Disclaimer: The following is a fan-based parody. Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, and Boruto are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto. RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth. Please support the official release.
Chapter 8: Something Older Than Ninshu
All for the eye could see was the thick fall of the blizzard falling down on the already knee-deep. Such is the weather of Iron Country at its worst in the latter of the year. It was only exceeded by the tundras of Snow Country, yet the Iron Country can take a sharp contrast in the coming spring and spring when the fields become emerald from the grass and the trees bloom pink from the cherry blossoms. Such was the harsh beauty of the last land of the samurai.
The Land of Iron was unlike anywhere else of the Elemental Nations. Where there was at least some shinobi influence in remote villages, Iron Country was totally dominated by the way of the samurai. It was in fact a warrior culture older than even Ninshu, making Iron Country the oldest civilization on the continent. Villages and towns were more condensed in the country compared to shinobi lands, and would slowly grow into cities when coming to the capital.
For as long as Ninshu has been around, the Land of Iron has always been solely neutral through every conflict, going so far as to ignore the Shinobi Wars entirely. There was always the possibility of one shinobi village being too ambitious to believe themselves in taking the Land of Iron, but it is a 'well-known secret' to all shinobi to not underestimate the land of the samurai.
While the shinobi may be the dominant military in the continent, the samurai were not their inferior. Where the shinobi had their wide variety of ninjutsu and genjutsu through their developed use of chakra, the samurai who have been around longer than the shinobi utilized chakra in a more simpler way. As a result, the proper samurai of Iron Country were unrivaled with the blade, and their abundant access to precious metals and refined traditional smithing practices made them the best makers of armors and weapons. There were even rumors of samurai having sword techniques that rivaled ninjutsu yet were older than the existence of chakra. So far, those rumors have never been confirmed despite some shinobi trying to find out for themselves.
Walking across this bleak white expanse of snow were two travelers. The one in the lead was wearing a well-kept red cloak over thick furs of dark blue, and the one behind wore a simple green cloak with a dark fur lining worn over a coat being a mix of red scales and black fur. On their backs were lightly packed backpacks filled with scrolls covered in fuinjutsu calligraphy. For travelers daring the harsh weather, they were awfully short being the height of children nearing their adolescent years, but they didn't look to struggle in the snow. Just who were these two?
"I've never seen so much snow." The leading one spoke, their voice revealing herself to be a girl. "It's really pretty. Don't you think so, Shirou?"
Of course, the pair themselves were the illustrious Ruby Rose-Uchiha and Shirou Arashi making a trek across the lands of Iron Country directly to the capital. It has been a year and a half since Shirou became a part of Ruby's life. A year and a half that the redhead trained alongside her, soon coming to stand beside her. The reason of why they weren't freezing in the frigid temperature was due to an exercise of channeling a precise amount of fire chakra all over their body to keep themselves warm.
Where Ruby was the better ninjutsu fighter, Shirou proved himself as an absolute monster with his kenjutsu skills and his use of 'bending' chakra elements. Ruby had the advantage in their taijutsu fights, but only when she was pushed to use her Sharingan and occasionally would Shirou force her to go into Mangekyou by accident. One would have felt afraid of someone making so much progress, but Ruby simply could not be anymore happier for Shirou. He was becoming just as awesome as she knew he would be, and even more so in some areas. Both of them have started to grow with Ruby reaching 5'1" in height, but it came as a surprise that Shirou was starting to exceed her height as he was standing at a healthy 5'3". The silver-eyed Uchiha hoped to Kami and the Shinto gods that she wasn't going to become a shorty.
"Are you sure we have to come all the way out here just for some weapons?" Shirou wondered, his left green eye visible under his hood.
"Yes!" Ruby exclaimed. "There is no other way to get a better weapon than from the samurai themselves. Only the absolute best for you Shirou."
'And I want to see all that they have in stock.' Ruby thought, nearly drooling at the prospect of looking over masterly crafted blades... or even creating a few herself via the samurai smiths. 'Best trip ever!'
Madara was alright with Ruby going on this long trip with just Shirou beside her. Though she always noticed there was this odd tension from Madara as if he was trying to figure out if the Rinnegan could do laser eyes and blast Shirou with it. Those glares made Shirou more often to stay at Ruby's house until he became a permanent residence, which made her all the more happier.
However, there was another reason for their journey into Iron Country, and it pertained to a strange set of sword styles from the Uzumaki trove. Apparently, Whirlpool Country was once known to be a sister to the Iron Country in terms of the samurai culture. There was no official shinobi village in Whirlpool Country, but its people were famed for their talent with the sword. What was off about the style was that there was absolutely no instruction of how to channel chakra like traditional kenjutsu or samurai kendo give. Only this weird reference of how to breath in a certain way, and the stances involved were obviously samurai kendo, not shinobi kenjutsu. Ruby figured that by coming to the only samurai strong country in the continent she could find some answers to these strange styles so that Shirou and herself can grow stronger.
One that caught her interest was a style known as 'Breath of Thunder'. The basics of this style have portrayed the users going so fast they only appear as a blink of light. So it became the first one that Ruby wanted to master, but for the life of her she could not get it right. She even used chakra to supplement some of the movements, but the scroll that dictated the style explicitly lacked any reference of chakra. Ruby knew she was missing a key understanding, so for now she could wait until they were near the heart of Iron Country.
The blizzard blocking the pair's vision subsided to a moderate snowfall. This allowed Ruby to look ahead at the Three Wolves, the unique mountain formation where Iron Country's capital was situated. To her, it looked more like three peaks drooping downward similar to a willow tree. From this distance, no one would think that the capital of Iron Country was built into the mountain.
"Look Shirou!" Called Ruby, pointing to the mountain range. "The capital is in sight. We're almost there. Just a mile or two to go, I think."
"... You're not very good at distances, right?" Shirou stated more than asked as he tried to keep a smile from the reaction he got.
"SHIWOU-KUN!" Whined Ruby.
Ruby's cheeks flushed an obvious bright red in embarrassment, yet did not speak a word to deny Shirou's observation. Despite her beyond average skill set that put Jonin to shame, she still had her own weaknesses. A lack of knowing a correct distance was one of those, if a minor one. Still, it was a sore spot when reminded of it. It was only that one time she messed up with directions!
"H-How about we just chakra run all the way there?" Ruby suggested, her cheeks still flushed.
Shirou nodded and the pair pumped chakra to their feet. They jumped out of the snow and glided over the snow-flooded valley in a blur. Not only were they impossibly swift on their feet, they were no longer sinking into the snow. It was theory of chakra running that Ruby developed by applying both practices of fire bending and water-walking at the same time, and using it on extreme levels of snow terrain to glide over. This worked because of the fire chakra they were channeling melting the surface of the snow they came into contact while their feet walked over the miniature pond in the same manner they would run over water.
'Pretty impressive for an eleven-year-old.' Were Madara's words of praise along with a smile.
Ruby's smile at the memory dimmed down to a sad frown. Recently, Ruby had noticed that her great-grandfather's health was deteriorating. The chakra feed from the Gedo Statue was becoming less by the month, and his real age was starting to show with increased wrinkles and the white in his hair. In two years, he will truly look like a great-grandfather, and Ruby felt a pit in her stomach knowing that Madara's time in the world was coming to a sharp close.
This had an unintended effect of bringing herself and Shirou closer when he was the one to comfort her. Obito was practically gone from their hideout having now devoted his time in the Akatsuki, and the same was said for Black Zetsu. The realization that Ruby was going to be without her family almost made Ruby breakdown if it weren't for Shirou's support. As a result, Ruby was growing a sense of protectiveness for Shirou as her final lifeline for company. There was yet to be any evidence of it becoming fanatic, but Shirou would occasionally feel a chill.
Twenty minutes in their sprint, they reached the root of the mountains just far enough that they could see the entrance into the capital city. Her silver eyes narrowed like a hawk studying the multiple samurai armed with spears on the ground, and those with bows and arrows were lined up upon the walls and surrounding towers. Each and everyone of them brandished a katana paired with a wakizashi at their waists, dressed in gleaming steel armor, and their postures as stiff as statures.
In all honesty, Ruby would prefer the path of the samurai rather than that of a shinobi. Despite being trained to fight from a former shinobi, Ruby was technically a warrior without a set path, but if she would definitely to become a samurai. The shinobi code was too loose in Ruby's opinion because a shinobi had no moral code if their village leaders were to order them to do a massacre. They could not question their kage, and they would not be able to complain under the threat of being a potential traitor. However, the way of the samurai specifically demanded to follow a code of honor, going so far as to cut down their superiors if they were to ever give a command as bad as genocide or betrayal of family. To a shinobi standpoint, this restricted samurai in the ways of warfare, but the samurai more than made up for this so-called limitation through their ancient, yet effective martial prowess that made them formidable to this day.
However, they would not actually make lodging into town. Ruby wanted to train still, and didn't think doing so in a city full of samurai was a good idea. Fortunately, her eyes found a suitable place that was the forest beside them. The trees that grew high above the snow persisted to have green leaves and their canopies were thick enough to hold up most of the snow above them. In Ruby's head, this was the perfect spot to settle a comfortable camp while also being close enough for Ruby to go into the city to order (or ogle) their weapons.
She gestured Shirou to the forest and the pair walked under the protective canopy. They cut off the chakra channeling into their feet with the decreased height of snow in the area, making it easier to simply walk through. The air was crisp and dry, but the cold did not bite as hard. A few minutes of walking and they came upon a clearing in the forest where no trees grew in the immediate area, yet their canopies still grew outward to form a green blanket of sorts to protect them from heavy snowfall.
"We'll make camp here." Ruby said, setting her pack down on the ground. "Okay Shirou-kun?"
"Hai." Shirou agreed with a nod.
Both young warriors pulled out a scroll each and opened them flat on the ground in their own spots. The unrolled paper revealed a fuinjutsu design of storage of Ruby and Shirou's designs respectively. While Shirou had only started to work on his skills in fuinjutsu just recently, he had already advanced enough to make his own storage sealing formulas, and was branching toward a path of fuinjutsu to apply certain enhancements when activated. Two poofs of smoke filled the spot of the scrolls, only to be replaced by two tents big enough for two people to stand and sleep comfortably.
Shirou pulled out another scrolls from his own pack and set it down between the tents. In a poof of smoke, a full fire pit appeared complete with a kit for Shirou's cooking. Already, Ruby was drooling just imagining what Shirou can make once he starts foraging in the area. Literally anything he makes tasted so divine she could die happily.
"Alright Shirou-kun." Chirped Ruby. "I am going to put in our order in the city. Are you sure you don't want to come?"
Shirou smiled. "I'm fine here, Ruby-san. You enjoy yourself while I see what I can find to hunt here, or maybe I'll just go through some exercises in my stances or chakra control."
Ruby sighs as she made her way out back the way they came. Shirou has always been simple with his wants, as if he lacked any sense of being selfish. It was fine to Ruby, knowing the redhead had a golden heart and a good enough head on his shoulders to look after himself. But in the off chance that something or someone were to put Shirou in danger... Ruby paused as her face succumbed in an ominous shadow.
'I would eviscerate anyone who would try to take Shirou-kun away from me.' Ruby thought.
Her thoughts went back to looking forward to their new arms and armor that Ruby was going request. For Shirou, the redhead has asked for dual dao swords for his dual-wielding and a tsurugi for a situation he had to use two hands at once for a weapon. As for Ruby, she was thinking for a famed pair of a katana and wakizashi as Ruby had wanted to try her hand into the Ninten Ichi-ryu style of sword combat and possibly combine it with the strange Uzumaki styles and her own techniques.
She will also apply for an order of light steel armor for both Shirou and herself when they go into the field by themselves. Ruby was thinking of modeling her armor similar to Madara in his glory days, but more tight and flexible to the body via her own adjustments. For Shirou, Ruby had a good idea of making a body-suit-like armor that stuck close to his body, but was still wondering how it should look. Suddenly, Shirou in black appealed really nicely with Ruby, imagining him both blending in the shadows and mincing through his opponents in battle.
'Oh yea, Shirou in black is a must have.' Ruby thought. 'So I have the base down, but about secondary or lining colors? I can probably have the armor outlined in red. That would look really good on Shirou, especially if I have the armor go along his arms or legs. Maybe I could make a sort of battle skirt in green for Shirou so he can wear it with his green coat. Definitely purple won't work, that's for sure.'
Lost in her thoughts, Ruby had unintentionally cut herself from reality until he felt the stares of multiple eyes. Blinking in confusion, she found herself standing before the very entrance into the heart of Iron Country. She glanced to the samurai guards, noting their stoic eyes upon her, yet not of them spoke to her. It was a silent message that Ruby was allowed in, and she didn't want to bet her luck on standing there in the open too long.
Going inside, she was treated to a typical city of the Elemental Nations if the sky wasn't made of stone from the mountain. To substitute for the lack of sunlight, bright torches placed around the inside of the mountain and on top of streetlight blazed bright blue like the lightbulbs in Remnant. There were no shinobi patrolling through the streets with the busy citizens or running across rooftops. Instead, squads of fully armored samurai marched through the streets in their patrols and skilled archers stood atop watchtowers.
Ruby followed the sound of hammers striking an anvil and came upon a local smithy. Even just a local smithy in Iron Country outclassed those in any other country with just a far higher stipend. A price that Ruby had enough to pay for the weapons and the armor along with the designs. As she approached the smithy, her eyes were instantly glued on the wall of finely crafted swords, both normal, chakra sensitive alloys, rare near invincible steel, and works of both. Some people walking on the same street sweat dropped seeing Ruby openly drool with a goofy smile.
The vendor of the smith, a hugely built man with bald head wearing a fireproof apron, approached the drooling Uchiha. His footsteps crunching on the ground snapped Ruby out of her daze to look at the man behind the counter.
"Good day to you." The vendor greeted kindly. "You have a good eye if your stare on the weapons was anything to go by."
Ruby chuckled embarrassingly. "Sorry, I just really love weapons. I actually came here with a custom order for myself."
"Is that so?" The vendor said, rubbing his chin. "My wares are very pricey, and even more so if you want a custom weaponry and armor."
"That won't be a problem." Ruby said, discreetly activating from a storage seal in one of her pockets.
Pulling out, her hand was now holding a hefty bag jiggling from the gold coins. She set down the bag on the vendor's counter, and allowed the man to peek through it. He gave a shrug and gave a curious glance only to nearly widen his eyes at the amount of gold coins nestled inside. In the bag had to be the equivalent of over twenty-two million ryo collected from her searches in Uzushio and the money stashed by Shirou's former slavers.
"Will that be sufficient for the absolute best?" Ruby asked with a smug grin.
"Y-Yes." Answered the vendor with a bit of sweat. "What is it that you want?"
Yet again, instead of answering reached into a pouch hanging from her neck and left shoulder and handed the vendor a roll of paper. He unrolled it to meet a highly detailed sketches of the wanted weaponry and armor, including measurements and personal customizations.
"Very impressive designs." The vendor complimented with a genuine smile. "I'd be happy to the boys and I create these, but it will have to take a while. A month at the least."
Ruby sighed at that. She had a suspicion of the timetable. The Elemental Nations had numerous advantages compared to Remnant with access to chakra, but were unfortunately a century or so behind in terms of technology. A work of weaponry that would have taken a week from advanced equipment and technology helping the process was expected to take two to three times longer in the Elemental Nations.
"That is okay." Ruby assured. "That will just give me time to work on some... hobbies of mine. Take as much time as you want."
"Will do." The vendor said, taking the bag of money and roll of parchment and replaced by a paper. "Name please so I don't mix up the order."
"Ruby Rose." The silver-eyed Uchiha answered.
The vendor quirked a shaved brow. "Strange name, but everyone is strange these days. Have a good day to you, Ruby-san."
Ruby gave a happy nod and left the smithy with a skip in her step. She was finally going to get some awesome swords to work with. Just imagining them in her hands and swinging them in a dance of steel made her gaze go glossy. The silver-eyed Uchiha managed to right herself when she returned to the city gates and went on her way back to Shirou. It was going to be a long while till her order was finished, and she was going to use that time to be a training nut as usual. And figure out how to this 'Breath of Thunder' style!
(Three Days Later)
Ruby can be found in the forest they had settled in, screams of effort echoing through the trees from her lips. The snow fell lazily from the gray white sky, just blanketing the ground as a result. In the center was Ruby, having abandoned some of her clothing and left herself in a black kimono over a red shirt tied by a red obi. Nearby was a very old book and scroll with pages withered yellow settled under a tree. She settled in a low stance with her body angled in a way nearly parallel to the ground and her right foot forward, knee bent, and her left leg stretched far back to launch off her toes.
She exhaled, her breath coming out as a fine mist in the cold air. At her waist was a normal katana given by Obito for practical use. Completely ordinary, but perfect for this occasion. Her thumb pressed on the guard of the blade to then flick it off to land in Ruby's waiting right hand. For a moment, one would see golden spars dancing across Ruby's body. However, they immediately disappeared once she pumped chakra through her body. That would prove to be her biggest mistake.
Her form disappeared out of sight, leaving only the whisper of the wind. A feat of such speed caused by one step, yet it was still a failure. In the very next second, there was a crash caused by wood breaking apart. Directly in front of Ruby's previous spot was the Uchiha girl having found herself embedded halfway through a tree trunk. Pained moans were muffled by the interior before Ruby's hands found leverage to pull herself out, admittedly dizzy in her step. She didn't process the tree falling when she went to find her blade.
A frustrated frown marred her face. Ruby had her own mix of fails, but she would eventually at this point be able to make some sort of progress. However, every time Ruby went through the steps of the technique down to his precise angle, she knew that there was something crucial being done so wrong. That despite the amazing speed that it was still even less than a shadow to how the technique should be done.
Her frustration made itself vocal in a growl, and she marched off to the book and scroll that told of the supposed sword style. A 'Breath of Thunder' as the name went by in a very old dialect of Japanese. As in so old that it even surprised Zetsu and Madara that is was older than texts of the Sage of Six Paths, and she had to channel minor amounts of chakra just so the pages didn't turn to dust in her hands. Its age alone pointed towards samurai swordsmanship, and it also explained how it was with the Uzumaki since both the clan and country were strongly a samurai culture. But the way the texts described the results of the stances was on the level of superhuman feats done through chakra, yet there was no description how she was supposed to circulate her chakra to match the feat.
Ruby had gone through hundreds of dozens of chakra patterns, but nothing came to a result that a shinobi technique did not already replicate. Questions flooded her head at the possibilities. Was she not using enough chakra? Was her control too poor? Was it because she wasn't a natural lightning user?
"This sucks!" Screamed Ruby.
"So you are the reason why the air is vibrating so violently."
It was on instinct that Ruby's body moved in a flight-or-fly response at the voice of an extremely old man. Her arm, armed with the katana, zipped at near sonic speeds towards the source. Once her eyes fully took in the one who spoke, Ruby was already in the middle of fainting her blow. It was needed as at even faster speeds, another blade intercepted Ruby's own. The ring of steel striking steel rang through the entire forest as eyes decades old met silver orbs barely over ten years of age.
Ruby stared in shock at the towering man standing at 6'5", who had defended her blade away from even coming close to his throat. He was very old, around the age of the Third Hokage and Tsuchikage. His skin was practically covered with age spots and scars, yet wrinkles had not formed due to muscle built from years of experience still lingering to keep the aging body in shape. The old man was dressed in a loose blue kimono, showing his chest, wrapped by a black obi. He wore white hakama pants and normal sandals, which was too light given the weather but the old man didn't even look pale. One of his eyes was shut by a crossing scar.
"You have fire, little wolf." The old man commented. "I'll call you Okami."
"My name's Ruby." The Uchiha girl blurted by accident.
The old man waved off. "Whatever, I'm calling you Okami anyway."
He was the first to disengage by taking a few paces back. That was when Ruby chose to study the blade in the elder's hand. It was an odachi with a black handle from the tightly wrapped twine. The tsuba was a rusted black featuring eight flower petals. Coal black lined the blunt of the blade while the edge shined sinister light. Ruby tore her eyes back to the old man as he sheathed the blade away.
"You're going it wrong." The old man bluntly stated.
Ruby almost tripped on her feet and glared at the elder. "Yeah I already know. Bwh - How do you know that?"
"Why from that book over there." The elder gestured to the book. "And I am not saying your stance is wrong. It's actually pretty damn impressive. Your busy doing something you shouldn't be doing."
"What would that be?" Ruby said badly above a mumble.
"Hold that thought." The elder said, glancing behind him. "Boy, get out the trees. I ain't going to hurt your lady friend."
The canopy rustled before Shirou, who was in hiding, dropped down to the ground. His mismatched eyes leveled quite the glare upon the armed elder, but he was merely amused by the look.
"Ain't this a surprise." The elder mused. "I decide to go on a nice stroll through nature only to find two dangerous brats living off the land. These days keep on getting weirder."
"Um, about my problem." Ruby reminded.
"Tch, beats are always impatient." The elder grumbled. "Your problem is that thou are focusing on chakra instead of something else. What made you think to use that life energy in a style older than Ninshu. They are completely incompatible."
"What..." Gasped Ruby in shock.
She was in shock the moment he revealed he knew the history of Ninsh and knew of knowledge older than that.
"Who are you?" Ruby asked.
"Forgive my lack of manners." The elder said, straightening his posture and the wind suddenly felt heavy around them. "My name is Isshin Ashina, master of the Breath of Wind. Which makes me your tutor."
We are crossing into some strange territory here. We got Isshin Ashina, the Sword Saint making an appearance. What I really want to do is set Ruby's warrior path similar to a ronin rather than a shinobi. I thought it was too cool to not give Ruby the opportunity to learn the Breath of Thunder. The whole world of Naruto is bigger than you think.
Up next is Chapter 9: Thunder Roar, Lightning Strikes.
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