Hero, Of the People
By: Bloodmist-Exile
Rating: Med T
Misc: General
Disclaimer: Would you really believe me if I said I was Kishimoto?
Cautiously shifting his bag, Lee walked into the Arena. Years had passed since the last time he had been in the capital of the Fire Nation but it hadn't changed too drastically. This had shocked him at first because the war had been going so well. Things should have changed.
He let the thought drift away from his mind and glanced around his new home. The Arena was fine, covered with gold leaf and silver, on the outside but was considerably worse on the inside. Many of the seats had rotted away. Some had been broken and most were in at least some state of disrepair. The circular pit in the center was far beneath the level of the lowest seats and Lee could see the sand from where he was standing.
"Over here, my son!" a reedy voice called from the pit, "You might be looking for me!"
Lee jumped gracefully into the pit and instantly slipped on a patch of bloodied sand. He fell over, not hurt but fighting the queasiness in his stomach. The voice was laughing at him from a distance and Lee looked up, finally seeing who it belonged to.
The boy couldn't have been more than fourteen years old, had brown hair and eyes the color of granite. He was dressed in peasant's clothes but had a garish dagger stuck through his belt. He was also laughing.
Lee struggled up, attempting to recover at least some of his lost dignity, and smiled, "Excuse me," he said, "I am the new fighter. Are you here to show me around?"
"It isn't impossible," the boy said, "Or it's at least as unimpossible as most other things, my son." Lee began to speak but was cut off by the boy again, "My name is Jennifer," he said, completely seriously, "But you can call me Jen."
This was when Lee realized what had been bothering him about the boy. As an expert martial artist, Lee prided himself on his ability to read people's body language. This was critical during a fight because it allowed him to see an attack a few seconds before it came. Most advanced users could pop off a jutsu in three to four seconds so this was invaluable.
This boy didn't seem to have any overt body language, or, at any rate, it was all wrong. The slight narrowing of the shoulders showed that he could be afraid of him but, simultaneously, he was talking loudly and looking him in the eye, all indicators that he probably wasn't frightened of him at all. It was very strange. "Well," Lee replied cautiously, "It is nice to meet you, Jen. My name is Rock Lee."
"I think I might just call you Ami since I don't know your name."
"Ah... My name is Rock Lee."
"I'm glad you agree, Ami." Lee frowned and was checking to see if the boy was serious when he skipped away. "I could be going in the right direction!" he yelled behind him, "That is most certainly, definitely, a possibility!"
Not knowing what to do, Lee followed him. Jen led him to a door in the side of the pit and down a narrow staircase. The air became damp as they went deeper and, once, Lee had to duck to avoid a low-hanging clump of rock. The stairs led to a passage led to a door and the door led, unsurprisingly, to a room with another door. "This isn't the Ready Room," Jen stated as they walked through the small, cramped room, "This is the final room between you and heaven."
He continued to explain as they passed through more doors and hallways. "You aren't allowed to kill your opponent. That's one of the rules. You'll get booed and evicted if you do. All fights are to be completely fair and people like it best when the fighters settle the match by agreeing to set their differences aside."
"In fact, if you as much as hit your opponent, you lose. This is good because losing means you get to go home without a scratch. Also, no weapons whatsoever, they aren't even allowed this far into the Arena."
Jen stopped in front of a door that looked identical to the other doors they'd passed through and knocked. "You're about to meet Renkai; he's the boss around here. It might do you best if you were polite."
Lee paused and reached forward, slipping the boy's dagger from his belt, "Do you ever tell the truth?" he asked quietly.
Something seemed to enter the boy's eyes and he uttered the only thing Lee felt was true. "Only important things are worth lying about."
The sound of the door opening dispelled the electricity in the air and a petite girl poked her head out of the room. "What?"
"Renkai!" Jen said excitedly, "This is the new janitor, Ami! Be extra nice to her because she's going to be cleaning the latrines!"
"My name is Rock Lee," Lee snapped, getting a little tired of the whole thing, "I am the new fighter here. Renkai, this boy is a liar."
The girl had shoulder-length blue hair and amethyst eyes. She was dressed far more impressively than Jen – she was wearing a set of blood-red robes with the Arena insignia stamped in gold over the right shoulder – and Lee felt she looked around his age. She covered her eyes in exasperation and sighed. "I know he's a liar."
"I am so possibly not a liar," Jen scoffed.
The girl ignored him and glanced at Lee, "That idiot does it a lot." She smiled at him warmly, "But even if I didn't know that; I'd still know he was lying."
"How so?"
She glared at the boy and flicked him on the forehead. "Because I'm Ami and he's Renkai."
"My name's Jennifer."
"So that's what you've been telling him?"
She looked back at Lee, "He makes up a new name every time someone asks him."
Lee couldn't help but feel a small ache in his temples. "So what is his real name? Renkai?"
Ami shrugged, "I don't know. I just call him what he said when I asked."
Lee shook his head. "I think I need to learn how this place works." he said wearily.
She patted him on the shoulder sympathetically, "You'll get used to it."
Over the next two hours, Lee was relieved to find that Jen, Renkai, or whoever, didn't stay very long in the fighters' rooms and only drifted in and out when it suited him. Ami was far easier to deal with. "So you're a veteran, huh?" Ami said, "Yeah, me too. Fifty-nine hours of combat."
The room they were sitting in was fairly spartan, but comfortable. There was a table for eating, some chairs, some modest luxuries, and several bookcases in the corner. The comforts were kept to a minimum so the fighters would prefer to train in the rooms below, or so Ami told him.
"We are very evenly matched, Ami-san," Lee answered, "I have logged sixty." He eased back further into his chair. It wasn't the most comfortable thing he had ever been in but, after months in the wild, anything resembling a chair was a blessing.
There was silence as they both relived private moments in their minds; Ami was the first to break it, "I'll be back, Lee," she said, "I need to go change for my match."
The simple message had come down a few minutes after Jen left and was still sitting on the table.
----
Match Notification:
Fighters – Rokujo Ami and one Alternate.
Format – One on One. Two of Three.
Time – Nine-thirty.
Rules – Standard .
Role – Hero for the People.
----
Ami had seemed excited at the notification, as if she'd been waiting for it.
"I think I'm ready!" Ami called as she stepped back into the room. She had tied her blue hair into a ponytail and her eyes were now accented with vibrant crimson eyeliner. A brilliantly polished breastplate shone over modest white robes and a kunai holster was tied to her leg. She winked at him. "Do I look heroic?"
"You look very beautiful," Lee replied kindly.
"Uh-huh," Ami said, as if he hadn't really answered her question. "I love being the hero. It doesn't happen often enough. Now if Alternate-boy would get here, we could head up to the Ready Room."
"Are you waiting for Jen?"
"Yeah. He'll probably wander in sometime soon. Whenever they say 'and an alternate' they're pretty much begging for it to be anyone but Renkai. He knows that too and that's why he always comes."
"I see why they would not want someone so young to fight," Lee stated, "I could go in his place if necessary."
"It's not that," Ami said, brushing a speck of dust from her breastplate, "He just doesn't play along as well as he should."
Before Lee could ask any further, Jen burst into the room, "I love being a hero!" he sang, "It makes me happy and gives me a purpose!"
Ami rolled her eyes at him, "Can't you enjoy it just this once?"
Jen snorted. "Sure I can."
They glared at each other for over ten seconds, then Ami turned away. "You enjoy it just at much as me," she said, "You just can't admit it to yourself."
They moved through the halls in oppressive silence. Door, door, door, and they were there, inside the Ready Room. "Keep following the hall until you get to the stairs," Ami told him, once they had stopped, "When you get to the stairs, climb them to the very top. The Fighter's Box is up there."
"I hope you like what you see, my son," Jen finally spoke. "I hope you really love it."
A/N: This is just an idea for a piece of surrealist fanfiction. I think it's generally unpopular to put
a fanfiction character into a world filled with OC's so I've decided to post this first little chapter to
gauge the reactions of people to my wierd concept. Don't worry about the other Naruto characters,
they'll also pop up from time to time.
Did my best not to write any Mary-Sues,
exile.