Another Destiny- Prologue
A/N: This is an Naruto Alternate Universe set in the Naruto Pilot chapter. It is a chapter of Naruto that was basically Naruto before the Naruto we know today.
There was more supernatural elements, more yokai, Naruto himself was a fox yokai who could transform into his true self if needed.
I, and others like UberChimerism on Deviantart realized the fanfic potential and how overlooked it was. And since my favorite character, Neji, was killed off in such a horribly done way...it seemed all the more promising and there was much world building to do though that's fun to do! A lot more freedom...and a lot of choices.
It is going to be a long fanfic.
The chapters will be beta'd by UberChimerism on Deviantart then I'll post the new chapters here then on Archive of Our Own.
Hope this is enjoyable!
"Another mission accomplished," Hizashi Hyūga said with a tired smile. "Tough ones, though. I can only imagine where we would be if not for my brother. Or the Shōki clan's exorcism." In the spirit of maintaining their strong ties with the Taketori clan of the San'in Region, Hizashi's identical twin, Hiashi Hyūga, had accepted the mission of helping the Shōki clan exorcise some evil spirits that had been plaguing Mount Oinari. Hizashi and his wife, Yōrei, had accompanied him, as was their duty as Branch Hyūga.
Haō, the head of the Taketori and the Chief of Mount Oinari, nodded, ever so grateful for the Hyūga's help. "Exactly the reason this mission was A-ranked."
"Though one of the demons was a bit—" Hiashi's blood suddenly froze. This feeling…what the hell was it?
Haō felt it too, a great sense of dread. He stood up and looked out his window.
The door was flung open as a ninja appeared in the doorway, his face the picture of fear. "This is bad! Something's coming, and it's even more sinister than those spirits!"
Hiashi formed hand seals. "I'll check it out." With his Kyōmaku Byakugan, he zoomed in on the direction the chakra was coming from, and saw a gargantuan nine-tailed fox. But it wasn't purely chakra, so it couldn't have been Kurama. If it's not the Nine-Tails, what else could have such evil chakra? And so fast, too!
A deep rumble shook the building, causing the lights to flicker.
"Go and help the wounded and keep it busy!" Haō ordered. "I'll need to prepare the sealing jutsu."
With a nod, Hiashi headed out of the office and down the hallway, Hizashi and Yōrei following close behind.
A thunderous roar shook the building, the lights flickering once again.
Hizashi activated his own Byakugan. "Not good. There's plenty of wounded already."
When the three exited, the giant fox was already within the village, smashing buildings to rubble with furious lashes of its tails. "I'll help stop the beast! Yōrei, go with Hizashi and tend to the wounded!"
"Be careful, Brother!" With that, Hizashi and Yōrei headed off to heal the wounded.
Hiashi quickly headed for the battle and found a blond ponytailed kunoichi taking cover behind a ruined wall. He quickly got into cover beside her. "Do you know who that is?"
The kunoichi, Fūha Namikaze, looked up, shaking and face paled with horror. "It's Lord Minato."
Hiashi's eyes widened. Minato Namikaze?! But he's always been a genius, a proud shinobi of Mount Oinari! Why would he turn on his own village?
The earth shook as the Namikaze leader struck another building. Once the rumbling stopped, Fūha took a wary peek around the wall as Hiashi activated his Byakugan once again. There would be time for questions later. "Gather the others and have them back me up. I have some Hyūga S-rank jutsu that should keep Minato busy."
Fūha nodded before running off to gather the best ninja she could find.
"Damn!" The ninja Yōrei Hyūga was trying to heal had broken ribs and was bleeding out of multiple gashes.
Her husband Hizashi scanned the surrounding area around the building they had made into a makeshift hospital. "Found some more. Be back soon. Then I'll do what I can." Hizashi was no medic, but his Byakugan could help a bit. He had seen Hiashi fighting the fox, alongside many Mount Oinari ninja. Hiashi was truly a credit to his bloodline, using A- and S-rank Hyūga main house techniques which were actually damaging the fox. But Hizashi knew that his twin couldn't keep it up forever...
Hizashi quickly left, heading out to get more of the wounded. As long as Hiashi can hold out long enough for Lord Haō's sealing jutsu, we can pull through.
The mad Namikaze saw Hiashi, then Hizashi, and realized where the Side branch Hyūga had come from. Insolent little…! With a sadistic grin, Minato turned his powerful roar on the building Hizashi had come from, an intense blast of razor-sharp winds blowing from his mouth. He knew that the Side brother's little wifey was there.
Let him feel the same despair he felt.
Sensing danger, Yōrei focused her Byakugan on the area outside and saw the incoming windstorm. She picked up the wounded ninja she was healing. "Move! Get outsi—!"
The windstorm smashed into the building, leaving nothing but rubble and dead silence.
Hizashi felt as if the world had frozen. He had seen his wife's chakra, along with that of all the wounded within, vanish with that one attack. No. No!
Veins bulged around the Side Hyūga's pearly eyes. "You son of a bitch!" He formed hand signs. "Fire Release: Great Incinerating Flame!" He exhaled a great blast of flame which struck the fox, but did little else. Maybe Wind'll do the trick. Hiashi formed more hand signs. "Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!" A great blast of wind, then the previous hand seals. "Fire Release: Great Incinerating Flame!" Another great blast of fire was enhanced by the wind, engulfing the fox. Did that do it?
The fox gave another thunderous roar and swiped at a storm of kunai, shuriken, and multiple ninjutsu, putting a stop to the attacks before turning his wrathful gaze to the now exhausted Hiashi Hyūga. Enough of the Namikaze fox knew that Hiashi was the head of the Hyūga and thought to kill the head of one of the most powerful clans of the Leaf. Yes. Let them feel despair, too…
Hizashi saw who the fox was glaring at and realized with dawning horror what he intended to do. No! With chakra concentrated to his feet, Hizashi leapt towards his brother with extreme speed. The fox swing a massive paw. Not enough chakra; will have to... He landed on the rooftop, grabbed Hiashi, and turned his back towards the oncoming jutsu. He pushed Hiashi to safety below…just as the jutsu struck him on his back, cutting off all feeling in his lower half.
Before Minato could rejoice in his apparent kill, he heard something approaching from his right. Turning, he saw another squadron charging at him, headed by none other than Fūha Namikaze. The Namikaze leader growled. Traitorous bitch…! With another roar, Minato unleashed another razor wind gale, cutting through Fūha and her forces.
Let them all pay…
"Go!" Haō Taketori charged to the front lines with all eight of his closest friends. "We cannot let this go on any longer!"
Minato noticed the nine ninja charging towards him, and unleashed a series of powerful attacks.
"Earth Style: Earthen Wall!" Haō slammed his palms onto the ground, raising an earthy barrier.
The series of attacks smashed into the wall, but it still held strong and true, protecting Haō. The chief of Mount Oinari landed some distance away and quickly shrugged off the earth bits on him. He couldn't sense the chakra of his friends who had charged to the battlefield. Minato Namikaze…you've gone too far. He quickly took the scroll off his back, unrolled it, and unsealed what he was looking for: a special sealing container. He formed the hand seals. "Your rampage ends now!"
Once he unlidded the container, a bright light shot out of it, heading for and engulfing the fox. Minato's eyes widened. "Damn you…!" But fight against it though he tried, the mad Namikaze was indeed pulled and trapped within.
Haō quickly placed the lid back on, then took out several special tags and placed them on the lid to keep it from being broken by the immense power within.
Hizashi Hyūga lay in his twin's arms, dying. Blood pooled beneath him from the deep gash in his back, and Hiashi could see that his brother's spine had been severed and his organs destroyed. Hizashi's forehead protector had now fallen off, exposing his Caged Bird seal.
Uncharacteristically, Hiashi struggled to maintain his composure. "Why?! Why did you do that?!"
Hizashi coughed. "Whatever…my feelings towards the Main Family…you are still…my brother." Hizashi coughed again, this time with blood. "My only regret is…not seeing Neji grow up…"
Shaking, Hiashi tried to keep his voice steady. "Don't talk like that!" Hiashi looked around, too exhausted to use his Byakugan. "Medic!"
"No." Hizashi rasped. "It…it is too late…I'll be joining…my dear Yōrei soon…" Another cough. "Tell Neji that I died protecting you…not as a Branch member, but as…your brother." Hizashi's chest rose and fell as he breathed his last. His seal glowed light blue, then finally faded, sealing away his Byakugan forever.
Hiashi finally let the tears flow.
Haō Taketori and several other ninja approached a cave near where Minato's storehouse used to be, and saw a small days-old kit laying on a bed of straw.
One of the ninja drew his sword. "We should kill it now! Blood always outs, and it's the spitting image of its father!"
Another headed forward. "I'll do it! Bastard's father killed my family!"
The ninja was intercepted by the Chief's outstretched arm. "So. You would let a loss drive you to madness as well? Look over there." The eyes of everyone present followed where their chief pointed and landed upon what looked like a makeshift burial mound.
"Yes," said Haō when everyone gasped. "No doubt it was Kushina's death that sparked the flames of Minato's madness. And now you would let it consume you and turn you into monsters as well?" Once the Chief's words sunk in, the ones who expressed their readiness to kill a newborn looked down in shame.
The Chief approached the straw bed, picked up the mewling kit.
"Let the madness end here."
Hizashi and Yōrei Hyūga weren't the only Konohan casualties of the madness of Minato Namikaze. There were the Councilors: Danzō Shimura, Homura Mitokado, and Koharu Utatane. There was the Sandaime Hokage's wife, Biwako Sarutobi. And, perhaps the worst yet, there were the many parents who left behind young children, like Academy sensei Ikkaku Umino and his wife, Kohari.
Perhaps the only good to come out of this tragedy was that the Sandaime Hokage himself, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had survived. He could still maintain Konoha's Will of Fire, and would help the survivors regain theirs as well.
"You know your father won't approve."
As little Neji slept in his lap, Hiashi's brow furrowed at his wife's words. "To hell with him, then." Let that bitter old man object all he wanted. Nothing could make Hiashi forget his brother's last words…or the sunniness of his nephew's eyes when the little boy toddled to greet him, as many a child would when they saw one who looked so like their father.
That had driven the thorn of grief deeper into Hiashi's heart, and that grief in turn drove him to make an unorthodox decision: to raise Neji like his own son. He knew this meant that when the time came, Neji wouldn't be branded as Hizashi was. But after everything their father had put his own sons and his clan through, there would be no love lost when that day came.
Feeling Hikari's hand on his shoulder, Hiashi placed his own hand atop hers in appreciation before his gaze trailed down to her belly, swollen with the unborn daughter they had planned to name Hinata. A sunny place among sunny places. A beacon of a brighter future.
Yes, family dynamics had cast a shadow over the Sunny Place, and maybe Hinata's light, along with that of every Hyūga of her generation—every Hyūga—would cast that shadow away.