A/N: One of you have asked in a PM why I started Naruto off as an Asura instead of some other class like a Blade Master (my favorite Slayer Class for more options in weapons), which made me ask myself, 'what if I chose to start Naruto off as a class not an Asura?' which in turn prompted me to do a one-shot. And since this was started over the Blade Master, I'll start with the Blade Master…do read and review would you kindly?

…

[Play: "Cruise Liner Stern Stage -Europe-" by Hideyuki Fukasawa]

[Underground Fighting Arena, somewhere in Tanzaku City…]

Tanzaku City was a place well known for the fact that it was the gambling capital of the world, which comprised life on the surface. Unknown to rest of the Elemental Nations, was that this place also hosted underground fighting arenas where people fought in illegal matches. Some fought for fame, others fought for the prize money, but all fought and spilled blood on the sands—a tradition that should have died out long ago, and had been illegalized for millennia. Alas, while the long arm of the law ruled the day, the underground ruled the night, and so it came to pass that underground fighting arenas that fought to the death survived.

As the current spectacle went on, the crowd was cheering as a man with a pair of battle axes fought with a young girl wearing a brown and orange hoodie and boxing gloves, and had a golden aura over her hands that danced around his clumsy swings with little effort. With every swing of his axe, the girl wove effortlessly and grinning at him—rubbing salt in his wounds due to the fact that she was not even breaking a sweat. The second she got close enough, the girl sidestepped a downward swing before kicking the man in his shin and following through with a heavy straight punch to his face, plastering a stupid look on his face as he slipped into unconsciousness. This elicited more cheers from the crowd as they saw how effortlessly the axeman was beaten.

The grin on the girl's face made it obvious that she was relishing in her victory. "Ladies and Gentlemen," barked the referee into the microphone, lifting the girl's hand, "with seven consecutive wins today, Baihe Meilan!" At that, the crowd cheered the girl's name. "But wait? What do we have here? It looks like we have another challenger!" Now the girl named Meilan had her hand dropped gently and stood at the ready for her next opponent.

"An interesting match we're about to have here folks," continued the referee, after he gained silence from the audience, "we have a mysterious swordsman coming up to bat today! Our Rōnin friend is here to slice and dice his opponents to bits, and his skills will leave you wondering 'what the hell just happened? How did I lose?'! On the challenger's side, we have the almighty swordsman, Blade Fox!"

The crowd looked down upon the fighter known as Blade Fox. He was a boy around Meilan's age who wore nothing over his ripped abs except a red, sleeveless haori that had a tail going down to his thighs. He also wore a pair of black hakama that hid a pair of geta-wearing feet. He wore an ornately-made katana on his left side, and the heavy shackles he wore on his whitened left arm gave him an exotic appearance while also serving as a sort of buckler for defense. The boy's identity was obscured by the kitsune mask he wore, but she could see that he had a darkening tan complexion and slightly chiseled features for his age, and golden hair that bordered on cream-colored.

With every step he took, he seemed to leave an after-image of himself. That was definitely not normal, and Meilan knew it—she also knew it was not normal for her to be ogling at a boy at a time like this! "Oi, ossan!" called out the boy to the referee, "I just have to beat her in order to win the prize money right?"

"That's right my boy," said the referee, shaking off the scandalized look on his face, "Sixty-five thousand ryo is all yours if you manage to beat our top contender!"

At that, the boy widened his grin. "Well then, let's see if I need to get serious or not."

The first thing that he did was to reach his hand out to the side; the second he did that, chakra seemed to trace through the air into the wireframe of what appeared to be a six-foot-long quarterstaff with a lacquered shaft, steel end caps, and three steel hoops that divided the rod into four equal sections. As she saw this, Meilan shook off her momentary amazement and chuckled lightly. "Are you compensating for something? Because I was under the impression you were a swordsman."

"Don't get me wrong, I really am a swordsman, I'm just testing the waters a bit," said the boy, with a cocky grin on his face as he had the quarterstaff in a ready position fitting for a staff, "I only hope you prove that the stick will be enough. I'd hate to cut up something as pretty as your face."

Meilan blushed slightly before she shifted her stance, and readied herself to strike. "By the time this match is over, you'll wish you took me seriously!"

The referee raised his hand. "Fighters, at the ready…" The tension built up as he then glanced at each fighter. "FIGHT!"

It started off as quick as lightning! Meilan and the pole-wielding boy charged each other, with the boy starting the fight with a swift thrust of his weapon, and Meilan ducking under it. Blade Fox then dodged an uppercut by hopping backward just in time to counter with a swing of his pole, successfully hitting the girl in the shin and tripping her up before Meilan managed to recover with a back-flip so that she could watch him twirling his weapon skillfully. "You're good," he said, lowering the tip of his staff, "but let's see how good you really are!"

…

[Up in the stands…]

As the two fighters continued their battle, with Blade Fox forcing his opponent to dance as he quickly and rapidly drove the staff downward, trying to crush her instep and handicap her, before bending backwards under a sweeping jump kick and taking advantage of the moment to make a low and heavy swing at her ankles. Her response was to flip over the staff to attempt an aerial axe kick—to which her opponent countered by holding his staff upwards to catch the kick, obviously feeling the transfer of energy moving from the staff, to his hands, and shooting rather quickly to the soles of his feet. It was painful, and hard to keep this up, but he was able to keep this to a standstill as he pushed back; his opponent did not want to risk losing her balance after all, and so the two of them continued the subtle match of tug-of-war, trying to outwit each other.

In the meantime, a shinobi team led by a man with a bowl cut sat on the bleachers watching the fight. One of them was a regal, raven-haired boy with the white eyes of the Hyūga clan, glaring down at the spectacle with the utmost in contempt; another was a scrawny boy with a bowl-cut and big, round eyes that looked on at the match excitedly; and the only girl in the team had a contemplative look on her face as she observed the match. "Sugoi! Their flames of youth are burning very brightly in this match!" cried out a big-eyed shinobi, "What I wouldn't give to be down there now!"

"Now, now, Lee; if you joined in, it'd be a spot on your record—we're technically breaking the law as it is coming down here, and the only reason I'm doing this is to show you what it's like in underground fighting arenas," said a man with a matching bowl-cut to the boy, eliciting a sigh of depression from the latter, "but if you're that interested in fighting a worthy opponent, I've already signed all of you up for the Chūnin Exams coming up."

At this, the boy named Lee had perked up at this information; oh he would be looking forward to this day! Once he was satisfied with the boy's reaction, the team leader turned to his only female student, who had not taken that contemplative look off her face. "A mon for your thoughts Tenten?"

"I honestly don't know, Gai-sensei," began the girl named Tenten, not taking her eyes off the fight once, "but something about that masked fighter bothers me…his staff in particular. It's probably just me, but for a moment, I thought I saw something being formed inside the shaft—made me think of another weapon I know of."

Now this really bothered Gai…Tenten knew her weapons very well—in fact, the girl was practically a weapons otaku! Which was no surprise, given that he taught her how to use every single weapon she stored away in her scroll. Before he could say a word however, everyone turned their attention back to the match at hand upon hearing laughter.

…

[Arena Floor…]

Blade Fox's resounded throughout the arena, silencing everyone. "What's so funny?" asked Meilan, continuing the bear down on her opponent's staff.

"Because I know something that you don't."

Noticing her opponent's legs starting to falter, Meilan could only scoff. "Let me guess; you're not left-handed?"

This did not take the grin she felt off Blade Fox's face. "No…it's just that this weapon is not a staff!"

A single moment was all it took for Blade Fox to regain his footing as he planted both feet into the ground before making a very heavy tug on the staff, forcing the remaining three quarters of the shaft flying to the side like a javelin, revealing the weapon's true form! It was a nodachi!

With whatever strength she could muster, Meilan used what strength she had to back-flip away just to avoid losing her leg as Blade Fox attempted to use a single hand to slice upwards in an attempt to dismember his opponent before bringing it back down to make a low slash and ending it by standing in a ready stance.

…

[Up in the stands…]

"I thought that sword looked familiar!" shouted Tenten, in pure amazement, "That's Monohoshizao!"

Gai turned to face his female student; a mixture of disbelief and amazement—amazement that Tenten was able to identify the sword, but disbelief as to its identity. "Are you sure about that?"

"Positive!" answered Tenten, "The exact dimensions of that blade were recorded in the list of Wazamono!"

As he was not as interested in weapons as Tenten was, Lee could not help but wonder as to what was so special about a sword that his female teammate was so active about it. But the way she spoke made it seem like a big deal. "What's so special about that sword?"

Tenten looked at Lee, and also saw her other male teammate looking at her with a 'so what?' silently being said on his face. "Only that it belonged to quite possibly one of the best swordsmen the world has ever seen—it was the sword of Sasaki Kojiro, a contemporary and the ultimate rival of Miyamoto Musashi."

Now this really got Lee's attention; he was by no means a history buff, but even he knew the second name that Tenten had rolled out—because there was no name in the Shinobi World that was more feared than that of the infamous (yet respected all the same) rōnin Miyamoto Musashi. Even after the man's death by disease a long time ago, the very mention of his name continues to bring chills down the spines of many kunoichi and shinobi to this day (to the point where it is rumored that even Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara feared him more than the bogeyman)…and for good reason; Musashi was quite possibly one of the deadliest non-shinobi warriors to have ever graced the world, with a rather high kill count of shinobi and kunoichi alike added to his already impressive dueling record. His rival Sasaki Kojiro was by no means a no-name samurai himself; it was said that up until his ill-fated duel with Musashi on his headquarters and school at Ganryū Island, he was practically untouchable and that his infamous Tsubame Gaeshi was fast enough to earn him a kill count comparable to Musashi's.

"Fate will not save him," interrupted the Hyūga teammate, watching as the two fighters continued their battle, "he's fighting with an opponent that is obviously stronger than he is. No matter the weapon he's chosen, his fate has already been decided for defeat."

"Don't think for a second that fate is set in stone Neji," said Gai, turning to face the pale-eyed boy, "you may be surprised as to the twists in the story that life has in store for us. Sometimes, those twists happen when we least expect them."

…

[The Arena…]

As the fight progressed, it was apparent that Blade Fox was on the defensive—but at the same time, he was able to keep Meilan at a distance with the wide, sweeping cuts of his nodachi, quickly moving the blade in to block whenever she got close, and counterattacking with his now-drawn katana. It was apparent to everyone that the cream-haired boy was strong enough to wield such a heavy weapon in one hand and a regular-sized katana in the other. His opponent on the other hand was able to gracefully dance around the attacks, trying her hardest to get closer and closer to the point where his blades would be useless.

It was at this moment that Meilan caught an opening! She dashed in, jumped over a low slash from the nodachi, side-stepped away from the uppercut from the katana, and managed to graze the side of the mask with her fastest punch, with enough force to put a crack on it. Blade Fox on the other hand, was barely able to bend his body away at the last minute, to the point where he took that graze…however, it wasn't over for him, because Meilan managed to grab the back of his head, drive his forehead into her knee, and then spin around to uppercut him—totally shattering the mask and landing him face-down on the floor.

Seeing the fighter down, the referee was about to call it until he saw the boy standing up. It was at this moment that the entire arena appreciated the look of the Blade Fox's face—smoldering cerulean eyes, six whisker marks framing his face, and a feral grin that seemed to make things disturbing when he was bleeding at the mouth. The boy's identity was clear to Team Gai; this was Uzumaki Naruto! "In all honesty, I'm enjoying this match," he finally said, sheathing his katana, and finally un-summoning his nodachi, "especially now that I know I don't have to hold back!"

Meilan simply scoffed as she watched her opponent get into a hand-to-hand stance. The smile on her face however, was of sincere excitement—now it was on! "You're not the only one that's excited that you're getting serious; I was beginning to wonder if you were worth my time at all."

"Oh, I am…I just hope you've got time for some poetry…"

At that, everyone wondered exactly what this boy was talking about—some even believed that he was going insane. However, this did not stop Naruto from reciting the first line of his rhyme:

I am the bone of my sword…

…

A/N: I figured for this chapter, if I'm changing Naruto's class, I may as well make Meilan a Striker as well.