Disclaimer:I have never owned Naruto I swear! No please! Not the filler again! Please anything but the filler!
Chapter Two
"Paradise Lost"
-Hiruzen-
"That's it...move the towel..."
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
Sarutobi had been woken out of a half decent dream by the knocking on the door, he rearranged things to look more like he had been in the middle of paper work rather than the fact that he fell asleep reading one of his old students books.
"I have urgent news Hokage-sama!"He hears Hagane yell.
"Come in then!"Sarutobi says after he reorganizes everything after a moment of throwing that book in one of his desk drawers.
Kotetsu entered immediately, Sarutobi saw the chunins face beaming with pride as he stood at attention in front of the Hokage's desk.
Sarutobi turns to his serious tone."Report, Kotetsu?"
"We found a man passed out in front of the gates of Konoha, Hokage-sama."
The first second the Third heard it he thought nothing of it, just a simple trespasser.
"Probably some drunk merchant that had to many drinks..." He thought until Kotetsu explained further.
"We didn't think much of it until we saw the mans wounds"Kotetsu said in a half impressed tone"Whoever the bastard is he got his way here after being hit by a fire jutsu on his arm and his head bleeding badly."
Sarutobi's eyes lit up with possible ideas, if the man was hit with a jutsu then he was probably a ninja, then again he could just be a random civilian that got burned badly in a fire of some sort, but even someone who wasn't a ninja could figure out what a jutsu victim looked like.
"Where is he now?"The third asks as he stands up.
"My partner took him to the hospital, he should guarding him now."The chunin answered.
Sarutobi wasted no time as he grabbed his hat and preformed a shunsin leaving Kotetsu in a puff of smoke in his leaders office.
"Hokage-sama wait for me!"
When the third had teleported to the hospital he tried to figure out where the patient was by searching some for the rooms, hoping to randomly find him. Only to apologize to a few people for invading they're 'privacy'
"With all the extra work done to make the Konoha hospital more accessible it has made the place quite a lot more confusing."
After fifteen minutes, the Third swallowed his pride and just went to the front desk and asked for directions.
Even if he was a ninja, it was still hard for a man to ask for directions.
It took Sarutobi less than a minute for him to find the room the stranger had been brought to. After talking to a nurse at the main desk for sometime to find out the man since he was being moved from room to room quick because different doctors needed to see him.
"He's on the third floor in roo-"The nurse began to tell the Hokage as he began to form the hand signs.
He was on the third floor in a poof of smoke, craning his head around quickly to try to see the chunin he had in charge of the situation.
"Hokage-sama!"Izumo says as he looks out from one of the hospital rooms seeing the Third Hokage.
Sarutobi walked over at a brisk pace, his legs were beginning to remind him that he wasn't a young man, he relied on the shunsin too much to teleport him everywhere.
"I'm getting out of shape"
"The doctors are going to operate on him in a couple of minutes"Izumo says as soon as his superior passes him."They say if they hadn't gotten to him sooner that we might not be having this conversation."
"What do we know?"Sarutobi asks as soon as he comes into the room, hes bombarded with the smell of burnt flesh.
The man in question was laying on a bed, had been bandaged up haphazardly by the doctors before the surgery, but you could see that his head bandage was beginning to turn red from the blood loss. The doctors hadn't bandaged his arm, showing Sarutobi the full severity of his burns.
A burn as bad as that that was what ninja called a "Gamble wound".The reason why they called it that was because it was a gamble on what the doctor might have to hack off after he's done with you.
"Kotetsu and I saw him standing at the gate when he suddenly fell"He explained with his arms crossed"Looking at the guy you can see how bad some of those wounds are."
Sarutobi could tell alright. He came in for a closer look, this man was either a ninja or he fought ninja for a living.
"The doctors looked over him and told me the full report"Izumo said grimly."Along with that burnt arm and his head, his ribs are smashed up in a couple of place's, according to the doctors he hasn't eaten anything for days, they tried to see if he had chakra exhaustion but strangely they said they couldn't tell"
"They couldn't tell?"The Third repeats.
"Yes, they don't know why yet, but according to them its as if his chakra system is both empty and full at the same time."Izumo tried to explain."His body acts like it's going through chakra exhaustion but the docs tell me he still has about ninety percent of it in reserve."
The Hokage was fascinated by something so strange, especially of a random stranger that walked into the village.
He saw something in the mans bloodstained face, something he barely recognized between the blood and his black spiky hair, it reminded him of a scene he had seen before in this exact hospital.
"It was...right in the middle of the war..."
It wasn't until a shot of pain made the man jerk suddenly, making him utter one simple word for Hiruzen and Izumo to hear.
"Konoha..."
Sarutobi moved over to see if the man possibly woke up, but he found the man had just talked through his painful sleep.
Something caught Sarutobi's eye however, when the man moved a part of his shirt moved away exposing the top of his chest.
Sarutobi grabbed the ragged shirt and opened it immediately revealing the injured mans chest.
Despite the fact that Hiruzen could see where all of his ribs had broken, he could also see a massive trail of old scars that ran across the mans chest.
The most noticeable of all, a large jagged pink skinned bastard that started at his collarbone and ended at the bottom of his stomach, making you wonder what kind of instrument could have done something like that.
It had suddenly hit Sarutobi like an earth jutsu involving boulders.
The mother of all gamble wounds.
"Shin"
"It's impossible" the Hokage thought immedietly, he had been declared dead years ago, by his best friends, his brother and even his entire family before the massacre, but now here he stood, half dead.
"Tell the doctors that he is to given the best medical treatment possible"Sarutobi declares.
"Hokage-sama?"His chunin questions.
"We have found something lost to us long ago, a comrade we all cared about but forgot..."Sarutobi says wistfully.
The Third hated himself for a moment, they had forgotten about Shin after the Kyuubi attack, and with the Uchiha massacre the thought of him being alive never occurred to him at all. It never occurred to anybody.
"Guard him and make sure he gets treatment immediately"Sarutobi says as he gets ready to teleport away.
"Where are you going Sir?"Izumo asked confused at all of this, he felt like he been left out of a bit of the conversation.
"I'm calling the council together"Sarutobi says forming the last bit of the shunsin seal"We need to address this issue immediately."
-Izumo-
Just as soon as Sarutobi appeared his partner came bursting into the room.
"Did...I...miss anything?!"Kotetsu asks out of breath from running over.
Izumo just shrugs to his partner.
-Shin-
As he regained part of his consciousness the first thing in Shins felt was something sticking into his arm, the feeling reminded him of the drugged out torture he endured for years.
He jerked awake immediately just from the memory.
Hospital sheets, white walls, and that strong smell of disinfectant.
He recognized the walls of Konoha hospital, he had been here many times to see sick allies, and on the rare occasion he was here himself back then, not because he rarely got wounded, because whenever he was wounded before they would try to tape him up on field more.
"To old to gamble now"He though to himself as he looked down at his chest.
He rubbed his massive scar on his chest, a wound reminding him how far being a cocky Sharingan user would get you.
They had done some kind of operation on him, he felt his forehead to find it bandaged, nothing but dull pain, his arm still hurt like absolute hell though.
Other than the IV, they had put his burnt arm in a heavy cast. Shin was scared to even look at the covered arm, hoping that he kept all of his fingers after a jutsu like the one that hit him.
He felt along his ribs, they had healed up to a certain degree but would take some time to set.
He was okay, moving was out of the question but he was okay.
He felt ultimate relief, He had made it, every single hope he had running through hell was now within reach.
"I'm home"He sighs out loud.
He was almost lost in that little slice of bliss he had until he heard someone walking just outside his hospital room. The door began to open suddenly and Shins old instincts kicked in, telling him to fake being asleep to fool the intruder.
However, the trespasser saw through it easily.
-Hiruzen-
Sarutobi had been the Third Hokage and protector of the village for more years than he ever planned.
He wasn't about to be fooled by someone trying to fake sleep.
"You do know that you snore, right Shin?"Hiruzen says walking over to his bed.
The Uchiha's onyx eyes opened out of pure revelation.
"Old man?" he says turning his head towards him, he realized that he let his little cover down.
" I do not snore."
"That got you though"Sarutobi chuckled to himself"By the way your right, you don't snore."
It was strange for Hiruzen to see that Uchiha smile after so many years, especially from a surprise like Shin Uchiha, but just looking at him smile mixed with the mans mannerisms told him that this Uchiha was the genuine article.
-Shin-
"Years later and the old man still knows how to stick it to me"
The moment had slowly descended into comfortable silence, Shin was trying to figure things out a little, like the fact why was it the former Hokage talking to him and not anyone from his family?
"Shin, I know you must have a lot to tell me, but first I must tell you certain facts first?"
Shin was barely surprised, this kind of thing usually happened when he woke up after blacking out, after fighting, drunk or otherwise.
-Hiruzen-
Sarutobi tried to believe in honesty, but it was extremely hard for him at the moment , he thought if he straight up lied to Shin he would only stroke the fires of hate more within what was left of the Uchiha clan.
So before he laid all of it on the table, he had to deal with the most pertinent fact first.
"As is the will of the council, you have officially been made the head of your clan"The Third stated to the bedridden Uchiha.
-Shin-
If anything was going to blindside Shin. it was that.
A million thoughts swam through his head all at once until it settled onto a certain fact.
"Did my brother die?"
The idea of Shins brother dying leaving him the head of another clan being apart from the Uchiha would have been almost the ultimate practical joke on him, he didn't get along with his brother and the Uchiha had treated him with indifference.
"No"Sarutobi said with a hint of disappointment in his voice"Your brother is actually very much alive and active, your being made the head of the Uchiha clan"
Something was caught in Shins throat, the thought it was a joke on the old mans part at first, but his tone of voice said otherwise.
"It literally can't be..."Shin tried to make sense of it all.
"...unless"
"Why am I head of the clan Sarutobi-sama?"Shin asks, something caught in his throat, he knew something was going on here, he was an Uchiha almost out of technicality, why would they ever make him clan head?
-Hiruzen-
Hiruzen heard the dread in Shins voice. The Hokage feared saying it, telling him the absolute truth would spark the curse of hatred beyond anything in the Uchiha, but as soon as he would heal and walk into the village Sarutobi knew Shin would find out the Uchiha clans fate.
Sometimes the truth hurts the person telling it as well.
"Shin, you have been made the clan head because you are one of the last three Uchiha left"
-Shin-
Everyone.
Everyone he loved.
Gone within one sentence.
He just lay back into his bed, his eyes wide open, he felt like the bed had begun to suck him in.
She was dead, her kids,dead, his mom, dead.
It wasn't rage yet, it couldn't be rage that filled Shin, merely disbelief, it was something he had to see with his own eyes, something he needed to know himself.
"Leave me Sarutobi."
-Hiruzen-
A simple and direct command, Sarutobi had never heard the young man be so firm in his life, but he understood, he knew that if he tried to talk to him now it would bear no fruit.
He had seen the same thing in Sasuke after the massacre, when something this emotionally changing happened an Uchiha needed time to... accept things.
He couldn't even begin to tell him anything else until he accepted that first fact.
As the Third Hokage left he looked back at Shin laying on the hospital bed and hoped that he wouldn't do anything stupid.
