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.
"Yes?" Kazuki asked from his room. He put down his calligraphy brush and looked up as Deidara entered. Kazuki didn't stiffen or narrow his eyes or reach for a kunai as Deidara had expected. Kazuki simply sighed and looked expectantly at the man.
"Why did you join the Akatsuki? You could've stayed loyal to your village. I doubt Itachi leaving was the real reason to push you to leave the precious village your father sacrificed everything to protect," Deidara smirked at the last part.
Kazuki saw the room now in various shades of red. This man…what did he want? Why was he immediately turning to the soft spots of his dead father? Why was he asking? What would he gain?
Kazuki calmed himself down, not wanting to give Deidara satisfaction that he'd gotten him angry. He took a deep breath and gave Deidara an apathetic look and relaxed more as he leaned on the kotatsu. As he pulled a bowl of oranges towards him, he gave it thought.
I joined because I would give my brother a purpose and I wasn't going to let Itachi suffer more by being alone. We're orphans and to protect Konoha, we've thrown away our chances at normal happiness in exchange for glimmers of joy we might get from exchanging blows with the brothers that want to see us dead. Also, the guilt of letting Naruto be alone like that was too much; I want to die by his hands because I wasn't proactive enough to stop his suffering. I suppose that I am selfish enough to want to be in his life after all this and if I couldn't be the brother he wanted, I could be the person he hated. On a side note I suppose that I wanted to defy the Hokage's orders after all by making him incorporate me in his life.
And, his goal is to kill me and if that is his only wish, then I'd be more than happy to grant it. Tou-san and Kaa-san won't be happy, but I've kept Naruto away from Tou-san's image so that people seeking revenge on Tou-san wouldn't hurt him. One son is enough.
I also didn't want Itachi to be alone in this. We'd made a promise to have each other's back and I'd said that I'd sacrifice anything for him. That is a factor of why I'm here, but the real reason was to give Naruto a purpose and to see him, even as an enemy.
"I have no intention of telling you," Kazuki said, peeling an orange and slipping a slice into his mouth. Deidara stiffened and his face turned angry out of the corner of Kazuki's eye. Chains suddenly wrapped around the man and Deidara couldn't move and his mind flooded with pain as Kazuki's fire natured chakra ran through his veins and burned everything they touched. His lungs burned with what would be asphyxiation if Kazuki continued. Deidara eventually collapsed on the floor and Kazuki paid his motionless body no attention.
"Kazuki, dinner is…" Itachi stopped as he saw Deidara collapsed on the floor and Kazuki calmly practicing kanji on a sheet of paper. Itachi didn't ask; he could make out the basic situation: Deidra had asked something stupid and Kazuki shut him up.
"Yeah, thanks," Kazuki stood up and dragged Deidara out of his room. He put the man against the wall and closed the door, a seal activating on the doorknob for a moment, lighting up red and then fading as if it was disappearing.
Kazuki followed Itachi to the dining hall, where Pein had made it mandatory for all members to eat together. Hidan complained outright, saying he didn't like eating with scum like Kazuki or Itachi.
"Where is Deidara?" Konan asked.
Kazuki shrugged and served himself rice and cracked an egg over it and mixed it until everything was well incorporated. Itachi and Kazuki finished last, not feeling all that hungry. Once everyone was done, they washed the bowls and chopsticks and put them away.
"Pein wants to speak with you," Konan walked up to them a few minutes later. The two seventeen year olds nodded politely and dried off their hands. Exchanging confused looks, the two followed Konan to speak with Pein. Konan opened the door and the three walked into the dark room, barely lit with candles.
"You wanted to speak with us?" Itachi asked.
"Our information on jinchuuriki is limited, so I want you two to go to Konoha as a team from Tomogakure in the Chuunin Exams three months from now," Pein said his purple eyes staring down at the two Akatsuki members as they knelt respectively.
"Hai," the two said.
"Dismissed."
Kakashi had been asleep for two days now. Naruto seemed worried even though Sakura hit him, saying that Kakashi was a Jounin and therefore wouldn't be killed so easily and would wake up without a doubt. A few minutes later, that exact thing happened.
Kakashi was slightly confused but regained his bearings after Naruto filled him in on what had happened in the last few days. Kakashi nodded wearily and pulled on his Jounin vest and after he ate some kind of bland rice porridge, he took out his Genin to train them.
To walk up trees.
In hindsight, Kakashi had no idea why he was making them go up trees, but it seemed like the only thing he could make them do with a crutch and a tempting book to read and two male Genin who simply wanted to kill their brothers. The girl easily walked up the tree, so Kakashi sent her off to protect the bridge and such.
By noon, Sasuke and Naruto had barely make any progress getting up the tree, but Kakashi simply pinned that up to them having oceans of chakra locked in them. He stood and decided to treat them to lunch, seeing how tired they already were. The two nodded wearily but Naruto immediately perked up as if he hadn't wasted half his chakra making notches on a tree when Kakashi mentioned ramen.
Naruto greedily gobbled down the noodles, quietly complaining that it wasn't as good as Ichiraku Ramen. Kakashi agreed with him on a different matter: Ichiraku was cheaper than this. He understood inflation percentages were ridiculously high because the country was dirt poor, but he didn't expect the prices to be that high.
As a result, he limited Naruto to only one bowl. Naruto glared in irritation but was glad to eat Sasuke's bowl, which Sasuke barely touched. When Kakashi left the money, he paid only the exact amount accounting for every drop of broth.
The chef glared at Kakashi for not tipping, but it wasn't like Kakashi was about to anyway.
So then Kakashi subjected the two Genin to walking up the tree for the rest of the night, telling them to try to get back by 10pm.
Sasuke and Naruto shook their heads and by around midnight, they'd gotten to the top. Easily jumping down from branch to branch, they allowed a light laugh to relieve the stress and initial frustration at not being able to get it the first time around.
Sasuke suddenly stiffened and brought out a kunai. He sensed a presence here, and he didn't like it. He turned around and around, trying to pinpoint where the person was. He could feel their cold eyes on him and he hated being stared at like a bug.
Naruto gave Sasuke an odd look and said that he didn't sense anything.
"Maybe you're hungry. You didn't finish your ramen," Naruto supplied.
"Shut up," Sasuke ground out, concentrating. His eyes widened in sudden recognition of where the person was. He let his kunai fly and all he heard was the hollow sound of a tree being thwacked by the kunai.
"Oh, you've got skills, Konoha shinobi," a female voice laughed lightly. A girl with black hair and black eyes and a white kimono intricately designed with crested ibises and sparkling blue thread carefully and thinly woven in stepped into the moonlight. She looked around their age but Sasuke wasn't so sure. And something about her screamed something wrong.
"Who are you? Why are you here?" Sasuke demanded, grabbing another kunai.
"How much?" Zabuza glanced at the strange ninja, who refused to take off his hat to reveal his face; it cast a shadow. Zabuza was still recovering from his fight with Kakashi. Despite his wounds, he sat up in his bed to show that he still had strength to kill whoever this ninja was. Probably some failed nuke-nin.
"Let me explain first. You are an expensive fighter and Gato sees you as too costly to pay in comparison with other fighters, and therefore expendable. When you fight the Konoha team again, cheaper fighters will be laying in the shadows, waiting for you to be killed by Kakashi-senpai. Either that, or Kakashi-senpai dies and the Genin kill you. In any case, you'll be killed. In order to prevent certain events, I will pay you 9,000,000 ryo to make a believable fight in exchange for not killing any of the Konoha team's members. I'll kill the other fighters when they gather at the end of the fight," he explained.
"Certain events? Like those Genin could kill me," Zabuza scoffed. "Who are you anyway and why would you refer to that Copy Ninja as 'senpai'?" Zabuza stopped and took a good look at the ninja. He frowned, unable to see his face. A light scowl appeared on the Demon of the Mist's face and he demanded to see his face.
"You've figured it out? I need to work on my honorifics if it's that easy," a light chuckle came. "Is it a deal or not?"
"Answer my questions first," Zabuza glared, realizing whom it was. He didn't like it. Not at all.
"You want information about the Genin? I'm afraid all I'll give are names," he replied. "Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Haruno Sakura. You needn't worry about the girl for now. The two males however, they're…different."
"So there's a useless girl, Kakashi with his Sharingan, the brother of that Uchiha who killed his clan, and some brat. I don't see what's so dangerous about the other brat. He has some affinity for special jutsu or something?" Zabuza asked in a tone of disinterest.
"I suppose in the worst case scenario you'll find out," the strange ninja shifted slightly.
"Look, I've got no choice. If you're that Yondaime Hokage's son wanting me to protect that team, I've got to do it. You'll probably just kill me if I don't. And, this amount of money is a rather large sum, so I'll do a good job. Why don't you do it if you care so much about that team? You're probably more capable to kill them all than me," Zabuza argued. "But, it's a deal."
"Why don't I do it, you ask? Well, mention my full name to the blonde Genin and see the results. It's rather interesting," Kazuki replied, his voice twinged with a bit of sorrow at the end. Zabuza, like most seasoned shinobi, knew not to ask about a shinobi's past; it was often bloody. And, he already knew about Kazuki's famous hand in the Uchiha Massacre.
Zabuza nodded as Kazuki handed him the money and turned to leave. His footsteps went for a few paces before his form disappeared without even a puff of smoke. Zabuza clicked his tongue in annoyance; those Konoha shinobi loved to show off. Even if Kazuki wasn't showing off, it just showed that Kazuki was strong enough to kill him if he pleased. After all, that accursed blood of Namikaze Minato ran through his veins, the one who had defeated a thousand man army in the Third Shinobi World War. And it wasn't like Kazuki and Itachi hadn't been notable either. Now even more so, people feared the names Namikaze Kazuki and Uchiha Itachi.
Zabuza pocketed the money and went back to sleep. That annoying Namikaze had interrupted him.
Kazuki sat on the bridge's edge, looking at the fights with disinterest. It seemed like Reiko had done her job to tell Sasuke and Naruto to not intentionally kill either Haku or Zabuza. Then, inevitably, Kakashi and Sakura would be told and from today's 'fight', it was obvious to the two Akatsuki members that they knew everyone knew.
Sasuke's aura changed suddenly as more senbon stabbed his body from inside the ice mirror prison. His movements began to be more precise even after being stabbed by numerous senbon. The ice user seemed to sense this and his attacks began to be more and more lethal seeming. Itachi was prepared to step in, but Kazuki held him back. Itachi shot him a worried glance and Kazuki simply shook his head.
Many more attacks came and Sasuke fell to the floor. The ice user showed no remorse behind that mask. Something in the air snapped and Naruto was suddenly surrounded by waves of ominous red chakra.
The Jounin a good forty feet away and they seemed to stiffen. Zabuza cursed loudly and Kakashi pulled out a scroll, bit his thumb, and streaked his blood across it.
"Zabuza, how about we finish this?" Kakashi said as the two engaged in a much more realistic battle.
"I think this is what that Namikaze was talking about," Zabuza muttered. Kakashi and Naruto, thanks to enhanced hearing due to the Kyuubi's chakra surging through him, heard him. This stopped Naruto's punch from making contact with Haku. Naruto turned and raced towards Zabuza with the intent to kill.
"Where is he?!" Naruto growled, his eyes burning red and his claws sharp and ready to rip the Kiri nin to shreds. When Zabuza didn't respond, more chakra flooded Naruto's system until the excess chakra was forced out and took the form of a fox with one tail. Kazuki pushed himself off the railing and when Itachi glanced at where the air was dispersed from Kazuki's extremely fast movement, he was already simultaneously wrapping Naruto in chakra chains and putting him under a genjutsu so he wouldn't see that Kazuki was here.
When Naruto fell to the ground, the ominous red chakra pushed and sealed back into his body, the two Jounin took a curious look at the cloaked figure. Zabuza let out a low chuckle.
"Thank you, Zabuza-san. You and Haku-san are free to go," Kazuki said simply and disappeared into the shadows to return next to Itachi. Itachi looked at his friend and saw his hands shook. Itachi turned away and looked on at the pile of bodies that Kazuki had killed during the fight.
Zabuza flicked his wrist and Haku appeared by his side. Zabuza nodded at Kakashi, who knelt, tired, and picked up the jinchuuriki.
"Wait, Zabuza," Kakashi called out. "Why did you refer to a nuke-nin earlier? Was he the one who paid you off from Gato and had you fake our fight?"
"I think you should ask him yourself," Zabuza gestured to where Kazuki and Itachi were sitting. Kakashi turned his head and saw nothing there. He turned to the Kiri nin and sighed. Did Kazuki do this? Does he want to keep Naruto alive to use the Kyuubi somehow?
Kakashi looked at the unconscious Genin. Sakura was crying on Sasuke's limp body, much to the male's displeasure. He shoved the girl off to her shock and glared. He looked at Naruto and shock was clear on his face. Kakashi could see the question on his lips and answered it.
"He's not dead," Kakashi said.
Sasuke relaxed a bit and swayed to his feet. He let out a shaky breath as Kakashi undid the genjutsu plaguing Naruto's mind. Naruto's eyes opened and he pushed Kakashi away, trying to regain his bearings. He looked at Tazuna to Sakura and then to Sasuke. His eyes lingered in Sasuke's face for a moment more before Team 7 declared the mission completed and headed back to Konoha.
Naruto walked along, pondering what had happened. One moment Zabuza was saying…something and then he found himself in a world with dead bodies littering the streets, their blood staining his clothes and skin. He began to scream incoherent ramblings and a person approached him from behind. A cold hand touched his shoulder and as he looked behind him, Kakashi's chakra pulled him out of the genjutsu. Then, he was with his teammates going back to Konoha.