To everyone who took the time to review my first chapter, thank you! It means a lot to me, and your reviews and messages gave me some good ideas, especially you Roboguy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If i did, the Sharingan would be less godlike, because it gets boring to constantly say "Oh yeah, it also has THIS power to counter your hard work and genius!"
Chapter 1
Konoha was a village based on order. Originally founded amidst the chaos of the warring clans era, it was conceived as a refuge from the constant uncertainty that plagued the ninja of that time. It was created in stages: At first nothing more than an area commonly occupied by the Senju and Uchiha clans, then a fortified town that drew more clans from the surrounding area, and finally a bustling village with both shinobi and civilian aspects. As shinobi from multiple clans came together, the need for a formalized ranking system to measure their relative skills was realized. It was relatively simple: Genin at the bottom, then Chunin, the Jonin, then Kage at the top. From the ranks of Chunin and Jonin, the ANBU chose the most promising, forming their elite corps for the good of the village. It could be said, therefore, that an ANBU Jonin was the best of the best, a shinobi honed into the most refined weapon possible.
Currently, two of these refined weapons were being outwitted by a five year old.
"It's been almost 3 months." Cat complained. It was raining again, and she liked being wet no more than her namesake. "3 months of searching Konoha from top to bottom. How do we even know he's still out here?"
Inu simply shrugged and replied "You heard the Hokage. He was still here when Kumo tried to kidnap the Hyuuga heiress. If he'd hung around that long, there's no reason to suspect that he's moved on. These forests provide him with food, water, and shelter if that cubby hole we found is anything to go by." They'd found the little hideaway two weeks into their search by sheer chance, when Inu had noticed a series of marks in the bark of the tree from Naruto's chains. "Why leave when you have everything you need?" Cat huffed at him
"That's another thing. That damn cubby was almost fifty feet up in the air! We can't search the entire forest up and down every tree. Hell, the entire ANBU couldn't do that in thirty years." It wasn't that Inu couldn't understand her frustration. He, too, wished that they could just find the boy and get back to more important things. A small part of him, however, was impressed at how thoroughly the boy had managed to evade two trained ANBU. If he was this good at stealth now, how would he be with some decent training? It was a scary thought.
"Well we know he's not here, so that's a start. And we don't have to search every tree from top to bottom, just look for the marks on the lowest branches like last time. We'll find him eventually." He motioned, and they moved towards the next search grid. 15 down, 200 more to go.
High in the trees above them, Naruto smiled to himself. It was irritating on some level to have to hide from two active seekers in what he considered his home, but the constant evasion was keeping his mind occupied and his senses sharp. At first he'd stayed as far away from the two as possible, keeping to the higher parts of the treetops to avoid being seen. As days turned to weeks and, eventually, months, Naruto turned it into a sort of game. He would follow them around, getting closer and closer, seeing how close he could get before they noticed him. A few times it had seemed like they'd sensed his presence, but so far he'd managed to reel himself back and avoid discovery through either skill or luck.
His true lucky break, however, had been overhearing a conversation between the two about how they'd found his previous home. He'd never thought about the marks his chains caused, nor how they could be used to track him down. Ever since that day he'd religiously avoided using the lower branches as anchor points, and kept to the canopy as much as possible. He know that, fast though he was, he'd never be able to outrun trained shinobi if they found his trail, so he was careful not to leave marks where they could be seen from the ground. It meant a little more effort to extend his chains higher, but the practice was good for him and the safety was worth it.
While his game of hide and seek was an entertaining pass-time, Naruto had begun to spend less and less time in the deeper parts of the forest, instead choosing to spend the majority of his free time observing the practice fields used by Konoha's shinobi. What had started out as a way to pass the time had quickly morphed into an obsession after he had stumbled across a ninja practicing fire jutsu. Watching a seemingly ordinary human breathe fire or sink into the earth like a mole was endlessly fascinating to watch, even if Naruto had no idea how it was done. While he had not, as of yet, figured out how the hand movements were connected to the jutsu's final results, he could watch them practice with their weapons and taijutsu stances and try to mimic them.
Over the last few months he'd switched "targets" several times, but only his latest had held his interest consistently for longer than a week or two. He'd originally found the training ground by accident as he traveled farther than normal in his search for edible berries and nuts in the forest. The rapid *thunk* sound of kunai hitting wood had drawn him forward, and finally ended at a training field nearly a mile away from any other. There, he'd seen something that had staggered him, had led to him returning every day for nearly three weeks now. The person training at the field was a boy, no older than 12, with dark hair and stark features. The boy had been standing so still that Naruto almost hadn't realized he was there until he exploded into motion. In a series of movements Naruto was unable to follow, the boy threw several kunai. The first was deflected by the ones throw after, and the path of the blade seemed to curve entirely around a tree. When the boy finally allowed the kunai to sink into the tree, it was in the dead center of a target that Naruto had failed to notice.
Naruto had, at this point, seen many amazing things. Lightning being called to people's hands, water forming into giant dragons, even techniques that turned the earth itself against an enemy, but none of the people he'd seen perform those techniques had shown the same level of commitment, of absolute concentration Naruto saw here. The only thing that came close was the time Naruto had watched a fox hunting in the woods. There was the same level of dedication, where the only thing that mattered was the going in front of you. This boy seemed to put that level of dedication into everything he did, and Naruto was drawn towards it like a moth to flame. So for the last three weeks Naruto had watched him and tried to imitate what he did, not realizing that his young mind had latched onto the boy as a role model, someone that he, who had nobody, could model himself after.
It took Naruto less than fifteen minutes to get to the training ground from where he'd been watching Cat and Inu, and though it was still hours before midday he could see that the boy had already been training for some time. As he settled down on a medium-height branch, he watched the boy attempt something new. As he watched, the boy's form seemed to waver slightly, growing indistinct and distorted. This continued for several seconds, until the boy's body dissolved into a number of crows that scattered around the clearing. For a moment Naruto was shocked, frantically looking around and wondering if the boy was alright. He let out a small breath of relief as the boy reappeared in the clearing not far from where he'd disappeared in a flock of crows, now panting slightly. After a moment he straightened, wiping sweat from above his forehead protector, and took a stance. Naruto leaned forward slightly, excited to see what he would do next. The boy made the same flicking motion with his hand Naruto had come to recognize over the last three weeks, and kunai blurred away from him. Unfortunately for Naruto, it was only as the kunai slammed into the tree bark an inch to the right of his head that he noticed the boy was no longer standing in the field. He froze, and was about to bolt when he felt something cold and sharp against his neck.
"I have some questions for you" came an emotionless voice from behind him, "and I think it's in your best interests to answer them truthfully."
-X-X-X-X-X-X
Uchiha Itachi was never the most sociable person. A pacifist by nature, he had been pressured by his family to live up to his status as the heir to a ninja family for his entire life, and had withdrawn from others when it became obvious that they did not share his aversion to violence. The Uchiha were the best, his family maintained, and therefore above petty things like worrying about the damage you caused your opponent or how your actions would influence other's lives. After all, if they weren't Uchiha, why did they matter? Except they did, to Itachi, and this made any interaction with his family…..complicated.
Training had been an escape for him, his rising skill used as a deterrent so that he didn't have to participate in the violence he so abhorred. Despite his fearsome reputation, he hadn't had to kill anyone on a mission in almost 2 years, preferring to simply avoid bloodshed if possible, and attack to incapacitate if forced. Inside the Uchiha compound, his reputation managed to keep him from being challenged, but had furthered his isolation until there was really only 2 Uchiha who looked at him as a person and not a weapon. Combine this with his naturally quiet demeanor, and Itachi became the kind of living ghost that most people avoided, a silent warrior that made people uncomfortable just by existing in their vicinity. Itachi, true to his nature, had chosen a training ground far away from the normal bustle of the village where he could keep to himself and hone his skills away from the fearful eyes of the villagers.
His training grounds had served him well, as his recent appointment to the ANBU corps could attest, and he constantly pushed himself. Out here he could forget all the disagreements with the clan, the awe-filled gazes of the villagers, and simply concentrate on the joy of honing a skill to perfection, on overcoming a challenge and becoming stronger for the achievement. So it had confused him greatly when, starting a week and a half ago, he no longer felt the normal serenity that made his isolated training ground so important to his state of mind. Confused, he'd pushed himself harder and harder, hoping it was simply a passing feeling, but it had persisted through everything, making him uneasy in what had been a sanctuary. Finally he had forced himself to look at the problem from another angle. As far as he knew, there had been no change in him, and if he hadn't changed then his surroundings had. Since his main reason for being all the way out in the woods was solitude, it followed that an intruder would cause his uneasiness.
Itachi's plan to catch the intruder was simple: Wait until he began to feel uncomfortable in the training field, then use an area-wide genjutsu and see if anyone reacted to it. As he'd cast the technique, he heard a slight sound of surprise coming from one of the trees that surrounded the training ground, a quick look with his sharingan activated had allowed him to make out the chakra network of a hidden figure. Not reacting to the presence, he'd taken his stance, and flung several kunai out in a deflection pattern. As soon as the last blade left his hand, he'd quickly shunshinned behind the figure, reflexively pointing a kunai at the carotid. He was surprised at how small the figure was from behind, but ninja were rarely what they seemed and more dangerous things had come in smaller packages.
"I have some questions for you" he intoned emotionlessly "and I think it's in your best interests to answer them truthfully."
And that was when everything went to hell.
Itachi was a master of the sharingan, and one of the most skilled ninja in Konoha. Chakra allowed ninja to do many amazing things, and he'd become somewhat jaded to the bizarre. But seeing several thick pointed chains burst from the small figure in front of him without any hand signs or visible chakra molding nearly shook him. The fact that those chains were nearly invisible to the sharingan, even a fully matured one like his, pushed him over the threshold. He was too well trained to be caught flat-footed, even shocked as he was, but it was surprisingly difficult to dodge the initial explosion of chains. As each chain exploded outwards in a straight line, numerous small side chains burst from the links in even intervals. The combination of the surprising nature of the attack and the nearly invisible state of the chains forced Itachi to move back, reflexively dodging the projectiles, and stare in shock at the figure that had been spying on him for the last several weeks.
His first thought was that it was an Inuzuka. He had the feral demeanor of one of the ninken users, and his ragged appearance suggested an animalistic approach to hygiene. But closer inspection showed major differences: While the Inuzuka could rarely be bothered with niceties like repairing a worn patch on a jacket or pants, the clothes the boy was wearing were clearly past the worn stage and into complete destruction. His pants barely came below the knees, and he seemed to be wearing a short vest that was all that remained of an orange jacket. He was barefoot, and his feet had a leathery texture to them, easily gripping the rough tree bark without discomfort. But it was the face that held Itachi's attention. Long reddish-blonde hair fell just above his shoulders framing a face almost identical to one Itachi had not seen in nearly six years.
"The color is wrong, but he looks just like the Yondaime!" The thought was so unexpected that Itachi nearly lost his grip on the branch he was standing on, staring at the figure as if seeing a ghost. The Yondaime had visited the academy several times during Itachi's tenure there, sometimes teaching and sometimes observing others teach; Kakashi and Kushina being the two he showed up with most often. Seeing the boy shift his weight in preparation to flee, Itachi made a quick judgment call: taijutsu was ill advised with those chains curving around him like the heads of a hydra, and ninjutsu would most likely cause more damage than he wanted. His decision was inevitable. He caught the boy's eyes again, startlingly blue eyes meeting red, and a quick hand sign initiated the illusion technique. Itachi watched as the boy's eyes dilated, then closed. The boy, no longer holding himself to the branch, fell downwards, but Itachi caught him easily and brought him safely to the forest floor.
Itachi looked at the boy, his face unreadable. He'd rarely been presented with such a mystery: Why had the boy been spying on him? What were the chains he'd seen, and why didn't they register correctly to the sharingan? Why did he feel as if he'd seen them somewhere before? And, most importantly, why was someone who looked eerily like the most beloved leader in Konoha's history wandering round in the forest, ALONE, looking more like a cave-dwelling savage than a human being? Nothing was adding up, and Itachi was beginning to suspect that the only one who could answer those questions was the boy currently unconscious on the ground next to him. As he looked up at the sky, Itachi sighed quietly. "Why is it that the more I try to live a quiet life, the more fate seems to enjoy playing with me?" No answer was forthcoming from the floating clouds, and Itachi looked at the boy once more. Sighing again, he sat down next to the boy to wait for him to wake up. "Today was supposed to clear up the questions, not multiply them…."
-X-X-X-X-
Naruto came awake all at once, used to going from sleep to fully awake quickly from his time living in the forest. You couldn't catch food or chase off foxes sniffing around your home if you had to spend ten minutes rubbing the sleep from your eyes, and it was a lesson he'd learned quickly. His only problem was he couldn't remember going to sleep, and this was definitely not his nice cubby hole in the tree. He only had to wonder for a second before his memory kicked back in, including his last memory of swirling red eyes. He whipped quickly to his feet, two chains reflexively extending from his lower back, and looked around quickly. The same boy he'd been watching for so long was seated no more than three or four yards away, staring at him. Naruto kept himself in a defensive crouch, but made sure to keep his eyes away from the boy's eyes, remembering how easily he'd been captured before. He waited for some sign that the boy would attack as he had before, but none came. He simply watched Naruto, not moving, and waited.
-X-X-X-X-X-
Itachi had been surprised at how quickly the boy had gone from completely asleep to fully alert, but now he was faced with a conundrum. The boy was extremely wary of him, and unless he wanted to continually knock him the boy out those chains would make things difficult. If he wanted to get answers to any of his questions, he had to find a way of gaining the boys trust, at least a little, and that would be difficult with someone as wary as he obviously was. He had just decided the best way was to try and talk to the boy and see if he was able to get some information when he heard the boy's stomach growl loudly. At first Itachi didn't recognize the sound, but the boy in front of him shrank lower into a crouch, and a slight blush colored his face. Itachi almost laughed out loud, and a small smile did manage to make its way onto his face. He reached back to get a ration bar out of one of the pouches on his waste, but stopped as the chains pointed toward him began to wave back and forth like snakes. Interestingly, without his sharingan active he could see them perfectly well.
"Another mystery to add to the list" He thought.
Moving extremely slowly so as to not startle his quarry even more, Itachi pulled a ration bar out his pack and showed it to the boy. He wasn't sure that the boy recognized it, but he wasn't running or attacking which Itachi took as a good sign. Keeping his expression neutral, he lightly tossed the bar at the boy. Blindingly quick, one of the chains speared the bar some four feet away from his body, holding it there. The boy looked at it suspiciously, and a third chain snaked from behind his back to poke the bar. With surprising dexterity he sliced the wrapper from the bar and examined it closely.
"It's food" Itachi said. The boy jumped slightly, and Itachi was worried he would bolt for a second. Itachi slowly brought another ration bar from the same pouch and unwrapped it, then took a bite. The boy watched him chew and swallow, then gingerly brought his captured bar up to mimic Itachi. He chewed slowly, but seemed calmer now. Itachi took another bite, and watched as the boy began to devour the bar.
"He doesn't look too malnourished, but nobody would let their child wander around in the forests out here, much less in clothes like that. He's obviously been on his own for a while…" Itachi mused as they ate in silence. He was surprised that someone so young could survive on their own for so long, but decided the chains would be a big advantage in the forest. As they both finished their ration bars, Itachi was glad to see that instead of a defensive crouch, the boy looked more curious now. He decided that he'd probably built up a bit of goodwill with the gift of food, and spoke.
"What is your name?" Itachi asked. The boy seemed confused for a second, and then croaked out "Naruto". His voice was scratchy and hesitant, as if he hadn't spoken in a long time. It further validated Itachi's theory that he'd been alone for a long time.
"I'm Itachi" He introduced himself. He watched as Naruto tried to pronounce his name several times, finally seeming to grow comfortable with it.
"Were you the one watching me for the last few weeks Naruto?" Itachi watched as Naruto's face drew in on itself, and his eyes began to whip back and forth, as if looking for a path to run. "I'm not mad Naruto, just curious" Itachi said. Naruto nodded timidly, still looking uncomfortable.
"Why?" Itachi asked, genuinely curious. If he was trying so hard to remain unseen, why spend time spying on a shinobi, the one type of person most likely to notice. Naruto reached around his back, and pulled two worn kunai from his back pocket. Itachi went on high alert, although he was outwardly unchanged. Naruto turned toward a tree, still keeping Itachi in his field of vision, and threw the kunai, one after the other. The second kunai hit the first and threw it off course, causing it to hit a tree handle-first.
"He was trying to learn the deflection technique!?" Itachi thought, shocked. The technique was difficult even for him, and widely regarded as impossible for anyone without a sharingan. Than he managed a rudimentary deflection at his age, even if it hadn't worked correctly, was amazing. He noticed the scowl on Naruto's face, and watched as he pulled out two more kunai and repeated the throw. This time the deflected kunai landed point-first, although it only penetrated a small way into the bark. Itachi stood, shocked. He had never thought that someone without the sharingan would be able to manage the calculations required for a deflection, much less from simply observing someone else do the technique! He watched as Naruto used one of his chains to retrieve the fallen kunai and tucked them back into his pocket, looking more satisfied now that he'd gotten at least some success with the kunai.
"Where did you learn to throw kunai like that? Did your family teach you?" Itachi asked, curious now. He immediately regretted his question when he saw Naruto draw in on himself again. He cursed at himself silently. If he was related to the Yondaime, an orphan, his family was probably dead. It was the most likely explanation for why a boy with an obvious bloodline was alone in the woods, especially in a village like Konoha that practically worshipped those with a Kekkei Genkai. Uncharacteristically ashamed of himself, he tried awkwardly to apologize.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked. I know many people who've lost their family, it's very difficult." It was even true. Death was common in the ninja world, and almost every active Konoha shinobi had lost family in the line of duty. He was surprised when Naruto looked at him sharply.
"I have a family!" he exclaimed. Itachi watched warily as one of the two chains hovering around Naruto began scratching at the ground. "See!" Naruto said. "My family." Itachi moved slowly, and Naruto backed away slightly as he came closer. Itachi looked down to see two crude drawings in the dirt of a man and a women standing side by side. The man was labeled "Minato" and the woman "Kushina", with a small picture to the side of a boy with chains coming out of him labeled "Naruto".
Itachi reeled back slightly as the pieces clicked into place. He remembered where he'd seen those chains before! One of his last lectures at the academy before the Kyuubi attack had been on Kekkei Genkai and their use in the ninja world. It had included basic introductions on all of Konoha's main bloodlines, but part of the lesson had been taught by Kushina Uzumaki and focused on always being wary of unknown bloodlines. She'd emphasized the point by manifesting several chains that had quickly bound another instructor before fading. He'd only seen them for a second, and never with the sharingan active, but he was sure of it! And if he had inherited her bloodline and his father's name was Minato, with his appearance….. Itachi could feel a large headache building. The most powerful ninja Konoha had produced since Hashirama Senju had had a son with one of the most skilled Jonin in the village and inherited her bloodline, and nobody knew! Not only that, but he lived in the woods like a savage!
"Again, I'm sorry Naruto. I didn't mean to imply that you had no family." He said slowly. This would require delicate handling. "Naruto, how long have you and your family been in the forest?" Itachi asked. If he could get some sort of timeline, he could begin to figure out what had led to this. Naruto frowned.
"Don't know" He said, shrugging. "I was four, it was a long time ago". If what Naruto was saying was true, he'd been in the woods for around two years on his own. That he'd survived at all, much less remained unseen was an amazing feat. Now came the important question. Naruto had seemed open enough to Itachi after he'd fed him, but Itachi knew this was treading into sensitive territory. If any subject would scare him off, this would be it, but it was too important to ignore.
"Why did you go into the forest Naruto? Why not stay in Konoha?" As Itachi had feared, Naruto began to pull inward. His knees came up to his chest, and the chains wrapped around him until he seemed cocooned. Itachi was about to say something, to try and break him out of his fugue, when he heard Naruto answer.
"They tried to kill me." It was almost a whisper, but the sheer amount of despair in his voice reminded Itachi of the first time he'd had to kill in combat. It was the kind of soul-deep pain that stayed with you, buried but always there.
"He tried to kill me, but my chains killed him instead. So I went to the woods. I'm free there." Itachi caught the phrasing, and immediately began to piece together a possible scenario.
"He killed someone in self-defense with his Kekkei Genkai, and was so scared of what the village would do that he abandoned it entirely." Itachi had seen the kind of snap judgments the civilians could make. If a bloodline user was seen killing civilians it would be bad, but why would a civilian try to kill a four year old? He needed more information, and a look at the village records, but he wasn't sure what to do with Naruto. He wasn't truly comfortable with sending him back into the woods by himself, even though he'd been surviving quite well out there, but until he figured out why someone with his lineage was attacked, and by whom, it wasn't safe for him to come into the village. Finally Itachi decided that leaving Naruto to live on his own as he had been was the lesser of two evils, and less likely to get him hurt. He turned to Naruto, moving to within a meter or so of the boy. He was wary of coming closer due to the chains, and was relieved when he saw Naruto looked up.
"If he tried to kill you first, then it was self-defense" Itachi began. "You are allowed to protect yourself, Naruto, even if the person attacking you doesn't have a bloodline. In a fight for your life, fair is whatever lets you win." He saw Naruto muddle over the words in his mind.
"I need to go take care of some things; will you come back here in, say, three days? I can bring you some food, maybe some new clothes." Naruto looked down at the tattered remains of his clothes, and shrugged. He liked having someone to talk to, even if Itachi did ask some uncomfortable things. It was still better than the silence, and that Itachi had had the chance to capture him and didn't made Naruto's trust in him rise greatly. He nodded to Itachi, and then extended one of his chains to catch a branch in one of the trees surrounding the clearing.
Itachi watched Naruto move through the trees using his chains, and remembered Naruto's attempt at the deflection technique.
"He lives in a three-dimensional environment. He must be able to calculate those angles because they're the same ones he uses to move through the trees with his chains. Remarkable" Itachi thought as he ran towards the village. He had a whole slew of things to research, and it was already after noon. If he wanted to have some answers by the time he met with Naruto again, he was going to have to work quickly.
-X-X-X-X-X-
Hinata had been waiting outside her mother's room for several hours now, sitting with her uncle as her sister struggled to be born. She had gotten more and more anxious as time went on and her mother remained in labor, and a sense of foreboding had settled over her thoughts as she wrung her hands over and over.
"Is it supposed to take this long?" She finally asked her uncle. She knew it was something her father would have considered "inappropriate", not keeping with the traditional Hyuuga stoicism, but she was past caring.
"It's different for each baby" Hizashi said, a reassuring smile on his face. "When Neji was born, my wife was in labor for almost nine hours, while you were only a four hour labor. Have faith in your mother, she's stronger than you know."
Hinata knew her mother was strong, but they had been outside for so long without even the slightest word. Her mother had gone into the room around noon, and it was well into the darkest part of the night now. Finally her fidgeting seemed to get to Hizashi, who stood up and turned to her.
"Tell you what, I'll go see if there's been any change and maybe see about you getting a chance to see your mother, ok?" Hinata nodded gratefully. Anything to break up the endless waiting.
Hizashi opened the door to her mother's room and slipped inside silently. Hinata waited nervously for any word, still worried despite her uncle's assurances. Suddenly, the door to the room burst open and a shape dashed out. Hinata could barely make out the form of her uncle before he accelerated away, and she heard raised voices through the open door, their frantic tones causing Hinata's panic to rise.
She was nearly frantic when, not five minutes later, Hizashi rushed back into the room with a man in a doctor's white coat. The door slammed shut behind them, and Hinata stared at it in shock. She didn't know how long she'd been staring in a daze for when the door opened, but the sight beyond the doorway shocked her. Her normally reserved father had her uncle in a tight hug, and Hinata could hear his repeated thanks from out in the hallway. Hizashi managed to extract himself from his brother's embrace, and walked over to Hinata.
"What happened?" She asked. Hizashi gave her a tight smile.
"There were some complications that we almost didn't catch in time, but your mother and sister are fine. Would you like to come see them?" Hinata nodded eagerly. She followed her uncle into the room, passing by her father. He looked more exhausted than she'd ever seen him before, his eyes dropping as he swayed on his feet. He smiled slightly at her as she walked past, the first time in nearly two years she could remember him doing so. She turned to the bed to look at her new sister, and was struck at how tired her mother looked. She was paler than normal, and her hair hung limply around her head, accentuating the deep bags under her pupil-less eyes. Despite her obvious exhaustion she had a radiant smile on her face, and she held out a hand to Hinata, who grasped it tightly. In her other arm she held a small sleeping bundle topped by a light smattering of dark hair.
"This is your sister, Hinata. Hanabi, meet your big sister." Hinata looked at the sleeping bundle in her mother's arms and smiled. Her family had just grown by one, and everything was all right.
"Hello Hanabi" She whispered to her sleeping sister.
-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-
Itachi had spent the last 10 hours in the restricted section of the Konoha library, and with each report he read through he felt his anger rise. He'd started out with the records of murders from around eighteen months ago, and he'd tracked down the man he thought had tried to kill Naruto relatively quickly. What had surprised him was that the man had been not only an active-duty shinobi, but a chunin! Disregarding the fact that the man had attacked a four year old boy, the fact that he'd been killed was a testament to Naruto's will to survive and the lethal power of his chains.
Itachi's curiosity had been sparked by the seemingly senseless attack, and he began to comb back through the records to see if he could find any precedent for the man's aggression towards Naruto. When he couldn't find any incident reports, he decided to look in a more oblique fashion. He'd begun to search the hospital records to try and track down any previous attacks on Naruto by the chunin, but the glut of information on Naruto sickened him. If he was reading the dates right, Naruto had been to the hospital no less than seventy times in his first four years. His files indicated everything from poisoning to stab wounds, and many of them had apparently happened when Naruto was in his first or second year. That the perpetrators had apparently never been recorded spoke of a vast indifference to Naruto's plight, one Itachi could scarcely comprehend. Why would anyone treat the Yondaime's son like this? More, how could they treat a toddler like this, regardless of whose son he was?
Itachi sat in his room that night, working over the information in his mind, and came to one conclusion: Naruto was not safe in Konoha, at least not as he was. His chains were a large advantage, but he was woefully inexperienced in using them against another human being, and would probably be outmaneuvered by the average chunin. If what Itachi suspected was true, Naruto would be facing a lot more than one chunin if he returned to Konoha. Itachi looked at the wall his room shared with his brother's, and his resolve hardened. If Naruto wasn't safe in Konoha as he was now, he would have to make him strong enough to survive. Naruto had no one else, and Itachi wasn't sure how high the conspiracy against him went. Some of those injuries would have been enough to have the perpetrator executed, and they would have taken time to inflict. That they'd happened repeatedly without catching any of the perpetrators suggested the cover up went high, possibly to the top. No, he couldn't trust anyone but himself with this. When Itachi fell asleep that night, he was already calculating how to best improve Naruto's chances of survival and thus preserve the last living link to one of the greatest heroes Konoha had ever known.
-X-X-X-X-X-X-
Naruto's second cubby was remarkably similar to his first, constructed in a high tree from a hollowed out point that he'd deepened with his chains. It remained his sanctuary, the one place he felt safe, and was where he kept his greatest treasures. His "family" was also there, and as such he felt an indefinable pull towards it whenever he felt troubled or insecure. His conversation with Itachi had dredged up memories he'd long buried, and as he sat in the dark he spoke quietly to the carvings he thought of as family, trying to clear his mind from the dark memories. It took him several hours to get it all cleared out, but finally he'd decided that the talk with Itachi had done more good than bad. Itachi's vindication of his actions went a long way towards his peace of mind, and when he finally dropped off to sleep he had even managed to convince himself that what he'd done had been at least a little bit the other man's fault. He slept free of the nightmares that normally came when his buried trauma surfaced, snug in his tiny sanctuary.
-X-X-X-X-X-X-
Itachi waited in the same clearing he'd met Naruto in three days ago, a large backpack in hand. It was almost noon, and he was somewhat worried that Naruto wouldn't show up. The boy had been willing enough to talk to him before, but he was also extremely skittish right now, and it was possible that he would avoid Itachi because of the uncomfortable questions Itachi asked him. It was something Itachi could do nothing about, so he planned for the best and avoided dwelling too much on the alternative. He might have been able to catch Naruto if he could find him, but even an Inuzuka would have trouble tracking someone with Naruto's familiarity with the forest. If he wanted to hide, Itachi would have an extremely tough time tracking him down. It was with a profound sense of relief that Itachi watched Naruto drop from a tree into the clearing, chains retracting behind him. He approached Itachi, but maintained a two meter gap between them. Itachi held up the bag in his hand.
"I brought you some basics. Clothing, food, nothing fancy." He tossed the bag to Naruto, who caught it with his chains.
"Still doesn't trust me enough catch something from me with his hands, or is it simply more convenient to use the chains?" Itachi wondered. He watched Naruto pull out a set of Sasuke's old clothes and look down at his own attire. With a shrug, he pulled off his old top and replaced it with a black t-shirt. His pants followed quickly, replaced with the black shorts. Once Naruto had changed, he looked through the bag's remaining contents and pulled out a kunai, looking at it curiously. He turned to Itachi, looking at him questioningly.
"A gift" Itachi said. "I have an offer for you. I'd like to train you." Naruto frowned. He Itachi could almost see the thoughts in his head as he looked for the hidden catch in the offer. Paranoia was something that most shinobi were not only familiar with, but considered a good habit.
"No catch Naruto. I want you to be able to defend yourself. If you want to spend your life out here, that is your choice. But I would be doing both Konoha and you a disservice if I allowed those who would do you harm to make the choice for you." Itachi said. He was intensely loyal to the village as a whole, even though he was disgusted with what so many of them had apparently done to Naruto. If he could help the village gain a valuable asset and give Naruto the tools he needed to make some choices about his own life, he felt it was his duty as a loyal Konoha shinobi to try.
"You won't make me go back?" Naruto asked after a minute. Itachi could see his indecision, and quickly replied.
"No. It is your choice whether or not you want to live in Konoha or stay out here." Itachi said, and then added "I would never take your freedom from you." He'd had too many of his own choices curtailed to do the same to Naruto unless he absolutely had to. Naruto tilted his head as he heard the last statement. He obviously recognized Itachi's parroting of his own statement from last time, and Itachi hoped it would help his case. Naruto finally nodded.
"Will you teach me to do the red eyes?" He asked. Itachi chuckled slightly at that, shaking his head.
"The "red eyes" are the sharingan, and you have to be born with them. It's like your chains, something only my family can do." Naruto frowned at that, looking at his chains.
"Only I can do this?" He said skeptically. Itachi nodded
"Even if I trained for my entire life, I wouldn't be able to make them. They are a part of you, like your arms and legs. Some people are born with blond hair, or black. You were born with the ability to make those chains, just as I was born with the sharingan. Naruto nodded at that. It made sense, after all. Some people were taller than others, or had different colored skin. Why not something like chains?
Seeing him nod, Itachi pulled out a set of weights out of his own bag and threw them to Naruto. Naruto looked at them, then back to Itachi.
"What do I do with these?" He asked. Itachi looked at him impassively.
"You want to protect your freedom?" Naruto nodded.
"Then put them on. It will not be easy, but if you let me I can make sure nobody forces you into anything you don't want them to ever again." Naruto stood up a little taller at that. He liked his home in the forest, and he was used to it, but he never wanted to be trapped into something again. He remembered how weak he'd felt when he fought the kidnapper, and the terror he'd felt when his chains had first appeared. He reached forward for the weights, and missed Itachi's smile.
2 Months Later
Naruto was never sure if he admired or hated Itachi. He could never pinpoint exactly what made him feel that Itachi took a perverse pleasure in running him into the ground, but he was completely convinced that it was true. Despite that, he also had to admit that he felt better than he ever had in his short life.
At first the weights had been torture. They were apparently the lowest in an increasingly heavy series, but to someone Naruto's size they made up a considerable fraction his body weight. It had been a struggle to even move in them at first, compounded by Itachi having him rely solely on his limbs and not his chains. He claimed it was to build up Naruto's physical strength, but Naruto had grown so reliant on his chains for extra mobility that it felt as if someone had told him to run with only one leg. It had slowly gotten better, but every time Naruto seemed to get used to one set of weights Itachi would add more. Sometimes Naruto had nightmares about a room with endlessly larger weights, presided over by Itachi on a throne made of those weights that Naruto had already mastered. In his nightmares he wasn't allowed to leave until he could do 100 pushups with the entire throne on his back.
In between the basic training with weights, Itachi would teach Naruto about the basics of jutsu. At first Naruto had been excited to learn about that, visions of breathing fire or controlling the earth dancing in his head. Itachi had quickly disabused him of that notion, however, saying that until he could learn to draw chakra stably such things were impossible for him. It had taken Naruto nearly a month to get the proper ratio of physical and spiritual energy down, and he'd been excited for all of thirty seconds before Itachi decided to test him. Itachi had immediately pronounced his control as "the worst I've ever seen", and sat him down with a leaf in his hands. Itachi had him push chakra from his hand until the leaf was pushed off his hand, and told Naruto that he would move no further in jutsu training until he could keep the leaf afloat above his hand constantly for at least five minutes. In the last month the leaves Naruto used had burned, shredded, flown off to embed in trees like tiny razors, and once, inexplicably, actually exploded, but he'd only managed to keep them afloat for three minutes. It was slow, frustrating work, but he was making progress. Itachi pushed him harder than he'd ever worked in his entire life, but Naruto couldn't help but admit that he was starting to see why Itachi trained him the way it did: It worked.
The one place where Naruto could say he was truly excelling was his kunai and shuriken work. He'd practiced for months on his own before meeting Itachi using purloined equipment, but having someone show him the proper way to throw and equipment in top condition instead of warped or rusting castoffs made a huge difference! He still couldn't do more than one deflection accurately, but he could at least get in the same general area with a double deflection, something that Itachi always seemed amazed at. His progress at shuriken and kunai offset his grueling work elsewhere, and kept him enthusiastic despite Itachi's refusal to teach him more advanced jutsu until he completed the leaf floating exercise.
Today was the second day in a row he'd been training by himself, as Itachi had a mission outside the village. Without Itachi there it seemed wrong to use the training grounds, so Naruto was leaping from tree branch to tree branch with his weights on to practice, stopping every once in a while to grab a leaf and practice his chakra exercises. As he approached the westernmost point of his "territory", he stopped. There was a group of three people near the clearing where he'd fought the kidnapper, walking slowly with a large picnic basket in hand. Nearly fifty feet up in the large tree he stopped, grabbing hold of a branch and wrapping his chains around him like a cloak, as was his habit when in the trees. He knew most of the ninja who patrolled the areas around his home by sight after all this time, but the group was dressed in kimonos, and seemed out for nothing other than a picnic. Just as he was about to leave, Naruto caught sight of the shortest person in the group and recognized her. It was Hinata! Naruto turned back, his curiosity taking over now. He had seen her several times as he watched over different parts of Konoha over the last 5 months, but it was the first time he'd seen her come outside the walls of her clan compound. He settled down to watch as the group set up for a picnic, and picked up a leaf to practice his exercises. After all, if he didn't get up to 5 minutes Itachi wouldn't train him in anything cooler!
-X-X-X-X-X-
As Hinata walked through the forest with her mother and uncle towards the spot where she'd been rescued from her kidnapper, she wondered again if Naruto was anywhere around here. The last time she'd seen him, he had leapt off into the forest on those strange chains of his, and she couldn't help but wonder if he was alright. When her mother had suggested a walk outside the compound Hinata, in a rare moment of initiative, had suggested a picnic in the forest. Her mother had initially been wary of going outside the village walls, but her uncle had offered to come along and the area was still well-patrolled. She'd seemed surprised when Hinata had suggested the location for the picnic, but chalked it up to an attempt to overcome the bad memories of the place with good experiences. What she didn't know was that Hinata barely associated the area with her kidnapper at all. The compound was where she'd been taken from, but the clearing was where she'd been rescued, where someone had answered her frantic prayers for salvation. She wanted to come back, but only because it was the last place she'd seen Naruto.
They set up their picnic in the clearing, and Hinata and her mother talked about inconsequential things while Hanabi gurgled happily from her mother's arms. Hizashi stayed standing initially, but after a few minutes acquiesced to Hinata's mother and sat at the edge of the picnic blanket, nibbling on a sandwich as he kept watch. It was a pleasant excursion, but as time went by Hinata began to feel a bit ashamed. She'd come out here, chased someone who probably hadn't thought of her at all since that time, besides thinking of how much trouble she'd been to rescue, and now she'd forced her family to come all the way out here for nothing. She tried to hid her thoughts, but her mother seemed to pick up on the little cues she was giving off.
"Something wrong, Hinata?" She asked. Hinata blushed, and shook her head.
"I-it's nothing, mother" She mumbled. Her mother just smiled gently, and looked at the spot where they'd come upon the Kumo ambassador, pierced by an unknown assailant.
"You know, the memories we try most to get away from are often the ones that follow us the most doggedly." She said, looking back to Hinata. "It's only when we turn and force them into the light that we see their true nature, and can put them away for good." Hinata shook her head slightly. She didn't want to put that memory away for good. It was one of the only times she could remember someone besides her mother acting like she mattered, outside of being a clan heir. Someone had risked themselves to save her life, not even knowing who she was. It was a reminder that there was a world of people outside the clan, people who might not see her as hopelessly weak. Her mother caught the blush creeping up her neck, and her thoughts did a quick 180 as she remembered the other part of the story.
"Or maybe you're not running away from a memory, but chasing one?" She asked slyly. Hizashi looked at her sideways, an amused smile on his lips. He'd always liked Hitomi, but one of her bad habits was her penchant (an obsession, really) for romantic stories. Apparently even her own daughter wasn't entirely safe from her quirk. Hinata's blush crawled up until her entire face was beet red, and her mother laughed.
"Who knows, maybe he's watching over you right now?" Hinata ducked her head in embarrassment as Hanabi giggled in response to her mother's laugh. Hitomi finally took pity on her daughter.
"You'll see him again if the spirits are kind, dear heart." She said to Hinata. She put a hand under her daughters chin and pulled her face up until she could look Hinata in the eyes.
"After all, I have to thank him for saving one of my two precious treasures, don't I?" Hinata nodded shyly.
They packed up their meal, and filed out of the clearing. As she passed back into the forest, Hinata looked back across the clearing to where she'd last seen Naruto leap away. She would later swear that she saw a pair of blue eyes high up in the trees, watching as they walked away.
-X-X-X-X-X-
Itachi walked into the Hokage's office, completed mission scroll in hand. As he handed it to the old man, the Hokage made a motion with his hand and sent the ANBU stationed in the room away. It took only a second for the room to clear, and soon Itachi and the Hokage were the only two left in the room. The Hokage activated the security seals built into the room, and the pressure on Itachi's ears signified the room was sealed to sound.
"Your other mission?" The Hokage asked. Itachi nodded.
"They've been tentatively suggesting an alliance with several of the clans in Suna, and at least one in Kiri that I could find out about." Itachi pulled another scroll from a hidden pocket in his vest and passed it over. "I wasn't able to find out if they had actually managed to secure an alliance with anyone except for the Kiri clan, but they've made inroads with all of the listed groups." The Hokage sighed, looking every one of his sixty one years.
"They're really going through with this, aren't they?" The question was rhetorical, and Itachi didn't answer. The Hokage turned to him.
"Do you know when they plan to carry out the attack?" Itachi nodded.
"It will be sometime in the next 15 months. The equipment that is being stockpiled won't be ready for at least 12 months, so that is the low end of the time scale. I'd plan for 13 months, any more time than that is simply good fortune." Itachi said. The Hokage nodded tiredly.
"Thirteen months to avert the largest catastrophe this village has faced since the Kyuubi attack. Sometimes I hate this job." Itachi could only agree silently. The Hokage was a thankless position, requiring enormous amounts of effort and sacrifice only to see everything you built come constantly under attack, sometimes even from the very people you built it for. The sacrifices demanded by the position were enormous, and Itachi respected the man in front of him immensely for taking up the hat not only once, but twice. The Hokage looked up at him.
"You may go. Keep me informed." Itachi inclined his head in a shallow bow, and exited the office. As he headed back to the Uchiha district, he pondered the problem in front of him. He had thirteen months to change the course of his entire clan, or betray the village he loved in order to follow his family in treason. Sometimes he envied Naruto and his simple life in the forest.
Freedom, thought Itachi, is not always about doing what you want when you want. Sometimes it's about choosing the set of shackles you can live with wearing later. Sometimes it's just the ability to live with what you've been forced to do.
His sleep that night was restless, and he could almost feel the time limit hanging over his head. Thirteen months to make a decision. But how could he make a decision when both options led to an option he wasn't sure he could live with?
-X-X-X-X-X-
For Itachi, the last few months had been both some of the best times of his life and the worst. He still hadn't been able to figure out an acceptable answer to his biggest problem, deciding between his clan and his loyalty to Konoha, but in training Naruto he'd found a simple purpose. It was something he could devote himself wholly to, something that required no subterfuge or agonizingly sleepless nights, for which Itachi was constantly grateful. Even more, Naruto was genuinely fun for Itachi to teach. Unlike his brother, who seemed to focus on being a carbon-copy of Itachi in the hopes of beating him at his own game, Naruto was constantly surprising the stoic Uchiha. He still smiled fondly every time he thought of some of Naruto's more…outlandish attempts as the ninja arts, such as his "copy" of Itachi's own crow-clone technique.
Itachi had been working with Naruto for just over three months, and they had finally gotten around to working on the basic three jutsus. Naruto had shown some aptitude for the substitution technique and the transformation technique, but his clone was, well, abysmal. Itachi had noticed early on that Naruto's chakra reserves were far larger than was normal for someone his age, and while Naruto's control had improved drastically under his tutelage, the basic clone used so little chakra that it was like trying to get a tiny drop of water from a raging fire hose. Itachi had broached the subject of using a different clone technique, one that Naruto would have less trouble with because of its higher chakra cost, and Naruto had taken to it immediately. However when Naruto had asked Itachi about his crow clone, Itachi had explained that only a holder of the crow summoning contract could perform the technique.
Naruto's response the next day had left him temporarily speechless.
They had been working on clone techniques again, and Naruto had picked up the Shadow Clone with a speed that surprised Itachi, even after his previous quick process. He seemed to instinctively understand the jutsu, and his large chakra reserves made it an effective combat modifier for the small boy. Itachi had broken out in a cold sweat as he thought about facing a dozen Narutos, all wielding those transparent chains, but was broken from his reverie by a familiar sight as he saw Naruto break apart in a flock of crows! Itachi instinctively activated his sharingan, assuming it was an illusion, but Naruto was nowhere to be seen. Itachi immediately made a quick series of hand signs and slammed his palm onto the ground, summoning a large crow with a scroll attached to its feet. He grabbed the scroll and opened it, but was greeted only by his own name on the summoning contract.
He stared dumbly at the signature, mind feverishly spinning in circles as he tried to figure out how Naruto had managed to summon crows without a contract, when Naruto walked out from behind a tree with a large smile on his face. At Itachi's gob smacked expression, Naruto had laughed and proceeded to summon a shadow clone. The clone made the hand sign for a basic transformation, and Itachi stared at the clone as it pulled apart in a flock of crows. Now that he was paying attention he noticed the crows disperse into smoke as soon as they spread out, their distance from one another causing too much strain on the transformation for the clone to survive, but it was an effective bluff nonetheless. It was rare for anyone to use any sort of substitution with a clone, so anyone seeing the ruse would assume Naruto had managed to disappear in the same way Itachi himself had!
Such out of the box thinking was, as Itachi had learned, simply the way Naruto's mind worked. He had been on his own for so long that he'd never built up the same assumptions and preconceptions that most of Konoha's shinobi had, either from the academy or their family training, so he simply didn't know when something couldn't be done. Itachi himself had adapted some of Naruto's more practical ideas, like using clones as substitution targets or substituting with stationary objects as a sort of bastardized shunshin, and he had garnered interest amongst several of his ANBU colleagues with his unorthodox methods. Even his best friend Shisui had been shocked at the idea of using a substitution for movement instead of just dodging, and was working on a way to incorporate it into his shunshin-heavy fighting style.
Naruto had opened up to him much more over the last few months, and Itachi learned that, behind that suspicious exterior, something of the original four year old that had gone into the woods had survived to influence his personality. As time went on he exhibited more exuberant behavior when happy, and was almost frighteningly single-minded when he had a goal in front of him, to the point that Itachi had had more than one talk with him about the importance of resting in order to keep himself healthy. He would, if given the chance, train himself into the ground with a determination that would have made Might Guy proud.
The one area that Itachi had been more or less unable to help Naruto with was his chains. He could see with his sharingan that they were incredibly dense chakra constructs, wrapped in a chakra shell that caused them to emit almost no waste energy, but that was the most he'd figure out so far. They remained difficult to perceive with the sharingan due to this lack of chakra emission, but more disturbingly their independent movement and lack of physical tells meant that he couldn't predict their movements. The more time he spent with Naruto, the more convinced he became that those chains would be an incredibly effective tool in the future. Unfortunately Itachi's had slipped up in a conversation about Naruto's bloodline and mentioned that he'd a woman with the same ability, someone Naruto had correctly deduced was his mother.
He'd begged Itachi for any information about his parents, something so out of character for the normally closed-off boy that he'd felt a pit open up in his stomach. He could almost see an overlay of his brother in Naruto, and the thought of such desperation over something so intrinsic as simply knowing basic things about your family…. Itachi had told Naruto what little he knew of his parents, not that it was much considering his age when they died. To Naruto, however, it was like water in the desert, and he'd soaked up every word with rapt attention. If anything, Naruto's dedication to his training had redoubled at hearing that both his parents were shinobi of Konoha. It was as if training in the ninja arts was a tangible connection to his parents in his mind, and his progress had likewise increased. Now, almost six months into his training with Naruto, Itachi had decided that Naruto had enough basic skills that he could train without hurting himself too badly, and began to teach him one of the most important lessons for any ninja: When to use those skills, and why.
"Naruto" Itachi began, looking at the boy where he was seated in front of him. "When you think of a shinobi, what comes to mind? Do you see a hero, like your father? A silent killer, like the man who drove you into the woods?" He stared at Naruto expectantly. This was important, and he needed to be sure that he imprinted the responsibility that came with the skills that he was training Naruto in. He had decided to give Naruto the means to make his own choices, but he had seen more than one shinobi turn in on themselves when they came across this question without help. Too many people couldn't separate the person from the job.
Naruto looked down for a moment, deep in thought. Itachi waited patiently for his answer, and Naruto had sensed that this was something his teacher felt was very important, so he tried not to answer flippantly. Finally he looked at Itachi.
"I think of someone with freedom" He said. Itachi blinked, confused.
"Someone with freedom? In what way?" He asked. Naruto took a deep breath.
"A shinobi has power, but that isn't who they are. A shinobi is someone that can protect or destroy" Naruto's expression was an open book to Itachi, and he could almost see the specters of the Yondaime and the faceless man who'd tried to kill him over Naruto's shoulders. Naruto shook himself slightly, and continued.
"that power….it means you can choose your path. I mean, my parents died protecting the village when the Kyuubi attacked. They left me alone, and I'll never know what they were like, who they were as people. But….they saved everyone. So I guess they used their freedom to choose to protect the people of the village, even if it meant leaving me alone. I might not like it, but it was their choice, because that's what freedom is. The ability to do what you think is right, even if it means the people closest to you suffer for it. Because sometimes there are more important things." Itachi sat shocked. Naruto was only six and a half, but this sounded like something he'd mulled over for a long time. Itachi looked at Naruto, worried about lingering resentment from what he'd heard, but could only see acceptance on Naruto's face.
"He's been thinking about this for a long time. It must have been something that he had to come with terms with when he learned about his parents, that they'd died in the Kyuubi attack… And it's become the core of how he looks at them. They had a choice, and he accepts that. He trains as hard as he does so that he can understand their choice, and maybe one day see if he could've found a better path…" Itachi mused, and then looked Naruto in the eye.
"You're right, that's as good an explanation as any. A shinobi has to choose their path, choose whether to protect themselves or others. Sometimes that choice isn't easy, but the ones that truly matter are never the easiest choices. If you find the thing you want to protect amongst all others, then you've found your true path. Never forget that, and no matter which path you choose, you'll be able to stand proud as a shinobi." Naruto nodded thoughtfully.
Itachi sat alone on top of the Hokage monument that night, looking over the village. He saw the light coming from hundreds of windows, the lives he was sworn to protect sitting comfortably under his aegis.
"That's what freedom is. The ability to do what you think is right, even if it means the people closest to you suffer for it." Itachi closed his eyes as he remembered Naruto's words.
"Is it really that simple?" He wondered. Once again, Naruto had pulled everything out of the normal patterns Itachi lived in, and now he couldn't help but look at his options differently. On the one hand, if he sided with the village then his clan would be destroyed, their name tarnished. The thought was almost physically painful for Itachi. But if he sided with his clan, he would be betraying every oath he'd ever sworn, and at best would plunge the village into a bloody civil war. His options were both terrible, but he could see only one that would allow him to hold his head high in the village, only one that would allow him to keep on the path he'd followed for so long. He pulled himself to his feet, and ran quickly across the rooftops toward the Hokage's tower, where he could still see a light burning in the candle. It was late, but the Hokage's work was never done, and they had a coup to prevent.
-X-X-X-X-X-
Naruto sat on a branch high above the walls of Konoha and looked at the village that had caused him so much pain. His talk with Itachi three weeks ago had given him many sleepless nights, and he'd driven himself to exhaustion training to try and quiet his mind.
"If you find the thing you want to protect amongst all others, then you've found your true path. Never forget that, and no matter which path you choose, you'll be able to stand proud" Naruto had gone over the words a thousand times, and still had no answer. What did he want to protect? He wasn't sure he wanted to protect the village that had hated him, chased him into the woods. But that same village had produced Hinata and Itachi, so they couldn't all be bad, right? He knew that at the very least he wanted to be able to protect those two, and to live up to the sacrifice his parents had made. After all, they had sacrificed themselves to protect the people here, so he should at least try and give them another chance?
These thoughts had flown around his head night after night, and he'd taken to watching different parts of the village to pass the sleepless hours. His favorites were the Uchiha and Hyuuga clan compounds. They were on opposite sides of the range of forest he lived in, but when he watched them he sometimes got glimpses of his important people, and that made the trek worth it. What confused him was the difference in how people treated the two of them. From what Itachi had said, Hinata was supposed to be the next head of the Hyuuga clan. But the people in the compound, in particular one older man, seemed to treat her badly much of the time. Naruto would almost have said the man hated her, but sometimes he would see the same man escorting her around, like the time they'd had a picnic in the forest. It was almost like they were two separate people!
By contrast, every time he spotted Itachi in the compound people treated him like royalty, always bowing or acting respectfully around him. It was a mystery, but he didn't want to admit to Itachi that he spied on them, nor that he was having trouble sleeping, so he couldn't figure it out for now.
"The thing you want to protect.." He thought to himself, then shrugged. He'd figure it out eventually.
-X-X-X-X-X-
Hiruzen Sarutobi stood in the bowels of one of the subterranean ANBU bases hidden around Konoha with two of his most trusted ninja, and put the finishing touches on the most abhorrent act he'd ever considered.
"You're sure you can do this by yourselves?" He said to the two Uchiha in front of him. Itachi had been in on the plan since its conception nearly two years ago, but Shisui had only been a part for the last six months. If it hadn't been for Itachi vouching for him, and the truth seal he'd submitted to questioning under, Hiruzen would never have risked bringing in the boy.
"We can do it. With Shisui's mangekyo and my own skills, we'll be able to catch them by surprise. By the time they know something is wrong, the most dangerous elements will already be neutralized." Itachi nodded at Danzo, who nodded sharply and stepped forward.
"We'll have loyal ANBU agents ready in the surrounding area, in case any of them try to escape." Hiruzen had never liked Danzo's willingness to engage in questionable means to accomplish a goal, but he would never deny the man was thorough.
"Then all that's left is to wait. One month from now, the Uchiha clan will only have two members left." Hiruzen said, a bitter taste in his mouth. Surely this wasn't what his senseis had in mind when they brought the Uchiha and Senju together to live in one village?
The other three nodded, and began to disperse. Hiruzen barely noticed Itachi following until a hand touched his shoulder.
"Itachi? What can I do for you?" He asked, trying to shake himself from the dark thoughts.
"I have a favor, Hokage-sama" He said, his tone respectful. He looked apprehensive, a break from his normal passive stoicism.
"I know what we're doing is necessary" Again Hiruzen felt bile in the back of his throat. "but my brother….my brother knows nothing of the plans for a coup. He is innocent. I ask nothing for myself, just that my brother be allowed to live." Itachi stared at Hiruzen, his black eyes pleading. Hiruzen thought for a second, but it was a foregone conclusion. He could condone the death of an entire clan for the good of the village, but part of that was the abstract concept involved with the "Uchiha" name being eradicated. To outright refuse to allow an innocent child to survive if it was in his power, now that he'd been made aware of Sasuke's ignorance.
"You're sure he knows nothing of the coup?" Hiruzen asked, and Itachi nodded.
"Then I'll allow it. Let me tell Danzo tomorrow, but you may spare him." Itachi had a visible look of relief on his face. The thought of killing his family was agonizing, that much was plain to see, but Hiruzen could only be glad he could spare this honorable young ninja the pain of killing his only sibling.
As Itachi walked away from him, Hiruzen took a long drag on his pipe.
"The things we do for the village. I just hope I can sleep again after this, I have too many nightmares as it is…"
-X-X-X-X-X-X-
Naruto stood in the clearing he used to train with Itachi, pacing nervously. Itachi was late, something that had never happened in all the time Naruto had known him. He was considering running over to the trees overlooking the Uchiha compound and trying to spot him from there when he spotted Itachi coming in from the other side of the clearing. He opened his mouth to call out a greeting, but closed it when he saw the look on Itachi's face.
"What's wrong?" He asked as Itachi stopped in front of him. He was dressed in full ANBU gear, mask hanging off the side of his head. Itachi blinked, seeming to collect himself, and then his normal expressionless mask slipped back in place.
"I'm going on a mission, Naruto. A long one" Naruto frowned. Itachi had gone on long missions before, once for over three weeks, but something in his expression or tone told Naruto this was different.
"For how long? When are you coming back?" Naruto asked, a hint of panic in his voice. Itachi was the one of the very few constant things in his life. He was the person who'd given Naruto a small window into his parents, and was Naruto's gateway to the rest of the world. If he disappeared….
"I don't know. A long time, maybe years." Naruto felt numb at the words. He looked at Itachi, trying furiously to keep tears from forming in his eyes. Itachi took a scroll from behind his back.
"These are some chakra exercises to help you with your control, and a jutsu of my own creation. It will be useful for you, especially with your shadow clone mastery." Naruto nodded, taking the scroll.
"You're leaving right now?" Itachi shook his head.
"Tonight, but there is another task I have to do in the village. I won't be able to see you again before I go." Naruto nodded, and then turned back to Itachi.
"Stay here" He said. Itachi tilted his head slightly, looking at Naruto curiously as he ran back into the forest. It was nearly twenty minutes before Naruto came back, holding something in his hands. He came to a stop in front of Itachi, who studiously ignored the tears at the corners of his eyes.
"Here" he said, extending his hand. Itachi took the object he was presented, and looked down at it. It was a smooth piece of wood, carved by something sharp. He recognized Naruto's handiwork in the crude drawing, only a little better now than when he'd first met the boy. It was a carving of Naruto, his two iconic chains over his shoulders, standing next to a carving of a boy with short hair holding a kunai in each hand, ready to throw. They were labeled with Naruto's and Itachi's names.
"So you don't have to be alone on your mission. If my family can keep me company, then I can keep you company." Naruto smiled at him. Itachi looked at the carving, then silently and carefully put it away in one of the inside pouches of his ANBU vest.
"Thank you, Naruto" He said, his voice low. He put his hand on Naruto's shoulder, squeezing lightly, and then turned. He pulled his animal mask over his face, the cat-like features covering his features. Naruto watched him walk to the edge of the clearing, then dissolve into a flock of crows. Naruto pulled out the scroll, a smile on his face, and began to train. After all, just because Itachi was gone didn't mean he couldn't better himself. When Itachi returned to the village, Naruto would show him just how strong he'd become!
-X-X-X-X-X-
Itachi couldn't pinpoint one exact reason why the night had gone to hell, not because the decline was subtle, but because there was too many. First he'd found Shisui with only one eye, just in time for his best friend to rip out his other eye and entrust the valuable mangekyo to Itachi for safekeeping. While Itachi had stood, shocked at his friend's actions, Shisui had thrown himself into the river, and Itachi had been unable to find him. He'd tried to complete the eradication of the Uchiha by himself, growing sickened at each murder, only to come upon his parents seated calmly in their room. Far from vilifying him for his action, his father had told him how much he respected Itachi for following his convictions to the end. Worse, his mother had simply told him how proud she was of the man he'd become, and how much she loved him. All she'd asked was that he look after Sasuke. It had torn Itachi's heart from his chest to kill his parents after hearing that, but they had made their choice just as he had. The last nail in the coffin had been coming across his brother, drenched in his parent's blood. The look of confusion on Sasuke's face, the terrified screams as he'd used Tsukiyomi to direct all of Sasuke's hatred on him, it was all spinning in Itachi's head as he carried out his mission. As he'd headed to the rendezvous point to report in, he'd had to stop next to a stream to empty his stomach, unable to handle the nausea caused by his actions. His new mangekyo saw too much, and he couldn't forget any of it, not one little detail. It had taken him almost ten minutes to pull himself together enough to fake his normal façade enough to report in.
"It's done?" Danzo asked from the shadows. Itachi nodded, his mask hiding the pallor of his face.
"Then you know the next part of your mission." Danzo said.
"You'll take care of Sasuke?" Itachi asked. It was the only thing keeping him going at this point.
"Your brother will be treated as royalty, the last of the respected Uchiha clan. He will never know of your clan's betrayal." Danzo hesitated. "You're sure you don't want to remain in Konoha? ANBU are faceless after all, a simple change of mask and we could give you a new identity." Danzo was not overly emotional, but the loss of such an asset as Itachi was unfortunate, and he would avoid it if possible. Regardless, Itachi shook his head.
"I can do more on the other mission. I am uniquely…suited for that assignment." Danzo nodded slightly.
"Then I wish you good luck. Your first check in is in one month, in the capitol of Rice country." Itachi nodded, and Danzo slipped back into the shadows. Itachi ran up the wall next to him, and leapt off into the forest. He had only gone about three quarters of a mile when he sensed a familiar presence shadowing him. He pulling into a clearing and stopped.
"You can come out, Naruto. I know you're there." He called out quietly. He knew how acute Naruto's hearing was, there was no reason to shout. He watched the boy step out of the trees, his now light-red hair the only thing differentiating him from the shadows around him. In a detached part of his mind, Itachi was proud to see how well Naruto was applying his stealth training.
Naruto stared at Itachi silently for several minutes, his eyes boring into the holes in Itachi's ANBU mask. Finally he spoke one word.
"Why?" He asked. Surprisingly, there was no condemnation in his tone. Itachi knew that Naruto had somehow discovered his actions that night, but how could he not hate Itachi after what he'd done. After all, even Itachi hated himself over his mission tonight.
"I had to prove myself" Itachi said, falling back on the same story he'd told Sasuke. "I had to know the limits of my power, so I used them to test myself. They were nothing more than the meter I used to measure my growth." Naruto's expression didn't change at all as Itachi spoke. Itachi waited for him to say something, to yell at him for betraying the very principles he's instilled in Naruto over the last year. His answer shocked Itachi, and sent him scrambling.
"Then why were you sick after doing it?" One simple sentence, and Itachi's narrative was destroyed. He cursed Naruto's penchant for sneaking, and his night vision.
"How could I not have noticed him watching me?" He wondered, and then answered his own question. He was so messed up from killing his family that even a civilian could probably have snuck up on him. For someone like Naruto who'd spent years avoiding forest patrols, it had been child's play. His mind was racing to come up with another reason, one that would keep Naruto off the truth and be believable.
Naruto continued to stare at him, and then repeated his words from the long-ago conversation in the training grounds.
"Sometimes we have to do what's right, even if it hurts the ones closest to us." Itachi looked at him in surprise. Naruto just shrugged.
"I….I don't know why you did what you did, but I have faith in you Itachi sensei." He spoke. Itachi rocked back on his heels. The simple words had a profound effect. He'd worried about what Naruto would think of him after today, and to find out he didn't vilify him was….cleansing. Itachi was struck by the sudden urge to explain himself, to have someone, anyone know the truth outside of the Hokage and Danzo. He couldn't bring himself to tell Naruto the whole truth, but he could at least let him know that he hadn't betrayed Naruto, that the things he'd taught him were still worthwhile.
"Sometimes we have to follow orders that we hate, in order to protect what we love." Itachi spoke quietly, and saw Naruto nod, though his eyes narrowed. Itachi watched as he looked back at the village, remembering the times Itachi had told him about his reasons for serving the village, about his philosophy about the duty of a shinobi. Itachi saw the connections forming, and a look of resolution came over his face.
"You're not coming back, are you?" He asked. Itachi shook his head.
"No. I'll be branded a missing ninja after this." Naruto frowned.
"That's not right!" Itachi cut him off.
"It's what I chose. My sacrifice is a small one, in the grand scheme of things. If this keeps the village safe, then I'll gladly pay it." Naruto looked at him.
"Then I'll protect it for you" He said stubbornly. Itachi's eyes widened. If Naruto really meant that… The possibilities began to run through his head. He didn't want to force Naruto into something out of a misplaced sense of obligation to Itachi, but Naruto was strong now, strong enough to protect himself from any civilians and most of the lower ranked ninja at least. He would be safer in Konoha, especially with the hunter nin that would be combing the country for him.
Another thought struck him, and he smiled inwardly. If he was going to send his surrogate little brother into the lion's den, so to speak, there was one more set of claws he could give him.
"If you truly mean that, then you'll need to see the Hokage after you wake up." He said. "Tell him nothing of speaking to me though, Naruto. This is a secret you cannot speak to anyone of, under pain of death. My sacrifice would be in vain otherwise." Naruto nodded slowly, not truly understanding but trusting that Itachi knew what he was talking about, then stopped.
"Wait, what do you mean wake up?" Naruto said, confused. Itachi simply looked at him, the three commas of his activated sharingan spinning. As Naruto fell to the ground unconscious, he reached into the vest of his ANBU vest and pulled out an object.
"The last gift I can give you Naruto….use it wisely."
-X-X-X-X-X-X-
Deep inside Naruto's subconscious, trapped behind great iron bars and a seal insignia, the Kyuubi growled as his container was put under a genjutsu by the sharingan.
Those eyes are an abomination He grumbled quietly to himself. He couldn't help but feel a bit of camaraderie with his host over the situation, however. He'd been under the sharingan's influence, and knew exactly how powerful it could be. That didn't mean he wouldn't make fun of his container for falling to that trick again the next time they met, however. He couldn't see anything through the seal, but he could sense the chakras around him, and noticed the Itachi's coming closer. There was a familiar sense as he activated a jutsu, and the Kyuubi looked up at the top of his cage as if he could see through it.
"Oh, what's this?" He said softly, curiosity and surprise present in his voice. A second later he felt a second chakra signature, too small to be another person, interact with the jutsu Itachi was using.
"You sneaky son of a…. NOW things are getting interesting!" He chuckled at that. "I can't wait to see how this plays out! I haven't been part of anything that interesting since…well since the last time I fought Hashirama…." The Kyuubi mused to himself. It was rather boring, being trapped inside the stomach of a seven year old, but now he had something to look forward to.
"Don't die too soon, kit" He mumbled to himself "This is just getting fun!" He laughed long and hard at that, as Naruto slumbered, unaware of his tenant's amusement.
-X-X-X-X-X-
When Naruto woke, he had a pounding headache and a curse on his lips for red-eyed idiots and genjutsus in general. He pulled his aching body slowly to his feet, and stumbled over to a nearby stream. A long drink and several splashes of cold water later, he felt more awake. Judging by the position of the sun it was still early morning, no more than two or three hours since sunrise. He thought back to his meeting with Itachi, and the cryptic remarks he'd made.
"He said he was following orders.." Naruto thought. "And if he can't tell me about it, then maybe whoever ordered it can…but I can't ask if what Itachi sensei said was right." He concluded with a nod. If he was ever going to find out what had happened to cause Itachi to massacre his family like that, he was going to have to find a way to get into the Hokage's records, or someone else suitably highly-placed. Naruto's head throbbed at the thought of how long a plan like that would take.
"Might as well just become the Hokage at that point." He grumbled to himself. Either way, he had his directions from Itachi, and they seemed like a good idea anyways. He was a little wary of going back to the village, but no longer feared the civilians. After all, if what Itachi had said was true, he was stronger than most of the genin in the village, so a civilian shouldn't be any danger.
It took him nearly an hour to reach his destination, and he was relieved to see his targets out in the open. It would be much more difficult to get close to them if they were inside or under guard, and he didn't really trust anyone else to help him. He climbed the wall around the compound with ease, his chains acting as anchors while his feet gripped the slippery wall with a thin coating of chakra. At the top, he anchored one chain into the wall, and wrapped the other around him like a cloak. Itachi had told him that the chain confused his sharingan, and would probably be difficult to detect for anyone who relied on chakra to see. He'd also given Naruto a crash course on the other bloodline users in Konoha, so Naruto knew he'd need every advantage he could get to remain unseen.
Thankfully, either due to his own efforts or the commotion around the massacre at the Uchiha estate, he managed to make it into the gardens he'd been aiming for without anyone raising the alarm. He allowed his anchor line to dissipate at the top, retracting the rest inside himself, and took a deep breath to gather his courage. This would be the first time in more than three years that he'd had any real contact with someone other than Itachi. Before his courage could flag, he stepped resolutely out of the bushes in front of his targets. They both looked at him in surprise, the older woman falling back into a defensive stance.
"Um, hi" Naruto said awkwardly, not sure what to do about the woman apparently ready to beat him senseless. "Could you take me to the Hokage by any chance?"
-X-X-X-X-
Hiruzen looked at the report on his desk with a scowl on his face.
"One hundred and thirty four people dead because Fugaku couldn't be content with what he had" He thought. Rarely had Hiruzen seen so much waste for so little reason. This whole operation had left a bad taste in his mouth, even before Shisui had disappeared. Now, instead of there being three loyal Uchiha left, there was only one seven year old boy. He sighed.
"What a mess…." He looked up at a knock on his door, and his secretary poked her head in. His two ANBU guards, Inu and Cat, had been pulled off the search for Naruto to help with manpower as they cleaned up the massacre, and they tensed minutely as the door opened before relaxing as they recognized the woman.
"Hokage-sama?" Hiruzen motioned for her to continue.
"I have the Hyuuga matriarch here to see you. She says it's important." Hiruzen told her to let them in, frowning. The Lady Hyuuga had called on him before, and he was curious about what could be so important on today of all days.
The door opened again, and three people filed into the room. The first two Hiruzen recognized as Hitomi Hyuuga and her daughter Hinata, who was hiding slightly behind her mother. As he saw the third figure, however, his face went slack. As his pipe hit the desk, Inu did a double take.
"You!" He shouted, making the Hyuuga girl flinch. A small smile pulled the boy's mouth upwards, and Hiruzen had the distinct impression he enjoyed Inu's reaction before turning back to Hiruzen.
"Hello Hokage-sama" he said. Hiruzen simply stared for a moment, his headache increasing as he thought of the oncoming paperwork. He smiled wryly.
"Hello Naruto"
A/N So this took forever to write because I wanted to get the entire thing up until the massacre in one chapter, but damn did it take a while (I think its a little over 14k words). To clear up a few things right away: Naruto is not a prodigy. He lives in the woods, and has a lot of time on his hands, so he practices a lot. The one place he excels is in 3 dimensional geography, mostly because he swings around on those chains like a demented spider monkey. Since the deflection technique relies on a sharingan to compensate for most people NOT having an instinctive ability to track/predict objects in 3D space, it would be unnecessary for Naruto to do that technique. He already knows how things move based on applied force in a 3d environment, its how he's moved around for 1/3rd of his life.. Other than that, for those interested, Hinata's mother survived a placental bleed that the nurse in the room missed because of how long the labor was. As someone who has had to assist on a 22 hour delivery, I can attest that towards the end of that you're just fried, and you can miss things. Hizashi, having not stared at a pregnant lady for 12 hours, was less inattentive and noticed in time to get a doctor to help.
Enjoy!