Name in the Whirlpool
By: roterritter
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Rating: T
Summary: Before Naruto was born, the village of Konoha had another blond haired boy with an unbreakable dream and was a member of Jiraiya's team of Genin. This is a story of the boy who will become the Fourth Hokage.
A/N: This story features the Fourth's genin teammates. The only thing we have of them is a picture of them together in chapter 122/episode 72 with their teacher, Jiraiya. I've taken complete liberty with their names and their characters, since all know are what they look like. Since we've never seen the Fourth as a kid other than a picture, I've tried my best to make a younger version of Konoha's Yellow Flash that we saw in Kakashi Gaiden. Remember, this is only my interpretation of who they are. In the end, this is only a story.
I started writing this before I wrote Chapter 5 of Snakes and Foxes. This story is completely plotted out and will be much smaller than Snakes and Foxes. So don't worry, Snakes and Foxes will continue, I just wanted to get this out since I started posting again because of this story.
Chapter 01 - Introduction
To the children's eyes, the man stood tall as a mountain and had a deep voice that rumbled down like thunder from a mountaintop. The man had red strips down his stony face like crimson rivers and a spiky mane of white hair much like the snowy peaks of a mountain. Despite the color of his hair, he wasn't old, some might still consider him a young man, but to the children he was ancient.
He watched them carefully, almost glaring accusingly at them. He hadn't said a word to them, other than for them to meet at the top of the Hokage Tower. Now they sat comfortably on the rooftop underneath the peaceful gaze of the Hokage Monument while he looked at them with a somewhat annoyed expression.
This has to be Sarutobi-sensei's revenge, he thought to himself. This is revenge for making his hair turn as white as my own natural hair color!
The old man hadn't even bothered to tell him anything about them, which was surprising since it was customary for a teacher to know before hand some information about his or her new students. However, to be honest, Jiraiya knew the usual makeup, which told him everything he thought he needed to know. One would have high scores, another would have average scores, and the last would have low scores to balance things out. Being one of the Sannin, it was likely the high scorer was a genius.
Wonderful, my own little Orochimaru, on the other side I have to put up with the low scorer. He smiled at the thought. But my hair is already white.
Unfortunately, Jiraiya was well aware which one of the three of his team that he was, but he had worked hard to prove that low scores meant little.
Oh well, time to get to work.
"Listen up, kiddies!" he yelled as he entered a dramatic pose, one arm pointed at them with his palm facing them and his fingers spread out. "Let me introduce myself!"
He watched the eyes of three ten-year-old kids locking onto him with their attention fully on him. Two of them had rather serious faces for ones so young, the third was a blond haired boy with a wide smile and bright blue eyes who made up for them both.
"I am a great shinobi. People are so much in awe of me that I leave no enemies wherever I travel. I am the white-haired frog tamer, one of the Legendary Sannin! You should be thankful that I'm teaching you because I'm the great Jiraiya-sama!"
As expected, there was star struck silence, until…
"Wow! He is so cool!" yelled the blond boy.
Jiraiya smiled in appreciation, but he quickly frowned when he saw the girl turn to the boy and glare at him.
"Idiot," she muttered.
The older ninja sighed. They were a unique bunch, not that his own team had been very ordinary when Sarutobi-sensei started teaching them. Surely, it had to be revenge, the old man picked the teams after all. The Hokage always picked the teams, trying to find the right teacher for the students and the right teammates for each other. However, looking at these three, he had his doubts.
"Alright now, why don't you introduce yourselves? Why don't you tell me your name, likes, hates, dreams, and hobbies? Who's first?"
"Why don't you go first sensei?" asked the blond boy politely. The boy appeared to be the cheerful type. He wore a simple blue tracksuit with a hood, which was not very ninja looking. Jiraiya thought he was a cute kid and may grow up handsome like him and was probably already popular with the girls, yet not apparently this one.
A ten year old boy with too much energy. He looks like he will be a handful, but then again he did think I was cool," he smiled to himself. However, he's probably the lowest score.
"Okay, like I already said, my name is Jiraiya. My likes are…" He stopped, his smile vanished as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Can't tell them that one, Sarutobi-sensei will kill me if I corrupt these kids."
"My hobbies are…"
"Oops, can't tell them that either!"
"My…dreams…are…"
"To meet a beautiful woman who will set my heart afire! Nope, not that one either."
"Well lets just say they are sophisticated things that you children won't understand," he finally managed with a sly smile.
"Can't you tell us anything?" whined the blond boy.
"And I hate people who don't know the right way to ask for something!" Jiraiya gave him a glare, but the boy looked more disgruntled at the lack of information than fearful.
"But sensei, that didn't tell us anything," said the second boy.
"Well then, why don't show us how it's done?"
The second boy stood out by his weight alone. The boy didn't even have to tell him his name without Jiraiya already having a good idea what clan in Konoha he had been born to, but oddly enough, he had a very short haircut and wore dark green traditional clothes, which alone made him stand out from the modern clothes of his teammates.
"My name is Akimichi Chouichi," said the boy. "I like barbeque and my hobby is buying snacks. I dislike being called fat and my dreams are to show everyone the true skills of the Akimichi clan."
"Ah, an honorable goal," agreed Jiraiya. The Akimichi were one of Konoha's noble clans, but due to their weight, they sometimes had a negative reputation compared to the Hyuuga or Uchiha clans. However, they had several secret techniques that used their large size and food energy to their advantage.
"Me next sensei!" said the blond boy, waving his hand in the air franticly.
"You're next," Jiraiya pointed to the girl with a smile.
"Ah!" The boy's hand froze in midair. Chouichi smiled at the blond boy's antics, but the girl just gave the boy a brief look of irritation.
The girl had black hair with long bangs falling over a red headband and concealing her eyes. She had the rest pulled into a topknot. She wore a large purple coat with yellow stripes on the shoulders. She had the collar rolled down, revealing the light blue interior of the coat. The collar would have been tall if it were unrolled. The coat was oversized a bit, enough to give her a rather nondescript appearance underneath it and even sitting down she appeared to be hiding within it.
"My name is Shinobu," she said softly. Her voice was cool and collected, "From the Aburame clan."
Jiraiya merely watched her, concealing his surprise and acting clueless to what that actually meant. The Aburame was another one of Konoha's noble clans, but they were a great deal more mysterious than the Akimichi and for good reason. What little he knew of them would give him shivers if he thought about it and it was pity, Shinobu would grow up to be beautiful, except for what was underneath…
"My likes…I don't like anything. My dream…to be the best ninja of the Aburame," she said, but Jiraiya could sense she didn't have the same conviction that Chouichi had with his similar goal.
Jiraiya realized he had seen coats like that before, they were trademark of the Aburame, long coats with tall collars to help conceal their unique nature. It was a little unusual to see an Aburame have their coat collar rolled down like that, but she was also missing a pair of sunglasses. However, her bangs covered her eyes well enough.
Of course, Jiraiya realized the sunglasses weren't really for covering their eyes. There were many in Konoha who didn't know they mysteries of the Aburame clan, but Jiraiya had personally seen an Aburame ninja in combat. He had seen the chakra-eating destruction bugs march from out of holes under the man's eyes. The amount of bugs that came crawling out of him meant the coat concealed other possible exits from his body. Jiraiya had also seen those same bugs attack another ninja, eating at his chakra and biting him with poisonous mandibles until he died.
Jiraiya never really forgot the sight of the Aburame man's skin rippling as so many bugs were crawling underneath it at once. It didn't disgust him…he would have no problems teaching Shinobu. It was just disturbing.
An Aburame and an Akimichi, both from noble clans. One of them is probably the genius, although I have to admit, I've never seen a genius from either clan. The Uchiha and the Hyuuga are better known for those types. I'm not sure what to expect.
"My turn!" the blond boy announced.
Of course, that means he's the lowest score, although that isn't surprising. Jiraiya had to resist a chuckle at that.
The girl's discomfort turned to annoyance as she turned toward the blond boy. "Of course, it's your turn, you're last."
"All right, all right, your turn," said Jiraiya with an amused smile.
The boy nearly sat up in excitement. "I like ramen! I don't really dislike anything and my hobbies are-"
"Whoa, there," Jiraiya told him while waving his hand a little bit to slow the boy down. "Why don't you tell us your name?"
"Oh, my name is Kayaku!"
"Kayaku? Don't you put that on ramen?"
"That's my name!"
"Alright then, what clan?"
"Err…no clan." The boy chuckled softly.
"Then what family?"
"No family either," Kayaku said. He wasn't even looking at Jiraiya anymore and he wasn't smiling.
"He's an orphan," Shinobu said calmly. "But everyone feels sorry for him so they treat him special."
"They do not!"
"The mothers make sure he's well fed and his friends invite him over at night. So, it's not like he lacks attention."
"Shinobu!"
"There's nothing really special about him." Shinobu gave Kayaku a sly smile, she apparently delighted in tormenting him.
"Shut up!" Kayaku's smile was gone and he was looking at her fiercely with sharp blue eyes. "I had the best sco—"
"QUIET!" Jiraiya stood up again, letting his physical presence speak for itself to stop anything before it started. "I see we have a lot of work to do and you two definitely have a lot of energy so lets go for our first training season."
"But sensei, I didn't get to tell about my dream!" yelled Kayaku.
"That's alright, save it for later! Now lets go!"
Jiraiya led them to Practice Area 3, a forest area filled with tall trees and a river running through area, enclosed by a tall fence with barred wire to keep out unauthorized individuals. It was a special training area and one very familiar to him.
"This is it! It's a good area to train in for genin like yourselves and I practiced here myself when I was your age," he explained as they followed him. They finally arrived to a small open area with three wooden poles. He smiled at them as he remembered old memories back when he and his two teammates were young and innocent.
"What sort of training are we going to do, sensei?" asked Kayaku. His friendly attitude was back, although he and Shinobu hadn't spoken a word to each other since.
"You are going to like this!" Jiraiya pulled out two bells hanging from strings that he had hidden in his pocket. They jingled at the motion and the kids looked at him as if he was crazy. "There are two bells and three of you. You each need to attack me and try to get a bell. Whoever fails gets tied to one of those logs for the rest of the day."
"WHAT!"
Next Chapter: Ready, Start! Just a footnote about the Fourth's name, I've searched the fan forums high and low for some idea what to name the Fourth. I liked the fan favorite name, Arashi, until the anime used it for a filler character. I decided to use Kayaku, because the characters almost match the Fourth's scribbling on the frog summoning scroll and it is also something put on ramen, just like naruto, which seemed very appropriate.
Author's Note: If Kayaku didn't come across as a younger Fourth, then wait till the second chapter. I've got that already written, just need to edit it, but I feel he's much more like Konoha's Yellow Flash when he's in action.
I tried not to make the young Yondaime a clone of Naruto. Based on Jiraiya and Tsunade's comments he was talented, smart, and popular. Jiraiya once said the only thing similar was the color of their hair and their stubbornness, of course that could be a comment just to annoy Naruto so it may not be completely true. However, I decided to leave out Naruto's loudmouth and clumsy traits, deciding that he might have inherited those from his mother instead, which works out with my other story. (in fact, I would say Name in the Whirlpool takes place in the same continuity as Snakes and Foxes)
Just to avoid confusion: Chouji's father's name is Chouza. He is a different person than Chouichi. For the purpose of this story Chouichi is another member of the Akimichi (just how he's related I haven't decided), but he is not Chouji's father.
Also, at some point the name Choumaru was believed to be Chouji's father, but as of the second official databook it was stated as Chouza.
Version 1.2
1.0: Original.
1.1: Added Note about Chouza/Chouji/Chouichi
1.2: Added Note about Choumaru