The White Fang's Legacy
Chapter One: A Year in Hell Pt. 1
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto... I don't even own my own car(it'll be paid off soon though -_-)
-Main Road, Konohagakure no Sato-
It was early in the morning so much so that shop owners hadn't begun opening their places of business. A lone figure traversed the main road that led from the town square all the way to the village's gargantuan front gate. It has been a year since the beginning of the white-haired youth's special training and needless to say he had changed quite a bit. The year had left him a bit taller and exponentially more survivable than he had been a year previous. His current outfit made him look much more like an experienced veteran than a green novice. Since he used to wear a pair of gray shorts, a simple navy blue t-shirt, and blue sandaru. Now he was sporting baggy, olive drab pants that were taped down to his ankles, a fishnet undershirt, a dark gray, long-sleeved shirt, a mask that covered the bottom half of his face like his older brother, a kunai holster on his right thigh, a shuriken pouch on the back of pants, black sandaru, and to top it off he wore a long, beige cloth scarf around his neck. The focused look in his eyes spoke of the hardships he had endured and the hardships he would soon endure. A seven year-old Hatake Keito strode calmly toward the front gate ready to start his Trial of Will.
-Front Gate, Konohagakure no Sato-
As the massive gate slowly swung open to allow his passage the entire year of training flashed before his eyes in excruciating detail.
Flashback
-Training Ground #44, One Year Ago-
A yawning Keito was being led through the treacherous forest by his father during the early morning of his first official day of preliminary training. They stopped at a seemlingly random spot in the labyrinth of trees.
Sakumo turned to face his sleepy son with a wide grin. "Keito, I'd like to welcome you to the primary site of your preparatory training. This is Training Ground 44. And due to the dangerous menagerie of creatures and plants it has gained the nickname: "The Forest of Death"." This caused Keito to perk up a bit. "That's right! The Forest of Death. This training ground is normally utilized by more experienced ninja, but for the next year you and I along with the occasional visitor will call this place 'home'. What do you think?" He finished with excitement that would put a certain spandex-wearing jounin to shame.
"Yippee," came the less than enthusiastic response from Keito.
"That's the spirit," chirped Sakumo cheerfully.
He needs to get out more, Keito thought grimly.
They set up a small base camp complete with a fire pit, two tents, and several traps in the surrounding area in case of unwelcome visitors. Lucky for Keito, today happened to be a lecture day of sorts after they spent some time hunting for food and collecting water for the next few days. He was especially glad when his father told him to rest up for tomorrow since his physical conditioning would begin promptly when the sun rose.
With sunrise came a training routine that would truly put Keito's fitness to the test. He started with fifty of each exercise which included: push-ups, sit-ups, weighted squats, pull-ups, leg lifts, jumping jacks, and lunges. If he couldn't accomplish the required number of a certain exercise then Sakumo just added more time to his cardio exercise. The rest of his work-out consisted of an hour of chakra-less tree climbing, low crawling, running, and branch jumping. Following his physical conditioning, Sakumo would give him various survival, evasion, resistance, escape, reconnaissance, tracking, hunting, strategy, or stealth lessons. He would finish the day with an hour of meditation and an hour of navigating the forest in complete darkness. It was bitter work, but the results would pay huge dividends in the end.
Keito was learning to function with a very minimal amount of sleep and even though the rest he did get was brief it was strangely satisfying. He was also having pretty strange dreams which usually involved either a seemingly sleeping woman with blazing red hair or a vulnerable young girl with shining blond hair. When he asked Sakumo what the dreams could mean the usual reply was 'Aren't you a little young to dream about women?'. Eventually Keito stopped asking questions about the dreams since his father seemed to be avoiding telling him what they could really mean. All he really knew was that the blond girl reminded him of that girl that the Hokage had with him at Ichiraku the day he graduated. Naruko was her name. He couldn't really say that he was fond of her since it was his clone that actually met her, but regardless thinking of her made him happy. Now that he was thinking on it, the dreams in general gave Keito a sense of serenity for some odd reason. Whatever that reason was he couldn't care less, he just hoped that the dreams didn't stop.
-Training Ground #44, 3 Months Later-
An exhausted, somewhat dirty Keito received another brutal strike from an enemy ninja trying to get information out of him. He was bound to a tree in a standing position as the ninja wailed on him mercilessly while asking him questions about the village. Keito was woken up by the clamor of yelling accompanied by several strikes to his ears and face as well as a flash-bang tag to disorient him, he didn't have much of a chance to fight back. What followed was several hours of torture which included several classics such as water-boarding, inflicting multiple miniscule, non-lethal cuts on his exposed skin, and the current method of beating him while he was restrained. Which brings us to the current situation unfolding.
Keito was on the edge of unconsciousness as his tormentor delivered another shot to the head and then a follow-up blow to the chest while demanding information about Konoha's defenses. He merely winced and gathered the breath to laugh weakly. With a bloody smile he managed to wheeze out, "No matter what you do to me..." He paused to cough and take another shaky breath before continuing, "I'll never betray my home, so just give up." Although he finished in a whisper the declaration had the desired effect as the enemy seemed to stop.
"So be it," the enemy ninja paused to perform a hand sign and after being engulfed in a puff of smoke Sakumo now stood in his place, "You pass." He cut his son's bonds and gently lowered him into a seated position against the tree he had been tied to.
Keito sighed in relief and exasperation when he found that he had been tricked and beaten to shit by his own father. "If I had any energy in my body I'd yell at you," he spoke weakly.
Sakumo nodded while his face showed the utmost pride in his younger son. "I know how terrible you must feel and how much you must detest me right now, but you don't understand how strong you were when you refused to give in." He began performing some basic medical ninjutsu to ease Keito's pain before continuing, "You displayed a level of dedication that is rarely seen in new ninja. It's something that is truly special and we've only been seriously training for three months. I'm very impressed and so are my friends here."
As his father finished his sentence, a tall, intimidating man in a black trench coat and a purple-haired woman in not much more than a tan trench coat walked out from behind one of the trees near them. If Keito had managed to not pass out at that moment then he would've been able to meet who was really behind his resistance lessons, but as it was he was in need of some good rest. After all, he earned it with all he's endured in the last ten hours.
The man spoke first, "You do know that you went way too easy on him, right?"
"That may be Ibiki but he did endure more punishment then most chuunin could take and still didn't surrender," Sakumo retorted to the now identified Ibiki.
The woman placed a hand on Ibiki's chest, "While I do agree with you Ibiki, Sakumo has a point. That brat has some serious balls." She punctuated her words by licking her lips with a sadistic gleam in her eye.
"Never would've figured you for the cradle-robbing type Anko," Ibiki teased in a gravelly monotone.
The aforementioned Anko just shrugged nonchalantly, "Shows what you know. 'Get 'em while they're young' I always say."
"You two scare me sometimes," Sakumo admitted with a nervous chuckle and a sweat-drop. "But I really appreciate your help and one day so will he," he said gratefully while gesturing to his sleeping son.
Ibiki nodded, "Anytime."
"Let us know if you need anymore help training the brat," Anko offered with a predatory grin.
"Will do," the White Fang affirmed with a smile.
Anko and Ibiki took their leave after speaking with Sakumo for several more minutes. Once they left, Sakumo took a seat next to the sleeping Keito and sighed, "I hope all of this effort is worth it both for your sake and the sakes of the last Uzumakis."
-Training Ground #44, 6 Months Later-
After a week of recovery following the resistance exercise, Keito's physical training was brought to a higher level. He was required to do twice the number of muscle exercises as well as a thirty minute addition to each of his cardio exercises. This proved to be fairly difficult at first, but Sakumo started allowing him to utilize chakra after the first month of the new work-out routine. His father's reasoning behind allowing chakra use was that Keito would have to learn to use chakra as a reflex to improve his performance in a high stakes ninja battle. The use of chakra as a performance enhancer was to become an involuntary action by his mind and body to counter a perceived threat. The meditation time was also doubled to compensate for the increased stress on Keito's chakra coils. And the White Fang finally decided that every other day would be a sparring day since at this point in training Keito had already learned most of what he needed to survive in the first five months of lessons. Now all he was missing was advanced combat skills.
Class is in session, thought Sakumo as he watched his son finish his work-out for the day. He reached into his kunai holster and drew one of the deadly knives. The White Fang let the projectile fly with a swing of his arm and sent it right to Keito's left flank.
Keito took another sip of water from his canteen when something pulled his attention to his left. His body pulled him back and down with little input from his brain. What the hell? He thought curiously as he turned back to his right to see a kunai stuck in one of the trees. He winced when he felt a stinging sensation on his cheek. He touched the cheek and saw that the blade had managed to cut him if the blood on his hand was any indication. Keito got into a defensive stance now that he was either in danger from a legitimate threat or his dad was just fucking with him. He figured that it was the latter, but no need to hold back just in case it is an actual enemy.
Sakumo had since moved from his original position to one that was a bit lower and directly behind his son's back. Let's see just how good you've gotten. He thought with a devilish glint in his eye as he drew several more kunai and even a few shuriken. He let a couple more kunai fly.
Something now pulled at the back of Keito's mind, so he rolled to his left immediately. That roll had saved him for the most part, one of the kunai managed to nick his right shoulder when he dove into the roll. "From behind, really dad is that the best you've got?" he challenged with a confident smirk.
Hmm, he's good and he's confident but he's not yet ready. He thought with a grin. Sakumo silently and swiftly moved to his son's front and readied the weapons he had drawn earlier. He tossed two at a time mixing and matching kunai and shuriken aimed at different areas of Keito's body.
Alarms were going off in Keito's mind as several waves of pointy objects were incoming head-on. He swayed, ducked, and jumped to avoid the projectiles, but despite his best efforts he was still taking small amounts of damage. After about the fifth wave, Keito decided that it was time to try and return some of these offending weapons to the sender. He saw a wave of two kunai and reached out to snag them out of the air, unfortunately his timing was off by a split second so he only caught one of the knives by its blade. He winced at the deep cuts in his hand but readied the kunai to deflect the rest of the incoming throwing weapons and spotted an opening just big enough for him to return the knife to the one who had thrown it. Keito quickly cocked his arm back and let the kunai fly in the direction that the projectiles had been coming from.
The kunai hit the trunk of the tree that Sakumo had used as a platform just a few inches from his face. Not bad, not bad at all but you still have a ways to go yet. He thought with a proud smile. Sakumo pulled the kunai out of the tree and jumped down from his spot. As he approached his son, the White Fang got the shock of his life when he saw Keito's eyes. That's impossible! There's no way he could get it so early! He thought with a somewhat alarmed expression on his face.
Keito grinned when he saw his dad jump down from the tree, but suddenly became a bit nervous when he saw the look that was being sent his way. The silence reigned for a few minutes before Keito broke it, "Hey dad, what's with the face?"
"Your eyes," Sakumo whispered so low that Keito almost didn't hear him.
"What about 'em?" Keito asked getting a bit agitated.
"Sharingan," the White Fang uttered.
Keito suppressed a snort, "Yeah right, good one dad. You and I both know that the Sharingan is an Uchiha thing. And I'm certainly not an Uchiha, right?" He finished with a bit of uncertainty as his father's face was unchanged.
No more words came from Sakumo as he grabbed his son by the front of his shirt and dragged him to a small watering hole near their campsite. He forced Keito to look for himself.
Lo and behold his father was telling the truth. Holy shit He thought as he gazed upon his own eyes with wonder. The irises had turned red and there was one tomoe in each eye just a little ways from the pupil. "I have the Sharingan," he said in quiet reverence.
"That you do," Sakumo said. Although much earlier than expected, not that I'm complaining or anything but his training is going to have to be elevated to a much higher level to compensate for Sharingan training. He finished in his mind. Sakumo was about to continue, but was cut off by one word from his son that he had been dreading since his Sharingan manifested.
"How?" Keito asked in an accusatory tone with his eyes narrowed.
Sakumo sighed and took a deep breath, "Well I might as well be as straight as possible. Your mother was an Uchiha. It was quite a while ago after a mission that I failed which initially lost me the respect of almost everyone around me. I failed it because I went back to help my downed teammates instead of completing the mission. It cost the village quite a bit, but I know that I did the right thing. I still felt terrible, I was depressed and contemplating suicide. But the night that I was about to take my own life, one of my teammate's widows came up to me in the bar that I was drowning my sorrows in and thanked me for trying to save her husband. She told me that it meant a lot to her knowing that someone was there during his final moments. Her name was Uchiha Miyuki and since that day I had fallen in love with her. Years later we married and then she got pregnant with you. We were so happy when you were born because on that day our family was officially complete." He paused to let the information settle for a bit.
"So what happened to her? Did she leave?" Keito asked in a small, slightly childish voice.
The White Fang rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger as if the question had actually physically hurt him. He sighed tiredly, "She was killed when you were only two. It was about 5 years ago, on the day that the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked the village. No matter how much I begged and pleaded with her to go back home she insisted that she stand against the beast just like any other Konoha ninja. That old Uchiha pride got the best of her I guess. She had just brought a bunch of injured to what she thought was safety when the fox suddenly struck the area with one of its tails. All of the injured were killed on impact, but she managed to cling to life until I arrived. I held her like I held her first husband all those years ago feeling just as helpless as I had back then. She passed peacefully into death's embrace, her last wish was that I live on to care for you and Kakashi. She wanted me to be there for all the times that she couldn't be there for. Her wish was the main reason behind my retirement from the ninja corps a year later. She loved you. She loved Kakashi. She loved me. Don't you ever forget that, my son." He finished awaiting Keito's reaction.
Tears welled up in Keito's Sharingan eyes while his fists were clenched and shaking with all the sadness and anger wracking his body. He felt a pair of arms wrap around him and looked up to see his father looking down at him with a sad smile on his face. He embraced Sakumo and cried into his chest for what felt like forever but was really only an hour. Keito finally calmed down and managed a small smile, "Thanks for telling me about mom." Now I have another reason to be a great ninja, watch over me mom. I promise to make you proud. I love you... He finished his thought as he closed his hand on a ray of sunlight that had managed to penetrate the dense forest.
A/N: Well here's the first chapter. Funny enough that I didn't think I'd have to split his training into two chapters but I like how the first half ended(hope you guys liked it too of course).
And I know how harsh some of Keito's training is but just think of him as a Spartan child. And people might complain about his Sharingan activation being way too early but frankly I don't care since he's obviously not the average Uchiha.
