Red Dawn: Hope sprung from Pain

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but it sure would be nice if I did

"Hello" - Speaking

'Hello' - Thoughts

"Hello" - Demon/Boss Summon Speaking

'Hello' - Demon/Boss Summon ThoughtsChapter 1: Pain of the Past


In the Land of Fire, rain in the summer was rare, but not unheard of. When it does rain, it was usually met with open arms and joy because it meant that the crops would get a drink and the citizens would get a reprieve from the heat. Only one man knew the true meaning behind the rain on that particular day, and it was not a cause for joy. The Heavens were weeping as was he.

He was recognizable as a ninja of Takigakure no Sato (The Village Hidden in the Waterfall) from the hitat-ate that he wore. This particular shinobi was known for being a merciless killer on the battlefield who would rip the very hearts from his still living foes, and there were those that said that the only thing he cared for was money. Yet, there was one thing that could bring tears to this professional's eyes: the sight of one of his closest friends drawing his last breath upon the floor of a valley that had until recently been flat woodland.

Being a ninja, he was used to the death of both enemies and allies, but that was when they died for a purpose. His friend however, a Konoha shinobi, was near dead from a battle not in the defense of Konohagakure, but on a retrieval mission to bring back a fellow Konoha shinobi.

The leaf-nin was none other than the Shodaime Hokage, leader and founder of Konohagakure no Sato (The Village Hidden in the Leaves). The waterfall-nin was a man by the name of Kakuzu.

"Cough….cough…. It is good…cough…to see you one last time Kakuzu." The Hokage said rather weakly.

"Save your strength old friend. The reinforcements will be here soon with a medic, and then we can get you to the Konoha hospital." Said Kakuzu, who still had hopes of saving one of the few people he cared for more than money.

"Heh…cough…heh…cough…You and I both know…cough…that I have…cough… at most minutes left in this world…cough…and that I will die." Stated the Hokage.

Knowing that the end was near Kakuzu had to get answers for the questions that plagued his mind. "I don't understand, he was your best friend. Why would he do this, why would he leave Konoha?"

"He was never…cough…the man…cough…who we thought he was." Answered the Shodaime. "Ever since…cough…he realized…cough…the full power of his Kekkai Genkai…cough…he came to believe…cough….cough…that the village was just holding him back from his destiny. I don't know what…cough…he is planning, but…cough…what…cough…ever it is it does not bold well…cough….cough…for the ninja world and it involves his decedents…cough…and some great source of power." After each word the Shodaime Hokage could feel his strength slipping faster. "It seems as though the Shinigami has finally come for my soul: my only regret is that I will not get the chance to see my grandchildren one last time. Goodbye Kakuzu." And with that the Shodaime Hokage, founder of Konohagakure and one of the most powerful ninja to ever walk the earth closed his eyes one final time.

"Goodbye, old friend," replied Kakuzu. 'No matter what your plans are, no matter how long it takes, no matter what I must do and who I must kill, I will stop Uchiha Madara!' Were the Taki shinobi's final thoughts as he left the scar of land that would come to be known as the Valley of the End.


The sun was high in the sky, the wind was strong and hot, and the earth was composed of numerous sand dunes that stretched for many miles with only a few outcroppings of rock to provide contrast to the scenery. All of this was to be expected in one of the many numerous deserts that was the Land of Wind.

Currently resting in the shade of one of the outcroppings, hiding from the noon-day sun, was a red haired man who appeared to be in his mid to late twenties, wearing the Jounin vest of Sunagakure no Sato. Beside him laid the body of black haired man that seemed to be in his late forties, wearing robes of blue and white. Unlike his companion, he did not care about resting from the heat, seeing as he was already dead.

The living man is known as Aka Suna no Sasori, the greatest puppeteer to have ever been produced by Sunagakure. His dead companion is the Sandaime Kazekage, said to be the strongest Kazekage to have ever lived, whom Sasori had just killed.

'I am sorry grandmother, for the sins I have committed today, but I had no choice. I had to kill the Sandaime.' Were some of the thoughts going through Sasori's mind. 'Had I not, the Sandaime would have forced you to seal Shukaku the Ichibi no Tanuki into some child, probably an orphan. I know his intentions were only for the good of the village, but if the demon had been sealed into a child then he would have been forced into a life of solitude from his fellow man. And he would have been a danger to the village because of that crazy priest trapped with Shukaku.'

Sasori himself had a lonely childhood when his parents died. If it wasn't for his grandmother, who taught him how to use Kugutsu no Jutsu (Puppetry Technique), he probably would have spiraled into a never ending depression. And he knew that any child that contained Shukaku would likely not have even that much.

Knowing that he could never return home, Sasori pulled out his hitat-ate and a kunai which he used to leave a large scratch through the symbol of Suna on it. 'From here on out I am officially dead to both the village and you, grandmother. I hope this doesn't hurt you too much.'

Noticing that the sun had gone down a considerable ways he picked up his gear and his dead companion and departed for one of his secret hideaways to stock up and to prepare the Kazekage for an experimental puppet making process that the sand-nin had been working on.

Sasori sped on his way, not knowing that the Third Great Shinobi war was about to break out, nor that the Sandaime Kazekage had prepared copies of his plans to be found by the future Yondaime Kazekage in case of his death.


The Land of Grass is a small country known for its large fields and forest full of unusual flora, such as giant mushrooms, on the borders of four countries. These countries included two of the great nations: the Land of Earth and the Land of Fire.

During the Third Great Shinobi War, it was the site of many battles. Within one of the country's few forests, the aftermath of one such battle took the form of a rock cave that has been turned to rubble by rock-nin.

A boy in his early teens beside the pile of rocks. He had an open and friendly, yet aristocratic face with short somewhat spiky black hair. His attire easily identified him as a shinobi. He wore blue shinobi sandals and pants with a shuriken holster taped to his right thigh, a black long sleeved shirt with the Chuunin vest of Konohagakure, and orange rimmed goggles on his head over his Konohagakure hiat-ate .

The shinobi was not in good shape, but he had improved from what he had been. You could tell from the large number of cuts, bruises, and what appeared to be a few broken bones in his right arm and ribs visible through the multiple rips in his clothing. His head was actually not that bad. It also had some cuts, bruises, and bumps that caused a concussion, but nothing life threatening. The most unusual wound he had was the small surgical scar around his left eye socket, which was currently empty and had a bandage wrapped around it.

"Uhhh….What hit me?" Moaned the boy, who upon waking revealed a very unusual eye. The iris was red with three tomoe marks around a normal pupil.

"My guess is that rock pile you are lying next too," came an unexpected reply to the question. "Too bad that you weren't dead, I'm hungry." Said the voice again, only it sounded rougher and quite a bit more sinister.

Turning his head to the left as quickly as he could without hurting himself, the teen saw what he was sure was the oddest thing in his life, even if he was having trouble recalling it. There was a man, the strangest man in the world. First his head had small yellow eyes that seem to have no 

pupils. It also looked as if someone had painted the left side of his head white and the right side black. He possessed green hair that looked a bit like grass. Then there were his shoulders where it appeared that a giant Venus flytrap was growing. As strange as that was, the oddest thing about him was the fact that he seemed to have just risen out of the ground as if he was a plant that had just sprouted keeping the rest of his body hidden.

"W-w-who ar-r-re y-y-you?" Stuttered the teen as he tried scooting away. (You would too if there was some plant man looking at you as if you were lunch.)

"Zetsu is my name. I am, or at least was a Kusa shinobi, and don't worry I'm not going to eat you." "Or at least not yet." Said the monochromatic man who was trying to calm the young man, and failing because of his dual personality. "The real question is who are you?" Asked what could now be identified as the white side. "And whether or not you will live so I can get a quick bite to eat." Added what can now be determined as the scary black side. "You can ignore him, he gets rather single minded when he's hungry." Assured Zetsu's white side.

Still not entirely sure about the situation he found himself in, the teen began to reply, "I'm…", only to stop when he realized that he couldn't recall who he was. He remembered numerous things, such as the fact that he had shinobi training. He had a vague recollection that there was a war going on between the hidden villages and in which countries those villages where located. He remembered numerous things about chakra, weapons, food, plant and animal life: everything, except for personal information about himself or anyone he might have had contact with. "I don't know who I am," was the response he gave to the freaky plant man.

"Hmmm…those rocks falling on your head must have given you amnesia. However it is obvious from your clothing that you are from Konohagakure no Sato." Stated Zetsu as he was taking in and evaluating the information like a good spy. "Hey what's up with that eye of yours there?" Asked Zetsu's not as intelligent, yet just as observant black side.

The young shinobi immediately brought his hand up to his left eye socket and realized that it was not only bandaged but empty as well. "What happened to my eye?"

"Don't know. It was like that when I found you, and I doubt that it was caused in the rock-slide. But I believe my other half was referring to your right eye, which I believe is a fully matured Sharingan Doujutsu that the Uchiha clan is famous for." Said Zetsu answering both questions, even if technically he asked one of them.

At the mention of the name Uchiha, the teen immediately frowned. For some reason he wasn't fond of the name Uchiha, even if might have been his own.

Zetsu saw the frown and using his substantial experience as a spy had come to a similar conclusion as the newly identified Uchiha.

"I don't know why, but I don't like that name," stated the leaf-nin.

"Why not? From what I hear it's considered a great honor to be born into that prestigious clan." Questioned Zetsu's black half. "It might have something to do with that missing left eye. I hear that those clans with Doujutsus tend to be rather protective of their eyes. It looks like a professional medic did something with that eye socket of yours, and maybe because of that you had a falling out with the clan," mused his other half.

"Well for whatever reason, all I know is that I do not want to go back to them," stated the Uchiha.

"Then you have a problem, because if you go back to Konoha then you will have to go back to the other Uchihas." "Normally that would be a problem because if you did not go back you would end up being pronounced as a missing-nin, but considering how I found you they probably think your dead." Said both halves of Zetsu.

"So what do I do now?"

"You could come with me. Due to some of my more gruesome eating habits I am now considered a criminal in my home village of Kusagakure no Sato." "What he means is that because of a mission that didn't go well I had to forage for emergency provisions. Which I found in the form of one of my teammates who died." At these words the Uchiha paled quite a bit, remembering why he was uneasy around the plant man.

"Don't worry. I only eat people who are dead when I find them. If I just ate everything at the first opportunity, then I would not have bothered to dig you out." Said the white half trying once again to reassure the younger shinobi.

"Why would you give me an offer to go with you?" Asked the Uchiha.

"My specialty is intelligence gathering, and having someone with a Doujutsu would be a great help." "And it would be nice to have someone else to talk to." Zetsu simply answered.

"All right. I'll go."

"Wonderful! By the way what should I call you?" Questioned Zetsu's white side. "I highly doubt that you want to be called Uchiha, considering your previous reaction." Explained the black side.

The young man thought for a minute seeing if he could remember anything of his old name apart from Uchiha. "Tobi…call me Tobi." He said at last.

"Tobi, huh. Well, we'll get moving in a few hours so you can rest to get your strength back." "I know of a few good hideouts in the Land of Rain, on the southern border of the Land of Grass." Said Zetsu as he rose the rest of the way out of the ground and went to sit on a rock as he waited for the newly named Tobi to recover enough strength to travel.


In order to describe the Land of Water, one need not go farther than its name. The place was wet. On the great island nation, one of the most common atmospheric conditions was fog and mist, which was the inspiration for Kirigakure no Sato (The village hidden in the Mist). Kirigakure is the shinobi village known to possess the most kenjutsu users, the best of whom were known as the Seven Shinobi Swordsman.

Unfortunately, the Land of Water has also become known as the land of the bloodline massacre. Because of the great success of those who possessed Kekkai Genkais during the Great Shinobi Wars, people, both civilian and ninja, began to fear and kill those from clans with a Kekkai Genkai or lesser bloodline. The only clan that was left untouched by the massacre was the Kaguya clan who would need the entire military power of Kirigakure to be brought down.

These were the thoughts of one Hoshigaki Kisame, last of the Hoshigaki clan and supposedly strongest of the Seven Shinobi Swordsman, as he made his way to the mainland of the Elemental Countries. His clan had been small and did not play much of a part in the shinobi wars, but the traits of their bloodline were so obvious that they were not spared. The bloodline of the Hoshigaki clan manifested itself in the form of shark like features that allowed clan members to easily survive in water. This fact explained why the giant of a man had blue skin, shark teeth, and what appeared to be gills on his cheeks. On his back, wrapped in bandages, was his zanbato Samehada (Shark Skin). A lethal blade comprised of hundreds of small metal blades that shaves like a shark's skin, and possesses the unique ability of "eating" the chakra of others except for the wielder, unless it is wrapped up as it is now.

The reason Kisame was heading towards the mainland was because he is now marked as an S-class criminal and missing-nin of Kirigakure.

Kisame had decided that he would try to stop the bloodline massacre, and due to his shinobi training, thought that the best way to do that was to kill some of the lesser feudal lords who were in support of it. He may have managed to kill them, but it did nothing to stop the massacre, and Kisame was forced to flee while being pursued by four other members of the Seven Shinobi Swordsman, each of whom were in command of a squad of Kiri hunter-nin. Kisame may have been the strongest of their number, but even he couldn't win against so many other swordsmen, not to mention the hunter-nin.

After all this went through his mind, there was only one think Kisame could think. 'Damn Daimyo. Damn Mizukage. Damn stupid, small minded, bigoted people. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn. Konoha had bloodline users in the wars, but are they persecuted? Nooooooo. They are praised as heroes and nobility.' At this, all Kisame could do was sigh and try to figure out what he was going to do now.


Rain. A word that described the weather, the forests, and even the hidden village of the Land of Rain.

There was no spring, summer, autumn, or winter in the Land of Rain. Only a wet season and a dry season, when it rained only once every three days.

So, no one gave the fact that it was currently raining a second thought. Not even Hanzo, the leader of Amegakure no Sato (The Village Hidden in the Rain) and a shinobi of such skill that he defeated and named the Three Legendary Sannin of Konohagakure, could tell that this storm was not natural, but was the work of a jutsu.

A jutsu cast by the former student of Jiraiya of the Sannin, and wielder of the third and rarest Doujutsu, the Rinnegan. His name is Nagato.

His dark hair hid the concentric circles that distinguished his eyes as he gazed impassively across the sight of the recent battle…no massacre.

Beside him was the weeping form of his friend and fellow student, Konan. She simply couldn't control herself when she fell to her knees and cried at the sight before her.

Lying upon the grass, underneath the pouring rain were the prone forms of six bodies. Six comrades who had all met the Toad Sannin Jiraiya and had been inspired by him. They had come across each other here in the Land of Rain and had stuck together. They had all been Konan's friends, but the death that affected her most was the death of the auburn haired boy Yahiko. She, Nagato, and Yahiko had been together for years after they had been orphaned by the Second Great Shinobi War when the three had been taken in and trained for two years by Jiraiya. They were like siblings who would always look out for, and be there for one another.

Until he came and shattered that reality.

He had worn ancient red Shinobi battle armor. His hair was as black as the wings of a crow. He carried himself as a warrior and had the aura of a murderer. But it's his eyes that catch your attention. Those red eyes that he called his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.

He came to the Land of Rain seeking the one who possessed the Rinnegan, so that he may test the power of his eyes against the bloodline that supposedly created the shinobi world. When he found Nagato he immediately challenged him. Nagato had refused but had been forced into a fight anyway. A fight that had not gone well for him.

Flashback

Nagato was on his knees using his hands for support, as he tried to catch his breath. His opponent loomed over him, waiting for the next move.

"So this is the power of the legendary Rinnegan…I'm not impressed." Spoke the ominous figure as he took a relaxed stance. Nagato had only managed to cut him a little, and while it was more then what most had been able to do it was not enough. "And here I was hoping for a real challenge to test my eyes. But even the Rinnegan falls before the true power of the Sharingan. Now what shall I do with you?" Mused the man as he pondered the question. "You do seem to have quite a bit of talent. I could find a good use for you amongst my followers. Yes, most useful." He muttered as he came to his decision. "I will give you a choice. You can either choose to serve me with those eyes of yours. Or you can die. Please choose wisely."

Nagato brought his head up to let his Rinnegan gaze into his opponent's Sharingan. It was literally a life or death decision, and like all humans he desired to live. But by choosing life, he would have to serve a monster and betray his friends and everything his sensei taught him. In the end there really was no choice. "I…will never serve the likes of you." He said as he spat at the Sharingan wielder's feet.

"That is a shame. Your eyes would have made a lovely addition to my forces." Sighed the man in red armor, as he raised a katana to deliver the death blow. But before he could strike, he jumped backwards to avoid a flurry of shuriken that embedded into the ground where he once stood.

"I will not let you kill my friend!" Shouted the auburn haired Yahiko as he leapt in between the two Doujutsu users. He was not alone as five others took up flanking positions around the armor wearing shinobi. Ready to defend their friend and ally as a blue-haired teenager moved behind Nagato, ready to pull him to safety.

The Sharingan wielder simply looked around at the surrounding shinobi, amused at the interference. "Well, well…these are some loyal friends here. How fortunate for me. Friends always make such good motivators. Nagato! I will give you one more chance to join me. But first let me give a little demonstration."

What happened next took two minutes. Each one of Nagato's friends was struck down, one by one. One was burned with a Katon jutsu. Another was stabbed with kunai. Two were brought down with the katana. A blond man had his neck broken through the use of Taijutsu. Finally, those Sharingan eyes turned to Yahiko and the man uttered one word. "Tsukuyomi (God of the Moon Technique)." And with that Yahiko fell to the ground screaming in pain as blood trickled from his eyes, ears, and nose before he fell silent for the last time.

"Heh heh heh…What did you think of my little demonstration Nagato?" Questioned the man as he turned to the Rinnegan user and his blue haired friend. "I spared the girl to serve as a reminder of what I can do to those that defy me, and to those they are close to. I will leave now 

so that you may have some time to grieve and to think of my offer. And this time, remember to choose wisely." With that said the man vanished with some sort of Ninjutsu.

End Flashback

"Nagato…Nagato…NAGATO!" Shouted the blue haired Konan. "What will we do now?" She asked when she had her friend's attention.

"We will have to leave Amegakure and go into hiding. Find someplace small and out of the way so that we may train to prepare for when he finds us again." Nagato finally said. He knew that his eyes had abilities that he had yet to unlock, and he would need them before he could face that man again.

"But even with more training, how can we hope to beat him? Those techniques…those eyes. He was less like a human and more like a demon."

'Demon…demon…that's it!' Nagato suddenly remembered something that Jiraiya had said to them during his lessons on Fuuinjutsu. "There is a way Konan. The best way to fight a demon is with the power of a demon." Nagato finally raised his face so that his eyes could be seen through the rain. "One day we will meet again, and on that day you and everything you have planned will be crushed by my hand. This I promise you Uchiha Madara!" Nagato promised, not allowing himself to shed the tears he wishes to cry, letting the shy do that for him.


Author's Notes: This is just something I thought of and am working on as a side project to my primary story 'The Kitsune Seal'. Anyone who reads this should not expect frequent updates as I will mainly be focusing on 'The Kitsune Seal'. I have a few other ideas that I might work on but my plan is to write more in 'The Kitsune Seal' and this story first.

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