My name is Nakashima Masato but it was not always, you see I died, it wasn't quick and it wasn't clean but I died all the same, people will tell you that death is easy it's like falling asleep, well that I suppose depends on the manner of your death, I was an unemployed and unhappy man, I had dedicated my life to rugby a hard contact sport that demanded high pain threshold and high amounts of strength and endurance, but one spiteful dick was all it took to shatter my dreams and my knee.
After that I slipped into a deep depression, I didn't leave my house for a year and fell out of contact with my friends it took a major shock to my system to get me moving again, but it came too late, one day when I went to sign on with the dole I was hit by a truck that ran a red light, but I didn't die then and there, it took me a week to die, I had to listen to my family cry and prey before I went, but it wasn't what I had expected.
I had expected beautiful red headed women riding on winged stallions taking me to the next life over the rainbow bridge to Asguard, where I would eat drink and fight until Ragnarok, but no, no I had to wake up in as a freaking baby outside an orphanage in a freaking pick nick hamper, I cried allot in the first few months morning my old life my parents, sisters and a name I would never use again, and then I had to find out first hand just how traumatising it is to have no control of your bowls or bladder, and just how much 'fun' it is to learn how to walk again, oh how I wanted to jam that stuffed rabbit up that nurse's arse after the thirty ninth game of bloody peek-a-boo, and the one thing I hated more than all of that combined was the feeling of utter helplessness.
About the only thing fun was when my vocal cords where strong enough to support my speech and I could swear to my heart's content and get away with it, the blame firmly put on the janitor, which wasn't really untrue the man swore more than an inebriated sailor.
The orphanage itself was a large wooden building around two storeys tall with a large clock tower that almost reached three; it was surrounded by a thick and tall forest with two dirt paths leading away from the front and the back, the front one I assume leads to a town the back one, I have no idea.
The language wasn't too hard to learn, but it did take me slightly longer than other children in my age group, and gave the wardens who ran the orphanage the impression that I was a little slow, that wasn't fun, but the head warden is o.k. though, a real laid back kind of dude, the man reminded me of 90s movie stoners, and he was really helpful with my learning difficulties, and I could use all the help I could get, dyslexia sucks when learning a new language, reading and writing where difficult and it still takes me a bit to read a document.
But the impression I got off the nurses and wardens in the orphanage was that the world I now inhabited was a mix of ancient Japanese with a dash of modern technology thrown in for flavour, it wasn't until I hit five I found out that the world I was in was far, far more different than my own, and any I thought it could be, it was also where my future was planed out.
We were lead out as a group all twenty of us with in my age group, it was the first time any of us had been out of the orphanage front gate, and it in and of itself was an experience especially when you're used to tarmac streets and paved walkways in the UK, the road if you could call it that was almost perfectly smooth, the path lead us out of the thick trees and into a town, the buildings where made of wood and painted white with the roofs painted a verity of colours but mostly reds and yellows and blue.
I began to get a sinking sensation in my gut, I recognised these types of buildings but I couldn't quite put my finger on it, the style seemed to tickle something in the back of my mind, I contemplated this as we were lead father and father into the town it was a sudden gasp that broke my contemplations.
I looked to the source of the noise it was Sato Aiko, she was a brunette with blue eyes and her face as covered in freckles her hair as tied back into a braded ponytail, and she wore pail mint green dungarees, a pink t-shirt and plain brown sandals.
I followed her line of sight and gasped myself, my brain shutdown then rebooted but still I couldn't believe what I was seeing, there on perhaps the largest mountain I have ever seen in person were four carved faces, four intricately carved faces, faces that I recognised almost instantly
"Thunder and Fire" I mumbled
"The first, second, third and fourth Hokages" said the Warden "you'll learn about them at the academy in about two years"
He said leading us towards the cliffs to two buildings, one looked like a bowling pin with a blue roof and the other was a red building with a yellow roof and the symbol of fire written on it, it was surrounded by large wooden walls and buildings, as we approached I could see teams of people young teens and adults going into the red building some with flak jackets and some without.
We were lead up several long flights of stairs and up to an office, the secretary let us in and there sat one Shimura Danzo, his arm bandaged and his left eye covered but don't be fooled, he was probably one of if not THE most dangerous men in the village, he was filling in some papers in silence.
"Danzo-sama" said the Warden as he bowed
"Ah Hiroshi-kun" he looked up to the warden "these must be our new hopeful initiates"
"Yes Danzo-sama" he smiled I had a very sudden urge to run
"They don't seem like much" I didn't know whether to be insulted or relieved, he had us form two lines in front of his desk, he pointed to one of us "you" he said very seriously "what is the job of a shinobi"
"To save princesses?" Danzo didn't say anything he just pointed to another of us
"To defend the innocent" again he said nothing and then he came to me
"What is the job of a shinobi?"I looked up at him then I froze, for a second I saw a twinkle come from his bandaged eye, then my mouth moved and I found myself saying
"To, to do what is necessary to complete the mission" he lingered for a moment before moving on, he asked everyone the question then sat behind his desk, I was terrified I didn't want to be a ROOT robot.
"I am presently surprised Hiroshi" he said as he filled in a document and handed it to the man "you have my approval to send these children to the academe" he smiled slightly and it looked wrong on his face very wrong, that urge to run began to creep into my legs "pending the medical examinations of course"
"Of course Danzo-sama" he bowed again before he ushered us out of the office, I was shaking like a leaf after we left, my legs were almost unable to keep me standing and I leaned against the wall for a moment until I got myself together again.
"You impressed Danzo-sama today Misato-chan" I could see the pride radiating off the warden
"I, I did" I looked up at the man who was smiling his white hair was shimmering in the light from the window, I felt unclean horrified and somehow amongst all that pleased
"Yes you did" he put a hand on my shoulder "you will make a splendid ninja"
It was a few days after that, that we were given our medical examination, immunisations and our bloodline cheques, as orphans we don't know if we are clan bastards or not so they run a check to make sure, it was fairly uneventful, eyesight, reflexes and such where checked and our files were given to our head warden, then two of us were sent away one to the Inuzuka dog clan and the other to the Akimichi giant clan, and a week after that training began, for me anyway I had made the decision that if I was going to be a ninja I would be the best that I could be.
I spent the first two months going over the training I used in rugby, but mostly endurance, running the line, long distance jogging, press-ups, sit-ups, crunches, star jumps and pull-ups. I knew in all probability I would have average Chakra reserves so I made the decision to concentrate on my physical body and worry about the spiritual later.
I knew the bare basics of boxing, judo and pro wrestling but it had been years since I was in a full on fight and that was more of a brawl than any show of technique.
It wasn't until a month later once I started using a cut log to train with that the wardens took notice, I had grown four inches across my shoulders and two in height making me the largest in my age group, they also noticed that I hardly played with the other kids, I trained more often than not, it was another two months before they noticed how much stronger I was, there was an incident and I lost my temper that's all I'm going to say on that, I had moved up to two logs after my punishment ended and had been training with them for a about week when I was called into the head wardens office.
"Misato-chan" he smiled "I see you're training allot"
"Yeah" I said "I want to be the best ninja I can be"
"Misato-chan you have years before you need to worry about that" he assured me "you're not even in the academe yet"
"I know but there will be people at the academe that will have an advantage" I said looking him in the eyes, he seemed a little surprised "most of the kids there will have family that were ninja and others will have Clan members that are ninja and have generations of technique to fall back on" now he was intrigued I could see his left eyebrow twitch slightly "an advantage that they will press to the utmost " I run a hand through my hair then scratched the back of my head "so I figured if I started early and trained hard I could out muscle almost any advantage they would have" he smiled at me "well at least some anyway"
He said nothing to me he just looked at me for what seemed like minuets, he looked like he was calculating something before he smiled at me,
"Then I will give you all the help I can" I looked him dead in the eye "but you have to put in a hundred percent"
"Are you going to train me?" I asked his smile seemed to split his face for a moment and I had a sudden shudder of fear crawl up my spine.
(Time skip)
It had been a difficult two years, endurance and strength training were the norm, along with the basic fighting styles used in the academe, at first it was hard and for weeks my body ached so much I thought about quitting, then I would remind myself of why I was doing this I would not be just another victim of this world so I would pick myself up ignore the pain and get back to work. I think Hiroshi grew to enjoy putting me through the ringer every week.
Over the two years I had changed, I was taller and bigger than all my friends in my age group and the one above it, at first the Hiroshi was worried I had Acromegaly but thankfully after extensive testes it proved false, even though if there was anything genetically wrong with me the original testing for the academe would have shown it.
Hiroshi couldn't show me any chakra techniques he said that it was dangerous and detrimental for children of a certain age group to begin using their chakra they had to wait until I was eight so my pathways would be somewhat more developed.
I was starting the academe today and I was nervous and somewhat self-conscious, I had out grown my clothes quite fast so I was given the hand-me-downs from two years above me and I had become a little self-conscious of how I looked in them, so I was nervous all the way down to the time we entered the building, all of us were going in one big group to register before we were dispersed into different classes, the academe runs six classes simultaneously.
We approached the desk sitting at the centre of the entrance hall,
"Excuse me" said Hiroshi the woman looked up "were here for orientation and class assignments"
And thus began my life as a leaf academe student.