Author's Note: Hey everyone I realized that I have to perform a few slight edits in the prologue. I have long since decided that this story will not be a Naruto/Erza or Naruto/Mirajane pairing much to the dismay of many of you I'm sure. On a side-note neither will Itachi be paired with either one of these lovely ladies. However this does not mean that either Mira or Erza will not get a pairing with a canonical Fairy Tail character or any character imported in this story from the Naruto universe. Also I will not use a lot of Naruto characters in this story ( well that's unless you guys suggest what characters you would want to see in a poll, although I reserve the right not to add Sasuke and Sakura to this story). Oh you guys are welcome to vote and make suggestions on the pairings for everyone else apart from Itachi and Naruto.
Fairy Tail: The God's Apprentices
Chapter 1: Training the Runts Part 1: Early Days
Hiruzen had got way more than he had bargained for when he had made the decision to raise the two boys.
First off he had to abandon his newly restarted wandering life and find a safe place to settle and build a home for his two young children. He moved back to his hometown and bought a large piece of land with his rather vast resources he had acquired over the years from dark guild eradication. Hiruzen set forth in building a large manor in which he employed only two servants as he wanted them to serve as the boys instructors as well when they grew up so that they would not be spoiled rotten but rather know how to take care of themselves as well. The old man wanted nothing but the best for his two surrogate grandchildren, whom in the rather short time he had been together with he had grown to love them strongly and want to protect them fiercely.
As a result of this strong attachment and rational fear for their safety, Hiruzen had not only ensured that Dilroy and Margaret (the maid and the butler) could handle themselves in a magical battle but he had even gone an extra mile and hired them based on the fact that they were previously S-Class guild affiliated mages who simply wanted quiet lives now and to live in the presence and under the guidance of a man with wisdom such as Hiruzen. Apart from this he had taken an extra serious precaution in the case of Naruto.
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Before even moving to the town of Ikitea, Hiruzen had enlisted the help of a rune and sealing mage and had used them to help him seal off some off the excess magic released by Naruto every now and again as a means to try and effectively stop him from attracting the wrong attention.
However due to Naruto's shockingly abnormally large magical reserves and just nature in general literally drawing magic in the air towards him it was quickly becoming a shock as to how Naruto was able to contain all the rather vast expanse of magic with no repercussions at present.
The sealing was rather successful however magic still reacted to Naruto as a very interesting factor and continued to invisibly wrap around him.
Hiruzen wondered what type of magic Naruto would possess when the time came but for now only one word came to his mind when he thought about the mysterious baby boy.
Epic.
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The small family moved into their house a year after being united and a month after it had been finished being built.
Now when it came down to the boys themselves Hiruzen had already drawn up assumptions on both. He suspected greatly that Itachi was exceptionally intelligent and that coupled with the boy's ability to sense magical presences gave Hiruzen the impression that once the boy learnt as much magic that Hiruzen deemed necessary to teach him till he chose his own path, then and only then would Itachi be a force to reckon with. That however as Hiruzen would soon come to learn was a narrow assessment of Itachi's skill.
Itachi according to Hiruzen's knowledge of him was already rather different from most children his age, however this ran deeper than a sense of maturity he had developed just within one year of his self-imposed task of being Naruto's older brother. This had everything to do with Itachi's deduction and reasoning skills however. Itachi's curiosity was more than your average childlike curiosity, he questioned about everything he had yet to understand even about things that a normal child would find mundane, and yet Itachi would somehow find something interesting about them. When Itachi was about five years old on a normal afternoon while returning back home from grocery shopping with Hiruzen, only then did the old man realize just how deeply the boy could think and reason with his young mind.
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"Jiji," Itachi said keeping a slow and even pace with his grandfather as he gave a sleeping two year old Naruto a piggy-back ride back to their house, " the man who gave Naruto to us a year ago was a powerful mage wasn't he?"
Hiruzen having grown accustomed to Itachi asking such random and out of the blue questions at times just answered the boy by stating," he should be I trained him myself."
Itachi kept quiet for a second before asking another question, "Why didn't he decide to raise Naruto then, does he have a lot of enemies?"
Hiruzen just cracked a small smile at this," that's exactly why he didn't take him Itachi, Gildarts has many enemies and he spends most of his time away from his guild to begin with and he takes many high level missions it's not the kind of life one would wish to raise a child in."
The two continued walking in silence after this only with the occasional hello to friendly passers-by and wearing serene smiles on their faces, well that was until Itachi made a statement that froze Hiruzen in shock.
"I know that Naruto's parents were strong wizards, also that they made a lot of enemies."
Hiruzen stood still frozen on the dirt road back to their house, trying to attempt to gather his bearings and begin to speak but however Itachi spoke again.
"It's okay you don't have to ask me how I know, I sort of overheard you while you were talking to that Gildart's man through a lacrima a few weeks back and it also helped me to put two and two together with how people are always staring at Naruto and whispering whenever I take him to the park or anywhere in general."
Hiruzen at this point resigned himself to donning a solemn smile and asked Itachi a question of his own just as they were arriving at the heavy oak doors of their home," so since you know all these things concerning your little brother, what's the conclusion around this matter that you've reached personally?"
Itachi just gave him a small but sincere smile as he pushed on of the doors open and said," all I can do is become a powerful mage so that I can protect him from anyone and anything, I know right now that there are enemies of his parents that obviously want to get revenge on him on their behalf and that they only stay away because of you, so I've decided to become his shield but I know one day judging by how much he hates people doing things for him even now as a baby he'll probably tell me to step aside and he'll become his own shield along with so many others…..I just know it."
Hiruzen just couldn't hide his beaming face at that exact moment as he felt so proud to be that young man's parent.
From that day onwards Itachi threw himself even deeper into his normal studies than before, along with reading up on different forms of magic and history of magic like a man possessed. However he still found the time to play with Naruto and also ensure that his little brother paid attention to his studies as well. All in all aside from being a genius in the sense that he grasped and attained knowledge of anything very quickly, Itachi was first and foremost a good older brother.
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While Itachi's personality was a rather warm breath of fresh air, Naruto's on the other hand was a complete one eighty to his older brother's.
Naruto was more free-spirited than his older brother. This was evident from the day he could walk and talk, he moved at his own pace and didn't care about the world's opinion of him as long as his family was happy then he was happy.
Another thing that was apparent was that Naruto was a trouble-maker and prankster, one who was damn good at his trade as well. Basically no one was safe from his pranks apart from Hiruzen and Itachi as they had playfully threatened him with actual public school if he pranked them, when this didn't work they made his pranks against them backfire and affect him instead. The hall of fame on failed Naruto pranks as Hiruzen and Itachi called it such as the time Hiruzen made his plan to douse him in blue hair-dye fail and Naruto looked like a member of a punk rock group for a week, or the time Itachi switched out their pillows after Naruto had switched them first to ensure that Itachi slept in an oil that cats found to be irresistible and ended up with the "incident" in which it resulted with Naruto being traumatized by even seeing or hearing the word cat.
Naruto also hated schoolwork and reading in general, however he wasn't necessarily dumb either as he just chose to focus his intelligence on his pranks.
Once when he was four years old, he somehow managed to prank all the attendees of a high social gathering by spiking their food and drinks with something that made all of them pass gas uncontrollably and continuously for six days with no other apparent reason than to have a laugh and this was when amidst a general large scale slew of complaints against Naruto that Hiruzen decided to have a talk with him.
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Hiruzen took a walk with Naruto in the rather large area of land behind their home that he had told the boys would be used for training their magic when he deemed them ready to finally learn.
It was a rather warm summer afternoon and Naruto wore a black vest with blue shorts and straw sandals, while Hiruzen wore a straw hat with along with a pure white traditional kimono and straw sandals as well.
The two walked along with smiles on their faces along with Naruto pointing out different bugs and trees to Hiruzen who just laughed here and there whenever the boy would make a silly joke about something.
The two arrived underneath a large leafy tree and decided to rest their backs against it for a while as they sat and just felt serene.
Hiruzen chose this moment to ask Naruto a question," Naruto why do you play these pranks on people?"
Naruto immediately shot up to his feet and faced his grandfather with a wide smile as he said," well because they're fun Jiji."
Hiruzen just shrugged with a sad expression on his face as he spoke again," I mean why do you continue to play them on people you have all the attention in the world from me and Itachi so I know it can't be a lack of attention, normally I would let you do as you please but so many people are upset with you these days I don't know what to do now so help me and tell me why."
Naruto's smile by this time had wavered slightly and finally he settled on having a rather sad smile on his face instead," it's because they deserve to have these pranks pulled on them Jiji."
Hiruzen looked closely at Naruto's change in behavior and sighed, "Explain."
Naruto explained everything to his grandfather, the reason he played so many pranks on people made sense. When Naruto played a prank on you then you really did deserve it as he explained that he only played pranks on those that treated others badly. As it turned out those socialites convoy had passed through the local market and without a care speedily swept by knocking over the poorer marketer's stands and ruining their produce. Naruto couldn't stand for this and decided to make a stand as payback consequences be damned despite his full knowledge that everyone would know it was him. When asked about why he tried to prank Itachi and Hiruzen himself Naruto said sometimes he just did it for the heck of it to people he was close too.
"Them's the breaks Jiji sometimes I just have to prank," Naruto said.
Despite him not fully liking Naruto's resorting to pranks to handle injustices Hiruzen realized that it was just as Itachi had said, that Naruto would one day stand to protect all those he felt needed protecting. Be it a person struggling against an unbeatable enemy, an orphan being bullied or even a troubled marketer, Naruto would help them because that's the kind of person he was and the kind of person he was going to become.
A hero who could not stand the thought of injustice.
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Hiruzen wondered whether it would be wise to start training the boys at the same time but decided upon starting Itachi's training first as he was the older one and much less likely to use magic to probably blow something or someone up (Naruto once almost set the house on fire with a rock). So at the age of seven, Itachi began his path to becoming a mage.
On a very cold winter morning around a month after Itachi's seventh birthday, Hiruzen led both boys into a rather open area of land in their large training grounds but with runes set up in by every conceivable designated area to withstand the use of even large scale magic.
Hiruzen turned to Itachi and said to the boy dressed in a long winter trench coat and black boots," you know why you're here today, don't you?"
Itachi simply nodded his head while Naruto looked confused and shouted," Jiji is this the place specifically designed to enhance my creativity and handle high level pranks!"
Naruto had stars in his eyes by this point while Itachi and Hiruzen had matching sweat-drops.
Hiruzen just chuckled as he thought, 'sometimes I wish he had more than just his father's looks Kami knows he could've used the brain but no I just had to get a second Kushina.'
Itachi however having dealt with Naruto on countless occasions even whilst Hiruzen went on walks around the village knew the best way to distract the boy for a while so that their grandfather could begin instructing him on the basics of his training said," your absolutely right Naruto the first lesson in how to be a better prankster is how to conceal your presence….can you do this."
"Hai ni-san," Naruto said before taking off into the light snow covered woods to try and hide his presence and shouted over his shoulder," I won't let you down ni-san!"
Hiruzen just stood there looking dumbstruck at a lightly smirking Itachi and said," it would've taken me an hour just to get rid of him so that you could train freely without him demanding I start his training too how did you do that?"
Itachi just shrugged with his usual somber smile," sometimes it's a gift and other times it's a curse," he said with a shudder.
Hiruzen just said," smart-ass anyway your first act in training is upon you take off your trench coat."
Itachi looked puzzled at his grandfather and said," but its cold out I'll probably get sick if I do."
Hiruzen would have none of this and levelled Itachi with a sickeningly sweet smile that promised pain if he didn't follow instructions.
Itachi took off the coat and remained in a pair of black jeans with his combat boots and a black v-neck t-shirt. He immediately started rubbing his arms to keep warm in the cold as he handed over the coat to his grandfather who then asked for his boots as well to which he complied and was left standing barefoot in the snow.
"Now," Hiruzen said in a voice Itachi had never heard him speak in before," when I am training you I won't be your sweet and caring grandfather I am training you to protect yourself and your young brother from all forms of dangers you will face when you both eventually leave my presence, so therefore expect no special treatment do I make myself clear."
Itachi nodded slowly to accept what Hiruzen had told him then listened attentively as he carried on with his explanation.
"I know that you probably think that magic comes from the heart and that any powerful emotion can awaken a person's potential and release the magic lying dormant within them right?" Hiruzen questioned Itachi.
"Yes grandfather," Itachi said with an air of formality," I know that an immense amount of happiness, sadness and even desperation can awaken magic in a person that would even almost otherwise be unable to use magic."
Hiruzen smiled slightly at this comment before he continued," you have a rare gift Itachi to be able to sense the magical power of others especially from a young age is truly amazing."
"Thank you for the praise grandfather but I'm sure you have a serious reason for that praise, something to do with using the magic within my own body I presume," Itachi stated as he still rubbed at his arms furiously for warmth and also tried to make out listen to his grandfather despite the blistering cold affecting his ears as well.
"Right you are Itachi and it's simple all I want you to do is unlock your potential to use your magic, the only catch being I'll only give you your warm clothes and let you into the house when you do," Hiruzen stated with a smirk.
Instead of groveling or complaining like a normal child would if they were to be given the same option, Itachi however simply thought back as to how he had once read in a book that clearing one's mind through the act of meditation could usually help them think and concentrate better.
So despite the cold snow beneath his feet and the death welcoming weather, Itachi assumed the position a monk assumes to meditate, shut his eyes and placed his hands in the palm of his laps as he attempted to force himself to think of anything but the cold.
"Such determination and a lack of hesitation in a child so young," Hiruzen thought as he began to walk away," my grandson you are going to be quite the man when you grow up and an even more powerful mage."
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Itachi had now been outside for a few days if he could hazard a guess as to how long he had been out there.
He knew for a fact that this was true, just like he knew for certain that this would be harder than he had thought it would be at first.
He had not eaten for days, however this was not due to being forcibly starved by his grandfather. No this was rather due to his own refusal to eat when either Naruto or Hiruzen brought him a meal.
On the first night of his forced meditation Itachi had heard Hiruzen forcibly dragging a protesting Naruto into the house for dinner, however he himself could hardly focus on his meditation due to his ravenous hunger and the effects of the cold that he felt was taking quite the toll on his body. About an hour after he was sure dinner time had ended Hiruzen he assumed that it was his grandfather at least pushed a plate of food down right in front of where he was meditating and he breathed a sigh of relief. The only thing at that particular point that Itachi could honestly think of was eating whatever was laid before him on that plate, not even the meditation, not magic, not training and not even the Kami forsaken cold….." Wait," he thought to himself "I don't even care about the cold anymore all I can think about is satisfying my hunger right now, if I can think of that and not even the cold can bother me then that means the meditation can work just as well to help me concentrate on unlocking my magic."
So rather than picking up that plate and demolishing the hell out of it like he desired. Itachi willed his mind to concentrate on how to unlock his magic.
Hiruzen smiled at this unbeknownst to him but all the same left the plate right in front of Itachi who carried on meditating as though he had not swayed just a few moments prior.
Itachi continued meditating well into the second and third day, by this time he had managed to all but put away all thoughts of the cold and food out of his mind to the extent that they both just represented a dull ache at the back of his mind.
By this point in time both Naruto and Hiruzen had stopped trying to get him to eat something. Itachi was thankful for this as most of the time said attempts involved Naruto chucking food at his head while he dodged despite meditating and keeping his eyes shut. He suspected that this was all due to the fact that he was also learning magic before Naruto and he felt that his little brother was jealous, this was also cemented by the fact that when Naruto tried to feed him he would shout, "Eat you pony-tail growing, all knowing genius, magic learning bastard!"
Where Naruto learned these insults from he would never know though he did suspect that the boy had picked them up from Dilroy their butler who had previously been a mage in a sailing guild before he retired and became a butler. You know what they say about a sailor's language so need he think any more of it.
Now the boy could think more clearly on the main reason he was out there; to unlock the use of his magic. Itachi already knew that magic came from the heart as some put it and as others put it from emotion, however he had tried processing any and all the emotions he felt would help him release his magic and they had all failed to work.
At this point Itachi felt like he didn't understand what he was missing to push himself past the proverbial door that had his magic locked behind it. He felt inadequate like all that time he had been hailed as a genius was pointless and that he would never be able to protect his young brother or his grandfather, heck even to protect Dilroy and Margaret they were family too last time he checked. He felt obsolete and weak just like he did the first time he had sought out Hiruzen in Crocus, there and then he felt that there was no difference between him and that little boy so lonely and alone on those streets, barely surviving on the scraps he would steal from the marketplace just to survive.
By some force of will however Itachi banished these thoughts from his mind as well. He knew he was loved but he still felt lonely and he hated to feel that way but for now he would confront that loneliness despite how hot it burned in his heart. After all he felt like he finally understood he didn't need magic to protect his family and the love he had for them was always going to be there but first he knew that he had to accept that loneliness was still a part of him that he needed to accept if he ever even wanted a chance at learning magic. So as if he were reaching out to grab a hand in the abyss of his mind, Itachi reached out and accepted the feeling of loneliness.
That's when the unexpected happened of course.
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"ITACHI!" Hiruzen shouted as Itachi's eyes shot open the first time in days and adjusted to the daylight with no surprising difficulty at all.
His grandfather stood a few feet away from him with an excited look on the old man's face along with a smile that was threatening to split his face.
"What's so interesting?" he asked.
Hiruzen just made a circular motion as to the area around Itachi with his hand prompting the boy to take a look at his surrounding and his eyes widened.
The entire section of the forest Itachi had been training had been thawed of snow and appeared burnt up even, the earth was scorched black and the trees were ablaze in an emerald green fire that was literally making it feel like a summer day for the grandfather and his grandson within the runes.
"Do you know-," Itachi had started to say before Hiruzen had lifted a hand to cut him short. "Demon-Slayer magic," Hiruzen said with his bright smile still in place," Don't ask me how I know that I've seen a lot of magic in my life-time, your eyes however I've never seen before but always thought they were a myth."
Itachi just looked on confused at his grandfather's last statement, however now that he thought about it something did feel different about the way he was seeing things. The world seemed slow almost as if it was a still-life portrait and he was a fast and meticulous painter with his body feeling extremely electrified and faster for some reason.
Hiruzen had gone inside and come back with a small mirror in his hands that he let Itachi examine himself in.
"What type of magic does this mean I possess jiji?" Itachi said while paying particular attention to his eyes.
"My dear boy, that magic you possess is the stuff that even legends want," Hiruzen said as he continued to marvel at Itachi's red eyes with one tomoe resting in each eye.
The Sharingan. Life was definitely doing Hiruzen Sarutobi favours.
By giving him a student with eyes that could control destiny itself.
"Itachi," Hiruzen said with a proud gaze fixed on his grandson," Time to go rest….tomorrow begins your real training."
A/N
I had been meaning to update my story but exams got in the way….. Hope you like this first chapter I'm basically still trying to re-create these characters from scratch so bear with me. The next chapter features a small time-skip and some stuff on Fairy Tail so you have that to look forward too. Before I get some complaints about Hiruzen's training methods all I can say is all will be explained in due time. Naruto wil learn his magic soon and it will be epic. Finally big thank you to Keamor123 on the Sharingan suggestion sometimes the classics work best. The demon-slayer magic is all me though we might not see him use it unless he is going all out which will be rare for Itachi in this story. By the way I just wanted to put this out there that this a NarutoxLisanna and ItachixCana fic. Please feel free to critique and r&r.
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Sneak Peak to the next chapter:
The street was empty and dimly lit, Itachi was certain that this was definitely the place that the mission parameters had talked about.
"Are we close to the target yet," said a brown haired girl with brown eyes, wearing a yellow sundress and Itachi's black leather jacket to fight off the cold night's air.
"Almost Cana," Itachi said to his temporary mission partner with a small sincere smile to the girl that got her to immediately look away blushing going totally unnoticed by him.
They approached a large abandoned church building at the end of the street and Itachi carefully pushed the door open slowly. They were met by a sight that they would probably remember for the rest of their lives.
There was a large hole in the roof of the church through which the moon shone through brightly illuminating the room as if it was light from a lacrima, but that wasn't what interested Cana or Itachi the most.
That position went to the girl standing in the center of the church hall with tears cascading gently down her face as she looked up at the moon. Her silver hair was long and hung loosely down past the back of the black cloak she wore. She had a face you could tell was beautiful even though they could only see her from the side, she looked to be around eleven years old just like them. All in all the sight was perfect.
Itachi quickly shook himself of these thoughts as he spoke first," I don't think it's safe to be around here Miss there are some reports of a monster around these parts."
"Tell me stranger," the girl said in a beautiful sounding voice, while never stopping to look at the moon," if I told you I had seen the monster what then would you do?"
Itachi just looked over his shoulder at Cana and gave her a signal to move back a bit, an action she begrudgingly took.
"Then I would do what I came to do Miss, that is I came to protect the townspeople from it."
The girl simply carried on to ask," what if the monster had a family it wished to protect?"
"Then we would help them, but the monster would have to stop terrorizing the townspeople first," Cana said as she put on a brave face.
The girl simply nodded her head slowly and turned to face them both.
Both Itachi and Cana's eyes widened at what they saw.
One of the girl's eyes was pitch black with a vertical scar running across it, a black clawed hand poked out from her black cloak and her mouth curled up on one side in a rather sinister smile while the other side of her face was still solemn and she was crying from one eye.
"I'm Mirajane Strauss, I'm the monster you're looking for."
