TWISTED DESTINIES

A different sealing, a different set-up of the Sannin, and a different gender results in a very different course of events in the ninja world; can a Sharinganless Sasuke gain the respect of her clan, and will the pressures of family be to much for Naruto? An attempt at Narilyte's Sannin-Swap Challenge; NaruSasu, ShikaSaku, FemSasu.

CHAPTER 1
COMMENCEMENT

"Love is like a child, That longs for everything it can come
by" ~ William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

"You're sure about this Fugaku? It wont be an easy life for her…"

Minato gave the clan head a wary observation; he had to sure he understood what kind of sacrifice he was making before he condemned his daughter. He wouldn't say he had no qualms about sealing the beast inside his own son, but he was more comfortable with it than exposing another infant to the danger. He didn't even know if the newborn would survive; Naruto's chakra coils were still in development, but he was almost six months old now – he was more likely to survive than a newborn.

"I'm sure Minato, she'll have Mikoto and Itachi, just look after her, and the clan - they need recognition, and I think this sacrifice will be what gains that for them"

Fugaku handed his tiny dark-haired daughter to the Hokage without restraint, but the man noticed a tiny tremor in his hands; Minato frowned as he took the small baby from the man, but he made no motion to show rejection of the idea. There were better ways to achieve recognition for a clan, but it was not his decision to make. If Fugaku felt an action of this magnitude was necessary, then he wouldn't question it.

"I'll make sure of it Fugaku, and I'll keep an eye out for her myself; I know you aren't doing this for me, but you don't know what this means to me"

The words he told the man were completely sincere, and was surprised to see something of a smile on the man's face. He and Fugaku had never been close, in the academy or in the field; they had held each others backs when necessary as all Konoha ninja would, but that was about the extent of their interaction. The man's request had surprised him to say the least when he made his offer; to act as the sacrifice for the technique alone would have been momentous, but to sacrifice his daughter too?

He looked down at the small baby and sighed; she was only a little smaller than his daughter, Naruto's twin. Kushina had mentioned getting close with Mikoto at some of the pre-natal classes - he'd not made many of them due to his work. Kushina had gone into labour a few months before Mikoto, but something must have struck a chord because Kushina hadn't left her side all night.

The girl was so quiet, not like his kids had been at the same age (they were screaming hellions when they wanted to be). He didn't want to introduce the Jinchuriki to Konoha – he'd seen the mess that had made in villages like Kirigakure, and he had no wish to introduce it here. There was no true way to kill the nine demons, and controlling them was just as hard.

He didn't want to put a child through that; if it had been Naruto, he could say he had faith that he would control it, that he was leaving him with a power boost, but the baby in his arms was not Naruto. He barley knew Fugaku and Mikoto; how was he supposed to subject a completely unfamiliar child? It didn't sit well with him at all.

"You realise she'll probably never activate the Sharingan? The energy required fro the seal to function will be taken from that which usually controls the Sharingan. What will your clan say?" Minato informed him worry growing in his voice again.

Fugaku took on a distant look, mulling the information over; it somewhat defeated the purpose of his decision. The clan wouldn't take well to a main-line Uchiha without use of the Sharingan, but he had to do something. The clan had been in the bad books of Konoha since their ancestor had supposedly let loose the Kyuubi on the first Hokage, and if that continued... He didn't want to know road the clan would take without some sort of recognition.

"I am not worried; Itachi is already turning into a rather protective sibling, and his own expertise is phenomenal without his bloodline. He will look after her." he stated with no hint of doubt in his voice; he was at least certain of that, if nothing else.

Minato considered his words, strait-backed stance, and firm decision in his movements.

"Very well; lets get this show on the road shall we?"

Minato watched as his three year old son glared at his student, hovering in front of his twin sister and Sasuke, from his office window; Kakashi had been charged with the duty of babysitting that day, and his son didn't like the boy one bit.

His dislike for the grey-haired boy seemed to involve one of the boy's dirty books (he'd have to remind himself to berate Tsunade for that when she next paid a visit), but he had yet to find out what. Finally, Kakashi managed to convince the three year old that Ichiraku's was not poisonous and the three children accompanied the boy into the small stand eagerly. He wished he could spend more time with his own children, but it was impossible.

He had managed to finally make peace with Sunagakure, even managing to secure the proper treatment of their on Jinchuriki; he knew what the boy's father had been planning the moment he'd seen him look at his red-headed son, but his efforts had not been without sacrifices on his family time. Kushina was supportive but Naruto...

The war with Iwagakure was beginning to spike its nose again, and he'd been up to his ears in negotiations, peace talks, and death threats since the twins had turned one year old. He barley saw his family, and Naruto was not happy with him at all. Kushina had a Genin team of her own to teach now that the twins were a little older, so more often than not they were in the care of a baby sitter like Kakashi.

It didn't help that, since the sealing, he and Kushina had formed a closer bond with Mikoto Uchiha and her small family - he had taken it upon himself to make certain the former Ex-Jonin was full capable of leading the clan as her husband had before his sacrifice. With a seat as one of his advisers, alongside his old rival Orochimaru, the dissentry in the clan had calmed; he and Mikoto and Orochimaru were already endeavouring to reintegrate the Uchiha clan into the main village again. It was slow going, but it was progress.

Progress though it was, once again it put a strain on his relationship with the twins; Sakura was nowhere near as obvious with her feelings as Naruto, but every so often he caught a look from her. She was always happy to see him, but she was good at hiding her glare on the rare occasion she was awake when he left the house for work.

Naruto was not so surreptitious; it was downright obvious that he didn't appreciate being pushed to one side so often by work, and he had no qualms with openly glaring at him over the breakfast table. He was amazed that Naruto hadn't taken his frustrations out on Sasuke; she saw more of him than Naruto did after all.

A knock on the door and a reminder from Obito told him that it was time to start mission hand-outs for the day, and his attention was once again diverted from his two children towards his job.

Naruto glared at the grey haired boy who they had had been placed with for the day; he didn't like him. He didn't have an exact reason for his dislike, but the way Aunt Rin had reacted when she saw him reading that book he kept in his back pocket was enough for him. She never shouted. If Aunt Rin was shouting, then there was a very good reason for it.

Even Sasuke's uncle Obito had been wary of the book; his three year old mind concluded that if Kakashi liked the book, then he was to be avoided at all costs. Now the older boy wanted to drag Sakura and Sasuke into the weird shop that his dad dragged them too when he had five minuets to spare during his lunch hour – not that he often had a lunch hour either.

Naruto dug his heels into the ground resolutely, Sakura and Sasuke taking the hint and standing behind him; their opinions of Kakashi weren't too admirable either, but he was oldest, so he was in charge. Not because they were girls, cause Sasuke could be really mean sometimes, and Sakura had a really nasty temper, but he was older – that was how it was.

"Don't wanna!" he repeated.
"Naruto, I promise you I'm not going to be mean, I just want you guys to eat some lunch! You like Ichiraku's don't you?" the fifteen year old pleaded.
"No! Mama's ramen!"

Behind him Sakura nodded her head enthusiastically; Ichiraku's was good, but their mothers ramen was the best. She just wished she could have it more often. Their mother was around much more than their father, but it would be a close call if she had to decide who made their dinner more between Kushina and their babysitters.

"Come on, please? Your mum is in Iron Country this week! You can have three bowls, I promise!"

Naruto considered it; they were hungry, but he didn't want to give in to Kakashi so easily. He glanced over his shoulder to Sasuke and Sakura; Sakura seemed amiable to anything as long as she got fed, and Sasuke gave the boy a scrutinising gaze before giving one affirmative nod. Apparently hunger was more important than avoiding the fifteen-year old.

Kakashi was openly relieved and immediately ushered the three-year-olds into the ramen shop. Ever since Tsunade had thrown her porn book under his nose, people kept turning their nose up at him. It wasn't even that good! Really, he reads the book once and three-year-olds want to kill him? That was just sad!

For the next two years, Sasuke remained a rather quiet child - she had the glare of her dead father (she assumed 'dead' meant 'not there') and of her brother when she was mad, but she could blush like the five-year-old she was when pleased or embarrassed. She liked the colour blue, tomatoes, and would secretly admit she liked Naruto and Sakura as much as the amazing Senbei shop her grandparents ran.

Naruto's antics always entertained her, and when she was tired of his stupid boy stuff she and Sakura could go to the park with Ino and have some fun of their own whilst Naruto rolled around in the dirt with the boy the other boys. She had an amazing older brother; at five years old, Sasuke would have been hard to convince that the sun did not rise because of Itachi's say so. She point-blank adored him; well most of the time - she didn't like that thing he did with her forehead so much.

She had the best mother in the world; though she was often busy, she always had time to ease her worries or smother her in (secretly enjoyable) motherly affection. Naruto and Sakura didn't see as much of their own parents, and she knew it would be unwise to take it for granted.

Yes, for the most part she was a very happy child. The only thing in her life that unsettled her were the nervous looks from some of the villagers, and the pitying looks she got from her own family members; she didn't really understand why, but she was certain it was because she was at fault in some way.

It bothered her - she didn't understand it and no one explained - but it was not a concern of hers for the moment. She was too young to fully comprehend the glances, and too enthralled with the good side of her young life to pay it any special attention. Yes, life for Sasuke Uchiha was fairly good for a five-year old.

Things began to depreciate about two weeks before her sixth birthday; it was a usual sunny July afternoon when Sakura turned up on the doorstep without her brother. This was unusual; Naruto was usually the first to arrive and the last to leave when they met up. The next indicator that things were less than genial that day was the frown on Sakura's face.

"Where's Naruto?"

Sasuke asked the question almost immediately, pulling on her sandals so they could go play down by the lake as they usually did. Sakura waited until she had them strapped on before heading down the street on the route to the lake. Sasuke quickly caught up with her after letting her Uncle Obito know she was leaving – her family always seemed to panic unnecessarily if she disappeared without warning.

By the time she caught up Sakura was encroaching on tear-territory; she had always been one to cry easily at the smallest of things, but considering she hadn't been so close when she was at the door, Sasuke decided that her ability to hold that back was a bad sign; she was right. As soon as they were seated at the dock with a pile of stones Sakura began to leak from almost every facial orifice except her ears.

"D-Dad is sending Naruto t-to the academy!" she sniffed loudly.

Sasuke was stunned; both their families, or in the case of Sakura and Naruto mostly their caretakers, had been teaching them the very basics of kunai throwing and learning how to mix their mental and physical energies. It usually took several years to completely get the hang of, so the news was surprising. As far as she was aware, Naruto didn't have enough control over his chakra to even be considered for the academy.

"D-Dad was home last night, so he went over our t-training drills, and when he told us to try throwing o-on the run, Naruto somehow activated the H-Hiraishin..." Sakura mumbled around the choking hiccups and snorts that accompanied crying.

Sasuke patted the back of her shoulder in an attempt at comfort, but it was a somewhat distracted action; she was too surprised by the revelation that Naruto had activated his bloodline. Bloodlines usually activated during fights after graduating as a Genin. If a bloodline activated early, then it meant early admittance in order to gain the control over chakra necessary to control it.

"M-Mum and Dad are already gone so much! I don't want to be by myself!" the pink haired girl sniffed.

Sasuke shuffled closed and puled her legs back from hang over the wood of the dock and up to her chin; she knew Naruto wouldn't be happy with this at all, and she wouldn't see him until it was time for her own introduction to the academy, when Naruto would be taken into the proper classes after gaining control over his chakra, and that wouldn't be for at least another year.

Sakura had every right to be upset; unfortunately, Sasuke had no idea how she was supposed to help other than spending her time with the girl as usual, and putting as much work as they could into their training as they could in order to catch up with Naruto. That was a long term solution though, and Sasuke needed one for the short term.

"Why is your hair pink?"

The strange question was enough to stop the wet sniffles and earn the dark-haired girl a confused look; thankful that the sniffles had stopped, Sasuke explained her query.

"Your Dad's hair is yellow, and your Mum's is red; it should be one or the other, or orange"

Sakura blinked as her mind quickly processed the information; a small smile stretched across her face before it grew into a full blown grin full of laughter. The problem wasn't at all solved, but at least it was gone for the moment. Sakura picked up one of the stone and hurled it towards the centre of the lake; Sasuke quickly mimicked the action.

Besides a dislike of being beaten and the fun it supplied it was a good way to unobtrusively vent her own displeasure at the news.

"Sasuke, come on in! Naruto got back early!"

Sasuke perked up at the news and immediately stepped into the doorway, and hurriedly pulled of her shoes; it had been three months since Sakura had told her Naruto had activated his bloodline, and she'd seen him only thrice in that expanse of time. Following Sakura into the kitchen, she found herself unusually nervous.

She was even more surprised to see the bloody queen herself stirring whatever was boiling on the cooker, still in her Jonin long-sleeve with the Namikaze clan symbol stitched on the back, and the Hokage himself laughing as he scooped small white grains into bowls from the rice cooker. She quickly turned her gaze to the kitchen table.

Naruto was seated on one of the chairs, head bent over an exercise book and pencil in hand; Sasuke frowned and turned to Sakura with a look of confusion on her face. She'd though that Naruto was just going to the academy to get some help on his chakra control; why on earth did he need exercise books to learn chakra control.

Sakura whispered that she would tell her later before taking a seat of her own opposite Naruto whist Sasuke pulled up a chair beside him. He didn't look up once from the book, and continued to carefully write down the answers to question on a hand out half poking out underneath the book. Sasuke was so shocked by his change in attitude that she almost jumped out of her skin when Naruto's equally blonde father took up the seat next to her, finishing the rice portions.

"Naruto, put your homework away! This is the dinner table, not your desk!" Kushina chided, sitting down the bowls of fried chicken and vegetables; Naruto scrunched his nose at the greens, but didn't try to argue and moved the book and paper to the floor.

Sasuke felt out of place as Sakura chatted amicably with her mother, occasionally directing her talk towards her father; she was stuck between Naruto and the village leader, and the ice that hung around her was not pleasant. Every fem minuets, Naruto would send a dissatisfied glare out of the corner of his eye towards his father, who did his best to keep the atmosphere at the table genial all the same.

In an effort to clear the air, she asked Naruto why he needed to do writing when he was only working on his chakra control.

"Mizuki-sensei said I needed to start learning history, so he put me into the beginners class" Naruto replied blankly, cutting into his chicken.

Sasuke glanced towards Sakura, who bit her lip guiltily; Sasuke would chew her out for not telling her about that later. Being put into the basic history classes was a bad sign that they wouldn't catch up with Naruto before he graduated. She knew that Naruto and Sakura had a lot of expectations on them; they were the Hokage's children so it was almost predictable that people would expect a lot of things from them.

Naruto being placed in the beginner classes at the academy was a sign that people were starting to pressure them; Sakura had been complaining that their Aunt Rin had been pressing her much harder in her chakra control and targeting drills lately, starting her on actual hand-to hand combat.

Sasuke couldn't say she knew what that felt like, it was really the opposite for her – most of her clan didn't expect much from her for some reason, but she did know that Naruto would hate the predictions being cast on him. He didn't like his father very much at all, so being compared to him would be at all welcome.

A glare sent towards the man on her left from the buy as he chewed his greens confirmed her suspicions long before Sakura had a chance to later that night. He was seated on the small balcony outside his bedroom, going over a simple textbook when she finally found him; his parents made more than enough money between them to afford the two-story penthouse atop one of the pricier apartment complexes in Konoha, near the Hokage building.

Sasuke remembered when they had moved in from the small flat further into the village; his father had promised they would spend more time together but...

"What's the academy like?" she asked, crossing her legs as she sat down next to him, peering at the text in the book over his shoulder.

Naruto looked up briefly, acknowledging that he knew she was there, then back to the book with dissatisfaction clearly written on his face; he flipped a page, irritably scanning his eyes over the printed text.

"It's hard to keep up with... they don't repeat things, so you have to understand first time. They all expect me to keep up too, they want me to be a prodigy kid like dad was, but they only thing I'm any good at is the chakra control lessons."

So that was why he was so focused on the books, to keep up with the work. She hadn't thought work at the academy would be easy, but she'd have thought the teachers would be a little more lenient than what Naruto suggested. He had a tendency to overreact sometimes, but the change in attitude made her wonder if he was.

All his energy seemed to have dissipated into studying – it wasn't Naruto at all, and she didn't like it. It seemed to completely occupy his mind, something that would never have been the case if he had entered with her and Sakura. It was sucking him dry, reminding him of his father too; it was a recipe for something only a shade below disaster. She knew it.

"Naruto, can you promise me something?" she asked, feeling the need to fix things before damage could take hold.

Naruto raised his head from the exercises, an indication that she had his full attention for probably the first time that night; Sasuke didn't know how much worth it was, but if there was one thing Naruto always did it was keep his promises.

"Don't let this... You aren't your father. Don't turn into him, don't sideline us okay?"

He stared at her for a few more moments before turning back to the book.
"I promise."