Wasteland

Chapter 02: Riko

Itachi rose from his nightly meditation and noticing that the young girl wasn't present, he called out to his companion, "Wheres Riko?"

"The six foot tall Kisami glance up, not noticing that Itachi's four hour meditation was over.

"Ah! She's off on her early morning training as usual..." he replied. Itachi got up and left without another word.

It had been three years since the two ex-members of a criminal organization had found the young girl, and, as he promised, he trained her in his families ancient tradition of Kosshijutsu. She had been a quick learner. Because of this, Itachi named her Riko. He had taught her just about everything he knew of the art, she just had to practice it. Finally, he found Riko. She was straddling a large tree and doing sit-ups. About fifteen feet below her was a large puddle of sweat. After a moment of watching her, Itachi deliberately stepped on a small twig, a sound that seemed deafening in the heavy silence that had once been Hiroshima.

Having noticed her master, Riko climbed down from the tree and carefully stepped over her puddle. Racing to her master, she bowed and greeted him good morning.

"Busy? So early in the morning?" He said, it wasn't a question, but an observation. She was usually out and about early in the morning.

"Yes sensei, I wished to beat my record before we left this morning!" She exclaimed cheerfully. Itachi was always good to her. He learned his lesson long ago about compassion. Sternness is important without exception, but cultivating growth requires more subtlety than sheer discipline.

"Come, let us get water."

"Sensei?" Riko asked. Itachi turned his dark, all knowing eyes to her. "I've been stuck at eighty-three sit-ups for two week's. I feel that I'm at my limit..." She stared down at her feet, dangling in the river. After a moment in silence, Itachi spoke.

"Human progress in warfare is like climbing a series of steep steps..." he explained. "As the mind and body grow together, you move continuously onward and upward, one step at a time. Until the day you die, this process is endless because nobody is perfect, but you can always become a little bit better if you keep at it. You can't seem to get over this step, which means that your progression has slowed down. This is the natural ebb and flow of growth." he explained.

"After all this time, he's still so far away..." She thought, missing the point of the lesson completely. Itachi knew this.

"Some day you'll develop a technique that will accelerate your learning again," he explained.

"Can't you teach it to me now?" Riko begged.

"No, your body needs to learn it, its not a technique of intellect, but of experiance. It's more subtle than mere training, and will only come when your worldview grows."

Suddenly out of the ash around them burst several bladed chains that wrapped themselves around Itachi. Riko stepped back in time to parry a clawed gauntlet aimed at her head. The gauntlet shattered in a shower of metal shards and there stood an ash covered assailant clutching his bleeding arm, eyes wide , staring at her in disbelief.

"What the hell!" he gasped in amazement, Riko grinned.

On Itachi's side of things another ninja rose from the nearby river, his gauntlet was attached to the chain that was wrapped around Itachi. The other side of the chain used to be attached to the other ninja's gauntlet which was destroyed seconds ago.

"Uchiha Itachi, you will join our ranks!" The ninja exclaimed. Itachi didn't show any reaction to the enemy knowing his name, but started to deduce the opponents identity.

"You don't even know why you want me..." He suddenly gripped the chain, giving it a sudden whip, which looped around his assailants wrist, locking in place because of the gauntlet. He then stomped down on the chain, dislocating the ninja's shoulder, breaking his wrist and dragging him closer in one move. Itachi caught the assassin by the throat and drive his fingers under the would be assassins rib cage into his diaphragm, preventing him from resisting while strangling the breath from him.

Riko's assailant had drawn a sword in his left hand and cut at Riko's head, who had parried the blade with both hands. The ninja had finally realized her secret, "She's wearing shuko!" he gasped, but it was too late. His sword shattered as he leaped back and several deep gashes appeared on the inside of his wrist.

"Now both of your arms are useless!" Riko grinned, the enemy growled and leaped into the air, spinning at the height of his jump and brought his foot down in an overly stylized vertical kick, which Riko evaded easily by side stepping. But in the dust brought up from the kick, the ninja disappeared. Suddenly a scream of madness erupted from Itachi's direction. Looking up she saw him release an unconscious form into the river. "Sensei! Are you all right?!" she pleaded, noting blood dripping from her teachers hand.

"I'm fine for now... It seems that theres someone who wants my skills... If they know of my skills, then these two were just a test..."

2008: So this is the second chapter to my Wasteland story. It may seem rushed, but theres two things to consider here; 1) I originally wrote this for my own amusement, I sometimes find it more enjoyable to write rather than to make a perfect story... sounds bad I know, but when I first began to start writing I had no intention in letting anyone else read my crap, but on one of my first stories, some people actually liked my crap. It was my first review that motivated me to keep trying and so here I am, on my fifth or sixth story (that was put online) and I think this is my second story that I even thought of finishing for you guys. Off on a tangent I see; 2) I'll probably go back to correct/edit/spiffy up this story if it starts coming together like I plan... Have a good day guys and (hopefully) enjoy! bed...

4/4/2019: As promised, eleven years later, I've come back to edit, correct, improve, and expand on this story. All these years later I've looked over my old writings, and can say, "good God I'm a different person now" lol. Actually studying Japanese kinda goes a long way into fleshing out the details a bit more too.

I'll be adding a bit of a glossary here as I very much like to mix ideas and complicate things. I'll also be reducing, or even ruling out the inclusion of chakra and the more mystical matters found in the Naruto-verse, as like I had sad elsewhere, I find the Naruto chakra system a bit of a Deus ex machina, while if I adapt the characters to have a semblance of their fantasy counterparts, I think it could be a bit more interesting (i.e.: Instead of Kisame having the ability to manipulate water "magically", I'll instead have him as a specialist of suiton jutsu (水遁術), the methods of hiding that involve water).

The assailants in this chapter were obviously inspired, rather directly by The Demon Brothers, Gōzu and Meizu, from the early Naruto chapters and episodes.

Glossary:

Kosshijutsu 骨指術 - This is the science (術) of using the bones (骨) of the fingers (指). A lot can be said about this practice, but essentially, it's using specialized fists to strike the vulnerable parts of the body; attacking pressure points, tendons and ligaments. This tradition also carries the principles to quickly learn a technique that the individual feels and survives (suieshin; 水映信) so here we can see a similarity to the Uchiha Sharingan.

Riko 利口 - Dictionaries translate this as clever; intelligent; wise; bright; sharp; sensible; smart; shrewd.

Shuko 手鉤 - A tool used for climbing and defense made of a metal band that fits around the hand with claws protruding from the palm. Found almost exclusively in the Togakure-ryu of ninjutsu, though my research has shown that it derived from a similar tool for lifting rolls of agricultural product. Within the martial arts, it is used for catching bladed attacks, clawing, and striking with the metal band.