First Imperial Guard of Konoha
Chapter 1
It was early in the morning in Konoha, shop vendors were opening their shops, Shinobi were streaming in and out of the Village gates, and various officials were just entering their offices or just waking up. However, as everyone was just beginning their day, Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage of Konoha was hard at work in his office, stamping and signing papers that needed his approval.
Minato sighed and leaned back in his comfy chair. Seeing that he had done almost half of his morning papers already, he decided to take a short break and focus on one of his side projects. Minato took out a scroll from one of his drawers and unfurled it. Atop the scroll was written 'The Lightning-God-Strike Imperial Guards Ghost Divisions', it was the name Minato had made up for his little project, however, Kushina wouldn't stop nagging him to change it.
'Hmph, no idea what she means, doesn't this name sound badass?' Minato thought with a proud smile before returning to the matter. the Blond Hokage started scribbling notes detailing what the project's objective would be and how it would work.
The idea was born shortly after his coronation as the Fourth Hokage, which was shortly after the third Shinobi war when he was dealing with many reports concerning the losses in the ANBU division. Minato knew that while ANBU were at the top of the Shinobi ladder, bar the Kage, they were still assassins, trained for quick assassinations and sabotage missions, not for an all-out war for which they were used because of the lack of manpower during the times.
And so, the idea of a new division was born, one that would be used for many things which Shinobi were not meant to do, for example, frontline warfare. They could also be deployed in the Fire country to patrol cities, a duty that the Shinobi did not fulfill, and defense of Fire countries Nobles. The idea was very appealing, maybe not necessary right now, seeing how no Village would dare to declare war against Konoha so long he was alive, but for the time once Konoha didn't have an army-destroying Shinobi.
Minato finished one of his last points and rolled the scroll up before leaning back and looking at his desk. The blond blinked, looking at the stacks of paperwork piled on his desk he cursed and checked the hour before curing once more, seeing how he spend much more time on his side project than intended. He did this quite often, it was a well-known fact that once Minato started working on something that really caught his interest hours passed in a blink of an eye for him.
The fourth went back to work, seeing how had still some time before meetings and appointments would start. At least that was the plan before the door to his office opened and a mop of spiky blond hair, not unlike his own, rushed into the office before taking a seat on the chair in front of his desk.
"Hi, dad!" Six-year-old Namikaze Naruto shouted with a large grin on his face looking at his father with large blue eyes filled with excitement. Minato smiled warmly and put his pen down, deciding that he would do the paperwork later.
"Good morning Naru, what are you doing here so early? shouldn't you be in the academy?" the fourth asked with a raised eyebrow. Naruto blushed, scratching the back of his head.
"Hehe, you see, me and Itachi decided to send Shadow Clones to the academy today and train later at his compound, but I wanted to see you first since I didn't get to in the morning," The blond said with an embarrassed chuckle.
Minato sighed and palmed his face. The nerve of him, to skip the academy and come to him and to just admit to it. Minato couldn't believe how similar he and Naruto were, the younger blond was very smart, and talented and took to training like fish to water, not only that but was almost never lazy and did his chores. On the other hand, he was so much like Kushina, especially with his love for ramen, pranks, and short temper.
"Dad, have you and mom already decided on a name for my sister?" Naruto asked with a smile, looking at the fourth, who responded in kind.
"Yes, I and your mother decided to name her Mito,"
"Wow! Just like the old lady Mito who helped mom when she got first in Konoha?" naruto asked with an excited grin.
"Exactly, she was your mom's grandmother and Kushina respected her highly, especially since she was the only family left after the attack on Uzushio. So, promise me you will take care of little Mito, okay Naru?"
"Of course, she will be my little sister, I will protect her no matter what!" Minato smiled at Naruto's bold declaration, it made him so proud to have such a mature son, who valued his family.
"What's that?" Naruto asked, opening the scroll and starting to read the content. Minato blinked and grinned.
"This is a special project I'm working on and if everything goes as planned, it should be ready to start in three years," The fourth said with not a small amount of pride. Naruto looked in awe at the scroll before it was snatched out of his hands.
"Hey!"
"Shouldn't you get going? Itachi-kun will get impatient otherwise and will set up traps for you, just like last time," The younger blond cringed at the memory of standing in the middle of a trapped field.
"I think it's time for me, see ya later, dad!" Naruto shouted while running out of his office, slamming the door behind himself. The older Namikaze chuckled seeing his son's antics and returned to work.
'No wonder, Sarutobi-sama hates paperwork so much. Still, I have no idea why he doesn't use shadow clones to deal with the less pressing matters?' Minato shrugged and three exact copies of himself appeared in front of his desk, taking half of the papers from it.
Uchiha compound
"He,y Itachi!" The young Uchiha heir looked to his left, where he heard the shout come from, and saw his friend and rival Namikaze Naruto running towards him, waving at him with a silly grin on his face. Honestly, Itachi had o idea how they became friends. True, they were both considered Geniuses from two renowned Shinboi families, but still, their personalities were polar opposites.
Itachi was calm, calculative, respectful,l and responsible. His blond friend, on the other hand, was emotional, impulsive, barely had respect for anyone he didn't deem as worth respecting,g and was lazy. Even if everyone in the Village, including the fourth and Kushin, would say, Itachi knew better. He saw the side that Naruto hide from everyone, especially his parents.
Sometimes, Itachi wondered if Narutohadd had any blood ties with the Nara Clan, but soon dismissed such a line of thought.
"Naruto, you're late," Itachi deadpanned when Naruto ran up to him and fell to the ground with a groan.
"You can't be serious, I sprinted the whole way from the Hokage tower," the blond's response was muffled by the grass his face was lying on.
Approximately three minutes late," The blond groaned in response. Leave it to Itachi to count how late he is. "Anyway, shall we get started?" The black-haired genius asked and stood up, dusting his beige shorts. Naruto shot to his feet with an excited grin and got into his taijutsu stance.
"You need to ask? What are the rules?"
"Hm, let's go with taijutsu only,y for now, no Chakra enhancement as well,"
"If you want to lose another spar, let's do it!" Itachi narrowed his eyes and made some distance between the two, entering his taijutsu style.
"Do I need to remind you the score is in my favor of me?"
"Shut up! You were lucky last time, but today I will tie and next time it will be my lead!"
"Hmph, as if you could ever defeat an Uchiha," Itachi faked with an arrogant expression, knowing it will get under the blond's skin.
"Now you've done it!" With a shout, the blond rushed at his friend and the two six-year-old academy students entered fierce hand-to-hand combat.
The strikes were swift, precise, and strong enough to make anyone of their age crawl into a tiny ball and whimper in pain. But not those two, who were in Itachi evaded the blond's attacks with grace and precise footwork, Naruto tanked them with block and sometimes with his face.
Between the two, if it came to a sheer physical fight, Naruto was stronger, more durable, and had better stamina. Itachi on the other hand, was faster, more precise, and had better technique.
As always, it came to whether Naruto can bull through Itachi's evasive defense and counterattacks or if Itachi can weaken Naruto's durability enough to land a winning strike.
Soon the spar escalated beyond of what academy students should do and turned more into a fight between two Genin. Where Itachi was landing shot after shot on the blond, causing bruising and even slight bleeding, Naruto didn't relent. For every five strikes Itachi landed, Naruto hit once, but strong enough to make up the difference in strikes landed.
Soon, even the two prodigies started to get tired and jumped apart for a small respite in the fight. "Heh, it seems you can't keep up, Itachi!" Naruto grinned, wiping the slight trail of blood from his busted lip.
"You are barely standing, you should give up, Naruto," Even through ragged breath, the Uchiha managed to counter with a slight smirk. Naruto laughed loudly and cracked his knuckles, taking a step forward with a slight limp, ignoring the purple bruise on his left tight.
"You knew me better than this Itachi! let's end this with a final attack, let's see who is stronger today,"
"Very well, let's end this," Itachi answered and the two focused, their faces losing any form of smiles or grins. For a second they stood still, before rushing each other, meeting in the middle.
Naruto's left hand flashed forward in a powerful hook, meanwhile, Itachi kicked up from the ground, twisting his hip and aiming a flying knee toward the blond's face.
'I've got him!' They both thought before their attacks connected and the two boys flew back with grunts of pain. Blood marred Naruto's broken nose, while Itachi stemmed the blood from his lips.
"So, another draw," Itachi stated, letting his displeasure show. It wasn't the first time they had ended their spars in a draw most of them ended this way. From 76 spars, only 11 ended in favor of someone. Six in favor of Itachi and five in favor of Naruto. The two boys lay on the ground for quite some time, nursing their wounds and catching their breaths.
"Hey, Itachi," After some time, Naruto was the one to break the silence, the both of them still resting on the ground, watching the clouds float on the blue sky. The Uchiha heir didn't respond, but the blond knew he had his attention.
"My father plans to open a new division in some years, something like ANBU, but more battlefront oriented. They would act as the guardians in the light, unlike the ANBU who protect from the shadows," No answer came back from Itachi, so Naruto went on.
"They would be on the same level as ANBU, but even more detailed, having their ranks and dad even began to formulate some idea for a whole new branch of Shinobi arts for them," This finally got him a response.
"Really? Any idea how he would go about it or anything that could describe it?"
"Dunno, he didn't say much, but he mentioned it in his notes. You know how Chakra is formed by Physical and Spiritual energies?"
"Of course, it is the first thing we learn at the academy. though, it wouldn't surprise me if you learned it just today," The young Uchiha mumbled the last part with a small smirk, hearing the blond shout in protest.
"Well, like in Taijutsu, one uses the physical energy to boost their techniques, or the Genjutsu uses the Spiritual energy, dad has a theory that would allow using the spiritual energy to create new destructive Jutsus,"
"Why though, isn't Ninjutsu enough destructive?" The Uchiha asked with a frown, disappointed that once again, the leaders of the world thought about destruction instead of ways to deal with matters peacefully.
"Well, don't know really, he snatched the scroll out of my hands before I could read too much,"
"Wait, he didn't allow you to read it?" Itachi sat up and looked at the blond with an owlish expression. The blond followed suit and blinked twice.
"No?"
"You idiot! Reading documents like these is enough to get high-ranking Shinobi executed, no saying about civilians!" Itachi shouted, surprising Naruto with his outburst of emotions. The young Namikaze grinned and tried to calm his friend down.
"Gee, calm down Itachi before you get used to emotions," He answered with a snicker only to get hit in the head with a pebble courtesy of an annoyed Uchiha. Itachi sighed and lay himself down again, idly noticing that his lip stopped bleeding, as did Naruto's nose which already looked healed. 'Damn Uzumaki strong lifeforce'.
"So, why are you telling me this? Besides the facts, that it is only an idea that might be implemented into the SHinboi force in the future?"
"I plan on joining them," His statement met with silence, Naruto looked at the Uchiha and found a frown on his face.
"I thought we agreed that a Shinobi protects the Village from the Shadows?"
"Yes, I agree with you and Shisui, however, if everyone is protecting Konoha from Shadows, who will stand in the light, give our people hope and make sure they are safe before the shadows strike?"
Itachi's eyes widened at that, he never really considered this, to be honest, he always just assumed that Konoha could be protected by the Shadows, there was no need for heroes who stood proudly in the light, but when Naruto put it like this?
"I see, very well then, if you will stand in the light, staring our enemies in the eyes, I will stand in the shadows and strike them from behind," The blond grinned at this and helped his friend to stand up.
"Heh, I expected nothing less from you, Itachi. Let's make sure Konoha is safe," the blond stated and extended his hand for a fist pump. The dark-haired boy sighed but nevertheless, fist-pumped the blond with a small smile.
"That's a promise,"
"After everything is done, I will come for you to meet mom and Mito, Naruto. I promise,"
The dark clouds rained heavily, pouring all over Konoha. The rumbling of thunder was heard in the distance. Everyone ran to hide from the rain, not expecting such bad weather so soon in October. usually, around this time, it is still warm around this time of year, yet today seemed different.
As everyone stayed in their homes, not wanting to get wet, a single person stood outside in the heavy downpour. the usually spiky blond hair was flat from the water, his face full of raindrops that flowed down his face, at least that is what he said to himself. Naruto grit his teeth, looking at the grave of his father and mother, clutching a single scroll tightly in his hands.
"After everything is done, I will come for you to meet mom and Mito, Naruto. I promise,"
The words echoed in his head, bringing the boy to his knees, as his anguished scream was left unheard in the rumbling of thunder. His body trembled and he brought the scroll to his chest, hugging it tightly, hoping he would just wake up and see his family together again.
'Mom, dad,' Naruto sniffed his nose and looked through his blurry vision at the scroll he was holding, he unrolled it, reading the heading on it 'The Lightning-God-Strike Imperial Guards Ghost Divisions'. He remembered what the reinstalled Sandaime told him just a few hours prior.
'I know you are hurting right now Naruto, but you must stay strong, for the sake of Mito and Konoha for which your parents gave their lives. With Minato's protection gone, other Nations will try to challenge our power, which may lead to war,'.
It hurt, it hurts so much, but he knew the old man was right. He couldn't stay here and cry like a little baby, he needed to be strong, for Mito and for Konoha. But then, why couldn't he stop trembling or stop the tears from pouring out?
Naruto sat in front of the third Hokage in his personal study in the Sarutobi compound. The blond was sitting on a pillow seiza-style. Old, grey eyes read every line with precision, making sure to not miss a single detail.
In the last half of the year, many things have changed for the blond. The first thing was moving from his family house to the Sarutobi compound, where Sandaime offered to help him out, especially with his young sister Mito. Naruto spent as much time as he could with her, but when he attended the academy or trained, Sarutobi servants had been taking good care of her.
The day after the Kyubi attack, on the 11th of October, after Sandaime gave a speech and announced his return from retirement, a bombshell was dropped on the blond. Hiruzen told him about Mito's status as the Jinchuriki of Kyubi. For a moment the blond was hesitant until the old man explained more thoughtfully what it meant as well as assuring that it was Minato's work that kept the beast at bay.
Hearing this, the blood calmed down and understood that Mito was just the jailor as innocent as him. The Sandaime also assured that the Status of the Kyubi was known now to only him, his advisors Koharu, Danzo, and Homura, as well as the ANBU commander, who all swore secrecy on the matter under the penalty of death.
Currently, the blond was awaiting the old man's answer, one that would determine if he would hold his promise to Itachi as well as continue his father's plans. Naruto held his breath when Hiruzen put the scroll down and lit up his old pipe. Soon, the scent of tobacco filled the room, making the young Namikaze scrunch his nose.
"Well, that is certainly ambitious. Along with how detailed it is and how... he used his genius to make up the names for it, I can see that's clearly Minato's work," Hiruzen said looking at the ridiculous names the blond had made up.
"Right? But I think the name of the division should be different, it is too long. I would call it 'Guard divisions'," the blond stated proudly. The Sandaime sweatdropped.
'It seems Naruto got his naming abilities from Minato, one is making the names too boisterous and the other makes them too simple. It's quite amazing that Kushina of all people had the best naming taste in the family,' The Sandaime thought, but a small Kushina appeared in his head and shouted 'Katon: The ultimate fire spreading tornado of flames of death!'. 'Well, maybe none of them are good at it,' The old man thought with a small smile.
"Naruto, just to be sure. Your wish is to start the project Minato left for us?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama,"
"Hm, how does your academy go?" Naruto blinked at the question but nevertheless answered.
"Very good, Hokage-sama. I and Itachi are at the top of the class in every subject. The teachers are calling us geniuses and one of them is even pushing us to become Genin already,"
"I see," Hiruzen knew this very well, the Chunin from the academy was already some time ago in his office, stating how the two boys are more than ready to join a genin team.
"Very well, from now on, I Sarutobi Hiruzen promote you to the rank of Genin. I will give your five years, till you are 12 to train and prepare. Once the time is up, I shall test you and see if this project is worth it. Do we have a deal?"
"Yes, sir!" Naruto said with a wide grin.
"Good, the new division shall be named...hm, I know. From today on you are the first member of the 'The Imperial Guard Division', make us proud, Naruto,"
"I will, Hokage-sama. That's a promise. By the way, will I be assigned to a genin team with a Jonin?"
"No, you will become what's known as a reserve Genin. Usually, that means that you do not have a team nor a Jonin Instructor and are allowed only to do D-Rank missions until a spot opens on a team that can take you. However, in your case, you will not be assigned to a team no matter what, since I want you to focus on learning from the scroll Minato left behind. But you will eventually be sent on C-Rank missions with some Genin teams or sometimes even with more experienced Chunins,"
"I see, what about Itachi though? I mean, he is almost as skilled as me and I personally think he is wasting his talents in the academy," Sandaime smiled at the two boys rivarly.
"Of course, Itachi will be allowed to take the graduation test in two weeks and if he chooses to do so and passes, will be assigned to a normal team," Naruto beamed and shot to his feet.
"Sweet! two whole weeks during which I can pull rank on Itachi, that's almost a dream come true!" Hiruzen sweatdropped and wondered for a moment if he should have waited and promoted both of them at the same time if only to save the Uchiha genius from the blond menace.
"Work hard, Naruto, I can't wait to see the efforts of your labor,"
" Introduction: Part 1
For ages, Shinobi has been using the mix of physical and spiritual energies that they possess to create Chakra, an almost magical power with limitless potential. A potential that is wasted by our adamant weaponization of said power. Chakra could be so much more, a simple example would be Medical Ninjutsu, an area that is almost non-existent in comparison to Ninjutsu, yet is one of the reasons so many people are even alive today, but that is a topic for another day.
It is a well-known fact that the usage of Chakra weakens the user and is lethal when one comes close to Chakra depletion or as it is often referred to 'Chakra exhaustion'. The symptoms are a weakened body, lack of energy, headaches, and slower reflexes among others. The reason is quite simple and already found years ago, yet not well known among Shinobi. The physical energy in our body resonates with well, our body. If we work out and get tired, we spent energy. When our body gets stronger, so does our physical energy, which leads to our Chakra being more potent. The spiritual energy, on the other hand, does not correspond with our spirit, but with our mind. Learning, doing paperwork, not sleeping well or any other activity that tires our brain uses spiritual energy. Like with physical energy, when we learn new things when we grow and remember new subjects, our spiritual energy raises. So for one's Chakra and themselves to grow, they have to balance these two energies. "If heaven does not exist, enrich your knowledge. If the earth does not exist, run the fields in search of an advantage." See sealing matrix 2 for reference, "Chakra theory: Heaven and Earth- Mind and Body of Shinobi" by Senju Tobirama.
If using Chakra taxed both body and mind, it is not optimal usage of our energies for prolonged fights. With this in mind, I started working on possible theories to see if these two can be separated and used in the same way as Chakra. For weeks, I came with blanks and dead-ends, however once again Jiraiya-Sensei's books helped me with making a breakthrough. My previous description of Chakra as magical energy shines here. Ninjutsu uses our physical energy, reflected by a real object, ourselves, and spiritual energy, our mind, an abstract object. We mold them by using a)Handsigns and b)Names are given to the techniques. So when using Spiritual energy alone, we have to use our mind to mold it like when we use Ninjutsu, but even more precisely. Instead of saying just the name, I came to the conclusion of a description and Indication.
Every single technique needs to have an Indication, otherwise, it lacks substance, and it lacks the body(physical energy) made by hand signs. After a few months, I created a couple of techniques using only spiritual energy, but I have yet to master them. I can't wait to see everyone's reactions when I show them what I made. I also decided to separate them into two different categories: "Hado" the offensive and battle techniques and "Bakudo" the defensive and supplementary techniques. Here is the list of techniques I already created: "
"What are you reading?" Naruto jumped from his sitting position with a shriek. He looked to his side and calmed down, seeing Itachi standing in his room, looking at him weirdly.
"Notes father left and what are you doing in my room?" The blond asked, relaxing and rolling the scroll up.
"I came to ask if you wanted to train and since I didn't find you on your family training ground, nor on the Sarutobi training grounds I came here and Asuma-san let me in," Itachi explained
"Ah, well, I am kinda hungry, why don't we hit Ichiraku's first, and then we can go train?" Itachi nodded and the two departed. They walked in silence, not an awkward one, but usually, the blond would be babbling about his day and trying to get a reaction from his friend.
"Well, he did just lose his parents, he most likely is sad. What do you do in such situations?" Itachi contemplated, not sure how to help his friend, deciding to ask his mother about it later.
"Something on your mind?" The Uchiha asked and cringing at how stupid it may have sounded. Naruto hummed and looked up at the clouds above.
"Just thinking how we are considered Geniuses, but then I compare us to dad and I am not really sure if the title is right for us,"
"You are comparing us, two seven year old to a grown adult who is a Kage and singlehandedly ended a war?"
"Well, if you put it like this, it seems kinda stupid, but then again, dad thought of a way to use just half of what makes Chakra and already created some techniques with it and he needed just a few months for it. I wonder if I will be able to do something as big as this one day,"
"Yondaime-sama was one of the strongest and smartest Shinobi in the whole history of our world, along there with the likes of Hashirama-sama and Uchiha Madara. It's no wonder you might be doubting yourself, but you shouldn't be thinking this way. You're about to make history yourself. "The first Imperial Guard of Konoha", that's something that will be engraved in the history of this world, that is unless you get lazy and just drop this," Itachi said with a small smile.
"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence,"
"No problem, by the way, Shisui won't join us today,"
"Hm, why not?"
"He got some special mission from ANBU today, wouldn't tell any details,"
"That's a shame, it seems I will be the only Ninja today," The blond grinned at Itachi's confused expression.
"What do you mean?" If possible, Naruto's grin got even wider.
"Nothing much, Academy Student Itachi, just that I am a Genin already," He took out a Konoha headband from his pocket and tied it to his forehead. The Uchiha prodigy looked stunned.
"Let's get going, I will show you the difference between a true Shinobi and an academy Student!"
"I hate you," Itachi muttered, knowing very well that Shisui would never let him forget it, the day Naruto one-uped him.
"I know, I know, I am great and you can't stand my awesomeness, it's blinding,"
"I really hate you,"