Prelude: Back Then
By: ku.ro-puu26
---
The night was peaceful, maybe a little too peaceful, Sarutobi noted. Crickets sung their nightly song as a light breeze swept through Konoha. The moon was a full one, but an eerie red.
A bad omen. The old Hokage grimaced at the thought; he'd better prepare himself for the worst. Taking a glance at what he could see from the Hokage tower, he lowered his gaze to the earth. There, sitting by a tree in the middle of the night, was the one he treated like another grandson. The said boy was tightly hugging his knees to his chest as if to protect himself from the rest of the world. Saying that, it probably was the truth, Sarutobi realized, sighing. For now, he'd best be getting the boy into his house.
---
Why is everyone always calling me a 'demon?' The only people who go by my name are the old man and Itachi-nii. Naruto never had any friends in the village. All the kids his age he tried playing with, or even talking to, were pulled away by their parents and then gave him a glare that held so much hate that he couldn't't possibly comprehend at his young age. Why does everyone seem to hate me so much? What did I do?
The only thing he had wanted to do tonight was to see his Itachi-nii because he couldn't't sleep. Then all of a sudden, just as he was passing a dark alley, a group of drunken men stepped in front of him. Not noticing, as he was so lost in his thoughts, managed to bump into one of them.
"Gomen, I wasn't looking where I was going." Naruto apologized, hastily and tried to move around them, but someone tugged back on his shirt, causing him to fall on the ground.
Sweeping his beady eyes over to the "thing" that had crashed into him, he smirked, unpleasantly, "Well, well, well, what do we have here?"
One of his drinking buddies answered his question, "It looks like we caught ourselves a fox demon!"
"What do you say about teaching him a lesson, he'll never forget?" Someone suggested, eying the blue-eyed child. Naruto noticed a malicious glint in his eyes and didn't like it one bit. He soon found out why.
---
"Naruto-kun," A gentle voice weaved its way to Naruto's ears, sometime after he had managed to escape from the drunken men. He peaked through his arms to see the Hokage. "What are you doing here?"
Silence ensued the statement; it was pretty obvious that the blonde didn't want to talk about that subject. Sarutobi sighed, "Well, I guess it doesn't matter. Come with me."
Once the two had found their way to a more private place, the Hokage's office, a sob racked through Naruto's lithe frame. A sad smile flashed by on the elderly man's face as he bent down pulling Naruto to his chest.
---
Itachi was scared. It might seem a bit queer to think of the words, "Itachi" and "scared," in the same sentence, but it was the only way to describe how he was feeling right now. The snake sannin, who had abandoned Konoha several years back, had demanded that the Uchiha clan hand over Itachi. The Uchihas, of course, blatantly refused to trade off the genius, which is why their corpses now littered the mansion. There was only one survivor, Uchiha Sasuke, Itachi's younger brother. Sasuke saw Itachi kneeling over his parents' dead bodies and jumped to conclusion. The elder Uchiha saw this as a chance; he had to make sure that Sasuke wouldn't recklessly go after the snake sannin. Apparently, his best friend had sold him out to Orochimaru, which left Itachi no other choice but to kill him. With his newly acquired Mangekyou Sharingan, he placed an illusion upon his brother, showing that it was him who had killed the Uchiha clan.
Now, Itachi did the only thing he could think of; tell the Hokage.
---
A loud 'slam' was heard from the door that led to the Hokage's office, startling the two occupants. The current Hokage was crouched down beside, with his arms wrapped around the eight year old blonde, and soothingly rubbing circles on his back. The person entering the office wore an official ANBU uniform with his katana slung on his back; his mask long removed before he had made his presence known. He had onyx eyes and dark hair that was tied in a low ponytail to match. His breathing was slightly laboured and harsh as he rushed into the room.
"N-Naruto-kun?" Itachi questioned, surprised at what his friend was doing up at this time of night. Not to mention the fact that he saw tears dripping down the blonde's cheeks.
"Itachi-kun," The Hokage acknowledged the teenager.
With panic etched on his entire face, the teen began, "Hokage-sama, I… I need to talk to you about something."
About half and hour later, Itachi was finished his story and Sarutobi rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Well, you definitely can't stay in Konoha. Thus, I'm afraid, I have to send you on a long-term mission; to the public, you are a S-Class missing ninja."
"What mission might that be?" The ebony haired male asked, curiously.
"To infiltrate the secret organization made up of S-Class missing nins, Akatsuki." Sarutobi explained, briefly, "I have the full details on this scroll."
The Sharingan user took the offered scroll and gripped it firmly. Naruto stared up at him with round, blue eyes, "Is Itachi-nii leaving?"
Bending down to the 8-year-old's height, he hugged the other tightly, "I'll come back, promise."
"If Itachi-nii is leaving, then I will leave too!" This exclamation caused the younger shinobi to pull away from Naruto. "Nobody will miss me anyways; everyone always wants me gone and calls me a 'demon.' I don't like it when Itachi-nii isn't around."
Naruto gave a smile that was heartbreaking; the other two couldn't help but smile back. The sun began to illuminate the room as the elderly man finalized the mission. A new day was about to begin and as the Hokage, he had to announce the dreaded demise of Konoha's most powerful clan.
To be continued…
---
After note: Saa, I hope everyone enjoyed the prologue. Isn't a 8-year-old Naruto, who's attached to Itachi, adorable?
I accept reviews and constructive criticism. Flames will be used to torch dreaded Gr. 10 homework. Please keep in mind that this is my first Naruto fanfic. -squeals- I'm so excited! I've wanted to write a Naruto story for so long.
Also, sorry if I may have taken a bunch of ideas from other stories and bunched them up into one, but I do NOT plagiarize! This is 100-percent my own work.
One more thing, I'd like everyone to know that you are able to vote for a pairing, even though it probably won't show up until much, much later. Err, however, the only pairings I am unwilling to write are SasuSaku and NaruHina. It's simply too cannon for my tastes. Sorry to all the fans. I'm completely open-minded to any other pairings, which includes het (boy x girl), yaoi (boy x boy), and yuri (girl x girl). Voting will be open for a while, so get your votes in!
Look forward to the next chapter -- Chapter 1: Return to Konoha.
And ku.ro-puu disappears in the flames of youth (sorry, couldn't help myself XD)!