Brief before chapter intro. This fanfic is inspired by, deviates from and starts in, the 'Konoha History Arc' and diverges at the flashback episode 'Iruka's decision' or 178 of part 2. Technically anime-only, but my god, it was great back story on Naruto growing up.
In case it's not blatant, italics are the inner thoughts of the character in focus. I try to keep it on one for each section .If i only use for one word in a sentence, then its probably just to emphasis, to put extra stress on that one word, but not to the point that it warrants bold. If I fuck it up or leave italics on, causing the story to become disjointed, please point it out to me so i can address it. I proof read to try and catch these kinds of things, but I'm not perfect or anything. You probably already knew all this, but here it is anyway.
.
Luck and Anarchy - Chapter 1 – 'No Time to Waste', or 'Divergence Point'
.
.
"You don't have to change much to change everything."
—Mark Rosewater
.
.
The Back Hills – Year 9A.K. (After Kyūbi)
Today was going to be the first day of a new era. Today was going to be the day Naruto finally found a place to belong...
...But right now, he was hungry. He'd find an item from an enemy ninja, after getting some lunch from that bird's nest and… okay shiny metal things do not belong in birds' nests. Naruto reached in to pluck whatever it was out and…
…"YES! This definitely belonged to an enemy ninja!" Naruto broke out, as he held the object up. A foreign kunai would definitely qualify.
Now Hibachi's definitely gonna let be join his group! No more alone! Ever! Lunch can wait. I've gotta get back.
Naruto's thoughts drifted for a moment to Iruka-sensei and how he'd tried to stop him.
Of course he did. He had that look. The Look. Nobody who has that look wants me around. It's like they're all out to get me or something.
Naruto knew 'the look'. It hurt it so much, and It didn't stop hurting, no matter how many times he saw it. It was like his very existence was an insult to people here. He'd seen Iruka-sensei do it too. For a little while he'd hoped he might be different, but he was wrong. He was the same. They were all the same.
Iruka-sensei said, 'Don't bother with this kid'. Tch, story of my freaking life.
Ha! Baka-sensei can go to hell then!.
After his prank on them for leaving him out of the test of courage, Hibachi had finally come around and accepted him into his group. All he had to do was grab something that belonged to an enemy ninja as a test, then done! All those bastards with their looks could shove it! He was gonna have friends and there was nothing more they could do about it!
He thought for a moment about carrying it in his hand while he ran, but decided against it in case he tripped with it or something. He shivered at the thought of getting friends the day he accidentally impaled himself. He slipped it into one of his utility pockets in his ¾ shorts.
He began to run back through the forest wandering what he'd do with friends first. He'd seen so many things that friends did together had wanted to try it all and…
Three black-clad figures emerged, faster than he even knew people could move.
"Hey kid", the middle one grunted.
"What?" Naruto narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Who are you three?"
Weirdos
The middle one spoke again. "We saw you pick up that kunai earlier." They outstretched their open palm. "Hand it over kid. Nice and easy"
Naruto almost looked to the pocket he stashed the kunai before reacting to the demand. "N..NO WAY!" Naruto jerked back a little. "I can't hand this over!" He really couldn't. It was the key to a better life. No way was he giving that up. He hoped they didn't see which of his many pockets he stashed it in. Luckily they were baggy enough to hide it.
The middle one, who Naruto was beginning to think was their leader, due to the other two having not spoken a word yet, drew their sword. "I see. It looks like we'll be taking it by force then." The other two drew their swords too.
Oh crap! I did not think that through!
"H..hey. W..wait a second!"
He turned to run, but everything just… faded to black.
.
"Sir, was that really necessary?" one of the Takigakure ninja asked as she eyed the unconscious body of the blonde kid. "I figured we could have some fun teaching the kid about why you don't mess with Taki kunoichi."
The team leader snapped her head around as she picked up the body. "Quiet. We don't' have time for that. We all heard that other shinobi calling out a name in the forest, probably this kid's."
Naruto. She churned the name over in her head. Why is that name familiar?
"So… What's that plan then?" The third asked.
"We don't know where he has the kunai with the info" the leader answered. They had seen him pick it up, but he'd dropped out their vision for a moment afterwards. When he came back into their line of sight, he wasn't holding the kunai anymore. "We take the kid with us out if immediate danger of Konoha shinobi and head towards Taki. When he wakes up, we'll make him either give it to us, or tell us where he hid it if that's what happened." Her two subordinates nodded.
"What do we do with him then?" One asked, her hand drifting slightly towards her kunai holster.
"Depends", came the leader's response. "If they're important? Ransom. Useful? We'll present them before the Leader of Takigakure and let them decide. If none of those…" She let the sentence linger unfinished, knowing she didn't need to. Her squad mates nodded and they moved out.
"Naruto!" Came a voice.
"Tch" Leader muttered. "Come on. That wasn't that far off."
.
Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! I can to believe I let this happen!.
Iruka was in a blind panic now. He'd expected to find Naruto relatively quickly after he'd run off but the kid was nowhere to be seen. Worst of all, he knew it was his fault. He'd treated the boy like he was what he contained. Like some kind of plague, to be ignored or actively avoided. Worst of all he'd actually encouraged it among his students!
I'm an awful shinobi, an awful teacher, hell I'm an awful person! What the hell am I going to do If I can't find him!
He darted through the tree branches in no coherent direction.
Left
Right
Up
Under
There was nothing in the prior battleground but weapons and the occasional corpse. The fact that most of the environment was already torn up made it ridiculously difficult to track, as the terrain was already disturbed. One more kid adding to it by traipsing around wasn't going to leave much of a mark among others. If he was an Inuzuka or perhaps an Aburame he might have fared better. What he really needed was someone who specialised in tracking, or at least had resources available to him that got them close to it.
.
Konoha – High street – Mai's Snack Stand
"Alright then. You two, go back to class." Kakashi smiled with a posture that indicated nothing was wrong. Blatant body-language lies of course. There was so much wrong right now. "You know just because you have a free period, you can't skip out on the academy"
The young Nara rose an eyebrow, but let the matter drop. "Okay. Come on Chōji", he sighed as they both began walking back towards the academy.
Kakashi waited until they were both out of sight and earshot before vanishing, darting in the direction of the Back Hills as fast as he could.
Buildings blurred and vanished beneath his feet.
Trees eventually replaced them as sped through the beginnings of the forest.
Don't' let me be too late. Please, I can't fail this time too.
.
.
.
Inside a certain seal
.
He slept. There really was little else to do, aside from scheming on occasion, but it would be a very long time before any could come about.
"WARNING"
Eyes snapped open.
"WARNING"
I know that voice
"WARNING"
It's him.
"WARNING"
What's that clever bastard of a mortal done now? Wasn't it enough for him to seal me in yet ANOTHER human?
"WARNING"
He'd learned his name after the sealing.
Minato
He still sensed the wisps of two sentient souls running though the seal that held him. This wasn't really either of them though. Certainly not him. The real one would only be able to materialise for a limited time and not long at that either. The other had a stronger overall presence that he recognised, but refused to acknowledge, which suited them both just fine. No, this was obviously set up to respond to… something.
"Host detection of possible threat to continued existence…"
What?! No! I haven't even gotten a fair shake at escaping from this blasted prison yet! My soul and his are still blinded...
"Stand by" the voice droned. "Temporary relaxation of seal pending. Awaiting further information"
The fox's eyes widened, before a feral and entirely (unbeknown to him) Naruto-like grin broke out across him.
Oh you clever little human. How did you fight me and make something like this at the same time? Hmmm, looks like whoever it is that's a danger to my host, if they prove themselves life-threatening…
I might get to have some fun. Vicarious as it might be.
"Temporary relaxation of seal", the voice repeated. "Don't get too cocky"
Kurama whipped his head around, looking for signs of the sentience he'd briefly felt, but it was gone as quickly as it came, hiding, preserving its existence once more. He let out a growl, which, in turn, eventually devolved into a low chuckle.
Perhaps a little too clever
.
A/N Hi and welcome to my second fanfic. If author's notes aren't really your thing then just know that I'm glad you read and I hope you enjoyed it.
Stuff:
The Taki Kunoichi - They have no fucking names and its getting on my tits. As such, when they finally take their masks off, I'm giving them names. Who knows. I might even make them more than a trio of throw-away villians, whose only purpose was to Bring Iruka and Naruto together. Because, lets be honest, their real names were 'plot devices one, two and three', who happen to be immune to Naruto's weaponized attractive gender-bending jutsu. So yea... there's that.
Again, as with my last fic, I like to check up on Kurama every now and again. He's an integral part of the plot, but is stuck doing nothing most of the time. Also, The ass pull in cannon that's used to explain Naruto meeting a certain two people comes ridiculously out of left field. So I'm working them into the plot from the start.
Plot wise: For the record the'nail', or divergence point, is that Naruto stashes the intel kunai and the Taki Kunoichi waste no time in just knocking him out and dealing with him later. I made it much clearer what it was in 'Fate Chaos and Plans', so here it is if you're manga only and don't watch the anime.
Again, as with my last fic, NO OOC yaoi, which for this franchise (as far as I know) means no yaoi.
Pairings? Read and see. I might surprise you...
No lemons. However, I make not such promises regarding cheap innuendos and crass language. I mean if you can kill people for a living and not drop an F-bomb then I don't know what the fuck is happening.
Rating? Probably T but with a verse full of super-powered assassins... well.. yea.
Lastly, comes shameless self endorsement. If you didn't find this from the recommendation in my other Naruto fanfic. It's a 'for want of a nail' fic with a different nail and a different focus. Be sure to check it out on my page or here: 's/9235378/1/Fate-Chaos-and-Plans' (not sure if link works)