Don't own Kuroko no Basuke or Naruto.
Don't own the Cover Art.
Chapter Summary: Tatsuya was an average shinobi. And he hated it. So when a Konoha shinobi appeared, defeated him, then offered to introduce him to his sensei, he agreed to go with him.
Average
Himuro Tatsuya was an average ninja. He had normal reserves, average skills with weapons, and had no predilection towards taijutsu, ninjutsu, or genjutsu.
And he hated it so much.
His adopted younger brother, Taiga, was a chakra powerhouse in comparison. He was a brutal taijutsu user, and had a near unending stamina that could go through two or three C-ranked missions a day without tiring. He was the ideal shinobi in the eyes of Kusagakure, and Tatsuya kind of hated him for it too.
When he met a shinobi from Konohagakure, he was in the midst of fighting them when the man said something that nearly pushed him over the edge. "You're weak," the purple-haired teen yawned, not even dodging and instead lifting his arm to block Tatsuya's incoming punch.
The blow did nothing of note to the taller teen and Tatsuya growled at the bored look on the teen's face. "I'm not weak," he hissed, lashing a foot out and hitting him in the neck.
The teen remained unmoved, batting Tatsuya away like he was nothing more than a fly. "You are," he insisted childishly. "You don't have a focus in your fighting between taijutsu, genjutsu or ninjutsu, but you're average in everything rather than skilled in all three. You haven't even shown your elemental affinity. You're average, and average is weak."
"Shut up!" Tatsuya shouted, jumping forward to punch the other teen in the sternum. When it did nothing to stagger him, it only served to infuriate him even more. "What kind of monster are you?!"
He yawned. "My chakra naturally runs throughout my entire body, increasing my durability exponentially. You won't be able to hurt me for quite some time yet."
Desperation and helplessness drove Tatsuya on and he went through a series of handseals. "Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!" A snarling dragon of water appeared behind Tatsuya, leaving him panting from the exertion of summoning the creature in a place with no large source of water.
"Ah…" suddenly the teen looked as if he'd figured something out. "I see now; your affinity is water, which makes you even more useless to a village like Kusagakure. You truly are weak while you're serving them."
"Shut up!" Tatsuya shouted again, and the dragon roared, hurtling toward the purple-haired chuunin.
The teen yawned again. "Unfortunately for you, I have an earth affinity." He then went through some seals as well and slammed his hands onto the ground. "Doton: Dosekiryuu." A gigantic dragon came from the earth, swallowing the water dragon and wrapping around Tatsuya. "You lose," the teen sang, walking forward to look at him more closely.
Tatsuya shook a little from exhaustion and frustration. "Just kill me," he said. "I was ready to leave my village so that I could get stronger, but it clearly won't work. I'm better off dead." He paused, contemplating asking something before his supposed death. "How did you get so strong anyway? Naturally I suppose?"
"That's part of it," the teen agreed. "I also had a good sensei, and he was an earth and water affinity. He was average too, but he was a good teacher and knows how to take down people stronger than him. He was in the frontlines of the Third Shinobi War."
"I see." Tatsuya thought about that for a moment then looked at the other teen once more. "Could I…go with you to Konoha? Maybe your sensei could help me."
The chuunin shrugged. "I don't see why not. We've done stuff like this before." As Tatsuya wondered at that, the teen returned the dragon to the earth and looked at him. "What's your name?"
"Himuro Tatsuya. And yours?"
The teen bowed his head a little at him then yawned again. "I'm Murasakibara Atsushi. Nice to meet you, I guess."
They traveled in relative silence after that, only stopping to sleep and hunt. But during those two days Tatsuya grew to genuinely like Atsushi; he was like a giant child with his way of acting petulant and constantly wanting sweets. While he had a habit of saying things that made Tatsuya want to punch him in the face on a regular basis, he was still refreshingly genuine and open about his opinions, and Tatsuya kind of needed that after living his life with a poker face firmly in place.
When they arrived at the Konoha gates, the two chuunin guarding didn't even seem surprised by Tatsuya's presence. "Did Shuuzou bring in another stray when we weren't looking?" One of them asked curiously, giving the shorter teen a cursory glance as they checked over Atsushi's papers.
"You could say that," the purple-haired giant grunted, shifting impatiently and receiving chuckles for it.
They were waved in after that, and Atsushi grabbed Tatsuya's arm and led him near where the clan compounds often were. "Sorry about that. Like I said, we've kind of done this before." Tatsuya nodded in understanding. As they walked the shorter teen felt Atsushi give a slight pulse of chakra, but it seemed more habitual than directed and Tatsuya had felt him do it a few times throughout their trip here.
A few minutes later they were in front of a small but homey compound, a traditional feel surrounding the place. As they approached the steps a redhead about Atsushi's age appeared, his expression cordial but distant. "Have you brought a visitor, Atsushi? You should have told us ahead of time."
"I did, Aka-chin. I told Niji-chin when I found him," the taller teen replied petulantly, and the redhead nodded in acceptance.
"I see." He then turned to face Tatsuya. "Greetings stranger; I'm Akashi Seijuurou of the Nijimura Clan. Has Atsushi brought you here to meet Shuuzou-nii?"
"Himuro Tatsuya, and I think I'm here to see him? Atsushi said that his sensei could help me become stronger."
Tatsuya watched as emotions flickered over Akashi's face before settling on pride. "Yes, he can. Shuuzou-nii is rather good at training others; I'm sure you'll at least leave more enlightened than when you first came in. I will show you where he is."
They walked into the compound after switching out their shoes. The halls seemed well maintained, and around them Tatsuya could hear other occupants.
"Dai-chan! You said you'd try my food!"
"The hell I did! Those aren't blueberries they're nightshade! You'll stay the hell away from me Satsuki! I want to live!" The group heard a loud then, and the voice picked up again. "Ryouta, you traitor!"
"Sorry Daikicchi, but it's every man for himself now!"
Tatsuya smiled a little as a younger teen ran laughing out of what appeared to be the kitchen area, bulleting away in a streak of blonde. He was closely followed by a blur of dark blue that was spewing profanity at him. "They seem rather excitable."
"They're doing their first C-rank tomorrow; they're understandably looking forward to it." Akashi smiled at the pink-haired girl that was standing at the doorway to the kitchen, giggling at the retreating boys. They soon entered a room where clan business was most likely conducted as it had a desk with small stacks of papers on it. Leafing through them was a man in a dark grey yukata who only paused to drink from his tea.
Once they entered the room the man looked up and Tatsuya was somewhat surprised by his relative youth for being a Clan Head. He had straight black hair and grey eyes, and had a grey pearl the same color as his eyes on his left ear. Now that he thought about it, all of the people in the house had a gem or stone on their left ears that was the same color of their eyes. It must be a clan tradition.
"Atsushi, you're back." The man didn't sound surprised. "How was your mission?"
"It went well," Atsushi reported, though they both looked like they had already spoken about it before and were speaking about it now for formality's sake. "I found someone I wanted to bring back with me. Muro-chin seems nice, but he's weak and wants to get stronger."
"I see." The man leaned a little closer and observed Tatsuya, who fought back a fidget at the man's intense stare. "Just for the record, this is the last time that any of you are allowed to bring a person back from a mission that isn't retrieval without the Hokage's permission…or mine before you leave," he amended when Akashi and Atsushi pouted at him (and Tatsuya never wanted to see someone as refined-looking as Akashi pouting ever again). "We can't make this a Thing, guys!"
"Mido-chin has Kao-chin," Atsushi pointed out, and the man stared at the giant in an incredulous silence before talking very slowly to him.
"You just compared your teammate finding and treating an injured hawk when he was a genin one day to bringing back a Kusa chuunin who was planning to go rogue." He paused to let that sink in. "Those are not the same thing."
Atsushi pouted at his former sensei again and the man sighed. "As you're an honorary member of the clan I can put Himuro under the protection of the clan as well, but he will have to go through a probationary period before he receives the earring. Also, I will agree to mentor him if he agrees to help me with the disaster trio out there." He pointed out to the hall and Tatsuya gathered that he must be their sensei as well.
"I find that agreeable…"
"Nijimura Shuuzou," the man supplied, and Tatsuya nodded his thanks.
"I find that agreeable, Nijimura-san."
"Wonderful." He pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment and took a deep breath, before looking at Atsushi and Tatsuya again. "Go report to the Hokage, and tell him I'll need a Clan Sponsorship Form while you're at it. And bring Himuro with you." He rolled his eyes a little. "We don't need Kusa accusing us of stealing their shinobi from them."
"Your old sensei seems like a strange man," Tatsuya told Atsushi after Akashi walked them back to the front. "I couldn't feel any of his chakra."
"Sensei's chakra scares people, so he hid it since you weren't used to it." Atsushi explained, and Tatsuya was somewhat touched by the small gesture. "Niji-chin will be able to help you, Muro-chin. He'll make you stronger."
"I'm sure he will, Atsushi." Tatsuya agreed, and he wasn't lying. He could see it in Nijimura's eyes.
This man can surely help him.
...Excuse, I need to find a table to bang my head on...
So, to make things clearer: Murasakibara, Akashi and Midorima were on the same genin team and Nijimura was their sensei.
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Ja ne!