DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO.
Sunlight. What is it in this untouchable matter that seems to be ever so far reaching, brightening every corner at least once in their lifetime. Crawl, and lurk they go, and yet they seem ever so fleeting, ethereal guardians that instill hope in the lost lives of so many, and through its unbiased guidance, we often lead ourselves back into the light that we hold dear.
Light, we alway liked it. We shun darkness for it strikes fear into many of us, yet as frightening it can be, often the light is more frightening than darkness. The untold irony that seems so false, yet so true. Many who embraced the dark side of life often do not want to return to the light, for they are now under a different idea, a different stand. The same way we were brought up to fear and fight the darkness, these people are born to fear and fight the light. Thus the balance in the world remains, and a tense period of peace is created.
Peace. It is weak, vulnerable and easily becomes lopsided.
Naruto wondered is this why his life is so unfair back in Konoha, yet seems so normal here. The light don't shine in every place, for the brighter the light, the darker the shadows become. Books, rows after rows of books he was forced to read, but the tiring task slowly became an enjoyment for him. Two weeks he has been here, and he wondered how he managed to like reading so quickly.
"The harder we push, the harder we are pushed back." So says one of the books that takes refuge on the aged, yet well maintained bookshelves. 'Is this why every time we rid the world of evil, another rises from the same ashes to takes its place?' Naruto frowned, sadness and fear embroiled itself inside his soul, the space in his heart and mind. He locked his cerulean eyes on the reading Sena, and he found some comfort. 'No matter how hard we are pushed back, we will win this endless tug-of-war, so some can enjoy the comfort and the blessings of life, even if it were only temporary.'
Sena's dark brown hair swayed ever so slightly when the gale pounced threw the windows, and he immediately readjusted his ponytailed hair. Then, it was back to reading.
Naruto was given ordered to spend four days in every 28 days to read, and it seemed all too short. Sena, it was him who introduced Naruto to the wonderful masterpieces that hide in crowds of books and scrolls, and rethinking his actions, he did not regret it one bit. The books has helped him to get used to the untold serenity of the temple.
"Naruto. It's time for you to summarize everything you have read in the past four days. Come here, now!" Hideiki's aged and crisp voice cracked the shell of silence in the library and snapped Naruto's travelling mind back to square one.
The blonde walked over to meet with his sensei, and he followed him back to the gazebo which they often met to begin their daily tasks.
Hideiki's wrinkled face gave Naruto the green light to begin his summary on all the books he read, and although reading at least 15 books in 4 days seemed alot when he began, but the fear and agony was gone and replaced by joy and interest.
"So, how many books?"
"Sixteen, Hideiki-sensei." Naruto answered promptly, and he was signalled to continue his summary. "The titles for all sixteen are, 'Tales of the two swords.' 'Time-counting it's value.' 'Shadow jutsus-beginners exposure.' 'Human anatomy-chakra coils.' 'Founding of Konoha.' and so on.' Naruto consequently was asked to summarize all the books which he did easily, and he was followingly asked to reveal it's possible uses from the stories. Difficult? It wasn't, especially when the books seemed more like comic books than the impression of thick books when he first started.
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"Today, I'm going to teach you the basics of the monk combat stance, or to be more specific, the shaolin combat stance that we inherited from the farlands." Hideiki then positioned his entire body in a particular stance. "Imitate me."
Imitation. Since when was trying to replicate the sharingan's abilities a part of training? Naruto's faulty stances were promptly readjusted with either a hard smack to the place of error, or a hard bonk to the head. The hot sun was no help either. He was ordered to practice in the hot sun for the rest of the day, with rocks the size of a football tied to his arms and lots of weight were attached to his body parts. 'Man, this stuff is heavy." Who knew rocks can be so encumbering.
The rest of the day, he could not really manage to gather his energy to run quickly, with weights attached to his body parts, but he continued to try to follow the stance given, and although he remembered the stance already, it was really hard to achieve the speed and accuracy required with the heavy weights.
-----
"Naruto, today's training is slightly different from yesterday's. You are going to climb up the cliff, with rocks on you feet. and rocks on your arms." Naruto breathed an air of discontent. He hated cliffs after what happened on the first day, and he would rather jump into the abyss than go up it again. "You will also be required to hit targets on many parts of the cliff with either kunai or shuriken without getting out of the marked area."
"With the wind, how are you supposed to do so?"
"Good question, but I'm not going to answer you. Find your own way."
"Hey, give me a hint."
"Nope."
"Give me a clue."
"When hell freezes over."
"Give me a small idea on how."
"Over my dead body."
"Just give me a clue."
"Fine, at the cost that 9 out of 10 of your kunais must hit a target. If not, you'll be penaltied, and I was told that you like ramen..."
"Never mind, forget I asked."
The cliff loomed with a certain dark and chilly aura that nobody but Naruto could feel, an aura created by himself because of the tormenting training on the first day. One step, and the rock is heavy. The first twenty steps was easy, in fact too easy that it seemed weird. But once he was up there, the wind started to rear it's ugly head again, and the wind started to make everything hell. Then, out of nowhere, the rocks came and hit him at his feet. 'Ouch! Bloody rocks! I swear i'll kill the person who is throwing the rocks.' He forced his body up, but with additional weight, it seemed an indomitable task.
'First target.' It was to his left. some twenty feet away. But the wind... How the hell is he supposed the overcome the wind...
"Think... Think..." He forced his mind to squeeze every drop of IQ to find the a solution. 'Cha.. Chakra. It might work... But how... ' He tried to think again... Wind. How to overcome the wind. 'Create your own wind. Yes. Exactly. But I don't have any wind jutsus... Point to self, get a jutsu for every element from the library later. Well, guess I'll just to try to throw, maybe it'll hit.' The downdraft caused the thrown kunai to curve and go straight down to the floor, not enough energy... These weights are messing with my aim.
'Wait. I remember seeing some people throw their kunais in a curve.' He tried again, but it also fell to the floor. 'Maybe I threw it at the wrong direction and angle.'
'Throw!' It also fell to the ground some thirty meters below. He threw again, but fighting the wind seemed an impossible task. Then, the words from a book came back to his head. 'Can't fight them, join them.'
'If fighting the wind is useless, why don't I use the wind to do my job.'
He went higher up the cliff, and he threw the kunai sidewards. The wind readjusted the kunai, and it flew down to hit the board at the edges before bouncing off and falling to the ground. 'Close.' He tried again, but at a different angle, and the wind's itchy fingers changed the course of the kunai again. This time, it hit the board, but far from the center target. 'Close again.' He threw the kunai again, and it managed to hit the board even closer to the target, and the fourth throw found the center of the board. 'Target one, down.'
The weights was a pain when trying to keep his chakra control and still aim at the targets and climb, and the increasing wind velocity was a really prick in his eyes.
But at the end of it. He found his chakra levels to be increasing, and his physical strength as well.
------
The forest hides much, and in it's thick hide it keeps much from view. The forest offer shadow to those who need it, food to those who hunger, shelter to those who are homeless. But the forest has a very high rent, most often in the price of lives.
Kakashi wandered through one of these woods, escorted by another jounin. A mission he was given, and he was out to finish it.
An A-class mission that requires the transportation of a book? Must be some hell of a book to be worth that much money, and Kakashi could not help but want to take a peek. He did, and he was feeling very stupid when he opened it. The book contained a story, a very long and entertaining story from a very old time. But he felt stupid, he felt underestimated, he felt like a fool. But he knew that the book most likely contains something of importance, so he activated his sharingan to look for it.
Nothing, there were plain nothing in the book. No seals, no special compartments. It was an ordinary story book, yet why would it be worth so much?
He soon arrived at the large tower of stone, or the Tsuchikage's tower. This was were he was supposed to hand over the book to a person and receive the payment. But Kakashi felt very wrong. 'This might be a lure to kill a jounin from Konoha.' The silver haired nin thought, so, he prepared himself for combat, and he walked in, ready to activate his sharingan any time.
Yet, the tsuchikage received the storybook, and Kakashi received the payment.
Nothing was wrong. No attacks to and fro. He could not help but feel slightly sick once he arrived back at Konoha.
'Too smooth for an A-Class mission... I just don't like it.'
-------
Shino looked around in the dense jungles, and he was welcomed with the continous call of crickets, beetles and every other known and unknown insect. Two days since he left Konoha, and he liked the break from the hectic lifestyle. He was free to go anywhere he pleases as long as it doesn't break any laws.
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Naruto was standing in the middle of the woods, watching Sena intently with a kunai is his hands, and in a moment, his visions flickered, and Sena was gone. 'Clank!' The loud metallic call of clashing kunais was then followed with punches after punches. Sena twisted his body to throw a kick at his left shoulder, and the force sent Naruto flying backwards.
The blonde stood up, his eyes scanned his opponent for a weakness, but to no avail. 'Swish,' and Naruto was instantly alerted of the coming kicks. His sent his left palm to parry the kick, and he was about to send a punch to the brown haired Sena's stomach, but he was overtaken by Sena's faster fist, which embedded itself into his cheek, and he was forced backward.
Sena's fingers moved quickly, performing seal after seal, and 'Raiyari.' Hs kunai was surrounded by a long spearlike lighting, and he lunged forward.
Naruto sidestepped, spinned his body to throw a fist at Sena's face, which he avoided by ducking, and Naruto followed with a low kick, which was blocked with his free hand. Senseing danger, Naruto jumped backward and threw shurikens at him. But Sena was already gone, and he was about to land a kick on his back. 'Poof.'
"Clone?" Sena turned to see ten to twenty projectiles cutting the forest air and flying at high speed at him. 'Kazetate no jutsu.' A swirl of wind surrounded Sena, and the weapons deflected and instead found itself hitting the trees. When the wind sheild was about to fade totally, a kunai attached to a string came out from the barrier and flew outward towards a tree. Then, in mid air, the kunai changed it's direction and it swirled towards a tree. 'Kawamiri no jutsu.' and the sounds of kunai embedding itself in wood raised the pressure to end the match.
A few seals were made, and Sena's dark eyes glowed in a yellowish light. Then, he threw kunais towards the trees in the place he locked his glowing eyes at. Three loud cracks chased away the birds, and Sena smirked slightly. "You can run, but you can't hide, Naruto." Then, more seals and Sena faded away.
Naruto looked around his surroundings, trying to find the vanished Sena. 'Think...Ninjutsu? No. Taijutsu? Don't think so. Genjutsu. Most probable.'
Then, out of nowhere, his feet was slowly tangled by large roots, immobilizing him, and a kunai was at his neck. "You lose, Naruto."
"Yeah." Naruto said, and there was much dissent in his voice.
Then, the roots shrunk back into the tree, and Naruto was free to walk again. Sena then continued, "So, you'll do my chores?"
"I guess I have to."
-------
Tsunade looked at the report, and sweat was starting to flow down from her forehead. Her fingers flipped the pages again, and she was aware that this was the fifth time she read the report since she received it. The hokage looked at the dark blue covered book, with the title "Sound Village report." taking center stage. She read again, 'Orochimaru has recently found another body, and perhaps he might use the body to sneak into Konoha unnoticed."
She was truly afraid now, and with the aging of both Jiraiya and herself, she wondered if there is any chance of defeating that snakehead. It wasn't a good idea to think that Orochimaru might actually become an immortal in a certain sense, it was very unsettling for her to think of the possible problems that might plague the future events. 'War.' That was exactly the last thing on her mind, after the war with Sunagakure and Sound, Konoha's defences have weakened greatly.
She then finally closed the book to look at the Anbu operative stand obediently in front of her, and she nodded to allow the Anbu to depart.
Murphy's law seemed so true now, because the last thing she wanted, was the very thing that would become true.
-------
He slammed the wall as hard as he could, and slowly it cracked more and more, releasing sand and dust to the floor, and when the cracks stopped, there was a large and deep crater in the once flat walls, and a dark smirk made its way to his face. His snakelike eyes gleamed with a dark shade, and he reached his pale and bare hands towards the crumbled section on the wall, and he laughed to himself. "Like this wall, Konoha will fall." He muttured to himself, and he then punched the wall again and again to destroy more and more sections.
-------
"What did you get from the seer?" The dark hat of the Tsuchikage protected his face from sight, and his commanding voice straightened everyone up.
"He tells of a dark future." An old man said plainly.
The leader of the stone looked outwards into the canyon, and his blood red eyes seemed distant for a moment, before returning back to the present. "What kind of future?"
"He sees a snake, a large serpent to be exact, and he tells of a great battle soon to come."
"Orochimaru is the snake, then? Or is it Manda?"
"Maybe, maybe not."
"The seer never tells anything directly, does he?"
"They are but visions, so they are up to us to interpret the pictures for good or bad."
"... Very well. Intensify the training of all ninjas. We prepare for a coming battle, just in case Orochimaru to make us a target."
-------
Naruto stared at the silent sensei for a moment, and he wondered the training for this day. The sun was dim, veiled in the clouds, a blurred light, and the environment was blanketed in a thin sheet of gold. The weather seemed fine, not much wind, but enough to provide comfort. He turned his head to survey his training grounds, and he was greeted by flowers at the edges of the pool, tall grasses and a tree or two, a serene and calm sight, easily soothing the eyes of the tired, and the exhaustion of body.
"Today, both myself and Jishin-sensei is going to show you a Qi battle." Hideiki said his eyes still shut.
Then, Jishin-sensei, the old master of the temple. His beard floated when the wind blew and rattled the leaves at the same time, he walked with an strong aura of authority, yet still retain a certain grace. Slowly, he sat down some twenty feet from Hideiki and he sat in a meditation posture, which prompted Hideiki to pull out a flute and sit in a slightly tilted and laidback postion.
Jishin-sensei's eyes closed, and yet Naruto could not help but feel being eyed by the two veterans.
"Naruto. Qi battle is a semi-physical medium range combat, normally to show mastery in chakra control, tactics, and awareness. Qi battle is essentially to control your chakra to move the air around you without any seals and using this manipulated air around you to attack your opponent. But remember, Qi battle is NOT to be used in a real battle, where every second defines life and death, because Qi battle is a slow type attack and requires immense amount of concentration."
Then, Naruto could feel a pulsing, heartbeat-like movements of chakra, like flares reaching out of their bodies.
"Feel it? Willing chakra to move out of your body is difficult, but it is like chess, you attack with your chakra, you defend with your chakra, and to keep your pieces strong, you also must have a lot of chakra."
Then, the blonde could heard the soft whistling yet strangely melodious tunes coming from Hideiki. "Naruto, instruments are also allowed as weapons is Qi battle. Remember, no direct attacks that involve weapons, but because Qi battle is also a battle of concentration and wits, therefore flutes, books, words, poems are allowed to distract and displace your opponents."
Then, out of the blue, he could see a ball of air forming in the middle of the air, and it boomed on it's way out. Then, a lot of such booms echoed through the training groumds, creating large ripples on the pond.
Hideiki continued to play his instrument, and Naruto could not help but start to feel a tad lot dizzy and dreamy, so he could not see what happened to Jishin-sensei. Then, the somebody's chakra seemed to force the water out of the pool and the water funneled like a snake made of water charging towards Hideiki-sensei. Naruto's sensei swirled the air in front of him at high speed to create a type of shield, and the funnel of water dispersed.
"I lost, Jishin-san." Hideiki said plainly.
It was then he felt the call from inside, haunting and echoing, some sort of a double voice that adds a sharp edge to his words. He felt strangely nauseating, and then he was in the dark, empty and dimly lit corridors of his mind.
"You human. Let me out." Kyubi's dark, bloodthirsty voice said.
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A/N: I will not call myself a writer or any sort of grand title until the day I can stand amongst the greatest laureates of all time and still feel no shame or guilt.But until that day, I will call myself a hopeless fool, an imitation at best.
I'd like to thank En Satsu Koku Ryuu Ha, for reviewing my stories when nobody seemed to be reading.
Thanks for reading, and please leave a review. If you dislike my story, I'm truly sorry, there is nothing I can do to erase my lack of talent, so I guess you just have to live with it. ()