Prologue
A/N To my followers: I am really sorry for writing this one instead of updating my Fairy Tail fic. I assure you that that will remain my priority, but I do have exams. So, if you're bored, read this, but don't get too mad at me, please?
This is basically a mixture of a lot of possible AUs, like Stronger Naruto, Good Sasuke, Somewhat Creepy but nice Orochimaru, and my own, personal Alternate Point, which is, what if Minato could contact Naruto like Kurama can? Like a voice?
Public pairings are SasuSaku and NaruHina, as well as KakaAnko and AsuNai. All other pairings can easily be changed.
Regarding flames: Sometimes, I have been so angry upon reading a chapter of any fanfic that I felt the urge to flame, but I didn't. So, instead of no flames, let's create some rules.
Author flaming: I can't stop you, but please don't make assumptions about my personal life while flaming. I may be an annoying bastard, but I am NOT a rapist, I have never gone to jail, never committed any crime, etc, etc. No assumptions. Clear?
Story flaming- Do not flame from a guest account. Do not go to my other story or PM to flame about this story.
Character flaming-
General: Flames are to be done ONLY based on what the character has done in my fic, and not canon.
Sakura: You can flame about her character. Do not mention the word useless in these reviews.
Sasuke: Only based on this fanfic.
Itachi: NO FLAMING ON ITACHI.
Without any further ado, let us get started with:
TRUE MASTERY: Prologue
Minato Namikaze. Acclaimed as the Yellow Flash of Konoha throughout the world. The fastest shinobi, the Fourth Hokage, the one who subdued the Nine-Tailed Fox, all of these were names he was known by in the mortal realm. Where he was currently, however, he was known by only one name.
The Stalker.
Before my lady readers start cursing at him (or me, whichever is easier), let me explain. He had no desire to stalk ladies. Kushina Uzumaki was the only woman for him. The person he was stalking was still in the mortal realm. His son, Naruto Uzumaki. Minato would pay attention to what his son was doing from beyond the clouds. He often berated himself for not being there for him.
You see, Minato Namikaze was dead.
Being dead certainly had it's perks and downsides. The Fourth Hokage Minato would have seen the perks. But the Minato who saw his son get beaten up, bullied, almost murdered, and generally uncared for, well, he, not so much. Freedom from hunger and thirst was just another way of saying 'No Ramen'. But it also meant he could observe his son while sitting with his wife.
Today was a particularly bad day. Five or so civilian children were chasing the six-year old Naruto. Along with them were two genin and chuunin. Naruto may have been really fast, but he wasn't fast enough to run away from all of them. One of the genin and chuunin held him down, while the others attacked him with their fists. Minato tried the best he could to tell Naruto to fight back, but he couldn't do it from where he was.
His eyes widened as one of the ninja took out a kunai. As the ninja brought it down, Minato closed his eyes and yelled out, "NARUTO!"
Naruto's day wasn't exactly going well. A trip to the hospital would be necessary after the beating he was receiving. But still, he was used to it, at least until he saw the kunai. As it rushed at him, his mind shut down.
Naruto found himself in a sewer. Moving around, he found a cage with a malicious aura coming from it. But from his right, he could feel warmth.
Looking that way, he saw a blond man standing with a look of concern that quickly gave way to wonder. Naruto couldn't hold back the laugh that bubbled from his chest. "You look like someone mashed me and the Fourth Hokage together to create a new person."
To his surprise, the man suddenly laughed loudly. Running over to him, he picked Naruto up and ruffled his hair. "I am the Fourth Hokage, Naruto."
"Y-y-you are the Fourth Hokage?"
The man laughed once more. "Yeah, but you can just call me dad."
"WHAT?!"
While Minato explained everything to Naruto, no time passed in the outside world.
"Uh, hang on, what's that fluffy guy so pissed off about? What's he doin' here?"
"Who you callin' fluffy, you insolent pup?!"
"And why does he have so many tails- Oh."
Minato waited a bit, seeing how Naruto would take it.
"Is he dressed up as the Nine Tailed Fox? Man," he said, looking at the fox, "You'd get even more beaten up than I do on my birthday."
Minato shivered with anger at the citizens. They were harming his son, the jailer of the Nine-Tailed Fox, who wasn't even responsible for the incident!
"Naruto, I think that first, we should take care of the people attacking you."
"Okay, dad", he said, trying out the word for the first time. He found that he liked it. Naruto tried to get out of his mind, but Minato stopped him. "Let me", he offered. Naruto grinned as he sat back down. Minato gave one right back as he spread his soul through Naruto's body.
Minato looked through human eyes after a long time. He quickly got his wonder under control. There was a kunai to block.
Minato grabbed the wrist of the ninja attacking him and threw him into a wall. The others ran away with varying degrees of reluctance. Then he slipped back in.
"All done", he said. Naruto was gaping at him. "Wow! That was like a totally, super-duper awesome move! Can I do that someday too?"
"Well, you'd have to attend the Academy and train hard."
"Yeah, but old man Hokage said that I need to be older to attend."
"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to teach you a thing or two, would it?"
Naruto thought a bit. Then in typical Naruto fashion, he asked, "Why would it hurt?"
Minato was surprised that the boy hadn't asked him how he was there.
"Aren't you curious how I'm here?"
"Hmm. How are you here?"
Minato marveled at how similar Naruto was to Obito. The same overwhelming curiosity, along with the same confusing disinterest.
"I'll tell you when you're older. In fact, I think I'll wait until Lord Hokage or Jiraiya sensei tells you."
"Aw!"
The Nine tailed fox considered all this beneath him. He contemplated blowing a cloud of fire and sleeping, when he felt a tug on one of his tails. He shook it angrily, sending Naruto flying. Naruto hit the wall and disappeared.
Seeing that he was back in the real world, Naruto just shrugged and walked over to Ichiraku. He was in the mood for some ramen.
In a different part of the village, a raven-haired boy was wandering about with his older brother. He asked, "Hey, Itachi, why are there no more ninja shops in this place? I can just see vegetables and fruits."
"That's because this is a primarily civilian area. The shinobi shops are nearer to the Hokage office and the gates, and near the clan buildings. This is where the non-shinobi citizens of Konoha live."
"Can we explore?", asked little Sasuke excitedly. Itachi smiled at him sadly.
"You can go, but I need to get ready for my mission. Just be home fast."
"Aw!"
Itachi smiled. "Come here, Sasuke." Little Sasuke waddled over to Itachi, only to be poked in the forehead. "Sorry Sasuke. Some other time, okay?"
Sasuke pouted, but then he ran off into the market. Itachi smiled and flashed away.
This would be the perfect time to share some trivia about these civilian shops. The civilians all wanted to be in the good books of the major clans, so they had two different lines. One was for the other civilians and unimportant ninja. The other was supposedly for special purchases, let's say, if a person wants to buy only mushrooms, but everybody knew that it was for the clan members. The civilians did all they could to suck up without being overly blatant about it.
Sasuke normally came here with his father, and so, he had gotten into a habit of entering these lines. As such, he had no idea that he wasn't officially allowed in the line.
He saw a shop selling vegetables and entered it. Suddenly, someone from beside him poked him.
"Hey! Who do you think you are? This line isn't for all you clan members! It's for tomatoes!"
The voice belonged to a very loud pinkette who looked to be about his age. Sasuke filed away in his head that she was kind of pretty. But at the moment, he had bigger concerns. His life, for example.
"I, uh, like tomatoes?" Fun fact, he didn't. All other Uchiha he knew loved tomatoes, but not Sasuke.
"That doesn't cut it! You gonna buy them, clan boy?!"
Sasuke decided that he had no choice. "Yes. I'll take two dozen tomatoes, please."
On taking the tomatoes, Sasuke promptly put one in his mouth. The girl looked expectantly at him.
"It's good."
"Of course it's good, clan boy! It's from the family farm!"
"Mmmpgh. Mpgh mmppgh!" Sasuke intentionally mumbled with food in his mouth, not knowing what to say to keep himself alive, and preferably uninjured.
The girl put her elbows on the table, getting comfy. "Tell me your name, or I'll keep calling you clan boy."
Sasuke blinked nervously. "It's Sasuke Uchiha."
The girl's tone may have been mocking as she said, "Oooh! Fancy clan boy, huh?" She leaned in close to his face until he had nowhere to look but her eyes. Her, green, scary eyes.
"Soo, Saasgaay," she said, stretching out his name experimentally, "are you scared of me?"
The honest answer was yes. The only one he could compare Sakura to was the creepy lady who sometimes chased him with snakes, to "play", as she called it.
But that wasn't an option as a clan heir, so he answered, "Maybe?"
The girl's eyes lit up with maniacal glee. She was just a bit taller than him, and she used it to her full advantage. "So the Uchiha clan head's kid is scared of little old me?"
Suddenly, a woman grabbed the girl's shoulder and dragged her back. She moved forward and bowed.
"Welcome, Lord Uchiha. What can we do for you?"
Sasuke was a little taken aback as he was addressed like an adult. He mumbled, "Uh, nothing, ma'am, I was just roaming about." He tried to make as much distance between himself and the shop as possible.
Sakura was annoyed at her mother. Why did she behave so strangely when clansmen came? Why did she make her go to the backyard whenever clansmen came? And most importantly, why did the clansmen always buy tomatoes?
Sakura was dragged into the house and shoved against the wall. Her mother screeched at her, "What do you think you were doing? Do you not know that they could kill you anytime they want? They are more important, Sakura! Remember that. They could kill you publicly, in front of everybody, and they wouldn't be punished!"
Her mom sat on her knees and hugged her close. "I love you, Sakura. Don't ever do that. Always be as polite as you can to shinobi. Never say no to them, because they can do much worse to you if they want."
Sakura's father chose that moment to wander in, drunk, a bottle in hand.
"What's she done this time, eh?"
Sakura's mother had wide, scared eyes. She pushed Sakura behind her as she tried to downplay the incident.
"Oh, nothing much. She was just having a bit of fun with a clan kid."
"Which clan?"
Her mom did not reply.
"Which clan, you bitch?! Which clan was it?!" yelled her father as he hurled Sakura's mother into a wall.
"The Uchiha", her mother moaned out piteously. Her father's eyes widened in rage as he grabbed Sakura and forced her into an empty room. He grabbed Sakura by the neck and lifted her up. Sakura was, at the time, wearing just a t-shirt and shorts. Her father was quick to rip those off. He tried to break the bottle he was holding several times on Sakura's stomach. Failing to do so, he brought it up hard between her legs. She fell down, screaming in pain.
Kizashi Haruno, her father, threw the bottle down onto her right arm, where it shattered. He then walked out, leaving Sakura bleeding on the floor.
Sakura's mother crawled over slowly. She helped Sakura get dressed, and hugged her close. She bandaged Sakura's wounds and laid her on the bed. Then she went out, back to the shop.
After a hearty meal at Ichiraku Ramen, Naruto went home and tried to enter his mind again. He failed, but at least it made him sleepy. Naruto went to bed, and instead of dreams about being the lord of the ramen village, he dreamed about a family. He was there, as was his father. Not knowing what his mother looked like, he imagined his dad with longer hair and bigger breasts.
I have a lot of this story planned, but not the ending. What I DO know is, the time-skip will be a crossover, and will be covered in a different book. Like, to train Naruto, Jiraiya drops him in another dimension, where Naruto has to adapt for three years.
Please review, guys. Tell me what you want to see, what you don't want, and keep in mind, I have only read till the Pain arc, and I need knowledge to write an accurate AU, hence I will probably create different villains. Tell me what OCs you want to see, describe villains, new jutsu, etc. Gimme ideas. To summarize, mention your wants, what you don't want, new jutsu ideas, new OC ideas, and new villain ideas. I want reviews!
