Chapter 1:

The Beginning of the Beginning

or

The Final Day of Normalcy

"Father, how long until we reach Kirigakure?" Aoichi Noroku asked as he walked alongside his father down a frozen road in Wave Country.

"A few more days' travel at our pace, we have to go slower than most to keep up our training and your treatments but it shouldn't make much of a difference" His father responded with a smile as they marched onward.

Noroku looked to be 10, fit and lean though a bit muscular for his age with long spiked powder-blue hair. He wore a robe, although the pale blue collar was all that was visible above a thick layer of matching rings, varying in size by where they were assorted with the largest at 12 in. in diameter and the smallest around 4 in. in diameter and slightly stacked around him like scales with a few smaller ones to the top. Above the small metallic blue rings his robe extended halfway up his neck and curved down slightly, providing a bit of protection against the sharp bladed metal. Around his waist, above the metal garment was a chain metal belt with weapons pouches hanging from it on either side of his waist. Below the mostly-hidden robe he wore a black pair of trousers with matching boots that had little white crystals of ice sticking to the bottoms as snow crunched beneath with every footstep.

His father, Kazuki, looked to be a larger, older form of the boy wearing a matching outfit as they marched down that icy trail. His hair was shorter, spiking up in a choppy wild manner above his Konohan hitai-ite, and he wore more layers of the blue metal rings that stacked around three-layers thick around his form. He looked dignified there, standing straight with his son on that deserted path, as the leader of a clan should.

"This looks like as good a place to set up camp as any," Kazuki announced to his son as they deterred from the path into a small clearing, "I'll unpack our bags while you go out and look for some firewood. Make sure you stay within earshot and call out if anything bad happens." He smiled as his son went out into the forest and reached down, putting his palm to the ground beneath the snow and whispering "Katon: Shinchoono Honoo" as a small circle of fire expanded from his wrist and stopped at the tree line, not touching the ground beneath but melting all snow and ice in the clearing.

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Noroku looked around before closing his pale blue eyes and thinking to himself 'Kami no Aoimoku" before opening them to reveal that from the pupils to the whites, his eyes had changed in color to that of his iris, a pale blue. He blinked, adjusting to the change as he looked around to see that his vision had changed to show nothing but varying pulsing shades of blue in the shapes of his surroundings as he looked to see only the natural chakra that this forest provided. Trees provided a slow, steady pulse along with most plant life in the area while the few animals he could see amongst it had a deeper, more abundant albeit compressed supply of the faint blue energy. Even the air had a wispy, loose supply of the stuff that floated around almost carelessly when not being pushed by the breeze. He took a breath as he looked around slowly, sure that he would never stop being taken back by the sheer natural beauty he was allowed to peer into by his kekkai genkai and smiled.

After taking his moment to enjoy the scene the boy walked over to he dark, empty-seeming trunk of a dead tree and placed his foot on it, stepping up and walking along it until he reached the first branch. He pulled out a small scroll, quickly unrolling it, and snapping the dead wood off before placing the limb onto the hand he held the paper in and pouring a tiny amount of chakra into it. The limb disappeared with a small puff of smoke and he took another step up the tree, beginning his task with relative ease.

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Kazuki stood as his son released the storage scroll and a small stack of slightly damp limbs emerged from the scroll, falling to the ground. "Good job, Kid." He said with a smile and tussled Noroku's hair, "That should be good for the night, so let's get your training out of the way and after your treatment I'll cook us some dinner and we can relax 'til morning."

Noroku had worried at first, about sparring and practicing his jutsus outside of the village where someone might see and take note and copy them or take he and his father by surprise after or during their sessions, but these fears had been soon laid to rest.

" If they wanted to copy any of our techniques, they would have to be close enough to us to see us or at least within earshot; seeing as how we nearly always use our Kami No Aoimoku, we'd most likely notice their chakra wherever they hid." His father had explained, "and as for them attacking us after or during the training, I'm a high-level reserve Jonin while you are the Aoichi Prodigy and obviously well on your way to becoming one of the strongest fighters our clan will ever produce, already stronger than most Genin even at your own modest age. Even after a workout, I doubt that we could easily be taken down so while I'm around, I swear no one will hurt you." With those words and a pat on his shoulder, Noroku was assured that they were safe and did not worry again.

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Kazuki slipped past Noroku's guard, holding his palm so it barely did not make contact with his son's skin as he pushed a violent wave of chakra through his arm as the eruption of blue energy, visible only to them, erupted from the back of his bicep and the limb briefly went numb as a surge of pain shot through him and the force of the chakra in the blow made him fall back into the snow at his small size. He'd lost that bout.

"Good form, but try to stay ready to adjust and if dodging seems impossible make sure you at least get a shot in to stagger me, that'll make it easier to regain control." Said the blue-haired clan leader as he took a few steps back and resumed a ready pose, watching his son rise to his feet.

"Thanks, Father, I'll try to keep that in mind..." Noroku muttered, staggering to his feet as he clenched his fist to bring back sensitivity and felt the smile stretching across his face. In sparring, only two rules existed: No lethal or permanently damaging blows, and No holding back, even a little, aside from obeying the first rule. Training could be hard, and sparring especially could be painful , but it was well worth it to spend time with his father and make him proud. Every mistake, even in the slightest, could be identified and taken care of as soon as it was made apparent. Perfection was attainable, it just took time and diligence. He'd spent years practicing chakra control and manipulation along with the tutors, and greatest shinobi, in his clan, and now, in his second of year of training in Taijutsu, he was so close to mastering the his clan's distinct style that he could almost taste it. He just had to push a little harder; he just had to prove himself to be the prodigy everyone said he was.

"Ugh" He groaned under his breath as the pins and needles sensation filled his arm and he charged. As he reached the man he ducked below his father's palm and extending arm a half-second before the strike would have landed and watched the chakra flowing from it through his father's chakra network. He shot his palm upward for the left side of his father's chest as his father did the same. They mirrored each other in turning at their hips and twisting so that neither blow would land and Noroku firmly stuck his feet to the ground with a quick, steay pulse of chakra, shooting out straight so that he was no longer crouched. In the instance that Kazuki saw this, the man turned his arm and went to strike again, this time aiming for the boy's abdomen. Just as his palm was an inch away, nearly within range for the strike, he noticed a surge of chakra flowing through his son's network down his leg. Before he could react, he felt the sharp pain of a blow shooting through his back and barely suppressed a loud groan of pain and, in that instance, his entire body froze and Noroku's palm touched to his own to release another jolt of chakra into his hand, immobilizing him from the elbow down. It was obvious that he'd lost but in the position his son was in he knew it was impossible for this to be the final blow and would've had to scold him if it were, as then any other flaws in form or strategy couldn't be seen and addressed should they exist. The next shot was to his chest, just below his left shoulder and actually connected, something rare in their form, as they usually just got close enough to inflict their damage to keep them form being caught in the fraction of a second that it took for a strike to connect. As the palm made contact with his chest and the force of the blow began to push Kazuki back, Noroku grabbed his Father's shoulders and jerked himself up above him, kicking off of his head and catapulting him away to land on one knee 5ft. away a second before falling to his hands and knees, sweat pouring from his face as he gasped for breath.

"I... win..." Noroku began between gasps, "I disabled you... made first strike... and had a blow that I could have made lethal." As he turned, he saw that his Father was on the ground hunched over with a hand on the back of his head. Had he mistakenly kicked his father in the wrong spot, or too hard? His head was spinning as he began to worry but was jolted beck to reality by the sound of his father's voice.

"Hahaha! Damn, kid, I've got to admit it, you got me fair and square going at my all! As long as you keep it up at that level and don't let yourself get rusty you'll be a legitimate Master of the Floating Palms!" Kazuki smiled with obvious pride in his son, but Noroku seemed a bit confused.

"Wait, I thought once I beat you, a True Master, I would be one myself?" The boy asked with a somewhat somber expression on his face after realizing he wasn't a master yet, feeling almost cheated.

"I said once you can beat me, son, not once you do. Masters must be on the same level, the strongest and among the best in their respective field. You can't become an elite by getting lucky and if you gave enough chimps ink one would start writing in Kanji, so it's generally accepted that we have to be able to spar and have the outcome be 50/50 or so. Attaining perfection is hard, and maintaining it is even harder. " Kazuki replied, scratching the sore back of his head. "If I declared you a master of the Floating Palms now, someone could say it wasn't yet proven and it could get out of hand. If you aren't really one yet, you're damn close to it though so don't sweat it. I believe you're on that level now though, so all we need to do is have a few exhibition matches with some of our clansmen and a few other villagers to prove the cut of your jib to them."

"I understand, Father... Thank you for believing in me." Noroku said, feeling a smile not dissimilar to his father's own trademark grin spreading across his face. He seldom saw his father at home, in the Aoichi Compound, as his being both a Reserved Jonin and Head of one of the most influencial clans in Konoha left him very busy fulfilling obligations both Military and Political. To train with his Father, under any circumstance, was considered an honor by anyone in the clan. So unaccustomed to it, he couldn't do much whenever his father praised him aside from suppressing the urge to jump for joy and remaining in a calm, acceptable manner.

"I always believe in you, Son. Not because of your skills or your accomplishments but because you are my son and I love you." Kazuki replied smiling for a moment before adding "Now, you ready to do some Chakra Control/Manipulation exercises?"

"Sure" Noroku replied, beaming with confidence and sheer happiness.

"Good, now this won't be strenuous or extremely time consuming but I'd like to try a new method. We'll find out just how good you are at manipulating while using varying methods of chakra in changes to shape. If you've already mastered everything you've been taught and haven't gotten rusty we'll try covering some new material." Said Kazuki, stretching and standing as Noroku mirrored his pose.

"Okay, what are we doing first?" asked the boy.

"Well, we'll begin with a basic vortex in your hand and move it across your body while maintaining it," Kazuki began.

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Noroku closed his eyes as he focused on the task at hand. From a simple spiral he had gone on to create multiple little vortexes of the blue energy dashing down his legs and across his shoulders before being asked to do something that took him by surprise; maintaining a construct of chakra, another vortex, while moving it farther from himself until he was unable to maintain control. On his first try, he was able to manage a distance of around six inches before it dissipated.

"Alright, Noroku, good job. Most people can barely move it an inch their first time. Now, instead of just guiding the chakra to that vortex and letting it be assimilated try forming it the same way and connecting a thin line of chakra to it, around as thick as your finger, to it and supplying the construct with a supply." Kazuki advised, watching intently as his son retried, this time lasting over twice as long.

"How was that?" Noroku asked, exhaling deeply as he was able to break his concentration.

"Much better, and far ahead of anything I'd expect from anyone else. Chakra manipulation, when taken to such an extreme, can make for exceedingly powerful ninjutsus that are difficult to perform without using several seals that eventually just become too tedious to use in an actual combat situation without some form of defense, and even with said defense will become dangerous to attempt. Most Shinobi tend to use the same jutsus repeatedly to let those familiar seals become a muscle memory and allow them to perform them seallessly once they've used them so many times their chakra even seems to move reflexively. This, however, can become a liability to any ninja who faces an opponent in battle twice or an opponent who has done their homework on them." As Kazuki lectured on Noroku seemed entranced, taking his every word to heart. "take Hatake Kakashi of the Sharingan Eye, for example. He is known for copying over 1,000 Jutsus, even the Rasengan, a sealless jutsu of pure chakra manipulation that even some members of our clan cannot perform and was the favorite of his own Sensei the Fourth Hokage and yet he is only ever known to use his Sharingan, Chidori, and a Summoning contract for Ninja Hounds, a Summon used mostly for tracking and subduing enemies. He could literally have an answer for any situation and yet he only ever uses these familiar, effective jutsus that he thinks are adequate. Now, say he goes against a strategist who has planned against these simple, albeit devastating ninjutsus and summons he would most likely be chakra exhausted from using these and unable to surprise them with anything that could function well against their precise, calculated plan. He would be fucked!" Kazuki realized the rant he'd just gone on as he saw Noroku wide-eyed and began to blush.

"Sorry, he just seriously pisses me off." Kazuki apologized, "Anyways, we of the Aoichi clan have a plethora of chakra, so we tend to have moreoptions, which makes incredibly effective as shinobi. I would rather have 100 Jutsu that I use as regularly as you can than have so many than 997 I don't even remember knowing half the damn time. Also, as we have this aforementioned plethora of chakra, we are able to use much more powerful, chakra-drawing Jutsus than the average Shinobi. For example, Kakashi can use the Chidori three times per day before becoming chakra-exhausted. The average Aoichi Shinobi may use the Chidori 12 times per day, and I myself may use it up to 15 times per day if I use no other intensive jutsus. Needless to say, similar to how Kakashi gets away with using at most three shots of his favorite jutsu, we tend to get away with using less than 12-15 jutsu per day. Because of this, we began developing our own, more powerful jutsus that most shinobi outside our clan would suffer from extreme chakra exhaustion upon attempting. It sounds a bit hypocritical at first, but we learn many and use them whenever needed. Would you rather use Chidori against three enemy shinobi in a day or create a vortex of lightning chakra to plow through a squad of enemy shinobi? " Kazuki paused his lecture as he waited for a response.

"I guess it would depend on the circumstance ," Noroku responded, "in a battle with a single enemy we would want to conserve our chakra in case we need to fight again before our reserves replenish."

"Very good. Unless we are fighting against multiple opponents or an Uchiha, we won't be using our most powerful jutsus very often. A shinobi must be powerful and precise, we must know when to use overwhelming force and when to use a precise killing blow. A huge attack they'll see but will be hard to dodge or a quick, precise attack that will have to hit the perfect spot and is easier to dodge if seen or predicted. A less powerful attack that is still potentially lethal and can be used repeatedly or a single devastating jutsu? Do you use a huge amount of chakra for more destructive power or do you use less on a jutsu you may need to repeat? End the fight now and risk having a lot less chakra later and have a slight chance of having to continue the fight or have a higher chance of missing and becoming injured or even killed later in the fight? Can you corner them and improve your chances of landing your shot? These decisions are the difference between winning and losing. Between life and death. A single miscalculation, a single mistake, can make you lose your own life and the lives of your comrades." Kazuki paused as he glanced up, noticing the sun had begun to go down and checking his watch. "Well, it looks like I lost track of time. My bad, let's go ahead and get to your weapon training."

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Noroku stood in the center of the clearing, blindfolded as his Father pinned up up a few human outline targets, a few in different positions, with a small tag stamped on the back of each and a less-than-significant amount of chakra. The boy wasn't allowed to activate his kekkai genkai during preparation, that would be cheating and his father would have noticed with his own.

"Alright, Kid, let's go!" Kazuki announced as Noroku immediately snatched off his blindfold and reached into his weapons pouches. Instantly activating his Kekkai Genkai, he jumped into the air and launched a volley of Senbon through the hands of the first five targets, which had been positioned as if they were performing hand signs, before throwing a second set through the respective marked eyes, jugular, heart, lungs, and kidneys of the targets, spinning and dodging a volley of blunted kunai as he reached into another two of his weapons pouches to produce a handful of shuriken and kunai, immediately tossing the shuriken into the eyes of five targets in the area the volley had come from. As he landed, jumping to dodge a volley of blunted shuriken, he finally reached for his largest weapons pouch and withdrew a chakram, spinning the sharp steel ring on his finger and tossing it at one of the last five targets as it broke the wooden neck of the target but bounced off of the hard oak bark, crushing another target and repeating the process three times before burying itself into the ground in a few feet away from the final, crushed target.

"How'd I do?" Noroku asked, exhaling a deep visible breath in the cold.

"Great. Nice use of the Senbon and rounded Chakram especially." Kazuki commented, pulling a Senbon from a target to examine it, then picking his teeth with it. "Looks like there isn't much room for improvement here, we'll try moving targets later on and test your skills against them but as accurate as you are I doubt they'll be too difficult for you to master, then we'll move on to underwater targets and sparring using only blunted ranged weapons. After you've mastered those skills we can move on to finding your own short range weapon of choice, and we'll find you a master to teach you how to use it."

"Thank you." Noroku said, feeling somewhat disappointed. "but... when will these weapons lessons end?"

Kazuki raised an eyebrow, his grin fading "You don't like weapons lessons?"

"No, it's not that, it's just... when am I going to learn some jutsus? I mean, I've been training in some way or another since I was four years old and I haven't been able to do an actual jutsu yet. I've seen a few of our clansmen using seals and I know how they all focus chakra and mold it to simplify the manipulation and all but I've never actually done one." Noroku said, unsure of how he built up the courage to ask but the words now coming out like water through a burst dam "Fire Ball, Chidori, Clone, Substitution, Transformation, I've seen and heard about all of them before but I've never been able to do them. My tutors have always told me that you were overseeing my training from afar and I would get to learn one eventually, but they never remembered to ask you about them and I never got a chance to really ask you before, you're so busy that you only ever have time to check in, eat dinner when you're in the village, and sleep. Half the time when I get home from training it's time for dinner and if you got home early enough to be there beforehand you don't want to interrupt my training or are too tired to do much other than rest or spend time with Mom, and I'm glad that you do, but we never really... talk. No more than a few sentences and a lecture here and there so I never get to tell you much."

"Wow... am I really that much of a bastard?" Kazuki couldn't help but think to himself as he looked at the son that he'd known knew less about than he'd ever realized. He always thought he was a good father, for Kami's sake what did he know about his son aside from training and what his wife, Tara, had told him? This was not going on any longer.

"I'm sorry for not always being there, Noroku" he began, "I'm sorry for not talking to you and for all the damned lectures and not spending time with you. Look... when we get back to Konoha, I'll find a way to make more time to spend with you and for now... I'll teach you a few Jutsus." Kazuki stretched and cracked his neck "sound good?".

"Sure, what'll we do first?" Noroku asked, smiling.

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His hands forming the seals he had just learned, Noroku said to himself "Kawarimi no Jutsu!" as he was instantly transported across the field and replaced with a small boulder that had been where he now stood. The jutsu was incredibly simple, a few hand seals and a good dose of chakra were all that was required. In fact, as his father explained, the seals simply helped to focus your chakra and to someone who had practiced chakra control and the jutsu they were completely unnecessary.

"It's that easy?" Noroku said nearly in disbelief.

"Well, yeah, what do you mean?" Kazuki replied, slightly confused.

"All you have to do is chakra manipulation, you don't do anything beyond everything I've learned before!" Noroku exclaimed, not mad but simply taken aback by the sheer simplicity of it "make the chakra compress, make it swirl, make it relase and BING! Jutsu complete! I don't even need the seals to do that, look!" Noroku began using the kawarimi and switching with various logs and boulders around the clearing, "Why does anyone even need a hand seal after the third time using it?!"

"Well, son, not everyone trains in chakra manipulation as much as you. In fact, our clan is known for taking much of our training to extremes so that when we do there 'complicated' techniques it's all so simple that we can do them naturally." Kazuki explained, making sure not to go on a rant.

"Lazy bastards" Noroku sighed, immediately covering his mouth as his father's eyes bulged at the obscenity. "I... umm... sorr-" Noroku began before being inturrupted.

"HAHAHA! Damn, son, why've you been holding back all this time? I was almost certain those stuck-up tutors of yours never let you learn a damn curse word!" Kazuki laughed to himself heartily, smiling from ear to ear. "Alright, now that we know you can pick these jutsus up like nothing we can teach you a few more before the night's over, skip the rest of weapons training, and have your treatment done by the time it gets really dark".

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Noroku couldn't stop smiling as they walked back to camp. He had trained with his father, learned his first ninjutsus, and actually talked to his father! To make things better, his father had promised he'd be able to train with him at home too, this day couldn't possibly get any better! As they approached the sleeping bags and his father released a small wave of chakra to neutralize the traps they'd set for security, he grabbed a small pouch from the snow just within the range of the trap; they'd filled sack with scaled and cleaned fish they'd caught the day before and snow to keep the contents from spoiling. As he withdrew the chilly stiff contents and placed them in a wooden bowl his Father set the campfire, leaving the bowl near the flames to thaw out their meal.

"You know, I never meant to be so distant Noroku" Kazuki said, holding his hands before the warmth of the flames.

"I know." Noroku replied, also warming himself.

"I won't let myself get so caught up in my duties anymore. I'll make more time to spend with you and your mother whenever possible, I promise." Kazuki stretched and turned to face Noroku, "alright, time for your treatment. Come here."

"Right." Noroku said as he walked over and laid down while his father activated their kekkai genkai, placing his hands over the boy's core and pouring his chakra into the boy's reserves, replenishing them from the day's training and quickly filling them to their maximum. Chakra Sharing was common in the Aoichi Clan, used to stretch the Chakra Coils and allowed the shinobi of the clan to have their vast chakra reserves. This practice was the inspiration for the seals given to most Jinchuuriki to allow chakra of their tailed beasts to affect their own anatomy in an extremely similar way. As Kazuki poured the pale blue energy into his son's chakra coils, making sure not to overfill any particular section so as to avoid overfilling it and causing an unbalanced development. as the pulsing blue life filled every section, the coils slowly, minutely began to expand by less than a millimeter. As they did, Kazuki watched diligently for a brief instance before moving his palms away and sighing, feeling a bit lightheaded from the exchange.

"Alright, that's over with" Kazuki said as he grabbed the bowl from the fire and two sharp spits from the bag, impaling the dead fish through their mouths and out their tails "dinner shouldn't take too long, then we can finally get some sleep. I haven't trained all day like that in a while."

"Yeah, at least it wasn't too strenuous. I've gotten used to it over time so it doesn't really bother me as much. Hate those damn treatments though, they make me feel so... bloated. Like a big chakra balloon that's overfilled with air." Noroku remarked, trying to lie still.

"So he says to his old man who has to spend the night feeling like an under-filled balloon" Kazuki replied, yawning with a smile. The day had been long and he'd realized his own ineptitude in juggling his responsibilities, but he was glad he'd been told and could make things right. He would get back to the village and find a way to distribute his power as a clan head and responsibilities to give himself a bit of breathing room to spend some free time with his family.

The aroma of cooking fish brought him out of his reverie as he heard Noroku's stomach growling, though before he could say anything about it his own joined in chorus. He grabbed the wooden spits from the ground and gave one to Noroku, taking a bite of his own. They hadn't thought to gather any herbs to season the meal, and in their hunger they'd taken the fish up before they'd been cooked quite as well as they'd have wished, but as they sat and exchanged small talk it was by far their best meal in a long time, leaving them so warm and well-fed it wasn't long before they were both asleep.

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"Noroku..." Noroku thought he could hear his own name being called, but it seemed distant. Was he dreaming?

"Noroku..." It was closer now, and he could feel himself rising back into consciousness. His eyelids felt heavier than usual, why had he slept so heavily?

"Noroku!" Horror struck Noroku as he willed his eyes open just enough to see and the first image forced them open wide. His father was hurt, bleeding steadily from his gut and arms with a large wound just below his headband. He couldn't believe his eyes as every detail of the image was forcibly imprinting itself onto his mind. His father's lips were moving but he couldn't hear a thing. His blood felt cold, like his veins were filled with ice. A slap brought him back to full consciousness but he still felt hollow.

"Listen to me, Noroku, I haven't got much time left! After we went to bed we were ambushed by a group of assassins sent here to kill us. I cast a Genjutsu on you to keep you from intervening and getting injured yourself and managed to keep you safe but most of our supplies were burned aside from what we kept in the storage scrolls. You need to keep going and make it to Kirigakure as soon as possible." Kazuki explained as fast as he could, knowing his life was measured in minutes now.

"Dad... I'm scared... will you be okay?" Noroku asked, not in any state to be thinking. The situation through.

"No, Son... I won't." Kazuki replied, "I'm not going to last much longer. I need you to take my bag and your own and go West back to our camp, all through there youll find dead assassins. Take all the Ryu on them and anything else of value, put it in a storage scroll, and make your way from there to-" his father's instructions were briefly cut off by a bloody coughing fit before he could continue " to Kirigakure. We.. I mean, you can follow the trail for a couple days and you'll be able to enter the village through a small passageway under the villages Southern Wall... It's in a stream." Kazuki's thoughts were becoming difficult to form now, as he tried to focus while he could " The man we were to meet was Jiraiya of the Sannin. Don't trust anyone else until you've spoken with him. Disguise yourself, use the transformation jutsu I showed you, just keep your identity a secret until you find Jiraiya. Look... " another coughing fit interrupted, this one visibly more painful. "Look for a bar called 'Raiza's'. He'll have... white... hair... I... I love you, Son." Kazuki exhaled the words with his last breath and fell back on the snow, closing his pale blue eyes as Noroku became aware of the tears flowing from his own. He hugged his Father goodbye, not letting go until all warmth had left the larger man.

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Author's Note: While this is a Naruto Fan Fiction the character of Naruto Uzumaki will not be appearing for a while. A few characters may be acting much differently than their Canon counterparts, but this will all be because of the AU divergence point, being the existence of this clan and its ancestors' births. I'll try to explain whenever a character acts OOC but if it seems a bit too obvious or I see fit to withhold information for story purposes. Naruto will not be appearing for a few chapters, as the storyline is not centered around him and the character it is centered around won't be meeting him for a short while. That being said, please enjoy the story. If you do enjoy it remember to follow for updates and write reviews about any chapter you particularly enjoy, don't enjoy, or have something in them that just strikes you as strange.

Translations:

Kami no Aoimoku- Divine Blue eyes

Katon: Shinchoono Honoo- Fire Style: Cautious Flame

Aoichi: Blue Energy

End of Ch.01