Yo, this is my second attempt at writing a decent fan-fic. My first failed miserably. With luck this will fare better! Iv always been fascinated with knights so figured it would be kinda fun to ad them to the Naruto world. please R&R all comments are appreciated but go easy on the flames ok?
"Go, move!" barked the man, as an explosion sounded overhead.
The ninja leapt to their feet, watching the man, the body of their guard lying at his feet. It seemed to be a rescue, but their saviour was clearly no ninja.
"Who are you?" asked one of the shinobi, eyes blazing with the Sharingan- an Uchiha.
"A mercenary," said the man. "I'm on your side, ninja."
"Mercenaries? The battle must be going badly if we're relying on them," said the Uchiha, making no effort to disguise his dislike of the man. "That armour...a western mercenary? What are you called...?" The Uchiha tapped his nose as he thought. "Knights?"
He looked back at his rescuer, clad head to toe in inch thick armour plating, a massive shield in one hand. Slung across his back was a huge sword, accompanied by longbow but no arrows, the remnants of a travelling cloak hung across his shoulders, burnt to a crisp by a katon jutsu, a thick leather belt around his waist held a variety of smaller weapons, he drew a long knife and tossed it to the Uchiha who looked at it in disgust. It was of western design and made of the same material as the knight's armour, it reflected the light in odd ways the symbols etched into it seemed to move across the blade. "Look after that Uchiha. I'll want it back later, now go and do your job. Show those rocky bastards why you don't mess with Konoha!"
The Uchiha nodded, quickly running from the makeshift cell, the other Konoha-ninja following after him.
The knight paused awhile, before following after the ninja, screams sounding all around. Dust shook from the ceiling as the ground trembled from another explosion. It wasn't long before sunlight shone in his eyes, and the sights of men fighting were all around, and a yellow flash constantly shot through the battlefields, slaying any of the Iwa shinobi it happened to pass.
But the Iwa-ninja were still plentiful, and it seemed the Yondaime was running out of chakra. He grinned, this could be fun...
"Retreat!" shouted one of Konoha's commanders. "Retreat men!" the knight stopped, a slight eye twitch forming as the closest shinobi shot passed him.
Immediately, the shinobi began flooding away, the Iwa-nin rushing forwards attempting to cut down the Konoha ninja. The ninja still capable of fighting kept the Iwa shinobi at bay, whilst the ones that couldn't scrambled away.
The knight made to rejoin the ninja, when a nearby shout stopped him in his tracks.
"Wait! Please, help" screamed a Konoha shinobi lying on the ground not too far away, a youth no older than fourteen. "Help!" his left leg was completely gone at the knee, an Iwa Nin was advancing on him with murder in his eyes, the knight scooped the Nin up bodily and dashed his head against the nearby rocks. He knelt down to check on the boy; he wasn't going to make it unless he got help soon. He grabbed the lad by the arm and slung him over one shoulder readying his shield as he did so.
"Right, hold on!" shouted the knight, breaking into a run, the ninja clutching onto his shoulders.
"They've spotted us!" shouted the ninja, looking back at the Iwa-nin.
"Doesn't matter!" The knight yelled back. "They'll never catch us now!"
Kunai flew through the air, several bounced off of the knight's thick armour, just ahead of them was the rearguard, an Iwa ninja chose that unfortunate moment to shunshin in front of the running pair, with a swing of the shield the shinobi was smashed aside. The armoured mercenary barely slowed as he thundered towards the retreating ninja. He picked the injured man off of his back. "Medic!" he yelled. "We've got a guy badly injured."
Two Chunin appeared, both nodding to the knight, taking the ninja to safety.
"Mercenary!" a hand clapped onto the knight's back, and he found himself face to a face with an fox masked ANBU. "Help us hold the line! We can't let all these Iwa-nin come after us!"
The knight nodded. "Right! Finally I get to have some fun around here!" He drew his blade, an impressive great sword more strange runes were etched into its surface, and hurried after the ANBU, who had drawn two ninjato.
Within moments, the Iwa Nin were just...everywhere.
Fox just watched in awe as the knight tore through the enemy, where ever the enemy struck he already seemed to be there, shield at the ready, sword close behind. Whenever they backed away and tried to use long range jutsu an arrow would wing its way through their ranks, often skewering multiple men and women as it went. Kunai skittered along his breastplate, shuriken bounced off of his helmet. He swung his blade in graceful arcs that severed limbs and beheaded those unfortunate enough to be to close. As quickly as it started it ended, there was one man left, held aloft by one burnished gauntlet. As the life slowly slipped from him he managed to croak out "what the fuck are you?" through the gaps in the helms eye slits he thought he could see a faint glow. When the reply came it was deep and resonating "me? I'm MOSTLY human. Say hello to Old Boney for me now wontcha?" there was a sickening crack as the mans neck broke, the now dead body dropped to the floor.
A voice cried out behind him, he spun round in time to meet a fresh volley of kunai, as he braced himself against the impacts he saw several Iwa ninja leap into the air, hands running through a complicated sequence of seals. His eyes widened as the stone dragon tore its way out of the earth and bore down on him; it struck him fully on the shield and hurled backwards into a rocky outcropping, the dragon retreated and coiled itself around its masters before turning its gaze towards Fox. It reared up as it prepared to launch itself towards him when an echoing laugh caused it to halt.
Within the smoke caused by the knight's impact a vague silhouette could be seen, wisps of stone turned to dust hung in the air, the smoke parted slowly to reveal the knight striding towards the Iwa ninja, a gleaming spear in his hand. The symbols etched into the armour glowed like liquid silver, growing brighter with each thunderous footfall. The knight's voice could be heard over the din of battle, it resonated with the clash of sword on shield, the screams of men fighting for their lives echoed within his words. The voice of war was to be heard by all. When he spoke all the ninja nearby, friend or foe, flinched. "So, you want to play with dragons eh?" he changed his grip on the spear to a throwing hold "Well, as a knight I know a thing or two about dragons" he broke into a run, charging towards the stone dragon. A sheath of chakra surrounded the spear tip. "Eat this you sonnofa bitch!" he leapt into the air, high above the battle. The spear was now glowing with barely suppressed energies "DRAGON SLAYOR!" He hurled the spear directly at the dragon; it struck it on the head and passed straight through, skewering its controller and nailing him to a rock.
The knight landed on the ground with a crash, one palm slapped down onto the ground "however, there's something you need to know about knights" a mass of chakra began to build around his hand "just because we aren't ninja" he slowly began to raise his hand off the ground. "Doesn't mean we can't use chakra!" the chakra shroud vanished revealing the knight, holding a sword of stone edged with metal. He raised it and pointed it at the Iwa shinobi "a knight without a sword isn't much use, this handy lil' trick helps us get round that. Say hello to the sword of stone, Giants Bane!!" He bellowed a challenge and charged the enemy, Fox a blur at his side. The two sides clashed in a maelstrom of whirling blades, flame and light....
It was quiet now, the fight had long since ended, Konoha had won and had driven the remainder of the Iwa force back. It had been a knife edge victory. The enemy had been held just long enough to mount a counterattack. The wounded made their way as best they could towards the medic tents that had already been erected. Though it was too late for some...
The knight lay in a pool of blood, had he been in better condition he would have proud of the fact that the majority wasn't his. He could feel the darkness welling up behind his eyes; it was beginning to get hard to see. Two faint blurs were moving towards him, he felt strong hands grip is shoulders and voice that simply said "you will not be forgotten; as long as I draw breath you will be remembered" he mustered up the strength to speak "my... my armour, take it. When I'm dead I'll have no use for it anymore" he felt another hand grip his. He looked up and through the bleary haze he saw... yellow? ...spiky? A new voice whispered to him "without you we would all be dead today, you have our gratitude. Go now, be at peace" the knight felt the blackness embrace him. The last thing he saw before death wrapped its eternal shroud around him was a Fox mask, it owner standing in salute. Behind him stood the remainder of the Konoha army, battered and bruised but still saluting their fallen comrade. A grin reached his cold lips. Looks like things were worth it after all....
They kept their word, until the end of the war the knight was remembered as a proud hero, like all things however the memory of his sacrifice faded until he was nought but a footnote on the pages of times long since passed.
It's been many years since the Konoha/Iwa war. Konoha was victorious, and is still one of the most powerful villages around, despite other catastrophes over the years, the Kyuubi attack and the Uchiha Massacre.
The legendary Yondaime died many years ago. Unlike that knight, he wasn't forgotten. He left behind his monument, his deeds, and the greatest secret of all- his son.
Uzumaki Naruto.
Mist curled around the edges of the bridge, Naruto stood alone. The kunai in his hand was visibly shaking as he sought to see his attacker. A calm voice sang out from within the fog "Naruto-san, back here again?" Naruto barely suppressed a scream "wh-who's there? Show yourself!" two indistinct shadows lurked just on the edge of his vision, no mater how fast he turned they would always just melt away only to reappear tantalisingly close. "Oh Naruto-san we're hurt! How could you forget us? Or for rather how could you forget killing us?"
The figures burst out of the shadows; there was Zabuza, the kunai embedded in his arms, his sword planted in the ground, Haku stood next to him, the gaping hole the Chidori had made in the centre of his chest made the wind whistle eerily through it. Naruto screamed and recoiled in horror. He turned and ran from the ghouls that stood before him. He ran till his lungs burnt and lines of white fire played across his vision. He lay there panting, trying to calm himself. Eventually he got his frantic heartbeat under control. "Panicking Naruto-kun? That's not like you" Naruto's eyes nearly burst from their sockets as he franticly tried to find the speaker. Again two figures strode from the mist. This time Zabuza held his blade in his hand, the deadly edge seemed to call to Naruto. Without a second thought Naruto leapt to his feet and sprinted into the mist. He ran into something, something hard and unyielding. He landed hard, the wind knocked out of him. He looked up and had just enough time to scream as Zabuza's blade came screeching down.....
Naruto woke up, the echo of a scream on his lips. His heart threatening to burst out of chest. It took him a full ten minutes to properly calm down (seven if you don't count the three minutes for the ramen to cook). These dreams. No. these nightmares were becoming more and more frequent. It had been a week since they got back from Wave and yet every time he slept he could still see the smiling face of Haku staring back at him. He looked up at the scruffy training schedule that had been nailed to the wall. 'hmm, no team training today. Meh anything beats putting up with Sasuke and his stupid eyes'. He got dressed and left the apartment, pausing only to devour another five unfortunate instant ramen.
It was half an hour later and Naruto was bored, seriously bored. Bored enough to break into the Hokages tower and steal the Forbidden scroll (again). He was dragging his feet as he made his way towards his usual training ground when he saw it. 'MASSIVE CLEARANCE SALE!! PRICE CUTS!!' usually Naruto would ignore these as it meant being around more people. But this was different. This was a weapon shop.
"Hey, have you got any thing cool here!?" said Naruto, bursting into the weapons store. He was greeted by a shinobi paradise, aisle upon aisle of pointy objects with slogans like 'decapitation guaranteed or your relatives receive your money back' or 'highly explosive, specially made for Genin'. He suppressed a sigh as he walked past a katana bigger than he was. A sudden cough made him look round.
Standing before him was the shopkeeper, a look of impatience plastered all across his face. "well? Buying or selling?" Naruto gulped, this guy was scaaary. The guy had just materialised out of thin air!. "erm what can I get for this much?" he produced his battered frog wallet and held it out for the shopkeeper to see.
"You expect to buy anything worthwhile with this amount of money?" said the shopkeeper, looking at Naruto incredulously. "And besides kid, half the best stuff here is only permitted to be used by ninja of higher ranks."
"What!? That's a stupid rule!"
"It stops thugs and robbers having good weapons, it's a very useful law!" snapped the shopkeeper, before his face softened. "Fine, I see why you want some stuff. Look about over there," he pointed, "there's some cheap, reasonable stuff there."
Disappointed but not dissuaded, Naruto headed off to the section of the shop that the owner had directed him to. Even he could tell it was just cheap mass-produced rubbish. No decent ninja could go into battle when their weapons were made by a manufacturer who obviously didn't give a toss about keeping their customers alive.
The shopkeeper scratched his chin, tilting his head. "Fine, kid. I'm sure we've got some bargain basement gear. You sometimes find the odd gem in junk, you know," he said, stepping out from behind the counter, heading to a closed door at the back of the shop, "one man's trash is another man's treasure."
Naruto watched the man open the door, revealing a dingy storeroom.
The shopkeeper stood on tiptoes, so he could get at the higher shelves. He grabbed a box, before bringing it back into the main shop, dropping it in front of Naruto, releasing a good deal of dust.
"Have a look in there," said the shopkeeper, returning to the counter.
Naruto sifted through the junk, most of it faulty blades and kunai, taking care not to cut himself. Some ninja poisoned their weapons after all...
"Hey, what's this stuff?"
The shopkeeper walked over, looking at the strange object Naruto was now holding. "That? Some outlandish, foreign junk."
"...Yeah, yeah, but what is it?"
"Armour, looks kinda like a glove"
Naruto lifted up the glove. "...you got any more stuff like this?"
Grumbling, the shopkeeper helped Naruto search through the box. After a good deal of searching, they found another glove (now called gauntlets) and a breast plate. It was all in fairly good quality, and surprisingly thick- but wasn't too heavy.
"You sure you want this stuff kid?" said the shopkeeper, his eyebrow raised.
"How much is it?"
The shopkeeper placed a hand on his chin, trying to remember how much he got it for. After realising just how cheap he got it for, he merely doubled that price so he could have a profit, but it was still in Naruto's limits.
So not more than fifteen minutes later, Naruto had cheerfully brought his purchases back home.
He laid them out on his bed, his heart sank. Now that he got a good look at the things he could plainly see that they made for a much bigger person than him. He picked up one of the gauntlets and slipped it on, to his surprise his fitted snugly, actually it was quite tight, he couldn't pull it off. He formed the ram seal and began the Kage Bunshin jutsu, maybe two of him could get the thing off. As he felt his chakra reach the strange gauntlet pain exploded all around him. Weird silver markings began to appear slowly on the metal glove. Naruto fainted, the last thing before it all went black was a faint voice whispering "remember me... remember the fallen"
When he awoke he was back on the bridge in the mist. Once again eerie figures darted just on the edge of his vision. A blade hissed out of the fog, it would have sliced his head off had he not ducked. He crawled away as fast as he could as more sword strokes hit the ground in front of him. The blade came down; he couldn't avoid it this time. He closed his eyes as metal met the meat...
There was the shriek of steel on steel. Naruto opened his eyes Zabuza was still there but his sword had been stopped by... nothing? The glove from before, the gauntlet that had gotten stuck was floating in the air above him, he could make out the faint outline of a person holding a shield that was blocking the massive zanbateu, apart from the gauntlet all he could see was a faint hazy outline of rescuer. Finally he managed to choke out he words "wh... who a-are you?" there was a vague movement but he was sure the figure was now looking at him "my name is Edge... and I will not be forgotten"
so? what ya think? like i said before please R&R. not sure how often i can update but i'll try an be as regular as possible. thanks for reading!