True Spirit
Ring Ring Ring! The alarm clock sounded. Tenzen slowly rose from his bed, and walked to the bathroom. Without even thinking he turned on the shower and began to clean himself. After his shower, he returned to the room he had slept in, and walked to his closet. Putting his clothes on he looked at himself in the mirror to check his appearance. His shoulder length white hair was the same as always, spiky at the top, and his bangs fell down into his face. He remedied this by running he fingers through his hair to push it back. His skin was quite tanned which was surprising for someone from the hidden leaf. He was tall and rather muscular, which anyone would expect of a shinobi. He wore his signature grey shirt that had vertical purple stripes on it, purple shinobi pants and black sandals. After looking over himself one last time he gave himself a satisfied nod and grabbed his black haori and swung it around to put it on. On the shoulder of his haori there was the purple kanji of Senkou, which he wore in honor of his hero and Sensei. Looking at the kanji he couldn't help but think back to the good old days. Back when everything seemed easier, and he was much different.
24 years ago...
Tenzen had been walking through the village alone and since he was an orphan no one paid him any mind. His destination was the new ramen shop that had just opened, and although he wasn't the biggest fan of ramen, but he had heard that all the other kids were going and he wanted to be involved. Finally, he had arrived at the restaurant. There was a line two blocks long, Tenzen let out a long sigh and went to find his friends. It take him long to spot his friends in line, and he walked over to stand next to them. As he had expected Asuma was hitting on Kurenai, and Gai was in Kakashi's face about their next rivalry challenge, and Rin was laughing at Kakashi's misery. Tenzen let out another long-winded sigh, sometimes his peers were unbearable, but they were his friends and he wouldn't have them any other way. He was brought out of his thought by the arrival Obito running up to the group. "Sorry I'm late I had to help this old lady with her groceries." Obito said with a cheeky grin across his face.
"You're such a liar." Rin said with a bit of bite to her voice, clearly she was tired of Obito and his constant excuses.
"You will never be a shinobi if you're always tardy." Kakashi said with annoyance in his voice. "It's very important to be prompt and at the ready."
"Oh Yeah! Just you wait Kakashi once my sharingan activates I'll be able to mop the floor with you!" Obito said shaking his fist at Kakashi. Rin went to step in the middle of the two so they didn't start a fight. Tenzen was happy to stay quite and watch his friends antics, he never felt like getting involved in these things.
"Hey Tenzen I didn't even see you walk up." Asuma said finally noticing his closest friend. Everyone proceeded to turn around and look at Tenzen. Each giving varying looks from confusion on Gai's and Obito's face to Kakashi's blank stare and Rin gave him a smile. "Why do you love to do that so much."
"Do what?" Tenzen said with no life to his voice. He knew what he did and that he did it all the time but he wasn't about to give up this façade of uncaring.
"You know, sneak up on everyone without a word." Asuma answered giving Tenzen a look that said "you asshole".
"I simply walked up and stood here, not my fault that everyone was too busy to notice." Tenzen said with a smirk crossing his face. He honestly didn't mean to sneak up on everyone but it seemed that they never noticed him walk up since he didn't feel like talking without purpose or announce his arrival every time he cam into a room.
"Uh huh. Sure…" Kurenai said rolling her beaming red eyes. "You always love to act like the cool guy, just admit it."
"Hehe what can I say? It just comes naturally." Tenzen said with a smirk still across his face.
"Yeah yeah what…" Asuma trailed off looking at the cloaked figure that now approached. "Hey Tou-san!" Asuma waved his hand in the air to get his fathers attention.
"Hello Asuma. I see this is were you ran off to." The Sandaime said taking another puff from his pipe. "Oh! And I see Tenzen is with you."
"Hey old man, it's nice to see you again." Tenzen said shoving his hands into his pockets and giving the Hokage a sheepish smile. As he said this a tall white haired man walked up to them along side a blonde haired shinobi.
"Jeeze Hiruzen-sensei, you've gotten soft. Whenever I would call you old man at their age you'd give me a swift smack to the head." The white haired man said with a chuckle in his voice. Wait! If the old man was this guys sensei that would make him…
"You're Jiraiya-sama of the legendary Sannin!" Tenzen yelled at the middle-aged shinobi. Which got a chuckle from his friends and some weird looks from the others in line. The Toad Sage bent over and ruffled Tenzen's hair while trying to catch his breath.
"That's right! Nice to see my fame is growing to even the younger generations." The Sannin spoke to the young boy with a big cheeky smile on his face. He patted him a couple times on the head before returning to his usual height.
"Can you be my Sensei?!" Tenzen continued ignoring the weird looks from the crowd; the laughing of his friends, and the condescending way the Jiraiya had spoken to him. "Look I can already do a bunshin." Tenzen then proceded to make the appropriate hand sign and with loud POOF and a cloud of smoke a perfect replica of Tenzen appeared next to him. Jiraiya was a bit surprised he didn't expect a 6 year old to already know how to do a bunshin. But still…
"Sorry gaki, but I'm already Minato's sensei." Jiraiya said pointing to the blonde haired shinobi to his right. "And besides, I travel too much for my research and I don't need a gaki to slow me down."
"Sorry pal." Minato said with a soft smile across his face in an attempt to ease the boy and resolve the issue quickly.
"I'm not a brat, and I'm not YOUR pal. I won't slow you down I promise. Please take me with you! Tenzen pleaded with the white haired sage. He would do anything to be trained by the legendary Jiraiya.
"I'm sorry but I can't be babysitting while researching AND training Minato." The white haired sage said folding his arms to let the boy know he was serious.
"How bout when we come back to the village I'll show you a thing or two." The yellow flash said coming down to the boys level and putting a hand on his shoulder, but the boy knocked the blue eyed shinobi's hand away before he could even touch him.
"Who knows how long that will be, and anyways I don't want YOU to teach me, I want Jiraiya-sama to teach me." The white haired boy said backing away the Minato.
"Let it go Tenzen, he already said no." Asuma said trying to get his friend to stop yelling. Jiraiya eyes widened when he heard the gaki's name. He looked to his Sensei for verification. Sarutobi gave a small smile and a nod verifying the sage's suspicions. This made Jiraiya rethink his decision about the boy.
"Hmph, I can't believe your Jiraiya-sama's pupil, what's so special about you." Tenzen said looking the young shinobi up and down. "I bet a could take you down in no time flat." This got a light chuckle from the hokage and his student.
"Tenzen, do you know who this man is?" the Sandaime said gesturing towards Minato who gave the boy a small smile. Tenzen simply gave the hokage a look of confusion. "This is Namikaze Minato, he was the first in his class, and he just so happens to be a Jonin on the fast track to being hokage." The young white haired boys mouth gaped at what the hokage was saying, and so did the other kids.
"You're Namikaze Minato!" Gai yelled "You have a most youthful spirit, I hear you know the strongest Ninjutsu ever!"
"Yes, the Hiraishin allows the user to instantly teleport to the location of the seal. He uses special kunai with this seal to teleport anywhere the kunai goes. It is considered the fastest jutsu ever." Kakashi added with his relaxed tone of voice.
"Hmph, I bet I'm faster than this chump." Tenzen said pointing to Minato who had a shy smile on his face from all the praise. "What do you say MINATO want to race?" Minato's smile was soon lost to a look of confusion, and the Toad Sage burst into laughter at the simple thought of anyone racing the Yellow Flash.
"Tell you what if you beat Minato in a race you can come with us when we leave." The white haired sage said still laughing.
"Sounds good to me." The third said "Is that okay with you Minato?"
"Uh…. Yeah sure, I guess." Minato said still a little baffled by the white haired boy in front of him.
"Really! Yes Jiraiya-sama is going to be my sensei!" Tenzen shouted which made the toad man laugh even harder yet. The Hokage simply smirked for he knew that the boy could be cocky, but this time he wasn't cocky it was confidence.
End Chapter 1
This is my first story on . I hope you liked this first chapter. I'm going to do my best to post up new chapters as fast as possible, and I'm not going to quit on the story until it is completely finished. Please leave reveiws and let me know how you like it. Thanks all.