The Story of Mikugi
Chp. 1:
The Village Hidden in the Night
They had all waited for this day. The nine students that had passed the Ninja Academy sat in chairs, looking forward to their Chounin Instructor, Kajin. Kajin was a normal Chounin of the Village Hidden in the Night, wearing the required ninja headband with a crescent moon etched into the metal plate and the black ninja jacket all Chounin wore, complete with a similar little crescent moon designed into the back of the jacket. This was the day they had become Genin. They had all worked hard to do so, each one having their own reason for doing so. Now they only had to wait for the Jounin to arrive.
Mikugi, a messy green haired student with blue eyes thought. He wore the usual ninja sandals, black pants, gray shirt and a tan jacket. He always thought, this constant thinking comforted him and allowed him to figure everything out. Right now he was reviewing information, a habitual exercise in his head to keep his mind from wandering.
This is the Village Hidden in the Night. Mikugi thought. The hidden ninja village of the Land of Hills, not ruled by a daimyo, ruled by the Shukage. The Shukage says that Safety is in Strength, the Shukage says he only cares for the people. The people need protectors, the Shinobi are their protectors, the Shinobi must be strong to protect, Safety in Strength.
'Safety in Strength…' He had seen that in all of the posters put up around the village. They depicted a heroic Hidden Night Ninja fending off bandits, mercenaries and other criminals from innocent civilians with of course the words at the bottom in big print. He saw similar posters such as "The Shukage is Watching" showing the Shukage himself in all his strength and glory looking down upon a village with the good citizens smiling and the traitors, enemy ninja and other evil people running away with panicked looks on their faces.
The Shukage must see all, as more sight is strength, more sight means more enemies to see, more information to use and more enemies to root out and destroy to keep them from corrupting The Land of Hills. Little did Mikugi know at the time that they were propaganda posters. He started to review information about his own classmates.
Shenmaru Asinagi. Long Black Hair, ponytail, brown eyes. She wears ninja sandals,brown pants, white shirt with a camouflage jacket over it. Practices GenTai Jutsu, a Hidden Night style of fighting combining genjutsu and taijutsu into an effective strategy. Is reserved and calm, but not without emotion.
Kegira Denjo. Short Red Hair, Green eyes. She wears green shirt, ninja sandals, blue pants. Equally skilled in Taijutsu and Ninjutsu, allowing for full effective in both ranged and close combat. Fiery, impulsive, determined, but one can see some reason behind her actions.
Kenratsu Dajiko. Long blonde hair, brown eyes. He wears a light blue shirt, grey pants, and ninja sandals. Comes from the Dajiko Clan, whose Kekkai Genkai allows them to fly without support, like the rest of his clan he has an affinity for Wind Element jutsu. His hair makes him look like a girl. He is a bit rash, I've heard he has bad luck, can't find evidence to support this as he performs well in the academy and gets good grades-
The info review was cut short as Kajin announced "Ok, I'll be calling out the teams you've been assigned to. Team 11: Sinisho Nakamani, Takena Shunitsu and Sanaji Tokorano" Sinisho, a creepy guy with combed black hair and orange eyes, Takena a girl with tan skin, long brown hair and dark blue eyes like her father Shukage and Sanaji a girl with short black hair which had stripes died blood red, green eyes and oddly pale skin who had a picture of a bat tattooed on her arm all straightened up when their name was called.
"Team 12: Chinaka Matsuya, Kenratsu Dojiko and Miyomi Jiniga." Chinaka had dark brown hair and blue eyes, Mikugi remembered she was related to one of the Jounin, Dojikan Matsuya. Miyomi had violet hair but plain brown eyes, she was also related to a Jounin but he remembered it being Rakaru Jiniga and he had gone rogue a few months ago, which prompted another memory; they had to get a new Jounin to take his place because of this. "Team 13: Kegira Denjo, Shenmaru Asinagi and last but not least, Mikugi Tenagaru." He looked at the two new girls he was teamed up with.
I can easily see why we three were put together: I am good at genjutsu and ninjutsu but not much good at taijutsu, while both of them have good taijutsu and abilities that complement my own. It would be wise to get to know them right away.
Kegira was bored, what was taking the Jounin so long to get here? She had never been a patient person and was she being kept waiting, she hated waiting. She hated hating things and she hated that. It made her angry, but unfortunately she had to contain her emotions! Contain them! She hated that. Some of the brainier students had formulated a hypothesis: The Kegira Hate Law, which basically stated that Kegira at some point hated everything eventually, just never all at the same time. She hated them for being right like that.
Suddenly Mikugi walked up to her and held out a hand, he had a serene and calm look on his face, as if he wasn't looking completely at the physical world and instead to be half-seeing something no one else could see. Kegira hated that. He spoke while holding out his hand intending a handshake.
"Why hello Kegira, I'm sure you already know who I am…"
Of course I do, Mr. Greenhaired Tenagaru Clan Brat. You are the only guy in the class who has the worst Taijutsu grade ever, yet still managed to pass, either through some Clan meddling or through your freaky talent at Genjutsu and Ninjutsu. Too bad you never inherited your Clan's Kekkai Genkai! No wait, that's not bad at all, one less guy from a noble family thinking the world revolves around him because of his genes. Hooray!
"…Since you know, we are fellow classmates. Pleased to meet you anyways."
He dropped his hand to the side, Kegira hated people not polite enough to wait for the handshake to come. She also hated people polite to try a handshake in the first place, she realized this was contradictory and hated that. As a result the three hates canceled each other out, and she responded.
"Yea, whatever teammate. Just don't mess things up."
"Good advice, thank you."
Mikugi responded with his usual tranquility. Kegira hated that, so she said
"Gah, be quiet, you are too peaceful- you cannot be so at peace all the time. It is not natural."
"Why not? Being at peace is the best state there is, I wouldn't be able to think if I were not in this state. If anything, you are too easily angered."
"It keeps me focused, hating something allows me to keep my mind only on it, if I don't I get distracted."
A new voice spoke
"That doesn't sound very healthy Miss Denjo, maybe you should calm yourself."
The two Genin looked to see that Shenmaru had walked up to them. She had a stony, stoic expression on her face somewhere between determination and no emotion at all.
"Why hello Shenmaru" Mikugi said. "A girl of hate, and a girl of stone. I think this will be an interesting team." He smirked.
"Great, I am stuck between an animate statue and a smiling river! I'm going to hate you two for a LONG time…"
"…Your are just my Teammates. Nothing less, nothing more, you are not worth expending emotion on. It would be detrimental to our job as shinobi."
Kegira spotted the difference between her and Mikugi right away: Mikugi was serene, tranquil and welcoming while Shenmaru was stone, insular with an iron defense built around her. They were both calm, but they achieved it in different ways. She hated that, how can they be so calm? It baffled her.
Pretty soon, the three Jounin entered. The Jounin of Team 11 was Fuyuna Tokorano, having a similar appearance to her younger sister Sanaji but was taller and looked more experienced.
The Jounin of Team 12 was Suijen Nakamani, a woman also with orange eyes and black hair of her clan, even more creepily she wore her hair in pigtails as if she were still a teenager.
However the Jounin of Team 13 was Dojikan Matsuya, a bald muscular man. He had scars all over his head and down his arms, and you could easily imagine them covering his entire body; he looked like as if someone had stolen a bunch of organs, muscles, skin and bones, then sown them all together to form this Frankenstein of a man.
"Mr. Tenagaru, do you think it odd that Miss Tokorano Senior was assigned to Miss Tokorano Junior's team?" Shenmaru asked.
"Yes, but you must remember: Rakaru Jiniga. He gone rogue only a few months ago, before that he was going to be assigned to Team 11, but then he just killed the team he was with on a mission to put down rebels, and ran. So the Shukage needed to assign Team 11 another Jounin and she was the only one available."
Kegira asked "Oy Shen, don't ya think that it would have been easier to say "Fuyuna" and "Sanaji" rather than call them "Miss Tokorano-"whatever?"
"No, Miss Denjo. However I do not see the issue, as both ways of designation are valid and true."
"…You are weird y'know that?" Kegira said. She hated weird.
"Please, define 'weird'." Shenmaru replied.
Mikugi would have answered "Definition of Weird: normal, average everyday ninja with a healthy psychological profile, apparently meaning that all ninja are somehow weird/ crazy and showing signs that said quirks of their personality are to help them deal with killing people all the time." But he was rudely interrupted by their Jounin.
"Ok! You three come with me, I've got something to tell you in private."
The three Genin followed their Jounin out of the village proper and into a training ground.
The training ground was a pretty good example of the environment of the Land of Hills in general; as could be extrapolated from the name, you could see hills rising a sort distance away. All around them however were dour old pine trees, with dark pine nettles and darker bark. The sky above was cloudy and gray, the whole place was cool and even a little chilly. It gave a feeling of being muted and of slowness.
Dojikan spoke again.
"Listen up! As you know I am Dojikan Matsuya, your Jounin. I was assigned to you three to make you STRONG! I am here to put you on the grinder and SHARPEN YOU, sharpen you until you become swords! Swords able to cut through ANYTHING, swords that shall strike down the infernal enemies of the Land of Hills! For you are to become not just ninja, but the very best ninja that you can be to serve the glorious nation of The Land of Hills! To do so, you need to become the STRONGEST YOU CAN BE! Weakness is not tolerated in the Land of Hills, and the Village Hidden the Night, our capital, is not the exception, but the SHINING EXAMPLE of this!"
Dojikan took a deep breath and spoke again, spouting out more fanatical propaganda.
"That above all, is what we train for. However, you must demonstrate that you are WORTHY of becoming strong! You must have the will, the strength, the power to serve the glorious nation of the Land of the Hills! Tomorrow, you shall have a test at 8 AM sharp! The test is to defeat your opponent. I shall not reveal your opponent until that time, so you must prepare for ANYTHING! Any questions?"
Kegira spoke up "Yea can I-"
"TOO BAD! Not answering any! You are dismissed!" Dojikan interrupted.
Seeing that it was useless to stay, they went back to the village.
Kegira and Shenmaru went to their respective apartments.
There, Shenmaru remembered a kind family, one that was big and stayed big despite the food shortage. She remembered a baby, some arguing. She remembered having to leave. She remembered coming here, and she remembered training.
Kegira didn't remember a mother, but she remembered a father. She remembered that father crying, that father angry, that father punching… she remembered running away, she remembered finding the academy by chance.
However Mikugi went to his Clan's neighborhood, and there to his family's household.
Everywhere he looked, the Clan's symbol- a drop of water- mingled with posters with slogans and heroic people in them. He noticed a new poster today: "We are Strong, they are Weak." and it depicted Hidden Ninja standing triumphant over a bunch of ninja from Hidden Leaf Village, Hidden Mist Village, Hidden Sand village, and others, the dead ninja from these other villages look ugly and thuggish, while the Hidden Night ninja looked like picture-perfect heroes.
There was also the crescent moon symbol of the Village of the Hidden Night here and there, but Mikugi had no idea why those were there.
He went inside the Tenagaru household. He walked into the living room, where his brothers were sitting eating dinner, both Chounin, one was Nojikago who only became Chounin two years ago and was fifteen years old, the other, older brother who was a Jounin in all but name was eighteen was named Denkan. Both had green hair but Denkan's was darker than Mikugi's while Nojikago's was lighter. Nojikago's hair was also longer than Mikugi's and Denkan's was even longer.
"Why hello it's the new Genin. How do you feel Mik?" Nojikago asked.
"At peace, as always." Mikugi replied in a soft tone as he always did. "The team I was assigned to is interesting, and I noted that two-thirds of those who passed were girls."
"Odd." Nojikago commented "When I passed the Academy, it was two-thirds boys who passed, strange really, how these patterns show up like that."
Mikugi shrugged and asked
"Where are mom and dad? Are they working late again?"
Nojikago nodded "Yup, they are being workaholics again, trying to track down enemies of the Hidden Night Village."
Denkan spoke up "That reminds me, today I heard that another ninja and their family were killed by Rakaru Jiniga."
Nojikago flashed a worried look "Again? That is the second time this month."
"I know, and no one can find a pattern to his killings, sometimes he kills important ninja or Jounin, other times only Chounin die. Sometimes civilians are targeted for discernable reason. It baffles the investigator-nin."
Mikugi only smiled "Do not worry, I'm sure Rakaru will be caught eventually. Anyways I am going upstairs, I need to practice my Jutsu for the test Dojikan will give tomorrow."
Denkan grinned "Dojikan? I feel sorry for you! He ain't called 'The Iron Ninja' for nothing…"
Night came and passed, the three Genin got up, got prepared for Dojikan's test and went back to the training ground, arriving at 8 AM sharp as told. When they got there, Dojikan was grinning, his eyes hard and intense.
"So you three got here just in time eh? At least you are punctual. So you want to know who you are facing? Let me hear a 'yes'"
"Yes!" all three said.
"Louder."
"YES!"
"You sure?"
"YES!!"
"Good, you got determination. Your enemies are each other, battle until the other two are incapacitated."
He clapped his hands and shouted.
"GO!!"
He then disappeared in a puff of smoke.
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this is my first shot at writing fan fiction, this story takes place in the Naruto universe.
I thought it would be interesting to look at what nations outside the Hidden Leaf Village be like and write about original characters instead of the ones that already exist.
I'm probably not that good, if you see a bunch of flaws, I will NOT be surprised.