The Wind Is Rising
Ninja!Luke
Summary: Au. Luke grows up in a desert. Only this time there are Ninjas around. Village Hidden in Sand can recognize a talented young man, when they see one and it's not the way of the Sand culture to waste anything. Let alone talent.
Author's Note: So I've recently become familiar with the Star wars Universe and I asked myself: Hey, how do we make Luke's situation even more stupidly complex and needlessly dramatic. Why, lets make him into a ninja I said. Plus cultureshock!fics are one of my many guilty pleasures. Imagine the shit that will go down in the future.
Just. Imagine it.
Chapter One
As every month before, the merchants were slowly arriving from the west. Scouts had reported day before their arrival, the amount of merchandise, how many carts were used to transport it, (the sides were always painted with a sign of red sun) and the amount of personnel involved moving it.
So far the numbers matched. Everything was as they had been informed a month before. There were five carts full of foodstuff and spices from the Fire country three carts filled with tea, cloth and wool from river country, and final two had various herbs, wood and rarer materials that were hard to come by in the desert. Each cart has a large southern ox pulling it.
The scouting ninjas had informed their village leader that there are twenty seven people all in all in the caravan: Merchants and their personnel all counted.
They had been informed twenty six would be arriving.
A mistake with numbers? A sudden need to have an extra hands helping with the merchandises?
Perhaps. But this is Sunagakure no Sato. A ninja village as the merchants well know. All sudden changes in the original plans are treated with healthy suspicion and even healthier paranoia.
The caravan arrives early in the morning. The air is still pleasantly cool, the wind carrying only a hint of the oncoming daylights heat with it.
The merchants are all long since used to dealing with their customers, and don't blink an eye when seven shadows appear out of nowhere before the gates, preventing them from moving forward. The old head merchant merely stifles a deep sigh, rolls his eyes
and steps down from the cart.
Brown haired Chunin, in guard duty steps forward, his voice barely above whisper and still heard loud and clear by all.
"We have received Intel of your extra passenger. You should be well aware how we deal with surprises here. We take security very seriously in our village."
"Quite," comes the weary sigh from the head merchant. "This is not our first run here boy, and we did not deceive you on purpose. Why, just remembering the last years fiasco, with the extra cart still gives me a headache and half every time I bother to remember it."
The merchant sniffs with injured air and goes on.
"This time we took each and every precaution to not make any changes in our prearranged agreements, as we have done each and every time before. Surprises however seem to be part of life and even you lot can't change that, no matter how much you try,"
The merchant reaches for the inside of his robe, the chunin tenses and lets his hand rest on his hip pouch ready to retaliate in a moment of notice.
With air of utmost casualty, the old merchant lifts a pipe from his robes and completely ignores the reproaching look he is being aimed by the ninja.
With the pipe lid the old man gestures behind himself. Smiling wryly at the Chunin.
"It was the strangest thing. Not a week ago we were only a half a days journey from the border, when we bumped into our surprise guest."
A young woman jumps down from one of the carts. She throws a nervous glance at the old merchant, and at his nod reaches to lift a rather short child next to her.
All the present ninja give their unwelcome extra guest a criticising once over.
The child is not much to look at. Seven, or perhaps eight years old. Short thing with a sun bleached blond hair and tanned skin. Large blue eyes framed with exhausted black circles stare the ground with apathy. His clothes are rough and practical. Well suited for the desert, and clearly not expensive make.
When the woman walks the boy closer, the Chunin notices the faint traces of dried blood on his sleeves and under his fingernails.
"He was crying in the desert." the woman says, with compassionate glance at the boy. "He was all alone and quite upset. We could not make any sense of his words. When he stopped crying my sister and I cleaned him and let him sleep, he has been reluctant to talk since."
She exchanges a troubled look with the old merchant and the Chunin holds back a curse. There are very few explanations, why a young civilian child might be found wandering around, all alone in the desert. With blood on his clothes and hands, and obviously traumatised. None were very comforting.
With a quick nod of his head he signals to Matsuri and Haru. They appear in swirl of sand beside the merchants and the child.
The old merchant gives a puff of smoke and a great suffering sigh.
"To interrogation?"
"To interrogation."
The room their ''guests'' are herded to, is not overly large. Four chairs and a table with nothing on it.
The female merchant and the boy sit down quietly, the child glances around the room slowly, looking slightly apprehensive and then goes back to staring at the ground. The old merchant is not quite so docile.
"This is pointless!" He shakes his fist at the empty room, no doubt fully aware that they are watching his every move. "We already told you everything we know. The boy is a stranger but hardly dangerous, and we weren't going to abandon the poor thing to carrion birds, so there is really very little need for all this unnecessary drama."
Suzuha stands behind the genjustu wall. Carefully noting down the body language of their hopefully temporary prisoners, and lifts an inquiring eyebrow at his fellow interrogator. Shadi sighs, and gives him couple quick signs with his fingers: "Casual approach?"
Suzuha nods and observes how Shadi enters the toom through "the door" that certainly wasn't there just a minute ago. The child sifts a little and both merchants sit straighter, pinning their stares at the male ninja.
The interrogation begins with Shadi sitting down, body language loose, hands on the table with palms slightly up, expression relaxed, and vaguely friendly. The very textbook definition of non threatening. His eyes and hair have that dull shade of brown so common in their country, and his face is neither handsome or ugly. A face that is easy to forget.
He is also one of their best Interrogators.
"If you all would be so kind as to state your names and business in this village." Shadi says with warm voice, politely nodding at their "guests". "I'm sure we can settle this mess relatively painlessly, if all of you choose to cooperate."
Suzuha notices the covered alarmed looks at the subtle threat. The female merchant tightens her fists on her lap as her face goes pale. The old merchant merely scoffs but look worries under the bravado.
"I am Sorano Tsuyoshi, the Head Merchant of Sorano's trading company as you all very well know." The merchant gestures at his female companion. "This is Oonoki Yuri, she is relatively new to our company. She and her sister are currently responsible for all the cloth and wool we are transferring on this run.
The now named Yuri bows slightly, and mumbles her greetings with almost inaudible voice.
Merchant Tsuyoshi sniffs at Shadi, with air of extreme annoyance and starts gesturing with agitation.
"We should be selling out merchandice already, time is money for us, do you not understand that! Our business in this village is the same as always: our trading company brings goods from Grass, River and Rock every month. We have been doing so for almost three years. I have all our permissions and identifications in order! The child is obviously an orphan, and no longer any concern of ours!"
Shadi smiles his most calming smile and looks expectantly at the child. When this doesn't result in response he asks kindly.
"And who might you be young man?"
The boy glances at him under his blond bangs, but doesn't response in any other way. Yuri places her hand on the boys shoulder and explains quietly. "He hasn't said a word to us since the day we found him. We thought he might still be in shock or something. It's obvious that something terrible happened to him, and we didn't want to push him and make his condition any worse."
She bites her lip for a moment and shifts slightly closer to whisper. "I also noticed he has a large bruise on his stomach, and old blood on his clothes. We figured he was running away from someone, and didn't stay too long to search for his parents."
Behind the illusion Suzuha makes several notes on his report. So far, none of them have shoved any signs of deception. The female merchant seems to show genuine concern for the boy. While the child's body language remains subdued and guarded, he hasn't showed any reaction to the illusion, or Shadi's subtle chakra flaring.
The Interrogation doesn't last long. Their story checks out, with the ones they have managed to get from the other employees of the Caravan: A boy found crying alone in the desert. Speaking incomprehensible words and in obvious distress. A medic nin soon confirms the bruising on the boys stomach. Judging by the angle and the size, it has been caused by an adult. Most likely by a single kick. The boy has no internal damage and ignoring the exhaustion and the bruise, he is in relatively good health.
(His hands were noted to be rough and used to work, but had no calluses one would expect from wielding a blade. And while his body was built with wiry muscle, it lacked any tells one practicing combat arts would have.)
The fact that the boy refuses to speak is speculated to be due trauma and expected to pass with time. Children, after all, are surprisingly resilient creatures.
As for the boy's family. The Caravan reported finding him near the border between Wind and Rock country. This area has no major settlements on it. Only few hermits and refugees choose to live in the barren land without the protection of village. It's not uncommon for desert beasts, or bandits to attack and loot such solitary settlements.
In the end, the boy is marked down as an orphan. The paperwork is prepared to have him transferred to the village orphanage, as soon as possible.
The boy, now left alone with Shadi and Suzuha, had stared sadly after the female merchant and wiped away few tears that had managed to escape from his eyes.
He seemed to understand he wouldn't be seeing her again.
When nameless children were added to the Sand village's citizen registry, the names Kazehaya and Kazeko were often used. (Usually the case, with war orphans too young or too unlucky to have been named by their own parents or family.)
Being the most common names in the Wind country, and having a certain patriotic flair to them, the names didn't need much creative imagination and fitted in the mould nicely.
So the boy was marked down as Kazehaya until otherwise instructed. His age was estimated to be around seven years or so by a Medic nin. He was a reserved and seemingly hesitant creature, as often was the case with children in his unfortunate situation.
The Head Caretaker of the Suna Orphanage. A woman named Sachi took this all in stride. Long since used to receiving children with little to no time to prepare for their arrival.
The boy had no possessions of his own, so Sachi and her four employees had to search though the orphanage's cupboards and drawers to find clothes for the newcomer. They managed to come up with a white second-hand shirt and beige pants that would serve, until they managed to buy him proper clothes of his own.
With that done they had herded the boy to his new sleeping quarters. Due to lack of space he would be sharing the room with three other boys around his age. He nodded with blank face when Sachi explained with clear words and gestures, that this would be his bed from now on. The bunk beds had made him blink few times. His expressionless face showing signs of curiosity for the first time since arriving.
"Now then." Sachi said to the boy briskly. "Why don't we go look where the other children are, and see if we can get you some new friends, eh?"
Most children over the age of seven were allowed to run around the village relatively freely. Ninjas were patrolling the streets every day and tended to watch after children, so no one would run into too much trouble. Those trouble makers who tried to leave the village in their adventures, ended up dragged back to orphanage by their ears by snickering Genins.
Seeing as it was nearing midday and most children had finished with their meals, only few remained in the yard playing tag.
"Oi, Natsu-kun, come here for a second!"
A dark haired boy lifted his head and widened his eyes in clear curiosity, when he noticed the new boy. With Sachi's waving he jogged closer and smiled brightly at the shorter boy.
"Hey, Who is this, who is this." He peered at the shorter boy with his usual excitement.
"I've never seen him before. Where did he come from. Is going to live here too?"
"Kazehaya here will be staying with us from now on." The matron said, not noticing the shorter boys confused expression. " He is very quiet and he probably won't talk much. I'll give you the responsibility of looking after him for today, and showing him around our lovely home, alright?"
"Eh, sure." the older boy snatched the younger's wrist and pulled him along. The blond boy blinked in alarm and gave a panicked glance at the matron before Natsu managed to drag him out of sight. "You're Kaze-kun right? I'm Natsu, well Natsume really, and I'm eight years old. I like climbing and playing ninja with Kenji and Kaori and…"
"That should do it." Sachi nodded with evident self satisfaction. "That boy will soon talk out of sheer self defence to make Natsu-kun shut up even for a second."
And with that she went back inside, happily whistling.
Luke didn't know what to do.
Aunt and Uncle were gone and he didn't know where he was.
He was lost. So horribly, horribly lost.
There were memories of the last time he had seen his Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen. They were filled with his aunts blood and Uncle's panicked yells, and he very much preferred not to think about them too much.
His stomach still hurt from the kick he had received, from the raider he had bitten, but at least he now had new clean clothes, devoid of his aunts blood.
The mental exhaustion that had weighted down on him for days had lessened somewhat. The utter confusion and frustration of not being understood had bothered him immensely in the beginning and he had given up on communication pretty quickly, when no one had seemed to understand what 'I want to go back home' meant.
He had even tried to throw some Huttese curses into the mix, all for nothing.
Then there was the fact that there was only one sun in the sky. That had been a rather unpleasant surprise. He didn't much care for the implications.
At least he hoped people would now stop passing him from person to person. First those two nice misses had looked after him, then two strange and bit scary looking men had kept him company, and now he had been delivered to this odd looking house.
Not that it wasn't a nice house. Very big and cool. With many rooms and apparently many children living inside it, if all the toys laying around were any implication.
He knew what places like this were called. Of course he knew. Uncle Owen always preached he should be thankful for his home, because many children had to live in places like this.
An orphanage. He was in an fricking orphanage. And it didn't seem like anyone would be coming to fetch him back home anytime soon.
He could feel how his mind darkened and was filled with familiar hopelessness.
It didn't help that the older boy kept dragging him, speaking a mile in a minute, in a language he didn't understand and apparently calling him with wrong name.
"Nee, nee Kaze-kun, kore wa…"
No. Luke dug his feet in to the ground, crossed his arms in front of his chest and refused to move.
The older boy blinked at him and tried to tug him once more.
"Toustano Kaze-kun, hayaku iku yo…"
"Luke" He said with voice scratchy and faint from disuse.
The older boy blinked again and then smiled widely in comprehension before pointing at Luke.
"Rook-kun?"
Luke scowled.
"Luke."
"Ruuk?"
Luke thought exasperatedly that this might take a while.
When Natsu dragged poor Luke that evening, back to the matron and told her his new friends name with ridiculous pride. She patted them both on the head and gestured for her fellow caretaker to bring her the paperwork needed for citizen registry.
And so Kazehaya was replaced with Luke. His surname was proven to be almost unpronounceable so they left that out for now.
Luke was rather alarmed and unimpressed over the fact, that these people insisted on pronouncing L as R, and other way around.
Where on nine hells of Correlian was he?
To be continued
Author's Note: Welcome to Elemental Countries Luke!
Well that's the first chapter. From now on, it will hopefully be Luke's Pov for the rest of the story. Or at least most of the time.
The blame for the existence of this story lies entirely on that chapter in Naruto where there were Samurais in suspiciously Stormtrooperish armour.
Plus Ninja!Luke. I almost made that my entire summary. What more needs to be said, really.
And as for why Luke is in Suna instead of Konoha, I felt that Konoha has been rather overused in Au, SI and Reincarnation fandom plus Suna and Tatooine are both in desert climates. I couldn't resist.