DANIKA: THE LOST SHINOBI

Hey! Life got in my way again…but I am back. I got rid of some of the stories I didn't like, and it seems you guys really like my adventure stories, so here's another.

This story is probably going to be a multi-world crossover, but I am going to start with Naruto and Final Fantasy Seven. I have been exploring the character of Sephiroth, and I have always enjoyed the Uchiha clan.

Just for notes: I am not familiar with Boruto, and I kinda don't like the direction the writers are going with that, so I am sticking to Gaiden (with a healthy dose of OC) and some of Shippuden. In addition, I will be exploring/playing with Sephiroth before he uncovered his origins. I will be taking some big liberties with the characters here, so bear with me a minute. A couple chapters will have multiple POV's, so keep an eye out for that.

Chapter One: Origins of the Nightmare

Forest Outside the Hidden Leaf

Two weeks before the opening of the Chunin Exams, Gaiden Era

The wind blew quietly through the cool spring night as I felt for the cool blade of my katana, a tear leaking out of my eye and slipping down my cheek. "Why can't my parents just get a divorce already?" I wondered for the fifteenth time that night, sick to death of their quarreling, lies, and division of assets that had been going on entirely too long.

My name is Danika Nasakura, and I am a 13-year-old shinobi of the Hidden Leaf. For about the last twelve years, I had been a proud member of the Nasakura clan, a clan of elemental masters in which every member had a unique set of abilities. Our family crest, a brilliant gold snowflake that had once been emblazoned on the shoulder my long white yukata, symbolized our belief that no two clan members were the same, and every single one was a gem in their own rights – even me.

But…that was until last year about this time. On a co-op mission with the Village Hidden in the Lightning, Squad 16 (my squad, consisting of my sister Tahana, friend Nerika Azume, and sensei Ahashi Toshiyori, creating the Leaf's first all-female squad), had been pinned down and nearly defeated by a ruthless yakuza. Desperate, angry, and out of options, my chakra spiraled out of control…and to everyone's shock, I discovered I had the Kekkai Genkai of the Uchiha clan, the Sharingan, in my left eye.

Now, you would think that would be a good thing for me – my family had always considered me a bit of an oddball, as I had the "weak" Kekkai Genkai ability of controlling cherry blossoms as swords. In a family that boasted shinobi that could manifest giant phoenixes, level villages with the earth, and grow small forests at will, simply using cherry blossoms as blades was considered a cheap trick at best - and a joke at worst. However, with the revelation of half of a Sharingan pair, a dirty secret was forced out of my father's closet full of skeletons – a really dirty secret.

You see, the Nasakura clan, in comparison to the many clans of the Hidden Leaf Village, has always had a pretty promiscuous and bloody history, one causing them to be looked down on by the ninja world. In short, our ancestors created their powerful Kekkai Genkai by embarking on hundreds, sometimes thousands of extramarital affairs, hoping to dilute the gene pools of shinobi clans across the world, and create children with bizarre abilities. Unfortunately, many of the illegitimate children died, with many dying from being abandoned at birth or killed shortly thereafter. It got so bad (as in almost-causing-several-shinobi-wars bad) that most villages wouldn't permit our clan's members within their limits, and the Nasakura clan eventually got the message and clamped down on the behavior – by swinging the pendulum to the other extreme. For several decades, clan members were shuffled off into arranged marriages, mostly by village elders and high-ranking family. Eventually, the angst and tensions calmed, allowing for members to choose their marriages. After centuries of wandering, bastardization, and outright segregation, things finally appeared to be calming down.

And then…my dad messed it all up. Literally.

Unbeknownst to my mother, Hanashida Hyana, and the Uchihas, my dad embarked on a liaison with Marasuri Uchiha, a third cousin of both Sasuke and Itatchi Uchiha, for eight months – right up to the day he got married. As my now-stepmother was finally settling into married life, my dad scrambled to arrange a secret procedure to remove me from Marasuri's womb…and implant me into my stepmother without her knowledge. My mother, who at that time was considered infertile, never suspected a thing…he'd been sure to have relations with her around the same time, so she wouldn't know – and thrilled at the prospect of a new baby, Hanashida Nasakura didn't care. Nine months later, on February 13th, I was born…and the secret was supposedly buried, as I had my father's red hair and my "aunt's" brown eyes. With the Uchiha Clan Massacre six years later, my father's liaison went to the grave – and so did the secret.

Or so he thought.

"Danika-chan?" Tahana's voice called from the woods. I sighed. If there had been any real loser in this whole mess, it had been Tahana. She'd never had a great relationship with my father for reasons anyone really understood – and my father never really explained. Now, with our family ripping apart at the literal seams, Tahana had been there to support not only my mother, but me, as I struggled to start calling everyone by their real names – half, step, cousin –, gave up my place among the Nasakura's, and grieve for the mother that had been taken from me without my ever knowing her. "Are you gonna do something dumb?"

"No, Nee-chan," I groaned, watching my blonde-haired, green-eyed half sister and our sensei, Toshiyori, appeared, Nerika a few steps behind. "I'm not giving my father the pleasure of shaming me any further."

"Danika-chan,…you can't let your father's mistake ruin you," Toshiyori replied. Staring at the blue-haired, green-jacketed jonin, I tried to find my calm. A distant fourth or fifth cousin of ours (which was unclear, the family lines get murky quickly), Toshiyori had been a talented shinobi from the Sand village who had fled there after her father was revealed to be an abuser, and the rest of the family took her in. "Yes, he took away your mother…but she wouldn't want your life to stop."

I didn't speak at first. I just looked at Tahana, the Leaf headband wrapped around her waist, as was mine. Then, I looked at Nerika, a young woman with shaggy red hair dressed in her long purple skirts with white undergarments, much like Ino Yamanka. Then, I looked back at Toshiyori.

These women…my comrades…had suffered the most as a result of my father's humiliating revelation, the discovery of the death of my birth mother and most of the maternal half of my family, the stripping of my family crests from my clothes (all those born illegitimately in the Nasakura clan had their crests removed as a mark of shame, never to wear them again)…and the worst humiliation of all:

The fact that my first teacher, Itatchi Uchiha, murdered my own mother – and had never bothered to tell me the truth.

"No, she wouldn't," I admitted coldly, the feelings of pain stinging my heart. I tried telling myself for the umpteenth time that a year had passed – Toshiyori had kept us out of the Chunin Exams last year when the news broke, knowing that neither my sister nor I needed that stress in the wake of the scandal and the beginning of the divorce process. I should have been over it by now…should have been trying to rebuild my life. "But she never called me daughter, either. She never stood up for me when I needed her to…even if it would have ended up in me being dead in the end."

Tahara held her breath a minute…she always did that when she had something to say. "Danika-chan…if an apology is what you need, let me say it. I'm sorry your mother was a selfish homewrecker and our dad is ruled by that thing between his legs. But…you have to believe Itatchi, in spite of everything he took from you…had your best interests at heart. If the Uchiha were still alive, they would have disposed of you, too – just like the elders did. He was your sensei…and from what little I saw of him with my four-year-old eyes, he loved you. Even though he's a criminal – the worst of the worst – you were in his mind and heart that day. He wouldn't want you drowning like this."

I wanted to answer…but my voice just wasn't there. I felt entangled…stuck between so many different voices, but somehow unable to find my own. I had thrown myself into my training and what few missions Squad 16 was able to participate in thanks to my parents' messy divorce…but the pain still held me fast, refusing to let me go. I couldn't run away fast enough…and no matter how hard I tried to cope, the sadness drove me half mad.

"Tahara…you guys want me to put on a brave face…so we can participate in this year's Chunin Exams, right?" I replied. "You guys want me to fight for you…for all of us?"

"Hell yeah!" Neharia replied. "You can't let your dad win! Come on – fight with us, and show us you're better than even that vengeance hog Sasuke!"

I chuckled. "You know what…I think I like that idea. Don't know how well I'll do…but I'm game!"

…

Three days later

"Are you sure about this, Danika-chan?" Sarutobi-sensei wondered, smoking on his pipe, his huge hat on his head. We sat together late that evening in his office, discussing my involvement in the Chunin Exams.

Unlike many of the shinobi who knew and loved him, I knew the Third Hokage on a first-name basis…it was more a grandfather-grandchild relationship than that of leader and subordinate. He had taken me under his wing in the days following the Uchiha Massacre, and he had always been sure to leave his door open for me and my step-mother in the years that followed. While the two of us didn't see eye-to-eye on every issue, we could always agree to disagree, something I admired in the Hokage.

"Sensei…I haven't had a real opportunity to move on all year. It's war out in the field, and war back at home," I replied. "Nobody…not even Hinata, some days, is fully speaking their minds with me, and I can't say I blame 'em."

"They want you to be able to heal, and you can't…not with the way your father's been dragging this out." Sarutobi replied.

I groaned. In the past year, I had watched my close, loving relationship with my dad disintegrate into one where I couldn't get him to speak five words to me in a month. When the truth came out, my mother divorced him on the spot, but he quickly opened a cold war of stonewalling, skipping alimony payments, and marrying another woman in another village. He seemed Hades-bent on embarrassing not only me and my half-sister, but everybody in the family. When the elders stripped me of my right to wear the family crests of my father's line, my mother responded by trying to take the matter to court, but I refused.

"I am not a Nasakura any more than I am an Uchiha or Hyana," I had replied then. "I don't need a family name to serve as my identity…even if I would like the benefits. It's time to close this chapter of my life's book…start over anew."

"Sarutobi-sensei…what's done is done. I can't change who I am or what my mom and dad did to me…but I can change how I've reacted to it, and learn from it."

"You needed time, Danika-chan," the Hokage replied. "Even back then, you took the massacre hard – Itachi had been your mentor, your first true friend and teacher…and then, discovering your birth mother had died by his hand ripped every wound open again. The divorce was salt in the wound-"

Just then, the door opened, and a member of the Anbu gestured to the Kage. "Wait here for me, Danika…I'll be back with some tea." Then, he rose and left, closing the door. I sat on the chair, shuffling a bit…when something that had caught my attention several times before did so once again.

It was a scroll sitting behind a locked gate, the crest of the Uchiha on it. I had noticed it many times, unsure of what was written on its pages…but every time I looked at it, a queasiness rose up in my stomach. It was something I wasn't supposed to know…but something tugged at me, telling me I needed to see what was in it. I had the power to do it – I knew I did.

The question was: should I do it?

Part of me wanted to keep quiet – do what I was supposed to do, keep my head in the sand, and pretend I didn't see anything. But…I had spent the last thirteen years doing that…and I had paid the ugly, ugly price for it.

I had been paying all my life.

And now, I wanted a refund.

Knowing my time was short, I slid to the floor, quietly crawling to the lock. The key was on the ceiling…no time for that, but no matter. I grabbed a blank scroll from my sash and rolled it out on the floor.

"Secret Art: Transcription no Jutsu!" I whispered, watching with curiosity as the characters spilled out in ink on the blank paper. Wasting no time, I waited a few seconds, then rolled it up slowly, listening for footsteps. Then, I stuffed the scroll in my sash again and sat down.

"Well done, my child," an odd voice murmured in my brain. "You shall serve my son nicely." A chill shot up my spine. The voice – it didn't even sound human. It was cold. Mechanical. Half-dead. But…it had managed to influence me somehow.

Had it been…testing me?

I didn't know…and the fear of the unknown pushed me back to the couch, trembling. I had just barely managed to recoup my composure when the Kage came back, but he gestured toward the door – thank the gods.

It was my cue to get out of his office.

…

That night…would make me wish I had never read what was in the scroll.

I kept reading over the words over and over, their meaning less believable with each read. Itatchi…my mother…and the Hidden Leaf…they'd all been pawns in a scheme to stop a war. Tears slipped down my cheeks anew.

Everything I had known – everything Sasuke knew – was a lie. A total and complete fabrication.

My mother hadn't been murdered – she'd been assassinated. All because of a scheme to destroy the Uchihas…and pin the blame on Itatchi, a scapegoat. He had murdered them, yes – nothing took away from his crime – but he was a fish in a much bigger scheme.

But…how did I tell Sasuke? How did I save him from walking down a path he didn't need to walk down…one that would tear at his conscience forever?

"Meet me by the waterfall," The cold, dead voice replied. "If you seek to save the ones you care for, you will follow me. Otherwise…you shall walk the path of Itatchi."

Once again, terror filled me. "Just…just who are you?"

I heard a smile in its voice this time. "I am…Jenova."