The five nations, with the five ninja villages. The Fire nation, with the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The Earth nation, with the Village Hidden Among the Stones. The Water nation, with the Village Hidden in the Mist. The Wind nation, with the Village Hidden in the Sand. And finally the Thunder nation, with the Village Hidden in the Clouds; this is where our story takes place.
Now the Thunder nation has changed quite a lot since it tried to capture Hinata Hyuga, and steal the secrets of the Byakugan. Of course that only makes since, considering 25 years have passed since that time. Their village is not a large one. It sits humbly atop a mountain. It is constantly covered in a thick fog; this not only gives it a natural defense from other countries, but a subtle calm aura about the village. The lives of the people in this small community are just like that of any other. Everyone has a job; they have chores to do and errands to run. However the ninja school of this village is considered quite odd. When a student graduates from the academy (around the age of 14-15) instead of being sent on easy missions, they are sent to a genin academy. At the genin academy they will study for four years until they graduate and become chunin. The new arrivals are referred to as freshman (or freshmeat by some upper classman). Students who have been at the academy a year are called sophomores and so on. Now on to the hero of this epic tale. His name is Mordecai, and he, along with his friends, has just graduated to a genin. It's his last week of vacation before they start classes at the genin academy, and Mordecai and Zentah are hanging out in Mordecai's room.
"Dude can you believe how fast this summer went by?" asked Zentah, who had been the first person to befriend Mordecai when he transferred from the Hidden Leaf Village. Zentah was a tall gangly kid with dirty blonde hair that came down to his shoulders. He wore a short sleeve shirt with red designs coming up from the bottom. His pants were baggy and black, and they were loaded with chains and spikes.
"Is that all you do? Complain all day? You should just be thankful for the time we had off," replied Mordecai with a smile. Mordecai was not particularly tall, but he wasn't short either. He had pitch-black hair that draped down over his eyes in strands. He wore a black T-shirt that had the cloud village symbol on it. Over it he wore black hoodie, which had the Leaf Village symbol on the back. His pants were faded old blue jeans that also had a number of chains on them. On these chains though were numerous scrolls. His were exactly like standard ninja shoes except they were close toed. He also wore to black leather gloves, the one on the left hand had the Cloud Village symbol on piece of metal on the back of the glove. The one on the right hand had the Leaf Village symbol. Together they looked more like just a couple of punks then ninjas.
"Yeah, well if no one complained how would any body know what was wrong with the world," he replied, "besides with that stupid summer program we barely got any time off."
"Well if you would've tried harder in class you wouldn't have had to be in the middle of the summer tard fest."
"Hey you were there to."
"I was only there because I came here from the leaf village for the last quarter of the school year; I made up a semester in a half worth of work in a month," Zentah grumbled and didn't say anything.
"Hey you guys let me in!" came a booming voice from outside Mordecai's window. They went to look who it was and saw a large boy standing eye to eye with them as they looked out the window. It was Inso. Inso was in more traditional ninja garb. He wore one of those green ninja vest over long sleeved chain mail. His pants were light brown and were taped up near the bottom. His hair was short, brown, and curly.
"What do you want," Mordecai said, poking his head out the window.
"I want in, doofus."
"Why?"
"Why? You invited me over here, you tell me." Inso now had a confuzzled look on his face.
"Alright climb in through the window," Mordecai told him. Inso hoisted himself up and through the window, sort of. He had gotten stuck half way through.
"Don't just stand there help me out here," Inso yelled at the two. Mordecai and Zentah both grabbed an arm and began to pull.
"Hurry up guys," Inso was starting to get impatient.
"Why don't you try lugging you through a window," grunted Zentah.
"Yeah, you just had grow to 6'5" didn't ya." Mordecai also grunted as they finally got the behemoth through the window.
"Well, I've had my exercise for the day," said Zentah as he sat back down.
"Why'd you want us here anyway Mordecai?" asked Inso.
"I wanted to see what all classes we had together."
"That doesn't sound like such a bad idea," said Zentah. They all got out their schedules and compared them. They were pretty happy with what they had.
"We've each only have got two classes apart from each other," stated Mordecai, "You've guys have advanced tai and genjutsu, and I've got advanced ninjutsu."
"Hey, speaking of your jutsu, didn't you promise to teach us some Leaf Village jutsu," Inso reminded Mordecai.
"Yeah you did," Zentah suddenly remembered, "and don't try and teach us some clone or transformation jutsu either. Every village has some version of those."
"Don't worry guys. I'll teach you one of my Leaf Village original techniques," said Mordecai with a smile. Both of his friends appeared to be very happy about learning a jutsu from the most powerful ninja village.
"So what's it gonna be?" asked Zentah excitedly.
"Slow down," said Mordecai trying to calm the eagerness of his friend, "remember I said I'd teach you if you met a condition first."
"So what is it?" asked Zentah, now obviously anxious.
"Follow me and I'll show you," said Mordecai as he jumped out the window. Zentah followed suit.
"I'll just use the door," announced Inso.
Inso and Zentah were now standing outside awaiting instructions for their new jutsu.
"In order for me to teach you this jutsu all you need to do is make a leaf stick to that tree, but you must stand behind this knife," he said as he chucked a kunai into the ground a good twenty feet from the tree.
"How are we supposed to do that?" complained Inso.
"Yeah, I mean we've gotta make a leaf stick into that tree?" asked Zentah in astonishment.
"That's all there is to it. I've got stuff to do; so you guys practice and I'll be back." and with that Mordecai was off. Zentah and Inso just looked at each other and started throwing leaves. None of them got far at all. They would throw one and it would just flutter to the ground. They tried using chakra to make the leaf float to the tree, but when it got to the tree it wouldn't stick. Finally Mordecai came back hours later to see his buddies lying on the ground, obviously exhausted.
"What's the matter?" asked Mordecai.
"It's to hard man…we couldn't do it," sighed Zentah.
"Ya mean do this?" said Mordecai as he picked up a leaf and threw it. The leaf sped through the air until it hit the tree and stuck. Zentah and Inso sat up in astonishment.
"What the hell! How did you do that?" screamed Inso.
"Dude that was amazing." shouted Zentah.
"That's my Leaf Kunai jutsu. And I'll show you how to do it."
"But we have no energy left." Zentah explained.
"It's effortless; and it comes in handy when you're out of kunai and shurikens," the two reluctantly got up and listened to Mordecai's explanation of the jutsu.
"All you gotta do is focus enough chakra into the leaf to make it hard," Zentah and Inso focused and effortlessly stiffened the leaf. Both were amazed by the ease of this feat.
"That was pretty cool," said Zentah. Inso shook his head in agreement.
"Now all you do is throw it," each threw their leaf and stuck it to the tree.
"Hey Mordecai, that's pretty neat and all, but what if there aren't any leaves around?" asked Inso.
"Ah!" exclaimed Mordecai, "That's why I'm going to teach you one of my most powerful jutsu."
"Wait. It's not going to be that Squared-Circle jutsu you keep bragging about is it? Ya know that all that wrestling stuff's fake," said Zentah.
"NO it's not; it's scripted. There is a difference. Besides I would never teach that to you anyway. Instead I'll teach you this taijutsu of mine," Inso couldn't have seemed any happier. Zentah on the other hand looked kind of pissed.
"That's not fair. First you teach us a ninjutsu, which is your specialty. Now you're teaching us a taijutsu, which is his specialty!"
"I don't really know any genjutsu," explained Mordecai, "but I'll teach you a special technique that can be used with your genjutsu."
"All right, but it had better be good," said Zentah reluctantly.
"Good. Now watch me," Mordecai began to focus his energy, then announced his attack, "Happiness, Pummel Leg jutsu," he screamed as he charged at a tree. He jumped forward and brought his left knee up to his chest, then completely stiffened his right leg. Still in mid air, he spun his body around and hit the tree with his calf muscle. The tree splintered and fell to the ground. Zentah and Inso looked impressed.
"Nice!" yelled Inso.
"It's better than I thought it would be," said Zentah admittedly.
"Thanks. Now why don't you guys give it a shot," Zentah and Inso looked at each other and shrugged as if saying "why not." Inso tried first repeating the process that he saw Mordecai perform. As his leg made contact with another tree you could hear it snap and crack, but it still stood. Next Zentah thought he'd give it a go. He mimicked his friend's movement and hit the tree. More snapping and cracking sounds, but the tree refused to fall.
"Huh?" said Zentah scratching his head, " Hey Mordecai what was that you yelled before kicking the tree?"
"Happiness?"
"Yeah that's it. It like you were announcing a style of jutsu, but those are only fire, water, wind, earth, and lightning."
"Oh that's right, I forgot to tell you guys. See I use emotion jutsu sometimes."
"What's that?" asked a puzzled Inso.
"Well it's like this. Everyone has chakra gates, but not everyone can open them. That's what my emotion gates are like. Everyone has them. I'm just the only one I no of that can use the chakra they provide.
"You said Happiness though, how many gates are there?" asked Zentah inquisitively.
"Nine. There are six-battle gates, Happiness, Hate, Love, Sorrow, Fear, and Pride. The other three are Jealousy, Friendship, and Loyalty. They each give me special abilities, rather then being jutsu."
"And you can just activate these automatically?"
"No. For me to use the secret technique of each emotion that gate must be opened. Before a gate can be opened it must be unlocked."
"How do you do that?"
"To unlock an emotion gate you have to feel the emotion corresponding to that emotion on an extreme level, and I mean extreme. However to open a gate you must feel that same emotion on an even higher level."
"Can gates be closed or locked again?"
"Gees, what is this a freakin FAQ," Mordecai muttered to himself, "When enough time elapses, or a battle finishes, the gates will close and lock. However all I need to do to reopen the gates is think about those emotional moments."
"Are there any downsides to using these gates?"
"Rarely, but yes. You can't use an emotion's secret technique unless that gate is completely open. If a gate is merely unlocked you can only use the chakra from that emotion to strengthen your self. Also if a certain emotion is unlocked you might not be able to control it."
"Dude that sounds pretty cool."
"Yeah, and before you ask, I know when any of these gates are opened or unlocked and I know which it is."
"Can gates only open a little bit?" asked Inso
"That's a stupid question," replied Mordecai.
"There are no stupid questions, just stupid people," Inso snapped back.
"So what's that tell you about your self?" Inso had to think about this a moment, and then got offended.
"That's all you need to know about my gates. It's getting late so I'm going to go to bed. See you guys tomorrow."
"HEY, HEY, HEY!" Mordecai awoke to Zentah jumping on his bed like a maniac.
"Whoa," Mordecai yawned, " what the heck's goin on here?" asked Mordecai. Suddenly it came to his attention that both Zentah and Inso (Inso remained quiet in Mordecai's door way) were wearing Cloud Village headbands. "Hey we weren't supposed to get those until the first day of class," said Mordecai, half asleep, half pissed off.
"GET UP! You have to get up or you won't become a ninja," this particular statement grabbed his attention.
"The hell do you mean I won't become a ninja?"
"The RaiKage sent out letters saying that to many graduates were entering the genin academy. So he ordered elimination matches to narrow the herd."
"What? When?"
"Right now. We got to the exam arena and you weren't there, so we figured you were a little late. But when we were through with our matches, which we won," Zentah said proudly while adjusting his new head band, "we noticed you weren't there."
"That's when we remembered your terrible habit of sleeping in," Inso chimed in, "so we rushed here to get you up."
"HOLY SHIT! When does my match start?"
"You're lucky if it hasn't already," said Zentah. Mordecai jumped out bed, put his clothes on as fast as he could, and sprinted towards the door.
"Don't forget these!" yelled Zentah as he tossed Mordecai his belt of scrolls.
"Will you just face it, he's not coming"
"He still has thirty seconds," stated the exam proctor.
"Thanks, but I don't need it," shouted Mordecai as he busted through the door into the exam stadium.
"Come on that's not fair. He should be disqualified," said a kid who apparently was Mordecai's opponent.
"Nope, he was here within the allotted time so he can compete."
"Doesn't sound like you're to happy to be facing me."
"Hmph. I can take you, ya Leaf Village Loser," that comment started to get under Mordecai's skin, but then he heard a voice.
"Go Mordecai!" it shouted. When he turned around Mordecai saw Kahtayna. She was girl Mordecai had met when he started hanging out with Zentah. She had long blonde hair, and her skin was slightly pale. She was Mordecai's dream girl. She was wearing camo pants, and her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She was also wearing a vest over short-sleeved some chainmail, along with a headband, and three katanas she had on her back. Perhaps the her best qualities were her awesome smile, and always giving comforting hugs that make you feel like the happiest person in the world. Mordecai smiled and waved back.
"She passed the test so now I've got to beat this punk," he thought to himself.
"This contest will be a race to the ninja headband," stated the exam proctor, " first to reach it wins," Mordecai and his opponent took their starting positions. As he was getting into position Mordecai examined the field. It was about as long as two football fields, and as wide as one, but it made of a reddish brown clay. At the end of this enormous track was the head band; sitting on a pedestal. "Ready, set, go!" yelled the exam proctor, and they were off. Mordecai had an early lead, as he was the fastest in his class.
"Where do you think you're going," shouted his opponent. "Earth style, Thorn Whip jutsu," from out of nowhere a giant vine constricted itself around Mordecai's body, "They should've just disqualified you, would've saved ya the embarrassment," with that he took off towards the prize, and left Mordecai struggling to get free. Suddenly Mordecai realized he could reach one of his scrolls, and it was just the one he needed.
"Activate scroll, Shower of Blades," when he said this the giant vine that bound him was shredded as hundreds of kunai and shurikens erupted from the scroll. Mordecai quickly grabbed another scroll from his scroll chains; "Activate scroll, Dark Vortex," at this he opened the scroll and formed it into a circle. All of a sudden where there was once a blank hole was now a void of nothingness that had a vacuum strong enough to slow down Mordecai's opponent. Mordecai charged forward holding the scroll in front of him until he was even with his opposition.
"It's not going to be that easy," yelled Mordecai who connected with a right hand on the side of the punk's face.
"You bastard," yelled the other student as he charged at Mordecai. The two began to exchange blows, blocks, and dodges as they engaged in fierce hand to hand. Finally Mordecai was able land a right hand to the gut and an uppercut with his left. He jumped after the kid who was sent flying into the air and trapped him in a head scissors. Mordecai back flipped and released his enemy, throwing him straight to the ground, "Where did you learn that?" asked his shocked opponent.
"I watch to much wrestling," said Mordecai as he smiled. He then drew two more scrolls from the chains and laid them across the kid's arms and legs.
"What the hell are you doing?" Mordecai said nothing, he used some hand signs and the scrolls started to glow. Mordecai's opponent tried to move, but was stuck to the ground by the scroll spell. Mordecai then took of towards the headband, but not before laying out another scroll the width of the field. The binding scroll wore off in about a second, but it was enough for Mordecai to get a small lead. The punk kid got up and gave chase. As he began to close in on Mordecai he noticed the laid out scroll, and began to jump over it. However Mordecai quickly turned around and said.
"Activate scroll, Shrouded Barrier," the scroll glowed, and as Mordecai's opponent got to the area where the scroll was he stopped in mid air. He had leapt smack into the wall that Mordecai activated using the scroll. He was off again. His opponent recovered quickly though and gave chase once more.
"I'll show that dork how it's done, Nirvana Flower Shuriken jutsu," the kid then threw a barrage of shurikens with flowers on them at Mordecai. However Mordecai was too quick and dodged every single one.
"To slow," said Mordecai as he began to take off but this time he stumbled.
"You look to be the one slowing down. You may have dodged my shuriken but you couldn't dodge the nerve gas the flowers on them left behind," the kid chuckled and ran toward the headband. Mordecai had just enough wits about him activate a secret technique.
"Leaf Chain jutsu!" he screamed. Suddenly two rows of kunai leaves shot out the ground beside Mordecai. The leaves overlapped each other forming a chain, one of them lunged at the kid.
"You're going to attack me with leaves, HAH!" however he soon regretted those words, as the first sped by, cutting his arm. Not a second later the second one got his knee. He grunted as he fell to the ground. The chains repeated the attack until Mordecai no longer had the energy to sustain the attack. The chains suddenly stopped and the leaves fluttered to the ground. Mordecai made his best attempt to keep going, but the nerve gas hadn't worn completely off yet. At the same time the kid tried to push on, bloodied and cut. Both of the competitors moved slowly, but with motivation. Mordecai stared at his opponent who had a good lead on him. There was know way he could catch him, Mordecai collapsed. His opponent smiled and marched toward his prize. As Mordecai lay there unable to move he couldn't help but think.
"Does this mean all of this effort and time is wasted? Do all the sacrifices I made mean nothing now?" as Mordecai was about to lose hope he heard something.
"C'mon Mordecai you can do it."
"Yeah, get up ya lazy bum."
"What he said," Mordecai raised his head enough to look up and see his friends standing there looking at him, smiling. Especially her, Kahtayna and at that moment he could sense it, his love emotion gate had unlocked. He could feel this new form of chakra flow through him. It was a warm feeling, but an intense one. Mordecai sprang to his feet, just in time to see his opponent reaching for the headband. He was desperate; he didn't know what to do. Then it hit him; he rattled off some hand signs and yelled.
"Squared-Circle jutsu," suddenly the kid was stopped in his tracks. Up through the ground appeared a wrestling ring. Mordecai threw three kunai by the ring which turned into an announce table and two goofy announcers. The kid couldn't figure out what was going on. As he looked around Mordecai appeared behind him. They just stared at each other. Mordecai then threw down one last kunai that turned into a referee. The fight was on. Mordecai's enemy could do nothing but fight. However it was useless. He was in Mordecai's element. Every punch he threw was countered with another. He tried a spin kick, but Mordecai ducked it and bounced off the ropes to hit him with a clothesline.
"That's it I'm tired of playing your games." yelled the kid, "Thorn Whip jutsu," but nothing happened.
"When you enter the ring all that matters is you physical prowess. So this ring drains you of all your chakra," the kid was stunned and Mordecai took advantage of that by delivering a dropkick. The kid reached for a kunai but discovered they were gone. Mordecai the explained the illegality of weapons during a match. The two continued the fight for several more minutes. Mordecai was able to kick his adversary in the gut. He then lifted the kid's legs onto his shoulders and delivered a devastating power-bomb. Mordecai then went to climb the turnbuckle. As he got to the top the kid struggled to get up, but couldn't. The ring was holding him down with its chakra. Mordecai jumped off the top rope, doing a front flip and landing spine first on the kid's stomach. Mordecai threw himself on the kid, then ordered the ref to count. And so the ref did, 1-2-3, it was over the ring disappeared. As well as the announce table, and announcers. The ref remained, and he presented Mordecai with the headband. The ref then vanished, as Mordecai tied the band around his waist, reminiscent of a title belt.
"Great job man," said Zentah who was the first to greet the winner.
"Yeah nice job, very dramatic," complimented Inso. However the next congratulations would be his favorite. Kahtayna came running up to Mordecai and gave him one of her famous comforting hugs; to Mordecai it was as if all his wounds had healed.
"That was really amazing Mordecai," said Kahtayna.
"Well what can I say," Said Mordecai, "In a fight I'm unstoppable, unbeatable, and simply unbelievable."