.11

"I thought I was going to bring peace. I thought that I could bring it about myself, but really I was just acting like a spoiled child with a new toy." ~ Aldnoah Zero

...

Before I say anything else, before I allowed this to go any further I want to say one thing. I want you to know one thing.

Knowing the future, and wanting to change it had made me a very cold person. Because everything I had ever done, it has always been to try to fix the things that I could and could not control. It also made everything that happened to me, a big huge mess in my mind that got tangled up beyond repair.

Now we can begin.

I probably needed to apologize for what happened next. Lord knows I owe you all one. Especially since everything that followed, everything that would come after this, it was such a major destruction of what you know to have been cannon. Of what cannon should have been.

But, I am not going too.

Regardless of the fact that I probably needed too.

For the simple reasonthat I truly did not care.

Everything that I did. Every last little thing, it all had purpose. At least I needed to believe that it had purpose. So I will not be apologizing for things that I believed needed to be done. Things that should have happened in the first place.

The Third deserved to live. On the sole basses that he had been kind to us and if able I knew he would continue to do so. Oorochimaru on the other had done nothing but harm the ones I love, and in a future I didn't want to see would continue to hurt those closest to me. That being said, I knew that no matter, I was not able to stop him. Not yet.

However I could save the Third that much I was sure of. I also knew that this was a good opportunity to kill the Sannin's the favored apprenticed.

So I did.

Well sort of. I paralyzed the medic and placed a special seal on him. So this way T&I could stick their claws into the informant. What did you expect from me? He was a threat to my brother, so I eliminated him. Honestly I am not nice.

I was many things, a lair, a cynic, a narcissist, the list goes on. Nice had never been one. It was just who I was, this is how I had always been. So don't think you will find any bit of sympathy or kindness here. That just was not me.

But I do digress. I was doing that a lot lately.

Do forgive me.

To be frank, I never needed your forgiveness. Not for the things that were done. Because what I did was necessary. Like almost everything else I had ever done, everything up until this point, it had all been done with purpose.

I bet you are probably want the details of what actually happened. Right? And perhaps, just maybe I do owe some form of explanation. At least to explain why I won't be apologizing for my actions. Looking back, on it, of what it clear at least, the memory of it is a bit hazy. It is a funny story.

The morning of the Finale exam, had for all intents and purposes started like a normal day for me. I did wake up feeling more uneasy about the day than usual but as per always I assured myself that everything would be fine. But I knew the truth. It was a lie.

For the most part up until the invasion itself the day ran all according to cannon and just like a regular day. There was still early morning team training with Shishou and Haku. And then people watching, for the better half of the morning until the exam would actually begin. After that I made my way to the stadium with my shadow who had followed me around the village for most of the morning.

Haku was worried about me, I couldn't figure out why. But ever since the incident in the market, the one in front of the flower shop. If he could get away with it that is. The ice user was following me around like an overprotected ghost. I'd hate to be the idiot who tried to come between us.

Naruto fought first, it went exactly as should. It was among the very few things other than the fights that would be going right today. Let me rephrase that, everything following up to the start of the invasion, including the fight between the last Uchiha and the Sand jinchuriki would go according to the standards set by cannon.

I had smothered my feelings of unease up until that point. When that fight started, it fell over me like a dark cloud. And even though Haku and I had not been teammates long I knew he could tell. His eyes locked with mine as I received a very typical concerned look from the brunette.

His hands told me a different story, especially the one that had drifted down towards the weapons pouch. Because he knew, just like my shishou, that something was going down today and he needed to be ready. They had after all had a personal run in with the snake sannin.

I just had future knowledge, knowledge I couldn't share. Lucky me.

Slowly, deliberately, I rested my hand on his knee. Twisting my body towards him and letting my long hair fall down covering the view of my hand to any one lookers. Then the soft, soothing taps of my fingers lolled quietly on the fabric covered surface.

The tapping specific, a code created by shishou for us. Even if they could see, it still would not make any sense to anyone else. But I was paranoid. It was a part of the description for being a ninja.

His free hand rested on my shoulder, his fingers hidden under my hair (I had a lot of it) and he leaned forward. To any on looker it would look like two people laughing, and commentating the fight down below. We knew better. I shook my head to keep up appearance and tapped a reply to the unspoken question before glancing behind us to glance at the agent I knew was a fake.

The taps we're small bits of chakra, how they were applied sent certain messages to different areas of the brain. One of those messages was to cancel the genjutsu that had been trying to take hold for several minutes now. I wanted to laugh at the measly attempts, but I refrained.

They would have to try harder than that.

You will noticed a divergence from here on out. This is where everything begins to change. I promise it is all for the better. It was something you were going to have to take my word for. You were going to have to trust me. Ha! It was some kind of bad joke.

Remember, I was still a liar.

Somethings were harder than others to change.

At the moment when the fighting finally breaks out, Haku and I who had been mostly unaffected by the genjutsu compared to some of the others. We are out of our seats with barely a blink and we both head in different directions. I immediately head towards the agent who has finally revealed himself to be a traitor to match blades and wits with him. Haku flanks the silver haired Jonin sensei of team seven, and within seconds of the fight breaking out we are both engaged in combat with enemy shinobi.

Here is a good time to make an important observations. Or a reminder of sorts.

I had every intention to kill the man before me.

And for the most part I did.

Kabuto could not be allowed to continue. He could not live past this. I am certain that this fact has indeed already been mentioned, but I figured a friendly reminder would be nice. Just so you are aware exactly where I stand on the matter.

Another reason for this, is the fact that I will not be going into much detail over this endeavor. I do not need to explain my actions to you, nor do I have to tell you how it happened. All you need to know, and I know it's vague, but somewhere between the beginning and the end of the invasion Kabuto died.

Now since that is taken care of.

While I am still in the midst of my battle with the medic, Kakashi gives the order for my brother, the Nara heir, and the pinkette to go after the last Uchiha and the sand genin. Haku, bless him, was following my instructions from a much early goes after the genin and the dog to give them some much needed backup. But that was only after the silver snake managed to order his men to follow them.

That had not flown well with me.

I think another reminder is necessary here. We've strayed from it just a bit, and I think now is a good time to remind you of why any of this was even happening.

My brother, my sweet, kind, idiotic brother, he was still my first and foremost concern. Naruto would always be priority number one when it came too. Everything else, everyone else, they all came second.

Sometime after that, it hasn't been long, I land the defining blow on the medic. And after placing a binding seal on him I begin to walk away, that had taken longer than it needed to and I had much more important things to worry about. It is only then when I am spoken too.

"I am surprised you did not follow them." My mind registers Kakashi's voice, but I am too distracted by the magnitude of what I have just done and of the things that still have yet to do to respond or acknowledge that he has even spoken to me.

I am already moving to my next task when my mind finally shifts through the fog. One barely alive and thoroughly restrained iryonin was not my biggest issue right this moment.

The barriers have just gone up. Which meant I was running out of time. I needed to act fast.

I could not allow the sannin to summon them, not if I wanted a good chance to save the Third. Those two could not reenter the world of the living. Not today.

Realistically I could not help the Third well if I had to worry about those two, they were on a completely different level than me. I didn't want to try to face two Kage level shinobi. Not yet, and most defiantly not today.

Earlier i think that perhaps I might have mentioned that I don't have solid memories of everything that happened today. This is where they start to get hazy. Everything after this point, all of it is mostly a blur. Colored by a red haze, but a blur regardless. So in lite of actually story telling I am just going to state the facts, things that I know for certain happened.

If you need more detail than that, than you are out of luck. I can't give you detail on things I hardly remember at this point.

It wouldn't be fair, to any of us.

The facts were simple. They usually were.

Number one. I dealt a mortally crippling blow to the silver haired snake.

Next. Neither the first Hokage nor the second Hokage were successfully summoned. By the skin of my teeth at that too.

Lastly. I have been told, and I knew that it was true, I had to use five of the nine tails to even stand a chance in hell against the likes of Oorochimaru. It required that much of the fox's chakra to even be helpful.

The sannin were out of my league. Even fighting Kabuto had been somewhat of a challenge and I'd like to think that we were at least on the same level.

Using that much of his chakra, it's the reason everything is so hazy. Because if I'm being honest, and I don't know if I am completely. But I may or may not have let the beast have control. We had a working relationship.

Not yet too the level my brother whould one day achieve with the fox, but the beast wasn't trying to take over my body or kill me so that was a plus.

Secretly, I kind of liked him. His company was interesting at least.

Anyway. Oorochimaru was in the wind. Kabuto was in a highly secured cell in T&I and my brother had let the sand trio go. So some things were kind of the same.

Well, maybe not.

The Third was alive, barely, but alive nonetheless. And that was all that mattered. I had achieved what I wanted from this day.

As for myself. Well I was a little worse for wear. I was alive, and that was great. But the only reason I wasn't injured that badly, or you know dead was because of the Fox. He had kept me safe-ish. I owed him.

However I did finally get the ranking of Tokubetsu Jonin so that was an upside to my hazy memories and almost dying. Even if I didn't remember that part.

Oh well.

There were bigger fish to fry now.

Now I had the daunting task of trying to keep that boy in the village.

And you know the coming arrival of them.

I was going to have to compromise on things, I could already see it coming.

I hated compromising.

That was the problem, in knowing the future. Because there were somethings that a single person would never be able to change on their own. Which is where compromise came in hand.

Also they were alone.

I was alone.

No one could know of the knowledge that I held, it was dangerous. Especially as long as that man still breathed.

I hated that man.

XOXOX

Oh! My! Gosh! This chapter took absolultly forever to do. It had to be rewritten so many times, and I don't know if I am even happy with this outcome of it. But I owe you guys a chapter and I am happy enough with this so here you go!

I cannot write fight scenes very well which actually is the main reason why they have been cut from this story. Also every time I tried to write Mitomi's interaction with Oorochimaru it just felt wrong so this was kind of a compromise.

If you noticed she's talking about Kurama more, it will be important to remember this for later.

You guys are awesome! For reading this, so I just want to make a shout out to every one who has, favorited, reviewed, followed, alerted and anything else to this story! This would not be possible without your continued support, you guys are truly amazing! I am so thankful that you like this sad little piece of fiction and I am so glad that you have all taken your time to read it!

Thank you so much!

Please let me know what you think! Or what you want to see happen! I am always open to suggestions.

Thank you for reading!

I apologize for any grammer mistakes, or anything that seems funky. This has not been proof-read and I may or may not get a chance to go back to do so. So please forgive any of the mistakes.

Sincerely, La'Rae