Author's Note:
Welcome to my first fanfic here. I don't own anything except my original ideas. Naruto belongs to someone else.
Prologue — Continuum
The sun was shining brightly over the village of Konoha. It was a bustling city with the merchants selling their wares, the Hokage was ignoring his paperwork while reading an orange book, civilian women were buying clothes, Anko was trying to stab someone with a dango stick, Ibiki's smile was making people cry, and the shinobi were jumping across the rooftops. In other words, it was just a normal spring day in a ninja village, not that it mattered to Orochimaru. While watching Anko stabbing someone would've amused him, he couldn't be bothered as he was currently sneaking through a dark tunnel deep under the village.
No one expects Orochimaru to sneak back into the village, mostly because he is a bone fide drama queen, but who cares this is something he meant to do prior to becoming a missing nin. So there he is sneaking down an empty dark tunnel. Why am I sneaking anyway? The only people who might see me wouldn't turn me in. He shrugged and put it down to habit.
"Kukuku…I probably shouldn't laugh out loud since sound and stealth doesn't work well together. Unless…you were the Kage of a village of sound. Hmm…I must remember that." Said Orochimaru making a mental note to revisit the idea later. With being alone for a few years, his missing nin status being the cause, he had picked up the lamentable quirk of thinking out loud. He even had some lively debates with himself when parts of him didn't agree with each other.
Trying to suppress more cackling, Orochimaru arrived at his destination with no one in Konoha being the wiser. Hah! They don't even know that there won't be a village of Konoha after today. The seals setup all over the village will spell it's DOOM when the master is activated. Grinning maniacally at the thought of his one time home being destroyed in a single instant, Orochimaru got all tingly inside. With the seals not activating, it means that no one has found this room. Gotta love trap detonations, if anyone but me entered that room it would set off the seals and Konoha would be no more. Kukukuku.
The lock on the door used a chakra signal pattern that had to be input at a low level directly into the seal above the door handle. The door itself was plain wood without any distinguishing marks, it also matched the door standing right next to it. Danzou's ROOT records room had a door that looked exactly the same as Orochimaru's. I have to be honest with myself, I made sure the door's were exactly the same. All the ROOT members that were shocked by the security seals when they tried the wrong door were so entertaining. Kukukuku…Danzou wasn't pleased and would usually develop a twitch whenever one of his member's were shocked.
After unlocking the door, or so he thought, Orochimaru was surprised when he was shocked so badly his long hair curled. The change to his hair had Orochimaru spiraling mentally into an abyss of horror and hair products, as he remembered the time Tsunade switched his shampoo. It was supposed to make his hair all silky and shiny, but instead it curled it. What was worse was that the reaction was permanent and he had to wait for his hair to grow back out without the curls. The change of the hair in and of itself wasn't what caused the mental spiral, though. Orochimaru continually repressed the memory of the time he was slightly drunk after the hair curling fiasco and decided to relax in the Hot Springs. What happened that night included a drunk Jiraya, accidental peeping on the wrong side of baths, and waking up the next morning in bed naked with his male teammate. The implications were enough to cause both Sannin to agree it NEVER HAPPENED!
"That never happened…That Never happened…That NEVER happened…That NEVER HAPPENED! YOU HEAR ME YOU DAMN PERVERT? THAT INCIDENT NEVER HAPPENED!" Yelled Orochimaru at the ceiling of the tunnel as if the Toad Sannin could hear him, and as if Jiraya was to blame for the flashback.
In the middle of talking to his publisher about his next book, Jiraiya got an inexplicable urge to run and hide. It was almost like the wrath of Kami was about to be unleashed on him.
Ok, shake it off. SHAKE IT OFF! Jiraya was peeping on Tsunade, and that's why he was impotent for 4 months afterwards. It wasn't one of my poisonous snakes biting him in the balls. With a vicious grin, Orochimaru had finally recovered his equilibrium with many thoughts of his female ex-teammate torturing his other ex-teammate.
Breathing in deeply, the snake man turned back to the matter at hand. In this case, that was the mystery of the shocking door knob. Now, why didn't my chakra pattern code work? Ahh…I see. Sarutobi-sensei was smart. He found my lab, but figured I might've rigged it to go off if I wasn't the one who opened the door. Hmm…let's look at these new security seals. A Flash seal, Alarm seal, Drain seal, Anti-theft seal (that's interesting), anti-tampering seal (tied to the alarm seal), 4 different blood seals on the door, oh how impressive there's a separate blood seal for the entire room. That seal is tied to an incapacitation/chakra drain/alarm seal combo. Oh sensei. You're still so soft that you don't even set lethal defenses.
Sighing in disappointment that he couldn't destroy Konoha as easily as he thought, Orochimaru turned to walk away when he noticed that the door to ROOT's records room had the same seals that his lab did. Kukukuku…kukukuku…kukukuku…kukukuku. He became completely insensate due to laughter after that point when he pictured how Danzou reacted to having his records and jutsu storage room being locked away. The twitch might've become permanent.
To further make problems for Danzou, Orochimaru decided to change some of the seals so that they would kill. The seals that were connected to the room wide blood seal were changed to fry all flesh off a body leaving only a steaming skeleton instead of catching the person in a chakra draining net that would then send an alarm to his sensei. Little did he know that this change to the seal was the start of Orochimaru's eventual downfall.
"October 9th! This'll be the day that I prove I deserved my promotion and I'm not a weak cowardly loser!" exclaimed Takeshi.
Takeshi is a low level chunin who no one thought would make it past genin. In response to how many people doubted him, Takeshi loved nothing more than to rub his promotion in their faces. What he didn't know was he shouldn't have been promoted at all.
If Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage, had been able to make it to the finals Takeshi wouldn't have been promoted. His promotion was, to Konoha, like being smacked in the face with a wet fish by the proctors and other village's Kages. What would you expect from the Tsuchikage, Raikage, and Kazekage with the finals being held in Kusagakure. The Hokage, upon being informed of Takeshi's promotion, couldn't overturn it without causing a diplomatic incident that could lead to a Fourth Great Shinobi War.
Back to the jutsu practicing pseudo chunin.
I can do this. No one will be able to look down on me after being able to perform the Doton: Retsudo Tenshou (Earth Style: Splitting Earth Force). Takeshi's grin at that point was turning almost insane and would've caused him to be carted off to T&I had anyone seen it. I saw my file from sensei that said I should be trained in paperwork as I didn't have the skills to be a field ninja. I'LL SHOW SENSEI, THE HOKAGE, EVERYONE THAT THEY WERE WRONG!
"DOTON: RETSUDO TENSHOU!" was shouted out while Takeshi hurriedly formed his chakra and pushed as much as he could into the earth to try and form a chasm. Unlike the previous times trying the jutsu this time he succeeded, but he put nearly all his remaining chakra into it. The results were disastrous. He hadn't read the jutsu scroll beyond a cursory scan, so he missed the warning about using the jutsu without the required chakra control.
IT WORKED! I'm AWESOME! All the Kunoichi will want to be with me and I'll be able to choose anyone I want…wait…where's the chasm going. A chill went up Takeshi's spine because the chasm hadn't stopped forming and it was heading towards the village. With the civilian commercial district just past the trees on the edge of the training ground, the possibility of injured civilians was VERY HIGH! Civilians injured due to ninja negligence was always punished very harshly.
"NO! This can't happen to me…gasp…I'll be demoted if this is found out. This would be the perfect excuse to bump me back down to genin or even take away my ninja license all together!" The sheer terror Takeshi felt overwhelmed him to the point he didn't even notice the tears leaking from his eyes. A brief bout of crying wouldn't have mattered much to most ninjas, but in Takeshi's case he regularly wore mascara to emphasize his eyes.
It didn't take him long to pull himself back together, but the damage had been done to his face. He now had black streaks running down his cheeks. I can't be found on this training ground. If no one knows who did it, I won't have to deal with the consequences. The chakra should dissipate from the earth so there won't be any evidence it was my jutsu that caused any injuries. What a relief to have a plan of action…I think I hear footsteps coming. Sure enough there was a group of genin slowly making their way to the Training Ground Takeshi was currently in. Terror grabbing hold of him again, he ran without any idea where he was going. He just knew he had to get away and get away FAST. In his panic, he unconsciously strengthened his legs with chakra to run faster.
Normally using some chakra to run faster wouldn't have been a problem; however he used up the majority of his chakra in the Retsudo Tenshou. His chakra was almost dangerously low before strengthening his legs. Preoccupied with getting away from the training ground, he wasn't watching his surroundings which is why he ran into 2 ANBU. Chakra saved all involved in the collision from injury, but it didn't save anyone from the indignity of being a pile of limbs. Extracting himself from the pile, Takeshi woozily stood up. Why am I so tired all of sudden? Is the world supposed to be spinning? Oh…maybe I should help up the people I ran into. He paled suddenly from a combination of extreme chakra exhaustion and horror at seeing the animal masks of the people he knocked over. The loss of color in his face was very dramatic and was soon followed by Takeshi's eyes rolling up into his had as he passed out.
Cat and Lizard, with speed from long practice, easily caught the random chunin, rank identified by his flak jacket, before he hit the ground. Lizard hurriedly took the vitals of the ninja and immediately became worried. A thready pulse and shallow breathing was NOT good.
"Cat! We need to get him to the hospital NOW or he might not make it." Was said intensely by the normally quiet man. This change of tone kicked Cat into action.
Two shunshins, a nurse's scream, 7 broken bones, 4 piles of burnt paper work, and a mis-fired water jutsu later Takeshi was being examined by the doctor on duty while Cat worked on calming the nurses down. Thankfully Cat was a natural charmer and got the three intake nurses to calm down long enough for them not to want to neuter him. After enduring the glares by the nurses for another 10 minutes, the doctor came out to provide the prognosis on Takeshi. Firstly, Cat and Lizard were informed that the chunin's name was in fact Takeshi (one of the reasons for a ninja ID) and Secondly that Takeshi was suffering from extreme chakra exhaustion. Takeshi was currently in a coma and the doctor wasn't sure if he would wake up from it or not.
Receiving the information they needed for their reports, Cat and Lizard returned to their patrol route. The dread coming off them was palpable as they thought about the amount of paperwork they needed to complete before the end of their shift.
Sometimes the littlest circumstance can have huge consequences in the future either for good or for ill. In this case, it just made the future more…interesting.
At almost 8 years old, Naruto was very cunning for his age. He had to be or he would probably have been killed by mobs years before. He didn't know why the civilians and some ninja hated him, but he did know that October 10th was the worst day of the year for him. On October 9th, to prevent some of the damage, he would scope out different areas of the village and create escape routes for the inevitable chase he would suffer the next day. On a normal day the civilians would watch him closely. To thwart those watching him on his planning days, Naruto runs around in disguise. It's funny how much a little mud can make a difference. With my hair, cheeks, and clothes muddy no one even sees me. I pray to Kami they never catch on as this is the only time I get to myself, plus it has kept me alive. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get away with this next year. I saw people getting suspicious last year and tomorrow will confirm that I was prepared. Sometimes I wish I would be told what I did to all the civilians that caused them to hate me.
To an outsider looking in on Naruto's situation, one would wonder at the sanity of the adult civilians. How could mobs of adults attempt to kill the ball of sunshine that was named Naruto? With his spiky blond hair, bright sky blue eyes, and upbeat attitude, he could lift the spirits of everyone in the room. The whisker like marks on his face were a distinguishing characteristic that never failed to cause ire in the civilians. On top of the murder attempts by the civilian and civilian-born ninjas, he couldn't buy anything if it wasn't out of date and at triple price. In the entire village there were only a few people that truly cared about him and they either didn't have the power or are too old and worn out to change his situation.
It was mid-afternoon when Naruto found himself behind a random restaurant in the commercial district. He had ducked into the alley to hide from a team of genin that looked to be heading towards one of the training grounds. Believing it to be safe, he was just setting off for Ichiraku's Ramen when he heard an ominous groan behind him. Freezing in his tracks, Naruto slowly turned around praying to Kami that it wasn't someone trying to kill him. Stupid, stupid. I knew this disguise wouldn't work much longer. I just hoped that I would be able to avoid another beating. However, he didn't see anyone anywhere behind him. He might've still been wary, but he never noticed the ground starting to give way.
Before Naruto could make any further action, the ground gave way beneath his feet and he rapidly descended into darkness.
End Note: Thank you for reading the prologue to this story. I will accept constructive feedback to this as I'm working on my writing skills.
-Bella