A word of explanation: This is a snippet that I wrote several years ago while writing One Hundred Days, doing a bit of unnecessary world-building. It is only questionably compliant with canon at that point, and not at all compliant with what Kishimoto has written since then. This is actually a quasi-prequel to One Hundred Days, as a legend that might exist in that universe. ("Might" because I'm uncertain whether the events described in this story are far enough in the past that they could be distorted into this myth.) So, if anybody was dying for more hints at my behind-the-scenes world-building, this one's for you.
No guarantee of quality or interest is made, as this was never really intended for anyone else to read.
A Legend of the First Bloodline
A Naruto Fanfic
By: Aaron Nowack
Disclaimer: This story is loosely based off of Kishimoto Masashi's Naruto. I'm not him, so the world and most of the concepts aren't mine. The text of the story belongs to me, though, so please don't steal it. Joke goes here.
In the days after Thunder's Shadow slew the Emperor of All, in the provinces known as the Land of Fields, the daimyo raised rebellion against the Country of Lightning. But the Fields' ninja were few in number and had no powers to match the lightning ninjutsu of Thunder's people, and the wrath of Thunder's Shadow was terrible. The daimyo and his armies were slaughtered, and the people of the Fields were afflicted with terible punishments.
It came to pass that a ninja of the Fields said, "Why should it be that we should suffer, when others are free?"
The other ninja said, "We have no powers to stand against Thunder's people."
The first ninja replied, "Then I shall journey until I find a strength to match Thunder's Shadow." He traveled to the south, to the Country of Fire, for he knew of how Fire's Shadow had driven Thunder's people from the borders of his land. He said to him, "Lend me your strength, that my people may know freedom as well."
Fire spoke through his Shadow, and he said, "I wish that I could aid you, but I have made a pact with my brother Thunder, that my people shall make no war with his."
"Is there nothing you can do for my people?" the ninja asked.
Fire said, "I can not help you, but I know of one who may. My sister Wind is the only one who has defeated Thunder in battle, and she makes her home in the deserts of the west. Speak of your plea unto her."
So the ninja journeyed deep into the desert, and he shouted of his people's plight to the wind, but Wind herself did not answer. The ninja fasted and begged for many days and many nights, until Wind sent a messenger to him.
The messenger said, "My mistress has sworn to serve the aims of no man or woman who asks, but she has heard your plight and sent me to aid you. Three boons shall I grant for you, any that my power suffices to achieve."
The ninja said, "Three boons cannot save my people, unless you can slay Thunder and his Shadow."
The messenger said, "I have not that power."
The ninja was weak from his fasting, and he said, "Then carry me from this desert, that I might not die." The messenger lifted him in its hand, and a mighty wind took them far to the north.
Once the ninja had eaten and drank, the messenger said, "In this land dwells Earth, who has made war with Thunder's people. Seek his Shadow, and speak of your people unto him."
The ninja did so, and the Shadow said, "I am not unsympathetic to your plight. Let your people be one with my people, and Earth's power shall be yours as well. Together we shall slay Thunder's Shadow, and lay waste to the Country of Lightning and take its people as our slaves."
The ninja shook his head, and said, "My people are not your people and will not trade one master for another. Nor have we any desire to be the masters of another people, but only to live free."
Earth's Shadow was agrieved and ashamed, and he raised his hand to strike down the ninja. Yet Earth stayed his Shadow's hand, and said, "I will not see an honorable guest so treated in my home. I will grant a boon to you, to pay the debt my Shadow has incurred, but I will not fight against my brother Thunder, nor shall my people, for he is stronger than I."
The ninja bowed, and he said, "I thank you, mighty Earth." He left and spoke unto the messsenger of Wind, saying, "I have traveled far, and plead my people's case with Fire, and with Wind, and with Earth, yet none will aid me. I must now turn to Water, but her people allow none to land on her islands."
The messenger lifted the ninja up once more, and said, "It is within my power to carry you to the islands, that you might plead your case."
"As my second boon, do so," the ninja said, and the messenger obeyed.
Water's Shadow soon came upon the ninja, and she said, "Tell me how and why you have come to these islands, stranger, lest you die."
The ninja spoke at length of his story, and Water spoke through her Shadow, saying. "I will grant my power only to the people of the sea, and your people know not the deep waters."
"Is there no aid which you can grant me?" the ninja asked.
Water said, "Like my brother Earth, one boon shall I grant you, for my hatred for Thunder is great. But neither I nor my people shall fight for your people's freedom, for freedom won through another's might is not freedom."
The ninja responded, "I thank you." Then he spoke to the messenger of Wind, saying, "As my last boon, I ask that you ask Earth to come to us, that we might all confer." So the messenger did, and Earth came.
Earth said, "What boons do you ask of my sister and I?"
The ninja bowed and said, "I am not a wise man, and so I ask only that you and your sister speak to one another and that you decide what boons that you are willing to grant would most aid my people, and let those be my boons."
Water said, "So shall we do," and Earth came to the island and went aside with her for a night and a day.
When they returned, another was with them, and Earth said, "This is my son, Wood."
Water said, "This is my son, Wood."
Wood said to the ninja, "I have heard from my father Earth and my mother Water of your people's plight. I will grant my power to you, and together we shall fight with Thunder and his Shadow."
"What of my people?" the ninja asked. "Will your power be granted to them as well?"
Wood said, "I am not so mighty as my father or mother, to grant my power to an entire people."
"Then what shall happen to them, when I am gone? I am human and mortal."
Wood spoke with Earth and Water, and they went aside for another night and another day. When they returned, Wood said, "Not only to you, but to you and your children shall I grant my power, that your people might never fear Thunder's wrath."
So it was for many years. Like all mortal things, the ninja and his line failed, yet they stood for long enough that never again did Thunder's people rule the land now called the Country of Wood. In fullness of time, another ninja would be granted Wood's power, and forge of Wood's people and Fire's people a mighty nation, but that is a story for another time…