Shadow of the Leaf
By Kai the Enchanter
AN: I got bored with the Leaves of Autumn storyline. Not that I'm not continuing it, it's just that I had this cool idea and I decided to go along with it.
Disclaimer: I really wish I owned Naruto, but I don't
Summary: Konoha has fallen. See the attempts to rebuild and take revenge through the eyes of one of its greatest shinobi, and witness his trials
Prologue: Wandering Vagabond
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The lands were in chaos, wherever one traveled. Wandering villagers ravaged the countryside for food, unable to stop to plant crops, for fear of the roving bands of shinobi who would pillage their fields. In the wake of the fall of Konoha, everything seemed to have gone wrong. There was no peace in Fire Country, indeed, Fire Country itself seemed to be a myth. Hidden Mist and the other countries had made great encroachments upon their territory, and it seemed that the legacy of the Shodaime of the Leaf was all for nothing.
In the midst of all this, a single, solitary wanderer walks the fields that once boasted the finest yields in all the lands. It was spring, but the joy of new life was sucked out by the triumph of the Hidden Sound. Their shinobi were everywhere, hunting down all those who dared to openly oppose their leader, and indeed killing a great deal of those who practiced their rebellion in secret. The dried grass crunched under the feet of the traveler. His messy hair flowed out from beneath his hat, modeled like that of a Kage, but without the symbol of any nation on its front. Instead, the character for "shadow" adorned it, and the man was dressed in black and brown robes, perfect for blending in with ruined landscape. His tread was slow, but deliberate. He held himself well, as a man who'd seen great hardships, but had endured them. He grinned as he thought of the easy life he'd once wanted for himself. He wondered where his companions, if any had survived, were.
Jiraiya and Tsunade were almost certainly dead. They'd stayed in the village, determined to either save Konoha or to die with it. For them, there was no point in living if they failed the memory of their sensei. And so they'd been left, with ANBU teams just as determined to stay till the end. The wave of Sound shinobi crashed down upon them, but even this wouldn't be enough to conquer the two sannin.
No, the wanderer thought. The battle wasn't hopeless. In fact, the sannin had almost been able to turn the tide. That was, until the gigantic form of Manda erupted forth from what was once the Hokage's office. And his master, his deadly master stood perched on the great serpent's head, his eyes gleaming. Shudders tremored through the man's body as he remembered the eyes of that man. The man who had sworn that he would be the greatest shinobi in all the lands. The man who would possess every jutsu. But those eyes were nothing. Not compared to the brilliant bloodred gleam of Uchiha Sasuke's Mangekyou Sharingan. For it was Sasuke who had stood upon Manda that day, having disposed of Orochimaru only weeks before. It was Sasuke who had annihilated the Leaf, with his minions. And now, it was Sasuke who drove his shinobi in a ceaseless hunt for the location of Uchiha Itachi.
A sigh. To think, that one man's hatred could have destroyed generations of goodwill and earnestness. And now, the Leaf shinobi that survived were being hunted down. Sasuke would need a great arsenal to conquer Itachi. So far, it'd been said that he'd mastered the jutsus of many a great shinobi, including Orochimaru's. For it was Uchiha Sasuke's intention to create the perfect shinobi body. His hunters scoured the lands for every shinobi bloodline ever known. His goal was to combine Hyuuga, Uchiha, Kaguya (if any still survived), Aburame, Nara, Yamanaka, every bloodline, until he had the perfect body. His score with Itachi would be settled long before then, but Uchiha Sasuke was a perfectionist if nothing else. At least he could use his perfect body to spit on Itachi's grave.
The wanderer paused in his thinking to take a bite out of a pear he'd plucked from a tree. It wasn't pear season, was it? He couldn't remember. It wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things anyway. He gazed up at the clouds and sighed again. To think, he'd hoped that today would be another boring day. Another day of peace. But it was too late for that. As he gazed, twenty shinobi dropped out of the trees, around him.
"Nara Shikamaru...Sasuke-sama demands an audience with you..." Shikamaru looked down at them, and sighed yet again. He stood still as he finished his pear. He tossed the core behind him, and in the instant that it hit the ground, his pursuers leapt forth, ready for the attack.
Alas for them...for as soon as they landed, they were frozen to the ground. The hands of the Kage Kubi Shibari snapped their necks like dry twigs, and Shikamaru took their soldier pills and other equipment after making sure they were dead. He grinned up at the clouds. It paid to study their movements every once in awhile. Heavy cloud coverage meant heavy shadows, after all.
As he hefted the gear, he muttered to himself. It figured that Sasuke wouldn't even have the decency to give his men proper equipment. He wouldn't make much money selling these shuriken and kunai. The explosion notes were faulty, and he'd had to stamp one out. He threw away the solider pills. If the weapons were in such shoddy quality, who knew what might happen with the pills?
Shikamaru grunted to himself. It was simply too much of a hassle, trying to survive in a world that Sasuke'd ruined. Picking another pear from a tree, he continued to walk forth, muttering to himself. Sasuke's day would come.
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End Prologue!
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