Hey guys, it's Reveri here. I've been debating on doing this for a while, and I've finally mustered up the effort and courage to do this. However, please expect slow, sporadic updates, as I will be mostly working on my SasuSaku time travel fic Unwinding Time. This is, in part, dedicated to Gone to the World, who requested a ShikaSaku fic. So without further ado, I present:
shuffle
by Reveri
Standard Disclaimer Applies
Summary [Extended]: Kushina Uzumaki miraculously survives her childbirth with the help of the Sandaime; thus, her son is not a jinchuuriki, but rather, the son of a hero. The Attack of the Great Nine-Tails never occurred; thus, the fated Uchiha massacre no longer transpires. No longer plagued by their unkind pasts, Sasuke and Naruto grow up to be normal children. Meanwhile, Konoha's blossoming kunoichi no longer harbour crushes for boys they loved in alternate realities. At 12, they are dealt like cards into teams.. but not the teams we know. This is an alternate universe fic. Pairings are predominately ShikaSaku as well as other pairings that will be TBA. They will not be ordinary pairings; I will do the best I can to ensure the characters are not OOC despite this mass change in the storyline, and whatever pairings that may occur are believable.
"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing." - Abraham Lincoln
「Prologue .
Piercing screams could be heard from a distance, if one lingered close enough near the mountains that resided by Konoha.
"Kushina, Kushina... you can do this, I believe in you!" Minato cupped his hands against his wife's cheek. His eyebrows were furrowed; his wife's silky red hair was, as usual, flaming like a tomato that granted her her childhood namesake - but her face was ashen and sunken. The contrasting tone of her hair did little to help her clammy skin; he used his other hand to cup Kushina's cheek, to warm it. He was compelled to comfort his one and only love whatever way he could.
A dark figure stood outside the mouth of the cave. His battle-ridden, tangled black locks glinted in the moonlight, swaying with the movements of the wind.
"Yondaime-sama, hold the seal!" shouted Biwako Sarutobi, acting as a midwife, the creases around her eyes deepening.
"Ngghhh... aaah!" Beads of sweat trickled down the fiery redhead's temples. "Mi-Minato!"
"Harder! Maintain the seals!" the middle-aged woman bellowed. Biwako beckoned towards a brunette clothed in a medic outfit and poufy white hat, who immediately hovered her hands over Kushina's chest.
A single strike and these pathetic shinobi they called ANBU would be dead.
Power was crippling, they said.
Well they were wrong.
"Uchiha Madara," the thundering voice of Hiruzen Sarutobi boomed over the cries of Kushina Uzumaki. "Or as you like to refer to yourself... Tobi. You shall no longer do any more misdeeds that will go unnoticed. Face me!"
"You, old man, wish to face me?" The Uchiha laughed. It was not a kind, hearty laugh. Ice seemed to travel through sound, chilling Hiruzen to the core.
But Hiruzen Sarutobi was not the Sandaime for nothing. He dispelled the subtle jutsu, his heart of fire dissipating the harsh biting words.
"Yes. Even if it costs my life."
"Then your life it shall cost!"
"The seals are breaking!" A midwife cried.
"I- I won't succumb to you, Kyuubi, dattebane!" Kushina snarled, wincing as she felt the onslaught of pain.
And finally, the cries of a newborn baby could be heard.
"Minato, keep holding the seal," snapped Biwako, before the Yondaime could make a move. "She's still at risk."
The blonde nodded. He swiftly reached for something in his pocket, and tied it to his wife's finger. Then, he returned to his task.
Kushina didn't need to glance at her slender hand that was faintly pulsing with red chakra to know what Minato had done.
"O-our... red thread... aaah!" She bit her lip, not even noticing the beads of blood that erupted from her cracked lips. "..of fate..." Her tear-stained cheek once again was bombarded by the hot drops of liquid; pale hands clenched the bedsheets harder.
As the cries of a baby ricocheted throughout the stone walls of the lit cave, Tobi lay, unmoving.
"You shall hinder Konoha no more!"
"What will you name him, Kushina?"
"Naruto... Namikaze Naruto."
That night, the Kyuubi was never unleashed. Konoha had narrowly avoided the Third Great Shinobi War. Thus began an era of great peace and joy.
Seven years later, one young Sasuke Uchiha did not ever come to witness a tragic, horrific event that would've corrupted him to the core. Fortunately for the inhabitants of the Land of Fire, Konoha was alive and well as always. Although Hiruzen Sarutobi had died nobly in battle, the spirit of the Country of Fire lived on, the Fourth Hokage proving to be the most influential and superior leader Konoha had ever seen. The clans lived at peace with one another.
But every up has its down. Each and every shinobi and kunoichi knew, deep down in their souls, good always came hand in hand with bad. It was simply the way of life.
As the years flew by, the shadows of Konoha gradually grew taller, and denser. Unbeknownst to the Great Land of Fire, a dark, terrible evil was approaching.
An evil that had never, truly, been vanquished.
Crimson, blood red eyes, adorned with intricate jet black markings swirled like a tornado - but among the hullabaloo the eye of the tornado was deathly still.
Waiting, biding its' time, to corrupt and kill the young heirs of the great clans.
To Be Continued.
"among the hullabaloo the eye of the tornado was deathly still." - from Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.