Author's Note: As promised a new story. I planned to publish this weeks ago, but I've had no internet for the past weeks..
Disclaimer: This story is a parody. I do not own Naruto.
Orphan
Growing up in Tsuchi no Kuni pretty much sucked if you were poor. It sucked even worse if you were an orphan.
It sucked real fierce.
We didn't have the lush forests of Fire Country to play in. If you wanted to play outside you risked falling down one of many ravines, or have the misfortune of falling victim to Gan'u, the Rock Rain. The only thing constant about the weather here, was its shifting. Clear skies one minute, thunderstorms the next.
There was also the fact that unlike the other Nations, our Hidden Village's influence ran much deeper than others. Unless you were a very successful merchant or a Shinobi, don't expect regular food on your plate. The Daimyo pretty much let the Tsuchikage do whatever he wanted.
That included plucking orphans off the streets to make Shinobi out of them.
Now, to some this sounded like a dream come true, a roof over your head, and guaranteed employment. But not to me. No I knew better. I'd seen the looks on the face of those veterans, the one who moved away from Iwa, too crippled to be any of real use. That's not the future I had planned for myself.
I was a smart kid, or so I was told with varying degrees of vitriol. I didn't consider myself smart per se, I preferred to refer to myself as cunning. I grew up in these gravel covered streets, and knew my way around them. I was the bastard runt of some random Shinobi and a red lantern whore. I knew my shitty little village like the back of my own hand. Ok it wasn't that small, fairly large, nothing special.
I grew up in a brothel, I was popular with the ladies before I could even talk. Naturally I got tired of the constant smell sex and rarely spent any time there if I could help it. My mother could care less. The only fond memories my mother had of me, was of making me. My father was apparently a stud, and a "good fuck". I was scarred for life anyway, being introduced to the depravities of man since my conception.
I only really went back if I needed somewhere to lay low, my mother was long since dead, either from drugs or disease, I really didn't care. I'd long since read every one of the scant few books that were in the brothel. Even Kama Sutra if I was bored enough. I ventured out by the age of five, proceeded to engage in standard ruffian behavior. Thievery, gambling and the like. I guess those could be considered the same thing in some cases, semantics.
Where are my manners, I'm here chatting off your ear, and I haven't even introduced myself.
Name's Shigeo. Got it? Good. Remember it. I might need someone to remind me of it after this, I may have a small concussion. Why?
I was currently getting my ass kicked.
I ran my tongue over my split lips, tasting the familiar coppery tang of blood. Pushing myself off the dusty ground I stood up and braced myself against the pit walls barring me in with my current adversary. I ignored the taunting leers of the audience and kept my eyes on my smirking opponent, mid-teens, lank build, and average height. I worked my jaw a bit, there was definitely chakra in that last hit, academy reject most likely. He was average Tsuchi stock, not that outstanding. Not a particularly challenging opponent except for the fact the fact that…
I was nine.
I was nine and my opponent was near twice my age and body mass. My opponent, whose name I didn't really care for, smirked at me, self-assured in his victory. I noticed a few pitying glances from the crowd, only a few. No one forced me in the pit, I chose to do this.
After catching my breath, I reset my stance, feet shoulder width apart, and left side forward, right foot back at a fourty-five degree angle. I raised my arms below my chin and glared menacingly.
At least I hoped it looked menacing. My opponent seemed to find it amusing.
"They let anybody in the cage now don't they." He taunted.
"Yeah I know, did you have to suck dick to get in or something?" I replied, face unchanging, but I really wanted to laugh. My opponent's face lit up like a paper lantern, veins on his forehead throbbing. Teenagers were all the same, make jokes about the sexuality and they got all fussy.
"You got a dirty mouth runt, probably got it from kiss your whore mother!" he yelled, a smirk falling on his face, "Maybe I'll go pay her visit when I win this prize money"
I rolled my eyes, my mother was a prostitute, and I didn't give a damn who she had sex with.
"You won't really get the chance to, money or not even whores have standards" that triggered a few guffaws in the audience.
"You little bastard!", and there it was. I watched him charge at me, breaking his stance in a mad rush to inflict bodily harm onto my person.
Perfect.
As he drew near and swung I ducked, sliding into his guard, I jumped, pushed off knee, then drove my knee into his face. My chakra empowered knee. Blood spurted from is nose, but I wasn't finished. Still mid-air, I grabbed his shoulders and vaulted over them before wrapping myself around his right arm and shoulder.
I then pulled.
There was a satisfying popping noise of a dislocated shoulder followed by equally as satisfying screaming. I let go of my opponent's arm and dropped into a roll, dodging a retaliatory swing of his right leg, which I proceeded to grab.
I dislocated that to.
My opponent now reduced to a heap of incoherent screams I calmly exited the now open cage to collect my winnings. Regulars shooting me nods, others shaking their head and the poor fool's misfortune. After all my skill was common knowledge to those who hung around the intermediate pits.
Very few could beat Snow White. Called such, due to my stark white hair.
I honestly thought it was a really cool epithet, but there seemed to be something distinctively feminine about it.
I collected my winnings and made my way up the stairs and out into the tunnels leading to the surface. The pit fights were held underground in dug out caverns. There were three separate sections of pits, the beginner, intermediate and professional pits. They were one of my current sources of income. I'd recently made a name for myself in the intermediate pits, been fighting since I was seven.
There wasn't really an age limit, and allowing a child to prize fight wasn't all that frowned upon. Children younger than me were being whisked away to fight in war. I was good at it, so no one really thought much of it anyway.
Now that I had made it back to the surface I made my way deeper into the village, body on auto-pilot. As I waded through the light foot traffic I pretty much instinctively pickpocketed anyone foolish enough to stray within arm's reach. I pinched a few rock-mochi off an unsuspecting stand owner, nibbling on the treats I let my thoughts wonder. Mostly on what to do with my full wallet.
Well I had some idea as to what some of the money would be going towards, my travelling funds. I had a lot of ambitions, and to kick start them I needed to get the hell out of Tsuchi no Kuni. But first there were things that needed to be done.
I stopped in front of a ramshackle apartment complex, I made my way up a few flight of stairs and knocked on a particular door, it was a few minutes before the door was opened, but I stood there patiently. The door opened enough for the person behind it to peek out. There was a snort.
"Oh it's you." The owner of the voice was a grizzled man in his forties. Unkempt brown hair covered his head and stubble covered his face. Light gray eyes peered down at me.
"Yeah, me." I waved some bills in his face, he let me in.
"Still making money using cheap chakra control to win fights huh." He stated. I shrugged, it was the truth. It was how I won most of my fights seeing as my opponents were so much bigger than me. Stick to them and break them piece by piece was my method.
"Be proud," I stated, "Your tutelage has borne fruit, aren't masters normally happy about these things?" I questioned, sauntering into his apartment and plopping myself on his moldy couch.
"I'm not your master, you pay me, and I teach you what I know. So what is it this week, more chakra stuff?" I nodded, I'd already learnt enough about stealth and taijutsu, and I was thirsty for more knowledge about chakra, especially this topic.
Gin was an old Iwa chunin. Couple years back he moved into my little slice of hell, said he was of no use anymore with his messed up left leg. Unlike most of the retired Iwa guys I'd seen, he was the least bitter about his time served. He actually took pride in his service and tried his best to corral me into joining the corps.
"What do you know about Fuin?" I hedged. He shot me a queer glance.
"Where'd you hear about Fuinjutsu?" he asked, dumbfounded.
"That's not important Gin, you know I like to read. Do you have anything about it?" I asked a bit forcefully, he looked at me odd, but nonetheless went rummaging through his apartment to find what I asked for.
I'd actually overheard a conversation between a couple old veterans lamenting about the topic. The thing's they had described the art could unleash were amazing, some said it was more powerful than conventional ninjutsu. I wanted that kind of power.
"Hey kid," Gin's voice plucked me from my thoughts,"I don't have much but here." He tossed me a small scroll.
Basic Fuinjutsu was what the title read.
"Its standard issue stuff, storage seals, paper bombs, that kind of thing. We don't get access to the heavy stuff unless we're decent at it. If you're good enough, you get into the barrier corps." Gin supplied. I listened with half an ear, scroll already unraveled in my hands, hungry eyes darting over the illustrations.
It was as good a start as any.
"This is fine," I stated distractedly, I tossed him some couple ryo, "Get me something on poisons and I'll be out of your hair." I stated, shooing him off. Gin gave an affirmative grunt and went to go fetch me the information I wanted.
While Gin was retrieving what I asked for I busied myself with the scroll. It was as Gin said, nothing much, but the flexibility of the art would surely allow for me to squeeze as much out of the little I had. From what I knew, most seals were just a bunch of formulae programmed to bring about a specific result. You could use a vast array of different designs to achieve the exact same result, ad tweaking a formula could lead to a totally different result. It was like a language, different letters coming together to create different words of varying meanings.
I'd always been interested in certain aspects of the ninja arts, despite the fact that I had no intentions of being a ninja, my goals were a bit loftier. Fuinjutsu for some reason appealed to me like none other, perhaps it was the versatility. Gin's footsteps drew my attention.
"You know you'd make a damn good Genin if you stopped hiding from the recruiters." Gin said, the man was annoyingly patriotic. He did this everytime.
"You know I have no aspirations in that particular field of work." I stated briskly. I had no time for his drivel about the honor of serving as a shinobi. Honor was for samurai anyway.
"No you'd rather peddle drugs and gamble like a typical thug." He said, with what sounded like a sneer in his voice, I looked up from the scroll. What do you know, it was a sneer.
"How self-righteous of a murderer" I droned, rolling my eyes.
"Like you would never kill a man, as far as I know you've killed more than me" Gin hissed, I really wasn't in the mood for this.
"Yes but I wouldn't try and glorify it behind a veil of nationalism and propaganda. Need I remind you that you are practically selling village techniques to non-combatant?" He shot me an indignant look, ready to rebut, before deciding to hold his tongue. I had spoken the truth. He didn't get much in the way of money and I was one of his only sources of steady income.
"Give me those scrolls and take your pay, I have business to take care of elsewhere." He grumbled resentfully but gave me the scrolls anyway. I put the money on his coffee table and left.
By the Sage that man can be annoying. It was fine however, I would be done with him soon. Him and this village.
I hit the red light district a few hours later looking to make some easy profit. There was also some form of illicit activities going on in here that an opportunist, like myself, could take advantage of. I planned to get the most out of my money tonight.
But first a quick stop to the gambling halls.
I panned my vision around the tables, my eyes landing on a game of hanafuda. I made my way over, my gait cocksure. There were 3 other men at the table who eyed me curiously. I placed a roll of bills on the table and their gazes turned predatory.
"That's a lot of cash Snow White, you sure you wanna lose all your milk money?" I showed no surprise at him knowing my nickname, even if he never stepped anywhere near the pits, anyone would know me by my hair. It wasn't a common Tsuchi hair colour. I shot the men a smile.
"Don't worry I don't plan to lose it all, I'll finish here quickly. Y'know, bedtime and all that." I boasted, an easy grin on my face. The men at the table erupted into guffaws, I noted they were all a bit buzzed.
"You're funeral runt." One of them intoned.
I smiled
An Hour later.
After a few rounds of Hanafuda and a couple of dice games later I now had five times what I entered with. Which was quite a bit.
Gambling was one of my favorite pass times, simply because I was so damn good at it. Games of chance just seemed to always go in my favor. On the few days they didn't though…
I cheated. Cheated like the bastard I was.
Sleight of hand was one of my many ignoble talents. A necessary skill to have in the slums, in my opinion. It was, besides hand to hand, one of my best skills. You get really get good at these things when you grow up on the streets, especially when you don't have money for food, or clothes.
I considered myself the best.
It was pretty late out now, and while there was so much more I could do tonight, I was eager to get back to the Fuinjutsu scrolls I'd gotten from Gin. So I made the trek out of the red light district and into the more tame sections of the village. I didn't own my own place exactly, mostly out of stinginess than anything. But what I did have was old shed I repurposed into serving my needs. It wasn't glamorous, but I didn't need glamourous. It was close enough to the village outskirts that no one bothered to trespass, hidden by foliage as it was. No one stepped foot in it besides myself.
At least not normally.
Now I don't know what happened exactly, but all I saw was a blur of red, and then I couldn't move, then I was on the ground. I mean total immobilization. I couldn't even blink. Then there was the voice.
"Oh fucking fantastic Kushina, a kid! Way to freaking go! Getting all jumpy over a brat. What if I'd killed him! StupidStupidStupid!" My captor broke down into quite a rant, she seemed rather occupied with herself to. In my periphery I could make out blue combat sandals, and ground, lots of ground. I could barely make out black markings on my cheeks. Was that sealing script?
I attempted to clear my throat. It came out more like a wheeze.
"Oh by the sage I'm sorry!" My captor exclaimed and I suddenly found myself able to move again.
I then proceeded to swipe the mystery assailant's feet from under them. Well I tried to at least. They were disgustingly nimble, and made to jump away from me. I took the opportunity to size them up.
She was kunoichi that much was obvious. Slender in build as most were. She was great deal taller than me, not surprising, I remind you that I am nine. She was garbed in navy blue long pants, and a matching shirt with the sleeves rolled up a tad. A green flak jacket covered her torso, and her red no doubt waste length hair was held in a high ponytail. What interested me however, was the Konoha headband on her forehead. I was aware that there was a war being fought right now and to my knowledge, Konoha and Iwa were not allies. Was she a scout? She looked about seventeen or eighteen, that flak jacket meant either Jonin or Chunin.
She was likewise sizing me up, her mouth open in abject shock, probably due to my age. Which was odd, I didn't imagine ninja would be squeamish about killing nosy orphans who'd seen too much. But no, it was more than that. I saw…recognition? How could she possibly know me? Perhaps I reminded her of someone she knew. That was not my problem, I needed to figure out I was going to get out of this situation alive.
"Who are you and why are you in my house?" I asked, face blank. She shot me a queer look.
"Your house? Kid this place is a dump." She stated, not even looking fazed by my initial attack. I was no threat in her eyes. Good.
"Fuck you it's all I have, I'm not necessary swimming in money crazy kunoichi lady." I shot back, she gawked.
"Hey watch the language brat! Your parents never teach you manners?!" She bellowed back, I shot her a deadpan look and she seemed to realize her fumble.
"Er, I'm guessing you don't have parents…" she mumbled, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. What a spaz.
"What gave it away? Was it the shed?" I asked, sarcasm dripping off my words.
"Ehehehe, sorry 'bout that, and you know the freezing you thing."
Indeed, I thought
"Um, can you do me a favor and keep quiet about all this? I'll bring you some candy or something." She hedged. I pondered it, I would be harboring the enemy and would most likely swiftly be executed, but…
"Teach me." I demanded. She looked appalled.
"Eh?" was her eloquent response. I continued as if I didn't hear her.
"That paralysis thing you did. That was fuinjutsu right? I know about that, teach me and I'll keep my mouth shut." My demands stated I folded my arms and waited.
"Er, no" was her response.
I blinked. Twice.
She stared right back at me.
I launched myself backwards and immediately made my way into the village, I made it all of two feet before I was caught again. This time by…glowing chains? Wow, I was really sleepy all of a sudden, was that the chains. She looked like she had a hard time being either amused or unimpressed. She settled for a mixture of both.
"Really?" she stated, a delicate red eye-brow raised.
"Are you going to kill me then?" I asked, expression neutral. Her composure abruptly broke down.
"What! No! You're a kid!" she stated, aghast.
"Yeah? You're a ninja." Were we playing the obvious fact game now?
"Look kid just keep quiet and you won't have to put up with any trouble. Got that?" She stated, face serious.
"No, teach m." I demanded, I could be as stubborn as any damn mule. I would get what I wanted here. She didn't seem to want to kill me, which was weird. I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth however. The crazy kunoichi sighed.
"Kid you're way too young to learn this kind of stuff, its way to dangerous..." She began, no doubt about to lecture me.
"I can make paper bombs" I said, she looked at me in surprise, before narrowing her eyes.
"Prove it" she challenged
Okay
"Left heel" I said simply
"What?"
"You're left heel, I planted a tag there before you jumped away" I explained. She looked down and there it was, a rudimentary paper bomb. She turned back to me.
"When did you learn to do this?" she inquired. Curiosity shining in her violet eyes.
"A couple hours ago" I boasted.
"Bullshit" she stated flatly
"Nuh uh" I rebutted.
"It's pretty shitty."
"It'll still blow your foot off" I supplied, at that she smirked, there was a fizzing noise and my sealing tag fell of her heel. Diffused.
Damn.
"First of you used cheap paper, and you didn't even use pre-mixed ink did you?" she chastised. I shrugged, still in chains.
"It's what I had." I defended. It was true, there wasn't really a ninja supply store in our village. She contemplated me for a few minutes. She nodded, seemingly coming to a decision.
"Ok runt, you let me crash here a bit while I do secret ninja business and I'll teach you a bit about Fuinjutsu." I nodded rapidly. Excitement bubbling out from my pores.
"Deal" I said istantly. She grinned and let me go.
"You know you should be grateful, you're going to be learning Fuinjustu from a Master. I'm an Uzumaki y'know?" I nodded along.
Uzumaki? The hell did whirlpools have to do with anything?
Kushina
I watched as the kid, Shigeo he said his name was, slept. He had stayed up all night questioning me about Fuinjutsu and chakra theory before he eventually called it quits and got some shut eye. He was an adorable little thing for sure, gentle features despite a no doubt rough upbringing. Most likely from his mother, because there was nothing gentle in his father's features for sure, or at least who I suspected his father was anyway.
That wasn't important however, interesting kid aside I had a scouting mission to finish, and my time was limited. I didn't expect to share my base of operations with a nine year older, but I've been on stranger missions. I glanced down at his tiny, curled up form. He was lithe, obviously very active for his age, his shaggy white hair was cut short, and not done very well. Probably a rush job with some scissors.
Mikoto would probably glomp the shit out of him. I knew she planned to take some time off the field soon. She was pretty excite about her marriage to Fugaku. I don't know how anyone could be excited about that stiff, but she seemed to see something in him that I didn't. She was always eager to start having babies, I couldn't understand her at all, and I was at least going to get a few more years of service done before I would even think about pushing out brats. That flaky boyfriend of mine better put a ring on my finger before then to.
Ugh, I keep distracting myself. Focus Kushina, you've only got at most a week to get as much data as possible. I'd already scoped out the patrols near here, but there still more to check out. I peeked out at the moonlit sky, it was at least two in the morning, I could continue where I left off, but there was no use tiring myself out. I didn't really need to keep watch, I'd put some detection seals up, much to Shigeo's admiration and appreciation. Again I found my thoughts returning to him.
He'd said there were a few veterans living in this village, and that's how he had learned about Fuin. To be honest, I was impressed at how well he grasped the basics. When I'd called his paper bomb crap, I meant his materials. I looked over the formula and it was perfect, no doubt he'd soon be making modifications on the original Fuin.
He kind of reminded me of Minato in that regard. It was so rare for someone not an Uzumaki to be that good at Fuinjutsu. I hadn't planned to teach him much, just a few simple barriers and some chakra suppressors, maybe the snare Fuin I'd used on him earlier. But I had my suspicions that he would burn through any material I gave him pretty quickly. It was only a week however, so there really wouldn't be much I could teach him in a week anyway.
Unless he was some weird super prodigy like my Minato. But that was crazy talk.
I had to wonder though. What use would Fuinjutsu be to some Tsuchi no Kuni street rat? Was he trying to become a ninja? I didn't realize Fuinjutsu was a requirement to gain entrance into the Iwa ranks. Then again, he was old enough that he should have been scooped up by recruiters by now, so far he was one of the youngest kids I'd seen here. A possible dropout? He seemed well conditioned enough.
This kid was an enigma.
I needed to stop thinking so much and get some shut eye. There was only one bed roll in the kid's little shack so I guess I was taking the hard floor. Fabulous. I could unseal a sleeping bag but there wasn't much room in here.
Oh well.
Shigeo
Despite how late I stayed up last night, I still managed to rise fairly early. The kunoichi, despite no doubt falling asleep after me, was up and out already. I was really hoping she didn't pull the wool over my eyes and make off before fulfilling her end of the bargain.
That would kind of suck.
Though she did leave behind those detection seals. I wondered if I could somehow reverse engineer them. I mean how hard could it be? I began examining the formulae, how did they alert her on intruders? Were they capable of making noise? Like an alarm? Did she somehow key them to her chakra? Why didn't they recognize me as an intruder? Were they keyed to me as well? I didn't recognize any of the Fuin, they weren't in the scroll I'd gotten off Gin. Were they advanced? If so I didn't really find myself that impressed. I mean they were no doubt invaluable, but this was probably just the intermediate stuff.
"You're going hurt your brain trying to decipher that stuff so soon." Came the voice of my uninvited, but not unwanted guest.
I whirled around shocked. There she was holding a pretty large catch of fish. She grinned.
"Thought I'd made of before I could uphold me end huh?" I nodded. "Heh, I always keep my promises kid!"
"Is that fish for me to?" I asked, ignoring her declaration. It was a lot of fish.
"Duh" she said, "Come help me clean them"
We made our way to the back of my shed, she handed me a kunai to begin scaling, I'd never held one before, I mostly used conventional daggers, or hell even scissors.
"You need help over there?" Kushina asked, noticing my inexperience with the knife, I shook my head and got to the task. I observed her with my periphery vision. I honestly didn't expect to be treating me so…nice? Was she trying to soften my guard? Iwa propaganda painted Konoha shinobi as monsters. Then again, it was propaganda. Maybe it was just her? Was this her nature? Odd for a kunoichi.
"Gee, watching me so intensely. Do you have a crush on little old me?" she teased, I gave her an unimpressed look.
"No, you're weird." I quipped, suddenly she was in my face.
I fell over.
"What was that you little brat?! Here I am, giving you free food and tutelage and you have the nerve to act ungrateful! A lot of people would kill to be in your position, you know!" I shot back to my feet.
"I never said I wasn't grateful crazy tomato lady! For the record, you are weird!" I suddenly had the feeling that I'd said the wrong thing. Kushina's hair suddenly shadowed her face. The hell! Were her eyes glowing, and was her hair moving?
"What was that, brat?" a cold dread slithered its way into my heart.
"Urk, you're totally the prettiest girl ever Kushina-sensei? Totally not weird, eheheheh." I hedged, her countenance did a complete polar shift and she beamed at me.
"D'aww, thank you Shigeo-kun." She patronizingly patted my head and went back to scaling fish.
By the Sage, Kunoichi were fucking crazy.
"Um, should I get firewood?" I asked, I was kind of hungry now. Kushina shook her head. She placed her hand on the ground, there was a flash, and then what looked to be Fuin etched, no burned, into the ground. She grabbed a scroll and unsealed some coal, which she placed on the ground over the seal. She then unsealed a really tiny grill.
I stared. She gave me a cheeky smile.
"Benefits on knowing fuinjutsu. No matter how heavy you pack, you're always packing light." She said with an ever growing grin. I blinked, then spoke.
"Could you put storage seals on your body?" I asked, that would be very useful, her face became strained for some reason.
"Yes, but typically it makes more sense to just put stuff in scrolls." She said, I nodded.
"That seal, you somehow burned it into the ground. Chakra?" She nodded. That was amazing. "Will you teach me how to do that?" I asked.
"That's a pretty advanced technique, and I won't be here for that long…" she stated.
Oh.
"Ah" was all I said, I would need to find some other to learn after she left then. "Is it going to make the fire?" she snapped her fingers, and there it was, fire.
I noticed something peculiar to.
"The smoke…" I started, she looked at me, impressed by my observations.
"That's right, the seal keeps the smoke from rising to high, keeps unwanted attention away." She elaborated.
That was pretty awesome in my opinion. The art was really as flexible as most said.
"So the seal just, makes fire? Where does it come from?" I asked, Kushina began preparing the fish.
"How much do you know about Chakra?" she asked. I would like to say I knew a lot, but I doubted I really knew much.
"Very little I assume, I know about basic chakra control. I don't know much about ninjutsu." I stated, Kushina nodded.
"I see, well let me first tell you about Chakra Natures." I looked at her bewildered.
"Chakra Natures yes. Each person's chakra has a particular elemental affinity, some acquire multiple affinities. The elements one can have an affinity for are: Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth and Water. Some unique ninjutsu require a mixture of multiple elements, these are mostly found in certain clans." She said, ending her short lecture.
"So the seal coverts your chakra, into a Fire Nature?" She nodded, I thought over that for a second, could regular ninjutsu be performed through seals? Seemingly reading my mind she began speaking again.
"Yes Fuinjutsu could be used to create unique ninjutsu, but is rarely ever used in that way. If a seal produces an elemental chakra, it is mostly likely in a brief burst. Commonly used for traps." She explained. I nodded, showing I understood.
"How do you find out your affinity? Also, besides familial traits, what determines your affinity?" I inquired. I kind of wanted to learn mine now.
"There is a special paper used to test for an affinity, depending on how it reacts to your chakra determines you're affinity. Most people gain a chakra nature through either constant use of the element, or based on their surroundings. That is, where you were born can determine your affinity, but not always." She explained. I nodded.
…
"Do you have any special paper?" I asked, she looked at me, bemused.
"Maybe"
"Can I, maybe, use it?" I pleaded meekly. She raised an eyebrow.
"Elemental manipulation is pretty heavy stuff for a newbie. I don't know if you're ready for that kind of thing" she stated, a grin forming on her lips. She was teasing me.
I however was not in the mood for it.
"I'll pay you" I said, face serious. She gawked.
"Kid trust me, a slip of chakra paper cost more than that shed you have. I doubt you've got the cash." I stared her dead in the eye, reached into my shirt and pulled out a leather puuch.
"How much?" I asked, she looked at me, exasperated.
"Kid I'm not going to…"
"How, much?" I asked again. She watched me intently.
"No"
"Why"
"I'm not going to rob a nine year old. Where did you even get that money from?"
"Why not?" I asked, ignoring her question. "Shinobi do anything for money right?" She gave me an offended look.
"Not all of us" she defended tersely. She continued to eye me. "Why are you so intent on this? All of this? What's some Tsuchi orphan need jutsu for?" She asked me. I took a deep breath. Then spoke.
"I am going to be the world's most powerful Yakuza boss." I declared, my voice, full of resolve. It's a dream I'd had for as long as I could understand the concept of money and power. I felt this was a way to attain both, without going down the crazy route of becoming a shinobi.
Kushina looked unimpressed. I didn't care, it was my dream, no my goal, and I was sticking with it. Suddenly Kushina's forehead bashed into mine. I was promptly sent tumbling.
"What was that for?!" I demanded. She looked down at me, left eye twitching.
"For being an idiot! Why would you want to be Yakuza boss?!" She roared back. I glared at her. Pure venom in my eyes.
"Oh I'm sorry, is it not noble enough for you Kunoichi-sama? Are my aspirations so lowly that they offend your honor" I asked.
"This has nothing to do with honor! And stop using big words like aspiration, your nine! What kid 'aspires' to be a thug!" she glared down at me, judging me.
"Don't you dare look at me like that! I can aspire to be whatever THE HELL I want!" I spit at her feet. "Don't ever look down at me. Not like a tool of war like you…would know anything about aspirations!" I bellowed, I grabbed one of the mostly cooked fish and then darted away.
She didn't follow.
The next few hours found me in the fight pits again, where I rampaged like the little hellion I was, several young boys, and a few grown men found themselves brutally dismantled that morning.
As the afternoon rolled around I left the pits, a few tens of thousands ryo richer. My mood somewhat dissipated. I began to think rationally. I'm pretty sure I had just lost my tutor. Damn it all to Naraka. Now I was back at square one. I couldn't even rat her out on pure spite alone. I might find myself recruited. Could I even return to the shed? What if she decided to kill me now that I was a liability?
Damn that woman. Who was she to piss on my goals? Just because they didn't align with her sensibilities. Kunoichi like her, I bet she never knew real hardship, never had to rummage through the garbage for her food. Where did she get off, looking down on others.
I could probably try and sneak it, unless she already keyed me out of the wards. But I needed my stuff, most of my money was under the floorboards. My scrolls were there to. Fuck, this was a mess. Alright Shigeo, grow some balls, you're going to have to take the risk.
I made my way into the underbrush surrounding my shed, I kept low and crept silently. There was the door, a peek inside confirmed it was empty. Empty didn't mean safe however. It could be riddled with death traps. I made my way in regardless.
There was a scroll.
It was pretty, the outside was decorated with designs of crashing waves. It wasn't large, but it was thicker than most of the scrolls I had.
There was also a note.
Brat, you ran off before we could even get a proper lesson started. Since you seem to easily grasp the basics, here is some material for you to stew over. I expect progress when I get back.
-Kushina
No way.
She was still going to teach me? Then again the scroll could just be a trap, resulting in my untimely demise. But it could also be a treasure trove of fuinjutsu. I took a deep breath and opened it.
All my yes.
The scroll was a gold mine of information, different designs, an extensive looking into runic language, all that good stuff. I looked at the title.
Uzumaki Sealing Script. Volume 1.
There was that name again. It seemed familiar. Was Kushina's clan famous for fuinjutsu or something? That was unimportant, what was important was the scroll in my hands. I had work to do.
Kushina
I felt pretty nervous on my way back to the shed. From the lack of increased patrol I assumed he hadn't ratted me out. Which was good. It was also likely that there was a squad of Iwa shinobi waiting for me at the shed. Which was bad.
Either way I hoped the kid found the scroll. I felt pretty shitty when he ran away. How could I have done that to a kid? How long ago was it? When I was bellowing my dreams to be the first female Hokage at the top of my lungs at the academy? Sage, it seemed so long ago now, even though it wasn't more than maybe ten, eleven years.
How long had it been since I was laughed at for my dreams? I remember how embarrassed, how enraged I used to get. But some hours ago, I did the same thing to a little boy. No matter how mature he was, he was still a child. Children should be allowed to dream. Most importantly he had time to grow, he could probably outgrow his dreams like I did mine.
Man Mikoto was right. I could be a real bitch.
I stopped short at the door, before opening it and stepping inside. Something made noise under my feet. I looked down.
Paper? I picked it up and examined it, Fuin formula for chakra detection was scribbled on it. There was more paper all over the floor, I picked up another piece. On it was a seal similar but different to the fire seal I had made earlier. I ran some chakra into the matrix. I received a light jolt for my troubles.
I'll be damned.
In the middle of all the paper madness was Shigeo, scribbling on more paper, he looked up, noticing my entrance. We kind of just stared at each other for a while. I gave small wave.
He turned his focus back on pen and paper. But gave a grunt of acknowledgement. It was a start.
"I hope you have more paper because I'm going to run out soon." He said, tone flat. I winced. Yeah I pretty much deserved that tone.
"I have more…Shigeo, can we talk. You know, about…?" I hedged, I was pretty sure he wasn't my biggest fan right. I don't know why, but that made me uncomfortable.
"Nothing needs to be said, we had a disagreement, but our bargain stills stands. You get to use my shack as a resting point, I learn whatever material you provide." He said, voice all business.
"Look kiddo, I'm really sorry, how I acted earlier, really wasn't fair." He looked up again, interested. I continued. "When I was around your age I wanted to be Hokage, you know" I said, he looked at me in disbelief.
"So you wanted power to? Is that why you became a shinobi?" he asked. I shook my head.
"Not really, I kinda used it to hide my insecurities, I was different from my peers. So I figured if I talked big they would like me." I rubbed my head sheepishly, I felt so awkward, and he was staring at me, analyzing me. What was up with this kid?
"Did they?" he asked
"Nope. I kept boasting about it though. I eventually outgrew that dream though. Now all I want is for this war to end, so I can finally get some peace. I kind of want to settle down with my boyfriend, have some kids. That kind of stuff." There I go, motor mouth Kushina.
"…You are a strange kunoichi. Why would you give up your aspirations for military might? You seem powerful enough?" he seemed so lost. I could understand though. To an orphan like him, power was a pipe dream, the ultimate end game.
"Not everyone is obsessed with power. Being a leader isn't just about absolute power. It's about protecting those under you. Doing your best to keep them safe, and happy" I explained. He looked thoughtful.
"I see…" I didn't think he did but I wouldn't press the issue. There was a lull in conversation now.
"Hey, to make up for putting my foot in my mouth how about I let you test for your affinity?" I offered.
"No need"
I raised a brow. I watched as he observed the formula he had scribbled. Nodding to himself, seemingly satisfied with whatever he had written. He reached for an inkwell that I hadn't noticed.
"Did you mi-"
"If you're going to ask if I mixed my blood I here I did" he declared showing me a bandage on his hand.
"What are you going to do with it then?"
"Watch" was all he said. He seemed rather confident…in whatever he was doing. I moved closer to peer over his shoulder.
He started with a refined version of the earlier chakra detection seal I had found. Before branching out into five different elemental conversion seals…no they were different. They were a few tweaks in their makeup. Instead of the formula translating to: 'take-chakra-burn-like-flame' it looked more like 'take-chakra-show-flame'. But why would he do that? Unless…
No. He couldn't. He had this scroll for at most five hours there was no way. But before my eyes, I watched as he hovered his hand over the still-a-bit-wet ink and channel chakra.
The seal lit up. First, the main chakra detection blinked before two of the outward branching elemental detection seals lit up. One brown, one a fiery red.
I'll be damned.
"Earth and Fire" he muttered to himself, I barely paid attention, shocked as I was. Here in front of me was a nine year old orphan, with rudimentary shinobi instruction, who just rehashed and elemental conversion seal for the purpose of testing his affinities. Not only that, after only seeing the fire seal in action he was able to get a grasp of the conversion process for the other four elements.
I was beyond impressed.
"Let me see that" I said, he looked up at me and shrugged, moving aside. I placed my palm over the paper and watched the fuin light up, two different points, blue and green, water and wind. It actually got my affinities right. By the Sage, what was this kid? I turned to him, he looked at me expectantly.
"How?" I asked.
"It wasn't difficult to reverse engineer and then repurpose the original formula you showed me. It was a bit different with each separate element, but I managed. The main sticking point was synching them with the chakra detector. After I got that down it was just a matter of refining the entire matrix. I didn't test it till now because there was always a minor fault in the makeup. As you can see I've resolved any faults." He explained
"Wait, this is your pilot test?" I asked, shocked. He nodded.
"For the matrix in its entirety yes." He said. I stared.
"Why are you so good at this?" He frowned.
"Is this not normal? I mean it isn't easy per se. But it's not too difficult to break down the language." He said. I was at a loss for words. This kid, he was as good as any Uzumaki. He seemed to have an unnatural understanding of the runic language.
"No, it is not normal. Men twice your age couldn't pull this kind of seal together so quick, and so easily" I told him, he quirked a brow.
"Really? It's still pretty shoddy. I'm sure you noticed the delay time between the chakra and nature detectors. There was also some leakage. I need to refine it further. But perhaps it can work as an alternative to this chakra paper you mentioned earlier. Which I assume is expensive." I stared at him some more, before grabbing his cheeks and looked him dead in the eye.
"Shigeo, you're a prodigy." He gave a shrug, averting eye-contact. His face became a bit flushed.
"If you say so." He mumbled, he did sound pleased however. That put a smile on my face. The kid had probably never gotten real praise before. I found his bashfulness adorable.
"D'aww, why so shy all of a sudden? Is it because you can't stand being so close to a pretty neechan?" I teased, batting my lashes. He snorted.
"As if…crazy kunoichi lady." He muttered, his blush however did not dissipate. I grinned and let of his cheeks.
"This is good work, damn good work." I declared. "You better get a lot of sleep because starting tomorrow I'm going to cram as much theory as I can into that big brain of yours. Got that?" He nodded rapidly, obviously excited.
"Good, now let me sleep" I said, plopping onto his bedroll. He continued to nod, before realizing something
"Hey! Get your own bedroll!"
Shigeo
Sleep didn't find me immediately that night. I was too excited. Fuinjutsu was everything I had imagined and more. I glanced at the sleeping figure of my 'Sensei' as it were. Her scarlet hair untied, fanning out under her as she slept. She mumbled in her sleep about all manner of inane things.
What a strange woman.
I would put up with her peculiarities however, if it meant learning more about Fuinjutsu. My face split into a grin. I was all the more closer to my ambitions. Soon I would have it all, wealth and power. I'd finally be something. Despite her apology I knew Kushina did not approve of my dream.
I could understand I guess. To a kunoichi like her, one who seemed to be raised in a clan, the shinobi way was all she knew. She was no doubt raised on propaganda that it was a noble lifestyle, no doubt fed lies about glory or some such nonsense. I'd seen it happen. Iwa shinobi would come, show off their ninjutsu to orphans like me. Then they would rape them in with promises of fame, of a life full of adventure and riches. All you merely needed to do was sell your soul to the Iwa war machine.
I'd seen those who failed to meet the standard however, the dejected failures. Sent back into poverty, Iwa had no use for subpar talent. They weren't even worth becoming cannon fodder. They would look at me, Shigeo, who was too stupid to 'accept a good deal'. Who hid from recruiters? Surely only fools. But when they came back, when they me saw in the streets, or faced me in the pits. The looks in their eyes would say it all.
I was right. I was smart.
That is why, I will thrive.
AN: As promised, new story. Much like my previous attempt at fanfiction (which I will be deleting soon) the protagonist's main combat style will be heavily fuinjutsu based. My original name for this was going to be 'Fuinjutsu Apprentice'. But then the idea of stupidly powerful criminal syndicate that held massive influence in the Shinobi world for some reason became really appealing. I'll try for a longer chapter next time, depends on how it flows when I type it up.
The ending felt a bit awkward because it was originally longer but I didn't like the direction. I may have made it worse.
Feedback is appreciated.
Short Character Profiles
Shigeo – Protagonist. His name means luxuriant man, it is supposed to be symbolic as it reflects his desire for wealth (I am aware there is a literary term for this but I've forgetten it). From a young age Shigeo enjoyed learning, and did his best to get his hands on any knowledge he could find. Despite his thuggish ambitions, Shigeo is a scholar at heart.
Gin – Local, retired Iwa Shinobi. Sells Shigeo ninja stuff.