6. The Creed of the beginning
Larkan Senju slowly got back to his feet again. Chouji was standing on the other side of the room, with a sadistic smile on his face as Larkan stood up to receive more punishment. The two boys faced each other for a second, then Chouji, using his extra height weight and strength to great effect, bullrushed Larkan, barrelling into him, and knocking him over again. Larkan was quickly trampled under Chouji's feet, as the larger boy ran over Larkan, taking great care to stamp very hard down onto the smaller child's neck.
All around, the other academy students laughed and jeered as Larkan yet again cried out in pain.
"You know how to get me to stop Larkan" said Chouji, strutting around the tarmac yard. "Just empty your pockets for us, and we can all forget this ever happened."
Larkan gritted his teeth, but did not get up again.
"Why don't you use your signature technique Larkan?" jeered another student, "Just use your "cry to the teacher technique"".
Larkan gritted his teeth. They all knew that he had never done that. Hiroshu had taught him better than to rely on others to accomplish things.
"Come on; just use your devastating ninjutsus!"
That comment stung. They all knew that Larkan had no chakra. Not even their sensei could detect Larkan's chakra, and in the end the conclusion had been drawn that he had no chakra.
Larkan just couldn't think of any plan. It had once been said that he had the mind of a kage if nothing else, but when he was under pressure, or when there were people watching... Larkan's every thought was blank. For a second, he considered getting up again, but he didn't really have very much on him, only about twenty ryo, enough for a small meal later today and his ribs were threatening to give in. He could do without lunch. Larkan reached into his pockets, and pulled out what he had.
"That all?" asked Chouji in disgust.
Larkan didn't move.
Chouji stuffed the twenty ryo into his pockets, and then inspected Larkan with his foot in a similar way to how he might inspect a disgusting object on the floor, as if he didn't want to dirty his boot. He then delivered a final kick to the prone Larkan, and left.
"What do I keep telling you?" Hiroshu looked slightly sadly as he applied more of the healing salve to Larkan's bruised skin.
"I know but-"
"You can't keep getting beaten up like this. We don't have the money to keep throwing away your items to those bullies. I told you that sometimes brute force just isn't the answer."
Larkan didn't answer, so Hiroshu continued, "Look Larkan... if you're ever going to become a ninja, you have to get past that problem that you have with your nerves."
"But Hiroshu, when I get nervous I just-"
"I know, I know. So what you're going to have to do is either keep your nerves in check, or figure out a way to stay calm in these scenarios... you have no real strengths Larkan, other than that mind of yours. You don't put any muscle on yourself when you train, you can't use jutsu, and you panic whenever other people are around. You might know enough useful facts about survival, poisons and practically everything else that a ninja can do, but you just aren't skilled enough in body to use these facts..." Larkan still didn't reply. He had been given this talk from both Hiroshu and Nobuyuki countless times, but no matter what he did, he could never do anything about his gaping weaknesses. "I mean seriously Larkan, when you last tried to make a poison, you ended up in hospital for three days because you poisoned yourself." Hiroshu took a deep breath. What he was going to say next wasn't going to be easy to say to Larkan, but it had to be said. "Larkan... maybe you should think of another career than a ninja.
Larkan looked up, slightly shocked that Hiroshu was really suggesting such a thing. He was only seven, but he was a highly ambitious boy who wanted nothing more than to follow in his adopted father's footsteps.
"You would make an excellent scholar Larkan, possibly one of the best, and as a scholar, you wouldn't have to..."
Larkan wasn't listening. Chouji and his gang had said much the same thing (although they had said that he would make a good beggar, not a scholar). Larkan had mostly ignored this coming from them, but with Hiroshu saying this...
Larkan knew that Hiroshu only had his best interests at heart, and maybe if Hiroshu said so then...
"Or a diplomat if your nerves don't get in the way," Hiroshu was saying.
All of a sudden, Larkan was struck by a strange idea.
"Umm, Hiroshu?" he said
"Yes?"
"What if I could beat those bullies, could I be a ninja then?"
"Well yes, but-"
"Thanks Hiroshu!" yelled Larkan, and ran out of the room, leaving a very confused guardian behind him.
Larkan spent twenty minutes setting everything up, but when it was done, he felt proud of what he had achieved. Hiroshu's comment about becoming a diplomat had sparked off an idea in Larkan's overactive mind. Diplomats did not generally get into fights themselves, preferring manipulation and guile to cause others to fight their battles for them. In fact, at the beginning of most battles before ninja became the main source of military power, one would find a high ranking diplomat. When they had to get their hands dirty, they preferred to do only what was necessary to survive, and to slowly create plans of escape when they became captured. The latter piece of information was of no concern to Larkan currently, but when he had thought about it, he had been surprised at the effects that the tongue, and the ability to make others perceive things differently could have. Indeed, he had chanced upon the principle that had lead to many great genjutsu masters making a name for themselves. The trick to a good illusion was to mask reality behind a very thin vale, and to allow the target to fill in the gaps themselves. An overly detailed illusion would inevitably leave some sort of detail that would seem wrong to the target of the illusion. After all, no two people perceive the world in the same way, and if one detail stands out too much, or not enough... It was better to both be undefined with your illusions, and to keep them up for the shortest time possible, to limit the amount of time that the target of the trick would have to realise that they were being tricked.
All he had done was spread several pieces of string across the yard, and tied them to the point at which they looked a little like tripwires. He had then gone to speak with one of the best ranged weapon specialists in the academy. Yoriska looked a little surprised at first, and was a little reluctant to help the runt of the academy, but in the end, when Larkan offered a small amount of... shall we say motivation, she decided to go along with the short boy's plan.
When the bullies next came for Larkan, he was ready. He didn't panic, and although he had to close his eyes and count to ten to calm himself, he remained in control of his wits. He allowed the overly muscled form of Chouji to approach him, until he was totally overshadowed by the tall boy.
"So, you gonna empty out yer pockets now, or do yeh want to have a lie down first," grinned the pug faced boy.
Larkan calmly reached into his pockets, and bent over as if emptying them out onto the floor. As he did so, he spat once at Chouji's feet. The wet projectile found its mark.
Chouji looked down at his shoes, then picked Larkan up by the scruff of his jacket, and roughly forced him down to the floor.
"Lick that off"
Larkan looked back up at Chouji, and then with the sleeve of his jacket wiped his shoes.
"I said lick it off"
"Fine, just give me... a second"
Larkan slowly stood back up, and took two steps back. He took a deep breath, and looked back at Chouji's filthy shoes. He didn't need to fake revulsion, but he did need to be very careful that the two steps looked natural, and nto too calculated. He kept reminding himself "I don't have to fight them, nothing will go wrong." One part of hi mind was screaming with nerves, but he shut it out. He replaced the thoughts with thoughts of the very simple task that lay ahead of him, becoming so fixated on the task at hand that there was no space left in his mind to feel petty emotions such as nervousness. Larkan's task was very simple, and it was this that made him able to execute it with such ease. Had his task been complex, he would never have been able to focus on each part as hard as he was now, and in the gaps of indescision between one step and the next, his nerves would cause him to lose his concentration. This time, Larkan had made his plan before the encounter. He had gone over it so many times in his mind that now performing it was instinctive. Larkan took another "nervous" step back, stepping over an almost invisible threshold. The plan was in motion. Larkan took one more step back, before straightening up. This was the part that he had to keep calm for. If his nerves broke here, Chouji wouldn't fall for his ruse, or worse, would not even see it.
"Chouji... you do realise that the only thing more disgusting than the thought of your shoes is the thought of you and the sort of things that you probably eat on a daily basis. I guess you thought you'd treat me to a piece of your cultural cuisine, but I must decline. You enjoy it yourself now."
Larkan started to walk off casually.
For a second, Chouji just looked incredulously at Larkan, before he realised that he had been insulted. Then Chouji's vision went red. How dare Larkan insult a superior ninja like himself. Well, he'd show that little pip squeak...
Chouji charged, attempting to slam Larkan to the ground. However, as he did so, his foot broke the almost invisible thread that Larkan had "nervously" stepped over. Chouji was struck by a kunai from his left, and staggered to a surprised stop, incredulously gazing at the shallow wound as his blood trickled down his arm. Larkan stopped, and inspected a rubber band tied to tree, carefully connected to a wire and a kunai. This was the point where either Chouji would realise the bluff, would fall for the bluff, or would be too dum to put two and two together.
Chouji looked around for who had thrown the kunai, but nobody was in sight who could have done so. Chouji turned back to Larkan. He noticed the kunai and rubber band trap, and somehow, something did click in his tiny brain. Larkan looked back at Chouji. Chouji looked back at Larkan.
Author's note: and here I am again. As you can see, although Creed was a mighty ninja, Larkan Senju was nothing but a runt. A runt with a brilliant mind, but a runt who was too weak to use it. Not only that, but Creed was a master of techniques. Larkan cannot use any. It is as if his chakra is non-existent. So how did Larkan, who needed help to just land a hit on an oversized bully, become Creed, the captain of the younin? Stick around to find out. (yes I just did use a really cheesy line.)
Author's Note: I am very sorry to those of you who were following this (I think that that comes to 2) for the delay. I was a little tied up with my other project. But finally, here it is, the next chapter. It might not be incredible, but it is still something that I hope that you will enjoy.
