The Leaf's fire gem
/|~{ (- Author's Note -) }~|\ Disclaimer -
Update 2016-09-15: Fixed some things, and changed some others, nothing major.
Update 2018-02-05: Fixed some things, and changed some others, nothing really major.
/|~{ (- Author's Note -) }~|\ Chapter 2 – Years Later
The midday sun shined down on the world from a clear, nearly cloudless sky. It was another one of the beautiful days the Land of Fire was known for. The songs of birds and the cries of cicadas could be heard flowing along with the slight breeze that flowed through the area as the critters of the forest went about facing another day of life. As the sun rays bathed the land in its light and warmth and the sounds of nature echoed through the land, three individuals were walking down a small dirt path between a deep forest and a gushing river. Their gait was easy and causal, without any unneeded stress or haste, as they took in the scenery around them.
"We're lost, aren't we?" one of the girls then asked dryly after a while, as she looked around them, after seeing the same healthy green foliage thrive in their surroundings.
Her name was Fū, and she had a petite and tomboyish figure. She was 11 years old, and had tanned skin, that made her bright orange eyes and spiky mint green shoulder length hair pop out fantastically. She was dressed in a short sleeveless white midriff shirt with fishnet armour underneath, long white armlets, fishnet shorts with a short white apron skirt over it, and carried a cylindrical object in red wrapping on her back.
The shortest person of the group just scowled, at the question.
This person was also a girl about the same age as Fū, although she could without any problem pass someone 8 year, as she had quite child-like and predatory lithe figure, with a a thin upper body but thicker, sturdy legs, and had not much in the way sexual maturity.
Her name was Enju, and she had choppy white hair, which contrasted greatly against her dark amber skin, and hid a diamond-shaped blue-green crystal, that sometimes could be glimpsed on her forehead, each time a gentle breeze blew by tussled her bangs.
She was rather short, even more so than Fū. She was about a head shorter then Fū, probably a bit more but not much. Like Fū, Enju had orange eyes, although her eyes seemed to be larger, rounder, and with wider irises. They also seemed to be more vivid and deeper in colour then Fū's, along with having white pupils and a centric pattern in them. A mesh top, along with a pair of mesh shorts covered her small frame, while a thick metal collar worn loosely around her neck, as she thought it would be good for blocking decapitation or throat slashes.
Over that she was wearing a black hood that covered her mouth, along with a matching black sleeveless dress with a white rim, with black elbow gloves covering her arms. The hood has a white flame pattern and a matching white zipper. She also wore with white thigh-highs, black shinobi sandals, with large, wide, black, and bulky looking shackles encircling her ankles. A large, black scorpion-like tail, which appeared to be mechanical, could seen moving freely, under the hem of her dress barley long enough to reach her ankles.
"Of course not. We're just… temporarily misplaced," Enju replied indignantly.
"Isn't that just a fancier way of saying we're lost?" Fū deadpanned.
"What—no!" the younger girl exclaimed. "It just means that I don't have my bearings enough to tell where, exactly, we currently are."
"In other words, we're lost."
"We are not lost! I just don't where we are!"
"Isn't that the definition of being lost."
With a huff, the shorter of them continued on, grumbling about other girl's lack of faith in her.
Fū was originally from Takigakure no Sato, the Village Hidden by Waterfalls. They had met her as she was kicked out of her home village. She was banished because the leaders of Taki had heard vague rumours about a group called Akatsuki. That they were a there a group S-class rouge ninjas that was after the bijuus. And Fū, like Enju, was a jinchūriki, meaning she contained tailed beast, a bijuu. But her case it was the seven tailed horned beetle, Nanabi no Kabutomushi.
For what Enju had heard the leaders of the village, haven't even take the time to get the rumours confirmed. Nor did it seem to matter to them that Akatsuki wouldn't be to make a move for several more years. As The Akatsuki neither had means nor the founds start hunting for any of the bijuus just yet. No, the leaders of Taki were far more concerned with the threat Fū might attract in future. It seemed like even the remote chance of being by targeted by such a group at all, was to great of a risk according to them. So the sooner they could their hands of her, the better, in their opinion.
Although officially, Fū had been transferred to Konoha as way to strengthen the bond between the two village, but all involved knew what the really truth were. Enju and Jiraiya had been passing through, with Jiraiya under the Hokage's orders to pass on what little Konoha knew of the Akatsuki. It had ended with them taking Fū with them, and now she, like Enju, was training under Jiraya to become a great kunoichi. As the years passed a firm and solid friendship had grown between them.
"Maybe we should look for a map," the last member in the group then suggested.
He was the only boy in the group, not it was easy to tell, and had been quite a few times been mistaken for a girl, as he looked quite androgynous. He had long, smooth, black hair, which he often wore loosely; heavenly pale skin and large, doe-like, dark-brown eyes. This coupled with a slender frame with delicate features, made it so he was often mistaken for a girl. He was often seen wearing a pink, sleeveless kimono, with pale red edges and decorated with small plum-coloured swirls, that went to his below his knees. Around his waist was a simple white obi tied in a bow, and his feet were clad in a pair of light brown sandals with dark straps, and with a dark-coloured choker could be seen adoring his neck. Which only enhanced his already feminine looks.
"We don't need a map. I can find out where we're going without one," Enju replied snappily.
"No, I'm pretty sure we need a map," Fū retorted.
"You know, you two are not nearly as cute now as you usually are right now."
Fū and Haku just shrugged, while Enju grumbled some more.
Haku was a part the Yuki clan in Mizu no Kuni, whose members carried the Hyoton kekkei genkai. But had went into hiding for their own safety, when the country had been plunged into a civil war. As those with a kekkei genkai were regarded with suspicion by the people of Kirigakure no Sato and the wider Land of Water due to their efficiency during times of war, and quickly became feared and hated for their abilities, and out of concern that their existence would only bring about more war. As such, persecution and even murder of anyone with a kekkei genkai had become common.
From what Haku had told his friends; her father and mother were simple farmers, that had lived a peaceful life. His parents had loved each other, and had been kind to him. Unfortunately, this had all one day changed. As one day, Haku discovered the ability to manipulate water. Amazed by this, Haku proudly showed this to his mother, who had been horrified by what she saw. She had harshly scolded and slapped Haku for displaying his ability, though she tearfully apologised to his almost immediately afterwards.
When Haku's father discovered that his wife and child possessed a kekkei genkai, he assembled a small mob of villagers. With tears flowing down his eyes, he killed her mother. He then had attempted to kill Haku. But before he could, Haku used her Ice Release to create several large ice spikes in self-defence, killing his father and the rest of the mob. Orphaned, Haku became a child who was wanted by no one and was forced to take to the cold streets and rummage through trash bins for scraps of food, even sometimes having to fight off the wild dogs that roamed the streets.
Then one particular cold winter day, the smell of snow was in the air, and a thick mist that could be seen over stretching over the horizon, obscuring the surroundings, along with the skyline. Haku were awoken from his slumber by a throbbing headache ripening just beneath his temples. Wiping the crust from his eyes with a groan, he pushed himself up from an unfamiliar bed, to find himself in an equally as unfamiliar room. He felt mild alarm, and a slight of panic.
Even more alarming was he discovered his lack of clothes. Instinctively covering himself with the blanket, he dashed towards the nearby chest of drawers where some garments had been laid out, carefully folded and quickly expedited them onto his frame, not caring that looked like they belonged to a girl, nor that they felt a little tight wearing.
Venturing towards the door with trepidation, he twisted the handle with a creak. The sight before him is blinding! Literally, because he eyes haven't adjusted to the light yet. He walked out, feeling a bit like a bat, and promptly ran into a soft body.
"Sorry! I didn't notice you were... you were..." The girl blinks innocuously as Haku slowly wrench open his eyes. Once he seem to have regained possession of his sight, the girl continues.
"How are you feeling? Are you sure you should be out of bed? You were quiet sick, you know..." Stunned, bewildered and somewhat afraid Haku just stared at her. When he then felt a small warm hand against his forehead, Haku, not one to take a chance on whether this person is here to hurt him or not, tries to run but in his haste stumbles over his own feet.
"Are you okay?" Haku's head snapped around seeing another girl, this one blocking his path back in the room. Resigned to his fate, he leans against the wall hugging his knees crying, it was like a dam had burst and all Haku could do was cry. Seeing the same reactions they had not too long ago, the girls can't help but feel pity for the young boy.
Slowly, so as to not scare the poor boy any more then he already is, they kneel in front of him to look into his eyes. In that moment they can see the pain, sorrow and despair in those brown orbs, pain they knows all to well. One of the girls reached out and hugged him, trying desperately to console him. "Shhhh, you don't need to fear us, we won't hurt you." she said as calmingly as she could, while rubbing Haku's back, thinking of the times that Jiji and her godfather had done same thing for her. It seemed to be helping, as Haku was slowly calming down.
There was a comfortable silence for a while as they just sat there. Until finally, the girl's curiousness had become to much, "My name is Enju, by the way, this my best friend Fū. We are currently travelling around with my godfather Jiraiya, when we found you collapsed with a high fever in middle of the road. At the moment we're at an inn, not far away far from Kirigakure no Sato. You been out for what we know little more then two days. Sorry about the clothes, but they're mine, don't know how they fit, hopefully they are not too small or tight. And..." But before the girl, Enju, could continue to ramble on, the other girl, Fū, took pity on the boy and promptly silenced her friend by covering her mouth with one her hands.
"You will have to excuse her, she sometimes lets her curiosity and excitement overtake her, and start rambling." Haku just stared bemused between the girls, as Enju glared and huffed behind the hand Fū had over her mouth. "But that's enough about us, what about you, what's your name?"
"H-haku, my name is Haku." he replied unsure, just happy that these girls were being nice. Even though they would probably either run screaming or try to kill him if they knew what he was. Right now he was enjoying just sitting with his head leaning on Enju's shoulder.
It had taken three days more for Haku to become completely healthy and regain his strength, which children had spent getting to each other better, talking about each of their lives, hopes and dreams. At the end of the first day Haku gotten meet Enju godfather, Jiraiya, which had scared him at first as he thought the large white-haired man looked quite imposing.
They stayed for another day for Jiraiya to finish up whatever business he had, before they moved on. So when they were walking away from the village on the fifth day, they heard footsteps behind them and when they turned around they saw the black-haired boy. They just thought he was going to say something to them but he didn't, he just stared nervously at them.
After about two miles of walking, Jiraiya had glanced back and the girls had heard him sigh, when he had looked back they saw Haku right behind them, following them like a little puppy, when he had noticed they had noticed him, he hid behind a tree and watched them from behind it. Enju had tried to get him to talk to her but he just stared at them anxiously, as if he had wanted to say something but lost the words. After a while they started walking again after trying to get him to talk but he didn't, they kept walking and from time to time they would look back to see him watching them and trying to keep up.
This kept going on until about six more miles, when he finally seemed found the words he was searching for and had asked Jiraiya if he can join them on their travels, and become ninja like Enju and Fū. But then, right before Jiraiya could say anything to Haku, Enju had stepped in between them and asked if he could come along with them, almost begging with Fū to back her up.
This made Jiraiya think for a long time, it was not often Enju or Fū had ever begged for something they wanted. Jiraiya then knew he was outnumbered now and with a sigh began explaining what meant, according to him, to be a a ninja, and asking that even though knew that would though and hard would he still want it. The boy had gained determined look on his face and agreed without hesitation. "Fine, okay. He can come…" and when he said that, Haku cheered and hugged attacked him and the girls saying "Thank you, thank you!" over and over again. The girls couldn't help but blush at this, much Jiraiya's amusement. As the years passed by, neither fast nor slow, the trio became close friends and quite a tight nit team.
They were currently on their way meet up with Enju's godfather and their sensei, Jiraya. Which was the spy master and seal master of Konohagakure no Sato, along with the Toad Sage of Mount Myōbokuzan, and one of the legendary of Sannin.
As part of their training he sent them on some minor C-ranked mission, which had pertained guarding a merchant as travelled from small village in Ta no Kuni, to another small village located in Yu no Kuni. It had been quite boring and uneventful trip. All that was left was to report and meet up with Jiraiya, which should be waiting in a small village in Hi no Kuni. At least that had been the plan, at least until the youngest of them managed to convince the other two in taking a little short cut. Which had lead them to their current predicament of being quite lost, even if Enju's pride wouldn't let her to admit to it, Fū and Haku knew the truth.
At least the weather was nice.
/|~{ (- II -) }~|\
Hiruzen Sarutobi was sitting at his desk late at night, looking at the files in front of him while trying to figure out what he would do with the last of the newest genin. The files he was currently looking through were the ones for Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto. The young Uchiha, while both popular and with excellent with grades, worried the old Hokage. He could see a lot of anger and hate in young boy's cloudy dark eyes, along with a large thirst for power, which only made wizened old man fear for what the boy may do to get to the power he craved.
Naruto on the other hand was a the direct opposite of brooding Uchiha, and was a bit of an enigma classmates. To his peers, he is a third-rate ninja notorious for pulling pranks and not paying attention in class, but he still somehow always got and just below average score on each test, and kids often left him alone. Their clone gambit seemed to still be working from what Hiruzen could tell, as no one had yet suspected that the Naruto that had just graduated was just a clone.
After having created that first blood clone, they had spent some time on creating something better. The clone he and Jiraiya had created with the help of Kyuubi was a pure work of art. It had a chakra signature and heartbeats, it could even generate its own chakra, and need to eat and sleep like a regular human. It was such a completely physically realistic clone, that not even after its death Tactics and Intelligence could not tell the difference between it and a human body, unless you knew what to look for. They had actually tested that.
Unfortunately, it was a cumbersome and complex process, that took taking far too long time, for even creating one clone, for it to be practical or of any use, especially on missions. It had been marked as a S-ranked kinjutsu, that built on same principle as the Blood Clone and the Shadow Clone techniques. It required that one could use nature chakra, and had at least Kage level chakra reserves, along with much more then just be good at chakra control, and at least a good grasp of fuuinjutsu.
One also need a pint of blood, along with a chakra sample of the one you wanted to make a clone of. The jutsu itself consisted of a series of hundred different hand signs, twenty of which was completely unique to just this jutsu. Otherwise it was an almost perfect clone, that was capable of performing techniques on its own, could bleed, think for itself, wouldn't dispel after taken a hit, and lasted indefinitely even after death. But the other clone jutsus it had no had connections with their original, and it would only disappear if it was absorbed by its original, and even then a body would be left behind. Only it wouldn't be more then a flesh doll without any defining features or any traces that it had once contained chakra or even had once been alive. Being absorbed would also give the original the clones memories, along with any chakra it had left, but nothing else.
But as they had used blood and chakra from after she had become Enju, and not Naruto, the clone was in the image of Enju. Which was why the clone was under a constant Henge of how they pictured Naruto would have looked like if nothing would have happened. It was mostly based how they knew how his parents looked while they grew up, and to make all the more believable a small part of the Kyuubi's chakra, had sealed in it as they had originally had planned to do with blood clone, but they had changed their minds on that. While clone was fully aware of that it was a clone, as it had all of Enju memories up to its creation, it hadn't stopped it from living life to its fullest.
With a shake of his head Hiruzen decided it was time to give up trying to organize the teams and go with his first plan. And with that he called forth the four remaining people who had expressed an interest in being this years Jōnin-sensei. Appearing before were three of the four shinobi he had called. 'Well I never expected Kakashi to arrive on time' he had thought.
Looking at the four Jōnin directly in front of him, he nods to the two to the right. One being his bearded chain-smoking son Sarutobi Asuma, the next being the genjutsu mistress of Konoha Yuhi Kurenai. Passing two files over to them, he says, "Congratulations, you are now the senseis for team 8 and team 10." Turning to Asuma, "Your team consists of the second coming of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. Kurenai you got the tracker team you asked for."
After hearing what their Hokage told them, they both beaming, happy that they go the teams that they had wanted, with a nod they both left the room to study their teams capabilities. Watching them go Hiruzen turned to the last the person that remained in his office. An ex-ANBU, a past student of the Yondaime Hokage.
Hiruzen sighed and looked at him, "Kakashi," he said "you will be given squad 7, a frontal assault team." Passing the folder over, Kakashi opened it to see the who was on his team.
"But I want you a keep eye this one," Hiruzen said, point at the file of last loyal Uchiha in the village. "His psyche profile have me worried, I'm afraid in his search for power to kill his brother he might turn his back on the village, just get to it. I want you too make sure that won't happen."
Kakashi just nodded in affirmation, before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.
With that done the aged Hokage look out they out of large, windows of his office. Now there were only three genins left, and he exactly who to assign as their teacher. But he had already an idea of who, he been training them for years, so why not make them an official team, under his command.
He would only need a little bit of convincing.
/|~{ (- II -) }~|\
TBC
/|~{ (- II -) }~|\