The Shadow Unmasked:
I just had this fucked-up idea for a fanfic. I don't think it's ever been done before, I think. You tell me. Read on and you'll find out. Those expecting updates on my other stories, don't be mad at me...it's so troublesome.
Chapter 1: Pilot
The trees cast long, ghastly shadows across a moonlit landscape. The rapid panting and frantic breathing of men impregnated the cold, night air with a primal feeling unconquered since time's dawn.
Fear.
Five figures stood in the middle of the clearing, back to back, casting over a dozen shadows across the ground. The shadows seemed enemies themselves, gripping blades out in the ready, reflecting the objects casting them. Heads snapped left and right, panicked, eyes wide in the moonlit night, searching. Despite facing numerous directions with their backs to each other like cornered animals, they were all gazing into the shadows, into the trees, into the night as if awaiting some predator. One of them shifted his leg forward, gulping nervously as he did so, almost as if the very action itself could result in some horrible fate. His foot knocked against something soft, and he looked down.
He made out five digits that made a hand, sans the whole arm, and the whole body. A severed hand. His eyes widened, and he almost stumbled back. The pale light of the moon reflected off the steel plate of his headband, bearing a sign, an upturned leaf…
What the hell was going on?
The dark. It was alive. There was something in the dark and it had done this, was responsible for this...hand missing its owner. He could hear the rattling of steel. One of his comrades was trembling, the bony rings around his neck adding a morbid tune to the foreboding situation.
A susurrating wind crawled across the clearing. He blinked, a mistake.
*Thood!* *Thood!* Two projectiles whizzed past him, either side of his face, their air chilling him to the bone.
He felt something thud heavily next to him and jumped back and away from the group. Two figures were on their knees, eyes wide in unexpected horror and hands clutching their necks. Slowly they fell, and the remaining three men, their comrades knew there was no way of beating this thing. This monster. A sudden stroke of group realisation…enlightenment pervaded them. Or perhaps, it was just survival instinct.
"R-RUN!" He croaked out a cold yell through the gut-wrenching fear.
The same thought had already occurred to his comrades though and they were already on their heels in a sprint by the time the shout came. He followed, feeling unseen knives at his back, knowing death loomed behind.
He couldn't let 'it' get him. He couldn't be last. If he was fast enough, the 'darkness' could take the others while he made his escape. Had that old fool sent this thing against them? The thundering of his heart was deafening in his own ears as he ran. He could hear nothing else. The sound was like nothing he'd ever felt. The sound of fear. In front of him, the silhouettes of his comrades' backs spurred him to run faster. He did, against the fear deadening his muscles.
There was a gleam as something flashed in the air – something silver and then an instant hissing sound. Both his comrades stopped, the one who had been in front almost frozen. He turned his head around and slowly it slid off his shoulders, neck and all. His collapsing body, like a curtain being drawn away, revealed his decapitator in all 'his' glory who'd been obscured by the now dead man's frame. The only thing visible about him in the night were the glowing blue eyes, cold as ice, that pierced like daggers through the remaining men.
Everything else was black, choking black, swaying in the night breeze like the cloak of an angel of death. 'He' took a calm step forward.
"S-Stay w-where you are!" Shouted one of the two remaining defectors, stumbling back. Surprisingly, the shadow person stopped.
"We surrender! Please! We'll do anything."
"They made us do it! We didn't want to betray the old man." The second man cried.
A tenuous silence gathered over the clearing, nothing else moving except the swaying trees and their gnarly shadows and the cloak of the shadow person. 'His' eyes closed. A wrathful, crushing feeling of death swept through both men with a cold suddenness. Both could feel their throats almost constricting on themselves, their lungs becoming thinner. 'His' eyes reopened, now red as blood, pupils slitted like a predator and yearning for death. The two shinobi fell to their knees, eyes wide and helpless, petrified. Then 'he' began stalking forward.
He stopped in front of the two defectors. Stray moonlight caught his face, exposing his youthful face under the hood he wore, and the face marked with three horizontal streaks on each cheek, like whiskers.
"Konoha forgives you." He spoke, his voice rough and inhumane. The two men couldn't hide their surprise at those words or relief. Then a malevolent smirk broke across his face, stretching his whiskered cheeks. He thrust his hand out, exposing long, jagged nails. He brought his hand up over his head, drawing whimpers from the kneeling shinobi.
*Slash!*
*Slash!*
*Slash!*
The howls that followed were like music in the moonlit night. Pain and death always conducted a wonderful orchestra.
Ayame yawned for the umpteenth time as she lethargically busied herself with dishes from behind the counter of her family's ramen establishment. Her father was behind in the kitchen going through all the stock they had just bought, preparing to start the day.
It was still very early in the morning – mornings not being Ayame's strongest time of day. She had never been enthusiastic about rising early, especially with spring bringing with it early-morning chilly breezes, remnants of the recent winter. With Konoha being a shinobi village, they had to open early however, to catch most of the serious business as ninja usually preferred a quick snack before they left for missions in the early mornings. These days, there weren't that many shops still standing anyways. Ayame knew that her family's little shop was one of the few still operating…on their side.
Also, there was the issue of their most frequent customer. Ayame frowned at the thought of him. He always scared the other customers away but compensated them for every customer they lost in the time he was usually here. Despite the coldness he portrayed, her father still managed to see the boy in him. He was the most feared individual in the village, and the gory tales told about him always left her shivering with fear.
Ayame could always smell the lingering scent of blood on him. There was always a dead look in his eye whenever he smelled like that.
The cool caress of the morning breeze alerted Ayame to the parting of the entrance flaps to her family's little stall. Standing there was the very object of her thoughts. Messy blonde hair freely falling down his face, on a set of the deepest shade of blue eyes Ayame had ever seen. As always, his eyes were half-lidded, and blank. He wore a black shirt with a curled-up fox on the front and even darker pants, looking as if he had just come from a soul reaping.
If only she knew.
The things that were said around the village of him crept to the fore of her imagination and she felt her body developing a cold sweat.
Ayame swallowed and tried to let the tiny shard of fear she felt not show itself. She wrung her hands nervously and tried to smile. He just gazed at her with the same blank expression, then stepped past the threshold into the stall. He looked around the little stall, eyes searching for something. Ayame easily deduced the object of his seeking eye.
"T-Tou-san's in the kitchen." She stated.
The boy purposefully moved to the booth and took one of the seats lined up against it. Ayame decided to swallow down her fear so she could take his order. She nervously tucked back loose strands of her brown hair behind her ear and tried to smile – an act that almost felt painful.
"What c-can I get you?" His cold blues eyes lifted up to stare at her as though she had uttered something foolish, and Ayame was certain they were looking through her to her terrified soul. She felt exposed and cornered beneath those eyes. She wondered how her father had dealt with this…person for as long as he did.
"He'll have the usual, Ayame-chan." The deep timbre tone of her father sounded from behind her and Ayame couldn't remember ever being so relieved to hear it. She turned to her father but the man put a comforting hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. Teuchi had squinted eyes on a naturally kindly face. That made her feel better, and somewhat safer. She left to go prepare his order. "Go fetch it for him. It is ready." Her eyes widened at hearing those words, never expecting her father to have already finished with the cooking given they had just opened. She nodded and left the two to go fetch the blonde's meal.
"How are you…Naruto-kun?" Teuchi, the girl's father queried the seated blond after he was certain Ayame had left. Naruto's expression became less guarded. Like his daughter, brown hair rested underneath Teuchi's white chef's hat. The man stood at a considerable height as well.
"I'm not dead." The blond replied tersely. Teuchi would be mortified at those words if he wasn't already used to the blond. Naruto lifted up his eyebrow to stare at the man. "Your girl…" The blonde trailed off.
"She can't seem to get over her fear of you." Teuchi declared with a sigh.
The blonde's eyes narrowed. Teuchi could not tell if it was a melancholic action. A small part of him highly doubted it. The boy gave a nod.
"The rumours about you don't help either." Teuchi added sombrely, a sympathetic grin painted on his face.
"I see…" The blonde intoned softly.
"How is he?" Teuchi asked softly, being careful to take note of every emotion that played across the blonde's face.
"Not dead yet." Again, the blonde offered vaguely, his weary eyes squinting even more.
"That's more than we could pray for…on this side." Teuchi stated, tiredly sweeping his hand through his head.
Naruto merely remained silent. He then gave the chef an annoyed stare which wasn't as menacing as it normally would be. "Your daughter asked to take my order..."
Teuchi burst out laughing at that moment knowing what Naruto meant, earning a half-hearted glare from the blonde. "Give her time. She'll learn." The chef declared with a grin, wiping at his eyes.
At the mention of 'time', the blonde's expression became wistful again and Teuchi could see guilt shining in those blues. Teuchi thought about reaching out with his hand to comfort him but decided against it, not knowing how the blonde would react. Shinobi were rather fragile and unpredictable – two aspects that should never go together in a person who killed others for a living. The last seven years had exposed the worst in everyone, had seen Konoha fall farther than could be imagined. Teuchi did not know long it would be till it was Naruto's turn to go unhinged.
He shuddered at the thought. He didn't know much about what Naruto was truly capable of or Shinobi for that matter, but he truly prayed that day never came. For now, they were alive…barely and it was all because of the very same boy.
Ayame chose that moment to come shuffling into the bar, carrying a tray with a steaming bowl on it. She set the bowl in front of the blond whose nose twitched at the smell, and Ayame thought she could see something in those eyes besides cold apathy. Life? Maybe. She didn't know how to describe it.
He grabbed the bowl and began to slurp his meal down, slowly, then steadily he tore into it hungrily like a starved animal, something Ayame was certain she would never get used to. However, she couldn't help marvelling at how humane the blonde's actions seemed at that moment, as he ravaged the ramen. She looked back at her father to see him smiling, knowing it was him that was responsible for that.
She found herself smiling.
"Konohamaru-kun! Stop…(*huff*) …running… (*huff* *huff*) so hard!"
A young orange-haired girl garbed in a purple shirt and brown pants girl called out, panting harshly after jogging for several miles after a spiky-brown-haired boy with a long blue scarf around his neck that trailed down his back to his feet. Konohamaru wore dark blue pants, a kunai holster wrapped around his right leg, and a long sleeved green shirt.
The boy, with an intent gleam in his eye looked back at her and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that, Moegi-chan. I forgot you were following me." The orange-haired girl sweat-dropped. Then her eyes narrowed in anger and she stalked towards the boy angrily, intent on making him pay for his insensitiveness.
She stopped however, as she finally got a good look at where they were. They stood near an old abandoned, two-storey circular building that was crumpled in on itself. Thick shrubbery, and trees had grown around the structure and some vines looked to be strangling the pitiful construction. Konohamaru's dark eyes hardened at the sight of the building and he clenched his fist intently.
"Where are we? Konohamaru-kun?" The other boy seemed as if he was deaf to her questions. Moegi's dark eyes narrowed in worry. She brushed her hands on her purple shirt to stem the sweat building within them.
The brown-haired boy walked forward and pushed a fallen slab of metal out of the way, revealing a door. He silently went inside and Moegi had no chance to call after him before he had disappeared inside. She silently cursed. They had been told not to wander off by their guardian given how dangerous and unsafe that was. However, Konohamaru had the tendency to run off by himself and she had followed after him this time, intent on seeing exactly where it was he would take them and needing to leave the stifling confines of their holdings. Now, she was suddenly regretting her own curiosity.
She quickly shook off her burning lungs and ran after him. The first thing that struck her once she was inside was the darkness. Old furniture was strewn about the place, shattered to pieces or broken, and there were Kunai all over, some coated with age-old dried blood and torn, unrolled scrolls. They were on the ground floor of the building and further ahead, crushed and squished, she could see a wooden staircase curving to the next floor. She looked to her right, then to her left, spotting Konohamaru kneeling over something next to a split desk. She swallowed thickly and went to him. This place was giving her the creeps. There was a certain smell in the air that she couldn't quite describe. It just felt…wrong.
"What are we doing here, Konohamaru-kun?" She asked, wrapping her hands around herself to stop the shiver that threatened to break out of her.
"Don't you know this place?" He asked her, his face incredulous.
"I only know that it's creeping me out." She offered uneasily, her words coming out just above a whisper.
He sighed. "You don't understand." He clenched a dusty dark cloth in his hands, which on closer inspection Moegi could see was part of a hitai-ate. One of the old ones, from before 'it' happened. The metal of the headband was almost grey from accumulated dust and pocks of rust and it bore the leaf sign before it was turned upside-down. There weren't that many of them remaining and she knew that there was only one faction of Konoha shinobi that still adorned these hitai-ate.
"Konohamaru-kun…"
"This place is –"
"–My property." A new voice finished, startling the two youths. Konohamaru jumped in front of Moegi and brandished a Kunai, settling into a fighting stance. The monkey fist... The orange-haired girl instantly recognised her friend's fighting posture, but her brow furrowed as she noticed some minor details off about it.
The person that stood before them was a boy about the same age as them, with dark black hair squatting on his head in the like a crow. Side bangs cupped the sides of his angular face, and a sharp nose resting beneath a set of the darkest eyes Moegi had ever seen. The boy could be described as beautiful in her books. Yet that wasn't what caught her attention however. It was the short-sleeved black shirt with a high collar that he wore, or rather the symbol that rested on his left shoulder. A red and white fan.
She cringed in fear and hid behind the figure of Konohamaru. His tensed form told her he was already preparing to launch himself at the new arrival.
The Uchiha boy nearly smirked at seeing her reaction. "Why are you here, Uchiha?" Konohamaru spat the name out like it was poison.
"That's my line, monkey-boy." The dark-haired boy uttered mockingly, yet his expression remained blank. He took a calm step forward, and Konohamaru tensed. The Uchiha youth observed the brown-haired boy's kunai-clutching hands curiously, something annoying Konohamaru in the manner which he did. "What are you planning to do with that?"
"Erase your filthy existence!"
The Uchiha's eyebrow quirked up. "Who will protect the girl?" The Uchiha boy suddenly blurred away and Konohamaru's eyes widened.
'Shunshin!' He thought worriedly as his eyes narrowed, seeking the dark-haired Uchiha youth. "Go home, kid." The mocking, monotonous voice came from above. Konohamaru and Moegi's eyes found the culprit, upside down, and sticking to the ceiling with his feet, his hands shoved into the pockets of his black pants.
Furious at not being taken seriously and at the other boy trying to look cool, Konohamaru launched his kunai at the dark-haired youth who blurred away again and reappeared behind Moegi. Konohamaru responded by grabbing Moegi and jumping away to put some distance between them and the Uchiha.
"I have no intention," He began with the same unshakable monotonous voice. "…and nothing to gain from fighting you."
"Liar! Fighting is all your kind knows." Konohamaru growled, baring his teeth almost like an animal.
The Uchiha's expression remained the same, unchanging. "You misunderstand me, monkey-boy –"
"Shingetsu! Are you here?" A new voice shouted out. Three figures clad in Uchiha garb – which features the shirt with a high circular collar in varying colours - came bustling into the room. "There you are!" The Uchiha who spoke wore a brown shirt, long black pants and his black hair fell across his face in short, finger-sized bangs. A scar ran along the side of his face from his ear to his jaw.
Another one stepped forward and Konohamaru frowned. They had yet to spot them. "You are needed back by your father. They've arri-"
"-Hey, is that?" The third of the newly-arrived Uchiha interjected, looking to Konohamaru. He had deep brown hair that was spiky and looked to be perhaps twice Konohamaru's age. He had hung back at the back of the group but was now moving to the front, his eyes wide and scrutinising Konohamaru.
"It is! The old-monkey's grandson." Instantly, the three withdrew kunai, their eyes shining with nothing except the intent to kill. Konohamaru knew that he could never hold out against these guys and hope to win, not with someone along with him. He could only hope that he could somehow find a way to escape with Moegi.
"There is a god after all." The second Uchiha to speak upon arrival, a facial burn-marked fellow with short-trimmed hair, exclaimed with a smirk, giving Konohamaru a sickening glare. "We could end this little war here. If we send the old-monkey your dismembered head…" He pulled out a Kunai and his face broke into a maniacal grin. "I doubt he would ever fight again."
"Your little resistance would crumble." The spiky haired one drawled, his body tensing, his eyes hardening murderously.
"All of Konoha will be ours!"
"Konoha belongs to no one!" Exclaimed Konohamaru with fury in his voice.
"Keep telling yourselves that…on your pathetic little side. We rule over this village, as we were meant to."
"This village belongs to the Uchiha now." The one with the short-hair declared, a crazed glint entering his eye. "Even the air you're breathing right now."
"Now, stand still. This won't hurt…too much." The spiky haired man declared and he and his partners began running through handseals in preparation for their clan's signature jutsu. Konohamaru was familiar with the technique, having been on the end of it a few times himself. However, he had never been on the end of three simultaneously-fired Goukakyuu no Jutsu and did not wish to start today...not with Moegi besides him.
"KATON..." The trio bellowed in chorus, as they finished their handseals and Konohamaru gulped. "Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" A roaring inferno erupted as three long streams of flames charged Konohamaru and Moegi.
"Konohamaru-kun!" Moegi shouted worriedly as the flames towered over them, their heat making the hairs on her arms stiffen. Konohamaru's scarf came off and spun like a fan before him, swallowing the flames hungrily.
Shingetsu's v eyes widened for a brief moment at the sight of the three Goukakyuu being absorbed into the cloth. 'How curious.'
His fellow Uchiha were not fascinated but enraged. As the blue cloth fell to the ground without so much as a singed corner, they all growled. Konohamaru knelt down and picked up his scarf and wrapped it around his waist.
'What else can it do?' Shingetsu pondered with narrowed eyes. He stared at the brown-haired boy with curiosity, pondering the strange ability he had just displayed with his scarf.
"What the hell was that brat?" The scarred Uchiha growled, his eyes narrowing in confusion.
"How could that thing stop three Goukakyuu no Jutsu?"
"You should have been a burning pile of meat right now!"
Konohamaru merely smirked. "I may have been a toddler when you enacted your little coup," He took a couple of steps forward and let his hands fall at his sides. "…But it doesn't mean I haven't been training on how to handle your 'kind'."
Six pairs of dark brows twitched at that statement. Shingetsu remained unperturbed, only the slight glint within his eye showing he was interested in what Konohamaru was saying.
"Besides, I've faced meaner Goukakyuu in training." He clasped his hands together and ran through four sequences. "Try my Sarutobi version...Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" He arched back, his chest puffing up, and then a flood happened. If fire could resemble a flood, is what Konohamaru's technique looked like, roaring so loud it was almost deafening.
The technique clashed against the three Uchiha with an explosion. Konohamaru and Moegi leapt out of the building through one of the many holes as parts of the roof collapsed.
"Are you okay?" Panting harshly, Konohamaru surveyed his friend who hastily brushed off some sparks from her shoulder and gave a nod. "Great!" He grinned and she sweatdropped at how he could be so casual in their situation. She could only dream of the same kind of strength and confidence that almost came natural to him.
"Do you think that did it?" She asked, torn between being relieved and guilty that the Uchiha ninja were possibly dead. She looked back at the building, still amazed at the level of power Konohamaru had displayed, or how frightening his fire technique had just been. She smiled sadly, knowing well the cause of such power.
She jumped slightly when a large hunk of steel was blasted their way. She looked back towards the enflamed structure and felt her eyes widening in shock.
Shingetsu, stepped out of the flaming structure without a scratch, his eyes now hardened in something Konohamaru easily recognised. Danger. Konohamaru cursed, breathing somewhat heavily. That hybrid Goukakyuu no Jutsu took a lot out of him, and he had been hoping it would take this guy out as well. He realised now that the young Uchiha standing before him wasn't ordinary at all.
His eyes met Konohamaru's, whose breath hitched at what was staring back at him. The Uchiha's irises were no longer black, but red, with three black tomoes swirling wildly around the pupil.
"Sharingan!" Moegi whispered beside him in a tone that betrayed her sudden anxiousness and hatred at seeing those eyes.
Konohamaru on the other hand refrained from smirking. The look in the Uchiha boy's eyes told Konohamaru he was finally acknowledging him.
"I change my mind, Sarutobi. I have to kill you now." He declared, black hair swaying as the fire behind him roared for a moment. He didn't dare look back for even a second despite the raging inferno behind him.
'This guy.' Konohamaru mused with narrowed eyes.
"Come!" Konohamaru bellowed, as he fell back into his fighting stance.
Shingetsu without assuming a fighting stance, took three steps back and flew at Konohamaru and the brown-haired boy did the same. The two blurred across the clearing, matching speed, and it was clear to Konohamaru that Shingetsu was faster than him. They clashed, fists smacking against each other with a loud impact. They began a dance, of fists and kicks, parries and blocks, crashing knees and elbows against the other before leaping back from each other and glaring.
"You are well-trained." Shingetsu appraised. "For a monkey."
"For an asshole, you're not bad yourself." Konohamaru felt his wrist still reverberating from the earlier impact of clashing fists with the Uchiha. It became apparent that the Uchiha possessed significant strength too.
Shingetsu's lips quirked at the corner. "I'll show you my strongest jutsu. Consider it an honour. Don't blink." He disappeared and reappeared in front of Konohamaru then disappeared again and materialised yards away and continued doing so until all the brown-haired boy could see was flashes of black and red circling him. His eyes darted from left to right as he tried to follow the Uchiha's movements. Konohamaru could see particles of dust kick up, sense the air become heavy and felt a strange feeling creep down his back. He didn't know what the Uchiha boy was planning but he wouldn't wait to find out.
He bought his hands up to channel chakra for a jutsu, a spark ignited atop his fingertips, shocking him. He looked at the blurring images of Shingetsu with shock, realising what he was doing at last. Konohamaru gritted his teeth, knowing he couldn't allow the Uchiha to finish whatever jutsu he as charging up.
"Enough!" A strong voice proclaimed suddenly and Shingetsu came to a freezing stop and an ashamed glint entered his eyes.
"Onii-sama…" The Uchiha boy whispered sombrely, eyes facing down. The new figure stood behind Shingetsu and looked to be an elder version of the boy, just with lighter skin and raven hair. Konohamaru deduced him to be the same age as his own 'Onii-sama' and perhaps just as dangerous. He wore Uchiha uniform featured of a dark flak jacket, collared black shirt and red split pants. Bandages wound around his left leg leading to a pair of black ninja boots.
If this guy was Shingetsu's brother, there was no way Konohamaru could survive this.
"What have I told you about using that jutsu?" The elder Uchiha queried in a reprimanding tone.
The boy bent down, head bowed in shame. "Forgive me…" The new figure's eyes merely narrowed in something Konohamaru interpreted as contempt.
"To use it on his kind, no less." He stated, looking at Konohamaru with disinterest. "I'm disappointed." Shingetsu simply remained silent, despite the slighting he was receiving.
Something riled Konohamaru up at seeing the way the elder Uchiha treated his younger brother. He could now see why Shingetsu was the way he was if he had someone like that for a role model.
"He already apologised, asshole!" He declared loudly. "That's no way to treat your little brother."
Black apathetic eyes stared at Konohamaru, unimpressed at his outburst. "It's none of your concern how I treat those who disappoint me. Though I'm curious how you managed to survive this long against Shingetsu. You had your Sharingan activated the whole time too." He looked at his brother at this, shaking his head disapprovingly. "Otou-sama will be disappointed."
"Maybe you Uchiha aren't as tough as you think. Ever consider that?" Mocked the brown-haired boy.
"Konohamaru-kun, I don't think –" Moegi began but Konohamaru began talking again before she could finish.
"You're always trying to prove you're superior because you are scared people will see you all for the phonies you are."
The elder Uchiha's hand twitched and his brows knitted together in something resembling anger. "That mouth…" Konohamaru blinked, once. Then he found himself levitating off the ground, a crushing force squeezing his oesophagus so hard he felt darkness creeping into his eyes.
"Will get you killed." Konohamaru grabbed the hand of the elder Uchiha with both of his own hands, trying to pry them off but it was useless. 'He's so strong.' With his eyelids drooping, he could just faintly pick up on the orange of Moegi's hair as she kicked at the Uchiha.
He felt the strength and will to struggle leaving his body.
Then just as suddenly, the pressure eased and there was the feeling of air brushing against him, of himself floating, weightless and then he could feel two strong hands wrapping themselves around his frame. Then blackness enveloped him.
…
With Moegi (Moments Ago).
Moegi had been there one moment, trying desperately to get the Uchiha to let go of her friend when she had been grabbed from behind by the younger of the two Sharingan-users and held back to watch uselessly as the other strangled her friend to death.
"Konohamaru-kun!" She screamed as tears streamed down her face, lamenting her own uselessness. She didn't have the strength to help him like he had helped her so many times. "P-P-Please…" She pleaded shamelessly, hoping it would work. It didn't. The other Uchiha's grip on her was firm, almost inhumanely strong. To think that Konohamaru had been fighting against such strength made her feel even worse about herself.
"Watch closely." The voice of the Uchiha boy restraining her brushed against her back. "That is the fate of those who oppose Onii-sama."
She tried to crash the back of her head against the front of the Uchiha's face but he dodged and then there was a stinging sensation in the back of her head and then her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Shingetsu let go of her with a blank expression and watched her plop on the ground in a mess of orange hair.
He looked towards his brother who still held the Sarutobi boy in the air, whose struggles were growing less and less by the second. The thought of the boy dead made Shingetsu feel…different. This boy had dared to oppose his brother, despite the difference in power between them. All for what? Foolish boy. He would die here today, like nothing and Shingetsu would never even remember...
A violent gust of wind picked up suddenly and Shingetsu focused his attention on his brother who seemed to be searching for the source of the powerful gust. A black figure materialised behind the Sarutobi boy. The person's billowing bright blonde hair, and face scarred by three marks on each cheek struck Shingetsu whose eyes widened as he recognised them instantly. The Uchiha clan's pictures of this particular person's physical description were rather vivid, and detailed.
Considering…he had become their worst enemy since the Shodaime Hokage Hashirama Senju over a century ago. Looking at him now, Shingetsu realised he looked older in the posters than he actually was. He supposed, perhaps it was less embarrassing for his clan that it was that way, considering the injustices that they charged him with. He had to look the part.
"Put the boy down, Uchiha Sasuke." The person began in a strong voice.
"What will you do if I don't?" The now named Sasuke uttered challengingly, clenching his hand around Konohamaru's neck even tighter.
"I will have to hurt your brother." Sasuke looked back towards Shingetsu who was looking towards him with wide open eyes, perhaps never expecting to meet the Konohagakure no Kage in person. He nearly sneered at the boy. He knew that killing Shingetsu would be nothing for this man. Sasuke didn't want to risk testing whether he could beat the blonde's speed in seeing who would get to his brother first. His body ached for a fight, to release a lifetime of pent-up rage and aggression however he couldn't risk it. Should he return with a dead Shingetsu, he would never be able to explain or live down the failure to protect his younger brother to his Father and Mother. The Uchiha clicked his tongue and loosened his grip on the Sarutobi boy before tossing him away.
A clone wordlessly popped into existence near the blonde, catching the boy. Shingetsu's eyes widened at that. He had never seen a solid clone before, least of all one performed without a hand-sign. The thought made him uneasy. He glanced at the prone figure of Konohamaru then back at the blonde. Something told Shingetsu that the Sarutobi boy was going to prove to be a nuisance if the Kage was the company he kept.
Sasuke walked towards Shingetsu. Once besides his younger sibling, he turned to glare at the blonde with hateful eyes. "This isn't over." He spat. He didn't even spare a glance at Moegi's prone figure as he and his brother disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
"It never is." Naruto whispered to himself as he turned to Konohamaru and bit the urge to curse. He had barely left him alone for an hour and here he was, half-way across the villager nearly getting himself and his friend killed. He sauntered towards Moegi's own body, knelt down on one knee and scooped her up too. Up on his feet, he and his clone were swept away in a swirl of leaves, leaving the surrounding area engulfed in only the crackling of flames.
Character Info:
(Note: Konohamaru and his group will be five years younger than Naruto and the Rookies as opposed to the four they are in the manga/anime. Also, the Uchiha Coup took place seven years before the current time.)
Naruto Uzumaki: Age 14 (At time of Coup: 6-7)
Konohamaru Sarutobi: Age 9 (At time of Coup: 2-3)
Moegi: Age 9 (ATOC: 2-3)
Shingetsu Uchiha: Age 8 (At time of Coup: 1 (Infancy))
Sasuke Uchiha: Age 14 (At time of Coup: 7)
Ayame: Age 18
Teuchi: Age 53
End Note:
So, there it is. I didn't want to just up and tell you guys yet what it was about before you even read on. So yeah, basically the Uchiha Clan Massacre never happened, but why? What happened afterwards? Sasuke has a younger brother? WTF? What happened to Itachi? As for pairings, I haven't thought much about that as of yet. Guess it'll depend on which characters manage to exhibit a considerable amount of chemistry between them. I don't want to say much for now. As always, suggestions are welcome.
- TDI