I Found A Reason
Prologue: The Catalyst
-God bless us everyone, we're a broken people living under loaded gun, and it can't be outfought, it can't be outdone, it can't be outmatched, it can't be outrun.-
-Linkin Park-
It had started in the tenth winter of the Great War. The Earth had been all but torn apart by shinobi abilities, every violent clash leaving an apocalyptic wasteland in its wake. Entire countries had disappeared, swallowed up by angry tides and spewing molten lava that had been manipulated by powerful jutsu. The only remaining continent, appropriately renamed as the Edge of the World, had been subject to Mother Nature's retaliating destructive forces-violent storms having fissured the earth, causing much of the land to become inhabitable. Still, this damage had not been enough to sway the conflict between the Liberators and the Resistance. The war would continue, with no end in sight. Disease, famine, and death became everyday occurrences. The death toll had reached eight million; something that was no longer seen as a tragedy, and had become nothing more than a statistic. The amount of casualties had been nearly equal on both sides, a fact that more than frustrated the leader of the Liberators.
He was called the Architect, though his true name was Uchiha Madara. He was the man who had started it all, alongside his puppet, Yakushi Kabuto, with the goal that most evil men had at the start of such things. He had wanted to create the perfect world, in which peace was law, and all things were to be regulated according to his rule. He had believed he could crush the spirit of the world with an iron fist and establish a Utopian ideal under his flawless regime.
Things had not gone according to plan.
After ten years, the Resistance continued to fight valiantly for their freedom, clinging to ideals the Architect had deemed worthless; ideals such as family ties, friendship, trust, and love. Even in the face of mass destruction, and what could have possibly been complete annihilation, they fought on, crying out their foolish battle calls in defence of their national pride and declaring the need to protect what they cherished, even if they died in doing so.
To the Architect, it was utter nonsense.
Still, they had succeeded in prolonging the actualization of his plan, much to his growing dismay.
With numbers on both sides dwindling, Madara had decided to put an end to the constant game of tug of war. He had to end the war before there were no humans left to rule. Using Kabuto's medical knowledge, and his own genius, they used the advancements in technology to experiment in the creation of the perfect soldier.
For years they had tried to manufacture shinobi of god-like abilities. They would have to be invulnerable, and all-powerful, being infused with the core elements of each of the legendary kekkei genkai.
And for years, they had failed. Kabuto had become convinced that it could never been done, having observed the thousands of artificial bodies, now corpses, piling up in the fissures of the salted earth.
Madara had refused to give up, until his very last experiment caused irreversible damage. The experiment had broken free of their testing facilities and had wreaked havoc upon the major city of their country, unleashing a genjutsu so harmful, it gave humans the terrible urge to feast upon each other. The experiment had stood amongst the chaos it had unleashed, before tearing out its own jugular-instantly killing itself. Its creators had barely managed to reign in the disaster, and cover up their tremendous mistake.
Madara knew the experiments had failed because they had been missing the key ingredient, which he would call the Material. It would act as a glue, that would adhere to and connect, all of the perfect elements, and without it, their experiments had all fallen apart.
The only remaining solution was to find a way in which to fix his already existing soldiers in order to extend their life expectancies. In his attempts to create the perfect soldier, the Architect had perfected the science of human cloning. Though they had been unable to withstand the power he had intended for them, their physical attributes had been otherwise, flawless.
The idea was nearly ingenious. They could clone the strongest shinobi of his forces, and use them to harvest body parts in order to cure and repair whatever ailed or afflicted his soldiers.
Instead of increasing his numbers, he would create what appeared to be an invincible army.
Injured organs, severed limbs, and terminal diseases, would all become irrelevant. The clones could solve all and only the Architect's nation would have access to this medical miracle.
The clones themselves were not fit for combat. Although anatomically correct, they were weak, and without the chakra networks that their originals possessed.
No, the clones would not fight, for they were like living, breathing, soulless, dolls.
Or so the Liberators believed.
Xx
A powerful looking blonde woman cradled the small bundle in her arms in a motherly fashion. Tufts of pink hair could be seen peeking from the blankets that wrapped the small baby girl.
"She's beautiful..." The woman cooed with what only could have been expressed as love in her expression.
"And some day she'll save your life." The medical-nin nodded, checking the forms on her clipboard.
"Right. Where do I have to sign?" The blonde woman asked, tensing at the medical-nin's bluntness.
"Just along this dotted line." The medical-nin indicated, passing her clipboard and a pen to the blonde.
The blonde woman balanced the newly created child in one arm as she took the pen and signed the release form with the other.
"Thank you, Tsunade," The medical-nin read, "Have a nice day." She spoke as if she had just sold anything other than a cloned human child.
Tsunade left the facility in a rush, eager to get the new child home.
Xx
"He's ready." Kabuto informed his superior, proffering a navy bundle to the Architect.
Uchiha Madara took the baby boy and looked down at its features. He supposed the infant had similarities to his own, though it had yet to open its eyes.
"Who are you going to give it to?" Kabuto pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he prepared the forms for the release of the child.
"Mikoto and Fugaku." Madara intoned, "Their son will need a new set of eyes in a few years."
"I see." Kabuto nodded as he filled out the forms, before folding them and tucking them into an envelope, "I'll have them sign these when I bring him to them."
"Aa." The Architect acknowledged, as Kabuto slipped the envelope into the folds of the baby's blanket.
Madara passed the raven haired baby over, feeling as though he was parting with a piece of himself.
"This is quite the unusual move for you." Kabuto noticed his master's reluctance.
"It is indeed a great gift...One the Uchiha Clan will kindly repay when the time is right." Madara answered in his typical cryptic way.
Kabuto merely raised an eyebrow, careful not to ask what the Architect might have meant, knowing it would not be considered as his business, before disappearing in a puff of smoke, along with the child.
"The end might very well be near..." Madara spoke to the empty room.
Xx
Beyond the Wall that separated the Liberator's nation from the wilderness to the south, was a great and vast expanse of charred land called the Dead Fields. The Fields stretched for miles, before hitting a wide, turbulent lake. The only available route across this treacherous body of water was an ancient bridge that had been built from the Time Before. And across this crumbling structure, lay a large wheat field, through which a stone pathway had been cut. This pathway led all the way up to the Wall of the nation of the Resistance.
The Dead Fields, having been located between the warring nations, was appropriately named for the hundreds of battles that had been fought upon it. It was said that the vast amounts of blood that had been spilled had forever corrupted the soil, such that all signs of life had disappeared from the tainted earth.
The Walls that had been built around both great nations were three hundred feet deep, and six hundred feet tall. They were the great structures of the era, and behind them, another, smaller wall had been built as a second defence. Only one gate could be found on the outer Wall of either nation, though four gates had been built into the inner walls.
The Liberators had not been the only ones to have found a war-ending weapon.
The Resistance had harboured what the legends from the Time Before had called 'Jinchuuriki'.
These were special shinobi and kunoichi who had the ability to seal away an unimaginably immense power within their bodies.
Only one existed in any given generation.
The Liberators had no idea that such power existed within their enemy's borders, for a very few, select members of the Resistance even knew of the legend, let alone believed that the legend was true.
The Jinchuuriki may very well have meant the end of the war, having often mysteriously turned the tides of battles in favour of the Resistance.
If only the Liberators hadn't played God.
Xx
"Please, Kushina, stay with me!" A handsome blonde-haired man clung tightly to Kushina's hand.
"I'm so tired..." Kushina whispered, her breathing laboured.
"I can't raise him without you! He needs his mother..." The blonde-haired man fought back a sob, making an awkward choking sound instead.
"You'll do great, Minato..." Kushina gave a weak smile. The blonde-haired man, Minato, brushed her red locks away from her face, before gently dabbing away the sweat from her brow with a cloth.
"I still need you!" Minato admitted, squeezing her hand.
"I know...I wish we could have had longer...But we knew this day would come..." She spoke slowly, softly, as if fighting for every word, "It's time...You know what you have to do..." She reached up with her free hand and gently caressed his cheek, before pulling away from him to lie on her back.
Minato nodded and gulped back another sob, brushing away the tears that flowed freely from his strikingly blue eyes.
He formed a complex series of hand signs, completing the seals for the sealing technique he would need the second his son was born.
Kushina was the current Jinchuuriki. Within the seal on her stomach, there awaited a fox demon, simply itching for the moment when the seal would break. That moment for male Jinchuuriki was when they passed away. For women, it was when they gave birth.
Minato cursed the day they had discovered she was unintentionally impregnated, knowing it would mean death for her if she decided to carry the child to term. Kushina, being the caring, self-sacrificing woman she was, had chosen to keep the baby. Though he knew he could not argue with her, for he knew he could not possibly conceive of terminating the pregnancy, the excitement of having a child had been tempered by the knowledge of what it would mean for a female Jinchuuriki when the seal broke.
And it was all his fault.
"One more push!" The medical-nin called, half hidden behind Kushina's open legs.
"Aaahh!" Kushina cried, as she gave one more powerful push.
"Now!" Came the voice of the leader of the Resistance, Jiraiya.
Minato completed the sealing technique the very moment the seal disappeared from Kushina's stomach. A massive, blasting wave of red energy was released, before quickly being re-sealed within the body of his new born baby boy.
The tattoo of the seal was now on the crying baby's stomach.
"He's...perfect..." Kushina smiled contentedly before her eyes drifted close for the final time.
"No!" Minato cried, pulling his wife's lifeless body into an embrace and sobbing loudly.
The medical-nin cleaned the new born baby and wrapped him within an orange blanket before handing him to Jiraiya, and leaving the hospital room.
Jiraiya diverted his gaze from the crying man, feeling as though the sight was too much to bear.
"He'll be with me when you're ready." Jiraiya spoke, before turning to wait outside.
It was only a few short minutes later before Minato appeared, reaching out expectantly for his son.
The only trace of the man's sorrow was his tear stained cheeks.
"Shhh..." He whispered to the fitful child, a broad grin appearing on his lips, "Daddy's here for you. I promised your Mommy that I'd take good care of you..."
Jiraiya had never been more proud of his friend than in that moment.
"What are you going to call him?" He asked.
"Kushina told me the day we found out she was pregnant that if she had a boy we should call him Naruto." Minato answered, still looking at his son as if he was his greatest joy.
"A fine name." Jiraiya agreed.
"Shh Naruto...Everything's going to be okay...Daddy's here..." Minato cooed, eventually calming his baby boy.
Xx
It wasn't even a year later when a typical battle broke out between the Resistance and the Liberators.
Minato had been on the front lines, leading the charge, as was his duty as second in command.
He hadn't been expecting to face the great Architect himself.
Only a week away from his son's first birthday, Minato broke his promise to his wife and baby boy.
Uchiha Madara had killed him.
XxTBCxX
Author's Note: A short prologue to what I hope will be an epic AU story :P I hope you enjoyed! If anything was confusing let me know, just be aware that much more will be revealed in the next chapter. I look forward to sharing this tale with you! I was inspired by many already existing stories, particularly by the plot from Never Let Me Go (a great movie if you haven't seen it yet). I also borrowed some ideas from V for Vendetta, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Zombieland and certain elements from Ultraviolet. The title of this fic is from a song, covered by Cat Power.
R&R!
xo
AdventRain