AU...
This is a trial story to see what kind of reaction comes from this idea. The idea may not intrest you specifically, Andrew,(in all probability that isn't your name, but it was worth it to mess with all the Andrews out there) but it might just appeal to someone else. So, flames bad, constructive criticism good. Do you see how this works. Anyway, I may as well let you get in to the story as far as you want.
Ninja-
Assassins who mainly use stealth to take out a target, i.e. striking from the shadows or rooftops to accomplish a mission or a hit on a specific person. Practitioners of nin-jutsu or ninja arts, using massive levels of chakra manipulation, designed to fight grand battles between ninja and to fight against samurai. Practitioners of another art known as gen-jutsu or the art of the illusion designed to confuse all five senses with false readings. Gen-jutsu can also be used to inflict pain on the mind of the victim while a strike is used to kill the victim of the gen-jutsu. Female ninja, known as kunoichi, favor the use of their looks to lure an enemy in to a false confidence. Another tactic they're known for is seduction. Some are known to kill their targets after climax. Males are more predominantly known as shinobi, use their physical strength to their advantage. Usually residing in a hidden village, marked by gakure no Sato tacked on to the name. The leaders of these villages are known as Kages, or shadows. Hokage of Konaha, Mizukage of Kiri, Raikage of Kumo, Kazekage of Suna, and the Tsuchikage of Iwa. These Kages are the ones that decide what training will be partaken by the ninjas in their villages. True ninja, will dedicate their lives to mastering the techniques they learn. Any that claim to be shinobi that have not done this, are not even wannabes.
Samurai-
Warriors, servants to the daimyo of the country they live in. Daylight fighters and main army generals, i.e. noblemen or highly trained swordsmen. Practitioners of ken-jutsu or sword arts designed to combat other swordsmen. There are more than just ken-jutsu practiced by samurai. Samurai use a variety of different weapons including, but not limited to, staves, naginata, small axes, spears, and the bow & arrow. They dedicate their lives to the mastering of anything they set their minds to. While rare, female samurai normally favor a lighter weapon then a male. Making use of their more lithe forms, speed is their greatest advantage. Males prefer heavier weapons to make more use of their brute force. Females use a weapon made to resemble a rapier more then a katana, while males tend to focus on a more strength based weapon like a wakizashi or a katana. Master level samurai are usually head of their own clan of samurai and dictate what the training levels will be with all of their subordinates. True samurai, will put their entire beings in to the perfection of any thing they happen to be doing. Be it chores, ken-jutsu, bow work, or any thing they can find to take up their time with.
Monks-
Monks are known for the frequent avoidance of fighting. They have no formal weapons training like both ninja and samurai. However, unlike both of the other groups, they are trained extensively in chakra manipulation and tai-jutsu, or the art of the fist. While ninja and samurai have extensive training in chakra manipulation and tai-jutsu, they must use hand-seals to manipulate that chakra and samurai are able to use chakra through a focus like their sword or armor. Monks however, are able to use their chakra with nothing more than a small gestures. A wave of the hand could cause a number of small things. The Wind Country, home of Sunagakure no Sato, have a number of nomadic monks capable of 'bending' the air around them. Monks who have mastered the bending of air have blue arrows running from the forehead and both wrists meeting on the back. The Fire Country, home of Konahagakure no Sato, have monks capable of 'bending' fire and creating fire. Rumor has it that they have been able to bend lightening. The masters are recognized for a medallion of a black flame in a red circle. The Water Country, home of Kirigakure no Sato, have monks capable of 'bending' water from any source. The rumor mill has spread a tale of one water monk bending the very blood in someone's body, truly terrifying. Masters are recognized by a tattoo on the back of their hands depicting a quarter moon with waves spreading along it with a white circle surrounding it. The Country of Earth, home of Iwagakure no Sato, has the 'bending' monks of Earth. At least one young woman has been confirmed to have bended metal to escape a slave train. Masters of the Earth element bending recognized by the empty square surrounded by a green circle on a sting of leather to make a circlet around the head. There is a legend among the benders, that a being will be born the can bend all four elements. The training that one must endure to become even a novice monk eliminates the possibility of using the other elements.
Ronin-
Samurai without a master. Most were once samurai of note. By the same token, most have fallen beyond any chance of ever regaining their honor. The ways a samurai is turned to a Ronin are as follows; their masters could be killed by a rival Lord, they could be dismissed by their lord(usually a seppuku worthy action), leave a corrupt Lord to his own stupidity, or they are betrayed by their Lords. Ronin are usually destitute and must sell their abilities to a Yakuza boss or become a small time bodyguard for caravans or establishments. They will almost definitely fall in their skill till most ninjas from the beginning rank of Genin up can defeat them. Some fallen samurai have made their names famous, like Demon Eyes Kyo as well as Himura Kenshin. The famous Ronin are not to be trifled with as they are absolute masters of their skills and are on par with ANBU level ninja. They have the potential to rise to the rank of clan heads to teach their skills to the next generation, some have done just that.
Missing Nin-
Missing ninja can come from all ranks. It is rare for missing nin to survive more than a couple of weeks. Some, like the infamous Kage Killer Hoshigaki Kisame & Kin Slayer Uchiha Itachi, have lived for years after betraying their respective villages. B-S rank missing nin have a good chance of escaping the pursuing units of ANBU and Hunter Ninja for awhile. These ninja are added to a book known as the Bingo Book. Each village puts one out to their Jounin and up level ninja. These books also contain minor info on ninja from enemy villages as well as missing ninja from every country with a hidden village.
Start Prologue …….
Era of the Yondaime Hokage:
A mad rush was the only thing that could describe the Hokage's office. Three days before they'd received word that the Kyuubi no Kitsune had awakened from its long slumber and was on the war path toward them. The Kitsune had stared in the direction of Konaha for several minutes and took several steps toward it, and the boarder patrol attacked the Kyuubi. In a rage, it roasted them all but one got a messenger hawk off. They received the message and Yondaime immediately asked the council to call for a general evacuation. The council shot down the request and told him that the ninja were going to do every thing in their power to stop Kyuubi from getting to the village. When he demanded why, they answered that to many things go on in the village to stop it all just to call an evacuation of the populace and that it was his job to lay his life on the line to protect his home. This was all spoken by the head of the council Danzo, a little smirk playing on his features the whole time. The Yondaime glared at the man, all the while thinking that he was an arrogant jackass. "If that's the way you want to handle this fine." with that, he stormed out of the council room.
When he reached his office, he sent a evacuation order for the civilian populace. If he couldn't save everyone, he'd at least save them. For hours he searched everything in the Hokage's Library for a way to defeat the disaster that approached. The only way he discovered to stop it, and that didn't even include killing it, was a seal that required the life of the caster to seal both the Kyuubi and himself in the belly of the Death God to duke it out for the rest of eternity. Problem with that, was he had no doubt that he'd lose about twenty minutes after sealing the spirit itself and it would than get out and continue with its rage induced destruction of Konaha. That would be a very last resort to deal with it. 'Wait, what if I could change the focus of the Seal. That jinchuriki idea had a lot of merit. But who would be able to give up their child to have a demon sealed in to it. Be it boy or girl, the child was going to be the pariah of Konaha. Wait, Kushina is in the hospital right now. I know two weeks is a little early, but if we force labor then I could seal Kyuubi in to my own and no one would be the wiser to its fate!'. He would seal the Kyuubi in to Naruto. His son might have turned out to be the most powerful shinobi to ever come out of Konahagakure no Sato. 'Danzo will never get his hands on my son!' the thought blared through his head. But how to protect him if someone other then Hiruzen were to take the Hokage position. Wait, only ninja were touchable by the Hokage! What if I could get one of the still trusted samurai clans to take him in. I'll still have master Jiraiya train him in the use of seals and some of the more offensive techniques we created. He'd become the very first samurai to ever hold the Toad Summoning! The Akechi were said to have served the first man to ever try to join the entire continent Nobunaga Oda. They were known to be the most honor bound of all the clans that served Nobunaga. A very minor bribe for the adoption of his son should be the perfect plan self! Who knows, maybe more than one samurai clan could be persuaded to join just by bribing Mitsuhide Akechi in to raising his son. Unfortunately, he set the letter in the pile of research notes on his sealing plan. He forgot his plan as he visited his wife, in the hospital going in to labor on her own. Kushina gave him a son, that he would seal the rampaging demon heading straight for Konaha, and a beautiful little girl. She had passed out from the pain, the doctors shaking their heads at the very low chances of her survival. She was losing to much blood. Tears staining his cheeks, he asked the nurse on duty to take her to one of his Genin teammates. The team he'd trained on as a Genin under Jiraiya consisted of Hizashi Hyuga and Fugaku Uchiha. He then took his boy up in the blanket his son lay in, and with a flash of light, he exited the hospital to the outer wall. Unknown to him, Tsunade of the Legendary Three had been convinced by Hiruzen Sarutobi to come to treat any wounded the Kyuubi might incur. As she entered, a nurse with a newborn exited the hospital at a sedate pace. She was informed that only one patient of critical condition existed at the moment.
Six Years After Kyuubi…..
Sarutobi Hiruzen, reinstated Sandaime Hokage, sighed as he stared out at his village, a copy of a six year old letter in his hands. Under normal circumstances, he loved Konaha. But at the moment, he could honestly state that nothing could make him more disappointed in humanity than he was now. Minato had loved Konaha, and wanted his son to live hear, but not be a shinobi, and instead a samurai. He looked over at the couch in his office, upon which rested a six year old boy with more understanding of death and hatred then most of the ninja under his command. This boy, who wore a jumpsuit of the brightest orange, was mistreated at every level. He was shoved around by villagers and shop keepers. Sold expired products, his clothes(if you can call the kill me orange jumpsuit as clothes) at "discount" prices usually three times there normal prices and given books and materials for the academy that would better serve as fire supplies. On the day of his birth, and the subsequent sealing of Kyuubi, there were basically daily jinchuriki beatings. On his third birthday, the beatings by random villagers began. The villagers called it 'Fox Hunting' or trying to finish what the Yondaime started. Most of the elder shinobi would step in if it came to more than punches and kicks. Pathetic that they didn't stop it before it began. They'd lost too damn many friends and comrades keeping the kitsune from reaching the village. They just could not help but see their brothers, fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, or sisters that lost their lives fighting the Kyuubi to a stand still. Today, he'd ended up in the hospital again after beating number twelve for the day, once the ANBU arrived on the scene to see what was going on and put an immediate stop to it and rushed him to the hospital, their training to ingrained to do anything else. When the mask was on, they were all business. Feelings had no merit on the situation.
When Hiruzen retook the mantel of Hokage, he'd immediately called a meeting of the clan heads, the prominent civilian business leaders, and the Hokage's advisors. He wanted to protect Minato's child as quickly as possible. With Minato and Kushina dead, Jiraiya vanished from the village at the moment, and Kakashi in his state of mourning over his last of his Genin team dead with his sensei, no one living would be willing to take in Naruto. He moved as his nickname stated, he moved like 'the God of Shinobi', to insure that Danzo never got his hands on Naruto and he wasn't executed for being the jinchuriki of Kyuubi. With nothing but his word, neither Hiashi nor Fugaku could touch Naruto to adopt him. After insuring that Naruto was completely safe, he'd gathered everything left on the desk, assuming that it was all research leading to the Kyuubi's seal and sent it to Jiraiya via summoned animals. He gave it to the Monkey King Enma to insure it ended in Jiraiya's hands.
After six years, Jiraiya had finally seen fit to contact his old teacher and sent him a copy of a letter written by Minato, to the leader of a samurai clan currently asking entrance in to Konaha. Permission to set up his clan within the borders of the Fire Country already approved with the authenticated letter. Hiruzen already knew that the man was hear to pick up Naruto as per the agreement made via Minato's letter. Hiruzen glanced at a seemingly random wall and nodded. An ANBU agent materialized out of thin air and vanished in a displacement of air. Hiruzen once again glanced out at his village with a sigh. Minato had known. He'd known that Naruto would be hated as most jinchuriki were. So he'd made contingency plans that had nothing to do with Konaha. Hiruzen glanced back over at the boy sleeping on his couch with a small smile. He felt privileged to have been able to know the young child. Even if he never talked to him again, he'd always remember the bright smile of the young boy as they ate ramen on top of the Hokage Monument. All the memories he had of the young blonde in front of him played through his head as he waited for the samurai that might take him away forever. The moment ended to quickly for the old man as he heard the knock on his office door.
"Enter," the door opened to reveal the ANBU agent leading Mitsuhide Akechi. His black hair was tied in a pony tail down his back. His green eyes had a serious set to them, his light blue haori was adorned with the Akechi symbol, a violet sakura blossom in a white circle, his katana sat easily in his belt tying off his white hakama. The two men stared at each other for several minutes. "The boy on the couch is the one I'm hear for, correct Hokage-sama?" Sarutobi just nodded. "He looks incredibly malnourished." with a small sigh, Sarutobi nodded, "The people here, don't understand the difference between a container and the detainee inside." Mitsuhide nodded. "Could you tell all five ANBU to leave the room so we may discuss things," he looked at each of the five hidden ANBU agents. Hiruzen nodded and with a small hand wave, five simultaneous small displacements of air, three people were left in the room. The two men then began to hash out how things were going to go for the rest of Naruto's life, if he wanted this life.
End prologue…..
AU…..
I know that having a large amount of author notes can get in the way of the story's progression, but readers, this is where we tell you important things that may spring up to delay a story or ask for some more creative criticism than things like "Great story, please update!" That is not a decent review and would like to please ask people to stop and tell us what they didn't like about it so in the future we may strive to correct these over sights and fix anything that we can find. Anyway, I'm not great at writing romance, so I'm going to try and stay away from it as much as possible. If I feel comfortable with writing it, I'll attempt it.
Thanks for your time, and a wizards' web will see you out the door.
War Wizard out.