A/N: Okay, so my last submission as a serious story was not received well. Only 2 reviews and a lot more faves and follows. C'mon people! I'm serious when I say that your reviews will determine if that story will continue. In any case, I figured, since I've given Naruto the Gate of Babylon, what would happen if I gave him a different Noble Phantasm? It should be obvious that this is a different take of "First Male Nin". With that on mind, I shall sacrifice my last "First Male Nin" attempt to tribute-summon this Lv. 6 Fiend-type story with 2500 ATK and 1200 DEF. As usual, do read and review so that don't take any more battle-damage, would you kindly?

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[Konoha Orphanage…]

"Are you kidding?!" shouted a bun-haired girl, watching incredulously as her friend loaded an improvised arrow into makeshift bow he'd made with a rusty kunai, "This isn't going to work!"

"It will!" responded the whisker-marked, blond boy with his own shout, releasing the tension gently to regard his friend, "I've worked hard to make this thing work!"

The girl let out a sigh of frustration. "I wasn't talking about the bow, Naruto; I was talking about you going out to be a kunoichi—or a shinobi, or whatever! The point is, how can you be a kunoichi if you can't even use chakra? And besides that, a bow is not a very practical weapon unless you're going out hunting!"

"Well what the hell is a guy supposed to do, Tenten?! The only weapons we can use are the stuff you girls throw away! I mean, yeah, shuriken and kunai are pretty cool, but what happens when your target is way too far for a jutsu to be used? Trust me, nothing beats a good old fashioned bow when it comes to long-range combat!"

It's been like this ever since Naruto picked up that book about that woman samurai Tomoe Gozen. Her whisker-cheeked friend was actually a fan of the woman, and she could see why—master swordswoman, damn good archer, and an even better tactician. Unfortunately for him, the Genpei War that Tomoe Gozen fought in was so long ago that it was doubtful that she ever existed…which was why Tenten decided to follow a modern legend like Tsunade of the Sannin. That scoff she let out made it clear what she thought of his worship of a likely-mythological character. "Yeah, sure."

"Look, you want me to fire that arrow or what? Because it looks like Lin-chan is getting nervous."

Standing up in front of a tree with a delicious-looking, red apple balanced on her head was a girl with her black hair done in a bob cut. She was nervous as hell, just as Naruto said—whether her wide eyes were filled with fear or excitement, nobody knew, but Rock Lin had volunteered to help Naruto with his archery practice. However, to kill two birds with one stone, Lin had also stated earlier that she would be balancing on one leg, swaying just a bit to give the boy a challenge.

With nothing else to say, Naruto readied his bow. The arrow was pulled back, the drawstring was tight, his form perfect. He had to time this right, or else Lin would be getting an arrow through the eye.

It all happened in a split second! The moment Naruto released the bowstring, the arrow was sent flying at high speeds before the tip had penetrated the apple through the core, and pinned it into the tree just as Lin had hopped into the air to switch legs in her pose. This was actually a rather good shot, as there was a brief moment where the apple had lifted off from her head. "Yosh! That's a nice shot there!"

But it wasn't over yet; Naruto had picked up another arrow that was dug into the ground next to him, took aim, and let it loose! This time, the arrow went at a higher angle to take an apple that was balancing atop the children's swing, and a corner of the roof of the orphanage, before the arrow started travelling downwards, and both apples were then pinned to another tree, just above a one-armed old woman in bandages sitting on a bench, minding her own business as she read the book in her hands. If only she knew how close she was to getting shot in the head. "Okay, you win. Bows can be just as deadly as normal kunoichi weapons!"

The victorious smirk on Naruto's face had said it all. "Told ya so!"

"Don't be so sure!" she shot back, "I believe I can be a kunoichi like Tsunade-sama, and beat your bow!"

"Really? And what are you going to bet?"

At that, Tenten could only blush. "If I win, you'll have to do everything I say. If I say, 'cook', you will cook. Understand?"

It wasn't that he minded…hell, he would've cooked at any day of the week. It's just that the wager made Naruto's blood boil at the idea of challenging Tenten at anything. "Okay then, but if I win, then you have to treat me to ramen forever!"

Their determined looks were only complimented by their confident grins. Naruto and Tenten shook hands, their wager would be revisited in the future.

…

[Somewhere nearby…]

As the wind blew through the trees near the Orphanage, the injured old woman took her good eye off the book to spare a glance at the children in the playground. The boy she knew to be Uzumaki Naruto was in the middle of shaking hands with the bun-haired girl Tenten. If anyone else saw her stony gaze at the children going back to their playing, they'd have mistaken her for a bitter old grouch.

Far from it, Shimura Sango actually had a motherly side—one that, regrettably enough, didn't manifest itself until it was too late…by the time she'd found these instincts awakening within her concerning her daughter, the girl was already a teenager and a high-ranked kunoichi. And even sadder was that they never started to reconcile until later in the girl's life…things were getting better, albeit gradually. At first, the girl refused to have anything to do with a woman that abandoned her to an orphanage, but the bonds between them started to grow stronger over the years…true, they never saw eye-to-eye on a great many things, but the love between them had blossomed over the years.

And when Sango learned that she was going to be a grandmother, she was ecstatic…and so she promised herself that she would not make the same mistake twice—she would actually be there for the child, and love it and help raise it to be a great person in the future. Unfortunately, the Kyūbi's attack on Konoha had put a damper on her plans. All she could do now was sit back, and enjoy the sight she was seeing. She may have failed as a grandmother, but she'll be damned if she is not there in the child's life—no matter how distant she was!

All other thoughts pushed aside, she resolved to keep on watching the children. Her thoughts were of the days that never came to be. Why must the past repeat itself, especially given that her daughter practically grew up in that same orphanage?

…

{Play: "Shadowlord's Castle" by Okabe Keiichi, from "Nier"}

As he looked around in his surroundings, he could not help but wonder exactly what it was he was looking at. The land itself was barren, but all he could see for miles were swords of all shapes and sizes that had been driven to the ground in a manner not unlike a graveyard. There was confusion on Naruto's face, as he tried to discern his current location. 'What the hell is all this?' he asked himself, 'What's with all these swords? Did somebody lose them or something? Come to think of it, where the hell is everybody? Where am I?'

Naruto took the time to inspect one of the swords. 'Damn,' he thought to himself, 'now this is a fine sword. Still doesn't answer the question as to what it's doing here.' And it was true too—now he was not a weapon-nut like Tenten, but this sword was not like the ones he was used to seeing. It had a basket hilt, a short grip, and a long, slender blade with dull edges. In short, this was pretty much a spear turned into a sword, and the polish on the blade itself spoke volumes of the smith's skill.

Before long, darkness had started to creep in from the corner of his eye. "Oh no you don't!" he shouted, hoping that the darkness had heard him, "Don't you dare! I'm not letting you do this again!"

The darkness ignored Naruto's defiance, and continued to eat away at the image he was seeing. He even managed to pull one of the swords out of the ground and tried to make it go away. As if mocking his attempt, the darkness increased the speed at which it was eating everything away. It would not be long until his entire vision was filled with blackness…

…

[Naruto's room—8:30 AM…]

…And then he woke with a start, gasping in fright while the sunlight began to break into his vision. Naruto reached up to touch his forehead, remembering his dream. He'd been having it for quite some time now, and it was a source of confusion to him, no matter how many times he had it it. 'Someday, I'm gonna find out what that dream means, dattebayo!' he said to himself, 'But I'm also gonna protect my precious people, even if it kills me!'

That said, he went to eat breakfast—no good sparring with Tenten on an empty stomach, and the surprise he had for her in the upcoming fight was likely going to be very shocking. He'd been training himself to use his left hand for the past few months out of everyone's sight. 'Just wait 'til Tenten sees the surprise I've got for her!' he thought while sniggering to himself, 'She's gonna be blown out of her mind when I fight her today!'

…

[Gates of Konoha—seven years later…]

It'd been seven years since Naruto left the orphanage, and time had been kind to the boy that had been training in all that time. Gone was the baby fat of his childhood, and in its place was lean and wiry muscle for a boy of his age. His skin had taken on a slightly darker tone, adding more definition to his whisker-marks. He wore an orange, long-tailed vest over a skin-tight navy blue tank-top that exposed his abs, and a pair of medium-blue pants. Slung over his shoulder was a longbow, and holstered at his sides were a pair of large kunai with blades a little longer than the average adult human femur. Now he stood at the Gates of Konoha with an old woman in white robes near him.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay?" she asked, concerned for the boy.

"I'm really sure Bāchan," said Naruto, "I don't want to just stay in the village…I want to see the world with my own two eyes."

The playful smile on the older woman's features seemed to make it so that he didn't want to leave so much. Unfortunately, the wanderlust bug had bitten Naruto hard on the ass, and his curiosity had overridden his desire to stay. "Is an old woman not allowed to worry?"

"C'mon! I can take care of myself! Besides, I promise you that as soon as I get back, you'll be the first person to hear about everything I'm going to see." And it was true…Naruto was not just training on his archery—although he was truly a great shot to begin with. He was also a Nitō-ryu practitioner, much to the surprise of Tenten, who had decided to give the boy "Go Rin no Sho" for his birthday once to make his technique in the art even better. She also taught him in the art of throwing, which he found to be especially useful if he were to run out of arrows.

"Well, if I can't stop you, I can't stop you. Just promise me you'll be careful out there Naruto-kun. The world is a crazy place with all those psychos running about."

"I will!"

And with that said, Naruto finally left the village—he would not be seen again for a good three years.

…

A/N: I wonder, who can guess the identity of Sango's daughter? As to Naruto's Noble Phantasm, he's likely to be getting it early, but not this early.

…

Vocabulary/Culture Notes

Nitō-ryu—this is literal Japanese for 'two sword style'. The practitioner of this art tends to wield either a katana and a wakizashi, or a pair of wakizashi, and pretty much fights while dual-wielding their weapons.

"Go Rin no Sho"—literally "The Book of Five Rings", a book written by legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi that is a treatise on war and martial arts, with many of its lessons holding true in business as well.