Disclaimer: I own nothing but Hokurou, so chill.
Sorry about the late update, had to return to my hometown to my christmas and new years celebrations and my phone denies all access to my drafts so absolutely no work done while in holidays. Damnit!
Review reply time!
newtonian - I'm trying to portray a man who is essentially indoctrinated to serve his village loyally unto death and even to his adulthood knows no full experience of ever living a life of peace (Shinobi cope through hobbies, but they are just that, hobbies). Hokurou is strong and determined individual whenever he is in a conflict and is instinctually clinging unto duties very strongly (like being ordered by higher ups or entrusted to by close one's.), who is ripped apart from his village with no possible way of returning and is partly trying to find a purpose other than to be a guardian and to live a life away from constant paranoia to who has the knife behind your back.
Add to that the other duties that force him to different places and allegiances, to be frank even shinobi get stressed, Hokurou's just over thinking things.
But expect Hokurou to be very negative only when he fails an objective (Expect this mostly as a comic relief) and when a close one is harmed.
Other than that, enjoy the chapter!
"I've come for my revenge!" - Normal/Sentient person's speak.
'Oh Shit!' - Normal/Sentient person's thoughts.
"Oh shit's right! Your screwed!" - Beast's speak.
'I can't believe they're still fighting over this...' - Beast's thoughts.
"[Water Release/Style/Suiton: Great Waterfall Technique!]" / "[Gomu Gomu Bazooka!]" - [Jutsu/Technique.].
(Unknown time/5 months before... - Mariejois/Marineford) - (Time - Location).
(8 years ago - Logue town outskirts)
"[Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!]" Roared a young voice as a great ball of fire twice the young boy's size projected itself infront of him and was launched at his target.
"Good, fast and uninhibited transition from hand signs and no issue with chakra flow." Regarded a young man with silver white hair and dulled eyes, completely unfazed at the unnatural wrath of fire coming towards him.
Only to fade away in an after-image just before the fireball completely engulfed the area he used to be-
- and appeared right behind the young boy.
"But not fast enough for my standards." He countered with a chop to the back of the kid's head, knocking him down to the ground, leaving the kid in a huffing, exhausted stature.
"Practice more on familiarizing yourself with the hand signs and not putting too much energy in your attacks and you're clear in that jutsu." He summed up with a satisfied tone "We might get you starting on the more advanced techniques." but another fast approaching object came at him.
Which took form of a long extending fist coming right at the back of the man's head.
"[Gomu Gomu Dynamic Fist!]" Roared another voice a distance away from the man's backside, though this proved to be a mistake when his fist almost came into contact with the man's head.
The man merely swayed slightly to the left, letting the still stretching fist to fly past him, grabbing unto the forearm with his right hand in a crushing grip.
"Good use of variety in fighting techniques, impressive use of teamwork with distraction to make a hit at my blind spot, and interesting mix of chakra enhanced durability and strength with your devil fruit abilities." He analyzed the move in a moment before pulling back the arm roughly, and making a cross-shaped handsign as another kid was pulled out of the tree's-
"[Double Dynamic Entry!]"
Only to be kicked twice at the same time by the man who was now accompanied by another who bore extreme likeness with him who *Puffed* into smoke after the maneuver, the impact directly focusing on the kid's face.
The kid was launched a fair distance away, but the kid was able to to recover in the air and landing on his two feet quickly with only dust gathered in his face and not a single bruise on him.
"But you're lacking in speed and I could sense your anticipation easily." He concluded before giving his answer "Only announce your technique once you are absolutely sure the move will connect."
The bout continued, both kids aiming to get at the man, who continuously dodged and countered their strikes.
After what seemed like forever, the man finally stopped in his motion and directly blocked two blows coming from both sides, and grabbing the two boy's arms and slamming them down on the ground.
Huffing in amusement, he commented "Nice try, you're lasting longer." before a ringing alarm went off.
"But not enough to pass." He concluded before turning away from both of them.
Which resulted in both of them launching up quickly from their fallen forms and making a quick blow at him.
"You never said the fight ends at the ring!" One of the kids with a stitched scar in his left cheek and wore a Straw Hat retorted.
"And now we got yo-" the other older boy continued to finish. Sporting rather childish freckles and a tattoo on his left arm written "ASCE" vertically but with the 'S' crossed out.
But the man merely poofed, leaving a large amount of smoke, comically dropping two of the kids on the ground once more.
The result was having the man appear a distance away from them, now sporting a conical farmers hat, a simple white coat flown over his shoulders and wore a very justified-cocky grin, who was looking at the dumbfounded duo who were looking at the log in front of them in surprise.
"Good, you learned one thing from this lesson at least." making the two look at him in confusion.
"In the world out there, fighting is the most dominant power, stature and renown doesn't matter if you can't fight back, so don't hold anything back and damn the rules of fighting unless it is specified of the persons Honor, but I make an exception for backstabbers and tyrants." making the two nod, anything other than skill didn't really matter in a fight so they still didn't understand the lesson the man was teaching as they knew that already. "Though there is still one thing I wan't to teach you before we go."
"As time will pass, you will develop your own rules and beliefs and your own crew, but one thing is all you need to learn that you must take heart, the very teaching passed down from my Jiji-sama, to an Ero-Sannin, to my sensei and to me and my teammates, the belief that my very father died following." Each word gaining emphasis, seriousness every passing second, a powerful fire burning in the man's pale grey eyes.
"Those who break the rules are scum." getting even more confused looks from the two before he continued "But those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum." the kids faces turned into surprise and recognition of respect, one of them fully realized and understood the teaching "Many of my comrade's died to protect their loved ones and I would join them doing the same, so you will fight to protect your crew with your very lives, at the very least do the best that you can, or don't even think that you'll have chance of ever being great Pirate captains."
At the determined nod from both boys, the man replaced the serious tension with a joyful outlook as he reappeared right behind the two and smacked them across the head and ran down the road leading to a village at incredible speed "Last one to the village buys all the ramen!" the man shouted back with a silly grin at the two boys who were dashing at similar speeds after him, both sporting similarly cheerful expressions.
But unnoticed by the boys were two figures standing atop one of the trees branches, possibly having been there the whole time.
"So." One of them asked the other, wearing a large white coat with the Kanji for Earth, Fire, Water, Wind and Lightning on the right arm and a red spiral symbol on the left. Under the coat was a navy blue uniform with a sealed green military jacket. "What do you think?"
The other merely nodded grimly. Sporting formal white suit over a navy blue shirt and aqua tie, and left flowing over his shoulders was a large coat with red and blue epaulettes on its shoulders. The persons face was obscured by the Dog mask but it was clear that he had a grey unkempt, if short beard.
"This is my condition." The first man continued "I join your damned 'glorified-sellswords' of a group and these two will get to choose their own destiny."
"You know at some point you will have to fight them right?" The other man in the dog mask finally spoke
"Meh." The merely shrugged "It'll be a good test to see how far they've come and do you honestly think I would harm a hair on them, let alone kill them?" At the other's silence the white robed man flickered out of the area with a flash of silver lightning striking the place he was on, flashy transportation at its finest.
The man with the dog-mask merely looked thoughtful where he was, before thinking aloud "The brat makes a point Roger, but what is more important?" He asked to no one in particular "My duty and justice? Or family and what is morally right?..."
But his depressing thoughts were cut of as the branch he was on finally gave to the weight, the lightning smashing on its bark being the last straw and flopped the bewildered man down on the ground.
"HOKUROU!" Barked the masked man, echoing throughout the island, causing a shiver to the man with the two kids, a mischievous snigger from the white robed man and a satisfied smile on a changed bandit leader.
(A year ago - Marineford meeting room). *No POV*
"Here we go again..." complained an elderly woman wearing a admirals coat over her shoulders as she sat in the large round table, lazily watching two other men with admiral coats fighting with swords, one completely dumbfounded of the others actions and another twitching and convulsing in every movement he made, as if it was out of his control.
"Fuffuffuffuffuffu, this is getting incredibly dull woman, of course I would need something to do to pass the time." Cheekily replied a mirthful man wearing a pink feather coat, red dotted white pants and thin curved sunglasses, though his size wasn't properly attributed with him sitting cross-legged on the middle of the table, but comparing him with the other men saw him being significantly taller than them. His hand was stretched out, in the direction of one the two men fighting, as if he was a puppeteer, playing with dolls.
Another man of considerable size, almost a bear, was sitting in the table, rather impassive of the entire thing, wearing clothing that had a slight edge at a theme of bears, was clutching a Bible on his left hand, acting as if the fight in the room wasn't happening at all.
"Honestly I've never felt more bored in my life." Dismissed a mysterious man who preferred to stand at the far wall of the room than sit, wearing a open long coat, simple pants and boots, a chain holding a cross prominent on his bare chest, but the incredibly large and heavily decorated sword that had the shape of a cross on his back outclassed all prominent things about him, "I still don't know why I bother coming to these worthless meetings."
"For once I am in agreement with you." Noted a majestic woman, who was wearing an incredibly revealing red robe, and had a white coat that had epaulets over her shoulders, similar to a marines coat. Though she was not sitting in the chairs like the swordsman but was near the tables and in fact, beside one of the chairs of the table, but was sitting on an incredibly large white snake that wore a large horned skull on its head that had blue hair jutting from it's back. it's body was adorned by red spots while its underbelly was yellow, it seemed to have a permanent smile on its face. "I was called here because the Marines had made this an urgent meeting and hadn't said nothing else, but now I see that this was a perfect waste of time." at this she and the swordsman moved to leave the room.
But before any other commotion could be made, a large man came into the room, wearing a marine coat and under that, a formal uniform adorned in medals and honors, he wore a marines cap, which is covering the puffy hair under it, he also bore a mustache and a braided beard. He was accompanied into the room by a goat and a seagull.
"Enough with this commotion, the meeting can now commence." the man stated, earning affirmatives from his subordinates, referring to him as 'Fleet Admiral' and groans of annoyance from the others (apart from one), some taking seats improperly and some staying on their spot (The swordsman in his side of the wall, and the flamingo man on the centre of the table.
"This meeting is to assess the formal introduction of the new Shichibukai Ulfric Damon." getting clear disinterest from the non-marines (apart from two), some prompting to leave the room but halted when the Admiral continued.
"And the fate of Hokurou de Sephtis." suddenly peaking the interest of the room and the shock of the snake woman.
Hokurou had become a name of mixed meaning in the World Government, the Nobles despise him for the destruction of Mariejois and insulting their honor, while the marines were torn between respecting him for his sense of justice and actions to pushing the world to a better place, pushing some marines to accepting Moral Justice than it's Absolute counterpart and believing the disappearance self-serving corrupt nobles in the Goa kingdom was of his actions and are praising him while others are still had a grudge against him for the deaths of their comrades back at Mariejois and some for the occasional assassination of a marine officer.
But before they could discuss more on the situation, a pillar of black flame suddenly erupted from the balcony connected to the room, alerting the occupants of the room, some motioning to attack but the others, namely the non-marines and the Fleet Admiral have yet to make a move.
"At ease." The old woman admiral commanded the marines to relax, causing them to sheathe their weapons warily as the flames slowly dispersed to reveal a man standing in the midst.
Combed-back golden hair, scruff shadow of a beard, sharp but rugged features and steel cold eyes.
His regal and powerful look was backed up by an equally fierce attire.
Black steel armor with intricate and ancient designs adorned his chest, shoulders, lower arms and lower legs, strapped tightly over dark noble clothes, over it was a gray fur-trimmed cloak, completing his completely cold aura.
His posture wasn't a slouch either, he stood arrogantly and defiantly against almost everyone in the room, a left hand grip on a sheathed dark sword was unflinching and ready to be drawn at moments notice.
"It seems most of the Royal Warlords have given me the honor of visiting my induction, I should feel proud." The man sarcastically, head held high in arrogance and earning a snake woman's ire and a flamingo mans sadistic amusement.
But the man named Ulfric merely ignored them and turned to the elderly woman, right arm arm rapped onto his breastplate and slightly bowed in respect.
"It is good to meet you again obaasan" he acknowledged bringing great shock to the group sans said annoyed elder admiral.
"Let's just get this over with before I pull a gasket." the Elder woman merely said before nodding towards the Fleet admiral to continue.
"As I was saying." The Fleet Admiral continued "This is Ulfric Damon, captain of the Shadow guard pirates and the Warlord of the Sea for the East Blue." before looking at the addressed with sharp, dangerous eyes "And currently the only one that holds the knowledge of Hokurou's fate."
By Kami I'm back! And now completely suffocated with going back to school... Hooray T_T.
This chapters a little short as I'm going to return to Hokurou having flashbacks of certain moments in the timeskip as I'm going to be jumping to Luffy beginning his adventure.
Note: Hokurou, will be having his own crew and so, won't be a crew member of Luffy's pirates but will be a future ally (obviously).
Anyways please Review, Favorite, Follow and have a belated Happy New Years!