Summary: What if Minato and Kushina had two children? What if one of them was Itachi's age and just as skilled? How would it affect the one born under his father's shadow and one under the Kyuubi's shadow? Read to find out.
Itachi and Kazuki tried to sense even a shred of chakra. Kazuki found it and the two silently dashed over fallen logs and thorny bushes to a cave with a huge opening filled with darkness. The two pulled out a kunai in defense and stopped moving to try to hear anything.
A laugh rang through the air, chilling the blood of the two lone Konoha Chuunin. Their sensei and female teammate were nowhere to be found. Their sensei had just disappeared while Kimiko had tried to scream.
"Who's there?" Itachi demanded.
"Oh, Itachi-kun, don't be so disrespectful to your elders," the voice returned. Kazuki saw that the sun was rising once more, its rays slowly making its way through the cave, illuminating the wounds on the Chuunin's legs. Kazuki narrowed his eyes and waited for the person to speak again. He could tell his person liked to talk.
"Kazuki-kun, I saw the stunt you pulled the other day with your brother. Don't you think there will be repercussions?" the smooth and unnerving voice asked. Kazuki's eyes widened in anger and disbelief.
"You know nothing of me. You can't talk to me like you know me," Kazuki said softly, his blood boiling despite the killer aura that the person on the cave was giving off. He hated when people tried to know his past.
The sun's rays came to reveal the outer part of the cave. The snake Sannin, Orochimaru, stood with their sensei and Kimiko hanging from the ceiling, the former having his skin peeled off and the latter naked with kunai stabbing every major blood vessel area, grinning. The two Chuunin stood in shock as Kimiko began to try to speak.
"D…"
Kazuki and Itachi listened eagerly.
"Die."
Orochimaru frowned and suddenly, her body was cut up in pieces, blood splattering in every direction. The two Chuunin flinched and in a split second, a Kiri nin came and sliced their already bloody sensei into chunks that fell from the ceiling to the floor in a sickening squelch.
Orochimaru counted down five seconds and at five, he disappeared and left a snake clone to record the rest of the battle.
When his countdown met zero, the two Chuunin let out a sickening scream. The Kiri nin seemed to blink away a genjutsu, but he was already bleeding out and letting out a scream of terror and pain as strange, glowing chains and tomoe in a background of red seized his mind and body.
Kazuki fell to his knees, his vision getting blurry. Itachi was in a similar state but instead of chains erupting from his back, he had the red eyes of the Sharingan. Suddenly, the two vomited on the ground and panted hard, their bodies nursing wounds and their minds exploding with terrible images of their dead teammate and sensei.
Itachi checked the area for anyone in the vicinity as quickly as he could before he suppressed another dry heave. Kazuki gave him a look of worry and Itachi shook his head in assurance. Itachi closed his eyes and his Sharingan faded to black as the chains protruding from Kazuki's back disappeared.
As Itachi shakily stood, he pulled up Kazuki, who was terribly pale and the two made their way back to Konoha, briefly deciding their once C-Rank mission was failed due to their client and team dying. Well, murdered.
"What was that?" Itachi asked as the gates of Konoha were nearing. The sun was getting to be high in the sky now but a chilly air was lingering.
"I remember my mother talking about it once. She said that some members of the Uzumaki clan used to have the advanced sealing ability of chakra chains. It can suppress pretty much anything," Kazuki said.
"I wonder why Orochimaru was there. Do you think he wants something from us?" Itachi muttered as Kotetsu and Izumo stared at them as they walked by; the wounds on their arms and legs and through their sleeves were extensive.
"I don't know," Kazuki shook his head as the two readjusted their arms on the other's shoulders.
The two panted and shivered as they slowly made their way to the hospital. Each step made their legs ache and their heads burn. Their vision swam more and more and their stomachs lurched uncomfortably as they felt their bodies being lifted and the ground disappeared from the bottom of their feet.
"You two aren't looking so good," a strangely cheery voice nagged.
"Kakashi-senpai…" the two said, out of breath. "You don't need to…"
"Yes I do," Kakashi asked as he carried the two Chuunin by the backs of their collars. Kazuki remained silent even after he lay in a hospital bed, reading a book next to Itachi, who lay in another bed, reading as well.
An ANBU stood guard at their door mainly out of public show: the Uchiha requested it for Itachi and the Hokage requested it for Kazuki.
Two voices demanded they see the two Chuunin in the room. The ANBU acted as if they were not there and continued to stand there to prevent them from entering. The two children eventually turned to violence to try to enter. Before they knew it, the ANBU had them hanging by their feet and he tossed them onto the ground, the Uchiha landing somewhat smoothly.
"Nii-san! Let him let us in!" Sasuke whined.
Itachi didn't flare his chakra that would otherwise alert the ANBU to let the two children in. He could see that Kazuki had no intention of seeing his brother after saying something so terrible. Itachi knew that it was for the sake of protecting Naruto and Itachi knew that he'd say the same if Sasuke's life depended on it.
The children were stubborn. They seemed to have given up and their lively chakra signatures faded away, leaving only the nagging sensation in the back of the Chuunin's heads of the ANBU's chakra. As Itachi put his book down, having finished it, he saw Sasuke's cute face in the window and then being pushed out of the way momentarily by a similarly cute face with blonde hair framing it and huge blue eyes.
"There he is! Sasuke, look!" Naruto pointed at Kazuki. He turned around to get Sasuke's attention, only to be pulled down with Sasuke's hand holding on for dear life onto Naruto's ankle. Naruto now desperately clung to the ledge of the second floor hospital. The two gasped in surprise and fear.
"Nii-san!" Sasuke yelped, his pinky finger losing its grip on Naruto's ankle and Naruto was gritting his teeth to keep them from falling. Itachi didn't come, even as Naruto's fingers slipped off soon after Sasuke's cry for help.
Kazuki burst through the doors in a sudden motion. He saw his brother's small fingers slip off of the ledge and the look of terror he never wanted to see on such an innocent face. Sasuke had a similar look, his black eyes widened. He channeled chakra to his feet and raced over to catch them.
He twisted and slid painfully over rocks on his back with the two children roughly caught in his arms. He tried to ignore the pain in his back from the rocks that had embedded themselves in his skin causing blood to seep out.
"Are you two alright?" Kazuki asked. Sasuke meekly nodded while Naruto quickly got off him and kicked his arm, hard. Kazuki decided to not show he was in pain, which only served to make Naruto angrier.
"Naruto, he's the Yondaime's son! You can't do that!" Sasuke jumped up and held Naruto back easily; he'd been taught taijutsu fundamentals, or at least applied what he saw from other Uchiha clansmen.
"Oh yeah?! Then watch me!" Naruto screamed, trying to attack Kazuki again, who now stood behind Naruto suddenly and was easily holding back the four-year old. Naruto's eyes widened and Sasuke watched with mild awe. The Yondaime's son is almost as amazing as Nii-san!
Naruto squirmed in Kazuki's grip, which only tightened the more he tried to escape. Naruto threw Kazuki a hate-filled glare. Kazuki sighed and felt a little bit of his heart break. But he knew it was for the best, even if telling the child that he'd killed his brother was a lie.
Technically, Kazuki did kill Naruto's brother. Kazuki had to sacrifice a part of his love for his brother to be able to say such things to protect him. Kazuki gave Naruto a level stare with forced disgust the way the villagers looked at him. Kazuki was doing his best to keep this face up to distance himself from Naruto, to keep him away from his father's fatal shadow.
It didn't last for long. Kazuki closed his eyes and opened them to reveal pained ones, ones that had so much pain in them Naruto was surprised to see something like that and blinked. Kazuki's face turned hateful once more, turning back as quickly as it had come. Naruto knew that was typical of villagers; they would be hateful and then seem to grieve or something and then remember how much they hated him. But never told him why.
"I hate you," Naruto spat, glaring daggers at Kazuki, who continued with his faux-hateful stare.
Kazuki let Naruto go and the two ran off in the village, the sun's setting rays casting an almost orange hue on Naruto's blonde hair. Kazuki turned his head and walked back into the hospital to see that the nurses twisted a piece of hair in their fingers, slyly asking if he needed help with those wounds on his back.
Internally, Kazuki cringed. It was one of those women. By one of those, he meant that it were women who seemed to find the Yondaime's, who was equally attractive, son striking. Of course, many knew he was one of Konoha's finest shinobi. Many in the village said that he was on par with the prodigy Uchiha Itachi's skills, and they'd be more or less right. Itachi held a doujutsu while Kazuki held a sealing kekkei genkai.
The nurse asked if he needed help, to which he said yes. She walked him back to his room and Itachi raised a brow as Kazuki took off his hospital shirt and the nurse carefully disinfected his wounds and wrapped bandages around his chest. Itachi watched carefully out of the corner of his eye mainly to poke fun at Kazuki later as the nurse seemed to run her fingers along his toned chest.
Once the nurse was done, she said that they'd both be released later tomorrow and handed Kazuki a clean shirt, which he gladly slipped on. With a parting wink, the nurse left and quietly closed the door. Kazuki leaned back into his pillows and Itachi began to laugh.
"What're you laughing at?" Kazuki demanded.
"The way that nurse looked at you!" Itachi laughed, trying his hardest to sober up.
"Shut it, Uchiha," Kazuki grumbled.
"Sorry. It's just amusing the way we get treated the same and even though I understand why you wouldn't want me to laugh, I can't help it. I think I may have a sadistic streak," Itachi hummed.
"You think? I know you do," Kazuki gave Itachi a mock glare but couldn't hold it for long, giving way to a grin. Itachi smiled back. The two ended up laughing together, their problems and worries somehow lessened for a moment.
Kazuki stuffed his hands in his pockets and sighed. That really hadn't gone over well, the other day. Perhaps in a different life, he could've saved his parents and then his family wouldn't be so…unfamiliar. Kazuki thought over another word for it. Maybe dissolved. Or lifeless. Or, nonexistent. Ah, yes, that's the word.
Kazuki walked into the park and took out a book to read. He was halfway into it, he sensed another chakra signature approaching. Kazuki looked at the page number and closed the book and waited for the person to sit next to him to talk.
"He was in quite an angry mood today. I wonder why," Kakashi mused.
Kazuki was at a loss for words. He hated having to turn a blind eye to his suffering younger brother, the one he'd sworn to protect to his parents before they bled to death. Kazuki sucked in air and shook his head, not wanting to answer.
"Us ninjas have our secrets, but we'll bleed more if we don't let it bled out," Kakashi warned. "You know where I am most of the time. If you need to talk to a fellow war veteran and friend, I'm here," Kakashi sensed Kazuki didn't want to talk about it. That just served to make the Copy Ninja more curious, but he knew he'd get nothing from Minato's son. Kakashi walked off as quickly as he'd come, to be replaced by another ninja.
"Kazuki, we need to talk. I have something I need to tell you," Itachi said softly, not sitting on the bench. Kazuki lifted his head and stood, knowing Itachi wouldn't be so upfront unless something was truly wrong. Kazuki nodded and followed the Uchiha to a secluded place.
Kazuki sat down on the cliff above the stone Hokage faces, glacing at his father's serious face. Itachi took a deep breath and Kazuki internally cringed. What was so wrong?
"My clan…is planning a coup against Konoha. They're probably going to need three years or so until they work out any problems or mishaps, but this is already bad. There are already rumors of the Kyuubi incident being our fault, so I don't want to imagine what would be next. Kazuki, I didn't want to bring you into this, but I felt like I needed to tell someone," Itachi sighed. "I'm sorry."
"Itachi, this does involve me. For one thing, you're my best friend. Second, Naruto is the jinchuuriki. He might be used or blamed or manipulated by a number of people. I can't allow that to happen," Kazuki assured. Itachi closed his eyes and a mirthless smile appeared.
"If something truly horrible were to happen, I'd want you to be by my side. Is that selfish?" Itachi hummed.
"No, it's not. As a fellow Konoha shinobi, a comrade, and a bet friend, I'd lay down my life and sacrifice anything. I'm sure you'd to the same," Kazuki replied.
Itachi nodded, feeling more at ease. Kazuki gave him a meaningful look and Itachi nodded. Don't worry.