Title: The Symphony of Heirs
Author: Lady Ilsaya
Category: Fairy Tail and Naruto Crossover
Summary: Heirs were something special. They could travel through the Great Portals and connect to the guiding deities. When a dangerous rogue Heir is discovered to be in Earthland, Itachi is given the mission to gather intelligence on this man.
Author's Notes:
Hi, this is Lady Ilsaya, with her first story. So this is only a prologue, and I'm not exactly sure how this story will go or turn out, but I had this idea playing around in my head from the first day I started watching Fairy Tail. After watching the first thirty or so episodes, I was browsing through fanfictions in the Fairy Tail section, both regular and crossovers, and I noticed that most of the Naruto-Fairy Tail crossovers featured only Naruto Uzumaki as the main character. So, I felt like being a rebel and instead made Itachi into being one of the main characters. Then while I was writing notes about the story, I realized that I wanted to change things around more. So I made it so that the Senju clan still exists, the Yondaime Hokage is still alive, there are certain Ceremonies that are being conducted, and etc. I changed quite a few things around, so please don't get angry if certain things aren't quite canon. I'm still pretty unsure about this story but I think I'll give this a shot. Maybe things will work out. I hope you readers will enjoy this story.
Best,
Lady Ilsaya
Prologue: The Heir
I.
In the Village Hidden in the Leaves, there was a celebration—the heir of the great Uchiha Clan was born. Itachi Uchiha looked in every way Uchiha. His eyes were the darkest shade of black, what little hair he had was black in its blackest color, and his gaze was solemn. He frustrated his mother because he didn't cry as he should, and he looked at his surrounding with detached curiosity.
"He would be great shinobi," people said, unnerved at the baby's strangeness, and Mikoto, the proud mother, smiled politely and nodded as she should.
"You can just tell, he is something special," a lady laughed primly, while internally thinking the baby odd.
So the great Itachi Uchiha grew, and as he grew, his oddness was just more pronounced. He was definitely a genius. Mikoto had once caught the two-year-old Itachi trying to teach his five-year-old cousin arithmetic and Kanji. Itachi knew his handseals forward and backward by the time he was three, and was reading newspapers by the time he was three. He performed his first ninjutsu a little less than a month before his fourth birthday and displayed an unusual level of control of his chakra for a beginner.
"It's in his blood, you know. After all, he is an Uchiha."
"But even for Uchihas, this is incredible. He is really a prodigy."
"We haven't had a prodigy like him in forever. Not even Hatake-san was as fast as him."
"He is a bit creepy though, don't you think? He rarely ever laughs, always has that stoic look about him. It's unnatural, especially on a child."
Itachi was aware that villagers gossiped about him. He knew that the adults were expecting great things from him. He knew that they feared him. His little brother was born a year ago, and his brother was nothing like him. Sasuke laughed, did cute acts that made people coo and coddle him—he was in every way a normal baby. Itachi had never been a normal child. No, he was anything but normal.
II.
It was his fourth birthday. There was a celebration going on, and Itachi thought it was funny how there seemed to be more adults than children in his little birthday party. The ex-leader of the Senju clan, now the greatly honored Yondaime Hokage, was here with his fierce red-headed wife. Lady Tsunade was present with Lord Jiraiya, and Hatake-san was present as well. He saw that all the clan heads were present as it was only proper for them to attend the birthday of the Uchiha heir, especially when it was also the official Heir-crowning ceremony as well. The fourth birthday was the official heir-crowning ceremony, and he would have another ceremony when he becomes twelve—a coming-of-age ceremony.
"Lord Itachi," Lady Shizune approached him. "Happy birthday, my Lord. I am honored to be your guest."
"As I am yours, Lady Shizune," Itachi exchanged the formal greetings gravely as it had been ingrained into his head since as far back as he could remember.
"Ah, Lord Itachi, we expect great things from you. It is a great honor to be your guest," Lord Hyuuga told him in a grave voice, to which Itachi replied with equal gravity, "My greatest thanks, Lord Hyuuga."
The atmosphere was stifling, but like any good heir, Itachi endured the long hours with compose and dignity that was expected of him. After some more stiff greetings, Itachi went out into the garden to get some fresh air. The sun was setting and was staining the sky with orange red. Just then, Itachi caught sight of a movement within the nearby woods. He briefly considered telling his parents about this, but decided against it as he was feeling unusually adventurous after so much stiffness. He grabbed couple kunais and shuriken from one of the nearby hidden weapon packets that were spread across the Uchiha compound in case of emergency and cautiously approached the woods.
The woods were dark and it was hard to see, but Itachi was able to focus his chakra to his eyes—a trick that he had read about in the vast Uchiha library—and improve his vision. His keen eyes caught sight of the earlier shape once again and he carefully ventured into the woods, his senses on the highest alert. Before he went in too far into the woods, he decided to stop, for he knew that if he got into trouble, it would be better if he was closer to the exit.
"Who are you? Show yourself," Itachi ordered.
A nimble figure detached from a tree not too far ahead and jumped down to crouch before Itachi, earning an automatic defensive reaction from the little boy.
"Of course, my Lord Itachi," the black-cloak-clad figure answered smoothly, his dark cloak shadowing all his features.
"I believe I have asked who you are," Itachi repeated again, his face stoic even though he was internally fearful of the lithe figure before him.
"Ah, I am being rude. I am Madara Uchiha, my little Lord."
"Do not joke with me. There is no Madara Uchiha in my clan and the last Madara Uchiha died decades ago," Itachi frowned.
"No, of course not, my Lord. I would never joke with you, Lord Itachi. I speak the truth. I just wished to see my fellow Heir," the man spoke, a hint of smile in his voice.
"If you are indeed Madara Uchiha, then are you the same Lord Madara Uchiha who had fought Lord Hashirama Senju forty-eight years ago?" Itachi asked, somewhat frightened and yet curious at the same time.
"Yes, my Lord."
Itachi was silent for a while. It shouldn't be possible, he knew. However, if Lord Madara Uchiha was as strong as the books claimed, perhaps he had created a jutsu, he surmised. He thought perhaps he was taking in this information too calmly. After all, it wasn't exactly common for a man who was supposed to be dead forty-eight years ago to come back and drop by to say hi.
"Well, then Lord Madara Uchiha, why do you kneel before me? It is I who should kneel before you," Itachi told him in a grave voice as he knelt down on his knees. "However, my Lord, I am curious. How did you survive these years? It is a common knowledge that you were killed by Lord Hashirama Senju, but that is obviously false, as you stand before me. How did you escape the fatal blow Lord Hashirama Senju had dealt you? Where were you during the past forty-eight years then? Also, were you not banished from the Uchiha clan? Why did you come back?" Itachi narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips at this man claiming to be the supposedly-deceased Lord Madara Uchiha.
"My, you have many questions, Lord Itachi. However, I'm afraid I cannot answer many of your questions at this moment. I'm sure you understand why. After all, I like to keep my trump cards hidden, my little Lord. As for your last questions, indeed I was banished, and as I had said before, I came back to greet my young Lord."
"Why me, my Lord? My father has never mentioned you visiting him," Itachi told him.
"You are special. You are not just an heir—you're the Heir, like me. With your reaching of your fourth birthday, now lives two Heirs of the great Uchiha," Madara explained to him.
"Do you mean the Heirs who have access to the Great Portals, Lord Madara Uchiha?" Itachi asked.
"You are quite clever, Lord Itachi. It is that very Heir. But Heirs don't just have access to the Great Portals—there are far more powerful, unimaginably great abilities that are granted by our blood. The access to different worlds is only a mere part of it. I'm afraid, though, that I cannot tell you what other secrets I have discovered."
"What makes you think I am one of the Heirs, my Lord?"
"There is something about you that feels… off. I can feel the Portals calling to you, and you calling back to them," Lord Madara told him. "Of course, you shouldn't tell anyone about this."
"The clan will find out about this in the next gathering for the Ceremony honoring the deities and the Great Portals. The Great Portals will speak to them and tell them that I am the Heir," Itachi warned him.
"That, I know. Lord Itachi. However, let us not rush things. The Great Portals can only be open by two Heirs, as you probably already know, and I have waited for your arrival for a very long time. From now on, I will train you in the Shinobi arts. We must get you strong enough to take on the powers of the Great Portals. The Elders will find out, but you should enjoy what little time you have left as a just another heir. One they find out, your life will be changed. The Heirs are supposed to be far more powerful, intelligent, and dangerous than anyone else. They are, after all, supposed to be the Chosen Ones of the Great Ones, like how we are the Chosen Ones of the great Lord Uchiha. You should be aware, Lord Itachi, that our Yondaime Hokage is also an Heir. He most likely have already noticed that you're an Heir. He is a dangerous man, that Lord Minato Namikaze," Lord Madara warned him.
"Lord Hokage is an Heir as well? That is quite interesting," Itachi replied, internally quite surprised. "Are there any other Heirs that you are aware of?"
"There are couple others, of course. I have met one in Kumogakure and another in Iwagakure, but I do not wish to release their names, please don't take any offence, my Lord," Madara told him with another hint of a smile.
"Why do you want me to help you in opening the Great Portal? It is quite obvious that is what you've been waiting for, but could you not have asked Lord Hokage or one of the other Heirs that you found?" the young Uchiha Heir asked.
"As I said before, you are special. I've been searching for decades for an Heir whose blood resonates as strongly with the Great Portal as yours do. I wish to go to a certain world. There is something that I want there, and it is there only. However, that world is hidden under a great protection by the Great Portal and only certain bloods will open the Great Portal to that world. This access is only granted to the Heirs of the Great Names, like Lord Uchiha and Lord Senju. Lord Hokage has the power, being the Heir of the Lord Senju, and so does Lady Uzumaki, but I don't think either of them would appreciate seeing and working with me."
"I see. Well, this has been the most interesting conversation with you, Lord Madara Uchiha. However, I must be going back. My honorable mother would be wondering where I have gone off to. You had mentioned something about training me, Lord Madara?" Itachi asked stoically.
"Yes. Perhaps, does upcoming Monday before dawn at the Forbidden Forest sound good to you, my Lord? We will have to be very discreet about this, you understand," Madara told him.
"That sounds very good. I shall expect you there then. Farewell, Lord Madara Uchiha," Itachi gave a slight bow.
"Farewell, Lord Itachi Uchiha," Madara returned his bow with a slight inclination of his head as was expected from a senior Lord to a junior Lord.
Then Madara disappeared silently and Itachi was left staring at the spot that Madara had occupied just moments ago. He realized the gravity of his actions—he had just consorted with an enemy. Madara Uchiha was labeled as being insane, and Itachi felt that small vibes of insanity coming from the Lord, but the Lord was clearly very intelligent. Itachi wished to get stronger—he ached for challenges—and so he decided to be trained by the traitor lord, Lord Madara Uchiha. Itachi gave himself a slight smile and started walking back to his birthday party that awaited him.
III.
He drew his first blood when he was five. The blood was beautiful, the crimson glint catching the rising sunlight, and he was horrified to find that he was fascinated with blood.
Itachi knew that he had psychopathic tendencies. Blood mesmerized him. He didn't like to draw blood, but when he did, he could almost hear the blood singing to him. He was a loner, and preferred to be a loner. He rarely felt emotions, just mild annoyance or a spark of passive interest, and what little he felt, he clamped down with an iron fist as a shinobi should be in complete control of his emotions. He was a genius, and because of that, he was often bored. These were all signs of a psychopath, and yet he knew that he wasn't one. He didn't feel any sadism or impulsiveness, nor did he feel narcissistic about himself. But all these were hidden under the mask of the prized prodigy Itachi Uchiha, who was now one of the Heirs as well.
The Elders had found out, as expected, during the Ceremony. The Ceremony was held twice a year to honor the deities like Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, Susanoo, Izanagi, and Izanami. Rituals were performed to please the deities and to keep the world from crashing into other worlds by calming the Great Portals. During the Ceremony, the Elders would link their senses to the Great Portals and the Great Portals would speak to them. Of course, the Great Portals had told them about him since he was of age. It resulted in a great celebration in the village, Uchihas in particular, as Heirs were rare and were especially powerful, thus the hunger for Heirs among villages. The village had two other Heirs—Lord Hokage Minato Namikaze and Lady Kushina Uzumaki—and since they were married, villagers were expecting their children to be something special.
Since his fourth birthday, Itachi had been training with Lord Madara Uchiha. The Lord was a tough trainer but also a very good one as well. They met only once a week, but every Monday, the Lord would teach him couple jutsus and he would master them by the following Monday to be inspected. Under the guidance of Lord Madara, Itachi could feel his powers growing by leaps and bounds.
Madara Uchiha was, quite frankly, creepy though, Itachi thought. The man should have been dead long ago, or well into his hundreds year, but he still looked to be in his early thirties. Oh, and there was the fact that he seemed to hate the Senjus with a burning passion. For that matter, he seemed to do the same to the Uchihas. Itachi suspected that the man was a bit touched in the head, but he also knew that Madara was a genius—a dangerous, misunderstood genius.
Under the tutelage of Madara, one of the most dangerous men to ever live, Itachi became powerful very quickly. By the time he entered the Academy, the ANBUs were already scouting him out, and he graduated in just a year. He never had a genin team—instead he joined the ANBU trainees with the reluctant agreement by Lord Hokage. Itachi knew that Lord Hokage was concerned that he was being pushed so fast so young, but he knew that he had become stronger before Lord Madara decided to take any actions against Konoha. Itachi didn't have any delusions about defeating Lord Madara, but he knew Lord Madara the best and he needed to be ready when the attack came, which he was sure would happen sometime in the near future.
In the ANBU, he was behind the other trainees, for sure, as he had far less experience than all of them, but he wasn't all that far behind skill wise. He was talented, and in just a year, a month before his eighth birthday, he was officially a member of ANBU. He was an amazing reconnaissance, especially with his youth as people are more inclined to trust a child. However, after a year, he and his superiors found that he was more suited for assassinations. So, Itachi transferred to Assassinations Corps.
Assassination Corps was quite a something. The agents were incredibly talented and the ten-year-old Itachi had to work hard to catch up and surpass them. In this process he met a young girl named Ayumi Shimizu. Ayumi Shimizu was a thirteen-year-old girl who had joined recently. She was funny and upon being placed in a team, she was constantly hanging around him for he was the closest to her age, most agents being in their early twenties or older. Ayumi had become Itachi's first friend. Shisui Uchiha didn't count since he was more like Itachi's older brother than anything else, always teasing and trying to make him laugh. Shisui was quite annoying at times and Itachi at times found himself enjoying Ayumi's company more than Shisui's, for the simple fact that Shisui was always trying to get him hook up with a girl. The fact that Shisui was also in the Assassination Corps with him didn't help either.
Then a year after joining the Assassination Corps, Ayumi was discovered to be an Heir. Once that happened, the Uchiha clan became friendlier to her. Itachi had a suspicion that the Uchiha clan was hoping to get him matched up with another Heir, like how Lord Hokage, who belonged to the Senju clan, was married to an Heir as well. He though personally had little interest in finding a partner and besides, Ayumi was way too old for him in his opinion. Ayumi-san was more like a sister than anything else.
In another year and couple months, Itachi found himself the captain of an Assassination Squad and a well-established name in the BINGO books across the nations, and in another year, he was the Second-in-Command of the Assassination Corps of ANBU, under Kakashi Hatake. He was only eleven. Another two years passed and Kakashi Hatake resigned from ANBU after his eight-year-long service, and Itachi became the First-in-Command at age of thirteen, the youngest General in the history of ANBU, surpassing Kakashi's record by six years.
He was young and many were skeptical about his ability to perform as the First-in-Command, but everyone respected his skills. He was a natural leader, his presence always commanding respect. Itachi was a very careful person and despite certain complications that were in the job description of an ANBU First-in-Command, he made through his first year as a First-in-Command.
So here he was, the First-in-Command of Assassination Corps, standing before Lord Hokage at young age of fourteen.
IV.
"Lord Hokage, Lord Itachi has arrived," the secretary announced Itachi's presence to the Hokage.
"Let him in, please," Minato told her.
Itachi walked in solemnly into the Hokage's office and as he had sensed long before, he saw Ayumi standing in the office.
"Lord Hokage, I am honored to be in your presence," Itachi bowed, exchanging the traditional greetings. "Ayumi-san, my greetings."
"As I am in yours, Lord Itachi," Minato inclined his head slightly.
"Lord Itachi," Ayumi smirked at him as she bowed, her head tilted and from the way she said 'lord,' she was clearly trying to fight a laughter that always comes out whenever she thought Itachi was being too uptight. Ayumi never bothered to call him a Lord. She thought those titles were silly and instead called him with nicknames like 'Itachi-chan' or even 'Tachi-chan' when he was clearly too old to be called '-chan.'
"Of what do you require of me, my Lord?" Itachi asked.
"I have a mission for you, Lord Itachi, and Shimizu-san. Now, I'm not sure how far your spies' reaches are, but Lord Itachi, Lord Madara Uchiha is back."
Itachi was slightly surprised at the fact that the Hokage knew of this, but kept his countenance perfectly composed. "I am already aware of it, Lord Hokage."
"Oh?" the Hokage raised his eyebrows slightly. "How did you come across this information, Lord Itachi?"
"Lord Madara had visited me," Itachi told the blond Hokage and Ayumi raised an eyebrow at him.
"Ah, I see. I trust there is nothing suspicious going on that I should especially look into?"
"Nothing, my Lord."
"Well, I will trust you on that. Now, what I called you here for is this. I have learned that Lord Madara is searching for a certain object in a world called Earthland. Earthland is a world that is among the protected worlds of the Great Portals and the Portals can be only opened by two Uchiha or Senju Heirs. So I became curious and started looking more into it. Then I found something very curious, Lord Itachi. Apparently, Lord Masahiro Uchiha is present there," the Hokage explained.
"Lord Masahiro Uchiha? Was he not the Heir that had never came back centuries ago? He was said to be incredibly powerful, Lord Hokage," Itachi was genuinely intrigued by this turn of event.
"Lord Itachi, Lord Masahiro was a very dangerous person. He was said to have killed his youngest brother and then his sister and rest of his family. I know you are now the First-in-Command of the Assassination Corps, but I want you and Shimizu-san to go on a reconnaissance mission on Lord Masahiro. Sending you by yourself could be dangerous should you find yourself in trouble, so I decided to send Shimizu-san with you, seeing as Shimizu-san is closer to you than anyone else is and since she used to be a reconnaissance specialist. If Lord Madara and Lord Masahiro decide to cooperate, things would get very bad very quickly," Minato let out a quiet sigh. "During your absence, your Second-in-Command, Yugao Uzuki will be in charge of the Corps and Lord Kakashi Hatake will lend assistance as needed."
"I understand, Lord Hokage. When shall I leave for the mission and how long will it be?"
"The length may be as long as needed. You should come back in two month to check back with me, and we will make the plans as needed from there. Since this mission may take a very long time as we don't know if Lord Masahiro is going under his original name or a fake nor where he resides in the world, you will be called back from time to time and be sent on other ANBU missions in between. You will require my or Lady Kushina's help in opening the Great Portal. Please be ready by tomorrow at 0230 in ground 27."
"Yes, sir," Ayumi told him smartly.
"Yes, my Lord. Permission to leave, my Lord?" Itachi asked.
"Permission granted, Lord Itachi."
So this concludes the prologue. It was rather short, but I promise the following chapters will be longer. There also had been more explaining than actual story playing out, but that was because I didn't want to bore you all with a fifty-thousand-word long story about how Itachi grows up and reaches the point he is at right now. There won't be quite so many explaining in the future chapters. I hope this wasn't too boring and that you guys will review. I was actually going to send Itachi by himself, but then I realized that Itachi would take forever to establish relationship with other people since he is such a loner and taciturn person, so I created this chirpy character Ayumi and decided to send her along with him.
As for the updates, I'm quite busy at the moment with my finals coming up, but hopefully once the summer starts, I will be able to write more. Also during the summer, I have a lot of things going on, with competitions to study for and orchestra auditions to practice for, so I may not upload quite as fast as others. I apologize for that in advance.
Thank you.
Best,
Lady Ilsaya