Note: I've been meaning to get back to this and start everything from scratch ever since I did FIREBRAND. When I did Journey to Now, I was pretty inexperienced and the style was unfavorable. Thinking back on it, I originally wanted to make it a 3-Part story with a few spin-offs but I didn't have the idea at the time. I was simply rushing things in order to get to the bigger stuff that I wanted to explore, which was a stupid idea. So, this isn't a Part 1, this is just setting things up for Part 1. Plus, it's was Ayane's birthday on Saturday, I should at least celebrate the late birthday of my favorite Dead or Alive character by doing this.
As soon as I am up for it, Journey to Now Part 1 will be launched at some point and the early story will be destroyed. Most of the chapters will stay the same, though with a lot of editing and changing here and there, make the Naruto I really want for the 458th Universe, because I already laid out a (pretty large) timeline that will connect to other stories. Chapter 1 of RTJTN, which is a short story about a 12-year old Ayane, a character from the Dead or Alive/Ninja Gaiden series, who has a lot in common with Naruto in more ways than one, murdering several bandits. I'm not sure why there isn't much stories involving crossovers between Naruto and Dead or Alive/Ninja Gaiden. I think stories about them would go really well together. Also, I find it a bit annoying how people pair Naruto with Kasumi. I like Kasumi, I really do.
HOWEVER, when I was going through backgrounds of characters of DOA, I couldn't help but look into Ayane's backstory and find it similar to Naruto's, but without the giant nine-tailed fox attacking and everything. It's pretty sad stuff. Keep in mind, Naruto is still the main character in this, it's just that I wanted to show that JTN is a story that takes place in a (really) big universe.
Unknown Bandit Hideout
Night
"Yamabe, we're back from another successful raid!" yelled a bandit, who was currently carrying a large sack of stolen goods ranging from food, to jewelry, to money alongside 3 other bandits. The man known as Yamabe was 8 feet tall, had a large diagonal scar on the right side of his face. He wore no top, leaving his hairy chest exposed, only wearing a pair of ripped, grey shorts. A large, single-edged sword rested beside him as he played cards with 7 other bandits at a large table. "Did you make sure everything was taken from them?" the man known as Yamabe asked one of the four bandits. Instead of answering him, they sported wide evil grins as they set all the goods on the table. Yamabe and the bandits he was playing with stop their game to examine the goods.
"Well done boys, the Suezo Bandits are on a roll! Yamabe yelled in victory as his fellow bandits raised their fists in the air triumphantly. "To think, we've been at this for 3 straight months! We've stolen things from Kumogakure, Kirigakure, and Kusagakure, and came out rich, and this little group got bigger!" Throughout the 3 months, the bandits found a few criminals deciding to work with them in return for making it worth their while.
"Don't forget all the small villages that we came across! Especially the ones with all those weak shinobi and beautiful women!" yelled one of the bandits, the last part implying a horrible fate for the women of the small villages. "How could I ever forget them?" Yamabe replied with a smile.
"So what's next Yamabe?" asked one of his subordinates. After thinking for a while, Yamabe says, "I think it's time we try our hand at Konoha." The bandits' eyes grow wide in surprise. "You mean it!? We're going to the Hidden Leaf Village!?"
"I think it's time we aimed bigger. Tomorrow morning, we're heading to the Leaf!"
"Alright, tonight we feast to our heart's content! And tomorrow, we-" Before Yamabe can say more, several loud explosions are heard coming from outside the hideout. "What was that!?" yelled one of the bandits. Rushing outside, Yamabe and his bandits find their fellow subordinates being slaughtered by a hooded figure as a large fire engulfs everything they worked so hard on stealing, going up in flames. The way the hooded figure moved looked inhuman as it cut down and dismembered the bandits.
The hooded figure finishes off its latest bandit by avoiding his sword and cutting the bandit's stomach open, exposing his intestines, dropping to his knees, the bandit is killed by decapitation from the hooded figure's katana. With one swipe, the blood all over the katana's blade comes out. The hooded figure turns its attention towards Yamabe and the remaining 11 bandits.
"How does it feel to lose everything you've worked so hard for?" asked the hooded figure. From the way the figure sounds, Yamabe and the remaining bandits knew right away that the figure was female.
"You're...You're just one girl!" yelled Yamabe. Saying nothing, the hooded figure pulls down her hood, revealing an angry Ayane. Taking off her cloak, Ayane reveals herself (Blossom of Miyama attire).
"You're wrong, I'm not a girl...I'm a demon," Ayane tells them, Looking down on them with cold, glowing red eyes of a killer, intimidating them. "The last small village you destroyed...you killed those children. One of them, I was planning to adopt..." Ayane told the bandits, vengeance in her voice.
"The...There's nothing to worry about! She's just one girl, we can take her." Yamabe assured.
"You can try!" Ayane yelled as she rushed at them. Three of the eleven each throw a single shuriken at her, only for the girl to catch the shurikens by the open-circle in the center of them using her katana. With one swipe, she sends the shurikens back at them, killing them when they hit them precisely in the head. Immediately, Ayane uses one of the dead bandits' body as a jump boost before performing a downward spinning slash that slices the next bandit in half.
"You bandits merely got away with your crimes with dumb luck. It's about time that luck ran out," she told them.
"What are you guys doing!? You have ninjutsu, use it!"
"You realized just now that trash like you guys can use ninjutsu? Pathetic." Angered, four of the seven remaining bandits weave handsigns for fireball jutsus while the remaining three weave hand signs for lightning jutsus. At the same time, they fire, combining their attacks. Ayane just stands there as she disperses the attack by releasing a surge of chakra from her body, shocking the bandits, Yamabe included. Adding chakra to her feet, she propels towards one of the bandits and quickly jumps behind him. The bandit attempts to backhand her, only to have the kunoichi catch his arm and break his humerus(long bone in the arm) in two, with the bone jutting out of his arm.
A bandit behind her attempts an ambush, but she quickly uses the sharp end of the bandit's arm bone to stab the bandit behind her in the neck, severing the bandit's carotid artery, instantly killing him before stabbing an explosive kunai into the broken-armed bandit's spine and kicking him towards another bandit, killing the two via explosion. One of the four remaining bandits manages to wrap a chain around Ayane's right arm, only for the 12-year old kunoichi to tug it, pulling the bandit towards her before punching him in the face with a chakra-enhanced left punch. The force of it sends the bandit's head flying off his body. By now, covered in some of her enemy's blood, she looked Yamabe straight in his eyes. Yamabe, looking at his weapon that was still in his hideout, rushes in to get it as Ayane pursues him.
The three remaining bandits attempt to stop her, only to have some of their limbs lost and their heads severed from their bodies as she quickly enters the hideout. Before she can enter, she sees Yamabe's blade waiting for her in an attempt to decapitate her, avoiding it by sliding under it before jumping and landing safely on the bandit leader's table.
"You're out of men Yamabe. Since you're the last one standing, I don't think a simple throat slit will satisfy me. I'm not even going to use my weapons to finish you." Yamabe quickly raises his large sword and performs a downward slash on the young kunoichi, who avoids it by jumping to the ceiling, infusing chakra into the soles of her feet to stick to it as Yamabe's sword splits the table in half. Finding an opening, Ayane propels herself towards Yamabe, knees first as they hit him in the face before kicking him in the chest with both her legs. Yamabe performs a diagonal swing with his blade, only for Ayane to catch it with her left hand.
"You call this a sword?" With one squeeze from her left hand, Ayane breaks the blade in half. "More like a heap of cheap iron." Right now, Yamabe was scared of the young girl. Hell, instead of just one girl, he saw a demon as the darkness made the kunoichi's natural red eyes glow brightly. Dropping to his knees, he begs to be spared and change his ways as Ayane looks down on him, disgusted by this.
"That's it? The leader of the Suezo Bandits is begging to be spared instead of fighting for his life? Sorry, but I don't intend to spare you. After all, you didn't spare those villagers." The moon is shown as Yamabe's screams are heard.
Unknown Location
Night
A 19-year old Ryu Hayabusa, wearing his Shinobi Shozoku attire, rests his back against a large tree as he spots a bandit blood covered Ayane walking towards him.
"You were supposed to wait for me. Instead, you disobeyed orders, lied to Genra, and went after them yourself. You could've been killed."
"So what, did you come here to drag me back to my village?" To her surprise, Ryu said no. "I understand your reasons for doing what you did, and Genra won't label you a missing-nin since he "gave" you that mission with me. Just...don't do it again. You can't always do everything on your own."
"I've always been on my own." Ayane thought to herself as she walks past Ryu and enters the forest. "Where are you going?" Ryu asked. The purple-haired tells him that she's going to go bathe before going back to the Mugen Tenshin Village with him. After all, she was covered in blood.
"Actually, we're going to the Hidden Leaf Village after you're done bathing." Surprised, she turns to Ryu and asks why. "I have some business to tend to for my father, and since you're out here, Genra nominated you as a representative of the Mugen Tenshin Village."
"Why not let "the princess" do it? Or better yet, why not Hayate, his father or-" Ayane stops before she says her mother, something that Ryu takes notice of. "Master Shiden, Kasumi, and Hayate are off on a mission as we speak, so Genra and Ayame approved of you going."
"She...Ayame-sama approved?" Ryu nodded in approval. "I see...I'll be done soon." Ayane continues to go deep into the forest as Ryu waits once more. Alone, she recalls the child she was planning to adopt.
The girl was 7-years old when Ayane met her. Her name was Saya. She was an orphan who was being bullied by the other kids, only to have the kunoichi scare them off. Instead of fearing her, Saya had thanked her and gave her a warm smile. Looking down at her, the girl had reminded Ayane of herself. Always alone, keeping to herself. She had bonded with the girl, buying her lunch and just walking with her. Finally, Ayane asked Saya if she would like to get away from her village and become a part of the Mugen Tenshin Clan.
The girl happily said yes, making her smile. Before Ayane could grab her, she had spotted a large party of Yamabe's bandits from far away and went to investigate. After killing them, she came back to a burning village. Ayane had desperately tried to find the girl. To her horror, she found the girl fatally wounded by an arrow, whom she desperately attempted to save, only for her to pass away in her arms. Before she died, Saya had thanked her for being nice to her.
After reliving that memory, Ayane finally broke down crying after holding it in for so long. Wiping away her tears, she gets up, though with a little trouble, and proceeds deeper into the forest. Eventually, she comes across a waterfall. After making sure that the coast was clear, Ayane took off her clothes and cleans them thoroughly before laying them next to a rock before washing off all the blood on her, using the waterfall.
The water felt good Ayane thought to herself as she closed her eyes. She could almost get lost in the feeling as it flowed down her body. As she cleaned herself, she couldn't help but notice that her breasts had gotten a bit bigger. While glad that she wouldn't grow up flat-chested, she couldn't help but wonder how much bigger they were going to get. Her thoughts ended when she heard something, or someone enter the waterfall.
Opening her eyes, she quickly turns to see an equally naked Naruto (12-years old) staring at her in surprise, his mouth wide open and his face red. Ayane's reaction was the same as Naruto's. They stood there for a good 8 seconds before the blond spoke.
"So...it seems that you're using this waterfa-" Cutting to the waterfall, Naruto is sent flying out of it by an embarrassed but angry Ayane. He quickly recovers before avoiding several blasts of chakra from the girl, who was attempting to cover herself with her right arm as she rushed to get dressed.
Naruto quickly puts on his clothes while nearly avoiding her blasts. While avoiding them, he tried to reason with her, only to make her even madder when he mentions her breasts, saying that he was surprised that girls her age were able to have them grow that big. Fully dressed, Ayane chased after an equally dressed Naruto, her katana in hand.
"It was an accident!" Naruto yelled. Back to Ryu, he wondered what Ayane was doing. Ryu exits his thoughts when he is suddenly approached by a spiky-white-haired man, surprising him.
"Oh, Ryu, how's it been?" asked the white-haired man.
"Master Jiraiya!? You're back?" Ryu said to the man known as Jiraiya.
"Yeah, though only for a while. I'm just waiting for my apprentice to finish bathing."
"Apprentice? You have an apprentice now?" Ryu asked. "Forced to have one. He wasn't really getting along with Konoha so my sensei suggested that I take him with me on my 4-year travel and train him while I'm at it. We've been to all sorts of places like Japan, Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Virginia, Arizona, Canada, you get what I mean. We spent a lot of time in Japan."
"Was he a handful?"
"You have no idea. After all, he was 9-years old and growing. He was really something." Ryu couldn't help but chuckle a bit. Jiraiya was never good at handling kids, and the Hayabusa ninja knew it.
"...What the hell's taking Naruto so long? It shouldn't take this long to bathe." Jiraiya said out loud. Ryu couldn't help but agree with the Toad Sage. Come to think of it, Ayane said the same thing. She was going to take a quick bath and come back. So why is she...
"I think that your apprentice and Ayane have just met each other in the worst way possible," Ryu said. That said, Ryu and Jiraiya rush into the forest to find the two young shinobi.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!" Ayane expels a massive orb of roaring flame from her mouth. Naruto is hit by it and enveloped by its flames as he screams in pain. The girl's eyes widen in shock as Naruto gets angry and destroys the flames with one roar that almost sounds demonic. Several burns on his body, some that has exposed flesh, heal within seconds. With a burst of speed, Naruto closes the gap between himself and Ayane and punches the kunoichi in the face, sending her flying into a tree.
"That was my favorite jacket," Naruto said with a serious look on his face. He was originally going to try to calm her down by reasoning with her while avoiding her attacks. While trying to hold her down in one of his attempts to calm her, it triggered some sort of "traumatic episode" from her, making her more violent. After enduring and healing from several amounts of pain inflicted on him by Ayane, which included stab wounds, the severing of his tendons, and burns, Naruto had finally had it.
"I tried to reason with you but you never listen! So if you're so ready for a serious beat down, then so be it!" he yelled as he jumped to the air with his right fist raised. Ayane had survived with minor scratches and had recovered fast enough to avoid Naruto's fist, making him harmlessly punch the ground, creating a large crater and destroying three trees. The kunoichi's eyes widened from the simple display of Naruto's strength. Had she been hit by it...
"He's no pushover, wait...I sense that there's more to him. I'll need to finish him quickly." Ayane thought to herself before propelling herself towards Naruto using the large branch on the tree behind her, katana ready. Naruto readies a roundhouse kick as soon as Ayane was within his range. The purple-haired kunoichi anticipates this and vaults over him, avoiding the kick and appearing behind him. Quickly infusing her katana's blade with her chakra, she turns to thrust it into Naruto's back, who quickly turns to catch the blade between his hands before breaking it. Quickly holding the broken blade in a reverse grip, Naruto attempts to stab the girl in the left shoulder, only for her to catch his arm and attempt to stab him again with her broken sword, failing once again as the blond ninja catches her hand.
"Why won't you die!?" Ayane yelled.
"Because I'm as stubborn as you!" Naruto yelled before kicking Ayane in the stomach, creating distance between the two before the blond sends the broken blade towards her like a throwing knife. She narrowly avoids it before releasing a blast of chakra from her left palm, causing the blond ninja to skid backward.
"This boy's good...He might give Master Ryu a hard time. My next attack has to connect."
"I should try to knock this girl out with my next attack..." At the same time, both Naruto and Ayane charge chakra into their right fists before launching themselves towards each other.
"NARUTO STOP!" Looking to his right he sees Jiraiya yelling for him to stop and that Ayane wasn't an enemy. "Wait, what?"
"AYANE, STAND DOWN!" Like Naruto, Ayane looked to her right and saw Ryu yelling at her to stop her attack.
While the two did what they were told, they forgot to stop themselves from colliding, causing them both to bump into each other and fall to the ground. The worst part of it: Naruto's lips fell on top of Ayane's, and he ended up on top of her, making the scene very suggestive to Jiraiya, who found it inspiring enough to maybe add something like this to a future title.
Realizing that her first kiss was taken by the blond ninja on top of her and that his tongue was in her mouth, Ayane pushes Naruto off as she heavily breathed, her face red. "WHA-WHA-WHAT WAS THAT!?" she yelled as she pointed at the blond.
"THAT WAS AN ACCIDENTAL KISS! I HAD NO INTENTION OF DOING THAT...But I have to admit, those lips felt nice." said an embarrassed Naruto.
"...FORGET IT, I'M KILLING HIM MASTER RYU!" Ayane yelled. Ryu had to stop Ayane by telling her once again to stand down in a serious tone that scared her a bit.
"Geez Naruto, I leave you alone for a second, and you see a girl naked, AND you ended up kissing her...Better take responsibility." Jiraiya told his apprentice before smiling.
"Oh screw off Pervy Sage!"
Several minutes later...
"Now that the two of you have finally calmed down, it's time we introduced ourselves. My name is Ryu Hayabusa, a ninja from the from the Hayabusa Ninja Clan. And this is Ayane, an ally of mine from the Mugen Tenshin Clan's Hajinmon Sect. I've heard a lot about you, Naruto Uzumaki."
"Same to you, Hayabusa-san." Naruto replied, bowing to the Ultimate Ninja. When asked by Ryu to introduce herself, Ayane, still a bit angry, looks away with a "Hmph!", not looking to befriend the blond.
"Our clans are secret allies of your village, but I'm sure that Jiraiya told you about us already." Naruto replies, saying that Jiraiya did tell him that they had secret allies, he just didn't know who they were." Ryu looks at Jiraiya and tells him that he should be open to his student. "Trust me, if you knew him before, he was a real jerk this one." Ayane looks at Naruto, wondering what Jiraiya meant by Naruto being a real jerk back then.
"Well, I'm not anymore," Naruto told Pervy Sage.
"Ahem..." Noticing that he interrupted Ryu, Naruto allows the ninja to continue. "Continuing where I left off, we're on our way to Konoha for an important meeting. I had planned to talk to Jiraiya about it when I got to Konoha, since he's going to be there as well, but since he's here now," Looking at Jiraya, Ryu finishes, saying, "I'd like to discuss what sort of topics or issues Konoha has now so I can have time to decide what I'm going to say."
"Sure, I don't mind discussing things with you now. After all, I know how you don't like talking to the council, mainly to those old geezers Danzo and Homura, and that hag Koharu." Jiraiya replied. "And since you have Ayane there with you, I think it'll help if she and Naruto became friends." Hearing that Jiraiya wanted him to be friends with the girl who tried to kill him, Naruto tells the frog hermit that he'd rather take an arrow to the knee than be friends with the girl, who couldn't help but agree with the blond.
"Ayane, I think it's for the best that you make friends with him." Ryu goes on to explain how the girl tended to be a loner, going off on her own and doing things her way without listening to reason, and unwilling to trust anyone, with the exception of Ryu himself, and Hayate, a name Naruto knew nothing about. "This is an official order Ayane, so I expect you to complete it." Realizing she's backed into a corner, she sighs and tells the Hayabusa Ninja, "I'm not going to enjoy this."
30 minutes later...
The two young ninjas were forced to go hunt for fish together while the two older ninjas talked. While hunting, Ayane displayed her skill in throwing kunais while Naruto displayed his skill in archery. While the two didn't say it out loud, they admitted that they were impressed with one another's skill in the long-range department. Immediately, they had a little contest to see who could get the most fish. In the end, they tied. While Naruto smiled and told the girl he had fun, Ayane denied that she had any fun and that a ninja, like herself, shouldn't be having fun, as shinobi, to her, had no time for fun. As the girl walked back to camp with the fish she caught, Naruto looked on, wondering why she said those things.
Back at camp, Ayane cooked the fish as Naruto looked from afar. He wanted to help, but when he tried to, she gave him a look that told him that she didn't want any from him. Noticing Naruto keeping his distance, Ryu walks over to the blond.
"She's a very distant girl, Ayane."
"Yeah...Is she always like this?" Naruto asked the ninja. Ryu tells Naruto that Ayane was never like the way she was now and that she was kinder when she was just 7 years old. "She's been through a lot her whole life, being seen as a demon child all her life." Naruto has a look of surprise as he looked at the girl, developing a sad look on his face. "Her mother, the wife of the current head of the Mugen Tenshin Clan was raped by her brother-in-law, Ayane's father. Her mother was too ashamed of her dishonorable conception and didn't want to care for her, so Ayane was passed into the care of the head of the Hajinmon Sect."
"So she's like me huh..."
"She used to have a friend. Her half-sister, Kasumi, but after finding out the truth, she became cold, angry, jealous...I fear that she'll lose herself to her darkness eventually. That is why I need you to understand her. I've...heard about your childhood from Jiraiya."
"So you know huh..." Ryu only nodded. "Honestly, I feel as though Konoha is not worth going back to, yet I still want to go back..."
"It shows that despite having the whole village being against you, you still want to protect them, no matter what."
"They only see the monster inside me, that I understand. That's why, once I return to Konoha, I'm going to show them that I'm not the fox they see, I'm Naruto Uzumaki." Underneath the mask, Ryu couldn't help but smile at Naruto's words.
"By the way, can I see what you look like under the mask?" Instead of answering yes or no, Ryu pulls down his mask, surprising Naruto. "Wow, I'm sure that any girl would swoon over you."
Pulling his mask back on, Ryu says, "That's why you'll mostly see me with my mask on."
2 hours later...
As Jiraiya and Ryu slept, Naruto woke up, not feeling tired and wanting to go off on his own to explore the forest and take his mind off the fact that he's going back to the village that hates him. While Naruto wanted to go back simply to prove to the villagers that he was on their side, he also had some form of friends there, though he considered them acquaintances at best. As he exited his thoughts, he noticed Ayane sitting by herself on top of a rock. Sneaking in order to get closer, Naruto sees something he rarely saw any girl do: Cry.
"Ayane..." Looking behind her, a surprised but teary-eyed Ayane saw Naruto and realized that he caught her in her most vulnerable state, Ayane wipes away her tears and "angrily" asks what he wanted.
"I was just minding my own business when I saw a girl that almost killed me ball her eyes out alone." Blushing, Ayane tells Naruto that she wasn't crying. "Then what were you doing?"
"...I'm going back to-"
"Stop...I think it's time you finished Hayabusa-san's "mission", Naruto said to the girl. "He told me about you. About your childhood...We're the same, you and I." This surprised Ayane, who was left unaware of Naruto's history. "Since I know about you, I think you should take the time to know me." While Ayane wanted to simply not listen and get back to camp, something about what Naruto said had compelled her to sit with the blond and hear what he had to say.
"Fine, I guess I'll listen to your story," Ayane replied. "Not because I want to be friends with you, but because it's a mission from Master Ryu."
"Fair enough," Naruto said with a smile, earning a blush from Ayane.
"Let's start at the beginning, to when I was 8." With that, Naruto's tale began.
When doing Journey to Now, I never realized how amateurish I've been with the execution of it, mainly in Naruto and the writing style is was too comfortable with. Because of that, I had to reconsider the continuation of it. With Road to Journey to Now, more things will be established, and or retconned, and yadda yadda. This serves as a reboot of it all that I hope viewers can read and enjoy.
On Ninja Gaiden/Dead Or Alive, the character Ayane was a character only Naruto would be able to relate to and understand, given the near-similar backgrounds. With Naruto, he could be the one to hopefully change her. From here on, their friendship/relationship will be established.
For the chapters of Journey to Now, they will still be there, I just need to split the story in a three-parter, this being a prequel and not part of it. I'll have to rewrite everything and add in more to it, and then slowly delete each old chapter as I continue writing the more revised ones.
Since it has several crossovers, it'll be in the Naruto section of FF, maybe in the one with Naruto x Ninja Gaiden or Dead Or Alive, since it's Naruto telling Ayane his past. Plus I don't think a lot of people would check Naruto x X-Overs.