Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

/

Iruka Umino loved grading his papers outside on the patio of his quiet suburban western-style home. The home loomed over the rest of the neighborhood, proudly showing off its red-brick and white shutter exterior, as it was situated high on a hill. The entire hill itself belonged to him, in fact. On the high but gentle slope held a well maintained vegetable garden. Iruka certainly didn't have the green thumb for that sort of thing; the garden had been made by and taken care of by his foster son, Naruto Uzumaki. That was where the boy was - cursing at weeds and blasting the hose - when the postal truck rolled to the neighbor's mailbox and stopped. Suddenly a blur of blonde zipped down the hill and intercepted the truck before it could make it's way to their own mailbox. There as a moment of silence before a boisterous yell came from the street.

"IT'S HERE! BELIEVE IT!"

Iruka took a sip of his coffee, waiting for his foster son to zip up to the patio and inevitably show him what he had obtained. The young teacher already had a pretty good idea of what it could be. When Naruto finally made his way up, he did a silly dance and pulled out a patio chair to sit on, Iruka asked,

"So her letter is finally here? It's a week late..."

"That's cool! You know international mail is so slow these days... lazy bums." Naruto moved closer to Iruka so that they could read the letter together, and ripped open the envelope.

NARUTO~!

Bro, it's been a while. Happy Birthday! The Pervert and I bought a cake in your honor last night. Or was it for me? Having to share a long-distance cake with my twin brother is so delicious. I'm sending some pictures of it with this letter as a present! Food has become extremely expensive here, so be grateful you brat. Also included is a picture of my newest boy-toy, Alec. He's the one on drums with the dreads. The one with the cigarette is his roommate Carson. I got that job at the theatre as a back-up dancer, too! I don't really like show biz but the only real talents I have are singing and dancing; what else am I going to do with myself? Jiraiya threw in some photos of my first show there but if it wasn't your birthday I would never let you see them! Anyway, I think the pictures will be better at telling you what I've been up to than this letter since you can barely read. HAHAH I love you! Really.

Jiraiya has been doing a lot of talking about coming back to Japan lately, so with any luck I'll be getting to see you again soon. I was really happy to see you doing so well last time. You have friends and everything! Look at you, growing up so fast! I have something in my eye… Speaking of friends, tell Sasuke I still want my iPod back! I know I have good taste in music and all but damn! Since the government seized control of the internet last month no one can access music without paying this 'toll tax' thing. Most rock music has been censored, too, since it's "radically right-wing". The bands at my work have to carefully replace their lyrics so the police wont close the theatre down completely.

Good news! Dad's book is doing really well over here. It's done so well that he's been invited to speak at Libertopia, a convention that discusses the philosophy of freedom. If there's one good thing that can be said about the Pervert is that he's done Dad's cause justice. Bad news! Four days ago the book signing in Atlanta was cancelled. A SWAT team and soldiers from Ft. Benning blocked us from entering the mall. The fans outside with us starting protesting to let us through, but the soldiers opened fire with rubber bullets… We managed to get away in the chaos. Apparently the day before President Goodwin had signed an executive order waiving our right to assembly. Now any events with thirty or more people must have papers and permit.

That's all the time I have to write to you for now, so stay frosty and write back soon! I wish we could video chat like we used to but… well you know what happened last time. Letters will have to do for now. Don't forget to give that bastard Sasuke my message. Hell, punch him, too, for good measure. No, get Sakura to do it. She punches harder than you, pansy. 3

I love you brother. Happy Birthday again from the US of A!

-Usagi

Things sounded rough for his sister right now, but Usagi was tough so Naruto knew not to worry too much about her. Besides, he doubted things would be able to get much worse...

A month later another letter was received in much of the same manner, but it arrived on a school day, so Naruto paitiently waited until first class break to read it. He and his best friend, Sasuke Uchiha, sat in the library of their school as Naruto noisily opened the envelope again (receiving a "shhh" from a student studying nearby) and excitedly began reading before passing the letter silently to Sasuke. This was the usual arrangement for receiving letters from Naruto's twin sister on a school day. For whatever reason Usagi insisted on writing the letters in English regardless of the fact that Naruto could barely understand it and she knew near perfect Japanese. The blonde boy was - ironically for his ancestry - horrible in English and needed Sasuke to read the letter after him to make sure he understood what was written.

Naruto,

Expect to see us in a month. The worst has happened since my last letter. I don't even know where to begin…

I suppose the best place to start is to say straight-up that the United States is a lost cause- an Orwellian nightmare.

Lately there have been a lot of government advertisements on the television and web about home-grown terrorism. They're calling any dissenters of the government "the enemy". We've seen this coming for years but I didn't think it would be this soon…

We knew something was up a few days ago when most the American soldiers were shipped to other US bases overseas and foreign mercenaries began patrolling the streets in their place. We just weren't sure what they were up to. We found out at Libertopia; the mercenaries surrounded the convention during Jiraiya's speech and began confiscating and burning all media. Books, phones, cameras, Kindles, mp3 players, internet print-outs, posters, EVERYTHING. Gone. Even the original copy of Dad's book... I lost it in the chaos at some point. A lot of the convention attendees opened gunfire on the soldiers and allowed some of us to get away but I've heard that those captured with weapons were detained or killed… We think the detained have been sent to detention camps run by FEMA, but unfortunately there's no way to know without actually being sent to one yourself. We weren't going to stay there long enough to find out.

That's not all. Goodwin has 'publicized' all major businesses. You have to show your papers just to buy food or see a doctor and Jiraiya is red-listed now, so if we show our papers to anyone a SWAT team will be after us immediately. Alec has been buying all our groceries for us lately, but yesterday he didn't show up. Carson said he went to the store and never came back… The warehouse we ship Dad's book from… and our home… was burned to the ground as well. Jiraiya and I have managed to salvage what we could but it's not much. Another speaker from Libertopia is going to help smuggle us out of the country before everyone is injected with tracking chips on Friday. He lives in Canada and thinks he knows a militia helping others escape that we can meet up with. The man is a saint!

Most of this hasn't been reported on the news. The public is being told that a violent right-wing rebellion has sprung up and the soldiers are around to protect them from "potential terrorist attacks". People are painfully aware this is bullshit, though, as they watch their family members be dragged away in the witch-hunt. Everyone who was brave enough to do something about it is either imprisoned, dead, or… leaving the country. I'm ashamed of my cowardice, but I think it's good to know when to run and live another day.

Sorry if all this sounds so rushed. I hope to see you safe and free soon brother. We're risking a lot to send you this letter. I love you. Wish me and the Pervert luck.

-Usagi

Sasuke finished the letter written on Days Inn stationary and set it down slowly in front of his best friend. Usually Usagi used fairly simple language for her brother's sake but the latest letter was different. The handwriting was rushed and Usagi obviously did not bother to simplify anything.

Beside him, Naruto was trembling. It seemed that Naruto got the gist of her message which was good because Sasuke was not sure he would have been able to repeat what he read. It took a moment for him to realize that he, too, was breathing heavily and fingers playing nervously with the spinning ring on his two teenagers couldn't possibly begin to even comprehend the severity of the danger Usagi and Jiraiya were in now. Things had been fine yesterday. They had even gone shopping with Sakura - a mutual friend - to pick out a welcome home present for when Usagi and Jiraiya eventually came back. A set of headphones shaped like skulls for the sister, and a pin-up of Tia Tequila for her guardian. It didn't matter that no one actually knew when the two would arrive; Naruto had been so excited that it was infectious. However, if they came home refugees… it made things difficult for celebration. No, WHEN they came home; Sasuke could not bear to think of ifs.

They were collectively quiet for a long time neither of them knowing what to say or where to begin. There was only the sound of people passing them in the school library. It was a quiet, safe place to read these letters as they rarely came here for any other reason. People mostly pass one by without thought or attention. The tall bookshelves filled with sturdy books provide a feeling of safety. In this case, however, it felt less like a fortress and more like a foxhole.

Eventually Sasuke came out of his morbid thoughts enough to mechanically pat his friend's orange-hoodie clad shoulder. This seemed to bring Naruto back as well because although he did not turn to look at his raven-haired friend, Naruto's surprisingly steady voice graveled, "We should throw the welcome-home party at your place, Teme. Enough room for the Pervert's fat ass and maybe some dancing." Sasuke could obviously see that Naruto was trying to dodge reality by making positive plans for the future but Sasuke couldn't blame him at all… he wanted to do the same. "Ah. I'll talk to Aniki about it. He'll probably want to leave the house." Naruto nodded absently before rubbing his hands over his face and shaking his head as if he were shaking water from his hair. The headphones that had been on top of his head fell to hug his neck with the motion. When Naruto finally looked back at Sasuke he was grinning from ear to ear. "Thanks, Teme! You better have that iPod ready this time."

Sasuke threw his black-denim studded jacket over his left shoulder and smirked. "She can forget it, Dobe. Not a chance."

/

The city of Konoha was a medium-sized metropolitan area located on the Japanese island of Kyushu. A new joint American and Japanese military base was built right outside the city around twenty years ago which made the general population of Konoha very diverse. It was one of Japan's fastest growing cities before the global depression worsened and still continued to be a place business of all kinds strive to set-up shop. Among the wealthiest of these companies that made their fortune in Konoha was the world's leading military arms producer, Uchiha Corporation.

In the top floor of Konoha's second highest building resided the CEO suite of Uchiha Corp. The office was modern looking with black glass furniture and red cloths for upholstery and rugs. There were splashes of white: the computer, a vase of lilies, some couch cushions. Near the back against a full three-wall-length window sat a desk; in front of it was two couches facing one another with a coffee table in center. Opposite the desk was an elevator, the only entrance and exit of the 66th floor. The office was kept spotlessly clean; the only smell to describe being that of a steaming cup of green tea sitting on the desk. Natural light from the window clearly illuminated a book in being read by the building's owner and Uchiha Corp. CEO, Uchiha Itachi.

"PREFACE: FIVE PREMISES OF INDIVIDUALISM FOR CREATING A VOLUNTARY SOCIETY

1) Individuals have the born right to their life, as they own their sovereign bodies and minds,

2) Individuals have the born right to not be aggressed against and maintain, defend and possess liberty of their sovereignty, but do not have the right to aggress and infringe upon another's individual's sovereign life and liberty,

3) Things obtained or made from an individual is a product of both their life and liberty, which they exclusively own, therefore that product is their exclusive property,

4) Individuals own what their sovereignty produces as property including their goods, services, and social interactions as long as it is acquired justly by not infringing upon another's life or liberty, and therefore are responsible for the outcome of said products on other sovereign individuals,

5) Therefore in order for individuals to maintain their sovereignty and products thusly created from it and possession considered just, each individual must be able to mutually consent to the exchange of goods, services, or social interactions with another sovereign individual."

Itachi stopped reading momentarily to gingerly turn to the next page. He did so in a manner as to not tear or skip over anything, like a monk might treat an ancient piece of scripture. This book was his equivalent. He was enraptured with every word and had barely put it down between business meetings and meals since he acquired it a week ago during a business trip in the States. Sleep was becoming something of a fable.

The irony of what he just read and how he himself acquired the book had not escaped him, but he hoped to atone to its previous owner and the book's author by carefully studying the work. Itachi's guilt was even greater then as he had personally known the man who wrote this book… a virtuous man who met an unfortunate fate… because of Itachi's own father. Itachi had never known he was an accomplished writer or philosopher…

Slowly Itachi removed his reading glasses and set them on his desk, then using that hand to run through his long raven hair. The small, red-cloud-shaped clock on his desk ticked loudly in the silence and the light shining into the office was temporarily blocked by passing cloud outside. A rare, shaky sigh escaped him. The guilt of his work and actions had caught up to him now. It constantly sat in his stomach like lead, constantly making him feel sick and disgusted. Every day since beginning this book it became more and more difficult to hide his feelings on the matter, which was a first for Itachi.

Last week was less a business trip and more an unintentional massacre. Itachi had met with President Goodwin of the United States to sign a deal to produce arms for soldiers stationed in Japan. Goodwin was a rather rotund man with a disgusting habit of licking his lips like a dog would watch a steak. He was balding, but held a straight posture. Probably an American replica of Presidents past.

If Uchiha Corp. actually belonged to Itachi he would have refused to sign the contract and use his company's resources to try and fight what he knew was happening. President Goodwin had just declared himself absolute ruler of his country and a war against all "terrorists". However, Itachi was CEO only in name; Uchiha Corp. actually belonged to his uncle, Madara Uchiha, who had been pulling all of the strings through hostile take-overs since Itachi had inherited the company from his father years ago. Madara had some sort of dastardly agenda all his own, but Itachi knew not what the end goal was; only that he was constantly forced to do horrifying things to advance it. Itachi had long-since steeled himself against the emotions of guilt, fear, and helplessness, but sometimes the burden became too much to bear. It was at those times that Itachi remembered the deal he made with Madara when this nightmare began… to leave Sasuke completely alone and out of the company' business in exchange for Itachi's obedience. The pseudo-CEO would do anything to protect his little brother. So far Madara had kept his word.

The things Itachi had seen there… Soliders had been crawling in every nook and cranny of the Capital. Checkpoints were everywhere; they must have passed four on their way into the city. Building-sized propaganda posters benefiting Goodwin were being posted around every corner. There had been a large military cargo trailer covered in canvas driving in front of their car that had stopped suddenly and a large mass had fallen out of the tarp. The soldiers quickly jumped out to replace… the body. It had been the body of a Hispanic teenage boy. Carelessly it was thrown back into the cargo trailer and off they went again. Itachi kept his car stopped for several minutes as he caught his breath and steeled his nerves before heading on to the White House.

During this "exchange" with the President, a soldier entered the Oval Office and addressed Goodwin in an accent not native to the States, "The extremists have been nullified Mr. President, and all their paraphernalia burned as you ordered."

"Excellent! What of the terrorists themselves? Do we have any casualties?"

"Many, sir. They opened fire on our squadron. The militias were more skilled than we thought, but we were able to overtake them. We have at least 1500 in custody but many managed to get away. I personally was shot at by a girl who dropped this," out of his bulky flack-jacket the soldier pulled a thin paperback book that looked like it had been read at least a dozen times and handed it to Goodwin. "She got away but I believe this is what the illegal assembly was about." Goodwin threw the book over his shoulder without even reading the title and scoffed, "You should have burned this copy with the rest. It is simply a shred of terrorist propaganda. However insignificant, do find the publisher of this piece and eliminate them." The soldier saluted his Commander in Chief and left swiftly.

It was Itachi's simply curious nature that begged him to retrieve the book later, secretly, after everyone else had left and before the Secret Service came to escort him out. The author's name was not on the plain cream cover; just bold black Constantia letters displaying the title The Will of Fire. No picture or title on the binding. For whatever reason the weight of the light book (more like a pamphlet) seemed to be burning a hole in his inside coat pocket like it needed to be read that very second.

When he was finally alone back in his home in Japan he found the time to crack it open and what he found was interesting; all the pages were covered in notes like a textbook and a page near the back was marked with the photograph of a family. Itachi recognized the man immediately. The father was Minato Namikaze, an English teacher from his old high school that taught long before Itachi was old enough to attend. Apparently he had been one of their best and brightest, because photos of he with his students were posted proudly all across campus. Itachi had never known Minato even had a family, but obviously in this picture was his wife and two children around five years of age. His wife looked full of life with vibrant red hair and an all-encompassing grin. Their children – a boy and a girl - at first glance took after Minato with their blonde hair and blue eyes and tan complexion, but looking again he saw the facial features and smile was their mother's. Suddenly Itachi had felt dirty and unworthy but he also felt somehow that it would be wrong to not read this.

Upon turning to the title page to begin reading it sometime later, a discovery hit him like a ton of bricks. In bold letters, much the same as the cover, in the author's section of the page was printed "MINATO NAMIKAZE" along with a few others. Below it was a note scribbled in English,

"Usagi,

My dear daughter, I don't want to sound self-inflated like Mommy says, but I hope when you're older you'll read this and remember me living what I wrote. You might be too young to understand now, but one day you'll know why this work was so important to me: because you and your brother are important to me. Scary days are coming and Daddy might not be around to protect you so you will have to be strong, okay? I love you, sweetie. Happy Birthday.

-Daddy"

This copy belonged to Minato's daughter… Usagi. The soldier had said a girl had dropped it and "gotten away". Had it been her…was she still alive? By the notes in the book, mostly written in Japanese, she had obviously studied this book her entire life as her father had requested. Did she live by this doctrine, too? Could such moral and principled people really exist in this world? Itachi felt possessed. He would read every word of this book and memorize it by heart, perhaps find the courage to put it into practice (it was brilliant!), then seek out this daughter and return this precious treasure to her. Maybe this would be enough to repair the damage his family had done to her and Minato's family, but he doubted anything he could do would ever be enough.

Itachi almost jumped as his cell phone vibrated in his suit pocket. There were only a few people who called his cell phone, so he always felt inclined to answer quickly. The caller-ID was "Otouto". Ah, so it was Sasuke? He only called when he wanted something but Itachi was always glad to hear from his little brother. Itachi flipped open his phone and chirped, "Little brother! I thought you had forgotten my number! So good to hear you haven't."

"I did actually," Sasuke said casually from the other end. It was always difficult for even Itachi to tell if Sasuke was joking or not. "I had to get your number off of Naruto's phone."

Itachi pouted, "My heart! Aha well…Is there something you wanted then, little brother? I'm in the middle of something…" Itachi wanted to get back to the book as soon as possible, even going as far to haste a rare conversation with Sasuke. It sat on his desk now, innocently enough to anyone else, but it was really screaming and thrashing in his mind. The cloud that had been drifting across the window before was gone now, leaving the book bathed in natural streaming daylight again.

If there was something unusual about his haste Sasuke didn't let it show in his voice as he continued with business, "Yeah, actually," straight and to-the-point, "I'm not sure what day but sometime next month Naruto's sister should be back and we're going to throw a party at our house. I thought you would like to find another place for the night."

"Ah, I see. That's fine then. I didn't know Naruto had a sister…?" Itachi took a sip of his tea.

"A twin sister, Usagi. She's been overseas a while with her guardian but she finally… uh, has a reason to come home."

Itachi coughed, choking on his tea from shock. Usagi? Itachi looked at the photograph page-marker. He didn't know how he hadn't seen it before! The little boy in the picture looked exactly like Naruto! Strange whisker marks, stupid grin, everything! The girl that originally dropped this book had been overseas, as well, and having soldiers after you was a pretty good reason to leave the country. Could it be…? Itachi decided to take a gamble.

"Usagi… Namikaze, perhaps?"

"Yeah! How… do you know that?" Sasuke sounded extremely skeptical.

"I...," how did Itachi go about explaining this? 'Oh little brother I just happened to be in the United States last week making a business deal with a psychopath dictator against my will when I nabbed a book off a soldier that also just happens to belong to your best friend's only sister who is probably severely injured or dead because of the arms our company produces.' Yes, that was perfect. "just happened across something of hers on my business trip. I might stay for the party so I can return it, if you don't mind."

"Hm…" Sasuke still did not seem convinced by his older brother's oversimplified explanation. This was all extremely coincidental and Itachi was very good at making things work in his favor, although Sasuke was not at all sure what Itachi could get out of this. "I suppose if you can put up with us. Just don't-"

"Oh thank you baby brother! You're the best! I'll see you at home sometime soon. Take care~!"

"Hey Aniki, wait a –" Itachi closed his cell phone before Sasuke could finish.

Itachi had never considered much of fate before in his life, but right now he could not help the niggling notion in the back of his brain that told him that he would become very intimate with Fate from now on.

/

The is the first fanfiction I have posted on in many years. It is a plot I have been mulling around in my head ever since I entered college, and just now do I have the courage to write and publish it. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

I hope to be making an update once every week at most. There are two chapters now because the original first chapter was eleven pages long. I doubt many people are interest enough to read eleven pages all at once. I have a few betas and I do a lot of proofreading. If you would also like to beta, please contact me. To my current betas: thank you for your support and encouraging critiques.

If you are curious about the "Canadian philosopher"... he's a real person! The book and ideology is based off of him. If you are interested in learning more about it I encourage you to visit his youtube channel under "Stefbot". Also, Libertopia is a real event, as well, although thankfully so far only peaceful meetings have been held! Haha.

Thank you again for reading and if you enjoyed then please review.