My Nindo

(A/N: I will be writing this story in English. I always felt like the Romaji format most fanfic authors use is slightly jarring. Mixed usage of Japanese and English doesn't flow well for me, and I also don't care to interrupt my workflow by having to look up the correct spellings of Romaji jutsu names, titles, and honorifics. If this isn't preferable for you as a reader, I am sorry. That said, I will do my best to maintain the personalities of each character through usage of their common sayings in the Japanese and English dubbed versions. (Shikamaru will say "What a drag" and "How troublesome" sometimes, but instead of Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu, it will be stylized as Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu. Jiraiya will be called Pervy Sage instead of Ero-Sennin. However, because all documents in the Naruto universe list the village as Konoha, that will be what I refer to the village as.) This is also to prevent myself from having to put the meanings of each Japanese technique name at the end of the chapter (which I will forget to do.) That said, enough words from me. I hope you all enjoy reading My Nindo

CHAPTER 1 – A Revelation

Water splashing.

The first thing he heard as he stirred, was water crashing into itself, white foam rising from the surface and stretching out across the surface of the valley's lake.

"S-Sasu-ke…"

He was seeing double, maybe even triple. It was hard to tell when the only thing he could truly see was the rain as it fell towards his nearly lifeless figure. It was well after midnight, and the summer air smelled of blood, sweat, and the distinctly stale, metallic odor of electricity.

The pitter-patter of precipitation combined with the constant splash of a river spilling itself into a valley was nearly deafening, but this wasn't his focus. If he could move, he'd be chasing after him.

He couldn't. He was injured and heartbroken. The only person he ever considered to be his best friend was gone. The only person who ever acknowledged his power straight to his face, disappeared into the night.

His will was nearly as broken as his heart. He fought with every muscle, bone, and cell in his body. All the training leading up to this point culminated into that battle, and it simply wasn't enough.

'Why? Why am I always second place? I worked so hard to get where I'm at and I'm still not strong enough… All those villagers hated me, and my friends made fun of me… I'm such a loser… I couldn't even save a friend, let alone a whole village… Who am I kidding? I'll never be Hokage if I can't even save a friend…'

That's when his train of thought derailed from negative to worse.

"Oh my… What's Sakura going to say? How will she feel when I come back without him...? She's gonna hurt me for sure..."

Thinking of pain caused him to realize how much of it he was actually in. He felt a throb in his jaw and his right shoulder felt completely numb. If he could lift his head far enough, he would see the hole punched through his orange jacket, frayed black around the edges from the burning electricity of Sasuke's Chidori. His legs felt like jelly and his eyes burned. The cuticles around his nails were torn as if claws grew out and retracted themselves, and the rest of his body felt like one single dull ache.

If he could move, he would probably rather throw himself off the waterfall than have to go back to Konoha and face Sakura.

His thoughts, however, were cut off by his own consciousness, or his newfound lack of such.

The wind swirled through the trees as a masked cyclops leapt among the branches in a half-striding, half-jumping manner. Maneuvering tandem to him was a small dog with incredibly soft paws and a blue bandana.

"Pakkun, about how far are we?" questioned the masked man.

"This rain isn't helping, Kakashi, but I'd say we're about 3 minutes away from them."

"Good, let's pick up the pace then," the masked man now identified as Kakashi replied as he coiled his legs tighter to his body for another, more powerful leap.

"How are you holding up?"

Pakkun was met with silence. He mentally berated himself for asking that question. Kakashi knew his wrongdoings and it was more apparent to him that the normally calm, collected masked-nin known as Kakashi of the Sharingan was indeed feeling incredibly distressed and disorganized. After a moment of silence, Kakashi spoke,

"I've failed them, Pakkun."

"Yes, you have. I'm surprised it's taken you this long to realize that."

"I spent so long working with Sasuke, I trained him every opportunity I got, taught him my own original jutsu, as well as helping him to mature his Sharingan. Naruto and Sakura spent their entire time with me as their sensei and I neglected them. Now look at them, Sasuke's defected, Naruto got to his level through sheer force of will, and Sakura is leagues behind both. I'm such a horri–"

"Kakashi," Pakkun interrupted, "Shut the hell up. Naruto's scent trails off here. Let's check it out."

Kakashi composed himself quickly and diverted his course in sync with Pakkun, branch hopping until he approached the end of the forest, and came to a rest eight feet above the ground on a branch facing toward what appeared to be the back of the First Hokage Monument's head.

"Hey, look, is that—?"

"Yeah," Pakkun chipped as he sped off towards Naruto's prone figure. "Come on, let's go!"

The ashen-haired scarecrow followed suit and knelt beside the battered body of his student. He studied the normally exuberant Genin in a rare opportunity to see him sitting still and shutting up. Kakashi noted two things instantly – Naruto's lack of his own headband and the presence of another in his hand with a slightly diagonal slash separating the top and bottom halves of Konoha's village insignia. He noticed that the traffic cone Naruto liked to call his jacket was not only open with the zipper nowhere to be seen, but there was a rather large hole about the size of a fist punched through his right shoulder. Resting beneath what used to be the seam between the navy and orange sections of his jacket was freshly formed scar tissue about the diameter of a fist, which appeared twisted and painful at first glance.

"Naruto's regenerative capabilities never cease to amaze me. I just hope he knows that the brighter the candle burns, the faster it tends to burn out," Kakashi muttered.

He lifted his scrawny student onto his back gently, taking extra care not to disturb any of his wounds.

"Kaka…Sens..ei…"

"Just rest, Naruto. You did your part. Thank you for taking my lesson to heart, if it's the only one I managed to teach you."

"Whe… Sasuk…e…"

"Shhh…"

And that was the last thing Naruto heard before he slipped into a deep sleep.