Hello, everyone!
This is release of Uchiha Faker. I hope you enjoy it. Please tell me if it is good, bad or meh.
Chapter One "Naruto's Birth"
A baby held in his older brother's hands looked in the night sky with curious eyes. That all changed when it closed its eyes and a profound change occurred. Those once curious eyes became confused and alert, showing signs of intelligence that far surpassed what a baby should possess. All this happened whilst the older brother held his younger baby brother completely obviously to what had happened.
What is going on?! Where am I? Shirou Emiya mentally shouted in alarm. The first thing that Shirou noticed was how his body didn't feel right. It didn't respond like he was used to. His five senses were also off.
"What's wrong, Sasuke?" A surprised young boy about five years old asked.
Shirou was about to respond when a sudden influx of knowledge hit him. It was an experience that he had never personally experienced for himself but he had heard about for other Servants during his time serving Chaldea. Knowledge where any Servant would receive upon summoning to familiarize with their new environment. Thus, even a Servant from a time before the era they were being summoned into might not be overwhelmed by things that never existed in their time such as cars, computers and etc.
What surprised Shirou was that it wasn't just knowledge from a Servant Summoning he was getting, but the disjointed and unclear memories of the baby known as Sasuke Uchiha. It was not the memories themselves that surprised him as he had kind of expected them as all Servants would experience as dreams. The very fact that he hadn't been summoned as a Servant, but as a Demi-Servant, with a baby as his host did.
"Mom, Sasuke is acting strangely!" The five-year-old boy, who Shirou knew was the older brother of his host known as Itachi Uchiha, started shouting.
"Let me see!" A woman, who had shared a strong resemblance to Itachi, called as she rushed over and took Shirou into her arms. She gently carried Shirou and asked, "What's wrong, Sasuke? Did something scare you?"
Shirou was left stunned in how to respond. He knew how to respond as he had taken care of enough babies to know how they behaved. It was the fact that the very act of pretending to be a baby that unnerved him. For some reason, Shirou got the feeling that his host's mother, Mikoto Uchiha, would notice immediately of his deception. Something that he blamed was likely a mother's intuition.
Suddenly, he felt his host remerge and Shirou lost control. Shirou watched in fascination inside the baby's mind as Sasuke started to react exactly as a baby would to the comforting embrace of their mother. The pleased look of Mikoto was all that he needed to know that she didn't notice that there was another soul in her baby's body.
As Sasuke Uchiha's baby-like mind continued taking the driver's seat, Shirou watched in fascination as an observer while thinking what was exactly going on.
The answer soon came to Shirou as went through the knowledge given to him with a Servant Summoning. He scowled when he learned the purpose of his summoning. Shirou had been summoned into the body of Sasuke Uchiha as a Demi-Servant, courtesy of the Counter Force.
Why is my host a baby of all the possible candidates?! How am I supposed to fight whatever threat that has the potential to cause the end of the human race in this world if I am a baby? At least you could have chosen another host, one that was an adult at the very least! Shirou cursed at Alaya, blaming her for his misfortunates.
Any further thoughts about his situation came to a stop when Shirou felt a nudge. Anyone else might have mistaken the sensation as having to do something, but not knowing why. Shirou knew what this feeling was thanks to EMIYA's memories. It was a 'nudge' that the Human Counter Force used to subconsciously prod people into acting to prevent possible situations that could potentially end with the extinction of the human race.
Baby Sasuke started to cry out loudly in pain as Shirou slowly extracted himself from Sasuke's body. The experience was painful for Shirou too as a Demi-Servant was a fusion of the host and summoned Servant. It was akin to tearing a part of oneself out. With great difficulty, Shirou extracted himself from Sasuke and appeared floating in an invisible state not too far from the crying baby.
The task of extracting myself from my host was too easy compared to other Demi-Servants that Chaldea has summoned in the past. Was my separation just a special case? Shirou wondered as he stared at the baby Sasuke being placated by Mikoto. Now that I think about it, I didn't notice it at first but after thinking about it for a while I nearly missed that small detail. When a Heroic Spirit is summoned into a host as a Demi-Servant, they should take some time to adjust to their host's body and share a body with another soul. That didn't happen for me. It was almost like Sasuke's soul and body was so similar to mine that I…
His musing was cut short when he felt the nudging of his instincts grow stronger. It was as if that if he didn't move quickly to the direction of the nudge that something horrible would happen. Shirou made haste in the direction of the nudge as it was likely the location of some event which had led to Alaya summoning him into this world.
He completely ignored all the sights that might have been something to behold and enjoy as Shirou passed through every object as if it didn't exist in his Spiritual Form.
Whatever I am supposed to prevent must be here. Shirou noted as he stared at a secluded hill that was surrounded by powerful Bounded Field, hiding any presence of its inhabitants from the outside world. Only the top Association's Enforcers and Church's Executors would have matched the strength and discipline of these… ninjas. He mused as he observed the animal mask wearing figures patrolling the hidden location. What is being protected by necessity such numerous and powerful figures or such potent Bounded Field?
Shirou was able to bypass the Bounded Field without much problem as he had dealt with much more complex and dangerous ones in the past. His job in slipping past the tight patrols was made easier by the fact that the animal-mask ninjas didn't seem to possess the means to detect spirits such as himself.
The nudges of Counter Force soon led Shirou inside the hill and into what was a fairly large cave. Shirou was surprised by what he found. The last thing Shirou had been expecting to find in an impressively hidden and well defended hill was finding the birth of a baby. He followed where the nudges of Counter Force were located to find that the likeliest source of Counter Force's target was the newly born baby.
What am I supposed to do? Protect or eliminate? I am not a Counter Guardian where I am directly told what I am supposed to do but a figure that is being 'nudged' to prevent a possible extinction of mankind. Shirou wondered in confusion.
He decided to wait and see before acting. As he observed, Shirou came to know that the father was called Minato Namikaze, the mother was Kushina Uzumaki and the midwife was Biwako Sarutobi. The guarding ninjas were blandly named by the animal displayed on their masks.
Suddenly, Shirou felt the presence of someone with ill-intent.
It was when Shirou knew what he had to do. If his guess was right, the baby was likely someone that would play a very important role in human history so that was why he had been summoned by Alaya. Otherwise, Shirou had the feeling that without his presence the baby would have been killed.
"Watch out there is an intruder!" Shirou shouted out in alarm.
The animal mask themed ninjas were the first to respond to Shirou's warning followed by the married couple and midwife. Their senses sharpened to the highest levels, looking around for any perceivable danger.
Shirou quickly rushed over to intercept the figure with ill-intent. He narrowly stopped the first of the animal masked ninjas from being eliminated by materializing and blocking a kunai aimed at the throat.
"Who are you?!" One voice shouted and was soon followed by similar comments.
"Get Minato and his family out of here! I will handle the assailant." Shirou shouted and pushed back the attacker with a katana.
"The last person needing to be escorted is my family or I." Minato chuckled as he grabbed his wife and newborn son. "I will owe you one. Thanks for the warning, Uchiha."
"Uchiha?" Shirou repeated in confusion, but he never got time to respond as Minato and his family disappeared with a yellow flash. He soon returned his attention to his attacker. "Be careful, the attacker uses some kind of space-time magic."
"Magic? I have never thought such a capable ninja such as yourself would call ninjutsu as magic." The attacker replied in a humored tone.
"What are you doing?! Get Sarutobi-san and yourselves out of here! The attacker is too much for you to handle." Shirou shouted while he slashed at the black-cloaked and orange-masked figure.
"ANBU, do as the Uchiha says!" Biwako shouted as she was the first to retreat followed by several other animal masked ninjas.
A few of the ANBU still clearly doubted Shirou as they stayed behind with the intent of holding back the attacker for Biwako and the already retreated ANBU comrades or to assist Shirou. Before Shirou could speak more to convince the ANBU to run, the black cloaked and orange masked assailant did it for him by launching an attack at the closest ANBU.
"Go!" Shirou roared as he blocked the assailant once more with his katana. "If you hadn't noticed already, he is too powerful for you to take on!"
This time Shirou seemed to have gotten their thick skulls as the last of the ANBU retreated, leaving Shirou and the assailant alone for the first time.
"Very fascinating. I never thought there was a powerful Uchiha that I didn't know about." The black cloaked and orange masked figure chuckled. "What is your name?"
"Shirou," He replied bluntly as Shirou knew that giving his name wouldn't reveal much information about him since he was in another world where his legend would never have spread. Only a fellow Heroic Spirit would likely ever know who he was if they were to learn just his first name.
"Is that supposed to be a codename or your actual name?" The orange masked figure inquired.
"Surrender or I will have to use force to subdue you." Shirou replied as he prepared for what seemed like an inevitable fight.
The orange masked figure disappeared.
Shirou turned around and slashed behind him with his katana. Instead of the sound of metal grinding against each as one would expect from blocking his katana, Shirou's katana passed through the orange masked figure as if the enemy was an illusion.
Taking advantage of Shirou's surprised state, the orange masked figure slashed at Shirou with a kunai. It was the orange masked figure, who became surprised to find that while the kunai hit Shirou, it did nothing more than helplessly bounce over Shirou's white kimono.
The two opponents stared at each other as they analyzed what they had discovered about the other.
"Whatever method you used to make yourself invulnerable will not work again!" Shirou shouted as he slashed at the orange masked figure with his katana.
"I have yet to see anyone hit me while I am in my intangible state." The orange masked figure chuckled confidently as he prepared to take a blow in exchange of delivering one at Shirou.
Suddenly, instincts warning of danger kicked in. At the last possible moment, the orange masked figure stopped mid-way in their attack that had been originally intended for Shirou. They jumped back with one hand holding the kunai and the other hand exploring the shallow cut to their torso.
"Impossible! No one should be able to hit me in my invulnerable state." The orange masked figure shouted in disbelief as they stared at the blood on their hand.
"I don't know how exactly you make yourself invulnerable, but I have fought several enemies with similar abilities in the past." Shirou replied as he readied his katana that had been given anti-magic properties similar to Gae Dearg. "You better have more tricks up your sleeves then that intangible state of yours."
"Oh, I am not a one trick-pony if you need to know." The orange masked figure chuckled and his eyes were drawn to Shirou's katana. "Strange, I have never heard of a weapon that could disrupt space-time ninjutsu. Something of such abilities should have been well known that I should be aware of."
Shirou was surprised to hear the orange masked figure's remarks. Ninjutsu and everything related to it was similar to Magecraft that seemed to never have existed in the world he had been summoned to. The notion that something that couldn't nullify the effects of ninjutsu or chakra seemed very baffling, if not outright impossible to Shirou.
"I want to love to take that katana of yours for research, but I have more important tasks right now." The orange masked figure continued as a spiral formed around their visible one-eye and soon the orange masked figure disappeared as their body was sucked into the spiral.
Shirou became alert when he detected another presence. His guard relaxed somewhat when he realized it was Minato Namikaze. The strange thing was that Minato looked anxious.
"Uchiha-san, I am grateful for what you have already done, but I must ask for your help once more. As we speak, my original self is fighting several ninjas that are after my wife. I am a clone I sent to retrieve you." The 'Minato' replied.
Shirou felt the urge to sigh and deny Minato's clone's request. He had already helped Minato at once, but there was no way he could turn down such a request when Counter Force was involved. If he allowed Minato's newborn baby to die then it was possible that this world's humanity might go extinct.
"Fine," Shirou replied reluctantly. "How do we get to where your original self is?"
"Just hold my hand," The Minato clone said as he held up his hand.
As instructed, Shirou grabbed the clone's hand as he felt a space shift around him. The experience was a familiar one to him, and instead he watched the space-time ninjutsu work around him with great curiosity.
The knowledge he had gotten during his summoning had been interesting, especially the part relating to Ninjutsu. It was similar to Magecraft in many ways, but the fascinating thing was how heavily hand signs played in Ninjutsu. Shirou knew that there were several Schools and styles of Magecraft that also used hand signs, but never as prominently as Ninjutsu.
Sadly, for Shirou, his musing was quickly cut short when he arrived at the scene where Minato was fighting off several assailants that were trying to approach Kushina and the newborn baby.
Instinctively he channeled mana into his eyes while using Reinforcement.
Argh! Shirou shouted in alarm as what he saw went well beyond what he was familiar with that came with using Reinforcement on his eyes. He saw things that he normally couldn't such as mana and magic circuits, or chakra and chakra pathways as this world called it. His already impressive Reinforced eyes could see things further away in great detail and the world seemed to move much slower than usual.
"Uchiha! A strong one too if his chakra is anything to go by!" One of Minato's attackers shouted in alarm.
Again! Why are people constantly calling me by the surname given to Sasuke's clansmen? Shirou wondered in confusion and something caught his eyes. It was his reflection upon his katana. That cannot be right. Shirou grumbled as he brought his katana up close to his eyes to look at the reflection gazing upon the blade. What the hell happened to my appearance?! It's as if physically changed slightly to bear a slight resemblance to an Uchiha!
Shirou stared at the reflection. It was one thing to look like an Uchiha. A change of appearance can be explained through a myriad of ways, but that applied to the human body and not the human soul. The human soul was much more difficult to change as the appearance taken by the human soul represented how a human perceived themselves.
Does my host and Master, Sasuke Uchiha, have something to do with my transformation? Shirou wondered as remembered something. He stared at his reflection again. Isn't red eyes and three tomoes a signature trait of the Sharingan. The eyes unique only to the Uchiha? He thought deeply for a moment. Well, it seems like my summoning might have been unusual, but I had some perks.
"Uchiha-san, a little help here!" Minato shouted, snapping Shirou out of his musing.
The first thing that Shirou noticed was broken kunais dotting around the battlefield. It was not the broken and metal fragments that gained his attention. Something else that he would have missed if it had been before gaining the Sharingan. Shirou smiled as a plan grew in his mind.
"Here's something to help you, Namikaze-san." Shirou replied with a growing grin.
His left hand disappeared into the inner fold of his kimono and a large paper scroll materialized in his hand. The left hand came out of his kimono and swung it around his body as the paper scroll became undone and fluttered in the air behind his left hand. Shirou summoned special kunais from his Reality Marble and shot them out to create the illusion that fuinjutsu had been used to expel kunais stored inside the paper scroll.
"How did…" Minato blurted out in shock as he saw his iconic three-pronged kunai raining across the battlefield.
"Shit, we have to get rid of them before Minato can use them against us!" One of Minato's attackers shouted. He started backing hand signs before shouting out, "Fire Release: Blazing Inferno!"
The battlefield was soon turned into a scene fitting the name used, a blazing inferno. It was so hot that regular steel would have melted like butter. The exact same jutsu had been used before to destroy every single one of Minato's three-pronged kunais so that he couldn't teleport around to launch an attack or dodge out of danger.
Minato and his attackers were left shocked when the metal-melting flames ceased and not a single one of the three-pronged kunais had melted to molten slag. The only sign that they had been affected was a slight tingle of red and steam as water molecules in the air became superheated.
"I will take this one!" Shirou shouted as he materialized his chosen target and slashed with his katana.
Shirou's opponent was not taken by surprise by his attack from behind. It was as if the ninja had been anticipating a common occurrence. The ninja instead of dodging began to turn around as a black mesh of wires sprouted from the ninja's back. When Shirou's katana met the black wire, the ninja's eyes widened in shock as if expecting the black wire to stop the katana.
The katana easily cut through the black wire as if it didn't exist in the first place. Chakra might have altered the properties of the black wire to be stronger than steel, but that was a weakness before Shirou's anti-magic imbued katana. Even if chakra hadn't been there, steel-like wire was nothing before Shirou's katana.
A flurry of kunais were thrown at Shirou as the ninja jumped back to put some distance between him and Shirou. The kunais were cut into pieces or broken into fragments as they hit Shirou's intercepting katana. Shrapnel from the kunai bounced off of Shirou's clothing and skin.
It was the explosive paper tags attached to the kunais that forced Shirou to not reckless charge through the thrown kunais as the explosion had the ability to harm him and interfere with his senses with smoke and deafening explosions.
Shirou's eyes darted around as the smoke had yet to disperse as he eyed where his enemy might go all the while analyzing what information he had been able to gather so far on his opponent.
His Sharingan had detected five sources of mana/chakra on his opponent's body. Humans naturally had one source of mana/chakra, which was both in a physical and spiritual form was the heart, and the additional sources of mana/chakra after the first was normally artificial in nature. The strange thing was that the other four additional mana/chakra sources possessed two abnormalities; they were not artificial and contained the trait of another organ, the brain.
It was nearly impossible to see an organ that contained both the properties of both the heart and brain unless artificial factors played a role.
If my past experience is anything to go by then my opponent is going to be much more difficult to kill. It is likely I will have to destroy his brain or heart and the four additional heart-brain hybrid objects. Shirou groaned as memories of fighting similar foes came to him.
The chakra expelled by the exploding tag was the first to clear before the smoke. This allowed Shirou to spot where his opponent was before the ninja could thanks to the chakra-seeing ability of the Sharingan.
"Who are you? I don't ever recall an Uchiha matching your physical appearance in the Bingo Books." The ninja asked as the smoke finally dispersed.
"My name is Shirou." He replied. "What is your name?"
"Kakuzu, S-rank missing-nin from Takigakure." The ninja said proudly and eyed Shirou as if revealing his identity would get Shirou to do the same.
Shirou shook his head and smiled. Keeping as much of himself a secret was something that had become ingrained in him, especially more after becoming a Heroic Spirit. The smallest details might reveal information that might be used against him.
"If that is your choice then die!" Kakuzu shouted as he charged forth at Shirou.
Responding in a similar manner, Shirou dashed forward with his katana in hand. His katana came slashing forward at Kakuzu's head. Kakuzu moved his right hand to block. What resulted was the katana cutting through flesh and bone like butter. This caused Kakuzu's eyes to widen in disbelief.
Yet, Kakuzu didn't freeze up in shock. He managed to tilt his head out of the way and kicked at Shirou, using the hit torso as something to push off.
Shirou was not too surprised by Kakuzu's response. The ninja probably thought that his katana cutting through the wires previously had been a one-off instance or something that only affected objects like wires. Kakuzu's arm had likely been strengthened to a level matching or even surpassing most armor. Sadly, his katana made mockery of all things enhanced with mana/chakra and Kakuzu's arm might have been an ordinary human arm before the katana.
Seeing an opening, Shirou charged forward. He chased after the retreating Kakuzu with the aim of cutting off the ninja's head. His path was bombarded with attacks of various elemental chakra. He cut through the attacks and wove through them.
A cloud of dust that had been kicked up by elemental attack blocked Shirou's vision, but thanks to his newly gained Sharingan he was able to 'see' four chakra sources split off from Kakuzu. The four chakra sources also formed chakra pathways extending outwards to form humanoid bodies.
Shirou charged through a cloud of dust at Kakuzu. His katana came down in a wide arc to slash at the enemy's torso. As the dust blocking his vision disappeared, Shirou saw Kakuzu's smirk as the ninja buried into the earth.
Attacks of wind, water, fire and electricity hit Shirou from four directions and earth attacks from below the ground.
A spherical pink barrier appeared around Shirou. All the attacks shattered against the pink barrier only to leave ripples in their wake.
Shirou mentally thanked his ancestor, Senji Muramasa, as Rho Aias disappeared as the attacks ceased. If it wasn't for Muramasa's knowledge, skills and efforts to fix his atrophied and damaged Magic Circuits then he would have never been able to Rho Aias in the fashion he had just now.
He looked at the four chakra sources that had split off from Kakuzu. It was the first time he saw the four humanoid beings that had formed with his eyes without the Sharingan's aid. They were made out of black wires, which also acted similar to Magic Circuits, but what caught his eye the most was the masks.
"You used a despicable method to obtain immortality by taking the hearts of your victims." Shirou growled as Rho Aias continued to block elemental attacks launched at him.
The elemental attacks increased in ferocity and power as if Shirou had enraged Kakuzu. Shirou wouldn't be surprised the reason for Kakuzu's rage had likely to do with how he had revealed the ninja's greatest secret.
Rho Aias continued to hold steady despite the increasing power and volume of attacks, but Shirou quickly banished the modified Rho Aias, he named Rho Aias II. He did so for two reasons. The first was that Rho Aias was draining to sustain as he had to constantly supply mana to repair damage done to it.
The most important reason was that Kakuzu's frustrated look and constant glances in Minato's direction told Shirou that if the ninja couldn't have any chance of hitting him then Minato's wife and newborn son would be targeted instead.
As Kakuzu considered attacking Minato's family, Shirou also looked at Minato's situation.
Dozens of ninjas were attacking Minato's family from all directions, never once relenting in their constant attacks. This forced Minato constantly on the defensive as the weakest attacks had the likely chance of killing his newborn son in one hit. Kushina couldn't help as she was too exhausted from the stress of childbirth, but she used her own body to shield the newborn baby.
Shirou made his decision. Minato had been under a tremendous amount of pressure from enemies that the Fourth Hokage likely would have killed under a second under normal circumstances. If Kakuzu entered the foray then Kushina and her newborn baby would likely die.
Rho Aias disappeared as Shirou dismissed it. This caused Kakuzu's eyes to shine as his opponent's shield finally disappeared, but the ninja didn't get any chance to attack Shirou.
"Nine Lives: Shooting a Hundred Heads!" Shirou shouted as his body became an indistinguishable blur.
Kakuzu didn't even have time to scream. His body alongside his mask-wearing humanoid companions all came under attack from slashes and stabs from all directions. The concept of Heracles' act of slaying the Lernaean Hydra that could kill nine lives simultaneously took into effect.
"Haha…" Shirou grasped for air as Heracles' Noble Phantasm greatly strained his body and mind. "I am still… a long way from replicating… the act of launching a hundred blows simultaneously…"
Shirou didn't pay any attention to Kakuzu's corpse or the four masked humanoid bodies. He instantly shifted his attention to Minato's assailants. A loud roar was unleashed by Shirou as he charged at the ninjas.
The ninjas were caught by surprise for an instance when Shirou cut down half a dozen ninjas from behind them. Just as when they were about to respond with Shirou joining in the battle, it was too late. Minato got the opening he needed. The Yellow Flash lived up to his legend and instantly teleported around the battlefield in a yellow flash dispatching dozens of Jonin-level ninjas in a single breath.
"Minato, are you alright!?" Hiruzen Sarutobi shouted as he jumped onto the battlefield, followed by a legion of Konoha ninjas.
- O -
"This didn't work out as intended," Obito Uchiha, the orange masked and black cloaked figure that Shirou and Minato had encountered, muttered as he watched his backup plan fail from a great distance. "It's a shame that I lost Kakuzu and dozens of elite Jonin-level subordinates, but I managed to gather a great deal of information about a hidden trump card of Konoha that no one had known about. Next time, I will not fail."
Obito observed the Konoha ninjas securing the area where his subordinate had failed in the second attempt on Kushina's capture. He felt a sudden sense of danger as Hiruzen's eyes turned in his direction.
"It's time to go, but I will not fail next time, Konoha." Obito vowed as his body was swallowed by a spiral emitted from his left eyed Sharingan.
Was this god, bad or meh? Please tell me what you think. I accept all criticism as long as it is no flaming.
