Hello everyone, it's acw28 here to welcome you to the next chapter of A New Realm!
So I think most of my readers expected me to update Son of the Sun first, but I choose to write this chapter first for a few reasons. First off was my poll. I have to admit, 23 voters is a little more than I expected for my first poll, so thank you to everyone who voted. It wasn't surprising that my two Naruto crossovers were in the lead the entire time, but I was surprised how the poll ended. From the beginning, Son of the Sun had a bit of a led but then around two months ago, this story tied then got a few more votes showing me how much some of my readers preferred reading this story.
The second reason why I'm writing this right now is because I just have a better idea where I want to take this chapter. Some of the scenes that I'm going write have been in my head since the weeks before I got an account and actually started to really develop my stories. Don't get me wrong, I do have an idea of what I want to happen in Son of the Sun, but I just feel that I should work on this one right now.
Just to clear up one thing since this is the first time Sasuke will have a significant part in the story, as the story goes on, he'll continue to act more out of character. I realize that this is off putting to some readers, but for the story I want to tell it just makes more sense for him to be a total bastard throughout the story rather than just randomly decide to turn traitor.
One last thing before we get started, those who read my latest story already have an idea about this, but I'm currently having a little contest that spans across all three of my stories. I've already told the readers of The Runaway that each of my stories has a little Easter Egg, know let me put everything out in the open. In each of my stories I have used a very specific number in different ways, however it is always in numeral form and not in word form (i.e. I wrote it like "10" and not "ten"). The winners of the contest are the people who PM me what the number is and how I have used it in ALL my stories. First place gets to have an open dialogue (multiple questions answered until you are satisfied) with me on a story I have listed on my profile and a shout out on the next two updates. Second place gets one question asked about any idea on my profile and a shout out on the next two updates. Third place gets a question about any of my current stories and a shout out. I'm going to let this go on until November 3rd, if I don't get any winners by then I'm ending the contest.
With all of that taken care of, let's get on with the story.
Disclaimer: I don't have any witty ways to say I don't own Naruto or Mortal Kombat.
"You sure it was her?" Jax asked the coroner.
"I don't identify who did it," the middle-aged man began, "I just tell you how the victim died." Walking over to the first of the three bodies, the man pointed to six small holes on the chest, "This man was stabbed twice in the chest, all chambers of the heart pierced. The depth could match her Sai, but we could always be dealing with a rouge element who uses similar weaponry." Walking to the next victim, the coroner motioned toward the corpse's broken neck. "This one had his neck broken from an upper cut, nothing special here." Jax nodded at this, he knew a few dozen people who could do this deed. "And here is the interesting one that throws a wrench in everything." The corner indicated the third and final corpse. The man looked perfectly healthy, if it wasn't for his missing throat. Jax looked closer, if it weren't for the small, semi-circular jagged edges of the wound he would just chalk these deaths up as strange, but only one person, one woman, could cause this wound. Most would assume Baraka could make a similar injury, but then they wouldn't be accounting for the difference in jaw size.
"It doesn't make sense though." The man began, "These were men belonged to the Black Dragon clan, why would she attack them?"
Again the corner shook his head. "I can only tell you what the wounds tell me. I can't be a hundred percent sure, but these three bodies say that these men were most likely killed by Mileena. Question now is who do we tell?"
Jax sighed before ordering the corner, "Keep this on the need to know only. I'll inform Sonya, Raiden, and I guess Cage since he's actually proved himself to be more useful than we believed. I'll leave it up to them if we inform the Edenians." With the choice made, both men then left the morgue, however they were unaware of someone who had heard the entire exchange.
'Mileena, have you really changed?' Hinata thought, 'Or are you just doing this to get me on your side?'
Halfway through the first week in Earthrealm and everyone had made progress with their endurance training. After Raiden showed the group how to layer their chakra underneath the injured area, all those ranked above genin took to it immediately. The genin still had some problems, but luckily they were only using small, easily healed cuts to practice.
It was during lunch that the teens where finally able to take a break from practice. Although he thought it to be troublesome, Shikimaru didn't want to be bored at a silent table and so he, reluctantly, asked, "So who do you think will be our senseis?"
By now Raiden had deemed it necessary to show the group from Konoha videos of all of his champions. Some of the genin were excited to learn, some not so much.
"It does not matter who we want," Neji began, "fate has already determined who will teach us."
"Speak for yourself." Tenten jumped in, "I want to learn from that Jade lady."
"You just want her staff, don't you Tenten?" Naruto asked from further down the table.
"I don't see anything wrong with that Naruto," Hinata had to stop herself from adding kun to her almost-definite boyfriend's name, "but no matter who we get I'm sure that we'll get stronger, no matter what."
"Only a fool believes that Hinata-sama." Neji stated with a much venom as possible. "Once a failure, always a failure."
It took everything Naruto had not to jump across the table and serve Neji a knuckle sandwich, yet it still wasn't enough. Just as the boy was going to follow his plan, a loud alarm rang as red lights began to flash. Choji managed to get a nearby soldier's attention and asked, "What's going on?"
"Portal's going to open soon, gotta get in position." The man paused and gave the kids a quick glance before saying, "You probably want to get to a bunker." before he rushed off.
Not really seeing any other options, the genin followed the man's advice, arriving at a room occupied by all their senseis and the academy students as well as a number of other people, including Jax, Sonya and Johnny. Yet the Earthrealm warriors did not notice the shinobi, their attention focused on a set of monitors the showed a number of soldiers getting into firing positions along an empty street.
Before anyone could ask a question, a red and black portal opened in the middle of the street. Out of the portal rushed a number of men, all seemed to have a tattoo of a black Chinese dragon somewhere on their body, all were armed with a variety of rifles. However, these men where not the only creatures to exit the portal, there were also what could only be described as goblins with large mouths full of fangs and blades jutting out of forearms. Asuma was the one to ask what everyone was thinking, "Just what in the name of Kami are those?"
"Those," Jax calmly replied, "are Tarkatans, one of the resident species of Outworld."
"They are monsters." Kurenai added, shocked at what she was seeing.
"Perhaps," Raiden said as he teleported into the room, "true they have a war-like culture, but then again so do you. There is no question that their leader is a monster, but can you be so certain of the individual?"
Before Kurenai could respond, Johnny spoke up saying, "We have a problem."
"What is it Cage?" Sonya asked as she sent orders for a squad to try to outflank the enemy.
"The portal hasn't closed."
"What? Why would they keep it open? The fight just started, they have no reason to retreat."
In answer to the question, something stepped through. The thing was obviously male, standing well above any of the other men or Tarkatan. The creature only wore some spiked shoulder arm and what could best be described as a black speedo to preserve his modesty, the rest of the creature was covered in fur with the same pattern as a tiger. Yet, this was not the most unique feature, which would be the extra set of arms attached to the male's torso. This was Kintaro, a Shokan warrior of the Tigrar lineage, and one of the strongest of Outworld's generals.
"We need to get down there, NOW!" Johnny yelled knowing that none of the regular soldiers stood a chance against the beast.
Before anyone could walk out of the room, Kakashi asked, "Has anyone seen Naruto?"
Kintaro smirked as he looked at the Earthrealm defenders. The Earthrealm forces sent out was just a squad or two of normal soldiers, none of the champions that the Elder Gods decreed must stay alive. Of course since it was decreed he must live as well he could have a bit of fun here. Just as he was about to launch a fireball, a voice asked, "Hey kitty kitty, what are you doing here?"
The Shokan looked to his left and saw Naruto. Ordinarily he would ignore the boy, but he was infuriated at his lineage being insulted. Roaring, the Outworld general launched a fist at Naruto, only for the genin to lean backwards and avoid it. "Aw, that's not very nice."
Kintaro tried to pounce on Naruto, only for the boy to slide under the giant. While at mid-range, Kintaro quickly turned and launched three fireballs at the boy. He smirked when all three hit their target, only to be shocked when Naruto was replaced by a piece of rubble. Walking out from behind a car, Naruto slowly clapped as he said, "I guess someone is angry, would you feel better if I got you some milk?"
With surprising speed, Kintaro was able to grab Naruto's head with one of his hands. The smile on the general's face was short lived as Naruto quickly used a kunai to slash the tiger-beast's forearm, the pain making him drop the boy. Once he landed, Naruto quickly shoved Kintaro back through the still open portal. The assembled Black Dragon clansmen and Tarkatans saw all of this happen and wisely chose to retreat as well.
Once the portal closed, Naruto turned to see that his sensei had made his way to the battlefield, "Hey Kakashi-sensei, what took you so long?"
The man only shook his head and said, "Next time you step out for some air, let somebody know."
"So you are telling me that you were defeated by a 13-year-old?" Shao Kahn asked Kintaro. The conquer was not amused by his general's excuses.
"Please my lord," Kintaro began to beg, "I had never seen this child before. He possessed strange powers and hit far more powerfully than should be possible.
Shoa Kahn was silent for a moment before saying, "Be thankful I need my generals alive since Earthrealm has a numbers advantage. Now get out of my sight!" Kintaro hastily bowed before leaving the throne room. 'So Raiden has been recruiting,' Shao Kahn thought to himself, 'perhaps it is time I looked into expanding my army as well.'
Motioning for a scribe to come forward, the ruler of Outworld commanded, "We will attempt another attack in a few days, inform Kano and Skarlet they will be playing a pivotal role."
After the fiasco that happened earlier, Anko was able to find some space in the break room to get back to her project as she listened to Kurenai rant about Kakashi's teaching style.
"I mean I agree that in Wave we only had time to teach chakra control, but you would think the man would have a better handle on his students. I know Hinata would never sneak off and do something like that."
"Yeah, sure, totally agree with you." Anko absent-mindedly said as she finished looking through another file. Before Kurenai could throw the stack across the room to get her friend's attention, Sonya walked in.
Upon seeing the large stacks of files, the Lieutenant asked, "What is all this for?"
Knowing she couldn't outright lie with Kurenai present, Anko decided to tell a half truth, "Hokage-sama wants to make sure that our shinobi are operating at their peak skill level and taking the correctly ranked missions. He asked me to look over the files of our shinobi roster to see if anyone has recently been taking lower ranked missions then what they had previously performed."
Anko expected Sonya to nod her head and walk away, however the blond instead asked, "Mind if I help, there's really nothing to do around here right now."
Nodding her head to an empty chair, Anko said, "Be my guest." Seeing how her conversation was not going anywhere, Kurenai also pulled up a few stacks towards her and started reviewing the files.
After a few moments of silence, Sonya asked, "I get that difficulty increases from D to A, and S is the top, but what are X and Ω?"
Kurenai answered by saying, "Those are volunteer missions that hardly anyone does any more but you can choose any price you want if they're completed. X are seduction missions. I think the last one Konoha did was back during the Nidamie's time."
"I remember that lesson." Anko spoke up, "Wasn't the reward the kunoichi asked for was to spend the night with Tobirama-sama? Doesn't the tale go she said, "You told me who to screw, so now let me screw who I want to?"
Kurenai chuckled slightly as she said, "Yeah I think that's how Kushina-sensei told it." Turning back to Sonya, the genjutsu mistress continued, "As for Ω ranked missions, those are basically suicide missions. The last one I know of ended when me and Anko were in the academy, someone came out of retirement to do it, but I forget what the price was. Do you remember Anko?"
However Anko wasn't paying attention. Instead her eye's seemed glazed over, her mind recalling a long since forgotten memory.
Anko was sitting in the back of the classroom trying to pay attention to what the teacher was drowning on about. The only thing keeping her from sleeping was seeing what pranks Iruka and Obito had pulled on those who had before. Thankfully, Anko was saved from the monotony when the door opened.
"Excuse me sensei, but the Hokage would like to see one of your students." A red headed female chunin said as she handed the instructor a note.
After quickly glancing at the paper, the instructor called for Anko to follow the woman. Anko was nervous as she walked with the woman. Sensing the tension, the woman said, "Don't worry Anko-chan, you're not in trouble."
"Then why did you come get me, miss?"
"My name's Kushina sweetie," the woman said as she smiled, "and as for why I came to get you, well the Hokage has a job for you." Anko now saw that instead of going to the Hokage tower, the pair had walked to the hospital. As the two entered the lobby, the village's leader saw them.
"Kushina, I hope the young lady didn't cause you too much trouble."
"Not at all Hokage-sama," she then leaned closer to the man in an attempt to keep Anko from hearing the conversation, "I can see she has a lot of potential, I'll have to snatch her up when she graduates." Turning to Anko, Kushina said, "See you later sweetie, have a good day 'ttebane!" Kushina quickly covered her mouth as she blushed at being laughed at by Anko and Hiruzen.
Once Kushina had left, Hiruzen began to lead Anko down a hallway as he said, "Hello Anko dear, I understand that you are currently in the academy."
"That's right Hokage-sama."
"Tell me Anko-chan, what do you think about your future career."
Felling as if she was being tested, Anko carefully said, "I know it's dangerous, but I want to do what I can to protect my home."
Hiruzen nodded before he knelt down to the girl's level and said, "That is good, but sometime things have a cost." The two had stopped in front of a door at the end of the hallway. "In this room is a kunoichi that volunteered for a mission because she wanted to protect the village. She doesn't have long but wishes to see a piece of the future she helped to protect. Do you think you can do that?"
The girl hesitantly nodded her head before the Hokage opened the door. Walking into the room, Anko saw that the lone occupant was a woman in her late sixties possibly early seventies. Whatever mission she had been on was evidently incredibly difficult, the left half of the woman's head was wrapped in bandages, hiding her missing eye and ear while her right arm ended in a bandaged wrapped stump. She seemed to be napping until she was woken up by Hiruzen clearing his throat. Now Anko could see the woman possessed the Byakugan, and her unmarked forehead meant she was a Main House Hyuga. Seeing he had her attention, the Hokage said, "I'll give you two some time alone." before he left the room and shut the door behind him.
"Hello there little one," the woman said as she patted the seat next to her, "why don't you sit down?" Anko hesitantly did as she was asked, a little scared by the woman's injuries. The Hyuga was about to say something more before she started coughing. Seeing a glass sitting on the nightstand, Anko quickly grabbed it and offered it to the woman.
After taking a few gulps, the woman smiled and said, "Thanks for that dear, I would have gotten it myself, but as you can see this is all I have left." as she held up her remaining hand and chuckled at her own joke. "Now then, what's you name dear?"
"Anko Mitarashi."
"That's a lovely name. Do you like dango?"
Anko shook her head as she said, "I don't know, I never had it."
"Never had dango? Well we've got to fix that. Would you grab that box on the night stand for me please?" After grabbing the box, the woman motioned for the girl to lift the lid. As she did so, Anko saw the box was filled with the sweet treat that the woman had mentioned. "My dad use to spoil me with dango when I was your age. Well Anko-chan, what are you waiting for? Go on."
Slowly, Anko grabbed one of the skewers and took a bit out of the first sphere. Instantly Anko's taste buds cried out in ecstasy as stars appeared in her eyes. Anko quickly devoured almost the entirety of the box, until there was only one skewer left. Looking sheepish, Anko held the skewer out towards the woman as she said, "Sorry Hyuga-san, I guess I got carried away."
The woman only laughed as she took the treat and said, "It's okay Anko-chan. You are in the academy right?" The girl nodded, "And how do you like it?"
"It's alright, it is a little boring but Obito and Iruka-kun play funny jokes."
"Iruka-kun is it?" The woman laughed as Anko blushed. "Don't worry dear, I won't tell anyone." After a comfortable silence, the woman said, "I believe I've kept you from class long enough, could you grab the Hokage on the way out?" Anko nodded as she made her way to the door, only to be stopped one last time, "Anko-chan, remember when you find someone special in your life to hold on as tight as possible and not to let go." Anko wasn't exactly sure what the old Hyuga meant, but nodded none the less.
After she told the Hokage that the woman wanted to see him, Anko knew she should either go back to the academy or back to the orphanage, but a feeling made her stay in the hallway and try to listen to what the two adults were talking about.
"She's a wonderful kid." the Hyuga said.
"Acts a lot like her grandmother at that age, has the same amount of potential I'm told." Hiruzen replied.
The Hyuga nodded her head as she said, "It was nice to meet her, even if it was only this once. And my daughter, where is she?"
Silence hung in the air for a moment until Hiruzen slowly began, "There was an outbreak a number of years ago, she didn't survive."
Anko could practically hear the sadness in the Hyuga's voice as she asked, "And the girl's father?"
Again Hiruzen paused before he answered, "He was a jonin, a good shinobi and a good man. He stayed behind so the chunin and the client could make it to safety. When we recovered what was left we found a ring in one of his pockets. I'm sorry."
"You should be. I left this village so many years ago to keep those cultist out of the Land of Fire. You assured me that my daughter would be kept away from everything, that she would be safe." The anger the woman had seemed to fad as she said, "Although I suppose it no longer matters, I'll see all of them again soon, the poison will see to that. Hiruzen, could I trouble you with one last promise to a dying woman?"
"Of course you can, you have earned that and so much more."
The Hyuga took a quick breath before she said, "Watch over Anko-chan, make sure that cursed clan of mine never learns about her. Keep this promise Hiruzen, or else I will haunt you."
Anko knew that there was more to the conversation, but felt that she had overstayed her welcome. Quickly and quietly, she made her way out of the hospital and back to the academy.
"Anko, Anko, Anko!" Kurenai finally yelled. Once her friend began to blink, Kurenai said, "Finally, I thought we were going to have to get you to the sick bay."
"What was all that about?" Sonya asked.
"Just one of the reasons why I'm not cleared for front line duty." Anko replied. "Somethings happened in the past, now I don't remember some stuff. Some of it comes back every now and then, but I freeze up."
"So what was it this time?" Iruka asked as he graded some papers. Apparently he had walked in while Anko was stuck in her memory. "Childhood, academy, genin, or other?"
"Academy, and definitely a good one. Now enough questions, let's get back to work ladies."
While Sonya and Kurenai looked over the files for shinobi who matched Anko's earlier description, Anko's mind was elsewhere. It could have been a coincidence, but Anko felt like there was a reason why the Hokage asked her to be the one to see the old Hyuga.
After a few minutes of looking over files, the group assembled at the table started hearing a light "swoosh" sound. Although it was a very quit sound, after a few minutes it got on Anko's nerves. As she turned to look at whoever was behind her, she yelled, "Would you…" only to stop midsentence.
Anko's eyes were wide as she saw what Iruka was unconsciously doing with his left hand. While he graded with his right, he slowly spun a kunai by its ring on one of his fingers for a few moments before lightly throwing it down only to catch the knife's ring with his next finger. He would continue this process until he reached his pinky, at which point he would toss the blade back up to his pointer finger. Anko watched wide-eyed for a moment before yelling, "How are you doing that?!"
Iruka looked up from his papers and calmly asked, "Doing what?"
In response Anko pointed to Iruka's left hand. The man looked at his hand for a moment, surprised at what he was doing, before the knife slipped off his finger, giving him a sallow but painful cut along the length of his palm. Gritting his teeth, Iruka said, "Well that hurt, I'll go see if the medics could patch me up."
Anko only watched as Iruka left the room, once the doors were closed she became a flurry of movement as she shoved files left and right while muttering, "Where is it, where is it, where is it?"
Kurenai was about to ask her friend what she was looking for when Anko suddenly grabbed one file, briefly looked at it, then held it up as she declared, "Here it is!"
Before Anko opened the file, Kurenai and Sonya were briefly able to see "Umino, Iruka" printed on the middle of the file. Once she opened the file, Anko reached into an interior pocket of her Trench coat to pull out another file, this one marked with the word "Oni".
Anko quickly flipped both files to the first page, the file on the left showed a picture of a smiling Iruka, the file on the right showed a man wearing regulation ANBU gear with an odd mask. While most ANBU masks where almost a uniform white before being painted to resemble an animal, the man's was completely different. Yes, there was a set of painted black eyes, but what truly set the man's mask apart was what was added. While ANBU occasionally added ears to their masks, this mask's mouth had two sets of fangs jutting outwards while a pair of horns sat on it's forehead.
While both women were slightly shocked at how frightening the mask was, Anko was comparing the files allowed. "Same height, same blood type, Iruka's missions where high ranked until he had that blank period and started teaching at the academy. It all fits!"
"Anko, just what is this all about? No lying and no half-truths this time." Kurenai demanded.
Anko wanted to run away, but knew that she would just get caught in a genjutsu cast by her friend, she didn't even know what Sonya would do to her. Seeing no other option, Anko sighed before saying, "Kurenai already knows a lot of this, but I'll start at the beginning for your sake Sonya. But let's clean up first."
After gathering all of the files and re-sealing them, save for Iruka's and Oni's, Anko began her story. "So, after I graduated the academy I got placed on a team with Iruka and Kurenai. I had fun and learned some things, but I guess I stood out. About year after Kushina-sensei started teaching us, I got reassigned. One of the sennin, the greatest ninja from our village, requested that I be trained as his apprentice. So I trained for two years, got through the chunin exam with my old teammates, then go on an extended training trip with my sensei. Nice so far, right?"
Sonya was about to agree, only for Kurenai to grab her arm, "Don't answer that, it's a trap."
Anko either didn't hear her friend or didn't care since she continued her story, "Yeah I did grow strong, but turns out my sensei was an evil son of a bitch and will go down as one of our village's biggest traitors. Towards the end of my training the bastard uses me and nine other people to see if this," here Anko folded her trench coat's collar down, exposing what seemed like a three tomoe tattoo, "what he called the Cursed Seal of Heaven, has any side effects. Turns out only one in ten survive the first day with the thing, then it starts tainting your thoughts, trying to bend you to his will. After that I didn't want to follow him, so the traitor tries to wipe my mind of everything." Anko had to pause as she recalled some painful memories.
When she had her emotions under control, the special jonin continued, "I don't know if I got lucky or if the bastard wanted another experiment, but I didn't forget everything. I remembered enough to make it back to the village, but by then Kushina-sensei, possibly the only person that could remove the seal, was dead. Hiruzen-sama managed to get the thing sealed so that I wasn't influenced." After saying so much, Anko had to take a quick drink of water before she finished the first part of her story, "Some of the village's higher ups thought I knew what the bastard was planning all along, but Hokage-sama trusted me and had me transferred to ANBU. Now comes the part that Kure-chan doesn't know about."
As Anko began the second half of her story, her mind started to relive one of her most cherished memories.
Anko, wearing the standard ANBU gear and a snake mask, walked into the lounge area after her first mission since she returned from her "training trip." It wasn't a particularly difficult mission, yet the combination of being out of practice and her memory issues had created some problems for her, but then again she had some problems right now.
Within seconds of entering the room, she could already feel the eyes of almost every man present. It wasn't just because of the skintight uniform, there were also several woman wearing the same thing that no one paid attention to. No, it was her mask that made everyone stare. By now everyone in the village knew the traitor's apprentice was back, received with open arms no less, yet few knew of her new position. Kami, she hadn't even visited Kurenai or Iruka yet to let them know she was alive, but then again they might not want to be associated with her.
'Sure,' Anko thought to herself as she saw a few of the masked men openly look at her, 'I could have chosen a different animal, but I won't hide who I am. I won't let those bastards on the council have an easy victory.'
Finally one of the shinobi walked away from his group towards her table. The ANBU, this one with a rat mask, didn't bother to sit down, instead he just leered over Anko as he said, "Hey there newbie, how about you come with me back to my room?"
So that was it, she had hoped that she could have some form of comradery here. Instead that stupid name the gossips had given her, the snake slut, had even made its way here. Ironic considering Anko was still a virgin. Not even looking at the man, Anko said, "Leave me out of it and just go fuck yourself."
Instead of walking away, the man leaned closer and, with a lower voice, said, "Listen, everyone here knows what you are. Your life here can be a lot easier if you just do what those with more experience suggest. This is the last time I'm asking nicely."
"Then I hope you enjoy your hand tonight." That was probably the wrong thing to say, but Anko didn't care. Being the apprentice of the Leaf's biggest traitor since Madara Uchiha came with some emotional baggage and she wasn't looking to add anymore. She saw Rat pull back his arm to hit her, but she also knew she couldn't react in time. As she braced for impact, she heard bone crunching.
"Now that wasn't very nice Rat." Anko hadn't even noticed the third person until he caught and crushed Rat's arm before it even came close. Looking at the man, Anko was surprised, and a little frightened, to see an Oni mask in place of the usual animal one. "As I've needed to remind you multiple times Rat, we're all comrades here. If someone says no, get over it or go spend the night in a brothel."
Once his arm was released, Rat sulked off, to his bunk, a brothel, or the infirmary. Turning to Anko, Oni said, "Sorry about him, we're not all like that. I look forward to working with you Snake-san." before walking off toward the mess hall while twirling a kunai around his left hand.
"After that we ended up getting assigned a lot of missions together and even if I never found out his name or his past, we grew close."
Kurenai smiled at her friend, knowing that she deserved happiness after everything she went through. "So you and him?"
Anko didn't wear her manic grin she was known for, instead with a small, genuine smile she said, "One amazing night, even if he made me wear a blindfold so I wouldn't see his face, he was always by the book that way." Anko's smile then turned to a frown as she said, "But the next morning he was gone. Locker cleaned out, gear turned back in, nothing. After that I stayed in ANBU for a few more months, but I just didn't fit the role anymore. Hokage-sama noticed it, asked for my mask, had me promoted to special jonin since I'd be a waste as a chunin, then assigned me to T&I. One day I stumbled upon the files, saw Oni's and decided to find him, and now I have."
"Anko, I know you want to find this guy," Kurenai began, not wanting to have her friend hurt by the truth, "but Iruka's not Oni." Seeing the confused look on Anko's face, Kurenai explained, "I keep forgetting you were out of the village at the time. I don't know all the details myself. All I know is Iruka saw me off for a mission, when I got back I heard he'd disappeared during one of his own. A few year later a team found him in a coma in a local hospital. It took months until he could be moved to the village, then another six for him to wake up. He didn't remember anything that happened to him, he barely remembered who he was."
"Also what makes you sure this Oni guy is alive?" Sonya asked. "The last mission listed here is Ω ranked, you said it was basically suicide."
"I don't know," Anko confessed, "but I have to hope. Being with Oni, I was happy for the first time in a long time. After all the shit I went through, being orphaned, being experimented on, the looks some of the civilians still give me, I just want to find him again, and this time I'm not letting go."
The room was silent after Anko's speech, until Sonya said, "Sorry about what I said, I really didn't think anyone had it that bad."
Shrugging her shoulders, Anko leaned back in her chair as she said, "My life hasn't been absolute shit, I've got some good friends and I know some good jutsus, and I guess there is one good thing about this seal." Anko stood up fast enough to cause her chair to slide. As she reached for the hem of her net shirt, the special jonin said, "It accelerated my metabolism to such a degree that I can eat as much Dango as I want and still keep this sexy figure!" Anko had only intended to lift her shirt up past her stomach, but still had a satisfied smirk as she felt her breasts bounce.
Before Sonya could say anything, the door was opened by Iruka as he said, "Hey Kurenai I got lost around the base, I know you know some medical jutsu so could you…."Iruka stopped in his tracks when he saw Anko. The room was still for half a moment before Iruka was launch into the floor via nosebleed.
"No Iruka-kun!" Anko cried as she made her way to her fallen friend. "He was so young, don't take him away you bastard!" Anko yelled as she shock her fist to the sky while her other hand pressed Iruka's head into her, still uncovered, cleavage.
"Should we be worried about them?" Sonya asked.
"No," Kurenai said, "they'll be fine until Iruka recovers, then Anko's going to go on about how he got a freebie and stalk him until she catches a glimpse."
"It's happened before?"
"More than should be healthy." Kurenai calmly stated before adding, "I think the first time was when we had a joint mission with Kakashi's team to Beach Country. Anko insisted we get new swimsuits and dragged Iruka with along. She wanted to get his opinion on her choice, but she didn't know the back of the bikini got caught on the door hook in the changing room." Kurenai laughed before she continued saying, "When we got to Beach Country she kept trying to peak into the boy's side of the changing rooms. Kushina-sensei and Rin were going to yell at her until she went stiff then slowly walked away, saying Iruka must have had a lot of chakra."
Although she didn't know who Rin was, Sonya could guess what Iruka's chakra level meant and laughed along with Kurenai, but as she laughed her mind began piecing together some of her own memories, making the Lieutenant realize something. "I trust you can look after these two, I've got something I need to do." Kurenai merely nodded and waved to Sonya as she walked away.
After twenty minutes of searching, Sonya found her prey.
"Hey," Sonya yelled as she rushed after the person, "what is the matter with you, is Smoke not enough for you?"
Jade was silent for a second before she started laughing, "Wait, you think me and Johnny are…?"
"Why else would you spend time with Cage?" Sonya asked, her voice showing her irritation.
"I'm not sleeping with him, he just wanted etiquette lessons."
"But why would he go to you instead of Kitana? Why would he suddenly care about how he was acting?" Sonya questioned.
"Think about it. Kitana is practically married to Liu Kang, do you want to risk a misunderstanding with a guy who almost killed Shao Kahn?" Jade asked. Sonya could see her point. "As for why he cares, I don't really know. When I asked him about it, he said he found someone that made him want to stop being a douchebag who uses his own name as a pickup line."
Sonya immediately knew what event Jade was referring to and after saying thanks began to stalk the hallways for her new prey. After twenty minutes of searching, she found him talking to Yamato about some of the other Earthrealm Champions. When she got closer, the Lieutenant yelled, "Cage!"
"Well hello Sonya, what can I do for you? You know after that one spar you never seem to talk to me except to yell about something I did." Johnny probably would have said more if it wasn't for Sonya's reply.
"I know what you've been doing with Jade."
Johnny actually lost his ever present smirk and turned pale before he began, "Listen Sonya, I'm sure Jade told you a lot of stuff, so you probably know or figured out everything. It's not just for you, it's for me as well." Seeing the confused look on the woman's face, Johnny elaborated, "After Shao Kahn's death and when we had the brief skirmishes with Outworld, I looked back at how I'd been acting and really, I didn't like it. Although I guess a lot of it was for you too. You don't deserve a type of guy I was before, you deserve someone who could treat you right, someone who will…"
"Johnny," once more the man was stunned into silence, "you're rambling again. You're taking me to dinner tonight, I know the place, pick me up at Eight. Got it?" Johnny could only nod his head. Satisfied with her work, Sonya gave a brief greeting to Yamato before she walked away, a slight sway of her hips noticeable only to Johnny.
"What are you smirking about? It sounds like you've been invited to a shotgun wedding by the bride." Yamato stated, confused by the man's behavior.
The grin on Johnny's face only grew as he said, "She called me Johnny."
It had been a few days since the last Outworld offensive. Although no one expected another attack so soon, the base was still slightly on edge. For the commanding officers it was due to the strange radiation readings they had recently picked up, signs another portal would open soon, whether for an attack, fleeing refugees, or negotiations no one knew. For the grunts it was the fact that Lt. Blade had been showing up late for the morning drills, moreover a bit of happiness bled into her voice, sure signs of the end times.
By now all of the genin had gotten the hang of layering their chakra, so to ensure they didn't sneak out and onto the battlefield all were being watched in the control room by Yamato, Kurenai, and Asuma. Kakashi managed to convince Jax to let him go out and fight while Guy tagged along for another challenge. Iruka was in a separate conference room to watch after the academy students, while no one knew what Anko was up to.
"So one more time," Kakashi said as he turned a page in his book, "humans are worth one while Tarkatans are worth two. Generals are worth a hundred."
"Yes, yes my eternal rival. Now let us fuel our flames of youth!"
"Guy, we need to wait for the portal to open." Right when Kakashi finished speaking, a portal opened with several Tarkatans rushing forward. Kakashi sweat dropped and thought to himself, 'I need to stop saying things like that when Guy's around,' as he put his prized book away and got ready for the battle.
"This is boring." Konohamaru declared after listening to Iruka lecture for the past hour about team formations and trap making.
Iruka had expected something like this to happen eventually, but had hoped to have a bit more time to figure something out. "Really, and do your classmates agree with your statement?"
"I agree sensei. We're being trained to be shinobi. Book knowledge is great, but are we actually going to learn something useful in the real world?" Hanabi questioned.
Iruka was actually ready for a question like this. Telling his students he'd be back quickly, Iruka found a passing soldier and pulled him aside to quickly ask, "There's a battle happening right?" When the man nodded, Iruka asked, "Where's a good place to observe that should be safe?"
The man tapped a on the screen of his tablet for a minute before turning it to Iruka to show him a map. "There's an old office complex about half a mile away, should give you a good vantage point from the roof." Iruka nodded his thanks as he went back to the conference room and declared they were going on a field trip.
Right before the sensei and the students were going to leave the building, Iruka stopped the children and pulled out a kunai to cut an almost invisible trip line, causing the snare to backfire and catch Anko's leg. Iruka only gave his friend a look that said, "Really?" before he said, "Come on, you're going to help me keep an eye on the kids." Anko pouted as she removed the snare but followed after the group anyway.
Kakashi and Guy had been at their contest for the past forty-five minutes and so far both were tied. Kakashi really didn't mind, it had been awhile since he fought on such a grand scale and he actually did enjoy Guy's challenges, especially when he was winning, despite what his attitude suggested.
The jonin's musings were cut short when someone shouted over his ear piece, "We've got the blood warrior in section A-5, repeat blood warrior in A-5! We need backup!"
Kakashi did a quick head count of the enemy and saw that he'd have the victory in the bag if he took down the general, even with the continued reinforcements. "Hey Guy, hold down the fort here while I go help that squad out."
"Of course Kakashi, but I warn you that my flames of youth will be victorious today no matter what!" It was only after Guy had finished speaking that he realized his rival had already sped off.
"Curse you and your hip attitude!" Guy yelled as he quickly launched his fist backwards, smacking a Tarkatan in the nose.
The scene Kakashi arrived at was chaotic. He heard the groans of the injured soldiers and saw something moving very fast in the epicenter of the destruction. He knelt down next to one of the few conscious soldiers and asked, "What happened?"
"We were doing a perimeter sweep when the enemy ambushed us." The man had to pause to cough up a glob of blood. "We've sustained a few casualties, but most are just knocked out."
Kakashi nodded at the news then ordered, "Call in an extraction for the wounded, I'll try to lead the enemy away." Kakashi didn't wait for a response, instead he rushed into the battle, throwing a kunai to gain the target's attention. It worked as his opponent defected the blade downwards with a slash from a kodachi sword.
Now that the battlefield was still, Kakashi could finally get a good look at this "blood warrior." Taking stock of his opponent's weapons, Kakashi saw two kodachis as well as several kunai strapped to her leg. Really he wasn't surprised about his opponent's gender, Sonya proved just how powerful women in this Realm could be, although her attire did make him pause as all she wore were a pair of red boots that stopped at mid-thigh, forearm guards, a red bikin top, a red loin cloth, and a red face mask. While most men would be frozen in place by the woman's clothing, or lack of, what stopped Kakashi in his tracks was her long red hair.
It was a common fact known in Konoha that at least one genin in each generation would pick up at least one trait from their jonin sensei. The extreme to which the genin copied varied, with Rock Lee becoming a mini-Guy representing one end of the spectrum. If Kakashi had to guess he would say that Shikamaru would eventually ask Asuma for a pack of smokes, showing the other extreme. Many in the village thought that Kakashi's generation was the exception to the rule, however unknown to most Kakashi had picked up one trait from Minato, besides the value of teamwork that was almost universal among the shinobi of the village. While Kakashi could admire any woman's beauty, something about red heads caused his heart to skip a beat.
"Hi, I'm Kakashi Hatake. I guess I'll be your challenger." In response, the woman threw two kunai, which Kakashi was able to deflect, if barely, his movements slowed as he observed how his opponent's hair fell in front of her shoulder.
'Curse you Minato-sensei.'
In Edenia
Minato was currently in the middle of certain…activities with his wife. Although what he was currently doing wasn't his favorite thing, Kushina enjoyed it and was always sure to return the favor. Everything was going well until the Fourth Hokage sneezed.
Kushina looked down and asked, "Did you just sneeze?"
"Maybe?"
Kushina quickly kicked her husband away and pulled up her panties. "Oh come on," Minato began, "I thought we were doing this."
"You ruined the mood," was Kushina's quick response as she walked away, "be glad I'm not making you sleep on the couch for the next month."
'Why do I feel like I'm going to try and kill Kakashi next time I see him?' the Yellow Flash questioned himself.
"Wow, that's so cool!" Mogei exclaimed as she watched a squad of soldiers help defend against the Tarkatans through a pair of binoculars.
"It's because they use teamwork and know how to work together. They each know what role they need to play and who will back them up." Iruka stated.
"That's cool, but look at Kakashi's battle." Konohamura said as he watched the man launch a water bullet against the woman.
"Yep, that's Kakashi alright," Anko said, more to herself than anyone else, "always showing off."
Iruka would have responded, but noticed a trend in the battle. It seemed that while the Outworld forces where putting up a fierce fight, most where only injuring their opponents. Out of habit, Iruka clicked his tongue, only to have his eyes grow wide before he threw a seal on the ground. Instantly a light purple barrier sprang up around Iruka and his group, several bullets suspended within the semi-transparent wall.
"So, the battle down there is a distraction while someone gets in an over watch position up here." Anko said as she stretched. "Okay Iruka, drop the barrier and I'll get to work."
"No Anko." The snake mistress was surprised at the commanding voice Iruka used, "The most important thing right now is to make sure those four," Iruka nodded his head to the frightened academy students, "get to safety. You've got the best chance of getting them back to base, I'll stay and keep these guys busy."
"You're not going to budge on this are you?" Seeing the determination in her friend's eyes, Anko signed before biting her thumb to some a large snake, "Do me a favor and don't die, I still need pay back for that freebie."
Iruka chuckled a bit before he said, "If we make it through this I might just let you look."
As the conversation went on, the snake summon had gently wrapped around the children before slithering onto Anko, providing a quick harness. As Anko used her chakra to rush down the side of the building, Hanabi asked, "Will Iruka-sensei be okay?"
"I don't know twerp, but I hope he will be."
Kakashi was in the middle of the fight for his life, not even his second fight with Zabuza compared to this! Almost immediately he needed to uncover his Sharingan just too keep up with the deadly beauty, although that might have to do more with her hair color than her skill. Still, Kakashi believed he was doing alright, able to stop her kodachis with a kunai and dodge all range attacks, although he did feel proud that he was able to sneak a quick cut on her bare upper arm. The smile instantly disappeared when the jonin saw a small amount of blood leak out from the wound, then hardened into a spike and speed towards him, while he was able to dodge he noted how to blood spike stuck in the wall behind him. 'Guess that's why they call her the blood warrior.'
Kakashi knew he needed to end the fight, but he had wasted a lot of chakra to keep his speed up, to launch destructive jutsus his opponent always dodged, and to patch himself up when the stray slash found its mark. He might have enough energy for one more attack, but then he'd pass out.
'Well I do have that, but it's strictly a last resort.' Kakashi thought as he landed a chakra enhanced punch to the woman's stomach, sending her back several feet. He watched the woman slowly get up and brush off the hit. 'If this isn't a last resort, I don't know what is.'
As the woman unsheathed one of her kodachi and began rushing forward, Kakashi brought his hand up in preparation for his Hail Mary move. As his opponent began to swing her sword, Kakashi quickly pulled his mask down.
Instantly the woman froze, her sword inches from decapitating Kakashi. She stared in awe of the jonin's now revealed face, taking in the man's pointed chin, the full length of the scar covering his left eye as well as the small mole under the left corner of his mouth. All movement stopped as the two combatants stared at each other, until the woman dropped her kodachi and began to fall backwards. If he had all his energy, Kakashi could have caught the woman before she hit the ground, but as he was extremely tired he could only watch as she hit the ground. What Kakashi found odd was that once she hit the ground, the woman dissolved into a large puddle of blood, but being too tired to care he pulled his mask back on, turned around, and began to walk back to the base, only to have something stop him in his tracks.
The second he turned around he felt someone's arms encircle him, then he heard a feminine voice say, "Sorry, I believe I was rude earlier. My name is Skarlet, and you are mine." Kakashi felt a chill run down his spine as he realized what he had created, a fangirl with skills. Using a bit of chakra, the jonin substituted himself with a log before running off, hoping Guy could help. Skarlet only gave a small giggle before chasing after the man.
Guy was having the time of his life. As he knocked out another Black Dragon member, he mentally added another victory to his count, so far he was at 325! His flames of youth would ensure he beat Kakashi and pull ahead in their ever continuing rivalry.
Speaking of the devil, Guy was suddenly grabbed by the man as his fellow jonin, whose uniform and face mask had a number of slashes, yelled, "Help me Guy! I accidentally created a fangirl!"
Guy really didn't understand how Kakashi could do such a thing, but got his answer when he looked behind the man. While a portal had just delivered a squad of Tarkatan warriors into the battle, they were being decimated by a woman in red as she slashed her kodachis left and right all the while saying, "Mine, mine, mine, mine!"
Guy put a hand on Kakashi's shoulder and said, "Go my friend, I shall give you as much time as possible."
Kakashi bowed his head in thanks then began to run away as he called over his shoulder, "I will be sure to leave spiced curry at your grave."
Either Guy paid no mind to his friend's comment or didn't hear it as he braced himself for the coming battle. Once the woman had completely annihilated the Tarkatans, Guy declared, "My name is Might Guy, jonin of Konoha. You shall not pass!" only for the woman to rush forward and knock him down with a jumping roundhouse kick before running after Kakashi. "Curse you and your hip attitude!"
Anko was running back up the side of the building. After she made it back to the base and made sure the kids where safe, she immediately left to make sure Iruka was still alive. As she was nearing the top of the building, she heard the sounds of fighting stop. Deciding to be stealthy, the special jonin quietly made her way onto the roof and hid behind an AC unit. She felt something touch her leg, only to discover it was the body of a Black Dragon member, a kunai impaled in his heart. Wanting to know what was happening now more than ever, Anko slowly leaned to the side to observe the battlefield, what she saw shocked her.
There were perhaps a dozen dead Black Dragon men, almost all of them having their throat slashed or other serious knife wounds. Others had no visible injury, but there were also several arms missing bodies and a few scorch marks on the roof. After a few second's of searching, Anko spotted Iruka, forced onto his knees as two of the few living members of the Black Dragon clan held his arms outward. Standing in front was a bearded man wearing an open brown tactical vest, jeans, heavy combat boots, and black gloves. Although he had two large dragon tattoos that started on his arms and ended on his chest, the most distinctive feature of the man was that part of his head and one of his eyes seemed to be missing, replaced by metal and a glowing red light.
"Well mate, don't know who you are, but I'm impressed." The man then leaned down and grabbed Iruka's head to force the chunin to look at him. "Name's Kano, now how about you forget working with these Earthrealm losers and become a Black Dragon? We could always use good fighters like you." In response Iruka jerked out of the man's grip and delivered a head butt, a crunch was heard as the stranger's nose was broken.
As the man stood and forced his cartilage back into its proper place he snapped his fingers and held out his hand as one of the still living thugs, this one with two huge cylinders strapped to his back, handed the man a pistol. Before Anko could move, the apparent leader leveled the gun at Iruka's chest and pulled the trigger. Silence hung in the air until Iruka started laughing, "Guess these jackets are bullet proof."
Surprisingly the triggerman joined in the laugher before asking, "But are they laser proof?" Seeing the chunin's look of confusion, the man declined his head slightly before a red beam shot from his mechanical eye and through Iruka's chest. Immediately the man went limp in the Black Dragon's arms. Seeing what he'd done, the leader said, "Guess not. Shame, would have been a useful trophy." then started laughing.
Anko couldn't exactly say how she felt at that moment. She had seen death before, even been the one to deliver it, yet this was the first time she'd seen someone she knew so well be laughing one moment and gone the next. She was sad about her friend's death, she was angry at the man who killed him, but there was something more, something she couldn't put her finger on, until a voice in the back of her head began to talk.
"You weren't strong enough to save him, use my power to avenge him."
She knew it was wrong, that she should just ignore the voice and flee, go to the base and get back up to teach this cyborg a lesson, but then again Iruka had been her friend, shouldn't she be the one to deliver justice, or was it vengeance?
She felt a small amount of pain as the containment seal broke, then it felt like the left half of her body was on fire as the curse mark spread. While she gritted her teeth in pain, something strange happened. A great amount of pain quickly built up around the special jonin's eyes but just as quickly stopped, however now Anko had an almost 360 degree field of vision and was able to see past objects and under the skin of people. With her new vision confirming the only opponents on the roof where the two holding Iruka's body, the one with the cylinders, and Kano, Anko exploded out of her hiding place.
Faster than she ever was before, Anko rushed from behind the pair, delivering matching kidney punches which caused Iruka's body to fall. She then hooked both men's legs so that they would fall on their backs before leaping up, spinning, and landing so that each foot crushed one of the goons' groin. As she stepped off the pair she had a shadow striking snake follow out of each of her sleeves and deliver a venomous bite to each man. The neurotoxin would ensure they died slowly and painfully, and since the snakes were from the summoning real there was no known anti-venom. With half of the men taken down, Anko moved forward to engage the rest.
Kano stood still as Anko rushed forward, only stepping out of the way at the last second. While Anko pivoted to engage the man, she saw that the last man pointed a rod at her. The snake mistress ignored him as she further turned to face the leader, only to have the man behind her pull a trigger and launch a burst of flame at her. Luckily Anko saw this with her enhanced sight and rolled forward, yet the end of her trench coat still caught fire. Thankful she left all of the shinobi files back at her bunk, especially Oni's and Iruka's, Anko abandoned the clothing in mid-roll, and once she stopped, she quickly launched a kunai into one of the cylinders, which resulted in a massive explosion.
Anko didn't even get a chance to admire her work. In the next second she felt a blade slice diagonally across her back before someone kicked her to the ground. The pain was enough to shock her mind into reality. As Anko tried to make her way back onto her feet, she felt the curse mark recede. The special jonin got ready to face the last opponent, only to have one of her shoulders grabbed by the man as he forced her down onto two knee strikes to her chest while the third caught her chin and sent her back a few feet.
"Well love," Kano said as he flicked a knife upwards and caught it by the blade, "I had a nice time and you helped me save on some overhead cost but it's time to die." Before he could launch the blade, someone grabbed hold of his arm. Looking back the cyborg was surprised to see Iruka standing up, although he seemed to have a vacant look in his eyes. "Hey bloke, didn't I already kill you? Guess this calls for a double tap." As the man started charging his eye for another laser, Iruka attacked. With surprising speed and strength, the chunin ripped not only the eye but the entire cybernetic out of the man's skull. While his opponent stepped back in shock, Iruka quickly rolled the metal into a point, then jabbed the newly made weapon into the mercenary's chest.
Kano consider himself lucky that his old eye only nicked the side of his heart, if he could get to a surgeon fast he'd live. Always having an ace in the hole, Kano activated a one man portal to transport him straight to the cyber-surgeon who gave him his eye. A new eye and a new heart would set him back, but he'd live to take his vengeance.
Anko waited for the end to come, but when it didn't she hesitantly looked up to see Iruka stab Kano. Once the Black Dragon was gone, Iruka shook his head as the light returned to his eyes. He barely had any time to think before Anko launched herself at him as she yelled, "You're alive!", only to pull away and slap the chunin and yell, "Don't you dare do anything like that again," she then buried her face in his chest as she cried and whispered, "I don't know what I'd do if I lost my friends."
It took a little bit for Iruka to respond, but he finally hugged the special jonin and said, "I'm sorry, I'll try better next time."
Still clinging to her friend, Anko asked, "How are you alive? I saw Kano's laser go through you."
"I don't really know," Iruka responded, "I passed out from the pain. My guess is that the laser cauterized the wound so I didn't bleed out, then I unconsciously channeled charka to my chest to accelerate the healing, you know like what I did back on the Tora missions."
"Yeah, but those were little scratches." A silence hung in the air, until Iruka noticed something. Lightly pushing Anko away, he unzipped his flack jacket and offered it to her as he adverted his eyes. Anko didn't understand the gesture until she noticed that most of her shirt was destroyed. Grabbing the Jacket and putting it on, Anko declared, "Just this once you get a freebie, now let's get out of here." However as she started to walk away, the side effects of using the curse mark appeared when Anko collapsed as soon as she began to walk away.
Iruka moved quickly and caught his friend before she hit the ground. Although he wanted to ask if she was alright, Iruka instead settled with silently carrying his friend back to the base, knowing she'd tell him if it was important. Answering the unsaid question, Anko quietly said, "I used it."
"Are you crazy!" Iruka yelled as he began to scold his friend like he did his students, "You know how dangerous that power is, you out of all people should know what it does."
"In case you forgot, I thought you died!" Anko yelled back. "It doesn't matter now, I'll deal with the voice until you're able to reseal it."
Iruka stumbled as he said, "Me? Wouldn't you rather have Kakashi do it?"
Anko shook her head as she said, "Like I'd let that pervert see the goods, no thank you. I know Kushina-sensei showed you some seals, and this one should be simple. I'll wait while you refresh your knowledge. Just try not to get another nose bleed."
Kakashi didn't know how long he had been running, all that he was focused on was evading Skarlet. As he ducked into an alley, he thought he succeeded in his mission, only for the woman to appear out of nowhere and pin him to the ground. As the jonin weakly struggled, Skarlet managed to grab both of his wrists and force his hands above his head. She then slowly, as if taking delight from the entire experience, reached down and pulled down his mask. Once the man's face was exposed, Skarlet smiled behind her mask as she said, "My turn, fair is fair after all," and pulled down her own mask.
Kakashi had to admit the woman currently subduing him was beautiful. In truth he expected her to have a mouth full of fangs or some other ghastly sight, but he supposed she wore a face mask for the same reason he did, just to add an air of mystery.
"Now to get what I want." Kakashi continued to weakly struggle as the woman started to lean down. In just a matter of seconds the two pairs of lips where connected.
'Okay, this is actually pretty nice," Kakashi thought, 'but why does she taste like blood?' After remembering some of Skarlet's previous attacks and how she literally collapsed into a pile of blood, and not to mention her code name, Kakashi felt like smacking himself. 'Well at least this'll be easy now.'
Using the majority of the chakra he had left, the jonin converted it into lightning chakra before sending it out through his lips. Skarlet's reaction was immediate, first she tensed up before relaxing and rolling to the side. Somehow she retained her physical body this time and before she passed out Kakashi could have sworn he heard her say, "Amazing."
Now left alone with the unconscious woman, Kakashi thought about what he should do. She was the enemy, but he still didn't feel right just leaving her alone. Luckily the answer came when he saw the first signs of a portal opening. Guessing the attack had been stopped and the Outworld forces were retreating, Kakashi created a bit of noise so that Skarlet's comrades would find her before he started running back to the base.
Shao Kahn had not had the best of weeks. First one of his strongest generals had been defeated by a kid. Next his hired muscle was almost killed, by what he learned was a simple teacher, forced to go back to the surgeon for a new eye and place out of commission. Meanwhile his one general that had powers similar to the Earthrealm visitors had been defeated as well, although the emperor still did not know how.
"I'll ask again Skarlet, how were you defeated?"
"I am sorry my lord," the bowing blood warrior began, "I remember fighting the man, then he did something and I don't remember."
She had said the same thing half a dozen times, although the conquer thought he heard a small amount of fear in her voice, impossible since he commissioned her to have no emotions. Sighing, Shao Kahn said, "Let me know if you remember anything, now go." Once he was alone, the man snapped his fingers, Shang Tsung soon walked out of the shadows. "How is the project I assigned you coming along?"
"Progress has been made, we are close to resurrecting one of those you desire."
"Good, keep focused on that work, she will be the key to regaining control of Edenia. I also may have a new project for you."
With a smile like a snake, the sorcerer said, "I am happy to serve," meaning it for the first time.
All the genin were excited, tomorrow was the day they'd be assigned their new senseis. As the boys were walking back to their barracks, Sai tried to start a conversation, "So who do you think you'll get mutt?"
"Trying out nicknames again Sai? That one's not too bad this time. As for who I'll get, I don't know." Kiba responded while Akamaru barked in agreement.
"It doesn't matter who you get," Neji began, "only those fated to be strong will benefit from the training. It will do nothing for failures."
Naruto gritted his teeth at the insult. Seeing how they were about to pass by the training room, he quickly made a plan. Dropping back so that he was walking next to Neji, he waited. As they passed by the doors, Naruto quickly created a shadow clone who opened the doors. The real Naruto then pushed Neji into the room while the clone closed and locked the doors, then destroyed the panel before dispelling.
Up in mission control, Jax and Johnny where monitoring the base to make sure none of Shao Kahn's spies slipped in during the battle. Johnny was the first to notice the alarm in the training room had been triggered. When he pointed it out to Jax, the man brought up the video feed showing Naruto landing on Neji.
Once both boys where in the training room, Naruto yelled, "I am sick and tired of you berating people!" before he launched a fist at the other boys face. Surprisingly, the blow connected, but Neji got his legs under Naruto's stomach and kicked him away.
"Why are you upset failure? I'm just telling the truth." Now Neji went on the offensive, using his training in the gentle fist he began to close Naruto's chakra points. Only when Naruto collapsed was he satisfied with his work. As he turned to leave, a kunai sailed by the side of his head, leaving a small cut on his cheek.
As Naruto got up he said, "I've been friends with Hinata since before the academy. I've sparred with her, do you honestly think I wouldn't know how to unblock my chakra points?" He then began to charge in for another attack.
Neji settled into his stance as he readied his defense, but threw one more insult, "Yes, I almost forgot about Hinata-sama's daily visits to the park. I suppose it makes sense, the weak are drawn to each other."
As Naruto parried one of Neji's strikes he said, "Why do you go after the one person in your clan trying to help you? Can't you see she wants to get rid of that seal and that the elders make her life shit because of her beliefs?"
Gritting his teeth in anger, Neji declared, "It does not matter in what ways you or her have suffered, there is no comparisons to what I have endured."
Jax and Johnny were shocked at the level of savagery displayed as the fight between the two genin contained.
"This isn't good," Jax declared, "those two are going to kill each other." He then reached for a phone as he said, "I'm sending in a team to restrain them."
"Have them swap out their tasers for fire extinguishers to cool them off." Seeing the look Jax gave him, Johnny elaborated by saying, "Do you want to shock two teens who are trained to kill while they are in the midst of a fight?"
Jax though about it for a second before saying, "Good call."
Naruto and Neji traded blows for the next few minutes, each growing angrier. The time for words had long since passed, now the only sound heard in the training room was of fists hitting flesh. Each boy prepared to deliver the final blow, only to be stopped when the doors where forced open and a squad of solders rushed in. The boys were unprepared as two of the soldiers pointed hoses connected to red cylinders at them, seconds later the fighters were enveloped in a cold, white cloud.
Before the teens could react, both were forced onto the ground, then roughly had their hands pulled behind their backs and handcuffed. Once they were secured, both genin were grabbed by their arms and dragged out of the room, into the hall and past the assembled crowd. Lee was able to gain the squad leader's attention and asked, "What is going to happen to them?"
"We have orders to put them in the holding cells for the night. After an investigation, who knows."
Hearing this, Kakashi quickly ran through a number of ANBU hand signs. Yamato nodded his head before walking off.
"I'm telling you Raiden those two kids were trying to kill each other. I'm fine teaching the others, but those two are loose cannons." Jax told the thunder god.
Raiden was going to respond, until a voice spoke up first, "Perhaps it looked dangerous to you, but I assure you it was perfectly normal." Both men turned to shoot a questioning look at Yamato. Said ANBU-turned-jonin continued his explanation, "Even in peacetime, a shinobi is expected to be ready at a moment's notice, to not let their skills dull. While it looked as if they were out for blood to anyone in this realm, to those from my realm it was just two genin sparring. If I recall, Jade gave Smoke worse injuries the day we got here."
Jax and Raiden didn't seem to believe the man, but couldn't argue with him since they weren't from his realm. "Fine, I guess we'll have to believe you, but those two are spending the night in the cells." Jax declared.
"I think that is understandable." Yamato replied before he walked off.
Once left alone with the thunder god, Jax rubbed his forehead as he said, "I swear this job is going to be the death of me." He then turned to Raiden and asked, "Is everyone here yet?"
"Almost, only Hanzo is absent. As the man is responsible for a clan and a realm, he sent me word to start without him and that he'd be here in the morning."
"You gave him first pick didn't you?"
"Considering if it was not for him many of your friends would be in service to Quan Chi, I think he deserves it." the god of thunder replied with a smirk.
(A/N: Everyone, unless previously stated otherwise, is in their default MK 9 cloths except Cyrax since he's human. If they change what they wear, I will describe it.)
As the assembled Earthrealm warrior sat in the conference room, they talked to each other excitedly. "I heard that we get to teach some new recruits, wouldn't that be nice Sub-Zero?" Cyrax asked his fellow Lin Kuei member.
"It is always nice to spread knowledge, and I need the practice if I am ever going to lead the clan."
"Just wait in line frosty, the more experience get first pick." Johnny said across the room. Sub-Zero clenched his fist, although he was friends with the actor and both trusted the other with their lives, he still hated being reminded about his age. Yes he was younger than the rest of his fellow Earthrealm warriors, but he was 20 and the rest of his clan was fine with him leading the ninja in a few years.
The master of ice also noticed that Sonya was sitting awfully close to Johnny. What was that saying, payback is a bitch? The young warrior smirked behind his face mask but before he could respond Raiden walked into the room saying, "We have a lot to discuss and very little time to do it. For those of you who don't know, we recently discovered another realm whose time was synchronizing with ours, as well as Outworlds. We don't know if new realms are safe from invasion, so we made contact and agreed to train some of their fighters to help defend themselves." Raiden paused to make sure everyone was with him. "The realm is interesting as they have some technology but not at our level."
Here Stryker, a one man SWAT team, interrupted by saying, "Guess I'm not getting a student, I know some hand to hand but must of the stuff I could teach relies on technology they don't have access to, and I'm guessing you don't want to introduce any new weapons to this realm."
Raiden nodded his head while he said, "Yes, that is why I was going to ask you to take over basic training if Sonya was to take a student. Also I have only been able to get in contact with one of the major village leaders, and while it may seem strange he asked for us to teach some of his youngest fighters."
"That doesn't seem strange," Kung Lao spoke up, "Lui Kang and I were training in the temple since the time we could crawl."
"You have been prepared to defend yourself and fight when the time is right," Raiden countered, "These kids have been trained to kill."
"I will agree it seems strange to most Raiden," Sindel said, "but you are forgetting that many in this room were trained to fulfill the same purpose, the only difference is the age. Now, how should we decide who are our students?"
Raiden snapped his fingers as a projector came to life, "I asked our new trainees to showcase some of their skills so you could figure out who you wanted. If the student consents tomorrow then we can begin." With his instructions finished, Raiden signaled for the first video to begin.
Besides the videos, each of the Earthrealm champions also had a file containing the basic information on each of the genin. As the information was listed by teams, Sasuke was first since he didn't formally belong to one. The video showed the boy giving a good demonstration of his accuracy with both kunai and shuriken, as well as lunching a great fireball. "Sasuke Uchiha, last surviving member of his clan after his older brother massacred them. Slightly above average speed, average strength, and almost perfect accuracy." Smoke read from the file.
"So a survivor of tragedy, and a fire user. Sounds like Scorpion's pick. He's welcome to the brat, have you seen his psych report? Why on earth would someone give this kid a weapon?" Kabal asked.
Raiden showed no emotion as he informed the champions, "I already went over the information on the recruits with Hanzo and offered him first choice considering his role in reviving almost everyone present. He declined to train young Sasuke."
"Good," Sonya said, "We already have a crazed psychopath with Kano, we don't need to create another one. Let's move on to this Team 7."
First shown was Sai, who also had amazing accuracy but also showed some sword techniques on a dummy as well as creating a myriad of ink animals. "Sai, no last name." Raiden stated, "Little is known about his past, he specializes in his ink creations. Again almost perfect accuracy, average strength, and above average speed. Who will take him?"
"I will." Cyrax stated. Seeing the looks his friend gave him, the explosive shinobi said, "I know his style is different than mine, but look at his eyes. The boy is almost devoid of emotion, he needs someone to teach him how to be human, someone who has gone through it themselves."
Raiden nodded his head, agreeing with the former cyborg. "Are we all in agreement?" when no one opposed the protector of Earthrealm said, "Okay, now onto the next."
The next video showed Sakura. Her accuracy was also incredibly high, just slightly below Sasuke's. Not knowing many jutsus, Sakura instead displayed how hard she hit by punching a special gage, breaking the equipment. "Sakura Haruno, daughter of a civilian born shinobi and a retired civilian born kunoichi. Below average in speed but incredibly above average in strength and intelligence. Do we have any takers?" Jax asked.
"I'll take the girl." Sindel declared. Before anyone could question her choice she said, "She reminds me of myself when I was younger. I think we could do something with her hair, not to mention her file says some childhood bullies called her a banshee when she was younger, let's make the insult a reality." Of course the Queen of Edenia also had another reason to choose the girl, only known to herself, her daughter, and Jade.
Raiden seemed satisfied with her words as he motioned for the next video to begin. Naruto appeared on screen. He matched Sasuke for accuracy, although his form was sloppy showing he was self-taught. What really gained everyone's attention was when he preformed the shadow clone jutsu. Immediately almost everyone started yelling about how they should be the one to teach the boy, several fights were about to break out until Raiden yelled, "Enough!"
When order had returned to the room, Raiden said, "No one present is going to teach him, Hanzo already laid claim." Before anyone could argue, Raiden continued, "Look at your files, slightly above average speed, slightly above average strength, and his form while throwing kunai show he is almost entirely self-taught. Hanzo hates teaching prodigies, but he respects those who can stand on their own as he has done." While most seemed willing to accept the choice, Raiden still saw some looks of doubt, "Look at the boy's history. Orphaned the day he was born during a village tragedy, forced to fend for himself after being kicked out of the orphanage at age four and survived for six months on the street with no help." As everyone now admitted defeat in getting to train Naruto, Raiden signaled for the next video to play as he said, "Now let's move to Team 8, first is Shino Aburame."
The clip showed how Shino, like almost every single genin, was proficient at ranged weapons. Instead of a jutsu, the boy released some of the beetles. This understandably freaked out many of the assembled adults. Being the first to speak, Jade said, "The kid has slightly below average speed and strength and relies on those bugs of his, anyone want the walking ant farm?"
Surprisingly, it was Johnny who raised his hand and said, "I'll take him." Seeing the looks he was getting, the actor said, "I have my reasons." and left it at that.
The next video showed Hinata, in place of a jutsu she showcased a few of her clan's katas and demonstrated the damaging results on a training dummy. When it came time to choose a sensei, Kitana volunteered saying, "Although the video doesn't show it, I can tell she's flexible enough to work with my fans." As everyone nodded their head, Kitana thought about the other reason why she choose the girl.
It was early in the morning when Sindel asked her daughter and her friend to meet her in the throne room. As usual, both girls arrived promptly. Kitana was going to ask her mother what she wanted to talk about only for Sindel to lead her and Jade through the maze of halls. Finally the trio reached a certain room that Sindel lead the pair into. Once Kitana saw where she was, she yelled, "Mom for the last time while I love Lui but I'm not marrying him anytime soon!"
"This isn't about that Kitana, tell me what is missing."
After a few moments surveying the room, Kitana noticed a single few doors stuck out slightly. Investigating, her and Jade saw a few rolls of material as well as a girls training uniform was missing. Turning to her mother, Sindel confirmed with a nod that they had been stolen last night. Jade, only now catching up on current events, asked, "Mileena broke in here last night?"
"She did, I caught her but made a deal with her that resulted in her freedom."
"Why would you do that?" Jade questioned. "We've been hunting her for almost two years without a lead and you let her walk away!"
"Remember your place Jade." Sindel reminded the warrior before she continued, "Yes I let her get away, but only because I knew if we questioned her now she wouldn't say anything, but now she agreed to turn herself in later and explain everything. I called you two here so we can try to figure everything out beforehand, in case she tries to betray us."
Kitana felt guilty as she spoke up, saying, "I know I probably should have said something earlier, but when I took that trip to the Elemental Nations, I did find her."
Instantly both woman turned to Kitana with shocked looks, "How did you ever escape?" Jade asked.
"She didn't attack me," Kitana confessed, "I don't know what happened to her, but it seemed to shake her to the core. When she saw me, she wasn't the same maniac we've fought against. I was close to convincing her to accepting the Elder God's parole, but something in that village made her stay, she then called in her favor with Scorpion to teleport back to the village."
"Well I think it's obvious what made her stay," Sindel declared, "I don't know how but Mileena has a daughter."
Both Kitana and Jade stared wide eyed at the Queen. Although Kitana once though of the same thing before, she never truly believed it. Jade voiced the duo's thoughts as she asked, "My Queen, how can you be so sure?"
"Hopefully you two will learn one day, but I can tell you from experience that a parent will do anything to protect their children. I can understand why that woman would steal the material if she needed to repair her clothes, but that uniform she also took only has one purpose."
"So then what do we do?" Kitana questioned her mother.
"We keep this to ourselves." Sindel finally said, "The less people know the better. No need to tell Raiden, my future son-in-law, or Jade's fuck buddy."
While Kitana blushed at what her mother said of Lui Kang, Jade yelled, "Oh come on! Sure we're a bit more physical than normal, but me and Smoke still have a healthy relationship!"
Ignoring her friend's outburst, Kitana asked, "And what of Scorpion? If he helped Mileena can he be trusted?"
After a moment of thought, Sindel finally said, "Since he defeated Quan Chi, Scorpion is responsible for the majority of the Netherrealm which has never formally been allied to Earthrealm, giving the man free rein to do what he wants. Yet he is Hanzo Hasashi, the leader of the reforming Shirai Ryu, he will not do anything to endanger his clan."
"So we trust the man not to do anything to harm Earthrealm but we don't tell him what we know?" Jade questioned, to which Sindel nodded. "And the daughter?"
"There will be four girls available for training, we have a good chance of picking the girl."
"You act as if we will need to use her as bait." Kitana commented.
"To catch Mileena, we may have to."
As Kitana reflected on the plan only known to the Edenians, she once more realized she didn't fully agree with her mother. She hoped that the situation with Mileena could be solved without conflict and that they didn't need to use the woman's daughter as bait.
Raiden was oblivious to this scheme and Kitana's thoughts as he motioned for the next video to be played. This time Kiba appeared on screen. "Kiba Inuzuka, above average speed, average strength, and an above average sense of smell." Sonya read off the chart as Kiba preformed his clan's "Beast Human Clone" jutsu alongside Akamaru.
"I'll teach this one," Nightwolf stated, "his connection to nature is strong."
"And now we have Team 9." Kabal stated as Tenten appeared on the screen and demonstrated absolutely perfect accuracy, even on moving targets before unsealing a bo staff and using it against a training dummy.
"I think someone has a fan." Smoke said to his lover with a smirk behind his mask.
"Fine, I'll teach her." Jade stated, although it did go with the plan, an orphan had a better chance of being Mileena's daughter than someone from a clan.
"Now we have Neji Hyuga." Kitana said as the clip began.
"Are he and Hinata related?" Sindel asked.
"I believe he's her older cousin." Jax stated as the Neji on screen hit a training dummy multiple times faster than must could follow, stunning the room into silence while some questioned if he needed extra training.
"I shall teach him." Kung Lao suddenly declared. Seeing the looks he received from his friends, the monk stated, "He is powerful, but I see something he needs to correct." Most only shook their heads, not sure what the man saw.
"And know we have Rock Lee." Raiden said as the genin appeared on screen. Looking over the file, everyone was shocked at the boy's speed and strength, as well as the note saying he could not mold chakra to use jutsus. The video hadn't even ended when Liu Kang declared, "This one is my student, I admire his heart."
As the night grew late, only the three videos of Team Ten were left. All three were average shinobi and Raiden explained how in their home realm that three members of their clan were often assigned to a cell. In the end no one could reach a decision and decided to just let the kids pick their teachers.
In the men's barracks the genin were asleep while the jonin and lone chunin were sharing stories and reflecting on how the current genin where repeating history. "I'm serious," a buzzed Iruka said, "Team Seven is the "hope-for-the-best-team" that the best and the worst of the class are assigned to." Kakashi thought his team didn't get "the best" out of life considering he was the last living member. "Team Eight is tracking, like how me, Kurenai, and Anko-chan were originally." Yamato recalled reading some report while he was training in Root of how Kurenai was supposed to cover the team's tracks while Anko's superior tracking skills would lead them to the target where Iruka would be the main source in subduing it. "And if we had the clan members, Team Ten would have been another Ino-Shika-Cho combo."
"Good thing there wasn't," Guy said, "you don't want the combo to become too well known or else the enemy would know their weakness. As it stands, until they're chunin, most iterations of the combo were weak when separated, only the Akimichi could stand on their own,"
Hearing this, Asuma bid his friends good night after another swig of sake, knowing he needed to look over some records very carefully. None of the other men minded, more sake to go around.
Iruka woke up with a pounding headache while Kakashi was shaking his shoulder. For some reason he had fallen asleep at a desk last night. "Come on Iruka, we've got to go get Naruto out of the holding cell before breakfast." Iruka nodded and went to stand and follow Kakashi, only to catch something out of the corner of his eye. Looking down at the desk, Iruka could recognize his handwriting, and wondered what the multitude of seals drawn were suppose to do, although he realized there was still a lot missing from the formula. Not remembering when he drew the seals or how he would know ones so complex, Iruka decided to just hide them away before he followed Kakashi to retrieve his wayward former student.
After breakfast, Raiden lead the genin and jonin into a conference room that had been cleared of its table and chairs. Standing in the room was a number of people, all dressed very differently from each other. "Today you thirteen will be given the opportunity to learn from some of my champions. If both parties consent to the training, you may begin immediately. Now who would like to go first?" the god asked.
Sasuke didn't even hesitate as he walked forward. He easily recognized Hanzo from the video and stopped in front of the man. "Well come on," the Uchiha said, "let's get started."
Sasuke expected the other shinobi to walk out of the room with him, instead the man said, "No."
"What!" the enraged genin yelled, "I am an Uchiha, you will…" only to be stopped when Hanzo grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him off the floor.
"I don't care about your family name, I have no respect for a person who has been handed everything in life and expects everyone to bow to his whims." He then shoved the boy away, Sasuke landed on his back and skidded along the floor a few feet. The yellow clad ninja then pointed to Naruto and said, "Blondie," when Naruto pointed to himself Hanzo continued, "Yes you, come with me." before he walked out, Naruto rushing to keep up.
'Well that could have gone better.' Raiden thought before he asked, "Is there anyone else that has a preference?"
Tenten walked to the front of the group, then stopped in front of Jade and asked, "Would you please train me?"
"I must warn you that my training will push you to your limit." Jade said, giving the girl a small test.
"I'm on a team with those two," Tenten said as she pointed over her shoulder to Guy and Lee, "I think I'll survive."
"Alright then, but don't say I didn't give you a chance to back out." The green clad woman said as she lead her new student out of the room.
Once the pair left, Asuma dragged Ino and Shikamaru to the front while Choji followed behind. Once in front of the Earthrealm warriros, the wind user deposited Ino in front of Sonya, Shikamaru in front of Jax, and Choji in front of the horribly burned, metal helmet wearing Kabal. Seeing the strange looks he received, Asuma said, "Please teach them. In our village their ancestors are known for forming one of the best teams, which in turn started a tradition of having their clan members put into similar teams, but relying on the same techniques will only lead to failure." He then nodded to his team, "Choji needs to work on his speed, Shikamaru needs to gain some strength, and Ino needs to be self-reliant."
The room was quiet until Kabal asked, in a slightly mechanicals voice, "Do you three agree with what your sensei said?"
"It's troublesome, but what Asuma-sensei said is correct. If we were separated, Choji is the only one who could hold his own long enough for help to arrive."
Jax nodded at the genin's words before saying, "Alright maggot, let's get going. Been awhile since I've been a drill instructor, this'll be fun." before he grabbed Shikamaru and dragged the boy out of the room.
"And you?" Sonya asked, "What do you think of your teacher's words?"
Ino was silent for a moment before saying, "I know that I'm a bit of a fangirl, and after hearing what the other teams went through in Wave Country, I know I need to get stronger."
Sonya nodded her head as she said, "Good answer, I'm not going to teach someone who doesn't want to better themselves. Let's go."
As the two woman left the room, Kabal stepped closer to Choji. The man didn't even ask a question as the boy said, "I need to be able to protect my friends, if they're going to grow stronger so must I." Smiling behind his helmet, Kabal lead the boy out of the room.
"Are there any other preferences?" Raiden asked. When no one stepped forward, Raiden motioned for one of his Champions to make their selection. Johnny walked forward and stopped in front of Shino. Both stood still until Johnny slowly offered his hand to the boy, who quickly reacted. Faster then most could follow, the two began a handshake with such intricate gestures at such high speeds it would take a man many years to perfect. Finally the two ended with a simple fist bump, Shino saying, "It will be an honor learning from you Brother Johnny."
"It will be a pleasure teaching you Brother Shino."
"Hold on a second," Sindel said, "are you telling us that there is some cross-realm, sunglass wearing, secret society?"
The individuals in question looked at each other briefly before saying as one, "We can neither confirm nor deny the existence of such a society." before both left the room, stunning all present.
Sindel was the first to recover and walked toward Sakura, "You remind me of myself when I was younger, would you like to learn from me?"
Sakura quickly said, "Hai." before following the smiling woman out of the room.
Next, Nightwolf walked over to Kiba and began to pet Akamaru, "You have a strong connection to nature, would you like to learn more?" He asked the boy. When Kiba nodded his head, the man motioned for the boy to follow him.
Once the shaman left, Cyrax approached Sai and motioned for the boy to follow him, which the painter did. Now the only genin left where Hinata and the male members of Team Ten. Walking forward, Kitana stopped in front of the lone girl and asked, "Would you like learning somethings from me, or would you rather someone else teaches you?"
"I don't mind having you as my sensei ma'am." Kitana smiled behind her mask before leading the girl out of the room.
"So what are we, the leftovers?" Neji asked.
"No," Kung Lao began, "we simply need to take you two to the sky temple to properly train you." The monk nodded to Raiden who put a hand on each of the genins' shoulders before teleporting them away, returning seconds later to do the same with the monks. As the room was now empty save the jonin and Sasuke, the more experienced Shinobi left to do some training of their own.
When Raiden returned, Sasuke stalked toward him and asked, "And what about me, where is my sensei?"
"Having one of my champions teach you is not a right, it is a privilege you did not earn." The god of thunder said before walking off. Sasuke stared at him angrily before deciding to go to the training room to train himself. As he passed a window he paused to look at his reflection, smirking when he saw his black eyes had change to a bright red, a single black tomoe present in each eye. Remembering what Kakashi said when he failed him, the smirk on the Uchiha's face widened as he thought, 'Looks like you're going to teach me something after all, whether you know it or not.'
As Hanzo lead Naruto away from the room, the boy noticed that they were walking back to the men's barracks. Once inside, the man gave the boy an order, "Lock away anything you don't want to lose and garb a spare set of clothes." Naruto nodded as he unlocked his footlocker and placed his Hitai-ate and frog wallet inside while he grabbed his spare clothes, his kunai could be replaced.
"Ready?" Hanzo questioned. When Naruto nodded his head, the man walked toward the boy as he said, "Good." faster than he could follow, Hanzo grabbed Naruto by the throat and seemed to slide his own skin off as his head was replaced by a skull that spat a stream of fire onto the floor, opening a portal to a realm full of lava. "To hell with you!" the thing declared as it threw Naruto into the realm before jumping in after the boy.
Naruto landed hard, but had enough sense to roll away before he was crushed by his new sensei. Looking at the man, Naruto saw he was wearing a different uniform, the most notable difference being the yellow face guard, a black hood, and eyes that could be mistaken for a Hyuga's (A/N MK X default). Gone was the man Hanzo, in his place was the wraith Scorpion.
"Do you know why I choose you?" the undead spirit began. Not waiting for a response he continued, "Due to certain events, I found myself in your realm a few months after your birth. There I witnessed your death. To save you, I sacrificed the demon that was sealed in your gut so that you could tap into the energies of this realm, reviving you into a wraith like myself, one able to control the hellfire but not lose his humanity."
"So the Kyubi?" Naruto asked.
"Has been gone since you were a few months old, now onto training." As Scorpion walked forward he began to lecture, "Since I'm training you, you are now a member of the Shirai Ryu. Our clan is different from the ones in your realm as their membership isn't determined by heredity, it is open to all those worthy. Now are you ready to begin?"
"Hai, Scorpion-sensei."
"Good, your first lesson is that the Shirai Ryu do not run, they fight. Your second is that from now on everything you are going to learn, be it fighting styles, how to use a weapon or a technique, even you name, is earned by blood and sweat, I don't care if it's yours or your enemies'. Now what is your name?"
Naruto was confused by the question, not understanding what it had to do with his training, and answered, "Naruto Uzumakai."
Scorpion didn't seem to like that answer as he stalked toward the boy and grabbed him by the hair and dragged him towards a lake of lava. Not even hesitating, the older shinobi plunged the younger ninja into the molten rock for a second before pulling a skull above the lava level. "I'll ask again, what is your name?"
"Naruto…" the skull began to say, only to once more be dunked in the lava.
"WHAT IS YOUR NAME!?" Scorpion yelled.
"I don't have one." the skull finally said, it's voice barely above a whisper.
Scorpion nodded at this, pulling the rest of the skeleton out of the water. While the experience was no doubt painful, being in the Netherrealm would soon heal the boy. Once healed, the new wraith spat out some stray lava that had stubbornly stayed in his lungs. There was not that many differences between how Naruto usually looked and his wraith body, namely his hair seemed to be made of fire, his eyes lost their pupils, and the skin from the bridge of his nose down to his chin had not healed, leaving him with bone in place of his signature birthmarks (A/N: Think how Havik looks in the new comics). Throwing a bundle of clothes at the boy, Scorpion said, "Get dressed. The training you will go through will be the toughest thing in your life. You may hate me for it, but you will be prepared for anything life will throw at you." By the time his sensei had finished speaking, the new wraith had put on his new uniform, that of a typical shinobi of Earthrealm, his flaming hair extinguished by the hood, only his eyes visible. "We will begin now," Scorpion launched his famed chained kunai at the boy, "so get over here!"
Cyrax had lead Sai out of the base to a nearby dojo. Indicating for the boy to have a seat, the African-American shinobi began, "Look, I already know you are highly skilled, so I believe we don't need to add much to your arsenal."
"Then what will I be learning sensei?" Sai asked.
"You lack emotions, I don't know why but I can tell. I went through a period myself like that, so I'll try to help you regain them. And don't worry," Cyrax said as he saw the look the boy gave him. He continued after he throw one of his flash bombs, "I'll teach you a few other things as well."
"We are here." Nightwolf declared as he, Kiba, and Akamaru walked through a nearby forest.
"So why exactly are we here?" Kiba asked.
"To my people, I am known as a shaman," the man began. "I have a connection to the world through the spirit of the wolf, much like yourself." Here Nightwolf pointed to Akamaru.
"As much as I love him, Akamaru is just a dog, not a wolf."
"Still, he is a descendant of the wolf, is he not?"
"I suppose."
"Well since that is now cleared up, let us begin." Nightwolf had lead the duo towards a game trail with a dead end. "While I am a shaman in this realm, I believe people from your realm would refer to me as a sage as I use what you would call senjutsu chakra to do techniques like this." Here the shaman manifested a glowing green tomahawk before throwing it into a tree, leaving a deep cut before disappearing. "Before I can teach you these techniques, you must further connect with the wolf spirit."
"How do I do that Nightwolf-sensei?" Kiba questioned, feeling as though he wouldn't like the answer.
"Usually you would need to go through many rituals and tests, but as we are short on time we will use a different method." Nightwolf paused as he manifested a green bow and a green quiver on his back. "You will connect to the spirit by living as it does, now begin running."
Kiba didn't hesitate and didn't look back. Seconds later he ducked to avoid a glowing green arrow.
As their team relied on consistent teamwork more than others, Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji were training together. Ino was currently in the midst of a set of pushups while being "coached" by Sonya. Shikamaru was being similarly coached by Jax as he ran laps around the perimeter of the large, oval room. Choji was off to the side, trying to land a hit on Kabal.
"Why am I doing this?" Ino asked, "I saw your videos, you mostly use kicks, why do I need to work on my upper body?"
"Because you'll use your upper body strength to help launch a few other types of kicks, as well as when you're doing handstands for extended periods of time. Now back to work, your lip just bought you another 25 pushups before we move onto your 50 sit-up's."
Ino considered asking Shikamaru to trade teachers, until she felt the ground shake. Looking to the source of the tremor, she saw Jax digging one of his arms out of the ground. "Now what did I say I'd do if I saw you slowing down?" Jax asked the lazy genius, who in response started speeding up. After seeing that, Ino went back to her pushups, resolving to quit her diet that day so she'd have more energy for later in the training.
Meanwhile Kabal was effortlessly dodging Choji's punches. "Is this all you got kid? It doesn't matter how strong you are if you can't land a hit." Deciding to strike a nerve, Kabal finished by saying, "How do you expect to protect your friends if you can't hit me, huh tubby?"
"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?" Choji yelled before his speed increased two fold in an effort to hit his sensei, who still effortlessly dodged the attacks.
"Again." Sindel said as Sakura went through a set of basic katas while wearing an insane amount of weights. While she liked the girl's spirit and honesty, she was still disappointed with Sakura's endurance. Sakura only nodded, feeling as if she was going to collapse soon and knowing she'd be sore that night.
"Okay kid," Johnny began his lecture to Shino, "from what I can tell you rely on those bugs of yours way too much. If someone were to get through you'd be overpowered in seconds. So let's work on your speed."
"And how will we do that sensei?" the bug user asked.
Johnny smirked as he said, "I'm a descendent of some Mediterranean Cult that wanted warriors for the gods, so I'm able to do this." He preformed a shadow kick, moving across the room in only a handful of seconds. "Now I can do that due to genetics, it's something I can never teach you, but I think we can find a way to do something similar."
Behind his high collar, Shino felt a few drops of sweat travel down his cheek, knowing he was in for a few painful days.
While most of the genin found their training to be less than ideal, Tenten was enjoying herself. She was already use to doing an insane amount of training daily due to her jonin sensei and one of her teammates. Jade had been impressed with the girl's accuracy and how she mastered the basics of bojutsu. Still, Jade was determine to make the girl sweat and strapped 25 pounds onto each of her limbs and had her spar so that she got an idea what advance bojutsu was like.
Hinata was running through a few moves that Kitana had showed her. After a few hours doing this, the girl was panting. Although she was a princess, Kitana was also a slave driver. "Again." the woman commanded.
Hinata nodded before rushing toward a training dummy, then used the dummy to launch herself into the air before turning in mid air and bring down a kunai which slipped off the dummy's head. "I'm sorry Kitana-sensei, something about this just feels wrong."
Nodding her head, Kitana brought out a set of weapons she had commissioned when she first learned of Raiden's plan, "Here, why don't you try using one of these?" Hinata carefully grabbed one of the offered blades, which had a short handle, but a long blade with a slight hook at the end. Once more the girl tried the move, this time driving the blade half an inch into the dummy's head.
"Thank you Kitana-sensei."
"It's no problem sweetie, try unfolding them."
Confused by the woman's words, Hinata still followed the directions to find her new blades where actually incredibly light, metal fans. Hinata had a small smile on her face, thankful for the gift, but soon replaced it with a frown as she said, "I don't think my father will allow me to use these."
Kneeling down, Kitana said, "I don't see him anywhere, we'll keep this our little secret."
Lee was excited when he reached the sky temple. Lui Kang soon took him away to a different courtyard to help the genin work on his form and see if there were alternative ways of using his chakra. When Kung Lao stepped forward, he led Neji to a garden. Approaching a raised dais, Kung Lao settled into a lotus pose then indicated the space in front of him and said, "Sit."
Neji did so, sitting in the lotus position as instructed. He stayed in the pose so long that his legs fell asleep, but still Kung Lao gave him no other instructions. Finally the Hyuga grew inpatient and asked, "Are you going to teach me anything or are you just going to waste my time?"
Kung Lao looked Neji in the eye and asked, "Do you want me to teach you?" When the boy nodded, the monk finally stood up and said, "Alright, stand up and let us spar." Neji did just that, launching a flurry of strikes, all of which the shaolin dodged. After a few minutes of defense, Kung Lao grabbed Neji by the shoulders, spun around quickly several times, before throwing the boy into a nearby pond. "That is what I want to teach you, but you lack balance in your life." By now Neji managed to walk back to the dais, "Now you can sit and meditate to try to find the balance, or we can spar again. The choice is yours."
Neji settled into his gentle fist stance as he activated his Byakugan.
The wraith launched a chained kunai into the demon that his master had summoned for him to spar with. After a few hours of learning hand to hand and fighting, he'd earned the privilege of using a weapon. He was about to go into what would normally be a finishing blow, luckily demons where immortal in the Netherrealm, when his master said, "Naruto, that is enough for today." Surprisingly the man had his hood down and his face guard was absent, indicating he was not Scorpion, the wraith of justice, but Hanzo the Shirai Ryu leader.
Walking to the man, the nameless wraith said, "I thought I didn't have a name."
"As a wraith you have not yet earned one," he then tamped his finger against the boy's head, causing the boy to transform back into Naruto, his clothes also back to their usual appearance, "but as a man you never lost it. Now let's get back." Before he opened a portal, Hanzo told his new apprentice, "Remember, you are only learning hand to hand with me, but you are aware of someone learning more." Naruto nodded at his sensei's words.
Kiba limped back to the base, having spent the afternoon evading his sensei while he hunted for lunch with Akamaru. He was eventually caught, but Nightwolf told him that was it for the day before telling the boy they would resume tomorrow. As he passed a room, he heard someone moaning. Opening the door, he was greeted by a familiar face.
"Hey Sakura," the wild boy greeted the girl collapsed on the floor, "tough first day?"
"I'll say, I don't think I've ever been this tired."
"Well come on," Kiba said as he helped the girl up, "a warm shower will do wonders for you."
While the girl was grateful for the help, she still teased the boy a bit by asking about using a co-ed shower room. What both teens were too exhausted to realize was that when Kiba first helped Sakura up, a small electric jolt had passed between the two.
The scene in the men's barracks was interesting. Iruka, Yamato, Kakashi, Guy, and Asuma were playing poker since each actually had a chance at winning as Naruto declined to play, although each subtly used jutsus to try to gain the upper hand. Naruto, Kiba, Shino, and Neji were all nursing bruises while Shikamaru, Choji, and surprisingly Lee where all too exhausted to move. When Sasuke entered after eating dinner, he saw the condition of the rest of the genin and laughed.
"Find something funny teme?" Naruto asked.
"Just that you weaklings can't handle training too simple that an Uchiha elite such as myself doesn't need to bother with."
As Sasuke left the room to go get a shower, a look was shared between all present. All of the genin agreed to temporarily forget their shared animosity, the older shinobi agreed not to see anything.
The female genin, like their male counterparts, were exhausted. However, now amounted of exhaustion could stop Ino from gushing over the simple painting of a lily she found on her bunk when they entered the room. The girl kept going on about how romantic it was to have a secret love.
Leaning close, Hinata asked Sakura, "Should we tell her it was from Sai or do we have to listen to her for the next few months go on about her secret admirer?"
Sakura shushed her friend before saying, "Let her have her fun, this is as lively as she's been since she gave up on Sasuke."
Tenten, meanwhile, was already asleep and dead to the world. Just because she regularly trained to such an extreme with her team didn't mean it wasn't tiring.
Kiba silently re-entered the men's barracks along with the rest of the genin who decided to complete the mission. After pulling up the sheets, the barracks being too hot to sleep with a comforter, he closed his eyes, only to have them opened in his dream. Sitting on a bed, he looked at himself in a mirror, noting he was a few years older than in reality if the slightly longer hair and beginnings of a goatee where any indication. The boy thought he was only an observer since he had not control of his actions, which was confirmed when his older self called out, "Come on honey, are you done yet?" Although Kiba only heard a muffled response, his dream-self obviously understood it and fell back on the bed as he released a grunt.
Sakura could say she'd had some wired dreams before, but this was something new. She observed through her own eyes as her older self stood in a bathroom applying some make up, her hair in a new style, all the while wearing something she'd never even consider before. But still she found something she was thankful for in the dream.
'Yes, I have a chest!' Although they weren't huge, Sakura was still glad her dream-self had decent sized breasts. After she had this thought, she heard a muffled voice ask something, to which her older-self said, "Almost ready." before looking in the mirror one last time and quickly put some lipstick on before walking out.
Kiba heard a door open as his dream-self sat up. If he was in control of his actions, Kiba was sure his jaw would have dropped as he watched an older Sakura walk into the room. The woman was wearing a very revealing set of lingerie. A thin red ribbon with a large bow in the middle wrapped around her chest while she also wore a thong the same shade of red, a large bow present on the underwear.
After letting Kiba admire the sight for a moment, the older Sakura said, "Happy anniversary Kiba-kun." She then leaned forward and asked, "Would you like some help unwrapping your gift?"
Two Hours Later
Kiba awoke from his very pleasant dream, only to realize something. Seeing the discolored spot on the sheet, the boy mentally cursed before hopping out of bed and stripping his bunk. 'Crap, if anyone caught me doing they'd never let me live it down.' After quickly making the bed and grabbing the soiled sheets, Kiba left to try to find the laundry room. There was a number of beds in the base, there was no way the sheets could be traced back to his bunk, right?
Sakura woke up from her dream not sure what to think. Sure she'd enjoyed the dream, but did having one like that make her a pervert? While she contemplated this, she noticed the condition of her bedding and decided it would be in her best interest to replace the sheets. After stripping her bed and remaking it with the spare sheets, she went off to find the laundry room.
The laundry room happened to be exactly the same distance from both barracks. As Kiba and Sakura arrived at the same time and saw they carried the same items, the two looked at each other for a few tense moments before Kiba said, "Let's just drop these off and pretend this never happened."
Sakura quickly agreed, hoping Kiba wouldn't see how red her face was as she recalled some interesting details from her dream and wondered how close they were to reality.
After a few hours sleep, Hinata woke up with a jolt remembering she agreed to meet Mileena on the roof. After grabbing her gear, better safe than sorry, which included her new fans, the girl rushed off, missing the fact that Sakura's bed was empty.
Once she arrived at the roof, Hinata saw that Mileena was looking over the city. "Sorry I kept you waiting, I kind of forgot." Hinata confessed.
Mileena waved off the girl's words, "It's fine, I have nothing to do tonight anyway. I figured you'd be tired after the day you had." Reaching into her cloak, Mileena brought out a box as she said, "I brought you a gift, consider it a make up for missing so many birthdays, also add some chakra and spin your fans."
Setting the box down, Hinata did as instructed and was surprised when her twin fans turned into two sai. Seeing the question on her daughter's face, Mileena said, "I figured Kitana would choose you to teach and I may have changed her order slightly. I hope you'll allow me to teach you how to use them." Hinata thanked her mother for the gift before opening the box to see some silver fabric. "Well go ahead and try it on." Mileena told her daughter as she turn around to give the girl some privacy.
After a few minutes, Hinata asked in a timid voice, "Is this really necessary?" Mileena turned to see her daughter wearing a silver leotard with a black fabric belt as well as knee-high silver heeled boots and elbow length fingerless silver gloves.
"Of course it is," Mileena told the girl, "it's part of a tradition, your teacher wore one, her friend wore one, and I would have worn one. Plus this will help you catch a certain blonde's attention. Go ahead and let your fangs out to see if the facemask fits."
Hinata did as she was asked. While she put the fabric in place, she asked, "What do you mean you would have worn one?"
"Hinata," the half-Tarkatan began, "do you think any Edenian woman would willingly be with a Tarkatan?"
"After I met you I guessed you were conceived like I was." Hinata said in a low voice.
"No, the race is too focused on violence. If they see a woman they'd kill her rather than take her. No, I'm the result of one of Shao Kahn's schemes." Seeing how the Hyuga didn't understand, Mileena elaborated, "When the man conquered Edenia, Sindel killed herself to set up wards to help protect Earthrealm. So that he would have a better claim to ruling and merging the realm, he claimed Kitana as his adoptive daughter and raised her as his own. Despite training her as one of his assassins, he was unsatisfied with her level of blood lust and fearful she would turn against him one day." The woman paused to make sure she still had her daughter's attention, "Shao Kahn had one of his sorcerers create me by combining some of Kitana's DNA with a sample from a Tarktan. The plan was for me to be introduced as her long lost twin sister who almost died only to be saved at the price of my beauty. I was to kill Kitana if she ever gave a hint at rebellion, however the princess found out about my existence too soon."
Hinata could tell that the story upset her mother, so she asked, "You said this ridiculous clothing is a tradition?"
Knowing what the girl was doing, Mileena smiled as she said, "When an Edenia girl begins training, she is given one uniform to keep and maintain. As she grows, she modifies the cloth to fit her body and style. When the girl has her first child, she creates a new uniform for herself."
Seeing what time it was, Mileena stated, "I think that is enough for tonight. How about I teach you a few Sai techniques tomorrow night?"
"I would like that…mother."
Mileena paused to make sure she heard what her daughter said, once she was sure her ears hadn't betrayed her, she smiled as she hugged the girl and said, "Okay, now off to bed with you."
Hinata nodded, quickly changing back to her regular clothes and retracting her fangs. As she opened the door to the building, she could have sworn she heard something, but not seeing anything decided she must have imagined it.
In the predawn hours of the mourning, two soldiers drove a jeep to the flagpole in the center of the base. They were the ones who were "lucky" to get this easy duty of raising the flag before sunrise each day for the month. While most bases had the flag raised at a specific time daily, this base operated a little differently. After attaching the flag and hoisting the colors, the men noticed that they had unintentionally pulled an object down the flag pole. Upon further inspection, it was revealed to be a gagged and bound, and very tired, Sasuke Uchiha who somehow had become duct taped to the top of the flag pole.
As the Uchiha wobbled back and forth in an attempt to escape his bindings, the soldiers scratched their heads trying to figure out what to do. In the end they decided it wasn't their duty to look after the boy and would inform their superior of the situation once they finished their other morning duties.
And that's a wrap for this chapter at 42 pages. Not my longest chapter, but one of the longest yet. I think this is a good treat to all of you who waited for over waited over two months for me to update. And I'm sorry to say that this will be the last update on any of my stories for a while. My university starts classes tomorrow, 8/24 I said the 22nd earlier but I had my days confused, so while I'll try to get some writing done between classes for the first few weeks, I doubt I'll get much done since I've had classes with two of my professors before and know the work load that's to be expected.
Usually I keep my end notes strictly about the story while the author's notes on the top deal with the real world stuff, but I think what I have to type down here just fits. I'd like to get some people's opinions on some things, don't worry it has nothing to do with the story this time. As a kombat pack 2 is pretty much assured (which will lengthen the wait for a komplete edition), I'd like to hear what fighters you want to be included. Admittedly I'm not a Mortal Kombat expert, I randomly played one of the early games I found in an arcade while my family was moving cross country but since my older brother wanted to get Tekken Tag when we first got a PS2, I didn't get the chance to actually really play one of the games until MK 9. Because of this I'm not all that familiar with all of the characters introduced over the years, and if someone mentions one that pecks my interest I may find a way to add them to the story like what I have planned for several of the prominent characters from MK X.
I'm also curious as to what game Netherealm Studios is going to work on next. My guess would be a new Injustice title, but I'd like to see the studio do a reboot of Primal Rage. For those of you who don't know, Primal Rage was one of the many Mortal Kombat clones during the early 90s, this one featuring dinosaurs and other gigantic beasts. It wasn't the most well made game, but I always enjoyed it. Of course, owning my brother as Talon the Raptor helped. My question to my readers is this, what old arcade game would you like to see rebooted and by what studio? If I like the responses well enough I'll feature them in my next update for this story.
My one bit of story related news is that I've noticed as I continue to write more content for the site, my stories keep gaining more typos. It isn't an excessive number and the fics are still readable, but I want to be able to provide my readers with the best content that I can. So in an effort to provide just that, I've decided to get a beta reader. So a big thank you goes to Dreaming of the Phoenix for agreeing to look over my work, well at least the crossovers I have on the site right now.
And so with another chapter concluded, more questions come to life, such as…
Who is the "she" Shao Kahn mentioned?
How well will the genin, minus Sasuke, adapt to their new training?
Will Sindel's plan be necessary, and if it is will it work?
These questions and more will, hopefully, be answered in the future in future updates of A New Realm.
As there is bound to be another wait, hopefully not three months this time, as I write the next chapter, here's acw28 saying, "until next update."
Wait, what's that text under my end note? No, it couldn't be! It's an…
Omake
The Secret of the Brotherhood of the Shades
As Johnny led Shino out of the conference room, the man began to laugh uncontrollably. "Did you see the looks on everyone's face?" The actor asked his student. "The only thing better would be if I managed to grab you before that stuck up emo brat tried to get Hanzo to be his teacher."
"Yes," Shino answered in his monotone, "the looks of disbelief were quite amusing."
"I'm so glad I managed to find you last week and get you to agree to the prank." Johnny stated before asking, "I mean really, a secret society of sunglass wearing individuals? I work in Hollywood and even there no one would believe that."
"Yes it is quite preposterous." Shino said before thinking to himself, 'I must inform Father that there is unclaimed land where we may spread our influence. We the Konoha branch of the Brotherhood of the Shades will be the ones to choose the styles and lens colors of this world!'
