In the Dying Fire's Light

by Secondsons

When Team Namikaze failed their mission to destroy Kannabi Bridge, there was only a matter of time before the Village Hidden in the Leaves would fall. The question was no longer what they should do to win the war, but rather: how should they ensure the continued survival of even a shred of their village? Massively AU!

1. Foreword

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, and make no profit writing this fiction.

In the dying fire's light

Hello there, everybody, and welcome to my very first fan fiction. My name on this site is, as you can see, Secondsons, and I've been an avid reader of fanfiction ever since I learned of its existence some seven or eight years ago. I've often wanted to try my own hand at this business, but never really felt as if I had something to contribute to the community, or the necessary skills to even try. Now, however, I am finally throwing myself of that cliff and into the unknown, hoping that I may against all odds land somewhat softly and at least provide you all with a decent read.

I feel that I have to stress the fact that English is not my native tongue, though I feel that I am at least proficient in it enough to be able to express myself in writing. I hope that you, dear readers, may find it in yourself to comment on my works and help me better myself.

This is a foreword, a longer version of an A/N so to speak, and I wrote it mainly to express some things which I do not think should take up space in the actual chapters of the story.

In the dying fire's light is an attempt of mine to create an alternate universe of the Narutoverse, one where the Village Hidden in the Leaf does not stand as the strongest Hidden Village, but rather lies at the bottom of the food chain and fights everyday merely to survive, let alone prosper. It is a dark fic, at least by my standards, and if you are in the mood for some kind of fiction where Naruto is instantly the main character, where humor is actually present and where there are happy endings then I suggest that you turn back now.

For those of you that do stay, I thank you for taking your time to read my work. It is meant to be the first in a series, of how many I do not yet know as I have only begun planning the outline beyond the first seven chapters of this one in my head, but there will eventually be a sequel if there is enough interest. Hell, I might even put it up just because I feel like it.

Also, updates may be quite infrequent at times, this is not due to a lack of interest but more out of necessity as I have a full-time job and a life on the side of writing, which at the moment comes before this little pet-project. If there is enough interest, once more, updates may become more frequent – I don't make any promises though. Work will always be my main priority, and I work roughly between 160 and 180 hours a month at the moment.

Finally, I have but one more thing to say: welcome. I hope that your read will be as pleasant as it is for me to write this story, and if you feel like you have something you want to point out or criticize feel free to either leave a review or send me a PM. I welcome both positive and negative feedback, you can even flame me if you feel like it. I'll try to take even those to heart and learn from them, if only to avoid them later on. Reviewing is absolutely not a must-do, though, and I'll be looking more at the viewer count then on the actual review count in order to measure popularity I guess.

But I'm rambling. On with the story.

Secondsons