Here's the first chapter. Once you've read it, please review. Constructive criticism reviews are allowed. Stupid ones, however, I reserve the right to feed them to the dragon I have hidden in my bedroom and ignore them.
(Uzushiogakure)
Black bells attached to ninja wire jangled softly as long dark red, normally mistaken as black, hair blew back behind a young gennin dashing through the streets. Dark grey eyes with flecks of green focused forward as the child easily dodged through the civilians in the streets. The civilians who noticed the child shook their heads in amusement, obviously expecting this occurrence. By now, they should be. The gennin was known for getting lost in whatever project he was working on and then ending up being late to any meetings for his team.
(Cliff Training Field)
Nichiya Mikomi groaned as she glanced at the sky again before muttering
"You would think that he'd be on time, but no…he's late, again. What did he get lost in this time?"
The auburn haired kunoichi narrowed her gold eyes slightly as she imagined what her fellow gennin had managed to think up sometime in the night that would capture his attention enough that he would be late. Her other teammate, Mukyuu Atari, glanced up from the jutsu scroll he had brought with him, dark grey eyes narrowed and purple hair defying any organization and sticking up every other place with the rest of it flopping down and framing his face, and said
'We've been on a team together with him for how long now? And you still believe that he will almost always be on time? He's more likely to be a few minutes late rather than early, however, he mentioned that he was planning on working on a seal that might help alter the time that the whirlpools surrounding the area vanish and reappear. He's been working on it for months now."
Mikomi blushed slightly as she remembered her teammate mentioning it a couple of nights ago after their mission.
Their jounin instructor chuckled from the weather rounded rock that he had sat down to wait for his team on. It had been two years since he had gotten this team and his final gennin almost always wound up being slightly late because of being distracted with a project. He glanced over at his kunoichi student, observing how she had changed. The Nichiya heiress had been shy and introverted when she had first been put on the team, always wearing loose clothes to hide what she looked like. That had lasted for three months before the other two gennin on the team had dragged out the open and boisterous inner self.
His attention then turned to his only present male gennin. The Mukyuu secondary heir had always been in his brother's shadow when he was younger and his parents had barely paid enough attention to him. Atari had given up on his parents ever really seeing him by the time he was six, just a month before he entered shinobi schooling. When he had entered onto the team, he had been wary and rarely ever gave his opinion of what was going on. After everyone on the team had proved that they wouldn't ignore him and really wanted to get to know him, he had opened up. He had even allowed the strict control he kept over his dark blue hair to ease up, allowing the natural spikiness to act up in some part but not enough to really make an impact.
His thoughts turned to his missing student. Found standing by the large river near one of the farthest training grounds, also located near the fuuin border that surrounded Uzushiogakure's outermost reaches, he had been discovered to have been born an Uzumaki, but no one had any idea who his parents were or what had happened to them. He had been adopted by the Uzumaki Clan head, Uzumaki Kigai, and integrated into the family. He had been treated like any other family member, entered early into the Academy after realizing that his chakra was already unlocked when he was found and taught the higher level bushin to make sure he could create one. He and his teammates had graduated early from the Academy as well, using the kage bushins to ensure that they knew all that they needed, even if the other two couldn't make as many as the newest Uzumaki had been able to.
They were all nine years old now, and their abilities had shot up from when they had begun thanks in part to a crazy training regime and also because of their use of all the kage bushin they could make.
Mikomi had managed to build her chakra up to low jounin after having begun at average gennin level at graduation. She had focused primarily on genjutsu and iryoujutsu along with side training of seals. She was now at beginner intermediate levels and was steadily working her way up along with perfecting her specialties and chakra control. Her natural affinity of water and earth had helped with her specialties. She had also began forcing her chakra to acquire a natural fire affinity as well.
Atari had focused on kenjutsu and ninjutsu primarily with fuuin and taijutsu side training. He had focused on a strength type taijutsu that was known as Ryuujimichi, or Steady Dragon Style. It was a defense/strength type that focused on wearing down the enemy while keeping the user from using all of their energy up. He was competent with it, but couldn't do all of it to a mastery degree because of how young he was. He also incorporated his ninjato into his taijutsu and had managed to win against several high level chuunin with that. His chakra levels had been slightly above average when he had graduated, due to him having awoken them a bit earlier than Mikomi and then training them open further during the strict family training his clan did that the Nichiya clan did not do. He had managed to work them up to low jounin/mid jounin with the training he had been going through and had made it to mid intermediate for seals, having devoted a bit more time into them than Mikomi did. He had natural affinity to fire and earth, slightly surprising for his family but not unheard of, and had worked to acquire water as well.
His third gennin was the most dedicated to learning at times, and also the most troublesome. He had used the kage bushin for training from the moment he had learned it. Once he had started that, there was no stopping it. From what he had hear, the boy had been able to make fourteen of them to begin with and once he had found his limit, he had worked at building up his reserves to a ridiculous amount. He had graduated the Academy with low chuunin reserves and had now worked up to high jounin with that training. He had decided to learn everything as best as he could with a certain emphasis on fuuinjutsu. Although, fuuinjutsu wasn't surprising considering that most Uzumaki clan members studied up to advanced level on them. His student, however, seemed to have an uncanny knack with seals, almost like he was destined for fuuinjutsu work. He had passed through beginner with an almost disturbing type of ease. Luckily intermediate had slowed his ease and advanced had taken him to a normal Uzumaki ease level. He was currently finishing up the middle level of the advanced and would probably begin mastery studies within the next four months. The rest of his skills hadn't been neglected either, having managed to juggle all of the training he was doing with the kage bushin, which he could now make around twenty five of them before he would push it too much. That level would probably change soon due to his training, though. He had two primary affinities, surprisingly enough, wind and water. He had also managed to develop a lightning affinity as well, surprising since wind and lightning were opposites.
The soft jangle of bells broke him from his musings as his third gennin landed gently in the field from launching himself from the cliff he had been running up. Uzumaki Haou grinned sheepishly as Mikomi sighed and Atari raised an eyebrow in his direction. He walked over to where they were gathered with the grace that had always seemed to be a part of him. It was something that none of the other Uzumaki could imitate, though many of the younger ones had tried, and it just seemed natural to Haou. Most had just chalked it up to his parents and left it alone at that.
All three of them turned as their sensei, Ichirin Ikko, cleared his throat. Ikko-sensei was not from a clan, rather, he was an orphan that had fled Kumo with his family and then lost his family in the whirlpool that their ship had run into when they skirted the edge of Whirlpool Country.
They could still remember how he had seemed when they first met him
Kako no jutsu (Flashback/past justsu)
The Academy room was loud, and all of the hopeful gennin were chatting and talking, excited at leaving the Academy after four years. However, in the corner closest to the door sat three hopefuls that were two years too young to graduate. At least, that was the conclusion that many of the older hopefuls had, but it was not to be. The three seven year olds had taken the test and had passed with an efficiency that surprised many. It wasn't because they were orphans, because they were all clan children, even if one was adopted, but it was because of the scores they had gotten during their graduation. They had all managed to score near the top, one after another in a row. Uzumaki Haou, Mukyuu Atari, and Nichiya Mikomi had to be some of the smartest little seven year olds alive to have been able to do that. And they had shrugged it off as if it was nothing to them.
The talking quieted and stopped as their sensei, Funaka Tenrai, stood up from the desk he had been positioned at with a pile of papers held in his hands. His serious expression had many of them paying extra careful attention as his gruff voice echoed in the room.
"As of today, all of you in this room will be allowed to try to become gennin. If you pass the test your senseis will give you, congratulations. If not, then you will be returning here next year to see if we can't drill into you what Uzushio looks for in shinobi. However, just because you are hopeful gennin does not mean that you are able to gloat and show off. It can and will get you killed if you do so on a mission. Listen, behave, and learn once you leave here. You are shinobi now. Act like it."
All of the hopefuls sat in silence and digested those words. Tenrai-sensei was strict and harsh in his training methods but he cared for them and if those were to be the last words he would speak to them as their teacher then they would take them to heart.
Tenrai studied them all for a moment and then focused on the papers that he had. He had been given the team assignments this morning and now was the time to tell the hopefuls who might be in charge of watching their backs on missions, if they passed.
"The teams are as follows. Team one: Mukyuu Masui, Uzuhara Koyuki, and Akayama Yui. Team two: Hitsugaya Akame, Shiba Kazehana, and Fuusoka Hyou. Team three: Mukyuu Atari, Nichiya Mikomi, and Uzumaki Haou, Team four—"
The three seven year olds in the corner exchanged glances once they heard their names on a team together. They had only met earlier that day, due to being assigned different rooms during their Academy lessons. They had no clue how any of the other fought or thought but they could get through it, they hoped. They tuned back in just in time to hear Tenrai-sensei finish up the teams
"—and Kazama Hatori. Those are the teams that the Uzukage has decided on. Any complaints will be ignored. Your senseis will arrive momentarily. Good luck."
Tenrai vanished from the classroom, heading for the command room inside the Academy building in order to watch the class on camera.
Inside the classroom, the chatter of hopefuls picked up again, content to talk until their senseis arrived.
Uzumaki Haou glanced at his teammates and sighed before turning to one of his new teammates and saying
"Hi, my name is Uzumaki Haou. It's nice to meet you…"
The girl glanced at him for a moment before she murmured
"My name is Nichiya Mikomi, Uzumaki-san. It's nice to meet you too."
Haou smiled and said
"You can call me Haou, Nichiya-san."
Mikomi smiled slightly and said
"Then you may do the same, Haou-san."
Haou turned to his other teammate and opened his mouth to greet him when the boy softly stated
"My name is Mukyuu Atari, Uzumaki-san. You may also address me by my given name."
Haou pouted slightly and said
"Then you can do the same. It's Haou, not Uzumaki-san. That sounds so stiff and formal, I think my mind would explode after a while of being called that. Eugh."
Atari grinned for a moment before it vanished but Haou considered it a win. He now knew his teammates and that was what counted. Just then, the door to the classroom opened and a tall blue haired jounin with sharp assessing green eyes entered. He studied the now quiet hopefuls before he said
"I am here for team three."
The three seven year olds stood up from their corner and walked over to their new, and intimidating, sensei before he ushered them out of the classroom, the door closing ominously behind them.
Kako no Justus shuushifu
Ikko could tell his gennin had spaced out on him so he cleared his throat again before he began to speak
"It is nice to see you join us Haou-kun. How is your project going? I believe it was about altering the whirlpools surrounding the area?"
Haou nodded eagerly and said
"Yep, that's the one and I finally know what the problem was that I kept running into, but I won't be able to work on it for a while now. The end result will need at least full mastery skills and I haven't even begun those."
Ikko couldn't help the quick 'yet' that flashed through his mind, and he didn't want to. It was obvious that Haou would be working on mastery seals before long.
Mikomi frowned slightly and asked
"Why does it take full mastery? It sounds like an easy high advanced level seal?"
Haou sighed and shook his head
"That's what it begins sounding like but It's actually rather complex. I'm trying to change nature here. Nature doesn't like being changed and it won't be permanent anyway. Once it's done, the seal will need to be redone every so often so that it doesn't fade. Even so, I'm not good enough to actually make it yet, but soon, I will be and then the passing ships will be safer whenever they travel."
Atari smiled and said
"You'll be able to soon enough, Haou-tomo."
Haou grinned and nodded before Ikko grabbed their attention with a soft cough again. They all sheepishly turned to see his amused expression.
"Now that I have managed to capture your attention again, it's time to go get a mission. You know what that means."
All three of them groaned. They hated the chores disguised as D-ranks that they went on with C-ranks interspersed throughout the deluge. Ikko snickered as he ushered his students off to the mission center.
Okay, that's the first chapter.
Review please.