Disclaimer: I don't own squat. Naruto belongs to the terrible and hated one, Kishimoto.

Volume 1: Azuki

Chapter 1: Leader, Father, Sannin

Madara Uchiha was not an idle man.

He unified his clans. Alongside an old friend, he'd founded the first Great Ninja Village, Konohagakure- the Village Hidden in the Leaves (his idea, mind). He'd brought the majority of the country's clans to join the village.

Madara Uchiha was not an idle man.

When Madara needed something to get done, he did it. He always walked with purpose; swiftly, no matter if it was to the meeting hall, the Hokage's tower, the armory, or even simply to the clan compound's river- or, to the clan infirmary.

Madara Uchiha was not an idle man.

That was what he kept reminding himself, pride screaming in vain in his mind. He kept reminding himself even as he slowly, hesitantly made his way to the clan's infirmary, a woman's screams of pain splitting the air. He repeated it over and over like a mantra dedicated to his pride even as he stilled outside the sliding door, hand hovering above the handle. He scowled- but waited. A few minutes later, the screams stopped, and a small cheer echoed out of the room.

Madara Uchiha was idling.

He sighed to himself and finally threw the door open with an air of finality, stepping into the infirmary. The swift motion made the medics and midwife jump in shock. His son turned to him, and they gave a smattering of shallow bows, a chorus of 'Lord Madara's greeting him. He simply nodded in return, but didn't move past the threshold.

Yokan, for her part, simply offered him a small, tired smile, closing her eyes as she did. She was the splitting image of a kunoichi; fair, beautiful, and a deep scar lining her jaw from her ear to her chin, black hair pulled into a bun and out of her face. Madara managed a microsmile for a second in return, before hesitantly making his way into the room. Yokan didn't drop her own smile. "He's not going to bite." She said tiredly, decorum long forgotten.

The clan head stopped by her bed, next to Obito, and stared at the babe swaddled in cloth in her arms. "Is..."

"Azuki." Obito said, a proud smirk on his face. "Azuki Uchiha." The man was lither than Madara was, and shorter, but his skin was just as pale and his hair just as dark, falling down to chin length, framing his face.

Madara's face was schooled into the textbook Uchiha indifference.

"You can hold him." Yokan offered as Obito wiped a soaked strand of hair from her face.

Again, hesitantly, Madara took Azuki, staring down at his grandson. The newborn was a bright red in color and was sleeping peacefully.

"I don't even think he was this shellshocked when you were born." Yokan offered in good humor.

Obito stared at his father and son with a slight smile. "He wasn't there when I was born."

Madara didn't draw his eyes from the child before slowly, hesitantly, handing him back to his mother. Madara nodded at her and simply set a hand on Obito's shoulder before walking out of the room.

Hashirama cackled.

Madara stared at his old friend from over the shogi board, onyx eyes narrowed.

"Let me guess," The First Hokage said sarcastically. "You were afraid to even hold him."

"I absolutely was not," The Uchiha growled back, scowling at his comrade. That simply made the Senju burst into further laughter, straight dark hair falling around his tan face carelessly. Madara moved a piece. "This game is mine."

Hashirama's laughter tapered off and he waved his hand in front of his face. "I don't really care that's just- that's... the great Madara Uchiha. Struck fearless by a newborn babe."

"And you weren't any less so at Tsunade's birth?" Madara shot back with a withering glare.

"Please, old friend, I was crying. But you- you who absolutely hate people... absolutely in awe of your grandson. That is just... absolutely unbelievable."

"I do not hate people."

"Ah, I suppose he is Uchiha. Eh- what did they name him?"

Now Madara was staring indifferently at the Hokage. "...Azuki."

Hashirama raised an eyebrow. "Azuki... isn't that a-"

"A bean, yes. My son apparently thinks he's comical."

The Hokage snickered rather unceremoniously. "And pray tell, what do you intend for the boy?"

"That's not-"

"Oh don't try to pull one over on me. You've already gotten his entire trajectory in life planned, your grandson or not. Future Hokage, perhaps?"

Madara's face soured and Hashirama inwardly winced, regretting the words. "As if this village would allow it."

The Senju sighed. "It will get better, old friend. I have faith. The Uchiha's contributions and sacrifices will get rewarded. If I have my way, you'll be Second Hokage before one of us croaks. I was never one for this leadership thing anyways."

The Uchiha rose to his feet, preparing to leave. "This village's council will make sure you don't have your way, nonetheless your brother. Lord Hokage." And with that, he disappeared from the tower.

Hashirama sighed and buried his face in his hands.

-4 Years Later-

Azuki stood silently, dressed in black robes as he stared at the graves, his onyx eyes not fully understanding what he was looking at. At his side, his sister, Kogira, was clutching him close to her, similarly dressed in black, rubbing a comforting hand through his split black-and-white hair as she herself cried.

The gathering was fairly small, in the Konoha graveyard; a larger service was planned later for the Uchiha's eyes alone, but this one served well for the friends and comrades outside the clan for the fallen shinobi.

Azuki's eyes couldn't read the writing on the gravestones, though he could certainly understand the voice of the orator. 'Yokan' and 'Obito' didn't miss his attention, though he still couldn't process the entire turn of events. The sun shone brightly overhead, birds tweeting through the trees surrounding the graveyard. Madara was nowhere to be seen.

Azuki sat quietly on his bed, staring at the mirror in his hand. It was his mother's. He simply stared at his reflection; a pale face, framed by spiky, shortcut, black and white hair, split unevenly down the middle. There was a knocking on the door, but he didn't look up.

"Azuki?" Kogira asked quietly. She was a few years older than him, and certainly seemed more broken up than he was, voice wavering even as she simply spoke his name. "Grandfather's here."

That finally drew the young Uchiha's attention up from the mirror, the heavy thudding of Madara's steps heralding the clan leader's arrival. The steps weren't very reminiscent of a ninja's gait, but Madara was more of a warrior than anything else.

The tall shinobi stepped in, dressed in black himself. He stilled in the doorframe, looking at his grandson quietly as Kogira left the room. The two Uchiha locked black eyes and seemed to come to an understanding. Madara stepped over to the bed, but didn't sit down.

"Your parents died bravely." He rumbled deeply, but quietly.

Azuki didn't answer, simply looking down at his sheets.

"They would have wanted you..." Madara trailed off. He wasn't good at this. Emoting wasn't a skill many Uchiha were particularly adept in, and his battle-hardened self perhaps the least of all. "Come." He beckoned.

Not needing to be told twice, Azuki somberly rose to his feet and followed after his grandfather through the halls of his home. They left the building and walked the short distance down the path to Madara's own, larger manor. Stepping in, the house was absolutely Spartan, with the exception of various battle instruments and scrolls lining the walls. Trophies of past conquests.

Madara sat down and unrolled a scroll, before handing one to Azuki, silently asking his grandson to do the same. Handing the child an inkpot and brush, Madara retrieved a set of his own; and began writing on the scroll.

"What are you doing?" Azuki finally asked quietly, watching his grandfather's slow, precise brush strokes.

"Working on a seal. Copy."

"A seal?" Azuki asked dipping the entire head of his brush in his ink.

Madara grabbed his grandson's wrist before he could begin writing. "Ah, ah, ah. Too much ink."

The child blinked and roughly tapped his brush against the edge of the inkpot, letting the excess liquid fall off.

"Now," The clan head said quietly. "Careful."

Azuki astutely put pen to paper, and began writing.

Madara was terrible at comforting and emoting. Training, however? That he could do very well.

Kogira lay a hand on Azuki's head as she passed by him, the child bent over a scroll, onyx eyes narrowed in concentration. Kogira was young, only ten or so, hair falling down around her shoulders in the trademark Uchiha black spikes, matching black eyes. Her skin was pale, though most of it was covered with her outfit; a dark blue low cut blouse with loose, hanging sleeves, over a black shirt, tucked into long, form-fitting pale light blue pants that extended past her waist to the bottom of her navel, a belt holding it firmly in place. Her hands were clad in black, fingerless gloves matching black, calf-high shinobi boots.

"Grandfather has you reading again?" She asked rhetorically, leaning over the back of the chair he was sat in.

"Yes." He said quietly, refusing to break his concentration.

"How long?"

"I dunno."

"Have you learned anything?"

"...I dunno."

"Could you read to me what it says?"

"The ca... cat... the cat s-says... m... m..." Azuki's face screwed up in distaste, and Kogira let out a laugh.

"You've been spending too much time with Grandfather." She said, rolling the scroll up, laughing again as the child reached for it in vain, pale skinned hands grasping, dark sleeves of his kimono falling to pool around his elbows..

"But I'm not dooone." He whined, though she knew that he wouldn't throw a tantrum. He was an Uchiha after all.

She sat down next to him, pushing him to the side of the chair. "But I said you are. Besides, staring at it isn't going to make it make sense. It takes time," Her eyes turned blood red, a black tomoe surrounding her pupil. "You don't have this yet." She flicked him in the forehead and pulled out a scroll from her jacket.

"What's that?" He asked quietly, past slight forgotten.

"Oh, this? This is my mission scroll. I just went on a C-Rank. Wanna hear how it went?"

Azuki nodded eagerly, black eyes wide as he stared at her.

Madara stared in from the doorway, regret filling his eyes. He inwardly sighed and walked away, glove clad hands clenching and unclenching. He hadn't been there for his son. Perhaps he could be a better father for his grandchildren? He owed Obito that much.

A/N: Alright, hello! We are gathered here to get through this thing called a Naruto story.

And on that, if you'll allow me to indulge myself, for but a moment.

Ahem.

FUCK! KISHIMOTO!

Do you have any goddamn idea how hard it was to piece together a goddamn semi-coherent timeline of events? Do you? Pretty fucking hard. Kishi's such a goddamn grand world builder, but holy shit can he be incompetent as a writer. I worked for hours- fucking. Hours. To try and figure out the timeline prior to the Third World War. Do you- do you know how hard that was? It sounds easy as shit- BUT OH BOY. He managed to make it nearly impossible to piece everything together. He fucked up doing nothing. That's all he had to do. Make the events prior to the canon as vague as possible, so that we could fill it in. But he still fucked that up somehow! He managed to give just enough details that things have to happen a specific amount of time away from each other. Like- like, for instance, our dear, dear Sannin. The Sannin had to have been born before Hashirama and Madara died, correct? We have canon confirmation that Tsunade knew Hashirama, at least from the age of a toddler. BUT! At what point does Madara leave the village? How old were the founders when the Village was started? When the fuck does Hashirama die- WHEN THE FUCK IS THE FIRST WORLD WAR? Because Hashirama has to die between Madara leaving the village and the First World War and Jesus Christ, Tobirama has to be Hokage long enough to put all the shit that he did into play (the academy, the police, etc). It wouldn't be hard, but I tried. I tried so hard to keep things as canon as possible, tried my damnedest not to make shit up to fill it in. But Jesus. It's sucked. And I haven't even finished! Because I'm stuck with a Sannin until the end of the series or he dies, I have to find out the amount of time between each major event in the series and I just- I just- Don't even get me started on Jiraiya and his multitude of students, or Minato! Minato exists in his own goddamn timeline, I swear.

Gah.

Okay. Rant done. Carry on.

-Infernokota