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.
Tomorrow is the last day to get to the tower. We don't need all your scrolls or power. I'm grateful for your help, but we're going our separate ways. Don't follow, or I'll change my mind to not kill you.
Sasuke's words echoed in Itachi's mind. Itachi shifted slightly from his current place of sitting and looked about the room for the umpteenth time. Apart from the Suna team, they were the only other team to have finished before the time limit of five days.
Two days had passed and Itachi still didn't like those words. He wanted nothing but to stay by Sasuke's side and keep him safe, but he knew that if he did that, it may cause more harm than good. Plus, Sasuke was a ninja and if Itachi wanted Sasuke to keep hating him and by extension away from the truth, he'd have to let Sasuke fly on his own.
When Team 7 had finally walked through the door, the disguised Chuunin relaxed a little more. The teams assembled in ranks and listened to Hiruzen explain the true meaning of the Chuunin Exams. Kazuki and Itachi had gotten a similar speech when they'd taken the Exams in a rather hostile place: Iwa. Kazuki and Itachi had been targets of kidnappers, although Iwa was still recovering from Minato's famous battle of 1 vs. 1,000 and their bruised ego and pride.
Then it was decided that preliminaries would be held, even though one of the Konoha teams dropped out suddenly. All there was left was Team Kakashi, Gai, Asuma, Kurenai, and the Tomogakure, Sunagakure, and Otogakure teams. The one thing that caught the two Chuunin off guard was that instead of two people fighting, it would be done in threes. There would be seven winners, making for three one-on-one matches and then an extra person to battle a random pair.
Round 1: Itachi (or Aki on the screen) vs. Rei vs. Dosu.
Itachi jumped down and kept his face calm as Dosu smirked at the two Tomogakure nin. Rei shot Itachi a concerned look, one Itachi didn't bother to soothe. He was going to the Finals.
"Start!"
Itachi knew he couldn't use his Sharingan otherwise not only would his cover be blown but Sasuke and Naruto would go after him and possibly Kazuki if they thought ahead that far.
Rei was weaving seals for a simple water style jutsu and Dosu was simply watching her, not attacking yet. Itachi narrowed his eyes. Most Genin wouldn't wait to assess the situation; they'd attack. He shook this thought off and focused on attacking Dosu after Rei's water jutsu hit Dosu. Dosu quickly sidestepped and jumped into the air with a kunai in his hand, racing towards Rei.
After a moment's hesitation, she pulled out a kunai as well and blocked. Dosu's sleeve lifted as he came down. Rei let out a small cry as her arms had to bear the momentary amount of all his weight and added momentum. Suddenly, a terribly loud sound came from Dosu's arm. Rei fell to her knees, holding her ears and gritting her teeth in pain. After a minute, she lost consciousness.
Itachi felt his heartbeat increase and his ears ring painfully. His vision blurred slightly and he saw Dosu coming at him. He quickly weaved multiple signs. Flames rushed at Dosu, which he twisted away from. After seeing Itachi weave so, so many signs, Dosu found himself surrounded by fire. He unleashed another wave of vertigo-inducing sound waves and saw Itachi fall to the ground, unconscious.
"Hah!" Dosu sneered and kicked Itachi's side. Itachi's body didn't move. It blurred into many crows and Dosu looked around in shock and anger. He pulled back his sleeve and released another wave of sound waves. His ears began to ring painfully and he vomited on the floor.
"W-what?" Dosu glared. The scene shifted and Itachi was standing behind him with a kunai at his neck. His ears didn't stop screaming out in pain, though.
"Genjutsu," Itachi stated and thrust the kunai into Dosu's arms, causing the metal to break as Itachi channeled chakra through the kunai. Dosu screamed out and fell to his knees, barely conscious.
"How?" Dosu asked simply.
Itachi didn't respond. Hayate declared Itachi, or Aki, the winner. Itachi jumped back up to the second floor to see Kazuki giving him a smile. Itachi panted slightly and their Jounin sensei offered water. Itachi took it gratefully and drank half of it as Rei was carried away on a stretcher.
Round 2: Kazuki (or Haru) vs. Choji vs. Tenten.
The three opponents jumped down to the arena floor. Kazuki allowed a carefree smile out and jumped into action the moment 'Start!' was uttered. Choji spin into action with his body growing into a huge ball that raced towards the other two ninja indiscriminately.
Tenten dodged and pulled out a scroll and weapons flew out, raining down onto Choji. When he rolled over some of the weapons, his form dispersed, leaving his original body. He saw how kunai and shuriken had embedded themselves into his body. Tears pricked at his eyes and he suppressed a wail. His mind flooded with pain and he could only watch as the two stronger ninja battled.
Ten minutes later, Tenten's scrolls were completely empty and devoid of any seals to unseal and release more ninja tools. She panted hard and threw herself at Kazuki, who kept his taijutsu level moderate. She began to get infuriated.
"Stop playing with me and fight for real!" Tenten screamed, pulling out her last explosive kunai and throwing it at Kazuki. He moved his head an inch and let it hit Choji, who screamed in terror and pain. For a moment, Tenten's attention was diverted to the bleeding and bleating Akimichi.
In this instant, he got behind the kunoichi and had a kunai at her neck.
"I'm afraid if I did Konoha would be rather…distressed," Kazuki said, thoughtfully. "Now, surrender or I'll slit your throat," Kazuki whispered, his kunai pressed harshly against her throat. Glaring at him out of the corner of her eye, she forfeited.
The second bout was over, leaving Kazuki (Haru) as the winner.
Round 3: Gaara vs. Kankuro vs. Temari.
Gaara glanced at his siblings and gave them a bloodthirsty smile. The three Suna nin jumped down to Hayate and before the Konoha nin could say 'Start!', the Suna nin immediately forfeited. Gaara glared harshly at them with as much hatred as he could muster. They flinched and jumped back up to the safety of their sensei.
Round 4: Sasuke vs. Shino vs. Zaku
Sasuke smirked widely as the bug user and Oto nin. Shino frowned as he saw the character 死, death, on his shirt. Shino decided that he wasn't about to die. He was going to win. He glanced at the confident look on Sasuke's face and silently admonished that. That Uchiha was too arrogant because of that Sharingan he has.
"Start!"
Despite Shino's initial thoughts of the Uchiha, he didn't rush in. He seemed to want to know how Zaku's attacks worked. Shino waited as well for Zaku to make the first move. Zaku finally did, rushing at the two Konoha nin and air rushed out making a high pitched sound. Shino covered his ears and dropped to his knees. By doing so, he covered up the movement of his bugs going towards both opponents.
However, Sasuke had activated his Sharingan and saw the bugs going towards him. He didn't want to alert Shino to this, so he acted as if he hadn't seen the bugs and rushed towards Zaku to lure the bugs to him. Zaku turned and saw fire coming towards him at point-blank range. He lifted his arms to blast the Uchiha with air and pain-inducing sound, but he found that he couldn't. He applied more chakra to get them to work, but instead, he found himself screaming as his arms bled out of large holes that air had been forced to come out of.
Shino's bugs had infiltrated his arms and now, pain was coming from his destroyed arms and his burned body. His clothes were on fire and all he could do was scream. Sasuke turned to Shino and grinned. At exceedingly fast speeds, the Uchiha forced the Aburame into a taijutsu fight, one he was destined to lose.
With both of his opponents down, Hayate declared Sasuke to be the winner. Sasuke's face suddenly contorted into pain and Kakashi's eye widened at this. He appeared beside Sasuke and whisked him away
Round 5: Naruto vs. Kin vs. Kiba
Naruto was shocked at how cruel Sasuke was. He shook his head, knowing that he had to be just as cruel if he wanted to destroy Kazuki. He jumped down and looked at his two opponents. The girl had long black hair and a confident air. Kiba was the same. Naruto narrowed his eyes and decided he could take advantage of their arrogant attitudes.
"Start!"
Kiba and Kin sprung into action, going for Naruto. Naruto flinched at first, but then brought out a kunai to block their attacks. Kiba's dog began to attack Kin and after eating a food pill Kiba tossed, Akamaru grew bigger and reddish. Kin gasped and was barely managing to fend off the dog with her preferred ninja tool: senbon.
Meanwhile, Kiba and Naruto were fighting a ninjutsu battle. Well, Naruto was using ninjutsu while Kiba was sticking to taijutsu. Naruto saw that the Inuzuka was excellent at taijutsu, but since he wasn't using any ninjutsu, it raised a few questions. Was he not good at it? Did he need Akamaru? Was he low on chakra still from the Forest of Death and couldn't use ninjutsu since maybe all the jutsu he knew required a lot of chakra?
Naruto gritted his teeth and forced these questions to be second priority. The priority now was to beat Kiba. Suddenly, Kiba's foot connected with Naruto's face and he went flying into the wall. Cracks ran into the concrete from around the blonde. Kiba smirked and began to berate him.
"What's wrong? The village pariah angry? 'Cause you're an orphan and you'll never be as good as Yondaime-sama or Kazuki-sama is? That's just too bad. Don't be so sad, I'll kill you right here and now!" Kiba laughed and twirled a kunai around his finger.
Suddenly, the room was filled with waves of ominous chakra. Naruto's features warped into furious ones with his whisker marks darkened and his eyes turned a demonic red with black slits. His teeth and nails elongated and he let out a feral growl.
"Don't you dare talk to me like you know me! You know nothing! That Kazuki is the one who killed by family! I'm going to kill him!" Naruto yelled. His figure suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind Kiba. The color drained from the Inuzuka's face and he was sent flying through the air only to be hit again and again, caught in midair and flung through the air. Finally, a kick to his chest that broke even more bones sent him spiraling to the floor, making huge cracks.
With his master down, Akamaru ran to his side and hid his tail between his legs as he felt the terrible chakra coming from Naruto. Kin threw senbon at him arrogantly and found the results to be extremely painful and soon, she heard a female scream and her vision became dark and she slipped out of consciousness.
"Winner: Uzumaki Naruto."
Round 6: Hinata vs. Sakura vs. Ino
In the Academy, Naruto had been a loser in the first year. However, once he had gotten his act together, he flourished with Sasuke at his side for the next six years in the Academy. Hinata saw this and decided she had to be stronger as well. The one strange thing she noticed was that soon after Itachi and Kazuki's defection, Neji had stopped glaring at her. He even said yes when she asked for his help with training.
She looked at her two opponents and was shocked as she saw that they were glaring so harshly at one another. When Hayate said start, the two girls began to fight, leaving Hinata to simply watch. She could see the two girls had quite a bit of animosity towards one another and on a whim (more like an urge) she left the two alone.
Eventually, the girls knocked each other out and Hinata was left as the winner by default.
Round 7: Neji vs. Lee vs. Shikamaru
Shikamaru let out air that he'd sucked in between his teeth in a low hiss. He saw that the Hyuuga and green idiot were going to probably fight just like Hinata and Ino and Sakura had. He honestly didn't want to work any harder and since neither Choji nor Ino were going to the Finals, he saw no point in going either. There was always the next biannual Chuunin Exams.
"I give up," Shikamaru drawled. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Asuma facepalm. Shikamaru let out a long-suffering sigh and walked slowly back up to Asuma. Hayate's eye twitched and said, "Start!"
Neji and Lee sprung into action. Lee babbled about finally being able to be in Neji's range and still not be downed. Neji frowned and reminded him that if he was within range, he was most likely to be hit and then therefore disqualified. Lee grinned and repeated 'most likely'.
Neji sighed and rushed at the green idiot, easily blocking his tenketsu and taking down his teammate. He stood over Lee and saw that Lee didn't want to give up, but his body, tired from the Forest of Death (they'd had to cover for Team 7's downed members), wasn't at top shape to last much of a chance against the Hyuuga.
"Winner: Hyuuga Neji."
So after three hours, the winners included Hinata, Itachi, Kazuki, Naruto, Sasuke, Gaara, and Neji.
They were given a month to prepare for the Final Round, when the majority of Konoha, feudal lords, and other dignitaries would be watching. Kazuki and Itachi had felt the anxiety of the Chuunin Exams and in a hostile nation at that, so they were not worried in the slightest. Plus, they were nuke-nin.
The thing they were worried about was the strange mark on Sasuke's neck and the fact Naruto had reverted to use the Kyuubi's power. Also, a strange and ominous Oto Jounin had he eyed Sasuke, making Itachi furious.
Still, it was hard not to indulge on the simple things they'd missed for the last five years.
They walked through the village at a slow pace, taking in the sights and sounds of their home village. As the sun was setting, a peaceful feeling was set over the village. With stomachs content with dango and tea, the two walked to the cemetery and paid their respects to the killed Uchiha. Itachi stood with a blank look that Kazuki easily read as a mixture of grieving and anger. Kazuki knew that the anger wasn't towards himself, it was towards his clan.
Then, they made their way to Kazuki's parent's graves. Kazuki knew only his mother was buried here. His father was buried, or more likely cremated, elsewhere. Kazuki stuffed his hands in his pockets and bit his lip. Itachi placed a hand on his shoulder.
"There you are!" Naruto came running up to them with a carefree smile. Kazuki turned around slowly and his henge brown eyes looked shot with surprise and guilt as they settled on the bright blue eyes of his younger brother. Naruto let out a smile Kazuki knew to be his father's and let out a soft smile.
"What's up?" Kazuki asked.
"Oh, you're here? What for?" Naruto looked at the graves.
"I'm paying my respects," Kazuki answered honestly. So that Kaa-san or Tou-san won't kill me in the afterlife.
"Bah, they're already dead! Let's get ramen," Naruto said.
"But…what about your friend? Or the girl over there?" Kazuki asked, sensing Hinata's chakra.
"What girl?" Naruto turned around and saw Hinata shyly come out from behind a tree.
"Hinata?" Naruto's breath hitched. "You look…" Pretty.
"N-Naruto-kun…they l-look busy. I-I can go for r-ramen if y-you want," Hinata squeaked, surprising herself so much that she'd actually said it.
"Really?" Naruto asked. Kazuki placed a warm hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear, "Go on. She has the courage to ask a strong kid like you out so you have to deliver too."
Naruto nodded blissfully and walked off the Hyuuga heiress.
Kazuki turned back the graves and Itachi began to think about Sasuke and whether or not he liked any girls. He hoped he could find one for Sasuke like Kazuki had with Naruto. Then again, Sasuke was never that kind of person to attach himself to people, except for Naruto. He sighed. And that bond was both friendship and revenge.
Kazuki's lips quirked up in a smile.
"Did you see that? Maybe you can't kill me in the afterlife so soon, Kaa-san," Kazuki ran a hand through his henge black hair.