Mike Zolo

Prologue

Thirteen years ago, the Village Hidden in the Leave's population grew too large. The Hokage had no choice but to have a second village built within the Land of Fire: the Village Hidden in the Flames. Hearing word of this, being in a time of distress, the Village Hidden in the Mist attacked the newly formed village just a few weeks after it's construction. Having several clans and families already moved in, there were many deaths, and just as many survivors. An attack such as this couldn't go down in history without a name, so to this very day, the invasion is remembered as The Attack of the Mist. During The Attack of the Mist, an entire clan was wiped out clean. Only two members of that clan survived: two freshly newborn brothers. Both abandoned, one was located by an Anbu from the Village Hidden in the Leaves, and was brought to safety. The other grew up alone in the Village Hidden in the Flames after they signed a peace treaty with the Village Hidden in the Mist, and today, this boy is known as The Flaming Shinobi, Mike Zolo.

Chapter 1: Genin Exam

Today is Genin Exam day at the Hidden Flame Academy. Students finally get a chance to become Genin, true ninja in training. The halls remain empty and quiet. Throughout all of the rooms, tests are being taken as the first part of the exam. In room 243, however, it's different. The student's have already completed their tests, in fact, they're almost done with the final part of the exam.

Sitting silently in his seat, waiting for his turn to go up, was Mike Zolo. He was leaning back in his chair, resting his feet on his desk, watching a student in the front of the class perform the Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu. Mike had red ninja sandals on, long brown pants with black flames rising from the bottom, and a bandage wrapped around his right leg. Over that was a long-sleeve red shirt with black flames coming up from not only the bottom of the shirt, but the sleeves also. At the top of the shirt, there was a large collar similar to the top of Sasuke's shirt. Mike had red spiky hair, light red eyes, brown eyebrows, and was really anxious to put on a red headband that some of the students were already wearing.

As Mike waited, the person in the front of the class stepped down to go to their seat. The student was a girl, who had violet ninja sandals on, short gray shorts, and a bandage wrapped around her right leg. Covering most of the shorts, though, was a dress similar to Sakura's. The only thing different was how it was light purple, there was no symbol on the back of it, and it still had the short-sleeves. The girl was skinny, with long violet hair, and light purple eyes. With a smile on her face, she sat down at her desk, wrapping a headband the same color as her dress around her head like the way Sakura wears hers. Speechless, Mike put his feet down as he thought to himself, "Whoa, she's hot!"

Concluding her exam, the teacher in the front of the class spoke, "Nice job, Zola." With that, he checked off a piece of paper he was holding with his pencil, and called out to the class, "Next up, Mike Zolo!"

Still caught in Zola's beauty, Mike quickly got a hold of himself and looked at the teacher. "Wait, what?!" He panicked, not hearing what name was announced.

"You're up, loser." Another student said. He sat behind Mike, glaring at him with his dark blue eyes. He had dark blue ninja sandals on, long brown pants with a bandage wrapped around his left leg, a sleeveless black shirt that was zipped up from bottom to top, and he had five large dark blue spikes for hair: two hanging on both sides of his head, and one hovering over his face, covering up his left eye. He also didn't have a headband on, more specifically, because he and Mike were the only students that didn't become Genin yet. "Hurry up and go!" He continued.

"Oh, right, thanks Ricky!" Mike foolishly thanked the boy as he scrambled away from his desk and rushed up to the front of the class. Once there, he turned and faced all of the students, then looked up at the teacher who stood beside him. The teacher looked back at him and nodded his head. Taking that as the signal to go, Mike shifted his body around and stood in front of a large open area in the room. It was empty, and the middle of the floor was black and burnt. Mike performed a few certain hand signs, then started building up the chakra in his body. Unlocking a particular jutsu, Mike made a small tunnel with his fingers around his mouth, to give the jutsu it's direction and shape, and unleashed an extremely large ball of fire. Mike had successfully completed the Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu. Almost all of the students were amazed and began clapping excitedly. All, except for Ricky, who gave Mike his usual glare. In a few seconds, the jutsu ended, and the ball of fire withered away. The burnt part of the floor was now even darker, and could probably be easily broken. The class eventually stopped clapping, and the teacher waited for Mike to leave the small platform before checking off his name.

Watching him come back down, Zola told him, "Great job and all, Mike... But you forgot your headband! I'm surprised the teacher didn't give it to you while you were still up there."

Worried for a moment, the thought came to Mike that he might not have passed. Although, he didn't really think that much longer, and chuckled a bit as he said to her, "Don't worry 'bout it! I'm sure he just forgot."

Unamused, Zola muttered, "Or maybe you got carried away before he could give it to you..."

Before Mike even sat down, the teacher complimented shortly on his performance, then called up the obvious last student, "Ricky Momochi, your turn."

Already prepared to go, Ricky stood up and moved away from his seat. He put his hands in his pockets, and started walking up to the front of the class. At one point, he went by Mike, and had a very brief chat.

"Good luck!" Mike wished him.

"Won't need it..." Brushing it off, Ricky went on to attempt to use the Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu as Mike took his seat. Ricky faced the large open area, showed off the same hand signs as Mike, and summoned up his chakra. "Hope this actually works!" He thought, tunneling his fingers around his mouth. Just like with Mike, it gave his jutsu direction and shape, however, only a small flare of fire was released. Getting the worse score in the final part of the exam, there was no doubt about it: Ricky failed. The whole class laughed at him, excluding Mike, who stood up and said, "Hey, c'mon guys, stop laughing!"

Stopping, Ricky looked down and tightened his fists, only letting the class see his back. Everyone's laughter raced through his head. The fact that Mike, the Hidden Flame Academy's worse student, having out shined him, one of the most intelligent students there, was just too embarrassing for him to handle. Not to mention this ruined his chances of becoming a Genin. "..."

Noticing his unfortunate turn out, since the class refrained from listening to him, Mike ran up to Ricky and slowed down just a bit once he reached him. While the teacher tried calming down the class, Mike reached out to put his hand on Ricky's shoulder, but outraged, Ricky slapped his hand away.

"Hey, what was that for?" Mike complained, keeping his hand back, now. "I was only trying to help!"

Still not turning around, Ricky spoke quietly, "The last thing I need right now is your help..."

"What are you trying to say?" Mike questioned him, too dumb to realize how he felt.

"I'm saying, go away! I don't need sympathy from you, of all people!" Ricky growled, jerking his body around to face Mike, even more outraged. The entire class grew silent, as the teacher stopped to stare at Mike and Ricky, just like everyone else.

"Ricky, calm down!" Mike told him, taking one step back.

"Shut up!" Ricky demanded.

"This needs to stop!" The teacher said, finally taking action. He got ready to go over to the two of them, but was stopped. Holding his arm out, Mike dared to make the teacher wait.

"Just hold on..." The boy said, softly. He glared back at Ricky, returning his often glare at him, and said, "I'm not sure if I'm adding all of this up right, but it seems to me that... you're jealous."

Finally broken, Ricky left the state of anger, to chuckle. "Me?" He asked. "Jealous of you? You could never live up to my standards! There's a highly reasonable explanation why I was upstaged by a weakling like you!"

"Did you ever think that the reason was that I'm just better than you at the Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu? Or maybe I'm just stronger? Or better?"

"Be quiet! There's no way any of that is true!" Ricky came back at him. "I'm usually never one to brag like this, get over tempered, or even reach this point in my personality, but regardless, you've went too far for me to just let this go! You pathetic excuse for a ninja!"

"I think you're saying that you can't handle being finally shown up! Heh, least expected by me, huh? Why not have a challenge to see who's truly better, then? You may not consider me to be a smart one, but I think that would be the most logical way to settle this whole thing out!" Mike suggested.

"Big words for someone like you. I can't even imagine turning down that offer. You're on!" Ricky said as they both smirked.

"Good, then. Why not take this elsewhere? Preferably, outside?" Mike threw out another idea.

Taking it, Ricky raised his chin as he told him, "Fine by me. Let's go." With that, the two rivals walked right out of room 243, leaving the teacher and the rest of the class behind.

"This might not go so well..." The teacher thought in his mind.

"I can't wait to see this..." Zola spoke under her breathe.