Okey dokey, chapter 4! I can't believe it's progressing this fast! You guys are awesome! ^^ And yes, PiratekitAG, the jack as- er, Danzou is Hokage, because Naruto wasn't there to convince Tsunade. I'm running out of ideas for Random Trivia... so I guess I might stop... but not this chapter! Okay, here we go!
Title: Proving Them Right
Pairing: KakaNaru
Warning: Yaoi and gore... eventually. And a really long flashback.
Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I wouldn't have had to pay for the Kyuubi plushy I just bought
Random Trivia: Anko, you know, the crazy lady, her name means Sweet Beans... o.O
Chapter 4
The gray light of predawn was cast over Konoha when three figures appeared in an abandoned apartment. The walls were covered in graffiti that mostly said demon, or monster, and blue eyes took in the sight dispassionately.
"Master, this apartment is...?" one of the figures asked, and another answered the unfinished question.
"Yes, my old house. Believe it or not, it hasn't changed one bit since I was last here." another answered. He stepped into the feeble light cast from a window to run a finger along one of the counters. "Save for a bit more dust."
"Master, you cannot mean you lived in an environment like this for the first four years of your life." the last figure said incredulously.
"Sasuke, not all of us was treated as royalty when we were young. I, as the vessel of the Kyuubi no Yoko, was despised by the ignorant idiots that inhabit this hell hole." Eien stated, glancing out the only window at the sleeping village in disdain.
"That's not what I meant, Master, it's just... you were only a child, and they left you alone in this place to grow up?" the person, Sasuke, glanced around the apartment, at the counters that were decaying, the faded graffiti, and the thread bare carpet.
"I no longer dwell on the past, Sasuke. Itachi, I know you wanted to say something, please speak up." Eien cast a look at the other man, Itachi.
"Master, do you really think it is appropriate for my brother and I to be here, the village idiots think he is dead, another victim of the massacre, and I don't believe they allow S-class missing nin to wonder the streets freely." Itachi murmured, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder.
Sasuke froze for a moment, the memories from that night still haunted him... but then, they were saved.
Flashback: 8 Years Ago
Seven year old Sasuke awoke slowly, his mind foggy, his body weak. The bed beneath him was soft, and he just wanted to go back to sleep, but m his mom should be coming soon to wake him and...
MOM!
It hit him suddenly, the last thing he remembered before blacking out. His brother standing over the motionless bodies of his parents, covered in their blood... and a kunai pressed to his throat by an arm that extended from the shadows.
"Sasuke, run, now!" Itachi had called to him, but he didn't run. Ninjas never run. Sasuke had drawn a wooden kunai from his own pouch, and threw it with poor aim at his brother's assailant and his family's murderer.
The arm batted them away. "Ah, what a cute little chibi, he thinks he can hurt me with those pitiful toys." a snake like voice rang through the ominous silence, and the attacker was distracted by the boy for only a moment, but that moment was all Itachi needed.
He drew the katana on his back, and slashed back at the mysterious man, but there was no one there. Then his little brother cried out, and he spun back to face him. What he saw sent chills of fear down his spine.
Sasuke dangled in the grip of a strange looking man, fighting and struggling to try and gain freedom. Itachi recognized the man from descriptions his superiors had given all new ANBU recruits, along with the instructions to get their asses out of the immediate vicinity if any of them saw anyone matching the description.
Long, greasy black hair tumbling down thin shoulders, green-yellow eyes glowing slightly in the weak moonlight, sickly looking pale face.
Orochimaru, hebi sannin, was holding his brother.
"I-itachi-nii." Sasuke called in a strangled voice, brightly colored spots dancing in his vission as the man who held him cut off his air. It wasn't long before the colorful dots were replaced by a black void.
That was all Sasuke remembered before now.
A hand was suddenly placed on his forehead, and the seven-year-old threw it off with all of the force in his small body, bolted out of the strange bed, and he hid, panic stricken, in one of the corners in the brightly lit room.
Arms closed around him, and a voice he could never mistake murmured in his ear. "Sasuke, it's okay now, everything is all right. I'm here, and we will get through this together."
"I-itachi-nii? I thought..." tears spilled down cherubic cheeks from the child's obsidian eyes as he turned to cling to his brother's shirt, afraid to let go. Afraid of the snake-man that could still be there for all he knew.
"We're safe, otouto." was his only answer when Sasuke heard the door open, and a strange child's voice interupted.
"Good, he's awake. Itachi-san, I was worried when I saw you out of bed. You shouldn't be moving around now." the child said, and Sasuke felt his brother stiffen before he was pushed roughly behind him.
"Demon, I will not let you hurt him!" Itachi called in a rough voice, and Sasuke glanced around his brother at the stranger.
The child was vaguely familiar, no older than he was, with sunny blond hair and eyes the color of the sky on a cloudless day. Each cheek was adorned by three whisker-like scars, and he had a hand resting on a small black fox that was by his side, growling ominously. The boy sighed.
"Kon, please calm yourself." he said to the fox before turning to the brothers. "Kon does not like it when people call me names, and I have no wish to harm your brother." his voice seemed void of emotion, but his blue eyes danced with barely suppressed amusement.
Sasuke didn't understand at all. Why was his brother acting like this against the strange boy?
"Itachi-nii, what's wrong?" he asked curiously, tugging at his brother's shirt.
"Sasuke, please be quiet, I will explain after we leave." Itachi told him, then to the blond boy, "We are leaving, make no mistake about that."
The boy smiled. "Of course, but not before you hear my side of the story, and your brother eats. He must be famished."
"No. We will get something for him later. Anything you give him may kill him." Itachi said with vehemence, and the boy laughed.
"Well then, both of you must be ghosts, as we have been feeding you our dastardly poisonous food for a week. Uchiha Itachi, your opinions are as skewered as those who ran me out of that village. Follow me, we have no ill intentions, I only wish to talk."
Sasuke watched as this exchange went on for a few more minutes before Itachi-nii finally followed the boy through the door, ordering him not to talk to anyone, or take food from them, even though his stomach growled loudly in protest.
Half an hour later they hed come back, and to Sasuke's shock, his brother seemed to have a totally different attitude towards the little blond boy than before. They had eaten the food Itachi had said wold kill them, and his brother had announced they would follow the boy and his group around for a bit.
End Flashback
And they had never left. Days had stretched into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years. Itachi, after a while, explained about the boy, and his justified rage towards the village that he had once loved. Sasuke found himself disgusted with the people who had treated him and his family with utmost respect.
He had sworn his allegiance to the boy, now known as Eien, not long after he had learned the truth, and not long before he had learned his brother had done the same.
Eien was a fair and just leader at such a young age, and treated all of his followers with respect. No one dared betray him, not because of his own power, but because of the power of the people who had sworn themselves loyal to the jinchuuriki.
"Itachi, I understand your fears, but no one will recognize you as anything but a Suna ANBU while we are here. And Sasuke was a child when you left, and looks completely different than when you first came to me." Eien said, and Sasuke shifted his attention back to the present situation.
Eien's comment was true. Sasuke had realized how idiotic his hair looked when a young Gaara had commented on how much it resembled a duck's behind. He let it grow out, and it reached to his shoulders in a straight black waterfall. His face had lost its baby fat, growing sharp and defined. He no longer dressed in the rubber like ensemble he had thought looked cool, opting instead for simple, baggy, black pants with a kunai pouch hugging the area above his knee, a tight black tank top that revealed his slightly tanned and very muscular arms.
Itachi glanced at his brother and realized the truth in his Master's words.
"Of course you are right, Master. Excuse my doubts." he said to the younger man. Eien grinned beneath his mask.
Being called 'Master' was not his decision, but when Gaara had started it, it had been picked up by others, moving through the ranks until all of his followers called him that. Weirdly enough, it had started as a joke.
"Itachi, you may call me 'Master', but I really do not rule your mind, and you are allowed to voice how you feel." he said. He turned back to the one roomed, pitiful apartment one last time.
"A truly powerful person comes from poverty. I heard that once, I don't remember where, but I think it fits. Don't you guys?" he asked.
"I couldn't have said it better." was Itachi's reply.
"Perfectly." Sasuke said at the same time.
Eien nodded, then suddenly drew the sword strapped to his waist and spun towards the door as a figure stood there, observing the apparent intruders.
Ooh, cliffy, evil, I know. InARealPickle said that my second chapter was more like a summary than a chapter, but I planned it that way. I'm gonna add a flashback to almost every chapter, all of them telling the stories of the Yuumei and the follower's origins. I think it's more effective that way. I think I amy write my own version of another Naruto cliche, the one where he's really an undercover ANBU. Do y'all think I should? I like writing my own versions of stuff like that. Anyway, goodbye for now, and see ya soon!