-bows and then waves- Hiyo awesome readers! I got reviews telling me the plot is pretty interesting!
-beams- I tingled inside! ~The good way!~ ;D
I thank you for sticking around, and I will have tons more other interesting plots out way later, but for now I do hope you enjoy this one. The 1st chapter was a little intro, not the prologue, but from now on the next chapters will be longer, and quicker to update! So I give you this chapter as a thank-you for not killing me because of the suppah long update present!
Shuichi: A present that's a year late?
-sputters-
Shuichi: heh, oh yeah, I quit! You didn't like my last disclaimer, so why should I even bother? I traveled all the way from Japan just to be here with my best friend, and then Zas! You don't even appreciate all that I do for you and then you-
Errr...Shuichi is having her man period...don't mind that I say man period when my friend is a girl. I like saying it like that, doesn't matter the gender...so scroll down and read before she notices.
Shuichi: WHAT DID YOU SAY??
Meep! -cowers-
The Sun and His Shadow
Chapter 2: Deeds of the Past and Present
Age 5: Graduated from the Ninja Academy; top of his class.
Age 6: His first kill during a genin mission, about 3 months later got promoted to chunin.
Age 7: Saved a village from savage bandits, one of which would later become a prominent daimyo of the land of mist.
Age 8: Passed the jounin exam.
Age 10: Assisted Yondaime in many S-class underground missions.
Age 11: Became the youngest Anbu Captain of Konoha.
His name?
Uchiha Itachi.
Said-person is floating alone in a sea of darkness. Yes, you read correctly, a sea of darkness.
How?
Well, maybe venturing into Itachi's mindscape should help clear things a bit.
For a very long time, I've been considered a prodigy. The day I was born, my father would always boast at any chance he got that I came out of the womb silent. That is considered the signs of a genius.
I considered it a birth defect concerning my vocal cords. Raised to be the heir of the Uchiha Clan, I was taught to be a fighter.
A killer.
A ninja.
An Uchiha.
I've always had a photographic memory, even before the Sharingan formed. I never found it necessary to rely solely on my eyes, although I can't say that about the rest of my clan. Maybe that's why the Uchiha clan didn't survive?
Hmmm...getting too ahead of myself.
Right after I passed the chunin exams,(I was the only 8 year old there...sad to say, the participants lacked a certain quality) Minato Namikaze, or Yondaime as many people knew him, had just become the Hokage of Konoha.
Hearing about my accomplishments and vastly interested, he assigned me as his personal guard, always to be near him at all times unless stated otherwise. I found it a privilege, since it seemed he didn't need one, even though no one knew. I was always required to wear my anbu mask, and had to be invisible even when a Hyuuga was near.
As I spent less time with my family, (they thought I was trying to get out of taking care of Sasuke) I grew a bond of sorts with Minato. He became like my first official friend, ignore that he was more than twice my age. I had the mental and physical capacity of an anbu captain, but I choose to try to act my age(I was 10 at the time). I couldn't seem to get the act right. Minato laughed when I told him this. Although I did hear him mumble something about "anti-social killer in the making", and "personality of a grumpy old rapist."
I didn't even bother to think much about it.
Then around that time, Minato's hidden mate, Uzumaki Kushina, found out she was pregnant. Interesting enough, I found out whenever Kushina came to visit the office she seemed to make Minato sweat in fear. Whatever she wanted, you'd see him use his famed shunshin to get it. I would usually keep tabs on the exotic and odd things Kushina was craving that day. Sort of a hobby for me.
As the days grew nearer to her due date, the 31st of October, reports started to come in about a possible attack. Fearing the worst, Minato prepared for war, calling back all ninjas to protect their village. As the ground shook the evening of the 9th of October, it dawned on Minato he would be facing not a human attack, but an attack of that of a beast. A nine-tailed beast, the most powerful of them all.
A battle like many have never seen since the 3rd Great War, was taking place at the entrance of the Konoha Gates.
Hmm...but that was such a while back. I'm starting to make myself feel old just trying to recall what happened before I got here...
Wait...where is here?
Turning his body around in a lazy manner, Itachi seemed to sigh in bliss.
I haven't felt so relaxed since I was born. This soothing feeling that surrounds me, I don't care where I am, so long as I can always feel like this.
Groaning in content, he slowly opened his eyes, blinking in confusion at the girl in front of him.
Not more than 5 feet, she seemed to cock her head to the side, soft blue hair falling around her face and past her shoulders in a cute-impish sort of way. Yellow-cat like eyes stared at him, as she clutched her silky black dress that came down to her knees. No shoes adorned her pale feet, but a plush brown doll hanged precariously on her back. Her body seemed to glow with a calming aura, similarly to the one wrapped around him. "Ello."
"Hn."
Giggling, she let go of her dress, seemingly content with his unresponsive answer. "Now I know where he got his speech ability from."
Narrowing his eyes, he looked around the place he was being held, silently taking in that they were both floating in a void-less space of some sort.
"You're almost correct, although I wouldn't expect anything less from the Uchiha's prodigal son." Stretching out her left palm, the unknown place was flooded with light, making him narrow his eyes even more. Questions of "Where am I?" and "Who are you?" popped in his head. But being Itachi, he re-framed from asking such.
"You're in what you humans know as Limbo. A timeless place where you are judged for the actions of your past life then sent to possible other destinations." Itachi's passive face stared back into the childish one, making the child squirm in discomfort. She puffed out her cheeks, seemingly hating the silence. "You Uchiha's don't care much for conversation, do you?"
Lazily shrugging, Itachi continued to make the unknown child uncomfortable, shifting his weight to where he seemed to be propped up on an invisible chair.
Sighing in aggravation, the blue-haired child floated around his body, seemingly eyeing him up as if he was her next morsel. Letting a grin that seemed to split her face up in two, hundreds if not thousands of doors seemed to appear behind her, all of them a shade of different colors.
Pointing a finger in his curious face, she cleared her throat. "I am the weaver of life and death. I have no name and yet many names, the most common of them Fate." Snapping her fingers, the first row of doors opened up, showing him familiar figures.
"Itachi, son, make the Uchiha clan proud!"
"Itachi, don't forget to clean up your room!"
"Why can't you teach me? We both know your better then dad, aniki(1)!"
"I swear Itachi, you act like a grumpy old man! Live a little! And that's a command coming straight from the amazing Yondaime!"
"Don't listen to him Itachi-kun. Honestly, Minato, I still don't know what I see in you! You act like a pubescent child!"
"Yondaime-sama! We have distressing news from Jiraiya-sama. The demon Kyuubi is attacking!"
"-and I say this with a heavy heart as your reinstated Hokage, that your beloved Yondaime has wished for you too look upon Uzumaki Naruto as our savior."
"You are being charged for the death of Uchiha Shisui."
"Uchiha Itachi, welcome to the Akatsuki."
"Tch, the famed Uchiha? Ain't I lucky. I'm your partner, Hoshigaki Kisame."
"He has the same eyes as you. Perhaps a relative?"
"Sasuke, why are you weak? It's still not enough."
"Naruto-kun, why are you so obsessed with my little brother? He's a missing-nin, right?"
"It's because, I, at least, think of him as a brother... a hell of a lot more than you ever have!"
"It's time I fulfill my goal, Itachi. Prepare to die."
"...I never meant to hurt you Sasuke. All of this was to protect you. You were, and always will be, my precious baby brother."
Itachi felt the emotions that have always been drilled into him since his birth slowly crumble. Moistness built at the edges of his eyes, unaware and sadly unused. He grabbed at his head, flooding with literally hundreds of memories. He curled into himself, a defensive human like position.
"s-stop."
Fate crouched down, blinking at his trembling form. "You have very strong emotions that you've kept buried." Poking his side, she tilted her head, playing with a lock of silky blue hair. "I thought that was a bad things for humans to do? Aren't you all supposed to be a social lot?"
"s-top!"
"You know, the last human that came to this purgatory state was about 16 years ago. Although my brother, Shin-chan, got to him before I could. What was his name? Arashi(2)? Mikago? Ugh, you know, I'm not very good with remembering nam-"
"STOP IT!"
Fate pouted, hating being interrupted. She sighed, waving her hand behind her, as if warding off someone. The multi-colored doors vanished, wisps of smoke taking their place. "You know, it's rude to interrupt your elders!" Laughing at her own joke, she skipped off, letting Itachi compose himself.
A few minutes later, a slighly trembling Itachi stopped beside her, right hand rubbing at his throbbing temples. Fate stared at him from her peripheral vision. "If it's any consolation, you were one of the few to not cry from the sheer overload of emotional sensory!"
Itachi narrowed his eyes, tints of red staining his pale cheeks. "Why am I really here?"
The blue haired child turned towards the Uchiha, pursuing her lips. "I told you already. You're here to be judged, based on your past actions, to your future destination."
Lifting an eyebrow, he crossed his arms in front of him, completely recovering from his embarrassing break down. "That's it? Then you might as well just send me to hell(3). I've known since the moment I spilled blood, be it for a good or bad cause, that I'd be sent anywhere other then heaven."
A melodious laugh greeted his ears, surprising him with it's soothing effect. "Itachi, Itachi, Itachi. You know, you're a very interesting human. It's such a shame to send you to the afterlife after all that you've been through. If only I could send you back-"
Eyes widening, she pumped a fist into her palm. "That's it! That's exactly what I'll do." Jumping from foot to foot, she grinned, extending her palms flat out. The same aura that surrounded Itachi when he arrived came out gushing from Fate's body, illuminating her in blinding light.
"What are you doing?" Sparkling eyes filled with mischievous intent made him twitch in warning. "Fate?"
"Seirei Shakuhou(Spirit Release)"
Her aura shot out of her palms, wrapping an unprepared Itachi in a bubble. Tapping the bubble with her index finger, she ignored the glare coming from the immobile raven-haired. "This is a yusuo, sort of like our version of a car."
"A what?"
"Woops, that's ahead of your time. Well, you can't blame me. You humans have too many eras of inventions I need to remember."
Continuing her lecture, she began to move around the yusou, the bubble like thing turning Itachi with her movements. "A yusou is an ancient transportation for us beings. Especially the more older and powerful. Those are called the Supreme Beings. I am one of those lucky few. Anyway, when a human is brought to this purgatory realm, your spirit is your own yusou, so the cantation I just uttered a while ago, releases your spirit, therefore wrapping you in a yusuo. As you can see, I'm not in one for the sole reason that I'm not the one going somewhere."
"If my spirit is my personal yusou, and I'm wrapped in one, then, doesn't that mean I currently don't have a spirit?"
Fate nodded, swiping a few strands of hair behind her. "Very observant. Yes, you currently don't have a spirit. The cantation, Serie Shakuhou, releases it to the place I commanded it to go."
Itachi, being his monotonous self, didn't reveal his inner turmoil. "I don't have a spirit? I do feel emptier then usual, -wait, 'place I commanded it to go'. What can she mean by that?"
Smiling in glee, Fate began to wave. "You know, you're not bad for an Uchiha. I'll see you in a while, but for now, try to keep this entertaining for me, k?"
A flash of light stunned Itachi, stopping him from voicing out his questions. Fate blinked, tilting her head to the side, in the place of the red-eyed human was her brother, furious. "Fateliaxishiterru, what have you done!"
Fate scrunched up her face, yellow eyes glowing ominously, completely wiping her usual happy facade. "Don't call me that, Shin-chan, you know how much I detest that stupid nickname."
"As do I detest that obsurd pet name you are fond of, but do not try to change the subject. You know as well as I do that particular human used up his remaining life years."
"Technically, they were forced out of him by the constant use of his eyes."
"Fatelia-"
"Oh, don't start with me, Shin. I'm over hundreds of thousands of years old, and yet you act as if I'm a few centuries old."
"If you would behave your age, maybe I wouldn't need to govern your actions all the time. And you've crossed the line on this one. You let him return back to his previous life, which has never been done before."
Fate crossed her left arm over her right, flicking the ends of her well-groomed fingernails. "One second, Itachi was there, the next woosh, gone. Maybe it was fate that lead him there."
Giggling at her own joke that second time today, she turned away from the massive form of her older brother. "I do not find that funny. Do you even know what consequences your actions have caused this time? Returning a soul back to the living, preposterous! Can't you ever think before you act?"
She huffed, her own anger building. "Do you even wanna know why I sent him back?"
"Enlighten me, sister. Since you've never done so to another human before that's been sent here to be judged."
Facing her brother fully, she squared her shoulders, letting the doll she carried with her, float into her hands. She smiled, enjoying the look of accumulating anger in his cold, onyx eyes. "Well?"
Swirling yellow clashed with glowing onyx, before three whispered words broke the tense atmosphere.
"I was bored."
(1) Aniki = Brother
(2) Arashi = The replacement name for Minato before the manga officially announced it. My friend thought it was a funny little thing to put there.
(3) = Yes, I know the Naruto manga is Japanese, therefore Itachi falls under the whole Japanese religion, but do remember, this is a Fanfiction, and as such, for the stories sake, they need to fall under what religion I know. I'm not a religious person, far from it, but the idea of a heaven and hell, to me, does exist. But, not the way the catholics or Christians believe it to be.
I'm thoroughly disappointed in myself to keep this and my other story, "Immortality is a Bitch" hanging all dry. I love this Thanksgiving break, it was a god-send! A much deserved me time from life. Hope you liked this chapter. Constructive Criticism is much appreciated!
:) love and kisses (:
