Naruto: Shattered Destiny

by KingdomCody

Keiki Sekine was born into this world different. He sees the world differently than anyone else, he sees it as a game. No he wasn't reborn into the role. His first glimpse of life is of a video game. Can he survive long enough to figure out how to make use of his gift, or will he be killed out of jealousy?

14. The Skirmish

Naruto: Shattered Destiny:

Chapter 14: The Skirmish

Someone kill me. I let out a groan as I sit up.

"How're you feeling?" Zabuza asks me.

"Exhausted." I reply with a yawn, rubbing at the stump. "How long was I out?"

"Two days."

I yawn again. "You find the Dragonstone?" Two days?

"Not really sure, we took what we could and left."

"Where are we now?"

"In Frost, we've been taking shifts watching you." Zabuza explains.

"I don't remember you getting a new sword."

"It was part of the stuff we found, turns out that we looped around to the entrance."

"For real?!"

"Yeah, there was a secret passage leading right to the entrance of the ruins we were in."

"Wish we knew that before going in." I grumble.

"You and me both." Zabuza laughs. "Think you'll be okay by yourself for a second? I need to let the others know that you're awake."

"Okay." I look down at my health bar, part of it is yellow and the rest is the usual red… what does that mean?

Did Tutorial tell me while I was out!? Ah man!

Not a minute passes before the rest of my team barges in. "How're you doing?" Sensei asks me.

"Exhausted." I let out a yawn, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, wondering why- "Oh… right."

"More there than there was yesterday." Sensei says examining the stump.

"Really!?" I look down at it, it's at least something for my shoulder to bend. "How much did I lose?"

"That thing took your shoulder clean off, I overestimated your endurance… I'm sorry." Sensei bows apologetically.

"Y-y-y-you're fine!" I say frantically, face turning red. "I wasn't thinking when I jumped… I should be dead."

"A-are you okay?" Satu-chan asks.

"I'm fine… Just tired."

"He's up?!" Sakue-chan looks into the room. "I'll go make something for you to eat, you must be starving!"

She's gone before I can say anything. "How about you guys?"

"A-a few broken ribs." Satu-chan says.

"Only my pride." Zabuza-san says. "Sorry about your arm."

"It's my fault it happened."

"No, no, I froze and it would have gotten me killed if you didn't step in." He bows deeply.

"Don't be so hard on yourself." I say as my face turns red.

"But you lost an arm!" He points out.

I put a hand on the stump. "It'll come back." I hope.

"Let's use this experience as a lesson." Koi-sensei pipes up. "From now on we are going to underestimate your durability." She points at me.

"But-"

"No buts! If I didn't know how your Kekkei Genkai worked I'd say that you're lucky to be alive-"

She's right, I almost died.

"When Lightning leaves we'll resume training."

"They're still here!?"

"Yes, thanks to Frost's quick thinking we haven't had to meet with them yet." Sensei lets out a sigh of relief.

"Did we give them everything?" I ask.

"N-not everything." Satu-chan pipes up. "We have a few of those c-coins."

"And the scroll and book." Zabuza points out.

That sounds like everything we've found. "What did we give them?"

"Some coins, an engraved stone, some glowshrooms and other plant life we've found."

"The dragonstone?" I glance at the quests. Way of the Voice is gone, did that also get resolved while I was out?

"What's that?" Sensei asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Beats me, I got a quest as we entered the ruins… the quest's gone now."

"What does it mean?"

"That we completed it?" I hazard a guess. "I'm still trying to figure all of… this, out." I gesture to my stump. "Oh stars."

"What?" Satu-chan asks with concern.

"What'll my parents say when they see my missing arm?" I ask as my heart rate skyrockets.

Sensei deflates. "Hopefully it'll regenerate before we get back to Kiri?" She tries.

"Maybe." I still have my doubts.

"I'm back!" Sakue-chan says at the door, my team makes way for her. The otter puts a plate of sushi wrapped in rice and seaweed on my lap. "I'm sorry it isn't much, it's hard to tell when someone will wake from a coma." She says embarrassed.

"N-no! It's fine." I let out a chuckle. "I love sushi, we come from Kirigakure afterall." I give her a thumbs up.

"That's a relief."

I pick one of the sushi up and habitually reach for another. I'm confused for a moment before realizing my error. "Oh, right." I look at the stump.

"It'll be difficult being a shinobi with one arm." Sakue tuts. "Although I could have sworn that you lost more, must have been the shock." She chuckles. "Just call me and I'll have more ready for you."

"Where're you going?" Zabuza asks.

"To feed the rest of the shinobi taking residence here." And she waddles out of sight.

"You'll regener-"

"I know, it's just…" I don't finish, eyes downcast. "Nothing will be normal with me… will it?" I look up at sensei.

So imagine my surprise when Satu-chan hugs me. "I'm sorry." She says, tearing up.

"Uh." What's wrong with Satu-chan?

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay?" I don't know why she's apologizing for. "Is this about the ruins, if so-"

"No, no…" She pulls away. "Oh, I'm sorry." Satu looks down at the sushi on the ground.

"It's no big deal." What a waste of good fish. "I'm sure Sakue-chan would be happy to make more." In the meantime, I grab another sushi off of the plate.

And then hesitate. "You aren't going to rush me too… right?" I ask Zabuza.

"Hah."

Glad we got that out of the way. I place the treat in my mouth and munch on it, amazing. "An-ne nt som?" I ask with a full mouth. "Nu? Mer fer mi." I finally swallow, onto the next!

"Mind telling me what this is?" Sensei pulls out the scroll we kept.

"I need to hold it first."

Scroll of Firestorm.

"Firestorm." I say.

"And?"

"And what?"

"What does it do?"

"Heck if I know." I shrug. "I'm only told what it is, not what it does." I hand the scroll back.

"This scroll doesn't exist, and if anyone says otherwise they're lying." Sensei says. "Nobody touch this random scroll until we can get it copied."

Silence.

"Got it?"

"Y-yes sensei." The three of us exchange glances.

"Pretend that the scroll doesn't exist." Sensei sighs. "I forget that none of you made it far into the academy."

"I didn't go to the academy."

"I know, I know."

I simply plop another sushi into my mouth. "How long until we can go back home?"

"Later this week at the earliest, a month if we're lucky." Sensei replies.

"Why's a month lucky?"

"So that your arm can regenerate." Sensei gives me a nervous smile.

I look at the stump again. Oh.

"Everyone here?" A Frost shinobi skids to a stop by the door.

"What's going on?" Sensei asks, suddenly on high alert.

"One of our couriers came back with a report from the otters watching the island to the south east." He says. "They're readying for an assault on Water, it's going to be an invasion."

"We need to go, now." Sensei says. "We need to warn Kirigakure asap."

"The time it would take you to travel back without rest would still be at least a week behind Lightning." The shinobi then looks at me. "And one of you is missing an arm."

"We can't just sit here with this information!" Sensei seethes. "If Lightning takes us by surprise we'll be taken out of the war as a puppet nation of our conquerors!" Sensei sits on the bed, head in her hands.

"Sensei." Satu-chan says softly.

"Are we that underprepared?" Zabuza asks horrified.

"Our Kage is willing to spare a Shinobi team or two for the good that Water has done for our country." The Frost Shinobi says. "Whatever you choose to do, Frost has your back."

"And if it guarantees that Frost gets dragged into the war?" Sensei asks dryly.

"Even if we are to march into Hell." He gives us a salute. "My team is in the common room."

"You're willing to be pulled into the war, just to help us?" Sensei asks taken aback..

"We can't sit around and let our enemies march all over our allies, even if they're stronger than us."

Here's the plan. Attacking the island as long as Lightning's main force is still there is suicide, and we can't wait for them to leave to assault it.

Compromise? We disrupt the supply lines and draw shinobi from the frontline, hopefully delaying the assault until word can get to Kirigakure and give them enough time to prepare a counter offensive.

If we encounter any shinobi teams belonging to Lightning… Exterminate with extreme prejudice. If Kirigakure gets invaded then our loved ones will be slaughtered, I don't know about Zabuza-san or Satu-chan, but I'm not going to let anything happen to my parents.

"Before we set out, it's a requirement that you two learn how to wall walk." Sensei tells us. "While Lightning isn't entirely covered in forest, the area we will be fighting in will be."

"Yes, sensei." Satu-chan and I bow respectfully.

"Now focus chakra into the soles of your feet." Sensei makes a hand sign for us to copy.

I can only do it with one hand, but after a few moments of intense concentration I can feel something, and it's strange. A feeling I've never felt before.

[error] has been added to active effects.

Error? "I'm doing something." I state confused.

"That would be chakra, have you never… no, you have." Sensei starts, but corrects herself.

"This is different from how I normally use chakra." I try to explain. "It's like… a separate entity."

Satu glances at me, and then hesitantly approaches the wall and puts a foot onto it. She sticks and takes another step up. "I-I did it!" She says with elation.

"Good, try to stay up there as long as you can." Sensei says with pride.

I step up to the wall and do the same. Nervously I lift my other foot off of the ground, and to my surprise I don't drop to the ground. "Whoa." I breathe.

"Good job Keiki!" Sensei praises.

…

"T-thank you Sensei."

"Something wrong?"

"All the time I spent in the academy, wasted because of this… this system!" tears threaten to spill over. "If I took it seriously I-"

Satu-chan walked down and slapped me. She opens her mouth to speak, but then decides against it and takes a step back, pulling her scarf up to cover her face in embarrassment. "I-I'm sorry."

We went through the exam together, even if I didn't know she existed at the time. "No, I'm sorry." Is this Survivor's guilt?

If I lock up now I might not be able to keep going… and my family needs me. For now I push those feelings down, deep down. "What now?" I ask sensei, pretending that nothing just happened.

"Practice until it's second nature, you cannot be distracted by focusing your chakra in the heat of battle."

"Yes, Sensei." The two of us chime. We spent the rest of the day running, skipping and rolling around on the wall.

I only fell off a dozen times.

"What happens if we run into Lightning? They're still searching the area." Koki asks me.

"Sensei?"

"The longer we're undetected the better, but if it comes down to it, kill them all." Sensei's tone has shifted a lot in the past twenty four hours.

"Where're we going to start?" Koki asks me again.

"Why're you asking me and instead of sensei?" I return.

"Because I want to talk to you." He prods me. "You're rather calm for having just lost your arm."

I pat the empty sleeve of my new coat. "It's still jaring."

"How'd you lose it?"

"The thing that used to own Zabuza's new sword severed it in one slice."

"No kidding?!" Koki looks back at Zabuza.

I look around at the squad we're taking, two full teams of shinobi. We've met one of them but since their faces were almost entirely covered they've had to reintroduce themselves.

"What do we do about the civilians we'll encounter?" I ask Sensei.

"Our goal is to torch the supplies and draw as much shinobi away from the Island as we can."

"But what do we do about them?"

"... Let them be." She finally says and I let out a breath of relief.

We won't be killing anyone who isn't trying to kill us.

"Look sharp, we're almost in enemy territory." One of the Frost jonin tells us.

"Nervous?" I ask my team.

"Never." Zabuza says confidently.

"M-maybe a little." Satu admits.

"At least I'm not alone." I nod at her.

If I wasn't out on a mission I'd still be mesmerized by the sight of falling snow and the light reflecting off of the uninterrupted blanket it's made. The only sign of anything alive is our tracks in the snow. "What'd you tell Lighting we were doing?" Sensei asks one of the Jonin.

"That the team we sent out was ambushed by unknown creatures and that there's a report of a sighting elsewhere."

"I assume they wanted to know where it was?"

"Naturally."

"What'd you tell them?"

"To piss off."

Sensei lets out a laugh and claps her hands. "Your country, your rules." She says with a bright smile.

We picked up the pace once we reached the border to Lightning, lots of mountains in the distance. "Where's this main road?" Sensei asks opening up a map.

"Not far, one of it's forks leads straight into Frost." Ai, jonin of Team Eight replies. "It's a common trade route."

"How heavily patrolled?"

"Lightly, since Hot Water and us have been neutral they've only had to deal with the occasional bandit."

"Now they have something a little worse than bandits to worry about." Sensei says with venom in her voice. "How regular are these supply runs?"

"Unsure, going into Lightning was never on our to do list."

"Until now?"

"Until now."

"Should we be so close to the port?" I ask trying to get a view of the map.

"Close enough that we don't have to travel far to catch the convoys, but not close enough that once word reaches the port that we'll be overwhelmed in a few hours." Ichiyo tells us.

It's so much easier to keep track of who's who without those coats. "This map only has the main roads on it, we'll have to swipe a local one from the first convoy we see." Sensei bemoans.

"Should we dress up as bandits?" Zabuza asks.

"No time to set that up." Ai tells him. "We have some great tailors, but they can't do miracles."

Without a better idea of the convoy's arrival, we set up in the nearby trees with camo nets further obscuring our camps. The other teams are hiding close by, but to play it safe we don't know where.

And they don't know where we are. Although if one of us gets attacked all of us will know.

"Keep quiet and look!" Sensei urges us, pointing at the road.

A team of shinobi is casually walking down the road, it's not one of ours. "What're they doing way out here?" I whisper.

"They're probably the forward guard." Sensei whispers back.

"For the convoy?" Satu-chan asks.

"Yes, now keep it down."

We watch as the shinobi passes by us, idly looking around. They're looking for us… not us in particular but people with goals like ours.

You are [hidden]

Sneak has leveled to 2. +2 Character XP (24/175)

Sneak has leveled to 3. +3 Character XP (27/175)

The shinobi are walking, at any moment they might spot us or one of the other teams with us.

Sneak has leveled to 4. +4 Character XP (31/175)

Sneak has leveled to 5. +5 Character XP (36/175)

They leave sight and we let out a collective breath of nervous air, my eyes are locked on the last place I saw the shinobi, it's possible that they might come back.

"Weapons at the ready, we're in for a fight." Sensei whispers.

Collectively Satu, Zabuza and I turn to look up the road, there's a carriage being pulled by a horse coming down the road, I can count four people, two teens in the carriage itself looking out and talking to the adults driving the carriage.

Without a word my hand ignites, thankfully it doesn't give off much light.

Sneak has leveled to 6. +6 Character XP (42/175)

"Keiki I want you providing covering fire with your firebolts."

"Yes, sensei."

"Satu, you'll be here in case he gets attacked while we're busy."

"Y-yes , sensei."

"What about me?"

"We're going to engage them."

Zabuza grins. "Now it's my time to shine." He glances at me.

"Team Four, move out!"

Authors Notes: It's picking up and I'm so excited! I have a rough idea for how things are going to go and before I get any questions: Skyrim doesn't have severed limbs in it, and for now his max health has been cut a little bit (10%) while that's not something Keiki knows it is something I want to make clear for you guys. I hope you enjoyed this and the previous bits and I hope you'll stick around! Shattered Destiny is a quarter of the way of getting a hundred followers and that's blowing my mind! Thanks to everyone who's stuck around with this Amateur of an author!