their kind for this defiance! The legion will continue forward to the west!" Under the leadership of the nine tailed fox demon, the demonic legion surged onward and wherever it went, destruction and desolation followed.
Haruto jolted awake in a cold sweat.
"Are you alright, Uzumaki?"
Drooping and drooling, Haruto looked at his teacher with momentary confusion. The class burst into laughter at the blond's antics.
"Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine, Mizuki-sensei."
The assistant teacher gave the demon container a cautionary look, but nodded.
Haruto groaned as he willed his headache to subside. A few days after returning from his first mission with Tenzou's ANBU unit, the Kyuubi had returned from its deep exile in the middle of the night. For whatever reason, it had not been happy, and had subjected him to a savage bout of psychological torture that had denied him any rest. At times like this, he really despised the creature and could almost sympathize with the villagers' hatred. If not for the logical fallacy they made in equating the prison with the prisoner, the villagers' show of restraint would have been admirable.
Haruto involuntarily shivered. As if the mind rape was not bad enough, he kept getting flashes of the bastard fox's haunting memories. The demon had yet to say anything about these transgressions. No explanation, no reason, nothing. Haruto didn't know whether the continued silence was a blessing in disguise or a curse, but he wasn't suicidal enough to ask. The Kyuubi was the most powerful and most feared demon known to mankind for a reason; something the imprisoned creature gleefully reminded him from time to time. This time, however, it had gone too far. If there was any justice in this world, Haruto hoped to one day repay his tormentor for all the pain it has caused him.
"Thank you for covering for me, Mizuki. I can take over now." A grim looking Iruka walked into the class to replace his assistant.
Haruto had noted how loose and casual, not to mention unmotivated most of the staff were. The only exceptions were Mizuki and Iruka, whom to Haruto looked like they were constantly judging and assessing their students' abilities discreetly. Two consequences came from this: first, it made Haruto's job of acting as a slacker that much harder, and second, it made him suspicious of the two.
"Hey, Haruto, you okay?" Chouji asked. "You seemed out of it today."
"Yeah, I'm fine." He most certainly was not fine, but he couldn't exactly just blurt out how he got screwed mentally by a demon fox that was sealed inside of him. Haruto's one satisfaction was watching his chuunin instructor squirm uncomfortably every time he glanced at the scroll he had laid out on his desk.
I didn't know it would get copied and passed out this quickly. The blond had no doubt what the scroll was. But he was under no delusion about what would happen or rather what would not happen. Like all bureaucratized institutions, without force from above, there would be no changing the ninja academy's current modus operandi.
"Alright, today, we'll have a practical demonstration."
Maybe I was wrong, Haruto thought with interest. More practical and less prose was certainly one of his top recommendations.
"Please line up on the wall. Use the henge technique you learned to make a replica of myself."
Or maybe not. The blond lazily lined up with the rest of his class. So, what can he do to make this interesting?
"Haruto Uzumaki. Please make a henge of me. Go!"
Haruto resignedly propped himself in front of his sensei and adopted a mask of concentration. "Henge!"
An enormous cloud of smoke suddenly blocked out everyone's view of Haruto making Iruka wonder if the poor kid had screwed up.
"Oi, is this to your liking?"
The attendance scroll Iruka had rolled out of his clutches as he eyed Haruto's creation.
"Iruka-sama?"
Jaws dropped, noses bled and tempers were aroused as the upgraded version of Haruto's infamous sexy technique made its debut in the form of a female Iruka.
"Haruto! Don't subject us to useless techniques!" Iruka was furious, embarrassed and most importantly, bleeding from both nostrils, but his student only grinned which made the chuunin afraid, very afraid.
"Aw, you don't like me?" Haruto gave her sensei an adorable puppy eyed look and lifted her hands to cup her ample bosoms.
Unlike his original Oiroke no Jutsu, which had clouds floating over the privates, Haruto's new version utilized frilly puffs as substitute undergarments. They clung to the skin like latex and left nothing to the imagination. Iruka stood no chance. The chunnin sensei crumpled like a house of cards along with three of his male students who happened to receive the same view he had. Haruto smirked as he reverted back. The prank sure did its job getting him out of that mental funk.
"How do you like that? It's my new and improved Oiroke no Jutsu. Works on all perverts and most men!" the blond declared with pride.
Wow, he's really out of it. Haruto thought as his nudge drew no reaction from his sensei. He didn't expect his technique to be this successful. After all, Iruka was hardly a closet pervert like that hypocrite Ebisu, and if he fell so easily to the technique, Haruto could just imagine how devastating it could be if used correctly on the battlefield.
Yuugao might not be happy about it, but Tenzou would definitely consider it. Haruto's captain was nothing if not pragmatic. The captain's whole attitude was "if it works, do it." Alas, before the part time ANBU shinobi could consider approaching his superior on implementing his unique technique on the battlefield, he was confronted by a horde of scornful girls. Haruto ducked sharply to the left, barely escaping the first punch.
"Ino-chan, what-what are you doing?"
"Don't call me that! We are going to give you the beating of your life, you baka! Hey, get back here!"
Haruto swerved, rolled, jumped and performed just about every trick in the book, but it was not enough. Crack! The blond reeled back from the force of the blow, courtesy of Sakura.
Argh! Where did she learn to hit like that? Clearly, he had seriously misjudged the retaliatory fury of the angry, indignant mob of girls.
At the end of his wits, Haruto pulled his last trump card. He morphed once more, this time, into his perfected teenage female form. Suddenly a fully developed, completely nude and utterly gorgeous blonde goddess appeared in the center of the room. It was one thing to teach a perverted boy a lesson, but quite another to beat up a naked girl.
"My name's Haruka! Please don't hurt me!" the blonde pleaded as she waved cheerfully.
When the vengeful girls temporarily paused, Haruka thought her plan had worked. But then the horde took in the older looking girl's absurdly disproportionate breast to waist, ratio and then glanced at their own flat chests.
Damn! Haruka's eyes widened.
The righteous fury in the eyes of his angry classmates was replaced with burning hatred and jealousy. The panicked blonde scurried to the nearest person and grabbed on to his legs without realizing who it was.
"What-what are you doing, you idiot?" a somewhat high voice called out hurriedly.
Eh, Sasuke!? Hmm, maybe I can use this to my advantage.
"Sasuke-kun. Please protect me? I promise I'll be nicer to you if you do," Haruka cooed while on her knees.
At first, Sasuke only twitched. For a moment, the blonde cursed. Maybe Sasuke is gay. But then, the Uchiha's eyes rolled into the back of his head, and his body dropped to the ground with a reverberating thud.
Haruka blinked before smirking. Wow. Who would have thought that Sasuke was male enough to react just like any other pervert? I wonder what his adoring fans think of him now.
Alas, if Haruka thought her female classmates were going to recognize their crush's imperfection for what it was, then she had given them far too much credit.
"You, YOU WITCH!"
Haruka paled. From the way they were glaring at her, it was apparent that they had no intention of laying the blame on the Uchiha. If the girls had been pissed at her technique at first and envious of her henged form later, now they were downright murderous. She had caused their Sasuke-kun to faint. In their eyes, her life was forfeited the second their precious hit the ground. Haruka gave one last cry for help before she was swarmed.
"Ow, hey watch it! No, wait, ouch, stop that!" Haruka was not sure whether they actually intended to pinch her to death, but it sure felt like it. Just when she was about to abandon all hope, she was saved by a most unlikely rescuer.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to do that." With her Byakugan active, the Hyuuga heiress began removing the pile of bodies around Haruka. The blonde watched in stunned silence as this normally timid, mousy girl deftly incapacitated the female assailants with minimal use of force and plenty of apologies.
"Ano, are you all right, ahm, Haruka?" Hinata asked hesitantly as she removed the last of the other girls.
"Yeah, I'm a bit sore but okay. Thanks a lot, Hinata-chan!" A thankful Haruka instinctively jumped up and caught Hinata in a tight embrace.
The Hyuuga heiress gasped as all coherent thoughts except for three promptly left her. They were: a) Haruto, or rather Haruka, called her Hinata-chan, b) she was hugging her and c) she was extremely well endowed. For an instant, she wondered about the last point. She had heard that some males desired females with large breasts for companionship.
Is that what he likes? Is that why he made them so large? she thought with a frown.
The general result of such contemplation usually served to depress the young Hyuuga's already dangerously low level of confidence. Luckily, this time around, Haruka's renewed cry for help intruded into her thoughts. It appeared the other girls had no intention of staying down.
Crap, got to think. I can't actually fight them and I can't let Hinata fight all of them. An idea came to the blonde as she caught sight of one of the very few males who remained standing.
"Oi, Shikamaru! A little help?" When the Nara did not react, Haruka dimpled cutely with hands held in a begging gesture before adding, "Please?"
The lazy genius twitched and shuddered. The poor guy must have reacted naturally to the naked girl's salacious gesture before realizing who it really was. A soft mutter that vaguely sounded like "troublesome blonde" was heard before shadows covered the room. All of the angry girls were suddenly held in place.
In his excitement, a bubbly Haruka kissed Hinata on her cheek before she could protest. Leaving a blushing and confused Hyuuga heiress behind, the blonde turned to her second savior.
"If you even think of kissing me, I'll release them and use my shadows to hold you instead," Shikamaru threatened with absolute seriousness.
Haruka pouted, but then laughed with glee. It was so much fun playing with people.
"You may want to leave quickly. It's very troublesome holding them."
That was the blonde's cue. Waving them goodbye, Haruka shifted back to her boy form and ducked out of the room. Seconds later, the exhausted and sweating Nara boy dropped his technique and sank to the ground. Maybe his troublesome mother was right about him taking his training a bit more seriously.
"Shikamaru! I'm so mad at you for helping that moronic idiot. Don't think I'm going to go easy on you! And you too, Hinata! Ugh, I can't feel my arm!"
Too soon for his comfort, the angry, scowling face of Ino entered his field of vision. For a brief moment, Shikamaru wished it was another blonde standing before him. At least, Haruka had a nice smile. Then his mind and stomach rebelled at the thought. What was he thinking?
Yamanaka Ino, the self proclaimed love interest of the almighty Sasuke Uchiha, saw a most interesting sequence of events as she prepared to unleash another verbal tirade against her childhood friend. First, Shikamaru sat there looking bored, which was expected. Then his face took on a look interest, which was strange and finally he paled as if he had seen a ghost before falling backwards in a dead faint. The blonde girl frowned. Was it something she said? Had she been that harsh? However, the sight of her precious Sasuke-kun lying on the ground, dead to the world, served to harden Ino's resolve for justice and revenge.
Where's that baka? Ino swore she was going to tear that girl… boy… boy-girl, or whatever he or she was, a new one, but first, they needed to inform the teachers.
"Iruka-sensei!"
"Ugh, stop shouting. What happened?" the chuunin sensei awoke with a killer migraine, which was not helped by his screaming students.
"HARUTO!"
The name jolted his memory as he rubbed his head. Iruka looked around the classroom, noticing the absolute anarchy his student had wrought as well as the pools of drool and blood. He swore to make the little brat wipe clean every spot, but first he had to catch the little monster.
That's it. I'm never ever going to try this again. The pissed chuunin grabbed the scroll left on his desk and angrily dumped it into the trash before going off to look for help.
While Iruka was occupied, Hinata had successfully pulled the unconscious Nara boy away from everyone's eyes. She thought it prudent that given their role in providing aid to Haruto, they best keep a low profile around the girls for a while. Luckily, her concern was over exaggerated. The kunoichi-in-training were more occupied with the Inuzuka boy, who made an unfortunate comment about a certain "hot blonde chick." Akamaru was still tugging futilely at his partner's pants.
"Eh, my head."
"You should take it easy. Oh, ahm, thank you for your help."
Shikamaru gave the Hyuuga girl a curious look but nodded nevertheless.
"He's so troublesome, but he's still a friend," the lazy genius admitted. Hinata nodded. She felt content. For once in her life, she had acted and believed that her actions had been beneficial. Now, the Hyuuga heiress only prayed that Iruka-sensei would not punish Haruto too harshly for his prank. However immature and tasteless it was, it was also sort of funny.
Oi, I need to come up with better ideas in the future, Haruto thought.
Iruka had been most irate when he finally caught up to the prankster and was not amused by his student's lame excuses.
It wasn't like I could have told him that I was ordered to do it by the Hokage.That was a bit of a stretch. The Hokage had only tasked him to evaluate the qualifications of his classmates. Pulling the prank had been his bright idea of doing an assessment test while testing out his unique technique, thus killing two birds with one stone, so to speak. Alas, he had to suffer the consequences, namely the ire of Iruka and his female classmates.
So here he was, toiling away like a janitor when everyone had left. Stupid old man, giving me missions without pay.
At least, the quiet gave him a chance to pull his thoughts together before he reported to the old man. Unbelievable as it was, Haruto did learn a lot about his classmates from his brief adventure. First, all but one of the females appeared ill prepared to become ninja. The sole exception was Hinata Hyuuga, who had been devastatingly efficient, despite her less than perfect form. No big surprises there. Haruto had researched extensively on the Juuken and was fully cognizant of its power.
Out of the remaining females, Sakura and Ino, the two top students, managed to do the best in terms of chasing him down. Though fast and able to throw some mean punches, they appeared undisciplined, indicating they paid little attention to training. For the clanless Sakura, this was understandable though not excusable, but completely unforgivable for the Yamanaka. The Ino-Shika-Cho formation was something of a legend among certain ninja circles.
Haruto frowned. The Hokage would definitely need to be told that a remake of the previously successful triad would not work out. Though, Shikamaru's performance was a pleasant surprise. Something was amiss when the previous dead last of the class managed to incapacitate over a dozen of his better peers. And Haruto knew he had not discovered all there was to discover. He was certain there was at least one other low flyer in the class.
"You're awfully quiet, Haruto."
The blond shrugged indifferently. Iruka sighed. Was he being too harsh? He remembered his school days when he had also been a prankster so that others could pay attention to him. Sympathy wedded with nostalgia compelled the instructor to reach out to the boy.
"If you finish cleaning up quickly, I'll take you for ramen."
That was a tempting offer. On one hand, the old man probably wanted to see him as soon as possible. On the other, he could really go for some ramen.
"It'll be on me."
Free ramen! That sealed the deal. As far as Haruto was concerned, the old man could wait.
"Got it!" he answered cheerfully, as he finished cleaning the room in record time.