I must say that lately I got quite a bit of inspiration for this story. Almost entirely this chapter was written today, just moments ago. I'm not that happy with how it turned out, but this is how it was suppose to look like. Tanken fans will probably be happy as they'll learn a bit more about that clan from this, but…
As always I wanna thank everyone who reviewed the previous chapter. I know I say it over and over again, but it really does mean a lot and I'm glad that you're still enjoying the story. I do hope that you won't get bored with it too soon (especially now, when eliminations ain't that far from over). And there's also a special announcement to be made:
SECOND CHARACTER POPULARITY CONTEST OPEN: just as the title states, I'd like to announced that the second "Naruto: Next Generation" Character Popularity Contest has begun! Everyone is welcomed to take part in it and the rules aren't that different from the last time, but just in case they're written down at the end of this chapter, along with the updated list of characters on which you can cast your votes on (not many new, but still…).
Oh yeah, almost forgot. SPOILER WARNING: Cranky Wonder Joe, about your question, if you really wanna know, then yes, you got it right. SPOILER END!
With all that said, I'd just like to invite everyone to give a try to my other, next generation fic entitled "Those Who Inherit the Will of Fire". You might just like it. And now, there's nothing left for me to do then to get on with the 'show':
Chapter #93: The Code of the Tanken
Title Page: on the left there's Funbo, holding his stick behind his back and next to him Ibuki is kneeling on her left knee with kunai in her hands
"I will kill you" stated Funbo calmly as he prepared himself to charge forward. In a blink of an eye the young assassin took off and before Shita could react in any way, he appeared before him, smashing his face with his stick. As the waterfall-nin began falling onto his back, the Leaf gennin quickly spun his weapon in his hand and hit his opponent with it again, crushing his stomach and making his fall even harder.
Shita rolled away from his adversary and slowly struggled back to his feet. Instantly he began another set of hand seals, calling out in the process: "Doton: Ishi…" but he never managed to finish as Funbo once more charged at him, hitting his stomach with the tip of his stick. The waterfall-nin leaned forward due to the impact, gasping for air, right before the young assassin smashed the end of his weapon into his back, thus making him fall to the ground again.
"Are you really that dumb?" Funbo asked without any trace of emotion showing on his face. "I already told you that genjutsu won't work on me. Especially not one of such poor level. If you want to fight me, using something different… or just wait until I finish you off" and with that he smashed his stick against Shita's back again, making the masked boy fall onto his face once more while he tried to get up.
Seeing this, Tetsu narrowed his eyes while Funbo kept on hitting his opponent every time he tried to get up. As blood began dripping from behind the little gennin's mask, Shita's words echoed in his head: "Hey, Tetsu-san, you're a shinobi now! I always knew you were gonna make it! That's why I looked up to you! You'll surely bring Bakufu to its former glory! Please, allow me to assist you in that quest! I know I'm nothing much, but I promise I'll do my best to keep up with you! We'll fight together for the Hidden Waterfall's reputation! What do you say? Huh? Huh? Huh?"
As Funbo's stick smashed against the masked boy's body again, the waterfall-nin tried to get up, helping himself with shaking hands and legs. He didn't got far as the Leaf gennin's bo hit him once more, making him collapse to the floor. For the first time ever Tetsu lost his calm as he yelled through the rail: "Shita, dammit, you can't beat this guy! Give up already or you'll end up injured for life! How are you gonna fulfill your promise then?" he asked, making the little boy gazed at him.
"I've trained so hard…" Shita reminded himself as he clenched his teeth, while blood run down his face. "I've completed missions and then practiced my techniques… I always tried to put my best effort into it and yet… why is it always me, who…" he began as he felt tears gathering in his eyes. He managed to hold them in however and disgust with himself, he announced, this time out loud: "I… give up" but to his surprise his opponent's stick smashed his back yet again.
"You know, my clan has few rules regarding how a shinobi should be" Funbo suddenly stated as he stood above Shita, who found himself incapable of rolling away anymore. His eyes were cold and emotionless as he seemed to completely ignore the waterfall-nin's statement from a moment ago. "Those rules are a code if you will, which every Tanken should follow, though few losers prove to not be strong enough to do so" and with that his eyes traveled to Ibuki for a split second, before they returned to the fallen waterfall-nin: "Rule number one: emotions cloud one's judgment and thus an assassin must learn to keep them in check. Rule number two: assassins are the men of the shadows. One man can move unspotted much easier then a group and thus any form of companionship is useless to us…"
At this point Taki lowered her head and stared at the floor, while Horohoro merely shut his eyes without a trace of emotion on his face besides that. Hitomi remained as she was, while Funbo continued: "Rule number three: shinobi's value is measured by his usefulness and thus for an assassin his mission is the only priority he has… and the last one: when you fight… you fight to the death" and with that he raised his stick to deliver the final blow, yet before he managed to do that, his weapon got grabbed by someone's hand and as he turned around, he saw that the one interrupting his fight was his teacher.
"Funbo, that's enough" Shino announced calmly, yet he didn't let go of the stick. Funbo hesitated for a moment and then narrowed his eyes, not so much because of anger, but more because of annoyance, placing his stick on his back again and heading to the platform, while Lee made the final statement: "Winner: Tanken Funbo!"
Instantly the medics appeared next to Shita, taking him for treatment, while Funbo didn't even bothered to glanced at his opponent. Reiji smirked under his nose as he observed the young assassin slowly getting back up: "I think I'm gonna like that guy" he thought to himself, while Kumiko shivered: "What a scary person…"
"I gotta say, Ibuki, your brother is…" began Hanamaru as he turned to the young assassin, yet the kunoichi immediately interrupted him as he glared at the older Tanken: "I know…" and as Funbo caught her gaze, he smirked under his nose for a fraction of a second, before returning to ignore her. "You've really become just as cold as our father, niisan… and just as ruthless."
"Well, that was freaky" stated Kai as he felt shivers going down his spine. "Are all Tanken such psychopaths?" he asked, making Ibuki instantly snap and pummel him to the floor, yelling things that should be concerned in the process. Takaru looked at the two for a while and then traveled with his gaze at the older assassin: "This guy is dangerous… back then, in the forest, if his teammates wouldn't interrupt… he'd surely kill us!"
"Did you ever considered showing compassion?" Horohoro asked his teammate, once he got back to them. Funbo threw him a quick glance, but said nothing, making the blue-haired boy narrow his eyes: "Of course not…" and his was about to say something more, until Akira cut in, making his attention settle on him: "Leave it… as sad as it is, he'll never change. You can either moan about it or accept it, but whichever you choose, that fact will remain. We were put in the same team, thus he tolerates us, but in his case… that's the best we can count for…" and with that Hitomi felt a note of regret in the blind gennin's voice, yet said nothing. She just settled her eyes on the young assassin for a moment and then returned to observing the screen.
"To think siblings can be that different" Taki thought to herself as she glanced at Ibuki who was now holding Kai by the collar and yelled in his face, though the boy was so beat up, that he probably was only half-conscious. Very few of the gennin even heard Lee announcing that the screen got activated again and names began skipping on it.
Kakashi looked at it for a moment, before he calmly gazed to his left, where an instant later a mysterious figure appeared. As the man raised his head, the Rokudaime noticed a white and black tiger mask. The Hokage said nothing, awaiting for the figure to speak. With a respectful nod, the ANBU began, loud enough only for the Leaf's leader to hear him: "I'm terribly sorry for the interruption, Kakashi-sama, but there are matters I need to discuss with you…"
"What is it, Sasuke?" the Rokudaime hurried him as the other jounin settled their eyes on the two. The Sharingan user looked around and narrowed his eyes as they meet Hinata. His masked covered his mouth, yet with the Hyuuga Byakugan, the kunoichi still could read his lips. Leaning towards the Hokage, he whispered into his ear about Kasui and his dead body that his subordinates found a while ago.
Kakashi narrowed his eye slightly as he lowered his head: "This is most disturbing… things are starting to fall apart without us even knowing. We need to make countermeasures, otherwise the Leaf may crumble again… and this time it may not bloom once more" the Rokudaime announced grimly, making the ANBU nod slightly.
"I have already made some preparations, Hokage-sama" Sasuke reported, bowing his head. "However I'm afraid your assistance will be required, Kakashi-sama" and with that he settled his eyes on the Leaf's leader, who traveled with his sight through the room. After a moment of hesitation, he replied, turning to the Sharingan user once more: "The eliminations are almost done… it's best to not cause unnecessary disturbance among the gennin. I'll attend to those matters once eliminations will come to an end. Until then, I trust you'll handle things…"
Sasuke bowed again and with a quick 'yes, Hokage-sama', he was gone again, making Naruto narrow his eyes as he observed the whole scene. Also Toku had his eyes on the Rokudaime, as suspiscions appeared in his mind: "For an ANBU to show up here… something must be going on in the village…"
"Saiken, you pinhead, this is your doing, isn't it?" Kyuu cursed in his mind as his eyes slightly narrowed, yet he didn't gave away his thoughts in any, other way. Little he have forgotten, was that there was someone who could still learn about them. Kokoro gazed at the Kumori gennin and also narrowing his eyes, he returned to observing the screen.
"Say, wasn't that that ANBU guy we meet in the Stone Country?" Kusari asked, turning to his teammates, making Takaru merely nod without even taking his eyes off the screen. It was then that the chain master followed his sight and noticed the next pair of contestants was already chosen: INUZUKA TSUME versus HONEMARU.
"Honemaru, you're turn" stated Torune as she gazed at the white-haired boy, who merely glanced back at her before nodding and slowly heading towards the stairs. Takai run his hand down his face as excitement slowly crept onto it. Aoru narrowed her eyes at this as a worry grew in her: "Damn that Tanken guy… he saw blood and now he's seriously starting to lose it… and Honemaru surely won't hold back just to keep Takai calm…"
"Hope you'll show them what you're made of" Galu said simply, receiving a nod from Tsume, who jumped down to the arena a moment later with Uramaru close behind. She walked towards Lee slowly with Honemaru marching few meters behind her. After a few moments, which seemed like eternity for Kai, the two reached the examiner and began a staring contest, which none of them intended to lose.
"Twenty ninth match: Inuzuka Tsume against Honemaru!" Lee announced loudly as the two fighters stood before each other, the dog kunoichi with her knees bended a little and the sand-nin without even preparing himself for the match. "Ready and… BEGIN!" he yelled, moving out of the way as the Leaf gennin charged forward immediately.
Honemaru easily dodged the assault however by strafing to his right and then leaned over, thus avoiding Uramaru who flew just inches above him with his teeth biting air. As the kunoichi and her dog came to a sliding stop, the sand-nin gazed up, still no trace of emotion on his face: "You're pretty quick to get into a fight…"
"Yeah well, I have a dream that's worth completing" Tsume replied with a smirk as she crawled down slightly. "In order to achieve it, I need to become Hokage and in order to become Hokage, I need to defeat you! Simple as that… so sorry, but I'm gonna beat the shit out of you!"
"Is that so?" the white-haired boy asked calmly as he raised his hand up and opened his palm at the girl. "Well, whatever your dream may be, I'm afraid I cannot allow you to defeat me, so this won't be easy for you" and with that chakra began escaping his body, making Lee widen his eyes at the sensation.
Naruto's eyes also widen as a familiar feeling his hit senses. "This can't be!" he thought to himself as his sight settled on Honemaru. His fear grew as he saw what occurred afterwards: a bone began growing out of the sand-nin's hand, aiming its sharp end at Tsume. "This is… Kaguya's bloodline limit!"
---natural, bone thriller! Ghosts from the past come to surface! What is going on?---
And this concludes this chapter. Hope you enjoyed it and that you'll leave a review once you're done reading. No jutsu this time around, but before I'll go to the rules of the popularity contest, here's another list of gennin that are still in the game:
Konoha #7: Murasakki Kumiko, Tanken Ibuki, Gekido Takaru, Hagane Kusari, Haisha Kai
Konoha #3: Konpaku Rei, Amagasa Toku, Debano Kitsune, Gusoku Hanamaru
Konoha #4: Inuzuka Tsume (in progress), Benda Kokoro, Kobushi Galu
Konoha:Hamano Taki, Hyuuga Hitomi, Manako Akira, Tanken Funbo, Horohoro
Suna #1: Aoru, Torune, Honemaru (in progress), Tarakudo, Takai
Suna #2: Sabaku no Sabure, Hari, Dekai, Horamaru, Karame
Kusa:Hokku Tobane, Kanraku Nezumi, Kuchibashi Taka, Kyohaku Tokame, Wanabi Hizoku
Ame: Furikuzu Tsuino, Hebereke Nazaa
Bakufu:Abura Tetsu
Tsuki:Junsei Teela, Tenka
Hane:Ono Reiji
Kumori: Kyuu
POPULARITY CONTEST DETAILS: okay, so for those who actually did decide to take part in the voting, the rules aren't that different from the previous contest. Just like before you can vote for ANY character that appeared in the story so far, including the characters from the manga (however in that case I'd like to ask you to base your choice on this story only, meaning if you pick Hinata, do so because you like her adult self, not just because you liked her in the manga). Please note that Gaara still haven't appeared and thus he's not a choice (I promise though that he will be before the next contest will take place… if the story will keep going).
Just like before one person can give only one vote, however in it you're allowed to cast your vote of five characters. The votes will be given in reviews (to keep it fair and so that anyone could check the votes himself) in the form of a list with five spots in it, however the order in which you'll write the characters is important. Although it's the number of people who voted on a certain character will be the thing that counts most, if two characters should get the same among of votes the so-called 'voting points' will decide which will take a higher position in the ranking. As an example:
Kai Haisha
Funbo Tanken
Shikamaru Nara
the sand-nin with the gourd (Sabure)
In the example above, Kai would get 5 'voting points', Funbo would receive 4, Shikamaru – 3 and Sabure – 2. In this case the voter decided to vote on only four characters, although he/she still could choose one more character, which would receive 1 voting point. Now, let's say there was another vote, which placed Sabure first and Kai fifth and those two votes were the only ones these, two characters got. Now each of them received 2 votes, yet Sabure gets a higher position in he ranking, coz the total of 'voting points' she collected equals 7, while Kai got 6.
To make it easier, just like before, I'm placing a full list of characters you may give your votes for (I don't think I left out anyone, but if I did, you can still cast your vote on him/her… and remember that Gaara isn't an option yet):
KONOHA:
Kumiko Murasakki, Ibuki Tanken, Takaru Gekido, Kusari Hagane, Kai Haisha, Naruto Uzumaki;
Mikka Igaku (the medic-nin), Tsume Inuzuka (Kiba's daughter), Uramaru (Tsume's dog), Kokoro Benda (the telepath), Senkou Hatake (Kakashi & Anko's son), Galu Kobushi (the green-haired, taijutsu expert), Hinata Hyuuga;
Rei Konpaku (the lazy girl), Kogane Rikoteki (the alchemist), Toku Amagasa (the boy with umbrella), Kitsune Debano (the one with iron in his body), Hanamaru Gusoku (the chubby boy), Shikamaru Nara;
Taki Hamano (the boomerang girl), Hitomi Hyuuga (Neji & Tenten's daughter), Akira Manako (the blind boy), Funbo Tanken (Ibuki's older brother), Horohoro (the boy using ice and water), Shino Aburame;
Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Uchiha, Kiba Inuzuka, Ino Yamanaka, Chouji Akimichi, Tenten Hyuuga, Neji Hyuuga, Lee Rock, Kakashi Hatake, Iruka Umino, Tsunade (appeared only in flashbacks), Satsu Tanken (Ibuki & Funbo's father, appeared only in flashbacks), Chitose Haisha (Kai's mother, appeared only in flashbacks), Akamaru, Kenji Rikoteki (Kogane's father, appeared only in flashbacks);
SUNA:
Aoru (the girl with fan blade), Torune (the wind using girl), Honemaru, Takai (the scythe user), Tarakudo (the boy with bandages), Temari;
Sabaku no Sabure (Gaara's daughter), Hari (senbon user, Kankuro's daughter), Dekai (the swordsman), Horamaru (the string user), Karame (the mummy, paper user), Kankuro;
Uryuu (bully with a kanji for dragon on the back, appeared only in flashbacks), Mokuba (a boy wearing grey with brown skin, friend of Uryuu, appeared only in flashbacks), Shiba (brunette wearing a black and yellow jumpsuit, friend of Uryuu, appeared only in flashbacks);
KUSA:
Tobane Hokku (the girl with hooks), Nezumi Kanraku (the girl with a rat), Hamaru (Nezumi's rat), Taka Kuchibashi (the masked boy with a chain), Tokame Kyohaku (the boy that could become invisible), Hizoku Wanabi (the redhead);
Nakamoru Wanabi (Hizoku's father, appeared only in flashbacks), Kiro (Grass gennin, he fought Kumiko during the second exam);
AME:
Youji Kasano (girl with umbrellas), Karei Nokogiri (girl with a saw on a chain), Ryo Eshaku (the boy who could materialize chakra), Tsuino Furikuzu (the guy with scars on his face), Nazaa Hebereke (the redhead rain-nin);
Mushi Furikuzu (Tsuino's brother, he encounter Naruto's team and Hizoku during the third exam);
BAKUFU:
Kawa Azarashi (the girl using water from bottles), Miaka Tora (the girl with the white tiger), Torabaku (Miaka's tiger), Tetsu Abura (the chubby boy with a hammer and pipes on his back), Shita Makko (the masked pipsqueak), Kasui Rein (senbon user, killed by Saiken);
TSUKI:
Teela Junsei (the blue-haired girl), Tenka (the redhead girl), Kumo Chishio (the green-haired twin), Nobu Chishio (the blond twin), Tasuki Kihako (the swordsman), Hinami Hoshiru (the jounin instructor of the cell, appeared only in flashbacks);
Oujin Chishio (Kumo and Nobu's grandfather, appeared only in flashback);
KANE:
Naginata (the girl with a stick), Reiji Ono (the bald guy with an axe), Futatsu (the boy using two katanas), Hogosha (the boy with metal protectors), Sentou (the boy with metal arms);
YUKI:
Aisu Nadare (the girl using ice), Kuri Sutaru (the girl using crystals), Yari Sarumaru (the spearman), Kato Urufu (the guy with a bulldog), Yamazaru (the monkey);
KUMORI:
Raina (the girl with a metal glove), Saiken Tenma (the boy with a headgear), Bakara (the boy with a skull mask), Fuma (the boy who could transform), Kyuu (the mysterious, last member of the team), Tategamaru (the mysterious, cell leader);
OTHER:
Deji (Stone Country princess), Recca (Deji's husband), Takashi (Deji's father), Kataki Momochi (Zabuza's brother, missing-nin), Ryu Togatta (missing-nin, one of the Seven Swordsmen), Kouba (missing-nin that could use Mokuton), Fugou (kunoichi with tattoos), Karuto (card using missing-nin), Mabui Gusoku (Hanamaru's mother, appeared only in flashbacks), Gamabunta, Manda, Inosu (large boar, summoned by Hanamaru), Zassaouku (giant, living sundew, summoned by Kiro)
Even if the list above doesn't help, you can write a short description of a character (the village he/she is from, personality, who he/she looks, abilities). Considering I've created them all (besides the ones from the manga) I should be able to figure out who you meant.
Last thing about the voting is that you don't have to cast your votes now. The results will be given with the 100th chapter (that's when the voting will be closed) and until that happens you can cast your votes anytime in between (but only in a review). This gives you about 7 weeks to choose your favorites and give the vote if you do not wish to make a choice now.
If you have any questions considering the voting, do ask (be it through review, PM or e-mail) and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability.
And with all that said, I believe the only thing left to do is to wrap this up. Thanks for tuning in and hope to see you guys next time! Take care!