So the ending of the prologue is a retelling of the whole story behind Black Zetsu and Kaguya and her kids, which if any of my readers have diligently followed the manga, will know. But if any of you guys haven't gotten to that part, well spoilers!
Either way, it's important that you read MY version of Shinobi history class, because I put a twist to Kishimoto sensei's story which will be CRUCIAL to this fanfic!
Hanakotoba: The Meaning of Flowers
A Prologue
My dearest,
Why can't you see the mistakes in your actions? How much longer will you indulge in your self-pity and selfishness until you will let anyone help you?
You possess the all-seeing eyes, the Sharingan, and from a broken boy you grew into the greatest leader of your clan. I was a witness to your supreme strength; it's a memory which remains as fresh as if it had happened yesterday, a day of you fearlessly conquering an army outnumbering you by the thousands, and you were the lone solider standing on my side of the battle. And yet with your great strength, you still can't seem to realize how foolish you are.
I came to understand what type of man you would become…or should I say, could have become. I saw the potential in you to reshape our then war-torn world into a land where if children wanted to find adventure in the forest, there'd never be a fear that they would be kidnapped and forced into slavery. Your strength would provide to young girls the chance learn how to sing or dance or fight, simply because it was fun and not because it was a skill they needed to master to guarantee survival. Your footsteps would become the foundation to give the men a right to always have the warmth of a family and love, and extinguish the old belief that men needed to sacrifice themselves because it was the chivalrous thing to do. Your existence was like the presence of rain in a drought; we were waiting for the day someone like you would arrive to bring salvation.
But those circumstances were only capable of becoming the world's reality if you hadn't met me, I suppose. You could only become the world's saviour if the right conditions were met, and they weren't. You chose to descend into evil, and that unprecedented potential you had, you used it to drive the world back into chaos when it was so close to tasting freedom.
And I don't think I can take the blame for your disgrace and ultimate doom anymore. Because now I realize that no matter how many injustices someone like Hashirama-dono could face, a true hero of the people can always believe that the situation is never hopeless, and rise above all their short comings.
And you also can't seem to see how identical you and Hashirama-dono are. Again, dwelling in self-pity.
You had all the potential. But you gave up too soon and fell into the temptation of the Infinite Tsukuyomi, which gave you a naïve misconception that true peace was locking everyone up in a dream world where every accomplishment in life was really, only a genjustsu.
The world may have been scarred by death and loss so far, but again, its still not hopeless. Just like how I still believe after all these years no matter how many wrongs have been done to you and how many wrongs you have done, my dearest Uchiha Madara will always have it in him to love again and be loved by all.
And so I will continue to love you, and be by your side in any kind of way, and believe that it is never hopeless. We can be just like the lotus flower which will always find a way to rise above the muddy waters.
Yuzumi.
…
He stands in front of her grave, marked in the name of the woman who he used to love years ago.
"I never knew that you died, Yuzumi."
The letter written in her beautiful calligraphy was always in his possession, until last year. He burned it to ashes and then proceeded to spit on it, when he realized that she wouldn't be coming.
"So, you'll always be by my side, was it? You would always love me, was that what you said in that childish letter of yours?"
Though he knew there was by no means any chance that she could hear him, he needed to say it. It was the final piece of his former self he needed to get rid of in order to put his plans into motion. That last bit of doubt he had…
It needs to be gone.
He smirked, "Do you remember this?"
He was holding a red spider lily.
"A long time ago, when you betrayed me the first time, you gave it to me. Ever since then I think I always thought of you as a thorn in my eyes. I didn't know it then, because I was too infatuated with you. But there's nothing else that is clearer in my mind now."
He bent down, closer to the dirt her tomb laid on, "Do you realize now that no matter how pretty you state it, it's never more than just words? I hope you do, because now you are dead because of it."
He didn't say anything afterward for a very long time. Simply staring at her tombstone, he thought back to the first night she stayed in his sleeping chambers.
"It's red though."
"Yes, but that doesn't automatically make the red spider lily a flower of love."
"But roses are red."
"And so is your Sharingan."
"…Oh."
"Pft."
"So what does it stand for then?"
Her eyes slowly looked down to the flower in his hands. A solemn look was painted on her face.
"You taught me that the red spider lily represented abandonment, a token of loss. Perhaps it's fitting for me to return this flower to you now, Yuzumi."
His gloved fingers placed it in the centre of her tombstone.
He's finally gotten his closure. There was nothing else he needed to say.
"The red spider lily, it means to never see each other ever again."
….
She had thought that she would never have the chance to see him again. Her deepest regret in life was that, though she knew he would've never forgiven her, circumstances in life didn't spare her even one opportunity to apologize for her betrayal.
She remembered a snowy day, two years after the formation of the world's first hidden village. She desperately chased after him in hopes she could catch him before he was gone. That day marked the end of her research, a study that engulfed her life for nearly fifteen ears. Whether or not her achievement would bear any fruit depended on if she could reach him in time before his departure.
A powerful force knocked her off her feet, a strong wind made her lose control of her momentum. Before she could even comprehend-
"My, I can't let you see him. Mother won't be happy if you ruined everything."
Darkness.
Her final memory...
Now I'll never have the chance to apologize...
My dearest...
The Edo Tensei
That was what they told her had brought her back to life.
A cold shell she felt no warmth.
A desire to change fate bloomed from within her.
She was standing on the grounds of another World War.
Around her were the faces of unfamiliar shinobi, the only ones she could recognize were Hashirama, Tobirama, an old man whom she earlier learned to be Hiruzen, and a boy no more than eighteen, a living reflection of Izuna.
One more person she recognized.
Tall, long mane, standing above with his powerful arms crossed in all his glory even if he was no more than a shell reincarnated back to life.
She remembered being held in those arms... she remembered that they gave to her assurances of her safety and his affection.
She gazed into his orbs, no longer the same had she remembered him. His fair skin was cracked like a broken price of porcelain, just like her skin was now,too.
She breathed out, "Madara-dono..."
"Koyumi."
He was on the other side of the battlefield.
….
The following tale summarizes the beginnings of the world as the shinobi are taught, with an untold epilogue revealed to only one mortal, unmentioned in history.
Long ago, war waged across the world. There was never a beginning before that, and there didn't seem to be any other after story other than more war.
The result of the dead bodies that lay heaped on the battlefield was that a river was formed. At the end of the river stood a tall tree, nourished for centuries with the blood of millions of fallen soldiers. Mysteriously, every century this tree grew a single fruit. Nicknamed the Shinju, every living creature was forbidden to eat its mysterious fruit. And the wars waged on.
In time, a woman named Otsutsuki Kaguya, who yearned for a ceasefire and peace on Earth, defied the norm and devoured the fruit of the Shinju. The fruit possessed great power, and bestowed on to the Princess Kaguya with the power to single-handedly stop all wars, which consequently led the people to call her the Rabbit Goddess, worshiped by all. Soon after she ended the battles, Kaguya gave birth to two fraternal twin boys, Hagoromo and Hamura, who had received some of the power their mother possessed.
The Goddess' powers were unrivaled and she grew psychotic. What had originally been love the people associated Kaguya with, now was terror. Kaguya believed that no other being other than herself had the right to possess the power granted to her when she ate the Shinju's fruit.
With a greedy heart and the strong desire to retake what she felt belonged to her, the ruthless Kaguya merged with the ancient tree to become what the world would know to be the Ten Tailed Beast.
With their combined efforts, Hagoromo and Hamura sealed their mother away to the moon, with Hamura offering to guard the celestial planet while Hagoromo remained on earth. Prior to Kaguya being sealed away to the moon and the ten tails' confinement, as her last effort to ensure she would once again be revived to recast the Infinite Tsukuyomi, the Rabbit Goddess manifested her will into what was called Black Zetsu. Her only desire was to have it complete one mission: it must help shape the future of humanity to one day reawaken the Rinnegan, to ultimately cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Hagoromo had the desire to understand his mother's powers and became the world's first individual to grasp the idea of 'chakra' and the world's first jinchuuriki, having sealed the Ten Tails into himself. Hagoromo traveled the world, giving the people his chakra and sharing his new found understanding of the fruit's gift. Out of the many followers Hagoromo gained, one particular follower received his notice. It was an old man, mute and disabled, a result of the old days of war. The old man had no name, and had no particular intelligence or physical strength to speak of, but he was loyal and clung to every word the Sage taught. Eventually, he was rewarded with Hagoromo's trust, becoming the caretaker of the great sage's two sons, Indra and Asura.
Indra was born with the talents his father possessed, as well as his father's eyes. He was a famed prodigy, and having never needed to ask for assistance because he was born with such power, Indra never understood the need for teamwork and friendship.
Hagoromo's younger son was Asura, a talentless young man. Being the complete opposite of Indra, Asura's physical and mental prowess was overshadowed by his brother's skill. Being the complete opposite of Indra in every possible way, Asura grew up knowing the importance of creating life long bonds of true friendship and love with his peers. It would be this attribute and Asura's kindness that would grant the young boy a power equal to his older brother's and his right as the Sage's successor.
Hagoromo, who had grew concerned that the elder son's jealousy would cause the world to return to its violent origins, thought of a way that even in his grave, he could convince the future to not conclude that war was the solution. Eventually Hagoromo decided to create the stone monument, retelling the story of his mother and the Divine Tree in hopes that the future will be warned of the wrongs of the Rinnegan and the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Hagoromo wished that by knowing the world's past of never ending warfare, his son's descendants would learn to accept that peace meant adhering to Asura's way of thought.
When Hagoromo died, lured by Black Zetsu, Indra became convinced that he was the rightful heir to his father's throne, and not Asura. The two brothers fought and with equal power, they died on the battlefield. Indra's descendants would become to be known as the Uchiha, while Asura's were the Uzumaki and Senju clan.
With the Great Sage and his two sons gone, it was up to the mute old man to make sure that Hagoromo's last project remained intact. Thought he had strong intentions, in his seniority, he was defenseless against Black Zetsu, who confronted the old man soon after the Sage of Six Path's death.
Easily pushing the elder aside, Black Zetsu reformed Hagoromo's last words. From stating that the world would perish in warfare, the tablet now falsely claimed that only wars and the Infinite Tsukuyomi had the power to save it.
Black Zetsu, having completed what he came to do that fateful day, turned away to retreat, but not before belittling the old man. Stating that there wasn't even any significance in ending the elder's life, Zetsu laughed and told the old man that he could stray alive but cursed, knowing that he could not stop Kaguya's will.
After all, the old man was mute, weak and illiterate.
But unbeknownst to even Hagoromo, the old man was not as ordinary as Black Zetsu perceived him to be, for the man had an eidetic memory. Having been given the honour of helping his deceased master create the stone monument, every sentence and every stroke of each character, he memorized by heart. And though not knowing how to even spell his own name, the old man dedicated the rest of his life to reconstruct the true, original version of the Otsutsuki family's tale.
After the death of Asura and Indra, the world was once again plunged into 200 years of battle, called the Warring States Era. Black Zetsu continues to exist to this day, creating history to end in the way that the Rabbit Goddess intended it to be, the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Lost in history, the old man died later of natural causes, his master's reconstructed stone monument safely resting in the neutral Land of Iron.
This legend starts there, a story called Hanakotoba: The Meaning of Flowers begins with the encounter of Indra's reincarnation and the old man's direct descendant.
This is the tale of the Shinobi and the Princess.
-To Be Continued-
I need a beta writer.
Please review!
-Achew