Shoten Nobu had never really had an easy life. He wasn't upset about it though; he was glad that he had so much trouble, because it defined who he really was.
Well, who was he, exactly? Nobu was of the Shoten clan, a family which was known for two things: it's recent history, and the fact that it had a kekkei genkai. The Shoten had the amazing ability of having large tenketsu, and their body was specially designed to internally mold chakra. This allowed Shoten family members to mold their body at their will, and release devastating amounts of charka with little extra effort. Their power in the latter was very similar to the Jyuuken style of combat that the Hyuuga utilized. They didn't have the finesse or accuracy that the Hyuuga used, so the users of the techniques just blasted randomly. This was no less effective, and they were constant rivals with the Hyuuga family.
Their fall fame into infamy, however, was majorly for their recent history: the Shoten family members were little better than street trash, and there was no actual clan. Orphans on the street were as often as not to have this mysterious ability.
The head of the clan, Shoten Sanoske, was the one responsible for this. In his lavish overindulgence, he embezzled the clan funds. Not only had they lost their honor with him, but also their homes. Sanoske had mortgaged all of the Shoten lands attempting to pay off his debts. He failed, and the Shoten were left on the street. Upset with the state of their clan, all of the Shoten Ninja spread across the world, forming their own, small, clan institutions, attempting to prevent a repeat of Sanoske's actions.
Nobu was one of those orphans on the street. He had to fend for himself for five years, taking care of himself and only himself in his desperate will to survive. The life of an orphan is never pleasant, especially when there is nowhere for one to go and one must turn to crime. But he was slightly luckier than his poor fellows who had to spend their whole lives that way.
When he was about five years, his uncle, also named Nobu, took him in. His uncle was an ex-ninja. He was eighteen years older than his younger sister, Yuki, who was Nobu's mother. She had died in the attack of the Kyuubi, right after the Sanoske debacle.
Uncle kind man, but was no good at raising children. Sometimes he regretted taking his nephew in, due to how close to living on the streets he was, but he was smart enough not to show Nobu his despair.
Nobu senior knew that he couldn't take care of Nobu forever. His retirement money was already sparse, and he would need to look for work once more if he was to support him. As soon as Nobu was old enough, he knew that the boy would need to become a ninja, like his parents. Uncle Nobu decided send him to the Ninja academy, hoping that Nobu would find success in an honorable job that would help the name of Shoten.
So, Uncle Nobu signed up Nobu junior into the Ninja Academy as soon as possible. The institution was completely free, since this was a hidden ninja village. Uncle Nobu told Nobu Junior about his decision. Little Nobu was happy that he was going to live like his parents as a ninja.
To help him prepare for school, and signify his well wishing for his nephew, Nobu's uncle saved up some money to buy him a lunch box, one of those metal ones that were very popular in the village. On the face, it had the famous rock formation of Konoha, with the engraved faces of the past Hokage.
"I know it'll be hard at school, Nobu. The Konohagakure Ninja Academy can be very competitive. But I know you. And I know that with some persistence, and a lot of hard work, you can do well." Nobu's uncle said "Now, shall we go to honor our name by starting your path in the way of the ninja?"
Nobu junior nodded enthusiastically. He had been anticipating this for weeks. He was willing to work hard because he knew that it would make Uncle happy. And right now, that was the only thing in the world that really mattered to him.
So off they went, so Nobu could start his learning at the ninja academy. It was a long walk to the academy; they lived in the poorer part of town, which was very far away. This was because this was a Ninja village, so the richer groups were either strong native clans, or important economic groups that needed to be protected by ninja. The two Nobu were neither. To be able to make it on time, they had to leave early in the morning. It was so early, that very few people were on the streets, and all of the stalls on the sides of the roads were closed. As they walked, Nobu's uncle gave him a rice dumpling to eat on the way to the Academy.
"I want to make sure that you are well fed for your first day at the Academy, Nobu." His uncle said as he handed it to him "If you do well, and try hard, maybe you can fight to earn back the reputation of our people and the honor lost."
"Uncle Nobu, why does everyone treat our family so badly?" Nobu asked. "Why do they treat us like we're criminals?"
"It's because a long time ago, we were actually powerful. Actually, we were once one of the most powerful clans in Konoha. We competed with the Hyuuga and the Uchiha for prestige" His uncle smiled, thinking of the happy times that must have occurred back then.
"But nothing is permanent, Nobu. Remember that all your life. Soon our clan fell. In the desperation to compete with the might of Byakugan and Sharingan, our leader squandered the treasury, attempting to look like we could live more richly than other clans. But the plan didn't work. We ran out of money, and we lost everything that we owned. Now, today, we are still reeling from our fall."
"But, Uncle, you're doing better than the others. You're not on the streets begging for money. Why did you do so well, while the others failed?" Nobu asked again, taking a bite out of his dumpling, savoring the food.
"Well, I got lucky." Uncle Nobu sighed "I tried to save up some money, after my ninja days were over. When the clan retirement plan ran out of money, I could fall back on that to support me. Combined with the fact that I live frugally, I've been able to last on the money for quite a while now. In the last few years, though, I've begun to have to work."
"Oh…" Nobu said quietly, as he continued eating the kind treat from his uncle.
Little more conversation occurred between the two as the traversed the roads and back roads on their way across Konohagakure to the Academy. The further they went, the more people showed up on the street, starting the day and their jobs.
As more people arrived, the inherent buzz became louder and louder as the day began to start. To the two Nobu and the families with children deciding to attend, or that already were attending, it was a special day, but to everyone else it was just an average day. Work moved on normally for them. Nothing special was going to happen to them. Most of them didn't even know that the day was another academy year.
Finally, they made it to the main academy building. It was a plain building with grey walls, situated directly in the middle of the large complex. The door had an overhang that was red, with the symbol for fire engraved in gold in it. Across from the building was a tree with a swing in it. The old tree gnarled and twisted, and probably had been there for over a hundred years, since the Shodaime, the first Hokage of Konohagakure.
The area outside the door was surrounded with parents and children who were starting to attend the academy, waiting for the greeting and orientation to begin. The students from pervious years that still were attending had already entered, to avoid the commotion of the new students arriving. Some of the parents who had either attended recently, or had older children who had gone through the academy were expecting what was going to happen.
With a bang, and a cloud of smoke, an academy Instructor appeared, wearing his Hiai-ate on his forehead, and a scar across his nose. Most of the children, including Nobu, were extremely surprised and slightly intimidated by the sudden appearance of the ninja. The adults, being much more experienced, were not very fazed by the standard ninja entrance.
"Welcome to the Konoha Ninja Academy!" The man said jovially, his warm eyes and even warmer moving over the crowd, bathing them in his friendliness "I am one of the instructors of the Konohagakure academy. My name is Iruka."
"Hello, Iruka-sensei" most of the children replied timidly, still shocked from the entrance.
"Before taking the children in, and assigning tasks, I would like to thank the parents. Your decision, and dedication to Konohagakure, to send your child to the Ninja Academy is a honorable choice that will teach children how to not only to exceed in the Ninja way, but also in life, as well as learning protect Konoha in the way of the Ninja."
As soon as his speech was over, the parents nodded respectfully, having heard the speech many times before, but stayed in the spot, waiting for their children to be called in.
"Now, if the academy students would step forward…" Iruka said. About thirty children stepped forward, in front of the parents. Their parents nudged a couple of them forward, because they were too shy themselves to step forwards. "Ah, thank you very much. Now the parents are free to go," Iruka said, waving them off.
As the parents milled about, talking to some other parents they knew, Nobu's uncle stood there. He quietly cried in joy for his nephew's first step to becoming a man. After a few seconds, he too turned away. He needed to find a job so he could support his little nephew until he learned to take care of himself.
Then, after all the parents had finally left, Iruka turned to the children. He smiled at the children, telling them "Follow me, follow me." And leading then into the academy.
A/N – Thank you very much for putting up with my fic. This was originally 947 words, and now it has more than doubled. I feel very proud of this fic. However, I dislike short chapters, so I am going back to all my chapters and enlargening them to a proper length. I can't stand those 2000 words a chapter stories when they his 100,000 words. It's like fifty chapters! Well sorry for the rant. And to let people know, the Shoten family is the only difference in the whole of the storyline. And to let people know, there will be only one more main character Shoten. I don't even know if she is going to be in this part of the story. After an arc is finished beyond the 100,000-word range, I'm going to start with another fic, continuing in the series.
Also, if my viewers would like to vote upon whether this fic will attempt to follow canon or not, just put a review up. I have ideas of how to continue the fic differently from end of Konoha invasion arc, or right after Sasuke retrieval arc. I won't tell the plots because then it would ruin the story. But, if you really want a general idea, email me at I just ask that you don't tell people if they don't want to know, but who am I kidding? Barely anyone reads this shuffles into the corner all emo-like
"You have me!" My Evil Twin from France Says, popping into existence on my shoulder
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"Shut up, guys, I really need to get this done! Oh, wait, I am done!" Hits self on head "Bye everyone, please review. Or there will be dire consequences" shakes fist "Really Dire! Bye!"