Author's Note: Well, hey guys! Glad you could all make it XD This story is the product of my beginning obsession with the Holocaust, Schindler's List and Night by Elie Wiesel. If you haven't ever watched Schindler's list then I suggest you go to the movie store right now and rent it, because it is an amazing movie. Same with Night, it is one of the most powerful books I have ever read and probably will read. SO GO AND BUY IT!! :D
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this! I have re-written it 5 times already and I feel that it's to my satisfaction and I hope yours as well! I'm really excited about this fic! So I hope you all fall in love with just as much as I have :D
NOW ON WITH THE STORY!
A Dreamscape
The Beginning of the End:
"They always said betrayal was the first step."
-Source unknown
In the beginning there was faith- which was childish; trust- which was vain; and illusion- which was dangerous.
And amongst all others, there was love.
It had all started before the Ninkai Daisen. (1)
At that time, we were a peaceful nation, banking on our trade with other countries as our income. My Clan, was a wealthy and powerful one- one of the most influential of its time. We were gifted in the art of Ninjutsu and our medical skills were remarkable, as we were heads of the Medical Corp.
My father was the leader of our family and my mother- his most trusted advisor. When I was born everything and everyone was at peace. We had just revived ourselves from a terrible war that had put our village into ruins.
My parents, both experienced Shinobi, taught me the ways of the ninja at an early age of just six. As my father taught me skills in fighting, my mother would tutor me in skills of healing. She told me that I would one day grow up and inherit the position of leader from my father and that I would lead our people to flourish.
My father's older brother- my uncle- had two daughters that loved me as if I were their younger sister, instead of their youngest cousin. Mai, the eldest, was my idol and Alice, her younger sister by two and a half minutes, was my best friend. Mai was the pride of our clan and Alice was expected to be her successor.
Both of my parents, as well as my clan, adored the three of us. My cousins were four years to my senior and were identical twins. They were amazing Shinobi and I idled them both for their skills.
A year passed and I entered the Academy. My parents praised me on everything I excelled at, which were most things because my father had taught me the basics even before I had entered.
It was only natural for me to become a prodigy like Mai.
Alice, though not as good as a fighter and certainly not as skilled as her sister; was happy with her progress as well and showed me every chance she got all of her new accomplishments.
We were happy, our Nation was doing better than it had ever been and I didn't think my life could get any better than it did.
It wasn't until they came.
Destroying our prosperity and making a once desirable country into that of mutiny and betrayal.
They called themselves the Uchiha Clan and their leader was a charismatic and frightening man by the name of Madara. They said that they had come from a land far off and never exactly spoke of the name. Their leader told us it had been destroyed in an act of civil disobedience and that they were the only survivors, searching for a home and had nowhere else to go.
My people had heard of these Uchiha's only barely. Rumors were said that they possessed a power unlike any other my village had seen before. It was called the Sharingan and was their most priced possession. At first, we were scared of this kaleidoscope genjutsu, but reassurance from Madara himself eased our fears and we accepted these strange people as our own.
Years went by and our country was turning exceptionally great. We believed it was the Uchiha's doing and for that we encouraged their strength, never guessing twice about their strange ways.
And it wasn't until a body was found that everything started to downfall.
The body was that of Madara's younger brother, found downstream. We believed it to be an accidental death, a suicidal decision even- to drown oneself. My mother, seeing as she specialized in Medical Engineering, decided to perform a few procedures to figure out just what went wrong.
It wasn't every day you saw someone commit himself to an eternity of darkness; and for that we thought it as strange.
What my mother found however was anything but suicide, and what we had never suspected. My mother figured she'd find nothing special, just some waterlogged lungs and maybe a few broken ribs. What she never expected was for the victim's eyes to be plucked out of his own skull and the internal organs to be crushed beyond belief.
My father notified Madara on what his wife had found and about their discoveries. The man, at first, acted sympathetic and vowed to track down just who committed this treacherous murder against his own kin.
We never figured, even for a moment, that he, himself, had been the one to thrust this act of viciousness upon his own brother.
Months went by, allegations were set but no one was convicted or found at least suspicious of the treachery.
No one would speak of who had committed this crime.
(Because for those who kept silent yesterday, will remain silent tomorrow).
My father found this to be a little un-nerving and decided to find out just what had gone on before the Uchiha's had set foot in our land.
He came upon an old book of ancient clans, ours being one of them, and looked for the name of Uchiha in its pages. He and my mother both searched throughout the bindings, finding much history that had been hidden from normal eyes.
(But books no longer have the power they once did).
Apparently, their family had been the one to found our village, along with its people, which was surprising. Madara had later confirmed these facts along with many other things; some of which concerning the Sharingan.
Madara had told us that having the Sharingan was a major advantage, but also a double-edged sword. Using this eye technique too much caused the user to go blind and their Bloodline limit, or Kekkei Genkai, to be lost forever.
He explained that because of this, it was tradition for the head family to give birth to two sons. As each son grew they developed their Sharingan's to their fullest potential. Even killing their closest friend was necessary for this development. At the end of the final stage, they were to go to battle with each other. The winner was allowed to pluck his brother's own eyes out and transplant them into his own eye sockets.
This was the only way to not lose 'the light', as he had described it.
After this explanation, we were horrified. My father accused Madara of murdering his own brother for the sake of selfishness. Madara, insulted that someone of such 'low' standards would oppose his rules, went into a rage.
The village was in an uproar.
As declarations flew, my mother feared for my safety, as did my father. My family was thrown into disarray. And at the root of the conundrum was my uncle's eldest.
Mai had become rather distant as of late, bustling around the Uchiha's more often than she did with her own family and it was beginning to ware on everyone's nerves, especially her sister's.
Scared that her Onee-chan would get hurt in the crossfire, Alice tried talking to her sister, only to be pushed farther away. I was beginning to realize that my idol was becoming something I had never dreamed or wished of her to be.
Sometimes when I would get a chance to converse with her, all she would say was how exceptional the Uchiha's were and what Madara had done was probably for the best and that his brother had probably deserved his demise.
It terrified me to think that my cousin, the one that I loved dearly and looked up to like an older sibling, was become just as charismatic as that bastard Madara. I was afraid to think that he was brainwashing her or something just as cynical.
Around this time, I had just celebrated my 17th birthday.
Everything was awry, our village was divided and families were split. People began to think that this would be the end of us all.
And I did too.
It was all because of those god forsaken Uchiha's. It was their fault that our people were killing each other everyday because of misunderstandings from each party and that Mai was rebelling against her own parents as if they were common strangers.
It wasn't until then; that night, that everything I knew and loved was destroyed.
It was the night after my first s-ranked, suicidal mission. My team had been sent to assassinate the ambassador of a fellowing country. It wasn't until I had walked out of the Hokage's tower, reporting that our mission was indeed a success, that I had a feeling something was amiss.
I rushed back home, where my family awaited me, to find everything destroyed. As soon as I had walked into the compound, I could smell the stench of death hanging in the air. Scared out of my mind, I walked further into the domain of my ancestors.
On every wall that surrounded and protected our home from outsiders, were the people of my clan- my family- strung up and pinned against the wall with the Uchiha's symbol written above their lanking heads in what I could only assume was their own blood.
I immediately ran to the head house in hopes that my parents hadn't met the same fate at these poor souls had.
When I arrived I could hear yelling coming from inside. I'd slipped in through the rice paper door and tiptoed to where the voices were coming from. There, I saw my father- with my mother behind his back and arms spread out in a protective manner, as my mother cried silently. I turned my head and had looked to where the infiltrator was.
There, poised in front of my parents, was my eldest cousin with a bloody sword drawn in front of her. Her clothes were covered in gore and her dark hair matted with blood.
I bolted into the room and stood in front of my parents, arms outstretched and pleaded to her to stop this madness. She stared at me blankly for a moment before calmly telling me that I was in the way of her goal. Sensing my confusion, she decided to elaborate for her own amusement.
She was to be aiding the Uchiha's in taking over Konahagakure and making it their own fascist community. They're plan was to take all of it's people and make them yield to their concepts and serve them like the gods they believed they were.
And Mai was to be one of them- one of the Uchihas.
I struck at my cousin furiously. Angry with her for being so condescending and for selling out her own family like we were all a bunch of tradable goods.
We fought, bitter with one another. And at some point during the brawl, she had signaled for aid. They caught me from behind and tied me down, leaving my parents vulnerable to assault.
After a brief fight, the Uchihas pinned them against the wall and bound them. I watched as Mai walked up to them slowly; drawing out the tension even longer.
My father pleaded for her to stop this insanity. After a few stretches of quietness, she silenced them both permanently with her own hands and blade.
The Uchihas and my cousin turned to me. One of them roughly dragged me up and hit me.
I saw black.
I woke up to being dragged to the Towns Square in the pitch black of night. I cried out to my captors in anguish, begging them to let me go so I could join my kinsmen. They had bound my arms together so that I could not perform jutsu. The two middle-aged men smugly told me they were taking me to the center of town to be judged by their leader.
People were everywhere, upon entering the piazza. The place was lit up with hundreds of torches that gave off a bright orange glow, contrasting against the night's dark sky.
It looked like a mob as hundreds of people crowded around me while the two Uchihas hauled me along. Everyone shouted and cheered them on as we were swallowed up into the mosh pit.
I caught a glimpse of Alice being dragged to the stage as well. She was trying to fight off her guarders but gave up after one of them twisted her arm harshly.
We were thrown onto the stage while more cheering commenced. But as soon as Madara stepped onto the platform, everyone silenced.
We were tied, standing up, to the stage by heavyset chains.
He smiled at the crowd and began his speech by raising his hands and yelling that they had won the fight against our family. The applauding kicked up again but was silenced by a wave of the mad man's hand.
He motioned to us as we stood stiffly and told the mass of people that he was going to perform a technique that no one had ever seen before.
It was to be their greatest achievement, he preached.
Madara had his subordinates lie a scroll for each of us; open and facing outwards. I examined the scroll briefly and discovered it had strange markings that I could not decipher. My stomach began to churn and I was afraid that I'd be sick.
We were made to heel in front of the great leader and scrolls, with our heads bowed. Madara told us that this would be the position we would always be in when in the presence of an Uchiha.
My hand was unchained and brought thoroughfare. I winced as he took a kunai out from under his robes, knelt and slit my outstretched palm. He motioned for his lieutenant to do the same to my cousin.
He brought my bloody limb out front and pressed it down onto the centerfold of the parchment. My hand stung and I gasped when the paper's writing began to ignite in a flash of dark colors, sucking up my blood as if it were a thirsty camel. I tried pulling my hand away but Madara held it firmly in place and smirked at my horrified expression.
The markings on the scroll began to grow and reach up my arm as if alive, bleeding into my skin like a tattoo.
I heard Alice give out a short cry before she fell back into unconsciousness.
I remember her last words had been my name. A summons. That I had not answered; nor responded to- could not.
Madara grabbed my face and turned me to him. I pleaded him to let my go but he only shook his head in amusement and told me that I would one day learn what a great and noble deed he was doing for us all.
He brushed my hair back and away from my neck while turning my face sideways and held it there. Bringing his other hand up, making sure that the scroll's markings held my arm bound into place with invisible ropes, Madara bit the pad of his thumb and squeezed blood to the surface.
With it, he drew his clan's symbol onto the skin where the base of my neck and shoulder joined and whispered a cantation. The fan glowed faintly, before fading into my skin; leaving a mark similar to a cursed seal.
It burned immensely, and he laughed at my pained expression. The Uchiha let go of my face and I fell backwards, just as my cousin had only moments before. My vision was beginning to fade, as I saw Madara rise up and face the crowd. A triumphant look resting upon his face.
My ears hurt from the crowd's roaring cheer.
And I knew at that point- we were through. Our reign over Konaha was brought down to its knees and crushed. All that was left of our once great and noble people were merely myself and two cousins; one of which had betrayed.
As I lie there, letting darkness take over me, I knew that this was not the end of my misery. Only the beginning.
Never shall I forget that night. The night that turned my world into a living hell seven times sealed.
Never shall I forget the faces of my kin, my family. Dying before my very own eyes.
Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for the desire to live.
Never shall I forget those faces that consumed my faith forever.
Nor shall I forgive the world for having pushed me against a wall, for having awakened in me the basest, most primitive instincts of my very being.
And I will never forgive myself, for as long as I shall live.
Never.
Rules were set; delegations made- and we were bound to the Uchiha's for an eternity of servitude.
Author's Note:
(1) The Era of Great War
Well I hope you all liked it or at least enjoyed it! I had a lot of fun writing it :D I'm sure you can all guess who was narrating this. But for the sake of being evil, I won't tell you if your right until next chapter XP Your all welcome to guess in your reviews though!
And yes there will be two Oc's but deal with it! They won't be there for very long, I promise. Only when nessesary. Remember SasuSaku is the main paring!! And just to clear things up they are NOT Mary-sues. Belive me. If not, ask kittylver41092- she'll tell you!! 'Cause she's my beta.
Anyways, next chapter we will have our lovely Sasuke-kun make his appearence. I think I can safely say all us fangirls will be quite happy with that, ne? :D
REVIEW! BECAUSE I LOVE YOU!
ihearttoast09
