Invading Darkness
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, it's characters of anything else you recognize from the series. I don't make money out of this either, so that's it.
Okay, so you'll see that a certain character will be actiong OOC in this chapter. It's normal and he'll be less in the next ones. If changes come in personalities of the characters, it'll be gradual. I just had to do it this way for everything to work out…and if you take the whole situation, it's somehow understandable.
Chapter 1
The full moon gently shined upon the village of the Leaf, accompanied by numerous stars. Silence reigned on the calm and clear night, leaving an impression of peace. A this late hour, only the village's sentries were still awake and they respected the stillness and silence of the night. They kept watchful eyes upon their home village, hoping nothing would come to disturb this peace that could only last during nighttimes these days.
However, they were blind to shadow lurking amongst the shadows of the trees. It stopped near the outer wall that protected the Leaf, careful to stay hidden from the sentries' watch. If you looked carefully and for a little while, you could make out the general form of a human wearing a cloak, kneeling on the branch of a large tree. The silhouette stood there contemplating the village for a few minutes, contemplating the village and, perhaps, planning an infiltration.
"I can't believe this whole mess." One of the sentries closest to the shadow told his partner as he puffed on his cigarette. "The Cloud allying with the Sound!"
The potential intruder listened distantly to the conversation as it remained where it was, lost in his or her thoughts.
"It's not war yet, so calm down." The other ninja replied. "I doubt the Raikage would really trust the Sound and ally his village with theirs. I mean, he knows how it turned out for the Sand. I'm sure he just wanted to try and shake the Hokage into accepting his offer."
The shadow let out a dry chuckle barely audible that was never heard by the busy sentries and finally moved closer to the very wall the sentries guarded. He stopped just beside the wall and made some quick hand seals, creating a shadow clone. He made some other seals and the clone transformed into a cat. It jumped on the wall between the two guards, hissing. As they stared at it, surprised, the silhouette jumped inside the village and as soon as he was done, the cat jumped back in the forest, disappearing after leaving the sentries' sight.
"What the heck!" one of the sentries exclaimed.
"Let's keep the fact that we were surprised by a cat to ourselves, okay?" the other said, earning an affirmative nod from the other ninja.
Inside the wall, the intruder landed roughly on its feet, letting out a muffled pained, muffled, cry. The cloaked ninja got up, looking around to be sure to have been unseen and unheard. The pain and exhaustion dulled senses and abilities, that was an inescapable fact. Soon, it began to move deeper in the town, careful to remain in the concealing shadows.
Soon, a few voices were heard and the intruder became still and alert. Three teenagers turned the near corner and walked towards the unknown ninja's hiding spot.
"I can't believe you guys went on for this long! It was completely useless too, since it was a draw." A girl the stranger rapidly identified as Haruno Sakura exclaimed angrily. "And I had to wait for you two in case one of you got hurt."
"But Sakura-chan!" Naruto replied in a pleading way, also recognized by the intruder. "I couldn't let that bastard win and think he's better than me."
"The way I remember it, the last time we seriously fought I won." The third teenager, Sasuke, replied calmly without looking at Naruto.
"You were using that stupid curse you had! So that doesn't count." Naruto replied, glaring at his friend.
"Hn." Sasuke replied, his pace quickening so that he was slightly in front of his friends.
"You had to bring that up, eh?" Sakura asked somewhere between anger and desperation.
"Sorry." He whispered. "Hey, Sasuke! You better train a lot because I want to have a real match with you and I hope for a good challenge."
A ray of moonlight shown on the intruder for a moment when the wind made the tree that hid him move slightly. It was just enough to show the shadow of a smile playing on the corner of the mouth that was mainly the only feature the cloak's hood let show.
"Yes. Train hard." The intruder whispered, his voice betraying his male gender, as the three ninjas walked away from him.
Once they were out of sight, he began moving again. However, he let a small puddle of blood where he had stood and a bloody mark on the wall he had been pressed upon.
Shizune was woken up by a what she thought was a knock on the door. She sleepily got up and came out of her room. Tsunade seemed to have done the same, but from the loud crash that erased all sleepiness from Shizune's mind meant she had slammed the door open. The Hokage's assistant looked at the broken door and than at Tsunade who was doing the same.
"What time is it, Shizune?" Tsunade asked, grumpily.
"I don't know, but it's still night, Tsunade-sama." Shizune answered carefully.
The younger woman went to the door, unlocked it and opened it. She let out a gasp, took a step back and stood ready to fight. Tsunade reacted to her assistant's actions and rushed to see what was going on, also ready to fight.
In the doorstep, stood a cloaked figure that staggered slightly and held itself on the doorway with a blood stained hand. Tsunade relaxed slightly, but remained careful. She stepped in front of Shizune and gave the stranger a commanding glare.
"Who are you and what do you want?" she asked, wondering if an intruder could have passed unseen by the sentinels posted on the walls.
"Hokage-sama?" the cloaked man asked in a raspy, unemotional,voice. "I come hear to warn you of a threat and…"
The man stopped and hunched slightly forward, obviously in pain. He took a deep breath and straightened up slightly.
"And to propose a temporary alliance to fight it." He finished.
"Who sends you? And what makes you believe we can't take care of it without your help." Tsunade asked, ignoring Shizune who now looked worriedly at the stranger who was apparently injured and extremely tired.
"I came to the closest village. You can't…We could only kill a few and wound some of them. Even we had casualties." He was leaning more and more heavily on the doorway as he spoke. "I didn't get any orders, but I know when a situation is desperate enough to seek help."
With a some effort, he stood up straight and pulled off the hood of his cloak. The first thing that caught Tsunade's attention was his red eyes, his Sharingan eyes. Her eyes turned harder and Shizune got ready to fight once more.
"Uchiha Itachi." Tsunade stated coldly.
"Hokage-sama…They're not even human." He told her, his exhaustion showing in his expression. "The Akatsuki doesn't even know I'm here. I saw some of them before. They wanted…I had to…"
Sadness flashed on his features for a moment, then the young man staggered and held himself on the doorway again. He closed his eyes and when he opened them, he was once again as emotionless as usual.
"Who and what are you talking about?" Tsunade asked, now somewhat alarmed, especially because of the little outburst of emotion she had witnessed. It's not everyday a S-rank criminal came back to his village to warn them of a threat and propose to work together.
"Demons. I don't know what they're called, but they're dangerous." Itachi said, opening his cloak with one of his hands.
By doing so, he revealed a good number of deep looking wounds that were barely bandaged and some that weren't at all. Shizune let out an exclamation of surprise and Tsunade couldn't prevent her shock to show on her face.
"And you fought them before?" she managed to ask.
"No." he said, letting the cloak fall back. "I didn't really fight. I…I destroyed what they were after so they left." He explained calmly.
"What they were after?" Shizune questionned.
Itachi closed his eyes and shook his head slowly, letting out an empty chuckle. Both woman frowned at the criminal's strange behaviour. He looked at Shizune without any emotion other than exhaustion.
"They wanted the power some people possessed." He said. "If they got their claws on it, they would have become too strong."
"You killed them all!" the Hokage's assistant exclaimed.
"When was that?" Tsunade asked. She knew she shouldn't just stand there talking to Uchiha Itachi as if he was trustworthy, but if they had been able to injure him this much, she had to know. Maybe she should send Shizune to get some jounins or ANBU. "Were you still a Leaf ninja? If so, there should be records and…"
"There aren't any and most who knew are now dead."
"You killed them…" Shizune whispered.
The young man suddenly collapsed on to his knees, letting out a growl. Both women almost moved to catch him, but kept themselves from actually doing it. He could still be dangerous.
"Yes." Itachi replied, his eyes moving to look at her directly, making her start.
"The whole clan." He added in a barely audible whisper. "There was no other choice. All who possessed it had to die…"
Tsunade frowned while Shizune let out a gasp as she understood he spoke of his clan. There it was again, she could feel sadness in his voice. It was so very subtle, but it was there. It may have been her imagination, buts he was sure a Hyuuga would tell her that it wasn't.
"Then why did you leave one to live?" She asked harshly, kneeling to be on his level as to hear him better.
Itachi turned his emotionless gaze to her and remained silent for a moment. He turned his gaze to look outside and then back at her.
"Because it was him." He simply said, as if it was obvious. "I thought he'd become strong enough to fight them if he could kill me…and…"
He closed his eyes and let out a short, empty, laugh.
"You're here to kill him?" Shizune asked, worried.
"No. It's useless now." He said, obviously starting to give in to the exhaustion and loss of blood.
"Why tell us this?" Tsunade wondered.
"I want to fight on your side against the monster who forced me to destroy his life." He replied weakly as he fainted and was caught by her.
Less OOCness next time, promise!
Please review, but don't flame...please.
