A/N: Since the prologue is a bit monstrous in length, I'm going to try to keep the future chapters at a more manageable reading level. I hope you all enjoy.
"Hey Naruto," said Sasuke, entering Naruto's dilapidated apartment. Naruto looked over from the fridge to see who it was. "Pack your stuff. You're moving from this crapshack."
Naruto's eyes bugged out at that proclamation. What was going on here?
"What? Why?" asked Naruto in confusion, turning to give Sasuke his full attention. "I don't have anywhere else to go and I didn't receive any notice…"
"You're moving in with me and Haku into the Uchiha district," said Sasuke getting to the point of the matter, "This place isn't fit to live in and I won't have a teammate being extorted into paying bills for this dump with his hard-earned money if I can provide a better living for free."
"Sasuke, you don't have to-" Naruto did not desire to be pitied. He appreciated his friend's gesture of goodwill but Naruto could take care of himself.
"We'll be having a hearing in about a month's time about you becoming a member of the Uchiha clan," interrupted Sasuke smirking as Naruto gaped in surprise, "Hopefully, if all goes well, you can become an official member and be removed from the Uzumaki clan."
"For god knows what reason, the Uzumaki clan still have you listed as a member even though you've been living off government stipends with no aid or help from that clan for six years now. I've already listed my Clan advisors to argue that point as a reason for you officially being removed."
"Sasuke…" Naruto didn't really know what to say at all the trouble that his friend was going through… just for him… Naruto was overwhelmed with joy. "Thank you…"
Later, Naruto's girlfriend helped with the packing to help Naruto move into the Uchiha district. Sasuke had a wonderful time getting to really know her. It certainly explained why Naruto kept it a secret and her attitude changes from what he knew of her.
During the following weeks after the Wave Country incident, Squad Seven grew closer as a team. They would practice and share jutsus, test their individual taijutsu styles against each other, or just talk to each other.
Kakashi would always arrive late so all three decided to make the most of it. It was better than mindlessly waiting for three hours not bothering to even make conversation and simply straying into their own little worlds of thought. After all, how stupid could one be to do that every day? 'Pretty freakin' dumb', they all agreed. All three hated waiting for Kakashi to show up on time and since they couldn't convince the asshole to come during his scheduled time like any professional shinobi, they decided to spring traps on Kakashi. A few times, due to the disgruntled feelings over the constant D-rank missions they endured, they skipped out on waiting entirely and spent the days together for leisure activities ranging from studying new C-rank jutsus in the Konoha library to going to the movies.
While this was insubordination, the three told Kakashi with a thinly veiled threat to report to the Hokage about his constant tardiness and how it was detrimental to the overall objective of teaching a team of adolescent shinobi. Sakura wisely pointed out that D-rank missions were meaningless in team-building because each member of the team would be isolated in dealing with their particular section of whatever mission they were working on. The Tora the cat mission, while being a notable exception, usually caused much in-fighting within teams since the first time the mission was ever handed out in Konoha military history. Kakashi had no objections to the three spending time together and walking out on missions. While it looked poorly on their overall ability as shinobi officially, the three were acting together as a team and learning from each other.
D-rank missions were made to cater to a bunch of lazy common folk who had argued vehemently with the bureaucracy over making changes so that they could exploit the military force of the village. The only aspect Kakashi cared about was teamwork. Even he was tired of being charged with constant D-rank missions.
During one of their days out, they came across Konohamaru being accosted by a suna-nin with strange face paint on his face. Naruto hurriedly rushed in to help.
"Hey!" bellowed Naruto in anger, "What the hell do you think you're doing!"
"Back off," snarled Kankuro in response to the angry genin before him, "I'm just teaching this kid some manners, he bumped into me without apologizing."
"Unhand him now or else I tell Hokage-sama that you've harmed his grandson!" Naruto snarled back with vigor. "I don't think Suna is in a position for war considering the economic depression your people are in."
The sand kunoichi besides the sand shinobi frowned at his words. Kankuro abruptly dropped Konohamaru upon Naruto's words of just who he had nearly harmed. The duo quickly apologized and left. Naruto felt a third chakra signature, one very powerful one, following them closely. He frowned upon realizing that a demon host was there teammate. A demon container would be entering the chuunin exams… He turned to Konohamaru to see how the boy was.
"Wow Naruto," spoke Sakura impressed, "You handled that without things getting violent."
Konohamaru scowled at Naruto and turned away.
"You didn't have to use my grandpa's name to get them to stop, Naruto-nii."
Naruto sighed in response to that statement. He knew Konohamaru hated becoming a shadow of his grandfather but Naruto had seen no other way to make it end peaceably.
"Hey, give him a break, he saved you." said Sasuke to Konohamaru pointedly, "And he only did that because he wanted to make sure you weren't harmed. You weren't. You should be thanking him."
"It's fine, Sasuke." spoke Naruto, Naruto gave his full attention to his first ever fan. "I'm sorry I haven't been around much Konohamaru. I've just been busy because I'm on a genin squad now. If you'd like, you can spend time with us right now. I've learned some defensive earth jutsus I can teach you."
Konohamaru brightened at that prospect. The group of six, joined by Konohamaru's friends, went on to practice various jutsu exercises for recreational purposes in Squad Seven's training ground.
Later that Evening
"Whoa, Haku! Are you alright?" asked Naruto in concern upon seeing Haku arrived to the training ground in an exhausted state, "What happened to you? You look beat…"
Sakura had just agreed to take the three to their homes while Naruto and Sasuke continued to spar. Sakura had been too tired to continue training so she agreed to take each child to their respective homes and then go home herself. Naruto and Sasuke continued training while waiting for Haku to arrive as they had agreed. They had hoped to try training with the boy even further.
"I guess training with you is out," said Sasuke jokingly, hoping to lighten the mood. His face took a more serious look. "What happened? You look ready to keel over…"
"I'll be fine," assured Haku as he sat down by the stumps. Naruto and Sasuke walked over to sit with him. "I had to undergo an examination for my abilities… because of my bloodline's unique powers they decided to test it as much as possible. Originally, it seemed that my powers would rank me as a high level Chuunin but… because of my medical knowledge, battle experience, and proficiency in my own variation of Silent Killing they've classed me as a Jounin."
Naruto whistled in applause as Sasuke gave his "congratulations" to their new friend. Haku smiled weakly at the praise.
"It's not… all good news…" said Haku hesitantly, Naruto looked at him questioningly as Sasuke just gave him a look that said 'out with it'. Haku chuckled a little. "Before I could become a Shinobi I had to… swear an oath to the Will of Fire…"
Haku grimaced at that. He looked at his two new friends and was relieved to see sympathetic looks and not scorn.
"Is it because you have strong feelings for the Will of Water?" asked Naruto cautiously, his inexperience with the subject leading him to be nervous about offending Haku.
Haku smiled and shook his head slowly. He sighed before beginning.
"I… don't believe in any of them. The Will of Fire, Earth, Water, Sky, or… well, anything." admitted Haku finally, "Zabuza-sama was a modernistic follower of the Will of Water but he never tried forcing me to follow the religion. Instead, he taught me the history of Kirigakura and how the extremist beliefs of the Nidaime Mizukage led to revolution with the eventual creation of the Sandaime Mizukage's tyrannical regime."
"I was free to choose what faith to believe in… yet… after the death of my parents' I couldn't believe in anything. I just couldn't after what I went through because it felt so hollow… What about you two?"
"I stopped believing after my entire clan was robbed from me," said Sasuke bluntly, surprising Haku, "What loving God would allow that to happen to me? I understand that it's selfish to think like that… but that's how I feel."
"I don't think there is anything wrong with it either. Religion itself selfishly holds to a code it claims to be humble. Looking outside the box made me realize that. I didn't gain the Sharingan before my clan died so I never went through the personal Uchiha clan rituals. I studied them a few times out of curiosity but they all seemed so… primitive. I couldn't understand how anyone could believe them and not be a nutcase…"
"I… don't know." admitted Naruto softly, "I'd like to believe in the Will of Fire's virtues and I respect the idea of being compassionate and brave but with how life is in the Shinobi world… I just don't know. I want to believe it but I'm not convinced."
"I actually did study and practice my clan's personal rituals from my memory and observations of how they were back before they left. I thought that if I did them diligently then my moth- my clan would want me back. That, of course, didn't happen. Right now, I'm just undecided I guess…"
Haku nodded sympathetically and smiled. Naruto gave a weak smile in return. Haku and Sasuke had both heard the slip but didn't comment. Sasuke quickly thought of something to change the subject. He didn't wish Naruto to dwell on this topic.
"Haku, could you tell us the history of Kirigakura? I'm curious to learn more about it," asked Sasuke, "All the news I recall hearing was about this or that conflict or war going on. It seems like all of water country has problems…"
Haku chuckled at that statement before beginning.
"It began rather far back… the Nidaime Mizukage was a bloodline purist and gave a lot of privileges to Bloodline clans. A person from a prestigious bloodline clan could murder, rape, steal, or torture the civilians without any consequences." explained Haku grimacing, "It was actually worse for Shinobi without bloodlines. They were forced to participate in grueling death matches to 'toughen' themselves, such as Zabuza-sama killing his entire graduating class, for just the entertainment of the Clan Heads. Children with bloodlines were exempt from such matches and automatically placed into squads without any real tests."
Naruto and Sasuke looked disgusted by that. Naruto had always been kept in the dark regarding the bloodier and negative aspects of the old Water clans. It was no surprise. The idea that the revolutionary fighters of the old Kirigakura war being more than bloodthirsty monsters was a major no-no to maintain the image of the Uzumaki clan.
"As one can expect, dissent grew over time. Many bloody conflicts occurred and that caused the Nidaime to react with harsher laws to force the 'lowly common people' into submission. Shinobi and civilians revolted and eventually formed the revolutionary army. The Civil War of Fog lasted for seven bloody years… it was how Zabuza-sama became proficient in silent killing at a very young age."
"And after that came the bloodline purges?" asked Naruto sullenly.
The genocide of Kirigakura was very well-known to all Shinobi villages.
"Not immediately… in the beginning, there was a call for equal rights and taking over large properties owned by the most prominent clans. However, after the inexplicable deaths of popular revolutionary leaders around the time of the surrenders by the bloodline clans, the only remaining popular figure to rally behind was Yagiri Yagura. He's the Jinchuuriki of the three-tailed turtle-like beast and became the Sandaime Mizukage. It was under his rule that the genocide of bloodlines was enacted and tyranny followed."
"Why?" Naruto couldn't help but ask. Sasuke stayed silent. "All we ever learn in the Academy is that it happened after the revolution. The Uzumaki clan never really spoke on it. I can't even blame them but I've always wanted to know how or why a Kage could do that to his own people even if they had a Civil war…"
"Zabuza-sama gave me the history and reasons… it was quite tragic... some would even say the Sandaime Mizukage was justified," began Haku carefully, "It is a well-known fact that all the Wills teach that Jinchuuriki are a vile sin and that those with Bloodlines are either descendants of God, known in human form as Rikkudo-Sennin, or endowed with powers by God-"
"Jinchuuriki are sin?" shouted a startled Naruto, his eyes widened in shock. "S-since when! I… I've never heard of that…"
Sasuke and Haku both regarded him. They were unsure how to approach this revelation. It seemed the Uzumaki clan hadn't taught Naruto the full details of the Old religions. Finally after some hesitation, Sasuke took the initiative.
"You… never knew?" asked Sasuke quietly, Naruto shook his head in confirmation. "Naruto… virtually all the religions of the Shinobi world have passages that say Jinchuuriki are sinful reincarnations of the demons they harbor. All ancient scriptures said to be written by the Rikkudo-sennin specify that Jinchuuriki, human sacrifices, contain the demonic entity residing within the body by destroying the human soul that was once in it. The Rikkudo-sennin's direct words, according to scripture, are to kill Jinchuuriki upon creation."
"It's only been fairly recently in Shinobi History that people have recognized those parts as wrong because the demonic soul is either separately contained or entwined with the life of the human soul inside it. None of the Bijuu held within have ever died because they've either broken out of the body or healed the person they're tied to until the human died of natural causes so the Bijuu is free to break out."
"…Why am I only learning of all this now?" said Naruto bitterly as he glared at the ground, "I was never told any of that when I lived with the Uzumaki clan… only the parts about people with bloodlines being descended from God."
"Now that I think about it… it makes complete sense. They held out until near my sixth birthday to see if a demon spawn could have a bloodline. When it looked like I wasn't going to have one they left probably thinking I was nothing but a devil incarnate. They didn't just see me as useless; they saw me as evil…"
"You… won't like what else I have to say about the Sandaime Mizukage," said Haku sighing sadly, "From a political and religious perspective, Yagiri Yagura is living proof that the Rikkudo-sennin's words were entirely correct. Many people have used Yagiri as an example for why Jinchuuriki are treated worse off in other Shinobi Villages."
"I want to know…" responded Naruto with more confidence than he felt. He looked Haku directly in the eyes. Inside, he felt the wounds of the past re-open as another stab was added to his heart. "It affects not just how people see me but my family's past as well. Please, tell me everything."
Haku nodded in understanding. He couldn't deny such a request.
"From the information Zabuza-sama divulged on Yagiri's past, he lived as a street urchin for the most part. He had a family but after he was chosen to host the Three-tails his family wanted nothing to do with him. The three-tails needed to be sealed because it ravaged nearby farmlands that were vital to the main village of Kirigakura. The demon couldn't be killed and they annually lost soldiers trying to fend it off." explained Haku, "Yagiri's treatment by the villagers – bloodline clans included - was deplorable. He scavenged for food constantly because nobody cared to feed him, he was attacked by mobs nearly every week, and endured insults of being a demon almost every waking day of his life."
"At some point during the early parts of his shinobi career, he openly declared that he would be Mizukage some day so that people would acknowledge and respect him. He wore a façade to get through his daily hardships and his life seemed to be becoming better because the payroll allowed him to rent his own apartment in the poor side of town and he could purchase edible food to eat. The Bloodline clans caught word of his many boastings… some waved it off as ravings of a fool but others grew resentful. Some of the bloodline clans broke into his apartment one night, they proceeded to rape and torture him. The Nidaime found out and decided to punish the Jinchuuriki for his loudmouth by condoning his rape and torture as a spectacle to be performed. Many members of bloodlines all over would attack him nightly to... do things to him. If he tried escaping the village, he was caught and if he tried fighting back then they would hurt him even more. The three-tails only ever healed his wounds. It wasn't until years later during the war effort that he learned to harness its power to kill."
"Why didn't anyone try to stop him when he took power and began the purges?" asked Sasuke, "I can understand that most of them would be gung-ho for it but why didn't anyone demand it stopped? And who selected Yagiri Yagura to be Mizukage?"
"Because most of the revolutionaries were supportive of it in the beginning," replied Haku, "Many of the old clans desired to keep their positions of power under the terms of surrender but were refused. While nobody went through the hellish life of Yagiri, the members of the revolution typically had families that were murdered or raped by arrogant bloodline clan members. The vast majority of Kirigakura's revolutionary army had changed or rid themselves of their religious beliefs. Yagiri himself is known to view Bloodlines as the root of all evil and views demon containers as the true messengers of the Lord. He changed much of Water's historic and religious texts to conform to this ideology. Thus, the bloodline purges were heartily carried out. It caused the sweeping change in other hidden villages archaic laws when reports of Kirigakura's condition got out. Yagiri Yagura was unanimously selected to be the Sandaime Mizukage by the people mostly because he was the only popular figure left and partly because it was he who killed the Nidaime Mizukage. However, many people ignore the fact that the Nidaime's prowess had waned due to his very decrepit age. He was around one hundred years of age during his death. Even then, Yagiri relied heavily on his bijuu's powers to combat the Nidaime's lava bloodline. The Yoton clan, the Nidaime's own clan, was the first targeted for the purge."
"It is only recently that the second Civil war, which has not been given a name yet, began. Dissent and clashes slowly rose over time because of the Sandaime Mizukage's unending massacre of the Bloodlines and bloodline backers. The second Civil War took root when Yagiri dispatched assassins' to kill the 'Seven Champions of Mist'. Honorary shinobi swordsmen given their titles for either winning critical moments of the Civil War of Fog or for their enhanced skill in sword techniques. He targeted Hoshigaki Kisame specifically because Hoshigaki-san is known as the strongest swordsman in Mist and the last of a prominent bloodline. Yagiri used him as a clever political tool to confuse the people of Kirigakura into thinking that he wasn't completely insane in his Bloodline extermination plan. That ended when Yagiri felt threatened by Hoshigaki's astounding achievements in missions and that he outlived his usefulness. He faked a story about Zabuza-sama attacking him under orders of Hoshigaki in a conspiracy to usurp the title of Kage. He used Zabuza-sama as the scapegoat because he was the weakest of the swordsman at the time. Zabuza-sama succeeded in killing his attackers, told the other seven members, and they all fled. Despite the Mizukage's official story, word spread of what truly transpired and the revolts grew in acknowledgement that the Sandaime Mizukage was just as fanatical as the Nidaime. Many people were sick of his tyrannical rule over their daily lives under the guise of 'protection'. Thus, Kirigakura is mired once more in a Civil War."
They all contemplated the information given. Haku asked if they had any further inquiries but was told they didn't. Haku wondered if he should explain that Yagiri had carefully enacted the deaths of the other popular figures via poison and disposing their bodies on fresh battle grounds to spread misinformation. All so that he would be the one to rule Kirigakura. Zabuza had only uncovered that carefully guarded fact recently before the Land of Waves mission in his thorough investigation of the man.
Naruto felt sickened by the story, particularly because it further explained why his clan abandoned him. He had spouted about becoming Hokage around the age he was abandoned. Yagiri Yagura had done the same… and became one of the worst monsters ever known to the Shinobi world. Naruto's dream had died at a young age and he had no idea what he wanted to do in his life beyond bettering himself as a shinobi.
Sasuke wondered what the future of Kirigakura would be. He couldn't help but wonder what his brother's true motives were in killing the Uchiha clan. The idea of testing his capacity seemed like utter childish bullshit now. What Itachi had done was inexcusable but Sasuke had the burning desire to know why. There had to be more to it. Yagiri Yagura's insanity hadn't been black and white, after all.
"Alright, we should all go back to the Uchiha compound and wash-up. It's getting pretty late."
The other two nodded in agreement. Sasuke and Naruto helped Haku up. The three walked off towards the Uchiha compound.
The Next Day…
"Glad that you all actually waited," said Kakashi happily in surprise, "It saves me the trouble of looking for you three since I have something important to discuss with you all."
"We got here less than three minutes ago," replied Naruto bored, "We were training in the Uchiha compound until Iruka-sensei attacked us in a genjutsu. It was so pathetic that even Konohamaru recognized it. We beat him up pretty thoroughly."
"You're here to give us the Chuunin Exam papers, right?" added Sasuke bluntly, "Give 'em to us already. We only bothered coming here today because we've been waiting for you to give them to us for so long."
"Took your time, didn't you?" said Sakura snorting in annoyance, "The other teams already got their papers and signed off! It's a good thing we've been training all this time or else we would've had to train extra hard to make-up the lost time before the exams. The Chuunin Exams are only one week away!"
Kakashi sweat dropped as he noticed the disgruntled looks of his students and processed the information given to him.
'…It's like I'm the subordinate and they're the ones in charge,' thought Kakashi annoyed, 'Honestly, no respect… I'll teach them a lesson! This should be good… A little fun shouldn't hurt.'
"No, I've decided that you three are unfit for the Chuunin Exams," lied Kakashi folding his arms, "You three need to show respect to a superior officer and learn proper team-building and coordination."
"You need to learn when to properly get here on time!" snarled Naruto angrily, "I don't get angry often but you're seriously making me lose my patience every damn time! You expect us to wait three hours for you to show up? I don't care if you can take on Zabuza, I'm going to fulfill that promise of beating your ass one day!"
"You want us to respect your orders? Then give us the same damn respect by showing up on time! I've told you this before!"
"Yeah!" shouted Sakura adding her two cents, "Kakashi-sensei, you're ridiculous! You read porn everyday in front of your twelve year old students and expect us to wait for you while you're doing god-knows-what. It's completely unbecoming! I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and respected you a lot after that A-rank mission against Zabuza but you've slowly lost all of that."
"Same with me," said Sasuke, "I could even understand if you needed to recuperate but it's been long past that period. You're not really teaching us anything either at this point. We've taught each other everything we know. Sakura and I have already succeeded the water walking exercise thanks to Naruto. What're you even good for?"
Kakashi facepalmed at all the complaints he had just received. Very accurate ones too…
'Even a joke sets them off…' thought Kakashi, 'Damn it… I guess I need to learn from them and show that I actually do take them and this job seriously.'
Kakashi threw up his arms in exasperation.
"Alright, I get it!" said Kakashi tiredly, "I promise from tomorrow onward that I'll show-up on time."
Sasuke did his patented smirk, Sakura jumped for joy squealing 'yay!', and Naruto nodded smiling. The three were willing to believe his words. All three liked the man; they just loathed his incompetent habits.
"As a token to show I'm serious, and to help you three prepare for the Chuunin exams, I'll be teaching each of you a new jutsu. Since you've all excelled at teamwork so much, it'll mean three new jutsus for each of you."
Kakashi unsealed the three papers in the sealing scroll on his belt. He handed them the papers which they immediately signed off on and handed back. Once they were safely back into the scroll on his belt, he began teaching them three new jutsu.
Their preparations for the Chuunin exam commenced.