AN: Sorry for the wait for this chapter, and the misleading information about it with the sneak peek and such. But I decided to skip the Introduction and go right into the Land of Waves.
The Way of Heroes
Disclaimer: Well, still don't own anything except the OCs and original ideas. So looks like I'm lawsuit free(except from the time I set the classroom's trashcan on fire XD).
A1: E2./2. A Dangerous Mission! Journey to the Land of Waves
In the Hokage's Office, a fat woman choked her cat Tora in a loving embrace. The feline struggled and meowed it's protest, but to no avail. Naruto laughed at the cat's futile struggles, "Stupid cat, that kitty deserves to be squashed! It clawed me all over!" The blonde stood next to a dark haired boy, Naruto's age with a blue shirt and headband. Behind them was a pink haired girl with a red shirt and a Leaf headband as well. Next to the girl was a tall gray haired man whose headband covered his eye and a green combat vest.
"For your next mission, we have several jobs available. Among them, babysitting the Leaf Elders's grandchildren, helping the Leaf Elders with grocery shopping -" The Ninja Leader was interrupted by a certain Fox-Ninja's whining, "NO! No no no no! I wanna go on a real mission!" Silently, the dark haired ninja next to him agreed, He's gotta point. Scowling in frustration, the pinkette thought to herself, He's such a pain. Yawning with a bored look in his eyes, the older ninja also had his own thoughts, I knew this was coming.
Jumping up in frustration out of his seat, Iruka scolded, "How dare you? Like everyone else you start with simple missions to prove yourself." "Are you serious babysitting isn't a mission it's just a stupid -" This time the blonde was cut off by a sharp hand chop across the back of the neck. With his face in the ground, the gray haired attacker sighed, "Put a lid on it." "You're so stupid Whiskers! Hahahaha!" A familiar voice laughed, and from the window behind the Hokage, stood Luffy clad in a red vest and his trademark straw hat. Naruto quickly recovered to face his rival-friend, "I told you not to call me that Luffy!" Naruto shouted, and started to lunge at the Rubberboy but was grabbed by the man behind him.
"It seems you do not understand the tasks you have been given." The Third said, and continued when the room went quiet, "Many different missions come into this Village everyday. From babysitting to assassinations. These requests are taken, analyzed, than ranked A, B, C, or D depending on their difficulty. We ninja are also ranked with Hokage as the Leader of all Leaf Ninja, jounin, chunin, and genin. We assign each request to the ninja that have the appropriate skills for it, and if the mission is successful we recieve a fee that supports our Village, and our work. Since you are untried genin just starting down the shinobi path, you are given D Level Assignments accordingly." But it was obvious that Naruto hadn't been listening for some time, as he turned his back on the Village Elder, talking about how he would eat miso ramen later.
Naruto complained, "You always lecture me like you're my grandfather or something! But I'm not the little brat who used to pull pranks all the time. I'm a ninja now and I want a ninja mission." Pouting with his back to the Third, Kakashi rubbed his neck tiredly, expecting an earfull later. Iruka and the Hokage smiled at Naruto's immaturity. "Naruto wants us to know that he's not a brat, he's a former brat. He wants a mission. So be it; since you are so determined I'm going to give you a C Ranked mission. You'll be body guards on a journey." The Hokage concluded after mocking the Fox-Ninja. Luffy walked over to the table in excitement. All of the other ninja in the room tensed up with excitement for all barring Sakura who suddenly became frightened.
"Who? A princess? A big league counselor? An ambassador from the Grand Line?" Naruto was getting more excited as more possible prospects came to mind. The Third shook his head in amusement, "Don't be so impatient." He called, "Send in our visitor!" In curiousity, Luffy dove beneath the table and ran up to wear Naruto was standing, and the ninja turned to look at the simple wooden door that separated the office from the hall. When it came open, a short gray haired and bearded old man came in, a bottle of rum in one hand as he drunkenly asked, "What the -? A buncha little snot nosed kids?"
Drinking deeply from the bottle, Naruto watched as the drunken man belched when he stopped chugging. The old man adjusted his glasses and looked at the blonde ninja, "And you the little one with the idiotic look on your face, you really expect me to believe you're a ninja?" Naruto laughed, "Whose the little one with the idiotic look on his face hahaha?" Only to realize that all eyes were on his small exterior. The gray haired man grabbed Naruto by the back of his shirt as the Fox-Ninja cried, "Come on lemme at 'im! I'll demolish him!" The older ninja coolly reasoned, "You can't demolish the client Naruto it doesn't work like that."
The drunken man rubbed the white towel around his neck, and dusted off his simple brown clothes. "I am Tazuna, a master bridge builder and I must return to my country. I'm building a bridge there that will change my world and I'm expecting you to get me there safely; even if it means giving up your life."
In a dark forest, a shadow rushed through the flora, blasting against the wind that blew the leaves to and fro. The mysterious figure soon vanished from sight, though no one had seen it to begin with.
The Way of Heroes
Naruto cheered as they left the opened gates of the Leaf, "Yyeaaahhhh! Alright." The pinkette asked, "What are you getting so excited about Naruto?" The boy jumped around, taking in every fascet of the world around him with his eyes as quickly as he could. "This is the first time I've ever left the Village. I'm a traveler now, believe it!" "Am I supposed to trust my life to you people? Who are you anyway?" Tazuna complained.
"As ninja from the Village Hidden in the Leaves, we are like a shapeless, faceless group all as efficient as the next. We are ninja, and thus do not need names to protect you," The gray haired shinobi explained. But his students did not listen, the pinkette began, "I'm Sakura Haruno." Sakura grinned, throwing up a small peace sign. The quiet dark haired ninja went next, "Sasuke Uchiha." Sasuke walked beside the gray haired ninja, who was regretfully ignored by his proteges. "Oh well, since everyone else already gave up their names, I am Kakashi Hatake, jounin so there is no need to worry Mr. Tazuna."
"And I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!" From behind Team Kakashi, a dark haired boy in a Straw Hat ran towards them, clutching his signature headwear to his skull. The Rubberboy giddily slowed down when he caught up with the ninja. "Someday I'm gonna be Hokage and you'll look up to me. My name is Naruto Uzumaki! Remember it!" Taking a deep swig of his rum, Tazuna nearly choked, coughing, "You wanna be Hokage? Kage are powerful and wise, you are puny and brainless. The day you become Hokage is the day I sprout wings and fly. And you, Monkey, you're a pirate? When I was a marine I fought pirates twice your size, you don't stand a chance against marines or even other pirates." Naruto screeched angrily, "Shut up! I'm gonna be Hokage just like Luffy is going to be the Pirate King, we both are willing to do anything for our dream." Luffy nodded, "You don't know anything about dreams you bastard!"
"You two don't know much beyond what you can see with your eyes do you? Whatever, it doesn't matter." Tazuna started walking down the bright trail, enjoying the free feeling of the wind and the Sun on his back, as his hair and neck were covered by a broad hat. Ignoring the two dreamers behind him, the Bridge Builder went along his merry way.
Kakashi looked at the two, shaking his head, "What are you doing here anyway Luffy? You aren't a ninja." "The Old Man said I could come, he told me to get out of his hair so I did." Luffy explained, and Kakashi understood where the Hokage was coming from.
The Way of Heroes
With the journey fully underway, Naruto was a bit ahead of the rest, with Sakura and Sasuke on either side of Tazuna, and Kakashi and Luffy in the front and back respectively, the ninja and the pirate had synchronized just as they had been trained to do in such missions. Sakura asked, "Say, Mr. Tazuna, your country is the Land of Waves right?" "Yeah, what of it?" Tazuna asked, but Sakura had moved onto her teacher, asking, "Kakashi-sensei, aren't there ninja in that country too?" "No, there are no ninja in the Land of Waves," Kakashi answered, and continued, "It is what's called an independant territory, it is a member of the World Alliance, but not one of the Five Shinobi Lands or one of the Shinobi Countries's terriories, so there are usually marines stationed there, but occasionally marines will get restationed and it takes time before replacements are sent. Each of the Five Nations have their own cultures and customs, each have Hidden Villages where ninja reside. To the people of our continent, the existence of our ninja Village means strength, military strength. In other words, that's how countries protect themselves from pirates or other ninja. Ninja maintain the balance of power, making us key partners with the Blue Government. Ninja Villages are separate governments that are allied with the Lands that they are a part of, each Land that has it's own Hidden Village is equal to the next, if the balance is ever tipped, war would break out. Now a small island like the Land of Waves has natural protection from the sea so there is no need for a ninja village. The five ancient lands that have shinobi villages are the Land of Fire, the Land of Water, Lightning, Wind, and Earth. Each occupying vast territories, together they are known as the Five Great Shinobi Nations. The Land of Fire is protected by the Village Hidden in the Leaves, the Land of Water by the Village Hidden in the Mist. The Land of Lightning ha the Village Hidden in the Clouds, the Land of Wind is protected by the Village Hidden in the Sand, and the Land of Earth has the Village Hidden in the Stones. Only the leaders of these Villages are permited the name Kage, which means 'shadow'. Hokage, Mizukage, Raikage, Kazekage, and Tsuchikage. These are the leaders, the Five Shadows that reign over thousands of ninja. The Five Great Shinobi Nations are the only independant countries from the Blue Government, though we are powerful allies so whenever a state goes rogue each must lend a helping hand to the other, and vice versa."
While Sakura appeared to be the only person listening to the lecture, Sasuke had also kept a keen ear to the conversation. Luffy had no interest in global politics. Sakura cheered, "So Lord Hokage is really important!" But inwardly, she thought, Is that Old Man really that big a deal? I'm not buyin' it. Naruto had also been listening from afar, as this was his dream, to become powerful, a Lord of Shinobi, a Fire Shadow. He remembered a certain happening just days before however, and became pretty dissapointed with Kage, I got him with my Sexy Jutsu, he can't be that great, believe it!
"Hey!" Kakashi interrupted, and chastised, "You all just doubted Lord Hokage didn't you, that's what you were thinking." Both Sakura and the Fox-Ninja frantically shook their heads. "You guys can relax, there are no ninja battles on a C Ranked Mission." Kakashi reminded, and the blonde and Sakura sighed, "So there won't be any foreign ninja or anything right?" "Not likely," Kakashi chuckled. Unbeknownst to all but Sasuke and Kakashi, the bridge builder started feeling queasy, and much more sweaty than moments before.
Walking over a small wooden bridge over a gentle blue stream, the convoy kept trekking. While everyone else had simply walked past and ignored it, Kakashi took note of the small puddle in the middle of the rest of the dry dirt path. He looked around, listening carefully, but heard and saw no signs of enemy contact. He only saw the beautiful wooden landscape, and could only hear the chirpings of cheery birds. It was almost like a regular C Ranked Mission, a nice day's long journey that would get them into a boat by sunset. But he somehow knew this wouldn't be a standard C Ranked Mission.
As the group got a good distance away from the puddle, two men with gas masks, ninja bandanas, and dark hair and cloaks floated out of the puddle. Both shot a huge chain of spikes out at Kakashi, wrapping the deadly whips around the Squad Captain. The killer pair nodded and in sync, pulled the chains taut and shredded the jounin. Nothing but dust replaced the ninja. Naruto screamed, "Kakashi-sensei!" Then both the enemy were behind him chuckling.
He was deathly afraid, frozen with the terror that soon, he would be dead. The chains whipped around, but the blonde still didn't move. Sasuke dove into the air, throwing a kunai and shuriken into one of the ninja, while the other was engaged by Luffy. The kunai bounced off the armored forehead protectors, scratching the odd symbol that would have had the Leaf Village insignia on it if these ninja had been of the Leaf. Both the kunai and the ninja star had pinned the chains into a tree, and no matter how hard they tried to yank out their weapons, the pair couldn't.
Sasuke kicked one in the side, causing him to fall on the ground, while Luffy blasted one with a haymaker to the head. Both went onto the ground, but both unhooked their chains from their clawed gauntlets, gray talons ready to strike. The ninja speedily raced to their chosen targets, one choosing to go after Naruto, while the other chose Tazuna himself. Sakura quickly put herself between the bridge builder and his assassin, remembering the mission first. A knife drawn, both Sasuke and the assassin knew that it would not be enough to stop the killer ninja. With a sharp claw rocketing across the ground and up towards Tazuna, Sasuke jumped in between Sakura and the mercenary, whose attack was only stopped by a surprise haymaker from Kakashi. The jounin quickly knocked out the ninja, while Luffy succeeded with a punch to the head, but Naruto had been stabbed in the hand, but both threats had been neutralized.
Luffy tossed the limp ninja to Kakashi, and the one that the ninja had taken care of had flopped, all momentum spent. Naruto just noticed the return of his beloved master, and grinned. Sakura smiled her approval, but Sasuke grumbled inwardly, Show off. Then Naruto gaped at the power of both his mentor and Luffy, their courage, their skill. Both were leaps and bounds ahead of Naruto.
Kakashi noticed Naruto sadly staring at the pile of logs that had been switched and sliced in Kakashi place, and the jounin apologized, "Sorry Naruto, I didn't mean for you to get hurt. I just didn't think you'd freeze up like that." Walking over with the ninja duo in his arms, Kakashi passed Tazuna who sighed with relief. They saved me after all. Kakashi looked at the trio of kids in front of him, Sakura, Sasuke, and Luffy all looked at the Captain. Kakashi granted them his approval, "Good job you guys, Sasuke, very smooth. You too Sakura. Luffy I'm impressed by your skills, I'd heard that the Hokage trained you but I didn't know you'd take to his lessons so quickly." Luffy laughed, "I trained with my Grandpa Garp too, don't worry."
Naruto crouched there, still in shock. I was useless! Sasuke was so cool, like he'd done this a thousand times. Sakura, Luffy, Kakashi-sensei, they all pitched in and helped. I just got in the way. Watching the dark haired ninja daze off into space, Naruto thought, Didn't he feel scared at all? He looks so calm, not a scratch on him. I was so lame! He and Luffy had to save me! Luffy, he didn't need his powers. Why can't I keep up with them?
Sasuke locked eyes with Naruto, mocking, "You're not hurt are ya? Scaredy Cat!" That taunt set Naruto off, not because it was an insult, but because the blonde knew it was true. Naruto howled, "Sasuke!" Ready to lunge at his fellow genin, the Fox-Ninja was only stopped by Kakashi's concern, "Naruto! Stand still. These ninja have poison in their claws; we need to take it out of you quickly. It's in your blood." Naruto went green with fear, looking at the bleeding gash. "By the way Mr. Tazuna, we need to talk," Kakashi said to the man they were escorting, and the bridge builder grimly nodded his understanding.
"These are chunin from the Village Hidden in the Mist. Their specialty is relentless attack. They keep fighting no matter what the sacrifice," Kakashi explained, and one of the chunin asked, "How did you know about our ambush?" Kakashi stared seriously at the two that he had tied to a tree, explaining, "A puddle when it hasn't rained in weeks?" "If that's the case than why did you leave the fighting to these kids?" Tazuna asked, and Kakashi responded with a hint of anger in his usual tired and apathetic voice, "I could have taken them out quickly, but then I would have learned nothing. I had to know who their target was; along with what they were after."
"What are you getting at?" Tazuna defended angrily, but Kakashi pressed, "This, I wanted to know if they were after us, ninja attacking ninja, or if they were after you the master bridge builder. When you put in your request, you asked for standard protection from robbers and highwaymen. You didn't say there were ninja looking for you, hunting you down. If we knew this, we certainly wouldn't allow inexperienced genin to go on this particular mission. Our task was to simply get you to your destination and protect you while you finished your bridge. We would have charged more and staffed much differently. You lied to us, and endangering my squad is unacceptable."
Sakura added, "We are genin, this is too advanced for our level of training, we should go back. I really think we should treat Naruto's wound and make sure he's okay. Back in the Village we can take him to a doctor." Naruto angrily stared at his wounded hand, holding it close to his face. Luffy looked on and stared into the forest, "Hey Sasuke, you wanna go find some meat with me in the forest?" Sasuke rolled his eyes and said, "Shut up idiot."
Kakashi sighed, "Naruto's hand could become a problem, I guess we should go back to the Village." Naruto growled with a huge melting pot of emotions boiling in his stomach, he hissed with pain and seethed with frustration and self-loathing. The hate he had for himself rushed through his like the very blood pumping through his veins. He whipped a kunai out, and stabbed himself right where he'd been cut by the Mist ninja. Wincing as the blade went in, all of the people around him gasped.
Luffy screeched, "Naruto your hand is bleeding!" Tazuna stared at Luffy like he was a fourth grader who figured out a math problem after the nineth time it was explained. Of course, Luffy was used to those looks as, once upon a time he had been a fourth grader who only figured out a math problem with the nineth explaination. In frustration, Naruto groaned to himself, "Why am I so different?... Ugh! I worked so hard to get here! I pushed myself until it hurt. Training alone for hours. Anything to get stronger, strong enough to reach my dream."
Blood dripped from his knife and hand, and he promised himself, his ninja squad, and Luffy, swearing loud enough for the whole forest to hear him, "I'll never back down again, and let someone else rescue me. I will never run away, and I will not lose to Sasuke. Upon this wound, I make this pledge, believe it! Bridge builder, I'll complete this mission, and protect you with this kunai knife. A real ninja never gives up and neither will I!"
And than Kakashi brought down the passionate promises and badass self-harm back to Earth, reminding, "Naruto, that was really cool how you took the poison out and all, but if you lose anymore blood you are going to die." Naruto shook with fear, sweat pouring down his face and his skin going blue. Near hyperventilating, Kakashi smiled perkily, "It would be a good idea to stop the bleeding now. Seriously."
Squatting to get level with his genin student, Naruto squirmed and screamed in pain. Sakura scolded, "Naruto you've got a self-abusive personality, it's called masochism." And as he cleaned the blood off his student's hand, Kakashi saw something very intriguing, The wound, it's already starting to heal. Steam floated off Naruto's hand, but the blonde didn't feel a thing. Naruto nervously fidgeted, "Um, um. You have a really serious look on your face... Am I gonna be okay?" Kakashi came back and nodded, "Uh yeah. You should be fine," And the jounin wrapped the wound with white bandages from the green pack he wore around his shoulders.
Kakashi thought to himself, This healing power, is it from the Nine-Tailled Fox? Sasuke rolled his eyes at Naruto's stupidity and cowardice, not deciding which was more annoying. Naruto nervously bit his finger nails, I'm never gonna back down, not ever again. Sakura smiled to herself, That was actually pretty brave Naruto. I wish I could make a promise like that. Tazuna added his own silent thoughts to the unspoken soliloquy's of the others, That boy, he's either going to die soon or really become a great ninja like he wants to be. Luffy grinned, "Hey guys let's find some food! I'm starving!"
The Way of Heroes
In a dark forest with huge thick trees covering the entire landscape, not even the wind dared to make a noise. No wildlife moved about, all hid from something greater than they. Something cold and sinister. Something that wouldn't think twice about killing them. All could feel the immense killing intent of the man, no monster, that stood next to the rich businessman.
The businessman screamed, pointing at the two chunin who bowed their heads and took the scolding. "You failed!?" The businessman rhetorically screamed. His puffy gray hair and dark glasses gave him a sophisticated look, and the suit helped. Continuing rant, "What is this amateur hour? I paid good money for you! I thought you were supposed to be hot shot assassins!" A man with leopard print arm and leg warmers heaved a huge cleaver-like blade with one hand, making the tip just touch the rich short man, and the swordsman growled, "Stop whining. This time, I'll go personally." The businessman shook off the fear, pointing to the tall suited man behind him grinned sadistically, who was feeling the stitched slash across his bald head lightly and somehow, happily. The businessman said, "You won't be going alone, I'm sending Akame with you this time. They will be watching, waiting for your return with that high level ninja that took down your men." "Who do you think you're dealing with? I am Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Hidden Mist." The Demon's face was hidden by shadow, but his beefy chest was nearly naked save the belt around it, and he sat almost relaxed on a couch, even as he lifted the gigantic blade at his employer. They will know the true face of the shinobi world. The true face of the world that they chose. Mine.
AN: Next week I will start posting twice a week, so I hope you are all looking forward to it.
As of now we have 192 views, so lets hope we get some more for next week!
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