One
(I do not own Naruto, only thing I own are my own characters. Enjoy)
Suna was a beautiful village to watch the sun rise over, the grains of sand in the air reflecting light gracefully and seeming like stars in the morning sky. The natural beauty of the desert village was not lost on its denizens since the most they could focus on was the unique appearance of their home, the early morning being one of the most peaceful times of day. On this early morning Akira was walking down a sandstone street with his six year old son at his right side, said six year old had a head of hair that matched his in its white color. As the two walked they were getting looks from passers by, a majority of those looks were being given towards Akira by women and they were of interest towards the young adult. As usual he ignored them in favor of being with his son. "Tou-chan..." Akira looked to his son and saw the same dark shade of eyes that he had staring up at him.
"Yes Zeko?"
The child looked around and still saw the interest being shown towards his father and the looks of lesser disdain that he was getting. "Why does everyone keep looking at us?"
Akira only smiled at his son's question, his answer always being prepared. "Because we're handsome men. We look good and on top of that we're both strong, people always look to the strong. So remember that if people are staring at you it's because they know you should be respected deep down in their hearts... or they're jealous." He said to his curious son as they continued to walk, passing a shop with kunai and shuriken on display. Zeko eyed the metal weaponry and felt very familiar with them, as if he knew he'd have to wield them in the future. The young boy could only watch them pass as they ran into someone that his father knew. "Oi! Kira!" Zeko was pulled onto his father's shoulders and sat higher than he normally would be but was smiling brightly at the change in altitude.
Akira quickly moved to the only person who turned their body to respond, said person sighed as they saw Akira coming. "Of course you'd be here." A woman's voice answered with an exasperated tone. "What do you want Akira-san?"
The white haired man only grinned as he walked up to the woman with his son on his shoulders. "You don't need to be so mean, I was just taking a walk around the village with my son." Akira looked down and saw two figures around the legs of his associate. "And who are those two?"
At his question the two figures released their mother and bowed respectfully to the man as he set his own son down. "My name is Ran." The first of the two announced
"I am Rei." The second followed as they both returned to their normal posture.
"It is nice to meet you shinobi-san." The two said in unison. Akira only looked at the two as he fully absorbed the fact that they were identical twins their dark blue hair, brown eyes, and plain expressions the two held as they looked up to meet his gaze. Akira brought Zeko back to the ground as he looked back to the twins' mother.
'Well mannered kids, I should probably start Zeko on his...' Akira stopped once he heard his son exchange his name with the twins and an idea came into his mind. "Would you mind letting my son be tutored with your boys?"
The woman's eye twitched at the question. "I know that even if I denied it you wouldn't take that as an answer."
"Great! He'll be there starting Monday." Akira picked his son up once again and placed him on his shoulders as they continued on their path. "You'll have some new friends soon Zeko."
The white haired child only looked back as the trio they'd just interacted with resumed what they'd been doing before he turned his head forward once again. Zeko looked around as he was carried throughout the streets, seeing more looks coming his way but he didn't pay them any attention since he was focused on spending time with his father. They didn't spend much more time on the streets and decided to finally head back home even though it was still early in the day. The street they walked on eventually turned into a walkway and led to a sandstone wall that contained an arch shaped building. "What's kaa-chan been up to?" Zeko asked as his father took him off his shoulders.
Akira shrugged as well as they walked into their estate, the second they walked inside they found themselves caught in the grasp of their matriarch. "Why'd you two have to be gone the whole mornin?!" The father and son found themselves slowly being squeezed tighter and tighter, their rapid taps to Yokano's arms not helping. "Oh!" She released them both as she realized something and she left the entryway of their home. Zeko managed to recover first and as he worked himself to his feet he found a brown box in his face, courtesy of his mother. "Happy birthday Zeko! I know it's been a cold February but there's nothin wrong with starting to train now!"
Before the white haired boy even put his hands on the box he felt a... familiar pull coming from it, as if he knew what was in it before it was opened. "Thank you kaa-chan!" As his father struggled to his feet Zeko took the top away from the box and revealed the set of four kunai and four shuriken. Akira had finally managed to stand and took a deep breath as he did so.
"Yokano did I leave the seat up again? I swear you're trying to make me age so you feel youn-" The wall of sand that rose in front of Akira quickly cut him off as his wife smiled modestly, mostly focused on her son's happiness over his gift. Spikes of sand immediately formed on the wall and led to Akira closing his mouth entirely.
"Now you go upstairs and meditate Zeko. I have to talk to your father about manners again..." As a newly turned six year old Zeko had no idea what certain tones or facial expressions meant in most situations, meaning that the face of his father pleading him to stay went completely under his radar and he only nodded and ran for the staircase that led to the next story of their home. At the very least one of the two white haired men of that house would have a calm day from that point.
Zeko calmly sat in his room with his new tools ahead of him, his window was slightly open to allow a small draft inside. His hands were clasped together while he sat with his legs crossed and eyes closed, this would be the sixth week in a row he'd attempted to get a feel of his chakra and he was undeterred in trying. Sometimes he'd feel tugs and pulls that let him know he had a functioning network but drawing out his latent power was where he, for lack of better words, came up short. He was aware of his small size even compared to his age group but in his mind he knew that he'd outgrow even his father as he aged, and just like his daily meditation he'd need to be patient to receive. 'I feel it getting closer...' He did his best to not strain as he felt something welling up from within him and only encouraged the feeling to come forward as he communed. 'Gotta be able to use chakra if I want tou-chan to teach me a move!' Zeko recalled how he'd seen his parents perform amazing tricks for him with their jutsu and knew that he wanted to do the same, but his biggest obstacle was finding his own chakra at this moment. The feeling inside him reached a tipping point and he could feel his mind expanding, senses being pushed a bit further and he knew he was so incredibly close but right as he hit the edge of this feeling he pushed too hard and wound up snapping free of his meditative state. He fell onto his back and pouted as he stared at his ceiling. "I almost did it! Why's chakra gotta be so hard to use?!"
In his irritated state Zeko hadn't figured that anything would be listening to his complaints but a moment after the words left his mouth-
'A lot closer to it than you think brat.'
The boy looked around his room to find the mysterious voice he'd heard, but there wasn't anything aside from himself. He checked his closet, nothing. Under his bed, empty. Behind his dresser, dust. Zeko sat down again and shook his head once he figured his imagination started to run wild since he sat still so long, he noticed how the early morning sun was now the early afternoon sun. Zeko stood up and decided to ask his mother what they would have for lunch but he stopped once he saw his box on the floor, the kunai and shuriken were now scattered around it. "Did I take them out?" He threw his hands up and decided to clean up the mess and put the box onto his bed with the familiar feeling of the iron weapons not being lost on his young mind, and once he'd done that he left his room to see what his mom decided to make for lunch.
Monday came fast through the weekend and marked the beginning of a new routine for Zeko. He found himself in the humble home of the twins he'd met during the weekend seated at one of three desks in front of a whiteboard. The whiteboard had the name "Rou-sensei" written on it and beside it was a middle aged woman with brown hair and dark brown eyes. Her clothes were a simple brown long sleeved shirt and pants with black sandals. "As you boys know I'm your general tutor." She looked to Ran and Rei as she stated this but when she looked to Zeko a faint flicker of apprehension crossed her eyes. "Of course my name is on the board so that your new group member can know who I am as well."
"Nice to meet you sensei!" Zeko's cheerful tone brought some life into the dull room for a moment but that was replaced with the same dry atmosphere it had beforehand.
Rou-sensei turned to the board and erased her name. "You've picked a good time to start learning, we were going to chakra control and some basic history today." She reached beneath the board and picked up a brown box. "Now we improvised our own technique for this from the leaf by using sand but today I'll have you three use actual leaves." The box was filled with lush green leaves of which she removed three and handed them to her students. "If anyone here hasn't figured out how to use chakra speak up now."
Sheepishly, Zeko raised his hand to the question. "I came close but I'm still trying sensei." Rou set the box back down before continuing.
"Hm... well in the meantime Ran and Rei will practice sticking the leaves to their foreheads while I will help you with unlocking your chakra. The trick for you two is to not think of forcing chakra to any area but to instead coat a layer over your skin, not too thin or thick otherwise it won't work." Rou eyed Zeko as he closed his eyes to focus on the same feeling he'd reached a few days prior but his teacher only frowned. 'He knows the feeling but hasn't drawn it out.'
Rou took Zeko's hands and put them into the ram seal, his eyes opened to look at what he'd been coached into doing. He took in the forms of Ran and Rei as they reached for leaves again, their previous ones having been set on fire from too much chakra being used in the technique. "This feels better sensei." Zeko could feel something coursing through his body and immediately knew it was his chakra network being opened more than it had ever been.
"Now concentrate again." Again Zeko focused on reaching the feeling once again but this time it was stronger, much stronger than before. He felt his spiritual and physical energy course through his body and knew that with Rou's help he'd finally opened his chakra network, however in his excitement he began to push more than before. In a few moments the box of leaves was blown over by the force of the child's chakra, but once he noticed he was the cause of the wind in the room he separated his hands. Again Rou's eyes had a hint of concern but it quickly was lost to any of the boys.
The twins looked at him in surprise with their leaves stuck on their foreheads not from chakra control but from the force applied against them. "That was-" Ran started
"Cool!" Rei finished being the more awestruck of the two while Rou picked the box up again and retrieved a leaf for Zeko.
Zeko's eyes sparkled as the leaf was given to him and he quickly set it on his palm... where it quickly set ablaze. "Well that's the problem with high chakra reserves, your control will need more training than these two." With the leaf going into ashes Zeko's will burned brighter and he quickly placed another leaf on his hand and took a deep breath in. Another burnt leaf that crumbled into ashes as the Ran managed to stick his leaf onto his fingertip for a split second until it fell off while Rei set his ablaze once more. "At least Zeko being here is motivating you two a little more than usual, never have I seen you both so eager."
Rei spoke up as he tried to get another leaf to stick to his finger tip. "If it means we can knock things over just from one hand seal then it's worth the effort Rou-sensei." This time Rei managed to get the leaf to stick for a second before it fell away from him, not on fire. Ran was now almost at two seconds with his new leaf while Zeko was on his sixth and had yet to make any stick, each one having been turned to ash on his fingertip.
Frustration was present on Zeko's face but he was not deterred from his challenge even as minutes went by and the twins were no longer setting any leaves aflame he pushed through, the box being nearly empty from his own attempts while Ran and Rei only had to put a leaf on their hand once it fell off. With another deep breath Zeko placed a leaf onto his fingertip and closed his eyes but the sound of an igniting leaf was nowhere as he opened them and saw it sticking firm, of course it immediately was pushed away from his hand once he'd seen what he was doing but in his mind he'd already become a full fledged shinobi just from managing to stick a leaf onto his finger for half a second.
The trio of children continued to try and stick their leaves to their hands with Ran leading them by a wide margin, being able to keep a leaf on his fingertip for thirty seconds by the time they were finished reviewing control. Of course they had to move onto history and began the review of the subject that made Ran and Zeko lose all interest in the tutoring session. "Now every Kazekage of Suna was known for having which kekkei genkai?"
"Magnet release Rou-sensei!" Rei excitedly answered while Ran and Zeko did their best to seem like they were paying attention to the class.
"Correct. Our Kazekages had all been related and passed this bloodline down to their successors until the appearance of our current Kage who possesses?" Nobody raised their hand to answer the question. "Good because only those closest to them know, the average civilian or shinobi has no clue who our current Kazekage is. I don't agree with this mostly but it stopped the oligarchy we were under. Now our last magnet release user of Suna was the sixth Kazekage and since his retirement no others have appeared but hopefully one can appear soon enough."
Zeko was legitimately curious as to why his tutor seemed upset at why there were no other users of the kekkei genkai their village was known for and decided to ask his question. "Why do you want one to be here sensei?"
Rou was surprised at the snow haired boy's question but quickly regained her composure. "Well if they were anything like the fourth or fifth Kazekage then they could use their ability to find gold dust as the fourth did. I'm sure you boys aren't aware yet but we are a poorer village than the other great five and any means we can have to change that would be a- I'll stop boring you with economics since you're all too young for that as of now. Let's get back to the lesson."
Again seconds turned to minutes as Rou continued over their village history and key figures. The lesson continued for several hours, a few times they took breaks to practice the leaf exercise and made slightly more progress in that, Rei being at twenty seconds while Ran was at thirty five. Zeko only managing eight seconds at most. "Ran, how are you so good at this?" Zeko questioned as a leaf forced itself off his fingertip.
His friend shrugged his shoulders and focused on his leaf again. "Maybe I'm just gonna be a better ninja than you." His taunt made Rou smile since competition was usually healthy among boys but the words that left Zeko's mouth made her reconsider.
"I'll kill you someday, and then we'll know who's better..." Everyone had their eyes on the platinum blonde but he didn't pay them any mind, he never even took his eyes away from his leaf with that threat.
'That sounded more like a guarantee. He's just a kid, can't take everything they say seriously.' Rou decided the issue was just a kid trying to be scary and left it at that. The rest of their day dragged on until Akira came to pick his son up from the tutoring session. "Bring him back the same time tomorrow." Rou said as they left the property and started their walk back home.
Once they returned to their own estate Zeko quickly ran upstairs and started his throwing practice, he'd set up three targets on his wall and would toss his kunai and shuriken at them. His father would look in and give him pointers on how to properly flick his wrist or to keep a looser grip but somehow it didn't seem to matter since the boy would consistently hit the innermost ring or occasionally get a bullseye. 'I can already start my Kazekage speech!' He thought as he threw another kunai at the target and struck a bullseye, every throw felt natural to the boy and he felt attuned with his weapons. If he was a bit younger he'd have figured himself a natural but he remembered back to his failures at the leaf exercise earlier in the day. He stopped his kunai throwing and decided to resume his exercise with the leaf he kept from the lesson, spirit as motivated as it was then to master the technique so he could learn his first jutsu...
From that day on Zeko fell into a quick routine of going to his lessons with Rou-sensei, Ran, and Rei to getting home and practicing his chakra control on the leaf exercise.
A year and a half later he'd managed to not only keep a leaf on each fingertip for a full two minutes but could now hit a bullseye with kunai or shuriken from almost twenty meters away. Currently Zeko was practicing his training with his father outside of the village since there aren't any proper training grounds in its limits and shinobi are requested to train out of its walls. Zeko was being drilled on throwing his weapons while running and despite needing minor corrections to his technique every now and again, he still either hit the inner ring or the bullseye of the targets. "Zeko, take a break! I have something else for you." The boy stopped once he finished his last throw and got a bullseye with two kunai simultaneously.
He walked over to his father who held out a piece of white paper and handed it to him. "What's this tou-chan?"
"It's a special paper that lets us see what your chakra affinity is, just put a little in there so we can find out what jutsu I can teach you first." Akira said as he placed five scrolls onto the ground while his son squeezed the paper lightly. To Akira's shock the paper split into two halves... then the top two split again while the bottom half turned into dirt and crumbled away. 'That's... no he couldn't be...' Akira looked to the scrolls and put three of them away.
"What do you think I can learn tou-chan?" Zeko questioned as he eyed the two scrolls on the ground.
Akira looked up and smiled. "Actually Zeko... you're going to start learning two jutsu today. Calm down and open the scrolls." Akira cut his son off from raising his fist in excitement but the frozen form of Zeko ready to jump made him snicker. Zeko knelt down and opened the scroll to his left first, then followed with the one on his right.
"Mud wall and great breakthrough?"
Akira nodded. "Great breakthrough is a practical offensive wind technique, and it can be paired with fire jutsu to give them a boost. The mud wall is a good defensive technique that gives you cover in a few seconds at most... I don't know why it's a B-rank jutsu since it's pretty simple. Hell if anything it's rank should be switched with great breakthrough, but I'm confident in you to get these both down today."
Zeko nodded and eyed the scrolls as he went through the hand seals for each, feeling his chakra shift and course through his body as he practiced. 'The easy one should be great breakthrough. I just gotta push air out of my mouth.' As he figured in barely half an hour Zeko was able to push weak, yet consistent, bursts of air from his mouth. His father seemed impressed that the basis of the technique was already understood and for another hour he watched his son experiment with how much chakra he needed to use for a larger and larger squall.
"Zeko I'm going to test you on what you can do." Akira brought Zeko from his practice, he leapt a great distance away from his son and went through a few hand seals. "I'm going to shoot a very weak jutsu at you and I want you to blow it away, if I don't think you can handle it I'll be there quicker than you can see and move you ok?" Zeko nodded. "Suiton: Mizurappa."
Zeko saw a stream of water come from his father's mouth and cringed at what his young mind could only see as a glorified spit attack but he wasted no time in going through his own hand seals and landing on snake. "Futon: Daitoppa!" A blast of wind left Zeko's mouth and collided with the stream of water, overpowering it after a short struggle and creating a beautiful sight of prismatic light in the area. Zeko cheered to himself and wasted no time in reviewing the scroll for the mud wall jutsu.
'Stronger than what most kids are at that age, might up his training a little so he can really get results.' Akira thought as he watched his son familiarize himself with the second jutsu he'd picked for him to learn.
Again Zeko felt the movement of his chakra throughout his body and thought of how to properly utilize this jutsu since he couldn't just blow air this time. An hour went by as Zeko got a feel for the jutsu and finally decided to try it. He slammed his hands onto the ground and a wall of dry sandstone matching his height rose up from the ground. 'That was easy.'
"Three and a half feet of earth, perfect for you but not for many others." Akira joked while his son only pouted but he quickly decided to kick the wall, breaking a large piece off the top. "Too brittle, you didn't put enough chakra into it. If you tried to use that in a fight you'd barely slow down whatever was coming at you."
Zeko nodded and returned to his attempts at trying to create another wall of earth. In a few short minutes he created one again and once again his father broke it effortlessly. This cycle repeated until Akira finally clued Zeko in that he needed to put more chakra in to properly strengthen the brittle sandstone they were on. Another few minutes of chakra molding and Zeko tried once more. "Doton: Doryuheki." This time the wall that rose was a slightly darker shade of yellow than the sand and sandstone around them.
"Hm." Akira gave a few exploratory taps to the wall and made a face of satisfaction. "I'm impressed, a C-rank and B-rank jutsu both learned in a matter of hours, your chakra affinity isn't all to blame for this. I can tell you've been training your control son and I'm proud of you." Akira quickly knelt down and wrapped his son into a hug which Zeko returned before Akira faced them both to the wall. "Now I want you to use any means you have to break that wall down."
"Anything?" Zeko questioned and got a nod as a response. The boy thought about everything he could have done to break the wall and figured his barely formed taijutsu wouldn't be enough so clearly his father wanted him to use his great breakthrough. Zeko brought his hands together and thought of a better way to impress the man he looked up to, figuratively and literally. He went through three seals this time to Akira's confusion but the white haired man almost spat out a drink he wasn't sipping at what his son did next. "Suiton: Mizurappa!" A stream of water left Zeko's mouth and weathered away the wall of sandstone until only a mound a few inches tall remained jutting from the ground, edges being smoothed by the water. "Was that good tou-chan?"
Akira was silent at what he'd just witnessed. His son who was only turning eight in the coming February six months away... who would only be attending the academy in a month as a seven year old due to his birthday instead of being eight for entry... just managed to learn three jutsu above D-rank in one day. "Zeko, how did you figure out the wild water wave?"
Zeko squinted as he thought, trying his best to interpret what he in his young mind believed to sound more mature for his father. "I thought about it like the great breakthrough, except I thought it was like making a blast of my spit." Akira nodded and told his son to collect his throwing weapons so they could go home.
'He really used the spit in his mouth and his chakra to make water. It makes sense since I'm a jonin but for him to see that parallel then actually go through with it... We've got a prodigy on our hands Yokano."
Author's Notes: I'm sorry it took a little more than a week for me to come out with this, I personally find it hard to write normal everyday life for a kid learning to be a shinobi as opposed to a shinobi. To all of the few readers this has at the moment, can you figure out what Zeko's affinity is caused by? If so comment it and I will prove you right in a few chapters at most. Till next time
