The inspiration for this story struck me when I was reading two xianxia. By choosing to weave these two xianxia, I will have to overhaul a lot of elements especially power rankings. I scribbled this out in a short span of time, so not everything is proofread.
Meteoric Tear
October Tenth.
For Konoha and its inhabitants, the tenth of October became a date that would live in infamy.
For on that day, the village came under the fierce rampage of the Kyuubi. Quick to respond, the village's shinobi laid down their lives to protect their home, awaiting the arrival of their Hokage. Alas without the guidance of the Yondaime, panic and fear spread throughout the ranks. Flames licked the horizon, setting blaze to the buildings and people.
Moments earlier, Minato attended the child delivery of his quadruplets, and knowing that a jinchuuriki's seal weakens during the process, the prudent Yondaime called in his sensei Jiraiya, who in return requested the aid of his former teammates, Orochimaru and Tsunade. Alongside them, the venerable Hiruzen presided over the affair. The presence of shinobi of this caliber may have been excessive, but since Kushina was going to give birth to not one but four babies, it was warranted in their minds. One impressed Kushina with heavy strain on the body. Now multiply that by four.
Perhaps it was decreed by fate. Perhaps it was the simply a bad roll of the dice. Whatever it was, the Kyuubi had broken out and manifested outside the seal, according to confidential sources at least.
They knew their only option was to seal the bijuu into the body of the children, but who would perform the deed? Amongst them, the former Sandaime, Hiruzen, volunteered himself.
Hiruzen's wrinkled lips stretched into a smile. His smile showed no fear, no denial, only acceptance.
"I am old. I am weary. I wish to be reunited with my wife. I can rest in peace knowing that the Will of Fire burns brightly."
The able bodied persons at the scene exerted every ounce of their power into holding down the bijuu as Hiruzen hand's ran through the necessary hand seals. The aged professor owed gratitude to his students for injury the Kyuubi to an extent where he did not have to resort to usage of the Shiki Fuujin (Dead Consuming Seal).
Hiruzen's last actions were to split and seal the Kyuubi equally into each of the quadruplets. He felt the grains of sand representing the time he had left on earth steadily ticking away. Alas, his deed was left unfinished, for he only finished three-fourths of the sealing before his body inevitably failed. However, unbeknownst to him, it would have undeniably failed.
Three infants received a portion of the mighty titan's power.
One did not.
The name of this infant is Naruto.
【Meteoric Tear 】
In the shade of a tree on the Namikaze-Uzumaki estate, Minato stood with a stern, profound countenance. Normally it would be Namikaze but Kushina wished to keep their clan's name in remembrance of their tragedy, and so they combined their two surnames. The blonde Hokage eyed his three children as they partook in rudimentary chakra control training. The fourth and eldest, Naruto, squinted angrily at the leaf in his palm, while his siblings balanced leaves on their forehead using their recently awakened chakra; his siblings activated their chakra yet he had yet to grasp the intangible spark. Minato wasn't worried about Naruto's slow start, initially, but that was near a month ago. The seals on the estate alerted Minato to the arrival of the guest and he hurriedly greeted her, "Thank you for coming here Tsunade-dono."
"I rushed over here as quickly as I could when Jiraiya told me it is urgent."
Speaking softly, Minato told her of the strange circumstance, "I think there is something wrong with Naruto, Tsunade-dono."
"Call him over and I'll examine him," she whispered back.
"Naruto!" Minato called loudly, "Come over here and greet Tsunade-sama. Kushina, can you make sure that those three don't slack off?"
Kushina began an anecdote of her genin days, where she had a huge reserve of chakra but shoddy control. She reaccounted an incident in which she blew up half of her reserves using a simple C-ranked ninjutsu because she had overloaded the attack. The jutsu left her out of breath and it created openings in her guard. Luckily, Kushina was only sparring and had gotten off easily with a few sharp blows from her opponent rather than the loss of her life if she had been in a battle. The trio quickly quieted down and began concentrating in earnest.
Tsunade run a comprehensive diagnostic as Kushina entranced the children with her tale. She cut off the flow of chakra to her hand letting the green glow around it dissipate. "You've been a good boy, Naruto. You can go back to your brother and sisters now," she patted him on the head before sending him off.
Minato stood in silence waiting for Tsunade's diagnosis.
She sighed wearily, "I'm sorry Minato. Your son, Naruto, will never be able to become a shinobi."
Her words like thunder struck Minato. He slowly formed the words for his question, "But how? What is wrong with my boy?"
"Frankly, it's short of a miracle that Naruto is alive. From what I've seen, his chakra pathways are mangled and twisted. They, somehow, have intersected, running into one another creating a tangled mess. Tenketsu? Forget about them, Naruto's body doesn't have any. Even if he had tenketsu, it would have been extremely hard for Naruto to properly control and expel chakra. I've never seen a rare and extreme case such as Naruto's."
The color instantly drained from Minato's face leaving it an alabaster pale, "Is there anything you can do to mend his pathways? Anything at all?"
She shook her head sadly, "There's nothing that can be done. As you know Minato, shinobi are only able to do what they do by releasing chakra through any of the 361 tenketsu. Even a taijutsu expert such as Gai expels chakra through tenketsu for a momentary burst of speed or for a temporary gain of strength. Even though most civilians aren't able to become shinobi, they still have tenketsu. As for Naruto . . . without tenketsu, he will never be able to become a shinobi."
"Thank you very much for your help, Tsunade," said he as Tsunade returned to her former post at the hospital, instructing bright recruits on the life saving art of iryou ninjutsu.
The youthful Hokage turned, shoulders slumped, and walked towards his wife. His wife would be dismayed by this news, he knew that in the least. Despair flooded his chest. Minato knew that this piece of information would destroy Naruto, who wanted nothing more than to train alongside his siblings in the ninja arts. To have his dream shattered by a cruel twist of fate, how would Naruto respond? He contemplated deeply on how he should handle Naruto's situation as he automatically placed one foot in front of the other.
"Minato what's wrong?" asked Kushina doubtfully.
His eyes widened slightly. When had he reached the porch, the Hokage asked himself. The walk which couldn't be more than twenty steps felt to him as though he had trekked across the blistering sands of Suna. His children eyed him with looks of inquisition, "Don't mind us, your mother and I are going to talk inside the house." Minato forced a smile as he forced the words out of his mouth. He guided Kushina to a corner away from the children before setting up a seal to muffle upcoming discussion.
"Tell me Minato, what did Tsunade tell you about Naruto-chan?"
Being questioned by his wife only made the pit in his stomach sink deeper, but she had to know, "It's impossible for us to train Naruto," Minato heaved a heavy sigh, "Naruto is physically unable in handling chakra." An epiphany jolted Minato, "Thank goodness Hiruzen failed in sealing the Kyuubi into Naruto. With Naruto's chakra system, the corrosive nature of a bijuu's chakra would have eaten through him. Naruto, Naruto wouldn't be with us here today . . ."
Kushina's body trembled, she cast her sight over to Naruto and Menma rolling around on the ground. Their playing entrapped their sisters, Nanase and Michiru, in a storm of limbs and child like shouts. The sight of a despondent Naruto tore at her heart. She turned back to her husband, "What should we do, Minato?"
The man collected his thoughts and weighed his options, "It's too dangerous for Naruto to stay here with us. Officially, the Third World War ended in a ceasefire with all sides suspending acts of aggression. However, the wounds and scars of Iwagakure and Kumogakure never healed. After the Kyuubi's rampage, both villages immediately began to build up their war machines. The target of their belligerence was their sworn enemy during the Third World War, namely us. Konoha escaped barely destruction through our alliance with Sunagakure and Kirigakure. At best, that has only deterred the Iwa and Kumo alliance in the slightest.
A few weeks ago, a group of Konoha nin came back to me with distressing news, along our borders they engaged a group of supposedly rogue Iwa and Kumo shinobi, I use the word supposedly as their were more than twenty or so nukenin comprising the congregation. Not that a large group of nukenin, an organized group I add, wasn't suspicious at all. The Raikage and Tsuchikage denied having any part of the fiasco. I fear it won't be long before they send assassins after our children. While we can train Menma, Nanase and Michiru to defend themselves, Naruto is left by his lonesome, too vulnerable, too weak, too defenseless."
"Then what do you suggest we do?" Kushina, brows furrowed, inquired, "Leaving Naruto in the village only puts him at risk, leaving the only possible option of sending him into hiding, but to do that, Naruto needs a strong guardian. Neither of the Sannin work as they are also high profile targets, and the same goes for Kakashi. By themselves, they could certainly escape if ambushed, with Naruto the chances are extremely low. The only person I can think of is Old Man Lian."
Minato parroted Kushina, "Old Man Lian? That old badger who Hiruzen assigned as Financial Advisor?"
Kushina nodded and replied instantly, "The same Lian who is greatly renowned, in high circles, as one of the Three Elders whose other members are Shimura Danzo, the War Hawk, and Sarutobi Hiruzen, the God of Shinobi; Hiruzen earned his moniker for his mastery of shinobi combat alongside his repertoire of original and ingenious jutsu and library of a thousand ninjutsu in general. Finally, there is Fu Lian. The other two have daunting monikers; whereas, Lian is known as the Accountant. His fame lay not in combat, but in his shrewd fiscal policy.
That said, Lian was able to give the other two Elders a run for their money. During his reign, Hiruzen was unequipped to handle the affairs of the militant and civilian and business sides of the village. He had his hands full with organizing and commanding legions of shinobi at the time of the Third World War, so he asked Danzo to handle internal security and Lian to lord over the treasury. It was said that Konoha would have collapsed due to financial strain if it hadn't been for Lian's accounting prowess. It was also thanks to him that our village recovered so quickly after the Kyuubi's rampage. He had Konoha up and running, generating income, after five years; whereas, other financial experts predicted that Konoha would need at the very least ten years to rebuild its infrastructure."
Minato continued from where Kushina left off, "Fu Lian as I recall submitted his formal retirement application five years ago. Since then he's retreated into his villa that resides along the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Tea. Only the a select few know of Lian's existence and fewer know the location of Lian's Villa of Serenity. In my mind, there is no better place to hide Naruto than taking him directly out of the Elemental Nations itself."
Minato and Kushina both agreed on the plan. Minato's face hardened. In a blink of the eye, Minato appears inside the room of his study. His hand grasps the ink pen; a line of writing appears on the page addressing Qin De, Fu Lian's apprentice, imploring he ask his master to take in Naruto for an indefinite duration of time. Minato sealed the letter than his stamp, he then sought out Qin De at his abode in the Eastern section of the village. Qin De said he would give the letter to his master.
In the following weeks, Minato and Kushina waited for word from Lian with bated breath. They, more than anything, feared rejection. In the early hours of the morning, an old man arrived at the main gates. The short, dark grey hair of the old man and the benevolent countenance of the aged man inspired deep reverence. His hand, balled into a fist, rapted sharply against the hard material. The old man waited patiently, hearing the rapid descent of footsteps arising from behind before the face of a young man appeared. This new arrival was none other than Namikaze Minato. The old man staring down Minato, was Fu Lian.
Lian clasped his hands behind his back as he spoke, "I've read your message Yondaime-dono, if the boy agrees to it, I'll shelter him in my private villa away from the prying eyes of any Iwa or Kumo sympathizers and spies."
【Meteoric Tear 】
Fu Lian had his Villa of Serenity constructed on top of a small plateau roughly five hundred meters above sea level.
Naruto reflected on the two years he had spent on the villa with Grandpa Lian. One thing was that he was slightly shorter than the average height for an eight year old. At this moment, Naruto was walking on the mountain road alone. Hardly anyone journeyed this far into the area, and the closest village was settled in a small valley two thousand meters from his location.
He vividly recalled that eventful morning when Grandpa Lian came to take him away for 'special training.' His siblings clung onto him for their dear lives. They refused to let him go, being quadruplets and having spent all their lives together, they had developed a close bond they thought inseparable. He, the eldest, vowed remembrance and ardent training, so Naruto may stand alongside them in the future. Naruto bitterly fought back the tears forming in the corners of his eyes as he sullenly waved good-bye.
That happened two years ago. No one had visited him once in these two years, not his father nor his mother nor his siblings. No one. The truth came out a year ago. Naruto, wondering into Grandpa Lian's study, found the letter his father had written. Dropping the letter in abject horror, Naruto, younger than ten, broke down. He dropped to his knees scraping them on the wooden floor, but ignored the numb pain.
His heart hurt. Deeply. The stabbing, throbbing pain in his heart.
He once believed he could join the ranks of shinobi with his siblings. He once believed his parents would look upon him with eyes of laden pride. But today his dream was shattered. And with it, the fragile heart of a seven year old was crushed. Naruto could only tightly clutch at his chest, as though this would lessen the pain.
Naruto released a pain filled howl. It was a howl of despair, of desolation and broken dreams.
I felt ending it here to set up the next chapter as inspirational. Also, next chapter is where I'll begin to inject elements of the xianxia novels. This is my attempt at writing a neglect story.
A review or two is nice.