Hello all. This is the revised first chapter of Seven. Enjoy.
There is much sin in the world. Men, women, children. They are all subject to it. They all engage in it. This world bathes in it.
Lust.
The silhouette of a woman slinking out of a dress before she was grabbed by another silhouette and pulled away.
Greed.
A man counting money in an assorted mixture of bills and coins.
Wrath.
A crazed looking man with a bloodied weapon and blood smattered face.
Gluttony.
A rotund man devouring every piece of food within reach, even snatching it away from others.
Envy.
A man glaring hatefully at the figure of a man and woman moving happily down the street.
Sloth.
A man looking on with a half lidded gaze as some random thug mugged a man in an ally.
And Pride.
The stony face of a man as he gave the order for the death of a grungy looking child that had offended him.
People do horrible things, let horrible things happen, and all of it boils down to those seven sins. Wars have started because of the vileness of humans, innumerable amounts of people dead or suffering because of them. I'll even admit I'm not so pure myself.
I'm Greedy. I want more. More power so no one can ever harm me. More money, so I never go without. More of everything, so I will never need again.
I'm Wrathful. I feel so much anger, so much blinding, icy hot rage, that I could happily destroy everyone. This fury is enough to burn the world to ashes and it keeps my enemies at bay.
I'm Envious. I wonder why everyone else gets so easily what I work for. I wonder why people have things I don't and I want them. No one has an advantage over me because I have what they have.
I'm Gluttonous. I want enough food to feed a small nation. I want to never be hungry. Never will my enemies catch me starving and weak.
I'm Indolent. I want to be able to laze about all day like some others do. I want to not have to work anymore, ever again, for anyone. Everyone will know that I'm so powerful that they don't want to mess with me.
I'm Lustful. I appreciate the female form. I see an attractive body and I want what any red-blooded male would. I will have all the affection, all the love, regardless of the form, that I will ever need.
Perhaps most of all though, I'm Prideful. I see what I have done, and know it is better than many others can do, could ever do. People will see what I do and be in enough awe that they will not challenge me.
So, yeah, I'm pretty bad myself. But I'm not controlled by these things, I control them. I wield the darkness so many in this world are consumed by. What Better way to purge evil from the world than with a greater, more controlled evil? What better to keep the monsters at bay, than a bigger, meaner monster? Yeah, I like the sound of that. Yeah, I'm the keeper and master of the Seven Sins.
Let's see how this works out, after all, this explaining is getting kind of boring. Besides, I need to get to class before Iruka-Sensei decides to hunt me down. What? That guy has an amazing ability to find people… I really need to kick the habit of explaining things to no one for no particular reason.
Scene Change
One Uzumaki Naruto walked into class, a grin on his face as he strolled to his seat as though he owned the place. Today was the day. He was going to graduate today and no one could stop him.
He wore the standard for shinobi. Black pants, a mesh undershirt, and a black top that only went to his elbows. Over the top, Naruto had a coat with loose fitting sleeves that would leave a significant gap between his wrists and the edge of the sleeve when his arms were held parallel to the ground. On his face was a pair of tinted goggles that concealed his eyes. On his leg was a single pouch that held assorted ninja items.
"Ok, as you all well know, today is the day of the genin exams. First will be a written exam covering everything you learned during your time at the academy. I wish you luck." Iruka announced before passing out the aforementioned test. "You have an hour to complete it. You may begin."
As Naruto had thought, passing the test was easy. The questions were so simple that a dead squirrel could have passed the test. He was serious; some of the questions were just pathetic. How many Hokages were there? What was the name of the country? Questions like that were just pathetic. Next was taijutsu. That was slightly more difficult that the written test, but still easy enough. All he had to do was last a short time in the ring with Iruka and give a half-assed performance. After that was genjutsu, which was honestly only about as bad as the written test in terms of difficulty and, as such, easily passed. All he had to do was break some E-ranked piece of crap and he passed. Finnaly, the ninjutsu portion of the test was the only thing left. That was a slightly more annoying subject than any of the others, but all he need to do was a kawamari, a henge, and a bushin, which was easy enough, though molding just the right amount of chakra to make a bushin that didn't look to be suffering from some horrible flesh eating disease took some concentration.
Upon getting his head-band and taking note of when he had to return to be assigned his team, Naruto stuffed his head-band in his pocket and left the academy as quickly as he could. Making his way to a secluded clearing that was far enough away from both training fields and the main part of the village that he wouldn't be disturbed, Naruto sat cross-legged on the ground, his back against a tree.
"I'm guessing you passed if that grin is any indication." A rough, smug voice said.
"Of course he did. Such a manly specimen as that couldn't possibly fail." A sultry, seductive woman's voice said.
"That just makes me want to puke." Spoke a younger sounding boy with a hint of disgust in his voice.
"Aw, don't say that. You should never waste food like that." The higher pitched, almost childlike voice of a man spoke.
"You just love to eat too much you fat little man." A somewhat androgynous voice said.
"And you are just jealous." The only normal sounding voice, a woman's, said.
"Heh, of course I passed. My pride wouldn't let me do anything else." Naruto said, cutting off the chatter and opening his eyes, not that it would be seen behind the tinted goggles he wore. Before him stood six people.
On the far left, a slightly rough looking man with sharp features and black hair stood. He wore leather pants, combat boots, a tight fitting sleeveless shirt, an open vest with a fur neckline, and wristbands. His face was stretched in a grin, showing off his teeth, all of them sharpened to a point, his eyes were too dark to determine a color, over which he wore round, metal framed sunglasses, and his hair was spiked.
Next to him stood a woman. She wore a fitted dark-red dress that looked almost black in the right light and had a long slit up the left side allowing much her leg to be seen when she moved, elbow length gloves of the same color as the dress, and a pair of high heels. She was slightly taller than average for a woman, had long black hair, luscious curves, showing off rounded hips, a tiny waist, and a full bust, pouty lips, and dark sultry eyes that oozed seduction.
Beside her was a boy who looked to be no older than maybe 14. He wore shorts and a sleeveless shirt, no shoes. He had black hair that fell nearly to his knees, a lean musculature, eyes as dark as the others had been, and his mouth was contorted into an angry sneer.
Next was a shorter man, only being just barely less than four feet who also happened to be bald. He wore a black body suit, black shoes, and wristbands. In addition to being rather short, he was also very fat, being nearly as wide around as he was tall. His eye color was impossible to tell due to their being very beady, but it could be assumed that they were very dark and he had a happy grin on his face as he munched on some food.
After him was a rather androgynous looking boy wearing shorts entirely too tight and short, a belly shirt that was also way too tight and fingerless gloves. His hair was a distinct shade of dark green that looked almost black in the right light and it was separated into a number of long spikes that hung to his mid-back and his eyes constantly shifted colors.
The last member of the group was a woman. She wore a dress in the same color as the first woman, only this one didn't have any slits and fell past her feet, and a pair of elbow gloves. Her hair was a moderately dark shade of brown that fell to her waist and her eyes were a dark shade of jade.
"So what now?" The rough looking man asked.
"I was going to have some sort of plan, but I think I'll just wing it from here." Naruto replied. "Anyway, I have to be off. I have things to attend to before the day is over."
"Going to see your dear pets?" The sultry woman asked.
"Of course, they do need to be fed consistently after all, Lust. Besides, I'm thinking of getting another one." With that, Naruto left the six alone in the clearing.
"Another one? How many of those things does he need?" The younger boy asked.
"Quiet Wrath. I'm sure you remember what happened last time you let your temper get the better of you with the boss." The androgynous boy said.
"Heh, you just have some kind of man crush on him, don't you Envy?" Wrath replied.
"Now you two, there is no need to fight. Besides, Naruto will be angry with you both if he has to expend the energy to fix you." The serene looking woman said.
"As much as I hate to admit it, Sloth is right." Lust said.
After a moment of silence, the rotund man spoke up. "Is anyone else hungry?"
"You're always hungry Gluttony. Now come on, we should go." Lust said, walking out of the clearing with Gluttony following after her like a lost puppy.
Following Lust's example, the remaining people in the clearing left, Greed and Envy going off on their own and Sloth being followed by the now much calmer Wrath.
Well, now that that's done, I'm going to go attend to other business.