Disclaimer: Not mine, I'm just an usurper.

Recurve, An Archer's Tale

Prologue, In fair Hi no Kuni, where we set our scene…

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

It started young, too young some would say later. At age four even the shortest bow with the lightest pull was too large and too heavy for him to wield, but the urge had caught him and had no intention of letting him go, even had he the desire.

If he had stayed in Konoha, he probably would ever have found it in the first place. It wasn't an art that was practiced much, there or anywhere these days. Kunai and shuriken were smaller and lighter than an archer's equipment, and in theory just as good. It hadn't always been the case, but since the Unification, when the first ninja villages came into being as officially sanctioned entities in their own right and willing to teach their skills, the ability to use chakra had spread like wildfire. It was chakra which made the difference for kunai and shuriken between being useful secondary weapons – mainly a distraction, keeping the enemy off balance and allowing a ninja to move in close enough to use a more reliable weapon to finish them off – and being a deadly arsenal in their own right. As the use of thrown weapons expanded, the art of the bow slowly fell into disuse, eventually becoming a sport for nobles, a pale shadow of its former glory.

If he had stayed in Konoha, he never would have learned the art of the bow. He didn't stay in Konoha, and in later years he considered this the greatest gift the Sandaime Hokage, generous man though he was, had ever given him.

77777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

Naruto had never been attacked, though he had come close several times. Sandaime had laid down the Law, and though the villagers knew him as a kind, gentle, elderly man, they had no illusions about his softness, or what he would do to them if they broke this particular Law.

But still, it was a close thing at times. Sandaime had never said they had to like the brat, preferring not to give orders he knew would be disobeyed. He had never even said they had to be nice to him, treat him fairly, or acknowledge or respect him at all, which suited them just fine….most of the time. Some days were worse than others. Certain times of the year, passions ran high, and people were more likely to do stupid things. Sandaime, who knew his people well, tried his best o remove the temptation when this happened. One of these times happened to be October tenth.

The anniversary of their saviour's death was always a bittersweet time for the villagers, full of celebration and mourning, in turns. Naruto had learned to stay out of people's way on his birthday, after discovering that their usual cold stares tended to turn arctic around this time of year. That worked out pretty well for Sandaime. If he could have, he would have taken Naruto out of the village for a few days, but he had to stay in Konoha to lead the celebrations, and it was too dangerous for the child to travel alone outside of the walls. Naruto being uncharacteristically quiet for a day meant he could stop worrying, although he regretted the necessity.

Still, it wouldn't hurt to get Naruto out of Konoha for a little while, even if it was after the event, it would provide a chance for hot tempers to cool down and let Naruto relax away from all the cold stares. He himself had to make a business trip to see the Fire Daimyo soon. Most of their business was generally done via messenger, but every few years a face to face meeting was necessary. They saw each other more than that of course, but mostly at public events where they had no chance to speak business, or politics as the case might be, and both needed to know the current state of the other to govern effectively. The Fire Country Court was really no place for a child, but it would be better than Konoha, at least in the short term, and with both of their retinues there he would be safe at least. He decided to ask Naruto to join him on his trip.

As it turned out, Naruto was only too happy to go.

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

Naruto was bored. Hokage-jiisan was off doing grown-up stuff, and said he couldn't help, which could have been something to do with the last time he helped and spilled ink all over his desk…and paperwork. The ANBU guards were similarly indisposed. They were on a rotating shift watching over their leader, with some resting or eating while the others worked. He had yet to meet anyone else his age, and all the adults who worked here seemed in a perpetual hurry to be somewhere else, wherever it was they actually were. So now he was wondering through various halls and passageways, trying to find something to keep his interest.

Unknown to him a solitary ANBU was trailing him through the shadows on his leader's orders, silently bemoaning his fate. He didn't want to be watching some demon brat! He had better things to do. Why just yesterday, as gift to celebrate Kyuubi's defeat, his immediate superior had surprised him with his very own copy of a book that was popular n Konoha right now. He gazed mournfully at his ninja pouch, where the corner of a bright orange book could be seen poking out. He really wanted to find out what was going to happen between Kei and Yuri….

Naruto had started off near the Daimyo's conference rooms at the centre of the compound. From there his search to find something interesting had lead him in a path spiralling out from the centre. He was now reaching the outer walls. The only thing left was the courtyards and he began to despair of ever finding something fun when he heard it. A resonant thump, not entirely different from the sound of a fist connecting cleanly with a punching bag. It wasn't an identical sound, seeming somewhat … cleaner to his ears, and after a few seconds he heard it again. This time his keen ears detected a high-pitched whistle preceding it. Something moving then – fast through the air – and connecting with something. Curiosity stirred, he followed the sounds out into the courtyard.

It took a little searching of the courtyard to find the source of the noise, but eventually he detected a small range hidden behind the stables. It was a long field. Apparently useless for anything else, that someone had equipped with a straw target at one end. Currently there was a man at the target, plucking arrows from its surface. Most of the arrows seemed to be embedded deeply into the straw in the centre, smallest circle, a golden ring about the size of Naruto's palm. As he approached the archer, the man turned and Naruto got his first real look at the object of his curiosity.

The man was old, at least by the standards of one who grew up in a ninja village, where even civilians consider themselves middle-aged at thirty. This man had to be at least double that, and sported a full head of white hair to show for it. Deep frown lines scored his brow, but equally deep smile lines were present on his cheeks. His face had the pinched look common in some elderly, but his eyes were sharp, betraying a hint of his former youth and health. He was built strongly, but not massively and was wearing worn sweat pants and sandals. His upper body was covered only by a curious set of leather sleeves, tied with thin cords across his chest and back. The man had stopped, and was scanning Naruto with equal curiosity.

The man moved again, heading back t the other end of the range, gesturing to Naruto to follow him, watching keenly as Naruto jogged to keep up.

"Who are you, boy?" His voice was rough, enough so that Naruto instantly pegged him as a smoker, and was proved right as the man stuck his arrows into the ground and drew a clay pipe from a bag lying nearby on the ground. "And what are you doing here? No one comes here these days except for me, and even I'm getting too old to do this often." He fumbled with a lighter while he waited for Naruto's answer.

Naruto shrugged. "I heard something and came to check it out. Not like there's anything else to do around here." He looked around, taking in all the range and noticing for the first time the massive bow leaning against the wall to the stables. He did a double take and looked again, comparing it to the man in front of him. Surely he couldn't use something like this? It was almost as tall as he was, reaching his chest height from the floor. He looked up with a question in his eyes.

The man chuckled with his lit pipe clenched between his teeth and walked over to the wall to grab the bow. Lifting it up and away from himself, Naruto could see that the bow ran from knee-level to eye-level easily. The archer reached forward with his free hand and took hold of the string, pulling it back to his cheek and holding the pose. After a few seconds he released the string, sending it snapping forwards in clean stroke, the bow springing back into shape and letting off an almost musical twang. Naruto noticed that the violence of the strings return caused it to strike against the wrist holding the bow, explaining the sleeves protecting the man's arms.

The man released his stance, stretching with some relief, and spoke to Naruto. "This is a Daikyu, a longbow. I am a practitioner of kyudo, the way of the bow. I am, in point of fact, the last practitioner of kyudo … at least at this court. This style has lost popularity since the Unification. Now, like I said, there's just me, and I'm getting older. Soon enough the art will be all but dead." He sighed, frown lines growing deeper, but changed the subject when he saw Naruto had failed to understand much of what he had just said. In the face of childlike incomprehension, he looked the blonde over again, and came to a decision.

"Listen kid, you said you wanted something to do …?"

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

The ANBU groaned. The brat had gotten caught up talking to some old relic, and now he was going to be stuck here babysitting all day. Still, what were the chances that someone would hurt the kid? No one here even knew what he was. So no one would mind if he were to sit quietly in some corner and find out what happened next in his book.

The ninja disappeared silently into the shadows. The stealth act would have been more impressive were it not for the giggles that emerged moments later.

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

Sandaime was shocked when he came back to his suite to find Naruto sitting on his bed, intently studying the scroll of seals. Of course, he was required to lug the massive thing around with him whenever he left the village. Yet another perk of being Hokage. Naruto was staying in an adjoining room to his because he didn't entirely trust his retinue not to ignore the child's needs, regardless of the fact he had picked most of them out himself.

He watched Naruto for a long moment, observing carefully as he saw the blonde staring intently at the first jutsu recorded there. His brow was scrunched up in fierce concentration and, after a moment, the Hokage stepped fully into the room and asked him what he was doing.

"What does it look like, old man?" Naruto's tone was characteristically irreverent. "I'm studying to be a ninja, ain't it obvious?"

Sandaime chuckled, but frowned internally. Regardless of his own feeling for Naruto, he would be acting irresponsibly as a Hokage if he allowed a child to peruse forbidden scrolls at will, unless…

"I didn't know you could read, Naruto." He grabbed a piece of paper from a nearby desk and scribbled on it briefly. "Why don't you try reading this for me?"

Naruto took the paper and glanced at it, his eager expression giving way to honest confusion. He stared at it a few moments longer before venturing, "Ramen?"

The Sandaime smiled, "It's 'Kage' actually." The word was scattered liberally across the instructions on the scroll. Satisfied that the child was just playing at reading, and grateful that it was at least a quiet game this time, he changed the subject. "So what did you do today, Naruto? Did you have fun?"

They chatted for a while. Naruto mentioned meeting 'another old man' in the courtyard, and Sandaime made a mental note to get the ANBU leader's report on Naruto's actions today. He knew better than most how dangerous old men could be. He briefly entertained the notion that he was paranoid, but discarded it. Paranoia is the unreasonable expectation that everybody was out to get you. The elderly Hokage had garnered enough experience in his time that the expectation that everyone was out to get everyone else was in no ways unreasonable to him.

Sandaime then sighed, and explained to Naruto that there was more business to go over than he had expected, and that he had extended the length of this visit by another week. He had expected Naruto to be distraught by the news, knowing from experience how hard it was to keep his interest, but was pleasantly surprised to note that the child seemed completely content with the situation. He chuckled and collected the papers he had originally come to collect, before leaving and letting Naruto return to the scroll.

Naruto waited for the door to close and picked up the discarded piece of paper. He stared at it for a long time and compared it to the writing on the scroll. Eventually he snorted, and threw the paper into the trash with a contemptuous flick of his wrist. "Huh, if that's 'Kage', then my name's Shabutaro. Old man Hokage needs to work on his handwriting." He pulled the scroll closer to himself and continued reading where he left off. It was tough going and used a lot of technical words he didn't know, but he had a vague understanding that knowing this stuff would make him a better shinobi, and that drove him onwards, even without comprehension.

The room grew silent, save for the sound of paper rustling and Naruto softly sounding out words he didn't know yet.

"Kage….Bunshin…no Jutsu. Shadow…clone…technique. Shadow clone, what's that? Oh well…"

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

Elsewhere, a young ANBU was giving his report to his senior, for him to write up for the Hokage.

"He wondered around the complex for an hour or so. Eventually he found this old guy, a practitioner of Kyudo, would you believe?" He gave a contemptuous sniff to emphasize his feelings on the matter. "Spent the whole rest of the day playing gofer for the old guy. Even took a shot or two himself, although he had to stand on a box just to get the right height, and it took him both hands to pull the string, while the other guy held the bow in place. He was invited back tomorrow too. Probably he'll spend the rest of this trip at that range. There's not much else for a kid to do around here."

His commander stroked his chin as he thought, "Kyudo, eh? Must be Emiya Shirou. I think I remember him from the last time we did one of these visits. Not too fond of ninja's you know; thinks they're responsible for his art losing popularity. Just couldn't admit it's no use these days. Still, if it keeps the kid out of trouble…" He shuffled through the papers on his desk. "Good work newbie. This looks like a boring job. Babysitting jobs always are. I know you'll want to spend at some time pulling regular guard duty, 'cause there's at least some glory in it, so I'll assign a rotating shift to the kid, like we're doing for the Hokage."

The younger ANBU shook his head "Actually sir, I wouldn't mind pulling babysitting duty. I mean I know I'm junior, and this means I'm the only one who has to put up with such an eas…I mean boring job. There's no reason to take the more talented members away from guarding the Hokage, he's the more high profile target anyway."

His senior looked upon him approvingly. "Well, I'm impressed Boy. Too many in your position would have taken the interesting job without a moments thought for you team mates. I had second thoughts about taking you on because your profile said you were prone to laziness, but I can see I nearly misjudged you. It's at times like these that a new recruit's strength of character starts to shine through. You're going to do well in the ANBU, Boy."

The new recruit smiled. "Well Sir, I like to think this is something anyone would do for their team mates. And even if it wasn't," he continued, seeing the look of doubt in his superior's eyes. He was aware of the comfortable weight of a small book in the pouch at his side, "I guess that's just the kind of person I am, Sir."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I decided on Emiya Shirou as the name of the archer. This is not to imply any connection to Fate stay night, but is there merely as a tribute to one of the most badass archers ever to have arched (despite being an archetype)