Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto... all I have is this silly little fic of mine... =)

Warning: This fic is AU...

Foreword: We are shaped by various events in our lives.... sometimes certain personality flaws are not noticeable but under the right circumstances they will become painfully obvious... What if things did not happen the way they did in the actual story? Would Naruto still be the same person? Let's find out...


Prologue

13 years ago...

The night sky was overcast. In a small clearing, someone was hard at work. The man was hunching visibly as he shovelled the dirt. He seemed to be digging some sort of a ditch near a particularly tall tree. The crunching sound of his shovel hitting the dirt and his pants were barely audible compared to the chirping of the crickets and the croaking of the frogs. His clothes blended in with his dark surroundings. The only thing that was noticeable was his white mask, though it was hard to make out the patterns on the mask.

His shirt was soaked with his perspiration. Undeterred he continued shovelling. A rustling sound from a nearby tree caused him to flinch. He held his breath as he looked over his shoulders. He cursed. It was just an owl.

Finally, he stopped. As he removed his mask and wiped away the sweat from his brow, he concluded that the ditch he dug should be deep enough. He pocketed his mask before climbing out carefully and walking over to the bushes nearby. He stooped down and picked up the bundle lying on the ground. He returned to the ditch and threw it in. Whatever that was wrapped up in the white cloth was approximately one and a half metres in length.

"Sleep tight, little one. You should be glad that you don't need to worry about your family anymore." He murmured.

He smiled to himself as he picked up the shovel. He had to admit that the memory of his arms locking around his victim's neck from behind and slowly choking him to death had been satisfying, not to mention even thrilling. It had felt so good to be able to overpower someone and feel them struggle futilely to break free from his grasp, but he guessed that he must have gotten too carried away to be able to continue choking his already dead victim. In fact, he felt the neck break at least four times under the pressure. He chuckled. Oh well, it did not matter anyway as long as his victim was dead, dead only because he had been lucky to be able to catch him off guard.

He had been spying on his victim from among the trees. He was highly amused by the way the pink-haired kunoichi had tried to stop her teammate from leaving. They did not realise that he was there as he had masked his chakra. He was relieved that he did not have to wait long. It came to an abrupt end. The boy had knocked out his teammate and left. He had followed him from the shadows as soon as he saw him take off towards the forest.

He whistled a cheery little tune as he began filling the ditch. When he was done, he surveyed his handy work. He congratulated himself – it was another job well-done. No one would have guessed that the ground had been dug up recently.

After running through his mental checklist, he concluded that there was nothing left to do. He picked up the shovel and headed back towards the village proper. He was going home. He was going back to his family - back to his role as a model citizen, a loving husband and a doting father.


10 years ago...

"He will be officially stripped of his Shinobi status and put under house arrest indefinitely." Tsunade paused.

"The council decided to lessen the sentence as they felt that there were some mitigating circumstances."

Loud whispers and protests can be heard from the nins gathered there. It seemed as though hardly anyone was satisfied with the verdict. That was understandable considering that they were the ones who had been closest to the Uchiha kid. After all most of them had graduated from the academy the same time as he did. The noise agitated Tonton and she began squealing. Suddenly, there was a loud slam. Someone had punched the table in front of her.

"What do you mean by mitigating circumstances?" He growled. His blues eyes burned with anger as he glared at her.

Tsunade sighed. She resisted the urge to grab Naruto by his collar and throttle some sense into him. Although she would have been enraged under the same circumstances, she knew that getting worked up would not help at all.

"Still such an immature brat," she murmured to herself.

Unfortunately, Naruto caught her murmuring. "What did you say?"

Brown eyes locked with blue. "Nothing, Gaki. But let me remind you that I'm the Hokage. If you cannot pull yourself together, I'll have to ask you leave the room. Is that clear?"

Naruto was stunned. This was the first time in his memory that Tsunade had actually threatened him like that. Though they had quarrelled occasionally, it had been nothing more than friendly banter.

The room was quiet – too quiet. Even Tonton stopped squealing. Tsunade thought that perhaps she was imagining it, but everyone seemed to have tensed up after her brief exchange with Naruto. She felt her temples throb. She had been edgy lately. This whole thing was a complete fiasco. She should have seen it coming. After all, she did manage to strike the jackpot at the pachinko parlour two weeks ago.

Still Tsunade admitted to herself that she had been taken by surprise. She was quite sure that she would have laughed if someone told her two weeks ago that Itachi Uchiha would be coming back to Konoha to turn himself in. Ironically, that was exactly what had happened. He just turned up one day, a week ago to be exact, and voluntarily turned himself in.

Up till now, Konoha has been abuzz. They had talked about nothing else but that incident, which seemed to get more ridiculous as time went on, thanks to the overly fertile imagination of the citizens, but no matter how skewed the theories have become, public opinion still remains divided. While most continue to believe that he is clearly up to no good, others simply shook their heads and said in hushed tones that they felt that he had completely lost it.

Tomorrow the verdict will be publicly announced and judging by the way the nins gathered here had reacted, Tsunade was quite sure that it would nothing short of adding to fuel to the fire. She suppressed a shudder. She decided that she will not think about it as there was no reason to get so worked about something that was completely out of her hands.

Turning her mind back to the matter at hand, she was not surprised to hear that her Gaki's latest attempt to locate and bring back the other Uchiha had been a complete failure. However, she did find it odd when Kabuto mentioned that even Orochimaru was looking for him after team Kakashi met him at the rendezvous. If he was with Orochimaru, she could understand why there had been no news of his whereabouts for the last two and a half years. Orochimaru never stayed at the same base for long. She frowned. She did not like it. No one can simply vanish into thin air like that. Someone had to be lying. But who?

At least the worst was over, she reminded herself. Ever since she heard that team Kakashi had returned, she had dreaded informing Gaki and the rest about it especially after hearing about the outcome of his mission. She glanced around the room before continuing.

"Even though I am the Hokage, I cannot override the council's decision. I hope none of you will be foolish enough to try."

Naruto glared at Tsunade when she stared pointedly in his direction.

"And if the council refuses to tell us what these mitigating circumstances are, there is nothing we can do about it."

Tsunade groaned internally. This had got to be one of the longest days ever. She could not wait to have some time to herself. She needed time to think, and a bottle of sake, she added as an afterthought.

"Let's get on with it," she told herself.

"That is all for now. You're dismissed." The finality in her tone told the nins gathered there that she was not going to give them a chance to protest.

Naruto opened his mouth to protest, but he stopped when he felt someone tap his shoulder. He turned around. Iruka signalled to him that they should leave. He only did so half-heartedly. Tsunade knew deep down that he was probably fuming at the injustice of entire situation.

"No surprises there," she thought to herself.

As the rest were leaving, Tsunade signalled to her apprentice. "Sakura, can I have a word with you?"

The girl looked puzzled. "What can I do for you, Tsunade-shishou?"

Tsunade bit her lip. She hated to impose on the girl, but she had no choice. "Apparently Uchiha is ill. The council wants me to assign someone to care for him. They felt that it would be a pity if he were to die without leaving an heir."

Sakura clenched her fist. Her voice trembled slightly.

"Tsunade-shishou, do you think that that is the reason why - ..."

"Yes." Tsunade admitted bitterly though, deep down, she knew that no one could ever be sure.

Sakura stared at the floor. "Why me?"

"You are the only one I can trust other than Shizune and we both know that I can't give her this assignment. But-" she hesitated.

"If you refuse, I understand." She added, taking extra care to stress on the last bit.

Sakura continued staring at the floor. Tsunade decided not to pressure her. She knew that it was a tough decision to make, but she was optimistic about the outcome. When the council had specifically told her to give Sakura this assignment, she immediately suspected that something was a foot. She hoped that her apprentice would not get involved in their petty schemes.

"I'll do it." Sakura murmured.

Tsuande did a slight double-take. "Are you sure?"

Tsunade stared at her apprentice. She had been certain that Sakura would refuse.

"Do you even know the consequences of accepting this assignment?"

Sakura opened her mouth, but closed it again without saying anything. She bit her lower lip.

"I'm sure you are aware that you'll be reporting directly to the council if you accept this assignment."

Sakura gave a brief nod. Tsunade frown as a particular thought flashed crossed her mind.

"I have a feeling that I don't want to find out what your personal reasons are for accepting this assignment." Tsunade's eyes narrowed.

Sakura fidgeted. Tsunade swore mentally. She chided herself for overestimating her apprentice. She sincerely hoped that she could to drum some sense into the girl. The council can be rather unforgiving.

"If anything were to happen to Uchiha while he is under your care, you will be held responsible. Is that clear?"

Sakura froze. She continued staring at the floor. Tsunade paused once again to let the information sink in.

"Now let me ask you again, are you sure you want to accept this assignment?"

Tsunade held her breath.

"Yes," answered Sakura timidly.

"What! Why-," Tsunade exclaimed before she could stop herself.

Before she could finish, Sakura interrupted her. "You told me earlier that I'm the only one you can trust other than Shizune and if I refuse to accept this assignment, someone else will have to accept this burden."

Tsunade was not sure how to respond. She concluded that Sakura was right. She had no choice but to give in.

"But that does not mean I can't keep a close eye on the situation," Tsunade consoled herself.

When she looked up, she noticed that Sakura was looking at her expectantly. Tsunade's heart wrenched slightly. It was obvious by look on Sakura's face that she was worried that she had offended her.

"Very well, I'll inform the council that you have accepted the assignment. You will start tomorrow... You may go now."

"Yes, Tsunade-shishou," replied Sakura as she bowed to Tsunade.


To be continued...

Note: The dates in this chapter are in relation to the events that will occur in the subsequent chapters. Hope this will help minimize the confusion!