Disclaimer: Feira Mikal is kind of mine, kind of not. Naruto is definitely not mine, nor are any of the other characters.
The First Branch: A Peacetime Spar
"Come at me!" Mikal encouraged, the movement of his lips barely visible underneath his facemask. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura complied. Sasuke summoned a long rope of chakra, one end slightly unraveled with thick strands attached to the tips of his fingers. The rope surged towards Mikal, charging like a strange cross between a war-horse and a determined snake. Sakura took out a handful of senbon and, forming a few one-handed signs, threw her weapons at Team Seven's pseudo teacher. As they flew, they multiplied, the new senbon flickering like light bulbs before solidifying and continuing on their deadly path. Naruto held both his hands at his sides, palms up. Swirling blue energy formed in his curved hands, shaping into perfect, glowing spheres.
Team Seven attacked as one. A thin chakra barrier easily blocked Sakura's hail of shadow senbon, and the shadow constructs disappeared from existence in small clouds of smoke as the few real senbon fell to the ground. Sasuke's chakra rope was batted away with the back of Mikal's hand, and Sasuke called his creation back to himself. Naruto charged forward with a rasengan in each hand, reaching Mikal just as Sasuke's chakra rope began its retreat. Extending both his arms, he attacked intently. Mikal reached out his left hand over Naruto's right, twisting his fingers counterclockwise over the first rasengan. Light blue energy spilled from his fingers in a loose coil, meeting the swirling sphere of energy in Naruto's hand. The chakra orb seemed to sputter, and all of its energy suddenly followed the direction Mikal had twisted his hand, loosing its all-directions spin and disappearing in a thin swirl of energy. At the same time this happened Mikal grabbed Naruto's left wrist with his other hand, stopping the lethal attack it held mere inches from his abdomen. Mikal jerked his hand downwards, and loud crack was heard from Naruto's arm. The second rasengan disappeared along with Naruto's concentration; Mikal had clearly broken something. Probably several somethings. Bringing up his left leg, Mikal's boot met Naruto's stomach with crushing force, sending the young shinobi sailing backwards until his back crashed against a large tree-trunk.
Sparing only a brief glance for his injured teammate, Sasuke went back to the work he had started. Splitting his chakra rope, he attached a thin strand of chakra to each of his fingertips. He twitched his fingers experimentally and willed his energy constructs to attack. While Sasuke did this, Sakura formed a series a handsigns and withdrew a small stack of rectangular paper slips from her weapons pouch. Each slip had an intricate design laid in black ink covering its surface. She threw them towards Mikal, her eyes narrowed in concentration. The slips slowed in midair and formed a loose circle around the black-clad man, hanging in the air and forming an odd sort of sphere. Sasuke's chakra strands surged towards Mikal, moving much like snakes, seeking an energy source to latch onto. Mikal leapt out of the way of a group of attacking strands, noting that they were very similar to the type of chakra strings puppet masters used. He batted away two strings that attempted to attach themselves to him, waiting in his path. Four more strings came around behind him, and one snagged on his back for a moment before he snapped it off using his chakra. He attempted to leap out of reach of the strings, but crashed into an invisible chakra shield that was displayed as a web of crackling energy only for the brief moment he touched it. He landed lightly on the ground, crouched down low almost like he was kneeling to a superior. He began to speak a long train of words that Team Seven didn't understand.
"Arul kovach suci somi karuuvut. Marki zalko nanaim sikoushi maruh shoduk nargao. Lomi kakut sogihn maruss shitzao. Li'ai mau kinto zaj tovuga mamao rigats." He spoke in a low, flat voice, more like a monks chant than anything else. He shouted the last word, his eyes widening nearly as far as they could. "Chikgao!"
With the final word, the air around Mikal seemed to pulse. An invisible wave of energy surged out from him, hitting the wall of chakra Sakura had created. The paper slips bulged like an overfilled balloon, then bulged again before giving way and shooting out of their formation with the speed of thrown shuriken. Losing their momentum, they fluttered to the ground in a shower of paper. Mikal had no time to celebrate his success, as Sasuke's chakra strings attempted to snag him once again before the paper had even settled on the ground. Leaping out of the way, he was intercepted by four Naruto clones, each holding a rasengan in their right hand. A spinning kick dispelled two clones, a punch in the face got rid of the third, and a kunai in the stomach reduced the last to a cloud of smoke. Mikal reached out his right hand, fingers fully extended. Closing his hand and pulling towards himself, Naruto appeared out of the foliage surrounding the clearing the spar was being conducted in. He was being pulled as if a rope had been attached to the front of his shirt. When Naruto was mere feet away, Mikal pulled back his arm, and Naruto was met with a gloved fist in his face. He was sent flying backwards into Sakura, who had been approaching Mikal armed with a kunai in each hand. She dropped her kunai in order to catch Naruto, but the hard impact of their collision and the rough impact with the ground had both of them lying unmoving on the ground.
Sasuke called out to his to teammates, turning his head to check on them, and felt a foot in his stomach. He tried to take advantage of Mikal's nearness and maneuvered his chakra strings in front of him. A chop to the back of his neck made his concentration waver, and his chakra strings dissipated. Mikal caught him as he fell forward, a smile visible in his violet eyes. "Good job," he said quietly to his unconscious student. Slinging the young Uchiha over his shoulder, he carried Sasuke over to his downed comrades. Arranging them all at the base of a tree, he sat down in front of them on the soft, dry grass. They all leaned against the tree, seated next to each other with Naruto in the center and Sakura on his left, while Sasuke occupied the space to Naruto's right. Sakura and Sasuke's heads were leaned to the side and resting on Naruto's shoulders, while Naruto's head leaned to his right resting of top of Sasuke's head.
Mikal 'eye-smiled', much like Team Seven's usual teacher. "How cute," he said quietly, also like a certain porn-reading jounin. His eyes opened, crinkled at the edges. Even as he smiled, though, his eyes were sad. 'What I wouldn't give to be one of them again,' he thought nostalgically. And so, he sat and watched his team—which was his in more ways in one—sleep next to each other in the waning golden light of sunset. Beautiful, soulful indigo eyes that had once been the same color blue as the sky watched his younger self and his former teammates enjoy a moment of peace he had never experienced. Seeing his younger self shift and let out a soft snore, he wondered what this Naruto was thinking. Was dreaming. He would have sacrificed so much to have the chance he was giving to this Naruto—which he no longer was. He was Feira Mikal, and this was an Uzumaki Naruto that would never suffer the same fate as he had. The fact that Sasuke had been brought back from Orochimaru's clutches—by Mikal's own hand—changed the outcome of this world, this war beyond recognition. Mikal pulled one of the black gloves off of his right hand, revealing a patchwork of scars and intricate sealing designs, a testament to his experiences with vicious torture and complex sealing. His marked fingers gently touched Naruto's skin, and he brushed a stray lock of hair out of his younger self's face. Naruto shifted and sighed, but did not wake. Withdrawing his hand, Mikal replaced his glove and watched his students—his friends, his siblings, his children—sleep peacefully. 'Enjoy it while it lasts, my friends,' he thought sadly. 'War is at our doorstep. This is one of the last moments of peace you'll have for a long time.' He turned his face towards the setting sun, guarding his eyes against its glare with a small amount of chakra. 'A very long time…'
