Alright so here's the deal, this story is a beta, which instead of releasing to one guy, I release it to all of you. That way, with your feedback I can optimize the story as it progresses with your tastes. This is my own OC and any other OC's created are my own, however, I do not own the series or anything that comes from it. This goes for every chapter posted from here on out so that is that. I won't post author notes much; just straight story. Reviews will help me shape and improve the story as well as let me know that you're interested. Enjoy.

Life is full of amazing wonders and countless excitements. One could live to one hundred and still not be able to see or experience all that life had to offer. One could also live to only twenty and see enough to happily pass on, but this isn't about philosophy. We'll be focusing on one person's life in particular, and just how exciting, or lack thereof, it is.

A messy mop of light pink hair could be seen walking amongst the crowds of Konoha. If one cared enough or was creepy enough to follow him one would hear a sigh followed by a grumble every now and then. It appears that despite the happy coloration of the boy's hair his current mood was anything but.

'Wake up, stretch, eat breakfast, workout, shower, do D-rank chores, head to library, study, then train, go home, pay rent, shower, go back out, head to Red Light District bazars, shoplift anything good, pick-pocket thugs, go home, eat dinner, go to sleep. Then repeat all over again.' Quite a long list to be thinking of, but to be honest it sounds less like thinking and more like droning going on in this young boy's head.

'It's all the same! A great day to me is getting more than three D-ranks done and managing to find some raggedy jutsu scroll to steal!'…Now it's beginning to sound like bitching. Oh joy.

'Nobody even knows who the hell I am!' Oh god, please let this not be another story following a brooding twat. I couldn't take narrating another "woe is me" guy; in fact, I'll quit if this doesn't pull up real goddamn quick.

At this moment in time where both the narrator and pink-haired guy were lamenting and despairing, both were unaware to the speeding, fur-lined, and hygienic phobic known as an Inuzuka heading straight towards them.

Pink-guy's train of thought was abruptly cut short as he heard a shout and looked up with barely enough time to project horror when the speeding Inuzuka came to a speedy halt due to our dear friend pinky.

Groaning as he held his head, pink-guy heard what must've been the other guy getting to his feet. Opening his eyes and mouth to say something was clearly a bad choice because his eyes stung fiercely from the bright sun directly above him and his mouth got a helping of dirt; curtesy of our dear Inuzuka.

"Hey man! You should really watch where you're going! I'm a ninja in training and I'm already late enough!" The voice was undoubtedly an Inuzuka. Brash, loud, and devoid of any manners. And did this little punk really just brag about being an academy student?!

He then heard a nagging whine, most likely from his nin-dog-partner-thing. He really must've hit his head hard. That's when he realized he was still on the ground, which he quickly rectified by planting his hands on the ground and doing a handstand and roll.

Pretty flashy he'll admit, but he wanted to flex in front of the twerp a little bit.

"Whaddaya a dancer or something?" He said while picking at his ear unimpressed.

Annnnd pink-guy could already feel the twitch of his eyebrow going. This kid was really batting a thousand here. Another whine took their attention and pink-guy actually noticed who he was talking to.

Spiky brown hair, feral beady eyes, twin red fangs streaking down his cheeks and a white little dog by his side. Yep, he was talking to Kiba Inuzuka, the son of the Inuzuka clan matriarch. This little shit was an academy student and even he still knew who he was. That little thought really brought back the despairing thoughts. Hopefully the narrator's bitching will stay absent.

"You're right, Akamaru, we're really gonna get it from Iruka-sensei! Later pink-guy!" And with that, the boy took off running. He didn't even look back to apologize.

'Prick.' Pink guy thought annoyed. 'Ah man, this really bites.'

And indeed it does, "bite," for our protagonist. Meet Kouken Izoumaru, or "Pink-guy" as we know him. Kouken stands at a healthy five foot two and is currently fourteen years old. His eyes are a deep, dark blue and actually has pupils. If one were to compare his eyes to anything, it would be that of an ocean with no seabed; Kouken really liked his eyes. His hair, as we already know, is a light shade of pink. Not that atrociously bright bubblegum colour he's seen about Konoha, but a mellower shade. It was always spiky, as he hardly ever took the time to tame it in the morning or even cut it for that matter either. He kept a dark blue bandana tied around his head so that it would stop his hair from covering his eyes and the rest of it fell on his shoulders and neck.

The narrator actually had to give credit where it was due; Kouken did have a right to complain. Losing his mother when he was two during the Kyuubi attack, father never in the picture, growing up in the orphanage until he enrolled in the ninja academy and relocated to a run-down apartment in the Red-Light District on a small staple really wasn't an easy childhood. But the boy never complained…excessively; he worked hard and studied anything he could get his hands on to graduate early and become the best ninja possible. Never did he devote any of his time to anything but studying, practicing, and training; hell, he didn't even bother to remember any of his classmates' names! But it paid off in the end, he managed to graduate a whole year early and he was never happier in his life! No more living in slums with prostitutes as neighbors for him!

Sadly, and obviously, that wasn't what happened. You see he failed the second genin test, administered by a guy who was late to the meeting by a whole three hours! All he did was read porn and barely gave him or his teammates any attention. After that whole ordeal, Kouken got put on the reserved forces, which is pretty much where dreams go to die.

He had to hand in his headband and was given some badge…thing that honestly made him want to cringe every time he had to use it. He lost his stipend from the Hokage, lost the chance to get on a team which prioritizes you for missions as well as increase your pay, and now all chances of learning anything ninja related were at a decayed snail's pace.

So yeah, life did suck for Kouken Izoumaru, and if that wasn't the worst of it then no matter how hard he worked at his D-rank missions to earn money and perfect what little projects he had, life wasn't changing. The daily grind became a never ending slope, and he saw little change in his life other than the occupants of his neighbor's rooms. He felt as if the whole world was moving on and he was slowly fading away.

Fists clenched at the thought as his face twisted into a scowl. Kouken squashed those thoughts and swore that he would change his position in life. He made a vow to never fade away, that he would burn brighter than anything the world has ever seen.

Finally he arrived at his training ground. Well, it wasn't his, but nobody used it and it is was good enough for him, Training ground twenty-seven. Smiling as he rolled his shoulders only one thought went through his head.

'Time to let loose.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~Elsewhere in Konoha~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In an office filled with papers, both menial and grave, sat a man who was practically a legend throughout the shinobi world. There sat, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandiame Hokage otherwise known as The Professor or God of Shinobi. Along with him were his two teammates and ever faithful advisors Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane.

"We need to find a solution, Hiruzen. The reserve list is growing far too large to be useful. The fact that for every one who gets placed into active duty, four more take their place means it isn't working!" Said the only other male, Homura.

"Believe me, I know this already, but there are simply not enough jonin to become sensei's. We're still recovering from the Kyuubi attack." Sarutobi said while rubbing his wrinkled forehead.

"Maybe so, but when have we ever had the luxury of easy choices? Regardless of who we have available, we either find a way to teach them and bolster our forces, or cut down the reserves massively." Said shrewdly by Koharu.

Sarutobi sighed at that, doing that would literally end many of their dreams and would most likely push them into the open arms of less savory people. They needed them to bolster Konoha's forces, not someone's private one. Still, they've been tackling this problem for days and no solution seems in sight; every idea they came up with proved to be inefficient or impractical in one way or another. It was then his intercom buzzed and the voice of his secretary informed him of his two o'clock appointment was on his way up.

A tired groan escaped his lips and was about to be questioned by his teammates when the door was kicked open.

"What up Gramps?! Finally decided to promote me to jonin?!" Said a loud, cheerful voice. Just then two smaller groans erupted from his teammates simultaneously causing the aged Hokage to smirk.

In the doorway stood the scantily clad tokubetsu jonin Anko Mitarashi; apprentice to Orochimaru and current torture and interrogation specialist. And every time they had a meeting, she would, without fail or falter, bring up her promotion as obnoxiously as possible.

It wasn't that she didn't deserve it, far from it, but due to extenuating circumstance and other things, the woman didn't seem to make the cut. In fact a lot of shinobi were in her position, almost an oversaturation of ninja trying to make their ascent but can't regardless of how specialized they might be in certain fields. Most were insanely talented but were just wasting away when not on missions, if he could be honest with himself. If only there was a way to….

Away and uniformed of the Elder Hokage's thinking the other three occupants stood there awkwardly.

"Oi! You okay there, Hokage-Sama? Helllooooo?" Said Anko as she tried waving in his face. "He's didn't finally go senile, did he?" she asked his two teammates unaware, or more likely, uncaring if she offended them.

"No! Of course he didn't!... I think…" Koharu answered indignantly before trailing off somewhat hesitantly.

By then a strange smile spread across the otherwise stiff ninja as his eyes focused back to reality and snapped straight to Anko's.

"You're starting to creep me out, Hokage-sama. Most men who stare are young enough to give it a shot…No offense." She said as she straightened up and backed away from the table a bit.

"Oh my dear Anko, that's not why I'm staring. I'm staring because I just solved a problem and you might get that promotion after all!" At this both his teammates did a double take while Anko began her victory laps around the office.

"Not so fast, Anko, there's a condition." Hiruzen coughed into his hand until she quieted down and got her attention.

"Yeah, and what might that be? Got somebody that needs to die?" She asked menacingly as a snake started hissing from the sleeve of her trench coat.

"No, not quite, although I'm sure you wish it was that easy. Instead you're going to teach someone."

Silence reigned through the office as all three of them stared incredulously at the proud looking hokage.

"Okay, now you've gone senile." Said Homura while the other two nodded in agreement.

"Not just yet, I'm afraid. Here's the deal, the Reserve forces are beginning to become oversaturated and we don't have a solution to this problem. The same could be said for Tokubetsu jonin's so we are going to conduct a little experiment. You will test, however you wish and whomever we pick, individually. Should they pass your test you will train them until they are of chunin level where they can be incorporated into active duty. Should this succeed then you will have your promotion and we will have our solution. Agreed?" Sarutobi asked all the while feeling more and more proud of himself.

Anko mulled the thought over. On one hand promotion! On the other…kids. It was a tough choice, as she hated teaching and most of them whined far too much for her liking; hell, majority of her co-workers whined too much as well! After some consideration she decided this was easy. Out of the group of brats they chose, she would take the person closest to chunin level and grind the poor sod into the dirt until he was the barest, most basic textbook definition of a chunin level shinobi.

Smiling to herself and her ingenious plan Anko readily agreed, "Yosh! Let's get this over with!"

~~~~~~~~~~~With Kouken~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kouken panted as he laid on the training ground, reflecting on his skill and jutsu library. Currently, he had six jutsus; the Academy Three, Ninpo: Goriki, Hana Ninpo: Kage Kouhan Tsuru (Shadow Whipping Vine), and Hana Ninpo: Natsui Hana (Scorching Petal).

Admittedly, it was a fairly good library for a genin and even more so for one who was completely on his own, and was the fruit of his thieving habits at the Red Light District. The first one, Ninpo: Goriki, augmented your strength and speed by a good margin, but required constant chakra feeding and was rather consuming on his reserves. It was the newest addition and thus he didn't get a long time to train with it as he had just got it about three weeks ago from some unaware vendor. As of now he could use the jutsu for a full minute uninterrupted, but that would leave him with only a meager amount of chakra left. Rather than practicing it in length which would also increase his reserves, he had been working on the speed in which he could activate it. His plan would be to activate before he hit the person and shut it off the moment the opening has been abused.

The other two he had forever and really liked them. They were so obscure and foreign, and in the shinobi world, diversity and surprise usually spelt doom for the enemy. While everyone was flinging around fireballs and water jutsus he was flinging vines from his sleeves and throwing flaming flower petals at his enemies. Even though he'll accept any technique and gladly add it to his library, there was something about plant-like jutsus that made him feel good.

Maybe because it was the last connection he had to his mother, who was said to have a large number of plant like techniques. It wasn't a kekkai genkai or anything, it was just her interest. She was a jonin and was the delegate to Kusakagure, where he was told his father is from. It was with their union and constant travelling that basically filled her library with such jutsu, and even though all of them were lost with the destruction of their home Kouken endeavored to learn them all the same.

Feeling his chakra return to him along with his breath, Kouken reluctantly decided to pack it up. "Another day of training complete, yet I don't feel as if I'm any better than before." Murmuring to himself Kouken whipped out his arms unleashing a number of vines that wrapped around the sturdy trees around him. Taking steps back until the vines could go no further and were visibly shaking from the constrained energy Kouken let out a smirk. This was always his favorite part.

Hopping slightly off the ground all of the energy stored in the vines propelled him forward like a rubber band and he was soaring over the tree-tops with a wide smile on his face. Sure, running through the trees was fun and all, but flying over them? C'mon, even an adult would find that more fun. Descending back towards the tree line Kouken let loose another vine and swung hard on it, careening through the branches and at one point coming low enough to the ground that he was able to place his feet down momentarily for a chakra enhanced jump.

Oh yeah; this was way more fun. It didn't take long for our pink-haired spider man to arrive at what we would hope is not his apartment, because it. Looked. Like. Shit. The entire building was falling apart and the roof seemed to slouch a little more than what was structurally sound. Walking up the creaky stairs, he had to move to the right quickly as a wave of sake breath filled his nostrils. A moment later a drunk and highly disheveled man came out of one of his neighbor's room, fiddling with his pants belt and murmuring to himself.

"Virgin my ass…should've gotten a refund…those tits…oh, I'm gonna hurl." Barreling right into Kouken the man deposited the contents of his stomach right onto his feet. Those sandals were never going to see the light of day again, and from the look on Kouken's face, neither would this poor sod.

Before the man could even mumble out an apology, and that's a big if since he didn't even seem to be aware of his presence or surroundings, Kouken readied a whip from his sleeve and wrapped it around the unfortunate man. Without a second thought and a sharp jerk of his arm he sent the man flying over the second story stair-well and into the dumpster below. A second jerk slammed the top down just as the man began yelling.

Running into his apartment, Kouken went straight through the shower and threw his old sandals out. That would cost him rent money to replace unless he could find some to steal in the market today. After the shower Kouken went back near his door where a notice was nailed that he completely ignored moments prior. Failing to suppress a scowl, Kouken knew that whenever a statement like this was on his door it was from the landlord. He wasn't behind on rent, by the grace of some god, and he never makes too much noise unlike his neighbors! Flopping on a raggedy couch, home to some rather nasty stains of unknown origins Kouken read through the notice.

It was most definitely not good news. Apparently, the landlord is finally deciding to sell the place and all occupants have a week and a half to clear out.

Crunching the paper into a ball and chucking it out the window, Kouken blew out a sharp breath. "Fuck! I'll never be able to afford a new place! I only have enough for the next rent payment in the bank; not nearly enough to make a new payment elsewhere!..." He sat there in silent anger for a while mulling over his options, it seems he finally came up with one when he opened his mouth again, "FUCK!"

Maybe not…Even the narrator felt for the guy, and his job was merely to tell the tale; he wasn't paid enough to feel bad for the guy, in fact, he wasn't sure if he was gonna get paid at all! At this rate, our main character would crumble under financial strain and would merely fade into the populace of the Red Light District. No pay for a narrator narrating about a boy fading away. This boy desperately needed a break, even just something small. After all the boy has been through, one could tell that if you gave him an inch, he would take the whole damn mile.

Deciding on skipping the thieving for tonight, for he was simply in too foul of a mood, Kouken hit the sack. His thoughts were filled with anger, stress, and wondering on just how he was going to get by.

'Fading away…what a terrible feeling it is…' With that, Kouken succumbed to a restless slumber.