A/N: This is the first chapter. I've had the idea spinning around in my head for awhile now, and I know this is short so far, but I've already written the second chapter. I just thought the characters needed a chapter to be introduced and so you could get to know them without a lot of the story in the way, so this is just introducing you to my four OC shinobi. Our main character is Ren! Let me know how you enjoy it, the more reviews or feedback I get in general, the faster the updates :)
Chapter One
"Again!"
I did my hands seals and felt the chakra sing through my veins as I released it. The ground reverberated as my hands hit, causing a shockwave to ripple the earth. Akari jumped, doing a flip in mid-air, throwing out her senbon with deadly accuracy towards me. I dodged to the right, pushing chakra to my feet to increase my speed, and did a sweeping kick as she landed on the ground to knock her off balance. Akari jumped back to create distance between us and did handsigns of her own, a small ball of fire exploding out of her mouth towards me. I flipped back to avoid it, barely singing my clothes, and was just about to throw a shuriken at her.
"Stop." Our sensei, Takeshi Amono, said
Akari and I froze, ending our sparring session and turning to our sensei after forming the seal of reconciliation, confused expressions on our face as to why he had ended the match prematurely. I saw Rafu, the third member of our Genin team, standing beside Takeshi-sensei on the other side of the training grounds. Rafu was tall with short, spiky red hair that reminded me of leaves in the autumn. He had an easy smile and always wore a black shirt with the same emblem on our hitai-ite on the front of it except it was rust colored, he also wore a pair of dark shorts to go along with it.
Akari was about as tall as I was, short for a boy yet tall for a girl, and had dark hair hanging down to her shoulder blades that was as wild and curly as her personality, which was usually tied back into a low ponytail to keep it out of her face. She wore a shirt with half-sleeves and dark pants; Rafu and I enjoyed teasing her that someone had messed up because she was supposed to be a boy - this was because of her immense dislike of anything overtly girlish.
I had dark, black hair pulled into a top knot that had a braided piece of hair hanging down with a feather interwoven into the braid. I wore a dark green, sleeveless shirt that hung down towards my knees with two slits on the side to allow free movement of my dark, pant clad legs. I had two lines of dark green war painted on my light skinned face to remind me of my nindo.
Takeshi-sensei was an odd man; He could go from being a jovial, high-spirited kind of person to a serious, almost brooding, shinobi in an instant. He was very tall, had brown, spiky hair, and always wore a flak jacket and standard issue konoha clothes. He was our Jonin team leader, a great mentor to all three of us, and had been heading our team for a year and a half now.
"Come here Ren. You as well, Akari. I want to talk with you all about something." Takeshi-sensei said, his deep timbre cutting across the training ground clearly. Akari and I glanced at eachother before sprinting over to where he was, Akari beating me by a fraction of a second; we were highly competitive with one another, the smirk around her cupid shaped lips attesting to the fact that she had noticed she won as well. Scowling playfully, I focused on what Takeshi-sensei wanted to tell us; personally, I hoped for another mission. It had been awhile since we had gotten one and I have been extremely bored. Akari nudged Rafu as the two of us came to stand by him, sending him a playful look.
"If we have laps because you were late, I'm dying your clothes pink." Akari teased
"You wouldn't!" Rafu exclaimed, eyes widening "I couldn't help it!"
"That's what you always say." I complained, my face showing none of the amusement shining through my dark and cloudy grey eyes, forgetting Takeshi-sensei for the moment when I heard the familiar excuse.
"This time it was old Kuigochi! She stopped and asked.." We would not ever find out what Kuigochi-san had asked him to do, because at that moment Takeshi-sensei interrupted.
"Enough." Takeshi-sensei said, exasperation clear in his voice "You need to make it to training on time, not fall prey to old women who know you have a bleeding heart."
I snorted in amusement, earning a glare from Rafu. It was true though, Rafu was the kind of person who would help someone carry groceries into their home and after a half hour, would be reorganizing their furniture and be adopted into their family. Not for the first time I briefly wondered how such a gentle-hearted person could be a shinobi, but I did not doubt his skills at all; he had plans to become a medic-nin when he could, a job he would excel at.
"Now, the Chunin exams are coming up." Takeshi-sensei said, looking at the three of us seriously before producing three slips of paper from a pouch on his belt. "These are the sign up forms. I've recommended all three of you to take the exam this time around and I'm confident you'll do well. I held back the last two times not because I didn't think you could hack it but because I wanted you to have time to hone your skills and enjoy being genin - a privilege afforded to us by the times of peace. A privilege I and many others never got."
Takeshi-sensei paused, looking each of us in the eye to reassure himself we were paying attention and taking what he was saying seriously. "This is a personal decision; If one of you believes you are not ready, I do not want to hear about any of the others influencing that person to take the exam. There is no shame in waiting for the next one to come around, am I understood?"
"Yes, sensei" We said together before simultaneously bowing our heads to read the forms he had provided us with. I brought a pen out of my pocket and did not hesitate to sign the paper, holding it out for Takeshi to take before the ink had even dried. Takeshi-sensei's eyebrows rose as he saw all three of us doing the same thing, and soon three papers were being held out to him for him to take. Takeshi let out a chuckle, his entire face lighting up at Team Eleven's enthusiasm, before shaking his head and pushing the papers back at them
"You will report to the Academy with those in three days at 3:00PM sharp. That is where the first exam will take place." Takeshi explained, and I quickly folded the paper before carefully putting it back into my bag. "Now, what are you three waiting for? It looks like there is plenty of sunshine left, so get back to training! Oh, and I think fifty laps for Rafu's tardiness will suffice this time."
Akari and I groaned, sending glares at Rafu who looked sheepish, before we turned as one unit and started our laps around the training grounds. A standard day of training has us doing our punishment (this was unfortunately a common occurrence with the three of us), then we would use our specialties for the first portion. I used my bow and taijutsu primarily, making me a sufficient long and close quarters fighter. My ninjutsu was pretty bad, and my genjutsu was abysmal - I was okay at throwing one off, but I could barely do a henge well enough to graduate the academy. Akari specialized in ninjutsu and poisons, and Rafu was extraordinarily good at Genjutsu and medical chakra. Rafu had amazing control for a boy, which was why he was so good at what he did; he wasted almost no chakra whenever he used it.
After our specialization training, we would practice our team coordination with assaults against Takeshi-sensei or defending against him. The last thing the three of us did was spar; my favorite part of the entire training. Like I said, my ninjutsu was pretty bad and genjutsu was even worse, but I had one advantage over the other two - It was something I couldn't explain and not very many people knew about, excluding my team and the Hokage of course. I had this strange dojutsu that gave me the ability of what Hokage-sama called pre-flex - basically, I see things before they really happen. I'm not sure how it works exactly, It has it's limits but it was extraordinarily useful while I was fighting. For instance, I have never seen more than two minutes ahead but two minutes is a long time while you are fighting another shinobi. The downside is that the future is not linear, it is extremely complicated. The best example I can give is say that Akari is going to throw a shuriken at me, changed her mind to throw a senbon, and then finally decided to use ninjutsu instead, I would most likely see all three visions and realize that the last one was the one I would need to react to. If I was focused, it wouldn't be a problem; If I was distracted, however, keeping up with that much information is a lot to handle.
I would not actually see anything until she was committed to performing the action, once she had made a decision and the future became clear. So when one knew about my ability, you had to be impulsive and change what you were going to do a lot to render it useless, which is what Akira does. I won't comment on how ridiculously hard it is to fight like that. An incredibly hard thing to use in combat, and something incredibly hard to fight against as well; for the longest time, it was something I despised and couldn't control. That was until I met Akira and then Takeshi-sensei, who helped me control it and accept it for what it was. Now, with my recurve bow and taijutsu, I had an almost unbeatable defense and an amazing offense as well. I could dodge most attacks, use my long distance weapon to keep them at bay, and if it came down to it my close quarters was great as well. I had only used it once in a real fight, and when I blindfolded myself the other person freaked out as soon as I was able to dodge their attacks; the blindfold really helps with not getting distracted and allows me to focus on what they will be doing rather than what they are doing. After the initial shock factor, a lot of people just assumed I had amazing hearing. No one had guessed the truth yet.
At the end of our training day, the three of us collapsed on the ground exhausted from all of the work we had done. We sat in the grass as the warm, blood orange sunset warmed our red faces and dried the sweat soaked clothes we were wearing. I couldn't wait to get home and take a nice hot shower. After a couple of minutes, I sat up against a tree and watched the sky, one leg brought to my chest and my arms loosely wrapped around it. Rafu was sprawled out beside me, still staring up, and Akari had climbed the tree and was dangling her feet from a branch above our heads.
"Who else do you think will be in the exams?" Akari asked, breaking the silence that had surrounded the three of us.
"Guy-sensei's team for sure." Rafu voiced, moving his arms away to uncover his eyes. I remained silent, something my comrades were used too, while they discussed the upcoming exam and what surprises it may hold for the three of us. Sometimes I look back on this day and wonder if I knew then what I know now, would I have still participated in the exams? Would that have made such a big difference? Then I remember that if I hadn't, I never would have met him.
He would always be worth it.