(( Jeez, I need to stop changing my mind about all these fanfictions. I'LL ACTUALLY FINISH THIS ONE, I SWEAR! Even if I do, it will still take me until the end of high school. Oh, by the way, my friend is starting a Naruto fanfiction, so go make her happy and read it. It goes by the title "Sasuke in Wonderland". Should be self-explanatory. Actually, Sa-SOOK is the main character in mine too. Hell, the whole SERIES should just be renamed "Sasuke". It would make much more sense. (Even though we haven't seen him at all since the time-skip yet.) I'm trying my hand at tragedy in this one a bit, although it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to those of you who know the story behind this one.
Ah, whoops. Explanation time. Although I'm going to deviate from the canon quite a bit, this is loosely based off of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Known for its many character deaths. (A warning, about ten main characters are gonna cark it.) I need to perfect my action-y skills too, so this whole thing is sort of like a test to me. Mostly my patience is going to be tested. For those of you who don't know, this series is FREAKING LONG. Three movies. The first one is about two and a half hours, the next one is around three, and the third is approximately three and a half. HOWEVER, I'm a proud owner of all three extended play versions, which spells about two hours of extra scenes for me to convert. Thank God I'm not basing all of this off the books. (They take FOREVER to read.)
My whining is probably getting rather bothersome, so I'll spare you any other rants I could possibly produce. Yosh, hajimasho!))
PROLOGUE: ONE HUNDRED YEARS
"A ninja must not show any emotion in any situation. A ninja must put the mission first, and must have a heart that will not allow him to cry." The 25th rule of shinobi conduct. Out of the hundred, this one is the most well known to date. Only those who have mastered this concept are considered elites. But of all the things humans are capable of, simply not feeling isn't one of them.
Before Konoha, the Fire Country was torn apart by many wars. Shinobi battled over food, land, money, power; even the most prestigious clans fought among themselves. This was known as the Era of Wars. Men died, women died, children died. The country was slowly killing itself. Yet only one man saw this, and single-handedly put a stop to the bloodshed. This man was given the title of the most powerful ninja of the Fire Country, Hokage, and his face was carved from the face of a mountain in the centre of the country.
The first Hokage immediately settled all disputes, and evenly distributed the land between the noble families. Their estates formed a complete circle, and in the middle a village was founded.Houses were built, families moved in, economy was established. This was the village hidden in leaves, Konohagakure no Sato.
The land of the Fire Country at that time was rocky and barren, almost completely devoid of any life from before the wars. The Hokage was concerned that nothing would grow there anymore unless something was done, so he developed a technique: Mokuton Hijutsu, Jukai Koutan. With this one technique, he grew thousands upon thousands of trees around the circle of inhabitants. During seven days and seven nights, the trees continued to grow. And on the morning of the eighth day, the entire Fire Country was an enormous forest.
The Hokage had noticed that the renegade shinobi had lost their purpose after the wars had ended, and that they would soon become restless and begin causing trouble if left unemployed. So he created a system: new shinobi without rank would enroll in an academy and be taught, while those who had already proved their worth would either teach the others or complete missions requested by the villagers and be paid accordingly. The Hokage had heard of similar systems from other countries, and sure enough, everything went quite smoothly.
As the Hokage aged, Konoha became more and more peaceful. He made alliances with the other hidden shinobi villages, and maintained order within his own. Nearly ten years had passed since he had been named Hokage, and nothing of great importance had happened since the Fire Country's shinobi had been given employment. But not long after those ten years had gone by, another ninja challenged the Hokage. Since it was about time for him to pick someone to take his place, he accepted. The battle waged on for twenty-four hours, and in the end, the younger challenger won. The Hokage acknowledged him as the stronger shinobi, and gave up his title.
About a year or so after the second Hokage had been named, a rumor spread around Konoha about a boy named Sarutobi, who supposedly had enormous potential as a ninja. Curious, the former Hokage and the second both decided to investigate further. When they found the boy, they both saw what a great shinobi he could become, and decided to train him as best as they could. Sarutobi, who was only about seven at the time, stayed on a strict training regimen under the two for five years until there was almost nothing left for them to teach. Eventually, they came to the conclusion that he would continue to become more powerful and eventually surpass them both, so before he was even a teenager, Sarutobi became the third Hokage.
When he was middle-aged and the previous two Hokage had died, Sarutobi decided to teach three select ninja. These three's names were Jiraiya, Tsunande and Orochimaru, and they were each especially talented in their own way. They reminded Sarutobi of himself, so he was extremely prude with their training exercises, and eventually they grew to be skilled shinobi. Jiraiya developed an untraceable cloaking technique and learned the art of summoning. Tsunande learned to summon as well and became a healing expert, and Orochimaru showed potential to become the next Hokage. However, when one of Jiraiya's pupils became the fourth after many years, Orochimaru conspired against Konoha, and eventually abandoned the Hidden Leaf with a grudge. Not long after, Tsunande disappeared and became a loose canon, gambling to earn a living.
Although Sarutobi had resigned his title as Hokage, he was forced to take it back not long after. A nine-tailed demon fox had attacked the village, and Konoha would have ceased to exist if it weren't for the fourth. Without hesitation, he forfeited his own life in exchange for the demon's, and sealed it inside his newborn son before dying. Not long after this incident, Jiraiya disappeared as well, leaving the third Hokage, now an old man, to govern Konoha by himself.
Things were peaceful for twelve years, until Orochimaru returned, having finally mastered his forbidden technique. He and the third were locked in combat for hours while Konoha fell under attack by the Hidden Sand, a village supposedly allied to Konoha, and the Hidden Sound, a small bordering village Orochimaru had founded in has absence. Left no other choice, Sarutobi used the fourth's technique to try and sacrifice his own life to kill Orochimaru. But in the end, he didn't have the strength, and could only seal away all of his pupil's techniques before dying.
Jiraiya, having returned during the mayhem to help defend Konoha, was asked almost immediately to take his teacher's place. But he refused, and insisted that there was only one other person fit for the job; Tsunande. Jiraiya and the fourth's son, now twelve, set out to find her and bring her back. Eventually, Tsunande was located, but refused as well. After an encounter with the disabled Orochimaru, however, she had a change of heart, and returned to Konoha to become the fifth Hokage.
Ten years since her return, Tsunande still continues to govern the Hidden Leaf successfully. The fourth Hokage's son, Uzumaki Naruto, still hoping to become the sixth, and his companions all hold key parts in the story about to unfold. A story which begins on September 21st, one hundred years since the founding of Konoha…
(( My GOD, you have no idea how boring that was to write. It's only about two pages on Microsoft Word, too! Argh! If I had trouble writing THIS, I can only imagine how hard it's going to be to write the rest of the story. Hopefully, the coming chapters will be at least a little longer than this. Speaking of which, there are going to be like a hundred chapters. Yikes. I'm considering splitting the story the way the movies were made, but… Hmmmm… I dunno. I guess I'll find out when I get there.
By the way, you were by no means obliged to have read that. Unless you like those little historical foreword thingies. If not, suck for you. ))