Author: Hello, everyone! Okay, this is my first fanfic on Naruto, and just as a warning, the characters may, and probably will, be out of character, so technically, you can't kill me. Right? And if you decide not to kill me, please review! :) All comments will be greatly appreciated.
Oh, and here's the disclaimer: obviously, I do not own Naruto or any of the characters and things in Naruto, or else I would have just made a whole different series or something. There.
So, here we go-
iLiKeChEeSeAnDcOoKiEs: Yesh! :)
Author: ... *sigh* Ummmm, yes? What do you want? *what am I going to do with her...?*
P.S.: I went back and edited this chapter...My description of Ayano was way too Mary-sue-ish, I think, among other things, so... Yeah. Read and Review!
The Lost Eyes—Chapter 1
The Rykugan—
A huge explosion shook the earth as I dove to the right. I only had a moment to perform the earth barrier jutsu that would shield me from the debris before they were on me again.
Left block. High block. Tck- A kunai in my shoulder sent a shock of pain to my brain and caused me to pause for a millisecond. High kick. Dive. Punch. Jump. Throw. A cloud of smoke covered the area as a result of the five shadow clones I had managed to kill.
I crouched in the center of the clearing. It used to be a forest, but the area had been destroyed due to our fighting. One of them kept throwing bomb after bomb, and the result was a smoking area full of rubble. My attackers had come out of nowhere as I was walking in through the forest, and I barely had time to dodge the barrage of kunai streaking towards me, let alone survey my opponents. Now, though, I saw that there were four figures, all wearing the same long, black cloak with red clouds and wide straw hats.
Wait a second. The rumors… It can't be- the Akatsuki? No wonder they're so powerful. I had heard rumors of a powerful organization known as the Akatsuki. No one knew who they were, what they wanted, or even if they were real. I had only been able to survive this long because of the Rykugan I possessed, which I assumed was also the reason they had come after me.
The Rykugan was an almost unheard of dōjutsu, and with its deep blue color and swirling black lines, it was as powerful as it was rare. The beholder could perform jutsus of every element, as well as summon a dragon if they were sufficiently trained, more or less powerful depending on the user's skill. I, however, was not. With the Rykugan's rarity, there was no one to teach me or my twin sister Chihiro, so we just trained each other. A lot of good that did us. All it did was get both of us captured and her killed by some power-hungry maniac. I winced inwardly at the sharp, painful memories brought back by the thought of my sister, but I ruthlessly pushed them back down, focusing on the task at hand.
After my sister died, I had sought out a blacksmith to create a sword that would both amplify my power and compensate for my rudimentary training. The Dragon's Fang was designed to channel and manipulate chakra, which made it much easier for me to control the elements. It would also aid in summoning my dragon, but I refused to do that after the events that transpired over five years ago.
I took the sword out and the dying sunlight glinted off the three foot long, shimmering blade, sending off a myriad of colors. Depending on how I swung the Dragon's Fang, it would release a fire, water, earth, wind, or lightening jutsu. The Akatsuki focused on the blade for a moment, the proceeded to attack with my renewed vigor.
Uppercut. Back slice. Spin. Diagonal. Side Cut. Fire. Water. Earth. Wind. Lightening. I had been throwing off a massive onslaught of jutsus, while simultaneously deflecting attacks from the Akatsuki. My stores of chakra were rapidly depleting, and my body had already undergone a large amount of physical abuse. I had shallow, but painful cuts covering my entire body, and darkening bruises mottled my flesh. There were several deep cuts on my thighs and upper arms, as well a puncture wounds where several kunai had pierced me. My black leggings and long sleeved shirt were in tatters; my long black hair was disheveled and soaked in blood. No amount of special help from my abilities or sword could make up for my lack of any substantial ninja training. Any skills I had I acquired through training with my sister or teaching myself, and I was nowhere near my opponents' level of skill. I was near my limit, and severely outmatched, but I would not give up.
I threw a torrent of icicles at one of them, and managed to puncture him a few times. That was probably the first time I'd actually gotten a hit in on on of the real Akatsuki, not just a shadow clone. He cursed and a huge expanding-scythe thing came out, streaking its way towards me. I ducked and missed it, barely, and just in time, too. After I blocked a series of kunai and shurikans and was preparing for a counterattack, a powerful and commanding voice rang out through the clearing.
"Enough."
I froze, as did the rest of the Akatsuki, and turned to see a figure stepping out from the desecrated ruins of the forest. He had fiery orange, spiky hair, as well as piercings along the side his nose and beneath his mouth. He also wore the Akatsuki cloak, but unlike the others, he exuded an air of power and authority. But it wasn't his striking appearance that caught me off guard- it was his eyes.
His eyes were grey with rings radiating from the center. I took a step back in surprise. Those eyes... he possesses the Rinnegan. This legendary dōjutsu was as rare, if not more rare than the Rykugan, and was much more powerful, infinitely more so when wielded by one trained in its uses. The first one with the Rinnegan was the Sage of Six Paths, a legendary man who had become the ten tails Jinchuriki, then sealed away the ten tails into nine other beasts. He was all-powerful, and no one else had been recorded who had the Rinnegan since him.
While I was staring in shock, I heard murmured responses of "Leader-sama" from the other Akatsuki surrounding me. They obviously harbored deep respect for this man, and I could easily understand why. He was probably extremely well-trained, and with those eyes, I had no doubt he was almost invincible.
Considering the position I was in, I had no chance. I was almost out of chakra and my body was in tatters. Both mentally and physically, I was exhausted. "This fight has dragged on for far too long," he said to the other Akatsuki members. "No matter what sort of dōjutsu she possesses, she is weak, and you should have been able to finish her off by now." Then, he turned back to me. "So far, you have managed to survive against these four. But I promise you, you stand no chance against me. I suggest you give up now, while you still have a choice."
Good luck with that. I already knew I wasn't going to win this fight, but I was not going to just lie down and die.
With this in mind, I readied myself for another attack, but not before I saw movement in the corner of my eye. I spun around to see a man who bore a striking resemblance to the fire-haired "Leader." He had the same hair, except tied into a ponytail, piercings, the Akatsuki cloak, and the Rinnegan. How… Is this the true power of the Rinnegan? Before I could do anything, he grabbed hold of me and shoved a cloth that reeked of something terrible into my face.
As my consciousness drifted away and my eyes slowly closed, I had time only to think, Dammit… Not again… as a single hot, salty tear streaked down my face.
(Five years prior)
"Check this out, Aya!" A girl of about 13 years performed an earth splitting jutsu that created a fifteen foot long, three foot wide fissure in the ground. Chihiro Kiyomizu was moderately chubby and stood at slightly less than average height. Her tan skin contrasted well with her iridescent, pale silver hair that hung in long, wavy locks to her waist. Chihiro's eyes were quite unusual; the deep blue color and swirling black lines showed that she possessed the practically unheard-of Rykugan. She was levelheaded, calm, and had an analytical and logical mind.
"Nice, Chio! Now try to beat this!" Ayano then executed a fairly large fireball jutsu. Before the deadly flames reached the trees, she called up a water barrier to extinguish them. In stark contrast to her twin Chihiro, Ayano was taller than average and all lean muscle. Jet black hair cascaded in straight sheets down to the middle of her back. Ayano was hotheaded, quick to anger, and often made irrational decisions based solely on her emotions. Such were their differences that the only thing they shared was the Rykugan.
Ayano and Chihiro looked at each other and grinned. They stood in the middle of a clearing that was cut out from thousands of acres of dense forest, far away from those would try to harm them.
A short, plump woman stepped out from the small wooden house at the edge of the clearing. Mitsuko Kiyomizu shared very few simalarities with her twin daughters; she was fair skinned, had emerald green eyes that sparkled in the sunlight, and a full head of scarlet curls that bounced up and down as she practically skipped over to Ayano and Chihiro, who looked with affection on their thirty-four year old mother.
When she reached them, she said, "Amazing! Simply amazing, my dears. You two have come so far, and I can't tell you how proud I am!"
Her eyes were shining with proud tears, and she went kind of overkill on the whole "adoring mother" thing, but that just made Ayano and Chihiro love her even more. Then, her green eyes flashed in anticipation as Mitsuko said, "Now try to summon your dragons, just like we practiced."
Ayano and Chihiro snapped into focus, and they stood at attention, spreading their feet slightly and bringing their hands together, palm to palm. Simultaneously they closed their eyes. At first, nothing happened. Suddenly, the two began glowing, their immense chakra shrouding the twins in a thick haze. Ayano's chakra glowed gold and Chihiro's chakra glowed silver.
The glowing haze began to shift; the chakra was coming to life and shaping into long, slender forms. Finally, the haze solidified into two twenty-foot long dragons: a brilliant golden one for Ayano and a shimmering silver one for Chihiro. The dragons began moving, twirling and twisting around the two girls.
After a moment, they broke off to stare at their summoners. Suddenly, Ayano and Chihiro opened their eyes, which were no longer the Rykugan. Instead, the pupil had morphed into a ten-pointed star, and the whites were now a deep blue. The girls stared at the dragons, talking to them through their minds, and the dragons began to perform a series of jutsus and attacks. Ayano and Chihiro were already communicating and training their dragons to attack for them, and their mother was amazed.
Mitsuko stared in wonder and was about to congratulate them—it was their first real summoning after all—when a deafening crash resounded through the clearing and shook the ground as the family's house disappeared into the dark abyss that had suddenly appeared, sending up and enormous cloud of dust. A huge shurikan hurtled out of the settling dust and buried itself in Mitsuko's chest just as she turned around. In shock, Ayano and Chihiro stared in horror, their dragons assuming a protective stance as a shadowed figure stepped out of the debris.
He was tall with a huge mane of black hair that looked rather like a hedgehog's. Ayano would have laughed, but she was too stricken with her mother's sudden death. Ruby eyes glinted in the dying sunlight, the mark of the Uchiha's Sharingan, and their special design showed that he also possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan.
The girls and their dragons prepared to fight, and dozens of ninja poured out of the settling dust. The battle raged on, and the twins and thier dragons were holding their own. But the longer the battle continued, the more exausted the untrained girls became, and they were slowly beaten back to the edge of the forest. The dragons were suffering from severe injuries, and when the girls called them back to avoid their deaths, the enemy ninja surged forth and captured the twins in an inescapable grip. Ayano and Chihiro kicked and fought, but could no break free. The hedgehog man stepped forward with a sneer on his hace.
"Struggle all you want, you pathtic little children. I will have those eyes." Ayano and Chihiro winced slightly at that, and he laughed.
"Damn you," Ayano screamed as tears of anger streaked down her face. "Let us go you freaky psychotic hedgehog!"
Chihiro, however, was much quieter. "Ayano, you have to calm down; we need to think this through." Chihiro was running thorugh all the possible scenarios in her mind, just as she practiced, but she knew that right now, there was no hope for her and her twin sister.
"I can hear everything you're saying, children," Hedgehog had a very bored look on his face. "And I can see what you're planning. So just give it up." With that, he turned away, laughing maniacallly, and walked off towards the other side of the clearing. "Hurry up and bring them. We have a long ways to go.
Three years later, Ayano and Chihiro sat back to back in silence, bored out of their minds without anything to do in this prison. It was damp, pitch-black except for the occasional lantern, moist, and reeked of decay. Ayano and Chihiro lived in this horrible, underground, rotting prison, ate the meager portions of food given to them, and worst of all, had to undergo torture every other day or so.
Suddenly, Chihiro heard footsteps coming down the hall and nudged Ayano out of her daydreaming. The twins stood, bracing themselves for another "examination," or rather, torture session, during which Hedgehog gave them a series of drugs and shots to see how their bodies and minds would react to the toxins, and it wasn't usually a very pleasant reaction. Oh, and don't forget the "testing their regenerative power." In other words, hacking off fingers and occasionally arms to see how well they grew back. Their powers were extremely useful, but they only went so far. Needless to say, these were not pleasant times for the twins.
Supposedly, all this was to force them into evoking their dragons and making Ayano and Chihiro into his mindless personal minions. So far, Hedgehog had been unsuccessful, at least as far as the twins were concerned. A couple times they had passed out due to an exploding pain in their minds and awoken several hours later to an unusually chipper Hedgehog, but that was it. Sometimes Ayano wondered if he didn't do it just for his own sick pleasure. He was a psychotic Hedgehog; who knew what was going on in that head of his.
One of Hedgehog's henchmen that always came to get them opened the door. As he did, an unbreakable hand cuff jutsu activated, sealing off our chakra and securing the twins' wrists together. As they walked down the dimly lit hallway, Ayano could make out his shock of white, spiky hair. "Hey, Albino Porcupine, why doesn't ol' Hedgehog ever come get us? Too lazy, huh?"
He didn't answer at first, but after a while when we reached a door, he stopped and said, "I would highly advise you to keep your snarky comments to yourself or you will suffer the consequences.
"Fine then, you Albino Porcupine pooper." Ayano stuck her tongue out at him while Chihiro sighed.
He growled at that and shoved Ayano and Chihiro into the dimly lit room. As her eyes adjusted, Ayano could see the ruby glint of Hedgehog's eyes. She stiffened in surprise, as did Chihiro; he didn't have his usual surgeon cronies. Instead, the only thing in the room was a gurney with restraining bands attached. Then Ayano and Chihiro both looked back at him, which was a big mistake; he instantly had them trapped under his genjutsu.
"It's your lucky day, girls." He chuckled menacingly as he led Chihiro over to the gurney and strapped her down, leading Ayano to stand beside him. She could barely hear him through the foggy haze that clouded her brain.
"You get to see me take out your sister's precious Rykugan, and hear her screams of pain. Then, I'll do the same to you, and let you experience it for yourself. I've learned all I can from you. You two are useless since I have been unable to extract the dragon from you."
Minutes, then hours passed as Ayano was forced to watch Hedgehog take the Rykugan out of Chihiro, as well as other body parts, presumably to experiment on later. That sick bastard was probably going to try to clone her or something along those lines, Ayano thought bitterly.
Ayano was frozen under Hedgehog's genjutsu, but inside, she was being ripped apart. Tears carved tracks in both Ayano's and Chihiro's faces. Chihiro's eyelids were shut tight, but blood streamed out from beneath them. Cries of pain came from Chihiro as sobs of despair broke out from deep within Ayano's chest. She was completely numb; dimly, she wondered if she would stay that way forever when she heard a loud thump!
Freed from the genjutsu somehow, she looked to where Hedgehog lay unconscious on the ground. A young man, about the same age as Ayano, slowly rose, sweeping his black hair out of his eyes.
His eyes… The Sharingan! Ayano thought as she let out a bloodcurdling scream and stumbled away from the other Uchiha.
"I'm here to help," he said in a pleading, quiet but deep voice as he did something to make the manacles fall off Ayano's wrists. "We don't have much time before Madara wakes up."
So, Madara is his name, Ayano thought. And this man saved me from him. But... he's an Uchiha… who's to say he's not just the same as Hedgehog…? Ayano decided to trust him, if only until she got out of there, and then she could run as far away as possible. Ayano felt herself nodding, and his lips twitched slightly as his ruby-red eyes became onyx. He turned and started to exit the room, taking her gently by the arm, but she stopped him.
"My sister…" she coughed out. Ayano turned back to where her twin lay, and used a water jutsu, pulling moisture from the walls and ground, to clean away the grime from Chihiro's body. When she was as clean as Ayano could get her, she lifted Chihiro off the table, with help from the black-haired man. Holding Chihiro by the shoulders, Ayano used the last of her chakra to form a preserving block of ice around her sister.
At last, Ayano stepped back from the block of ice, stared into Chihiro's deathly pale face, murmuring the words, "I'll be back, Chihiro, my sister, my twin."
As she fled the prison with the man, she asked him, "Since you rescued me and all, I think I have the right to ask your name. So…?"
He turned his face to Ayano, surprising her with his sharp, beautiful features, and replied, "Itachi."
Ayano smiled slightly for what felt like, and probably was, the first time in years and they raced off as fast as her wobbly legs could carry her.
I woke from the terribly reminiscent nightmares gasping and sweating. I saw I was on a decent bed with the sheet twisted around me from all my tossing and turning. Then I sensed a presence in the room and turned as best I could to see the dim shadow sitting near my bed.
The shadow leaned forward into the candlelight and I gasped as recognition and hope wormed their way through me. "Hey, Ayano," came the familiar deep but quiet voice.
Itachi.
iLiKeChEeSeAnDcOoKiEs: :)!
Itachi: Wait a second... you're here too? Oh, no...
Author: Hey! Be nice to her! Oh, and thank you, iLiKeChEeSeAnDcOoKiEs for reccomending me to your readers. And all you iLiKeChEeSeAnDcOoKiEs readers, is she not the bomb?
...Anyway, thank you so much for reading my story...
So... Bye! I'll update soon and please review!
