Greetings and Salutations, Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls. I have a vision, and would like to impart it upon any bold enough to read. There is no Yaoi in this fanfiction, nor will there be any Lemons. If you want a lemon so desperately, may I suggest your local produce section? The pairing will be Naru/Karin, but that's just a formality, and was chosen randomly. Flames are tolerated, provided they are constructive. The rating is only such for language and strong violence. You may use my ideas with my permission, or if you directly reference me. I do not own any characters that were made by Kishimoto, and, with the way the series seems to be going, I think I'd rather not. But, that aside, please enjoy: Marbles, chapter one.
"X" standard speech. -- 'X' thoughts. -- "X" demon-speech or Point of Interest. -- 'X' Demon thought.
(numbers in parenthesis are explained at the bottom of the fic, usually best enjoyed after, but, as you are the reader, I'll leave it up to you.)
Marbles, Chapter One
-Clack-
"Damnit!"
-Clack-
"DAMNIT!!"
-Clack-
"What now, newbie? Ready to lose your marbles?" the boy in black asked a bright blonde, blue-eyed seven-year-old. "You ARE down to your last one, you know!" he sneered.
Naruto's head tilted up, interest piqued. "Last marble, you say?" he inquired with a grin, head turned up at the straw-chewing opponent before him. "Well, here's one I won't lose!" he proclaimed, holding up a colour-inverted Devil's Eye marble (1) "I got this one from the Hokage!"
"Hokage? That one's going to be mine! I've always wanted to take something decent from this worthless village!" the black-clad lad shouted, "Shoot it already!"
Naruto sighed, rolling the marble around in his left palm with his right index finger. 'C'mon, "Nine", you're all I've got left!' he thought, before setting it back to where he had picked it up from.
"C'mon, loser! I heard you were the best in Konohagakure no Sato, and I have better not come all the way from Iwagakure no Sato just to take your worthless marbles!" the boy jeered.
Surrounding the two, a crowd of kids, all with coloured T-shirts to show their country of origin.
Along with four others, Naruto wore a crimson shirt, slightly scuffed up, and with the spiraled leaf of Konoha, in the land of Fire, on both front and back. Leaf's marbles were wooden, fast, and fairly accurate, but they were very light, and liable to be knocked from the ring at any given moment. Wood-marble style involves using the distance between marbles to one's advantage.
Only two were sent from Kirigakure no Sato, land of Water, blue shirts with four waves identified the pair. Mist's marbles were of highly polished sea-glass, and carried interesting properties. The sea glass could be unbalanced weight-wise, and often gave a tilt to them. Sea-glass-marble style uses the shooter's familiarity with their marble to advantage. Beginners beware!
Ten made the journey from Sunagakure no Sato, land of Wind, with the gourd on both sides of their pale green shirts. Sand's marbles were hand-spun glass, very ornate, and deadly accurate. The mass was carefully controlled, and perfectly balanced. But they were, for the most part, generic and uninspiring. Glass-marble style uses the shooter's accuracy, combined with the precision of the marble for their advantage.
Kumogakure no Sato, in the land of Lightning, with what looked like three ovals adorning their yellow shirts, had only managed to send their top marbles player, due to the stormy weather. Cloud's marbles were made of bone. Their competitor claimed that his marbles were the knuckles of a bear. Bone-marble style recognizes the hard-hollow of bone to transmit force between marbles well.
The vast majority were clad in orange, with the rocks of Iwa, in the land of Earth, adorning the front and back of their fifteen shirts. their marbles were clay, and the weight each bore was noticeable. Their style was largely defensive, and waited for close range to strike, as their marbles lost speed quickly on the ground, and were rather resistant to force.
This event was the great marbles tournament. Many a child came to compete. Those without marbles were given the marbles of their locale in order to represent their country, but any marbles were allowed to be used by those who owned them. The game was a knock-'em-out-style one-on-one tournament. Each competitor played a round with ten marbles, winning whatever marbles went out of the one meter ring during their turn. All participating marbles were placed down at the beginning of each match, twenty-five cm from the center, clockwise and alternating players' marbles every eighteen degrees.
Mainly, the tourney was for rich kids who liked marbles, but all were accepted. The meeting place was always the home turf of the previous tourney's runner-up. All players were responsible for their own transportation to and from the village. The prize was simple: the winner of the tourney got to keep all the marbles collected in the tourney by the final two players.
Marbles of wood, glass, clay/ceramic, bone, or crystal could be used. In addition, the ten marbles a player used could be swapped out for any of their collection at any time before a match. However, once a marble had been knocked out of the ring, it could not be used again in that match, instead, it was merely added to the collection of the taker. Theoretically, even if one lost, they could still gain many new marbles, to compete with in the next tournament.
Naruto's opponent was the son of an Iwa tactician, but he only identified himself as "Kado, the marble-master of Iwa" he was an eight-year-old with a deadly eye for marbles. All of his were crafted of the finest ceramic (2), and highly polished. He readily used his opponents' marbles against later ones, as risking his own collection was not a priority.
Naruto himself, however, was a poor orphan. He had poorly embroidered his own leaf design onto his own ragged red shirt, and had come to play with only the single gift from the Hokage, and the nine wooden ones he was granted upon entry. All of the wooden marbles had been lost rapidly, but he replaced them with varied sorts from all of the countries. except for the sole Kumo delegate, who lost to Kado in the first round.
As Naruto took aim, he heard a steady chant arise from the entire crowd, "Ka-do. Ka-do. Ka-do. Ka-do." Truth be told, it was unnerving to know that your own village would rather chant for the adversary than one of their own.
'But then again, I was never one of their own!' Naruto thought, 'They always treat me like dirt! Well, I made it this far, and I am NOT about to lose to some snotty brat from Iwa! I'll show them just how good I am at this!' he steeled himself for the shot.
"Na-ru-to." he mumbled. Kado just grinned.
"Na-ru-to." a statement, a little louder. Kado simply rolled his eyes.
"Na-ru-to!" a declaration, louder still. Kado stared at him, 'Is this guy nuts or what?'. The crowd stopped chanting and watched intently.
"NA-RU-TO!" he firmly announced. "NA-RU-TO!!" he yelled, shooting the marble, with all his heart, at the beige marble where it sat, with tremendous force.
'If this hits, it will prove them wrong about me! They'll know that I'm the one they should have cheered for, that I'm worth something!'
The Devil's Eye sped towards the ceramic marble as a kunai would a forehead, and, as it connected, dead center, all that could be heard was a shattering -CLACK-, as all of the force transferred from one to the other, swapping acceleration for sedentary, and vice-versa. The ceramic marble quickly rolled out of the ring, stopping a good 43 cm after exiting.
"HAH!" Naruto proclaimed, "that's nine down! You're on your last marble, Kado, how's it feel?" he asked viciously.
Kado's eyes widened. 'How can this peasant even bring me down to one? No matter. He's too close to my last one, anyway!' "This match is MINE! I just know it!" he exclaimed, moving to shoot his last marble.
'Crap! "Nine" is too close to his heavy!(3) Now what?!' Naruto nervously pondered, as Kado's marble charged his own.
-Inside Naruto's Mindscape, the Cage of the Kyubi-
Watching the brat play with tiny balls humored the great beast, especially the emotional attachment he made to a piece of glass.
'My, my, isn't this game something? So simple, so innocent, yet it is like war! If each marble were a village, that is. I like that big red and yellow one, though. Its colour-scheme is...decent...' the orange fox-demon grinned at the thought of itself as a piece of glass.
'Very well, if it is to be me, it should at least be the one that wins!' Kyubi chuckled, twitching a paw to seep a minute amount of red chakra seep through the gates.
-Back at the Finals-
'Game, set, and MATCH' Kado thought, as his well-aimed marble sped along to secure him victory. Nobody noticed the wispy breath of red smoke emanate from Naruto's belly, through his shirt, and directly into the Devi's Eye marble moments before impact.
'Please don't die, please don't die, please don't die!' the chant reverberated through Naruto's skull, as the marbles made contact.
Right at that moment, "Nine" shifted ever so slightly south-west, throwing a wrench into the gears of the ceramic's path. The angle resulting was a 45-45 split; both marbles slowly rolling towards the limits of the ring. The ceramic shooter stopped just on the edge of the ring, and the larger Devil's Eye slowly approached it. The wisp of chakra was acting as a friction-generating layer between the ground and the marble, slowing it down just enough to keep it one centimeter from the edge.
"GAH!" Kado exclaimed, 'How was that? What did that marble just do!?' He had seen it played before, and he knew it was lighter than that!
Naruto grinned, he was still in this thing! And he knew how to shoot edge-shots with "Nine" as a hammer knows its nail!
Shuffling slightly, he flicked "Nine" at the ceramic marble, making sure not to over-do it. And it connected, just tapping out Kado's last marble!
The crowd roared at the upset! Some newbie had just squashed the notorious "Kado"!
'That marble...I must have it!' thought Kado, astonished at the loss.
Rules were rules, and Naruto left the tournament with a grand total of Three-hundred and thirty marbles, from the top players (age bracket 5-12) of the elemental countries!
But, as he made his way to his newly-gained apartment, he was roughly pulled into an alley away from the main road. He felt a hit to the back of his neck, and all went black.
-In an Unfamiliar Warehouse-
Naruto roused awake to find himself bound to some unknown object in a large warehouse. He was sitting, so he figured it to be a chair. He couldn't move his head, nor his arms, nor his legs. His mouth was gagged.
As his eyes adjusted, he saw before him a large man in black, with an Iwa headband around his neck. To the brute's right, was "Kado".
"The name is Takashi, actually." the boy stated. "And I. DON'T. LOSE!" he stated venomously into Naruto's face. You did something to that marble, I just know it! You cheated! But you couldn't have, you're just seven! But that marble is special, I just know it! (4) So, I've decided to take it from you! This is my bodyguard, and he does whatever I want! My daddy hired him for me!" the boy stated proudly, indicating the huge, muscular ninja to his left.
The ninja wore a Jonin flak jacket, dark orange pants, and steel bindings around his chest and arms. He had roughly five kunai visible to Naruto, and a small but wicked looking hand axe hanging off his waist. His face was obscured by an red oni (demon) mask, and he had no hair. His hands were calloused and thick, but were kept in fists.
"Jigure!" the boy began, "Grab his marble bag and bring it here!"
Jigure snatched the container from Naruto, despite the boy's squirming. "Hn." he replied, handing it to Takashi.
Takashi greedily opened the sack, and rummaged around the bottom with watchful eyes. After a few seconds, he found his prize, and withdrew the Devil's Eye from the bag. "Ah! Here we are! And these," he said, taking his own marbles back, "Are mine!" He tossed the marbles back to Jigure, who deftly caught the bag by the string.
"Jigure," Takashi turned away, "Scatter them on the ground, will you?" the Ninja did as he was asked. "Good. Now, Jigure, please shatter them right in front of this cur's eyes!" he shouted with malice in his eyes as he swiveled to glare at Naruto.
And Naruto watched, as all of his prizes were shattered, one-by-one, by Jigure's savage axe. Takashi dangled Nine in front of Naruto's face, taunting him with, "Losers like you can't have nice things. Only the best get the best, and you'll always be a LOSER!" And with that, he pocketed the eleven marbles, and opened the door,before stopping to speak, without turning.
"Jigure, cut him up a bit, just like his loser-toys! But don't kill the loser, just leave him here!" and with that, Takashi walked out, and slid the door shut again, leaving Naruto in a dark room with an axe-wielding brute with nothing better to do.
And as the cuts marred his face, his chest, his legs, his arms, his back, his hands, and his feet, Naruto knew. He had lost his marbles. But Kyubi knew that he gained much, much more.
End of "Marbles" Chapter One.
(1) A standard Devil's Eye marble is red with a yellow "eye", whereas Naruto's inverted one is yellow, with a red "eye".
(2) Ceramic is a refined clay, and has a different balance of minerals to it, changing the composition that, when heated, makes things smoother, but also a bit more fragile.
(3) "Heavy" insinuates a large marble, used for its mass and size to either resist other shots, or bash lighter marbles. Naruto's "Nine" is a "Heavy". It's commonly difficult to knock a larger marble out with a smaller marble, as the center of mass is high enough to effect the acceleration and force transfer.
(4) Many of the people in this fic will have "quirks". This makes them a bit more fun to write, and adds a sense of familiarity, I find, for my readers. Perhaps YOU know someone with a quirk?
Please, comment about the story, voice your opinions, and let me know if I've done anything wrong. If so, please provide accurate information to the contrary.
Also, I'd love to hear about some of the quirky people you know! Tell me in a review! If I like it enough, I may include that quirk into the story.
Even more, if you have any stories about marbles you'd like to share, please PM me, or e-mail me about them. If I like it enough, I may include that tale into "Marbles"