Chapter One: My Father's Son
"Hah! I thought the Hyuuga clan was supposed to be the greatest in Konoha! If you're all THIS weak, then I should just go kill your Hokage myself and take over! My village, the Hidden Rock, would never have lost!"
Easy words I thought, as I dragged myself back up from the rocky ground. "That all depends, really. You're making several VERY bad assumptions." While saying this, I got myself back into stance. Left foot forward, left palm to my opponent, right palm down, and most importantly, full Chakra loads in both hands, ready for the instant release of the Jyuuken Style.
"Really? All I see is a sorry, white-eyed excuse for a Shinobi, covered in dust and bruises. You have nothing that can hurt me"
"My first teacher taught me to never make such an assumption. Hyuuga Neji himself taught me how to use these eyes. Byakugan!"
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"No! Keep your balance centered! You'll never be able to respond to your opponent like that, no matter how early you see it, if you stand like this."
"Yes, Uncle Neji"
"And Shien…"
"Yes, sir?"
"Stop thinking so much in battle. If you keep drifting off, you're going to miss something important."
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"Hakke Kyuushou!"
Now, for those who have never done it, let me tell you. Feeling your palm strike the soft spot dead center in the belly of someone who just spent the last five minutes taunting you is extremely satisfying. What is somewhat less satisfying is when you delayed just long enough for that someone use Kawarimi no Jutsu, because breaking a large rock just isn't the same. In fact, it hurts. Not that I was going to let the man now standing ten meters behind me and slightly to my right know this.
"Ah, here is some of that mythical Hyuuga ability! You can break a rock! HA!" At this he dug his fingers into the ground. "Doton! Doryu Dango!" At that, he pulled his hands up, carrying …
Oh, now THAT's not cool…
… a rock about the size of a small house. "Can you break this one?" He taunted.
"I don't have to. My second teacher taught me a way around that." Chakra from my mouth to my lungs, form the seals of the Horse, the Tiger, and… "Katon! Goukakyou no Jutsu!"
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"Shien, I am going to teach you the technique that has proven each new Uchiha shinobi to be worth his training. Just like my father taught me. It will be one of the greatest offensive Ninjutsu in your arsenal. These are the seals."
"Yes sir, Sasuke-sensei!"
"Make sure you practice it often, but don't do it indoors. For that matter, make sure you're on a pier like this one, and aim out onto the water. When you first get it to work, it tends to be hard to limit the size of the blast."
"Don't worry, Ninjutsu has always been the easiest for me!"
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The stumped look on his face lasted about half of a second, just long enough for the Grand Fireball to start racing its way towards him. Interestingly enough, he forgot all about the attack he was about to launch. He suddenly became very interested in putting that large block of earth between himself and the blast.
As it turns out, hitting rock with that kind of attack is about as satisfying as hitting it with your palm.
The pop and sizzle of the superheated rocks was quite loud in the cool, dead air. However, I knew that there was no way the Rock shinobi had been taken by the attack. The lack of screams in the air was a basic testament to that. The kunai whizzing in at me from two o'clock was a more concrete way to tell, as well.
Twitch back and to the right, watch it pass two centimeters from the tip of my nose… ah, there he is. "There" being just next to my right shoulder. Then, "there" turned into quite a distance away, as he picked me up and threw (yes, threw) me, not bothering with his techniques at that distance. No choice but to pick myself back up and finish this…Although, he didn't seem to notice the difference in my stance this time, right hand held behind my back.
"Weak little Hyuuga, just picking yourself up from the dirt again. Why don't you just give up?"
"There you go, making that assumption again. My name is not Hyuuga" Just a second more to gather the power in that hidden right hand…"Really? Then tell me, what IS your name?"
Bingo "My name is Uzumaki Shien, and my father was my third teacher. RASENGAN!"
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Ah, the Rasengan. Signature technique of Jiraya, then the Fourth Hokage, and then my father, Uzumaki Naruto. Infinitely destructive power, gathered into a sphere in the palm of your hand. It took the Fourth three years to create it, my dad took four months to learn it. I took one year to the day, and count myself lucky that I didn't kill myself from burnout. The Byakugan helped, but most of us don't have the Chakra of an imprisoned beast to rely on.
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"You… are the son of the Sixth? Were you toying with me all of this time?"
I could make SO many sarcastic and evil comments about how he's stuck bleeding in the dirt now, but this fight is over. Nobody survives a full-on Rasengan through the belly, period. He's dead, and just doesn't know it yet. "Not really. It won't matter in about an hour, but I'm not the shinobi my father is. Working on it, though. May Whomever you worship have mercy on your soul."
It is an unfortunate duty of the Border Chuunin to leave enemies dying in the dirt. A cold, rational part of my mind was working on how to best pick up the pace and make up for the time lost fighting, but another part of me had a different message. No matter how many dead I count, it never becomes easier, and there's always hell to pay once the adrenaline wears off. Best not to think too hard on it for now. There'll be more than enough time while your stomach's turning itself inside out. You were headed home, after all. Mom and Dad probably miss you. It's been three months since you went out on this solo assignment, after all, and among other things, you finally figured out how to use that Rasengan. Now, if only the Kagebunshin no Jutsu were that easy…not to mention that, for your Jounin nomination, you still have to develop a new Jutsu, to "Add to the Sum Knowledge of the Shinobi Arts." What's dad on, something like his thirtieth contribution? Funny, even his first signature, the Sexy no Jutsu, is logged somewhere. I can only imagine the scene where he explained it to the archivist!
My thoughts ran wild that day, though they came to the inevitable stop that night. But you know, even with the aftershock of battle, I slept well. I don't know if I'm a bad person, but defending my country and the village where I grew up, where my friends live, where my father works to maintain peace… I can't find it in me to feel guilty that I had to kill a foreign ninja and take his identification with me, even if he was doing the same thing.
Interlude One: The Recent History of Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto
To this day, nobody quite knows what happened to Uchiha Sasuke in the time he was a missing-nin. What is known is that he became an underling of one of Konoha's greatest foes, a shinobi by the name of Orochimaru. Some say that Orochimaru tricked him into it, for the sole purpose of stealing his body. Some few of THEM say that Orochimaru succeeded, temporarily. What is known for sure is that Sasuke's return to Konoha, aided by Uzumaki Naruto and Haruna Sakura, coincided with Orochimaru's rather spectacular death. All that was ever recovered of the snake-nin's body was his right hand, clenched around the hilt of a sword. To this day, Sasuke's eyes bear the slightly exaggerated slant of the snake, his pupils ever so slightly elongated while not using the Sharingan .The mark of Orochimaru has not yet faded, and he still contends with the taint of suspicion wherever he goes, save only in the presence of Sakura or Naruto.
Occurring as it did not long before the Fourth Secret World War, Sasuke's return to the Village Hidden in the Leaves signaled a great change in the life of the future Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto. Having fulfilled his promise of a lifetime, he saw that his bid for Sakura's hand had ended in ashes. Though it crushed his heart, it finally opened his eyes to the world, and let him see further opportunities, both in his working life and in his social. One such opportunity turned out to be a woman by the name of Hyuuga Hinata, the second in line of the Hyuuga house's heirs. Rumor has it that she had loved him since before they were even Gennin, and nearly killed herself during her first Chuunin exam, just trying to impress him. Most discount these rumors as just that, since her sensible advice and calm heart have been defining aids in Naruto's policies since his ascension to Hokage. Forsaking her place in line as the Hyuuga heir for her love, they were married after an eight-month courtship. Sakura married Sasuke not long after.
Unfortunately, their happiness was to be short-lived, as the War broke out mere months after the ceremonies. Such is the fate of the shinobi.