Awesome newsflash time- Crispin Freeman, voice for Uchiha Itachi in the dubbed series of Naruto is also the voice for Albel Nox from star ocean till the end of time as well as a shit load other animes like Rude from final fantasy advent children, this announcement has no real point except to gloat about how awesome Albel is.
Disclaimer- ... Look! A three headed monkey
Warning- this story may contain situations which you may find appalling or sickening, if you are uncomfortable with such things or are not old enough to view this site then you have been warned
- Violence is like a square block trying to be fit into a circular hole, it may not be supposed to fit but if one is stubborn enough one will give and fit all the same
---
Book Incerp, elements or lack there of -
Many would wounder why there is a difference between element and form manipulation, in truth there isn't.
That is to say that many of the theories behind element manipulation are quite false, after my success with fukyuu chuushin settouhan no jutsu (Immortal heart theft technique) I had found a disturbing fact that my 'Form' manipulation had been nullified
Naturally this only occurred to me when I was thrown into a most unexpected fight involving a drunken samurai, an odd little girl who could displace herself of others just by sneezing and a rather angry kusa nin who had become enraged when said girl managed to sneeze and cause the ale the samurai had been swilling to teleport away from him and drench the kusa nin, hence the man's abrupt rage
Kusa ninja by and of a whole were a comparably violent lot as because of their typical practise of doping up the academy children with steroids and other drugs to improve training and physical performance, but doing such left most with an extremely short fuse an inability to remain patient or focused
Kusa ninja were surprisingly loyal, not to their lord or Kage but to the physicians who gave them their fix, thus the reason why most of Kusa was run by doctors and medical staff rather then merchants or lords
But back to my story, I found out when the enraged Kusa Nin let of a rain of senbon that I was unable to dodge, mainly because the drunken samurai had taken that very moment to cling to me due to the woes of losing his precious beverage
unable to effectively dodge I had formed the seals for the simple Kawarmi only to find that my tried an true technique failed me in a time of need, knowing that I didn't have much time I used the inebriated swordsman as a human shield to block the bulk of the attack leaving me relatively undamaged, the samurai was less well off
After disposing of the shinobi trash and fruitlessly searching for the wench who had inadvertently started this mess I went and sought out the reason why my form manipulation no longer called to my aid
I delved once again into the candle lit gloom of my research laboratory after hours of trying to use the multitude of form manipulation I had mastered over the years, compared to how I am now I was vastly different when compared to back then as one of the few things people always assumed about me was that I was and always had been an elemental master
In fact most would be unpleasantly surprised when or if they found out that prior to my transformation that I had indeed known not a single element based ninjutsu, as a researcher and scientist I could never believe the backwards theory as to why elements worked or why one element beat another, the whole process reeked too much of the rambling of a religious nut who believed the world to be flat and the sun to revolve around the earth
The very notion of accepting fire as an element when it was simply a reaction due to friction or combustion of unstable molecules or excited atoms never sat well with me, I accepted the theory for monsters and demons simply because of their mystical nature and the possible likelihood of alternant dimensions but I could never comprehend how a source of energy that could be explained scientifically could be used in an uneducated and unscientific manner
Perhaps my ignorance may have been at fault, for if I had taken the time to do a detailed study of 'elemental' chakra then I could have thrown off childish notions of rock, paper, scissor's
Ignoring the fact that most of the elements were merely reactions I began to look instead at how they were used in the form of ninjutsu
Fire was used as an explosive force compacting much energy into a small area before letting it explode usually with the application of kinetic energy such as a billowing gust directed from the lungs, Fire techniques all had these same qualities in common being used like a thick heavy hammer to crush through a barricade
Wind was powerful in that it always used to shape as a sword for deep slicing cuts made in circular movements, much like a scythe or sickle spinning on the blades axis, pre-ninja warfare history had taught me of the most effective use of a hammer was to break apart a sword as a sword needed to be quite thin for it to cut cleanly which in turn lowered its durability, especially against a weapon designed to break things
Lightning was used like a spear in that either for ranged or melee attack the spear could follow only a single line of attack, straight forward, a spear was used by foot soldiers to kill in a single attack piercing through even the strongest armour because all the power was focused in a single movement at one point
But there was also a reason why the Samurai were always feared by foot soldiers and that was because a sword by its very nature was superior to a spear as it was a weapon of wealth and prestige, and a sword made of wind was no exception
And if fire was a hammer and wind was a sword with lightning being a spear then obviously earth was shaped to be used as a shield and armour, very few use earth based techniques due to the time and preparation that needs to go into them and like any good or experienced soldier would have told you, you never want to be at ground zero when an entire parapet collapses
I also found it quite ironic that water of all things could display cruelty, a force needed for all carbon based life forms to survive, Water was like a whip both flowing and unpredictable, it displayed a sense of cruelty in that, like the mist shinobi who embraced the techniques it acted to inflict pain and discomfort rather then a quick death, much like a torturer's whip lashing about
Everywhere I went and everywhere I looked I saw the same techniques being used in the same ways, every new technique was simply a shadow of the last, none of the techniques were different to each other only that some looked different or used more energy
I found that my theory on perception to be correct when I experimented with a water natured attack creating a Genjutsu, the first element based Genjutsu, but my success in finding that elements could be changed and altered beyond the typical rock, paper, scissors did nothing to help me find 'why' I no longer had form manipulation
After month of testing and re-testing I eventually came upon another theory, I had seen a young child playing by himself in a sand pit with a small contraption that the people of Suna were famous for, puppets, I began to wonder about how and why Puppeteers tended not to use anything but puppets and after much thought I came upon a startling realisation
Form manipulation while being more powerful on average when compared to element manipulation had the downside of taking much of the body's concentration and doing two completely different form manipulations were near impossible because of the division of chakra
My fukyuu chuushin settouhan no jutsu was designed using Form manipulation and keeping my body moving was taking all my form concentration even if I myself was not aware of that concentration, but it still did not explain why I was able to use element chakra
The problem lay in the heart, or perhaps the mind as the mind was where form manipulation carried its power while the heart was where elemental chakra was created, you see while elemental chakra could be fooled into thinking it was form it was still inherently one of the five 'elements'
This was not simply because of genetics but also because of ones perceptions, emotions and thoughts, hence mind
While kekai genkai were inherited often the ability to use either or both of the elemental chakra were not, the exception to this rule were the numerous Doujutsu users that were prominent during the Samurai and Miko era
Those who dealt in cruelty or had a repressed cruelty, usually due to cowardice found it easier to manipulate water as their heart was filled with a calm vicious streak
I began to wonder if it wasn't that people who displayed cruelty or had cruel streaks had an affinity for water but those that had an affinity for water had a cruel streak, a sort of circular logic like what came first, the chicken or the egg
My conclusion was not that the element itself that mattered but the form manipulation behind it, in effect my change in body allowed me to change the form of element chakra at will; in effect it supercharged the form within the element overpowering the element
This however was a double edged sword by powering the form of element it weakened the non element form to the point where I was incapable of using it for anything except keeping my body together.
---
A young girl barely eight years in age sat in a deserted alley silently weeping to herself as she hugged her knees close to her chest, upon her forehead carved in a mixture of blood and green ink was half finished tattoo that glowed erratically prompting the young girl to wince every time it flared brighter
Small flecks of red floated about through her left pale pupil less eye as the blood from busted blood vessels mixed with the purity of white
The girl was dressed in the rags of a once formal kimono stained from the dirt and grime of Konoha's sewers and refuse, Her waist length hair formerly described as being like liquid silk was now nothing more then a ragged mess covered in filth and less nameable substances
Sobbing quietly the girl wiped her aching eyes with a grubby hand serving only to irritate them further and smearing more grime over her noble, elegant features
The girl continued to cry not noticing a group of shadows moving outwards towards her position
---
Blinking his open Naruto rubbed his nose as one of his hair tendrils had managed to tickle while he was unconscious waking him prematurely
Finding himself unable to slip back into blissful sleep Naruto instead chose to sit himself up and swung his legs out from under the hospital covers, his artistically stitched feet landing on the cool cream coloured tiles that intersected one another to create a symmetrical square pattern
Standing up he promptly fell flat onto his face unused to how his body was now working and quickly realising that he was a great deal taller than, almost as tall as someone his age should be instead of a runtish midget
'Awesome now I can even tower over six year olds... well once I can figure out how to stand up that is'
Using the bed as a support Naruto flailed his way to his feet and slowly adjusted to the change in his centre of gravity and wobbly made his way to a cupboard
'I need clothes and if I remember rightly its standard procedure to have a standardized unisex uniform on hand in each of the cupboards at a hospital just in case a Konoha shinobi gets injured but needs to be made ready in a hurry, I think it was for diplomacy or something, whatever clothes are clothes'
minutes later a dressed Naruto slinked out of his hospital room an down the hall, along with a standard issue Konoha-nin outfit Naruto had wrapped around his head a hospital sheet as to cover his rather 'unique' characteristics and tucked under one arm was the leather case given to him by Danzo
"Oy you, hold on there"
Freezing like a statue Naruto numbly turned around hoping beyond hope that the man that called him didn't recognise him and start a riot because of an 'even more freakish demon child' the man who had called out to him tapped him on the shoulder to properly get his attention and Naruto contemplated whether or not to simply make a runner
The man, a doctor if his lab coat was any indication was rather non descript like someone had taken a shaded in extra from a movie and gave it an actual role, the man was entirely un-noteworthy in every aspect, so much so that Naruto almost found himself forgetting that the man had got his attention at all
"You dropped your book young man"
"Oh ehh thanks"
"See-ya"
"Uhh bye"
Blinking Naruto looked down at the book then shrugged his shoulders
'Ehh probably just a coincidence'
---
Slipping out of the hospital Naruto winced as the baleful light of the midday sun invaded his overly sensitive eyes shrinking the retina in them to a fine point as they adjusted to the bright life giving glow
Walking down the street Naruto was pleasantly surprised when people gave him a wide berth especially those close enough to see his face under the makeshift hood one even tripping over his own feet as he scrambled away in fear, it felt oddly satisfying to know that people were feeling something other then abject hatred for him
'Ah at least I'm only a block away from my apartment; hopefully no ones trashed it while I was away'
Stopping abruptly Naruto looked up and turned his head blinking twice then turned his head back around
"Strange, I thought I heard a scream... oh well"
He didn't a single step before he heard the unmistakable sound of a child screaming coming from the nearby alleyway and acting without thinking Naruto rushed down the decrepit, dank side street unmindful of the stares he had accumulated for the action
---
"Aren't you going to do something Danzo-sama" a small form barely the height of a mans knee spoke, both himself and Danzo were shrouded in an unnatural darkness
Danzo turned his badly damaged head away from the strangely distorted market place in front of him to lock his single working eye on the completely obscured 'man' at his side and regarding him slightly as if making out something no one else could see
"No, I believe this will be a good experience for the child, after all someone who is to be turned into an idol will need a basis of kindness for which others can look upon in awe"
"You put too much faith into him"
His eye went back to surveying the distorted world colours swirled and danced about in and out of focus as compared to where both figures were the rest of the world appeared insubstantial and hazy at best
"Perhaps, but perhaps Konoha needs someone different to rule over them and every king needs a king maker"
"Hmm then why don't you become the next Kage, I'm sure there's ways you can get yourself into the position even as you are now"
"No those days are long since past and it would be better to gently lead the child to the thrown and let it be a beacon for the people then to simply place a puppet in its place, after all which would motivate you more, kind words from you ruler or a command spoken from a wood object"
"Point taken and what of the other child"
"Useless though he may be of some use once he hits puberty and it's just a matter of time before the public think of him as merely breeding stock"
"I cannot work up the need to care about one from that accursed clan"
"Now now personal feelings aside they did do much good for this village"
The small form grunted unintelligently appearing quite ruffled
"Bah he'll turn out just like his brother"
"And if he does then we'll have ourselves a trump card for future generations and if not well..."
---
Screaming herself hoarse and trying and failing to scramble away from the three disgusting men who had surrounded her the girl gave up curling herself into a ball and began to weep, a horrid knowledge of what was about to happen to her
She shivered and whimpered in fear backing up into the corner of the ally wall as much as she could as she heard the subtle but unmistakable sound of a belt buckle being loosened and undone, her hands scraped against the brick wall grazing her delicate hands mixing both blood and grime into a thick disgusting paste
One of the men unwashed even compared to her unclean form pushed her onto her back and she screamed in choked sobs her clothes being ripped from her body and prepubescent chest groped by the mans large calloused hand his other hand slipping between the Childs kimono and between her legs attempting to force her legs open
She was weak, far weaker then she wanted to be, oh why had this all happened to her, she cursed her family in its entirety it was their fault she had run away and it was their fault she now lay on the filthy wet ground about to be raped by some disgusting homeless men who likely had all number of diseases
But worst of it all was that not six feet was Open Street shinning brightly in the noon day sunlight with people walking through the streets chatting happily and none of them even cared that she was screaming for help, where were all the ninja and ANBU now she wondered
Her thoughts were cut off because of a harsh slap that impacted with her cheek instantly bruising the delicate creamy skin, stars danced in and out of her eyes as her vision swam and droplets of salty water leaked from tear ducts
"What The Hell do you think you're doing?"
The disgusting filth above her had just about ripped off all her clothes when a voice suddenly called out and a sandaled foot impacted with the side of the would-be rapists head not a second after, the man rolled and bowled over one of his friends before slamming back first into the brick wall
Slowly lifting her gaze from the prone and bloodied figure her eyes slowly trailed the foot past the leg and standard ninja top and odd choice of cloth that was wrapped tightly around his face, it almost looked like he had taken a bed sheet so he could play the part of the 'mysterious ninja saviour'
But the most striking part of him was his sparkling blue eyes that danced like lightning dancing over cold steel
---
Naruto dropped his leg after landing the devastating blow leaving his feet shoulder width apart and slowly crossed his arms over his chest trying to look as intimidating as he could while being a good foot and a half smaller then the shortest one, his bed sheet draped over him billowing in an unseen breeze like a prince's cape
A soft moan made Naruto look down at the girl who had nearly been raped and he felt a deep sense of disgust and anger well up in his throat as he looks at the repulsive bruises of a deep purple along her arms, legs, stomach and cheek where the gutter man had held her down and abused the poor girl, the deep bruises a stark contrast to the creamy skin
"OY fucker who da fuck ye think yer are hmm" One of the thugs called drawing a rusty kunai and waving it in front of him even though he was a good six feet away
Ignoring the man Naruto Knelt down Naruto and removed his makeshift mask/cape from around his neck and draped the cheap fabric over the shivering girl electing a whimper as she curled into a ball at the contact which only served to anger Naruto more as he stood back up and turned to regard the three men, one of which was barely making it to his feet as he re-adjusted his jaw
"Oy I'm talking here don't just up and ignore us ya ugly freak" the idiots statement caused the second thug to snigger under his breath
Tugging off his shirt leaving him clad in only hospital pants Naruto held up his right hand and balled it into a fist and then slowly uncurled one of his fingers showing it to the thugs which seemed to silence the scum of society
"Your first mistake was hurting a child young enough to be a daughter of even a gennin and in the middle of a FUCKING ninja village to boot"
Naruto's raised hand clenched tightly before he uncurled a second finger waving his hand about for the assembled dregs to see it clearly
"Number two mistake was while in the middle of a ninja village you stupidly choose the worst place as you're currently in the territory of Konoha's number aspiring Ninja who has pledged to never die and ain't gonna let some worthless mongrels ruin the area around my home"
"And last but not least-" screamed Naruto his voice rising as he took several menacing steps forward, strands of thick neck length tendrils that had replaced his hair waved erratically moving about like snakes upon the head of medusa
"-Is that-" he took another step forward tendrils slithering out from between stitches in his shirtless torso and even out of his mouth giving him a hellish appearance
"You didn't even have the sense to run when ya had tha' chance"
The only uninjured thug growled in anger drawing a kunai from behind his back and lunged sloppily but Naruto was already ready for it and slid to the side his knee rising with enough force to catch the cluster of sensitive nerves between the legs(1)
The man stumbled back cursing and hissing as he clutched at his lower body shakily but he kept himself up and continued to grip his knife, his eyes not leaving Naruto for a second
The fact that the man's face broke into a smirk alerted Naruto that something wasn't right and looking around he barely realised that one of the thugs had disappeared from sight
Turning around Naruto was rewarded with a punch to the face by the thug that had caught his friend that he had previously kicked making him stagger back in a mixture of surprise and pain but was thankful as his tendril hair instinctively curled around the man's wrist both trapping the hand and stopping him from falling on his ass
'That's weird, normally a punch like that would've broken my jaw, not only that but my own attacks are stronger'
Deciding not to dwell on things still didn't understand Naruto took a menacing step forward getting within breathing space of the degradation to the human race his knuckles tightening with a sound akin to a wet rag being rung out as the rubbery mass that now made up his muscles under the hardened epidermis of skin bulged gruesomely
The man's face which was previously set in glee had now set into a look shock and surprise was quickly seeping into an expression of fear as he tried to wrench his hand from the grip of Naruto's hair like mass and it was with his attention diverted that Naruto's clenched fist rose swiftly uppercutting the man in the side of the jaw
The man lifted off the ground from the impact and almost twirled from the force just before he slammed into the adjacent wall with a meaty 'thwack'
Naruto's smirked but his glory was short lived as his world blossomed into pain originating from his left side where the man with the knife had buried it up to the hilt and was trying to pull it free causing Naruto writhe in agony and growl in anger
Back handing the man made him lose the grip on the knife where without blinking Naruto ripped the knife throwing it away into the rubbish as he advanced on the recovering man and kicked his legs out from underneath before flipping him over and then straddling the chest of the larger, abet weaker man and smirked savagely his skin darkening to a deep brown and his eyes flashing a deep red
---
Naruto was only dimly aware of the next few minutes as his judgement had long since clouded over in an angry red haze known to most as psychotic anger but coming down from the emotion induced high several things became relevant
One, his hands, face, legs and practically his entire body seemed to be coated in a cold, sticky, red liquid
Two, he seemed to be sitting in a puddle of similar red liquid
And three was that he could vaguely recall that the puddle he was straddling had been begging for mercy just before he had completely lost his temper, the mere thought of such a degrading creature begging for mercy even now caused his sight to tinge crimson
A rather girlish scream brought him out of his thoughts as his prehensile neck swerveled at an almost 180 degree angle to see the first thug who had recovered was running out of the ally yelling loudly about monsters and how they were coming to get him
Ignoring the fleeing man Naruto gingerly got to his feet nearly falling over as he slipped on the slick wet ground as his side burned in pain from the knife wound, limping his way forward he managed to make it to the cowering girl he had saved and dropped to his knees in relief
"You're safe, good"
'Why, why did I save her, I done something stupid, I risked my life, idiot why should I care about someone else when I nearly die doing it, I've died once today I can't let myself do this kind of thing again'
The girl shied away from him further into the now bloodstained sheet that he had wrapped around her, her mouth moved silently for a few seconds before she managed to find her voice, soft and melodic yet quivering and scared like a small frightened bird with a broken wing knowing that its savour meant her no harm but still struggling to get away
"Tha-thank you Sir um-"
"Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto and what's your name?"
The girl looked up at him, her answer hesitating on the tip of her tongue as her eyes one pale white and pure while the a bloodied red mess that could barely be recognised as the same as the other gazed into Naruto's own
"Hanabi, Hyuuga Hanabi"
---
Danzo looked at the retreating form of the would be rapist in disgust and contempt before clicking his fingers twice
The retreating thug seemed to blur for a second appearing distorted before seeming to fade away before he even had time to realise what was happening, this made Danzo smirk as small white particles drifted where the man once was
---
End chapter
So did anyone see the plot twist suddenly appear
(1) - anybody who's learnt any martial arts with any degree of proficiency will most likely know that kneeing someone in the groin is actually a bad idea as it tends to be well protected and its better to knee someone in the stomach or the cluster of nerves located on the inside of the thigh as its more effective.
Believe it or not this chapter was incredibly hard for me to write.
First off is I tend to like villains more then heroes so the whole rescue thing was pretty hard for me, second was the fact that I've been jobless (again) and looking for work so that take up most of my time and thirdly believe it or not I've been writing a Ranma half fanfic (not yet posted) also the fact that its my first story using a pre-reader is acclaimed to near apocalyptic standards
Naruto and Kakuzu's weakness- yep it tends to be a sticking point with me but most stories have a character with no weaknesses, this isn't simply the Naruto fan fictions but practically every story in every category
If you haven't guessed Naruto is going to be an element master and be incapable of form manipulation except where elements are concerned so no Kage Bunshin, no Henge, no Kawarmi and no rasengan
It kinda came about when I re-read the Naruto versus Kakuzu manga chapter and I was thinking, well the guy would have had to know Kawarmi so why didn't he just use that instead of taking a hit from something he knew would kill him, it would make more sense if by supercharging his element that it cut out form manipulation
I'll probably revise it later so it sound cooler but for now it stays as is
Danzo- the guy was on the same level as Sarutobi so it's a safe bet that he's strong enough to do away with street trash even in his mangled state
Trivia- Plastic explosives i.e. c2, c3 and c4 don't explode due to things like fire or heat but rather because of an electrical charge, giving that Deidra's clay explosives are based and named entirely off weapons of the same name I find it hard to believe that lightning, something that would make the explosives detonate could be used to defuse the same explosives
Ergo Kishamoto is simply glory hounding Sasuke while forgetting all principles of warfare, not that the idiotic man has yet to do anything right in regards to warfare
About Sasuke-
its not that I hate Sasuke per say as he can be an intriguing character when written properly same with all of the characters in Naruto 'but' and this is where I stress my hatred is that Kishimoto doesn't seem to remember that his series isn't based around one character named Sasuke and the way the cannon simply puts a tiny bit of small minded character development before rushing back to another Sasuke moppy scene
That being said I'm not going to be happy until Kishimoto gets slapped and told to wake up.
I had an interesting thought the other day, Orochimaru wanted Itachi's body and Itachi wouldn't say no to an extra bit of power but to get close enough to Itachi to take over his body Orochimaru would have had to give Itachi something of value, something to place trust in him
So wouldn't it be funny if in the final fight Sasuke manages to overpower Itachi in level two curse seal only for Itachi to activate his own curse seal and lay a beat down, just an idle thought of mine
Or that Itachi is really Madara and tobi is really just Itachi's puppet