Disclaimer: Naruto and company are not mine. The only things that are mine are the things you have not seen in Canon. (i.e. Kazuharu, his jutsu, etc) All other things belong to their respective creators.

Chapter 1: Enter, Ninja of the Night

Yakangakure: The Village Hidden in the Night

Kazuharu, that is his name. He was found mere days ago sitting in the middle of the village in a basket. This was not something that happened often, even in the village famous for breeding cold-blooded assassins. There was a note, but it said only two things. The first, a name. Kazuharu. The next, a demand. Train the boy to be a Shadow Assassin, we of the Living Shadow Clan demand it.

It was unheard of. The Living Shadow Clan hadn't been seen or heard from in several years. Plus, why did they want him trained as a Shadow Assassin? The clan usually trained their own in a different art. A more deadly art… They had no choice though. They gave the boy to a ninja family who would train him in a few years. It would be hard to hide though. Those bright yellow eyes and shadowy features…

He was given to the family of Mitsu and Fu. They were unable to have a child of their own because Fu seemed unable to carry one to term. They longed for a child though, and the Elders' knew, if given a chance, they would raise Kazuharu as their own. At least, they hoped so. Their lives could depend on it. It would have to wait until morning though, for now, he would stay in the elder mansion…

They were a small village. They had enemies, of course, because of their mercenary ways. They sold assassins to the country with the most to offer them. This was how they made a living. It wasn't too different from what other countries did, but they were persecuted for it. Well known to them, their enemies were getting closer. They knew it would be years though before they were found though…

The next morning brought both fear and joy. Joy to Mitsu and Fu for finally being able to raise a child, but fear to the rest of the village should they fail to raise him well. It would be a few years before they could start his training though, so they had time to prepare for it. They began outlining plans immediately, wanting to show the village that they were taking their 'assignment' seriously. They refused to think of it as a job, in private at least, and treated him well.

Life in the village was continuing on as normal. Assassins left, most came back, few failed, and those that died were replaced in time. Students learned what they needed to at the academy. Though, because of the way they functioned, no students left the village until they became full assassins. As such, they did not go to the Leaf Village for Chunin exams, nor did they do any other type of outside exam. It was usually good enough. Slackers died. That was life.

Five years later

The start of training

(A/N: Sorry about the time-skip, but obviously the story has to continue on in some way. Besides, you don't really want to know about baby Kazuharu, right?)

It's amazing how time passes. How quickly a child can grow. How doing nothing becomes crawling, and crawling becomes walking. This was one of those cases where time seemed to pass too quickly. Kazu (one of his nicknames) grew up to be a normal five year old boy. If growing up in the presence of ninja assassins is normal… He was about to start his training to see what he was able to do. People were a little afraid to see what he was capable of. His yellow eyes were as bright as ever, like a cat's in the darkness. He had the night vision capabilities of them as well. It would be a skill to help him out in the future.

Mitsu began to teach him basic ninja tool training first. It wasn't the most important thing, but it was a starting point. Mitsu showed him how to hold the shuriken, then threw some at the target dummy, a few missed. Tools were not Mitsu's strong point.

"Father, you missed some!" Kazu cried out in shock. He had grown up thinking his father to be a perfect ninja.

Mitsu laughed, "Yeah, tools are not my specialty. I prefer my ninjutsu. For now though, let's see you try a few."

Kazuharu was a little nervous about it. If his father had trouble with it…

"Well, here goes nothing…" He sighed and threw the shuriken towards the target dummy, and they struck several vital areas. A few of them were off target, but for a first try it was amazing. Almost unheard of.

"Oh wow…" Mitsu said in awe, "That was great son… How did you do that?" He looked at the dummy again, then shook his head. Even the shuriken in non-vital areas would have caused some amount of harm.

"I dunno dad. I just directed them as best I could and let them go. Was it good?" Kazuharu was very happy with the fact that he had gotten all of them to hit the dummy. He had no idea that they'd hit specific areas. He thought his dad was just impressed that they hit.

"Very good, here, try it again. One more time." Mitsu said as he handed all of the shuriken back to Kazu and stepped aside. If the results were duplicated or better, well, he'd have to see… Kazu stepped up, and let the shuriken fly. Some of them hit the same vital spots, others seemed to be aimed for crippling blows. Unbeknownst to Kazu, he had inherited a killer instinct from his clan. He knew subconsciously just where to hit, and did it without meaning to.

Mitsu was aghast. He had to tell someone about it! 'No,' He thought to himself suddenly, 'A secret for now. See how his other skills are…' To his son though, he said, "Amazing Kazu. I am very proud of you my son. I think that's enough tool training for now. We'll do other stuff later. For now, how about some ninjutsu?" Kazu was overjoyed. He loved to learn how to make hand-signs and see the resulting effects. It was probably his favorite ninja aspect…

"Alright son, you will learn more when you visit the academy in a few years, but until then, how about I start teaching you our family's secret jutsu? It is one that was developed for the sole purpose of target evasion and special combat. It has to be used carefully in combat though." Mitsu explained, then showed Kazu the hand-signs for the technique. It was semi-complicated and had to be shown several times.

"Alright, now that I know the signs, what does it do? How will I know when to use it?" Kazu asked. He was getting ready to start when those questions came to mind. He figured it was better to ask than to foolishly fail before he had begun.

"Great questions son!" Mitsu patted Kazu on the shoulder, "I'm impressed you thought to ask. Now, the technique is called Shadow's Deception. It can be done in any shadowy area and is used to pop in and out of any shadows in range for attacking or distracting. Obviously you could also just hang out in the shadows to hide." He then quickly performed the signs and melted into the nearest shadow. He popped in and out of a bunch of them to show Kazuharu the effects.

"I get it…" Kazu said a minute later, "It makes sense how this can be used in so many different ways. What is it's range though? It seems like such a technique would either be really taxing, or slightly limited." He looked at his father, who looked rather surprised that his son had known such questions to ask.

"You really are intelligent my son." Mitsu smiled, "It is not especially taxing, though it requires you to control the chakra throughout your body to continue in the shadows. It has a range of about twenty meters though. With that said, it's obviously not a skill to be used lightly." Mitsu had released the jutsu while he was talking and was now looking at Kazu expectantly.

"Here goes!" Kazu called out as he began flooding his body with chakra and performing the hand-signs. Moments later he melted perfectly into the shadows and was able to move through them in almost perfect form. Mitsu was astonished that it was done so well on the first try. 'He is a prodigy, though, I guess with him being from that clan it is to be expected.'

Kazu snuck up behind a distracted Mitsu and knocked him over. "Daddy needs to pay attention!" Kazu said in a sing-song voice and laughed. Mitsu laughed as well. "You're right son, I should have been watching. What say we move on to Genjutsu? I'm curious to see how you do at that." Kazuharu looked a little put out at that. He just wasn't excited about the mind arts in the way he was about everything else.

"Alright Kazu, I'm going to use genjutsu on you. Do you remember how to break it? I know I told you this before." Mitsu got into position and was preparing to use a genjutsu. "Uh, yeah. You just have to first understand that it is a genjutsu, then match or overpower the chakra, and 'release' it." Kazu hadn't really paid attention to anything genjutsu related. His father contemplated for a second then shrugged. May as well go with it.

Kazu suddenly found himself being surrounded by flowers in a field. He thought it looked rather amazing. The sky was bright though, and he wasn't sure why that was (he'd never seen the sun, as the Night Village is just that, Night all the time). He wandered around for what felt like hours, then the sky changed colors. It was a bright blood red, casting an ominous glow over the field. He looked down at the flowers and found that they weren't flowers. They were the limbs of dead bodies entangling his legs. He found the faces of those he knew, gasped, and started running away.

"Release!" He cried out without stopping, "Release, release!" He became more frantic and ran faster. The farther he ran though, the more bodies he seemed to encounter, until finally he tripped through the tangled limbs and was face to face with his decomposing mother. He screamed loudly, and woke up.

His body was shaking from the traumatic experience. He threw up to the side of him and fell to his knees. He crossed his arms in front of his body, trying to make the memories go away. His father was there next to him, put his arm on Kazu's shoulders, and was silent. Mitsu didn't know what to say. How could he? Kazuharu was great at every other discipline, so he hadn't really held back. Apparently, Kazu wasn't cut out for genjutsu though.

Kazu spent that night in his room crying. He didn't know how to deal with what he was feeling. He had thought about death a lot, and knew that it was inevitable, but from a five year old perspective it didn't seem as real to him. He had never thought about what he would do if someone close to him had died. For the next few days he was mostly silent,

and kept to himself…

They continued to train, avoiding genjutsu almost entirely. Kazu did well at his other skills. He trained alone when he couldn't find his father, and seemed to improve at a steady rate. It was like his skills were sensing his abysmal genjutsu and compensating in every other area. His tool training was great, he learned basic jutsu well enough, and his taijutsu was acceptable for that of a five year old.

Most nights, he still lay there in sadness, thinking about genjutsu and his experience with it. He cared about the fact that he couldn't do anything about it. He worried away at the problem until it sickened him. He didn't know if he would ever be a useful part of the assassins. Genjutsu was a great tool in an assassins arsenal. It allowed killing in a 'pleasant' environment. The target wouldn't realize they were dead until it was too late, nearby people would be under for a while and not notice anything strange, or give them a killer one in their sleep.

One morning, after a particularly rough evening for Kazu, his father approached him.

"Kazu, I know you've been feeling terrible lately. Again, I want to say I'm sorry for putting you through that particular genjutsu. I didn't realize you would react so badly to genjutsu." He shook his head sadly before continuing, "I know how you must feel. I have to tell you though. Even without the ability to use genjutsu, you will be a great assassin. Probably better than me. You are a natural in all other aspects. If nothing else, find your own way. That is another option. Never let anything hold you back." After their talk, Kazu felt a bit better. He still wasn't sure exactly what Mitsu meant, but he figured the lesson would make sense in time…

Three Years Later

Entrance to Academy

(A/N Yes, yes. Another time skip. I added his initial training at five because I wanted to point out some, yes some, of his skills before I got too into it. I skipped to here because now he will start at academy. There will be at least one more time skip coming up soon. I don't enjoy them, but they move the story along from points of non-interest to points of interest. Hopefully you forgive me! ^-^'')

Three years after Kazuharu's run in with Mitsu's genjutsu and the resulting talk. He had recovered well, and seemed normal. On the inside though, he was still not the same wholesome boy he had once been. His perception of life had been destroyed ever so slightly by his run in with 'death'. He had since hardened himself against those thoughts though. No death fazed him anymore. He had seen real mangled bodies since then. Assassins who had failed in their duty and had to be recovered. It wasn't so bad. Soon he would go out and do his duty. He was starting at the academy now. It was only a matter of time. Four years to go actually. At the age of twelve. That is when you started real work. Training at five, academy at eight, assassination of low priority targets at twelve (provided you did well at academy), and you continue from there based on skill.

Such was life in The Village Hidden in the Night. It had been that way for years, and it was going to continue that way for as long as possible. There was only a small difference now. Yakangakure now had a pact with Konohagakure. It wasn't anything serious though, per se. If anything were to happen to the village, any survivors had permission to make way to The Village Hidden in the Leaves. It was a small precaution. Enemies of the Night had been getting closer, and assassins were only numbered as so many. In other words, they could not survive if a direct attack was initiated against them by a large enough army. It was just not statistically possible. Besides that, as assassins, they would all try to fight alone in their own way. So, a treaty was initiated. No more assassinating Leaf targets in exchange for safeguarding the youth and integrating them if necessary. No other countries were informed.

Kazuharu was now at academy. He was going to survive if anything happened. He was going to be the best he could. His nindo, or ninja way, had already been decided. Continuing on, no matter the way forward. Those were the words he lived by, because he now knew that the world was not as concrete as he'd hoped. Experiences told him that much. That was okay though, because that was being a ninja. Preparing for the worst and pushing past it in order to go on.

His clothing had taken a different turn from the norm, as had his appearance. His eyes, while still a bright yellow, no longer had that glowing look to them. His dark brown hair was unruly, but didn't stick out in odd ways. He took to wearing all dark colors in order to blend in the shadows more. Black or dark grey. His kunai holster attached to his left shoulder, his bomb bag on his right thigh, (he is right handed obviously) and a scroll holster on his belt. This was just the start though. Soon, he would gain more equipment. Soon, he would be the assassin he was born to be.

"Welcome to Shadow School 101," The instructor joked, "I am Kishin. I will be teaching you the basics of transforming, cloning, and substitution. There will be several other classes as well, but they are not mine. Know this. We will teach you, or you will die trying." He smirked slightly at some of the shocked faces. "Any questions?" A small boy in the front raised his hand slowly.

"Uh, uh, what if… We aren't sure about this… I'm not very confident in my abilities." He stuttered, fidgeted, and looked plain nervous as hell. Kishin looked at him, smiled, and said in a dangerous voice, "Leave now or die little one. You will have no other chance." The boy immediately ran out the door. Kishin addressed the rest of the class, "Anyone else?" but not a single person stood up. "Good!" He yelled, "That boy will be branded a traitor, and will forever be mocked, laughed at, and otherwise made an example of. He will live, yes, but what kind of life is that?"

Kazuharu was paying attention to every word the instructor had to say. It all made sense to him. That boy, whoever he had been, had failed in his duties before he ever began them. It was the job of youth to learn to protect their village and to do jobs to make the village money. Sure it was different for a clan of assassins, but that made it more strict. Kazuharu was prepared though. He would do what it took.

With that, Kishin took roll. When he reached Kazuharu's name he stopped and said, "Kazuharu? Huh. No last name eh? I thought you were Mitsu and Fu's boy?" Kazuharu stood up and called, "Yes sir. I often wondered why I only had one name as well, but it never occurred to me as odd. I never saw a need for a last name anyway." Kishin looked surprised by the answer but shrugged, "Alright, but I may just call you Haru. No need to say it all every time." The now dubbed Haru nodded his head in agreement and sat back down (Though few people will call him thus).

That class went on for a while, and Kazu was decent at all aspects he was taught. He could transform with relative ease, his clones turned out alright, and he could substitute when needed. Kishin praised him as an above-average student. The class went on for some time, then Kishin left. He was replaced by a woman named Vicious who was going to be teaching ninjutsu. They were taught a skill called Realm of Darkness, a move that encompasses a fifty meter area in shadow through which nothing can enter or leave, and by the end of that lesson, only Haru and a few others could do it correctly.

Next they covered taijutsu from a man named Red X (that's X, not ten). He taught them how to use relatively low amounts of chakra to control speed, power, and stamina. Many people were able to pick this up. Haru had plenty of competition. Red X pounded on them one at a time, just so they knew where they stood compared to him. They all ended the lesson rather bruised. Red X then attached weights to all of them, telling them that they would increase their speed, power, and overall taijutsu ability. The weight would increase as their skills did.

Next they were taught genjutsu by a woman named Koi. Someone in the front row joked about fish and was subject to what was probably a terrible, torturous genjutsu. He screamed, writhed in pain, then fell on his face. No one joked around again. Kazu was, of course, at the bottom of genjutsu class. He couldn't use it, and he couldn't release himself from it. It was terrible for him to say the least. Koi could sense Kazu's terrible ability, and because she thought it was him not trying, usually picked him to demonstrate. Needless to say, it pushed him farther away from the skill. It was like torture.

The second to last class covered ninja tool exercises. To say the least, Kazuharu did the best in the whole class. To say more about it, he managed to make everyone else look completely stupid and he was allowed to sit out of the rest of the lesson. The final lesson of the day covered chakra control. This class was taught by the ninja tool instructor, a woman named Shu. Kazuharu was able to control his chakra alright, but by no means perfectly. Most of the time he used too much power. Not so much that it would wear him out quickly, but enough that a long battle would be lost if it came down to a chakra competition. This would be a problem for him for a while, as Shu wasn't sure how to help the problem. Control wasn't a big issue for assassins, they usually used high power to take out their target anyway. The class was merely to help for non-combat chakra skills.

The classes continued on, day after day. Kazu made waves, and for that, other students were jealous. He was flawless in ninja tools without meaning to be. It seemed like even when he wasn't trying he could throw tools lethally. When practicing jutsu, he was usually within the top five. In taijutsu he made great progress and was up to weights of tremendous weight. Genjutsu was the only problem, and Kazu had long since given up on even trying in that class. Even Koi eventually stopped bugging him. All in all though, it was not too bad of an experience.

The academy was a place to teach survival. A skill that all assassins needed. It taught self-reliance, a skill needed to be effective assassins. Other countries used team tactics, but the Night Village saw no use for it, a mistake that was to cost them dearly in the future…