DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING! NOTHING EXCEPT:
The Karitoru Clan
Kuri
Hebiko
Kage
Yo
Tsukurou
Summary: Now that the fourth great ninja war is over, life in Konoha has become more easy, especially for the next generation… But nothing lasts forever, especially peace, as the ninja world soon realizes as old faces return along with new enemies… OCS ACCEPTED! SEE PROFILE 4 THE DEETS, YEA BUDDY!Naruto: The New Legends
Chapter 1:
A New Hero;
My Name is Jin!
*fourteen years ago*
Dear Sasuke,
It's been a while hasn't it? You do know what I'm talking about right? In case you don't, I'm reffering to the Fourth Ninja War. I know you remember it, it hasn't been that long. Only about ten years… and a good ten years at that. Konoha is doing fine right now. So is Sakura-
Haven't heard from you since-
Anyway, I just wanted to tell you a bit about how things have been. You know, we think Madara was killed, but we're still not sure. I know, it's been ten years, we should know these things but now but… Madara is a very powerful person. You don't know where he is, right? I believe you'd agree with us in trying to stop him…
Tsunade has finally come too! She's a bit out of it and is especially cranky, so we still needed a new Hokage. I feel a bit guilty; Granny Tsunade was such a good Hokage… I kind of miss reporting to her. Do you?
Kakashi is alright, you know. He got married…. He has a kid now. Apparently, I'm the girl's god father, which is fine by me. Her name is Yoko. Pretty girl, roughly seven years old. She takes after Kakashi quite a bit, but Kuri has her mother's eyes.
The academy was destroyed during the war, as I think you're aware. But we've rebuilt it, and now it's bigger and better than ever. Iruka-sensei had suggested adding a bunker incase of another war and the students could hide there, so we did. It was fun building it, because Lee inhaled too much p-
As I look out the window, I see a thriving nation. Konoha is no longer struggling. It is very prosperous, but not only that.
It's peaceful.
The world as we know it is finally out of the dark, Sasuke.
We can all relax.
So, I just wanted to ask you this; when are you coming home?
I mean, you kind left Sakura here, and with kids, I mean-
You have to come back, Sasuke… I still have to rematch you, remember? Well, wherever you are I hope you're happy now.
That's what you want right? To be happy?
Anyway, I have a meeting, and I can see my advisor giving me a dirty look, so I must cut this letter short. It's not nearly as long as the other ones, I bet.
Maybe you could write back next t-
Hinata's doing okay, too… I proposed to her. Neji nearly had an aneurism when I did but…
The original Akatsuki is no more, but for the past few weeks, some of the Anbu Black Ops ninja have reported sightings of Akatsuki members, but none of the old guys… It's pretty weird.
Even though Konoha is beginning to get its position as the greatest of all nations, Iwagakure is still much stronger and for the time being, the chunin exams will be held there. Kuri is going to get to go soon. I'm happy for the little twerp…
Anyway…
Sasuke, I'm going to be honest. I miss you, I really do. And I'm still trying to get you back. But All I want to say right now is this; Konoha is safe. If you need a place to stay even for a little bit… come here. Because as long as I'm Hokage, I will protect this village until I die.
Signed,
The Seventh Hokage
Uzumaki Naruto
Naruto looked up from his message at the face of his elderly advisor who was giving him a disapproving look. With a casual glance to his right, Naruto noticed that the other council members were also giving him annoyed looks on their face. Naruto couldn't resist the urge to smile as he leaned forward in his stiff chair.
"So," he began, "onto the next order of business…"
"Lord Hokage, we still have to figure out this order of business," one of the men hollered. Naruto rested his blue eyes on him, waiting for the man to elaborate. Without a hitch, the elder did. "The Karitoru clan has been torturing innocents for a long time now. Because of the effects of the war, we couldn't do anything for hte longest time." The man's fists tightened. "But now we can, and I think we should wipe them out!"
Naruto's head snapped up, his eyes sharpening from their previous calm look. The entire atomoshphere around him changed, and everyone felt it; the man had just said the wrong thing to the wrong blonde.
"We can't wipe out an entire clan! Have you learned nothing from the Uchiha clan incident!" Naruto shouted, standing up.
"Calm down, Naruto," a woman besides him tried saying, but the Uzumaki was fuming, and already storming away from the table.
"How dare you! How dare you suggest that! You're asking for another war! You're asking for another Sas-" Naruto stopped himself. He wasn't supposed to let his emotions go like that. After taking a deep and calming breath, Naruto turned back to the now eerily quiet room.
"Lord Hokage," the woman began again. "I understand how you feel about this... but the Karitoru clan is actually a menace to all things. It is true, the Uchiha clan was debatably innocent but... the residents of the Karitoru will never be happy with anything we offer them. All they want to do is kill, and with their soul techniques they will. I don't like taking the lives of anyone, but I agree that this is the path we must take." The elderly woman loked towards him, her brown eyes softening. "Think of Konoha..." Naruto sucked his teeth.
"I'll think about it... this meeting is adjourned."
"But-" began one of the council members.
"Now!" The room cleared of everyone but the Hokage and the elderly woman. She stared at the man for a few seconds.
"You can't hold onto the past, Naruto-Sama," the woman whispered as she touched the letter Naruto had written. Her eyes skimmed over it quickly before bouncing back to Naruto. "The Karitoru clan is not like the Uchihas. Not at all." Naruto continued to glare at the wall, trying to keep his emotions in check.
He was the hokage. It was his duty to protect his people, no matter what the cost.
"You can hold it off for a couple more years, at best but... the people will want action, I know. And I'm sorry about Sasuke." With that, the woman hobbled away. Naruto turned around before walking back to his letter.
'I can't hold onto the past,' he thought before taking the letter and leaving the room. 'But I can always have hope for the future.'
*present day*
Pressing myself up against the thick tree trunk, I glanced down from my perch at my target below. He was nonchalantly twirling a kunai knife around his finger, not even bothering to look as though he was on guard. In other words, this would be an easy sneak attack. I grinned as I pulled out a kunai knife and waited…waited…waited…
My feet pushed off of the branch I had been on, sending me hurtling towards the ground. Air whistled past me as I ripped through thin branches and leaves during my descent towards my opponent. 'This time, I'm going to get you!' I thought as I raised my kunai forward. Just as my knife was mere inches from cutting through his indigo hair, the boy pivoted, his knife colliding with mine. I gasped when I noticed that his eyes were closed.
Stupid Uzumaki.
"Nice try," he whispered before shoving his foot into my gut and kicking me away. I tumbled in the air but managed to catch myself as I was landing to the ground. He finally opened his eyes, revealing a pair of calm lavender irises that lacked any sign of a pupil. I glared.
"You cheated, you brat!" I hollered, throwing my kunai knife at him. A grin spread across my opponent's face.
"Oh really? I'd have said I was cheating, but only myself since I'm not even using my butterfly knives yet." I glared. Stupid cocky Uzumaki Tsukurou. Granted, Tsu only showed his cockier side around me since we were close friends (or at the moment rivals) but deep down, he was a cocky loud mouth though around others he acted cool. Tsukurou grinned my way as he patted the knife holster on one side of his thigh, as if emphasizing the fact that he had in fact cheated himself.
"Fine, than, whip out the knives! See if I care, I'll still take you down," I snapped, taking a precautionary leap away. Tsu simply shook his head as he pulled out the broad and thin mini-swords that were slightly over the length of a foot. The handles were made of black wood that matched his attire pretty well; Tsu always wore black- always.
"So you want to get serious?" Tsu asked, as if silently warning me of my mistakes. I wasn't making a mistake. He was. I pulled out two kunai-knives, that had explosive notes tied to the back of them.
"I'm ready when you are," I retorted. Tsukurou charged than. He let his knife whip forward. I just managed to duck one when the other came for the kill. I back flip kicked that knife away, in time to evade the impending attack from his left knife. Tsu was very skilled with those knives, I noted. I'd have to fight from a distance.
"Kage no Tamashi no Jutsu (Shadow Soul)!" I cried as I leapt away from Tsukurou again. My shadow bubbled up from the ground, taking on a 3-D appearance of an all black me, which- save for my skin and eyes- was very accurate. "Go get him!" I cried as I leapt towards the safety of the trees. My shadow cocked his head before charging for Tsukurou. Tsukurou blocked every one of my shadow's attacks, even with just one knife to do so. I glared from my perch as I prepared to send my explosive note floating towards him.
I noticed that Tsukurou had sheathed his knife and assumed a dangerous stance I had only seen from a Hyuuga clan member. Oh shit. Shadow grew large hands with dagger like fingers and shot the appendages towards Tsu, hoping to rip right through him.
"Shadow! Get out of there!" I cried leaping out of the tree just as Tsu's eyes became vein-y as his blood line took over. Time seemed to slow once his Byakugan was activated.
"Eight trigrams… rotation!" All of Shadow's fingers bent back and dispersed. I could feel the chakra I had pumped into my shadow disappear… I could even feel the piece of my soul I used on that shadow float back into me.
"Damn it!" I cried as the shadow fell to the ground and retreated back to me to take its rightful place as my shadow. Tsu remained still for a second, as if he was pondering whether to raise from the rotation stance. Whether he decided to or not, I didn't wait to see before I threw two explosive notes his way. Before they even touched the ground, the two bombs set off. I squinted into the thick dust columns… I knew Tsu had escaped the attack, I just had to know where he was.
Down below, I noticed someone resting face down in the dirt… someone with indigo hair.
My heart stopped.
"Tsu!" I cried, leaping out of the tree and towards my friend. "Tsukurou, are you okay!" Tsu didn't move. My heart began pounding, sending blood all over my body and thundering through my ears. Sweat dripped down my forehead as I skid across the ground on my knees, nearing my unconscious friend. Or at least, I hoped he was just unconscious…
"Tsukurou! Tsukurou, please wake up!" I begged, reaching out to touch his shoulder. As soon as I did, I felt his arm move. I had screwed up… Tsukurou was spinning on the ground before managing to land a foot dead on my jaw. I went spiraling away, feeling blood escape my mouth. It tasted hot, salty. My head bashed against the ground. For a second, I couldn't feel anything…
A soft beating began to go off in my head, slowly getting louder and louder until it was a loud pounding, giving me a gut-wrenching head ache. I shut my eyes, trying to stop the pain if even for a little bit, but all was in vain.
"You fell for it," Tsu noted, a grin on his face as he leaned over me. My head felt like it was reeling. I tried sitting up, but I only fell back down again. Worry filled Tsukurou's eyes. "Hey, are you okay? Come on; don't do this, Jin…" Tsu was holding a hand out towards me. I managed to shake my head as I slapped his hand away.
"No. I can do it myself…" I started to get back on my feet. It felt as though I had 100 pounds weighing me down on each limb and 300 on my shoulders. My head hung a bit, and the radiating pain only got worse.
"Let me help you," Tsukurou demanded, reaching out for me with his arms. Stubbornly, I shoved him away.
"No! I've got-" My feet stumbled and in a few choppy seconds, I was sprawled on the dirt ground. The last thing I heard before I fell under was Jin sigh in aggravation.
"You sure are something, Jin…"
OoOoO
When I began to come to…
Something cool and wet slid down the side of my cheek, cooling down the burning skin. I wasn't sure if it was blood or water… At the thought of blood, I could feel myself retching. I had to know… One of my eyes popped open just a crack. Light flooded in, and for a moment, I couldn't see anything. All I could hear was… panting. Heavy panting.
I shut my eyes tightly before opening them again to see a large woolly dog peering down at me with large brown eyes. Confusion swept over me as I tried to think of all the dogs I knew… most of them were from the Inuzuka clan, and none of them looked as ridiculous as this one.
A few minutes later, I noticed the stream of liquid came from the long tongue that hung out of the dog's open mouth. I frowned as I lifted my hand up to block my face of the offensive saliva.
"You're awake!" My brain didn't have enough time to process what was going on when someone lifted me up into a seated position.
"Y-yea!" I exclaimed, trying to dispel the dizzy feeling that rushed through my body by merely blinking. Little flowers of color bloomed into my vision until my head stopped reeling enough for me to see clearly. In front of me sat a familiar bulky blonde man. A grin spread across my face.
"Naruto!" I cried, sitting up straighter. I subconsciously wiped my face, trying to look more professional than I probably did, what with droll on my face. The Hokage grinned, despite my appearance. His eyes were shining.
"I see you've met Kuro… that's Tsu's new follower." I blinked at the black mop of a dog that stared at me with curiosity, cocking its head to one side.
"Tsu likes dogs?" I asked. The last time I remembered Tsukurou around a dog, he flipped out about how unsanitary they were… which explained his distaste of the Inuzuka clan.
"No. But the dog seems to like bothering him," Naruto noted, rubbing his chin thoughtfully before lifting his blue eyes to face me. "So are you okay? Tsu told me he kicked you into the ground," Naruto mused, leaning closer to me. I made a face as I leaned away. Tsukurou would try and one-up me by telling his dad about how I lost.
Stupid Uzumaki.
"Hm? You're face is red… do you have a fever or something?" Naruto asked, looking at me with the same curiosity as a two year old girl. I blinked at the Hokage. 'Really?'
"I'm fine," I answered slowly after a moment of thought. "Where am I anyway?" Naruto motioned for my to look around. I obliged. We were in a large square room with rice paper walls that filtered some, but not nearly all, sunlight. My body rested on a padded mat in the center of the room, which also contained two punching bags, weights, and what appeared to be a few first aide kits cluttered in a corner.
"This is Tsukurou's dojo," Naruto explained, before nodding his head to something behind me. I spun around to see what Naruto had motioned me to. My eyes widened.
"WOAH!" Naruto nodded. The entire wall was docked with all the weapons imaginable, each engraved with the Hyuuga clan symbol. All the weapons were shiny and new and begged for someone to use them. I was practically drooling just looking at them.
"In courtesy of the Hyuuga clan… it's to help persuade Tsu to use his official last name- Hyuuga." I nodded slowly. Tsukurou resented having to share the last name of Hyuuga so much, he had changed his last name, dropped the Hyuuga part and just left Namikaze-Uzumaki, which morphed into plain old Uzumaki. I didn't blame him. If I could change my last name, I would, especially considering what it was…
"Does… does Tsu know how to use all of those?" I asked. Naruto shrugged.
"Probably. I mean, he is the Hyuuga clan's prodigy…" Naruto smiled softly as he stood up. "Or whatever he wants to go by… Tsukurou's a tough one, hm?" I nodded in agreement. It was one of the only things we had in common and kept us at constant battle; we both were hard headed.
Tsukurou was the unstoppable force, and I was the immovable object.
"So you're awake now?" I turned around to see Tsukurou himself walking into the dojo. He was back in his usual clothing; a black muscle-tee over a fishnet shirt that's sleeves ended just above his elbows and black long trousers that went past the back of his heels. Tsu wore fingerless gloves and his indigo hair in a wild fashion.
"Yea, no thanks to you," I muttered. Tsu glared at me for a split second before a smirk over took his face.
"Well good… I just want you to be ready for us getting teammates today, Karitoru." My eyes flashed up from the ground and to Tsu.
"What!" I cried. My stomach dropped through the floor. Tsu nodded his head without much thought to it.
"Is something wrong?" Naruto asked, looking from me to his son. I chewed my lip. Oh, no, nothing was wrong except I was the number one hated kid in my class, just because my last name was Karitoru…
"No," I answered as I stood up and turned to face Tsukurou. I forced a cocky grin on my face. "Let's go see who are teammates will be, huh?" Tsu shrugged as he tossed me my teal scarf. Quickly I tied it around my neck before looking down at myself- I wore a black dark grey sleeveless shirt with the kanji of love written on the front in crisp teal paint. My pants were black shorts and I wore black fingerless gloves and bandages on both of my forearms. To complete the look, I usually gelled my black hair forward.
"Let's go," Tsu called over his shoulder. The two of us exited his dojo, leaving Naruto-Sama there to look after us. We were entering the main market place that was always full of people; people who were giving me weird looks. Instead of looking at my feet and acting depressed, I lifted my nose high in the air and grinned.
"Hey, Tsu, do you know why all these people are looking at me?" I asked. Tsukurou didn't respond, but raised his eyebrows as if silently saying, "humor me". The smile on my face turned into a cocky smirk as I thrust my index finger up into the air. "Because they all know that I'm going to be an awesome ninja, way better than you!" Tsukurou rolled his eyes.
"Yea right," he grunted, shoving his hands in his pockets. I didn't know whether he was saying that to my statement, or saying that because we both knew why the people were staring at me but either way… it didn't matter as long as I believed in what I said; I was going to be a better ninja than Tsu could ever dream to be. And than no one would look down on my just because my last name was Karitoru.
OoOoO
Pit…pat…pit…pat… The boy let his eyes lift up from the ground as he gazed over the ledge of the roof down at the two idiotic academy students. He sucked his teeth in disappointment.
"Hey, Hebiko, they're just a couple of fucking kids!" He shook his head as he placed a foot on the edge of the building and leaned against it. "Is this really the big mission? This is for shit-swatters, not for real ninja assassins like us, damn it!" The boy had long silver hair that fell against his shoulders, making him appear feminine. He had rugged features aside from that, though; a firm jaw and an angular nose. His eyes were thin and cat like, and mirrored the same eyes as the Karitoru boy down below; black flecks swimming in the silver irises and thin pupils.
He wore a dark blue sleeveless sweatshirt and black wrist bands around both wrists. His trousers were black and baggy, and his headband was on his hip, hanging by two belt loops. Unlike the usual headband, his was void of any symbol. His left arm was covered in bandages while his right was bare, revealing a dark red tattoo of a snake on his pale flesh.
"This is some straight up bull shit," the boy continued to grumble. The tattoo on his right arm began to wriggle on his arm, sending volts of sizzling electricity throughout his arm.
'Tsk, tsk, tsk… Kage-kun, you should really learn to watch your language… you're not your father after all,' a girl's voice rang in his head. Kage frowned as he gripped his arm, trying to stop the pain of the tattoo from increasing, but that was a moot point. It increased until the tattoo slowly slithered off of his arm and morphed into a girl. She was his age, about 15, and wore a purple tube top that only managed to cover her ample bosom and a black pair of shorts under a skirt with slits going up the thighs. On each arm, she wore a fishnet arm warmer that started mid-forearm and went up just below her shoulders. Her auburn hair was let loose and tumbled down her back in waves, and her red snake like eyes shined like venom, along with her full lips.
"Hebiko," Kage grunted, holding onto his limp arm. Without Hebiko, Kage's right arm was rendered useless unless he was able to feed… but since he hadn't dined on souls in a while, Kage felt pretty useless. Hebiko made a clicking sound with her tongue.
"Don't think such negative thoughts, Kage-kun," the girl sighed as she walked closer to her partner. "You're not anywhere near useless." Hebiko proceeded to circle a finger over Kage's cheek, making the older boy blush and look away from her.
"Stop being a bitch, Hebiko, this is not the time for…"
"For what?" Hebiko asked innocently. Kage tried to clear his thoughts, but they were too busy swimming through his head. Hebiko had him around her finger… if she wasn't using her looks to seduce and control him, she would simply attach herself to him as a tattoo again and burn him all over his body. Both wounded his ego just the same amount, but electrocution was slightly less painful than giving into Hebiko.
"Hebiko. Kage. Quit messing around." Kage looked to his left to see their third teammate, Yoshiro- or as he was better known as Yo- leaning against a tall box. He wore his red cape and hood over his black armored shirt and long slim pants and pulled the hood of his cape up over his head, shrouding his face in shadows. The cape fell over his clothing, covering for the most part.
"Y-Yo!" Kage exclaimed, his face turning a brighter red than a tomato. Hebiko frowned. Yo wasn't affected by anything she did, and since she couldn't latch onto him as a tattoo and he could easily deflect all of her nin jutsu, she was almost powerless against him…
"What is it? I was just having fun," Hebiko moaned, crossing her arms. Yo rolled his eyes to the sky.
"We're on a mission. We have to get the Karitoru boy's blood and than we're out of here. That's it, end of story," Yo explained for the thirteenth time that day.
"I know that," Hebiko grunted. "It's not that hard to do. All he has to do is get a paper cut and-"
"Master needs a lot of his blood though," Kage interrupted, regaining his composure. "I doubt a fucking paper cut would give us enough blood…" Kage licked his lips. "Maybe we could kill the stupid twat! I could eat his soul while you drain his blood and-"
"He needs to be alive," Yo reminded Kage. The boy frowned at his older teammate.
"Oh yea. Damn it all."
"So what do we do?" Hebiko asked, her eyes glinting dangerously at Yo, who didn't even acknowledge her distaste.
"We wait, of course. It won't be that long until we can use a transformation jutsu and get nito the chunin exams as a younger version of ourselves. And once we do, one of us is bound to meet up with Jin, and we take his blood. Simple as that." The other two assassins couldn't disagree with the plan.
Hm… it seems okay?