If you clicked on the link to my Naruto fanfic expecting some kind of summary or plot leak, please think again. I'm not going to do that. All I will tell you is that you must read... and that Kishimoto owns Naruto.
You may have noticed that "The Price of Power" is listed as a NaruSaku story. It's not. Yes, you heard right. It is not a NarutoxSakura story. "Then why list it that way?" I listed it that way because they are the central characters of the story, but not paired together. I will focus on those two, along with an OC, as the main characters.
Edit: You have been warned. This was not some ploy to get readers to mistake my story for a NaruSaku fic. I selected it that way because it Naruto and Sakura are the main characters and there was no option to select two main characters. As of 12/31/09 2:12PM I have changed it to just Sakura because I will focus more on her and the OC. Naruto is still a the secondary main character (duh).
As you may or may not know, dialogue is very important to me. It fleshes out characters. But of course, descriptive paragraphs that give you more story are important too. I hope to fully utilize my potential as a fanfiction writer and impress you with this first chapter and give you an even bit of both.
Here is the beginning.
Current Day of the Shinobi: 857
"Fight! Keep pushing!" A man with a blue bandana wrapped around his head threw a kunai. He quickly glanced back, catching a glimpse of the small army behind him. Then in front, he saw the massive forces descending upon his people.
"Don't give up! Don't give up! Keep going!" He desperately tried to keep up the morale, but was failing. It was nearly impossible to, and he could understand why. The battle was seven hundred men and women of Kagegakure against thousands of legions. They were tired, hungry, and surrounded. The forces had been fighting all for the sake of a strategic battle point.
The reason as to why the were fighting in the first place?
Well it was the discovery of chakra! The energy source that drove all the ninja in the battle. It gave the military factions of the nations an excuse to test out their new found power. It wasn't a very good reason, but was one nonetheless, and fueled the fire to the passions of those who were hungry for war. Along with those reasons, chakra gave new meaning to the way of life. It shook the foundations of the existing society and restructured it in a militaristic way. No, there were no kage leaders at this point, just soldiers and samurai... and the people who had learned to use this new deadly weapon.
The Kage-nin swore as a few more of his allies fell. He turned around to gaze upon one of the core reasons they were even willing to fight in this suicidal battle.
The summon. His people, like all other nations, discovered the existence of beings that were able to be summoned. His own village found theirs approximately a two years after the discovery of chakra, not long before the battle. With such little time, they had very little experience with their summon boss.
However, the summoned being was not normal, meaning it was not like the others. It was not a bird, nor it was a snake, nor a animal or creature known to man. Instead, it was one that required more sacrifice. More fearful. More deadly. More extreme.
A man standing next to the summon dropped to his knees, panting in exhaustion.
"Please! Shinigami-sama! Show us your power!"
The summon slowly turned his head, and gave a only an icy glare.
The people began to cry out in fear for their lives. What was the point if their trump card didn't fight? Then he replied,
"Show me your devotion, only then will I fight!"
That had silenced them, turning them back to the fires of hell on the battlefield. Seeing this the Shinigami lord relaxed his crossed arms and turned his hands into fists, raising them over his head slowly. Then he tensed, and with light speed brought them down, bringing into existence a twin set of chakra blades that extended over three and a half feet each, screeching and crackling with sharpened energy. The great death god flashed into the middle of the enemy soldiers and in the blink of an eye, he had wiped out over a third of the enemy forces. In that one blink, over 400,000 ninja had left for the afterlife.
Immediately the offending army halted and began to form a defensive perimeter. But what does that do against a being that controls the flow of life itself? But of course, the enemy was foolish, thinking that their almighty chakra could save them. Clearly they had not studied it enough before going to war.
The Shinigami had already retreated to the front line of his army and gazed upon the approaching enemies. They could not see his face, for it was covered by a white mask. The only thing they could see was his eyes.
His cold, fearsome eyes.
He raised his hand and pointed his palm outwards toward the army of thousands. Gathering an immense amount of chakra, the Kage ninja could see that their summon boss was collecting and condensing a colossal amount of chakra.
Then there was a bright flash, and all the people on the battlefield knew no more.
Current Day of the Shinobi: Eight Years After Time-Skip (from Manga)
"Naruto-kun, here is the paperwor-" Shizune walked in, holding a stack of sheets that needed signing.
"Aargh! No more documents, I've been doing them all day! Dattebayo!" The blonde-haired, blue-eyed ninja shouted in frustration and jumped up from his desk. "And where's my miso pork ramen that I ordered!?" He grumbled.
"B-but the Fire Daimyo-"
"I don't care what the Fire Daimyo says! He can wait until I have my miso pork ramen!"
"But as Hokage you-"
"Exactly my point, dattebayo! I'm the freakin' hokage of all people! I should be able to have Ichiraku ramen whenever I want!"
"Naaruuttooooooo! Shannaro!" The color from Uzumaki Naruto's face drained.
"Oh shit."
Suddenly, a fingerless, gloved fist came out of nowhere and hit the man in the face, sending him flying into the wall.
"Geez, that baka never learns-"
Poof!
Haruno Sakura glared. Shizune stuttered. The ANBU team waiting outside frowned, fearing for their beloved, number-one hyperactive, unpredictable ninja.
Somewhere in Konoha, at the Ichiraku Ramen stand, the Nanadaime Hokage sneezed as he dropped his chopsticks.
"Achoo!"
"Boy, you got a cold there?" Old man Teuchi smiled, hiding a smirk. Naruto shook his head.
"Nah, I think someone is just talking about me," the blonde shook his head, knowing well from his clone's memories who was going to be after his guts soon.
"Well, we can't have the Hokage get sick, you know? Here's another bowl on the house!" Ayame slid another large bowl of steaming ramen his way.
"Yeah! Dattebayo!"
"Sometimes, gaki, I wonder..." A familiar pervert sighed. The Toad Sannin looked down at the form crumpled on the hokage office's floor. Littered with cuts and bruises with his face reorganized to look like a mashed fruit, Uzumaki Naruto was not feeling well at the moment.
"Ow... ba-cha... thakura-cha... couth you pleath fith my faith."
"Fix your faith?" Shizune raised an eyebrow.
"Er... I think he means fix his face," Shikamaru stated grimly... and with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Troublesome."
"N-Naruto-kun..." Hinata frowned and rubbed the ring on her finger, then held the blond's hand. Everyone looked at their current hokage and let a sweat drop fall down their own faces.
"Sakura, if you will," Tsunade gestured. "And brat! This wouldn't have happened if you had just done those assignments like a good hokage! Instead you left a clone to do the work and even he couldn't do it right!" Everyone let another sweat drop fall. Eventually, with the help of the trusty-green medical chakra, the Uzumaki's face looked normal again. He clicked his teeth and felt for any abnormalities. The hyperactive ninja then let out a bright smile and got to his feet, brushing off the dust from his shoulders.
"Okay, so maybe I went a little overboard with the kage-bunshin trick. Heheh." He scratched the back of his head.
Everyone gave him a raised eyebrow. Including Hinata.
"A-Anyway! About the Fire Daimyo! W-what did he say?" Naruto was sweating in fear of his life in front of the two scariest women in Konoha. Actually scratch that. Make that three. His dark haired, white-eyed wife was glaring at him. And when that happened things weren't going good for him.
"Well," Shizune began, "the Daimyo has sent in a request for a team to be dispatched along the border. He feels that Iwa is moving to close to our borders again. The Daimyo of Wind also feels that we should be more protective of our borders. Gaara has sent word that he too is gathering shinobi to set a defensive perimeter."
"Again?" Naruto was the one to raise his brow this time. "I thought that we had cleared up that little problem."
"Yeah, but new intel has arrived," Shikamaru took his turn to explain. "My team and I were on our patrol, just as you ordered, and we intercepted another group – not of our own – along the border. Behavior and strategy patterns, and the way they were equipped tells us that they are ninety-eight percent Iwa-nin. The other two-percent being the possibility that it could be a set-up for us to take a bait laid by another enemy. But I figured that was unlikely in this case."
"True," Naruto pondered. "It does seem weird with the policies the new Tsuchikage brought up and put into effect last week. It was kinda... different than the other old flying geezer's."
"Naruto!" Sakura hushed. "You shouldn't speak of the former Tsuchikage like that. He was a respected ninja."
"Yeah, yeah I know, but he's retired now... just like a certain somebody!" He held in a laugh as Tsunade's vein on her forehead bulged. "Alright, alright, baa-chan you don't have to look so angry. Eheh... heheh..." He turned to his ANBU members. "So we're going to do it like this. Two teams of ANBU. Shikamaru, you take your team east and then start a reconnaissance search westbound. Sakura, you..."
He trailed off as he met her eyes. He sighed.
She only took solo missions of S-Rank status or higher.
"...You can go this one by yourself. Again... You all have twenty-four hours to prepare. Dismissed!"
Naruto was walking along the road with a beautiful brunette at his side. His wife and love of his life, the woman who had made him realize in the midst of battle that he did indeed have a shot at love... and long gone were her stuttering ways. Well, most of the time anyway. The best part of it was that Naruto really enjoyed talking to her with their shortened names. He thought it was rather cute how they did it.
"Naru-kun, what have I told you about skipping your duties as hokage?"
"Er well, Hina-channn... Uh.... Um.... You said..."
"You know what I said..."
"B-but!"
"I promised you I would keep my word, it's my nindo..." She winked at him.
"Nooooo..." The blonde Hokage lost the will to speak.
Out of all the lucky times he'd had in life, today, his luck was just running thin.
No sex for a week and the hyperactive ninja was very non-hyper about that.
Sakura packed her things, making sure that she had all the right medical equipment and the standard ANBU weapon set. He kunai holster was tightly wrapped around her right thigh, and the extras strapped to the side of her lower legs. Her pouch was sealed and her ninjato (ninja sword) was on her back. The last thing was her mask.
She picked it up, and let her eyes wander over it. There were a few scratches, but nothing too detrimental to the piece itself. The colors seemed to dance in the moonlight coming from window with vibrant shades of red and pink. She put it on, and became "Cat." Jumping out that very same window, she headed for main gates, ready to start another mission alone.
A/N: How was that? Haha!
So how did I do? Did I portray characters correctly?
If I didn't it might be because it's only first chapter, and the second is well on it's way!