To win, by destroying one's life and to lose by winning strife. That is the saying that his new adopted brother told him, at first Naruto didn't understand but over the years he did.
Yoichi Isagi, a high schooler with a dream to one day play on the big stage like his idol, Noel Noa. Ran across the opposing school, the fans within the less filled stadium, chanted at his drive, he had crossed into the opposition's half and no one was stopping him. "If we win this, we go to nationals!" he muttered to himself as his deep blue eyes gazed at the goal, his white irises aimed to shoot past the goalkeeper, as for now he needed to get closer.
Ichinan High School, from Tokyo wasn't a well known school when it came to sports, a shot at nationals would surely get them noticed, the only problem was that they we're losing 0-1. Isagi could here his teammates on the bench cheering him on but that wans't on his mind right now, where was his brother? Was he behind him? He wasn't sure, but he needed to catch up, quick as the goal was getting near.
"Nationals..." he chanted as he did a quick stepover to the right as a midfielder brought in their leg to tackle the ball away but missed by an inch. It went that way till he got into the box facing the goal keeper one on one. The perfect situation for Isagi, if he scored he would force penalties.
"I'm gonna score...Nationals here we come." he muttered under his breath keeping his composure, aiming for the top left corner he was about to go into motion till, his little brother called. "Onii-sama!"
He quickly glanced to the direction of the familiar voice, raising his hand a blond teen wearing the number 9 had made his presence. 'Oh there he is...wait he's open. Naruto-chan is open. He's a freshman and if he does score, he'll be a hero.' Isagi's older brother mentality urged him to pass to his younger brother he just had to.
Naruto Yoichi, formerly Uzumaki was the younger brother of Isagi having been adopted by his parents from the Konoha Orphanage in Konohagakure No Sato, his home village. Isagi passed the ball to Naruto, who trapped and shot the ball with his left foot, only for it to hit the post. 'Crap!' he ran after the rebound only to be beaten by the left back who started a counter that ended with the team scoring once more, not only that the ref blew the final whistle.
To say Naruto was at the urge to cry was an understatement, the blond had fallen into tears for it was a great opportunity for him to be the hero, with his hair over his eyes, the blond went on to bow and apologise to his teammates for he was the only freshman there, as the rest we're second years, including his older brother.
"Onii-sama." he approached Isagi who was wiping the sweat of his forehead with his shirt. "Onii-sama...you shouldn't have passed to me." Naruto stated as Isagi put his hand on his shoulder. "It's find Naru-chan, you did you're best."
"But my best wasn't enough, if only you did it, we would've won." the pair's height was a slight difference as Isagi was a bit taller than Naruto so resting his hand on the blond's head he ruffled it. "Oh don't get all emotional on spilled milk." Isagi just fell to the floor he had been running the entire 90, we're as Naruto was subbed on at the 60th minute.
Naruto watched on as the opposition celebrated and out of respect the blond decided to make his presence shown. "Hey, guys." he caught their attention. "Good game." he smiled brightly shaking each of their hands. "Yeah, nice game man, you played well for a freshman." one spoke as the blond smiled. "Thanks." he replied moving on only to hear them laugh at the blond.
"To think he needed to do a simple tap in, what loser am I right!" one of the players said as his group laughed. "To think he's a rookie no less, that coach must've had a few screws loose by playing him." another stated and Naruto could only just get a tick mark. He wasted his precious time to be a sportsman and these guys decided to just spat in his face and talk about him.
"Pathetic." Naruto said stopping as the group of players stopped only to see him turn around and face them. "You lot are pathetic, acting like school girls and gossiping behind my back. If you were men you'd say it in front of me but I guess you're school only produces men that are cowards." Naruto stated getting them all fuming. "Say what, freshman! You better take that back!"
"Now, now don't get angry, it's not you're fault that your school produces subpar men into our economy, it's just that your school needs to change its ways just to fit band boy rejects like you."
The group was stunned this kid just called them trash. "Why you!" one of the players approached him and grabbed his shirt. "Now, now gentlemen let's all calm down, we wouldn't want to end up in a brawl, especially not in front of your home fans. I wouldn't want to sway away your mothers from their partners when I whip their offsprings."
"SHUT UP!" the man shot a punch to Naruto only for it to be grabbed by Isagi. "That's enough Naruto-chan what did I say about trash talking the opponents?" he asked "But, onii-sama I was just being a sportsman and they-"
"No excuses, just apologize, now." Naruto just pouted and bowed his head. "I'm sorry for my disrespectul behaviour, please forgive me sirs."
"Yeah, that's better bottom feeders like you need to beg." the player that tried to hit Naruto stated as the blond felt like punching the living daylights out of the arrogant bastard, Isagi to but he was refraint from it since he had to keep his little brother at bay since if he let Naruto lose, he'd destroy these guys with his taijutsu. Most likely ending with him in juvie.
When the man had went away Naruto and Isagi just gave them the middle finger since these guys were assholes. "Nice trash talk by the way." Isagi commented letting go of Naruto. "Learn from the best." he smirked as they went to join their team at the sideline, while his coach had been addressing them for their performance this season, the blond looked on to see Ryosuke Kira's interview.
'One day...that'll be me.' he told himself as he saw the youngster's smile only to smirk. "Onii-sama." he caught the older Yoichi. "Look at that guy's smile." Yoichi also looked to see the prodigy busy speaking with the reporter.
"I want to feel like that Onii-sama, I hate this feeling right now, I don't like it one bit." Naruto stated as Isagi agreed he also didn't like it. "I agree, we'll need to train really hard if we want to get up this blockade."
"Yeah, we'll train so hard, that no montage will be able to cover it." Isagi chuckled Naruto always had the weirdest takes in life.
The walk back home was rather calm, both boys walked under the bridge as they rolled their bikes along, both wearing their team tracksuits. Isagi and Naruto had just left school. "Naruto-chan what do you think of me as a footballer?" Isagi asked his younger brother who turned to him with a smile.
"You're the most hardworking and dedicated player I know, onii-sama. The best player on that team by far."
"No." this caught Naruto by surprised, why did he say no? "I'm just an unknown second year forward on that team, that's the reality. Right now you're just sugar coating because I'm your brother while I appreciate it, there's nothing wrong with tough love." he put his scarf over his face since it was currently winter and the temperature was starting to drop.
"You're wrong." hearing this Isagi put his mask down. "You have potential, onii-sama. That I can see." Naruto began as Isagi was surprised. "As Jose Mourinho once said to Frank Lampard 'You are the best player in the world, but what you lack in trophies.' and in order to get trophies onii-sama, no offense to the team but, you'll have to become the best player in the entire region in order to carry us to the national trophy." Naruto stated the truth.
"Naruto-chan." Isagi was speechless. "Think about it, what did Roberto Carlos, Ronaldinho and Pele have in common?"
"They are all from the same country." Naruto just furrowed his eye brows. "Really?" Isagi laughed a little. "What? You did fall right into that one."
"Well no that's not it, they all trained like champs, Pele trained like a warrior just to get onto the Brazilian team, Ronaldinho was monster trying to replicate his older brother and Roberto Carlos. Oh, don't let me start on how much he trained for those missile shot free kicks of his, and they all learned those tricks by training at home, when their friends we're busy relaxing they we're working hard, that's what separated them, legendary work ethic." Naruto began.
"You onii-sama, have the work ethic in practise I see you giving it one hundred percent but if you want to be the best on our team, you need to put in the work, check we're we are." Naruto pointed to the right as Isagi looked only to be surprised. "It's the old pitch we used to play on as kids."
"Exactly, and if we want to beat those douches next time we'll need to be in tip-top form." Isagi looked at his little brother as if he had an epiphany.
"So what you're saying is." he watched as Naruto smirked. "That's right, we are the answer to getting our team to the final, you and me. Remember when we were kids we used to win in street soccer, against everyone in 2v2."
"We got so much money, we were set on candy for days."
"Exactly, we called ourselves."
"The 'Telephatic Strike Force."
"Because we always knew where to find each other, we've been playing together so long that we know were we are, come on onii-sama I don't need to spell my plan out to you in detail right? Since you know I suck at that." Isagi chuckled as he ruffled Naruto's hair. "Yeah I hear you, I remember Noa-sama did say he trained till he dropped, so I guess I'll do the same." Naruto smirked.
"All right let's get to work."
"Well first I'll need to tell mom that we'll be late for dinner." him being the older brother needed to be the responsible one taking out his phone he texted his mom that they'd be home later. "Fine by me." Naruto had begun to juggle the ball as he tried an Around The World only to fail miserably.
"You still have a long way to go." Isagi smirked as he took the ball and did a quick one two bringing it over his head as he quickly bent forward and the ball rested on his neck. "Show off." Naruto huffed as Isagi laughed, his brother was so jealous at times. "Alright let's get to work."
"Hai." Naruto said pumped up as the pair descended down the small hill to the pitch.