AN: Humor me for a second here, is fanfiction tracking broke or something because I keep getting emails and what not about this story getting follows, favorites, and what not (Not many reviews sadly, YET) but when I go and look at just how many people looked at the story under the tracking tab it says it ain't had a damn view since like the 10th of this month. What gives Fanfiction…..Also sorry for using the western mom dad ect instead of the eastern stuff like sama, to be honest I just don't know that stuff well enough to even attempt to incorporate it. Not to say I won't if I get someone to help me.
Tempestguard: Thanks for the review but if I don't know what I messed up I cant fix it, since all you do is say spelling needs some work.
SPark681: Thank you so much. Trust me I'm trying to keep the work and mainly the quality of the story, for example I won't post a chapter now unless its 10k+ on the words.
Zoran Dawn-Eclipse: Thank ya. The idea came to me like 8 years ago and at the time, not going to lie, I fuckin sucked at writing (Personally still think I do)
"Welcome" – Normal
'Welcome'- Thoughts
"Welcome"- None living entity
"Welcome"- Living entity
(Started 9/17/22 Finished 9/24/22)
Opening a chest Itachi pulled out his ANBU gear. He knew that once the Templars realized Shisui was missing they would be searching for anyone and everyone that might have been the culprit. Donning the mask of a Crow, his mothers old mask, he took off through the window of his families home with only one location in mind. The Konoha Academy.
He wanted to inform the only other person he trusted that he would be leaving permanently.
Bouncing from roof to roof all while being mostly ignored by both the civilians and the various military and police patrols he made swift time to the school. That didn't mean he wasn't being paranoid on the off chance that someone somehow had found out he had killed his cousin.
Landing in front of the school he slowly walked into the lobby. The receptionist noted the ANBU mask an quickly stood up.
"What can I do for you today ANBU?" she asked not skipping a beat. It wasn't unheard of for an ANBU to be sent to the school for various reasons ranging from student records for recruitment to just watching the class to see if there were any students who might be later looked at for the ANBU.
"I need to speak to Naruko Namikaze." he replied. It was thanks to the uniform that he knew he wouldn't be recorded as a visitor to the school, but that still didn't stop the hair on the back of his neck from standing on end.
Nodding the woman looked through the book on her desk for the home room of the student. "Stay here sir I will go and fetch her for you." she walked off in the direction of the room that Naruko was in.
Minutes felt like hours for the Uchiha. Outwardly he calm as could be but on the inside he was trying to not think that every person here was a Templar. Even the ticking of the clock on the wall was enough for him to crawl out of his skin.
"Sir here is Naruko for you."
Just like last night when he first met her she looked at him trying to figure out who he was. It wasn't that far off to say that she was just about as paranoid as he was right now.
"I need you to follow me Ms. Namikaze, I have something that is for your ears only." he saw realization light up her eyes as she heard his voice.
Following Itachi in silence as they walked into the woods she had to wonder what all this was about. Last night he had said he was an off duty officer but now here he was standing in full ANBU kit and escorting her out of the academy. Even from here she could tell something was off with him.
Stopping by a small pond with an overlook Itachi removed his mask an looked down at the young red head. "I'll be leaving soon."
Naruko had a look of confusion in her eyes as he said this. "By leaving you mean headed on another mission or…"
"Forever." he said taking off his headband "I don't know where I will go but I soon I will be leaving after I fix the mistakes of someone else. I can't follow a man that is willing to take innocent thousands of lives just to have a broken form peace."
"Then take me with you please at least with you I can find my brother an tell him I'm sorry!" she begged him as he shook his head.
"I can't. After today I am going to be one of the most wanted people the world and I can't let you follow me. Maybe if I can reach your brother I can try an find a way to come back get you but for now I can't." He had a rough idea where Naruto might be, but that was only if he they stayed on the course he told them about.
"Then if you can't take me with you I'll leave on my own and find him!" at this point she was half angry and half throwing a tantrum. Not that he could blame her.
Hearing brush moving he quickly grabbed her an jumped into the water below. The waterfall covering the sound of the splash.
Seconds later a trio of jonin and a dog all landed near where the pair was and looked around. All three of them had red crosses on the collar of their flack vests.
"Damn it looks like he used a shadow clone to throw us off, clever bastard." one of the trackers said.
"What if he jumped into the blue hole here?"
"You know as well as I do that jumping into the blue hole is death sentence, besides even if he did he would be dead anyways and we could claim we killed him."
The finial one who had been silent till now decided to speak up at this point. "And what if on the off chance that it was indeed a shadow clone an Master Namikaze found out we lied bout killing Itachi. What then huh you fools?"
All of them shuddered at the thought of what would happen. "Lets head back to the pond by his house and see if we can pick up his real trail."
Down below Itachi held onto Naruko as the current pulled them to whatever grave awaited them. He was seconds from passing out when he saw refracted light from above him. With the last of his strength he grabbed the opening and pulled the pair of them up.
Coughing up water he remembered why that hole was called the blue hole again, it sucked anything an everything into its dark depths and left no trace. Regaining oxygen to his head he quickly checked on Naruko who was passed out and not breathing.
"Come on snap out of it damn it!" he yelled as he started CPR on her trying to push the water from her lungs. After a few pumps on her chest and right before he started mouth to mouth she puked up the water from her lungs. "That's it your okay." he said turning her onto her side letting her puke up the rest of the water.
"Remind me to…" she tried to say before coughing again "never be checked out of class by you again."
Smiling at the half assed attempt at a joke he just leaned back against the wall of whatever place they were in. "I'll remember that next time." he looked around at the torchlit hall they were in and a few of the banners that covered the wall.
Slowly his brain came back online fully and realization started to dawn on him of where he had seen those symbols before. "So this is where you learned everything huh Naruto…" he whispered.
"Did you say something Itachi?" Naruko asked as she pushed herself up. Her head was still fuzzy from the lack of oxygen so she wasn't sure if she was hearing stuff or not.
"Yeah I just realized that those banners on the wall there were the same as the ones on Naruto's bracers." as she followed where he was pointing and saw an A without the middle piece.
"If he found this place then does that mean it holds information on the Templars?"
"I'm willing bet my life it does. Lets look around for a while, if nothing else then for the way out."
he said to her offering her a hand.
The Creed Reborn
Naruto and Karin watched from the hill top as the cloud of dust showed itself above the tree line. It had been three hours since they were in the Precursor Archive, so that would mean that the dust cloud was the bomb going off.
"Welp I guess that answers that." Karin said looking at the dust falling from the sky.
"What ya mean?"
"I doubted if that bomb would even work, after all it was built 85000 years ago. Glad I didn't stay around to find out."
"I wasn't going to stay around that old tomb with the ghost any longer then I needed to."
"Hate the Isu do we?"
An Uchiha like grunt was all she got as he turned back around an started walking. Chuckling she fell right in step right behind him. "You know you still have to tell me how you learned of the Isu before the Archive."
"I did say I would tell you bout my past, didn't I? Where to start, where to start?"
"Well they do say that stories are better started at the beginning." she told him sarcastically.
"Touche, well lets start back ten years ago, on October tenth. The Kyūbi attacked the village that my parents lived in. The Third Hokage gave his life to seal the monster and with the combined seal knowledge of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki…" the hours pasted and Karin was sitting on the seat of the story of her blond companion. With each story he told her she realized that her story wasn't so different from herself.
They stopped for dinner that night and while Karin was off collecting firewood Naruto was having a conversation with his inner demon, if he could be called that now.
"I'm surprised that you didn't tell her about me in more detail there kit, I mean hell you told her everything up until the past few years when you started questioning things more."
'Sure let me tell her that a multi story tall mass of sentient charka was my only friend for the better part of a few years, mind you I still didn't know at the time that you were the Kyūbi, I just remember that you were a voice of reason in some of my darkest times.'
"Oh sure I was the voice of reason and you were a magnet for trouble kit, after all who was it that told you what route to take when you were being chased?"
"Point taken" he grunted picking up one of the branches that would serve as the shelter for the pair tonight "After all… the only thing… your good… at sensing is… malicious intent." he replied between grunts.
"Kit you better hope that your vixen ain't around because you just said all that out loud."
'Shit I did it again didn't I?'
"Naruto who are you talking to?" a voice came from behind him. Standing stock still he craned his head to see Karin standing there with more firewood by the fire he had lit earlier "I swore you were talking to someone, something about malicious intent."
"Your on your own here kit." Naruto felt the Kyūbi recede back into whatever hole he hid in leaving him with no voice of reason to get himself out of this.
"I was trying to keep my mind focused as I pulled this branch over here." he replied with a cat ate the canary look. Karin just narrowed her eyes an shrugged her shoulders.
"If you want to tell me you can if you don't want to tell me you don't have to, but I thought we were on the way to understanding each other here. I already have an idea it has something to do with that dark charka that just left from you."
Naruto had forgotten just how good of a sensor Karin was when it came to anything charka, and this just solidified the fact even further since she could tell the difference between his charka and Kyūbi's. "Humor me for second here and I'll answer any question you have, you can ask anything of me and I will answer honestly."
"Any question?"
"Uzumaki swear any question." she nodded an he sat down "Do you think that a huge beast such as Kyūbi could be on friendly terms with anything or do you think he is nothing more then a raging beast who is hell bent on causing chaos?"
He could see that the question posed to her was something that she would have to think on for a minute, hell if he was her he would have to think on it for a min if someone was to ask him the same question. Multiple times he watched as she opened her mouth an then closed it again trying to formulate the answer.
"I would have to say it is possible to some degree, I think it would be more like a you scratch my back I scratch yours deal with it tho. As for the chaos part I also think that its more like the it wants to be left alone." nodding at the answer Naruto poured himself a cup of tea from the tea pot by the fire "My turn, since we're both Uzumakis don't you think we should be focusing on the rebuilding of our…" her face went beet red and at the same time Naruto spit out his tea lest he choke on it.
"I think you should reword that so it doesn't sound so wrong. I mean not that I have anything against you… or something but… I just put my foot in my mouth didn't I?"
"Agree to not bring this up again?"
"Agreed."
The pair sat an ate in silence before calling it a night with Naruto taking first watch. 'I don't know how I feel about her I mean hell I hardly know anything about her…' he tossed another log on the fire and watched as the flames licked at the dry wood. Memorized by the flames he slowly nodded off into sleep.
He awoke to the sounds of screaming an crying, shooting up he looked around for the threat and noticed the only threat to himself or Karin was her own dreams. Walking over he laid down beside her and pulled her close, slowly her crying abated and she was left with just the occasional whimper. She was still asleep and even then her grip on his arm was almost enough to break it.
"Naruto, promise me you'll never leave me." she mumbled in her sleep.
"I won't I'm right here." he whispered in response. Feeling her grip on him lessen when he said that.
"Goodnight Naru, love you."
He was sure his ears was playing tricks on him at this point, but the snickering of Kyūbi told him his ears were right. All he could do the rest of the night was ponder on his own feelings for the girl in his arms.
The Creed Reborn
Naruko and Itachi looked around the bunker they were both in. Each hall had room after room of beds, books, and crates of what they were guessing supplies. The issue Itachi had was that he couldn't read anything that was written in any of the books, Naruko on the other hand could read some of it.
What little she could read honestly scared he and when she read it out loud for Itachi she could see his figure darken. It was horrible what some of the things were that the Templars of old done all in the name of peace. Genocide to the tune of hundreds of millions, mass culling of people who didn't fit into the perfect race they were aiming for. The hunt for this sage who at the end of day was nothing more then a man with memories of past race.
Each tome was filled with story upon story about what they were willing to do to achieve their form of peace. Each one further cemented their conviction in standing against the Templars, or to be exact her father.
Closing another book Naruko rubbed her temples, she could spend the next fifty years in here an barely touch the surface of both the Templars and the their founders The Order of Ancients.
Hearing the door open she looked up and saw Itachi standing there. "well I was able to confirm that Naruto did stay here since there is about a hundred instant ramen cups in storage, outside of that I was able to find that the tunnel system here basically runs clear around the entirety of Konoha. I've only looked out three accesses but those three could get you anywhere in the village in a matter of minutes."
"I wonder if there was a town here when this place was built? Or did the builders just get lucky that this place was never found?" Naruko replied placing the book back on the shelf. "Now the question is what to do with this place."
"Well so far only you can seem to be able to read the books here, and most if not all of the gear is rusted beyond repair. I have no clue how some of it works in the first place. That doesn't mean that someone couldn't figure out how it worked based on the design of them an remake them."
"So basically this place is both a boon and a massive liability, the books are full of info that in the wrong hands could reshape the history of the world as we know it, not only that but if my father got his hands on any of this an could translate it I fear to think what would happen."
"Seems we are both in agreement, we cant let this place fall into the wrong hands."
"That goes without saying, but the only way to do that is…"
"We have to destroy it all without letting anyone figure out that it was important." Itachi finished. His original plan was to just place explosive tags all over and let the earth do the rest, but after he found out most of Konoha was above him he couldn't do that to the people.
"What about if we sink it all in water? I mean we have the water to do it with all we need to do is figure out a way to flood it." Naruko replied as she reached for another book.
"That part should be easy all we have to do is block the current and this whole place will fill with water in a matter of hours." he pulled out the roll of demo tags he had on hand in his ANBU kit.
"So I need to gather any books I think we might need and that ain't going to break the world above easier said then done…" she pouted as she looked over the rows an rows of shelves in this room alone.
"Personally I would limit yourself to just the books that involve skills that can easily brushed off as ideas you had, and once you master those ones destroy the books to keep anyone else from finding them." he turned to walk back to the waterway "I'll give you an hour to figure out what book or books you are taking, after that I'm sinking this whole place."
Hearing the footsteps retreating she pulled out one of her storage scrolls and quickly started filling it with any an all books that even remotely caught her eye. Hand-books from various military forces from the old world, engineering manuals ranging from mechanical to electrical, science books, basically anything that Naruto might have a use for.
Thinking back Naruto always was more of a bookworm then she was, she was more of the punch first ask question later type of person. She was pissed with herself for not being the sister that she could have been.
Shaking her head to clear the repetitive thoughts she quickly rolled up the scroll before running to another room to try an find more books to seal up. She had to wonder how many people were at one point housed here to justify the amount of space and beds that were in the 'small' compound.
On the flip-side of the same coin she also had to wonder if this is one of the smaller bases for the Order what was a big one, and if this many people were needed in the shadows how many Templars were there around the world with no one to keep them in check.
Opening what seemed to be a workshop she quickly rummaged through the various cases an shelves pulling out what looked like schematics and hand written technical documents, each one covered various designs for what was called a hidden blade.
Sealing them up she ran over to the other cabinets and pulled out the documents by the handful not even looking at the contents within them. She was in a race against the clock and currently the clock was winning.
Running into the next room she pried open a crate and looked at the rusted contents within. She had no idea what it even was in the first place. Each thing was lined up side by side and had what looked to be some sort of hardened rubber at the end, shrugging her shoulders she grabbed one and placed it on the seal, might come in use sometime.
Each room she went into there was something she sealed up in the three sealing scrolls she had. Reminding herself to make more later after she hides the ones she walked out of the last room and saw Itachi walking down the hall towards her.
"Charges are set for ten minutes from now, I recommend you head out the path to the right that should spit you out near the academy, I'm headed straight and that will put me outside of the my clans compound." he told her as she put her scrolls back into their holders.
"What are you going to do now?"
"It's better you don't know."
"Well if you see Naruto can you do me a favor and tell him I will meet up with him again as soon as I can, and that he doesn't have to worry about me becoming the pray." after reading the few documents that she did it was safer for Naruto to never come back to the village.
"Becoming the pray?"
"It was something he wrote to me before he left the village."
"Well either way I will pass it on to him should I ever see him." he replied 'Should I ever live past tonight.' he thought walking down the hall that lead to the outside of his clan compound.
The Creed Reborn
Placing the cloak in the tree Itachi closed his eyes and steadied his mind for the night ahead. He knew for a fact that over forty percent of the clan had to die tonight. The almost every jonin of the clan, the elders of the clan, the chief of security, chief of police, and the person they all answered to, his father Fugaku Uchiha.
Opening his eyes they shown like red orbs in the starting of the night. Like the ANBU he was he knew each of the targets like the back of his hand, he knew the habits, he knew the places they went, and he knew the location of the meeting that they were currently having.
Being that he was currently not wearing his headband he also knew that they would allow him right in thinking that he had finally joined them in their quest to take over the village that as they say 'Should be in charge of'.
Feeling the slight vibrations of the demo tags he set Itachi decided to get this night over with, quietly he walked out from the hiding spot he had been in for the past few minutes and crossed over the threshold into his clan compound. It was quiet, deathly so.
The wind shifted and the smell of iron hit his nostrils, the iron that is only found in one thing.
Blood.
Taking off into a full sprint towards his house hopping that his brother wasn't home at the time of the attack. Each step he took the smell of blood became stronger and more defined. Signs of fighting and mass panic showed its self everywhere. He watched as he ran by the bodies of his family lined the streets, people who had nothing to do with the coup.
Gritting his teeth he threw his door open. Inside the lights were off and just like everywhere else inside of the compound the smell of blood assaulted his nose. Walking into the meeting hall of his house it was there that he saw the bodies of both his parents held together by his personal ANBU sword.
Slowly he removed the sword an placed both of their bodies on the flood, his father might have been the biggest prick in his whole life but at the end of the day Fugaku was his father. Whipping the blade to let all of the blood off, it was then that he heard something land behind him.
"Brother…" a young voice said behind him "What did you do?"
Looking over his shoulder he saw Sasuke standing in the doorway mortified by the carrange around him.
"SASUKE GET WAY FROM HIM!" Sasuke was tackled by another man. There was blood coming from around his eyes like he had been cut "He almost killed everyone all for power."
In rage Itachi's eye shifted from his normal sharingan to his new Mangekyō Sharingan. "Shisui I thought I killed you earlier, only question I have for a little roach like you is where is the rest of your friends."
The killer intent coming from Itachi made the younger Uchiha pass out causing Shisui to smile at the feeling of dead weight in his arms. "You know you just done me a favor right I was going to have to find a way to knock him out but letting you do it makes the whole ruse feel so much more believable."
Tightening his grip on the sword Itachi dashed towards Shisui with the intent to run him through. Even bind as he was Shisui was able to dash out of the way all while holding Sasuke, he took off running once more towards the exit of the clan heads home.
"Stop running you bastard your only delaying the inevitable!" Itachi yelled chasing after his prey through the bloody house he once called home. Turning the corner he saw his prey run out the door and into the streets of the clan compound.
Following him out into the street Itachi stopped dead in his track, in his fit of rage he forgot one of the most important rules of combat, never let your feelings give you tunnel vision.
All around him were both masked ANBU and a good portion of Danzo's own 'Security Force' each one of them ready for the signal to kill their target, to kill him. Slow clapping made its way to Itachi's ears.
Turning to look at the offending sound his hair stood on ends as he watched blond hair and a white cloak move with the wind as he approached the encirclement. Beside him was a bandaged man with a walking stick and eyes so squinted one would think they were closed.
"I must really applaud you Itachi. You not only figured out who was behind the so called coup, but you even went as far as to speed up the time table for which we had planned." the blond said to him "Pity you weren't here when we tested the gas on your family, weapons that are in trial stages tend to be at little….messy."
"Namikaze, you bastard what did you do?!"
"Better question is what did you do? We showed up to apprehend a man who, as we were informed by one of the few survivors, killed in cold blood most of his family all to test his power with the forbidden sharingan." Minato said smoothly before the bandaged man cleared his throat.
"You see we were planning on using the gas during the coup as a 'Riot Control Agent' but when you went rouge and tried to stick your nose where it doesn't belong mister Itachi, we had the wonderful idea of why not kill two birds with one gassing. We get to test the Croatoan Agent and watch its effect and have a fall guy set up to easily blame when the survivors come out of their comas." Danzo explained "You see we are a very busy group of people, not to mention we don't like it when others get in our way. How you learned of us matters little since we got everything we wanted, and you get nothing other then a painful death."
"We wouldn't have had to bring this many men if you weren't one of the most powerful people in village even before your Mangekyō, but then again if you weren't as powerful our story wouldn't have as much creditably." Minato raised his hand thus giving the signal for all of the shinobi to attack him "Do be a good kid and put on a good show for the rest of the village." placing his hand on Danzo the pair left in a flash of light.
Almost as soon as the pair left the entire group broke its standoff. Blocking a swing from one of the ANBU Itachi dove back into the house to avoid being out numbered by the joint force. Glancing over his shoulder he saw four operatives follow him in with a fifth standing an giving hand signals to the rest of the group.
Itachi had the home field advantage here, he knew the houses, the streets, everything down to the shadows. This fight was heavily tilted in favor of the Hokage, no the Templars, forces but even tilted Itachi had a chance to win.
This fight was going to be a long one.
The Creed Reborn
Unlocking the door to her house Naruko walked once more into a place that had become less of a home and more of a prison. The lights were off, it was quiet and even though she knew her mother was home she also knew that she was nearly a shell of her former self.
Kushina Uzumaki, a woman that was once feared as the Hot-Blooded Habanero, was now more akin to a lifeless husk. Out of the three of them she had taken the loss of Naruto the hardest, which to Naruko was wrong since she was one of the biggest factors of the alienation of her brother.
Sighing she walked into the joint kitchen/ dinning room she opened the fridge and pulled out a frozen meal she had gotten yesterday. With her mom basically being a living zombie and her father not even bothering to come home she had been living off the five ryo meals since everything happened.
"Hello sweetheart…" Naruko dropped her meal heart racing. Kushina was right on the other side of the door when she closed it. "You stayed out late tonight, later then usual, everything ok?"
Regaining her composure Naruko bent down an picked up her meal. "Yeah sorry about that mom, a couple of my classmates wanted to go to the arcade after school and invited me along." she smoothly lied hopping that it would be enough to fool her mom.
"I just wanted to make sure you weren't planning something like your brother did." the unstable glint of insanity in her indigo eyes "If he didn't run away maybe we could still be a family, maybe Minato would come home more."
Taking an involuntary step back Naruko wasn't sure how to respond to her mother. Over the course of the close to two weeks since Naruto took off Kushina had been a near lifeless shell, only eating the bear minimal to keep herself alive and not really saying anything.
The way her mother looked now terrified her.
"Mom I would never, I swear. I'm home now see." Naruko replied hopping that her words would be enough to calm her. Taking another step back she saw the pale blue glow of a seal activating, a paralysis seal.
"I know sweety, I know that's why I'm going to place a tracking seal on you. So that way I always know where your at, even on missions." Kushina said pulling an ink well and brush from the draw "Minato always has the best of ideas, if only I had done this with Naruto…"
At this point Naruko's heart was pounding, every fiber of her being was screaming at her to run. She struggled against the seal, but even she knew it was futile, an Uzumaki's seal was always perfectly crafted and it was for that reason why the clan was hunted.
Naruko tried to watch as Kushina pulled a chief's knife from the knife block and walked behind her. The paralysis seal keeping her from moving. She felt the cold of steel touch her back as Kushina cut her shirt off of her. Naruko knew where the tracking seal was going, it was going to be placed in the small part of her back that she couldn't reach to keep her from disrupting the seal.
"There there sweety I ain't going to hurt you, its for your own good after all." Kushina told her as tears started to well up in her frozen eyes. Naruko felt the ink touch her back and she resigned herself to whatever fate her insane mother had planned.
Feeling the stinging burning sensation of a seal activating Naruko knew that the seal was finished. Stepping back and admiring the work that only an Uzumaki could do Kushina smiled wildly as the seal formed into its finial stage of a four pointed compass needle.
It was seconds after the burning ended did she feel the effects of the paralysis end. Falling to her knees Naruko was silently praying for someone to save her.
Her prayers fell on deaf ears as a flash of yellow lit up the room denoting the arrival of her father. Tears still in her eyes she glared at the man out of the corner of her eye.
"Is it done love?" he asked placing a hand around the waist of his wife.
"Uh huh, I just finished a few seconds ago. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier darling, now I can feel Naruko's love wherever she is."
"Now all we have to do is find Naruto and we can be a family again." he replied as Naruko watched a narcissistic smile spread across his face, something that Kushina couldn't have seen.
The Creed Reborn
Turning the corner into the kitchen Itachi grabbed one of the knives and swiftly threw it back towards the doorway forcing one of his pursuers to stop and block or get impaled by the tomato cutter. Doing this allowed a brief half second of breathing room for him to dive into the connected dining room.
The dinning room he was in was on the south side of the house meaning even if there were windows there would be nothing but shadows for him to hide in. For an Uchiha fighting in low light conditions were advantageous since the sharingan allowed them better sight in everything short of pitch black.
He watched as the trio of ANBU each picked a different room to search, once more proving that he had home field advantage. He watched from the shadows as the ANBU quietly entered the room tanto drawn ready to defend against any possible attack.
Sadly the lone soldier failed to watch the one place that every human forgets about. Up. Dropping from the ceiling Itachi ducked low as the small sword went over his head in reaction to the breeze of him dropping down.
Forcing his sword up he etched into his memory the sight of the ANBU choking on blood from the blade that was now through the soft spot under his jaw. Applying a little more pressure the blade entered the brain and exited the top of his head.
His combat senses told him to move and trusting his senses he watched as the ANBU he had just killed was torn apart by invisible blades.
"Wind Style: Wind Waves" Itachi heard from back in the kitchen. Not taking a chance he shot out of the room and into the living space that he and his brother had played a board game in the night before. He watched the doorway expecting an attack from the room but nothing came.
Paranoia crept into his mind as he tried to predict the location of the next attack. Stepping back into the shadows he watched as the second ANBU met back up with the first and worked together to locate him. All he needed was a brief opening to allow himself access to finish this fight. Raising his hands together he slowly worked his way through a series of seals.
"Darkness Mirage." he mumbled. To him the room hadn't changed but to the pair before him a cloud had moved over the moon and made the whole room so dark it bordered on pitch black. Silently moving across the room he prepared for the kill.
The ANBU didn't even know what happened as he watched in slow motion his body fall forward. Eyes lifeless before he even hit the ground. While his partner struck out knocking the sword from Itachi's hand before he could finish them both, a testament to the skill of the ANBU who even under a genjutsu could still tell there was danger.
Withdrawing and grabbing his sword off the ground Itachi flexed his hand trying to get the numbness out. Now it was one verses one. Each person could mess up and it would be the end of the road for them. Standing in the hall he waited and listened for signs of someone moving towards him.
He didn't have to wait long.
Ducking his head to the side as a kunai implanted itself where it once was he was forced to deflect three more before taking cover behind a wall.
Waiting for a chance to move he heard the sound of another kunai hitting the wall in front of him. He had no chance to react as a blinding flash lit up the room. All he could do at this point was take cover and hope that his next move wasn't his last.
Using the mental map he had of his house he slammed the door shut to what was the laundry room as a hailstorm of explosive notes went off in the room he was just in. Feeling the concussion of the blast he leaned against the door and waited for the last of the spots of clear from his eyes.
'These people will pay, every last one them, they killed my family, they killed my friends, and they destroyed my home. They are little more then animals and…' his eyes shifted once more to his Mangekyō Sharingan 'they deserve to be put down like animals.'
Throwing the door open he shot out at the approaching ANBU who was shocked that Itachi had survived the explosion. Unprepared and in shock he still managed to deflect the swing of Itachi's sword but he failed to see the Uchiha's followup which was a punch to face.
Itachi had put enough force into his punch to shatter the wolf mask the ANBU was wearing, but also breaking his hand in the process. The shards from the mask blinded the man allowing Itachi to swiftly stab the man in the lungs and pin him to the wall with his sword.
"You will not erase the truth of what you have done here from this world. I will make sure of that." Itachi grunted out.
The ANBU in a last ditch attempt to kill his target grabbed Itachi by the throat. With his broken left hand Itachi reached into the operatives pouch and withdrew a shuriken and used it as a punch dagger as he sunk it into the jugular.
Itachi watched as the nameless wolf faded from the world of the living.
Itachi pulled his sword out of the now dead ANBU. With his death he finished the three that had entered his house thankfully none of these people were Uchiha otherwise the battle he was just in would have been a lot different.
Stepping over the body of what was once a comrade to him. He sheathed his sword and slowly walked towards the clan meeting hall. He didn't have many options as far as getting out of the house alive, but there was one option, the escape tunnels that each clan head knew of.
The tunnels were made back during the reign of the first Hokage, when the tensions between the Senju and Uchiha clans were still evident as a back up plan in case the tension ever came to blows. Itachi was the next in line to be clan head and being next in line gave him the knowledge of these tunnels.
"HE'S HERE!" he heard a yell from one of the ANBU.
Turning on his heels he flashed through handsigns Itachi finished his jutsu "Fire Release: Flame Whirlwind!" a vortex of flame spread out from Itachi's mouth filling the hall full of fire.
Watching as the flame set the wood in his home alight Itachi turned back and quickly shot back off to the clan hall. Each second he delayed was another second for his pursuers to find another way to get past the flames.
Entering the hall he ran past the bodies of his parents and lifted one of the mats revealing a ladder and hole beneath it. Ducking into the hole he took one last look at his home as the flames slowly spread into hall.
'Someday when I am able to I will come back and rebuild, or I will die trying. I promise you mother, and I'm sorry.'
Closing his eyes as he placed the mat back over the tunnel a sole tear feel at the thought of everything he lost for his love of the village.
Dust kicked up as he took the last step down and landed on the floor of the tunnel. The escape tunnel was barely maintained since its original purpose was never needed. Only recently had it been inspected by his father as a possible point to either start the coup or should they fail escape to try again.
Each step he took in the darkness only made the Uchiha come closer to the realization that the whole village that he loved would soon view him as a monster, all while the true monster directed the people from the light.
"I figured you would take this route Itachi, after all only the clan head is supposed to know it right?" a voice came from the darkness.
Stopping and looking around the impenetrable darkness he tried to spot the owner of the voice, a voice he had killed before. "Shisui, you rat how many times are we going to cross blades?!"
"You won't be crossing blades with a blind man, I mean after all I might cut myself if I handle one now." the sarcasm in his voice only agitated Itachi more "No you will face someone else, even with a sharingan you stand no chance in this darkness."
Itachi's senses told him to move and he obeyed. He felt two strikes hit his shoulder causing his left whole arm to go limp. Hearing the sound of an approaching attack he took his foot and shot off the wall causing the attack to go under him.
"I see a Hyūga, based off the fact that I know there are no Hyūga in the ANBU I'm assuming that this one is part of Danzo's Root program."
The response he got was a dark chuckle "Correct, and thanks to him you are going to die here tonight…"
Itachi's eyes widened as he felt the sharpness of a blade enter the space under his numb left arm. There was nothing he could as he felt the blade sever the arm from his shoulder.
"You see unlike you I trained to be able to fight in the dark. That was something I never told you during our spars."
"Then that makes two..of us, you bastard.." Itachi grunted in pain as he ran through one handed seals "I never said I...needed two hands...to cast a jutsu. Fire Release: Fire Dragon Wall!"
The room became illuminated by the now ring of fire that covered all exits. Withdrawing his sword from its scabbard Itachi held it in the flames "Now with this..I can see.." withdrawing the blade from he flames he held the thin glowing sword to his now missing arm cauterizing the wound and stemming the blood loss. The pain was almost enough to make him black out.
Calming down and gritting his teeth Itachi stared down the faceless Root and his now blind cousin who was holding his fathers katana, the one that denoted him as the clan head of the Uchiha clan.
Slow clapping drew his eyes away from the sword and back to the one wielding it. "You can see now, bravo, but all that does for you is allow you to watch your death instead of giving you the sweet bliss of not knowing how you died."
"Amaterasu" Shisui heard as he felt the heat from the flames multiply ten fold. "You think I would just end a rat like you with such a cheap shot, dear cousin you are mistaken. I will make you suffer for all you have done tonight…"
What Shisui couldn't see was the blood seeping from Itachi's eyes, even if he wanted to he doubted he could pull off another Amaterasu even if he wanted to. Letting his Mangekyō go Itachi charged his cousin with the intent to end his life.
Being blind did not mean Shisui was an easy target. Parrying Itachi's first and follow up strike he proved that he had indeed trained in the art of fighting in total darkness. With the lack of his eyes and Itachi's lack of a second arm the pair was nearly evenly matched.
"Brings back memories huh Itachi?" Shisui asked as he circled around the room.
"You mean the days when we would fight until we were at a standstill, yeah it does. Pity you were a snake."
"Aww don't be like that, you'll make me blush!" Shisui shot towards the sounds of Itachi footsteps and swung his sword in a wide horizontal slash forcing Itachi to backpedal. Finding his footing again Itachi brought his sword down and met in deadlock with Shisui.
Letting the grip of his sword go Itachi sidestepped and planted a round house kick into Shisui's head sending him reeling. The family sword falling from his hand as he skidded across the room.
"You see the difference between you an me is that I don't have to sell my soul to live with the decisions I make. I will fight to rebuild this clan, I will fight to protect these people, and if I die doing that then at least I know I gave my all." Itachi picked up his fathers sword and slowly dragged the tip towards the downed Uchiha "You will die today and with your death I make a pledge to never rest until I see your kind wiped from this world."
Shisui tried to back away from the sound of the sword with each clank on the uneven stone he backup further. The flames of the encirclement were licking on his backside and the smell of singed hair wafted in the air.
'If only he didn't take my eyes from me! Then I could have just done a substitution and be free of this shit!' Shisui knew that it was the end of the line for him. In front of him was an undying monster behind him were the flames of hell.
"Pray to whatever god you kneel before and hope they had mercy…" Itachi said as he raised the sword.
"No need I can see that God has indeed abandoned me."
Reflecting the glow of the surrounding fires the sword that was once the symbol of the proud Uchiha fell onto one of their own. In a spew of blood Itachi watched, coated in crimson as the last of the fluid left the now dying body of Shisui.
"You burned up the last of your tricks there will be no resurrection from this one." Itachi mumbled as he sheathed the sword into his old scabbard, canceling the flame wall Itachi continued on down the dark path.
The Creed Reborn
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Slowly eyes began onyx eyes began to open. Blurry eyes blinked multiple times while trying to locate the sound that he was hearing eventually landing on a heart monitor.
"I see the youngest surviving Uchiha is awake now." Looking over to the window his eyes fell upon a bandaged man sitting in a chair resting his chin on his cane. He placed his cane against wall and picked up a clipboard. "Sasuke Uchiha. Age 10, Blood type AB, height four-foot ten. Known direct family Fugaku Uchiha, Mikoto Uchiha and finally Itachi Uchiha."
Realization finally entered Sasuke's eyes he remembered his brother standing over the bodies of his parents as his older cousin protected him. The coldness in his brothers eyes as he stared at him.
"My name is Danzo, I am one of the Leaf Council Elders. Talk to me son, help me figure out what happened tonight." the man told him. Licking his lips he tried to remember all the details of the day since he left school.
"Water please."
Danzo nodded and poured a glass of water for the young boy who greedily drank like it was the last he would ever have. Pouring him another glass, Sasuke stared down at the clear liquid and replayed the days events in his head.
"Before I left school I was asked by my sensei, Iruka, to go and retake a test I messed up on. I can't remember what time that was but it had to be after four this afternoon." taking another sip of water he recounted everything up until the time he had been saved by Shisui.
Danzo acted as if he was taking notes, but the truth was he knew the timeline because he was one of the people who designed the whole timeline when he heard that Itachi had went rouge.
The only thing he didn't know was who the ANBU was that checked Naruko out of school was, but that was not his assignment. No his assignment was to play his part as an Elder and present 'Evidence' for the council meeting that had been called for in the morning.
If everything went according to plan Kae Uchiha one of the 'Survivors' of the massacre would be instated as the clan head for Uchiha clan in the morning.
And that would make three of Konoha's clans be truly aligned with the Templar Order.
Focusing back on the boy in front of him as he finished recounting the events Danzo could barely hold back a smile at the thought.
"...that was when I passed and that's all I remember." Sasuke finished still in disbelief that his brother had killed everyone.
"No no its good thank you son, at least with this we can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Itachi was not only the instigator but also the sole perpetrator of the crime."
"You said I was the youngest survivor, who else survived?" Sasuke asked hopping that he knew some of them. For a clan that was as large as the Uchiha they were unsurprisingly not very close. His father knew most of the clan, at least those he deemed mattered, and he knew some of those just by extension.
Picking his cane back up Danzo stood up and started walking towards the door. "I think it is better if I just let them come in an check on you instead of just telling you." he opened the door and outside were three members of his clan with one that he recognized immediately.
"Aunt Kae!" Sasuke yelled as he tried to get up, only to be grabbed by Kae and pushed back down on the bed.
Kae was about five-foot nine, with the standard black hair that all Uchiha had, but her eyes weren't onyx like the rest they were hazel denoting her as someone with mixed Uchiha blood. She wore the standard jonin vest and carried a pair of heavy blunt knives called tekkans. These weapons along with her fighting style which relied heavily on taijutsu gave her the moniker of 'Kae bone breaker'.
"Now Sasuke the doctors haven't cleared you so don't go getting out of bed yet." she told him.
"If you made it does that mean that Uncle Shisui made it as well, and maybe if the both of you were together you could have saved the rest of the clan!" the look in her eyes told him that Shisui didn't make it, the person who saved his life from Itachi didn't make it.
"Sorry kiddo we still haven't located his body yet. So don't loose hope." she told him pulling him into a hug, all while looking to Danzo who just nodded and walked out. "I was on patrol with some of the other teams when I heard about what happened and rushed here as fast as I could, when I arrived the clan compound was on fire as everyone was trying to put it out. There's so much confusion right now we really don't know who is still alive or the total body count."
Nodding limply Sasuke laid back in the bed. He wasn't tired physically, but mentally he was drained, after all it wasn't everyday that that you come home to a bloodbath.
"Get some rest kiddo and I will come get you as soon as the doctors release you." she watched him nod as she walked out and closed the door. Walking up to beside Danzo the pair walked further down the hall before speaking.
"We are still looking for Shisui, at this point it is best to expect the worst." Danzo told her as they walked down the halls. "The original plan of course was for him to take over as clan head after the coup, but as you know that all went to hell while you were away. And since he is missing and you are his fiance as well as the only other person to know the full scope of the plan it falls to you, Kae Uchiha."
Anger swelled in her heart, but outside she showed nothing but calmness. "I will do everything I can until I know one way or another. Did all of us get out before the gas was released?"
"Everyone was out of the compound at the time that mattered, the village will suffer from loss but it will quickly bounce back now with your help." he told her stepping into the stairwell "I am sorry about Shisui he was truly a great man, but we all knew what was a stake when you joined."
"No your right now is not the time to mourn him. I will do that in private later. May the Father of Understanding guide you." she replied and bowed slightly.
Nodding his head Danzo turned and started walking down the stairs.
Raising her head a lone tear fell from Kae's face and she subconsciously activated her sharingan. 'Itachi if you somehow survived tonight I will make you beg for death before I am through with you.' unknown to her one of her eyes slowly morphed into a six pointed pinwheel.
The Creed Reborn
Sunlight peeked through the trees causing Naruto to wake up. He remembered going to sleep last night after hearing Karin have another nightmare. Glancing down at the red head who was still asleep in his arms, he blushed remembering the last words she mumbled before calming down.
"Goodnight Naru, love you." laughing filled his head "Sorry couldn't keep a straight face and say that at the same time. You both like each other just admit it already kit, I mean hell its not like she can go anywhere else besides with you."
'Not helping Kyūbi…' Naruto gently moved Karin's arm off and slowly got up to start the fire for breakfast 'Besides I'm still trying to figure it out myself and offhanded comments from the peanut gallery are not needed.'
"Kit even if you don't like her right now the fact remains that she likes you. The sooner you realize that the sooner you can figure out if you could like her or not."
Striking a match Naruto held it under the dry leaves and gently blew on the now smoking leaves. 'Its not the fact of weather I like her or not its the fact of can I even protect her. You know this, I might have the knowledge and memories of generations of assassins, but they didn't have to deal with charka nor am I able to keep up with a more experienced person.' he replied as he poured water into the pair of cans they had been using for meals.
"We both know that missing nin was pure luck if he had taken the fight serious like a true shinobi would have you wouldn't be here right now."
As the fire started Naruto extended his leg and unwrapped the bandage from his wound. It would take time to heal like Kyūbi said, but at least he could keep it from getting infected. 'Yeah you ain't kidding there, he would have killed me if he hadn't underestimated me.' Wrapping a new bandage around his leg he flexed it to check the tightness. 'Its just like the other day if I was more advanced I could have easily avoided getting hurt.'
"Well time does tend to fix everything, wounds and skill alike. All you need to do is survive that long." Kyūbi told him as he stirred the instant stew mix into the can of water. They both heard the blanket that Karin was under start to move "We'll talk more later."
He felt Kyūbi break the connection as he looked over to Karin, her hair was a mess and one side of it was sticking straight out.
"Whats so funny?" she asked as the blond tried his best not to laugh. Her response was him pulling out the ANBU camo kit that had a mirror in it, at which point Naruto couldn't hold it in anymore an started laughing uncontrollably.
"Sorry sorry its just that I ain't never seen someone hair do that before, I mean my sister always had her hair pulled back so I never got to see her hair like this before she ran off to the academy." he told her as she tried to get her case of bed head under control.
Flattening it out at last Karin closed the camo kit and walked over to the fire. "Your sister you mentioned having one yesterday but you never went into any real detail about her, to be honest you never went into any real detail on anyone in your family."
Stirring the food again Naruto thought about how to answer Karin. Sighing he decided it was time to tell her the whole story not the abridged version he had told her yesterday. "The truth is my full name is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, my sister is Naruko Uzumaki Namikaze, based off that alone you should be able to tell who my parents are."
"Your father is the Fourth Hokage and you still had a life like you did?!"
"Jury is still out on what and what he didn't have a hand in. You know how I said I got these bracers from a group called the Brotherhood, well the full name of them is the Assassins Brotherhood, and my father belongs to a group called the Knights Templar." he gently grabbed a can of food and tested it to see if it was ready yet. "Another name for them is the Order of Ancients. Anyway they are the opposite of the Brotherhood in the fact that they want total control."
She picked up her can of stew and blew on it to cool it off some before taking a bite. Her mind went back to the archive and some of the data it held. "So basically you father is tyrant and that is why you left?"
"That's half true the other half was of course because I was hated by the entire village. I think I would have left even if I didn't know about my father." Naruto had gotten a depressed look just thinking about the hell his father had put him through. Even if he had told her yesterday that still didn't mean that he like remembering it.
"We are getting a little off track here, you can tell me about him later." Karin told him seeing the depressed look. "Your sister what is she like?"
"She has red hair just like you and our mom Kushina, a lot more outgoing then me and nothing but energy. She likes to wear some of the worst colors for a ninja ever like white and red, hell she even says nothing in life is complete without red. And don't even get me started on the food she ate, if it wasn't red in some form I swear she would coat it in red food coloring just to eat it. I think the weirdest part was that mom hated tomatoes and Naruko would just walk by eating one raw."
Karin almost lost her food from laughing, it took everything she had to calm down and not spill it. "I can just see her now red hair and all. Sounds like you and her were close."
"To be honest I was jealous of her. I never got to go to the academy and that bastard was always doing stuff to please her and mom would always make the table for the three of them, and leave my food in the fridge or on the stove. Its not that I hated her or anything I was just annoyed with everything." he told her before taking the last bite of food.
Drinking the rest of her broth Karin stood up and walked over to Naruto extending her hand. "Well your free now free to do whatever you please whenever you please, so do me a favor and cheer up a sad Naru is an annoying Naru." taking her hand he stood up "I'll tell you what you told me about your past so its only fair I tell you mine while we walk today."
"Works for me only after you tell me why you started calling me Naru though."
Her eyes shot towards him in shock as she started to blush "I-I did?!"
"Yeah that's the third time you said it."
"You have no proof, none whatsoever, I don't believe you!" she yelled before walking away leaving a chuckling Naruto.
AN: Ok so that's goin do it for this go round y'all leave me a review if ya liked it or if you hated it, and if you did hate it tell me why don't just say you suck or some shit. Going to have maybe 2 chapters left in this prologue arc before a timeskip and that's where the main story beings.