A/N: Okay...late again. This time I have a legitimate excuse, my laptop blew up about three hours after I uploaded the last chapter. I have a gaming desktop pc, but I don't write on it, I am a creature of habit and I can't write on anything other than a laptop. Long story short, I got a new laptop now and will resume writing on a regular schedule.
This chapter was supposed to be mostly about the beginning of the attack from Hiruzen's POV, but that bit was lost when my laptop decided to screw me over. So when I got the new one, I just started writing and this came out. The attack will be explained better later on, most likely through flashbacks. Besides, a little mystery behind what happened is good for everyone right?
Disclaimer: Maybe I do own Naruto... like if the multiverse theory was true, then who's to say that I don't own Naruto in one of the infinite universes, after all, they are supposed to contain every possibility. So if I, or more effectively, a different elitekamikaze didn't own Naruto then it was never a possibility in the first place, and theoretically anything is possible. So therefore I do in fact own Naruto. I rest my case. P.S: I might piss some people off with this chapter, I'm killing off a lot of well liked characters, people will probably call me a monster, say that I was a demon. But I have a word for those people and that word is...Intelligent. (honestly if I do something with this fic you don't like or you think I'm wrong about, tell me! I will either agree with you, disagree with you but respect your opinion anyway...or I will hunt your ass down and beat the living shit out of you for being such an idiot.)
Sasuke was not the most...emotional...guy ever. He had spent the last five or so years avoiding his emotion all together, except for maybe anger and hate anyway. So when it came to consoling his pink-haired teammate, (who was currently hugging tightly onto the dead body of her father.) he was at a loss.
Not to say that he didn't understand her pain, hell he probably understood it better than most other people could. He just had no idea how to help her with the pain, or even if he really wanted too. It was true he had grown closer to his teammates over the short time they had spent together, but he still wasn't that guy. He wasn't the type to console people, maybe the one to kill the people that hurt them in the first place, but not the one to console them.
Besides he had his own problems to deal with, namely the mini PTSD style flashbacks he was currently suffering from...Okay, maybe he was rationalizing a little, he may be self-centered, but he wasn't selfish enough to think that his flashbacks of something that happened five years ago was anymore important than what was going on right now. But he really didn't want to try and comfort someone, that was just not his thing. And luckily for him, he wouldn't have to.
At the exact moment he was about to try and take care of the sobbing girl, one Yamanaka Ino limped through the front door to Sakura's apartment. This was the first time he had ever been happy to see the "blonde harpy" as Kiba had taken to calling her. Then he noticed the orange figure in her arms.
His jumpsuit had multiple holes, including one large bloody one right in the center. There was a lot of blood under his fingernails. But that wasn't what had Sasuke (he would insist that he wasn't) concerned, His skin appeared as if several layers of it had been burnt clean off.
Sasuke quickly rushed to her side, helping her lay Naruto down "what happened?"
"We...got...attacked by...an asshole." she panted out between her sharp breaths, apparently walking all the way across the village with a hole in your leg could be rather tiring.
Sakura turned from her parents bodies too the blond duo and Sasuke "the attack is still going on?" The pink haired girl asked, her voice sounding hollow and lifeless. She didn't even seem to notice her blood covered dress. The girl was a shell of her former self, it was to be expected though.
If hadn't been for the onslaught of multiple shinobi of equal or greater strength than the Hokage, Ino would still be acting like that. The immeasurable number of ways she could have died in the past 30 minutes or so seemed to have knocked her out of her grief driven depression, for now anyway. Sakura hadn't had that kind of unfortunate (or fortunate, depending how you look at it) luck to help bring her back to reality.
Ino seemed to have finally caught her breath as she sat back against the wall in Sakura's apartment "I'm not really sure...we were attacked by two different people" 'three if you count Itachi she added mentally before continuing "The first guy was an...Uchiha." Her eyes flicked over to Sasuke to see how he reacted.
The Uchiha's face was disturbing to the young girl, and she just saw a miniature kyuubi destroy several sections of the village and nearly disintegrate an s-rank missing nin. And yet Sasuke's face was by the far the most hate filled and angry face she had ever saw. Quickly realizing that he thought she was talking about Itachi she corrected herself "he said his name was Izuna." With any luck that would help quell some of her crush's anger.
It didn't help much though, Sasuke was shaking with anger, he could feel the sweat forming on his brow as he activated his sharingan. "Izuna died before konoha was even founded." Sasuke almost yelled at the injured Yamanaka. "It was Itachi...Where did you see him at!?" He screamed at her while pulling a kunai from his pouch, ready to charge off to fight his brother.
"It wasn't Itachi Sasuke-kun!" Ino yelled at her crush.
"How the hell could you know that!? You don't know what he look likes!" Sasuke yelled back, his fist clinching so tightly he was drawing blood from his own palm.
"I...I can't tell you that!" Aoba had told her the importance of not revealing that Itachi was in the village to Sasuke. He said that the Uchiha would most likely charge blindly at his brother and get himself killed, and that was obviously something she didn't want.
"Tell me where he is now, Ino!"
"It wasn't him Sasuke-kun!" Ino yelled with desperation in her voice, she couldn't let him leave the apartment, not if there were more people like Izuna and Hidan out there, or even Itachi, just because he helped them once didn't mean he wouldn't kill them the next time he saw them. The man was obviously unhinged. He did murder his entire clan in cold blood after all.
"Do you have any idea what that man did to me? To my clan? I won't rest until I drive a kunai through his head, not until I feel his blood drying on my hands, just like my mothers blood dried on his." Sasuke shouted at the blonde. Tears were forming in his eyes, that was the first time he had said anything about his mother since he was eight. The woman was angel as far as he was concerned, and nothing would change his mind about that.
This was by far the most emotion Ino had ever see Sasuke show. The boy was usually about as emotional as a boulder, and him showing this other side of himself was making Ino more attracted to the raven haired Uchiha than ever before. It was taking all of her willpower not to force him into hug, but right now wasn't the time for that. She had to distract him with something maybe if sh-
"You're not the only one that lost their mother Sasuke-kun..." Sakura interrupted Ino's thought process, her voice just as hollow and broken as before.
It was at that point Ino realized that the bodies of Sakura's parents were laying in the corner of the room in a bloody heap. Which brought the image of her own mothers body back to the forefront of her mind. And it was that particular distraction that caused her to not sense the chakra filled clay bird flying towards the building at dangerous speeds.
Every flap of it's white wings brought it closer to the apartment complex, in just a few short seconds the bird would hit the building and explode in a expression of art. The anticipation was almost unbearable. So much excitement for a fleeting second of beauty, but thus was the life of an artist. After all, true art is...AN EXPLOSION!
(BREAK)
The village was being destroyed, he had tried to prevent it, but he was too late, too slow. The people were dead, slaughtered like animals. The buildings may still be standing, but if Leader-Sama got his way, they would all burn too the ground before the attack was over. As much as he hated to admit it, the village was a lost cause now. By his estimation, there was maybe thirty or forty shinobi left alive, and that was at best. With the village gone, he had lost his main purpose, and a man without a purpose was a dangerous thing
The kyuubi jinchuuriki was safe for now, and his little brother was being watched by a shadow clone. So that left him with an opportunity he never had before.
There was one thing that he had...no wanted to do. There was man, a man he knew well, a man he wanted to kill. The man was no doubt hiding in his hole underneath the village, holding his personal forces back from protecting the village. It was that man's own twisted way of protecting the village. His own idea's and beliefs, probably something along the line of " if the tree falls, it can grow back stronger than before as long as the roots survive." It was a broken idea, he honestly expected the man was just terrified of losing his own life.
The war he worked so hard to prevent was already happening, and he was going to use it too his, the surviving members of Konoha, and his little brother's advantage. It was time to take his best friend's eye back.
(BREAK)
Raidou, though battered, bruised and tired managed a smirk. He and Genma had done it...they had finally killed Izuna. It hadn't been easy, far from it. In fact, it was the hardest fight he had ever fought. He had been cut, set on fire, stabbed, put in several genjutsu and he was pretty sure he was medically dead for a second or two, but they finally did it. He had managed to stab the man right through his brain, and it was the most satisfying kill he had ever made. He was possibly the happiest he had ever been in his lif- "POP"
'Izuna' burst into a cloud of smoke, revealing himself to be a shadow clone...a fucking shadow clone! WHAT THE HELL! That was the hardest fight of his life and it was a SHADOW CLONE!
"..." Genma's almost comical blank stare met the furious eyes of Raidou
"..."
"...haha" Genma began to chuckle, earning an angry glare from the assassin. "What? It's kind a funny right? In a terrifying sorta way I mean. Just how many times did he almost kill us? Seriously, it's a good thing we didn't fight the real one, huh?"
"..." Raidou didn't respond, he couldn't bring himself to. His chakra levels were nearly depleted, he had watched so many friends and comrades die today that it was ridiculous, then at his first chance at revenge, he failed. It was ridiculous.
Realizing his friend was starting get sucked inside his own head, something he was prone to doing, he decided to ease him into the next thing they needed to do. "We should probably go find Aoba righ-" A powerful explosion went off, rocking the ground under the shinobi's feet.
"Maybe we should check that out first?" Genma asked, his personality reverting back to serious once there was a legitimate danger again.
Raidou nodded, before jumping off towards the explosion with his friend following closely behind.
(BREAK)
Ino's clinched her eyes shut tightly, trying to fight the sudden rush of nausea. Right now, she was moving faster than she ever had. She didn't know what had happened exactly, one second she was in a screaming contest with her long time crush, the next she was being carried by a green blur over the rooftops of Konoha.
The man...men that had taken her didn't have a recognizable chakra signature, but they didn't seem to be trying to kill her...them...Sasuke and Sakura were being carried by the other man and if she wasn't mistaken, Naruto had been thrown over the shoulder of the one carrying her as well. It was almost embarrassing, being carried like a sack of potatoes twice in one day. If it wasn't for the obviously more pressing predicaments she had found herself in today, she would have been rather humiliated.
As the man began to slow, she saw just why they had been taken from the apartment so abruptly. A giant white bird collided with the complex, setting off a large explosion. The bright fiery light blinded her partially, the loud boom of the explosion caused an intense ringing in the girls ears. The concussive blast of air that followed hit her with force, throwing her and presumably everyone and everything else close to her forward.
The world seemed to slow, she could see everything, the explosion, the orange blob identified as Naruto, Sakura's pink hair and Sasuke, the man in green had dropped her and Naruto, and the one with gray hair was quickly trying to get to her and the boy that had saved her life so many times today.
'Shit...Shit,shit, shit shit shit! He won't make it in time!.' At the speed she was moving, she would hit the ground before he got to her. Normally she would be able to correct her flight enough to land on her feet anyway, but with the slash in her leg, that kind of movement wasn't possible. It would only end in her further injuring her leg, possibly ending her career as a shinobi. Doing the only thing she knew to do, the young girl tried to relax her body as best she could. The one thought going through her head was 'this is going to hurt like a bitch.'
Naruto's limp form suddenly erupted with a bright blue icy chakra. The Uzumaki's eyes opened for a split second, gone was the normal blue color that was normally seen, they weren't even red like when he was influenced by that evil chakra either. They were a horrible blank white, almost like a hyuuga, except they were cold, empty...almost dead looking.
The icy blue chakra began to twist and churn, shaping itself into a skeletal hand, similar to the way the kyuubi chakra had done before.
At first Ino expected the hand to attack her, she was waiting for it to kill her. A small part of her might have even wanted it to. The thought of all she had loss, her mother, her home, and most likely her as well, made her question on why she even wanted to continue living in the first place. What was the point? Chances are that she was going to get killed by the end of the day anyway. So she waited, she waited for the hand made of pure chakra to end her short life. It never did though.
Instead, the hand gently took hold of her, stopping her rapid fall. She felt the Icy chakra touch her, it was a terrible sensation, it didn't burn like normal chakra would, in fact it was just the opposite. The chakra was freaking cold, the second it touched her, she became colder than she ever had in her life. And not only that, it was like she could feel it pulling at something inside of her, like the chakra was grasping at her very soul. It was terrifying, truly terrifying. It was almost like the death god himself had a hold of her.
Finally after what felt like an eternity, (when in all actuality it was little more than a second.) the chakra dissipated and skeletal hand dropped her to the ground a mere four feet below. Slightly suicidal thoughts aside, she was happy to be alive, and even happier to be free of the grasp of the skeletal appendage. If anyone had looked or cared to notice, they would have seen strange seal-like markings covering the entirety of Naruto's body.
Just as Ino landed, the gray haired man landed beside her, catching Naruto in the process. Sasuke was the next to land, soon followed by a still hollowed looking Sakura.
"Sasuke, copy this jutsu. Sakura, undo Yamanaka-san's bandages and begin sewing up the cut on her leg." the man held up his hand to Sasuke's sharingan eye, the first two fingers lit up with a strange fire like aura as he spoke.
Sakura mumbled a weak "hai" before trudging over to her former friend and kneeling down to the young girl's leg, she began undoing the blood soaked bandages. Ino squirmed when she felt the needle pierce her skin.
"Hold still." Sakura scolded the Yamanaka princess.
"Sakura...I'm sorry about your parents." Ino began, looking at the broken girl somberly. "I know what your going through...I" the yamanaka bit back a sob "found my mom dead in the flower shop. I know daddy probably died fighting today too..." she trailed off, not really knowing what else to say.
Sakura suddenly wrapped her arms around Ino's neck, pulling the girl into a hug. "Ino... I'm so sorry about the fights over Sasuke-kun...can we be friends again?"
Ino blinked in surprise 'really? That is what she wants to talk about right now?' "Are you crazy forehead?" Ino took a moment to notice the look of shock and anger that went over the face of her rival, "Of course we can." Ino replied with a smirk. "I still won't let you have Sasuke-kun though."
"Whatever you say Ino-pig." Sakura said with a smirk of her own. The name calling between the two didn't hold any of the anger or malice that it had held in the past.
"You almost done Sakura?" Ino asked, wincing as the needle pierced her skin again. The pink-haired girl nodded "just finished the last stitch."
"Good" Sasuke spoke up from behind "now move." he commanded to his pink haired teammate who quickly complied. Sasuke squatted down, taking in the image of the milky white skin of Ino's upper thigh. He hid it well, but Sasuke had the good decency to blush at the view. "Kakashi said this would hurt..." Sasuke said, reluctantly placing his hand on the girl's leg, stretching the slightly marred skin.
Ino blushed a deep red when her long time crush touched her thigh. It was more embarrassing than she had expected it to be. But to be fair, this was the first time a boy touched her anywhere other than her hand or arm, and it was someone she always dreamed of marrying...and doing other things with.
"Here, bite down on this." Sasuke offered, handing her a kunai.
Ino did so, becoming nervous about Sasuke's new jutsu.
The Uchiha nodded to her, before sending chakra to his fingers in the exact way Kakashi had done before. His pointer and middle finger erupted with a flickering fire-like green chakra "this should keep the wound from reopening." He said, before placing his fingers against the wound.
Ino let loose a whimper the second he touched her skin, 'damn it. Damn it. DAMN IT.' She mentally shrieked in her head, biting down hard on the kunai. Forget about having the blade of a scythe stabbed halfway through your leg, this hurt a hell of a lot worse than that ever did.
After a couple of seconds of agonizing pain, the 4 inch wound was effectively closed. " Kakashi went back to help your sensei and Gai fight somebody, Me and Sakura are supposed to collect Gai's genin team. He wants you to take Naruto and gather the rest of your team to take them to a rendezvous point at these coordinates." Sasuke relayed the orders of his sensei. Sakura and Ino nodded.
(BREAK)
Itachi charged through the crowd of root nin, cutting them down ruthlessly one by one. Their blood splattered onto the cave walls in an almost art like fashion, if that art was mass murder anyway. It was gruesome display of power, the power gap between Itachi and the average shinobi, he had yet to even activate his sharingan and he had already killed half of the root shinobi...it was kinda ridiculous to be honest.
These root nin weren't weak by no meaning of the word, but compared to Itachi, well, only the top tier shinobi even stood a chance, most shinobi considered talented gave him about as much challenge as a melon. Granted these were probably Danzo's weakest soldiers, but still...
Itachi's katana was soaked in blood by the end of the fight... not that it was much of a fight though, it was much more like a slaughter. The combination of mass genjutsu and incredibly quick kenjutsu attacks ended the conflict quickly with Itachi completely unharmed.
"Itachi." He heard the masculine monotonous voice of the man he had came here to kill come from behind him. The elder shinobi was too late, his plan had already been put in motion, Danzo would die in just a few short minutes, but not before he gave up Shisui's eye.
Itachi turned to face the man, "Danzo-sama." the Uchiha greeted one of the few people who actually knew the truth about him and his motives.
"I trust you have taken care of yourself, with that sickness of yours and all?" Danzo asked with an almost mocking amount of politeness. The elder shinobi was no fool, he knew that Itachi was stronger than him, but he had a trump card in his right eye socket. First to tire him out though.
Without any form of warning, two men leapt from the shadows of the room towards Itachi, their blades poised to pierce his heart. Itachi twisted his body at an impossible anger, grabbing the wrist of both men and redirecting there fight, causing the men to stab each other fatally.
Two more men charged Itachi in a burst of speed. It was still pitifully slow to the sharingan wielder. The first man attempted to stab him with a tanto, only for the Uchiha to flip over his back, grabbing his collar in the process and throwing him violently into the adjacent wall, most likely putting the man in a coma.
The second man quickly went through handseals, ram-boar-dog-bird-hare- then he suddenly hit the ground, a small amount of blood was flowing from his ears. The idiot had looked right into the eyes of the genjutsu expert. Well, now was the time to bring out two of his best.
"Fū, Torune." Danzo said, waiting for the his two most trusted shinobi to attack the Uchiha.
Fū was the first to attack, but not being a direct combat shinobi, his main purpose was to be a distraction. The yamanaka attempted to use his family jutsu, but there was a flaw when it came to using something like that against Itachi, you had to aim at their head, which meant they could look you in the eye. That was all it took, one mediocre (By Itachi's stranded anyway.) illusion, and the yamanaka hit the ground. He did his job well though.
Torune rose from the ground behind Itachi, jabbing a kunai into the back of the sharingan wielder's throat. Blood splashed onto the ground, as Itachi grasped at his own throat, desperately trying to breath in the precious oxygen his body needed. Then in the blink of an eye, Itachi exploded, throwing a broken and burned Torune back against the same wall the nameless root nin had hit just a moments ago.
Danzo didn't look surprised, he had expected a clone, that was the one thing that holding him back from using the eye immediately. Suddenly, Itachi appeared behind the elder, his katana in the prefect position to cleave the man in two. With a sicking squelch, the Uchiha cut Danzo from the shoulder to the hip, hitting both lungs and the heart at the same time. And just like magic, Danzo's remains shimmered away 'one...two...three...four...five' Itachi counted in his head.
Danzo instantly materialized behind Itachi, ready to kill the Uchiha with a well placed kunai strike. The strike was easily blocked by the young Uchiha. Itachi went for a counter, aiming for the mans heart. The elder quickly jumped away from the confrontation.
Danzo was quickly realizing the illness didn't take as much out of Itachi as he had hoped. Perhaps the boy could be reasoned with? It was better if he didn't have to use up all the sharingan in his arm or kotoamatsukami. He was saving that for Madara. "If you kill me, you will be the one destroying Konoha. The roots of the village will allow it to grow back stronger than ever before." The elder said, his voice never wavering, showing he had the utmost confidence in his own words.
Itachi remained motionless for a split second, before his body turned into a murder of crows.
Danzo unwarpped the bandages from his arm and formed a single handseal, before bringing his hand up to his mouth and launching several pockets of air towards the crows. The fast traveling air hit the crows, cutting many of them into pieces, causing smoke to fill the air.
'fifty-eight fifty-nine sixty.' That was just the opening Itachi needed, he suddenly appeared in front of Danzo, their eyes met, and just like that, it was over. Danzo slumped to the ground, his eyes glazed over as tsukuyomi took control. Izanagi, Danzo had deactivated it to preserve chakra, that was a mistake, he underestimated Itachi, he refused to use kotoamatsukami in hopes that his illness would have weakened him significantly. It was this holding back, this fear of losing to Madara, that made him go easy on Itachi for a split second. And it was in that split second that he lost.
Tsukuyomi was a powerful genjutsu, and Itachi was a master of it. if preformed right, the jutsu can leave the strongest of of shinobi incapacitated for several hours, but Danzo wouldn't live that long. Itachi grabbed a hold of the man's short hair, pulling it up to reveal his neck. The Uchiha coldly swung his sword, separating the mans head from his body. Now wasn't the time to remove the eye, knowing Danzo there was probably some kind of trap behind the eye...shit.
A black ink like liquid shot from body of Danzo, as a sealing array came to life on his chest. Itachi felt himself being pulled towards the man, the black liquid began to to form a ball, consuming everything inside it's radius.
Itachi hadn't been prepared for this particular type of trap, so he did the only thing he could think of at the time. With the severed head still in his hand, he bit his thumb and slammed his hand onto the ground, and in less than a second, he was gone in a puff of smoke to the homeland of the crows.
(BREAK)
Sasuke walked through the streets of the Hyuuga compound, trying his best to ignore the similarities between this and the Uchiha massacre. Everywhere he looked, he saw the bodies of men and women form a clan so much like his own, it was terrible. He had no love for the clan, but it was so much like what happened to his own clan. At least it seemed like no one survived this. He knew just how horrible of a fate that was. Sasuke's sharingan eyes suddenly flicked over to what appeared to be a small girl, covered in blood, she was moving...she was running away from him. She was afraid of him.
He began to see himself, running through the bodies of his fellow clansmen again, trying his hardest to find his parents...to find Itachi. He stopped moving all together, tears forming in his eyes. 'Damn it, you have to snap out of this...' Sasuke thought to himself angrily. He was an Uchiha, he shouldn't...wouldn't be brought down by something like this.
"Sasuke-kun?" He heard the voice of his pink-haired teammate ring out, it didn't register though. All he could picture was his mother, that long slash across her chest...her blood...so much blood. His hands began to shake again. It was like he was frozen in time, frozen in the worst time of his short life. He wouldn't let another kid suffer by themselves like that.
Meanwhile, Sakura was struggling to maintain her composure, today was defiantly the worst day of her life. Her family was dead, her home and all of her clothes had been blown to bits, and she had seen more dead bodies than most people could even think of. Up until now, she had Sasuke there to help her as well. But now, he was just spacing out, staring at the corner of one clan house. "Sasuke-kun?" she said again, this time louder than before. The boy didn't even look her way. Sakura grabbed a hold of the Uchiha's shoulder and shook him lightly. "Sasuke-kun!" She yelled.
Sasuke's eyes shot to her for a second "Sakura..." he mumbled quietly, finally realizing he wasn't back there. "I saw a kid." He said, totally ignoring his strange behavior "stay here." Sasuke took off in a sprint after the girl.
"Sasuke-kun wait!" Sakura yelled to no avail. 'What is going on with him? Well if he thinks I'm just gonna stand here wait around then he has another thing coming. I'll go find the other genin so we can leave.' Sakura thought angrily.
Her mind made up, Sakura continued trudging through the compound, looking in all corners for anything living. "Lee-san! Tenten-san! Neji-san!" She yelled out, maybe not the best idea considering the circumstances, but damn it she wasn't going to stay here any longer than she had too. Of course she wasn't actually expecting a response, much less did she expect one of the teens she was looking for to land directly in front of her...look at those freaking eyebrows!
"Are you a medic?" The boy with the horrible fashion sense and freakishly large eyebrows asked worriedly. Normally he would have went into rant about the girl was the most beautiful he had ever seen, but not now, not when Tenten was in trouble.
"I...uh...know a some of the basics..." She said, starring at the eyebrows of the newcomer.
"YOSH! YOU CAN SAVE HER THEN!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. He grabbed a hold of her hand, and pulled her flailing body behind the boy as he charged towards his injured teammate. "My teammate got hurt in a fight with some sort of puppet, she would have died if you didn't show up!" He shouted as he ran.
Sakura was beginning to get nervous, this girl is dying, and she didn't even know the mystical palm jutsu, she just barely understood the basics of anatomy, she could stitch up some minor wounds, and maybe even a couple of major ones, but she wasn't good enough to save someones life. She was only twelve, who could possibly heal someone with mortal injuries when they were only twelve?
(BREAK)
Sasuke slowly walked towards the young girl hiding under the bed. She was shaking, her hand was held up defensively "It's okay, I won't hurt you" Sasuke spoke with an unusually soft voice that didn't sound natural. "I understand how you feel...My name is Uchiha Sasuke, my clan was murdered when I was about your age." He got down on his hands and knees so he could see under the bed better. Honestly, all of this felt wrong, this wasn't something he was good at, but he saw so much of himself in that girl's eyes. The same anger, hate and more importantly,the same sadness and fear. The girl was around the same age as he was when he saw this kind of bloodshed. She had suffered a very similar fate.
As soon as the young girl met eyes with Sasuke she let out a yelp and tried to back further under the bed. She clinched her eyes shut tightly, and began to sob. "I-if you're going to kill me...please make it quick Uchiha-sama." she said, tears flowing freely.
Sasuke's eyes widened ever so slightly, that was why he hated the fucking Hyuuga, this girl thought he was going to kill her, and she was still respectful to him. They trained the personality right out of their children. Made them act like little polite robots to the elders. You could say what you wanted about his father, but the man loved and protected kids. After finding out that one of the young Hyuuga clan girls had been married to a seventy-eight year old man when she was only eleven...well that particular man had gone missing and the police force never found any leads.
"Don't worry, I won't kill you." Sasuke said, offering a smile to the young girl. " I just want to help you." He held his hand out to the girl in a gesture of friendship. He'd be damned if he left this girl alone, he wouldn't let her end up like him. That was a terrible life, he knew that from experience.
The girl looked at him for a second before taking a hold of his hand and crawling out from under the bed.
He put his hand on her shoulder, causing her to flinch away. "It's okay, I promise you're safe. Whats your name?" he asked the girl.
"Hanabi..." she sobbed out.
Damn it, she was crying again. He didn't know how to help a crying girl, but he decided to do what he wanted when the same thing happened to him all those years ago. He lifted the shorter girl into a hug, "I will protect you till the day I die Hanabi-chan." Sasuke said, a small tear escaping from his eye those were the same words Itachi had once said to him, before that night. He desperately wanted Itachi to come back, to say those words to him again, to make him feel safe, before the reality that that man never really cared about him set in.
Hanabi looked surprised for a moment, before wrapping her arms around Sasuke tightly. "Thank you Onii-sama!" She said while crying on the shocked Uchiha's shoulder.
Sasuke stood wide eyed, as the girl cried into his shoulder...she had called him big brother...the sibling relationship was precious among the Uchiha clan. He had always wanted a little sibling to protect, to teach, just like that man had once done for him. (minus the whole killing everyone you ever loved thing.) Sasuke rubbed the girl's back soothingly, 'I would have been a better sibling than Itachi ever could.' Sasuke thought, his anger rising once again.
Hanabi adjusted herself on his shoulder, letting out a sigh as she drifted into a deep sleep caused by the emotionally and physiologically straining day she had suffered through.
Sasuke's anger began to disappear as the young girl cuddled into him tightly. He had told her he would protect her, and she trusted him enough to fall asleep so soon. He hadn't slept for weeks after the massacre, he couldn't, the nightmares were far too terrible. But she trusted him enough to drift off to sleep right there, that made something inside Sasuke stir, some sort of primal instinct inside all Uchiha. "Sleep tight...imouto." He said with a small smile. He would treat this girl just like she were his own sister.
(BREAK)
Neji refused to cry. It wasn't what a Hyuuga would do. This was fated to happen, nothing could have changed it. Tenten was weak, that was why she died. It was all fate. There was nothing he could have done to change that. It wasn't his fault, and he didn't care anyway. Fate has decreed what was going to happen, and he would never cry about his fate again, so why was this damned liquid falling from his eyes? Hyuugas don't cry, especially over the death of a weak teammate. But yet here he was, crying like a baby. He wasn't supposed to get close to anyone, he was supposed to be detached. And he was, to an extent anyway, he didn't feel anything when his whole clan had been killed, but the death of one weak, meaningless girl had him feeling so bad. It was utterly ridiculous that a mighty Hyuuga could be brought to their knees so easily.
He was brought from his thoughts at the sight Lee and some random pink haired girl, with Lee shouting some sort of nonsense about how he could save Tenten now. "It's too late Lee, she's dead." Neji spat bitterly.
"What? Tenten is dead?" Lee said as he rushed over to Tenten's side, tears already starting to from. He grabbed a hold of her shoulders, shaking them gently, "come on Tenten, stop goofing around around, wake up...Come on Tenten, WAKE UP!" Lee screamed at the dead girl, grasping her tightly. "Tenten...please, don't die." The boy pleaded with the corpse.
Neji stood and walked over to the hysterical boy, he understood what was wrong with him, he had almost done the same thing a few minutes ago. But he also knew Lee, and he knew the green clad boy wouldn't just leave her behind, there really was only one option. With a small sad smile, Neji hit lee in the back of the neck, knocking him out. "Sorry Lee." he said, as he hoisted the green clad boy over his shoulder.
Sakura watched the interaction sadly, she couldn't imagine how she would feel if one of her own teammates had died, she would hazard a guess it would be very much like how Lee did...and Sasuke would probably act just like Neji.
"Uchiha! Get your hands off of Hanabi-sama!" Neji's sudden shout brought Sakura out of her musings. Her eyes followed his to the sight of Sasuke, holding what she would guess to be a girl around six years old in his arms.
Neji rushed towards the Uchiha, intent on taking her from his arms, it was his duty, she was the one of the last living main branch members, it was his duty to protect her, and that included protecting her from a budding 'psychopath' like the Uchiha. Neji went to grab the sleeping girl, only to be stopped by a glare from sharingan eyes.
"You touch her, and I'll cut your throat out." There was no anger or hate behind those words, just a threat that he fully intended to keep. He wouldn't let someone he didn't trust near her, he made a promise to that scared little girl...to his imouto and he was going to keep it. There was no way in hell Neji was getting Hanabi out of his arms.
Neji had a different perspective however "Drop Hanabi-sama now Uchiha. I will protect her from the likes of you." He said angrily.
"I know who you are Hyuuga Neji, I know of your hate for the main branch family, you're just as likely to kill her as protect her." Sasuke said, his anger starting to rise again. He would kill the Hyuuga if need be.
"You don't know anything Uchiha! I just watched my teammate die, I won't let some psychopath take away one of the last people I have!" Neji yelled, his true emotions finally breaking through. He knew about the Uchiha curse of hatred, every Hyuuga did, it was one of the many reasons they hated the Uchiha so much. He couldn't be trusted with a child.
"Enough! You're both wanting to protect the little girl, so why are you fighting?" Sakura yelled out, annoyed by the threats being thrown around. Both boys glared at each other, their respective dojutsu made the act quite intimidating to normal people, but Sakura wasn't a normal person, she was a kunoichi, and a very pissed off one at that. "Now both of you shut up and lets get to that fucking rendezvous point!" the twelve year old girl shouted, she had been standing around a bunch of dead bodies long enough. They were going to leave here if she had to knock them out and drag them away herself.
(BREAK)
Kakashi stood among the reaming forces of Konoha, they were few, but they stood tall, ready to fight to death if need be. Among the proud men were Sarutobi Asuma, son of the third hokage, Maito Gai, taijutus master, Shiranui Genma, space time ninjutsu genius, Namiashi Raidou, master assassin, and Yamashiro Aoba, veteran intelligence officer.
These men found themselves facing impossible odds, four of the strongest men on the planet stood opposite to them, ready to kill everyone one who would dare to cross their path. Kisame, Kakuzu, Sasori, and Diedara, four members of Akatsuki, presumably the organization responsible for destroying the village.
"Kakashi," Gai began a serious look on his face "Konoha can live on through it's people, you are much more fit to lead than anyone else. You know what I have to do right?" He asked his long time friend.
"Gai...I will put your name on the memorial stone personally, when the time comes." Kakashi said, looking at the grave expression the face of the eccentric man's face. Every part of Kakashi was screaming at him to tell Gai they would stand and fight together, but they were all exasuted, and chances are they all would die and leave the kids on their own. He couldn't let that happen, not as a sensie or as a leader.
"Genma, you were my teammate for years...I entrust the training of my students to you." Gai said with a smile, before beginning to charge up chakra.
Kakashi patted the man on the back, then he threw several smoke bombs along the ground, concealing everyone in the dense cloud.
It was easy for all the elite jonin to pick up on what the plan was, the instant the smoke bombs popped, they all jumped in separate directions. The plan was a simple one, one man stays behind and tires to fend off and kill as many as he can, while the rest of them split up and take different routs to the same place. Of course against such strong opponents, this plan shouldn't have worked, but when Gai was the man staying behind, that changed things. The man was fast by himself, but he could open the eight gates, all eight gates.
As soon as the smoke entered the air, Gai began the process, 'First Gate: Gate of Opening: OPEN!' 'Second Gate: Gate of healing: OPEN!' 'Third Gate:Gate of Life: OPEN!' 'Fourth Gate: Gate of Pain: OPEN1' Fifth Gate: Gate of Limit: OPEN!' 'Sixth Gate: Gate of View: OPEN!' 'Seventh gate: Gate of Gate of Wonder: OPEN! "EIGHTH GATE: GATE OF DEATH: OPEN!" As he finished the ritual, Gai exploded into action.
(BREAK)
Mifune was well known in both the samurai and shinobi world for a good reason. He was one of the most powerful men in the world. Not because of some all mighty jutsu or such prowess that he could kill a kage level nin with ease. No, he was as powerful as he was because he was the commander and chief of the single largest army that the elemental nations had ever seen.
He didn't get this position because through deceit or being the single strongest warrior in his country, he got this position because he deserved it. He had spent years as a strategist for the previous general, and because of his great foresight and cunning they had one many many wars. But there was a secret to his foresight. It was a little known fact that Mifune was a very religious man, and he was one of the few that still took heed when the gods gave him a sign. And right now, he knew he was getting the biggest sign he ever had.
His eyes took in the amazing sight of hundreds, if not thousands of doves flying around the castle he called home. "Okisuke!" He commanded for his most trusted samurai and second in command of his armies to come his side.
The bald man appeared before his master and kneeled down before the man he proudly served "Mifune-sama?" he asked, dutiful as ever.
"Tell the men to be prepared for battle...Hachiman the war god has awoken!" As those words were said, a single dove flew down from its group and landed onto the tsuka (handle) of Mifune's katana.
A/N: The tides of war will soon engulf the elemental nations, and no one will be safe from the fourth great shinobi war.
I Know this entire prologue reads kind of rushed. (to me anyway) but that is because I am writing faster than I should because I really want to get to my first real story arc, I have the entire thing planned out and it's killing me not being able to write it right now. Also, who has a guess what is going on with Naruto's chakra? It ain't a bloodline, but it does have something to do with the Uzumaki clan.
There will be a bit of time skip next chapter, not sure how long yet, anywhere from 2 and a half months to 6 months. Either way, it will start with Naruto's coma expreince and he will wake up with a certain amount of time having passed. I ain't even gonna say when the next chapter will be up though.
As always thanks to all those that have reviewed and thanks to those that will, you have no idea how much your reviews mean to me. It really inspires me to keep going with this and my dream of being a professional novelist. I defiantly appreciate all of you greatly.