Hello everyone. Williamgbirkin here to give you all an update which is copy and pasted to all of my stories. I haven't actually written anything since I last updated The Elemental Swordsman, due to either reading the stories of others (The last like ten have all been over one hundred thousand words, with one being three hundred thousand), helping my parents with their yard work, or just slacking off.
As for The Elemental Swordsman, it is currently my favorite story, and I will be updating that first.
After that will be the next chapter of The Fire Brothers, because I really like my friend Yoh Narukami's Fairy Tail stories.
For those fans of Black Blood, I plan on releasing all eleven chapters at the same time, as well as a brand new chapter for Kokketsu, so that might take a while, but it will be third.
Those of you reading A Fox And A Cat Make What?, you're going to have to wait, as I know exactly what I want to happen, I know how I want it to happen, but I'm not updating that until after I do so for my other stories.
And last (and unfortunately least) those of you who want A Taste Of The Desert are shit out of luck. I have zero motivation for that story. Like A Fox And A Cat Make What?, I know what I want to happen, and how, I just don't want to do anything. As of right now, it is on indefinite Hiatus until I regain my mojo for it.
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Also, as it turns out, pain17ication only wants to Beta The Elemental Swordsman, so TheBlackSeaReaper is going to Beta the rest. Thank you to the both of you!
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The poll is officially over for Elemental Swordsman, and here are the results
Omake 23
Ignore 6
Story 4
Flashback 3
I'm not really surprised at the results of the flashback, but I was about the story option. I thought that would get second place, at least a few more votes, something.
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Now, as penance for the sin of a fake update, here is the teaser trailer for Red And Blue!
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Red And Blue
"My name is Namikaze Minato, and I wish to be Hokage!" Shouted the blonde haired blue eyed boy, standing in the middle of the silent classroom, before a round faced red-head burst into maniacal laughter, almost going into hysterics, as she used what appeared to be an Uchiha girl to steady herself, trying not to fall out of her seat, causing a raincloud to appear over the boy's head.
"My name is Namikaze Naruto, and...all I want is...a family." Came the timid, barely hearable voice from another blonde, the only difference between this one and the previous being a pair of bright silver eyes.
"You go Naruto!" Shouted the red-head as she instantly stopped laughing and flashed the silver eyed boy a bright grin and a thumbs up, a raincloud now thundering above Minato's head as Naruto gave her a small smile in return.
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"Aniki, watch this!" Shouted Naruto, running up to his brother, who was surrounded by his friends. Try as he might, Naruto simply could not make all that many friends, the nervous nature gained from living in the orphanage with a much more confident and popular brother annoying pretty much everyone but Uzumaki Kushina, who was Naruto's only friend, though she was friends with pretty much everyone (except Minato, for some reason).
"What do you want, spaz?" Taunted one of the other kids, instantly making Naruto recoil, gazing at the ground.
WHAM
After he had finished punching the boy's lights out, Minato turned to Naruto. "You know, as twins, we don't actually know which one of us is the eldest. For all we know, I should be calling you aniki." Joked be blue eyed blonde good naturedly, earning a small smile from Naruto. "Now, what is so important?" he asked, still with that joking tone that seemed to pull everyone towards him.
"Watch this, it's really cool, Aniki!" Shouted Naruto again, once more grinning, before he whipped out a kunai, and, before anyone could stop him, stabbed himself in the head with it.
"NARUTO!" Screamed Minato, only to freeze as Naruto pulled the kunai away with a grin, showing that the tip was horribly bent, Naruto's forehead shining a color similar to his eyes, not even a scratch on it.
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"I have to be with the silver spaz? Damn it, why couldn't we get the good brother?" Asked Mikoto, as she stared at the nervous looking Naruto, who was twiddling his fingers nervously.
"Do you think that our missions are going to be hard?" he asked, as the Uchiha rolled her eyes and looked at her other team mate.
'At least I have you, so it's not all bad.' She thought to herself as she gazed at her best friend Kushina.
"Don't be mean to Naruto-kun, Mikoto-chan! He's a good boy, aren't you?" She admonished her friend, before turning to the silver eyed blonde, who nodded enthusiastically.
"Naruto is a good boy!" he repeated, Mikoto once again rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, good and dead." She murmered, ignoring Naruto's paling face and Kushina's further admonishment.
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"Why?" Asked Mikoto, gazing in horror up at the bleeding blonde in front of her, the point of the sword in his chest stopped an inch from her face.
"Because you're my friend." He managed to cough out, his blood staining her face as he did so, before he fell, the blade being dragged out of him, the silver substance coating his skin receding.
"Well, I guess that a bloodline freak is still a bloodline freak." stated Raiga as he wiped the Kiba blade off on a cloth, before glancing back up to Mikoto, and smirking. "My team has probably already dealt with your sensei and the other girl by now, so I need to hurry up." He finished, raising the blade above his head, never even having drawn the other one. "Goodbye, little genin."
With that, he brought it down, never noticing that her eyes were now blood red with three tomoe each.
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"NARUTO!" Screamed Mikoto as he rode her lover to completion, feeling him shoot his seed into her, before she collapsed, her head resting on his chest, listening to his slowly calming heartbeat.
"I love you, Mikoto." Said Naruto suddenly, shocking the woman on top of him to gaze into his eyes in shock, before she smiled, kissed him on the lips, and rest her head against his chest once more, again listening to his heart.
"I love you too, Naruto." She replied, before trailing her hand down to clasp his, the two of them falling asleep.
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"It's the Gin no Senshi (Silver warrior)!" Screamed out one of the Iwa shinobi, before the sound of tearing flesh began to ring out through the smoking hell of what used to be a beautiful forest clearing, as a lone silver blur began to tear through a platoon like tissue paper.
"Kill him! Take him down!" Screamed the commanding officer of the group, panicking at seeing one of the "unkillable" of Konoha got closer and closer. The figure was well known, with several aliases, his true name being Namikaze Naruto, the only person to never be so much as scratched during the current war, as nothing could pierce his armor. Blades simply bounced off of him, all but the hottest katon jutsu was voilently ended before it could heat him up, Doton was crushed beneath his claws, raiton was negated by his futon, his speed allowed him to dodge any futon attacks, his bloodline allowing him to shed any rust from suiton jutsu, and the seal tags given to him by his brother and the man's girlfriend allowed him to neutralize the only Jinchuriki he had ever faced.
After about ten minutes of screaming, explosions, and the sounds of moving earth, all suddenly became silent, before the Konoha forces that had been left behind entered the clearing, before several of them vomited.
If the clearing had been hell before, it's current condition was Satan's happy place, with the entirety of it stained red with blood, various body parts strewn all over the place, with them stained red as well, as in the middle of the clearing, surrounded by corpses that he had made, sat Naruto in the fetal position, caked from head to foot in bodily fluids, mostly blood, rocking back and forth slightly.
"I don't want to do this anymore." Murmured the blonde as he shed a single tear, though everyone heard him in the dead silent forest, not even the animals or wind disturbing the horrifying scene.
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"Please Mikoto, just tell me why!" Shouted the silver eyed warrior for what felt like the thousandth time in hours. "If this is what you want, I will accept it, all I want is a reason!"
"I don't want this, but I can't tell you! I know this is difficult, but this is the way it has to be! Fugaku and I are getting married, and that is final!" She screamed, on the verge of tears, the several hours of arguing taking it's toll on both of them.
"If you know this is difficult, why can't you make it easier? I don't care about your clan, or the law, or what people will think. All I want to know is why! I love you! I want to be with you, I want to father our children! Did everything we did together mean anything to you? Do you think I can just accept this, after all we've been through?" Demanded the silver eyed man.
"Regardless of whether you accept it or not, I must do my duty to my clan. You could never understand something like family!" Screamed Mikoto, before she smacked a hand over her mouth, realizing what she had said.
"You're right, I could never understand. The only woman I'd want one with just dumped me. I guess that the Namikaze line ends with me." Chuckled Naruto darkly, thinking to how Minato had changed his name to Uzumaki for Kushina. He then turned away from Mikoto, to her, a clear sign that he didn't want to talk anymore.
"The ceremony is at noon on July twentieth. You're invited along with your brother and Kushin. I hope to see you there." Droned Mikoto, a slightly dead look in her eyes as well as she made to leave, before she paused, looking back over her shoulder at him. "I love you Naruto. No matter what happens, I just want you to know that." Stated the Uchiha woman, before she disappeared.
"I love you too, Mikoto." Whispered Naruto to himself, before he broke down on the forest floor, crying.
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Looking out upon the ceremony, She couldn't help but feel miserable.
'He didn't even come.' She thought, as the music began to play, and she started to walk down the isle.
Upon reaching the altar, she once again scanned the crowd, seeing her favorite shade of red next to her favorite shade of blue, but her favorite color out of all, silver, was nowhere to be seen.
Realizing this, she looked to her husband to be, that arrogant smirk of his making her physically sick, though she didn't show anything, maintaining the stoic façade that all the Uchiha clan seemed to have since birth.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today..." Began the priest, though she simply didn't care, slipping
"If anyone knows of any reason, as to why these two should not be wed, speak now, or forever hold their piece." Upon hearing this, the bride to be once again glanced at the empty seat next to her best friends husband sadly, wishing that despite all she had told him, he had come to stop her from doing this, tears that she refused to let fall putting pressure behind her eyes, as she closed them, taking a deep breath.
Looking once again at the crowd, only this time at her best friend, she could tell the slightly spastic red-head wanted so desperately to say something, anything, to prevent this, but couldn't. The girl had been told by the bride, her brother and law, and her husband, that this was the way things were supposed to be, that she couldn't do anything. The beautiful red-head was on the verge of tears, physically hurting herself not saying anything, if the almost unnoticeable drops of blood on the carpet from her clenched hands were anything to go by.
She then thought of what had lead to this moment, all the hardships, all the good times, the bad times, all that she had gone through to be with her love, and he with her, only for it all to be meaningless.
"Mikoto." Said Fugaku, frowning at her from his place opposite her
"I apologize, I was thinking about something." She replied, a frown upon her soon to be husband's face, before the smirk returned after an 'I do' from the Uchiha woman.
And for a split second, for a moment just before the kiss, as she once again scanned the crowd, she saw him, Naruto. He stood in the very back, leaning against the wall next to the exit doors, a sad smile on his face, watching as Mikoto and Fugaku got closer and closer, his eyes shiny with moisture. And an instant after black eyes met silver, her view was blocked off by Fugaku in the kiss that sealed the two together in the eyes of all.
Once again, at this point, all she could feel was nausea. She didn't want this man, but there was no other choice. She had to do this for her family and clan. As much as she wanted the brother of the Hokage, the Uchiha simply didn't fraternize outside the family. There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it. She would do her duty to her clan, even if it meant that she would be unhappy for the rest of her life.
Even if it meant that he would be unhappy.
As she separated from her now husband, Mikoto's eyes instantly latched upon the spot she saw the only man she had ever truly loved last once again, but he was gone.
She would not see him again for almost nine years.
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"Pardon me, sensei, but you seem to have called everyone's name but my own." Came the polite call from the seven year old Itachi Uchiha, said to be the greatest the clan had ever produced since Madara Uchiha himself.
"Actually, Itachi-kun, you've been asked to be the apprentice of a very important figure in the village; Namikaze Naruto." Replied the little old man who taught the class, one of the only ones who treated those from clans and those not the same.
Amid the murmuring, Itachi couldn't help but feel bored, and sighed. He had been hoping to be placed upon a regular team, sick of being different, simply wanting to be just like everyone else, tired of being the prodigy. But no, he was now the apprentice of the strongest active shinobi in the village, Kushina and his parents being off active duty, all three of the Sannin outside the village, the Sandaime dead, and the Yondaime stuck behind his desk.
"He wanted you to meet him at training ground twenty seven at noon. If you wish to, you may leave now, but it's not for another two hours." Stated the old man, Itachi walking away before he had even finished.
Upon reaching the training grounds, whatever image he had had of his sensei was instantly shattered as he gazed upon the man surrounded by empty bowls of what smelled like ramen, a few popsicle wrappers, and a rather large jug of sake, sleeping in the middle of the medium sized clearing, snoring in a way that Itachi was able to hear almost a minute before seeing him.
Currently, the man was wearing extremely loose pants, with a rather loosely done robe, though in a contradiction, the belt was done up tightly, as well as being barefoot.
"Sensei?" Asked Itachi politely, thinking that this was going to be even more of a waste of time than he thought if this was their first meeting.
Insantly, the blonde's eyes snapped open, his right hand immediately shifting to one of the bowls, which was the hurled at Itachi's head, barely missing it as the boy dodged.
"Good one!" Complimented the blonde man, Itachi nodding in response. He then glanced at a small alarm clock next to him that Itachi had somehow missed, and raising an eyebrow at the time. "Well, that wasn't a waste of time or anything. Anyways, normally, I'm supposed to have us introduce ourselves, but that's rather redundant. Either I'll fail you, and you go back to the academy, or we have all the time in the world to get to know one another later. At this point, I'm supposed to test you to see if you've got what it takes to be a shinobi, but if I didn't think you did, I wouldn't have specifically asked for you, now would I? But, I do have to test you, so we're going to have a spar!"
"A spar?" Asked the slightly incredulous Itachi. Was this man going to ignore the fact that he was an Uchiha like his last sensei? This might not be so bad.
"Yes, a spar. Nothing more, nothing less. I want to see your abilities for myself." Stated the blonde as he and Itachi entered fighting stances, before blurring out of existence.
Several Hours Later.
"Well, I'm pretty sure that you're ready to be a shinobi, I was honestly going to pass you within the first ten minutes, but you exceeded each and every one of my expectations." Stated Konoha's Juggernaut, as he sat cross-legged in front of a sweating, panting, and half-conscious Itachi, as he lay face down in the dirt, the training ground around them utterly unrecognizable, as the two had used everything they had (with Naruto literally using the enhanced strength given to him by his bloodline to throw downed trees at the boy) in an effort to neutralize one another. "I actually considered fighting with jonin strength just to stay on top of the battle. I didn't, but almost. Good for you."
"Thank you, sensei." Panted out Itachi, gazing at the completely un-winded man as he took a small swig from his water bottle.
"After all, if I didn't think you could pass, I wouldn't have even bothered with you. You're my first ever student. You have natural talent, and I see a lot of potential in you, Itachi, and it's now my job to nurture that potential into actual skill. Know this, by the time you are chunin, you will curse your existence, and damn my name in your prayers at night. You may belong to the village; but right now, you belong to me. No student of mine will be half-assed" Recited Naruto ominously, Itachi actually panicking slightly at the man's words and manic grin.
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"Naruto-sensei, it is my understanding that Yondaime-sama's son Menma, your nephew, is at our house on a play-date with Sasuke. Would you like to come and visit the two of them?" Asked Itachi, after a long day of Naruto beating the hell out of Itachi a few months later, Naruto apparently believing that pain made the lesson stick.
Itachi could honestly say that Naruto was one of the few men he genuinely respected. He had heard dozens of stores about the man during the war, but knowing him in person was completely different. The Tetsudamashi user figuratively, and literally, hammered skills into the Uchiha all kinds of skills, valuable ones, useless ones, weird ones, including tracking, cooking, trap making, genjutsu, origami, and even interior decorating one weird day. Itachi's sensei had never once treated him differently because of who he was (slightly a lie, as Naruto did actually treat Itachi differently from everyone else, but that was because the boy was his student, and not because of his name), actually making the young Uchiha feel normal, a rather pleasant change to the norm of people figuratively kissing his ass.
After a few seconds of silence, a hesitant nod from the blonde jonin was all the slightly confused Itachi needed before he walked away, back to the village, leading his still slightly out of it Naruto to his house.
Several minutes passing bye, the two made it to the Uchiha district, and while the guards and all the Uchiha they passed were slightly tense, there was no real incident until they reached the clan head's home, Naruto stopping Itachi several feet away with a hand on the boy's shoulder.
She was currently on her knees in front of her house, thick gloves on as she tended the garden there, transplanting a small bunch of bright purple Azaleas from a pot into a small hole in the ground, a trowel stabbed into the earth a little ways away. Looking upon her, Naruto couldn't help but examine her, the glories of motherhood and age making her even more beautiful than before, her alabaster skin almost glowing to his eyes, her black hair curtaining around her slightly sweaty face. Though she had left active duty almost a month after her marriage to Fugaku, she was still in very good shape, no excess body fat, taught, wiry muscles beneath her skin, subtly shifting with every movement she made. Her clothing was also radically different from her time as a kunoichi with a simple dark purple blouse, a red-plum skirt and a light-yellow apron atop that.
"Hello, Mikoto." Said Naruto to his student's mother a minute later, the woman flinching at the sound, before slowly turning around from her place tending the garden in front of her home, her youngest son Sasuke playing with Menma, who was pretty much a black haired clone of Minato with whisker marks on his face, the two of them obliviously petting a cat on the porch.
'Her eyes are just as beautiful as I remember.' He thought to himself, gazing into the soft black pools.
Just as he had looked at her, so too was Mikoto examining Naruto. The first thing she saw were his eyes, 'Still my favorite color'. Mostly though, the only real difference to him now were the fact that he was slightly taller, his changed wardrobe, and a few new scars, gained in the time that neither had seen the other.
"It's been a long time." Said Mikoto, the first to break the silence after ten seconds.
"Yes, it has." Stated Naruto simply, the two of them simply staring into each other's eyes, before both of their expressions softened, before Naruto walked away, leaving Menma play with Sasuke, never having even looked at the boys.
This confused Itachi, as he had seen Naruto with Menma before, and only direly important matters superseded the man's time with his family. Then the way the two adults had looked at one another. He had noticed certain people look at each other in that way, the Yondaime and his mother's best friend Kushina, the Sandaime and his wife before the two's untimely demise, countless other's in the village, all having one thing in common; love.
His mother had certainly never looked at his father in that way, at most gazing at the man with amused disconnect, but mostly with apathy, as though she purely didn't care about the man who had fathered her children.
'Do the two of you love each other?' Wondered Itachi to himself, as he and his mother watched the legendary figure walk away from his family home.
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I realized about halfway through making this, that Naruto's powers here, are somewhat similar to his powers in Black Blood. Now, when I say this, I mean it rather loosely, as this Naruto produces Iron and steel from his body, and Black Blood's Naruto's blood is heavy with iron.
The key differences between the two are that Kottetsu is not limited to his body. It's a liquid that he can make literally any shape with, including coating his body, like with this Naruto's iron skin.
Now, Kokketsu Naruto's affinities are earth and wind, due to wind being his original affinity, and earth due to the high amount of iron in his blood. This story's Naruto's affinities is just wind, it being his original affinity.
This Naruto doesn't actually have to control his abilities continuously either, unlike that of Black Blood's. He simply has to imagine that a certain body part is covered, and it is, but in Black Blood, he had to actively control it, or it simply becomes a black puddle, making much harder to control. Also, this Naruto's physical abilities are passively enhanced depending upon what and how much of his body is covered by the steel, unlike Black Blood, which is pretty much universal, changing strength only with the amount of chakra pumped into the blood itself.