Well hi! This is the second chapter of today. No one has given me anything about the story or how they feel in regards to POV, so for now I guess I'll just keep it in 3rd until one of you free me and say it's okay for 1st POV hahaha. I'm writing at least five chapters of this but if no one wants to read I don't know whether or not it'll continue, review please? Enjoy.
"Do what exactly?" A figure called out to him from the darkness.*
Frederick quickly turned his eyes to where he heard the voice. He saw two dark shadows and he knew right away that this was bad.
"Who are you? Show yourself!" Frederick tried to look fearless but in all honestly it was a hoax. They could be rogue ninja, or worse the akatsuki.
Frederick just stood there as he heard the figure laughing at him. It was… a familiar laugh. He had heard it somewhere before but he couldn't match face with voice.
Suddenly the two shadows appeared in front of Frederick; a man wearing red and gray with a large headband, and a boy in a yellowish orange jumpsuit with yellow hair.
Frederick immediately realized who they were; Naruto Uzumaki and the Sannin Jiraiya.
"You're… You're the legendary Sannin Jiraiya! And you! You're Naruto Uzumaki!" Frederick was shocked, he did not expect to see that duo, and the only time he could think that they were together was when they left for three years… Naruto looked younger than how he did in Shippuden but older than when Sasuke left the Leaf Village. Had he encountered them during draining?
Jiraiya eyed Frederick for a moment, clearly surprised that he was able to identify the both of them so easily.
"And who are you? What do you think you're doing in Leaf territory?"
Frederick was stuck; he hadn't made any plans as to whether or not to create a new name, to create a back-story or to even decide how he was going to survive. He had only focused on getting away from the threat of Orchy.
Finally he decided that if there was anyone to trust, it would have to be Jiraiya.
"My name is Frederick; I'm not affiliated with any village, any organization or any warlords. I'm trying to get to Konoha; I plan to turn myself in to the hokage and seek protection."
Jiraiya looked at him skeptically while Naruto was being surprisingly quiet when compared to his usual self.
"And what exactly are you seeking protection from?"
Frederick signed; knowing what he was going to say would probably lead to some type of serious interrogation.
"Your old colleague Orochimaru, and the Akatsuki."
Jiraiya looked troubled while Naruto seemed confused and upset at the same time.
"The Akatsuki? Who the heck are they?"
"You should remember them Naruto, they were the ones in the black cloaks with red clouds. Itachi, Sasuke's brother, was one of the members."
Naruto looked at Jiraiya and remembered the situation in which Itachi and his blue fish ally had attempted to capture him.
Frederick remained quiet, waiting for Jiraiya to capture him and take him to Inochi of the Hidden Leaf.
Instead Jiraiya did the next best thing.
"If what you say is true, then we'll take you to Konoha."
Naruto looked delighted but that expression quickly faded.
"But Pervy Sage; you're supposed to keep training me! It's not time to go back yet."
"Relax Naruto, it'll be a quick drop off and then we will return to extra tough training."
Naruto glared at Jiraiya and then at Frederick for interrupting his training.
"So Frederick, what exactly could you do?"
Frederick looked at him confusedly for a moment and then realized what he had referred to.
"I…well um… I created a justu that my friend had said would be pointless and it worked."
Jiraiya looked at him suspiciously while Naruto seemed impressed.
"You created a justu? That's so cool! Yo Pervy Sage! I wanna do that too! I wanna create a justu!"
Jiraiya simply ignored Naruto and focused his attention on Frederick.
"But you made it seem like you're not a shinobi; no village, rouge group, organization…"
Frederick immediately realized where this was going. Jiraiya must have thought he was a rogue ninja; trying to escape certain groups and ninja, no affiliation with anyone, how could he have not realized what he had said sooner?
"I'm not a shinobi… it's just really tough to explain. I have chakra but I never really learned how to control it; I've learned what I know from watching people."
Technically it wasn't a lie but the look on Jiraiya's face only made it seem as if Frederick was quickly going to meet his demise; again.
"What type of justu was it? What was its purpose?"
"It's of the fire style, it's meant to allow me to blow air out with the heat of flames without any true fire. I created it so I wouldn't die out here in this cold."
Jiraiya simply regarded him with suspicions before speaking again.
"Let's get moving." Was the only response that came from him.
They started walking for a bit as Naruto began bombarding Frederick with questions.
"Where are you from? Why'd you leave? I'm going to become hokage! What are you going to become? Can you do any cool justu? How do you make a justu?"
Frederick just looked at the ever energetic Naruto.
"Look I'm really tired, can I answer your questions when we get to Konoha?"
Naruto frowned and reluctantly agreed.
As they walked along the forest they came across a clearing with a small graveyard in the center.
The tombstones looked ancient as if they had been there for generations.
Naruto shivered.
"This place really freaks the crap outta me!"
Frederick regarded the graveyard with interest, he didn't recall this landmark in the show or the manga, but then again there was a lot to the naruto world that never was shown or explained.
"This is the graveyard of the Man of Wisdom. Some say this monument was created centuries ago, before even the first Hokage. The carving on the center tombstone tells the story of the Tears of Wisdom."
Frederick and Naruto both regarded Jiraiya with interest as he spoke.
The trio then walked to the center tombstone. It read:
Here lies the man of Legend. This is his story.
Once there stood a child, born a fighter with fists raised to the skies, prepared to battle the world. Through diligence, time expanded and this fighter experienced growth, in which they became a true warrior; well respected and ultimately obeyed. Not a care in the world until the hierarchy of the heavens gave the warrior a choice; a short life of battles, fear and love or a long life of wisdom at the cost of love, emotional glory and internal malaries.
The warrior knew he could no longer follow his path of battle and chose wisdom, in a selfish manner.
Immediately he was portrayed a hero of wisdom and happiness existed through pure glee.
The wisdom he attained aged him dramatically both mentally and physically.
With true scholar hood and continued study he did well until the day of a great ball, in which he asked all the beautiful women of the land for a night of adventure and understanding. However through his aging he didn't look young and wisdom wasn't enough to convince anyone. As he attended the ball he sat in silence and decided that additional wisdom could fix his life.
Time passed, snow fell, and though his life was long he never felt at peace.
No matter what companionship he attempted to create all would be destroyed, for he had chosen that fate when he chose wisdom over his natural born battling abilities.
Time went on and on until the old sage lived alone, surrounding himself with wisdom.
He always felt that perhaps his wisdom would give him the impossible.
As years went on he grew tired, morbid, and continually unhappy with himself.
Finally on one summer morning a young lady came to his home.
This lady wished to learn of wisdom and solitude, in which the sage was proud; he would be able to pass on his wisdom.
They spoke for hours on topics of all types of complexity until one dark winter morning.
The young lady never returned to the sage's home after a powerful discussion the night before.
The man, drunk with his own knowledge spoke to the stars and heavens, proclaiming his mistake, yet no answer ever came.
The man spent every day that year in the exact same way, cursing the burden of knowledge and ultimately feeling crushed by his great loss. On the one year anniversary of his student never coming home, the man looked to the stars and pleaded to the heavens.
He begged for the chance to see his student just one more time, so he could be rid of his pain.
The student never appeared and that night the man perished in tears.
The very next morning his old student came to his home only to find writings.
The most recent one, written the night before the students arrival stood upon the man's desk.
It read,
"A man of battle would trade all his abilities for wisdom, but a man of wisdom would trade all of their wisdom for love."
That night those words were seen through the stars. And no one ever looked back.
The sage's remains are located here.
Frederick reread the legend on multiple occasions, but every time he did he became even more and more confused.
"How can a story like this be true?"
Jiraiya regarded him with interest as he began to speak.
"They call it a legend for a reason; I however believe it to be true."
Naruto who seemed to finally be done reading it was shaking.
"That man was stupid! Power and love for books? Who the hell would do that? You might as well just be dead!"
Jiraiya frowned while Frederick looked at Naruto curiously.
"But Naruto, if you don't have the smarts and the life length to defend the people you love, then how can you hope to protect the ones that are precious to you."
Jiraiya now looked extremely intrigued at the situation. He had not expected such a response from Frederick; Naruto however, was certain in his words.
"If I have power I can fulfill my promises to keep those people safe. I never go back on my word! That's my nindo! My ninja way!"
Frederick looked at Naruto and smiled; he had heard that phrase too many times…from Sophie.
"Frederick! I'll always watch over you, because I'll never go back on my word! That's my nindo! My ninja way!"
Frederick would just smile at her, she always took things to the extreme…especially when it came to each other.
Frederick motioned to Jiraiya; he was ready to go to Konoha.
Jiraiya looked at Frederick and nodded his head.
The dampness of the entire place was overwhelming. It was time to go to Konoha.*
Thanks for reading, I had to restart my computer while writing this and I was so scared that I had lost this entire chapter. Thankfully I only lost two lines. I wanted to spell nindo with the accent on the o but that's what crashed this computer so oh well! Hahaha… I would like to do some 1st person at the start of chapter 4, so I guess I'll just do it since you guys are mean and no one wants to review for me. L