Role Reversal
By BlackFeatherz29
Chapter 2: Sasuke (part 1)
So... I've been working on this chapter like a mad(wo)man, and I'm finally tired of dragging this out and thus I have split it into two parts. Wark. At current prediction, the entire section on Sasuke in this fic will turn out to be about 6000-7000 words, so I'm going to go ahead and post the first 4000 that I have already completed. I feel it is cruel keeping people from seeing what I've been working on for so long, so thus I present this to you early.
Sasuke is and always will be my favorite character in the Naruto series, no matter how much Kishimoto flanderizes his character to epic proportions. This is probably why his section is so long and so extremely crucial to my alternate universe. Do read carefully and appreciate the time and effort I have put into this, because I have scattered so many little cues about the specific events that I have changed in the Naruto timeline, which have reduced my psyche to a quivering blob, with all the repercussions that I could possibly have perceived. Too much Star Trek; aye, there's the rub.
Disclaimer: The characters and the general universe are mine alone, but this story and my takes on said characters are mine.
2. Uchiha Sasuke never really knew his clan. However, he still remembers faintly the proud red-and-white fan that emblazoned the buildings of the Uchiha compound before it decayed into a decrepit skeleton of its former self. He only partially remembers his older brother Itachi, who betrayed his clan and Uchiha Madara because of his loyalty to the Hokage and was promptly assassinated shortly after.
The only vestige of the once-proud clan, he was tormented due to his heritage for the rest of his life. Despite this, the boy could not figure out why he was hated so. He grew up bitter and jaded, abused and shunned by those around him. Enrolling in the ninja academy only due to the request of the Yondaime Hokage, he found a new purpose in his life that awakened his dormant inbred genius.
Though the friendly Hokage supported him, Sasuke constantly lived in a state of poverty. His growing body never quite received enough nourishment from his rationings, and instant noodles weren't enough. However, he would graduate and apprentice under the Hokage himself in the absence of his son, who had been the closest thing he had had to a friend.
He would only find out many years later the real reason that the Yondaime agreed to train him: the strange spiral-shaped tattoo on his stomach.
They said that it all started with the attack on Konoha by the Kyuubi. But in truth, the stone began rolling two days prior to that fateful attack with the birth of a baby who had quite a different destiny than our earlier subject. Uchiha Mikoto could not have known, sound asleep and exhausted as she was, that the child whom she had just brought into the world would have such a lasting impact on the village. But her husband, head of the Uchiha clan, did.
Only hours after the baby had been born, the wisp of dark hair upon his head newly dried and downy, was he whisked off to his first audience with the Council and Hokage of Konoha in a secret conference chamber. The meeting was top-secret, with ANBU patrolling at the doorways and seals set into the walls. The entire elderly council, all the clan leaders in the village, and two Hokages (one in office, and one retired) were present, representing all the governing power in the village.
After weeks of patrol regarding the threat that was now barreling toward Konoha, it seemed that there was nothing to do but find a way to destroy it. Early hopes had been that the entity would avoid the village altogether, but they were in vain. The Nine-Tailed Fox was making a beeline for Konoha.
Namikaze Minato, the brilliant young Hokage, had devoted several days to research, barricading himself in the library and wracking his liberal brains for a method to combat the fearsome being that was the demon. His research led him to the dangerous S-class ninjutsu, the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, which would doom the user to eternal battle in the belly of the Shinigami. It is still one of the great mysteries of Konoha how exactly he created from it a method to seal the demon.
But what to seal it in? The Kyuubi had seven times the chakra power of Shukaku, who was just barely able to be sealed inside a blessed teapot by a powerful priest. Most of the other tailed demons had been sealed inside human vessels so the two Hokages and the Council agreed to use this method, but then came the time to make a decision. Who was to be the vessel?
Technically, a demon could be sealed inside the chakra coils of any young child whose coils were not fully developed. The best choice was to find an infant who was born to a shinobi clan while his/her chakra coils were still undeveloped. The Hokage's own son was to be born only two days from that day, and he was fully prepared to offer his son as the vessel. However, the Council had other plans.
Only a few days before, they and the heads of the Uchiha clan had met in the secret chamber below Naka Shrine to discuss the possibility of using the Uchiha Fugaku's second son, who was still an infant and thus perfect for the task at hand. Uchiha Sasuke's bloodline would allow him to further suppress the Kyuubi because of his clan's ancestral ability to control the Fox, and this would allow him to become a potent weapon to the village. It was a win-win scenario, especially if the too-soft Hokage fell during the sealing.
The Council convinced Minato to agree, although he had inhibitions about using another family's child as the vessel. "My family and I swore to protect the village at any cost when I became Hokage", he argued. "I would gladly lay down both my life and my son's life if that's what it takes, and I do not see why the Uchiha clan would have to be exposed to such danger." However, he was outnumbered and forced to change his plans, thus changing the course of history.
Surprisingly, another supporter of using the Uchiha child was the retired Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen. The old man, still powerful in his age, would brook no disagreement when he told Minato that he would be the one to seal the demon. "You are young and full of energy", he told his furious successor. "You have what this village needs to get through these treacherous times. You don't need to sacrifice your life to protect your village the best way you can… go back to your child and your wife and live life the way it was meant to be lived, for everyone's sake."
The night that Uchiha Sasuke met with the leaders of the village, the child was washed ceremoniously, wrapped in a blanket, and marked with ink in the sealing pattern, which spread in a spider web of intricate strokes across the chamber's stone floor. He was to be kept in a secret chamber in Hokage Mountain to which the two Hokages could gain easy access when they were ready to seal the demon.
As the time of sealing approached and the Fox wreaked havoc on the village, Namikaze Minato was forced to confront the fact that there was no way to defeat it without using the seal. Just thinking about leaving his old friend and mentor to die tore at his heart in a way that facing death never did. But after making that final goodbye to his beautiful wife, it tore at him more how he knew that he could never leave her and his newborn son alone in the world. He would carry this secret shame throughout his life long after he became honored as the savior of the village.
And so it went. As Sarutobi's long and honorable life ended so did young Uchiha Sasuke's life start in quite a different fashion than that of his future best friend's, who lay in his swaddling clothes while his exhausted mother breathed her last.
And as the victorious Hokage hoisted his son above the village with the rising of the sun, so was the new vessel of the Nine Tails secretly shunted back to the Uchiha compound. Both the council and the clan leaders deigned it necessary for the child to grow up unaware of this secret, believing that he would be easier to control if he was made unaware, and so the law was born. But like any good secret, this one would not stay quiet.
Uchiha Mikoto found this out the hard way when she woke up in a frenzy without her baby by her side. Having been an extremely bright kunoichi, she knew that they had done something to her baby. Her husband skirted the issue, telling her that young Sasuke had received the blessing of the village and that he would grow up to become the greatest weapon that this village would come to know. Piecing together the clues including with the starkly visible seal on her child's stomach was not hard. One night after that fateful attack, she took back her marriage dowry and quietly committed suicide.
Elder son Itachi had been held for safekeeping along with all the Academy students in an underground shelter. Arriving home in the middle of the frenzied news that his mother had just died, the 4-year-old budding genius did not immediately comprehend the scale of the situation in his grief and confusion.
What could have made his strong, beautiful mother take her own life? The atmosphere was not right, either. Somehow, the mood within the Uchiha compound was tense and chilly, and Mikoto's death just seemed to concentrate the negativity. There should have been jubilation; the second son of the Uchiha clan leader had just been born, and the village had just survived the Kyuubi's attack. So why wasn't there?
None of the clan leaders or his father would tell young Itachi anything, and the arrival of a messenger nin to formally proclaim that not one member of the clan was allowed, on pain of death, to speak of what had transpired during the Kyuubi attack, just confused him more.
However, one thing was certain: Sasuke was somehow the source. None of the clan members wanted to even set foot in the same room where he lay. They would just glance fearfully at him, as if he were some sort of abomination. This mystery would plague Itachi for years.
In the meantime, however, Itachi gazed upon his baby brother, unable to discern why this innocent babe could strike such fear into the hearts of others.
Young Uchiha Sasuke grew up under the watchful eyes of both his father and his brother. He was almost never permitted to leave the central housing complex and never permitted to leave the Uchiha compound at all. Private tutors surrounded him day and night, nurturing his natural genius and above all, making sure that he was never out of sight.
Sasuke himself grew to be a cheerful boy who read entirely too much and was eager to learn, if a bit too earnest. His greatest joy was fulfilling the expectations of his brother and his father, although the latter was not often available. Although most members of the clan still scorned him, little Sasuke had no idea that there was anything different between them and him.
Itachi, in lieu of their mother's absence from their lives, took care of his brother's needs as best he could while flying through the shinobi ranks. As chuunin, Itachi had many more responsibilities, but he always made sure to spend as much time as he could with Sasuke. Whether it was tips for shuriken-throwing or the request for a new bedtime story, Itachi doted excessively on his baby brother, knowing full well that this was to be the happiest time in his life, and that he would never possess this innocence again.
Finally gaining enough clearance to learn of the existence of the law forbidding anybody to discuss the true fate of the Nine-Tailed Fox, Itachi developed a lasting resentment for the darker dealings of his clan that was never fully resolved. He researched deep into the history of Konoha, of the rivalry between the Uchiha and the Senju clans, and of the clash that followed. The more he read, the more wrong everything seemed. Was this really the same clan that he had once been so proud to be a part of?
Intent on discovering the secrets that lay hidden from him, Itachi sought his father's permission (which he was only too happy to give) shortly after he gained his Mangekyo Sharingan and became included in the Uchiha inner circle, joining the elders in the secret meetings that occurred under Naka Shrine.
The first time that he saw a long-lost figure from the bowels of Konoha's history proclaiming that the village needed to be wiped out, Itachi knew something monumental was going to happen.
He knew that he was committing the ultimate treason to his clan when he went to the Hokage and council and told them of what he knew, but at this point he was past caring. So when Danzo and the Council demanded that this clan of treasonous dissenters be wiped out, Itachi didn't object as much as he might have.
The night that the Uchiha massacre occurred, little 4-year old Sasuke had absolutely no idea what had just transpired. In fact, he was entirely absorbed in reading a book about lightning jutsu and was being watched over by Itachi's Kage Buushin. He is told the next morning that his father as well as the entire Uchiha clan was gone from his life, which saddened him, but the notion that he will be able to go outside its gates now perked him up in a way that only children can comprehend.
For the time being, Itachi rented a small but comfortable apartment with the sizable chunk of inheritance that he has from the Uchiha clan funds (as well as his pay from the council for the mission that he just completed) and took his baby brother to live with him. Itachi traversed the streets of Konoha with Sasuke hand in hand, glaring daggers at anybody who dared to glance fearfully at his completely oblivious brother. They lived this way, Itachi tutoring little Sasuke (who read so much that he hardly needed a teacher anyway) while going on his missions sparingly. Hokage-sama was more than happy to oblige.
This happy time would come to an end soon after Itachi made ANBU. Sasuke was now six years old and already an accomplished little shinobi-in-training, with all sorts of jutsu theories tucked in his head but with his chakra still underdeveloped. Usually he consulted Itachi on the practical usage although it frustrated him that he couldn't use any of the techniques yet.
However, one night Itachi simply didn't come home. Sasuke was immediately aware that something might have gone wrong because his brother never went away on a mission without telling him how long it was going to be, and Itachi always came back on time because he was an awesome ninja like that. This time, Itachi had disappeared without a trace; it couldn't have been a mission. Although Sasuke was worried about his brother, fear of the village kept him from seeking outside help. Itachi always warned him that the villagers were not to be trusted and that he should ignore any negativity that came from them, but Sasuke couldn't figure out why. It was this unfound but ultimately petrifying fear that kept the little boy cooped up in his dark apartment for an entire day, terrified that something horrible would happen if he tried to go outside by himself.
Finally, Sasuke couldn't take it anymore. What if his brother needed him? What if nobody knew that he was gone and going to Hokage-sama was the only way? This other, more vivid fear drove him outside, where he ran as fast as his short legs could with his head down the entire time.
Meeting Yondaime Hokage for the first time, Sasuke couldn't understand how anybody could dislike the man. He liked the Hokage's sunny blond hair, his warm blue eyes, and his easy smile. He made Sasuke sit down and drink hot tea before Sasuke told him what was the matter. After he spoke, the Hokage frowned a little and said that he was just made aware by Itachi's captain that he had been missing for a day now. Then, he raised a large warm hand, ruffled little Sasuke's hair in a fatherly way, and said that he was most definitely going to find out what had happened and that Sasuke should leave everything up to him.
Sasuke latched firmly onto the Hokage's reassurances, trusting absolutely in the holy word of the most powerful shinobi in the village. After all, if anybody could make everything better, it was the Hokage.
In the meantime, Sasuke was told to stay at home and was assigned two mysterious masked ANBU guards, whom he liked to call Nyan-Nyan and Kero-Kero, for their animal masks (which were supposed to make him scared but didn't because Itachi's mask always made him feel safe no matter how scary it looked). The days go by anxiously, but Sasuke wasn't so frightened. He was counting on two of the most dependable people to walk the earth: his brother Itachi, who was so strong that nobody could beat him, and Yondaime, who was even stronger. What could go wrong?
It's not until several weeks later that he finally received news about his brother's whereabouts. This time, there are no miracles for him. One of the masked ANBU, who also was anxious for news for his fellow ANBU operative, gave Sasuke the news in clipped professional tones. Itachi had been found hundreds of miles away, deep in the mouth of a cave near Grass Country. His body bore signs of an obvious struggle and was heavily marked with wounds and burns, the rock around him scoured with flame.
With no guardian to look after him, six-year-old Sasuke was sent to live in an orphanage, but as soon as he arrives, there erupts showers of scandalous whispers about him. As expected, the law forbidding discussion about the Kyuubi has had little to no effect on the townspeople, and the simmering mistrust from years of repression has finally come to a boil. Sasuke was no longer the golden Uchiha boy; all he is now, in the eyes of everyone around him, is a snake-tongued, lying orphan who hides a monster behind that angelic face and most probably murdered his entire clan and his older brother out of some sick sense of retribution. Reactions to the small dark-haired boy range from pure disgust to hot hatred to an overwhelming fear that the little demon would come in the dead of night and murder them in their beds.
In orphanage, however, there was only one response. Sasuke was ignored by the caretakers, who saw him as a selfish little gremlin sucking their business and their food storages dry. Although he was never abused for fear of the Hokage's retribution, he was neglected and frequently locked in his room. Other children shied away from him; a few were initially nice to him but are then swiftly punished for fraternizing with him and soon grasp the idea that they shouldn't try to associate with him anymore.
The boy is confused and hurt. 'Why doesn't anybody like me?' he asks, unable to comprehend why nobody would talk to him. His nature tells him that he's done something unforgivable and that he is being punished for it, but for the life of him he can't figure out what that would be. The first few times, he is bewildered and frightened, but then he learns to obey while breeding a growing resentment in him. He is an obedient child, after all.
Soon, Sasuke spent all of his days inside the dark room, quietly reciting memorized passages from long-abandoned textbooks he used to own and tracing chakra pathways in the dark with his finger, all the while glaring at the locked door and wishing all the pains of the world upon the cruel matron and her colleagues. If he was lucky, she would remember to shove a plate of leftovers into his cell, but most of the time he does not enjoy that luxury. In hunger, he became an expert lock-picker and frequently snuck out in the dead of night to steal food from the kitchen as well as nearby houses. Finally, one night after a particularly successful food raid, he simply decided not to go back. 'The outside world must surely be better than what is in there,' he thought. How wrong he was.
Somehow, Sasuke made it through a couple months on the street without perishing. He was a budding genius, after all, and learned street smarts quickly for one who used to be so accustomed to noble life. The time spent living on the streets changed him fundamentally. Just summoning the energy to simply go on living was an ordeal by itself. At least in the orphanage he had a roof over his head at the orphanage, his thoughts often reminded him. But he's a stubborn child; his pride won't allow him to go dragging his head back to where he had faced so much humiliation.
Gone was the child who reacted with bewilderment to the treatment shown to him. Instead a hardened survivor settled into his old skin. Sasuke grew to accept everyone's hatred toward him; he had long since given up on understanding why they hated him so. Monster, they saw him as? He would show them monster. Acting his part as the spitting wolf-child worked wonderfully in frightening them into submission; it wasn't as if he had any dignity left to lose.
More often than not, Sasuke sought sanctuary in the old Uchiha district where nobody else would dare to go. Sometimes, he would wander at night through the abandoned streets, wishing that it was filled with people like it once was even though he couldn't remember ever having any proper interaction with any members of the clan. At night, though, he sometimes blearily would wonder why, why, why this was happening to him while hunger pangs stabbed at his empty stomach and the dirty feeling of self-loathing crawled across his skin, revisited by pinpricks of memories that teased him fleetingly as they streamed by at a speed too fast to really comprehend.
Meanwhile, it took the Hokage and his associates weeks to even realize that Sasuke was missing from the orphanage. The caretaker in charge of delivering meals to the slotted door had only noticed that its sole occupant was not present when the smell of rotting food became overpowering and she had no choice but to unlock it to see why the boy was not eating. When said boy proved absent, the caretaker and the head matron had decided to fake reports out to the Hokage as if he was still there. Needless to say, this incident was not officially reported until somebody else actually checked to see if he was still there.
They found him malnourished, filthy, and furious in the Uchiha compound. The ANBU had no choice but to restrain him when he lunged at them in a whirlwind of dirty fists and incoherent screaming. At the hospital, where the doctors treated him for severe malnutrition, parasites, and accumulated injuries from numerous beatings that he sustained from small crime sprees as well as failed assassination attempts, sedation was required to keep the distraught boy from injuring himself further. Sasuke spent two months at the hospital recovering physically, and was often visited by the Hokage during that time.
However, none of Minato's efforts to get close to him made the slightest difference. The wide-eyed youngster that he once knew was gone to be replaced by a cynical, feral child who glowered silently at him with an expression too full of hatred for one so young. The only time that Sasuke spoke to the Hokage was to demand answers that Minato could not give. Minato tried his best to, but the law forbid him from speaking of this matter (which is all very well considering how mentally unstable the boy's psyche currently was).
This fruitless exchange cemented in Sasuke a lasting abhorrence of liars and an undisguised sense of mistrust that would color his perceptions for the rest of his life.
I will post the second section of this as soon as I finish with it, which (hopefully) will be in about two weeks. I have already mapped out every major plot point I need to address, and now what remains is to flesh it all out. After that, it's back to the drawing board with Sakura, who I have a special fondness for and will most definitely not be bashing.
Also, for you English-language detail sticklers, I'm terribly sorry to jump around with the tenses. I have a natural tendency to use present tense, but as this is the past... I feel obliged to use mostly past tense. See now, I had to go back to edit what I just wrote because of tenses! Damn them.
Ending song : World So Cold, by 12 Stones.
EDIT: Changed a couple things. You know the ones (who asked me about them).