Disclaimer:
Naruto, Naruto Shippuden and Seventh Hokage Gaiden all belong to Kishimoto and his associates.
This is a fan based work of fiction
Please support the official release.
Enjoy.
~Umbra.
The Fox Brothers
Chapter One – The Fall of Man
A woman runs through a forest at high speed, jumping over roots and between trees with the kind of practiced athleticism that takes years to learn, her long black hair flowing behind her in the wind. Held tight and safe in her hand was a picnic basket that held not only all manner of food and drinks but her hopes for the day ahead. The woman's name was Mikoto Uchiha, a proud and beautiful lady of class and learning whose blood came from a long line of great warriors.
Today was one of the very few and far between 'off' days she had received as her nation was at war, and she was determined to spend it to its fullest. It was, thankfully, a beautiful day with a great blue sky with nary a cloud and a gentle warm breeze that alighted the skin and made one feel alive.
This day... Well, she had had it planned for a very long time as it was the birthday of one of her oldest friends and companions.
The birthday of the man she loved.
The birthday of Minato Namikaze.
As she ran, she caught a glimpse of a streak of red, flowing through the forest and her heart began to beat faster as she recognised another woman.
Kushina, her rival, the crimson haired woman was the same age as her and they competed heavily against one another in everything, in strength, in ability and in mind. But also in love.
For Kushina had also been caught in the charms of Minato Namikaze.
There he stood, at the edge of a clearing, by a pond, his yellow blonde hair alight in the sun, his powerful blue eyes staring down into the water below as fish circled in its depths. The way he held himself spoke of a casual confidence, the sort of a man who had won battles against armies by himself. The Namikaze of the battlefield was a blood-soaked, serious man who moved faster than lightning and tore armies apart like a knife through paper.
But this was the Minato of peace time, a playful and carefree man whose extroverted and charismatic manner drew all that met him towards him.
As Mikoto and Kushina landed on the grass, he turned slowly to face them, a smile lighting his face as he realised whom had come to meet him.
"Kushina, Mikoto, how long has it been?" He spoke with a voice like waves against the shore; powerful, yet serene.
"Too long, Minato." Mikoto spoke, walking up to him, while Kushina ran straight up to him and looked up at him like an excitable puppy.
"Much too long, why didn't you come see us?" She asked, with an over exuberant and bubbly voice.
"We've all been busy." Was all that he said. The subject of the war hung over their heads for all of a few seconds before Minato dispelled it with a powerful clap of his hands. "But I see that you have brought a picnic for me. I can never get enough of your cooking, please set it out."
Thankful for the praise, the two women moved with a grace that only constant training could bestow on a lady and within seconds they had a blanket spread across the grass and upon it a variety of foods. What each had brought spoke volumes about their character.
Mikoto had brought with her wholesome and well cooked meals that were designed to offer the best mix of nutrients and taste, all piping hot and served in china bowls and plates with chopsticks ready.
Kushina, meanwhile, had brought all things sweet and (in her view) tasty with little mind for how much (or little) it would fill one up and had even opted to provide the cake which looked to have been baked with every type of confectionary imaginable and would likely send a child bouncing off the ceiling.
Minato sat at the corner of the blanket and brought a china plate onto his knees, splitting a pair of chopsticks as Kushina and Mikoto sat themselves on opposite corners of the blanket.
"Thank you for the food." They intoned solemnly as one before they began to eat.
The greatest thing about having a meal with one's friends is that it allows you to speak while eating and the three used this time impeccably to speak at length, split too long by battles that had left them in need of the comfort of a friend.
But as they spoke, both Mikoto and Kushina noticed that something was eating at Minato and soon brought it up.
"Minato, we can tell there's something on your mind, won't you please tell us what's up?" Mikoto spoke softly.
"Yeah, pansy, tell us what's on your mind for once!" Kushina added, earning a reproachful look from her raven haired friend at her tactlessness.
Minato dabbed a bit of sauce away from his cheek and looked at them both thoughtfully before speaking.
"Well, there's nothing wrong per say, I've just been thinking, that's all. I'm on the front line all the time, almost every day. My status as the Leaf's Yellow Flash means that I am almost indispensible but it also means I have a bounty on my head that reaches the billions in Ryō. Such a figure almost ensures that I may not make it through." He spoke, measuring each and every word with care and yet speaking them with a strength and conviction that could sway any man.
His words made both women open their mouths, words of comfort and rebuke on the tip of their tongues. But with a single gesture, his left hand raised and his eyes shut calmly, they were silenced. This was a man who accepted his fate.
"I will lay down my life, for the village and for our leader. I accepted that the day I became a Shinobi. As did the both of you." He opened his eyes and looked at them both, pools of azure blue glancing at them both.
"But though I accepted this, I find myself fearing something. I fear not that I will die, but that I will die alone. What I'm trying to say is that... I guess, I'm saying I'm looking for... For a family." With these words came an aura of sadness, all there knew that the blonde was an orphan and had constantly tried to fill the holes in his life with the people around him.
It was Mikoto who recovered first.
"But surely, Minato, a man like you shall have no problem with that. I have it on good authority that you are very popular." She spoke with a gentle smile that hid all of her own hopes and fears about where this was headed.
Kushina was uncharacteristically silent, a small blush dusting her cheeks as she nodded along to Mikoto's words.
"That does not solve my problem. I know who I want to ask but I am at a quandary. Because it isn't just one person. It's two." He spoke, curling up his fists as he tried to muster all of his bravery for what he regarded as the most difficult and stupid choice he was about to make in his entire life.
The words began to sink in and as Minato began to speak again, both women's eyes began to widen.
"Kushina Uzumaki and Mikoto Uchiha..." He bowed his head down, placing his hands on the mat and his neck at their mercy. "I am in love with you both."
The air thickened with silence as his words hanging in the air as if they had a presence of their own.
The silence was so thick that the sound of Minato's heart frantically beating could be heard miles around as he became to assume the worst.
'Well, I've just killed my social life and lost two good friends. Rest in pieces, buddy' Minato thought to himself.
However, when he rose back into a sitting position, he felt the soft breath of two women against his cheeks before he felt the most heavenly silken feeling brushing against his skin on both sides.
His eyes sprung open in surprise as the feeling disappeared and he found afore him two women both aflame in a crimson blush.
"Minato is weird but I suppose I don't mind." Mikoto spoke softly, hiding her inner joy behind a soft look.
Kushina was much less contained and burst out laughing, a great grin on her face.
"Well, I don't mind sharing. Besides, Mikoto is cute too. We can have a lot of fun together." Kushina spoke, narrowing her eyes slightly as her own blush deepened.
"K-Kushina!" Mikoto gasped, eliciting another round of laughter from the crimson haired woman.
Minato was only half listening to what they were saying as he was far too busy breathing a great sigh of relief. The two had been close to his heart forever and a day and it would have broken him completely to have hurt either one of them.
This way had been a one shot but he knew that this way they would be all happier together.
One big family.
Just like he had always wanted.
Minato's buzz lasted for the rest of that hour until he reached the realisation, helped along by his newfound lovers, that he would have to inform not only their guardians of the relationship but if he truly wished to make them his family, the village leader and almost the entire village as well.
Minato felt he would much rather be sent to war again.
One violent and bloody Shinobi war later.
He was. As were Kushina and Mikoto, so quickly in fact that they barely got to spend any time together.
It was this fact, combined with a great sense of relief that when the war finally came to a close and Minato properly married them both in a ceremony attended only by the village leader, his closest advisors and Mikoto's parents, that the Honeymoon became a night to remember.
After spending years apart with only the sparest hours with which to spend time with one another, they were desperate for time alone together, and, when the hotel door closed, Minato's Shinobi headband hung unceremoniously over the doorknob, they didn't get a single wink of sleep.
What went on behind the door of room 804 must forever remain between the three lovers but it is safe to say that afterwards they were closer than ever.
The night also left them with more to think about. Both Mikoto and Kushina had fallen pregnant to Minato, whom, after the war had been promoted to the highest rank in the village and had taken over as its leader from the previous, a man who was now desperate for retirement.
Minato's every dream was coming true and, at his coronation, with Kushina and Mikoto beside him he stood before every person in the village and accepted the trappings of leadership, a hat and a kimono and as he stood, as if in a dream, the previous spoke.
"I give onto you, the Fourth Hokage; NAMIKAZE MINATO!"
Every voice in the village was chanting his name and it took every fibre of his being to keep his voice still and calm as he delivered the most heartfelt speech of his entire life.
Nine months later, the end of the dream began.
The Tenth of October of the last year of the Third's reign and the first year of the Fourth's reign.
It was a cold day. The Land of Fire's winter had just begun and though it would never snow here, a bitter wind blew across the treetops.
Miles away from the Village Hidden in the Leaves, there was a hill, in which there was a hidden cave and from that cave, all that could be heard was screaming.
Inside there were many people, Minato and his two wives, Kushina and Mikoto were surrounded by people of the medical profession who generally were acting like headless chickens.
Mikoto sat away from the noise, feeding her newborn son. He had inherited the deep raven colour of her hair but had taken the shining azure eyes of his father.
She had given him the name Sasuke, after the legendary Shinobi Sarutobi Sasuke in the hope that her son would too become legendary.
Though quite now as he fed from his mother, Sasuke's voice was clear and loud, almost dignified for a mewling infant. Something sets him off again now and his wails join the sounds already piercing the air.
The other person screaming was Kushina. Childbirth is said to be the most painful experience a human being can ever have. The price of bringing new life into this world.
Kushina was not taking it well.
"DAMN YOU MINAAATOOOOOOOO! I SWEAR THAT WHEN I'M DONE HERE, I'M GOING TO CUT OFF YOUR ****ING-!" Kushina swore as Minato stood over her, his face screwed tight in concentration as his hand however above a swirling pattern tattooed on his wife's stomach, both glowing with an unearthly energy. Minato's teeth gritted together tightly as the louder of his two wives attempted with all that was in her to swear her child out.
When that didn't seem to work, for whatever reason, she resorted to pushing and soon was holding her child in her arms. Another son, this one with his father's blonde hair and eyes that reflected his mother's cerulean. His voice, as it turned out, was just as powerful as hers and though he was soon silenced by his mother's milk, he sent a few doctors reeling with it.
His name was already chosen; Naruto. After a character in a novel by a man dear to all of their hearts and whose face was known well to their fists, well, Kushina's anyway.
Just as Minato was experiencing the sheer spiritual ecstasy of being borne too beautiful sons, the nightmare began.
"Minato!" Mikoto screamed.
Minato turned, just as every doctor in the room dropped dead, blood blossoming from their stomachs, to see a man lock Kunai with Mikoto and then snatch Sasuke from her grip.
The stranger disappeared as suddenly as he came and this was punctuated by another scream, this time from Kushina.
"Naruto!" She cried weakly.
"Hmph... Lord Fourth." A voice spoke from the door, rough and gravelly as if its owner never used it. "If you want to see your sons again... You will hand to me the Jinchūriki of the Nine Tails."
Minato choked on his own voice as he looked at the man who stood, silhouetted against the moonlight, holding his two new born boys roughly and without care, his face hidden behind a porcelain mask that showed a single, crimson eye.
Without a second thought, Minato's legendary speed came into its own and, faster than lightning, he ran at the Masked Man, snatching his precious boys away from the madman so fast that even the Gods would have blinked.
This proved to be a mistake however as the moment his eyes were taken from his wife, the Masked Man stepped in and took her, both of them disappearing in a spiral of air that seemed to suck them into the void.
Minato was filled with anger. Rarely had he ever been hateful in his life but right now, it was burning through him like a fire.
Or a maelstrom.
He grabbed Mikoto as fast as he was able and, with a flash of black and yellow they disappeared, the four of the appearing out of the void in the front room of an old leader.
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked up out of an old rocking chair into the eyes of a wrathful deity and felt something in his heart fall away.
"Kushina has been kidnapped. Code Red under threat of Code Black." Minato spoke, the edge on his voice powerful enough to cut a man as he placed his children on the fur rug, a strange marking appearing on their backs, a complex seal of intricate symbols.
It would let him return to their side in an instant.
Faster than lightning.
"I will leave my children hear under the care of your housekeeper." Minato spoke, the housekeeper quailing under his glare and nodding.
Hiruzen stood slowly, an old black suit of armour appearing over his body in a flash of smoke.
Knowing what was coming, Mikoto grabbed onto Minato and was pulled back into the void.
Hiruzen stood, checking the straps on his armour a little longer. It had been paranoia that had kept him awake that night. His wife had insisted that she and the other medics would be safe without him.
Now they were dead.
He was too old for this.
Much too old.
"Satoshi, make sure they are safe." He spoke at the housekeeper before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
The Masked Man stood in a clearing, the innate body of a crimson haired woman lying below him as the air hummed with an unnatural energy that made the skin crawl.
A small voice, speaking from where his heart had once been implored him not to but he crushed it down.
For peace. This was all for peace.
"Now, Kyūbi, come for me!" He screamed to the heavens as a rotten, orange, bubbling energy lifted from the spiral pattern on Kushina's stomach.
"That's what she said..." Kushina managed before she began to scream. It was already too late.
Because sealed within her body was a demon more powerful than any other. The Nine Tailed Demon Fox: Kyūbi.
And it was coming out.
As soon as the Masked Man saw the whites of its eyes, it was trapped, and as its body appeared, as great as a mountain with nine tails each longer than a river, the air began to distort around it, spiralling inwards until the beast disappeared entirely.
Only he knew where it had gone.
"Minato won't let you..." Kushina spoke weakly from the ground.
"Oh? Still alive? I'll just have to amend that." The Masked Man spoke, a chain falling from his sleeve.
"I'm sorry." Two pairs of eyes opened from the darkness, glaring at the Masked Man. "But we can't let you do that."
Minato and Mikoto stepped out of the darkness, glaring at the Masked Man.
Disliking the odds, the man turned tail and ran into the forest. Watching him, Minato let out a scathing noise and picked a Kunai knife from his belt.
"Stay with Kushina. I'll be back in a flash." Minato told Mikoto, before flinging his knife after the fleeing man and disappearing, leaving behind only a streak of yellow caused by his vibrant hair.
"Minato..."
As if he were not there at all, the Kunai knife went straight through the Masked Man who allowed himself to come to a stop as Minato appeared in a blaze of yellow.
No words spared for the object of his fury, Minato flew at his enemy, slicing at him with a Kunai. However, no matter what he did, no attack would touch the Masked Man, instead it would simply go through him, as if he were a ghost.
And well he might be, if his claims held any water.
"I suppose you're wondering whom I am, Lord Fourth." He spoke calmly as the blade of Minato's knife passed through his chest.
"You can call me Uchiha Madara." He spoke in a tone that was filled with confidence.
Minato put the information to the back of his mind, fighting so hard that he didn't dwell on the fact that the one this man claimed to be had been dead for centuries.
Not for nothing had he been heralded as the next coming of Shinobi no Kami. His mind was already analysing his opponent at speeds that would make a supercomputer blush.
Finally, as the masked man struck him a blow in the stomach, he worked it out.
"Tell me Madara... Have you ever felt pain...?" Minato spoke with a dangerous calm, running towards his enemy.
The one who called himself Madara began running too, unaware of the hundreds of thousands of seals around him, above, below, left and right.
The Flying Thunder God always gets its prey.
Minato had found a chink in the Masked Man's armour.
He could make himself untouchable.
But to attack he needed to be solid.
Therein lay the flaw.
As they met in the middle of the clearing, the Masked Man's fist but a fraction of a hair from Minato's face, he disappeared.
A second later, he appeared just inches above his assailant, a spiralling ball of pure energy forming in his hand.
With all the power he had, every ounce of ability in his body, he brought it down upon the Masked Man, forcing him down into the ground and shattering the Earth.
That wasn't the only thing he had broken. As the man lay in the ground, Minato's hands moved fast, blurring as he slapped them against the back of the masked man. There was a sound of shattering glass and a feeling as though some sort of demonic power anchored in the man had left. With this deed done, Minato flipped off of the man.
As the masked man stood, his porcelain mask began to come apart.
"You no longer control the Kyūbi. I've made sure of that. You also have taken a lot of damage. Surrender." Minato spoke, watching the Masked Man through narrowed eyes.
Surveying the damage he had taken and barely able to stand, the masked man shrugged as if he had suffered no real loss.
"I may have lost today, Minato, but your fight is just beginning." He spoke, the air around him contorting. At the last moment, his mask came apart entirely but, before Minato could see his face, he was gone.
Minato was about to start tracking the Masked man, when suddenly an earth shattering roar shook the air.
"Kyūbi!" Minato spoke, turning fast. Knowing what awaited him he disappeared again, leaving behind a streak of yellow and the fragments of a broken mask.
The village was in chaos. It had been a cold, winter night and the populace had been settling down for the evening when suddenly the raid sirens had been sounded and a giant fox had dropped from the sky.
At first it had attacked methodically, almost in a controlled manner, its movements restrained and jerky as if it were fighting with itself while it crushed houses and people, its eyes holding a strangely familiar pattern, like those that members of the Uchiha clan could awaken in their own eyes.
Suddenly, something in the beast changed, its eyes returning to a more bestial, slit crimson that soured the world around them curiously.
And then something hit it and it turned its attention to the ground below.
Its roar alone shattered the buildings around it and split the sky. Suddenly it seemed twice as powerful and a hundred times as angry. With a single swipe of a foreleg it tore through a legion of Shinobi and citizens alike.
Suddenly, in the sky above it appeared a giant toad and on top of it, a man.
The fourth Hokage.
With their leader come to their aid, the troops fighting against the beast fought ever harder and, with the power of two Hokage, past and present, they were able to send the beast blasting out of the village into the forest that surrounded it.
"Leave the rest to me, Third." Minato spoke.
With a final wave to his troops, Minato disappeared.
It was time.
His not to reason why.
His but to do and die.
The Kyūbi stood, trapped twofold, in a great shining barrier and in chains that wrapped around its body.
Minato, Kushina and Mikoto stood before its demonic majesty, staring at the jaws of death, each stood, side by side, a claw piercing through each of their chests, blood dripping down onto Sasuke and Naruto's bodies where they lay, each upon an intricate seal, an ink swirl painted on their stomachs.
"Naruto." Mikoto spoke.
"And Sasuke." Kushina added.
"We love you." Minato finished, holding his wives hands as they spoke their last words to their sons.
Then, he performed a set of signs and a blue light appeared from both Kushina and Mikoto and floated from them to their sons, resting in their sons' chests.
With another complex set of signs Minato began to speak an incantation.
"Oh mighty Death, I summon you to take of the soul of this Demon. In Death I trust my soul that my enemy shall fall. Dead Demon Consuming Seal!" As Minato spoke, a spectre appeared behind him, malicious and majestic, it was the Death God himself.
The Death God reached through Minato and, with the hand that has torn down Kings and vagrants alike, tore the Kyūbi in half, taking its Light from its Darkness and the Darkness from its Light.
Minato was breathing heavily know and with an immense effort he performed another set of seals.
With a brilliant light, the Kyūbi disappeared into two streams, one flowing into the seal placed upon Sasuke, one into the seal placed upon Naruto.
With no Kyūbi to hold them up, the three lovers fell to the ground, laid together as they had been in life.
And as the Shinigami ripped the soul from his body, Minato found the energy to put his hands around both of his wives.
So it was that Minato died.
Not alone.
But with the two women he had loved his entire life.
And Naruto and Sasuke lay there unknowing that they had now only each other in this world.
Perhaps they knew, for as the barrier finally shattered, and the Third Hokage who had been stood helpless, watching all this, rushed in to pick them up, they began to cry.
October the Tenth. The day that the Village hidden in the leaves lost its greatest hero. The day that the Nine Tailed Beast attacked.
The day when a pair of legends were born.
Eight Years later.
It was October the Tenth of the Eight year of the Third Hokage's second reign and the whole village had banded together in a festival to celebrate the heroic actions of their previous leader who had died, along with many others, to subdue the Nine Tailed Beast and to mourn the hundreds, if not thousands of civilians and Shinobi who had lost their lives in the battle against the beast.
On that day, eight years ago, a deep hatred has seeded within them but with the Kyūbi sealed away, their anger had no outlet.
It soon surfaced however, that the two boys that had been found at the scene of the battle contained half of the beast within them. Although the words that were spoken to them were specific, in that the boys simply contained a part of the Kyūbi within them, word soon spread through the populace that the boys were some sort of reincarnation of the beast and the resentment against them grew.
Kept safe by the Hokage's most trusted housekeepers, the boys made it until the age of five before those who believed the lies surrounding their identity finally got to them and murdered the housekeepers.
Thankfully, the boys were not harmed before the Hokage's personal Black Operations Shinobi caught up with them and brought them back.
With no one willing to take the two boys in, they had been given an apartment to themselves that had been given every possible protection so that no harm would come to them while they lived there and managed to live peacefully, using their prodigal stealth skills to scavenge all that they needed to live.
Knowing that they were hunted, the boys kept to the shadows and stole from the many stalls and tables that had been set up for the festival, safe in the knowledge that no civilian could catch them.
However, this year a Shinobi had joined the hunt.
An hour later, the two boys could be found backed against an alley wall, a group of angry men and woman screaming obscenities at them.
Imagine yourself in that situation, just you and your brother, only eight years old, backed against a wall surrounded by people thrice your size, all of whom want your guts for garters.
To their credit, neither boy showed any fear.
The Shinobi stepped forward, his pale face lit only by torch light as his fingers shaped several signs together as he spoke, a cruel laugh on his lips as he spoke.
"Fire Style: Art of the Fireball."
The night lit up as a fire suddenly sprung up in one of the back alleys of the leaf as the sound of the screams of two young boys rang across the town.
No one who cared would hear them.
Their torture was not the only atrocity that would be committed that night.
Already, a sword was covered in the blood of its master's clan.
Uchiha Itachi stood alone in a pool of blood, surveying the bodies of her distant family.
For the village.
For peace.
A drop of blood fell from her blade as she flickered out of existence, appearing atop a telegraph pole, silhouetted against the moon that put her beautiful and yet cold face into shadow, leaving only the sight of a pair of crimson eyes whose irises were patterned with a black, three pronged Shuriken.
The eyes of murderers.
She stayed where she was, crouched against the wood as she watched a young girl enter the clan's compound.
The girl was her sister.
The girl was the only one that she would let live.
She would kill their mother, their father, their uncle and their cousins. Every man, woman and child would fall to her blade.
Her thoughts strayed to her lover and the promise she had made to him before he too had died. The Uchiha could never be allowed to fall down that path of darkness.
For that they would all die.
All but one.
The girl must have sensed something for she looked up at the telegraph pole, only to be faced with an empty sky and an extraordinarily large moon.
Just a few minutes later, she would never be the same.
"Itachi... Why?" She spoke, looking at her older sister who stood like death himself, their parents' blood falling from her sword.
"To test my strength." Itachi spoke, her voice as cold as ice. "Their eyes were nothing compared to mine."
The girl was shaking all over, nausea rising in her throat as the smell of blood began to invade her senses. With a shaking hand, she drew a Kunai from her pocket.
"You can't be my sister... Itachi wouldn't do this!" The girl screamed, tears rolling down her face as she held the knife in front of her with a shaking grip.
Itachi let an insane smile darken her features as the pattern in her eyes began to spiral slowly.
"The power of these eyes... The power of your sister... Let me give you a little taste." Itachi spoke, locking gazes with her little sister.
They say the eyes are the window of the soul and perhaps that is true as it is through sight that one can most easily be trapped in an illusion.
Itachi had caught her little sister in the cruelest illusion known to all of Shinobi kind.
"Tsukoyomi." She intoned.
What the girl saw in her mind lasted two whole days, and yet also a single second. It was also engineered to be the most traumatic experience that she would ever have.
She fell to her knees, the Kunai knife still held poised in her hands, her eyes shaking harder than her body in utter and complete shock.
"You're so weak. It's not worth killing you." Itachi spoke, walking past her little sister with no obstruction.
However she had gotten just a few paces down the road when she heard the footfalls of a young girl behind her.
Greatly surprised, Itachi turned slowly around.
"Satsuki..." Itachi spoke, her voice filled with ice.
"Stop..." The girl spoke, her voice so weak it could barely be heard. "I have to..."
"You don't have a hope. Not with those weak eyes of yours. I have gained something few Uchiha will ever reach. The Mangekyou Sharingan. If you ever hope to kill me, Satsuki, you must do it with these eyes."
The young Uchiha looked up into the glass like, crimson eyes of her older sister who she had loved her entire life, unbelieving as she spoke again.
"If you want this power... You must kill the one who is most precious to you." Itachi spoke, staring down at the last of her flesh and blood.
Satsuki choked on her own breath, a strangled cry making its way out of her throat as she lunged forward at the older girl.
But Itachi was too fast and, pressing her fingers hard against Satsuki's forehead, she struck her hard in the stomach.
"Later, Satsuki. Much later." She spoke, before knocking the girl out with a single blow to her neck.
Satisfied that her job was done and that her own heart had successfully been shattered into a thousand pieces, Itachi took the mask that had been held on the back of her belt and placed over her face.
Safe under the anonymity that the mask provided, she sped away, leaving Satsuki to be found by the patrols that would be sent this way later on.
She hopped across the rooftops so fast that she looked like a bird in flight when suddenly she saw flames bursting up from an alley.
What was left of her conscience told her to intervene.
She dropped down into the end of the alley, causing the mob to turn towards her.
What they saw turned their hearts to ice.
A woman dressed in black, wearing a porcelain mask in the shape of a crow with two eyes of the purest crimson shining from it in a cold and hate filled glare, a long, thin blade held tight in her right hand, a thick, crimson liquid dripping from it as she rose herself to her full height, her hair, as black as the night falling against her back.
They had come hunting for two demons, and they had found a real one.
"I think you boys had better leave." She spoke, her cold voice sending a visible shiver of fear through their ranks.
Hey stood frozen in place for a few seconds, before they ran, dropping the various pitchforks and torches that they had brought with them, leaving behind what had caused Itachi's anger.
She stooped down her shadow falling over the shivering form of two young boys, one blonde, one with black hair. They were both hurt and scared and half unconscious.
Itachi sighed deeply, sheathing her bloodstained blade away and taking her crimson dyed gloves off of her hands as she reached out to the boys, feeling them shiver in fear and pain, only half aware that she was even there.
"What have they done to you?" She spoke, noting the hypocorism even as she spoke the words. With a gentle touch, she put them to sleep, freeing them temporarily from this world of pain.
As she ran her hand down Naruto's back in preparation of picking him up, she met a hard surface that did not belong.
Tearing what remained of his shirt away, she found that his back was covered with a thick layer of what appeared to be wood.
She stared at it for a few minutes, trying to figure it out. She only knew of one man capable of doing such a thing but if he had been here then why not drive away the mob as she had done? Just appearing in the uniform of the Black Operations would have scared them off.
When she found herself unable to reach a conclusion, she put it to the back of her mind and picked up the two boys beneath her arms and sped off again to deliver her final report.
He stood before her, a man who had made countless difficult decisions, who himself had killed thousands with his own hands and might even be considered genocidal if those who died by lieu of his decisions were taken into account.
He was responsible for the deaths of literally millions.
Itachi bowed on her knee before her, having placed the two boys in a seat by the door, a web of ink running across the wall in a seal that would stop even a single note of sound from escaping the room.
"The deed is done." Itachi spoke, looking up at the Third Hokage with eyes of shattered glass.
"Itachi... I should have made you Hokage..." The Third spoke, shaking his head.
"I was too young. People would have questioned it too much." Itachi spoke, knowing in her heart that this act of destruction had been the only path.
"Satsuki still lives and... I may return in a few months with a delivery also." She spoke quietly, her hand reaching towards her stomach as she hid her expression from view.
The Hokage's eyes widened slightly as the words sunk in.
"Do so with care Itachi. You are now a rogue Shinobi with a bounty on your head."
"I understand. So please take good care of Satsuki. These two as well." She spoke, glancing towards the brothers who slept peacefully by the door.
"My word is my bond, Itachi." The Hokage spoke with an air of finality.
"I shall send information via Operative Toad under the code name of Crow. In the meantime..." She turned and walked up to the sleeping brothers and kissed them both good night. "Sleep well."
She walked out of the door and disappeared into darkness.
A droplet sends ripples across a thin layer of water, echoing through the void, the realm of nightmares.
Two boys stand side by side and yet separated as if by a pane of glass. Before them is a great cage that contains darkness and also something else.
Stare long enough into the void and eventually the void will stare back.
In the brothers' case it stared back with two pairs of deep, crimson eyes as large as the moon and with a demonic, bestial slit through them that bore into their souls.
"Weak." A voice twofold spoke from the darkness. "Disgusting. The ones who imprison me... Us... Within their body are so weak..." The eyes narrowed hatefully at them.
"You are a disappointment... So much potential... I could teach you so much..."
The boys stood, rooted to the spot, shin high in water that seemed to never make them cold nor wet, unable to speak or move, simply in awe and fear of what lay beyond those sealed gates in the darkness.
"... Hmph... You disgust me. Go. Leave me...US!" The darkness shouted, a claw suddenly swiping out at them both at exactly the same moment.
The instant the claw touched them, they faded away, leaving the nightmare behind as the claw withdrew back into the cage and the darkness began to speak to the one on the other side of the mirror.
"Am I you or are you me? Or perhaps we are neither now?"
"You know that I am incapable of answering such a question. We are one and the same and yet we are opposite now."
"Such an existence... Damn that Namikaze."
"Damn him to hell."
Two pairs of a crimson eyes closed, leaving only darkness in the cages and the sound of a beast's breathing, twofold and yet somehow as one.
With no one to attend the nightmare, it faded and gave way to the light of a new dawn.
The next morning.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat upon an old sitting mat on the floor, his steady hand painting kanji characters in ink upon a large scroll, not out of necessity but as a hobby. He had invented over a thousand Shinobi arts and many still resided only in his memory. Being far, far older than the average Shinobi would ever see, the old war veteran knew that his days were numbered and thus now wished to record all of his creations for posterity.
As he painstakingly wrote the character for 'fire' on the paper, he looked up, puffing lowly on his smoking pipe as he did so, a cloud of smoke rising from his mouth. With the moment he had spared, he glanced fleetingly at the two boys who lay alongside another nearby, under a blanket he had managed to procure for them.
Naruto and Sasuke. How dearly he loved them, as if they were his own grandchildren, how deeply it hurt to see them treated as they were.
They had grown so much, though still quite small for eight year olds, they were doing well.
Naruto had changed very little from the day that he was born, his hair the same shade of sunflower yellow, his face still boyish and rounded with puppy fat. At some point after his birth, whisker like markings had appeared on his cheeks, three on each side. As playful and mischievous as an eight year old boy should be, Naruto always wore a sunny grin that lit up the day. Right now though, he was sleeping and he looked as absently at peace as any child does at rest, his closed eyelids hiding the pools of startling cerulean blue that hid within.
Sasuke lay against his brother, his black hair longer and messier, taking almost the same shape his father's had in life. He was ever slightly thinner and taller than his brother though this was ruined by a layer of puppy fat that kept him looking as cute and childish as his brother. While Naruto was loud and extroverted, Sasuke was quite, serious and as well mannered as someone self taught can be expected to be and would often be seen standing beside his brother, analysing whatever caught his interest with those eyes that so perfectly resembled his father's. Despite the differences, you could see the resemblance between them and, like Naruto, Sasuke had too developed whisker like markings on his cheeks, though he only had two on each side and his were slightly thicker.
The sight of them both sleeping peaceful brought a smile to Hiruzen's face as he looked back down at the scroll, however just as he was painting the last stroke of the Kanji, a loud noise made him jump and he splodged a line across the top of it.
'No good.' He thought with a sigh. 'Now it reads 'Heaven''
"Gramps!" cried Naruto, having woken up to find his one of the few people he loved just a few metres from his person.
"Naruto... It is good to see you awake." Hiruzen spoke, placing his brush down on the scroll carelessly. It was already wasted so more blotches wouldn't change anything as Sasuke stretched out, Naruto's voice having woken him.
"Did you sleep well?" Hiruzen spoke.
For a moment they were silent, a slight shadow crossing their tiny faces but they recovered quickly.
"We slept great." Naruto chirped, flinging the blanket off of his shoulders and running up to hug the old man.
Sasuke got out from under the blanket and sat on a mat, his legs crossed as he watched his brother happily.
"I'm glad to hear it." Hiruzen spoke, letting the lie slide. "Dear me, look at your clothes. We shall have to go shopping again." He added, looking at them.
Even before the attack, their clothes had been tight and dirty and they desperately needed a new change of wardrobe.
"Gramps... You don't have to." Naruto spoke bashfully.
"It is my pleasure. Besides, the Hokage must make his face known to the public or else they will forget that I'm still alive and they will try to replace me." He spoke with a kind smile, making Naruto laugh out loud.
"Now then, I hear that you aren't doing so well in the academy." Hiruzen spoke, his face falling serious and both Naruto and Sasuke's heads fell in shame and embarrassment.
"It isn't our fault, gramps. We can't make clones, it's impossible." Naruto spoke out.
"Why do you say that, Naruto?" Hiruzen asked, his old black eyes imploring the boy to tell him the truth.
"It's like... Like trying to take a drop of water from a lake." Naruto spoke forlornly, putting his hands together in a sign. A large amount of spoke popped up at his side as he built up immense amounts of energy.
However all that came out was an amorphous grey blob that looked frankly disgusting as it lay there beside him.
"They keep telling me to use more but that just makes it worse." Naruto added, sitting down in a huff. "So I tried using less but it's impossible."
"I see... and does the same happen for you, Sasuke?" Hiruzen spoke carefully.
Looking off to the side, Sasuke nodded twice, almost imperceptivity, his pride deeply wounded.
"Well then." Hiruzen spoke with a smile, an idea coming to his mind. "Why don't I teach you a little trick to help you both along? It's called the Shadow Clone Technique and it was invented by my master, the Second Hokage."
Both boys' faces lit up and they moved closer to the old man who felt a slight glow of happiness in his heart that he could finally do something to help them on their way. He couldn't stop the cruelty they faced or force people to like them but he'd be damned if he didn't find ways like these in which he could help them.
Thus, time began to pass again with little change in the village. Naruto and Sasuke's grades started to rise at the academy however they were still treat with the same hostility they had come to know most of their lives.
Later the next year, a bundle was left on the doorstep of the Hokage mansion, alone with a note that bore the symbol of a crow, a paper fan and words written in thin, looping handwriting.
'His name is Shisui, for his father.'
The Hokage's heart shattered for the third time in his life upon finding the bundle and the black haired child who lay within and he made a solemn oath that the child would be placed with a family that would love him as one as their own. Perhaps his third child, his youngest daughter would do? She had long longed for a child but had been incapable of having one herself.
His heart set on the notion, Hiruzen introduced the child to his daughter who took him in with open arms, unknowing of the child's origins.
His parenthood would have to remain a secret to everyone but that was fine. He would ensure that the boy grew up knowing only a loving family.
Just as he wished he had done with Naruto and Sasuke.
Four years later
However hard the two boys tried and no matter what they did, they always seemed to get back low marks on their exams, a growing frustration for them which, with no-one to tell them otherwise, they vented by playing pranks on the populace of the Hidden Leaf.
Today was their most ambitious prank of all.
They had decided to paint the Hokage monument.
A monument to the Hokage of the past where each of their faces had been carved into a cliff face so that they could watch over the village, even in death which, in Naruto and Sasuke's humble opinion was much too bland and serious for its own good.
Thus, for their prank, they had decided to paint the monument.
Somehow, no-one noticed until it was much too late and all of the faces had been painted in.
It was actually strangely beautiful.
However the villagers did not see it that way and a man close to the boys, their academy instructor; Iruka, was forced to make them clean up the mess that they had made.
Reminded of the loneliness that he himself had felt as a child, Iruka reached out to them and, once they had rid the monument of paint, he took them for a meal at a local ramen bar.
His wallet took a huge hit that day but it had been worth it to see the smiles on their faces, and although he may have imagined it, he was sure that the cute waitress who worked there had winked at him.
"Now you two, make sure you do well tomorrow. I know you've been having a hard time but if you pass this last exam you will graduate as Shinobi so make sure you do well." Iruka spoke, smiling at them.
"We will, Mr. Umino." Sasuke spoke.
"Hey, hey, Iruka-Sensei." Naruto spoke out. "Can I wear your headband?"
Iruka laughed out loud before smiling down at his young pupil.
"I'm afraid not. Only Shinobi get to wear these headbands. Think of it as motivation for tomorrow." He spoke, grinning at the downcast young boy.
"Cheer up, this time tomorrow you'll be a Shinobi. I believe in you."
Those words would stick with the two of them for the rest of their lives.
The Shinobi academy was almost like a normal junior school, if you didn't count the fact that it was essentially training murderers. All of the children here would have stood out in a crowd with hair colours ranging from vibrant pink to deep navy blues however in a world where this was natural, no-one paid it much mind.
Naruto and Sasuke had arrived earlier than normal and had sat themselves in their usual places on the third row, next to a young girl with black eyes, black hair and a blank expression. Satsuki Uchiha.
Naruto who disliked her attitude greatly still sat between her and his brother, despite the latter's subtle attempts to move in closer to her.
Naruto's ill feelings towards the girl were not mirrored by his brother, whom had gotten to know her quite well.
The two had met several years ago by a lake in one of the less built up areas of the leaf.
Sasuke had been with his brother that day, as he was most times, walking with him, watching in fascination as the trees seemed to follow them, roots seeming to pull away to avoid tripping them up as Naruto walked calmly on, his breath in time with the forest wind, deeply in tune with nature.
On this day, they happened to walk past a lake and Sasuke happened to glance across it.
There he saw her and was struck by the sight of her sitting alone, a single tear falling from her into the lake to be swallowed up by its depths.
Sasuke constantly endeavoured to be well mannered and good and seeing the girl in such a state had hit him close to his heart.
Thus, he made an excuse to Naruto, who replied as if in a trance and walked further into the forest, leaves falling around him as if he were some sort of apparition.
It took all of Sasuke's constraint not to call his twin weird or something equally insulting as he went to join Satsuki on the wooden pier by the lake.
She stayed silent as he placed himself down next to her and this held for a few seconds before she spoke.
"Go away." Was all she had to say.
"I've only just got here." Sasuke replied, watching the water's movements as the wind sent tiny waves lapping against their feet.
She gave him a sour look which he replied to with a genuine smile.
"You're hurt. I can't just leave when I see something like that." He told her.
"You can't help. You don't understand what I've been through." Satsuki spoke, curling herself up in a ball and staring down hard at the water as if her gaze alone could make it freeze or evaporate.
"Try me." Sasuke replied, looking down at the water melancholically.
Catching his eyes, she found something she saw all too often in the mirror and it was perhaps this that made her tell Sasuke her story.
Of the insanity of her sister. Of how she was the only one left. Of how she had been made to see all her deepest and darkest nightmares and of how easily she had been struck aside.
"I was..."
"Too weak to protect them... right?" Sasuke finished for her, looking her way, black meeting blue for a third time as she heard the sincerity in his words.
"You too?" She spoke.
"They hurt my brother... Hurt him so much... I couldn't do anything and he had to protect me... I hate myself for that." Sasuke told her.
"That's Naruto... right?" She asked, her voice slightly small now.
"Yeah." Sasuke nodded. "Hey... Satsuki... Do you want to know a secret?" He spoke, looking back at her.
"What is it?"
"I'm an Uchiha too." He spoke, his eyes fading from black to crimson, a pattern of two tomoe in each one, spiralling slowly around his pupil before he blinked and they went away.
"Do you want to be my friend?" He added, looking out at the lake bashfully.
"Sure..." Was Satsuki's almost inaudible reply.
Since that day, they had met often and secretly to talk and trade stories and train together. Sasuke who regularly sparred heavily with his brother was just a little bit better but since they only play-fought, neither of them noticed much of each other's ability.
For Satsuki, Sasuke was her only true friend and she held a secret hope that when she became a Shinobi that she would be able to fight alongside him.
Sasuke who spent much of his time with Naruto secretly looked forward to their meetings as it allowed him to speak to someone new. Unlike Naruto, he couldn't see the good in any situation and enjoyed the change of pace that Satsuki brought.
Perhaps it was better, then that Naruto sat between them in class. What could he say to her while the rest of the class was in earshot? It would be awkward to say the least.
As Sasuke mulled this over in his head, the exams began. Shinobi exams were not like those sat by us mere mortals, each student was taken into a separate room to be tested to ensure that they could perform the most basic Shinobi techniques; Transformation, Substitution and the Clone technique as well as shuriken throwing and basic Taijutsu.
Naruto and Sasuke whose names were listed on the register without surnames would have to go in last and had to sit there sweating as, one by one their classmates came back, each wearing a brand new Shinobi headband with the symbol of the Leaf etched into the metal.
Finally it was Naruto's turn and he went away into the room, to face the three academy teachers alone.
Sasuke sat there in silence, wondering why Naruto hadn't come back yet, rising as his name was called, an extreme nervousness running through him. Had Naruto failed? He hoped not...
"Welcome Sasuke." Iruka smiled as Sasuke walked into the room. "Okay first, I need you to..."
Sasuke went through the motions of the exam, performing almost perfectly, with only some slight flaws in his technique. Even distracted by the absence of Naruto, he still did amazingly well.
"Well done, you pass Sasuke." Iruka spoke kindly.
"Where's your headband, Mr. Umino?" Sasuke asked, only now noticing that it was missing.
"Go outside and you'll see." Iruka spoke with a prideful smile on his lips.
Sasuke bowed to them quickly and then ran out of the room, a smile appearing on his lips.
As the door closed behind him, a brown haired Chunin spoke with a frown.
"Was it really necessary to give Naruto your headband?" He spoke.
"I was just honouring a promise." Iruka replied calmly as the Chunin shook his head slowly and an outburst of joy could be heard from the other side of the wall.
The other Chunin sighed and stood up from his seat.
"Are you going, Mizuki?" Iruka asked in surprise.
"I'm sorry to leave you but I have some important business to take care of." Mizuki replied, waving at them.
"It's fine, I'll cover for you." He brown haired Chunin spoke.
"Thank you." Mizuki spoke, smiling as he walked out of the door. However as he got out into the hallway, it slid off his face to be replaced by a very ugly look.
His eyes slid along the wall to where the two boys stood in one another's arms, crying tears of joy.
'I didn't expect them to pass that test.' He thought to himself angrily. 'Still, there are other ways I can get rid of them.'
With that ominous thought, he left the two boys alone in the hallway so that he could begin his plan to rid the world of two young demons.
Sasuke and Naruto meanwhile rejoined the class, containing their joy behind broad grins.
Their high spirits were dampened slightly as they watched the parents of their classmates congratulating their children on having become Shinobi of the Leaf, as well as talking in none too hushed voices about how those two little demons should not have been allowed to pass.
Still, it was in happiness that they returned back home and celebrated with a pot of instant ramen and a bowl of tomatoes, their favourite foods.
Fed, watered and happy they went to bed smiling as they always did under the same blanket for warmth in an apartment that never seemed to stay warm.
Glass shatters in the still of night as a Shinobi rolled through a window, his pale face and white hair lit only by the light of the moon. Strapped to his back are a large windmill shuriken and a massive scroll.
Wasting not a single second, he grabs two sleeping children and absconds towards the forest with them under his arms, confidant that nothing can go wrong with this plan.
However just as he enters the forest, he lets out a yell as the two children sink their teeth into his hands.
Naruto and Sasuke land on their feet, more angry than scared as they see Mizuki before them.
"What are you doing, Mizuki-Sensei?" Naruto spoke, suspicion lacing his voice.
"Completing a legacy..." Mizuki replied, a dark smile on his face as he pulled the large shuriken off of his back.
The boys tried to brace themselves but they were newly graduated Genin while Mizuki was an accomplished Chunin and instructor.
Within seconds, Sasuke lay unconscious at the base of a tree, Mizuki's fist having impacted against his stomach at high speed.
Mizuki turned on Naruto, a dark light in his eyes, an insane edge in his voice in his spoke.
"Your existence... is an abomination... A sin... I will destroy you both." He intoned relishing his own words as he prepared to throw the giant blade at the object of his hatred.
As Mizuki spoke, images flashed in Naruto's mind's eye. Images of flames licking at his and his brother's body, of an altogether too familiar pale face staring down at them cruelly as they cried out in pain.
He remembered it all.
Years of pent up frustration and hatred against that pale face bubbled up from his stomach and with an almost inhuman scream he slammed his fists down against the ground which cracked underneath his inordinate strength.
Mizuki looked down in surprise as the ground beneath him cracked and something wooden rose out of it faster than a thrown kunai.
He was dead before he knew what had happened.
And yet, as the light faded from his eyes, his blood splattered over the clearing, he spoke damningly.
"Demon... You are... Demons..." Where the hoarse words that left his mouth, lingering on the wind as he stood, impaled straight through the middle from below by a stake of wood.
Naruto's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell down, completely blacked out from exhaustion.
They were found, ten minutes later, by a distressed Iruka who looked upon the scene with a mixture of nausea and disbelief.
The thief, Mizuki impaled upon a wooden spire with Naruto and Sasuke unconscious just metres away, the stolen artefact still strapped to his destroyed body.
The Hokage was not going to be happy about this.
Not happy at all.
Author's notes:
Here endeth the longest piece I have ever written in my entire life.
Ten thousand words in all, nice to get all that off of my chest.
Also, I'm going back and rewriting these first few chapters as I disliked the way they came out. The pacing isn't the best but then again I was never the best writer.
If you like this, keep reading on as I write more.
I hope you enjoy.
Please leave a review, hearing what you have to say about my work really pleases me, even if it's something bad.
I think that's everything I wanted to say so thank you and goodnight.
~Umbra Gami