This is my first story in awhile. I already have the next several chapters written, but I don't want to get ahead of myself so I'm only gonna upload one a week.
Warning: This story is mainly based around original-characters, so if you're not a fan of OC, this might not be your thing.
Spoiler alert: I have read up to the most recent manga released and will be incorporating alot of things from shippuden in this story. If you don't want the story spoiled, you shouldn't read this story.
Rated M for violence, adult themes, drug references, language, and anything else just to be safe.
Disclaimer: Naruto, it's plot, and it's characters are owned by Masashi Kishimoto, not me.
Sasuke sat patiently at the table, waiting for his son to return home from his first mission as an ANBU member. He could hardly believe that just 15 years ago Kenta was an infant crawling around on the carpet, now he was almost a grown man going out on his own missions. Kenta was the prodigy Sasuke had hoped he'd be: Kenta graduated the academy at the age of 7, activated the Sharingan at 8, became a chunin at 9, became a jounin at 11, activated the Mangekyou Sharingan at age 12 (after his best friend died on a mission), and now at the age of 15 was in the ANBU. Many shinobi compared Kenta to Kakashi Hatake, and most speculated that Kenta would be stronger than Kakashi one day. Sasuke didn't expect any less of his child.
15 years... Sasuke thought to himself, Only 17 years ago I would never have imagined being proud that my son was in Konoha's ANBU. Naruto certainly is a strange one, to have convinced me to come back peacefully and to have convinced the villagers to accept me back. Granted, Karin and I were under village arrest for the first 3 years, but I chose that willingly. Destroying Konoha physically would've been nice, but it'll be much sweeter to end the Senju's control and make the Uchiha the dominant clan once again through subversive tactics instead. Once Kenta gets a wife and children, the true rebuilding of the clan can begin...
The front door opened, distracting Sasuke from his train of thought. He looked towards the room's entrance expectantly while listening to the footsteps coming down the hall. "Oh," he said, "it's only you."
Standing in the archway was a young girl, no older than 12, about 4'12". Her shoulder-length black hair was unkempt and dirty, her black eyes avoided direct gaze with her father's. She continued stepping into the room with small, slow steps until she sat down at the table across from Sasuke.
"Sorry, I didn't mean anything by that. I'm just eager for your brother to return." He waited for her to respond, when she didn't he continued, "How was the academy today?"
"It was good." Haruko paused, playing with her hair a little. "We did more sparring today; my partner was Saki-chan this time."
Sasuke raised his eyebrow in interest. Haruko and Saki were always neck and neck, at least as far as grades went, but they had never sparred before. "Who won?"
"I did, but I think that she went easy on me because I know that she's better than me and it seemed like she just-"
"Nonsense," Sasuke cut her off, "You're my child after all, it's only right that you're the top of your class. Just like Kenta was."
Haruko took a second to absorb what her father just said and then smiled. It was rare that he compared her to Kenta, at least it was rare that the comparison was a good one.
"Dad! Mom! I'm home!"
"Hey! How's my little girl today?" Naruto picked his daughter up and swung her around a little before putting her back down. "Damn you're messy! Was some mean boy picking on you?"
Saki laughed, "No dad we were sparring. You know that if somebody picked on me I'd kick their ass!"
"Saki, please watch your language inside the house." Hinata walked over to see her daughter.
Saki kissed her mother on the cheek to apologize and then went up to her room. She threw her books down on the floor and then jumped on her bed laying on her stomach. Saki reached under her pillow and pulled out a picture of her classmate, Takuma Lee, staring dreamily at it for several seconds.
"One day Takuma-kun, you will be mine, I know it. All I have to do is impress you, then you'll never fall for that Nara cunt, Akane!"
Why do you waste you time fawning over boys when you should be training to get stronger? You lost to that Uchiha girl today!
Jeez, who shat in your ramen? I lost to her on purpose. We were equally matched, the fight would've lasted for hours otherwise. Besides, Haruko's my friend, I don't care if I lose to her!
You should care if you want to be the greatest shinobi ever. The greatest has to train hard and practice, otherwise they'll only be an average shinobi. You're already behind other shinobi, that Uchiha boy was a jounin by your age you know?
So? My dad was still a genin at Kenta's age, and he's a fantastic shinobi!
Your dad had strength that you don't, Saki-chan. You should go train now.
As Saki and the voice conversed in her head, she wrote down everything they said to each other. She wasn't sure why, but she felt in was important to do. Once she wrote everything down she locked the diary and put it into her bag.
Maybe he's right, I don't want Haruko to get too far ahead of me, plus the graduation exam is tomorrow! I should get dad to help me train.
Takuma decided to take the long way home that afternoon after the academy. He had won his sparring match and just wanted a little peace before he had to face his rowdy father. Takuma frequently took long walks, especially through Konoha's numerous gardens and parks. The walks gave him inspiration for writing and poetry, which he wrote down once he got home. After walking for almost an hour, Takuma looked at his watch and decided to head to the main road to get home sooner. As he walked into the main road he noticed someone familiar, a black-haired girl from the academy.
Hmmm... what's her name again? She never talks so I can't remember it.
"Hey, you in the green vest! Wait up!" Takuma shouted to her as he ran over.
The girl stopped and stared at him, but he couldn't tell what expression she had on her face since her vest's collar went up to her nose. She was obviously waiting for him so she must've wanted to say something to him. Realizing this, Takuma ran faster towards her.
That's sounds like Takuma, is it? It is! Oh no, he's coming over here now, wait do I do, what should I say? Ugh, I can feel the sweat on my neck. I hope I don't start going on again, I always go on and on when he's listening to me.
"Hey, you go to the shinobi academy, right?" Takuma asked between deep breaths of air. Running that fast tired him out a bit.
"Yeah, I'm Haruko. I sit right in front of you in ninjustu class, but I think you sit across the room in genjutsu class and I don't think that we have any other classes together but maybe we do and I just don't know but I -"
Oh that's right, Uchiha Haruko, how could I forget her? I'll just play it off like I never forgot.
"Don't worry, I already know. You're Saki's friend right?"
"Yeah, since as long as I can remember we've been best friends, almost like sisters I guess because she's always been there for me." Haruko smiled behind her collar but silently cursed herself for talking too much.
"Are you walking home? You look kinda lonely, maybe I could walk you back to your house"
Is... is he really asking me that! This is like a dream come true!
"Yes I am, and I'd love someone to walk home with me."
Takuma and Haruko walked back to her house, talking about various things like class, their teachers, the other kids, the village, their families, etc. As they talked, Haruko relaxed more and more. To her, time went by so quickly that it felt like she was home in minutes.
"Well, see ya tomorrow I guess." Takuma smiled.
"Yeah, thanks for walking me home." Haruko stood there for a second, hoping that Takuma would say something charming or even flat-out kiss her.
"No problem, good luck on the exam tomorrow!" Takuma said as he walked in the opposite direction, eager to get back home.
Well, not all dreams can come true I suppose...
Elsewhere in the Fire Country...
Two shinobi walked down a dirt road in the forest. The road was small, just large enough for the two of them or a small cart to travel down, and was clearly a side-road. They both were carrying large bags that probably weighed as much as they did. The older shinobi, a man in his early 20s was dress in dark attire. He wore a dark gray flack jacket with a black trench coat drawn over it. A scarf was wrapped around his lower face and his eyes were covered by sunglasses, leaving only his slicked back red hair exposed. The younger shinobi, a girl who looked in her late-teens, dressed slightly different. She wore the same gray flack jacket, leaving the zipper undone, with a red tank top underneath. Her kunai, shuriken, and senbon holders were strapped around her tight, mid-thigh length black shorts. Her dark brown hair was pulled into a ponytail in the back, tied off with a bandage wrap, and draped over her left shoulder resting on her chest. Several tattoos were visible on her arms and chest. Unlike the other shinobi, she did not wear anything covering her face, which had a look of maturity on it.
"Where the hell are we going again Suzume?" The man spoke to the girl.
"I told you Hayabusa-sensei, Konohakagure! They have a shortage of shinobi and will surely need our talents."
"Pfft, our talents are blowing shit up and causing mayhem, what use will Konoha have for us? They haven't been in a war since Fourth Shinobi War when I was just a child!" Hayabusa reached into his pocket and pulled out a pill, then pulled his scarf down to swallow it.
"You never know! Maybe Konoha wants to cripple another country or village but doesn't want to declare war over it. That's our real talent: being secretive!"
"I suppose so, but I still can't see why they wouldn't hire wanderers from the nearest camp instead."
"We're better, that's why."
"Don't get cocky now, there are shinobi in every camp that could kick our asses. Let's focus on walking now, we still have quite a ways to go before the nearest town even, it will still take another day to get to Konoha!"
"Then we'd better hurry, right?" Suzume said as she began to run ahead of her sensei. Hayabusa just sighed and started chasing after her.
"Mom, dad, I'm home!" Takuma put his books down on the table by the door.
"It's about time! Dinner's been ready for half an hour." Sakura walked over and kissed her son on his cheek.
"Sorry mom."
"Don't scold him, Sakura-chan. He was out enjoying the wonders of youth!" Lee looked at his son and winked, giving him a thumbs up.
Takuma ignored his father and sat down to eat. He ate as quickly as he could, talking very little. This was normal, so his parents thought nothing of it. Once Takuma had finished he took his dishes over to the sink and rinsed them, then went out on the roof. Sakura kept a small garden on the roof, ranging from decorative flowers to the vegetables and roots that they'd have for dinner sometimes. Takuma thought that it was a peaceful place to write.
Dark out? Perfect, the full moon will give me inspiration. Let's see... how about this:
Bright calming light,
Coming only at night,
Surely gazing at you must be right.
No, too simple. Takuma scratched it out of his pad. Maybe:
Eternal flowing dark,
Interspersed with stars,
Surrounding the moon,
You seem so close, but are really so far.
Yeah, I like that one. Takuma circled it and put a check next to it before looking around more inspiration. While he was looking around a picture fell out of his pad. The class photo from last year? Hmmm, that Uchiha girl – what's her name... Haruko, that's right – is the only one not smiling. After a few more moments of thought, Takuma flipped to a new page and started writing:
Who is this girl I barely know,
Where did she come from,
Where will she go?
Will we be friends?
Or maybe more?
I can't tell,
Only time knows for sure.
Takuma paused and re-read what he just wrote. I'm not entirely sure why I wrote that last part about more than friends... I barely know her, and I can't even tell if she's pretty because of her collar. Still, why can't I stop thinking about her?
"Kenta, how was the mission?"
"Can't you greet me first father? I'd appreciate something along the lines of 'I'm glad you're home safe.' or 'Welcome back son!' but it's always straight to business with you isn't it?" Kenta laughed under his pig-shaped ANBU mask. When his father didn't laugh, Kenta spoke seriously, "It went well. I'd tell you what it was but it was top-secret I'm afraid."
"It went well? Just as I'd expect, you're my son after all." Sasuke stared at his son for a few seconds. "I'll never understand why you chose that stupid pig mask instead of something more threatening."
"What? This? It's hilarious! Everyone else loves it, even Haruko-chan! Right little sis?"
Haruko just smiled wide and nodded. She was relieved when he came back home alive, and even though there were a few cuts on his sleeves she wasn't worried about him.
"Whatever, take that mask off now. It's time to eat."
Kenta removed his ANBU mask revealing his face, which was shaped almost exactly like his father's. The main difference being that he had received both his mother's red eyes and straight red hair, which Kenta kept cut extremely short. He looked very little like Haruko, who looked like her mother but had her father's hair and eyes.
After dinner Kenta went into Haruko's room and looked at the pictures she had hanging on the wall. There was one of Sasuke, Karin, Kenta, and Haruko as an infant, then one of Sasuke and Haruko as a toddler, then one of Haruko as a child on Kenta's shoulders, and finally a recent one of Haruko and Saki hugging each other.
"You're smiling in almost all of these pictures... It's strange to see you smile this much, even if it is a picture." Kenta laughed and walked over to his sister. "Hey kiddo, what's on your mind?"
Haruko looked up at her brother, then back down at the ground. She started playing with her hair, which Kenta noticed fairly quickly. He sighed and sat down next to her, knowing that something big was on her mind.
"Come on, you can tell me anything."
"Well," Haruko finally spoke, "Tomorrow's the graduation exam and I'm not sure if I can pass or not, and I really want to do better than Saki-chan, but I think she's smarter than me and better at jutsu than me, and I really wanna impress Daddy so I hope tha..." Kenta put his finger over Haruko's lip and smiled at her.
"Relax kiddo, I've seen your grades. You'll do fine, trust me. Do you know what the jutsu exam is going to be?"
"No. Last year it was clones I think."
Kenta sighed to himself. It's been clones every year. They always play it up like its gonna be something completely different, "so you'd better practice all your jutsu!" or you'll fail, but every year it's clones. It was clones for dad, it was clones for me, and it'll be clones for Haruko-chan...
"I'd practice that a little tonight, you never know, they could always do it again." Kenta stood up and started walking to his room.
"Wait, one more thing Kenta."
"Yeah kiddo?"
"Well," Haruko thought to herself for a moment, "nevermind, you wouldn't understand."
"Oh really now? Try me."
"No, it's a girl thing. I was stupid to bring it up."
"Now I'm interested, tell me kiddo."
Should I ask him about Takuma-kun? No, I don't think so. But I've gotta come up with something...
"Am I pretty?"
"You ask me this all the time, and what do I always tell you?" Kenta laughed.
"I'd be lucky if the woman I fall in love with is half as pretty as you, kiddo." Haruko and Kenta both repeated what he always told her.
"There, now get some rest. You've got a long day ahead of you tomorrow."
"Slow down Suzume!"
"Run faster sensei."
"I can't, I've got both our weapons stashes in here. Steel's not very light you know."
"Sorry sensei, I'll wait for you."
Suzume slowed down and looked back for her sensei. He was a few meters behind and would catch up soon. Suzume decided to stretch when she noticed three small rectangles forming on the inside of her left wrist. She dropped the bag and drew a kunai from her pouch. Hayabusa, noticing his student, dropped his bag with a loud clang and drew a katana from behind his back, under his coat.
"Damn, they noticed us."
Smoke bombs went off around Suzume and Hayabusa. When the smoke cleared, they were surrounded by three shinobi, each with a blank headband.
"Prepare to face the wrath of Kaji camp's finest trio of Shinobi! To my left, Yaiba! To my right, Ookami! And finally me, the mastermind leader, Mijuuchin!" The shinobi speaking was a woman in her mid twenties. "We saw your blank hitai-ates, and having never seen you before figured you were from a rival camp."
"That's correct. We're from Yami camp, though we're currently in exile."
"Exile? Hmmm, then your camp won't mind if we kill you and take your loot. After all, Yami and Kaji may not be friends but their not at war and we'd hate to start one."
"You don't seem to realize who you've attacked yet, I'd be running if I were you." Suzume stood on her guard, wishing she had something larger than a kunai to defend herself.
"A blind man and a foolish girl is all I see." Mijuuchin laughed to herself.
"How many blind shinobi have you heard of?" Hayabusa's left hand left his sword to reach into his pocket and pull out a pill, which he went once again pulled down his scarf to swallow.
The three thought for a moment. Before they could come to an answer, however, Yaiba was on the ground screaming, clutching his side. Hayabusa struck with incredible speed. The other two prepared themselves. Suzume threw her kunai at Ookami, who dodged it quickly. The kunai was just a distraction, however, and when Ookami looked back at her, there were two Suzumes.
"Shadow clone! I'll take care of that easily. Katon Technique, Flaming Fist Jutsu!" Ookami made the appropriate hand seals. His hands caught fire and he then punched one of the Suzume's, severely burning her face. "So that was the real one, where's the clone then?"
The other Suzume dropped down from the trees and stabbed several senbon into his neck before jumping off and landing in front of him.
"You bitch!" Ookami screamed as he punched her, sending her flying through the air and burning her clothes and stomach. "Wait, she's not a clone? But then how are there two of her?"
The Suzume's stood up and walked next to each other, each making an identical hand seal. They slowly began to meld back together, like liquid almost, until their bodies were one again. The new body seemed to only have taken half the damage from each attack.
"It's not a clone technique, it's a separation technique. I'd explain it to you more in-depth, but you're about to die" Suzume stuck her tongue out and smiled at her opponent.
"What?" It was then that Ookami realized the senbon in his neck just caught fire, "You wrapped explosive tags around them? Shit!"
The tags exploded, separating Ookami's head from his torso and simultaneously cauterizing his neck. Not that it mattered since his head was now flying through the air.
Meanwhile, Hayabusa had opened the weapons bag up, and wrapped Yaiba in chains, while fighting Mijuuchin and defeated her, not once using a jutsu at all.
"You bastard, you must be Bloodbath Hayabusa. I can't believe I didn't recognize you immediately. I failed Kaji, please kill me."
"You don't deserve death, not yet. You have to suffer before you can deserve death. By my hand, you will experience true pain." Hayabusa stood up and grabbed a tiny blade.
"Sensei, we don't have time. Let's just take their money and kill them now. Besides, you already have enough enemies."
"Fine. Ruin all the fun. Let's at least check for bounties in the bingo book." Hayabusa opened his year-old bingo book and searched for Mijuuchin, Ookami, and Yaiba. "Ah, here you are. Mijuuchin of Kaji, bounty... 10,000,000 ryo... pathetic. I assume your teammates aren't much higher. Let me show you my student, Suzume. Let's see... 30,500,000 ryo. More than three times your pathetic bounty. Mine, is much higher than her's even." Hayabusa shut his bingo book and put it away, "Your bounty isn't even worth collecting to me. You've lived a pathetic, worthless excuse as a shinobi and have brought shame to Kaji camp. You're older than me, but have accomplished less than my student, who in my camp is still considered a genin! You are worthless pieces of shit." Hayabusa placed an explosive tag on the ground and walked away with his weapons bag towards Suzume... the explosion followed shortly after, decimating everything for 5 meters in all directions.
"Can we at least get his bounty sensei?" Suzume held up Ookami's head.
"I suppose. I think he was worth 15,000,000." Hayabusa shook his head, "They never stood a chance against us. Let's go, we need to heal your burns."
The two shinobi picked up their bags and continued down the road as if nothing had happened. Suzume put Ookami's head into her bag until they were able to find a bounty office to turn him in at.
Notes: For the purposes of this fanfic, 1 Ryo = $0.75 I know that the conversion rate given by Kishi is different, but for my fanfic this works better.
That's the first chapter. I'll upload the second one sometime next week. This was mainly to introduce all the main characters, and the next starts the plot moving. Thanks for reading!