Hozuki Shingetsu

None for now

The young man reclined in front of his dek in his new home. He stares up at the ceiling of the flat grey building, his room (like the rest of the village) rather stark and unlively. Though thinking back he supposed Kirigakure wasn't too much better. Stationed in the far away village of Iwagakure he grows homesick quickly, his mind wandering back to his home and everything he left behind taking this post.
...
"Shingetsu!" he could almost hear his mother now, yelling at him as he ran away from her his short litle legs waddling forward only four years old. He grins as he waddles, and one could see his teeth filed down as soon as they came in into the traditional pointed fangs of the Hozuki clan.
"Noooo!!~" He calls back to his mother cheekily giggling like it was all a big game, for to him it was. Soon he spotted a small tree on their estate. In bloom Sakura petals danced in the sunlight. As quick as his legs would take him he lept at it's trunk and started scaling the bark quickly climbing into it's branches, barely escaping his mom's reach. " Can't catch meee!~" He giggles uproariously as he clambers higher and higher.swaying in those thin uppermost branches he would look out in awe.
The sun was bright today and Kiri's ever prevalent Mist had receded back onto the ocean. Looking out over that bright vista he smiled and laughed feeling like he could see the whole world from that tree. He knew someday He would become a ninja and see that world.. whatever lay beyond the ocean's Mist.
As his young eyes sparkled in wonder far above her, his mom looked up worried.
"SHINGETSU HOZUKI YOU GET DOWN THIS INSTANT AND PUT SOME DAMN CLOTHES ON!!!!"
Little Shingetsu giggled, his paleish birthday suit shining in the sun.
...
*Chuckling still he thought to himself.* "I suppose I'm there now?.. I'm a chuunin now... That's stil weird to think about.. me being a chuunin. It's been Years but I still feel like I was a fresh academy student yesterday. I wonder how Kotetsu-sensei is doing?..."
...
A now... thankfully fully clothed Shingetsu sat at his desk beneath his blank white mask with the rest of his class-mates. All of Kotetsu-sensei's students were required to wear them at all times. It was to help them dehumanize their classmates so that spars would be as brutal as possible. Shingetsu liked sparring he really did, but he quickly came to realize he wasn't like alot of Kiri-nin. He had refused to file down his true teeth when they came in, and despite his fathers insistance his mother convinced him it was just a phase and to choose when he would file his teeth down eventually.
So when Shingetsu sparred.. he would always get defeated. Soon, despite his test scores he was ranked worst in the class. But, he kept trying. He wouldn't allow himself to be denied just for this. Being a Shinob was different, even without the masks he knew these kids were his comrades. Real enemies would be different right?
Things went on like this for awhile, whenever he would act up Kotetsu-sensai brought him back down brutally. Shingetsu couldn't stand it, he thought he would have to quit.. it would bring shame upon his family but he had no choice.
Walking home from what would be his final class, fate fell on him like a guillotine. A drunk chuunin weilding a large axe stumbled in frontin front of him out from an alley-way, knocking Shingetsu right onto his back.
"Eeeeeeh?!" The man glared down at his small form. "Y-yah wanna star' som'in'?? I dun care what sh' sa... says -I'm- no' small.. -You're- small!" Raising his cleaver on high as Shingetsu screamed. The man suddenly tumbled to the side, blood spraying from his neck onto Shingetsu. The young boy blinked.
"Ko...Kotetsu-sensei??" He exclaimed just now noticing the silent figure who plunged the kunai into that man's neck.
The man looked down on Shingetsu and sighed before looking to the already dead man. "####### troglodyte.. thinking he could harm a hair on my student's head." He would refocus his attention on the cowaring Shingetsu.
"This is what I was trying to train you for... You could have escaped had you been in the right mind kid... But, you froze.. for a split second you thought. 'My comrade wouldn't do this to me.' And... to a degree I envy that. without treasured Nakama our life would be pointless. But, you need to learn that everyone can turn on you under the right circumstances. They could be spies, Or it could even be a simple henge. In the world of shinobi you need to look underneath the underneath and expect anything." Kotetsu paused before handing the bloodied kunai to Hozuki. "Kid don't forget this this, you're insulting your class-mates by not giving them everything you have when they're trying their very best. Remember this night, and I'll see you at school tommorow."
After that Shingetsu gained a new respect for his teacher. And a new understanding of his training. Throwing himself into it he quickly rose in his classes standing, though he did not reach the top five he was a respectful twelth in his class of 30.
...
"Good times... after I got over hurting the other kids.. Spars actually got to be fun. We all tried our best and no one went away with anything more than physical sores. Mm.."
Stretching the Kenjutsu specialist would look out his window, Sedina leading a group of fresh-faced genin towards the training ground. Chuckling to himself he muses.
"Mm I wish my genin instructor was anything like her." With a grin he thought back to the old rickety jounin that srved as his squads leader, the man was so old he was assumed to have called the first Mizukage a "whippersnapper". And he was grouchy enough for two men of his age.
"But I suppose there was no one better.."
...
"Hozuki! tighten up that stance you're a disgrace to your family!!" Old man Akiba yelled at Shingetsu as he struck his squad-mate Eiji with the flat of his blade.
Spinning around Shingetsu would yell "Stop yelling old man I'm winning!!" After which Eiji punched him hard in the gut, so hard he crumbled to the ground immediately.
"Not anymore yu're not! Kekekekeke" Akiba laughed madly. "Now you're lying on your side like a punk and a disgrace.. So next time tighten up your stance or at the very least don't be distracted by your opponent."
Laying on the ground Shingetsu cried in those long continuous streams only a hozuki would be capable of.
"Now get up... I suppose such a worthless fighter like you will need a technique to avoid getting hit even if you are distracted by the latest shiny coin you find on the ground. Though with your horrid skill in ninjutsu you'll need every trick I taught you to even learn this..."
"Akiba..... dono..." Shingetsu spit out, the man refusing to only be called 'sensei'. "what exactly could do that?"
"Stealth is the foundation for everything we do. If your opponent can't see you they'll have a hell of a time hitting you right?.." the old man grinned mischieveously.
"Hai... But you didn't answer my question." Shingetsu replied flatly not impressed by such an academy line.
The old man hit's him hard over the head. "DO YOU WANT IT OR NOT??"
"Hai hai..." TT.TT
And so Akiba picked him up and laid the foundation for Shingetsu's whole style of fighting. through weeks of arduos training, made even worse by his constant berating. Shingetsu mastered the Kirigakure jutsu.
...
Years passed by, well two at least. Shingetsu was taken under Akiba's wing whether he liked it or not, and continued his brutal training under him with his squad of Eiji, the strong silent type taken to an extreme, and Haru a rather loud genjutsu user.
Followed their leader Akiba along a long dirt road. The mission had came and went uneventfully and it now simply came sown to returning home to collect their pay.
"OW!" Shingetsu yells out in pain clutching his face. "What was that for Haru?!?!" He flails
Livid the young girl yells out, with her fangs bared. "THAT'S FOR TRYING TO LOOK UP MY SKIRT YOU PERVERT!"
"Ehhhhh?..." He replis flatly looking to the side cleaning out his ear with his pinky non-chalantly. "Who would want to peak at your ###?.. it looks like a ten yer old bo- GGFFUUAA!" His words are cut short by another series of viscious slaps as she grabs his collar. Water splashing off as he protects himself.
"SHINGETSU YOU SENSELES PERVERT. YOU ENEMY OF WOMe-..!!" Haru cut herself off as each of the three halts. Akiba's am stretched out while his face rows severe.. well more severe, but after a couple of years under him they had learned to read his moods. This was half-way between the time those B-rank missing nins had attacked them.. and when they stole his dentures as a prank, which means something -bad- was about to happen.
Shingetsu frowned opening his mouth he only manages out "Sen" before his world is thrown into chaos. Ninjutsu and deadly bladed attacks seemed to melt out of thin air, as what must have been at least three squads of hunter nin surrounded them, no symbol of allegiance was apparent.
Akiba blurred into action the geriatric Shinobi summoning forth a great encampent wall of water. Akiba yelled out one word: "RUN!"
Shingetsu, though he would berate himself endlessly about it for the rest of his life lept into action and followed his orders. Forming a thick Mist he quietly dragged his squad mates away towards his island home... Akiba never made it back.
After investigating the battle site the officials at Kirigakure decided the escape had been both well executed and prudent. They even promoted shingetsu to the post of Chuunin, it was the most shameful thing to ever happen to the young man, but he accepted it, promisin he would live up to the title granted to him.
Soon after he discovered his affinity for earth element techniques and pushed himself forward, learning as much as he could for the sake of those he might some day teach. But he never forgot his teachers.
...
"Those men were legends, without them I would be nothing right now..." He paused reflecting. "I really should stop talking to myself...."