WARNING: This story is rated M for a reason. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here: there will be blood.
FEMALE OC WARNING: I hate to have to write this warning, but I've seen a lot of authors given crap over female original characters on this website, so I want to get this out of the way ASAP. This is your first, and only, warning: my female character will be powerful. By the end of the series, she will be on par with both Sasuke and Naruto in terms of skill. If you don't like that kind of thing, and prefer you damsels always in distress, then I suggest you skip this story.
A/N: This fic came about due to the very, shall we say, masculine, ending of the Naruto series. I realize that Naruto was a Shōnen manga and therefore directed at young men, but damn it I followed that thing for 13 years only for it to end in a love fest between two men with god-like powers with the women regulated to stay-at-home moms. (Hell, even Kaguya works from home for like 99% of the series.)
Best read in 1/3 or 1/2 and Contrasted.
Prologue
If Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen had been aware of the story of the Ōtsutsuki siblings and the horrors its eventual conclusion would bring to Konohagakure no Sato, he would have had Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, and Senju Sadashi's infantile heads bashed against the gates of Konoha the second they left their mothers' wombs.
As it was, by the time the Sandaime Hokage came to power, the names Indora, Ashura, and Kaijora had faded into the realms of folklore and myth, and thus he knew nothing of the bloodshed their rebirths foretold.
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Chapter I
Shibaraku!
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Despite what his classmates would later come to believe, Uzumaki Naruto did not spend the majority of his childhood in a cacophony of sound.
From the ages of one to six, he did his best to remain quiet and unnoticed by those around him. It was an easy thing to accomplish—he was small for his age and therefore easily lost in a crowd, and after the Kyūbi's attack six years ago, Konohagakure's orphanage had many, many crowds—but he liked to think he had a special talent for it.
Not only was Naruto good at hiding, he liked hiding. It was one of the few shinobi skills that came naturally to him.
People, it seemed, just didn't see him like they did other children.
It had been an extremely long time—for a six-year-old, anyway—since Uzumaki Naruto had been noticed by someone he didn't want to notice.
He is understandably surprised when someone does.
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.
.
There's a girl staring at him.
Her eyes are gold and big and staring right at him.
She has the lightest colored hair he's ever seen on a person.
It's pale and white and glowing. Like a halo made of light.
It's beautiful, but Naruto almost doesn't care because no one was supposed to know he was here and now someone's staring right at him.
But that hair.
Maybe she's like, really old? He thinks.
Naruto squints, blue eyes scanning her hair with shinobi-like skepticism from his not-so-hidden position beneath Tamaki-san's onion cart. She looks his age, but he's never seen a little girl with white hair before and is understandably suspicious.
She could be an enemy ninja! His eyes widen.
The golden eyed not-little-girl tilts her head.
He blinks up at her.
She blinks down at him.
Uzumaki Naruto frowns suspiciously.
The not-little-girl raises a pale eyebrow, seemingly unperturbed by his distrustful gaze. In fact, she looks rather board for someone who's just discovered a boy hiding beneath an onion stand.
Definitely an enemy ninja, he thinks confidently.
"You doing okay down there?" She asks.
"I'm fine." Naruto replies, discreetly glancing around for Tamaki-san's sandal-clad feet. He doesn't want to be caught between an enemy shinobi and an angry shopkeeper. He could totally handle it, but it never hurt a ninja to be cautious.
"Okay."
She's walking away.
Naruto blinks.
"W-wait!" He calls, scrambling to catch up with her.
She's suspiciously fast for a girl.
He adds another red checkmark to his mental This Person is Totally an Enemy Ninja checklist.
"Ch-chotto matte!"
The not-little-girl slows slightly, glancing at him from the corner of her golden eyes. She's carrying some type of rectangular wooden box under her right arm and a small, velvet pouch in her left hand.
He bets that's where she keeps her secret-evil-ninja weapons.
"Hmm? You need something, Stranger-san?" She asks casually, swinging her secret-evil-ninja-weapons bag as she walks.
"Yeah!" He yells, wincing at the volume of his own voice in the relatively subdued atmosphere of the outer market district. "Y-yeah," he repeats more quietly, scratching the back of his head in mild embarrassment, "how did you know I was there? Under Tamaki-san's cart, I mean."
"I notice things." She says simply.
Naruto scowls at her non-answer, eyes roaming up and down her suspicious form.
Deep blue yukata with black vajra around the collar tied together by a slim, cream colored obi; white hair pulled into a braid that falls to her mid-back; rice-straw zōri on her small, bare feet; the smell of ozone and rain, like the air after a mid-summer thunderstorm; a mysterious wooden rectangle tucked under her arm and a small, crushed-velvet bag swinging in her hand.
Who is this person? She's kinda…interesting.
"You okay, Stranger-san?"
She makes an abrupt turn down an unfamiliar side-street as she talks, bringing them closer to an unfamiliar district of Konoha. The buildings are starting to look distinctively more…upscale than those surrounding the orphanage.
Naruto pauses only briefly before hurrying to follow after her.
"I'm fine." He says, glancing nervously at the fancy architecture.
Fancy houses mean rich people. Rich people mean gated communities and clan compounds. Gated communities and clan compounds mean civilian guards and sentinel-shinobi. Civilian guards and sentinel-shinobi mean bruised knuckles and black eyes.
"I'm glad." She glances at him beneath dark eyelashes. "Is there a particular reason you're following me, Stranger-san?"
Naruto blinks.
Her tone is just so casual.
It confuses him.
"Naruto," he blurts, whipping his suddenly sweaty palms on his light green pants. "My name's Naruto, not Stranger-san."
"Naruto then," the not-little-girl smiles.
Inadvertently, he can feel his cheeks warm.
She's kinda pretty, he realizes abruptly, blue eyes snapping to glare resolutely to his sandal-clad feet. Enemy ninja aren't supposed to be pretty, not like she is. They're not supposed to be girls either, now that he really thinks about it.
His research—manga reading—had not prepared him for this.
"Is there a particular reason you're following me, Naruto-san?" She asks again.
Scowling, Naruto begins to explain the story of Tora-teme and the long chain of events that eventually lead to him hiding under Tamaki-san's onion cart. As he speaks, he notices that the not-little-girl's attention seems to drift, flowing between him, the street, and some internal monologue he isn't privy to.
"Hey! Are you even listening to me?" He asks loudly, affronted.
The passing civilians glare.
Naruto shifts closer to the white-haired girl's side.
The not-little-girl returns her eyes to him. "You were rudely accosted by a demon-cat on your way home from the park. Running for your life, you made your way to one of the 'awesomest' hiding places in the village: the market district, where you hid under Tamaki-san's onion cart. You saw me, assumed I was an enemy ninja, and decided to follow."
Well then…
Well…
"It was a smart choice," she continues, seemingly unaware of the blonde boy's embarrassment. "The onion cart, I mean. It was clever of you to use the onions to hide your scent."
Despite himself, a grin blooms across Naruto's face at the praise.
He had never been, well, complemented for his hiding skills before. While not impolite, the caretakers at Konohagakure's orphanage had never been particularly attentive to him.
They always seemed to be leaving him to his own devices.
And they were always looking through him when they spoke to him, as if they weren't really speaking to him, but to a caricature of him.
Like an actor who had failed at his role.
Once, when Naruto was four years old, the orphanage took him and the other children to see a free Kabuki performance at the Konohagakure theatre. He doesn't remember much of Kanjinchō—that particular play had way too much talking in his opinion—but he does remember Shibaraku.
Kamakura Kagemasa had just looked so grand in his red-and-white makeup and brightly-colored jinbaori. He had commanded everyone's attention, the whole theatre had fallen quiet when he stepped on stage, and Naruto could almost feel the anticipation of the crowd as they waited for Kagemasa to shout his most famous line.
The great warrior opened his mouth—
Clap! Clap! went the hyōshigi.
—"Shi-shibaraku!" Stuttered Kagemasa.
Naruto had been stunned, eyes widened by trepidation and second-hand embarrassment.
The great warrior Kamakura Kagemasa didn't stutter.
The crowd had been equally flabbergasted.
But that look on their faces.
A mix between fear and indignation; of unmet expectations and disappointment; of righteous indignation and unmasked rage.
It was so…familiar.
"Well, this is my stop."
The voice breaks Naruto from his thoughts, leaving him to stare confusedly at his surroundings.
Despite its obvious opulence, the clan district of Konohagakure no Sato is relatively homey when compared to the much more recent, and much more industrial, portions of the village. Instead of concrete and steel, there is wood and iron. Instead of t-shirts and pants, there are kimono and hakama. Instead of hair-clips and ponytails, there are kanzashi and wareshinobu.
It's like a play, he thinks dazedly, glancing around wondrously. Like something from Shibaraku.
"Naruto-san…?"
Naruto clears his throat nervously.
"Hehehehe." He scratches the back of his head, turning to look at the not-little-girl sheepishly. "Sorry about that, I got lost in..."
He trails off.
The not-little-girl has stopped in front of a large, wooden archway with a red gate. The pillars, which appear to be made from two large Hashirama trees, have the palest bark Naruto has ever seen. They are old trees, he realizes, perhaps even as old as Konohagakure itself, with boughs so weighed down by bright, blood-colored leaves that they hang and sway like Sakura branches in the warm, summer breeze.
As he stares, the wind releases a few copper-tinged leaves to float and drift as they please.
Bright blue eyes follow as one comes to rest softly atop the not-little-girl's head.
"What's your name?' Naruto asks.
He is suddenly, painfully aware of just how rude he's been.
"Senju Sadashi," she says, reaching up to gently pluck the leaf from her hair. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Naruto-san."
The little girl smiles.
Uzumaki Naruto smiles back.
"N-nice to meet you too, Sadashi-chan."
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.
.
I didn't think of that scent thing though…
Naruto keeps smiling.
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"So, how's Kitsune-gaki duty treating you this fine summer day?"
Inoshishi glances at his partner from his crouched positon atop Konoha Toshokan before returning his gaze to the market below, allowing a small hum to fall from beneath his chakra-plated mask.
"That boring, huh?" Washi asks, his spiky brown hair waving slightly in the warm breeze.
Inoshishi hums again, distinctly moody.
"Really boring then," his partner concludes correctly.
Inoshishi grunts, his eyes narrowing towards his current charge. No matter how much that Hatake bastard might insist otherwise—
"Think of all the reading you'll get done, Ino-chan!"
—Inoshishi knows that Kitsune-gaki duty is firmly in the "punishment" category of the Hokage's mental catalog of Anbu assignments.
He briefly wonders what he did to draw the Sandaime Hokage's ire.
He quickly remembers The Pipe Incident of two weeks before and finds his answer.
I didn't even know he had a special pipe…
"Aww, look!" His partner practically coos, successfully breaking Inoshishi out of his depressing thoughts. "The Kitsune-gaki's making a friend."
Stanchly ignoring the voice in his head telling him that his partner sounds entirely too gleeful to be a member of Konoha's respected Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai forces, Inoshishi quickly focuses his attention to the onion cart across the street.
Huh, he thinks in mild disbelief, Washi's right. Looks like the kid might actually be making a friend...
Had his charge been anyone other than the Kyūbi's jinchūriki, the prospect of him making a new friend might not have seemed so strange.
Children, Inoshishi knows, and particularly ninja children, are ridiculously adept at forming new bonds. In fact, most of the games favored by shinobi children require at least some form of teamwork to be properly played, making them fertile ground for fledgling friendships and newly-sprung rivalries.
As inclusive as Konohagakure games are, however, they are no match for a child's ingrained nature to obey, or the sharp words of a parent.
Fucking civilians, Inoshishi thinks, a little spiteful, no concept of Fūinjutsu at all…
Out of habit, the Anbu-nin scans the edges of the park for pretty glaring eyes and clinched hands on feminine hips. Women could be vicious for many reasons, but nothing brought out their cruelty more than a perceived threat to their young.
To the civilian mothers of Konohagakure, the Kitsune-gaki would always be perceived as a threat.
Smart of him to use the onions like that though…
"Oh, shit," Washi mutters. "It's that girl."
Inoshishi snaps his masked face towards the vegetable cart once more.
A little girl with pale white hair stares down at a little boy with bright blue eyes.
There is a strange look on the little boy's face, Inoshishi notes, an odd blend between hopefulness and suspicion with just a hint of awe. Like a blind man seeing the sun for the first time.
Ridiculously, Inoshishi suddenly feels like an intruder.
"…Senju." Washi murmurs from his side, his voice uncharacteristically quiet.
"Aa."
The counsel was not going to be happy about this.
Not that it would really matter; if the little Senju really wanted to be friends with the Kitsune-gaki then friends they would be.
Being de facto heir to the most important clan in the history of Konohagakure no Sato left you with a lot of leeway as far as the council was concerned.
But Kami-sama the bitching.
"Should we, uh, I don't know, do anything?" His partner asks.
Inoshishi watches as the Kyūbi Jinchūriki follows the Senju clan heir out of the market district like a lost puppy.
"Leave it be," he says finally, standing from his crouched position. "The council will deal with it as they see fit."
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And oh god the bitching.
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Fin
Translations / Definitions:
I will not be providing the English translations to common Japanese words used in the Naruto fandom (gaki, baka, jiji, etc.) as I'm sure most of you already know what they mean. I will provide translations to lesser-known words and Jutsu names, especially those that are original to this story (of which there will be many).
"Ch-chotto matte!"– W-wait a little while! (With no kudasai because Naruto's a rude gaki.)
"Sh-shibaraku!" – S-stop a moment!
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Vajra – Essentially a type of club with a ribbed spherical head. The ribs may meet in a ball-shaped top, or they may be separate and end in sharp points with which to stab. The vajra is used symbolically by the dharma traditions of Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism. In Sanskrit, Vajra means both thunderbolt and diamond.
The Senju clan symbol resembles the vajra very closely (hint hint Naruto).
Zōri – flat, thonged sandals traditionally made of rice straw.
Kanjinchō – A humorous play following the great warrior Minamoto no Yoshitsune and his follower Benkei's (eventually successful) attempt to talk their way through a gate guarded by an enemy nobleman.
Shibaraku – A short Kabuki piece (usually performed between full plays) that centers on the figure of Kamakura Gongorō Kagemasa, a famous warrior. The climactic moment of Shibaraku takes place when a samurai is being assaulted by a number of villains. Kagemasa shouts "Shibaraku!" from behind a curtain and then steps out in magnificent costume and makeup.
Jinbaori – A kimono tabard (short, sleeveless coat) traditionally warn over Samurai armor.
Hyōshigi – A simple Japanese musical instrument consisting of two pieces of hardwood or bamboo that are connected by a thin rope; Hyōshigi are usually played together or on the floor to create a distinctive cracking sound.
Kanzashi – Hair ornaments used in traditional Japanese hairstyles.
Wareshinobu – The traditional hairstyle of a maiko or hangyoku (an apprentice geiko or geisha respectively).
Konoha Toshokan – Konohagakure's civilian library (literally Tree Leaf Library).
My Japanese is rudimentary at best; if you find any mistakes (you will) please let me know and I'll be sure to correct them ASAP.
A/N: This story written is a very different style than my other stories. I'm usually a very detail oriented author who loves very long sentences and flowery descriptions. I decided to try something different with this one. As such, chapters will tend to be both shorter and more introspective.
Like, review, tell me you hate me—just give me some feedback please!