Precious Treasure of the Uchiha
Summary: For centuries, a child Madara took in lived with the Uchiha clan and was loved above all treasures. But in this day and time,the clan is wiped out, only one remaining. Read on as Naruto tries to solve the murder of the clan and the disappearance of Itachi all the while protecting the last living Uchiha. How will Sasuke cope in the world of immortals?
And indeed, when morning came and the two teens woke up, Sasuke didn't know whether he should be smug that Naruto had sang for him or grateful to him for chasing away that horrid nightmare. He was almost used to it by now, seeing the carnage of the massacre as his brother fought to protect him, imagining Itachi's face as the plane started falling or some times exploding to a million pieces. He always saw these nightmares but usually there was no one to break him out of them.
And now there was Naruto.
Sasuke kept thinking about the blond even as said Immortal started preparing breakfast for them all. Like last night, all the alcohol he consumed seemed to have no effect on the blond what so ever as he hummed quietly to himself while preparing the omelets. Having heard Naruto singing had left Sasuke both humbled and confused. Sure, he had needed something to calm him down but he had never expected for his supposed guardian to sing for him. In fact, Sasuke had thought he'd literally need to dangle himself over a shark pool if he wanted the four hundred year old teen to sing for him. Now that he's heard him, Sasuke wondered why any Uchiha would want Naruto to sing in front of others. He must have been crazy to want Naruto to be their lead singer. But, alas, he's committed himself to getting the blond to sing for their band and now his pride and his conscious were at war with each other while his heart and mind were warring over if he should be worried so many parts of him were acting like different entities. Seriously, this could not be normal.
But it was fact, and Sasuke knew it, that Naruto had sang for him last night. He had done so to chase away a horrible nightmare. He had sang for him despite having repeatedly told them all that he no longer sings. Not for adult Uchihas nor no-matter-what-age anyone else. And for that, for stopping the nightmare before Itachi can be blown up in the horror of it, Sasuke will forever be grateful to the Immortal.
"What are you thinking about so intensely this early in the morning?" The object of his musings asked and Sasuke broke himself out of said musings, blinking up into blue eyes as their owner put the plate of food in front of him. He looked down and saw two perfectly made sunny side up eggs with ketchup making the decorations of a swirl and-
"Is that the Uchiha fan?" He asked curiously and watched with even greater fascination as Naruto turned beet read.
"Shit, I did it automatically," the blond muttered as he reached for the plate, only to yelp when Sasuke slapped his wrist. "Sasuke, what the hell!?"
"I didn't say I didn't want them. I just asked about the design." The older looking teen said with a scowl. "And what's with the swirl? It kind of looks familiar."
"It ought to, since it's placed on every chuunin and jonin vest as a sign of friendship with the Uzumaki Clan and Uzushiogakure, an old alliance that means nothing now that most people don't even know about Uzushio." Naruto grumbled while tending to his tender wrist. Man, Sasuke ought to control his hits better. He wasn't an enemy, damn it! "Anyway, sorry about all that. I'm kind of used to making eggs like this after a very long period of time of doing it this way."
"How long?" The Uchiha asked curiously.
"Hm, let's see," Naruto mumbled while he counted back the years. "I'd say over fifty years. Maybe even longer. Can't remember clearly. I know I definitely made them for Suzu's fifth birthday and that he called it cute, but I can't quite remember if I started three days before that or three weeks."
Sasuke stared at him like he was crazy. "Naruto, do you ... know every Uchiha's birthday?"
The blond looked at him as though he was the strange one. "Of course! Most of the time I was even there when they were born! I maybe skipped out on ten labors because I wasn't able to come back in time, but I was usually the one helping with the labor. In fact, over 50% of your clan were held by me before their own mothers, since the doctor handed them over to me to clean them up while they finished up with the mother."
"Was that the case for Itachi?" The normal human couldn't help but ask and a small grin spread on Naruto's lips.
"Yeah. He didn't want to be held by anyone else if I was around. Fugaku found it cute half the time."
"And the other half?"
The grin turned into a teasing smirk. "He was jealous that his kid liked me more than him." Sasuke's jaw dropped and Naruto burst out laughing. "Oh my god, you should see the look on your face!"
"Wait, are you messing with me or something?" The indignant teen asked and Naruto shook his head despite still chuckling at the expression he could still so clearly see in his mind.
"No, you just made a really funny face. Man, I haven't laughed like that since Shisui's death." The blond sighed and wiped the stray tear from the corner of his left eye. "But seriously. It's not so strange. Every Uchiha adored me as a kid. A few black sheep in the family grew to hate me when they got old - those usually had mothers that hated me - but during most of their lives, I remained a dear friend, trusted ally and loyal advisor. And then I became their kid's favorite person and a few of them were occasionally jealous of me. It's only natural for a parent to want to be their child's most favorite person, but they understood since they acted like that, too."
"How many were there that hated you?" Sasuke asked as he finally started eating his breakfast. He hated cold eggs. He wouldn't eat them unless they were warm.
"Well, it's actually not hate. They just wanted to distance themselves from me. One of the reasons Fugaku's decision was to send me away instead of just hide me away was because of your grandfather, his father, Mincho." Naruto explained as he started making more breakfast and some coffee. If he was right, he just heard someone stirring in the room the others were using to sleep in. "Mincho's mom married into the Uchiha Clan and she hated me with a passions because both her husband and then her son liked me so much. She grew bitter and tried to get Mincho to hate me, but that only made him stick closer to me as a result, fearing I'd disappear. Anyway, years passed, both his parents passed away, he became the head of the family, got married to a really nice woman and Fugaku was born. It wasn't until Fugaku was three that he started seemingly hating me. By the time Fugaku was five, the people of the clan were always glaring at him for how cold he was towards me. And then there came the situation with Obito."
"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked as he nibbled on a piece of toast. "And this is really good, by the way."
"Glad you like it!" The blond chirped before returning to his story. "Well, Obito fell in love young and it gave Mincho and one of your great uncles that you never met hope that my 'seductive charms'," there went the air quotes, almost choking Sasuke when he snorted. "Weren't all powerful and irresistible. Then Izumi-chan fell in love with Itachi when they were five, too, and Mincho made plans to kick me out. A year later, right before you were born, Fugaku had to find a way to protect me and sent me away. Mincho was happy for about a year before he fell ill. He stayed in bed for a week without food and only the minimal amounts of water. He knew he was dying and he asked Fugaku to call me." Sasuke nodded along, thinking he knew how this ended. Naruto had come and they probably had a short heart to heart before the old man died. "I never answered."
Sasuke choked on his bread. "What!?"
"I never answered."
"So you just let him die on bad terms with you!?" The Uchiha hissed, his like for the blond rapidly dropping and falling into the dislike zone. What kind of person would deny a dying man's wish.
The look on Naruto's face showed him disgust to even be thinking like that about him. "Of course not! I just never answered the call! I came the very next day and stayed with him for two hours, just before he died. I held his hand the entire time. Mincho died with a smile on his face."
"But you just said-"
"If I answered, everyone would know I was coming. Back then, I was determined to stay away, thinking maybe my own presence was putting the clan in danger. I spent years searching for the threat to the Uchiha and found them only on that horrible, horrible night." A shudder ran down both their spines when they thought back to the massacre.
Wanting desperately to change the subject, Sasuke blurted out the first thing he thought of. "So you trained most of the Uchiha?"
Naruto looked at him with obvious relief that he had asked about something else. "Yeah. In fact, in the last four hundred years, I only didn't train you and Madara's sons, Tobi and Shin."
"So that means you're a pretty good fighter and you know some of my clan's tricks, right?"
"Don't worry, we'll start your training soon enough." The blond reassured just as Sakura walked into the kitchen with a yawn and made a beeline towards the coffee pot. "You definitely need it. You've got talent but you're seriously under-trained. You can't even use your Sharingan right!"
"Sasuke-kun so can!" The pink haired girl protested. "Kakashi-sensei said he was doing marvelously in mastering the Sharingan and that most Uchiha his age aren't so good with it."
Naruto looked at her as though she had just grown another head. "Sakura-chan, let me make this very clear to you." The girl bristled at the tone he was using, the one most people used when addressing a mentally ill child. "Kakashi, while a marvelous shinobi known far and wide for his use of the Sharingan, only knows the copying aspect of the eye he got from a friend. He never even learned about all the things that the Sharingan can do because his friend died young and Kakashi's Sharingan never developed to that second stage." Looking towards Sasuke, the Immortal furrowed his brow. "I have a suspicion that Sasuke might have reached that second stage of power but isn't aware of it yet. And Kakashi would be of very little help, since he knows nothing about it. The Uchiha have taught him only the basics. Anything else would have been too dangerous without the other eye."
"And you're supposedly the expert on all things Uchiha?" Sakura challenged. "Look, I know you're their guardian or whatever, but that doesn't mean you know everything about everything Uchiha related. Maybe Sasuke-kun just wasn't ready or Kakashi-sensei was waiting for the right moment to teach him other things about the Sharingan. Kakashi-sensei is smart enough to figure out the other powers of the Sharingan on his own." She huffed.
"Then why don't we test it out?" The Uchiha questioned. The two looked over to him as he finished his breakfast. "When everyone wakes up, we can have a bit of a sparring competition. We can begin my training that way." He said, looking at Naruto. "You'll see what I need to improve and I'll get to see just how competent my new 'sensei' is."
Sakura smiled. "That's a pretty good idea. I'd like to see how good this idiot is, too." She said while glancing at the blond Immortal. Said Immortal rolled his eyes.
"I guess it's not an all that bad idea, but I will fight you only as a three man cell." At the confused stares he got, Naruto bonked his forehead. "Right. You guys aren't ninjas. You don't know about teams. Great." With a put upon sigh, Naruto sat down at the table and gestured for Sakura to do the same. The girl took her breakfast plate off the counter and joined the two males. "Ninjas used to do missions in mostly three man cells. It was the first part of their training, learning how to work in a team. You two with Sai have been a three man cell for a while now, which means you should be able to fight pretty well together. But you guys were still in a lot of trouble that night against Kiba, Lee and the others."
"We've been drinking before that, you know." The two younger shinobi protested but Naruto didn't listen to the excuses.
"You three will first train as a three man cell and I will see all three of your skills so I can possible give you guys a formation that will be suitable for you. If you don't learn how to fight like a team, I'll be of very little use to you. I'll fight the strongest or deadliest foe but the weaker ones might find a crack in your armor and Sasuke will end up dead." The kunoichi and the Uchiha exchanged a look but neither could find a fault in his reasoning. Naruto did have a point. It had been pretty embarrassing with how easily Kiba and the others had beaten them. Only Jiraiya had been drugged so that his chakra became unstable. "It's the perfect way for me to test your Sharingan, too."
"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked curiously. Unlike Sakura, he had very little doubt that Naruto knew more about the Sharingan than Kakashi. After all, he had asked Jiraiya about Naruto and he knew that the blond was raised by Madara, one of the best Sharingan users among the Uchiha. If anyone today knows anything about the Sharingan, it had to be Naruto.
"The Sharingan, as you know, has amazing perception abilities. It can see through genjutsu, ninjutsu and even taijutsu. Yiu and Kakashi use this ability to stop the side affect of the Chidori, known as tunnel vision." Sasuke nodded along, having already known that but wondering how Naruto knew about him knowing the Chidori. "It also allows you to copy movements and keep track of your teammates. That's something we'll be testing today."
"I see no problem in that." The Uchiha replied just as Kiba, Shino and Hinata stumbled in, looking like death warmed over, Neji and Lee walking behind them fresh and rested.
"Coffee," Kiba begged. "Please, coffee." Naruto wordlessly got up, pushed the dog lover into one of the empty seats and brought the pot and a mug for everyone as he pured them coffee. Kiba downed his in one gulp and immediately asked for another, which he proceeded to sip like a normal person. "Ah, that hit the spot."
"I told you not to drink that much last night. Why? Because you'll get a hangover in the morning." Shino chastised the Inuzuka and Kiba groaned, pulling his hood up to completely cover his head as he put his forehead on the table.
"We were just lucky Lee didn't drink." Neji muttered as he shook Hinata awake from where she'd almost dropped her head into the breakfast plate Naruto had just put before her. "Or else this whole place would be in pieces."
"And Lee would be on fire." Sasuke casually said, glaring at the green clad taijutsu user to show who would be setting him on fire in the first place. Lee grinned shakily while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.
"So what's on the agenda today?" The bushy eyebrows teen asked excitedly as Sai finally came in, looking as though he hadn't been completely floored with alcohol not so long ago.
"Actually, we just agreed on some training." Sakura informed them and suddenly everyone was wide awake. "Sai, you, Sasuke and I will be sparing with Naruto after breakfast."
"We have school." Neji reminded. They all looked at the clock and saw they only had half an hour to make it to their first class. "So this training session will have to wait until this afternoon. I'll bring Tenten along." No one protested that and just slowly finished their breakfast.
"Oh, by the way, guys," everyone looked up when Naruto spoke, seeing his mischievous grin. "I think we should name our band. Does anyone mind The Six Path Sage?"
There was a long moment of silence before everyone's jaws hit the floor.