The Seventh Face
Author: DarkRulerDominica
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All right everyone, I'm back with a freshly-baked fan fic, piping hot from the oven of my imagination. This time it's a Naruto story, called The Seventh Face.
This thing has taken me a few years to write, and I've been coming back to this on and off, throwing in a few ideas that happen later in Shippuden. MANY OF THE POINTS IN THIS STORY WERE EARLY SPECULATIONS ON MY PART FROM THE TIME IN 2007! MOST OF IT DOESN'T COINCIDE WITH THE CANON STORY, BUT AGAIN THESE WERE MY SPECULATIONS THAT I FORMED INTO AN AU WORLD FOR THIS FANFIC AT THAT TIME!
NOTE: ALSO, WHEN I STARTED WRITING THIS IT WAS AROUND THE TIME WHEN MOST FANS THOUGHT THE AKATSUKI LEADER WAS MINATO NAMIKAZE. WHILE WRITING, THERE WERE MORE SPECULATIONS THAT THE LEADER WAS TOBI/OBITO, SO AGAIN I CHANGED THAT. FINALLY, THERE WERE MORE RUMORS THAT MADARA WAS THE LEADER AND HAD SOMEHOW TAKEN CONTROL OF OBITO'S BODY (SOME FAN DRAWINGS SHOWED THAT MADARA RETAINED HIS PHYSICAL FEATURES EVEN AFTER DOING THAT); I DECIDED TO KEEP THAT VERSION IN THIS STORY.
The story (aside from the prologue and epilogue) is set in the Time Skip/Shippuden timeframe, approximately after the Sasori VS. Team Kakashi fight. Here in this story's timeline, Sakura kills Sasori, and Gaara is rescued, but Deidara doesn't lose his arm. Team Kakashi never goes to meet Kabuto, because Sasori never gave Sakura the information – everyone simply returns to Konoha to resume their lives (the Akatsuki VS. Team 10 fight has happened, though). Danzo, Yamato, and Sai don't show in this story. No Team Hebi, either.
I took great liberties playing around with the timeline, and tweaked with character personalities. I had speculations regarding why Itachi killed his clan, and I wrote my speculation in this story (of course, my theory was totally wrong it turns out T_T). I know my reason goes a different route from the reason stated in the canonical story, but again, THIS WAS MY CONJECTURE BACK FROM 2007 WHILE I WAS STILL READING THE DEIDARA VS. GAARA ARC.
SPOILER WARNING!
I altered some of the original chronology for this account. I also have Orochimaru as the main antagonist in this fan fic because he had seemingly posed the biggest threat in the storyline at that time.
In this story, Itachi joined ANBU in March, became ANBU captain in August and later slew his village in October, all in the same undetermined year. Following, he wandered for about a year then joined Akatsuki. Four years after that, Orochimaru entered the group (shortly before he infected Sasuke with the Cursed Mark).
What I'm saying is, if there's a character present that's not supposed to be there, I'm aware of it. I've been reading/watching Naruto for years and am up to date with the manga. ARTISTIC LIBERTIES!
YAOI WARNING!
There is a yaoi-ish part later in the tale that involves the Orochimaru and Itachi. However, I based it purely on his actual persona, so it's expected. Just wanted to give warning, though.
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I'm going to include a glossary at the beginning of each chapter because I use some Japanese words in this story.
Here's the glossary for this chapter:
"Kiseru": a long, slender metal pipe
"Obon": an annual festival in Japan in which people honor their dead loved ones, and supposedly, when the spirits of the deceased can return to Earth
"Konpeitou": brightly colored, star-shaped Japanese candies
Okay, here's my fourth fan fiction, The Seventh Face. Please read and review!
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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Summary: After slaying Orochimaru, Sasuke sets out with murder on his mind to pursue Itachi in revenge for killing their clan. However, Sasuke learns the horrible secret as to why his brother did it and realizes he may have more in common with Itachi than he initially thought. (Semi-canonical in that the events that led to the Uchiha clan extermination are different here.)
Rated M for language, violence, and a moderate yaoi scenario (OrochimaruXItachi).
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"Pauci dinoscere possunt vera bona atque illis multum diversa; nocitura toga, nocitura petuntur militia."
(Few people can distinguish between true good things and their opposite; in city or war camp, we seek what will be our ruin.)
-Juvenal, Satirae, X,3,8
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Prologue
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"Another year's already passed? Where does the time go?" The old man puffed pensively on his kiseru, the spiced smoke wisping through his teeth. The annual Obon festival would start in the evening, and it baffled him that the interval since the previous and the immediate celebration had seemingly blended into an indecipherable moment in time. "I swear… these years get shorter and shorter."
He stood in a hilly meadow that overlooked Hi no Kuni's village of Konohagakure. The ninja city lay nestled at the foot of the Hokage face cliff, which displayed mammoth carvings in the likenesses of the land's Hokage past and present. He gazed at his stone counterpart and sighed regretfully. "Wish I was still that young." He was the current Hokage, the strongest ninja in the country. He had lived to a ripe age, owning to the fact that no wars had broken out in Hi no Kuni or elsewhere since his instatement. "When I'm good and dead you can elect another Hokage – don't be doing it while I'm still kicking," he would insist to the land's political lords whenever they expressed concern about his advancing age and the urgency to inaugurate his successor before he succumbed to death.
A flaxen-haired girl no older than eight ran up the grassy incline, her wooden geta slipping off her feet. "Grandfather! What are you doing up here? We have to get ready for Obon!"
He crouched down to meet her outstretched arms with a hug. "Yes, I know, Kiyomi. Your ojii-chan just came up here to get some fresh air," he chuckled. She flew into his arms, nearly knocking him over. "Ow, my back!" he winced as he embraced her.
The girl tugged on his hand. "C'mon, c'mon! I wanna show you my new yukata – it's pretty!"
"Calm down, Granddaughter," he urged kindly.
"Awww, but we're gonna be late!"
He patted her head. "We have plenty of time – the festivities won't start until sundown." He reached into his pocket and retrieved a package of brightly-hued konpeitou candies. "These are for you."
Her lipid-blue eyes sparkled and she took the treats. "Thank you!" She snipped the bag open with her teeth and poured a few of the star-shaped confections onto her palm before eating them.
He beamed. How she reminded him of himself at that age.
She held the bag out to him. "Want some?" she offered.
"Don't mind if I do." He plucked one from the package and placed it in his mouth. He turned his attention back to the stone cliff, reflecting on past times.
She noticed her grandfather's actions. "Grandpa," she asked, licking the sugar off her hand; she too stared at the figures. "Who's that man? He wasn't one of the Hokage… was he?"
He knelt beside her and draped an arm over her shoulder. "Why don't you first tell me who you recognize in the faces?" he playfully quizzed her.
"I see… the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and you. But I don't know who he is," she said, pointing at the smaller likeness carved on a jutting outcrop a conspicuous distance away from the row of leaders.
He placed the pipe in his mouth. "To answer your question, no, he was not a Hokage. He was, however, a great hero of this land, and we have him to thank for ridding the countries of a great menace."
She tilted her head, sending her short pigtails spilling downward. "Huh?"
His eyes unfocused on the present and sharpened on the past. "There was once a terrible man named Orochimaru. He was originally part of a trio known as the Sannin -"
"My brother told me about the Sannin! He learned about them in history."
He ruffled her hair affably. "Yes, they were famous. But he was responsible for many bloody battles." He pointed at the third's gigantic head. "Orochimaru killed the third Hokage. I was a boy when it happened."
"He killed him?"
"Indeed. That young man etched in stone defeated Orochimaru, and that's why he's a hero." He breathed out the spicy smoke. "His name was Uchiha Sasuke, the last of the Uchiha lineage."
"Oh," she nodded, eating more of her candy in awe, unable to comprehend the significance of the surname 'Uchiha'.
He smiled at her. "Would you like to hear a story, Ki-chan?"
A thrilled grin stretched her lips. "Yes! I love your stories!"
"All right, then," he said, sitting down on the grass. She lay on her stomach and propped her chin in her hands.
"Now, although Sasuke was remarkable, he was very sad."
"Why?"
He sighed and held his pipe in his grasp. "When he was about your age, his brother did something terrible, something that made Sasuke hate him." He tipped out the ash in his pipe. "His brother killed their family."
Her eyes rounded with alarm. "Why?"
"Calm down, I'll get to that," he explained. "You see, his brother was powerful, and although Sasuke tried defeating him in revenge, he couldn't match his strength. Sasuke left Konoha to train with Orochimaru to get stronger."
"But wasn't Orochimaru bad?"
"Patience, child… patience." Drawing on the kiseru deeply, he exhaled the smoke, which coiled like a pale serpent twisting its way up to the heavens. "Sasuke eventually stopped the Sannin's reign… and that is where my tale begins…."
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NOTE: I realize Sarutobi technically died when he performed the Death Reaper Seal, but Orochimaru impaled his with Kusanagi before that. Impaling someone purposely sort of constitutes as killing.
Okay, the remaining tale will take place in the Time Skip/Shippuden era. You'll have to wait until the epilogue for Ojii-chan and Kiyomi's return.