Well, I'm sure you all figured out that I changed my name a bit. Bit I have been meaning to get it done, just never found a good enough reason. Anyway, this is my first Naruto Fanfiction. I'm kind of in a jam, though. I've never done any Fanfiction that wasn't in the CodeLyoko section. Anyway, this is going to be more of a prequel to an upcoming story. There will be one OC, (1,000 Cookies if anyone can figure out his name.(Grins)). But, like always, unless I make another OC, he won't be in a pairing. But there will be a pairing in this story. Read the summary if you want to know what it is. Definitely going to be strange, but my second favorite villain will be in it! ITACHI! Now who doesn't think Itachi is awesome? Well, anyway, back on track. Story starts in 3………2………1……..Start! (Happens about 3 years before the start of the main story line. Hinata and Naruto have not met yet.) A bit long, but I didn't want to make it a multi-chapter story. (Thinking back to when I started this a week ago, I realize that I rant a lot.)

P.S. Naruto-Age 9

Hinata-Age 9

Neji-Age 10

Hiashi-Age ?

Itachi-Age 17(I think. Not in Akatsuki)

Kakashi- No clue (ANBU Personnel)

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Darkness Found

Prequel to Darkness Within

8:30 AM

(2 years after the Uchiha Massacre)

'So this is what became of the great Konoha, huh? Wonder what became of that pathetic brother of mine. Meh, not my concern. He can't do anything right. At least, as far as I know now. Who knows if he even is alive still? Wouldn't bother me if he wasn't. After all, he has nothing left thanks to me. And it felt good to kill them all. Probably shouldn't stay around here for too long. Who knows how many ninja they'll send after me. After all, being a Class S Criminal certainly deserves the best. Then again, they couldn't take me. But……I think I'll check up on the stupid brother of mine.' Itachi Uchiha thought, hopping up the wall surrounding Konoha. Seeing it, he smirked. 'Maybe a little fun is in order.' He snickered.

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"Hinata! You aren't concentrating right! Now we are going to keep doing it until you get it RIGHT!" Hiashi Hyuuga shouted at his daughter.

"I..I..I'm sorry, father. But I j..j.ust can't k..keep g.g..going like t..that. It's too hard." Hinata half-whined, half-complained.

Giving her a disgusted look, Hiashi back-handed her. She fell down and immediately her hand flew up to the now bright red mark on her face. She started to tear up in both shame and humiliation.

"Get up." He said in a dangerously low voice.

Hinata knew that her father was not happy with her and she would be punished even more if she didn't finish her training. Flipping around, she tried pushing herself up with her arms, but to no avail. About halfway standing, she fell down again.

"I…I..I'm s..sorry. f.f..father." Hinata mumbled, black edging at her vision.

Kneeling down in front of her, he grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him.

"You will not stop this training until you get it right. I will give you the decency of a one hour break, but then it's back to training." He whispered angrily before pushing her away from him and leaving the room. Hinata, who had by now started crying, collapsed and fainted.

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"NARUTO! GET BACK HERE!" Ebisu screamed, his hair matted down from fish guts that had fallen on him. The culprit, who else? Naruto Uzumaki, had once again gotten in trouble.

"Nu uh! You'll have to catch me first!" Naruto laughed, hopping from on rooftop to another.

"NARUTO, JUST WAIT UNTIL I GET MY HANDS ON YOUR SORRY NECK!" Ebisu screamed once again.

"TRY IT!" Naruto's ego took over. He just couldn't help him self, he loved pulling pranks. And most got him into major trouble. But who knew that this prank could've very well saved two lives that very day. And so the chase continued, both of them heading over rooftop after rooftop.

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"Ooohhh, my head." Hinata moaned, looking around to find she was in her room, on her bed. "H..how did I get here?" she asked herself. "I know that father wouldn't bring me here. So who did?" Looking around again, she found a note lying next to her. Grabbing it and lying back down, she unfolded it.

Be glad I came before that hour was over, you father was pissed. You owe me though, since I got him to let you sleep the rest of the night. Just try to stay on his good side though, weakling. I can't bail you out every time something like this happens." Neji said, leave through the open door.

Hinata inwardly smiled, Neji had helped her for once. But frowned when she realized what time her clock showed: 8:30PM. At that, he stomach grumbled. Placing her hands on said area, she groaned. Her father would be eating at this time.

Getting up, she muttered to herself "Guess I have t..t..to face him n..now."

She knew she wouldn't be able to get food later, her father would probably have someone guarding the food.(I really think he would do something like that) Changing out of her sweaty clothes, she opened her door to find Neji about to knock on it.

"Ne..Neji, what are you doing here?" She stammered softly.

"I came here to get you. You father told me too. And now, I have to get home as well." Neji said, turning around and walking off. But before he could, Hinata grabbed his arm..

"T.t..thank you, Neji." Hinata stuttered.

Pulling his arm from her grip, "Don't mention it, please don't." He replied, walking off .

Sighing, Hinata headed over to the dining room. Opening the door, she saw her father sitting at a table(Floor Table?) and he looked up at her.

"Sit." He said dangerously. Not wanting to anger him more, she did as he told her to.

"I..I..I'm sorry, father." Hinata said softly.

"Good. This family will have no use for someone as weak-minded as you are. But I can change that, eventually. And we will continue your training tomorrow." Hiashi said, slightly annoyed with her.

"Y..Y..yes father." Hinata began, but before she could say anything else, a servant came and placed some food in front of her. Her father had always told her not to talk while eating.

About 10 minutes later, they were both done eating. Hinata was still hungry, but she knew her father would let her have more. But she hadn't had lunch, so maybe her father would be a little lenient with her.

"Ummm, f..father?" Hinata started.

"What do you want?" he replied in an irritable manner.

"N..never m..mind." Hinata got up and put her bowl in the kitchen for the servants to clean. Walking back into her room, she lied down on her bed. All of the sudden, she started to cry.

'Why does he hate me? What did I ever do to him?!' Hinata thought, upset at the way her father always treated her. Getting up and running out the door, she decided that she needed some time to herself. She ran towards the forest, still crying. Her father had always worked her hard, but it had now become next to unbearable.

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"I give up!" Ebisu whined, landing on a rooftop while Naruto kept going. "How a boy his age has that much stamina I will never know!"

Naruto looked back to see that his fish-scented pursuer had stopped. "Aw, come on. You're giving up already?!"

"Shut it, Naruto. I smell and I'm tired. I going home to take a shower." Ebisu groaned. Chasing Naruto for about 5 hours straight was not easy.

"Aw, you're no fun! Oh well, see ya!" Naruto shouted, heading towards the forest. He loved sleeping in the trees. Plus he liked being outdoors. "Well, lets find a nice place to rest. Too bad Ebisu didn't notice, he could've caught me. Heh heh, his loss. At least I didn't get caught, he would've beaten me to a pulp."

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Hinata kept running, she was still very upset. Not to mention hungry. Still running, but not being able to see where she was going. After another few minutes, she ran headlong into something slightly soft. Falling backwards on her rear, she looked up to say sorry.

The figure raised an eyebrow, saying "A Hyuuga, eh?"

Hinata had looked up to see a teenage male with blood red eyes. They also had three comma like shapes surrounding the main pupil.

"W…w..who a..are y..you?" Hinata stuttered, something about him scared the young girl.

"Well, that's a first. You don't know me? Well, I'll tell you. My name is….Itachi Uchiha." Itachi laughed, grabbing her arm.

Hinata's eyes only widened. The man in front of her. He killed his entire clean, save Sasuke. She tried to get free of his grip, but it didn't work. Knowing that she was too far into the forest for anyone to hear her if she screamed.

Whimpering softly, she fell down. But he still grinned.

"W..w.what d..d..do you w..want with m..me?" Hinata stuttered.

"Hmmm, not sure yet. Guess I could use you for a hostage. Yes, I think I will do that." Itachi mused, thinking about his choices.

Doing the only thing that came naturally, she screamed.

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Naruto kept jumping from tree to tree, looking for a nice spot to either train or rest. After a few more minutes of jumping, he found a good tree to have a quick nap in. Closing his eyes, he dozed off for a few minutes. About five minutes later, he was rudely awoken by a terrified scream.

"What was that! It sounded like someone screamed." Naruto shouted, standing on the branch he was sleeping on.

"AAAHHHHHHH!"

"There it was again!" Naruto shouted, looking around. But his ears twitched without him realizing it. "It came from over there!" Naruto said to himself, once again jumping from tree to tree towards the origin of the sound.

Naruto landed on a tree and heard two people talking below him.

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"L..l..let me g..g.go!" Hinata whined, once again trying to escape Itachi's iron grip. But to no avail.

"Nope, I need a bit of money before I leave again, so you'll be my money maker." Itachi said, grinning evilly.

"Not if I can help!"

Raising his head from looking at Hinata, he saw a boy wearing orange pants and a black t-shirt jump off an above tree. Naruto somehow managed to kick Itachi in the face, causing two things. One: Separate Hinata and Itachi and Two: Cause Itachi to yell out in anger from getting Naruto's boot-print on his face.

"Arrgg, who the hell are you?!" Itachi shouted, though knowing full well who the boy who kicked him was, was temporarily confused by the hit.

"My name is Naruto, that's all you need to know. I don't know who you are, I don't even know who she is. But I'll die before I let you use someone for your own personal gain!" Naruto said, knowing that he probably couldn't fight Itachi, but he wasn't going down without a fight.

"Ah, Naruto Uzumaki. The…..never mind. But anyway, what makes you think you can stop me? I can kill you and do as I please with the girl." Itachi said, frowning at the young boy.

"So what, I'm still not letting you get to her without a fight!" Naruto retorted.

Naruto looked behind him to see the still unknown girl shaking in fear.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you." Naruto said, still looking at her.

Hinata's eyes just widened. A boy she didn't know, someone who was a complete stranger, was ready and willing to risk his life for her.

"Stop being bold, kid. It'll only kill you in the long run." Itachi said, simply drawing a kunai out of his holster.

"So what if it'll kill me! Not like anyone in the village would gave a damn!" Naruto said bitterly, looking down slightly.

Hinata gasped but looked up at him. 'No one would care if he died?! But why not?! What about his family? Wouldn't they care about him?' Hinata thought, her curiosity piqued.

"Is that so? Then I guess I'll make you an offer. Step away from the girl and let me do as I please with her, and in return I'll take you with me and drop you off at a different village." Itachi grinned, know that Naruto couldn't resist.

"No."

"What was that?" Itachi asked, his eyes narrowing.

"I said no!" Naruto shouted, his blue eyes taking on a blood red color similar to Itachi's but with out the commas. His pupils became slits.

"Very well then." Itachi said calmly, his Sharingan whirling around into the Mangekyo Sharingan. Immediately he activated it and looked at Naruto.

"Arrgg! What the-!" Naruto shouted grabbing his head as if he had a bad headache.

But Itachi couldn't get the Mangekyo to work. Something was blocking it!

"What the hell?!" Itachi muttered, pushing harder into Naruto's mind.

"ARRGG!" Naruto screamed louder then the first time.

"Why won't it work. There is no way he should be able to stop the power of the Mangekyo!" Itachi muttered angrily, his Sharingan whirling around to its original form.

"Wh..what was that?!" Naruto gasped, he head still pounding from whatever had happened.

"I'll give you one last chance, kid. Still don't want to take up my offer?" Itachi said, now starting to get a bit nervous. If Naruto could block the Mangekyo without even trying, what could he do if he did try.

This just enraged Naruto further. Seeing this, he launched the kunai at Naruto. But, as fate would have it, the exact moment that the kunai was launched Naruto had moved. And Hinata had been getting up. Needless to say, Itachi's eyes widened. 'NOT GOOD!' Itachi thought in dismay. Sure, he couldn't care less about what happened to either of the two, but if Hinata got hit it was all over. Naruto was already in a pissed-off state. What would see her get nearly killed do to him?!

Hinata screamed as the kunai embedded itself into her shoulder. Naruto had looked behind him to find the source of the scream. Inside his body where the seal was, something chuckled. He could take over now and have some fun of his own.

Itachi's eyes widen even more as Naruto began to glow with a dark red aura. His whisker-like birthmarks became much more defined, his eyes were now blood red with slits, and he had claws. Not to mention three tails made of pure chakra flailing about behind him.

"I think you just bit off more then you can chew!" Naruto said. But that wasn't Naruto speaking. The Kyuubi had complete control now and was ready to kick some Uchiha ass.

"Now that was completely unexpected." Itachi shouted and jumped back as the red chakra on Naruto's arm elongated into a giant hand and attempted to smash him into the ground.

"What's the matter? Afraid of me?" Kyuubi laughed.

"…" Itachi was going to have a tough time defeating this thing. Three tails would be hard to defeat. Itachi thought of something he never thought of in his life: retreat. But he doubted the damned fox would let him. Fighting wasn't really an option because Kyuubi just kept pounding at him, not even moving from his spot.

Hinata just watched in awe, her shoulder temporarily forgotten. What was this thing. Surely it couldn't be the boy who was just now trying to protect her, could it? It looked like him, but he had to have been 100x stronger then before. At the moment Itachi jumped up into a tree, that tree was cut into ribbons along with Itachi's cloak.

"Yaahh!" Itachi screamed, not knowing what just hit him. Kyuubi's arm elongated gain, grabbing Itachi.

"Now what are you going to do. I thank you for helping release me, but I really want to taste blood again. So I will taste your blood. Uchiha blood, something I haven't tasted in sooo long." Kyuubi snarled, pulling Itachi over to him. Itachi struggled against the chakra arm binding him. Sadly, it wasn't working.

"Damn it, how could I have been so stupid." Itachi muttered, angry that the fox-boy had caught him.

"Easy, you tried to run from a thousand plus year old Fox Demon. That is how." Kyuubi taunted.

"Screw you. If I can take out an entire clan, then I can take out you." Itachi muttered angrily.

"So it was you who brought genocide to the Uchiha clan, huh? Then I will finish your work by killing you here and now."

"Heh, stupid fox. Do you really think I would get killed by you when you are in the "container"?" Itachi cackled, wincing a little at the pain from him lungs.

"Insolent brat! I will tear you limb from limb!" Kyuubi roared. And in his anger, he foolishly flung Itachi at a tree. Escaping from the homicidal fox's arms, he started to form seals with his hands.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Itachi shouted 10 clones appeared around him. Wordlessly, they surrounded Kyuubi.

"Bunshin Daibakuha!" Itachi shouted. Right after he shouted that, all ten clones explosions fused into one glorious explosion.

Kyuubi, not expecting this, was thrown backwards into several trees. All of them broke on contact.

But that was Itachi's third mistake. The blast was too close to Hinata. While Naruto had no control over his body, he could see everything. The blast lifted her up and flung her into a tree. Her left arm broke on contact with the tree with a loud snap. She did what any normal child would do; she screamed. Loudly. Some people in the village heard the blast, but took no heed of it.

It was at this moment in time that the fourth and fifth tail appeared. Itachi saw this and knew he couldn't win no matter what. It was absolutely impossible. Doing the one thing he never wanted to do, he ran. Very, very fast. Even he knew that nothing could stop the Kyuubi now. If only he knew how stupid he had been. Kyuubi no longer had control of Naruto and the demon fox' chakra was already wearing off.

Opening his eyes, Naruto looked around to find most of the trees either blown to bits or in half.

"Ooooo, what happened? What happened to the forest?" Naruto groaned, holding his head without realizing it was still glowing red. "That girl! And the guy with the red eyes! Where'd they go!?" He shouted, suddenly getting up and looking around panicky. About 15 feet away from him was Hinata.

"Hey, are you alright!?" Naruto shouted, running towards her. She didn't answer. Gripping her arm, still not noticing the red aura and now never would, he turned her onto her back.

"Huh? You…you saved me? Didn't you?" Hinata asked, still confused as the battle between Itachi and the Kyuubi had lasted no more the 45 seconds.(Man, I sure dragged out 45 seconds, eh?)

"I..I'm not sure. I can't remember much after you got hit by that weapo- your shoulder!"

"Wha-Yeaow! Oww, that hurts!" Hinata practically screamed, grabbing her shoulder in pain.

"Shoot, I don't have anything to bandage it up. Wait! I got it." Naruto muttered, pulling of his already ripped up jacket.

"Can you move your shirt so I can see the wound?" Naruto asked.

Hesitantly, she pulled down enough of her jacket to reveal a nasty looking wound.

"That looks painful." Naruto said slowly, folding up his jacket as tight as he could get it. As he wrapped it around her shoulder, (Like you would a normal bandage, under the armpit and over the shoulder.) Hinata hissed in pain as he wrapped in tightly around her shoulder while Naruto muttered a silent "Sorry." to her.

"There, that should help." Naruto said, smiling.

"Th..th..thank you." Hinata replied, blushing slightly.

"Come on, lets get out of this forest. It's giving me the creeps." Naruto said, standing up and helping Hinata up. But Hinata ended up collapsing against Naruto.

Blushing, Hinata muttered "Sorry." and tried to push herself off of him but just couldn't find the strength. Needless to say, she fell against him. Again.

"How about I walk you home?" Naruto asked, helping her keep steady.

"N..n..no t…t.that's o..okay." She studdered. If she knew her father, he didn't like guests and he would probably punish her for getting hurt when she wasn't even supposed to be out of the house.

"I don't want freaky-eyes coming back for ya, so I have to walk you home." Naruto smiled happily.

Knowing that there was no weaseling out of this, sighed and said, "Okay."

"Soooooo, where do you live anyway?" Naruto asked, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

Hinata face-planted the dirt. "Y..yo..you offer t.to wa..wa.walk me home, y…yet you don…t kn..ow where I l..live?!"

"Hehheh, yeah, I guess so." Naruto said, still rubbing his head.

"W…well then, f..follow m..m.me." Hinata said. After a few minutes of walking, Naruto asked a question she thought he would've asked by now.

"Why was freaky-eyes after you?"

"I'm not sure. I know I ran into him by accident, but that's it." Hinata replied.

"Oh."

Another few minutes passed before Hinata spoke again.

"I..I think I'll g..go the re..rest of the w..way on my own."

"Really? You sure." Naruto asked, startled out of his thoughts.

"Y..y..yes." Hinata said, looking at the ground and playing with her hands.

"Well, okay. But holler if anything happens. I'll come running." Naruto said as he turned toward his apartment.

"O..okay."

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(This is when my own character is introduced. I also made another ninja village that I'm going to call Lunama.)

"Hokage-sama! We have word about the Lunar-Sound War" A Jounin shouted, panting as he leaned on the wall.

"Is that so? Well then, what is the outcome?" Sarutobi asked, worried about the war that the damned Orochimaru waged against one of Konoha's allies-Lumana or the Village Hidden under the Moon.

"Nothing but bad news Hokage-sama. Lunama lost. Two ANBU teams went off to see if there are any survivors." The Jounin replied with a grim look on his face.

Sighing deeply, "Very well. It seems that Orochimaru is getting stronger by the second." Sarutobi said.

But to add to the Hokage's headache, another Jounin barged into the office.

"Now what!?"

"We have found one survivor." The Jounin said, panting like the first one.

The Sandaime's eyes lit up at this. One survivor was better then none. "Really? Who?"

At this, a small, black-haired boy with a Crescent Moon shaped scar stepped out from behind the second Jounin's legs shyly. It was obvious he was from Lunama because he wore the Lunama Headband/ Forehead protector. It was also obvious that it wasn't his.

"You. I remember you, your (DunDunDun!) Yami. Aren't you?" Sarutobi exclaimed, standing up. Yami nodded his head, again shyly.

"We found him inside what was left of his house. He had that on, a purple cloak, and his was clutching a staff he must've found. He was also crying. Do you know who he is?" The Jounin asked.

"Yes, I do. Was he the only survivor?" Sarutobi asked again.

"I'm sorry, but yes. No other survivors were found." The Jounin said solemnly.

"……..I see. Very well, both of you are dismissed." The Sandaime said. As the both left, the Jounin that had brought Yami in gave a sad glance at the small boy.

"Now then, please. Sit down."

Yami nodded timidly. It was obvious that he was scared.

"I would like to know if you remember me. Do you?" Sarutobi asked, sitting down in his chair after helping Yami into the one in front of his desk.

Yami nodded his head again and said, "You're my daddy's friend, aren't you?"

He gave the boy a grim smile and replied, "Yes, I am. What happened to him?"

"He…he's dead. The scary snake man came and killed him. Daddy told me to hide and I did. He…he said that if the snake man found me, he would kill me. He said I'm the last hope for Lunama. Why did he say that?" Yami said softly before looking up at Sarutobi.

'This boy may very well be the last hope for Lunama. He might even be stronger then Uchiha Itachi.' "I don't know, Yami. I honestly don't know."

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Well, how do you guy's like it? I know what I like, this story, reviews, and the little blue button that says go next to review. ;)