An agonized, high-pitched squeal echoed throughout the forests of Konoha, sending any animals, all except me of course, within a 500 meter radius packing as I dug my kunai knife through the owner's skull. Putting my weapon away in the pack that contained 42 others, I picked up the now dead boar's carcass and, slinging it over my shoulder, began making my way back to my apartment in the village.
"That's the sixth one today, man, I'm feelin' lucky!" I said to nobody in particular. It's been four years since the day I began plotting revenge against my discriminators and wanna-be murderers. I've been living mainly off of hunting the wildlife. I mainly sold the skins to caravans that came in every week or so and lived off of the meat. Of course, my inexperience lowered my pay and food because of my lack of stealth and the poor quality of my skins, but all it took was a couple stolen books and months of practice to fix that. I was six at the time, so I was at an age that allowed me to pick things up pretty quickly. At first, I didn't have any weapons, so I was stuck literally wrestling, chasing, clawing, and literally biting the heads off of boars, baby(soon graduating to adult) bears, and rabbits down. With how crude my hunting was, my senses, reflexes, and physical ability were a good deal beyond the average human. As soon as I got used to the lifestyle, it became easy: kill animals, make tons of cash on the now well-done skins, save even more money by using said animals' corpses for food and dealing with the lowest quality apartments, and use said saved money to advance my training as a shinobi by buying nin-/tai-jutsu scrolls, weapons, and training dummies. Today was the first day that I'd be enrolling in the ninja academy.
With an hour to spare, I used a jounin level jutsu I'd bribed off of some weaker jounin who'd been poor due to having a terrible team and a lazy attitude, both of which kept him from succeeding in any remotely dangerous, higher-paying jobs to teleport to the top of my roof. Factor in his splitting the pay from the D & occasional C ranks with the other three genin, and he's as good as desperate as a hobo. It's called the body-flicker jutsu. Quite convenient for saving time when moving from place to place, actually. Slipping into my house through the window, I began the part of my morning ritual that usually followed my hunts. I placed my boar corpses onto my dinner table and promptly skinned it with delicate, precise movements with my trusty ninja knives.
Now you may be wondering, why do I, someone who hasn't even begun to train officially as a ninja(yet) have kunai knives. Well, I bought them as well as other basic ninja projectiles for almost twice the usual price from an 'underground' illegal vendor. Gotta say, the quality was top-notch and it gave me the edge when it came to proactive ninja training. After separating the skin, I popped it into the kitchen oven. It'd probably be done cooking by the time I finished taking a shower.
Twenty minutes later
Having finished putting on my clothes, I checked myself in the mirror one last time. Adorned on my torso was a tight brown tee/vest hybrid that I wove myself, thin & flexible enough to not restrict movement, but sturdy enough to block atleast 12 shuriken and protect from the cold. On my forearm were some grey-brownish warmers that had some lightweight metal hidden inside so that I could use it for both keeping warm and deflecting any weapon sans windmill shuriken a and broadswords. I had some finger-less gloves on both hands, both equipped with tiny steel adornments that just barely covered my knuckles. I had some green cargo pants with brown outlines kept on with a very thin, yet ultra-dense brown belt. The pants were a nice fit for a ninja, not restricting any movement while allowing more than enough pockets to house any weapons one may need. Finally, I tossed on a white cloak not only for looking badass but also to not let anyone see how armed to the teeth I was. The entire outfit served as camouflage for the trees, allowing me to save chakra usually used up by the henge and apply it elsewhere. I struck a couple of poses and smiled with perfect teeth before stepping into my black steel-tip boots and, with a satisfied 'Yosh,' making my way down to take out my awesome smelling boar. As I took it out, I checked my watch to see that I had a half an hour until the class started. Wiping away some drool, I placed the cooked boar on a plate and took out a fork.
"I can(and have) down eight of these in 30 minutes, so I should have plenty of time to spare." I said as I began horking down the helpless breakfast in front of me, forgetting to say 'Itadakimasu.' Staying true to my word, the food in front of me was finished, bones and all, in just under four minutes. I brushed my teeth quickly, yet thoroughly before leaving my house through the front door. Knowing that I had a good 25 minutes left, I decided for the first time in years to take a leisurely stroll through the village I'd grow up to destroy. It was then that I got greeted by the demon fox residing inside of me.
"Hey, kit. Did you- what the hell!? What happened to my cage!? Everything's fucking pink! Is that... BARBIE MUSIC!? DO SOMETHING!" The fox shrieked in fear. At this, I snickered. Revenge was sweet, and I bet he wasn't expecting me to be able to go into my mind and alter the sealing area of it at will.
'I wasn't kidding when I said I'd get you back for flashing perverted images into my mind and not shutting the hell up about me getting laid.'
"Oh shut up. You know you liked that last one with me in my human fo- OH GAWD NOT THE CHEETAH GIRLS! NOT THE CHEETAH GIRLS!"
Luckily, she was too busy being tortured to notice the furious blush on my face as I left the building. I blocked out yesterday's events by thinking of something else pertaining to the impossible-to-ignore screaming fox in my head, our first conversation.
Flashback: 4 Years
I'd just escaped the village and collapsed in a random clearing who knows where. Those bastards must die. All of them! They'll regret what they've done and die in the most sinister ways possible. As soon as I thought that, images of all kinds of methods for torturing and mauling popped onto my mind, causing a sadistic smile to form on my face. It was then that I heard a voice.
"Holy crap! That's some good shit going on in that fucked up brain of yours!" The voice boomed. And before I could say 'what the fuck,' it continued again.
"Dammnnn! Must suck to be that guy! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Shit, did you see the look on his face- awwwww, come on! Why'd ya have to cut the footage! That's the most interesting shit I've seen in the past 278 years!" Now I had a pusses random voice in my head. Was I really going crazy?
"Oh yeah, almost forgot." I didn't even have a chance to begin to try to figure out what it meant as I instantaneously found myself in a huge empty looking area. The floor was mysteriously lit by a nonexistent light, as was the cell in front of me. To say what awaited my eyes in there utterly shocked me would be a gross understatement. A huge, orange, sinister-looking fox walked from out of the shadows and met me face to face. The ominous red glow in its eyes, as well as the suffocating killing intent that leaked out despite its neutral expression told me all I needed to know. This was the legendary nine-tails, the famed embodiment of evil, epitome of death, stood before me, behind bars.
"Welcome kit. Long story short, this is in your mind at the specific place I was sealed. You probably know who I am and why I'm here so I'll spare you the explanation." The Kyuubi said nonchalantly. As soon as my evident shock wore off, the my entire life flashed before my eyes. The hardships, the beatings, the injustice, all of it. Through every flashback, I heard one thing that was universally repeated among all of them. Kyuubi. It was this asshole's fault! All of it!
"You... You made my life a living hell! Why'd you have to attack the fucking leaf village, huh!? If you'd kept your damn killing sprees elsewhere, my life wouldn't be the way it is!" I yelled while pointing an accusing finger at the culprit. At this, I saw the Kyuubi wince one time before taking another step forward laying down, resting its head on its criss-crossed paws.
"You've got the wrong idea here, kit. I didn't attack the village of my own free will. There was this man powerful enough to forcefully summon and possess me without making a contract- not that there ever were people to form contracts with any of the tailed beasts. I remember, he battled the first Hokage many times, using me as a tool in them. He lost almost every time, but was caught before he escaped once. When the first finished him off, not knowing that he survived, the man went into hiding for many years, all of which I used trying to bolster my defense and chakra so that he'd be unable to control me due to the setbacks that were his years of recovering from extreme injury. However, I underestimated him as he did the very same thing and had me attack the village in an attempt to get revenge for whatever grudge he'd been holding against them. I remember it like it was yesterday, me killing thousands of people with my chakra cannon and battling hordes of desperate shinobi as the masked man went to fight the fourth Hokage. Ultimately, the man lost again, and the fourth freed me from his control with some sort of jutsu. However, the other ninja didn't seem to notice as the salvos continued. I had no choice but to fight back in order to protect myself, and, seeing this, the fourth Hokage sealed me inside you. He could've called his ninja off, but no, he decided to imprison me in this hellhole for as long as you live, destined to die when you do!" The fox began tearing up as his face twisted into one of anger and hate. The fox suffered the same kind of discriminatory hell I did! Having so many uncontrollable injustices done on it, I could only sympathize. He lost even more than I did, his freedom, his life. The tailed beasts, or demons in general, have been around since the beginning of time, what if it had friends, family!? Slipping through the bars meant to hold this oversized creature, I went and hugged its nose, much to the Kyuubi's surprise.
"You and I are the same." I said. That was all it took for the nine-tails to start letting the drops of sorrow fall freely. What I saw next did surprise me, though. While the Kyuubi was crying, the voice's pitch began to slowly rise while it's size and feral features faded. After about a minute, she revealed herself as a curled up teenager, one with red eyes and hair. Her skin was smooth and flawless, and her face was adorned with feminine, delicate curves. Her body was shaped perfectly, with decently sized... *gulps inwardly* assets, and beautifully toned legs, all shown off with her less-than-modest white, loose half-shirt, red denim shorts, and sneakers for a somewhat street-look. Factor in the connotation of 'street' which just draws your eyes to the very lightly covering clothes and you've got yourself an undeniably beautiful girl. Wiping the look of shock as well as the nose bleed off of my face, I went up to her and hugged her tightly. Before I knew it, I was crying just as loudly as she was, if not more so. I let loose the frustration, the pain, the loneliness that I'd kept bottled up for all these years, and so did she.
Flashback End
Over the years, I learned to enter the subconscious state that I was in the first time at will, and spent a lot of imminence with her in my dreams(she was quite an attention whore).
"I fucking heard that, kit!"
'Stupid fucking mind-reading ability...' I materialized myself up there in her cage for a split second to make sure that was extra loud for her. I didn't mind our love/hate relationship, except for the hate part. I was planning on making her cell much more welcoming while she was asleep yesterday when her period kicked in and she just began talking of nothing but getting laid and explaining every aspect of the more common lemon scenarios. I was stuck with the torture for the entire day, non-stop, and I had no way to block her out.
'I know you're blushing up there, Kyuu-chan!'
"Sh-shut up! Focus on getting to the academy! Did you master the clone jutsu?"
'Changing the subject, hm? Looks like someone has a weak spot~'
"I'm never gonna here the end of it tonight, am I?"
'Nope!' I mused. She ended the conversation with a growl and I just now began paying attention to my surroundings. I should be halfway there. Looking around, I chuckled to myself at how people always cleared a path wide enough for 3 of me to stand side-by-side in. The glares, middle fingers, and scowls didn't go unnoticed by me, though one hell of a realistic growl(courtesy of kyuu-chan's teaching) was all it took to get them to sweat profusely and turn the other way. Today was one of many steps that'd lead to their destruction. Everything they said about me going to destroy the village is true now. Aside from the cold shoulder I was getting, it looked pretty nice out. The sun was out, but partially covered by the numerous clouds in the sky. That coupled with the nice breeze out left it at an easily tolerable temperature. The evergreen leaves fluttering in the wind and the lively grass only served to compliment the lovely scenery that much more. As soon as I thought of what it'd look like in an after-destruction setting, I had to fight the urge to let out an ear-to-ear grin. My fantasizing about that future kept me occupied for the entire rest of the walk. To my surprise, I made it there with seven minutes to spare.
As I was about to enter the building, I noticed a crowd over to my right, in what looked to be the training area. Curious at what the commotion was. While it mostly consisted of girls, the group of kids included atleast twenty males in its population of about 80. Squeezing my way through, I saw a blue-haired kid standing in the center of it all. Wondering why there was so much hype about this one kid, I decided to watch like the rest of him. After about a minute of waiting, the kid's shot open in an expression of complete concentration as he went through a set of hand seals.
"Fire style: Fireball Jutsu!" He yelled, before a flames ignited around his mouth and shot forward in the shape of a ball. The dummy in front of him was completely destroyed, and the fireball trailed on another 20 meters before dissipating. It was simple, but powerful and effective. At this, the crowd went wild, screaming all kinds of praises from fangirls expressing their affections with heart-shaped eyes from other guys kissing his ass while asking to learn the same jutsu. Inching my way through the crowd, I went up and asked him one question that shook everyone around me into an awkward silence.
"Care to spar?" He looked like he ranked pretty high among the ninjas-in-training, and it just so happened that that was exactly what I wanted to find out. Where I stood in terms if strength among them. I soon heard whispers breaking the silence. With my sharpened ears, I heard every word.
"Is he some sort of idiot?"
"He's joking, right? Sasuke's like, unbeatable!" Sasuke. That's his name.
"That kid's gonna get his ass kicked to and fro."
"His unconscious body will be one for the yearbooks."
All sort of gossip went on, before an amused smirk came from the kid I challenged.
"You're on." He said. The crowd gasped, the gossip in both number and volume jumped up, and we were given some room.
"Anything goes for you." I stated casually. The Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow.
"For me?"
"Use whatever. Justus, weapons, anything. I'm going to be using only one jutsu and my fists." I responded, throwing off my cloak and pulling my gloves on extra tight to show that I meant business. At this point I just tuned out the others.
"Don't get too cocky, kid." He replied with a challenging look. A tick mark appeared on my forehead. 'Kid?' He may be a year or so earlier but come on! After that, he launched at me, kunai drawn. I assume he's both trying to make me pay and trying to finish this up before class started. Immediately, I went on the defensive, ducking his slices and parrying his longer distance kicks to try and get a feel for his style. As I observed how he attacked, I saw so many openings that it wasn't even funny. His technique was flawless, and he was fairly quick, but he didn't plan his next courses of actions. Anyone with basic battle theory could see his combos made no sense, using unnecessarily flashy moves and going against either momentum or gravity for a good amount of his follow-ups. From the looks of it, he's so used to being hopelessly far ahead of his opponent that he's gotten away with free styling or, from a more blunt & tactical standpoint, flailing.
"Getting cold feet already?" He taunted. I simply replied with a spinning back kick to his stomach that sent him flying 15 or so meters onto his back. He coughed repeatedly with his face twisted in pain. I only hit him with about 35%...
"All bark and no bite it seems. What a waste." I said with a sigh, hands on my forehead and turning my back to him for added effect. It worked pretty well if his quick kick up, sharingan, and murderous smile were any indication. Blurring through hand seals, he quickly launched a salvo of rapid-fire fireballs at me.
"Fire style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" He yelled, following close behind his projectiles. I dodged them all with ease due to their lack of accuracy and quickly went in for the intercept. I'd read enough about the Sharingan to know what to expect. Sharingan gives their users incredible perception, able to predict an enemy's next moves with even the slightest twitch in muscle, see chakra to the point where genjutsu is absolutely useless against them, and copy any jutsu, actions, or hand seals provided they have the physical and spiritual ability to perform them. With this in mind, I simply planned out counters to his counters. I knew my style of fighting well enough to know all of its openings and predict which ones people were going to make use of based on their position and set up counterattacks accordingly. He countered my head roundhouse kick with a sweep kick that knocked me off of my feet, but ate my foot with his face once I used the momentum of my fall and added to that with my own speed, spinning while sticking my foot out almost instantaneously after he countered. If his arrogant trust in his prowess was bad at first, it was even worse once he used the sharingan as he continued to attack the same way. Of course, the occurrences kept repeating over and over, until it got to the point that even I could barely imagine his embarrassment. He was struggling to get up from another knockdown when I shook my head disapprovingly and held up one hand.
"We're done. There's no point in continuing any further." I said. I'd just turned my back and begun walking in the direction of the academy with my hands in my pocket when I felt the disturbance in the air as something cut through it. Based off of the way the concentration of oxygen shifted as well as the slight difference in the angles at which the water vapor tapped my face, I could tell a sharp projectile was heading towards my head at breakneck speeds. A kunai. Craning my neck to the side ever so slightly, I let the ninja weapon whiz past my head, cutting off a small strand of my hair.
"It's... Huff... Not over... Yet." That Sasuke could barely breathe and he continued to challenge me? Talk about stubborn.
"It's over, damnit. Class is about to start." I spat back, my annoyance evident in my voice. But yet, he pressed on.
"... How?" He coughed. I can't I'm about to fucking explain this kid's flaws. I'm not his damn teacher. Taking a deep breath and a sigh, I turned towards him.
"Here's your problem. You didn't know how to deal with someone faster, stronger, or more experienced than him- you couldn't adapt. I'd been fighting for my life since I was born, forced to move cautiously, plan everything out lest I die. I, as an untrained 7 year old I had to figure out how to take down 700-1,500 pound bears with my bare hands, I had to figure out how to stealthily sneak up on rabbits with ears bigger than my hands in a forest filled with dry leaves & bushes, to both kill and outrun foxes whom could run at over 40 mph and trace scents from miles away. You're so reliant on natural talent and brute force that you neglected to even try to pick up the ability to adapt or to plan out attacks that aren't flashy for no reason or filled with holes that anyone, sharingan or not, could easily pick out. I didn't even have to use the one jutsu I mentioned earlier once because of that." I finished sourly being reminded of the hardships I had to endure because they were better than living in the village.
RINGGGGGGGGGG
Thanks bell, I needed that one. Clearing my thoughts, I turned and began walking back to the academy entrance when I was intercepted by a bunch of fangirls & boys. As they drew their kunai and began passionately yelling Sasuke-defense words that I didn't care enough to even pay attention to, I just used the body flicker technique to teleport past them and make my way to the classroom before they even realized that they were talking to clone illusion I left behind.