General

Name: Iroko Nakata/中田 色子 (イロコ)

Age: 13

Species: Human

Gender: Male

Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual

Blood Type: O

Birthday: April 1st

Personality: Jovial and resolute

Good Trait(s): Determination, good-nature, kindness, compassion

Bad Trait(s): Tardiness, lack of strategizing, will break the rules to do what he thinks is right

Like(s): Good-natured people, sushi, learning new jutsus, topping Kazue, burgers and fries, parkour

Dislike(s): Annoying/mean people, enemies of Konoha, Mathematics

Hobby(ies)/Interest(s): Training, cooking, hanging out with friends, playing videogames, learning about shinobi history, rivalling Kazue to surpass Naruto

Fear(s): Losing the people he cares about, snakes

Personal Quote: "My ninja way is all about powering through something until the end, because if you give up then you'll miss the moment when you finally win."

Verbal Tic/Catchphrase: Usually tends to say "ultimate" when in awe or reverence of something or someone, as one would say "awesome" or "cool".

Clan Info

Clan Name: (mother) Nakata/中田 (means "central field")

History: Were a nomadic clan that wandered around the Land of Lightning.

Clan Name: (father) N/A

History: Originated from the Cloud Village/Kumogakure

Clan Appearance (mother's side)

-Skin Tone: Dark to light brown

-Markings: None

-Hair colour (s): Black

-Eye colour (s): Black, brown, blue or green

Clan Appearance (father's side)

-Skin Tone: Dark brown

-Markings: None

-Hair colour(s): Black

-Eye colour(s): Black

Looks and Appearance

Body Type: Average build

Height: 152cm

Weight: 40kg

Hair colour: Black with blue streaks

Eye colour: Light green

Skin tone: Dark brown

Hairstyle(s): Naturally sticks out in slightly-wavy spikes from all sides.

Clothing: Grey forehead protector. Light blue jacket with white lining, a plain light grey shirt, light blue pants and black slippers.

Accessories: None

Scent: Dirty laundry and/or sushi

Scars/Tattoos/Markings: Gets a scar on his left cheek

Jewellery and/or Piercings: None

Ninja Registration: 013492

Note

Before I started developing this fic, I already had an idea of what the main character would look like; I'm the kind of guy who likes to create a good deal of his characters first before working on the plot. The concept of Iroko, both the character and story as a whole, came to me from a single question in my mind on a certain day: "What if Naruto was black?"

PS: Naming Iroko was 100% spontaneous so I find it interesting how the "ko"(子) in his name can be associated with the Chinese Rat Zodiac sign and how many things that have to do with the Rat is an attribute of Iroko, not to mention 2020 is his year, so yay for me and my convenient naming skill!!

#1: Iroko Nakata!

Iroko POV

Dreams can't be achieved without struggle.

This was the hard truth I had come to terms with as I lived my life.

Ever since I was a kid, I've always wanted to be a ninja and for as long as I've known the hero of Konoha, Naruto Uzumaki, I've always wanted to be the ultimate ninja. To protect the Leaf and its people and honour the code of a shinobi. Both my mother and father were shinobi, too, so it was only natural I felt such pride.

My mother and father.

They were never really always around to take care of me, because, well, they were shinobi. They were almost always on long-term missions that would last for days on end if need be. So as I got older I was mostly left to take care of myself.

But I always tried to not let that bother me. I was proud that they were ninja, that they fought for the good of all the people of the Leaf. Yet, even despite that, my performance in the Academy was still poor. My skills severely lacked in the ninjutsu department, my taijutsu was far below average, and I sure as heck couldn't do genjutsu. I can still recall the faces of the kids as they laughed at me for failing to form at least one clone, or constantly missing the target in shuriken-throwing, and what they said like:

"Seriously, he can't even form one clone?"

"Why's he even here to be a ninja if he can't even throw a kunai?"

One of those kids that really shoved it down my throat was Kazue Katsumi. When I first joined the Academy we became friends, close friends, you might even say. I also considered him my rival, an obstacle I had to surpass in becoming a ninja. But then there came a time when he started to see me as more like a fly in his way than anything, one that needed to be swatted.

When we were eight and became enrolled to try and enter the Ninja Course, we had gotten into a sparring session and I was thrown to the ground, bruised all the way. All the other kids were watching. Then he had grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and screamed at my face: "DON'T YOU EVER THINK YOU CAN RUB SHOULDERS WITH ME! I'M THE REAL DEAL, YOU'RE JUST A JIKO! I'LL BECOME THE BEST NINJA AROUND, SURPASS NARUTO AND LEAVE YOU BEHIND! YOU GOT THAT?!"

I squirmed helplessly.

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"I SAID YOU GOT THAT?!"

All I could do was cry, as the teachers pulled him away from me, declaring the sparring session his win.

Even the teachers had little faith in me, telling my mother and father: "That they couldn't see me entering the Ninja Course." But they never listened to a word they said. Why? Because they believed in me and I knew all I needed to pass was the will and determination.

I really truly did love my mother and father.

I say did because at that same age of eight, the Fourth Great Ninja War had begun and they had been drafted to fight in it.

They never came back.

After that, I had stopped taking the Academy seriously and had failed the basics twice.

At ten, I was on the verge of giving up and dropping out of the Academy, because I saw no point in going on if no one would have my back or be there in my future.

But I never really did give up. There were a lot of reasons as to why, but what really drove me on was that I knew that if I did give up then when I would finally win I wouldn't be there to see my victory.

And for some other reason, maybe it's because I hardly ever did, I really wanted to win.

And so I trained. I trained and trained and trained non-stop for three whole years until this very day.

This day would be the day when they would announce those who would pass on to being genin.

The day that would decide my future, and with a day being this important you'd think I'd have arrived on time, right?

Wrong. I was over an hour late.

The time of graduation was at precisely twelve sharp and here I was in my bed still in my pyjamas looking at a clock that read 1:15.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!"

I leapt out of bed, hurried a shower and wore my usual blue jacket, grey shirt and dark blue pants and slippers. Running out of my room, I grabbed a riceball and made for the door.

"Finally awake, huh? You're late for the ceremony, you know," Oneechan called out to me.

"I know!! I know!!" I cried out, pulling the door handle. "I'm going!"

For your information, Oneechan is my adoptive sister and legal guardian so I just call her 'Oneechan', and if you're wondering why she hadn't bothered to wake me up it's because she believes that I ought to be more responsible for the things that concern me. Back to what I was doing!

The instant I was out of the apartment I took straight to the roofs and ran and jumped over all the buildings. Having to run on through the street and avoid all the people would be too time-consuming, I thought, so the rooftops would be much better. Passing closely by the Hokage Rock, I waved to the face statue of the Sixth Hokage, saying hi through a mouthful of rice and kombu.

Oh, man! I thought. At this rate, I'm gonna be really late for the ceremony! Better speed things up a notch!

While still running I made the hand seal for Tiger and said aloud: "Lightning Style: Flash!"

The familiar teal chakra glow started to surround my feet and I felt my speed accelerate almost immediately. I blew by the people of Konoha down below and made my way to the Academy now insight.

Please make it! Please make it! I begged.

I landed right in front of the Academy gates, cancelling the Flash Jutsu and ran normally towards the doors. But before I could even reach them they flew open and a group of my classmates came walking out. I stood dead in my tracks and looked closely at what they were holding: in one of their hands was a certificate and in the other was a forehead protector with the standardized Leaf symbol engraved on it.

NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

The group, that was only a second ago chatting lively with each other about becoming genin, had suddenly gone silent as soon as they saw me. I gave a weak wave and smile to them.

"H-hey, guys, how's i--"

I was then interrupted by a series of loud claps from the back. A mop of all too familiar spiky orange hair came making its way to the front.

"Well, well, well, look who decided to show his face after all."

My smile faded as I was once again face-to-face with the devilish-grin of Kazue Katsumi, his glaring red eyes tearing a hole through my soul.

"Who woulda thought that of all the special occasions you'd be late for this one," he went on. "You really must not be serious about being a ninja."

As he walked on past me he said: "Don't even bother going in there, jiko. This village doesn't need any more slackers like you. Just give it up already, will ya?"

The rest of the group walked past me, too. Some gave me looks of pity, some of disappointment and some of laughter. I was left there at the gate, a shadow over my face.

"Never," I said through my teeth.

"Hey, Iroko Nakata, right?"

I spun round to see a boy with shaggy blond hair. I recognized him as a classmate of mine but I never cared to remember his name. It began with a Y, that was for sure.

"Yeah? Why?"

"I think I had heard Shikamaru-sensei call out your name when he was handing out the certificates. He's still in there, so if you go now I'm sure you'll get yours," he said.

My face lit up upon hearing that. "Seriously?! Wow, thanks, uh--"

"Yuura."

"Yuura, right! Thanks, Yuura!" I then proceeded to dash right into the Academy.

I spun right into my class just in time to find Shikamaru-sensei leaving. When he saw me his whole expression of eagerness turned to annoyance.

"Ah, jeez. You couldn't have been here at least five minutes earlier?" he asked.

"Nope, sorry, I was late, can I have my certificate now?" I raised out my hand.

He looked down at me, grumbled something under his breath then turned and walked back to his desk and opened a drawer.

"Seriously, it's quite a drag for you to show up this late, Iroko. Can't you see it's inconveniencing me?" he lectured, as he fished for the certificate.

"Yeah, I know, I know! I'm sorry, it won't happen again! Now can I pleeeaaaase have my certificate? PLEEEEAAAAASE?"

He looked at me with a deadpan expression before handing to me the certificate, a forehead protector and an ID. "Just don't let this happen again."

Walking out of the Academy, I couldn't help but have a smile on my face.

Today is a very special day, I thought to myself.

Because...

I jumped up on a building,

today...

and then I leapt onto a pillar that overlooked all of Konoha,

I...

and, wearing the forehead protector, I screamed out as loud as I could:

"I AM A NINJA!!! ME! IROKO NAKATA!!"

I did it, Mom, Dad.

The very next day we were called to class for something unexpected.

"Sigh. Alright, class," Shikamaru-sensei announced, "today we have a new student from the Anbu division who'll also be entering the Ninja Course with you."