A/N: You know in hindsight maybe I should have chosen something a little less ambitious for my first fanfic, too late now!
A few questions I was asked either in review or in a PM that I may as well answer here:
Q: What is the general time of this fanfic? A: Just after the third shinobi war, the main character is just a little younger than Itachi.
Q: Paring for the MC? A: Yes, but not for a while and will likely be a political marriage.
Q: Why giant Centipedes and Scorpions, one is bad enough, oh dear god why? A: Because when I was making this only the mother's clan had summons and the Centipedes made a sick kind of sense. Also, people's reactions are pretty funny haha.
I stood before a full length mirror. Making sure I was properly fit for the task ahead of me. Jet black eyes stood out the most, the white pupils staring back at me. I'd left my hair free to drape down my neck in my excitement. Very different from my perpetually shaved head in my previous life. I'd have to get one of those cloth coverings or something similar to keep people from grabbing it in a fight. Or just cut it, no matter how much my aunt would oppose it. My hand came up to rub my chin, no beard just yet, I was only eight I supposed. I did miss having one, maybe one day. Although, that also meant I had to go through ninja puberty. Oh man, what would ninja sex ed be like?
"And this is one of the many ways a Kunoichi can murder you with her thighs!" I murmured to myself sarcastically.
Ninja art: Thunder Thighs no Jutsu!
I shook my head at the thought, checking my cargo pant's many pockets to make sure none had holes from training. Then my relatively loose fitting brown shirt. Next the tan sash around the waist and wrist length fingerless gloves. I was feeling kind of exposed without some kind of armour honestly. When I became a genin I'd have to get one of those Suna genin flak jackets. Also maybe some vambraces I'd seen some of the older kids wear. Although, I would eventually have a personalised set of arm blades. They would come with vambraces to attach them to my forearms anyway. They would be forged for me by my grandfather but that wouldn't happen until I was an actual genin.
The short tanto resting sideways on my back and half hidden by my sash was secure. I was too small to handle a larger sword according to my mother. I'll be honest, I've never truly been a fan of swords like these. The reason for that is very specific, it had no damn crossguard. OK so, technically it did. If you counted the small disk meant to stop me from sliding my hand up the blade. But as far as I was concerned it was too damn small for my desired blade blocking duty. I was already thinking about ordering and learning how to use a bastard sword. Or anything that would protect my hands from being lopped off really. Did bastard swords even exist in this world? I suppose it depended if the movies were real here or not. I'd not bet on it, then again I wasn't meant to be here either so maybe? Possibly just having the vambrace would be better? Half swording and the murder stroke wasn't as big a thing with these kinds of blades as far as I remember.
I tapped my boots on the floor to check the give of them, they fit well. My father had called them desert boots, whatever the difference was from normal boots I had no idea. None of that open toe nonsense that everyone in the naruto world seemed to fancy. We lived in a fuckin desert for christ's sake! How everyone avoided the most brutal case of sand between their toes was beyond me. Anime world logic I suppose, or maybe some Jutsu I wasn't aware of? That or they knew something I didn't coming from a sub-tropical island.
I'd have to risk sounding like an imbecile and ask one of my family members later. Not that most young ninja hopefuls had the slightest idea how anything beyond an explosive tag worked. Still, I'm sure that my aunt Ichiru would be happy she had someone to teach the art.
I just hoped it didn't end with me in another universe or something, god forbid I end up in Warhammer 40k...
I heard the scratching of Kyoko on the door and opened it for her. She yawned, somehow, then watched as I took out my tinted sand goggles and placed them over my eyes. The design was, as you may have guessed, specifically made for keeping out the sun and stray sand particles from the eyes. They would be useful for keeping people from freaking out about my horror movie eyes as well.
I lifted them for now, I was inside my home after all. Kneeling down I scratched Kyoko's head lightly, getting a content sigh in response. I stood, much to her displeasure, heading for the door. I was stopped when I nearly walked right into my grandfather. I looked up at the man, clad in his Yukata and his silver hair in a bun, he stroked his short beard in mirth as I looked up at him.
"My pardons honoured elder." I bowed respectfully.
I received a fist on the head for my words.
"I'm your awe-inspiring grandpa, not one of those stuffy elders." He smiled at me, I smiled back.
My arms wrapped around the older man in a hug and even Kyoko got an affectionate head pat as I let go.
"Grandfather, while I am happy that you would see me off I must ask why you have come?" I spoke, smile dimming slightly.
"Oh shush boy, can't an old man want to see his grandson before he runs off to become a splendid ninja?" His belief in me made my shoulders relax slightly. I hadn't realised they had been so stiff in the first place.
"Of course not grandfather, however, it's not like you to simply visit without a secondary objective," I pointed out, "Otherwise you'd have simply sent a servant to fetch me for you." I smiled up at him, smug.
"Wipe that cocky expression off your face boy," The old man snarled at me as he drew a package out of his robes, "I know you were born with your mother's eyes, but that doesn't mean you need to notice everything as she does." He huffed indignantly.
"Is that not a good skill for a shinobi to have honoured elder?" Kyoko pointed out, then hid behind me as he glowered at her for her logical words.
I grinned, eyes on the package, it was too thin to be my arm blades. Not that I'd been expecting them for some time anyhow. But it was still a good few feet long. I watched as he pulled the cover off and my eyes widened causing him to chuckle.
Inside was something that I'd seen for years but never joined like this. It was a new family symbol, a golden scorpion circled by a sand coloured centipede with a black head placed upon a deep brown hooded jacket. I looked at my companion for a moment before my gaze went to my grandfather.
"No words out of that smug gob of yours now, huh kid?" He looked far too satisfied with himself but I couldn't fault him for it.
I took a step back and bent so deeply my face nearly hit the floor. My grandfather's hand lifted my face with a soft smile on his own. I took a moment to compose myself and positively didn't wipe tears from my eyes no matter what Kyoko or my grandfather will tell you.
"Thank you," I paused to remove the trembling in my voice, "I will wear it with pride grandfather." I took the cloth into my hands gently.
"You better, I'm a chakra smith, not a tailor," He joked, "I'll have you know I don't make these things for just anyone!" He nodded learnedly.
I laughed as all of my fears and doubts flowed away from my soul. The act of an elder giving a new family symbol to an heir was significant. One that said that they fully believed the heir would lead the family into a new age. Considering that I had yet to see this specific symbol anywhere else, it also meant that he had presented it to me to wear before anyone else. Even the current family head had yet to wear it, speaking of...
I slid the jacket onto myself, it was tough fabric, but also loose as to let heat escape. As I brought up the zipper to my chest my grandfather's eyes crinkled from his large grin. It felt good to wear it, it felt good to know the meaning of it.
This was a nice feeling, I basked in it. Until his palm pushed me out of the doorway, ushering me along.
"Off with you lad, young Ichiru has something to give you as well." He shooed me, not even allowing me to thank him again before he was off to do old ninja things.
Fisty old fart that he was...
However, he was still an elder of the clan so I did as I was instructed. No use sticking around here now.
"How do I look?" I asked Kyoko with a smirk as we walked.
"Very pleasant jin." She shimmied slightly in excitement as I opened up the front door to the larger compound.
We were heading towards the sealing chambers, conveniently also where my aunt spent most of her time. Before we even made it to the door we were intercepted by Takiri, my aunt's companion. He was a jet black colour with a blood red head. He was also much larger than my dear Kyoko being twenty feet long or so. Even now I was only seeing about half of him as he popped out of the ground to greet us.
"Hello little jin," His fittingly deep voice was mild, "She's in the second room to the right." He vanished as abruptly as he had risen.
I wonder if it was a bad thing that I was so used to seeing giant centipedes popping out of the ground now. If this had happened eight years ago I'd probably have taken a flying leap out of my own skin to the top of the village gates in horror. But as an enormous scorpion dashed out the same spot carrying a large scroll on it's back I decided it was probably for the best.
I opened the door, seeing as I was expected, letting Kyoko in where she hastily left my side to go enjoy her elder's company. I rolled my eyes somewhat as I found my own goal. The door flew open as Ichiru grabbed me by my new jacket and dragged me in like I weighed nothing. Although to a Chunin like her I supposed I did. I squeaked in a way I swear to you was manly as I was dropped into a seat.
My aunt blankly stared at me as she took out an inkwell and a brush. I noticed she had light bags under her eyes and questioned how long she had been awake.
"Now that you're entering the ninja academy you need these seals." She spoke softly.
"What...seals?" I was entirely lost.
"Seals that all ninja of the village have applied to cool the body and protect the skin," She paused tilting her head, "Very useful when travelling the desert." She nodded to herself.
Well, that explained a few things, like how Kankuro could wear that all black one piece and not fall over lifeless from heatstroke. Also why the sand ninja were all so goddamn pale despite living in the desert for generations.
"Ok then..." I replied thankfully. It was good information to know.
We spent some time together applying the seals to my clothes and back. I had been warned not to let anyone but family apply seals to me for reasons I considered rather obvious. Then she had given me two scrolls, one a storage scroll and another blank one to practice the seals myself.
Not long after I kissed my aunt, pretending to overlook the slip of a smile she gave, then took my leave. Much to the chagrin of Kyoko who had curled up on her larger cousin for a nap.
I pulled down my goggles and looked up at the sun. It was time to leave, I made my way towards the gate of the family compound but was stopped by my mother. She didn't say anything, just pulled me into a long hug. I closed my eyes and hugged her back. I reluctantly let go of the taller woman and she knelt down to say something to Kyoko as I hopped over the gates. My sister and father would be peeved that I'd left without a goodbye, but hey, they shouldn't sleep in. Getting an amused look from the bored looking guards who opened it a moment later for my partner. Who huffed at me for leaving her behind, if only momentarily.
The first steps I would take into the ninja world. I was ready, I had been trained for years. I had my partner and knowledge that no other academy student would. I would bring reputation to my family, my clan, hell to the whole damn village. I would make us stronger than ever before or die trying.
I looked down at Kyoko, or I would have if she weren't missing.
"Kyoko?" I panicked.
"Yes?" She answered.
I was confused, it was pretty challenging to miss a nearly nine foot centipede after all.
"Where...are you exactly." I flinched back when she came out of my jacket's collar, a fraction of her normal size.
"Ok...since when could you do that?" I squinted, shocked, this was different.
"Since my cousin taught me." She sounded smug for having made me flinch.
Learn something new every day, although I guess I had seen other ninja animals change size before in the show as well. Though they tended to become larger, not smaller.
Well, that would make hiding her from enemy ninja much easier that was for damn sure...
The ninja academy was...not what I had been expecting. Which, in hindsight was foolish. I had been expecting the Suna ninja academy and the Leaf ninja academy to be the same. It wasn't, not even close honestly. The issue with my thinking was the difference in the two's goals. The Leaf ninja academy was focused on a four year system meant to teach a variety of subjects. Not only subjects useful to a ninja but things like history and academics. There were also classes specifically for Kunoichi for learning other cultures and more feminine activities like flower arranging so as to be better infiltrators.
The Sand ninja academy was not like that, not yet anyway, not until years later during Gaara's time. The ninja academy here was almost entirely focused on three aspects. Indoctrination of future ninja to be as loyal as possible to the village and Kage. To never, ever, surrender or to give up during a mission. To locate any Genin hopefuls that showed the signs of becoming stronger than their peers in a specialised field as soon as possible. It made sense I supposed in a twisted sort of way. With the dwindling funds to the village any mission that was compleated would, however slight, help the village as a whole. In a more fucked up way, if some of the ninjas died in the mission but succeded then all of the funds went to the village. The sand ninja's policy of no retreat, ever, made it seem that any mission that failed was simply impossible rather than due to cowardice or incompetence on our part.
The downside of this was, of course, that the ninja of a village either came back victorious or didn't come back at all. This only drove my dream of becoming more powerful further. This wasn't the Leaf village, I would succeed or I would die, no middle ground. I intended to live longer than the mere 25 years my last life had lasted, that was damned certain.
We were on the academy training grounds in the centre of the academy, we'd not even been introduced to each other before the testing had begun.
Already four of my classmates had been selected as candidates for Puppeteers. Be it through recommendation or something the woman testing them now had seen I didn't know. My eyes drifted to the four as they toyed with eight snake-like puppets under the supervision of one of the two assistant teachers. A woman by the name of Sayo. She had sharp blue eyes and a huge puppet strapped to her back. This gal was taller than anyone else here, man or woman, and had long platinum blond hair that trailed down her back tied in a lengthy braid. My attention was brought to my front by the sharp whistle of the man ahead of me. A retired Jounin by the name of Totsu. We were told, that had been one of the villages best sensors before his arm had been lost in the third war. He was a wide, muscled man, his single arm thicker than my eight year old head. His only brown eye focused in a way that made me think he was always watching. He looked directly at me for a moment before sweeping through the rest of the ten or so students in front of him and not once with one of the other four educators. Two of which left after a moment, leaving only himself, the woman and a short man in a hood beside him.
His eye looked back into mine, for the second time in as many seconds, had I done something already to piss him off? Or maybe it wasn't me at all but something one of my family or clan had caused? Maybe he was just trying to figure out why my chakra felt different, I thought.
He pointed directly at me, bringing the other kids attention to me. My skin itched as the multitude of questioning eyes bore into me.
"Boy," His voice was raspy like he severely needed a drink, "You are Niko and Daichi's spawn correct?"
I grimaced fully expecting something along the lines of, your bastard father's centipede tore my arm off! Or perhaps, you don't belong here you half blood bastard!
"Yes sir." I started assuming the worst.
"Your father warned me about that bloodline of yours, watch where you put your chakra." He turned away to talk to another teacher as I resisted the urge to groan in relief.
Thank god for small miracles, I wasn't that unfortunate it would seem. Although I had never actually used my bloodline on anyone, deliberately or otherwise, it was pretty dangerous so I get it. I nodded to him when his gaze returned to me and he nodded back and returned to his discussion. A tug on my arm alerted me to a short student trying to get my attention. I glanced at her questioningly, then did a double-take. I know that some people in the Naruto world had strange hair colours but I had never seen anyone with natural magenta hair before. And yes I'm aware that the guy with the totally black eyes shouldn't be talking shit.
"You have a bloodline?" She whispered as to not attract the notice of the scary looking Jounin.
She must have been from a civilian family, because I and anyone who knew higher ranked ninja, knew damn well he could hear every word. I nodded at her anyway, if only to alleviate her interest.
"That's cool..." She didn't seem to know what to say after that.
Ah the awkward type that doesn't know how to keep a conversation going, I can relate.
"It's pretty strong," I said trying to help her out, "I was lucky to have people to teach me how to control it." She looked a little sad at that.
"Could you...help me with mine, I don't have somebody to teach me." She said her voice so soft I had to strain to hear her.
Ah, a war orphan, or maybe a bastard child whose parent didn't have the bloodline. Both were pretty common on the heels of the third war. Be it because of casualties or due to a ninja being captured by the enemy. Especially if that ninja was a Kunoichi or had a bloodline as I did. I shuddered at that thought, listing 'kill yourself if captured by cloud ninja' under my secret things to note in the future list.
My response, whatever it may have been, was cut off by another sharp whistle.
"You are all here because you have higher than average chakra reserves," He glared at one boy in particular at the head of our little group at that, who leaned back, "Or you have abilities granted by bloodlines that predispose you to the use of mid to long range Ninjutsu."
"Because of that," The other mentor, a short man named Aiya, hooded head hidden. Began in a far kinder tone, "We will be examining how much control you can exert over your chakra."
"Later in the weeks to come, we will be building your reserves to mould you into Ninjutsu specialist or otherwise slotting you into specializations as you reveal your skills." The older man grunted.
A few of the kids got excited at this, overjoyed to be told that they would learn cool new Jutsu. The murderous glare directed at them shut them up extraordinarily quickly. He reminded me of my uncle with that look. It was uncanny really.
Small papers were passed out to all of us and for a moment I thought it was chakra paper. I was wrong, it was sanding paper, my disappointment was endless. Considering my family though it was likely I was of the wind and water variety. Although sorrowfully this didn't give me access to ice Jutsu or something similar. We were told that we would be smoothing out the paper with nothing but our chakra. Something that I spectacularly failed at, when my paper started to curl and discolour due to the unstable nature of my own. Well, the purple girl thought it was cool anyway so points for that.
I was given a plank of wood with paint on it instead, with orders to only strip the paint, it was surprisingly difficult. I had to not only use just enough to strip the paint, but I also had to make sure my chakra didn't affect the wood. I did it, after five hours, much to the surprise of my one-armed teacher. I had been training with my aunties for years now and my parents for years before so I expected to be able to do this much even if it took a while.
I was huffing by the end of it, glad that lunch had been called as I ate a set of sweet prickly pears, or at least that's what I called them. They probably had some other name like spine fruit or something here for all I know. The girl, Toshiko I had learned, had sat next to me. Even though many of the other children had distanced themselves from me after the whole sandpaper incident. Probably afraid of being crumpled like the paper, ironically a far better fate than what would happen had I used my chakra on one of them. She even met Kyoko, well she had been startled by Kyoko, to be more accurate. And had done a fairly impressive backflip when she had popped out of my jacket to say hi. Much to my own entertainment, it need be said.
We were then introduced to a soldier pill, though thankfully we weren't forced to take them. The three days of energy they gave you were great, the crash afterwards was not. Then we were taken inside to get some scrolls for some E ranked Jutsu. Nothing too amazing, the clone Jutsu, substitution Jutsu and the like. To my surprise, the gale palm Jutsu a C rank was also included. All of these I was, of course, explicitly told to do away from the rest of the group. I understood why it's not like I had a ton of the antidote on me right now and the teachers would have very little if any.
The Jutsu itself wasn't difficult, it needed no handseals and was effectively just me clapping and applying wind chakra. Although it could be used in other ways as well, especially considering my bloodline. I'm sure I'd be making use of this Jutsu for years to come.
Toshiko had to be ordered to leave me be as I trained in the corner by my lonesome with Kyoko. Aiya supervised me, from about seven feet away. For added protection he was behind a hastily erected chest high stone wall he could duck behind if needed. Talk about paranoid, yeesh my chakra control wasn't that bad. I found myself wishing a member of my clan taught here. There were older members of my clan at the academy of course but they were in different classes and not teachers. I was also the only one of my age group from my family or clan here, oddly enough, everyone else was either older or younger than me. Although I had been produced at the tail end of a war. At least I had Kyoko with me, she didn't have to stand back. If only because she could stop the negative effects of my chakra by coating herself with her own, something that came naturally to her due to her species. As long as I didn't hit her with some kind of piercing attack like a wind blade with my tanto she would be fine. Had I been as young as I looked I'm pretty sure this would have had some kind of effect on my developing mind. Thankfully I was far older than my body would suggest and was ok with not being around the other kids. Part of me may have even prefered it, beat getting rocks thrown at me or glared at like Gaara and Naruto had to deal with. I did not have any patience for such things, I'd probably snap at someone before long. All loving anime protagonist I was not, in any way. The chiming bell of the school went off and we have gathered once again, most of the students at least five steps away from me amusingly. We were checked to make sure none of us had gone over the limit and was about to pass out due to chakra exhaustion and sent back to what we were doing a moment later.
I grunted as I threw three kunai and used gale palm once again. The wind sped up the projectiles massively and they sunk hilt deep into the sandbags this time causing me to let out an impressed whistle.
"Good job Jin!" Kyoko waved her legs and body in celebration. I chuckled at her enthusiasm lightly. It almost looked comical now that she was only a foot and a half long.
"Thank you, my lady." I made for a bow and she preened at my recognition.
She was probably worried about my isolation and wanted to cheer me up, it was thoughtful of her. I truly appreciated it, despite it being relatively unnecessary. I caressed her now tiny head and continued my exercise. By the end of it, I was feeling pretty good about the Jutsu. Not needing handseals made it easy as dirt to perform after all. Clap, wind chakra, was a pretty easy concept to grasp honestly. I had even started trying to use it with just my left hand and not both. Although this was far less powerful due to not concentrating the wind before release. I found I liked the fact that it freed up my dominant hand to do things like continuously throw kunai. Or use a weapon to defend myself, though I had no opponent at the moment. As I grew stronger I'd be able to stop people from advancing, or even blow them back. This would give me the added benefit of my chakra being given time to latch onto my enemies. Yes, I liked this Jutsu, as long as I was faster than my target it was hard to predict since I didn't have to use seals. Best C rank Jutsu ever, although I may be slightly biased since it's the only one I've been taught. Barring my family Jutsu and clan techniques of course. But half of those were exclusively water Jutsu and the other half were used with weaponry.
I looked down at my companion as she tugged on my leg to get me out of my ramblings. The puppet mistress, Sayo, was waving me over. I looked at Aiya who waved me off with a far too relieved look on his face. I shrugged and trotted toward the woman.
"Hello young one," Her smile was odd like she was unsure of herself, "I know that I did not select you for inspection for puppet wielding but I think there's something I can still teach you." As she spoke she relaxed a bit, crouching so she was eye level to me. She was still a head taller than me.
"Yes, Mrs Sayo?" I got bonked on the noggin for my sins.
"I'm not old enough or, married enough, for you to be calling Mrs. young man." She huffed indignantly.
"Yes, Miss Sayo." I amended to what I was not sure was the most temperamental of my teachers.
"How much do you know about chakra threads, sweety?" She tilted her head questioningly.
"You use them to control puppets?" I flinched slightly, this was not a subject I was well versed in. I knew more about how to disrupt them than what they were or how they were used.
She nodded, my age working in my favour this once as she didn't expect me to know much. Her hand lit up a moment later, visible blue threads reaching out. A small snake-like puppet on her hip slithered up her side to rest on her shoulder. It was actually pretty cool in my honest opinion.
"They are normally used to control puppets yes, weapons too," She paused looking at me apologetically, " Sadly your chakra is just a bit too volatile to make use of them in such a complex way." She smiled at my put out expression.
"However there is a way you can make use of them..." Her smile widened a little when my brows raised.
I was aware of the issue my clan's chakra had with puppets, the idea behind it was interesting. Use the chakra threads to make the puppet's strings poisonous, making disrupting them dangerous. Sadly due to the nature of the unstable chakra given by the bloodline. It made the treads far too difficult to control in a way that allowed one to use puppets effectively. At least not with the effectiveness needed to be useful in combat.
"Hmm, yes Miss," I answered, "But that's why I'm practising wind style yes?" I blinked confused.
"Indeed," She nodded agreeing, "But have you noticed that your gale palm is a bit more...explosive than your peers?" She nodded to the other kids.
"I...had not no," I licked my suddenly dry lips, "I've not been paying attention to them." I admitted a small blush on my cheeks at my lack of awareness.
She patted my head softly, a knowing smirk on her face before continuing.
"Your chakra tends to want to explode outwards when it is released or disturbed," She informed me, " I would like for you to try and create some chakra threads for me ok?" She asked standing as she finished speaking.
I turned away from the woman and did as she asked. Well, mostly, the threads were thicker than they needed to be and I didn't need to see it to know it wasn't well contained. They were plainly visible as well, much like hers had been. But instead of blue, they were an ailing greenish colour.
"Good," The woman said to my surprise, " See how they lash against the air like they wish to strike at something?" She gestured at the threads. They were doing just that, instead of her steady threads mine whipped out like a pissed off scorpion's tail. When one of them got a bit too close for comfort the Puppeteer ended up taking a few steps back for good measure.
"Yes?" I was starting to see where this was going.
"Now," She paused, latching onto a painted training dummy on the far wall lifting it and scaring the crap out of a male student that was nearby, "Attack this training dummy with those threads." She ordered dropping it a few feet in front of me.
Oh, I liked this woman already. I did as commanded the threads latching onto the dummy seemingly of their own accord. Paint falling off or smoking away as they coiled around the wooden man. Before the ends of the threads exploded in green light and were cut from my control the threads retracting to their previous position.
Even the other students were looking this way now, wondering what happened.
"..." I didn't have anything to say. Holy shit that was cool.
"Well, what do you think?" She nudged me slightly smiling.
"I think you're the best teacher ever!" I shouted making the Puppet mistress snort covering her mouth a second later.
A moment later Toshiko inched towards us, glancing at the dummy. I deactivated the chakra strings and waved her over. She took that to mean it was safe and ran over with sparkles in her eyes. My teacher gave me that look adults give kids when they find something they are doing amusing. I rolled my eyes at her, making the woman giggle. I waved goodbye to her as Toshiko dragged me away demanding that I teach her whatever it was I just did even though the person who had taught me was literally three feet away.
This was gonna be a long few years...
A/N: I hope you enjoyed chapter 2, and remember if you spot anything wrong or have a suggestion don't be afraid of pointing something out. I don't bite, I'm not Kyoko!