Author's Note
(Naegi 1st person)
I've been at this orphanage for four years now and i'll be honest it wasn't that bad. Once the caretakers realized I was a bit smarter than most of the kids here they ignored me and most of the other kids followed their example. It doesn't really bother me that much, all I do really is review and practice everything in the scroll mom left with me, which pretty much contains everything Senju from justus to Konoha history to academy curriculum.
I haven't run into any depressed blonde kids in my time here though. I wonder why? I still have to make that goal of finding him and making his childhood less of an everyday hell though. That's not important right now though. 'Why isn't it important to make a person's childhood better than it could of been' you might ask?
It is because today ladies and gentlemen I am on a mission. This mission wasn't given to me, but I still feel that it has the up most importance to be completed as soon as possible that everything else must be put on the sidelines for later. My mission involves finding a man. A man so powerful that I must ask him for training.
Today ladies and gentlemen I am looking for Might Guy.
Yes, I know crazy decision right getting trained by a mutant ninja turtle, but i'm not doing this for me. I'm doing this more for my friend currently following close behind me right now, who is in desperate need of a motivator.
"Naegi-san what are we looking for." A five year old Lee asked from behind me. We had met when I was practicing katas a couple months ago, he had watched me practice for a while and wanted to practice with me in the hopes of being a great ninja one day. He looked so happy about it I just couldn't say no to him and we trained together ever since.
No one minds me teaching an outsider Clan fighting right? Of course they don't Lee is pretty much like a brother anyway. We even share a room.
"You wanted to enter the academy next year right and become a great ninja right?" Lee looked surprised at my question.
"But Naegi-san I can't use chakra properly how will I become a ninja?" Ah yes yesterday I had Lee try to use a simple substitution technique in the hopes that if he had trained his chakra early it would help his coils develop enough to be usable, but sadly it wasn't meant to be and he gave up on his dream to be a ninja on the spot.
At least until today that is.
I smiled. "Simple you focus on nothing but taijustu then get so good they have to pass you." I say smiling to reassure him. "If you want to be a ninja as your dream then you can't give up because of a simple limitation you have to just make your weaknesses into your strengths." Hopefully no one will mind if I steal a couple of words to cheer a friend up. "Besides it isn't like you can't use your chakra completely. Those punches and kicks had a bit of chakra and you could do leaf manipulation exercises and your already a natural at taijustu."
Thankfully my stolen words seemed to have taken their intended effect of cheering him up. "Yosh, do you really think I can do it Naegi-san?"
"I don't think so, I know so then we'll have to fight to see just who's better and by the way i'm so going to kick your ass." I say smile changing into a smirk.
Lee just shakes his head at me. "No, Naegi-san I believe it is me who will be kicking your ass." he says returning the smirk.
"How about a little match right here then there's no one else to see you fail." I say dropping into my familiar stance. Hunting guy can come later.
"You mean to see someone to see you fail." He say while dropping into the same stance.
I can't help but challenge Lee. He caught up to me in weeks when I've been doing this for months and I had challenged him to a spar and we ended up drawing after a ten minute fight. I couldn't help but ask for another one the next day, the rush, the adrenaline, the feeling of your blood boiling it got me excited to fight again.
(Third person.)
(Ost: jojo's bizarre adventure small solider instrumental.)
Naegi and Lee stood there in the clearing facing each other with what they described as mintues but was in reality only for a few seconds with barely contained excitement in their eyes. If anyone else was there they would of felt the tension in the air of two longing to fight each in battle. Then just like that a leaf, a simple leaf blew in between the two and like a silent fight proctor screaming for them to begin they charged at each other.
Naegi immediately sent a roundhouse kick towards Lee's left side, Lee dodged the kick by ducking and sent an uppercut towards Naegi's jaw who had barely sidestepped out of the way of the kick returning his own right hook towards Lee. Lee however proved his taijustu genius by grabbing Naegi's arm while it was coming towards him and used his momentum to send Naegi to the ground and prepared to ax kick to Naegi's chest. Naegi however simply forced Lee to dodged by performing a sweeping kick while he was on the the ground and used an open palm strike to hit Lee's chin causing the older boy to stumble. Deciding to press his advantage Naegi tried to send another punch to a recovered Lee who had simply sidestepped causing Naegi to stumble forward.
This was the deciding factor of the match.
Lee used his chance to knee Naegi in the gut and before he could recover sent a quick hook to the boy's left jaw. The blow not enough to make him fall over, but enough to cause him to stagger, but that was all Lee needed to finish the match with a savage roundhouse kick to Naegi's left jaw sending him five feet away and landing on the ground with a thud. Bruised and tired Naegi chose not to get up as it was obvious Lee was the winner of this bout.
"I believe I have won this match Naegi-san." Lee said walking over to his friend and offering him a helping hand.
Naegi looked at Lee's hand and glared at it as if he had wanted to set it on fire, but the glare simply vanished into a smile and Naegi took Lee's hand and was lifted up. Still holding onto each other they shook hands with each other delivering their own smiles to each other.
"Hmph, i'll get you next time Lee-san." Naegi said, rubbing his jaw that was already rid of the bruise. "That hurt fucker."
"Not if that 10-6 win streak has anything to say about it." Lee stopped and thought for a moment "Better make that 11-6 now actually." Lee added much to Naegi's chagrin.
If the two had bothered to pay more attention on the direction the leaf had blown from they would have noticed that since the beginning of the match they had their very own spectator. A particularly green spectator who had been assessing them since the start of the match. A spectator who had seen the very youthful fires burning in those two souls since the beginning of the match. A spectator who had decided he had hit the youthful goldmines on two very promising young ninjas. At this point he was bursting at their very display of youthfulness and decided to make himself know to the two.
"YOSH, THAT WAS A VERY BRILLIANT DISPLAY OF YOUTHFULNESS BETWEEN TWO RIVALS." Might Guy said bursting out of the trees, startling the two.
Naegi was the one who recovered first. "Who are you?" He said even though he knew full well who this person was before even hearing about him after all it;s hard to forget a man wearing so much green.
"I am Might Guy. I saw you two fight and I couldn't help but think that I should train you two to be the best ninjas you can be right now so that when you get out of the academy I can take you on as a gennin team." he said bursting in youthful energy as he settled into his signature nice guy pose.
Lee had looked a little hesitant on taking his offer and decided to voice his doubts. "But Gu-" Lee stated but was quickly interrupted by Guy.
"Please, call me sensei as i'll be training you from now on." Guy said relaxing in another nice guy pose.
Lee nodded and continued his thoughts. "But, sensei I can't use chakra properly doesn't that mean I can't be a ninja?"
Guy took a serious and thoughtful look for a second before talking. "Son, I look at you and I see a lot of myself in you. To be honest I used to be like you and everyone told me I should just give up, but I had someone who believed in me and told me to train in nothing but taijustu and here I am." Guy said.
Lee had beamed up by the end of the conversation and joined in on his nice guy pose much to Naegi's chagrin and utter disgust. "YOSH, then i'll be a ninja like you sensei and make you proud." Lee said teeth shinning.
Naegi however had his own questions. "But Sensei when we get out of the academy won't we need a third teammate."
Guy contemplated whether or not to listen to the kid's request before he decided to humor him. "Excellent observation young pupil and the answer is yes, but if you can find an equally youthful third partner than our problems our solved."
Naegi nodded."Don't worry I think I know exactly who I want to bring with us." Naegi said leaving Lee to wonder who he could be talking about after all Naegi-san wasn't exactly the most sociable person.
Guy nodded. "Well then bring them here next week when we start our youthful training."
Naegi was confused. "Why would we start next week?"
"Because kid, I need to prepare a training schedule for you. By the way how old are you two?"
Naegi crossed his arms and held out his right hand with four fingers. "I'm four.
Lee took his right hand and put out five fingers. "I'm five sensei."
Guy took in this information and nodded. "All right then starting next week we will meet here at nine and train till five. We will do this until I think you are all ready for the academy and then you can graduate as fast as possible." Lee was in complete joy by the end of the conversation a sharp contrast to Naegi's horror stricken face of the thought of being up before nine. With that Guy began to run back into the woods before he stopped turned around and ran back to the two. "Ah yes it has occurred to me that I forgot to ask for your names." Guy said rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.
Lee ignored Guy's ignorance and happily gave him his name. "My name is Rock Lee pleased to meet you sensei."
Naegi adopted a look of exasperation on his face before sighing and straightening up. "For now just call me Naegi."
Guy looked at Naegi confused for a second. "No surname?"
Rock Lee decided to answer for Naegi instead. "Naegi-san has a surname, but only he and I know it, he says that his surname could cause a lot of problems if people knew it and he only wants his most trusted people to know it."
'It's true, Senju could cause a lot of shit with the Uchihas and don't even get me started with Danzo.'
"Ah I see a secret only trusted to ones close to them." Guy wondered just what was the kid's surname that could cause trouble. He certainly didn't look like he was from any of the clans around Konoha nor did he look like a Namikaze. Resolving to do his best to become closer to the kid so that he'll tell him his surname Guy nodded to himself and dashed out of the clearing once more.
Once Guy was gone the two looked at each other and decided to return to the orphanage for the day. On the way back Lee decided now would be the best time to ask who Naegi was considering to join them.
"Naegi-san exactly who are you thinking of bringing with us?" Lee wondered.
"Ever here of a kid at the orphanage that caretakers call a demon brat?" Naegi asked.
Lee was surprised at this. Of course he had heard of the kid. Most of the caretakers were particularly mean to the kid and most of the other orphans followed suit. To be honest he was scarred of the kid if everyone else had avoided them, but he didn't expect Naegi of all people to to try and be friends with them. Lee wasn't the first kid to ask Naegi train them to be a ninja nor was he the last, usually he just told them that they weren't worth his time and ignored them, not that he would admit it. He actually didn't know why Naegi agreed to help him in the first place, and he was so sure yesterday Naegi would abandon him the second he figured out he couldn't use chakra properly. In fact Lee was one of few people he was nice too.
"The one with the strawberry red hair?" Lee asked.
Naegi was surprised at this he didn't remember any red heads. 'Is it the same person?' he wondered. "Do you know how they look like exactly?" Lee nodded "Then could you do a favor and show me them." Lee nodded and grabbed Naegi's hand and dragged him at an increased pace towards the orphanage.
Back at the orphanage
Lee had dragged Naegi back and led them to the back of the orphanage where most of the kids like to come and play outside or in Naegi's and Lee's case spar against each other. Lee had brought Naegi to an obscure part of the back he had never been before and there he saw it. Bright red hair the same shade as strawberries.
"There she is Naegi-san." Lee said pointing at the girl.
This was yet another surprise for Naegi. 'Red haired and female? that certainly wasn't apart of the anime.' Nonetheless the two were confronted with an entirely different problem.
They had no idea how to approach her.
Lee was still slightly influenced by the caretakers and had his fair share of doubts about approaching her. Naegi never approached anybody simply because he has little to no talking experience. Lee had to approach him and even then Naegi was having trouble holding conversations. They had only recently began to start acting more comfortable around each other. However the matter was soon revolved when Naegi had remembered something important about Naruto.
She wants to be a ninja.
So deciding that was the best way to go about it he told Lee what he thought and the both nodded in agreement.
"Oi you over there." Naegi called.
Naruko started looking around for who was calling her until her eyes settled on the pair. Were they going to make fun of her? "Who me?" She asked wondering what he wanted.
Naegi nodded "Yes you, Do you want to join us?" He said pointing to him and Lee. This had the effect of causing every other kid in the yard to stop and gawk at the display with the same expression on their minds. 'Why her?'
Naruko was confused. She had seen him around before. Usually he just practices ninjustu or taijustu and tells other kids to go away. She had actually wanted to ask him if she could practice being a ninja with him but thought about how every other kid treats her and figured that he'd just punch her or something. So it came to her surprise when he had asked her if she wanted to join. Was this some sort of trick? "Um sure." She said hesitantly even if he had something bad planned she might as well take a chance.
Naegi nodded and smiled. "Great, my names Naegi and this is my friend Rock Lee." he said. "I hope we get along."
Seeing that he had no ill intentions she decided to introduce herself. "Hello my name is Naruko Uzumaki, i'm going to be the next hokage dattebayo."
To her added surprise Naegi didn't laugh at her dreams. "I guess that you should start training then strawberry that's a pretty hard road in life." this surprised her even further most people don't encourage her and although he made fun of her hair he did it in good sense. Although it still wasn't enough to cause her not to get irritated.
"Like your hair is any better, why is it black and white you mime." she retorted smirk on her face when Naegi adopted his own irritated expression.
"Please my hair colors are fabulous." Naegi said running his hair through his head.
Lee however had his own input. "Sorry to interrupt guys but I believe that it is my hair that is the best of all of ours." Lee said triumphantly.
Naruko and Naegi yelled out a simultaneous "Is not mines better." then two proceeded to glare at each other.
And thus was the start of a beautiful friendship.
End note.
Yes I've brought Lee into this.