01. Death Is like The Wind, Always By My Side


The Wanderer's Log, 001

When I was a child, my brother asked me; does the wind flee, or does it follow? For a long time I chose to run, for death followed at my back.
But how long can I keep running, even the strongest winds will eventually die.

But until then I will not flee, I will follow the truth. Let the wind guide my blade and lead me to the true killer, the one responsible for all the blood on my hands. The people hunting me once called me demon, now they call me murderer...

All I have left is the wind by my side...


On a well beaten path somewhere in the vicinity of River Country, a blonde swordsman made his way towards the uncertainty of another day. This swordsman was no ninja, and at a glance you could say this swordsman didn't appear to be a swordsman. He was slim, albeit with a fair amount of muscle tone. His blonde locks were done up in two bangs with a spiky top-knot protruding from the top of his head. He was dressed in shabby clothes mauled by the scars of countless battles and countless miles. Baggy blue hakama pants covered his modesty, tied off by heavy rope that wound around his slim frame. On his feet where closed toed sandals in the same shade of blue as his pants, ending just above his calf. For a top he wore a blue shawl that seemed to have once been a kimono, wrapped around his neck like a scarf. Blue gauntlets adorned his arms the right of which ending in a sort of knuckle bracer. The most curious piece of attire this swordsman wore perhaps, was the wing shaped shoulder guard he wore on his right.

At his side was sheathed a magnificent katana with a curious guard that looked to be shaped in the likeness of a gale motif. Flanked by a bamboo flask that sloshed with an unknown liquid, and a simple wooden flute. This swordsman was certainly a curious sight. He looked to be no older than thirteen, as his face still lacked the rugged lines of a man. His face however did have three odd whisker like markings on each cheek. Once again just from his attire and appearance you couldn't help but feel this was no ordinary ronin.

The Wanderer trudged forward almost mechanically, his eyes where closed obviously in deep thought. His posture and stance where those of somone who had seen death, had caused death, and was always alert for when the reaper would come to make a pass at him.

Things had not always been this way, he could remember long long ago, when he was a happy go lucky child. Sadly fate had dealt him a terrible hand, and it isn't easy to cheat fate.

The wanderer abruptly stopped, opening his eyes he fingered the hilt of his sword. "You can come out of the shadows now ninja, I know you're there." He spat. Indeed no no sooner had the words left his mouth then a volley of kunai where sent flying towards him. Drawing his blade he deflected as many as he could and dodged the ones he couldn't.

From the trees appeared a masked shinobi, their mask void of any markings. Dressed in standard ANBU gear, but lacking the animal mask that was instantly recognizable, this shinobi stared him off before finally speaking.

"Uzumaki Naruto, my master wishes for your presence, be it dead or alive."

The mystery nin's voice was monotone empty, without any distinguishable emotion. It sounded almost...robotic. The wanderer sheathed his sword, and instead reached for his bamboo flask, Taking a long drink of the liquid held within the flask, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"If you've come to kill me, I hope you've brought friends..."


In the shinobi village of Konoha, there lived a little blonde boy by the name of Naruto. Naruto, or Uzumaki Naruto, was an orphan. His parents where killed in the Kyuubi attack that befell Konoha 5 years prior, or so the kindly old man who visited Naruto in the orphanage said so. Naruto had few pleasures in his simple life, the orphanage staff neglected him often forgetting he even existed. And the villagers and shinobi alike refused to admit that he even existed, he was met with hateful eyes when he walked the streets. Mothers would hurry their children along, he got the worst of it from the older generation. Who weren't afraid to throw a stone or two at him, or give him a good kick every now and then.

You can imagine what all this would do to the psych of such a young boy, he often wondered with the primitive ponderings of his toddler mind, why he was so hated. Obviously he couldn't come up with an answer, and the old man only offered him a sad look and the promise that one day he'd know.

One day Naruto was being chased by some bullies, it's actually quite funny really. A little blonde girl had fallen from the steps of a slide she was told not too play on. When her father came to her aide, rather than face chastisement, she pointed to Naruto who was minding his own business playing in the sandbox. Of course Inoichi Yamanaka knew the boy was innocent, se he bandaged his daughter up and told her once more to stay away from the slide. Angry that her father had not believed her lie, the little girl paraded around the playground telling all the kids that Naruto was mean and had pushed her.

This drew the attention of a couple of academy students, they had heard many things from their parents about this boy. Chief of which was that he was no good, and would only cause trouble if you associated with him. In a show of false chivalry the two ninja hopefuls began to pick on Naruto calling him names and destroying the sand castle he had been working on. Angry of course he had kicked one of them in the shin. Angering they boy, they began to chase Naruto through the village. The chase was long and winding, and though the academy students had conditioning on their side, Naruto was quick witted and his little body contained more than enough stamina.

Finally however they cornered him against the wall of the Uchiha complex, things would have surely gone rough for the little blonde if it weren't for the timely intervention of Uchiha Shisui. One onyx eyed glare sent the academy students packing. And that is how Naruto met Shisui Uchiha, the person that would become his surrogate brother.

Shisui was everything Naruto could want in an older brother, he was kind, and funny. And whenever he could spare the time he would teach Naruto something, be it a parlor trick, or a basic survival skill. As time went on Naruto saw less and less of Shisui as he was busy with many a mission. Naruto himself was enrolled in the Ninja Academy, with the goal of becoming a strong ninja like 'Shisui-ni.' Though he could count the people precious to him on one hand, Naruto was happy. Sadly happiness wasn't in the forecast for Naruto's imminent future.


It had now been seven years since the sudden appearance of the Nine Tailed Fox, many a shinobi was lost that fateful day. And the wounds where just beginning to close. However storm clouds lingered on the horizon of the foreseeable future. The prestigious Uchiha Clan, had lost a fair amount of prestige once it was discovered one of their own was responsible for the attack. The majority of the clan was back drafted to the police force, a measly existence solving petty crimes and patrolling the village. The Uchiha began to anger, and from that anger was planted the seeds of rebellion.

Only the two most trusted Uchiha where given missions and intel by the Hokage, the two being of course Uchiha Itachi, and Uchiha Shisui. The vast majority of the remaining clan members began to plan a coup, they would forcibly take the seat of power from the Sandaime, Sarutobi Hiruzen. Of course the third was alerted by Itachi.

Plans where made, ranging from appeasement, to mass genocide. In the end a wait and see approach was adopted. Many on the counsel of the leaf strongly disagreed, but the third's iron will was absolute.

On a day like any other, Naruto's life changed forever.


Naruto was walking home from the academy in the evening twilight, he had been hard at work practicing his shuriken-jutsu. On a whim he decided to take a walk along the Naka River, before returning to the apartment the old man had given him. He remembered how calm everything was, a few dragonflies zipped around, off in the distance he could hear the splash of a carp. Up ahead in the distance he saw a shadowy figure staggering towards him. As the figure drew nearer, he realized it was Shisui.

Running towards his very obviously injured brother, what Naruto saw horrified him. Shisui was covered in wounds, a deep slash on his chest bled profusely. Most horrifying of all was the blood dripping from Shisui's right eye, or rather lack of.

"Na-Naruto," Shisui choked out.

"Shisui-ni! What happened to you, come on we have to get you to the hospital!"

Shisui smiled grimly before wrapping Naruto in a weak hug, "Im...not...going to make it Naruto.

"No! Shu-shutup don't-don't say that, come on we-have-to hurry!" Naruto sobbed.

"Listen...Naru..to I want you to promise me something."

"Shi-Shisui-ni"

"Promise me you'll find a place where true peace exists?"

Naruto broke down into sobs, hugging Shisui tightly.

"Goodbye Naruto, never forget that I loved you like a true brother..." With those final words Shisui Uchiha passed on to the next great adventure.

"SHISUI!"

The shock of losing his surrogate brother was too much for young Naruto to handle. He blacked out.


When Naruto came to, he found himself in chakra suppressing seals before the counsel. The old man wouldn't look him in the eyes, and quite a few of the clan heads had a solemn look upon their faces. Elder Homura was the first to speak up.

"Uzumaki Naruto, you are found guilty of the murder of Shisui Uchiha."

Naruto stared blankly up towards the counsel, before bursting ino hysterical laughter. The counsel members visibly stiffened, and the Hokage looked about ready to break down himself.

"HOW DARE YOU SAY I KILLED SHISUI! Naruto roared, LET ME OUT I HAVE TO TRAIN, I HAVE TO AVENGE SHISUI-NI!"

No one on that counsel, bar the most fanatic demon hating civilians, believed Naruto could possibly kill Shisui. However the Uchiha demanded justice, and they where willing to go to war. They wanted Naruto's head, and they where being forced to give him to them or face a devastating civil war. The Sandaime fought tooth and nail, he even let slip the secret of Naruto's heritage. But that only served to make Fugaku Uchiha even more eager to call for Naruto's execution.

"You are hereby sentenced to await a month in purgatory, at the end of the month you will be publicly executed."

Here was Naruto's first example of how truly unfair the shinobi world could be, in this world. politics could be just as deadly as the deadliest of jutsus. Purgatory was the name given to the holding cell for traitors and missing-nin. It was supposed to be a place to make peace with the sins you've committed, before the execution. Naruto stopped his hysterical rant upon these words, all he could do was stare up at the people who had just sentenced him to death.


Naruto's first few days in purgatory where pure agonizing torture. Alone in a sleet gray room with only a toilet and a sink, Naruto began to go mad. He could swear a voice in his head kept muttering for him to release the seal, whatever that meant. Naruto began to contemplate suicide, to commit seppuku and join Shisui in the afterlife. Within this madness a half way sane thought was formed, if he died...Shisui's killer would go unpunished, if he died...Shisui couldn't rest in peace.

But how, how could he possibly escape this sleet gray dungeon? Naruto's answers appeared the seventh day of his stay in purgatory. He was awoken from his restless sleep by the sound of footsteps. He looked upon the shadowy figure of an ANBU, before he could utter a single word. The ANBU dropped a scroll, and promptly disappeared. Grabbing the scroll he jammed it into his pocket and went back to sleep.

Come morning, Naruto carefully examined the scroll. To his amazement it was a technique perfectly suited for his jailbreak. Now he had a little under a month to learn it. Some divine entity must have been looking after him, because he did just that. After weeks of blindly following the scroll not having any idea if he was making progress or simply giving himself hope to be crushed.

On the evening of Naruto's twenty-eighth day in Purgatory, he finally produced a rough sword like object made of Fuuton chakra. He was ready, he would avenge Shisui or die trying... It was a pale imitation of the technique, laughably pathetic. When one does not consider that this was accomplished by an academy student. On the night of the blood moon, Naruto struck.


Naruto's meals where delivered twice a day via Chunnin, Naruto had one shot and one shot only. Tomorrow was to be his execution day, if he failed here...it was over. As the Chunnin brought him his evening meal, Naruto lunged at the unsuspecting Chunnin stabbing him brutally in throat. As the poor man choked to death on his own blood, Naruto had no time to feel remorse or disgust. He had to run before someone took notice of the Chunnins absence.

Naruto's flight through the torture and intelligence department was a mad adrenaline fueled dash. He encountered no opposition, but his heart beat frantically until at last he slashed his way out of the building. A blood red moon illuminated the village. In the distance Naruto could see fires burning in the vicinity of the Uchiha District. All around him ninja swooped about, they paid him little mind. They where after bigger fish.

He began running towards the village gates, once again his burning need to avenge his surrogate brother fueled his sprint. He had dispersed the Futton blade upon escaping the IT building, but a sense of foreboding prompted him to once again summon the mass of wind chakra. Up ahead he noticed to Genin at the gates. Putting on a burst of speed he payed the Genin little attention, he rushed by hacking and slashing. He didn't know if he killed them or not, all he knew was that they weren't following him.

Naruto ran for an untold number of time, there came a point where the trees all became identical, and he was running more on instinct then command. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he came upon a clearing. In the middle of that clearing stood a very familiar figure.

"Itachi..."

Indeed it was a blood soaked Uchiha Itachi, there was blood dripping from his eyes like tears. And not a single inch of his ANBU gear was not stained with blood. "Hello Naruto-kun, I wondered when you'd make it here."

Steeling his nerves, he raised his Fuuton blade in a defensive stance before asking the question that had ate at his conscious all throughout his stay in Purgatory. "Where you the one who killed Shisui?"

Itachi closed his eyes and smiled oddly, "no he said abruptly. I wasn't the one to kill Shisui, but Shisui was fated to die."

Naruto stiffened, "What the hell do you mean?"

Itachi opened his eyes, revealing crimson and an odd shuriken like design inlaid in his eyeball. "Shisui was weak, he refused to take the next step in attaining true power."

"WHO DID IT, WHO KILLED SHISUI!"

"The person who killed Shisui...is a true shinobi...one who hides behind the shadows of the very shadows of the shinobi world."

"WHO KILLED SHISUI!?"

Itachi laughed, "the person responsible for Shisui's death...is you Naruto-kun."

Naruto lost it at this point, he pumped as much chakra as he could into his Fuuton blade, previously it was no bigger than a tanto. Now it extended to the size of a nodaichi blade. "ITTTAAAAACHI!" He roared rushing forward swinging his giant blade of Fuuton chakra. One look at those crimson eyes...and it was over.


Naruto awoke beside a river, he guessed it was about midday. Standing up abruptly he noticed the two items that sat beside him along the river bank. One of them he knew from a mile away, it was Shisui's sword! Or rather...what was left of it. The second item was a leather bound journal, it was Shisui's log book. Why had Itachi left these things for him? He didn't know, and at the moment he didn't care. His mission was far from complete. In order to find Shisui's killer, he had to first find Itachi Uchiha. No but that was wrong, he had to missions. He had to clear his name and avenge Shisui, and he had to find a place where true peace existed.

Summoning his now familiar Fuuton blade, he carved a crude leaf symbol into the trunk of a , dispersing his blade, he said a prayer for his departed brother. And walked off shouldering Shisui's sword. Days later, Uzumaki Naruto's escape would be discovered. He was listed in the bingo book as Itachi Uchiha's accomplice. And was labelled a C-Rank threat. Six years have passed since that day, he had wandered the land obtaining the skills he would need to beat the information out of Itachi.

He had reforged Shisui's sword into his own blade. His most valuable possession, his brother's very soul. He had killed, a lot. His blade and his hands stained with the blood of countless hunter-nin and tracking teams. His name was worse than mud in the land of fire. But he had grown strong, he may not be able to challenge Itachi just yet. But the fact that he lasted this long was testament to his will to survive. To avenge Shisui, and find true peace.


"If you've come to kill me...I hope you've brought friends."

No sooner than he said that did four more 'blank' nin as he called them, appear from the trees. They wasted no time on words, the sole kunoichi of the group began to gather chakra. Widening his eyes Naruto drew his sword and drew a shallow cut on his palm. Genjutsu was dangerous, he still remembered how easily Itachi had taken him out.

One of the blank masked ANBU rushed him Tanto drawn, "Suchīru arashi!" Naruto yelled, thrusting his sword at the oncoming enemy. The masked ninja brought his tanto up to block the thrust, unfortunately he wasn't prepared for the raw power behind that concentrated strike. The tanto shattered and the maked ninja was impaled. Before. suddenly turning into a log.

"Che, I hate the damn kawarimi."

The remaining ninja sprang into action, one sent a concentrated stream of fire towards him, another created a dragon of mud and sent it his way. And the kunoichi that had tried to trap him in a genjutsu threw a volley of shuriken towards him. The shinobi he had just tried to bisect contributed his own volley of kunei.

"Kaze no kabe!" Naruto yelled, slashing upwards towards the oncoming death. A wave of wind chakra was created where his blade met air. Anything that came into contact with that wave was shredded or destroyed. The mud dragon, the fire, and the projectile weapons where destroyed.

"Those are cute masks by the way, mommy make those for you?" Naruto's attempts to get a rise out of them failed as they always did. Two of the 'blank' nins began to engage him in a kenjutsu battle. Even with their advantage in numbers they where horribly out matched, Naruto's sword had the advantage in range, speed, and raw power. No matter what they tried they couldn't break his defenses.

Naruto abruptly sheathed his sword, turning to face the two. He lunged forward and appeared to disappear phasing through one of the opposing ninja. A jagged slash appeared on the ninja's chest. Effectively eliminating one of the 'blank' nins. "Suchīru arashi," Naruto muttered as the second ninja attempting to decapitate him was bisected. By now the remaining ninja where wary, of his sword.

One of them tried spearing him with pikes made of rock, but Naruto wouldn't stand for it. Constantly rushing from one place to another. He rounded on the enemy nin, in time to see him erect a stone wall infront of him. smirking, Naruto positioned his sword in one hand and created a Fuuton blade in the other. He cut through the stone, and subsequently the enemy.

Now there was only two left, however these two where the most dangerous. Naruto was weak against genjutsu, and his techniques could be countered with smartly timed Katon jutsu. Plus Naruto hated fighting women, something in his nature just frowned upon killing or hurting a woman . It's not like it mattered really, the 'blank' nin popped a cyanide capsule if they where ever captured or shown mercy. So with that, Naruto rushed towards the kunoichi. To his surprise she stood there as he dashed towards her. Naruto sliced her enough to keeo her out of the fight. but not deep enough so that she bled out.

Only an instinctual need to dash to the right saved him from being burned to a crisp. 'She purposely got taken out to lull me into a false sense of security!' Naruto thought. Now all that remained was the fire user, this one would be tricky. His Fuuton blade was next to useless, and Kaze no kabe took up too much chakra. He'd have to rely on his Suchīru arashi, and sweeping blade. Wait unless...

Deflecting the kunai that where sent his way, Naruto dashed erratically towards the ninja. Avoiding the kunai and fireballs sent his way. Dashing through his enemy, he couldn't help but smile when he heard the tell tale poof of a kawarimi. He could feel it, the wind coursing through hs blade, begging to be let out. There!

In an act of desperation, the masked nin had lunged at Naruto. Turning to face him, Naruto drew his sword with a yell of ; "Hah-sah-yo!" A miniature tornado was flung from the topic of his sword. Catching the 'blank' nin dead in the face. Here was Naruto's ultimate attack, incredibly hard to land. The victim was assaulted on all sides by vicious winds. And that wasn't the end of it, blinking almost instantaneously to the trapped enemy. Naruto began to furiously slash at the imprisoned enemy. He must have delivered at least fifty slashes in the span of a few seconds. Here was Naruto's true ultimate technique, an insta kill for sure. Impossible to escape, so far, and improbable to survive.

"People keep running into my blade," Naruto muttered as he descended. He disliked killing, he'd yet to kill somone except in self defense. There was a time when Naruto would feel bad for killing, would regret taking up his blade. That was long ago, he'd changed . He'd survived some brutal fights and he was stronger for it. So taking one last look at his newest victims, Naruto continued onward, Hopefully to a place where true peace existed


DAnte's. TRanslation NOtes

Suchīru arashi : Steel Tempest

Hah-sah-yo: 'Ionian', roughly "Are You Ready To Die?" In Korean.


VIRGIL'S MUMBLINGS.

Updated 11/25/15

Basic Grammar and logical inconstancy fixes.