Naruto: Sound Sisters

Chapter 3 - Completely Different

He couldn't believe his ears.

"You're not Imao!? But you look just like her!!" he insisted on stating the obvious. His mind had difficulty comprehending what he was witnessing.

"Are you really that slow? I just said my name's Imai! And Imao is my TWIN SISTER! Ugh..." she sneered, annoyed by his ignorance.

Naruto continued to stare at her in complete awe. 'Am I dreaming?' He scratched the back of his head, trying to make sense of it all. 'If this is Imai then where...'

"Hey! Imai! Is that Naruto with you?" A shout came from behind him. Naruto turned around, realizing that it was not a lie. There were two of them. Imao quickly but carefully paced herself towards them, humming as usual, and with an odd looking kid tagging along beside her,
"Hello Naruto! How are you? I noticed that you've met my sister... I hope we didn't confuse you." She steadied her breathing after the quick jog and smiled kindly.

'Two sisters that look the same? Wait! How did Imao know I was here? Wait! Is this a genjutsu? No! Imao doesn't know how to use any jutsu!! I think...' Naruto went into a confusion spin, but regained his senses after a few moments of mental agony. He stared at Imao then back at Imai... 'Imao, Imai, Imao, Imai, Imao, Imao... no, Imai, Imai... No!  Imaio?' he groaned as his mind began to pulse with a slight headache caused by his confusion. Naruto rubbed his forehead trying to alleviate his mental chaos.

'Poor Naruto.' Imao expressed a sympathetic look at him, sensing what they had put him through. She stepped back, lightly bumping into the unknown child that was following behind her earlier and perked up.

"Oh! By the way, this is my little brother, Kiyoshi. He's very shy." Imao patted her brother at the top of his head and shook his red-orange wavy hair. He quickly slid behind her and gripped her long sleeve.

"Hi there! My name's Naruto!" The blonde had recovered from the thinking ordeal and gave his usual hearty introduction. The young boy looked up at Naruto very timidly as he let go of his sibling and waved slightly his hand. Naruto could only guess that he was Imao's pet from the way he clung to her. The Tanaka brother wore a baggy and dirty, white long-sleeve shirt with a long sash around his waist that, from the looks of it, was used to lift his big shirt. His dark green shorts, torn and patched up, went down to his knees that exhibited some scars and cuts. Kiyoshi noticed how Naruto stared at him curiously and blushed as he quickly hid behind Imao again. His emerald green eyes and dark reddish-brown hair complimented his cute baby face.

'A little weird for a pre-teen... Odd kid.' Naruto shrugged his curiosity off and turned his attention to the twins as he caught words of an argument they had begun.

"What is your problem!?!?" Imai's voice exploded with annoyance, making her sister sway back a little. She quickly shook her startled nerves and responded back,

"Imai! How many times do you have to be told to stop acting like an immature child? You know you must..." Imao tried to be stern but Imai's loud grunt of frustration interrupted her.

"Imao!! I don't care what you have to say!! YOU are not the boss of me!! AS long as father says I can go out, I'll do whatever the heck I want!!" Imai turned away and stormed off complaining about how dumb everything and everyone was. Imao hung her head in embarrassment, hiding her face to those present. But even so, Naruto was able to catch a glimpse at how her eyes weld up with tears and how they were fought back into place with a tiny sigh. He realized this was something that happened all the time.

He gripped her arm softly, "Imao," he looked at her with concern, "Don't let her talk to you like that. She has no right to treat you that way. You two are sisters! You nee..." Imao reached for Naruto's hands and held them within hers, pleading as though she was condemned to punishment.

"Naruto... I truly apologize for her attitude. It's mostly my fault. Please don't hold any grudges against her." Naruto couldn't help but look at her funny. 'Why the heck is she apologizing?'

"It's ok. Really. You don't need to apologize, especially for other people's actions." He smiled politely at her, remembering she could still see him somehow.

"Thank you!" she reached to hug Naruto... but tripped on her kimono and making it seem like she threw herself at him. Naruto blushed and gave a little awkward laugh. 'Wow, I didn't know she liked me this much!'

"Oops! Sorry about that. I tend to do that when I'm still unfamiliar with places." She pushed herself off of him while Kiyoshi held her arm so she could keep her balance. Naruto collected himself and was so amazed at how different the two girls were. He had never met a pair of similar looking siblings that could not be compared at all. Imao was so tender and caring while the troublemaker named Imai was aggressive and arrogant. It was angel vs. demon... and the demon seemed to be winning at everything. Naruto only hoped that he never crossed paths with her like that again; after all, she did knock him out.

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All afternoon, Naruto accompanied Imao and her brother Kiyoshi around town. He kindly introduced Imao and Kiyoshi to a few of his fellow ninja comrades that they ran into,then telling everyone how intelligent and kind-hearted Imao is and rambled about how cool her unique ability, caused by her blindness, was. When they ran into Team 8, Hinata seemed a little jealous at how her crush showed the new visitors off but seeing how Imao really didn't seem to shown interest in Naruto the way he did, she relaxed and chatted with her. Kiyoshi had become exhausted from having trained with Imai earlier that day and asked Imao to take him home. Imao noticed that it was getting rather late and so, they said their goodbyes and started walking back to their house.

Naruto continued to walk with them and told them about how he had thought Imai was Imao earlier that day and unfortunately got into a fight with her as well. Imao and Kiyoshi giggled at his misfortune but empathized with him as well. Finally they arrived at their house and Kiyoshi went eagerly in first. Imao stood in front of Naruto, while holding the door slightly open.

"Well Naruto, thanks again for escorting my brother and me to our home. I really appreciate it. It's been fun hanging out with you again." She smiled sweetly at him. Naruto blushed and smiled back then looked down shyly. She got closer to him and grabbed one of his hands,

"You're a great friend." Naruto's face reddened even more as he felt his heart race. He was under the impression that her gratitude was too forward, which made the blue eyed blonde feel slightly eager to respond to. His eyes stared at her faded blue ones then down to her still smiling lips. He leaned in closer, closed his eyes and...

"What are you doing?" he abruptly opened his eyes, his face inches from hers, and saw a tilted head Imao, "Is there something on my face?" she questioned him while curiously touching her face, not realizing what he had been actually trying to do.

"Umm... no." He backed away with an embarrassed look on his face. Imao nodded, disregarding the real intent.

'Hmmm... I wonder what happened?' Imao pondered for a second and shrugged it off, "Well, thanks again! Feel free to visit when you can." She waved kindly at him as she went in. "Bye for now!" Naruto smiled weakly while he waved back, still slightly ashamed of his actions, and went back into the city.

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