Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I do however now own a job, or it owns me more truthfully, and somehow this has made me want to start writing again... Probably so I don't try to kill myself from how boring it is.
In fact most of this chapter was written during down time at work so expect more of this as long as work remains boring, and unfortunately that's a pretty safe bet.
Please note that I never planned to write this out, it was just a daydream I kept notes on to try and keep suicidal thoughts at bay during data entry, so keep that and the fact this is my second attempt at writing in mind before getting too critical on me.
But whatever, most of you skip this part anyway I'm sure, so let's get down to business!
Chapter 1: Strange New World
(Konoha Interrogation Corp. Building)
His head was swimming, his ears were ringing, and he couldn't even tell if he was still among the living...
This is the state the newest focus of the Konoha interrogation team awoke to find his self in. On his knees in a large room with his eyes closed as he tried in vain to quell the aching in his head, but he could almost sense people around him, looking at him.
Trying to recall any information on the situation he found himself in he reluctantly strained his eyes open to see what he could find out. The first thing he noticed being that he was dressed in his standard clothing for some reason; a black T-shirt with his right sleeve normal while the left one went down to his wrist underneath a dark blue zip up sleeveless jumper. He had baggy dark blue trousers on with black lightweight shoes on his feet.
On his right arm he had a black fingerless glove on his hand alongside a black wristband with some kind of white symbol on it, looking like a star with four large spikes along with smaller ones jutting out between them, inside of a non complete circle; it didn't reflect any of the village symbols that the Konoha ninja knew of.
He had spiky dark brown hair and one brown eye. His right eye however was... different...
"It doesn't even begin to resemble any of the doujutsu we know of, what clan do you think this kid is from?" The confused dark haired boy managed to make out through the constant ringing in his ears.
"I wish I could tell you." Another man spoke up, this voice was much clearer, and for good reason; the man currently had his hand on the boy's head, though he could only see his toe-less sandals due to his current position, "In all honesty Ibiki I wish I could tell you something about this child, but I can't find anything... it doesn't even feel like his mind is trying to keep me out... like some other force is keeping his mind on lock down from me."
Wait... This person was trying to read his mind? Was that even possible? He tried to move but only managed to sit up slightly with a groan.
"Oh so he's awake?" The first man, Ibiki as the other had called him noticed as he began walking towards them, "Well if you can't get anything out of him then let's try this my way."
The boy didn't like the way he said that, but before he could even try to force his body to move he was picked up by his collar and had his back slammed into a nearby wall, "Who are you? What village sent you? What is that eye of yours?" The out of patience man barked at the boy, "I'd suggest giving me some answers kid, or we're going to get to see if your body is as tough as your mind."
"Where... the hell... am I?" The boy managed to struggle his voice into working through his confusion, fear and the grip this large scar faced man had on his collar.
"You know damn well where you are runt, now why are you here?" Ibiki emphasised by pulling the boy slightly off the wall just to slam him into it again.
"Can we just slow down for a second here, please?" He needed to get some facts straight fast or this man was going to hurt him without even meaning to that badly, just slamming his back onto the wall for the second time was unbearable, what kind of people was this guy used to dealing with? And where the hell was he?
"Ibiki, that's enough." An older but extremely stern and powerful voice ordered. The large scarred man dropped the boy to the floor in a heap upon hearing this and turned to face the new presence in the room.
"Hokage, with all due respect this is my job, is it not?" Ibiki questioned, quite annoyed that he wasn't able to even get started with his interrogation methods.
Walking to be face to face with Ibiki, the old looking man in his white and red attire with a large similarly coloured hat simply smiled at him, "Yes it is, but you would do well to remember what mine is..." The man's stare seemed as though it could pierce steel, "now leave the boy be a moment." There was absolutely no room for rebuttal left for the man as he resigned himself to another corner of the room as requested.
"Thank you..." A weak voice came from the heap of a child on the floor as the old man crouched down to speak with him.
"Please excuse Ibiki; he is rather thorough with everybody in his line of work, even a child such as yourself." He spared a glance at said man, making Ibiki turn his eyes elsewhere just to avoid eye contact with his superior, "I am Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Hokage of Konoha, the village in which you find yourself. Do you recall your name, young one?" This man's eyes were no longer sharp as they were moments before, now comforting enough to get the boy to ease up and sit properly in his spot on the floor attentively, the man's smile brightening as he sat up.
The boy didn't know what this 'Hokage' thing meant, but he liked the man enough to answer him, "I'm... My name's Rike... Rike Dunkon, Sir..." He remembered his name at least, that much the boy was happy about.
"Good to meet you, Rike." The encouraging old man said as he rested a hand on his shoulder, "Now, do you remember how you got here?" Maybe he could get some information on this child if he just let him explain at his own pace.
"No sir..." Rike actually felt bad that he couldn't answer this man's question despite his best efforts to search his memories, "The last thing I remember was going to sleep in my room after saying good night to my parents..."
"That's fine." Hiruzen reassured him, "Just try to remember what you can for me. If you don't know how you got here, can you tell me where you're from?" A simple enough question right?
"Yes sir; I'm from the research and design district of Kina Village on Odesa Island." Rike chirped cheerfully with a small smile.
Not knowing of anywhere with names even close to that the men in the room all shared confused looks before Hiruzen spoke again, "Right..." Rike had said it with such normality that it was hard to think he was lying. Questioning it further wouldn't help them at the moment, thus he changed the subject; "I only have two questions left for you Rike, the more pressing one being your right eye... What is it?"
Rike changed from a bright demeanour to a confused head tilt like a switch had been flicked, "What about my right eye? It's my eye isn't it, what's so interesting?"
'Does he not know about it?' Hiruzen thought to himself, the same being thought by the other two men in the room, 'If he doesn't know about it yet, then I have to be careful how I word this..."
And as if on cue to such a concern, Rike began to freak out a little. He began to almost frantically look around the room for something reflective to get a look at his eyes.
"Calm down." Hiruzen said once, being both comforting and stern simultaneously, "There is nothing wrong with it. There are a few clans in this village that also have unique looking eyes; we just wondered if this one had a name."
Trying to calm down, Rike realized that whatever they were referring to seemed almost normal to them for some reason, and that nothing was hurting from whatever it was, "I... don't know anything about my eyes looking different. I have regular brown eyes as far as I know, or I should have at least... what do they look like to you?"
Deciding to just be up front with the boy Hiruzen explained, although still taking care not to alarm the boy as this was clearly new to him, "Your left eye is just as you say, but your right eye appears to have been replaced with what looks to be a light -grey metal orb with a deep dark-grey 'X' engraved into it, with the crossing point seeming to act as the pupil as you look around with it."
Rike just sat there with his mouth agape in shock... He could still see fine, so whatever it was it was clearly designed to act as an eye, but what the hell was it? "And you're saying you still have another question for me... aftertelling me that I have a metal eye now?" Giving up on figuring out what it was at the moment he thought he would ask what the last question was himself, "Well, what is it?"
"You are correct, the last question is; do you know how you got here?" Hiruzen stood up as he spoke, helping Rike up as well as he did. The boy shook his head in the negative confused though, "Hmm, well maybe seeing it will jog your memory on a few things." The elder ninja hoped so at least, because 'it' had been confusing the three ninja since they found it.
Not knowing of what 'it' the nice old man was talking about, Rike was quite interested to see what had brought him into this strange situation, and more importantly why? Would it help explain this new eye of his at least?
XxX
(A few moments later)
Leading him through a few corridors Rike followed closely behind Hiruzen with Ibiki and Inoichi Yamanaka, the man that had been trying to read his mind, right behind him.
'This place is nothing like home' Rike thought to himself, and comparing it to what he was used to this place was extremely strange, 'There doesn't seem to be any technology at all apart from a few lights... How do these people live?' His home of Odesa was a rather advanced place compared to this, in terms of science and technology at least it seemed.
This point was reiterated to all four of them upon entering the room containing the way in which Rike came to be in Konoha. A metallic cylinder big enough to fit a large person inside with a curved top and bottom with an open door at the front of it was being held up by chains in the centre of the room. It had an open scroll and a mass of thick black ink in letters, patterns and circles under it on the floor for some reason. Through the open door it could be seen that the inside was padded for someone to stand or lie in it, alongside a small screen on the inner left wall with some form of interface under it.
"This is what brought you to our village." Ibiki explained as he walked towards the object, "We detected an object entering our sensor ninja's barrier jutsu at high altitude, we thought it was an enemy missile-type jutsu at first, but it wasn't aimed anywhere important; it landed in the forest behind the Hokage mountain. This is what we found when we went to investigate, with you unconscious inside." He finished with a point of the finger towards Rike.
For once Rike didn't have a puzzled look on his face as he actually knew what this was. It was this fact and knowing what it was used for that confused him, "Why?" He asked to seemingly no one but himself as he walked closer to the object, "This is a prototype escape pod my parents built... I didn't even know they had got it working..."
Rather confused, and getting more questions than answers, the older Konoha ninjas just let the boy speak his thoughts aloud instead of asking him what he was talking about.
"This device was originally designed and built by my parents, but the project was scrapped as it cost too much to make and power." Rike explained rather well for his age, actually clearing up some of the questions the Konoha men had, "I don't know why they actually used it though... and to send me of all people, what were they playing at? It was designed to send people off island in case of an emer-" and there Rike froze with his eyes wide.
Hiruzen stepped forward to speak, as he understood what the boy had just realized if he had been following the information thus far correctly. However before he could even open his mouth, Rike ran straight at the pod, "No, no, no, no, no, NO!" Jumping into the padded interior Rike immediately began doing something with the area underneath the screen.
Not fully understanding what the device was, originally believing it to be a weapon, Ibiki drew a few kunai and prepared to launch them at Rike. Luckily for the only non-ninja in the room, Hiruzen grabbed Ibiki by the arm and stopped him in his tracks, "It's not a weapon Ibiki!" the old Hokage shouted to make sure his trigger happy underling understood.
Rike didn't even notice that if not for the Hokage's fast reflexes, he would have been in a lot of pain at best, and more likely dead by way of pointy metal objects being hurled at him. His mind was elsewhere at the moment, 'Come on, come on, there has to be something... Anything... There!' He stopped fiddling with the area under the screen and looked up at it as a recorded video began playing. Interested by what this device was doing, and Rike's frantic rush to find it whatever this was, the three Konoha men gathered quietly at the entrance to the pod and watched.
There was a moment of static and cutting in and out as the recording began to play, but it quickly settled out to show the top half of a beautiful middle-aged woman with long blond hair and blue eyes, wearing clothes similar to Rike but for women. She also had a white lab coat with a black version of the symbol from Rike's wristband on it, "Mother..." Rike whispered to himself, half in panic and half in joy at finally seeing a familiar face, although the ninja there clearly heard what he had said.
"Hello Rike" She began with a smile, "I know you'll be confused by the time you see this, and I don't have long to explain, but I'll try... I can't just leave wondering why..." A solemn look swept her face that tugged at Rike's heart, "As you have probably guessed by waking up in the escape pod there is an emergency, and I don't know how else to say it; but by the time you watch this... Odesa Island and everyone on it will be gone..."
With that, everyone there, even the hardened ninja recoiled in shock at the information they had just heard. Rike could barely process what he had just learned before his mother's voice continued, "I and your father have to save you though... and this big hunk of junk is our only way to do it fast enough... The main reactor in the power sector will melt down and explode in less than half an hour; this is the only thing that has a chance at escaping the blast radius in time..."
If this metal pod was classed as junk by Rike's mother, then the ninja present could only imagine what was classed as good or even standard equipment on this Odesa Island, they quickly got an example though, "If you haven't noticed yet, your right eye has been replaced with probably the greatest technological creation ever built on this Island; The Exye."
So at least now they had a name for it, an eye with an 'X' in it... how blunt, but what was it exactly? "After hearing reports and stories of what the ninja of the far away land of the Elemental Nations could do, and believing ourselves to be hopelessly... hilariously out-gunned if it ever came to having to fight them; we pooled most our resources into creating something that would put us on an even footing with them, or even at an advantage... The result is the Exye you now possess, the only one in the world. Since you will be the only one getting off this Island we saw fit to give it to you... You may wake up feeling rather awful due to the anaesthetic and the rushed surgery... Sorry about that."
Well that explained the slowly calming pain in his head, and learning that the thing in his right eye socket was something of a gift from his parents did put a small smile on Rike's face, "I don't have time to tell you how to use it, but we have faith that you can figure it out. The Exye itself should help teach you what it can do, use it to keep safe... We gave you the only thing that could power it too, th- *BOOM* What th-" an explosion seemed to rock the womanin the video, disrupting the recording for a moment before clearing up again, the camera being rather off centre and out of focus though, "-ho are you, what do you want?" The voice of Rike's mother from off screen asked someone who had entered during the chaos.
"Oh, nothing much... the science on this island is just too dangerous to leave alone you see, so it's all going disappear soon." A muffled but strong and evil voice said as a man in black walked past the camera as the dust from the explosion began to settle, making things hard to see clearly.
"That was you at the reactor... but why are you in my house? You've already done what you wanted, no one's getting out of here alive, just leave us be!" Rike's mother desperately pleaded, struggling to get the pod ready before this man noticed.
This was all very difficult for Hiruzen to watch, he wanted to take Rike away from the situation, but felt it wasn't his place to take him away from what seemed to be the last information on his mother and homeland.
"Yes, you'll all be dead soon it's true... but what a waste it would be if I let that boy there die without first taking what he has for myself." He gestured grandly at something off screen, an unconscious Rike in the pod no doubt, "It's no tailed beast, but I'm sure I can still find a use for it... now stand aside..." While the mysterious man rambled on about his evil intentions, Rike saw a blurry figure he knew to be his father run past the camera with a metal rod ready to swing.
"Keiri, launch the pod now!" The newest voice to come from the recording shouted as he took a wild swing at the back of the unclear man in blacks head, "What the hell? Is he a ghost?" The dark man seemed no worse for wear as the form of Rike's father flew back past the camera, crashing into a shelf as vivid smashing sounds told that most of its glass contents had been destroyed, likely deeply cutting into the human rag doll that now lay unconscious on the floor.
"Futile, I will have what I came fo-" A sudden shaking and fiery noise cut the man off as if to refute him, "Tch, damned bitch!" He shouted as he flung something at Rike's mother off screen, with the squelching bloody noise making Rike close his eyes for a moment, but the need to know what happened forced them back open, "Damn it! That thing moves fast... He'll survive... That means I can still find him..." The man darkly chuckled as he walked past one last time before the recording ended from the pod being out of range of the wireless camera.
The very last image left on the screen was the black of the man's cloak, and the red clouds that adorned it.
The Konoha ninja shared a knowing look, as they all knew what that meant 'Akatsuki...' was the thought they shared. The Hokage himself didn't even know what to say, taking in all of the information. Learning that an entire large Island had been completely destroyed along with everyone on it was a terrible thing to learn, but entire clans and villages being wiped out were not uncommon occurrences in the Ninja World... But this boy was not a ninja.
The young child held up better than the three thought he would though, silently crying whilst giving the red cloud frozen on the screen an angry stare that made even the ninja around him wary.
He had no home, no clan or family to speak of, nothing. Just a fancy eye and if he was following the information correctly; something that rivalled a tailed beast on or within his person... Why did all of this pull at the Hokage's heart so much, and what was this uncanny feeling of déjà vu?
Nevertheless, the Hokage eventually rested a hand on the still sobbing boy's shoulder, "I am terribly sorry... No child should have to experience what you just went through..." Hiruzen's sober expression showed that he truly felt sorry for this boy.
"That man on the screen," He said, pointing at the red cloud, "belongs to a powerful circle of criminal ninja, and he will still be looking for you..." Akatsuki didn't let things go, and if Rike had something one of them wanted they wouldn't stop until they had it.
"So I recommend staying here, in Konoha, where we can keep you safe." And train him to use whatever abilities the Exye and this other mysterious force he held could give him. The easiest way to do that would be; "We can enrol you in our ninja academy to teach you about our world, and you may become a Konoha ninja if you so wish... I will not force you to do so; I will not even force you to stay. The choice is yours."
The now no longer sobbing but sniffling Rike looked up at the Hokage, with a more controlled anger than before, but a great anger still, "If I become a Ninja... will I get a chance at taking them down... even the smallest chance at facing them and winning?"
Revenge is not a good thing to fuel was the first thought to come to the wise Hokage's mind, although when he looked closer he could see that the anger in Rike's eyes didn't seem like blind revenge. Regardless of what he thought, the Akatsuki would come knocking on the doors of Konoha for Rike and another certain child eventually whether they liked it or not. Revenge or not, "If you train hard, master the gifts your parents left you, and don't let your anger cloud your judgement... then yes, I believe you will."
His sniffling stopping and a determined smile began forming, while the look in his eyes remained as serious, but much more focused, "Then sign me the fuck up... Sir..." Rike promptly added, embarrassedly trying to make up for his little outburst that actually made Ibiki chuckle, he liked that attitude.
Smiling at the young boy's answer Hiruzen looked to his fellow ninja, "Ibiki, Inoichi. You two are the only ones who know of this 'escape pod' of Rike's, correct?" The sage man asked.
"Yes, Hokage" The two men swiftly answered.
"Good, then seal it away and store it as deep in the archives as you can. The information we all just heard is now an S-class secret, strictly not to be shared with anyone but us four." The Hokage had begrudgingly failed to keep a different child he had taken in from suffering because of secrets he didn't know of or understand; He would not make the same mistake with this boy.
At least whatever it was that this child had within him it had never ravaged their village before. That would make things easier for Rike when the time came for him to learn how to use it.
Better no one knew about it yet though.
"Very well, Hokage" Ibiki and Inoichi answered, both moving to separate sides of the pod before slamming their palms on the open scroll in unison. A puff of smoke along with a strange noise later and the pod had disappeared, leaving nothing but loose chains and the scroll on the floor that Ibiki rolled up. Bowing to his Hokage, he then disappeared into smoke himself, Inoichi doing the same shortly after.
OK... So these people were apparently wizards or something because the only word Rike could describe what had just happened was magic, 'Is this what a real ninja can do?' The thought that he could potentially learn how to do similarly crazy things did excite the boy he had to be honest.
"Now then," Hiruzen said to snap Rike's attention away from staring at where Ibiki and Inoichi just were, "Let's get you set up. Welcome to Konoha." Although getting Rike settled in was going to take the Hokage pulling quite a few favours, and a lot of paperwork... 'I hate paperwork...'
XxX
(Two weeks Later - Konoha Ninja Academy)
'Okay, first day of ninja training... No pressure, everyone else is new as well right? You're no different from any other kid here... Apart from you're not from Konoha... And you have a metal eye... No big deal, right?' Rike thought, trying to calm his nerves to no avail while he stood on the grassy grounds just outside the Konoha ninja academy.
If nothing else he did looked out of place, something some of the other children getting ready for their first day at the academy were whispering about, but Rike just ignored them.
He was still in his gear from Odesa that he arrived in, with nothing coving his Exye despite Hiruzen buying him a patch to hide it if he so wished. He had also bought him some more ninja style clothes during the two weeks they spent together as well, but Rike just really didn't think they suited him.
It may have took some Hokage rank pulling, but it took only two weeks to get things like citizen ID, a bank account with some funds for basic living and a simple small apartment for Rike to live in for the time being. Hiruzen was good like that.
All things considered, Rike was extremely grateful to the old man who had taken up the role of his guardian while he got settled in to his new life. Rike couldn't have asked for anything more from the man. By now he thought everything the Hokage had already done was far beyond any generosity he had been given previously, even compared to when he was back home...
'Home...' That word still pulled at Rike's soul, but he knew crying about it would solve nothing. He had his mission set in his mind; "Get strong, find Akatsuki, and kick their ass." A simple enough mission, in the eyes of a child, but he would eventually learn that he had gravely underestimated just how strong he would have to be to make such a thing a reality.
Rike's thoughts were brought to an end when he noticed some of the other children entering the academy building after saying goodbye to their parents. Actually, when he stopped to think about it, all of the other children had their parents there to see them off on their first steps to becoming ninja.
Except for Rike... And one other child he saw sitting on a rope swing hanging from a nearby tree. Seeing some common ground, as sad as it was, he thought he might as well try and make a friend.
However as he began to walk in the boy's direction, he noticed something else about a few of the parents he had been watching. They were giving this child on the swing some of the coldest stares he had ever seen, whispering to each other about a 'Demon Fox' and 'Cursed Child' and other confusing but harsh terms... All directed at this lonely looking blond boy.
Seeing said child's face sour and become a mixture of both sadness and anger didn't stop Rike from walking over to him though; why would he care what some nasty old people said?
"Hey," Rike greeted the blond boy, who just ignored him, seemingly not registering that he was being spoken to. It was like the boy wasn't used to it, "Umm, Hello?" Rike tried again, finally getting the boy to turn to him, his uninviting expression still plastered on his face.
"What? Do you want to make fun of me too?" The boy on the swing asked rather harshly as he slowly rocked himself. Just how dejected was this child? Shaking his head in the negative with a small smile was Rike's answer, "Then what do you want from me?"
'And I thought I was going to be the one that struggled at making friends here...' Rike thought to himself before speaking again, "I don't want anything from you, really," rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "You just looked lonely. I don't have any parents here either so I thought we at least had that in common, so I wanted to say hello." It really was that simple to Rike, even if the similarity wasn't something good, it was still something.
"Hmm..." The blond boy hummed, looking Rike over, "You don't look like you're from around here, your clothes are too weird," coming from a child with whisker markings wearing an orange jumpsuit, "you a spy or something?" He jokingly accused.
"No!" Rike took a small amount of offence at such a claim. It was not the first time someone had thought he was one, like that damn Ibiki guy who he had noticed keeping tabs on him every so often, "I'm not from Konoha originally, but this is my home now, so... nice to meet you, the name's Rike Dunkon." He finished while extending a hand for the boy to shake.
Not getting any bad vibes from this brown haired kid and actually getting a few laughs at how seriously he took his joke, the boy stood up off the swing and shook his hand, "Nice to meet you Rike. Meet Naruto Uzumaki, ninja prodigy and future Hokage! Dattebayo!"
Was that a verbal tick or something? An odd way to end a sentence, but Rike let it slide. When he wasn't being all down trodden Naruto actually seemed like a nice and bright kid. Even if Rike very much doubted the blue eyed boy's chances of becoming Hokage, but he wouldn't tell him that while he was trying to make a friend.
Speaking of eyes, "What the hell is that?" Naruto suddenly got far too close into Rike's personal space for his liking trying to get a good look at one of his eyes, actually making Rike jump back a fair distance on reaction, "What's that thing in your eye? It looks cool!"
'Really, it took him that long to notice?' Rike dead-panned to himself as Naruto continued trying to figure out what it was, "It's called the Exye; it's a replacement eye my parents gave me before they passed away." The full story on that topic was now a secret by order of the Hokage, but Rike could say this much of his own background at least.
"That's awesome!" Naruto chirped happily, how fast did this kid's just mood switch? "Oh shit!" He abruptly exclaimed as he remembered something, changing just as quickly into a panic.
"What is it?" Rike wondered aloud, watching the eccentric blond yell at himself.
"Shut up and come on!" Naruto pleaded as he grabbed Rike by the arm and started running for the academy doors, "I am NOT being late on my first day to becoming Hokage!"
Oh, that's right; He originally went to talk to Naruto because some parents were saying goodbye to their kids... as in sending them inside... as in they were now quite late after chatting for a while... "Oh God damn it..." Rike sighed with a shake of his head as he got Naruto off his arm but kept up with him as they continued on into the building.
Hopefully this wouldn't be an accurate reflection of the pair's escapades in the future, right?
Rike could hope at least.
XxX
(3 Years Later – Rooftops of Konoha)
"I am NOT being late for my ninja exam AGAIN!" The older but unmistakable voice of Naruto Uzumaki cried out as the orange clad boy ran at speed over the roof of a building.
The blond ninja in training was still wearing an insufferable Orange jumpsuit with blue shoulder parts and a high white collar, a kunai holster and ninja pouch strapped on to his left leg and backside. He wore blue toe-less sandals, as well as had his ever trusty goggles on his forehead.
"Whose fault is it that we're late again, genius?" The now more refined voice of Rike called out, following behind Naruto as the pair jumped from rooftop to rooftop.
Having long grown out of his clothes from his homeland Odesa, Rike had done the best he could to replicate the look of them by using and modifying ninja clothing; as he now had dark blue ninja leggings taped up at the ankles leading down to black toe-less sandals on his feet, his left thigh also taped up with a long black kunai pouch attached around it, as well as having a similarly dark general ninja tool pouch behind his right hip.
He had cut the right sleeve off of a black long-sleeve shirt, leaving the area around his shoulder frayed, along with a dark blue zipped up jumper-vest over the top of it. He still had a single black fingerless glove on his right hand alongside his faithful wristband with his family's star symbol emblazoned on it.
But the most striking piece of his new attire was a metal headband with a leaf symbol inscribed on it wrapped around his forehead with black fabric, keeping his longer but still spiky brown hair out of his eyes.
"How many times do I have to tell you that going to Ichiraku's for breakfast is a bad idea?" The newly appointed Konoha Genin yelled forward rhetorically. It wouldn't be such an issue if he just had one bowl of ramen like a normal person, but if Rike had learnt one thing over these few years it was that Naruto Uzumaki was far from normal, likely being the reason they had become friends so easily when he thought about it.
"Trick question! Ichiraku's is never a bad idea, EVER!" The blond shouted as he jumped down to the ground as they ran out of rooftops to traverse, taking a second to land in a crouch before taking off in a sprint again.
"Why do you care so much about being late this time, you've failed this exam what, like three times already? What's so different this time?" Rike shouted as he dove head first over the final buildings ledge, a rather suicidal looking way down if any normal person was watching.
However instead of falling straight to the ground like Naruto had, Rike somehow righted himself in an arc to have his body horizontal to the ground as he kept his momentum. Rike was essentially flying, low and parallel to the ground, the 'X' of his right eye glowing yellow, before it turned back to its usual dark grey colouring as he landed without missing a beat and continued chasing after Naruto.
"Today is my day man! I can feel it! And for as fancy as your stupid V-Exye is, it is not getting us there any faster!" Naruto taunted over his shoulder as the academy came in to sight.
If Naruto was honest he was actually quite envious of just how cool that damned eye and the things it let Rike do was, but he would never admit to such a thing, "What are you being so high and mighty about anyway? You failed the exam the first time and only passed the second time because you cheated!"
"I did no such thing!" An annoyed Rike fired back, "Using my C-Exye to give me better control over my chakra is not cheating; it is good use of the tools I have access to!" He smugly argued while the 'X' of his eye began to glow light blue. He didn't even plan on using it at the moment; he just knew the mere sight of the C-Exye pissed Naruto off.
"That's what I mean; CHEATING!" Naruto was having none of Rike's crap today.
His Exye abilities were fair were they? Yeah right. They had briefly learned about other special eyes in class, and sure they sounded powerful, but the Byakugan sounded mostly fair; hell, even some aspects of the Sharingan seemed fair. Some of the things the Exye let Rike do was just good, honest to God, real-life cheating of the highest order. Was Naruto a bit salty that he didn't have a quick solution to sucking at chakra control?
"It's such BULLSHIT!" Of course he was. Why didn't he have something useful like that?
"I'm sorry that my parents thought I needed to be even more bad-ass." Rike mockingly apologized, not entirely accurate as to the reason he was given the Exye, but it had the desired effect at pissing Naruto off further as they entered the academy grounds like a pair of blurs.
Hey, Rike had already passed the ninja exams, the shiny metal plate on his forehead a symbol of said achievement, so he felt fully entitled to rile Naruto up as he got ready for his fourth shot at them.
Fourth! He was sure he could have passed the last exam himself on his second try even without the C-Exye giving him a little unfair advantage in the control department, so what was Naruto's excuse?
Naruto might have been the second worst student in the world when it came to books or lectures, right next to that lazy ass Shikamaru, but if there's one thing he loved it was his jutsu. He and Rike could both do the Transformation Jutsu just fine, despite Naruto's persistently perverted usage of it to try and catch some of the older men in the village off guard, so why did he find the Clone Jutsu so difficult?
Choosing to cease the back and forth between the two for now, Naruto shot into the academy building, closely followed by Rike. Too closely in fact, as when Naruto entered their classroom and abruptly stopped to check if their teacher Iruka was already there or not, Rike turned the corner into the room and slammed full force into his blond friend, sending them both hurtling across the room before coming to a stop as a tangled mess of arms and legs on the floor.
Everyone else in the room just ignored the entrance of the class's resident fools, as they had seen similar if not the exact same event occur so often across the years that it wasn't even worth pointing out any more, let alone laughing about it.
"Will you two IDIOTS watch where you're going!" Well, almost everyone.
"Sorry, Sakura..." Rike droned to the red and white dress clad kunoichi with long pink hair Sakura Haruno, obviously not sorry in the slightest as he removed himself from the mangled mess he had just been a part of like it was a trained and practiced art, helping his blue eyed fellow moron off the floor as he did so.
"Yeah, sorr- Wait a minute, we're nowhere near you, what the hell are we apologizing for?" Naruto noticed mid apology that Sakura wasn't even in the gangway at the back of the class where they had just came bumbling in. She was all the way over in one of the isles, standing next to an uninterested black haired boy wearing a high-collared blue top and white arm warmers, hands laced in front of his face as was the norm.
"I was talking with Sasuke before you two oafs came running in as usual!" Just because it was the usual didn't mean it wasn't annoying for Sakura, and their blatant disregard for anything she said just irritated her further.
"No, you weren't talking 'with' Sasuke; you were talking 'at' Sasuke, there's a difference..." Rike bluntly corrected, getting a few chuckles from the room, grating on Sakura further, "And you can chill Naruto, Iruka isn't here yet." He pointed out at seeing Naruto start looking around for their teacher again.
'Troublesome...' A half asleep Shikamaru Nara thought to himself with his head in the palm of his hand resting his arm on the desk, did these two always have to be so loud? He wore an unassuming chain armour vest under a grey jacket with green edges, his black hair in a large, upwards-pointing spiky ponytail, 'If Naruto's here that means he was serious last time...'
"Wait, if Naruto's looking for Iruka... Please don't tell me he's doing the test again?" Sakura realized for herself, half mocking and half dreading having to sit through Naruto try to make clones again, "Why don't you give up? You just can't do it, move on. You're simply not cut out to be a ninja."
"You," Rike began with a point at Naruto, "don't go getting all depressed because 'your Sakura-Chan' is being bitchy as usual," He knew Naruto had something for the pink haired girl, God only knew why, and before said girl could even take offence Rike pointed straight at her, "and you, leave the hell him alone!" Naruto felt genuinely blessed to have at least one person that he could count on, "If anyone gets to drill him about taking the test a FOURTH damn time it's me!" Naruto just fell over backwards as the uplifting feeling thoroughly disappeared.
"Fuck you, fuck her, fuck clones and fuck that damn eye of yours!" Pointing at Rike, Sakura, the ceiling then back to Rike again as Naruto vented. He just got up and stormed off in a huff, taking up his seat towards the front of the class, Sakura doing the same having long since had enough with the pair of idiots for the time being.
Naruto wasn't that mad, he was just anxious about the test was all, he'd be fine in a few minutes. Knowing this Rike just took up his own seat near the back left corner of the room next to a purple haired girl in a dull-white winter coat, her pupil-less violet-white eyes just watching as things unfolded, with particular interest in Naruto it seemed. This was something Rike always noticed about his classroom neighbour Hinata Hyuuga but chose to ignore; If Naruto was blind enough that he couldn't see this on his own, Rike wasn't going to point it out for him.
Sasuke Uchiha just watched the scene play out from his seat, bored. He didn't dislike the two newest entrants to the room that much. Sasuke was not one to 'like' anyone of course, but he actually disliked Rike slightly less than he did most people, the sole reason for this being the fact that the strange eyed boy often got into logical arguments with the pink haired girl that had just been stood next to him.
Rike never 'won' any of these arguments of course, because as Sasuke knew all too well; Sakura was not logical... It got her to stop bugging him whenever one sparked off though, and for that he was genuinely grateful, even if he never planned on sharing that fact.
As the ruckus settled down a rather plain man with his brown hair in a short upwards pony-tail, a long horizontal scar that went over his nose and a standard Konoha headband entered the room, wearing the standard Chunin uniform of blue clothes under a green combat vest. The teacher-ninja Iruka was treated to the rare sight of his entire class sat in their seats relatively quiet for once, something that made him think his students were actually growing up, "Come on and get started so I can pass this thing already!" This thought lasted about a second before an irritated yet eager looking Naruto tore it asunder.
Looking at Naruto after his outburst it took all the composure he had for Iruka to fight his natural urge to inflate his own head to the size of the room to yell at the blond boy like he would usually, but he could see why Naruto was on edge at the moment, "Naruto, you've failed this exam three times already. The only reason I'm letting you have one last go is because you begged me to for an hour after last time... This will be the final time I let you take this exam, I have teams to arrange and I can't wait any longer to see if you're going to be in one."
Iruka did feel sad for the boy; despite him being a nuisance most of the time, he knew that Naruto wanted nothing less than to be ninja, and he did work hard towards that goal in his own way despite the ego problem. However the fact that Iruka had to decide on the teams for his passing students to be put into before the end of next week was something he could delay no further.
"I won't need another time, because I'm going to pass this right now!" Naruto said with confidence as he vaulted over his desk, making it to the open front area of the room in one jump. Before Iruka or anyone could say otherwise, Naruto slapped his hands together into a ram seal and began gathering an invisible energy within his body prior to shouting the name to his most hated jutsu; "Clone Jutsu!" An odd noise rang out with a puff of smoke concealing Naruto as his jutsu took effect.
"Huh, maybe he wasn't just running his mouth for once. He did that with confidence and it actually looked right." Rike thought as the smoke of the jutsu began to clear. As it did however, the classroom was met with the sight of a pale, lifeless duplicate of Naruto laying face down on the floor before disappearing abruptly after a few seconds with a pop.
The only sound that could be heard in the classroom over a few chuckles at yet another failure from the dead last member of the class was the loud bang of Rike's forehead impacting his desk, "Or maybe not... God damn it man..."
Rike just sat there, face down on his desk with his eyes closed, mulling around the thought of how Naruto wouldn't be on his team in the future. There was no guarantee of such a thing anyway even if he passed, but there was no chance of it now...
Rike didn't mind the fact he'd have to make new friends with his future team members; he planned on doing so regardless, unless Sakura ended up on his team, screw befriending her, but knowing that his longest standing friend wouldn't be joining him on his ninja career, even from another team, was a hard pill to swallow. If he felt like this, then Rike had no idea how Naruto must have felt at that moment.
Hearing the classroom door slide open with a bang Rike had a pretty good idea how he was doing, as before he could even finish looking up Naruto had already ran out, leaving everyone remaining either laughing, feeling sorry for him or not caring at all.
"What was that all about?" Another man, similarly dressed to Iruka, poked his head through the now open door, wearing a bandanna-style headband with dull, long white hair poking out from it, "Was that Uzumaki just now?" The man asked Iruka, having just seen the orange bundle of emotions blur past him.
"Hey Mizuki," Iruka greeted his fellow teacher, "Yeah, he just failed the last exam for the final time, so he's pretty upset..." Iruka finished with a frown; he really did feel sorry for the boy despite how he usually felt towards the child for a certain S-Class secret he just so happened to be at the centre of.
"Ah, I see..." Mizuki turned to leave the room, "I'll go find him and calm him down before he does something dumb like paint the Hokage Mountain again." Rike broke into a chuckle quietly so to not be heard, those were some fun times.
"Good idea, thanks Mizuki." Iruka watched as his colleague left to find the distraught boy before he got into any more trouble than usual, not able to notice the evil smirk on the man's face as he exited.
"Right, everyone left here has passed their exams and is now a fully qualified Genin ninja," Iruka spoke to his class to get them to pay attention now the whole event with Naruto had finished, "Now, the last phase of your time here at the academy is getting into teams of three to go begin your careers together. However thanks to Naruto trying the exam so many times we have not yet decided on how best to balance out the teams."
At that the class began to mutter about Naruto messing things up as usual, while Rike just sat there contemplating how quickly he could punch everyone complaining in the face and how to get away with such actions, where was the Exye ability that would let him do that hiding?
His daydreaming was cut short when his teacher continued, "So, for today we will be going over how things work now you're all ninja and what you will be doing as of next week when you are assigned your teams. We'll start with missions; there are four types you'll be doing..."
Iruka broke into full teacher mode and that was where Rike stopped listening. He would figure things out as he went the same way he always did, right now all he could wonder was where Naruto had gone off to...
He knew his friend would be devastated by this outcome despite all the joking the two did, but he also knew that Naruto was tough. In fact he was one of, if not the single toughest person he knew. He'd be fine given some time and enough ramen to feed the village, and Rike wished he was exaggerating that last part.
Rike's thoughts began to wander as always when in class and noticed Shikamaru asleep at his desk, 'Man after my own heart, if we end up on the same team I feel sorry for whoever that unlucky third person is..." This was his last thought before lying his head down on the desk himself to catch some Z's.
Hinata watched Rike as he fell asleep and couldn't help but worry for his best friend as well, though for her own reasons, "Naruto..." He always tried so hard, and was always so bright, even when she and anyone else looking close enough could see how hard it was sometimes for him to keep acting that way.
Naruto's general outlook on life had improved vastly thanks to her fellow odd-eyed comrade that was peacefully sleeping away next to her, but the way people treated him could and would still get to him every so often like just now.
But he would bounce back, he always did, of this much she was sure as she began paying attention to the lesson once more.
XxX
(One Week Later – Konoha Ninja Academy)
As Iruka had instructed, the new Genin regrouped one last time in their classroom at the academy to be assigned their teams and their new squad leaders/teachers.
Rike hadn't seen Naruto once in this time, which was worrying in and of itself, but was made worse by the fact that Ibiki had came by his apartment a few days ago to ask where Naruto was. Something about some scroll or whatever, Rike hadn't been listening past the 'Where's Naruto' part and just told the large scarred man what had happened at the academy before closing the door and going back to bed.
Rike wasn't in the mood to deal with Ibiki, he couldn't find his friend anywhere; not at his house, not at their training spot in the forest, he hadn't even seen him at Ichiraku's for a whole week. Just thinking about that part worried Rike the most, as the fires of hell engulfing the village and meteors falling from the sky wouldn't stop Naruto going there for a bowl of his favourite ramen, so where was he?
These were the thoughts running around in Rike's mind as he sat there with his head down on his desk, waiting for Iruka to get there so he could tell them how they were going to be grouped up, trying to push the thought to the back of his brain that regardless of whose team he ended up on it wouldn't be with his friend.
The door at the front of the class opening and the chattering of the room getting louder caught Rike's attention. Believing the ruckus to have been caused by Iruka arriving he looked up from his favourite classroom posture to be met with the last thing anyone in that room expected, "Naruto? What the hell?"
And there he stood, as orange as always and a smile that seemed to grow as more and more people noticed the shiny metal plate with a leaf symbol engraved on it that sat firmly in place wrapped around his head with blue fabric, "Where did you get that?" Sakura stood up from her seat, slamming her hands on the desk, "You failed? How do you have a headband?"
"It's a long story..." The shit-eating grin never dropped for a second as he just stood there at the front of the room showing off with his arms folded. Not a good reactive stance for a ninja to take, as Naruto soon found out as he was swiftly tackled to the floor by Rike who seemed to fly from his seat like a missile with his V-Exye helping out to greet his friend, "Oof, good to see you too man... Now get the hell off me!"
Rike did as asked but never turned his vector controlling yellow Exye off as he just danced around in the air above his new comrade. He didn't even care where Naruto had been for the past week or what he possibly did during it to get his headband, he was just happy that he had his only real friend back, and as a graduated ninja to boot.
Those unfamiliar with Rike's favourite ability granted to him by his right eye just stared between the airborne ninja and the headband on Naruto's forehead with equal disbelief.
Hinata had a simple serene smile on her face as she stared at the pair of ninja, Sasuke was looking up at Rike's glowing eye with a tint of envy, trying to act uninterested but failing, and Sakura just gawked in disbelief at what she was seeing.
The usually lazy Shikamaru spoke up out of curiosity though, "So, how'd you get it Naruto? We all saw you fail, so what gives?" The rest of the class nodding in agreement to this, he wanted to ask how Rike was busting such smooth moves high above the rest of the class as well, but one mystery at a time.
If he or anyone other than Naruto and Iruka ever actually paid any attention to Rike when he trained or just in everyday life they would know about his Exye abilities. It wasn't like Rike had been hiding them for all these years as he figured them out, just no one noticed he was doing anything special by ninja standards. Doing his best rendition of some form of thriller dance in mid air in front of the entire class seemed to be what it took to get people to finally wonder about it.
"I think I can help with that one." The attention of the class turned to the door as a seemingly injured Iruka walked in with a crutch, smiling despite this, with his headband absent, "Naruto displayed how a true ninja should act yesterday, and in light of such a courages act to protect a comrade I granted him a pass and my own headband as proof of such. He is now a ninja of Konoha the same as the rest of us." Iruka finished with a bright smile with his eyes closed at Naruto, who returned it full force.
Iruka then noticed something absent after looking at his class, "Where's Rike?" A united raise of fingers at said ninja being his answer made Iruka look up at the boy effortlessly hanging in the air, "V-Exye?"
"V-Exye." Rike chirped happily, he had seriously not been in such a good mood since he passed his own headband earning exam.
Iruka just looked back at Naruto under the strange Genin, "How long has he been up there?"
"Since just before you got here." Sakura helpfully chimed in.
"Ah, I see..." Iruka acknowledged with a nod, "Five, four, three, two-"
Naruto's pondering at what his teacher was counting down for while he took a few steps back was cut short when Rike fell out of the air and crashed into him, leaving them as their trademark heap on the floor, "One..." The entire class finished before bursting out into laughter, they hadn't seen that one before from the pair.
Iruka just shook his head in an amused fashion, "Rike, you know you can't use that ability for long yet... It was great to watch though."
Rike just happily grunted in his effort to stand, he had forgotten completely about the usage limit on his passive Exye abilities with Naruto showing up and then getting caught up listening as to why he now had a headband, "Sorry Iruka, I was busy celebrating." He said as he helped his friend turned ninja up from the floor.
"I guess some things just don't change." Iruka laughed as he made his way to the front of the classroom, "Get to your seats now you two, we're all here for a reason other than Naruto graduating." The two fledgling ninja did as instructed, in far too good of a mood to be a pain in Iruka's ass like they usually were.
"Ok, now that that's over with let's get to the reason you're all here; Teams." Iruka grinned as he saw his pupils chatter amongst themselves wondering and hoping who they would end up with. Iruka just watched for a while, taking it all in as he knew this would be his last time seeing them as his pupils, after today they would no longer be his students, but his comrades.
"Ahem," A good old clearing of the throat got attention back to Iruka, "So then, let's get started. Team One-"
XxX
(A Few Minutes Later)
"Team 7:" Iruka had taken his time announcing the names of his students while writing them on the board, then gauging the reactions from those announced now they had their team. Rike and Naruto were starting to get noticeably impatient though, "Naruto Uzumaki," Said ninja fist pumping into the air as it was his turn to find out his future team members.
Sakura just sat there repeating herself in her head, 'Not with the idiots, not with the idiots-' and so on.
"Hinata Hyuuga," Sakura stopped chanting in relief, there was only ever one girl per team so she was safe from Naruto at least, but her new mantra repeating in her head was of the begging fashion aimed at the raven haired Uchiha.
"Sasuke Uchiha," Sakura's head slammed on the table in disbelief, how was her luck this bad?
"And Rike Dunkon. Right, Team-" Iruka was cut off when Sakura stood up and yelled out at him.
"What!" The sheer volume of her outburst made those around her visibly lean away from her as if a shock wave came from it, "Teams are made up of three Genin! Why does Sasuke-Chan's team have four?" It didn't make any sense, Sakura had never even heard of a four man team before.
Iruka looked away from where he was writing names on the board to see Sakura stood waiting expectantly, but was far more interested in Rike who once again had his V-Exye active and was doing his thing in the air, holding Naruto up alongside him as the pair celebrated in their own strange way.
This was something that Hinata just smiled at; she was with Naruto so she was happy with that. Rike was a good person too, and Sasuke was just quiet as far as she could tell, things couldn't have been better in her eyes.
Speaking of Sasuke, the most silent member of the newly formed team 7 had his hands laced in front of his face like usual, but if anyone looked hard enough they would see a smirk hiding behind them, 'Not with Sakura... Thank God... If that means I have to put up with the idiots, so be it. At least the Hyuuga is quiet, so that's a bonus I guess.'
"Five, four, thre-" Iruka began to count again before Rike swiftly dropped Naruto into his seat and landed back in his own seamlessly, letting out a chuckle at almost letting his self-imposed time limit slip his mind again, "Better. And the answer to that is quite simple Sakura," Iruka began answering as he looked to her, "We didn't expect Naruto to pass."
Naruto and Rike face faulted while the rest of the class laughed at the blunt reasoning before Iruka continued, "By that I mean his sudden graduation threw a wrench into how the teams added up, so one team had to have four members. Since Sasuke here has the highest marks in the class we found it fitting to balance things out by putting the third and second lowest marking students on his team. It was either that or put the single worst in Shikamaru on it, but his team's clans have a thing going with them."
Rike and Naruto just looked at each other and shared a shrug. Hey, it made enough sense in their books. They didn't even take the remark as an insult, they knew as much as anyone they never gave a damn when it came to writing stuff down, especially in tests.
"That leaves Team 8:" Iruka continued writing names on the board, "Kiba Inuzuka, Sakura Haruno and Shino Aburame."
'Great, first I'm not with Sasuke-Chan, and now I'm stuck with dog boy and bug brain... Kill me now...' Sakura internally moaned to herself as the other two members of her new team seemed to not care one way or the other.
Kiba had untamed brown hair and two red fang-like markings on his cheeks framing his grin. He didn't mind Sakura and Shino, and his small white dog Akamaru sitting in the hood of his furry dark-grey jacket letting out a yap at liking them was all he needed to accept his new team mates.
Shino himself was as blank and emotionless as a brick wall, the announcement of his team not changing this fact whatsoever. Most of his features other than his short spiky dark hair were hidden by his ever present small circular shades and a grey coat with a collar that was high enough to cover up to his nose. If people ever looked close enough they would see small bugs crawling around under his coat, but most people thought it best to just leave him be so they didn't freak themselves out.
"Team 9 is still an active team from last year, so that just leaves team 10; and as I mentioned earlier it is the clan team of Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi and Ino Yamanaka." Iruka finished, turning back to his class.
The rotund boy Choji wore a green vest over a plain shirt and white scarf around his neck, his brown hair spiked up into two points as he shared a grin a with his friend Shikamaru, while Ino had a defeated look on her face.
'Great, first I'm not with Sasuke-Chan, and now I'm stuck with lazy-ass and fatso... Kill me now...' The blond haired Ino complained to herself as she sat in a purple dress, her sky-blue eyes closed in a sigh. If she could have read her fellow kunoichi's mind she wouldn't have found the freakishly similar manner her friend/rival-in-love Sakura and her both responded surprising, and doing such a thing was not as far-fetched for a Yamanaka as you would think, Rike could attest to that.
"And that's everyone." Iruka said as he began leaving the room, "Your squad leaders will be along soon to pick you up and get to work. It's been fun everyone, and good luck." 'You're all going to need it.' Iruka waved his now former students goodbye as he left, his finishing thought putting a smile on his face. They would all do great and he knew it, and he couldn't wait to see where they went from here.
The class began talking amongst themselves and went to sit with their new teams to start getting to know each other. Rike and Naruto never ceased to smile as they walked with Hinata to go sit over with Sasuke and start getting to knowing each other better, as they all knew the Uchiha wasn't going to move to join them. If he even joined in the conversation before their squad leader got there that would have been progress in their eyes.
From this day forth, they were all official ninjas of Konoha, and everything that went with it, whether they realized what that meant yet or not.
And there you have it!
Not a bad start, but I'm just trying to get all of the set up stuff out of the way since it's the part of the story I have the least notes on.
The Exye is something I thought up a LONG time ago, and as I mentioned before: this was just a straight up daydream, shameless self insert so that is what I gave the main character as his unique point. I have intentionally not explained how it works yet so don't go nuts asking about it.
Any questions that don't encroach on spoiler territory will be answered if you PM me, and as always try to keep feedback helpful.
For those of you in the know, my cat doesn't seem to have noticed I'm writing again yet, but I do now have a rather large puppy of a dog that feels rather left out when I'm typing, and randomly decides to try to tackle me out of my computer chair when I'm doing so...
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope to get more on this and maybe Highwinds done if the spur of the moment hits in the near future but we'll see how that goes.
Peace, ]-[