Power is relative: Konoha's challenge
an Alternate universe Naruto fanfic by Ethan Leiendecker
Disclaimer-I do not own Naruto.period(though I do own my OC)
Chapter 1- Ninja:are they really the ultimate power?
It was a quiet day in the ninja village of Konoha.The missions were sparse, and most of the adult ninja were out living thier non-ninja lives.The younger nin were either out on dates or hanging out with thier friends.In short, the ideal lazy afternoon.On this particular lazy afternoon, one maverick shinobi named Naruto Uzumaki was eating lunch with his squad, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, at the Ichikaru Ramen shop.
"So what have you been up to lately, Naruto?" asked Sasuke between bites of ramen "We haven't seen you around in awhile, and that's really strange for you."It was true.Whereever Naruto was in the village you usually knew about it.To be frank, he wasn't exactly the stealthiest shinobi around.The most flamboyant, maybe.
"The pervy sage has been working my butt off on our training grounds.He hasn't let me off for days!slurpI've had to eat stinking canned ramen!" said Naruto, not stopping eating in order to talk.
"Seriously, Naruto, do you think about anything but ramen?" said Sakura jeeringly.She loved to tease Naruto about his love of the noodles.
"Not true!" said Naruto, suddenly taking the defense " I also think about training and my friends!", he said in a huff.
At the village gate...
Asuma stood at the village gate, standing guard against intruders. He and his squad hadn't had a mission in awhile, so Lord Hokage had designated him as the guard duty, while his students were given various frivolous missions.He sighed, as he had hated guard duty even as a child.Oh well.
Asuma paced to and fro, waiting for something, anything to happen. He pulled a bag of barbecue chips from his pocket and began to munch on them.
suddenly, a figure clad in a dark blue cloak and Shiny black armor emerged from the forest surrounding the ninja village. He wore a strange Hood over his head that seemed patched together from different fabrics, which threw his eyes into darkness. Asuma was surprised that the man could even see. Stranger still, the man wore no visible hitai-ate, so he might not even be a shinobi! This was unusual, as no non-ninjas had ever made it to Konoha without invitation, or at least shinobi escorts. Strange indeed.
As the man reached the entrance, Asuma's arm blocked his passage. "Sir, I need to see your passport in order to let you go any further." this was the standard greeting for outsiders of Konoha.
"I need no passport.I am here to bring a message to lady Hokage, directly from the lord of the land of fire.If you stop me, I have been permitted to use force."the man's reply was surprisingly cold and and confident. Whoever he was, this guy thought he could take down shinobi.It looked like it was up to Asuma to show him the error of his ways.
"Sir, if you want to start a conflict, then I am fully allowed to end that conflict." said Asuma, almost excited at the break from routine " now give me your passport or face the consequences!"
"So be it" said the man uninterestedly "You go first. This just might be a challenge if I have a slight handicap."
Asuma went into a fighting stance. He drew a kunai and hurled it at the intruder. that would probably suffice to deter the vagrant.
To the jonin's great surprise, the figure drew a sword and quickly blocked the thrown knife.He picked it up and examined it."So this is what passes for a weapon among shinobi?I'm disappointed."
This guy was aggravating Asuma."Oh yeah? Well don't give up hope yet!We ninja have more than just weapons!"
The Konoha ninja ran at the stranger, throwing his body at his enemy.The hooded man sliced with his katana, now clearly colored red with a black hilt, and nearly cut Asuma.Nimbly dodging the blade, The shinobi leaped above his aggressor and flipping over his shoulders, then landing a solid kick in his opponent's back.Strangely, the stranger did not react to the blow at all, not even flinching. Confused, Asuma got stood up and looked at the man inquisitively. "That's wierd. I've broken concrete walls with my kicks, and you didn't even move.maybe it's your armo-"
The jonin was interrupted mid-sentence by the foriegner"You've been attacking long enough." said the cloaked figure "I believe it's my turn!"The stranger suddenly disappeared and reappeared over Asuma's head, Katana drawn.The man slashed, nearly cutting Asuma's head off, but instead striking his back.
"Got to warn Konoha...Got to find lady Tsunade..." said Asuma, obviously pained.That last strike had taken alot out of him.
"I don't think so!" chimed the foriegner who appeared next to him"I can't have you telling Lady Hokage about our little sparring match, now would we?" for the first time, the man began to smile.
"Doppelganger no jutsu!" shouted Asuma as two duplicates of him appeared and surrounded his attacker.With a swish of his sword, the clones disappeared all at once, leaving none but the original jonin.
"You honestly didn't think that your pitiful illusions would stop me for more than a few seconds." said the strange, obviously having fun toying with the jonin "Before I kill you, I will give you the honor of knowing my name. I am Kao Furui. Tell your friends about it in the netherworld!"
But as the man's blood red sword came down on Asuma's neck, his body disappeared, revealing it to be another clone.As the stranger reeled around, he saw Asuma in a tree behind him, still bleeding from Kao's earlier Katana strike.
"Chakra bomb no jutsu!" yelled Asuma in a battle rage.It was an experimental jutsu shikamaru had been developing of extraordinary destructive power. But, because of it's experimental nature, the genius ninja had told his sensei and teammates never to use it unless thier lives depended on it. Asuma guessed this situation qualified.
The jutsu took the form of a tiny ball of extremely compressed chakra to be hurled at an opponent as an explosive.As it hurtled toward his enemy, the jonin thought the explosion would completely obliterate him.Instead, Kao easily deflected the bomb with the blunt side of the katana.It was sent hurtling toward Asuma. He couldn't dodge. This was the end.
The blast shook the ground around Kao.It had been an extraordinarily powerful attack that would've killed the konoha foreigner if he hadn't blocked.Perhaps these Shinobi weren't total weaklings after all."Rest in pieces, Shinobi." said Kao as he walked through the gates of the ninja village.
Back at Ichikaru's...
"Why, hello there!" said Kakashi as he walked over to his squad "Eating lunch, I see. Do you mind if I eat with you? I just got back from a mission, and let's just say it was difficult and I've worked up an apetite." The jonin took a seat beside his students as they ravenously slurped down thier noodles.
"Oh, hi Kakashi sensei!" said Naruto between Noodle bites " Wait a minute.Your not gonna mooch off us are you? Sorry, but I've only got enough dough to pay for my own meal!" This was true, as Naruto was almost perpetually broke due to his ramen addiction and the fact that he was usually hungry from ninja missions.
"Don't worry, Naruto." said Kakashi, sighing, then ading under his breath "Since when Have I ever mooched off you guys?"
A bird came down from it's perch and landed on the senior Shinobi's shoulder and began whispering into his ear."Another one already!come on!that slave driver..." said Kakashi, getting up from his seat "Well, squad, It looks like missions have picked up, and we've been issued another one.Apparently, it's pretty important because lady hokage wants us to meet her in the hokage building.she says she'll give us the details there."
"Sounds fun.It's gotten a little boring around here" said Sakura, getting up from her seat and stretching.
"I'm game" said Sasuke, already walking toward thier destination then adding "I wonder if I'll meet anyone worth fighting."
"Yahoo!slurp" said the excited Naruto, as he finished off his ramen "I can finally put some of the pervy Sage's training to good use!"
"Man, am I getting old" said kakashi " or are you guys just getting more enthusiastic?"
The group walked down to the Hokage's building and were surprised to see several of thier comrades at the compound as well.The only group they could see immediately before them was team Gai. Lee was pummeling a nearby tree in order to stay loose, Nejji was counting seemingly randomly(although this was truly him using his Byakugan to count how many limbs were on the tree Lee was pummeling behind him.Tenten, it seemed, was missing.
Suddenly, The third member of team Gai burst through the crowd, panting"Did I miss anything, Gai sensei?"
"No, Tenten, you're right on time" said Gai with his usual enthusiasm "But you'd better clam up now.Lady Hokage is about to start!"relieved, Tenten sat down with her teammates.
"I wonder what's going on"said Naruto, curious "Granny Tsunade has never had this many shinobi in one place before."
"Shut up!"said Sasuke and Sakura in unison "We can't hear the hokage talking over your squeaky little voice!"
At the moment, Tsunade began to speak."Attention, fellow konoha shinobi." began the hokage "It has come to our my attention that a rival village has challenged us to a war-game.You have been selected as the participants."The whole crowd of shinobi began to grumble. a war-game? They had been told that this was an important mission!"Rest assured that this is no ordinary game. For one, it is deadly. make one mistake, and these enmies WILL kill you.The other reason I agreed to this is that the stakes of this game are all the missions which we recieve from the land of fire.If we were to decline, all of those missions would automatically recieve those missions."The crowd stopped grumbling around here, as missions were the economic foundation of Konoha, and the land of fire provided more than half of them.To lose would mean making Konoha extremely poor overnight.
"Just what kind of shinobi are they?" muttered someone in the vast crowd.
"They are not shinobi, but rest assured, they are just as powerful.They are the Onirai, the demon swordsmen, and they have already killed a jonin." said lady Tsunade, obviously pained.
The crowd was shocked.These non-shinobi were powerful enough to destroy a jonin?Then why were all the genin here?"Which Jonin was it asked another voice in the crowd.
"R.I.P. Asuma Sarutobi" said the hokage, looking even more pained"SHikamaru Nara, you are temporarily promoted to jonin until a new leader becomes available.Get some rest, everyone. Your journey to the training grounds begins tomorrow." Lady Hokage then exited into her building, leaving the crowd shocked.
At the Nara house...
Shikamaru sat on his windowsill, trying to contemplate what he should do as temporary squad leader."Aw man, sensei.Why'd you have to die NOW?what a drag..."though you couldn't tell from his words, Nara was grieving for his teacher in his own way"I guess now I've gotta avenge you or something.Well, sensei, this time I won't be lazy.I'll bet your snickering in heaven right now.You finally got me to do extra work,"Shikamaru's eyes watered up, but he didn't cry.He would fulfill his duties, that much, he owed his barbecue loving teacher.