First chapter to have a very obvious change from the original story. Hope you enjoy.
Xbigmac93: Let me know what you think of this direction.
Also to note: sentences with "-dashes to either side-" represent another language. This is for the readers benefit so just remember most characters don't understand this.
Thank you to Missrach.
That night ended rather interesting for the four leaf shinobi. Naruto ate the whole stock of noodles from a now-rich noodle stand. Shikamaru did not care and kept quiet, while Hinata politely ate her fill and talking to Naruto. Leaving Sakura to storm off by herself after loosing the argument that ramen was bad for their health for the hundredth time. She had stumbled across Rock Lee of all people. Trailing behind him was around forty very grumpy and tired looking genin. Their headbands indicated they were from many different villages. Most of them were from minority shinobi villages or even prodigies from purely civilian villages, and had essentially unique attire in the shinobi world. Each one whispered their thanks when Lee spotted Sakura, and immediately stopped, clearly ignoring the complaints about how much he was pushing said genin.
"Sakura! Indeed it is a youthful night if I am graced by your presence."
"Oh hi, Lee, I would have said I didn't see you there, but we both know... yeah. So what are you doing here?" Sakura folded her arms and looked down the line of worn out genin. Some were almost on the floor gasping for oxygen.
"I've been training the next line of youth to be fine shinobi."
"It looks like you're sapping them for all their 'youth'." Sakura raised her middle and index fingers and twitched them as air quotation marks.
"They are inexperienced, but I am sure after hard training they will be every bit as youthful as yours truly."
"Say youthful one more time." Sakura muttered under her breath.
"Say what?"
"Never mind-hey! I remember. Wasn't this the combined genin program?"
Lee gave her an enthusiastic thumbs up. "Got it in one!" Poor bastards, the rosette thought . "So what brings you to Iwa?"
"Oh, Naruto, Shikamaru, Hinata, and I are on a mission here." The girl counted off the names on her fingers. She also noticed a few of the genin mutter, "Naruto's here?" Some getting very excited as the blond evidently was renowned since the war.
"That is excellent news indeed. Tell me, where is my rival?"
Sakura sighed heavily. "Stuffing his face in."
"Actually the vender did not have enough ramen." A soft voice that belonged to Hinata interrupted the two.
"Oh, there you are, and Bushy brow, you're here?" Naruto's entrance was greeted by many gasps of awe and admiration, albeit with effort. They managed not to swamp the Jinchuriki with questions in fear that Lee would push them harder as punishment. Or reward, to the large force of genin, they were not sure which was which with Lee in charge. Naruto managed to pick up on the air of excitement though. "I see you're training these genin."
"Yes, my rival! I am teaching the way of undying youth to those who need it, or come from places unable to facilitate their passion." Naruto swore he could see fire burning in his eyes as he thought about training.
"Once our mission is over, I'll come by and help you if you like." Naruto gave a thumbs up to everyone. "Work hard and you'll be as great or even greater than me." This earned him several cheers and a loving smile from Hinata. She blushed slightly as this reminded her, not that she needed reminding, of how great Naruto was to her and to the rest of the world.
"You know, you're becoming more obvious that you love him." Sakura whispered to Hinata. This immediately turned her mild blush to a furious crimson, the Hyuuga looked away before anyone else saw. Anyone else, bar Shikamaru, but he just rolled his eyes at their antics.
"Yosh, that is a promise of a lifetime. I'll do one-thousand press-ups every day you delay, until the day you show my genin the fruits of their youth." This time even Naruto's sweat-dropped as he slowly backed away from the energetic friend, his hands up in a placid stance.
"I promise you we will be as quick as we can just... go easy on your students." Naruto slowly excused himself and the trio of bystanders followed suit, leaving Lee to turn on his students. With no end to his energy in sight.
"Right now I feel like a new wave of youth has crashed over me, like the rejuvenating waves of the ocean. Follow me for a lap of the city." This followed by many groans and curses by the forty genin, a couple regretting their choice to becoming a shinobi. Leaving a select few somehow as enthusiastic as Lee to become fully fledged ninja.
The hotel they were staying in was one of the more fancier establishments in the area. Clearly as part of leaving a good impression on the foreign ninja during their stay. The foyer was very decedent with dark polished wood and red silk drapes, lining the features around the wall. Behind the reception desk was grand wooden stairs. Only Hinata was decadent enough to recognise that marble was used for the steps. Off to the left were large double doors that lead to a dining hall, which presumably served the 'breakfast' part of the hotel's service. As nice as the interior was, the building was built to be tall rather than wide and only offered two rooms per floor. Granted they were large and equipped with en-suits, many with large queen or king sized beds. Although, the four shinobi were selected to the rooms with two beds as their demands were satisfied.
The early morning started off normal enough, with Shikamaru kicking Naruto until he was awake. Then, leaving for breakfast, muttering, "troublesome" under his breath. Naruto complained about how comfortable he was, but quickly followed the Head of the Nara clan down to where the girls and Lee were waiting for them.
"Sorry for keeping you waiting." Naruto gave a sheepish grin as he sat down next to Hinata, subconsciously granted but truth be told it was the only other available chair on the table.
"Alright. As it turns out, Lee here knows the way to the Fritushi estate. So, he is brining his team of genin along. At least some of the way. It's a drag, but it's the fastest way to get there if we were shown." Shikamaru filled Naruto in with a monotone voice. Everyone except Naruto stood to leave. The blond flashed a look of betrayal as he had not even ate a piece of toast yet.
"This is what you get for sleeping in." Sakura helpfully informed her teammate.
While the team was expecting a large swarm of genin, they were met with only three. All of which were brandishing the konoha headbands. Lee was busy discussing something with the trio of young ninja.
"Lee! You said we weren't going to have to wait on your genin." Sakura called after she counted that they were thirty-seven short. She just received a thumbs up before Lee called back. They weren't close enough to talk at normal volume as of yet.
"Don't worry my Sakura, the flames of youth will only burn in my personal team!"
"Lee has a genin team?" Naruto asked towards Hinata although he was open for anyone to answer.
"Yes, Naruto. He err, got them w-while we were on a m-mission together." Hinata answered
"Oh, I guess I just missed it."
"Mnn. I-it happens." Hinata couldn't help but blush, as she could remember exactly which mission it was. A two-week diplomacy route Kumogakure to, by coincidence, make plans for the combined genin program. Although the Raikage did not feel necessary to send a team of struggling genin, they were willing to facilitate one phase of the program, the kenjutsu, as their village was well equipped for such an art. More importantly it gave Hinata the first of many opportunities to be with Naruto for extended periods of time.
Once the party were all collected underneath the stone archway that signalled the entrance into the hidden village of Iwagakure, Lee was able to introduce the three genin he had under his wing. The three genin looked fairly regular. As Lee introduced them. First was Dentsu, described as the heavy hitter of the group. He had a look similar to Kba when he was younger - only wearing dark green shinobi gear. It was as close as Lee managed to get the young student to wearing the jumpsuit, without actually managing such feat. He appeared to take his training seriously with both of his arms bandaged up and the fabric was even frayed at the knuckles.
The more animated member of the group, especially when he saw Naruto, was introduced as Nago. He had longer, darker hair than his partner. Instead of showing off his appearance, he decided to keep it hidden under a black hoody with orange stripes. He had openly greeted Naruto and very quickly told him how much he looks up to the Jinchuriki, making Naruto smile and scruff his hair under the hood. If it had not of been for Shikamaru loudly coughing in discontent, they would have started training and likely forgot about the mission for an hour or so.
Last of all was a quiet girl who seemed to have drifted to the back of the group, unwilling to be noticed. Such notions were short lived as Lee helpfully dragged her out. If Kakashi was here he would have sworn it was Rin because of the brown hair cut into a bob and purple clan-markings running down her cheek. Alas, the girl was introduced as Omi. She politely bowed, but still made every attempt to put someone else in the spotlight. While right now she wore a baggy hoodie much like Hinata. Only instead of a pale lavender, it was a more beige colour. Dentsu and Nago loudly commented how Lee actually persuaded her to wear the green jumpsuit for a week, causing the poor genin to blush a deep red. The Hyuuga could sympathise with her and so decided to intervene by pushing the conversation away from Omi and onto her favourite topic, Naruto.
As they were walking into the forested valley, the chat stopped and the pace picked up. Team Shikamaru were not planning on slowing down for the genin's sake, but instead moved at pull speed and hoped Lee's team was trained enough by Lee himself to keep up.
Further down the road were two figures nervously glancing up and down the road as if they were expecting to see someone. While they appeared to be younger than Naruto, the pair of cloaked figures were filthy and caked in dirt and blood. The male had his hood lowered only revealing the left half of his face, which was wrapped hastily in blood stained bandages. It was crude, but managed to stem the blood flow from his left eye. The remaining eye was a deep purple and darted around as he scouted the road in front of them. Currently his white cloak, well half white, the left was a muddy red from the injury on his eye, had been parted in such a way that his underclothes shone through; a sleeveless plain brown tunic. His left arm also had a distinct and noticeable feature. From fingertips to somewhere on his chest hidden by clothing, was a pitch black tattoo of intricate 'celtic' patterns. Unlike most tattoos, the pattern was as black as it was the day he brandished the markings. Usually, the ink would have begun to fade into a green-ish colour.
Unlike her male counterpart, the female in the pair was uninjured but breathing heavily from fatigue. While her head was covered in her hood, strands of orange hair and a string of turquoise beads managed to escape the confines of the fabric. Her arms were also unlike her partner, completely devoid of tattoos. Her cloak concealed the rest of her attire but it was doubtful if it was any different to her friend. The orange-haired girl scanned around with her significantly paler violet eyes. Unlike a hyuuga, her eyes were richer in colour and still had a black pupil. She noticed her partner unsheathing his sword slowly.
His sword was a long katana with a single cutting edge, while engraved on the flat of the blade was similar 'celtic' patterns as his left arm. Her own weapon was a smaller wakizashi, also forged to have a single cutting edge. Unlike the katana, her weapon was made of a darker metal and lacked the same detail. Realising what the man next to her was about to do she softly squeezed his shoulder.
"-Are you sure? We are both low on chakra.-" Her voice was soft and thick with a distinct accent and laced with fatigue. He just nodded his answer.
His answer was backed up with him 'pulling' a kunai out from his left hand, chakra moulding into the correct shape as he pulled the weapon free. Slowly and silently, he switched the kunai to his left hand and drew his katana with the right. His remaining eye scouted the road once more. Stillness and silence fell thickly onto the area around them. A twig snapped. The two figures leaped across the road but their move was cut short by a small salvo of kunai and shuriken. Immediately, the pair returned fire with kunai that they appeared to draw from thin air. To the untrained eye, the kunai sailed into the forest with no supposed target. As soon as the deadly blades vanished into the foliage, a pained grunt echoed around the woods and a heavy thump could be heard out of sight.
The man of the pair stood with his left flank facing the supposed threat. His sword was held fast behind him and a kunai in reverse grip was equipped in his left hand. While the hooded girl held her wakizashi with both hands, she raised her guard in front of her left foot.
"-We should go, before more come.-" The girl whispered.
"-They are catching up. We can't run. We'd just get more tired.-" His voice was deep, but the occasional hitch suggested he was struggling with exhaustion and pain.
The girl glanced at her partner with violet eyes. "-So, we stand and fight?-"
"-You run and keep our family alive. I'll hold them off for as long as I can.-"
The girl sighed heavily before quickly brushing her hood off, revealing a head of orange hair which was messily kept at shoulder length. The colour was broken by strings of turquoise beads which were tangled in her bangs. She closed her eyes and composed herself. "-I'm staying by your side.-"
"-No!-" He snapped back with a harsh whisper. "-If we both die, our name will be forgotten, and our light will be extinguished forever. So go!-"
"-Will you forget about our family, and start thinking about yourself? You're missing a fucking eye! We are in no shape to fight. Besides, what would I do without you?-"
Their conversation was cut short as a new combatant joined the fray. The man jumped from tree to tree with such speed that when he leapt from the trunk of a near-by pine-tree, he was at the one-eyed shinobi in a blink of an eye. Defending kunai parried the offending kunai with a loud shriek of metal on metal, and sparks flying onto the ground in-between them. The sword immediately slashed across the gut of the attacker, only to disappointingly thud as the weapon bit into a substituted log. The confusion was momentary as the kunai burst into smoke, allowing the sword-wielder to use both hands for better control and jab at the attacker in a new direction. He followed up with a hay-maker strike from the left and a roundhouse kick to the face. He forced the attacker to the floor and righted his guard, forcing his blade towards yet more oncoming opponents.
The orange haired woman also had to deal with a second attacker. She blocked his hatchet by hooking her sword just under the blade. Her weapon was almost wrenched from her grip as the man pulled his axe back. Instead of allowing herself to be pulled forward, she allowed him to disarm her. She jumped back and immediately started weaving hand signs. Starting from recognisable hand signs, quickly diverging into a system of highly modified hand signs. The man charged her, but she was finished before he could close the distance.
"-Fire style: fireball cannon.-"
"What did y..." He questioned just as a ball of sapphire blue fire formed in between them. No sooner had it materialised, it shot forward too fast to dodge. For the poor victim was already struck in his chest and knocked back into the roadside. Dead. The smell of seared flesh quickly filled the noses of everyone around.
"Keep up the pressure, they are exhausted. And keep that bitch alive; I want to fuck her when this is over." a particularly ugly man shouted from the back. He was well dressed in silver trimmed shinobi gear. Although said gear was struggling to contain his portly frame. On his bald forehead was a scratched out Iwa headband. Clenched in his teeth was a large cigar as he sneered at the two cloaked shinobi. "I'm going to be rich off your corpses." He lazily weaved hand signs.
"Earth style: rocky stomp." Sure to his claim, he stomped the ground, causing it to shake. Forcing the outnumbered side to jump back as large cracks opened up in the road before them. This earned a hearty laugh out of the nukenin. "See, they aren't using their fancy jutsu. Do not fear these bitches."
Outnumbered five to one, the two ninja steeled themselves to the oncoming battle. The woman quickly retrieved her wakizashi. The last jutsu left her light headed, which was the first indication of chakra fatigue. Nine of their remaining opponents may have been older than them, but their trained skill was considerably weaker than the sword wielding ninja. In fact, had they been on top form instead of tired, the odds may be still in their favour, despite the numbers advantage. Only three had scratched out headbands, the large one included, indicating at least they were decent enough to have been part of a shinobi force. The rest could only be described as petty criminals, greedy from the money that was supposedly above their heads.
Upon a wave of the nukenin's hand, a small chasm erupted in the road, causing five of the ten bandits to jump and engage the two defenders. Another summon only this time was spear. He thrust with his left arm, while the jumping opponent had her guard lowered, the spear should have skewered her. Instead, just at the wrong moment a lapse in the chakra flow caused the spear to de-summon in a large poof of smoke.
Fortunately, this was still enough to make the woman jump back in fear and fall down into the crack. Not a far drop but took her out of the combat until she could climb out. The one-eyed ninja was now out of position and leaned back to narrowly avoid a kunai being slashed across his face. Grabbing the outstretched arm he pulled the bandit onto his sword. Coughing up both his blood and his life before falling to the way-side. Pulling the katana out of the cadavers' chest in time to parry the oncoming blade of a third attacker.
The woman ally was not faring so well. A surprise spike made of rock had forced her to dodge but right into the swing of an unfeeling sword blade. The swing started low and struck her hip. There, it sliced upwards through her left flank and exited just under her armpit. Fortunately, the wound was not deep nor fatal, but instead cut like a fillet o' fish just under the flesh. Her body felt the white hot pain caused by the merciless steel.
"-Fukushi!-" She screamed as her body fell onto the floor in an ungraceful heap.
"-Monica? Shit!-" Fukushi kicked one bandit hard into the gut and summoned a kunai. He then, immediately flicked it towards the sword wielder who was threatening to decapitate the orange haired girl with the finishing stroke of his attack. If he was a second faster she would have been spared of the blow, but Fukushi's kunai slid into the neck of the attacker just as the sword reached her flesh for the second time. This time she was cut from her left collarbone to under her ear. Pain like fire sapped the last of her energy. Monica wanted to get up, she rolled to her front and managed to get to her knees as blood freely flowed to the road beneath her. Fukushi meanwhile wasted no time, raising his left hand to his face in the half-seal of the ram, and 'activated' the kunai sending a bolt of electricity coursing through the swordsman, sending him screaming to his death. The one-eyed shinobi jumped to the side of his fallen comrade. Just the pain and exhaustion finally over came her as she rolled slowly onto her back to be able to see her fate. Her vision was darkening as colour had already leeched from the world. Fukushi finished more hand seals and threw a set of four kunai onto the floor. A yellow wall of crackling yellow energy was erected and in good time. Projectiles ricochet off the wall with violent flashes of lightning.
Another hearty laugh echoed through the battle. "Give up now, and I'll make your death quick if you make it easy for me." As he spoke the shield collapsed revealing a young adult, half his face in stained bandages. His last jutsu only prevented the inevitable. On one knee and gasping for breath, he used his sword as a prop and slowly forced himself to stand. He looked at his friend who was now unconscious and in a pool of her own blood. Breathe in. Breathe out. He opened his eyes and took a guard position with his weapon in front.
"Leaf! Hurricane!" A green blur shot past Fukushi and ploughed through one of the bandits.
"Rasengan!" An orange blue came from the trees, and immediately dispersed a cluster of them from the other side of the split road.
"Cha!" A pink blur punched the cocky leader of the bandit group with such force that even that mountain of a man was knocked up the road, and into a heap.
"Eight-trigrams, one-hundred and thirty-two palms." A seemingly calm woman in a purple jacket stood off to once side, immediately launching at her neared target. Each succession of the gentle-fist she changed target and left the previous target in a heap with several chakra points closed off.
This left a fifth member who did not use any jutsu, but instead calmly walked into the middle of the battle and watched it unfold. His hands in the pockets. The trio of genin did not partake, but instead set up defensive positions around Monica and Fukushi in case one managed to slip past the combined efforts of the leaf jonin.
The battle, if it could be called as such, lasted only for a minute longer as the big nukenin was seen off with what was left of his group. He would have been captured for sure, but a whistle from Sikamaru called back the four jonin.
"We can't let him get away. He should be taken in for attacking these travelers." Naruto burst out, obviously discontent with the call to regroup.
"Not our mission Naruto." Came the reply from the Nara head.
"This is most un-youthful. We should bring such a bad man to justice. Those two defended themselves admirably but ten against two is not what I would call honourable."
"You can if you like. You're not my team. But please allow us to finish our job and we can help you tidy up lose ends if you like."
"Of course, my friend."
"Can we at least heal the travelers? They looked badly injured." Sakura asked.
"Oh yeah, they were covered in blood." Naruto closed his eyes in concentration as he placed his arms to the back of his head.
"Y-yeah the boy was p-protecting his f-friend." The group only arrived to see just as the shield took the combined force of projectiles and collapsed. They were making their plans of attack just as Fukushi was slowly standing up to face his opponents. From their perspective, they saw a group of thugs who had bitten off something tougher than they had initially expected.
"Erm... Lee-sensei." Dentsu spoke up, taking courage to interrupt the older jonin. The two travellers... they err... ran off." The tai-jutsu trainee indicated the pool of blood and the lack of the two cloaked figures.
"Wait why did they run? They won't survive without medical attention." Sakura grew worried for their rescued charges. "We have to find them."
"Lee can find them, they can't have gone far. We still have a mission to do. I know this is a drag but we are working for Iwa and I am not sure if they are more lenient towards their ninja deviating from missions. Look if they are as injured as you say they are, they need a hospital. Not a field medic. Lee can get them to Iwagakure fast enough. I take it the estate is down this road and up the next valley?" Shikamaru spoke as if he had all the variables accounted for. It made sense for Lee to get them to hospital and for their mission to be done with as fast as possible.
"Yes, that is correct. My legs are over flowing with youth I'll get them to safety before the day is out." Lee proudly stated.
Shikamaru looked at his team before sighing heavily. "Naruto use a clone to get some Iwa ninjas to clean this mess up. Sooner we can get this done the sooner we can help search for those missing travelers." He closed his eyed and mentally filed away all the information he had learned from that encounter. However, the feeling of dread at tugged at his heart.