Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto
A/N: Here we go Chapter 1. Since the Prologue didn't really offer much I started work on this chapter immediately after I finished the prologue.The italicized beginning is just a brief scene of what happens after the events in the prologue
"normal" spoken
'italics' thoughts
Chapter 1 Eight Years
It's late at night when a Leaf shinobi burst into the Hokage tower.
"Lord Hokage" said ninja blurts out.
"What is it?"" replied the tired old man known as the 3rd Hokage.
" There were reports of a fight at the Uchiha compound so we sent anbu to investigate. It's terrible, the Uchiha clan...all of them...they're dead." The only ones unaccounted for are Itachi and his younger brother Sasuke. We have yet to find them in the pile of bodies", but we suspect Itachi to be behind the murder of everyone""
Now fully awake the Hokage instructs everyone in the room to organize a search party to find the Uchiha brothers
short time skip
"So no one was able to find either of them?"" Asked the Third.
Responding to his question one of the present anbu tells him, "No sir", but we have found substantial evidence to suggest Itachi is the culprit. This also supports the theory that he was behind the death of Shishui Uchiha". I should also mention that Jounin Kakashi Hatake was with Sasuke Uchiha, and he wasn't sent home until after the time the murders would have occurred. We now presume Sasuke to be either kidnaped by his brother or more likely...dead"
"Very well, too much time has passed at this point. Call off the search, I will announce to the village the travesty that has occurred and will report the death of Sasuke Uchiha"
8 years have passed since the day the Uchiha clan was massacred. Which means 8 years of solitude and 8 years of intense training for one Sasuke Uchiha. 8 years with Orichimaru has made the raven haired teen an elite shinobi.
During his time away his appearance has changed quite a bit, now almost six feet tall, with a mature face and defined muscles. In fact, with the exception of his onyx eyes few probably would be able make the connection between this young man and the child that left Konoha all those years ago.
Those are just the physical changes, on the inside he no longer possesses the innocence of a small child. Seeing his brother kill his entire clan, leaving the only place he had ever called home and spending nearly all of his time with one such as Orichimaru had left it's mark. Sasuke was now cold and seemingly impassive in nearly all situations.
Now outside taking a short break after working on a new technique he has just developed,Sasuke is left to his own thoughts. 'How much longer am I going to have to wait. When will I be able to confront Itachi!'This thought process continues only for a few minutes longer because he starts to hear someone calling his name.
"Sasuke-kun, Orichimaru-sama requests your presence in the main hall" a silver haired man known as Kabuto called out to Sasuke.
Not at all happy about being interrupted from his thoughts and angry Uchiha replies,"Kabuto what does the snake want now"?
With a slight frown the silver haired man tells Sasuke to be more respectful of Orichimaru, and that he'll have to go and find out for himself.
With an inaudible grunt an annoyed Sasuke proceeds to find out what the Snake sannin wants.
"You wanted to see me?" Sasuke spits out, voice filled with contempt.
"Yes. Sasuke-kun I have a new mission for you."
Now sighing Sasuke reluctantly asks what Orichimaru wants him to do.
"You are to go to the Land of Waves. There a bridge builder named Tazuna who is being targeted by a petty crime lord known as Gato. You are to protect Tazuna by joining up with a group of Leaf ninja that will be escorting him."
At that last comment Sasuke's eyebrow shoots up and realizing the curiosity of the teen before him Orichimaru continues with the details of the mission.
"Don't worry about them recognizing you, the Hokage announced your death shortly after you left, and I doubt anyone will be able to recognize the new you."
Seeming satisfied with that explanation the young Uchiha's face returns to one of indifference. He continues to listen as Orichimaru explains the rest of the mission. He tells him that he will take on the identity of a Sound village genin, and his primary objective is the assassination of Zabuza Momichi and confiscate the Kubikiri Hocho (Zabuza's sword). His secondary objective is to gain the trust of the Konoha escort so that it may later be used against them.
Now, turning to leave he is stopped once again by Orichimaru's voice. "Oh and Sasuke, you are not to show your true abilities to the Konoha ninja". With a final nod Sasuke leaves to prepare himself for his new mission.
'Why is he sending me to do this worthless mission. He's supposed to be helping me kill Itachi, not send me out as his errand boy, and on top of all that I'm supposed to protect those leaf ninja.' sigh "I might as well get this over with.", and thus begins his mission to land of waves.
"Kakashi-sensei! Kakashi-sensei can you hear me!?" a blonde teen, wearing only orange, yells repeatedly to their sensei.
"Naruto, how can he not hear you! We're almost to the Land of Waves and most of the leaf village can probably still hear you!" screamed an angry and almost deaf pink haired kunoichi at the loud blonde next to her.
Now cowering in fear from his teammate he quickly apologizes, "heh...sorry Sakura-chan. I just wanted to know are we were there yet". At this Sakura, their silver haired sensei, who has kept his nose buried into a certain orange book the entire trip, and the elder man they were escorting all sweat dropped.
The fourth and final member of the team, Hinata Hyuga, was silently worrying for the Naruto's well-being. Hinata was the shortest of the small group, she had lavender hair and solid white eyes. She was also the only member of the group who tried to comfort the obnoxiously loud blonde. "N..Naruto-kun d..don't w..worry we will be there s..soon".
No longer cowering Naruto starts yelling again, "Yea you're right Hina-chan.", and having the attention span of a two year old Naruto changes the subject to something much more dear to him, "Hey I wonder what kind of ramen they have in the land of waves".
At that their teacher and squad leader finally spoke up, "Naruto do you ever think about anything other than ramen?"
"No, not really why? Should I?
Sighing in defeat their sensei responds, "No Naruto, nothing at all".
The loud group continues on oblivious to the pair of eyes that is watching them.
Love it, like it, hate it?
A/N: Ha, cliffy...well not really. Anyways I liked the bullet points I used for the prologue, so I'll be sticking with those for a while
- I am beginning to grow a new appreciation for people who are able to write chapters with 2 or more thousand words in them. I will still try and make future chapters longer though.
- How obvious was it that Hinata would take Sasuke's place on team 7? Honestly it was between her and Shikamaru, but I decided the Hyuga heir so that Naruto has at least one person nice to him on the team. Neji was also under consideration, but I figured I had screwed with the ages of everyone enough already.
- I hope everyone was a little more in character this time around.
- Should I cut back on the dialogue a little and add more character detail
- I'm not sure when the next chapter will be yet. I will probably start on it tomorrow, but I'm not sure when I will post it. I would like to get on a set schedule for updates. So if if I wait a few days to post Chapter 2 it will give me some time to get ahead in the story so I will never feel rushed to get a new chapter out. Let me know what you think
- Questions, comments, concerns, I accept all feedback