History has been, and always has been written by the victors. Only those who win battles have the power to decide what happens to the world. Unfortunately, the truth has been tainted by the lies of the conqueror of worlds.
Roughly 75 years ago, two powerful shinobi went into battle with one another. The battle itself was one not a person on Earth had ever witnessed before, over the position that had become known as the Hokage of Konohagakure. This fight would decide who would rule the land of the leaf, as the two clashed, one called the most evil of evil spirits to aid him in the battle. The Kyuubi no Kitsune was summoned during the battle and his summoner fought the man known as the Hokage.
The battle left a scar in the Earth larger than any other ravine, which eventually became known as the valley of the end, named by the victor out of respect for the power of the other man. Uchiha Madara struck Hashirama Senju down, after Hashirama sent the Kyuubi away, surprising Madara.
Madara brought back the body of Hashirama to Konohagakure, and explained the battle the two of them had over the position of Hokage. Madara arranged for the proper burial of the Senju, and regained the trust of the Uchiha clan Madara had been leading for years. As he came onto the power of Hokage, Madara immediately began to change things that Hashirama set up. The Uchiha gave the Hokage undisputed power, intertwining powerful supporters of his into powerful positions for good, creating a royalty position, only filled by the descendant of an Uchiha.
It wasn't long before Madara had absolute power over everyone in the village, but as the saying goes; Absolute power, corrupts absolutely. Madara then eventually gathered an army of shinobi under his title as the Hokage, Uchiha, and non-Uchiha, and toured the world. Conquering every single opposition he came across, taking slaves, captives, and adding more shinobi to his already powerful and large force. Anyone who argued or didn't surrender at the appropriate time was slaughtered.
Eventually Madara's forces reached the ends of the known world, leaving in their wake, fields of barren Earth, and destruction. Turning back towards the place Madara now called home, the Uchiha marched his conquered people towards the place the world knew as Konoha. Leaving only stragglers out in the destroyed wild, Madara brought back nearly every person alive on the planet back to Konoha. Once Madara returned home, he exercised complete power of the people.
Utilizing his power, he ordered the construction of the largest wall the world had ever seen to be placed around Konoha, to keep the Uchiha's people within those walls. The wall took 2 years to complete, and by the time it was complete he was able to find the best seals experts in his village, and ordered them to place a complicated seal around his village. The sealing took nearly a month of nearly continuous work to complete, but in the end, the seal was complete, not allowing anyone out of the city nor anyone or anything into the city.
Some of the people were in poverty, and others struggled to make ends meet every month. Konoha became a kingdom, with the Uchiha ruling over the rest of the people of Konoha. Only a few other families were successful in the new struggle called life. The Hyuuga, Momochi, Sabuku, and Namikaze were the other most successful families that maintained a higher level class, being the few loyal families to Madara and his reign.
After years of rule, Madara gained new trustees who became powerful through trusting Madara with their life, and was able to get whatever the desired. One Orochimaru became a powerful comrade to Madara, and made the vow that he would die for the Uchiha ruler. Another follower and close comrade to Madara was a man who called himself Pein, and he used his unique doujutsu, the Rinnegan to help maintain Madara's power absolute, enshrouding Konoha in a permanent rain, infused with his chakra. This alerted Pein whenever there was a rather large disturbance in his chakra rain, and allowed him to convey the message quickly to Madara who would fix the problem. Most of the time the disturbance was the people under rule beginning to riot. Every time a disturbance has been handled successfully, and the leader of the riot has always been publicly executed to instill fear into the populace.
For the most part the only people who were truly trained in the way of the shinobi were those close to Madara, the loyal families, and his personal guard. This was a precaution set up by Madara to ensure that no one was to ever overthrow his reign over Konoha, and even if they tried, making it nearly impossible to succeed in the attempt to overthrow Madara.
But, to some people, what is life without a challenge? And this is where we find one soul, braver than most, in an attempt to do what is right, rather than doing what is easy…
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Against All Odds
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His body was tense in the darkness; waiting and watching the two guards in front of him fall for his trap. So far his plan was going along perfectly; the two guards followed him into the slums of the city, and chased him into the house and room he had already set up. It was more a test of his own abilities more than anything else; a test to see if was able to silently take out two jounin guards. The two supposed jounin however, didn't quite meet his expectations.
Hiding inside the closet of the vacant room was probably the most obvious hiding spot, but the distraction in the room was hopefully more than enough to distract the two Uchiha guards that entered the room. The jounin moved loudly, sloppily, and hastily, showing a lack of experience in the field. They either just got promoted to jounin, or they were undeserving of the rank, the teen wagered it was the latter.
There in the center of the floor was the loaf of bread that the blond haired teen had stolen. The room was empty, causing slight concern for the two Uchiha, but they continued through the room. The blond hiding in the closet watched as the first of the two jounin reached the bread and knelt down to inspect it, while his partner continued slowly through the room towards the door which the blond hid behind.
The blond teen could feel his heart rate begin to rise in anticipation as he watched the second guard inch closer to his hiding spot. The guard who knelt to inspect the loaf of bread reached down to pick it up, and when he did a thin wire under the bread was broke causing a small resounding snap in the room to go off.
The blond narrowed his eyes as he watched his plan enfold in front of him. The guard on the ground was forced to move out of the way as three hidden kunai landed where he had been kneeling, while his partner turned around at the sound of kunai sailing through the air.
The blond teen chose this moment to make his entrance, gripping the kunai in both his hands tighter; he quickly opened the door and threw one kunai at the Uchiha with his back turned towards him. The kunai found its mark, sinking halfway into the man's back, causing the said guard to arch his back and neck. The blond teen still in motion took advantage of the enemy's exposed neck, and used his remaining kunai, and made an a deep cut on the side of the guard's neck as he passed him, cutting the jugular artery. Then, quickly after the cut the blond suddenly stopped in front of the guard and launched a fast kick aimed at the Uchiha's bleeding neck.
The kick connected crushing the wind pipe and larynx, sending the first guard sailing through the air, and into the closet the blond teen had just been hiding in. Turning his attention towards the remaining guard the blond prepared himself as the guard in front of him was already upon him. The Uchiha had a punch aimed straight towards the blonde's head, with the infamous sharingan activated. The guard fell into the blonde's trap perfectly.
When the Uchiha's strike was just about to land, the blond teen suddenly blurred out from the Uchiha's sharingan. The next thing the guard knew was pain, as he was sent flying through the air from an unseen uppercut. The guard back flipped and landed on his feet to see the blond get back into his fighting stance. The guard hesitated, still feeling the pain in his chin from the last attack, before he once again launched himself at the younger boy.
Keeping his eyes on the charging guard the blond began to examine and anticipate the guard's next move. Reading the man's muscles the blond realized that the guard was going to feint a punch, and aim a kick at his stomach. Preparing himself, the blond watched as the guard feinted the punch and aimed the kick at him; waiting till the last second the blond used his superior speed, and jumped quickly into the air. As the kick sailed underneath him the lashed out with his foot, and connected the Uchiha's chin once again.
But before the guard's body sailed away, the blond grabbed the man's leg and used it as leverage in the air to catch up to him. Once they were perpendicular and in the air, the teen launched his fist at the man's head quickly. As the Uchiha's head whiplashed to the side from the blow, the teen continued, bringing up his knee towards the guard's stomach. As it connected, the guard was launched towards the ground at a devastating speed, but as the teen continued to sail over top of the guard the teen used his one kunai that was left and quickly threw it at the guard's throat.
Just as the guard hit the floor the kunai lodged itself into the guard's neck, while the blond landed on his hands, and rolled off the excess speed. The guard's head made a thump from whiplash due to the force his body hit the floor with. Silently turning around, the blond watched as the guard gurgled on his own blood for a few seconds before all was silent.
Moving as silently as he could, the blond teen pulled the legs of the guard that was in the middle of the room towards the closet his partner was in. After both guards were in the closet, the blond retracted his kunai from the bodies, and closed the door on the two. Leaving the room, the blond went into a room, where he knew there was a sink there, and then proceeded to clean his two kunai. After cleaning the kunai, the teen pocketed them and made his way to the front door of the small apartment.
Once the blond teen was on the streets, he began to walk at a determined pace, enduring the ever present rain, infused with chakra, thanks to an Uchiha loyalist. The blond had to keep himself from scowling as he walked through the crowded streets towards his temporary home. Just as the blond was about to turn the last corner to his residence, he caught himself, as he noticed something that shouldn't be there.
He noticed just due to his senses that someone was following him, and he was very good at being stealthy.
'From the feel of the person, they seem to have a monstrous chakra reserves, and they are hiding their presence far better than anyone else I have encountered.' The blond thought as he led his pursuer away from the crowded streets should things get bad. The teen didn't want the people to suffer more than they had too.
Eventually the blond ended up on an abandoned street, void of all life, and could still sense his pursuer.
"I know you are following me, would you show your face?" The blond said in a calm voice, betraying his tense body, which was prepared for anything. From a bystander's point of view, it would look like the teen was talking to himself, but before long, a tall white haired man stepped out of the shadows of the street they were in, gaining the attention of the blond teen.
"…You're better than I thought you were." The white haired man said quietly, but loud enough for the teen to hear the word's just fine. There was a silence between the two which allowed the two of them to take in each other's appearance.
Deep blue eyes took in the features of the white haired man before him. The man had red lines that struck down his face from his eyes, while his white hair reached his shoulder blades and was tied into a messy ponytail, and his face was one of seriousness which slightly alerted the blond. The White haired man wore a red vest over a green long sleeved shirt, while a fishnet shirt seemed to be underneath the green shirt. A pair of green pants matched the green long sleeved shirt, and a pair of basic navy blue shinobi sandals completed the outfit.
"Your fighting skills are above the average jounin's." The man began, recapturing the interest of the blond teen. "I think you should join us."
The blonde's eyes narrowed, but his body relaxed at the older man's offer. "Join you?"
"Yes, I watched you fight the two guards, and quite frankly, I am immensely impressed that you were able to do what you did." The man said as he slowly began walking towards the blond teen with his arms folded in front of him.
"You only want me to join the Guardians because of my fighting skills?" The blond asked, body tense yet again as an apparent guard was before him.
The man responded quickly. "No, I want you to join us because of what you fight for." Now the man stood toe to toe with the blond teen. His answer caused the blonde's eyes to widen in realization at what the man was implying.
"Well, if you are interested, swing by this place at the given time, and see if it sparks your interest." With that the white haired man pulled an envelope from within his clothing, and handed it to the blond, who took it slowly, watching the white haired man's every move.
After the blond teen took the envelope the white haired man turned and started walking away, but was interrupted by the teen, "Sir,"
The white haired man stopped and turned around and looked at the boy with mild interest, "Yeah?"
"What is your name?" The blond teen asked.
The white haired man smiled before responding, "My name is Jiraiya. What about your name?"
There was a small silence before the blond teen responded to the question. "Minato."
With the small smile still in place, Jiraiya nodded to the teen, "I'll see you around." And with that, the white haired man began walking away, leaving Minato alone in the alleyway.
Minato watched the retreating back of Jiraiya with interest. The blond teen couldn't help but wonder how the man had found him, and followed him. Minato then focused on the envelope he had in his hand, and opened a side before he moved under the cover of an extended roof on a side of the alley. He tilted the package allowing anything the contents to slide into his soaking hand, and he was surprised at what he found.
In his hand was a key chain with a plastic item on attached to it, and a small piece of paper underneath the key chain. Putting the envelope inside his jacket, Minato took the piece of paper and read over the contents, which read:
Ro-Ringu Butoukai Bar
10 p.m. tonight
8
The 8 at the bottom of the page was circled, which caused Minato to raise an eyebrow. Tucking that piece of paper away into one of his pockets, Minato then looked at the small keychain in his palm. It was a black eight-ball from the old game of billiards.
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Minato leaned against a wall outside the specified location with a hood over his head, providing a temporary safe haven from the ever persisting rain. The blond teen arrived an hour and a half early, and had been watching people enter and leave the bar. None of them were suspicious, or looked out of the ordinary, but a few did seem to watch their back as they left the place.
Checking the clock on the wall inside a nearby shop, Minato heaved himself off the wall, and slowly started making his way towards the bar's entrance. Moving cautiously and silently, the blond opened the door, to enter a dimly lit corridor that stretched down approximately 20 feet. There were neither pictures on the walls nor any doors in the corridor, but Minato felt the hair rise on the back of his neck as if he was being watched by eyes that were not there.
Once the blond teen had made it to the end of the hall as silently as he could, he turned the corner and was finally able to see the bar itself. The actual bar was in the center of the room, with a bar table all the way around it along with stools. There were a few tables in the scattered throughout the room, and along the far wall were a series of booths with drapes covering the openings, allowing the occupants privacy. The air was smoggy from cigarette or cigar smoke, and the smell of brandy was in the air.
Minato's eyes traced the room, flowing over every one present, until his eyes came across another pair that was familiar to him.
The blond teen watched as Jiraiya downed whatever was left in his drink, stand, and begin to make his way over to where the blond stood. The white haired man's clothing hadn't changed since he meet him earlier that day, but his clothes were dry, indicating he has spent a good amount of time in the tavern.
"I'm glad you showed up." Jiraiya said as he finally reached Minato.
Sparring a curious glance at the white haired man, the blond teen replied. "You sparked my interest."
"Alright gaki," Minato's lip twitched slightly at this, "if you're really serious about taking up my proposition, follow me." Jiraiya said as he began walking back towards the booth he had been occupying with Minato on his heels. The blond teen noted that he had sat in the booth least visible to any of the others, and was the last one in the row of booths.
Once they were there Jiraiya sat down on one side and Minato sat on the other. Once they were both in the booth, Jiraiya reached over and closed the curtain over the booth, cutting them off from the outer world. Next Jiraiya turned to look Minato square in the eyes with a serious expression upon his face.
"Why do you fight the Guardians and Madara's reign?" It was a simple question, besides the fact that anyone who resisted the Guardians or any Uchiha's power was put to death. The white haired man watched Minato as the teen meet his gaze.
"Because it's not right." Minato replied curtly.
"What's not right?" Jiraiya fired back, noticing a twitch in the blond teen's eyebrow.
"It's not right that only people who are corrupt and evil get the easy way out of life, is favored, and receive anything they wish, while the hard working, honest, and innocent people have to deal with unbelievable taxes, abuse from the guards, and an overall hard life." Minato said through clenched teeth, showing emotion for the first time around Jiraiya. The white haired man only raised an eyebrow.
"You haven't answered my question yet." Jiraiya stated, noticing with pleasure that Minato's eyes hardened on him.
The blond was quiet for a few moments before he finally answered. "I fight the Guardians and Uchiha Madara's reign because no one else will. I fight because someone has to stand up for the good people in this city, even if I have to fight them all alone."
Jiraiya nodded, his eyes softening at the blonde's words. "That's a good answer. Tell me, would you die for the people of this city?"
"Only for the people who deserve it." Minato said with determination etched into his voice. Jiraiya seemed pleased enough with the teen's response, and smiled at the boy.
"Well, I'm glad to tell you gaki that you aren't the only one fighting." Jiraiya said, causing a look of slight confusion from Minato.
Jiraiya then leaned over to the wall of the booth and knocked 4 times quietly and evenly spaced out. There was a second of silence before a small piece of wall was pulled back, and a pair of eyes looked out of the section of missing wall, looking over Jiraiya and Minato.
"Code in." Came a rough, but quiet voice from the other side of the wall.
"Setsu hatsu." Jiraiya replied in an even more hushed town than the person behind the wall. There was moment's pause before the piece of wall was put back into place, and a small click was heard behind the wall. Minato watched in curiosity as the wooden wall silently swung open, revealing a dark haired man with scars across his face, and dressed in shinobi garb sitting on a stool near a set of stone stairs that lead down.
Minato watched as Jiraiya moved into the small opening and began making his way down the stairs. After a moment, Minato realized that he was still sitting and staring at the opening in the wall before he too moved forward and into the opening, giving the apparent shinobi another glance over, he continued after Jiraiya, moving just as silently.
Eventually Minato matched Jiraiya in strides as they both moved at a comfortable pace down a corridor. This corridor was light with occasional torches along the walls, and the walls seemed to be carved out of stone. There were doors and side rooms every now and then that lead off into a different direction, but as they kept walking underground, Minato was beginning to wonder how big the tunnels ran. The blond was interrupted from his thoughts though when Jiraiya spoke.
"I'm taking you to see the Leaders. Hopefully they will go along with my plan for you." The white haired man said as the pair turned another corner, and continued walking.
"You have leaders? And what is your plan for me?" Minato asked the white haired man as their pace began to slow down.
"Yes, we have leaders, and we fight for the same reasons you do." Jiraiya said, "We call ourselves the Tegotae, and we are always looking for willing recruits with talent, like you to help our fight against the reign of Madara. As for my plans, I plan to train you, and make you more powerful, and work on your stealth and assassination skills, strategy, logic, and any other things that come into my mind." The white haired man told the blond teen.
Minato looked at Jiraiya with a raised eyebrow. "Your leaders will let you do this?"
Jiraiya frowned before replying. "Only if they see that you are worthwhile."
"So no fighting, only training all the time then?" Minato asked, truly curious as to what the man's plans were.
Jiraiya shook his head, "No, you will still be doing assignments and missions given to you in your free time." This seemed to satisfy Minato as he remained silent for the last stretch of hallway. At the end there appeared to be rather large looking double stone doors.
"Well, we're here. In front of the Leader's lair." Jiraiya said glancing at the double doors before looking back at Minato. "Now whatever you do, answer truthfully, like you did when I asked you those questions."
Minato nodded at the white haired man, "Alright, anything else?" the teen asked as an afterthought in an attempt at light humor.
"Yeah," Jiraiya responded, "Don't let them push you around." And with that Jiraiya pushed open the double stone doors to leading to the room of the Leaders of the Tegotae.
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He watched with interest as the stone double doors were opened slowly, revealing Jiraiya and a blond teen accompanying him. He kept his body mostly still as he watched the boy's eyes adjust to the lighting of the room, hiding the 4 hidden occupants of the room in shadow. The lighting in the room served as an interrogation factor, allowing the people hidden in the shadows to fully see the person 'center stage' while the person only saw the bright lights aimed at them.
Glancing to his left quick he noticed that one of the four leaders was tapping his finger ever so slowly on his own hand. Smirking He knew that that particular man's forte was most definitely not patience. Now that the meeting was about to begin he glanced back at the blond that Jiraiya had brought back with him.
The blond teen wore a dark green form fitting jacket with a hood on it, with it partially zipped up, revealing a white v-neck shirt underneath, along with fishnet underneath the v-neck. His hands were mostly hidden by the green jacket, but from what he noticed the teen's fingers were wrapped in bandages, an indication to continuous strain on the hands. The blond wore a pair of basic navy blue shinobi sweatpants with kunai and shuriken holsters on both legs. His ankles were tapped, and he wore the basic shinobi navy blue sandal.
Glancing back at the boy's facial features, the leader couldn't help but notice the blonde's eyes, as they were a deep oceanic blue, and held a look of determination unlike any other he had seen. The teen's hair was shaggy with elongated sideburns, which helped frame his face and the blond hair shot out in every direction, despite its moist appearance.
Noticing an intake of breath next to him, he decided that now would be a good time to pay attention the meeting at hand.
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'Whoever designed this room,' Minato thought as his eyes adjusted to the extreme lights in his direction, 'needs to be hit rather hard in the face.' Upon entering the room, Minato was suddenly blasted with bright lights all pointed at him. Jiraiya immediately disappeared among the shadows in the room that the lights didn't cover. Minato could feel the intense heat from the lights, as he was obviously at the center of attention for whoever was watching him.
Minato narrowed his eyes and was able to make out a few what appeared to be 4 outlines of people behind a desk, sitting at an elevated perspective so as to make Minato look up to them.
"Is this the boy you've been telling us about Jiraiya-san?" A low gravelly voice broke the silence, originating from Minato's right.
"That's him." Jiraiya's voice sounded out through the darkness, calming Minato's nerves a little, letting the blond know the white haired man was still in his presence.
"Very well, we shall proceed then." A female voice this time, Minato noted as he listened to the darkness. "Why do you wish to join this organization?" The voice rang out once again.
"Because I fight for the people who are suppressed in this city, and according to Jiraiya-san, this organization and I have that in common." The blond teen replied, only having answered a similar question earlier.
"What is your name young man?" Asked the female voice again, causing the blond teen to flinch slightly, and not going unnoticed by the four observers.
"Minato." Was all the blond haired teen said, not willing to give his full name, as the name carried prejudice.
"What is your full name?" Another new voice, this one rang out with authority. Minato's eyes narrowed and he clenched his jaw as he was forced to answer.
"Namikaze Minato."
Minato heard a sharp intake of breath, and clothing being moved. 'Now I have their complete attention.' The blond teen thought sullenly as he was prepared himself for whatever was about to happen.
"You are Namikaze Tasakai's son, are you not?" Another new voice filled the room.
"Yes I am." Came Minato's curt reply.
"That would make you the heir to the Namikaze household. Why would you leave that life of royalty to come here?" Came the gravelly voice again.
Minato's patience was being tried in this particular series of questions. "My family and I didn't exactly see eye to eye."
There was a momentary pause before the female voice broke the silence. "According to Jiraiya-san, you have been living on your own for approximately a year. Is this correct?"
Minato nodded, growing irritated with the people hiding behind the shadows.
"How close were you to your family?" The voice with authority spoke.
"Not very," Minato started. "When my family 'disowned' me, I had to fight my way through cousins, aunts, and uncles. Why does it matter how close I was to my family?" Minato asked heatedly, eyes searching the darkness to stare the leaders.
"I assume that you are aware of your family's standings with Uchiha Madara?" A kind, but firm voice rang out through the room. Catching Minato off guard, as he forgot that there was 4 shadows he could make out.
"Yeah I am. They seem to be benefit from each other. My family provided military support and fixed political positions, while Madara supplied an overabundance of money, food, and authority." Minato replied, summing up his family's relationship with Madara in a couple of sentences.
"So you realize that your family is close enough to Madara that he might send one of your family members on a specific mission. That mission might be to spy on the Tegotae; to try and figure out our plans and goals." The kind voice rang out again. Minato lowered his head in thought, that was a logical argument and a precautious step.
The teen was silent for a couple of seconds before he spoke again. "I see where you are coming from, but I have no proof other than my word, that I am not a spy for Madara." Minato said to the chamber.
There was a rather long silence after he spoke, causing the blond teen to start to worry that his word was not enough.
Minato was withdrawn from his thoughts however when Jiraiya suddenly walked into the light and stood beside him, placing his hand on his shoulder.
"I believe the kid is telling the truth, I couldn't detect any physical mannerisms that might betray a lie, and his voice didn't waver at all. These things coupled with the fact that I've been watching him for the past 4 months, and nothing suspicious ever came up, it makes me believe that he isn't a spy and is ready to join us." Jiraiya spoke with confidence and sincerity. Minato glanced up at the man beside him, a corner of his mouth turning upwards into a smirk.
There was yet another short silence before it was broken by the sound of a person standing and walking around the desk so as to be in the light. The figure that stepped into the light was a man that had dark hair that was graying out, with green glasses and a beard. He wore a white cloak over his green shirt and pants with basic shinobi sandals. After a moment he spoke. "Then it is Decided, I Homura Mitokado agree to Jiraiya-san's judgment and welcome you Namikaze Minato, to the Tegotae." With that he bowed slightly to Minato. The blond teen recognized the gesture and returned it with a steeper bow.
Then another figure stood and walked around the desk, before another figure stood and followed the second figure. The first figure stood into the light, revealing an aging woman with brown hair that was graying, that was tied into a bun. She wore a very similar clothing style to Homura, only her cloak was black and gray, and a green kimono was underneath. "I Koharu Utatane agree to Jiraiya-san's judgment and welcome you Namikaze Minato." The woman said quietly, then smiling she bowed slightly to Minato, who returned the bow going lower than she had.
Next came the figure behind Koharu, he stepped into the light revealing a light fitting samurai style of clothing that was all black except the edges which were a cream color. A black belt tied off the shirt, and tied together the black pants with the samurai shirt, and basic shinobi sandals. Underneath the samurai shirt was a fishnet shirt. The man had a light shade of black hair that shot backwards. "I Hiruzen Sarutobi agree accept Namikaze Minato, and welcome you heartedly." The kind voice rang out throughout the chamber. Then Hiruzen smiled before he bowed to Minato, lower than the two previous to him.
The blond teen was shocked by the action, but returned it with yet another low bow. But Minato was soon distracted by the last member of the chamber in shadows making his way to the lighted area. When the blond teen saw the condition of the last man in the chamber, his eyes widened slightly.
The man had black hair, and half of his face was wrapped in bandage, which covered his right eye, cheek, and forehead. His chin had scars upon them, indicating many battles. The man had a white shirt on, but most of his garb was covered by a black cloak that covered only half of his body. Looking at Minato with his good eye, he spoke. "I Danzo agree to Jiraiya-sans judgment and welcome you to Tegotae."
Minato recognized the gravelly voice, as he was the first one to talk in the meeting, but Minato waited for him to bow to him, like the previous leaders had. After a few seconds, it was apparent to the blond that the elder man had no intention to bow, so Minato took the initiative, and bowed before the scarred man.
"I truly thank you for a chance to do what I can for these people." Minato said as he stood back up. After he stood straight again Jiraiya then spoke to the leaders.
"I'm going to take the kid to meet his team now, and see what he can fully do." Jiraiya said as he turned and started walking towards the closed doors, the blond teen turned and followed him. "Come on gaki, better not keep the other brats waiting long, they get touchy." The white haired man finished as he opened one of the doors for both of them to walk out, leaving the leaders in the chamber, and then closing the door from outside.
Once the two of them were in the hall alone Jiraiya turned to look at the blond teenager out of his eye as he walked at a leisurely pace down one of the halls. They walked in silence for a few seconds before Jiraiya spoke.
"You handled yourself pretty well in there, better than I thought you would." The white haired man said, glancing at Minato out of the corner of his eye.
The teenager snorted, causing Jiraiya to raise an eyebrow. "I almost yelled at them, they seemed so hung up on my name that I didn't think I was going to make it out of there alive."
"They have to suspicious of people, if the Uchiha knew the plans going on in the Tegotae, we would for lack of better term, 'dead meat'. And with your name and how close Madara is with the rest of your family, you can't really blame them for being so suspicious." The white haired said.
Minato nodded, silently agreeing with the logic that Jiraiya was offering. "Good thing you've been surveying me for so long then, otherwise I might not be talking to you right now." The blond said, looking up at the white haired man with a smile.
Jiraiya noticed the smile, and couldn't help but smile back. "Yeah, I guess it was a good thing." The pair chuckled as they made their way down on of the halls.
"So you're taking me to meet a team I'm going to be placed on?" Minato asked with a cocked eyebrow.
"Yeah, but you'll have a surprise when you get there, cause we start training when we get there." Jiraiya said. Then suddenly Minato found that Jiraiya had both hands placed on his shoulders and they had stopped walking, the blond teen noticed that Jiraiya had a deadly serious look in his eyes as they stared at each other.
"This training though is going to be the hardest that you will ever have to face, and I must apologize beforehand. Your mental strength will be put to the test, along with you physical tolerance of pain, and I want to let you know that no matter what happens I am not mad at you, nor do I hate you. It is something I have to do to prepare you for some of the missions you will be doing." Jiraiya finished, still with a dead serious look upon his face, slightly disturbing Minato.
"Alright," Minato said, as he felt a slight unease in his stomach start to rise. "I can take it."
Nodding Jiraiya stood up and began walking down the corridor once again with Minato following him. Then as an afterthought Jiraiya spoke. "And from now on, you have to start calling me: 'Jiraiya-sama-sensei'."
"Pfft, in your dreams." Minato said as they both smiled and continued to walk down the hall.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Standing in the center of her two teammates, Uzumaki Kushina couldn't help but feel a certain level of annoyance towards their late sensei. The man was hardly ever late for anything, which was one of the reasons for his prestige and respect among the shinobi Tegotae. And yet the team has been assembled and waiting for the past 5 minutes.
"Something must have come up, yeah." Her teammate said. Kushina never truly understood the young man standing beside her, but Deidara seemed to be fully devoted to the idea of protecting the people of the city. He was odd in a sense, having what seemed like a bloodline with mouths in his hands, with which he was able to manipulate his clay to make nearly anything he wanted.
"Eh, we just gotta make sure to make him pay for making us wait." Now her other teammate spoke. He was usually the one that made them receive extra condition, or 'sparring matches' as their sensei called them. But every time the blue skinned boy did something to prank their sensei, it was definitely worth it.
"What do you have in mind this time, Kisame?" Kushina asked, always interested in what his devilish mind was thinking. Sometimes the things the young man could come up with, like the hair dye in the shampoo bottle, the time he henged into sensei and spied on girls taking a bath. It was definitely worth knowing what the shark-like boy would do.
"Well, I was thinking this time I could improvise, maybe use some itching powder, and find a sting ray and then…" the blue skinned teen was interrupted by the sound of two people talking, coming towards the training room.
Kushina listened distinctly, from the sound of one of them, she could tell that their sensei was finally showing up, and with a visitor. The three of them prepared themselves as two people opened the door to the training room.
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Minato followed Jiraiya into the room he now knew was the training room for this base. Along the way to the training room, Jiraiya was kind enough to answer most of his questions about the organization. Once they were fully in the room, Minato noted that the room was about 30 meters long, by 20 meters wide. The room was completely bare beside three teenagers looking at Jiraiya and Minato with raised brows.
Minato noted that one of the teenagers had completely blue skin, and odd blue spike hair. Also Minato wasn't sure, but he thought he saw gills on the neck of the teenage boy. The shark-like boy wore a black open jacket over a tight white t-shirt, which showed a rather heavily muscled chest. The blue boy wore a simple pair of black shinobi sweat pants, with wrappings around the ankles and standard blue shinobi sandals. What caught Minato's attention was the rather cumbersome sword he had behind him, as it was about a foot taller than the teen carrying it, and it also looked like it weighed a decent amount.
Minato then looked at the teenager on the far right of the group. The boy had blond hair, like him, that was pulled back into a long ponytail. The boy left one strand of hair fall in front of his face, covering his left eye. The boy wore a simple white t-shirt and black shinobi sweat pants which tied off at the ankles and the basic shinobi sandals. Unlike the other boy, the blond teen had slightly larger than average kunai holsters tied to both of his legs. (AN: I am not going to give Deidara the weird chest mouth, that thing is creepy…)
Next Minato looked at the single girl of the group. She had red hair that seemed to glow, and a pair of light blue eyes that, at the moment, held a certain intensity that slightly intimidated Minato. Her hair seemed to be tied in the back with a red bow, but Minato couldn't be sure. The girl wore a simple form fitting black t-shirt, with non-existent sleeves showing that the girl had fishnet shirting underneath her black shirt. She also had forearm protectors, and her wrists, knuckles, and forefingers were tapped. She wore a simple tan skirt, with spandex underneath, and fishnet leggings at odd intervals. One her left leg, the fishnet came down barely past her mid-thigh, while the fishnet on her other leg started above her knee and meet her knee high black calf warmers. She, like her teammates, also wore the basic shinobi sandals.
"You're late, yeah." The blond said as he crossed his arms, causing Minato to raise a brow.
"Yeah, sorry about that, I was busy getting your te…" Jiraiya started before he was interrupted by the blue skinned boy.
"Don't think I'm gonna take it easy on ya, you better be watching your back the next couple of days." The blue skinned boy said which cause Minato to smile slightly at the way they talked to their sensei.
"You brats, I was busy retrieving your team leader." Jiraiya huffed out in annoyance.
Minato's smile was gone in an instant. The three teenagers before him tensed up immediately, the air of joking gone. He couldn't help but let the surprise wash over him as his eyes widened, looking at the three in front of him clearly showed that none of them had any prior knowledge to this development.
All three of the teenagers had narrowed eyes, obviously not pleased with the sudden development. "Jiraiya I don't think you made the right decision." Minato tried reasoning with the white haired man before he was killed where he stood.
"No, I watched you fight, and have decided that you are going to lead this team of elite shinobi." Jiraiya said glancing at Minato to make sure he was accepting the news alright. "And these three before, from left to right, are Kisame, Kushina, and Deidara. Team, this your new captain, Minato."
The tension was nearly tangible. Finally Kushina decided to speak being the hothead of the team. "You choose him as the team captain?"
Jiraiya frowned at the question. He knew the team he had been training was extremely talented, and each of them wanted the position of team captain. But Minato was golden, and Jiraiya was sure that the blond would be the best team captain for them, and he would lead them through thick and thin.
"Yeah, he has more field experience than you three do, and he is strong." Jiraiya defended the blond teen he brought before them.
"Would he care to demonstrate his skills?" Deidara asked still glaring at the opposing blond that still had slight trace of surprise in his eyes.
Jiraiya looked at Minato for an answer. The blond teen didn't know what to do, so all he could do was shrug to Jiraiya. Jiraiya was satisfied with that gesture. "Sure he would. I'll stand off to the side, while you three spar the boy."
Minato didn't know what to think of the sudden development. He had just been introduced to a team that he was supposedly going to lead, and now that said team wanted to spar him. The blond teen watched with a blank face as the three other teens began deciding who would spar with him first.
"Alright, Kisame, you should probably start, yeah." Deidara said which received a nod from both Kushina and Kisame. Minato let a small smile play on his lips as he knew that he could win in a one-on-one spar with any of the three. Minato's smile once again disappeared as they were interrupted by Jiraiya's voice once again.
"No one-on-one. You three versus him in a three-on-one spar." This received mixed reactions. Jiraiya's students each glanced at Jiraiya with questioning and angered looks before they each looked at Minato, who wore a blank face. Then simultaneously the three other teens separated from each other equally, with Kisame closest to him, while Kushina and Deidara stood a little ways back.
Minato was surprised for the sudden assault as Kisame suddenly charged him with frightening speed and the rather large sword drawn. As the blue skinned teen was within striking distance he swung the sword diagonally quickly, which Minato dodged simply by sliding off to the side.
Kisame pushed forth his attack as he then suddenly reversed swung the giant sword at an alarming rate. Minato was impressed with the attacking teen's speed, jumping quickly and bringing his legs above the arch of the sword, Minato struck out with his foot catching Kisame in the chin, sending the blue skinned teen sprawling backwards.
Landing adroitly, Minato stood back up, and watched the three of them as each of them watched him. Minato understood what Kisame had just done. The blue skinned teen was testing his combat abilities in a close range fight. However brief it was, it showed that Minato was obviously superior to Kisame in that aspect.
Eye's narrowing at realizing that in this fashion he was at a disadvantage, Minato decided that he would have to even the playing field. Using a burst of chakra Minato shot himself forward at an alarming rate. Obviously faster than any of the three thought he would have been capable of as he came within striking range of Deidara.
Rearing his fist back, Minato launched an incredibly fast punch aimed at Deidara's nose, but the other blond had enough speed to slightly turn his head, and allow the blow only to make contact with his cheek, launching him into the air.
Before Minato could follow Deidara, he was forced to duck under a vicious kick aimed at his head. As Minato ducked he performed a spinning low kick, which would have connected with Kushina's posted leg, but she seemed to be adept at taijutsu and was able to jump over the counter-attack. Seeing as he now had her off guard, Minato prepared to attack the now air-born redhead, but was forced to back flip quickly out of the way as Kisame's large sword destroyed the ground where he had just been.
Once Minato had stopped moving, he noticed a very high pitched sound of a small air-born projectile thrown obviously by Deidara. Ducking quickly, Minato grabbed a kunai out his holster, and then used another burst of speed to attack Kisame and Kushina who were still recovering.
Using his momentum to his advantage, Minato launched himself into the air, and threw the kunai at Kisame. The blue skinned boy, predictably used the broadside of his sword to block the kunai, Minato used the temporary footing, also used the broadside of Kisame's sword to jump off of and attack Kushina.
Minato then realized that this was the wrong thing to do, as he heard dozen of Deidara's air-born weapons coming at him fast. Kushina prepared to attack the blond in mid-flight as he descended upon her. As Minato came within striking distance of Kushina's punch, she threw it, aimed at his face. The blond teen used his superior speed to slap away the punch. As he landed the blond spun quickly behind the red head and used her as a shield for whatever was chasing him through the air.
The blonde's danger sense flared and he was on the move again as the projectiles landed where he had been hiding behind Kushina. Looking at that spot he narrowed his eyes. The weapons seemed to be a great number of miniature senbon needles, which would be near impossible to see in the air. And the other blond somehow was able to control their flight pattern. That would have to go.
Now it was a stand-off, with neither party moving. Jiraiya's team realized now that Minato was a descent threat, and was effectively keeping them from dominating the spar by separating them. Minato glared at each of them hard, and each of them returned the glare. That was Minato smirked and decided to go into his bag of goodies. Focusing the necessary amount of chakra, and concentrating on the place directly behind Deidara, Minato disappeared from his spot.
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Kushina sneered as she blocked another lightening fast strike. Their blond opponent was using some kind of speed enhancement jutsu that was allowing him to travel at speeds that she nor her teammates could keep up with. After their opponent used a simple shun shin to get behind Deidara, he began unleashing a brutal taijutsu attack upon each of them.
Kushina quickly spun around behind Kisame in their protective circle to block an incoming kick towards Kisame's exposed knee, lifting her calf off the ground enough to protect his joint, Kushina felt the impact of the vicious kick as it connected with her muscle. She then felt a change in air pressure behind her neck, causing her to glance behind herself to see that Deidara seemed to have blocked an attack aimed at her exposed neck with his entire right arm. She then noted that Kisame had also blocked another attack that was aimed at Deidara's neck with his large sword.
This was how the spar had been going for the past three minutes, and though she hated to admit it, Kushina was getting fatigued, and from the sounds of heavy breathing around her she could tell that she wasn't the only one.
"Enough."
Jiraiya's voice rang out through the room, catching Kushina by surprise, she had forgotten he was there. Looking around for their opponent, Kushina saw him standing roughly 30 meters away from where their team stood in battle ready positions.
Everyone slowly walked towards the white haired man, standing directly between each party. Kushina noticed with slight chagrin, that their blond opponent still had the blank look on his face, the same one he had in the beginning of their spar. The blond also looked like he was hardly winded, and looked like he just got done doing a warm-up for an exercise.
"Now that we each have a slight understanding of each other's skills, you are all finished for today." Jiraiya said as he crossed his arms. "Team, I trust you will take your newest member to the living quarters, show him where he will be staying." With that note of finality, Jiraiya turned and started walking towards the door, before he was interrupted.
"Sensei, where are you going?" Kushina asked in mild interest, as the white haired man made his way toward the door.
Without turning around or looking at the redhead Jiraiya replied. "To turn in a report." And he continued on his way as he left the training room that held the four teenagers.
There was moment of silence as everyone brewed in their own thoughts before it was broken by Kisame. "Well, I don't know about any of you, but I'm hungry and want something to eat." With that the blue skinned boy also began making his way to the door, with the rest of the occupants of the room following him.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Jiraiya frowned as he found himself in the elders' chambers for the second time that day. Though the first visit held much less focus upon himself, he did not wish to spend more time than is necessary in the room.
The silence in the room seemed like a blanket as the white haired man waited for someone to begin the report upon one Namikaze Minato. Jiraiya wasn't disappointed as Danzo was the first to shatter the silence.
"It appears Namikaze is well adept in the ways of the shinobi." The bandaged man summarized what he saw during the spar against Jiraiya's handpicked team.
"Yes he does, though I am quite curious as to how he was able to move as fast as he did. That speed seemed natural, and not caused by a jutsu." Homura stated, receiving a nod from Koharu.
"I believe that he was using some sort of chakra weights, or some kind of contraption like chakra weights to enhance his natural speed." Jiraiya said, answering Homura's question. He, however, was unconvinced with this answer.
"How can you be so sure?"
"When he performed the shun shin no jutsu he used excess chakra, enough chakra to expel the chakra weights that were placed on his arms and legs. Another reason I know he used chakra weights was due to his lack of fatigue in the end of the spar. If that speed had been a jutsu it would have taken more of a toll on his body than just using his natural speed would have." Jiraiya stated, causing a silence throughout the chamber.
A few moments of silence followed Jiraiya's explanation before it was once again broken. "Interesting." Hiruzen started, "I do wonder where the young man found chakra weights and how he managed to get his hands on them." Hiruzen spoke for the first time.
Jiraiya silently agreed with the Sarutobi. Hiruzen was probably the only man Jiraiya trusted on the council of the Tegotae, as the white haired man had been taught the way of the shinobi by Sarutobi. "I will try and find out if he uses chakra weights and where he got his hands on them. If that is all…" Jiraiya asked.
"You are dismissed Jiraiya-san." Koharu said, with that Jiraiya turned and quickly left the elders' chambers, allowing them to talk amongst themselves.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Minato glared down at his hands, because within them he held the certainty of his downfall. Quickly glancing over the cards that were inevitably going to give him away Minato couldn't help but feel irritated that he was losing such a game. The blonde's thoughts were interrupted however when he heard a question asked.
"Eh, Minato, do you have a seven?" Kisame asked with a slightly raised eyebrow. Minato's eyes narrowed at the blue skinned teen for a second, before he reluctantly handed over a card to the shark-like boy face down. Minato also noted that everyone at the table had twice as many pairs as he had, causing more disgruntled thoughts to go through the blonde's head.
Now it was his turn, and Minato vowed he was going to get a pair. Looking around the table with narrowed eyes, Minato noted that all the people there seemed to be completely relaxed. Looking at each of their faces, the blond finally found his target.
"Deidara?" Minato said with a voice tinged with aggravation.
"Yeah?" The other blond replied.
"Do you have a 5?"
"Mmmm, nope." Deidara said as he searched his rather small hand for the aforementioned card. "Go fish, yeah."
Minato couldn't help it as his eye twitched involuntarily. Looking down at the pile of cards to draw from, Minato noted something quite important.
Glaring down at the spot of the vacant cards Minato alerted everyone to his predicament. "There are no more cards for me to draw from."
"Your deduction skills are staggering." Kushina said with a smirk, causing both Kisame and Deidara to laugh at the expense of Minato, while Minato's eye twitched again. "Now, Minato, do you have a 5?" Kushina asked innocently.
Minato looked up from the empty spot in the middle of the table where the deck of cards should have been, and looked at the redhead. Handing over the five that was asked of him Minato decided that he had had enough with this game called 'Go Fish'.
Standing quickly and throwing his cards in the air, Minato started making his way towards the kitchen, causing three sets of eyes to trail his back.
"What are you doing?" Kisame asked as he followed the blond with his eyes, making sure Minato didn't mess with food he was preparing for the team.
"I think the food is done cooking, and I'm hungry so I'm going to eat." Came Minato's defeated voice from the kitchen.
"Uh, I think the soup might still be a little hot." Kisame warned the blond haired teen as he poured himself a bowl of the steaming cream of broccoli soup that was boiling upon the stove that was in their base.
Carefully pouring himself a bowl Minato looked over his shoulder at his teammates with a smirk. "I think I can handle a little hot soup." He grabbed a spoon and made his way back to the table where the cards were laid out upon it. Grabbing the spoon, Minato took a sip of the soup, only to spit it out a second back into the bowl, causing the other occupants in the room to look at the sudden commotion.
What meet their eyes was Minato standing up with his tongue in the air, hands waving trying to cool down the overheated tongue.
"ITHS THO HOT!" Minato yelled loudly as he tried cooling down his tongue.
"I told you it was going to be hot, jeesh." Kisame said as he watched the blond with slight worry in his eyes. It was his soup that burned the teen's tongue.
"Maybe you should put some ice on your tongue, yeah?" Deidara said as he watched in amusement at the other blond get red in the face.
"Sounds like a good idea." Kisame said as he stood up to help his new team leader. Going into the kitchen he called for Minato to follow him. After the blue skinned teen had reached into the freezer and withdrew ice, he awkwardly put the ice on Minato's tongue for the teen.
The room was quiet as Kisame helped out Minato, but the quiet lasted only for so long.
"WHAT IS THIS!? YOU DROOLED ON MY HAND!" Kisame roared.
"I din't ean to." Minato quickly apologized as best as he could with his speech impaired.
Kisame threw the ice and saliva on his hand across the room, which accidently hit one redhead kunoichi in the back of the head and the other blond on the front of his shirt, both with a substantial amount of saliva. It was then that Minato and Kisame looked at each other, and looked back at the other two as they were both glaring at the pair in the kitchen.
The temperature in the room dropped several degrees as Kushina and Deidara squared off against Kisame and Minato, and the chase around the small apartment was on.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Three people sat around an elongated square table inside a room that let very little light into the room. Each of the occupants of the room was busy looking over the small folder of papers laid out in front of them.
The silence of the room was broken as one of the people around the table spoke in a low and soft voice. "It appears our plan was a success."
"Yes Madara, it seems it was, and will hopefully be beneficial to our cause." Spoke one of the shadowed figures.
Madara nodded in agreement as he once more read over small note they had received in confirmation of a spy placed in the Tegotae they can trust in case of a rebellion or an all out civil war.
"They accepted Pein's invitation so quickly, it's almost like they wished to become one of our spies." Spoke the unnamed shadow, receiving nods of agreement from his two companions.
"From the sound of it, it appears they accepted the invitation nearly an hour or so ago, wouldn't you agree Orochimaru?" Pein asked the dark-haired man known as Orochimaru.
"Yes, it would appear so…" With that final note, the three men sat in silence each dwelling in their thoughts.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
AN: Okay here's an idea that I have on my chest for quite a while, and I wished that I wasn't the first one to write a book like this. If there is a book out there like this I'm sorry I haven't read it and I would like to read it. But anyway I'm sorry that I'm posting another chapter in a different book, but The Pillar has hit a hard spot in writing it. Before the story just came to me, and now it's difficult to think of what will happen next, but I will try my best to get another chapter out. Also I'm sorry for kind of falling of the face of the Earth for a couple months, but I was busy with schooling and just life in general, well anyway thanks for reading and please enjoy.