Presented for your approval!
From the Yondaime Story Arc:
Valor & Harmony
Chapter 1: Courage Under Fire
He hated feeling this way. Yet, it was almost a tradition now.
No matter what he did, Kazama Arashi always felt the same annoyance near the end of a day of training. Perhaps it was due to years of training under the legendary Jiraiya…and always having some random annoyance (normally some type of "motivation" for one of the sennin's books) end his training prematurely. But even after he'd stopped being around Jiraiya, his annoyance continued. Being promoted to become the 4th Hokage apparently had done nothing to change this. With little warning, his anger had suddenly surfaced as he trained against the battle tree, a large section of a tree with many small, pole-like branches used to practice advanced taijutsu techniques.*
Arashi didn't want to take any chances with his genin candidates…one of them had claimed to be good at taijutsu, and he would make sure to show his own skills. Tomorrow was the day planned for his genin to take the test and prove their worthiness, and Arashi was going to be totally certain of his own skills before testing them. That way, he could be sure they earned it. 2 hours of training taijutsu, then I'll spend an hour on ninpo…then the rest of the night will be planning the genin test for tomorrow. Yet, he was only an hour and a half into the planned session before the annoyance showed itself. As if that weren't enough, Arashi knew he was being watched. One of Kakashi's friends was not far off, thinking he was sneaking around…poor Gai was less of an effective sneaker than he ever imagined. Yet that wasn't the one grating on Arashi's nerves. He couldn't pinpoint it…but he just had the feeling that something else was watching him.
It didn't surprise him all that much when he suddenly sensed an urge to kill, either. Continuing his spar with the battle tree, he evaded the suddenly thrown kunai, acting as if he had not noticed it. He even went as far as to grab the kunai - stuck hard into the wood of the tree-for balance as he threw a back kick up and hit the post next to it. He could feel Gai's nervousness as he repeated the experiment when the second kunai came flying in. A smirk slowly crossed his face as he realized he might get an opportunity to vent some frustration on something not wooden.
As he suddenly felt the movement around him, he wondered if whoever this was had figured out who it was they were facing…their bold movements suggested perhaps they hadn't. Without even acknowledging the presence of the shinobi that was rushing in on him from behind, Arashi threw some open palm strikes at various points on the battle tree, striking upwards and above his head at one of the branch grips, holding it tightly. As he heard the first actual sound of movement approaching him (the snap of a twig), he pulled up on that grip and leaped into the air, turning in midair and delivering a fierce tornado kick to the face of his adversary, knocking the kunai from the enemy's hand with the force of his attack.
As the attacking shinobi went flying backwards and knocked into a tree, Arashi landed in a low stance, his feet spread and knees bent, and extended his right fist forward, pulling his left one back to his side. Suddenly, he heard a sound behind him and peered back, noticing an interesting-looking ninja had appeared behind him. Not bad, Arashi thought. A shadow clone… As he turned to face the ninja, the clone he'd knocked into the tree finally disappeared.
Taking a look at the enemy before him, he noticed 2 things. First off, this enemy was dressed as a hunter-nin, wearing a wolf mask along with his purple, black and gold outfit. Second off, this enemy was wearing clothes and the forehead protector of Lightning country. A Rai hunter-nin? Here? How in the world did he get past our ANBU without word coming to me? How did he find me? What in the heck…
He stood upright for a moment, his eyes revealing the earlier annoyance. Arashi looked directly to the eyeholes on the mask of the adversary. "If this is someone's idea of a joke, you picked the absolute worst time ever to screw with me…"
Blazing forward at a speed few could pick up with their eyes, Arashi seemingly glided toward the hunter, and quickly pinned the warrior against the side of a tree with his left forearm. In a surge of anger, he raised his right hand-open palmed-and his eyes widened.
The hunter blinked behind the mask, then focused eyes diverted their sight towards the open hand, just in time to see the air around it seemingly rush about in a tight ball. The hunter lightly gasped and began to struggle for freedom, feeling the intense amount of chakra in the man's palm…
Arashi noticed two things in that first moment of contact with the hunter, one infinitely more distracting than the other. The first was that what he had rammed himself into and pinned against the tree was not a bunshin, since it had not disappeared. The second was the small whiff of perfume that hinted at his nose. It wasn't bad enough already…now a girl thunder village hunter-nin snuck into our village? Making note of both observations for later purposes, he lost his concentration for a moment and didn't notice the girl struggling.
For his mistake, he took a knee to the gut, and then the girl was seemingly gone. Ugh. That was such a stupid slip-up to have. Making a quick search of the area, he discovered the hunter-nin behind him, about 10 feet away. The clues he had received so far didn't lead to any solid conclusions. No matter...I'll just have to drag out more. My faith in Konoha is too big to accept this as what it seems to be. Arashi took a moment and drew out of his fighting stance, standing before the kunoichi with quite the angry look on his face.
"What is this charade? I thought we had a cease-order… these random incursions on our land…"
"Raikage would never agree to such a thing with you Konoha filth…he is too strong a ninja to surrender to you."
He smirked slightly, noticing how the girl tried to cover up her voice and sound like a man. Funny I didn't notice that unnatural tenor before…we know it's a female…but let's see if we've really got Thunder Jounin walking around in our backyard or not…
"Well that's odd, considering I just talked to her not even 2 hours ago…"
The hunter-nin looked surprised for a moment, taking an awkward step backwards with her right foot. "You're full of it. There are no girl kages."
Arashi laughed. "You just proved you're full of it…you don't even know your own leader." Good…Raikage has nothing to do with this. But still…who is this? "So then…if you're not a hunter-nin of hidden Thunder…maybe you don't know who you're screwing with."
With a return to his fighting position, Arashi continued to speak. "I am the 4th Hokage of Konohagakure…if you wish to continue this fight, I won't hold back, and I will kill you. If you surrender now, then I'll let you go if you just tell me who you are and what the hell you want."
He saw the nin's leg twitch slightly…good…so I proved my point well enough. Now let's see who this is… "WELL? I don't have all day to toy with you…"
With a bit of hesitation, he noticed, the ninja opposite him finally responded. "Idiot. You will be the one who dies here. Not me."
---------------------------------------------------------With more than a bit of surprise, the kunoichi found herself hesitant to speak. Her charade wasn't working the way she had hoped. The 4th hokage stood before her, far more confident in his abilities than she would have ever guessed. Yet, she still had a few tricks up her sleeve. "Idiot. You will be the one who dies here. Not me." Pulling a metal staff from her side, she twisted the staff and extended it to full length.
No one who'd ever underestimated her had lived the same way again afterwards. She would ensure the same thing once more…
----------------------------------------------------------Arashi watched carefully as she took out her staff, momentarily regretting leaving his sword near the battle tree. With a moment's reprieve from what he anticipated would be a flurried assault, Arashi took a mental snapshot of the area, making note of the position of the trees and terrain. He also took careful note of the battle tree, about 15 feet off to his left now. If push comes to shove…that's where I'm headed.
With a start, he alertly evaded her first attack, just barely turning his vision back her way in time. Yikes…she's fast. Luckily, she had swung the staff as soon as she'd gotten within striking range, and a quick lean back was all it took to evade. With a flick of the wrist and a turn of the neck, however, she rotated the staff around her own body, rolling it across her neck. Grasping it with her hands as it reached the right side of her neck, she quickly pushed, keeping its momentum going around her as she prepared for another swing.
Arashi was slightly off-balance, but he waited a moment to adjust…just long enough for her to commit the staff to some particular direction. As she swung the staff along the ground, going for his legs, he quickly jumped to clear it, leaping forward and closing the distance while grabbing a kunai from the holster on his right hip. Before he landed, she had taken a step back with her right foot, into a defensive stance.
A quick slash of the kunai was met with a block by the bo, and a frontal stab was blocked head on with the staff. She's got some skill…definitely Jounin level. I've got to stay in range at all costs and keep her on the defensive. With a quick turn of his hand, he hooked the kunai beneath her staff, and used it to hamper her movement. With his free hand, he quickly struck forward with open palm, attempting to catch her at the sternum.
He was quite surprised when instead of attempting to evade (which would probably allow him to wrestle the staff away from her), she stepped in. Before his open palm strike could get any momentum going, she stepped in, forcing it to hit her chest with little force. Continuing her motion, she hooked her right leg behind his leading left, and clipped him.
Arashi lost the kunai on the way down, quite a bit surprised she had seen that opening. As soon as he hit the ground, he rolled to the side, dodging her quick strikes at his head with her staff. Without a moment's delay, he kicked his legs into the sky and vaulted them behind himself, the awkward movement resulting in a back flip that landed him on his feet. His arms reflexively reached to cover his ribs as his eyes searched for the movement of the staff. As soon as he realized she had not moved to strike him, he returned to his original stance, kicking the left leg back behind him, and chambering the left fist. Hearing the light clang of metal, and feeling the ground shift oddly beneath his feet, he smirked. Exactly what I wanted. That means the battle tree's…
Had he been paying attention, he might have noticed the chakra flowing in the area, and may have caught on to what was happening. Instead, Arashi stomped with his back leg, flipping the object that was just barely beneath his foot into the air. A moment later, he reached into the sky, lightly grabbing the hilt of his trusted sword. Looking back to the female ninja that had given him a run for his money thus far, his eyes expressed a surging confidence. Now that I've got this, you won't touch me…not with that staff.
That's when he noticed. Arashi raised an eyebrow, diverting his eyes from the staff-bearer for a moment as he saw something move in the distance. In that one moment of distraction, he suddenly had 2 hunter ninjas assaulting him, one rushing past him to get behind him while the other slashed at his chest with a kunai in her right hand. With an alert presence of mind, the young hokage dropped his weapon…no sword would really help him against a kunai because the small knife would be too quick. Quickly, he snatched at the extended hand of his enemy, grabbing it and jabbing a pressure point near the wrist with his other hand that forced her hand open. As the kunai dropped to the ground, he quickly pulled her wrist tightly, drawing her further off balance.
Suddenly, the second ninja appeared behind him, and he could feel the air rushing…he could anticipate the move. Almost instantly, he threw his head down, ducking and jerking the captive ninja hand towards himself. As her off-balance form stumbled over his own, a fierce roundhouse kick flew over his back, knocking Arashi's captive directly in the face, her own forward momentum adding to the pain. The girl was thrown from her feet by the force of the kick, and immediately disappeared in a puff of smoke. Arashi, however, didn't notice that as he had turned his attention to the extended foot behind him, quite quickly taking down the kicking ninja and immobilizing her.
As he silently tied her hands behind her, his knee on her back pinning her to the ground, Arashi suddenly felt the molding of chakra. Looking up on a whim, he was greeted with an unexpected sight. Above him, and rapidly plummeting, was the same hunter-nin, yelling with all her might…a great deal of hand seals being formed….
"Raiton! Denjou Bakuhatsu no jutsu!"*
With yet another fierce yell, the kunoichi fell from the sky, a bright blue light suddenly surrounding her hands. With every bit of force she could muster, she launched her attack, her left fist impacting directly with the face of her adversary. As soon as it did, the jutsu fully activated itself.
From what he had considered a safe distance away, Gai's eyes opened in shock as he watched the girl attack from the sky. It looked like she hit, but as soon as she did…the entire area was engulfed into a massive ball of electricity. Lightning lashed across the Hokage's body, flowing at will from one side of the giant sphere of force to the other. Gai felt his heart beating in fear as he considered the fact that he had seen the third ninja the entire time and had not yelled.
Within the giant ball of electricity, the hunter-nin who had launched the attack disappeared…yet another clone. The 4th's eyes widened in amazement and pain as he saw the clone disappear, and yet another kunoichi smirked at the Yondaime from within the ball of lightning. Arashi was being shocked by the electricity repetitively and had no more control of his muscles than a rag doll. Quickly, she raised her right hand, holding an identical ball of electric force…soon, she socked the Hokage directly in the gut with this one.
The force of the second explosion was fierce, yet well within the ranges that she could control. In fact, the first field actually assisted in the disposal. As the forces finally cleared up a moment later, a ninja stood before a kage, her fists clinched and her breathing hard. Any outsider would have thought that perhaps she had done a suicide move…the sheer force of the attack had been that strong. But she had not been harmed by the attack…only drained.
For a moment, she wondered if she had succeeded. Yet, could he have missed her actions that much? As she thought this, however, she noticed that the body before her was still in shock…his eyes widely open, muscles tense. Vapors rose from the body of Arashi….did I cook him? He slowly began to melt. That's my first time connecting with that attack…Considering it had just been fiercely electrocuted, that wasn't much of a surprise…but…
…it was also changing color. Soon, it was apparent that she had attacked nothing more than a bunch of tar.
Kawarimi?!?
--------------------------------About 20 feet away from this chaos, the true adversary stood, watching from a distance, her chakra and mind greatly drained from the amount of concentration and control she had exerted in having her clones perform this battle. She used her bo to keep herself standing while she adjusted to the loss of a large amount of chakra. Peeking her head out from behind a tree, she saw that her best technique had been wasted on a kawarimi. What she didn't see was who stood behind her.
"Perhaps I had you pegged wrong after all…perhaps you really are a Rai-nin. There aren't many non rai-nin who can handle an electric attack like that well. Especially while using kage bunshin and weapons at the same time." The look on Arashi's face no longer held any semblance of amusement.
The kunoichi turned to the sound of the voice, pinning her back against the tree, and lifting her staff to enter a battle stance. The real Arashi stood about 10 feet from her. Her muscles tensed slightly, and she could feel her legs wanting to give out from her lack of stamina. Darn…this isn't good. He just got serious…and I… She could feel the life draining from her body…the constant chakra drain of maintaining the clones and performing the denjou was beginning to get to her. She knew her limits, and she was normally capable of more. Yet, as her eyes returned to focus upon her adversary, she knew exactly why this battle was ending so soon. I can't…keep this up…
Arashi would not make the same mistake twice. "You've shown me one of yours," he spoke as he continued, "now I'll show you one of our skills." Ducking beneath the swing of her staff, Arashi flew across the ground, using his full speed to get in range. No holding back this time. Before she even knew what hit her, he had already thrown the knee, bashing her into the tree and plowing upwards into her solar plexus. When he felt her lower ribs snap, he knew she wouldn't be struggling this time, so he didn't hold her in place. He simply kept his knee raised, keeping her still, as he began to form hand seals once more.
The kunoichi gasped for breath, the sharp pain in her gut beyond what she ever expected it to be…she could feel the bones breaking from the force of his knee. What did I get myself into? She jerked her head back, trying to keep her focus on maintaining her chakra levels, but his words drew her back to his eyes. She watched his hands as he slowly formed the seals…or was her mind slowing down? She could hear his voice, almost like an afterthought. "You did well to last this long, but I don't play with offenses like this." She finally began to notice the pattern of seals he was doing…looking into his eyes in panic, she saw it again…the confidence and focused will of Arashi. As she lost control of her chakra and began to slip from consciousness due to the pain, she couldn't help but dwell on that look…
Arashi lightly mumbled the words as he prepared to end this ninja's life. "Katon. Karyuu…." He took a deep breath, blowing hot smoke out of his nose as he stared at the woman. For a moment, he thought he saw her…flicker? It seemed like-just for a moment-her appearance had changed almost completely. Still, he couldn't bother with that. "Endan."*
Jerking his head back, he took that last inhale, looking downward as he began to lower his head, molding his chakra and preparing to expel the dragon. When he looked down, he saw an entirely different person. So different, in fact, that he nearly expelled the fire dragon anyway. But as he noticed who it was, he quickly turned his head away, holding his breath, and aimed for the forest…
On second thought…Not a moment too soon, he turned his head skyward and blew with all his might, unleashing the flames of hell and their dragon, up towards the heavens. With a look of intense confusion, he turned his head back down, and looked at the girl pinned to the tree by his knee. "Nara?!!?" He gasped, as her response was a cough of blood. Darn it… "Why?"
As he moved his knee, she quickly fell forward into his arms, her eyes looking up towards him…she couldn't see the confusion on his face but she could tell he was looking back at her. You've changed…so much…she couldn't get the words out before she fell into unconsciousness…
-------------------------------Quickie Author's Notes: This fic is being done as a compainion fic to Yondaime : The Strength of a Nation. The main two characters of this fiction, Kazama Arashi (the 4th Hokage), and Uzumaki Narashima (OC! W00T) are the same characters from that fiction. Specifically, this chapter picks up on the day before Arashi does his survival training with his group of genin, a bit after he meets them and lets them go for the day...about half-way through Chapter 3 in YSoN.
YSoN dwells on the 4th and his motivation...and also those he's motivated, and it takes a look at the big picture...the years that Arashi ruled. This fiction will dwell more on the happenings of a couple of weeks early in the 4th's leadership role. I intend for this fic to develop the romantic part of the story...that way I can keep YSoN somewhat business-like. It was getting impossible to handle a fic that dwells on a couple of weeks, then jumps forward 5 years or so...so I figured the best way to handle it was to split it up.
Explanation
Battle tree : Rock Lee trains with one of these…you see it in a flash back in episode 50. There may be an actual term for this type of log, but I don't know it.
Raiton! Denjou Bakuhatsu no jutsu = Lightning techniques! Electric field explosion technique!
Katon Karyuu Endan = Fire technique...Fire Dragon!!!
As for the jutsu Nara did...Arashi doesn't know a lot about Thunder Village attacks, but the jutsu she just used is meant to be an advanced Jounin level technique. Basically, it creates an intense electric field around the opponent, feeding current into their body. If it hits the chest, the sheer force of the current may be enough to permanently stop the heart. I intend for Nara to be a great warrior in the line of Konoha ninjas...lesser known, but we'll say Sarutobi knew. That way, the name Uzumaki is not a great boon to Naruto, but it's not an insult either. I won't analyze the full palette her skills...I'll let Arashi do that later :)
Please, by all means R&R! I want to know your opinion on everything...the fight scene...my writing in general...my portrayal of the characters...voice your thoughts!