Shadow of Life

By Benjamin Shinar

Disclaimer: I'm saying it once and only once, I don't own Naruto, I do own the plotline of this fic.

Another thing: English isn't my native language, so some grammatical mistakes might occur; I hope they aren't that bad.

Italics are Naruto's lines

34 years since the 4th died, 34 years since the Kyubi was sealed inside of me, 34 years of sharing my body with that demon. 22 years since I first knew about it, 21 years since our first meeting, 19 years of hearing he thoughts inside my head, telling me to tear the flesh of my friends and enemies, 19 years of his whispering from the inside of my mind. 5 years since the last Hokage of the leaf died, 5 years that I didn't fight for my ex-dream, 2 years after I turned down the offer to become the 6th, I'm not the Hokage, because I found what I was looking for.

For the first time in my life, I didn't mind being stared by others, I was hunted by the race to become the Hokage for years, but I realized I didn't need the title, I didn't need the whole villages acknowledgement, just the people I cared about, my friends and her, Hinata. In the 10 last years I realized my I'm attracted to Hinata, after one of the B rank missions she was assigned to she changed drastically, she got over her shyness and made herself a worth heir to the hyuga clan, but more than that, she opened herself towards others, and soon we got together, resulting in our marriage 8 years ago and our 4 years old girl. Everyone attended to her birthday party Gai, Kakashi, Sakura and everyone else, besides Sasuke. His race for revenge against Itachi resulted in him joining forces with Orochimaru, but even with the sacrifice of his freedom, he couldn't avenge his clan.

Sasuke's death was the starting shot for the atsuktsi plan; they visited each hidden village and tried to assassinate the kages. Luckily for the leaf, the 5th has sent Shikamoru's team to spy on that organization, that gave us a few days warning before they came, Tsunade called back all the jounins and had each chunin to set up traps and escape roots filled with traps, she wasn't the type to die easily and she planned to live until the rock face will be perfectly sculptured to fit her imaginary image as a 25 years old beauty contest winner. I already knew that organization lost 2 of his members, bringing them down to six at all, Secretly I hoped that Itachi will be one of the three that will come, I had to know what really happened to Sasuke, at that time I just knew he trained with Orochimaru and died, but that wasn't enough for me, I owed it to Sasuke and to the memory of the Uchiha, I had to know the truth.

So I decided, the night before they came, I went out alone and visited the town they were hiding inside, I knew it was a bad idea, for the past few years I too was a target of them, but I wanted the chance to talk with Itachi before the fight, after 3 hours of sitting on a bench in the middle of a street a small boy came, he gave me a note with the Uchiha clan symbol on it, I released that boy from the genjutsu they had cast on him and read the note, it was a invention to a moldy coffee house in the out skirts of that town, the signature was left blank, most normal ninjas would have called for reinforcement at that situation, I'm probably the only one who would have followed the orders, even though it was the most obvious trap I ever seen, I didn't care if the three of them are waiting for me there, I didn't care if I'll die the moment I enter that coffee place, I could have thought about over a hundred ways to set me up traps before I even came close to that place, but I really didn't care about that, I got to that coffee shop, he sat there alone, he wore a disguise and perfumed himself, but I could tell from they way he held he's cup that he's a ninja, he probably didn't even try to hide from me, it was just for the show, nothing more than a way to trick the lesser ninjas around, I sat down in front of him, he said "so you wanna know about sasuke?", I nodded "well, I should probably kill you, but I'll let you live to hear the story"

"He came to me 3 months ago, after years of hard training with Orochimaru, apparently Sasuke made a promise that he'll allow Oro to pass the curse seal to the final state only when he kills me, when I saw him could tell easily that he has improved enough to make this fight worthwhile, so I didn't finish him right away, the fight begun with his summoning technique, as I expected, Oro has thought him to call "manda", that giant snake sure can be a nuisance, but then again, Oro has always been one, I noticed that from the beginning of the battle, Sasuke has already been relying on that seal, I guess Oro wanted him to do it more and more, that way he'll be easier to take over once he kills me."

He's continued telling me how that fight went on, only stopping to take a sip of his coffee, the waitress were always young normal girls, who just thought we are two business men talking about our latest deals,  except for one, she was overexcited and hyper active, just like anko is. There were a lot of rumors about the new hidden rock village kage; they said he was an inexperienced anbu with no leadership skills outside of the battlefield, most likely he decided to send all the genins to train outside of their countries, an act that no sane kage will ever think about. After he finished his story, Itachi said "to conclude, Uchiha Sasuke is no more, and now it's your time to leave the leaf, nine tails, if you can't do it yourself then we'll just have to take you out by force" I was getting ready to fight when that waitress ninja came in shouting something about a royal princess who wandered off to this town, I used that split second to get out of that place, I wasn't enough to fight him and his friends, whoever they are, I broke into a public bath place, they must have made some plans to follow me, so I decided to get rid of the smell and everything else they could use, when I came out I used my sexy no jutsu and stole some woman's clothes, walking around in high heels is very, very embarrassing…

When morning came the next day we were all very surprised, we knew from Shikamaru's report that they'll move in groups of 3, but we only 2 came by, we assumed they'll make a commotion and try to catch the 5th off guard, but they came in a right in,  without hiding themselves or  doing anything sneaky, Itachi and Kisame just stood in front of the village, a rather useless act unless you have some hidden plan to get to the target and get far enough before anybody notices the target is gone. About that time we made our first mistake, we started the to make sure that Tsunade is still around and not kidnapped yet, we focused on Tsunade and didn't notice there was one extra ninja around, some say they saw it and thought it's Anko, for the mysterious ninja had the same kind of movement. When that ninja came close to me I tried to tell him to go back to his post, but the words didn't come out, my sight also started to bulrush, and I felt a hand holding me from the back, I realized that the operation wasn't to kill Tsunade, but to get me, and the kyubi inside of me.

I woke up in a dark room, tied up and examined by six people, I was still not in my complete senses because of the contest drugs they gave me, but I could here one particular voice, it was the waitress from that coffee shop, but she was much older now, an oba-san over 40 years old, she said some weird things such as "look how skinny he is! Who feeds the boy anyway?" and an occasional "my late mother should be so proud!" At the first weeks they just tried to make me pull out as much of the kyubi's chackra, they throw me off cliffs and made me walk up a waterfall, they wanted me to burn out all my chackra so they could see how much of the demon's power I can use, that was the fun part of torturing, after those weeks they combined the mande sharingan and high level genjutsu in order to make me relive each night at the place where I grew up, I never asked anyone where that place was because I never wanted to go back there, the women who worked there hated me, even as a baby in the orphanage, they never held me up in their arms or even looked at me when they fed me ,not only that, but they also separated me from the others, I was kept in a closed room, most of the nights I cried for hours and nobody came to check on me, I left that place at my first chance, somebody, perhaps the 3rd, got me a room at a  ninja academy basement out of the village, I was 5 years old when that happened, I was happy that no one heard me cry anymore, it was then that I realized I'm being treated different than others, the village hired this place to take care of fallen ninjas children and keep them in order, so most of the kids had visits from their parents family or friends, but I didn't, I was just sitting in my room all day, it was the loneliest time of my life, and they made me relive it over and over.

I was sure that reliving those days of loneliness is the best they have, but nothing prepared me to the shocking statement I heard from that lady one night, she whispered to me she'll tell me about my parents, I didn't think for even a second she'll tell me the truth, but whatever lies she can make up will not I come close to the suffering I felt from reliving those memories, so I acted like I'm interested, she started her story in a slow phase, trying to make it sound real "the story of your birth beguines 20 years ago, when my mother had a revolution in her dreams, she was told that the kyubi will come to the leaf soon and that harnessing his power will lead to the unification of the countries into a single powerful realm, that can take the leading position of the strongest among them all, but for that dream to come true, the demon must be caught inside a container, so that his power will not be wasted on sense less destruction, but on building the new kingdom, so I went to the leaf and.. " the lady's facial expression suddenly changed, her face weren't cold any more, but soft and full of mother love, her movements changed from dangerous and venomous to a gentle step, often seen in young careless girls, the fearsome thing wasn't the change, but the fact she didn't use henge no jutsu or even changed a single strand of hair, but it still seemed that a new person bloomed out of her, she touched my chick softly " I went out to seek the best man to become the father of the container, he had to be strong and skilled, not to mention good looking *giggle*, I easily found someone who matched those requirements, I made him fall in love with me, and soon we became lovers, but nobody knew about us, I got him to swear not to mention it to anyone, I didn't want people snooping around on me, the plan was very complicated, if I was discovered I would be killed on the spot, and so, 16 years ago I took the special elixir which made me pregnant the next time I was with him, my mothers careful calculations were right, and I gave birth the day the kyubi came, just in time to offer you as the container for the demon, the 4th probably thought I'm willing to give everything I have for the village which I love so much, he didn't know what my plan really was. I snuck out of the village that night, and since your father died that night, nobody knew who you were, so I left you there, to grow and become strong like your father, and swore to take you when you'll be ready"

Her story was finished, I forgot it was just a story she used to get me out of balance, I completely collapsed, I couldn't breath right, I managed to whisper "are you my mother?", she looked me straight in my eyes and said "yes, my son, I am" that's the last thing I remember from there, the rest of the time passed in a haze, I wasn't sure what is real anymore, I wasn't sure if I'm asleep or awake, I didn't know if I'm even alive, that story banged through my head as well as the memories, and now even more horrific memories appeared, the hardest one was a blur picture of someone standing before me and my new mom at the back, it was inside a cave filled with blood, it was a rainy night and the stench of death rose from the outside.

*********Chapter one – Cradle of the Fox – End**********

so, what do you think? Good? Bad? Long? Short?

I have the fic ready until the end (I'm currently working on the sequel, so it's not the real end, but you got the point) so I update once a week, at the weekend, length of chapters can change, but will consist at least 2000 words of pure story, granted!

Plz Review, I'll answer any questions!