Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Those rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto.
The Savior That Can't Be Saved
Chapter 7:
The Uchiha Clan Head's Decision: The Moment That Decided Konohagakure's Fate
Uchiha Itachi was racing to the Hokage's office, knowing that he should tell the old man about his father, the clan, and the plot to take over Konohagakure. He knew that he should have tried to become an ANBU faster in order to become an ANBU commander, but it's hard enough to get into ANBU in the first place. After all, a lot of shinobi still distrust the Uchiha after the Kyuubi attack taking place six years ago. Though most of the shinobi acknowledged that Itachi was definitely not like most, if not all, Uchiha clan members and were willing to talk and even work with him on shinobi affairs and missions.
The moon had a silver glow that radiated to the shinobi village, shining even in the darkness of the surrounding night sky. Itachi looked slightly at the moon with one of his coal black eyes as he rushed forward to the Hokage tower only to see a barrage of incoming shuriken. The young Uchiha pulled out a kunai from one of his pouches and moved the shinobi knife forward in a swift, elegant manner. The shuriken clashed with the kunai, falling in front of Itachi, who had his Sharingan active. Itachi saw a target below him by a river so he went forward, rushing toward the water and the person that was there. Itachi was certainly shocked, his eyes widening a bit at who was before him and the condition of this person.
This person had dark unkempt hair that was laid on his head, a broad nose on his face, a short sleeved shirt, and a single crimson Sharingan eye. The other eye was missing, closed as it had a bunch of blood coming out of its socket, covering it in the crimson liquid. Oddly, the single Sharingan had a unique design to it. The design seemed to be like a shuriken as the eye stared at Itachi. A tanto was on the young man's back as he looked at Itachi calmly, but he obvious looked tired and worn, probably from a fight. There was tears and cuts on his body, though they weren't life threatening from what Itachi could see.
"Itachi-kun…" Shisui smiled weakly at his friend, who looked to not be as shocked as he was, merely concerned.
"Shisui-kun, what happened? Who attacked you?" Itachi asked more loudly than he usually would, truly worried for his closest friend.
Shisui looked seriously yet calm in this dire situation as he noticed Itachi relax. "It was Shimura Danzo… He said that his plans would have to come in motion sooner than expected and fought me with a bunch of his Root or Ne shinobi forces… He caught me in a corner and took one of my eyes… I feared something like this would happen, and I didn't think it would occur this quick at all… Though your father did spill that S-Class Secret… It seems Danzo didn't think this would happen or at least not this quickly so he took one of my Sharingan eyes… What's worse is that he could use the Kotoamatsukami if he wanted to or needed…
"He's crafty and intelligent, that Danzo… He won't use it unless it's a last resort… I can tell you that… But it seems that he has weakened me so much that I fear I am about to die… I have one thing to give to you Itachi-kun… before I die…" Shisui moved his hand until Itachi went forward, hand extended, gripping his friend's arm. "Itachi… let me do this… I'll make it out like I committed suicide and crushed my Sharingan so that no one would access them… I don't think it would be good to stay alive… Danzo may come after me once again… I want to give you my eye, to protect Konohagakure, our village, our home… and to protect the Uchiha clan, our family, from throwing themselves away in order to have another country invade the village while it is weak… just so they might rise to power…
"I swear that your father is a fool… What he is trying to do will not work out… At least it shouldn't…" Shisui got his arm out of Itachi's grip and put his fingers on the lids of his remaining eye. "Itachi-kun… put this eye somewhere no one will get to it… a place where you know you can keep it safe…" Itachi nodded and bit his thumb, going through a series of hand signs before setting his hand on the ground. Summoning Technique!
A crow appeared, cawing for a moment as Shisui pulled his Sharingan eye out of his socket and handed it to Itachi. Itachi immediately transplanted the eye into the crow, causing the bird to shriek in pain until it was complete and the crow vanished from existence and into a puff of smoke. Itachi looked at the eyeless Shisui, who smiled at his friend. Itachi felt a pain in his chest as he looked at his friend, whose eye sockets had blood covering them. Shisui handed Itachi a piece of paper with writing in his handwriting on it.
Itachi looked at him after looking at the note. "That's the note that you can give to the Third Hokage, telling him about the situation and he can deal with it from there… Make it out like I committed suicide, which is pretty much what I am doing…" Shisui chuckled sadly, looking at Itachi. "Discard of my body after inflicting the finishing blow to me… Make sure no trace of me is left… I don't want my dead body to be used to create more Uchiha for enemies of the village or our clan… That would dishonor this village and our family… and you, Itachi…"
Itachi frowned at his friend, "You know that I won't do that to you, Shisui-kun… How could you ask me to kill you…? How could you ask that kind of thing from me with a smile, Shisui-kun? How could you do this to the village, our clan… to me? How could you tell me to ki-?"
"Itachi!" Shisui yelled at Itachi, making the teen flinch and look at his friend, who held a smile once again. "I want you to gain the Mangekyo Sharingan like I did… I know it hurts… I understand that all too well… But I would rather have my death give you a blessing then a curse… So, just do it and end it, Itachi…"
Itachi gripped the kunai he held earlier to deflect the shuriken, still out of his pouch as he dashed toward Shisui at amazing pace before stabbing right through Shisui's chest. Shisui gasped, blood launching out of his mouth, landing on the green grass blades on the ground as he smiled at Itachi once again, moving from Itachi, coughing out some blood. Itachi's chest fell, feeling broken and he felt water generating inside his eyes, but the water stayed put, never falling.
"Thank you… so much…, Itachi-kun…" Shisui said with his last breath, weakly with a smile before falling forward onto the ground.
Itachi's eyes became his Sharingan, and then his Mangekyo Sharingan as a stream of blood began to form in his right eye. Amaterasu! Furious black flames came out of Itachi's eye, burning the corpse of Uchiha Shisui. Itachi watched as the flames took away the body of his dear friend. While this happened, a stream fell out of his left eye. It was a stream of tears…
"Please don't thank me, Shisui-kun… I don't deserve thanks from someone like you… After what I have done… Though I will take care of your blessing… and your eye… or I'll end my own life…"
XXX
Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed, getting up from his desk, calling it a night. He smiled at the pile of papers that he stamped. At least I got all the paperwork done today… Though today has been a bad day… a horrible day…
The Third Hokage had heard about Fugaku blurting out that Naruto was a jinchuriki right to the boy's face. He would definitely deal with that man. The Uchiha Clan definitely seemed to be up to something in the past few months and it involved the young Uchiha Itachi trying to get into ANBU. He knew from the look on Itachi's face that mostly his father Fugaku wanted the young teen to become an ANBU.
Something is definitely up…
Suddenly, a figure that rushed into the office got the Sarutobi's full attention. It was Uchiha Itachi.
"Itachi-kun, what is up? I was just about to leave for the night, but I think I can listen to what you have to say." The Hokage said with a kind smile and a laugh, but stopped soon at Itachi's expression of loss.
"You'll definitely have to hear what I have to say, Hokage-sama…," Itachi said calmly.
"Whatever do you mean by that, Itachi-kun," Hiruzen asked, looking at the young Uchiha.
"The Uchiha Clan is planning a rebellion to take over Konohagakure once and for all…"
XXX
Uzumaki Naruto was walking, a Konohagakure blue headband displayed proudly on his forehead. He just kept going, not paying attention to the whispers, the pointing fingers, and the onslaught of insults that Naruto could hear, even when people thought he couldn't hear them. Each word sent a kunai to his heart, every other word twisting the kunai even deeper into his heart.
Demon… monster… Kyuubi… jinchuriki…
Words such as those stung the boy, but the pain was worse than a sting from a bee. They left scar that had never healed until he was accepted by the village. The thing was the way the village was going, he might not even become accepted or it might take longer to actually be accepted by most of the village. After all, even in the last timeline where he had protected the village and became a hero, he was still hated by some of the villagers and shinobi like Shimura Danzo.
Either way, this timeline was going to definitely be different than the other one… By now, that was a complete given. After all, Fugaku spilled out that Naruto held the Nine-Tailed Fox inside him. Plus, he was already a genin, six years before the original timeline. Though he already knew most of the answers on the written test, if not all, and he had many jutsu already under his belt, such as the Shadow Clone Technique. He had, technically, many years of being a shinobi on his side, and he was used to his smaller frame definitely.
The only thing that upset him was his chakra pool. The amount of chakra in his body compared to the other timeline when he was a genin was like comparing a worm to a snake. Though Naruto still had huge reserves for a genin, as he always had, he still couldn't pull off jutsu like the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken without exhausting his chakra reserves to empty, or really close to empty. This was to be predicted though, he was merely six years old, whereas in the other time line, he was twelve years old when he was a genin. He could still produce a hefty amount of Shadow Clones, and have enough chakra to do battle with a well-skilled individual.
I couldn't hope to take on a highly skilled jonin like Kakashi-sensei though… Naruto chuckled at his thought. Plus Kakashi-sensei already is a skilled jonin by this time or an ANBU. I remember him telling me one time how Ojii-san had him, every year; take a team of genin under his wing, only for them to fail his test… Then Naruto stopped chuckling inwardly and a frown appeared on his face as his cerulean eyes grew cloudy in sadness when he thought this one thought. …until Team Seven… our squad… Sasuke… Sakura-chan… Kakashi-sensei…
The thought of Sasuke brought even more sadness on his face. He was definitely going to have a harder time becoming friends with the young Uchiha. Speaking of Uchiha, Naruto wondered what would happen to Fugaku. After all, he did spill out a pretty big secret… an S-Class secret in fact… If that wasn't big, Naruto didn't think what was.
Naruto shook his head of the thoughts that randomly appeared in his head, deciding to just rush forward to the Academy.
XXX
An ANBU, wearing a plain white mask, moved swiftly to the Uchiha compound, his long black ponytail falling down the middle of his back. He was stopped by two Uchiha who looked like they were pissed off at something. They glared at the ANBU that had landed swiftly, skillfully, in front of them. They were standing right at the gate of the compound, clearly not liking their job, but there was obviously something other than their job that was making them anger; that much the ANBU, Uchiha Itachi, could tell easily. Though he was always great at reading emotions, just as good as hiding his own…
Itachi cleared his throat and gave his voice a deeper quality, so these Uchiha wouldn't recognize his voice. After all, it is best to be cautious. "Good morning, Uchiha-san, Uchiha-san. By word of the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen-sama, I was called to bring one Uchiha Fugaku-san to the Hokage's office immediately. I hope that one of you can get Fugaku-san, or get someone that can get him or knows of his location at this time. I would be grateful if you would do so."
One of the Uchiha sneered and grunted a "Fine" and departed into the compound. The other Uchiha looked suspiciously at Itachi. Itachi raised his eyebrow at the action of the Uchiha, wondering if he was already identified. Itachi pointed at his mask in a joking manner. "Is there something on my face, Uchiha-san…?"
The Uchiha just sweatdropped and turned away from the ANBU as the other Uchiha appeared with Fugaku in front of him. Fugaku just looked as calm as usual, staring at the unfamiliar ANBU before him, noticing that the plain white mask meant he was a new recruit of the Hokage's. Itachi could tell by his father's eyes that he was at least a bit curious of him, but that was to be expected.
"Here he is," the Uchiha said as Itachi nodded from under the mask and approached Fugaku.
"Let us go then, Fugaku-san. The Hokage is eagerly awaiting your arrival."
Fugaku hid a smirk at what the new ANBU soldier said. "So am I…"
XXX
Naruto just sat with various other genin hopefuls as the squads were announced with all the teams featuring shinobi Naruto had no clue about. Naruto sighed; glad his fellow classmates would not see him and that he became a genin. This whole thing didn't make Naruto as interested as he thought it would be. After all, these names were gibberish that held no meaning to Naruto. That was until his squad was announced…
"Squad Thirteen: Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto stayed like he was, noticing some eyes glancing at him, "Uchiha Eri," Naruto looked more serious, knowing that there was an Uchiha that might know Sasuke on his team, that also meant that maybe Kakashi was their sensei, "and Odoroku Akemi." Naruto heard a headbang at that to the side in the back row of seats, where he sat, and looked to see a red-headed girl , who looked to be about Ayame's age, with black coal eyes, rubbing her head. The blond guessed that she was Akemi. "Your sensei is Hatake Kakashi."
Iruka was about to start on the next team, as Naruto smiled at having Kakashi as a teacher again, when an ANBU came into the classroom and whisper something to a completely shocked Iruka. He grew a tick-mark at first, but was calmed by the ANBU. Iruka sighed and, then, looked straight at Naruto.
"Naruto, you are to report to the Hokage's office right now. It seems to be about something very important." All the children in the classroom looked at Naruto, some even making noises to signal that Naruto was in trouble which made some laugh. Iruka yelled at the class while Naruto left the room with the ANBU, wondering what exactly was going on, even if he already had an idea.
XXX
Uchiha Fugaku sat in front of the desk of the Hokage, the ANBU in the white mask still behind him, standing by the door. Fugaku had a smirk on his face, his decision made, his plan set into motion. He had already told the Uchiha yesterday to plan for him being sent to the Hokage for his outburst. He knew that his clan members were at the ready, or at least the one's that trusted him. He growled silently at his wife not wanting to help, going against him. Most of the Uchiha followed him to his glee. He just needed the right moment to pounce and strike the Hokage, the village, everything that confined his clan, everything that destroyed it slowly from the inside…
"So, let's talk, Fugaku…" The Hokage spoke, looking out his window, not facing the smirking Uchiha head.
Fugaku now bore a twisted smile, chuckling low enough that no one other than himself heard it, "Yes, let's do that, Saurtobi Hiruzen-san…"