The Clone That Got Away: Part 1, Chapter 2

"So..." begun Jiraiya while he was scrutinizing Naruto and Dachi, both of whom were standing at attention as if the two of them were soldiers in the presence of a superior officer. In stark contrast to what one might have expected from an individual and his or her shadow clone, Naruto and Dachi's appearances were not perfectly alike. Naruto's face was whiskered while Dachi's face was decidedly not. Though Naruto and Dachi's hair may have been the same shade of blonde, Naruto's hair was spiky while Dachi's hair was afro-textured. Naruto's ears were conventionally round while Dachi's ears were unconventionally pointed as if he was some sort of elf. Lastly, while the both of them may have been dressed in the same orange tracksuit, Dachi lacked Konohagakure's brand of the forehead protecto in favor of a pair red-framed, lensless glasses. "...you're saying that your Kage Bushin no Jutsu was the cause of all of that white smoke? Well that's good to hear. For a while there; I had been genuinely afriad that you had somehow managed to set the entire swamp on fire!"

"Now that's just ridiculous! You have to at least give me SOME credit, Pervy Sage! I'm not THAT much of a screw-up," fervently protested Naruto, dropping out of attention as he did so. "Besides, why have you been questioning me all this time when it's obviously this guy's fault? I didn't do anything different from the usual, so it has to be his fault! Believe it!"

"Oh yes. Because practicing on the surface of impossibly clear water is definitely no different from your usual," sarcastically snorted Dachi in complete dismissal of Naruto's accusation. "Nope. Not at all. Not even in the least bit,"

"Shut up you rogue clone!" demanded Naruto with one of his index fingers in Dachi's face. With a savage growl as his only warning, Dachi chomped on Naruto's index finger with all of the cuddly ferocity of an irate puppy. As Dachi's teeth ground against his index finger, Naruto shrieked at a pitch that was far higher than those possessed by even the littlest of girls. "Eeek! My finger! He's got my finger! Get him off of me! Get him off, get him off, get him off!"

"Jiraiya Chappu, (Kanji: 自来也チャップ; English: Jiraiya Chop)" sighed an exasperated Jiraiya as he used a simple yet effective chop on the head to force Dachi to immediately release Naruto's index finger from his bite. As Naruto and Dachi used rubs to nurse their finger and head respectively, Jiraiya took a cross-legged seat upon the branch that all of them were situated upon. "Naruto, this whole thing is definitely your fault. If you had simply followed my advice to stay away from the Kokurin's ONLY clearing, this whole situation probably could have been completely avoided. So you're going to have to take responsibility for this, understand?"

"My fault? You have got to be kidding me!"whined Naruto much to Jiraiya's vexation. "And what do you mean by take responsibility? What do you expect me to do with-"

"MOMMY!" squealed Dachi an instant before he enveloped Naruto in a bear hug, squeezing all of the breath right out of Naruto's lungs as a result of doing so. "Mommy, mommy, mommy!"

"I...am not...your mother!" wheezed a suffocating Naruto as he desperately struggled to break the hug between Dachi and him.

"Taking responsibility for my "birth" TOTALLY makes you my mother!" explained Dachi as he continued to hug the life out of Naruto. "So when is Sasuke going to become my-"

"That's enough," sighed an exasperated Jiraiya for the second time as he chopped Dachi for the second time as well, promptly causing Dachi to release Naruto from his hug in favor of rubbing his now-stinging head. "As I was saying, Dachi is your responsibility Naruto. From here on out, his actions are your actions as well. Of course, that doesn't mean that you're going to get a free ride Dachi! I expect you to behave yourself as well, meaning you should probably lighten up on all of the teasing. Understand?"

"Understood," painfully groaned Naruto and Dachi in perfect unison with one another.

"Good! Since this swamp has proven itself to be nothing but trouble, let's just skip the training I had planned for you to do here and set out for Jonokyo! (Kanji: 女の京; English: Woman's Capital)"

"Jonokyo?" asked Naruto and Dachi at the same time. The two boys curiously blinked at their second case of perfect unity before accusingly glaring at each other.

"It's a town that only women are allowed to officially reside within, but travelers such as ourselves are more than welcome to simply pass through. I've always wanted to go but..." for just a second, Jiraiya stopped talking and adopted a serioues expression. As soon as that second passed, Jiraiya returned to bearing his perverted grin. "...some odd business kept delaying my trip. EITHER WAY! We best get a move on if he want to make it there before sunfall!"

"That was suspicious," thought Dachi as Jiraiya wasted no time in getting a move on and Naruto frantically followed after the Pervy Sage. As Jiraiya and Naruto went ahead, Dachi took a look around himself. "Naruto is still a brat, so it's not Part II yet. But Naruto seems to have some respect for Jiraiya, meaning that it has to be pretty late into Part I. Or perhaps, somewhere in-between? Yeah. This is probably Jiraiya's training trip for Naruto,"

"Hey you rogue clone! You better hurry it up or else we're just going to leave you behind!" called Naruto from a distance. Dachi turned to see that Jiraiya and Naruto were almost out of sight. With a sigh, Dachi leapt down from the branch and landed upon the water below. He then burst into a sprint after Jiraiya and Naruto, having absolute no intention to hop from branch-to-branch due to a small - but still present - fear of heights. "Ha! You'll never keep up with us that way!"

"We'll see about that," chuckled Dachi as Naruto's declaration roused his competitive spirit...

"I can't believe you kept up with us!" exclaimed Naruto in utter disbelief as he leapt down from a branch onto the cobblestones of a road which lead towards a not-so-distant town. Following Naruto, Jiraiya leapt down from a branch onto the road as well. Dachi, who was already on the road, gave Naruto a deliciously arrogant smirk as Naruto and Jiraiya begun to walk beside him. "It makes no sense! I've never been able to marathon while Water Walking, how come you can?"

"Oh Naruto. If you ever decide to participate in scholastic wrestling, you'll find that it can be just as endurance-heavy as long-distance running. It's not so much about not getting tired as it is about not giving up," shamelessly bragged Dachi with all of the suave of an Uchiha douchebag. "If you were fortunate enough, you might have learned as much from me as I from you. I seriously doubt it though,"

"Yeah. There probably wasn't anything to learn," snidely countered Naruto in spite of the fact that barely knew what Dachi was talking about. "Either way, why are you so weird for a shadow clone? I don't think I've ever created a shadow clone like you before,"

"Do you seriously need to ask that question? Hasn't it gotten into that thick skull of yours that it's because of the immaculate water you thought it'd be SOO cool to practice on?" sighed Dachi right as he groaned out of disappointment for Naruto's apparent lack of intelligence.

"Hey! Give me a break! I was just making sure of it!" grumbled a now-irate Naruto.

"Are the two of you even capable of not fighting with one another? Cause I'm starting to doubt that you are. It's as if the both of you are siblings," asked Jiraiya of Naruto and Dachi with a shake of his head.

"We ARE siblings!" loudly declared Dachi, proudly tapping his chest with a clenched fast as he did so. Naruto gawked at Dachi for his declaration while Jiraiya questioningly raised an eyebrow. "And fighting each other is what siblings do when they aren't fighting those that DARE to fight their siblings without having the birthright to do so!"

"Is that so?" chuckled Jiraiya only an instant before he burst into full-blown laughter. "I'm not so sure about that, but I guess that's how it is if you say so!"

"Of course! It's sibling rivalry! The ULTIMATE rivalry!" added Dachi before he joined Jiraiya in ever-so-boisterous laughter.

"Sibling rivalry, huh? It sounds..." murmured Naruto more to himself than to Dachi or Jiraiya, though Dachi and Jiraiya could hear him either way. "...just like Sasuke and I,"

"Way to sink the ship, Naruto!" snapped Dachi with a stamp of his foot, snapping Naruto out of his Sasuke-induced daze as he did so. In response to Dachi, Naruto gave him a look that could fit on the face of a bewildered puppy. Dachi couldn't help but to blush at the adorableness of it all before he facepalmed himself for his lack of self-control. "Listen Naruto, we'll bring Sasuke back to the Village Hidden within the Leaf. I promise, and you KNOW how we don't break our promises! No matter how little of a chance we may have, even if that chance is at zero itself, we will bring him back to where he belongs. BELIEVE IT!"

"R-r-really?" asked Naruto of Dachi before Naruto suddenly put Dachi on the receiving end of a bear hug. Much to Dachi's surprise, Naruto's bear hug was in PERFECT form. It was EXACTLY like the bear hug he'd placed Naruto in not long ago. Just as Dachi had inherited Naruto's instincts, Naruto had inherited Dachi's instincts as well. As a result of such, Naruto was now suffocating Dachi. Yay. "Thank you Dachi! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"It would appear that the two of then can get along after all," thought Jiraiya with a nod of his head as Dachi begun to turn blue from Naruto's bear hug. Jiraiya then slowly raised his hand overhead in preparation for the inevitable. "Jiraiya Chappu!(Kanji: 自来也チャップ; English: Jiraiya Chop)"

"OUCH!"