(Before we begin I want to give credit right now to Masashi Kishimoto, Shoen Jump, and everyone else who works to make Naruto both the anime and the manga possible. The first couple lines in this Fanfic are straight from Naruto the manga volume 43, pages 216-218. I am being very specific to avoid plagiarism. The credit for the opening is NOT mine! I simply turned it from manga form to that of a regular book so I could show where my story interjects. I hope you all enjoy my version as much as the real one. Thanks for reading. P.s. throughout the first few chapters there are some similarities to the original storyline until the new characters begin to exert their influence, please remember that all of the story line I skip over, that involves characters that are not the main focus, is following it's original path until it converges. Aka Naruto (and everyone else) is still doing exactly what he did in the manga. PLEASE REVIEW! I love your opinions.)
Ch. 1 The Surprise Guest
Sasuke sat tied up in a dark room, Madara sat nearby on a wooden box, the entire room was made of stone lit only by one small candle. He sat looking stunned at what Madara was saying.
"Your eyes didn't see through Itachi at all. Nor a single one of his illusions. Itachi..." Madara stood and began to slowly approach Sasuke, "...killed his friends, his superiors..." he pulled out a kunai."...his lover, his father, and his mother..." he knelt down in front of Sasuke, kunai in hand. "But his little brother alone... He could not kill..." Madara cut the ropes binding Sasuke. "He killed all of his own emotions, save for crying tears of blood, and slaughtered his own flesh and blood for the sake of his village..." Sasuke stared intently at Madara, unable to move, consumed by the reality of what he was being told. "but he just couldn't bring himself to kill you. Do you understand what that means?" Madara sat down cross legged in front of him. "To him, your life... Was more precious than even the village."
Sasuke stared, horrified by what he had just learned about his brother. Then, from the dark side of the room, a figure dressed in the Akatsuki robe emerged. All that was visible of the actual person were the dark eyes contorted in anger and the black hair that surrounded them.
"Why... Why did you tell him Madara?!" the figure spoke, the voice was feminine. She looked at the masked man with hatred and malice. "You made a promise! You promised Itachi you wouldn't tell him a thing!" mild sadness tainted her hatred. "How could you betray him like that?"
Madara didn't give it a moments thought. "The same way he was able to betray you, because the value of duty ranks higher than the value of friendship."
The woman gritted her teeth and, with a motion so fast Sasuke couldn't even follow it, a kunai went flying, aimed dead center at the opening in Madaras mask, but it phased right through him.
Sasuke remained calm but he was confused by what was happening so far. Madara wasn't even fazed. "Now Siren, calm down... You're not in your right mind at the moment."
"Shut up! I don't want to hear it... Your a traitor, you always will be! You always have to hurt the only ones really trying to help you!"
Madara sighed and let his head slump a little. "I'm not dealing with you today." He glared at her in a way that let her see the glow of his red eye beneath his mask. "Leave before I send you to a shallow grave, you'll join your lover soon enough if you persist in your attempts at insulting me."
"I'll leave... But only with the boys assured safety, and a vow that he will stay that way as long as you hold the power to make it so." Siren stared him down, not bothering to avoid eye contact with Madaras sharingan.
"And why would I owe you that courtesy?" Madara pulled himself up off the floor and stood facing Siren.
"You don't... You owe Itachi." she peered down at Sasuke giving him a sad look. "And for now the boy comes with me."
"He isn't just a boy, and I am not forcing him to stay here, the binds were for his own protection, he is free to go whenever he pleases, and he is aware of that fact."
She didn't reply to Madara, instead she kept her focus on Sasuke. "Sasuke, let's go, I know you don't know me, but I know you..." she looked down and her cloak shrouded her entire face."you may not remember," her voice softened, she reached her hands forward and undid the top of her robe so that her face could be seen, she had very long hair and a pretty face, she smiled a somber smile at him with almost pleading eyes. "But I used to come over a lot... I was good friends with your family... Please try and remember Sasuke... I knew you when you were just a baby."
Sasuke stared at her face, trying to remember, or to figure out if this was some trick but nothing came to mind. "I'm not going anywhere with you. Why would I?" he ambled to his feet, having somewhat of a hard time. He used the wall to support himself slightly, he wasn't healed fully yet after his battle with Itachi.
"because..." she frowned. "I'm the only one left who can tell you about your brother, the way he really was... When we were kids, growing up, what it was like being an agent for the clan, and an ambu black ops for the village... His life and all the old stories about the Uchiha that you were too young to hear before..."
"and how would you know any of that?" Sasuke glared at the mention of his brother, he wondered who the heck this woman was that claimed she new so much about him.
"I can't believe you can't tell for yourself right now." she looked him in the eyes and hers shifted suddenly from a smoky black to a bright red with three small black partial yin yang signs in each of them. "I'm an Uchiha... though I can't carry on the name like you can, and I can't carry on the blood either... "
"that's..." Sasuke stared.. Everything he had known to be true up until this point was being challenged, Itachi was a martyr, not a villain, the village was more evil than the akatsuki, the Uchihas were feared, not respected, and now, he wasn't the only one left... There were two others... Madara, the leader of the akatsuki and original holder of the mongekyu sharingan. And this woman, Siren, Madara had called her, another member of the akatsuki? And did Madara imply... No... That can't be. He thought to himself
"Sasuke, please... Just this once trust someone else. If you don't care about what I have to say then you can go your own way as soon as we're out of here." She held out a hand to him as a way of showing submission.
He stood upright and looked from her to Madara and back. "fine." he turned to Madara. "Where are my cloths?" He ignored her hand completely.
"Destroyed." Madara pulled four akatsuki robes from out of nowhere. "but you and your team, hebi wasn't it, can use these, if your willing to." Sasuke snatched them without a thought or a word and sliped one on quickly as he whirled around toward the exit. When he got to the door he paused and looked over his shoulder nonchalantly. "I thought you were in some kind of hurry. You coming?"
Siren looked down almost smiling; she did up her robe then followed after. "Your team is waiting for you. Let's meet up with them."
Sasuke turned away again and just before exiting said quietly. "Its all the same to me.. I thought they'd be dead by now."
Sasuke stood on the cliff where he had met up with his team who were now clad in black and red akatsuki robes, he stared out over the water while the rest of the team, along with Siren and Madara who followed, tried not to watch him to closely. He cried silently, for his brother, for his family, for everything that he now considered to be lost to him... Soon he banished those tears and swore to himself they'd be his last. He took a deep breath; his team looked concerned for him, as did Siren.
Siren was the one brave enough to speak first. "What now, Sasuke?" she held her knees. Though it was hard to tell with how large her robe was on her.
"We are no longer team hebi... We have she'd the past as a snake sheds its skin. From now on, we are team Taka... And we have only one objective... To destroy the hidden leaf village."