Children had very good instincs... Maybe that was why Ryou liked them so much. He truely admired them because, in a sense, they were perfect. Children were energetic yet weak, trusting yet perceptive, naive and yet they knew when something was off. They had the qualities of an adult and yet there was a sort of innocence that an adult could never have. Maybe that was why he admired them because despite how young someone looked on the outside, the mind never stays the same.
A young boy had a finger in his mouth as he staired up at the tall dark haired man who was trying his best to polietly ignore the boy by gazing through a shop window with his hands in his pockets.
- Hey mister ! The boy started rudly with his finger still firmly in his mouth, why are you wearing that mirror 'round your neck ?
Ryou turned to the boy, his eyes settled onto the boys eyes and in that second the Uzumaki clan member felt as if the boy saw everything. But despite the feeling he put on his disarming smile and anwsered as politly as possible.
- This mirror is a good luck charm to ward off demons !
As Ryou said that the boy's face morphed into an expression that looked like he had sucked on a lemon.
- My mommy said the only demon that really exists is that blond haired boy ! Dummy !
And with that the boy ran away, perceptive and yet way too trusting... Their parents aren't angels that only tell the truth.
- What did he mean by that i wonder ?
Ryou decided it would be best not to dwell on it and instead continued to look through the window of the shop... It was only now that he realised the shop was for womens lingerie and that people had started whispering... Ryou's cheeks flushed bright red as he rightfully decided it was best he moved on.
The streets were pack pretty full with civilians but Inutsuna had been right, the millitary precense was heavy even without counting the hidden shadows that were scattered around the place. Ryou's mind then traveled to his devoted assisstant, the boy would be arriving in wave by now and he had probably already latched onto the scent of his relative. But Ryou knew not to dwell on it for too long, Inutsuna could handle most advesaries, as long as they weren't the type to use genjutsu he would be fine.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
He loved his master and not like a boy and a girl love each other. The only thing Inutsuna could relate it too was the love a dog had for his master. Of course the boy could never truely understand that he loved the man like a father because he had never had one.
And so when his master ordered him to do something he would follow it to the letter but when it meant abandonning his master's side he had learnt to do it as fast as possible so that he could regain his place next to Ryou-sama.
This may have meant that the dog-like boy was a little 'over enthusiastic' to put it kindly. So when he smelt his relative and felt an ominous chakra not ten meters away he launched into battle like a water bullet.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Today things hadn't been going too badly for Kakashi Hatake. It was his team's first C ranked mission and his students had taken down two B ranked missing ninja... However in the process he was certain his blonde haired student's pride had suffered a fatal blow. But the motivated look in his clear blue eyes as he diligently scanned the forest around their employer was rewarding to the white haired teacher.
His silent footsteps barely made a noise compared to those of his unexperienced students which in turn when compared to that of the stomping civilian were quiet as mice.
Their client was called Tazuna, a civilian bridge builder who apparently was trying to save his country, that had been blockaded by a 'business tycoon' named Gato, by connecting it to the mainland. He was tall and completly towered over the genin that were guarding him. Despite his gray hair and glasses he had a young air about him, maybe due to his tanned smooth skin. He wore a big heavy backpack and had a strange straw hat on that spiked up into the air.
Surrounding their charge was Kakashi's cute little genin, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno and last but not least Naruto Uzumaki.
Sasuke Uchiha was to put it lightly quite arrogant when it came to his prowess as a ninja. His arrogance was both well placed and misplaced. It was true for a genin he was strong and talented but put him infront of a jounin, let alone even the weakest of Anbu, and the boy was but a child. He wore a blue shirt with a high collar that had the Uchiha crest emblazoned on the back which resembled a fan. The rest of his clothing including his headband was what any gennin could get their hands on; standard issue ninja sandals, bandage wraps, arm warmers, a shuriken pouch on his hip and a kunnai holster on his leg.
The boy was walking cooly with his hands in his pockets but his sharp eyes and tense disposition showed that he was ready for anything.
Sakura Haruno was dressed in a red kimono like dress and black spandex. Like her Uchiha teammate she also had the standard issue sandals and headband however the girl seemingly decided that a shurkien pouch was unnecesary or would get in the way as she only had a kunnai holster. Along with the unnecessarily long red dress she also had unnecessarily long pink hair that went down to the small of her back.
The girl was as tense as a cable that was being used in a tug of war between two kage, her body seemed to twitch at even the slightest noise and her eyes went from one part of the forest to another and sometimes would settle on her dark haired comrade.
Naruto Uzumaki however was completly diffrent in this instance. Despite his bright 'kill me' orange jumpsuit he seemingly faded into the background, his footsteps were also quieter than his teammates, he was almost as quiet as his sensei which the man took note of and the boy was unconsciously masking his chakra signature, something that in general only chunin or higher learnt to do.
These genin were all special in their own way in the eyes of Kakashi: Sasuke, the perfect mold for a mid-ranged ninjutsu fighter that could serve as backup for his teammates. Naruto, the perfect heavy hitter slash hit and run shinobi with his shadow clone jutsu and Sakura the perfect blank slate, ready to be molded into anything he could imagin.
It was a sudden noise and a knee jerk reaction that set of a very distressing series of events. The noise being a bush rustling and the knee jerk reaction being Naruto tossing a shuriken at said noise. As the boy silently parted the bushes to reveal that the source of the noise had been a snow white rabbit. As soon as Kakashi saw it his mind's gears started spinning quickly and a single word popped into his mind.
- Ambush !
The sound of something cutting through the air at high speeds was the sudden and only warning the genin got to hit the deck. Sakura had unfortunately been too slow in reacting and the blade was heading straight for her neck.
It was a flash of light and a metalic scraping sound that alerted everyone that the now visibly huge blade had been blocked by someone. Everything froze as Kakashi's eyes tryed to make out who the small frame behind the huge blade belonged to. One of his students? Not possible.
The Blade was redirected and ended up flying harmlessly past the small group however a huge intimidating man was there to catch it before it had the chance to indent itself into the wood. Despite the huge size of the blade the masked man rested it onto his shoulder as if it were a simple katana.
- Nice. The gruff voice started, I wasn't expecting someone to block my blade with such ease... Oh? But what is this ? Did the demon brothers miscount? They swore there was only five of you... Meh, that just means i get to kill an extra person.
Despite his words the missing ninja before them seemed on edge, he had really not expected anyone to be able to stop his blade, especially not one of the brats. Zabuza Momochi scanned the boy before him and took note of his rather relaxed apearance and forever excited demeanor.
- Oh Boy! I thought this was gonna' be boring, what with it being a B ranked mission and all, but i never expected to run into Zabuza Momochi of all people! My master said to make things quick but I think i'd like to drag this out as long as possible !
The words of the small boy seemed to anger the brute before him which in hindsight might not have been the smartest thing to do.
- Mhf, let's see if you can drag this out brat !
Despite the man's large size he moved fast however nowhere near as fast as Inutsuna, the boy's small frame along with his versatile flexibility allowed him to move fast enough to weave inbetween the huge shinobi's attacks.
Now as Kakashi had said, his day hadn't been going badly but now it was just going weird. Had Hokage-sama sent backup? If so why in gods name would he send a kid? Those thoughts were pushed aside however in favore of observing the young boy as he clashed with his enemy, zanbato against tanto, and realised that the boy didn't have a headband.
- Don't leave me out of the fun... Besides how would I look to my cute little genin if i didn't even fight a little ?
Zabuza leapt away from the quick little brat and turned to gaze at the jounin that was also now threatening to join in.
- Tssk, I was hoping I wouldn't have to use my trump card right off the bat but oh well... Haku you take care of the brat while I fight the copy nin over there.
- You think i'd let you get away ?
Inutsuna flashed towards his target but was suddenly forced to leap backwards as a hail of senbon stuck into the ground between himself and Zabuza.
- I'm you're opponent now.
Inutsuna wanted to swear, despite his jovial statement he really had wanted to get this over with as soon as possible... But maybe that wouldn't be so simple.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Kakashi was stood in a defensive stance with his kunnai drawn from its sheeth, the things were made of strudy metal, chakra conductive stuff that came from the heart of the most chakra saturated areas on earth. It was said that the first chakra conductive metal was found in a large crater which had, in legend, been host to the god tree. As time went along and the world evolved many more sources of the chakra conductive metal were found.
Kakashi's eyes drifted up to the zanbato that was currently resting on the shoulder of his advesary, the legendary Executioner's Blade. One of the swords that belonged to the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. The kid had said his name but only now as Kakashi was analysing the blade did he realise that the man before him was truely Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Hidden Mist.
The silence that reigned as Kakashi and Zabuza each analysed one another was tangible. Ninja battles were not generaly fought and won with big jutsu or crazy moves infact the deciding factor was rarely stamina or strength but speed and accuracy. Maybe that was why Kakashi was so calm in the face of the intimidating man who hid his face with bandage wraps. Apart from said bandage wraps on his face and the abnormaly long heaband that was twisted to the side with a scrape accross the mist symbol, the tall muscular man was dressed rather simply with a black sleeveless shirt that matched his pants along with a waist guard and the traditional striped Mist leg and arm warmers.
Kakashi was in comparison very simple looking with his standard jounin flak jacket worn above a dark blue long sleeved shirt and similarly colored pants. The only distinguishing features of his closet were his face mask, headband and steel plated fingerless gloves.
Kakashi felt the chakra start emanating from Zabuza as the man prepared for a jutsu but the white haired man reacted quickly, he tossed a shuriken at the tall man forcing him to dodge. The second Zabuza's feet left the ground Kakashi reacted, sending chakra to his feet and bursting forwards with speed that went with the title of jounin, he brought his kunnai into a sideways slash aimed at cutting the missing nin's gut open however the ex-Mist shinobi blocked the strike with the handle of his massive blade. As the sound of metal against metal rung in his ears, Zabuza attempted to bring his large blade down onto Kakashi's now exposed back. The white haired ninja was fast to react, spinning in the air with a simple kick to the ground he slammed his Kunnai into the side of the executioner's blade. Zabuza used his blade like a fly swat and pushed the annoying jounin away with a flick of his wrist.
Kakashi landed soflty on his feet as the stare down resumed between the two, each trying to determin the other's weakness. The sound from the fight between their allies began ringing out in the large clearing and just like that they set them off to kill each other, the sound of metal against metal sounded out once again rather loudly.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Sasuke wasn't sure how to react to all of this, the young Uchiha had been on a high from defeating the demon brothers when suddenly his team and their client had been ambushed. Sasuke cursed as he remembered the moment a boy younger than him had stopped the huge blade from decapitating his pink haired teammate. How was he so much stronger than him, Sasuke Uchiha ? The black haired avenger had trained, day in, day out. He had trained until his vision was blurry, his mind numb and his muscles torn... And yet he was now attempting to watch the fight between a ten year old brat and a twelve year old his age. Their moves were so fast that he could barely follow them as the blonde haired boy slowly whittled away at the strange black haired hunter-nin. Sasuke had not once felt so utterly outclassed by someone his own age, and he knew he was outclassed without even fighting with either of them. A strange mixture of feelings clouded Sasuke's mind, envy, jealousy, anger and... Sadness.
Sakura watched as her sensei took another blunt hit from the large executioner's blade, the shock wave from that type of attack must have at least done some damage to his muscles by now even if it hadn't broken a bone, however Kakashi had managed to get a good punch in on the missing ninja. Her brow creased as she frowned slightly, she wasn't entierly sure what use her team was in this situation, the two battles that were going on were completly out of their league, if they tried to join in they would probably become collatoral damage. However the pink haired girl's sharp eyes picked up on the fact that 'Haku', as Zabuza had called the person, was slowing down, it would seem that despite her speed and accuracy with the senbon she was not made for long winded battles. Just as she was thinking about asking her teamates wether they should join in she saw both Sasuke and Naruto leap into battle.
The sudden blows that hadn't originated from him did not manage to suprise the blue eyed boy however he did take advantage of his opponent's suprise to slice some ligaments in their arm. As both Naruto and Sasuke landed next to Inutsuna the young boy couldn't help but smile.
- Nice Kick Orange-san, little on the slow and clumsy side but it did the trick... Black-san you seemed a little too intent on harming the enemy and didn't take into account the return...
Inutsuna didn't have to fully word what he meant as the young Uchiha pulled out the senbon that had embedded itself into his hand. Before he could respond to the comment or question the boy's naming scheme Zabuza suddenly apeared behind his ally, one hand slinging his blade onto his shoulder while the other rested peacefully at his side. Despite his relaxed position the man seemed to send a furtive glance at his allies arm, an unknown emotion flashed on his face for a mere second but it was gone as fast as it had apeared. A Second later Kakashi was stood behind the three children who had launched their attacks onto the fake hunter-nin.
- We're leaving Haku... For now !
The dark laughter that was left behind as both enemies disapeared in a sudden flash of light was slightly spine chilling. Kakashi didn't exactly know what would happen when they got to the land of waves but he wasn't looking forward to it. The Leaf ninja's single eye drifted to the mysterious boy who had saved one of his students, said boy was currently wiping his blade with a piece of cloth.
- Who are you ?
The young blonde blinked as he turned his gaze up towards the tall white haired man, a broad smile that Kakashi could have easily mistaken for one of Naruto's plastered on his face.
- Name's Inutsuna, i'm here on behalf of Ryou-sama to hurry your mission along so that Naruto Uzumaki can return to the village... Now which one of you is Naruto-san? Master told me what he looks like but i kinda forgot !
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Ryou was still roaming the streets as the sun started to set and he had taken note of several things. Not long after he had talked to the child he had noticed that not many people were friendly when they saw a stranger, they didn't openly express any hatred and some even smilled sometimes but he could feel the caution whenever he talked to someone. His hand dug around in the plastic bag he was holding finnaly fishing out a small red candy. He tossed the small red treat into his mouth and began sucking on it, Ryou did really enjoy all of the foreign sweets that he tasted on his journey but he never could find ones like... Well that didn't really matter. He smilled brightly as the sweet flavor invaded his mouth, slowly his thoughts drifted towards the other things he had discovered.
He knew the hidden leaf had been formed from the unisson of the Senju and Uzumaki clan what he hadn't known was that the hidden leaf had taken the spiral of the Uzumaki clan, painted it red and now used it as a symbol for their jounin and chunin. Something deep within Ryou stirred each time he saw it on one of their clueless backs. He had asked one of the Jounin wether he knew what the symbol meant and the man had simply remplied that it represented his loyalty to the village. Infact barely anyone reacted positively to the name Uzumaki in this village, it was strange when they heard his name they seemed to be in disbelief about something. Unlike when he had visited Lightning country or Wind country, everyone there had known of the name Uzumaki, some reacted to it with fear, some with awe but none with hatred like that of some of the civilian populace in Konoha. It worried Ryou to a certain degree, did they hate the name Uzumaki or... Did they hate the thing they assossiated with the name Uzumaki... Ryou didn't want to think about it.
Ryou decided that the small park he had ended up wondering through was nice enough and so he took a seat on a bench that was sat under a particularly beautiful cherry blosom tree. He slowly let his mind rest as he thought over everything under the comforting aroma that the tree seemed to emit, it was like a soft blanket was wrapping his body in warmth. His mind drifted from his past to his progress towards his goal and dream. As soon as Inutsuna returned with Naruto he would talk to the Hokage again.
- Speak of the devil...
The elderly man seemed diffrent as he approached, he no longer adorned his Hokage hat, revealing his half bald head. The pipe that was currently resting in his hand gave off a smoky scent that despite being horrible for his health probably reassured the elderly man. It was strange the way something so horrible could seem so comforting in the right hands. Ryou supposed that could be said for a lot of things.
- Ryou-kun... May i sit next to you?
The dark haired Uzumaki saw no harm in indulging the elderly kage and so he smilled brightly and tapped the bench next to him. As soon as the professor sat down there was a change, a shift in the air around him. It was no longer the comforting air that had been surrounding seconds before, neither was it the attitude that he had when they first met... It was almost consoling...
- Ryou-kun... I had my Anbu investigate your past... But before that i had one of my sensors report back to me... They couldn't feel your chakra... at all...
Ryou tensed slightly as he realised what was coming next. The Hyuga clan resided in Konoha so no doubt the village leader had asked one to take a glimps while he was wandering around in town. It would seem he had been foolish to think that he would escape a meeting with a Kage without having some heart-wrenching memories dredged up.
- What happened- No, i shouldn't ask that as I already know... The messages we received a little before the fall of Uzushio... It said that a single man was keeping the armies of Kumo and Suna at bay...
Flashes of hazy memories returned to Ryou, memories of blood and death... Memories of suffering... He had killed so many... No he couldn't go back there. If he did, he wasn't sure if he could climb back out like he had back then...
- You paid a price during that war didn't you ? As did many... We thought you had paid with your life... We were certain of it, no single man could hold back an army for four days straight let alone two armies of fully trained chunin and jounin... How many were there ? If my memory serves me right there were a good thousand shinobi altogether... Barely Three hundred made it home...
Ryou's brown eyes became dark, almost as black as coal. His eyes flashed over to the elderly man sat next to him. His eyes were no longer that of the smilling young man the hokage had seen enter his office, neither were they the eyes of the smirking tactition that had out smarted one of the smartest men on earth... No these were the eyes of a hunter, a predator, an animal.
- The Kamikaze of Uzu... You lost your chakra on the fourth day didn't you ? Tsunade called it 'Tenketsu Implosion' I believe. The repeated use of the chakra network combined with the extreme abuse of soldier pills and opening the fourth gate of pain leading to a colapse of the tenketsu subsequently causing a blowback into the chakra coils... Yes, unfortunatly 'implosion' is an appropriate term.
The dark hair atop the Uzumaki's head caused a shadow to fall over his eyes. His left hand uncontiously gripped at his right arm, the memories of unending pain exploding from every pore of his body. A sour chuckled echoed out of Ryou's mouth, which had settled into a thin line something the Hokage knew was out of place on the man's face.
- Most people would have died. That would have been a blessing, the excruciating pain of having your entire chakra network blown apart by your own chakra from the inside out... Every molecule of my chakra network destroying itself... Any other pain feels like a slight prick from an insect in comparison... My Uzumaki blood ensured that i survived by making my body no longer rely on the chakra... If any doctor saw my insides they would call me a freak... My organs were made to survive using blood and chakra... But now they only survive on blood, my Uzumaki blood... The downside is that i have to eat a lot of food to stay alive...
- Yet you still wish to reform the clan ? People like you... They usualy end up hating their bloodline and become bloodline hunters...
For the first time since the man had lowered his head he saw Ryou's eyes as he looked up at him. Unlike the instinctual eyes that he had seen before these seemed burned with a purpose.
- I sacrificed everything to let the people of Uzushiogakure escape... I was weak for ten years after it happened, barely able to move at all for the first two years... But during that time I tried to find out anything i could about refugees from my village, I swore that I would find them and protect them... Just as i thought i had found a group of my people... The third shinobi world war began...
He spat out the words like a poison. Images of charred corpses and broken women flashed into his mind, his hand almost breaking the park benche's arm rest. However before it could break something took the wind out of Ryou's sails as he rested back into the bench, his eyes seeming to dull slightly, almost as if he had suddenly remembered something more.
- It was Leaf ninja...
The Hokage flinched as he tried to fully comprehend the words, as if they were foreign to him. He couldn't have said what Hiruzen thought he had, it wasn't possible no matter how you looked at it.
- I'm not sure of their motives. Might've been you who ordered it, i dunno... What I do know is that those bastards never made it back to their village, even in my weakened state I made them suffer before letting 'em die... Just like they had done to the refugy camp... It's why i've been avoiding this place...
The Hokage wracked his aged brain trying to remember... He couldn't, he had never heard of any refugee camps being destroyed save for the ones just outside of the hidden leaf and they had only been taken down because there was no one left in them...
It was a little flash of something, a memory, a piece of paper, a few written words... Something he had ignored at the time... But now as he forced his brain to remember, forced his neurons to connect, he realised how important that piece of paper was, the one that he had idly observed over the shoulder of a certain person .
- The camp was near hidden grass wasn't it ?
It had been a terrible incident, it was the first time the hidden leaf was empolying radios on the battlefield. They had proven exceedingly useful in testing, able to talk to someone who was miles away from you was an incredible advantage on a battlefield and the idea of being able to send orders from the village to the front lines almost instantly was something that quickly aided in convincing the fourth Hokage to employ the use of the technology... What hadn't been known was the heavy disruptions caused by the use of chakra and the ease that the ennemy could interfer with the signals when they were disrupted ... After the events the scientists of the hidden leaf had said that the radios used 'radio waves' in order to communicate but that most chakra functioned on the same sort of frequency... The use of radio waves in anything ninja related was scrapped after an incident with a portable microwave exploding and killing two ninja...
Iwagakure had been sending troups to capture and kill the refugies of the camp... The fourth had sent a message to send troups to protect the camp... Something happened to the message when it was sent, wether it was due to distortions or due to the ennemy sending fake messages was unknown.
- That was a tragic accident caused by a confusion in the chain of command.
Those dangerous eyes were back and on full blast, if looks could kill that park would have been set on fire and everything alive in it would have turned to dust.
- A tragic accident !? Attempted genocide was what it was ! They had gone through hell ! And they thought that that they were finnaly safe, at arms length of their allies ! I can imagin the looks of reassurance as they saw your ninja approach them and i can imagin the looks of betrayal as your ninja killed and raped my people.
Ryou's words cut into Hiruzen like a hot knife through butter, nothing he could say or do could reconsile the man before him. Hiruzen rose from his sitting position slowly, he could feel his Anbu guards tensing, preparing to strike the man down. What had the world come to when a grieving man couldn't express his emotions without someone preparing to kill him 'just in case'.
- There i nothing i could possibly do to fix what happened... But know that if you are looking for a fresh start for your clan... The hidden leaf would gladly welcome you with open arms.
- Let's just hope there isn't a kunnai hidden up one of its sleeves.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
- So do you mind telling us exactly why you came to our rescue, i know what you said about Naruto earlier but that can't be the whole reason right ? Surely your 'Ryou-sama' could have waited until we returned from our mission ?
Kakashi was sat on a log with Inutsuna next to him, his team currently out scouring for sticks to add to the fire that was providing a little light under the moonlit sky. The supprisingly gentle snoring of Tazuna being almost the only sound in the small clearing the group had set up camp in, it wasn't too far away from where they had fought Zabuza and his ally, accoarding to Tazuna it wouldn't take long to reach the river but Kakashi wanted every one to rest and recover, he wasn't sure what would happen when they reached wave.
- Ryou-sama wants to meet Naruto Uzumaki, that's all ! Of course he would send me, his loyal assisstant to hurry your mission along... He also said something about out witting the Hokage and that was why i had to go but I didn't really listen to that part...
- For all the admiration you show towards your master you don't seem to listen to him very well do you ?
Kakashi eye smilled slightly despite being completly lost. He had almost no clue what the hyperactive boy was talking about. He pretended to read his little orange book as he studied Inutsuna as closely as he could. There was a sudden rustling of a bush behind them and out lept a blur of Orange that plopped down on the log next to Inutsuna with his arms absolutly full of sticks.
- Hey! did someone mention my name again ?
- One's enough ! Ah sorry it's just Naruto... You two look way too much alike...
Inutsuna sweat dropped at the man's strange attitude but passed it off as being that thing where the stronger the person the weirder they were... That rule didn't apply to Ryou-sama however. Inutsuna looked at his fellow blonde and scratched his cheek, the hair color and the eyes were there but...
- He's got whiskers ! I don't have those... And he wears that aweful jumpsuit! I'm trying to resemble my wonderful master, not an orange !
- Yeah but you act like a dog... All you're missing is ears and you'd look like Naruto from a parallel universe... That reminds me of something from Icha Icha.
The perverted giggle that echoed out of the jonin's mouth only strengthened Inutsuna's suspisions about the little orange book the white haired man had been reading for a while. Naruto just scratched his head in confusion after having chucked his sticks onto the ground. He turned fully towards the young dog like boy and narrowed his eyes with his hand on his chin.
- Anyway watcha' want with me ? You don't look like anyone I know... And i'm good with faces!
- You are Naruto Uzumaki right, not anyone else? Well I'm Inutsuna Uzumaki !
Kakashi didn't outwardly react but inside alarm bells were going off in his head. His single eye that was normaly fixated on his precious was now turned fully to observe the young boy. They had traveled a short distance together to their current camping spot but the boy hadn't yet said his family name instead he had been leaping around making sure no one else was lurking in the tree line trying to flank them or ambush them.
There was another rustling sound and this time it was Sakura that came out of the bushes, she seemed to have more twigs sticking out of her messy pink hair than she had in her arms.
- Naruto-baka, i didn't know you had a brother ?
Naruto hid the elation he was feeling under a confused gaze as he studied his fellow blond. But Kakashi had caught that joy and it was something that almost broke him. If this Inutsuna was lying, well you wouldn't want to stand inbetween Kakashi and him. The sound of sticks being added to the growing pile distracted him from his thoughts however.
- I don't... At least i don't think i do...
It's true that seing as he was an orphan he didn't know wether or not he had a brother. But the confused look on Inutsuna's face said that there was something else that he was missing.
- I mean we might be related distantly but not necessarily... The Uzumaki clan was really big accoarding to Ryou-sama...
Once again the pleasant sound of sticks being added to the now quite large pile resounded through the clearing, the silent Uchiha had entered the clearing with a frown having been the last to return but he had still managed to heard some of the conversation.
- The Uzumaki clan ? There's no way the dead last is a part of a clan.
There was something in Sasuke's voice that confused Inutsuna. The words were not said with any malice, infact he sounded almost hopeful. Maybe he wanted Naruto to have a clan ? However why the young Uchiha would want that was completly beyond Inutsuna's mental capabilities.
- What do ya mean there's no way he's a part of a clan! Do you guys know nothing? Are ya' even genin? Whadaya think the red spiral on Shiro-san's jacket is?
There was sudden an awkward silence in the air as even Sakura didn't fully comprehend what the boy meant. Kakashi sighed slightly, there was no avoiding this, no amount of his sweet talk and cool attitude would be able to deviate the conversation.
- It's the Uzumaki Spiral...
Kakashi's single eye seemed composed but inside he felt sadness tug at his heart. Naruto would find out and when he did he would resent him for not having told him sooner.
- It's true Naruto... You... You had a Clan...
Naruto's eyes widened and Sasuke's Narrowed to the point that his black pupils were almost completly indistinguishable from his grey irises.
- Sensei... You said 'Had'...
Sasuke's voice came out alot colder than he meant it to. It was as if his breath was going to turn the humidity in the air to ice.
- The Uzumaki clan had been based in Uzushiogakure no sato... But during the second great shinobi war it was destroyed by Suna and Kumo... A lot of people managed to escape but... During the third great shinobi war there were several incidents and the number of known Uzumaki clan members diminished drasticaly... Infact by the time i was ten there were only three Uzumaki left in the village.
Naruto looked over at his sensei, past Inutsuna, with bright wide eyes with a shine to it that gave away the existance of tears that wanted desperatly to escape.
- So i wasn't just given a random name as an orphan? Who were my parents then? O-one of them m-must have been one of t-those three you mentioned right? So who was it?
The look in the blonde child's eyes tore away at Kakashi's heart, he wanted to tell him, he desperatly wanted to. But the Hokage would punish him...
So what ? A niggling little voice whispered in his mind. Who cares what he thinks or says? Naruto Deserves to know! The voice became louder and louder until it was almost deafening.
- It was Kushina Uzumaki... She truely loved you but she-
- She's dead aswell isn't she ?
Naruto's voice was so quiet and yet it was the only thing Kakashi could hear in the clearing. Before the white haired man could say anything else the orange clad boy staggered off into the forest, his vision blurry but tears still refused to fall.
Each person watched him leave with a diffrent emotion in their mind. Sasuke and Inutsuna observed with understanding. But Kakashi and Sakura could only feel sadness and regret.
Inutsuna raised from his sitting position and darted off to find his relative, a distant memory tugging at the back of his mind.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Ryou was still sat on the bench, only a single shadow was watching him now and for some reason the dark haired man could sense it was hesitating. Ryou's tired eyes looked up at where it was and he could practicaly feel it flinch slightly. He didn't know what he looked like right now but he knew that his eyes looked scary when he got into one of his moods.
- You should accept Hokage-sama's offer... I don't think anyone else would be inclined to give you such a good deal.
Ryou Met the eyes of the man who spoke, his form finnaly becoming visible as he stepped out of the shadows. The man infront of him was hidden under a black cloak and a white porcelain mask, he stood a good seven feet tall, towering over Ryou who was sat down. Despite his massive height it didn't seem strange because of his muscular frame that went well with his height. The handle of a huge blade stuck over his shoulder, indicating that he was definatly strong if nothing else. Upon the mask were a few red etched lines, an upsidown triangle where the nose was as well as a few flecks of colour along the sides of the mask were obviously meant to depict a bear of some sort.
- I... I know that...
Bear, as he was known in Anbu, was proud to be in the top ten most deadly shinobi of the village, however he had attemped to retire many times but he always seemed to return due to the fact that he hated the idea that if he did not fight other people would die in his place. He had fought in many of the greatest battles of the great third shinobi war and had even fought along side the yellow flash of Konoha. He had also been a part of what he could only call the worst 'clusterfuck' in the history of shinobi.
- I fought in Kusa.
The words were said without much emotion but Ryou could hear the sadness in the tall man's voice. The massive Anbu moved closer to the dark haired man and sat on the bench next to him.
- It was hell... At first everything had been going fine, me and my squad joined up with a group of Kusa shinobi, everyone had been managing to hold off the Iwa shinobi at their assigned locations. But then the ennemy started using guerrilla warfare... There were countless raids on Kusagakure's weapon stockpiles, Iwa shinobi redistributed the weapons to Kusa civilians along with propaganda, turning the village's civilian populace against their own shinobi and us, those who weren't convinced by the propaganda were kidnapped or raped to instill fear... We had ennemies at our fronts and our backs... Then came the disaster with the radios, after that the fighting had gone on for a while the air had began to saturate with chakra, the damn things either stopped working or worse began to malfunction... It must have been one of Iwa's scientists that exploited the weakness... They started sending out fake messages, fake orders... It was hell, my squad was ordered to execute the Kusa shinobi we had been working with up until then... I wouldn't stand for it... But my allies had diffrent ideas, they were loyal shinobi, too loyal... They couldn't fathom that the messages we were receiving weren't from our supperiors... In the end I killed my own squad trying to protect the Kusa shinobi who were only guilty of defending their village... But my squad wasn't the only one who had received this sort of order, hundreds of people found themselves with kunnai, tanto or even jutsu piercing their backs... We had ennemies infront of us, at our backs and even by our sides...
The silence that reigned as Bear finnished his tale was heavy and opressing. Something about it reminded the anbu of when they had received the twisted orders.
- You managed to get out of that unscathed ?
Bear let out a sour chuckled, one that resembled almost exaclty the sound that had escaped Ryou's lips in his conversation with the Hokage.
- Unscathed? Definatly not...
Bear poked his arms out from under his cloak and he slowly undid the protective Anbu arm guard that was tied onto his right arm. He rolled his black sleave up to reveal the horribly scarred skin that had been hidden underneath it. Ryou didn't gasp or flinch at the sight, he had seen worse, but a look of understanding crossed his face.
- Kusa's famous for using poison... That you probably know... What you don't know is that some shinobi developped poisons that melted anything and everything it came into contact with...
From the looks of his arm had bits of metal that had fused with the skin and hadn't been removed in time, his forearm was in the worst state however, it looked to be made out of pure metal due to the arm guard that had fused with his bone.
- So from one human who's been in the jaws of hell to another... Don't turn down an offer to camp outside the pearly gates, even if you know you'll never walk through them...
The large man rose and sighed slightly before disapearing and Ryou for the first time in a long time was completly alone, no Inutsuna and no shadows following him... He sat there and thought long and hard.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
I despise 'author's notes' above all else but i find it a necessity to clarify a few things. Ryou Yamada is, in all medical senses of the term 'young'. His body, organs, everything. They're that of a twenty six year old man. However his brain, despite also being that of a twenty six year old man in terms of brain matter, contains the knlowledge of a fifty six year old human. A human that has lived through two wars. Oh yeah, because i'm not entierly sure of the Naruto timeline i simply thought to myself 'Okay, i'll do it myself then' and decided that the second great shinobi war lasted two years with a ten year gap between it and the third great shinobi war. Uzushiogakure no sato was destroyed in the middle of the second great shinobi war however the land of whirlpools only fell at the very begining of the third shinobi world war:.
In my mind The alliances were as follows :
Second great shinobi world war :
- Konohagakure, Uzushiogakure, Takigakure, Tanigakure and Kusagakure
- Kumogakure, Sunagakure, Iwagakure, Amegakure, and Shimogakure
Neutral Villages :
- Kirigakure, Yugakure, Land of Claws, Land of Fangs, Land of Snow, Land of Iron and the Land of Tea
Third great shinobi world war :
-Konohagakure, Kusagakure(First Half), Sunagakure(Second Half), Takigakure and Tanigakure
-Iwagakure, Kusagakure(Second Half)
- Sunagakure(First Half) and Amegakure(First Half)
- Kumogakure, Kirigakure, Shimogakure
Neutral Villages :
- Yugakure, Amegakure(Second Half), Land of Claws, Land of Fangs, Land of Snow and the Land of Tea
It also needs to be said that Daimyos do have armies of Samuraï with maybe a few ninja here and there but they are not in anyway representatives of their country, be it millitarily, economicaly or politicaly. Daimyo are simply very rich people who have alot of land and enough money to pay samuraï and ninja alike to protect it. It is however true that they are a large source of income for hidden villages due to them hiring the ninja of their respective village and do hold alot of power because of this. The only reason Sunakagure fell into such poverty and desperation at the loss of the income the daimyo brought was because they are in a desert, not many clients in a bone dry expanse of dust are there ?
Another thing, and i promise this will be the end of my infernal ramblings that only a very small margin of people will read, is that the third great shinobi world war was devistating. Konoha, one of the five great shinobi villages, was pressured by all opposing parties due to it's geological position right smack bang in the middle of the other four meaning that it had to send genin and academy students to the front lines. Kinda like the hitler youth but i'm not gonna make that comparison 'cause Konoha are the 'good guys'...
Thank you for listening to my ramblings, if you did that is. I hope it helped in some way.