Chapter One

I wove through the trees as fast as I possibly could—which in truth was really fast—using my own chakra to stick myself to the branches that stuck out of the towering trees. That evil chakra up ahead was familiar, way to familiar, and the image of a snake was brought to the forefront of my mind. This particular snake though was white-skinned with long black hair and black-rimmed amber eyes that were a green-gold to be exact with cat-like pupils.

"Orochimaru…" I growled aloud, my eyes narrowing as I neared my target. I could feel that there were two other people with the snake, and if I were to judge one felt slightly darker than the other did, but not by much. The stronger, and darker of the two, was attempting to fight Orochimaru back as the snake assaulted the person, failing miserably.

I knew who that chakra belonged to, and pushed myself even harder, praying that the boy had not been marked yet. If Sasuke Uchiha, one of the few remaining shinobi with the Uchiha Clan's blood running through his veins, were to be marked he would be lost to Orochimaru forever. When the boy's chakra stopped moving I lost all hope that I could make it in time even though I could see the glint of the sun off of scales through the trees. Suddenly there was a flash of malevolent chakra, and my blood ran cold as I could practically see the red tinted chakra permeating the air. In the mix of the red I felt the calming blue of the person's normal chakra. The thing was I knew both of these chakras for different reasons.

"Naruto…" I breathed as I finally entered the clearing just in time to see Naruto—with his normally sapphire or sky blue eyes crimson and cat-like, his six whisker marks darkened and more filled out, face contorted with rage and shock. I saw the blonde receive a hand with glowing blue kanji on all five fingers rammed into his stomach as Orochimaru held the boy up with an elongated tongue. Rammed right over where the seal to keep the Nine-Tailed fox contained inside him from being released and wrecking havoc. The blonde's eyes widened and flashed back to blue before they became half-lidded.

A smirk on his face, Orochimaru withdrew his hand from the boy's stomach, and unwound his tongue from around him as well, and let Naruto fall. But the boy's descent was stopped by two kunai stabbing through the coat of his horrendous, kill-me-now, orange and blue jumpsuit, and embedded themselves into the tree with two THUNKS! For an instant Naruto's weary blue eyes met mine and faintly I saw a faint flash of recognition before he fell unconscious.

Without thinking, I turned towards the children, facing away from the snake-like man on the dull, green-gray snake. Even with the distance between us I could see the confusion in the green eyes of the girl with long pink hair as she gazed at the two life saving kunai that had stopped Naruto from falling by securing him to the trunk of the tree. I noticed that her arm was still extended from throwing her own kunai. The black-haired boy on the other hand was scanning the forest around him and the girl, and for a fraction of a second when his eyes found me they paused then he continued searching the forest.

I smirked as I quickly and quietly moved towards the children just as Orochimaru turned to look at where Sasuke's eyes had stopped. After lookg for a few moments and not noticing anything out of the ordinary, he turned back to the two conscious kids, a cold smile curling his lips upwards.

Immediately after smirking, he spoke in a smooth voice. "So, Sasuke?" With surprising speed the ex-Sanin knocked the girl away, gaining a closer distance to Sasuke. I watched the girl fall and heard the whoosh of air as it was forced out of her lungs on impact with a lower branch, but turned my attention back to Orochimaru. The snake's amber eyes glimmered with amusement as the boy flipped away to another branch, but the man did not budge an inch closer. I tensed, a feeling in my gut telling me that what I knew Orochimaru was aiming for was going to happen soon, and prepared myself to interfere. "Is that it? Yes? If so then I should stop toying shouldn't I?"

I rushed forward a millisecond after the man's head shot out, elongating his neck unnaturally and closing the gap between the prodigy and snake in a heartbeat, and even with that reaction time I was almost too late. Whipping out a kunai from the weapons pouch on my right leg, I switched it to my left hand almost instantaneously before digging around for a special keepsake kunai that I had, wrapping my hand around the handle of the weapon once I felt it. I sprung in front of the young Uchiha, as the serpentine man's head was merely a yard away from the man's target.

I saw the black-rimmed eyes widen in horror when he saw me, but he was already way too far extended and close to change directions or stop as his head came closer. Baring my two kunais, I easily hit his head to the right, exposing his throat. Without hesitation I smoothly placed the kunai in my left hand edge-first on his throat, drawing a thin line of blood as I added a little bit of pressure. The second one in my right hand went point-first between his eyes, a small droplet of blood forming as I pierced the skin slightly.

The second kunai was strange, it had three prongs the one in the center—which was the point pricking Orochimaru's face—was longer than the two on the sides that were of equal length and from one-half to two-thirds the length of the one in the middle. Even to this day I remembered the man who gave this kunai to me when I was a child, and why. The Fourth Hokage—who had given it to me—had told me if I ever needed extreme protection then all I had to do was smear a little of my blood directly on the kanji that was on the tag attached to the weapon and say help. But he had also told me it was only for dire emergencies, like a kidnapping. All I have to say is that I was one interesting child, but back to now.

"Over my dead body, Orochimaru." I hissed. The man in question quickly withdrew his head, eye still wide, but now thoughtful. He grinned, and my eyes narrowed to slits.

"So… You are alive after all…" It was not a question.

"Obviously… Now leave before I do kill you. Sanin or not." I ordered, tightening my grip on my kunais.

He bowed mockingly. "Yes… One-of-Two…" Orochimaru smirked as he straightened. "But you have caught my eye. I may mark you instead of the boy." And with that with that he was gone in a big puff of smoke, his summoning disappearing too.

I sighed. I had tried all of my life to avoid direct attention, but now, after my sudden reappearance, that was gone for good. Although that objective had been hard to begin with.

"Wh-Who are you?" The pink-haired girl asked as she finally got over the loss of breath and the shock of a stranger appearing and helping her team out during the Chunin Exams.

"Right now that is not important." I said heading over to the tree Naruto hung from. With ease I jumped onto the tree trunk and stuck to it. Carefully I grabbed the blonde to where I could hold his weight as I yanked the kunais that held him up out of the tree bark; I completely ignored the complaints from the girl as I caught the orange wearing boy gently. I put all three of my kunai back into my weapons pouch on my leg and lazily threw the girl her kunai back, and the knife, after traveling in a smooth arc up and then back down, managed to lodge itself into the bark in front of her feet, sending up a shattering of splinters. The girl squeaked in shock before tugging the weapon out from the branch.

"Come on!" I told them over my shoulder. I hopped away after I had adjusted Naruto so he was limply riding piggyback. "I'm not gonna bite! Plus all the teams in the entire forest with chakra sensing ninjas are probably on their way here because of the chakra output from the battle, so get a move on!"

Grudgingly, the two followed me as they saw my point, and slowly we made our way through the forest with me in the lead. After about an hour, I stopped in a clearing with a tree that had a strangely shaped root structure that I realized would provide some protection when the gap under the roots was camouflaged. On the clear patch of dirt under the roots I slowly laid Naruto down.

As discretely as possible with the two exhausted genin catching up and walking over, I lifted the boy's coat, shirt, and fishnet-like material to peer at the black seal that was on his stomach. What I saw made me scowl. Orochimaru had placed an odd number pronged seal—a five-pronged seal—over an even numbered pronged seal—an eight-pronged seal. Even I though I did not know much about complex seals such as the ones I was currently looking at I knew that the odd-over-even seal placement was not good whatsoever. Quickly I pulled his shirt back down to cover the overlapping seals, but my expression must have shown my discontentment over the discovery.

"What's wrong?" The girl asked as Sasuke glared at me for being near his comrade.

"Hmmm? Oh, well Orochimaru did something, but it didn't cause and damage as far as I can see… I find that very strange…" I stated knowing full well that the fact of the Nine-Tails in Naruto was a very big secret in Konoha.

"Oh…"

I stood up and prepared to leave by walking to the edge of the clearing, but was stopped by Sasuke.

"Where are you going?" He asked accusingly, and from the drop in his chakra I knew his Sharingan was activated.

"Away." I said simply as I took a step forward. "I advise you to deactivate your Sharingan, Sasuke Uchiha. Right now it's a waste of chakra, and you need all of it you have." I took another step forward before throwing over my shoulder, "And please tell old man Third that the One-of-Two is alive and kicking"

I laughed and shot off, leaving two very confused, and one unconscious, genin behind in the Forest of Death.

N-N-N

Reaching into the water I scooped some water into my cupped hands and splashed my face, distorting my reflection below me. Face dripping with droplets of the liquid, I waited in my crouch for the ripples in the small pond to stop spreading outward in rings, and finally got to see my reflection as the water settled. My weary eyes that were a color between black and a pale, purple-silver giving one the impression that I was blind, stared back at me. I blinked and my eyes were black when they opened as I concentrated on having a semi-normal eye color, but from the right angle I knew there was still a faint silvery sheen. With a sigh I ran my fingers through my short hair, missing my long hair but not the hassle of the upkeep, but I enjoyed the boyish style more. Tearing my gaze away from my reflection I gazed into the orange-red sky of twilight.

"That boy is still the same as always I see…" I thought aloud as the shadows slowly lengthened. "He's got his father's eyes and spiky hair, but his mother's face and listen-to-me attitude. If only the two of you were still here… Whiskers may not want to admit it but he needs the people around him, ten times more than they need him. He needs a family and that's what they are, his family. But most of all he needs his parents. I just don't see why you did what you did, Fourth. The closet thing he has to a parent or grandparent figure is old man Sarutobi…"

I let my words hang heavy in the air, and then I was filled with an overwhelming, heart-wrenching guilt. Closing my eyes tight, I bit my lip almost hard enough to draw blood, letting my concentration over my eye color waver. I opened my eyes once more and looked down at my reflection and stared directly into my blind-like eyes.

"I'm just at fault though…" I murmured putting my heads in my hands, digging my elbows into my knees. "I left and I was one of the only ones he could have had a chance to relate to… Plus I didn't judge him because of that night unlike most of the village… So there is no way that I can say anything about you, Fourth. I'm sorry, Naruto. So very sorry…"

"But I can't wallow in my own misery. I have to get ready for the ANBU to come and find me like I know they will. Someone had to have felt my little stunt." I stood up from my crouch and stretched my arms and legs until the limbs trembled. "There's no way Danzo will pass up the chance to get me into the village again. I'm way too useful a ninja for another land to get; more like a tool rather than ninja though. But that's all that old cod sees me as, a tool, plus he wants my special ocular abilities."

I smirked; turning towards my campsite hidden in the trees that surrounded the pond. I loved this place, it was not too far away from Konoha for me to loose information with the Hidden Village, but still not close enough for easy detection from ANBU ninjas that would patrol often. And it was just down right peaceful. Thoughtfully I looked back at the sky and with a shock realized how late it was; it was almost dark! Almost time for the second stage of the Chunin Exams to be over with.

"Then again… I may pay a visit to Konoha for the preliminaries. It'll give old man Third a shock seeing me again, let alone the pink-haired girl and Sasuke. I wonder how Naruto will react…? When he saw me I think he sort-of recognized me…" I grinned as I felt all three of the children's chakras get closer to the cluster of stronger chakras, one that I knew was the old man's. "A preliminary reappearance. That sounds good. The question now is how to get there without being spotted by the jounin or the ANBU…"

N-N-N

I watched the battles of the preliminaries take place before me in a spacious room with a balcony going almost all the way around the room except for one side. That one side of the room was taken up by a large rock sculpture of a ninja hand-sign that went from floor to almost ceiling height. I was using a high-level genjutsu to keep myself from being seen as I hid in one of the room's corners. So far I had enjoyed my self though there had been a few close calls of me being caught judging from the weird glances that my corner was receiving from some of the jounin. Granted there was no harm in me being caught except that with all the jounin level ninja in the room I would more than likely be forced to activate my bloodline traits that were special just for me in defense if they all decided to attack; or I could only activate half of it.

But one thing that I congratulated myself on was a note that I had gotten to old man Third without being caught by any ANBU that were patrolling. In the note I had told him that the One-of-Two, me, might decide to show up to the prelims. So I figured that he should be on the lookout for myself.

The fight that I had enjoyed the most though was Naruto's fight against a boy named Kiba from the Inuzuka Clan and his ninja hound, Akamaru. I had heard that the blonde was the one of the most unpredictable ninjas in existence, or at least the village, but I had not really taken it to heart until I saw his match. In the end I had a hard time keeping myself from laughing my head off at the astonished looks on the majority of the genin and jounin from Konoha. Their faces were just priceless! Although I could have sworn that Sarutobi kept glancing to my hiding place with amusement as well as questions in his eyes as if my genjutsu was not phasing him a bit; and, knowing him, it probably was not.

Right then two Hyugas were on the floor. Hinata, the heiress of the main household, and Neji, Hinata's cousin of the branch family, had just gotten into their identical fighting stances as they prepared for the proctor to give them the okay. When the battle started mentally I cheered for the heiress who, although she was easily out-classed by the elder Hyuga, would not back down. I realized that she had taken a page from Naruto's book and smiled, but that smile melted off of my face as Neji struck a low blow for the girl's heart; not a glancing blow but a killing blow. Hinata coughed up a clot of blood before she dropped down and the proctor called the matched finished and Neji the winner. Medic ninjas rushed in and carried the girl out of the room quickly.

I scowled, and was pretty sure that my eyes turned the same purple-pearl color as both Hyugas. Blinking, I tried to turn my eyes back to their normal color, and missed and exchange between Neji and someone but I did notice the prodigy's demeanor pull a one-eighty. The Hyuga stiffened, and that made me tense as well; something about his posture bothered me. Then it hit me; he was trying to keep his composure and not to attack someone. I looked to the other person, and saw Naruto. Immediately my eyes narrowed. If Neji even moved the wrong way towards Naruto I was going to stop him. Vaguely I noticed Sarutobi gaze at my corner as my genjutsu faltered slightly.

Faintly I saw the Hyuga's leg shift, and that was all the warning I needed. I dropped my genjutsu and by the time he started to move I had moved in front of the blonde. As the Hyuga boy extended his arm I caught it by the wrist, and did the same to the other arm as it shot forward too.

I saw his pearl colored eyes widened as he looked at me the veins around his eyes that came with his bloodline being activated disappeared as he let the Byakugan deactivate. For a few seconds we stared each other in the eyes before I let his wrists go and he took a surprised step back. Looking at the metal plate on his headband with a stylized leaf engraved onto it I saw my eyes fading from silver to their median black-silver coloring. The room was silent, all eyes trained on me, all curious besides Sarutobi's, but some were suspicious.

It was Naruto that broke the infuriating silence and asked the question on the majority of minds present, "Who are you?"

"I can answer that, Naruto," we turned and faced Sarutobi who was the one who had spoken. The old man was smiling kindly as all eyes turned to him instead while he looked me in the eye.

I grinned sheepishly at the old man. "It's been awhile, hasn't it, old man Sarutobi?"

The elderly ninja chuckled, shaking his head slightly at my bluntness. "Yes, it has. And for your question, Naruto, her name is Egao…" Sarutobi looked at me questionably, wondering if he should continue or should I pick it up.

I sighed, telling him I was taking the later choice, before I drew in a deep breath in preparation for what I was about to say, because no there was no turning back now. I could feel all eyes on me. "My name is Egao Hyuga Uchiha…" I proclaimed in a loud, carrying voice and was greeted by a stunned silence.

Author's Notes: I got really bored in school one day and I started typing this story on the notepad on my kindle because I got a random thought of Hyuga and Uchiha bloodlines in one person. Now that sounds interesting doesn't it? Oh, and I get to use the name Egao! Yay! Hope that this is enjoyed, and if enough people like it—showing their approval by reviews—I may continue the story, but it will be slowly updated because I have two stories and this one I have to follow, or at least semi-follow, the manga. So please review.

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