Mercy to the Hateful

Chapter One

Prologue Part 1

Disclaimer: I am not Masashi Kishimoto, nor do I own or control Naruto in any way, shape or form.

It was a quiet and warm day in Konoha. In spite of the destruction wrought by Orochimaru's recent invasion, there was only the calm bustle of a normal day. Even in the Hokage's tower it was peaceful. People went about their business, working an average day's work in the calm, cheery complacency that today was going to be perfectly ordinary.

For the young Jinchurriki in the Hokage's Office though, any chance of an ordinary day had just been shattered. It was with horrified eyes that Naruto Uzumaki stared down at the plain, long scroll that Lady Tsunade had given him after telling him in a gentle, understanding sort of voice that his sister Naruko Uzumaki and his teammate Sasuke Uchiha had abandoned him and all of Konoha, leaving only the scroll behind.

Slowly, every word feeling like a kunai stabbing him, he began to read...

...X...

To Whomever Should Find This Scroll,

My name is Naruko Uzumaki.

My hobbies are reading certain unmentionable novels and sparring with strong opponents.

I like the heated rush I get when testing my limits and the taste of freshly-cooked ramen. I like two people, my brother, Naruto, and his former teammate, Sasuke.

I dislike...no, I hate Konoha.

That is why...well, let me start from the beginning.

I, Naruko Uzumaki, was born 12 years ago, on the day that the Kyuubi attacked Konoha. Many died, including my parents. My brother and I survived. Naruto and I were, at first, taken to live in an orphanage. This lasted until it was judged that we were able to take care of ourselves, when we were given a small apartment to live in on our own.

My brother was a good brother, who loved me very much, and I loved him, too. He took care of me, teaching his love of Ramen. Of course, I took care of him and I taught...well, I wish I could say that I taught him how to study, but that never happened. We were very different. He liked to prank others, joke around, slack off on his work. I spent my time reading, training and, frankly, being utterly antisocial. The only things we had in common were a love of Ramen and a desire to be ninjas. He wanted to be the Hokage, so everyone would acknowledge him. I...I really just liked fighting, especially against strong opponents.

All things considered, it was a happy existence, but it was a lonely one, although it wasn't until a few years later that I realized why that was.

Then, the Uchiha Massacre occurred. According to the textbooks I read after the fact, 236 people died that night, men, women, and children alike. The only survivor was Sasuke Uchiha.

I remember how the girls in my class talked and whispered afterward, never to me of course. I was a short, plain girl with my only distinguishing features being my short red hair and a set of six whisker-like scars on my face. I kept to myself and never made any friends. But I heard them whispering about the boy, talking about how tragic he must be, his hurt, sad soul, how he needed someone to open his heart and make him feel loved again, how cool he must be, how hot he was, all sorts of stuff, most of which was utter nonsense. They all wanted to be the gentle soul to heal his wounded heart, And for five straight years, jockeyed for position over who would be the closest one to him.

I...honestly didn't look into it that much at the time, focusing on my studies and training. The one thing I noticed was that, for all the attention everyone gave Sasuke, he looked surprisingly alone.

Then, one day, I was told to spar with him.

Now, unlike my brother, I had taken my studying and training rather seriously. I had many difficulties controlling my chakra, much like Naruto, but I had managed to drag myself to the top third of the class, a decent rank, if I say so myself.

Sasuke crushed me. From the start of the fight, it couldn't have been more than 30 seconds before I was on the ground, flat on my back. His speed, his skill, his efficiency, all dwarfed my own. It was incredible. The defeat should have been humbling, but I actually found it rather exciting to face such a strong opponent, so I challenged him to a rematch a week later, training myself as hard as I could.

I fought him at one of the training grounds in the evening, as day faded into twilight. It was just the two of us, alone in a small plain of grass. The wind whipped around us, and I said, my head held high, "Prepare yourself to face the very strength of a storm! For I am Naruko Uzumaki, and you will taste the full sting of my vengeance!"

He didn't say anything to that. However, he did proceed to crush me in about thirty seconds flat, again.

So I challenged him for another rematch the following week. After another defeat, I challenged him again, and again, and again. I never beat him, but slowly I was able to start drawing out the matches just a little bit more. It grew to be a tradition. Every week, we would spar and he would defeat me. We didn't talk, but every week I would meet him at one of the training grounds and we would do our level best to beat the other until they were a mass of bruises. I suppose that, for introverts like ourselves, it was what passed for hanging out.

...X...

It was the night that Naruto and I graduated from the academy that I finally discovered why the village had never seemed to like me all that much.

It started out a very bittersweet night. Both he and I had taken the exams, and while I had done a tad better overall, he hadn't done too poorly himself. Then came the Bunshin test, the bane of our existence.

I swear, whoever came up with that jutsu can just go eat a lit explosive tag and die. I was never able to figure out why, but for whatever reason, for the longest time whenever I'd perform that jutsu, no matter how much chakra I pumped into it, I'd always end up with something that vaguely resembled a half-dead version of me. Naruto had the same problem.

However, through months of practice before the exam, endless toil, I had just barely managed to come up with a way to do it. Sure, it was a bit pale, and it drained almost all of my chakra, but I could do it, although I'd be an utterly exhausted wreck afterward. As such, I barely managed to pass the test, and with it, the overall examination.

Naruto didn't.

After my exam, I waited until my brother finished his, panting from having to exert myself so much. As his was right after mine, I didn't have to wait too long though. It was barely ten minutes before Naruto came out, his expression a mixture of dejection and that stubborn determination that was one of his best qualities. Before I could say anything, he said, "Sorry, Naruko, I didn't pass."

I felt I'd been punched in the gut. Sure, I knew that this Jutsu was our bane...but I'd never expected my brother to fail. He might have been the bottom of the class, but I knew perfectly well that that was only because he spent so much of his time goofing off. When he was serious, he was awesome indeed. As such, my only response was a shocked, "Oh..."

"Yeah..." Naruto scratched the tip of his nose, offering a sheepish smile. "...the bunshin got me. I was doing alright before then, but I couldn't do a bunshin. So..."

As he trailed off, he left behind a thick silence. For once, he had nothing to say, and I was deep in thought. Sure, like my brother, I had always wanted to be a ninja, but... Finally, I said, "Then I'm not going to graduate either! I'm not going to abandon you as I move onward, so I'll wait until you pass too. Then the two of us will be genin together!"

Naruto shook his head. "No way, that's stupid. Besides," he brightened. "Instructor Mizuki said that there's a secret way you can pass the exam. He's going to show me tonight. But, even if he doesn't, you're not giving up! How would I become Hokage anyway if I couldn't catch up to my own sister?"

"Alright, then you pass Mizuki's exam tonight, Naruto," I said fiercely, fired up by my brother's words. "You're going to be a great ninja, I believe it!"

"That's right!" He shouted, pumping his fist in the air. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the next Hokage, and no stupid exam is going to stop me, believe it!"

Then we bumped fists, before saying goodbye and going off on our separate ways.

He was right, of course. I was being childish to even consider giving up, so I wished him luck... In hindsight of course, I was being an even bigger idiot to think that there was a 'secret way to graduate'. I chalk that one up to a mixture of emotional and physical exhaustion. As such, I went home and went to bed early for the night, hoping my brother would succeed.

In the middle of the night, Naruto returned home, covered in blood that was not his own. It turned out that the 'secret way to pass' led to him passing after all, even if it was in a completely different manner. Although tired, I jumped out of bed, clad in my pale blue nightgown, and gave him a congratulatory hug. We made some ramen, and Naruto told me of how he had learned some strange super-variant of the Bunshin called the 'Kage Bunshin'...and that we each had half of a demon sealed inside us, the Kyuubi.

Suddenly, a lot of things made sense. The hateful looks, the whispers in the stores, the strange whisker-like scars on my face...they finally had an explanation. I had a demon inside me, and the villagers hated me for it. I wondered what Sasuke would think of it, or if he already knew. I decided to keep it a secret like Naruto, and spent the rest of the night celebrating with my brother...

...but when I walked through the streets of Konoha the next day, on the way to the academy for the team assignments, I knew what was behind the whispers...and my resentment grew.

At the academy, we were all sorted into our various teams. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura had all been assigned into Team 7, while I had been assigned to Team 4 along with two boys by the name of Genji Itou and Hikaru Morimoto. This had me rather less than pleased. For one, both my brother and my fr...favorite sparring partner were on a different team, and for two, Genji and Hikaru sucked.

Hikaru was a short brown-haired boy, who had a tendency toward being loud about everything, and for some odd reason always wore a brown, leaf-patterned kimono. I would have told him he looked a little too much like a girl, but that dubious honor was taken by Genji, who was tall and slender, with long blond hair that went all the way down past his butt. Heck, even though I'd started to let my red hair grow, it was only just past my shoulders. If it weren't for the fact that he preferred wearing skull-themed clothing, I would have had a very hard time keeping a straight face when he flirted with girls...which was all the time. Both of them were close to the bottom in the rankings among the graduates, and unlike my brother (who is awesome), it showed. When we sparred, even if it was both of them against me at the same time, I always won.

They didn't like me, and now that I knew about the Kyuubi, I was pretty sure I understood why. They were lazy little morons who thought I was the fox. They never said anything directly, but I knew in my heart. Luckily, we'd managed to work together well enough to pass Masashi-sensei's exam.

Masashi-sensei was the only bright spot in the team. He was nice to me, even smiling when he talked, and treated me the same as he treated Genji and Hikaru. He was an imposing man, built much like the infamous Maito Guy, but with short red hair and goggles, wearing a standard jonin vest instead of Guy's strange jumpsuits. Really, to use some of the words of the girls in the academy, he was 'yum'.

He was a very by-the-book sort of man, having us focus on the basics constantly, while having us go on D-rank missions, lots and lots of D-ranks missions. We must have caught that forsaken cat three times before we got anywhere close to doing a C-rank. And in the meantime, we worked on exercises to build up our chakra control, basic academy jutsu, and sparring with him and each other. I grew stronger, but it had very little glamour or excitement, very little at all.

I needed more.

...X...

Over the past several years, my sparring with Sasuke had continued week in and week out. It had taken me a very long time, but I had gone from being continually stomped by him, to making him have to put a little effort into battling me, and now, even if he'd always beat me in the end, he wouldn't do it unscathe. And it would take him quite some time to pull out the win, even with his newfound Sharingan.

Because of the length of our battles, slowly but surely, we had started to talk during and after our matches, and not just the regular posturing of battle...not that I ever quit that. As such, as I leapt over a leg sweep, I asked Sasuke what it was like being on Team 7, before hurling a blunted kunai at his midsection.

He deflected it of course, sending it spinning off into one of the trees. Immediately, he sprang at me, taking advantage of my outstretched hand to grab me and hurl me over his shoulder. Simultaneously, he said that they were adequate, he supposed.

I managed to right myself, only to see that he had vanished. I had just enough time to whirl around before he buried a fist into my right side. I didn't take this lying down, trying to counter, and we each did our level best to pound the other at point-blank range with a rapid bombardment of fists. Eventually, I retreated, by means of substituting with the kunai I had thrown earlier. Breathing deeply, my chest heaving as I gave myself a little respite, I asked, "Anything else about them?"

At that, he shrugged, saying, "Kakashi is lazy, Naruto is an idiot, and Sakura is an annoying fangirl."

At that, I dashed at him, determined to make him rue the day he had spoken ill of Naruto Uzumaki. I think that that was what he'd been counting on, as after a quick but intense exchange of blows, I was down on my back. His cheek was a mass of bruises, though, and since a thin trickle of blood came from his mouth, I decided it was worth it. Still, he was the one smirking in triumph as we did the symbol of reconciliation with one another, and I had no choice but to admit that the Almighty Uzumaki Fury, had fallen in battle again.

Panting a little through bruised lips, enjoying the high that came from a good fight, I said, "So, Sakura's still fangirling you, eh? She hasn't changed much since the academy, has she?" To be honest, I had never much liked the girl, with how she treated my brother.

Sasuke smirked, his red eyes fading back to their normal black. "Maybe a little."

I wondered if he liked her more than his words seemed to imply, but I changed the subject, telling him about my team. Sasuke listened to me griping about how much Genji and Hikaru would always whine and snipe at me behind Masashi-sensei's back, before saying, "It doesn't matter what people think of you. You are a strong Kunoichi. That is what matters."

I felt a warm glow in my heart at his words of praise-he rarely had any, of course, something my brother often complained about. Then I wondered what he would think of me if he knew about the Kyuubi. I was tempted to tell him, but held it back in the end, instead saying, "You're very strong too. I don't know what I would do without an opponent like you."

Wiping the trail of blood away from his mouth, he smirked, saying nothing, but I think he agreed with me. As we left, making our separate ways home, I was very happy.

Author's Note: I currently have four chapters written, but will only be posting them at a rate of once every two weeks. I plan to fast-forward through part one, as it will mostly be an introduction. Part two is the real meat of the story. Read and review as you will. I appreciate all criticism and feedback, even if I don't like it at the time.

This whole story is rather loosely based on a challenge by hihiozabimaru called 'The Monster They Created'. He is assisting me in the writing of this story.

Now, I'm sure quite a few are looking at this story and wondering why I have started writing a new Naruto story, when I haven't touched any of my Harry Potter stories in about two years. The answer is sadly that I will not be finishing any of my current stories. I read them and am repulsed by poor my writing was when I started them, how full of character-bashing they are, and how out of character some of the characters are. However, I am working on a revamp of 'Cursed to Relive' that is currently 2 chapters in.

11/24/2014: Edited to clarify that this is a letter.