In a small room in the basement of a cabin in the middle of nowhere she was sitting all alone, curled up in a corner with her knees tucked close to her chest, trying to make herself small in the futile hope that it would make her disappear.
She didn't know how long she'd been here. A week? Ten days? Time bled into nothing in the windowless room, and she was tired enough to slip in and out of consciousness, the heavy iron choker around her neck draining her magic and leaving her exhausted.
She'd thought she'd be safe when she got away from her abuser, the one she had loved but learned to fear, and she'd gone willingly with the two who came for her, expecting them to take her to a safe house, but instead she was brought here, lead away and left in this small room, the choker still a heavy weight around her throat.
Her eyes were wet with tears and she trembled, cold and in pain. When the door to the room creaked open she didn't even have the energy to attempt to make a break for it, just looked up, blinking her eyes free from tears so she could make out the shape of the man in the doorway.
He was short and round, wearing a white coat like a doctor, nose twitching as he walked inside.
She wanted to pull away from him, but he leaned in and grabbed her wrist, pulling it towards him, and she could only watch as he lifted a syringe and plunged the needle into her arm, drawing her blood into it.
With the syringe full and capped off he left her again, not offering a single word as he shuffled out of the room.
The door closed behind him, clicking as it locked, and she buried her face in her hands, weeping until she could weep no more.
Hundred or so yards away, above ground, in a small wooden shack, Naruto felt as if someone had turned his whole world and his knowledge of it on its head. His mind was reeling, trying to process what this Yamato had just told him.
"I'm a Protos like you, and your father."
Naruto had no idea how to respond to that, and was left just staring at the other man in complete shock. He wanted to ask him everything, but he couldn't get his mind to concentrate on just one question. If this was true, if Yamato was a Protos like him, that meant… that meant that Naruto might get the answers he had always been searching for, might understand why he was like he was, might figure out a way to control himself without the suppressants and be able to leave and go back home.
Then Naruto realised just what he had heard Yamato say. "My... father?"
"Yes, Minato was a Protos just like you," Yamato said, and there was nothing in his tone to indicate he was lying.
"But… they were killed by whatever made me what I am," Naruto said. That's what he had always been told. Someone had broken into his parents' home when he was a baby, slaughtered the two of them and hurt Naruto bad enough to leave him not quite human any more. He'd barely lived, and for the years to come he had been bounced between foster homes, always too different to stay, no one able to love and care for him. Those who had taken his family had also taken away any chance he had of being normal.
Or at least, that's what he had grown up believing.
"Your parents, they were living in hiding, so no one knew what Minato was."
"I… I still don't know what a Protos is," Naruto admitted, looking away, completely overpowered by the way his entire perspective was twisting, things he had believed to be truth no longer so. His birth father had been a Protos, like him? He hadn't been made into this, he had always been this way?
Yamato didn't immediately say anything, just sat down on the rough wooden floor in front of Naruto, crossing his legs, as if he was stalling as he tried to figure out what to say.
"We don't really know much about Protos. I say that I'm one, but that's only partly true. Your father, Minato, he was a true Protos. From what I've heard the tests concluded that Protos are a preliminary evolution to the shifters we see today. The original shifters. Through the millennia the strand died out, letting the shifters we see today thrive instead. Somehow a line must have survived, passing on the genome to the next generations, but as far as I know they were never able to track down Minato's background, so he might have been the sole one left."
Naruto just gaped. He had never been particularly good at science, but this all sounded completely insane. "I… thought you said you were a Protos too? Does that mean you're my brother?" If Minato had been the only one left, that had to be it, didn't it?
Yamato shook his head. "I'm only partially a Protos. They were trying to isolate the parts of Minato that made him what he was, tried to create more like him. I was born human, but I came out something in-between human and Protos by the end of his experiments.
"I'm not as strong or fast as you will be, but the feral parts are less pronounced as well."
Naruto pressed a hand to his gut. He'd trade strength and speed for control in a heartbeat.
"I want to tell you more, but they'll start looking for you soon. You are valuable to them. After Minato fled they weren't able to experiment more. I had hoped they would never find you, I promised your mother I wouldn't tell them, that I'd never let them know you were alive. He never knew you had been born at all, I hoped you would be safe."
Naruto blinked, trying to process everything. "He… fled?"
"Minato met your mother and one day they were just gone. It took a long time before he managed to track them down again."
Yamato sounded sad, and Naruto got the distinct impression that thinking about it was making him remember something he hadn't been wanting to remember.
"What happened?" Naruto asked, needing to know more. For the first time in his life he was learning about who he was, learning who his family had been. He knew almost nothing about them, didn't even have any photos of his birth parents, and even though he saw Iruka as his dad there had always been something missing. The knowledge that he was supposed to be a part of another family, one that was destroyed before he could even remember.
"Somehow Minato and Kushina were found out, and he sent a team down to find them. I… I didn't know where we were going, they just told me to get in the car and do as I was told. I was fourteen at the time, and I'd grown up here, it was all I knew. I thought maybe we were going somewhere to pick up another shifter or something, there were always some new ones around, but when we got there, the others attacked. They fought back, your parents, they fought for you. Kushina, she was just human, but she took out one of the wolf shifters alone, and I was so scared, I couldn't even do anything to stop them."
Yamato looked away, as if he couldn't meet Naruto's eyes. He looked ashamed of himself.
"They were going for you as well, but I… couldn't let them. It was too late to save your parents, but you were safe, and the others were dead, so I… I made sure he wouldn't know that you even existed. Minato and Kushina was dead, and that was what he had wanted."
There were no tears in Yamato's eyes, but his voice was growing shaky, as if the memories were still haunting him.
"Who?" Naruto asked, the word coming out the moment it came to him.
"Who what?"
"Who wanted my parents dead?"
"Danzo, of course," Yamato said.
Just on the other side of the sprawling cabin a car was pulling up the driveway, parking next to a beat up Honda and making the poor Honda look even worse than it already was by sheer comparison. The driver got out of the car and hurried to the back to open the door, allowing the man inside to step out.
The man looked up at the cabin he had bought decades ago, and slowly made into what it was today. He rarely had time to come here lately, but he had crucial business to attend to. He'd had to postpone two meetings, and someone was going to pay for that.
"Mr. Shimura," the driver said and bowed once. Danzo paid him no attention as he buttoned up his suit jacket and walked towards the door. His knee was acting up, making the limp he had walked with for decades more pronounced than usual. He had learned to mask it well, knowing any injury made him look weak, and if it was one thing Danzo wasn't it was weak.
He pushed open the door to the cabin and walked inside, a wolf shifter sprawled on a couch jumping up when he saw him, back straight as he bowed. Danzo ignored him. He cared little for the forced sign of respect, knowing in the end that true loyalty had to run deeper. Very few of his men would sacrifice their lives for him, and none of them mattered much to Danzo. They weren't cogs in the machine, they were pawns. Tools for Danzo to use. And tools were replaceable.
Danzo strode towards his office, calling out to the wolf that he needed to find Tayuya for him. He needed to talk to her.
He barely had time to sit down behind his desk before the woman walked inside, grinning at him. There was a dented up cardboard box under her arm, and she looked much too pleased with herself when she walked over and dropped the box on his desk.
He ignored it, knowing well what it contained, and instead looked at her, quietly, until her smile faded for a look of mild worry. She shuffled her feet like she wanted to leave, but Danzo knew she wouldn't, not until he told her she could.
"I heard there was an issue with the pickup," Danzo started, lacing his fingers together and resting his elbows on his desk as he leaned forward. He saw how she flinched backwards, only to catch herself and straighten her posture.
Tayuya had all the fierceness of her bobcat, compact but strong, but she was cocky, and apparently that had led her to her imminent downfall.
"I heard," Danzo continued when she made no move to say anything, "That the witch tried to cheat you, and that you in the process not only told Naruto Uzumaki just what you were picking up, but also told him that he should kill the witch. Am I correct?"
Tayuya took a half-step backwards, head spinning towards the exit where one of Danzo's more trusted men was standing, arms crossed.
"It is all baffling to me, because I have absolutely no recollection of telling you that you could bring him on any missions. I am sure you all know only Sai was supposed to bring him along anywhere. I wonder which part of that was so hard to understand for you?"
Tayuya made no move to answer, shrinking in on herself as she was starting to realise what a grave mistake she'd done. "I… I… Kidōmaru was still drunk and we figured we should bring someone along and... "
"And you thought it would be fun to mess with the new guy, is that it?"
Tayuya didn't answer, but she didn't need to, it was clear as day. Jirōbō and her had been cocky, probably bickering, and somehow thought it was a brilliant idea to bring along Naruto. They didn't know that he was special, only saw him as the newest person in the house. Probably had every intention of staking their position as alpha dog over him. Terrible idea really.
Danzo nodded at the man behind Tayuya, and he stepped forward, locked his large hand around her neck and shoved her forward until she stood right in front of Danzo's desk. He didn't stop there, but pushed her down so her cheek was shoved onto the desktop and she had to peer up at Danzo through her red hair.
Danzo opened a drawer and gently lifted out a manilla folder from within, placing in in front of her face and flipping it open, lifting the first page for her to see. It had a picture of her in one corner, and her information written in. Across the middle a red stamp glared right at her, and the moment she noticed she started fighting against the hand holding her down.
"You've become a liability, Tayuya. You should know what I do with liabilities."
He nodded once more at the other man, and he pulled the trashing woman away.
She'd been foolish, jeopardizing everything. She was a shifter like the dozens others Danzo had employed through the years, she was expendable. She might have ruined everything though, and he would have to find a way to patch it all back together, or find a new solution.
Anger had made him send a group to terminate Minato and that woman of his when he tracked them down twenty-some years ago. He had raised Minato ever since they found him in the forest, completely feral and abandoned, but Minato had betrayed him. The plans to recreate the Protos line had kept failing anyway, only Yamato surviving the transition, and he was barely strong enough to be called a Protos at all.
Through the years he had occasionally regretted the decision. It wasn't as if he needed Protos working for him, but he lamented the fact that something that strong and potent was now wiped away forever.
Or at least, he had lamented that fact until he had first seen Naruto Uzumaki.
It had been like seeing Minato Namikaze in the flesh, the strikingly blond hair and blue eyes, as well as the carved marks across his cheeks. He hadn't quite been able to control the flash of betrayal that shot through him as he was suddenly reminded of Minato, but the kid hadn't seemed to notice.
He'd had people look into it later on, hacking into the DPA databases, and soon it was clear to Danzo that he had made a lucky mistake all those years ago. Minato and his woman might be dead, but they'd had a child, and that child carried Minato's DNA, and there was little doubt in Danzo's mind that this Naruto would be as strong as Minato had ever been.
He knew then that he needed him. He also knew that it wouldn't be as easy to get his hands on a DPA agent. Most of those that worked for him had toed on the wrong side of the law for years, or had long since left any good behind. Getting them to join him was easy, they were swayed by his promises of the world he was going to create, or just the idea of money. Simpletons. If Naruto was anything like his father that wouldn't be enough, he would have to get him to trust him, would have to make him see the right way. Naruto wasn't supposed to be in this deep yet, Sai was supposed to monitor him, make sure he came over to their side voluntarily.
Tayuya might have just destroyed that by pushing him too far too soon, and she was about to feel the consequences of her action.
He placed the sheets of paper back in the folder, finger brushing across the stamp for a moment.
Terminated.
She wouldn't make any more mistakes.
Naruto was sitting in his bedroom, staring at a wall, mind still processing everything Yamato had told him. About his birth parents, about what he was, about who Danzo was.
One thing was clear. Naruto had made a horrible mistake going here. Danzo was never going to give him the answers he wanted, not without asking too much in return. Naruto had wanted to march right inside and scream until someone found Danzo for him so he could confront him, but Yamato had told him he needed to keep it to himself, and Naruto understood why, he just hated it. The moment Danzo realised Naruto was no longer at their side he would do something drastic, and Yamato had made Naruto see that he had to be smart.
Naruto hated this. He wasn't the type to scheme and plan, he just wanted to get everything fixed right away, to right the wrongs and then go back to Sasuke, but he knew he couldn't. He might know what he was, but he was as dependent on the suppressants as he had been when he came in here. Yamato didn't need them, because his feral side wasn't as strong as Naruto's, but Naruto knew that he wouldn't be safe to be around out there, so until he had a solution he needed to lay low, make Danzo believe he had no idea that anything was wrong.
It made him sick to his stomach, to think about having to pretend he didn't hate Danzo. This was the man who had killed his parents, left him all alone in the world, was responsible for Naruto's shitty childhood, and now Naruto had to pretend that he didn't despise him and what he'd done. He just hoped he didn't see him around. Danzo wasn't here often, too busy campaigning for governor, another truly terrifying thought. Danzo was hardly the first corrupt man running for any kind of public office, but the idea of someone like him, who used and discarded people like they were objects becoming governor, it was unthinkable.
Naruto needed to find a way to stop Danzo, but he had no idea how, or where to start. If he went against him now Danzo would just take away his suppressants. They were all safely locked away, only a small vial ready whenever Naruto came into the lab. There had to be a stock of it somewhere but Naruto had no idea where.
Maybe, if he got his hands on some of it he could leave and go back to the DPA. They had scientists there, they could replicate it, they had to. They could test him and the drugs, and then Naruto wouldn't need Danzo at all.
He was due another shot tomorrow, he'd have to do recognisance then, see if he could figure out more. He'd have to be careful so he wasn't found out, but he was given a lot of freedom, able to walk around as he saw fit, probably because Danzo knew he wouldn't be able to get over the tall walls that surrounded the cabin.
More than ever Naruto felt as if he was in a prison, one he had walked into of his own volition, and now he could see the electric chair looming in the distance, waiting for him.
He wanted to talk to Sasuke about it, Sasuke was sure to know what they could do, as soon as he was updated on the situation. Naruto still had Sasuke's phone, could call him, tell him what he'd learned, get some advice.
He would, if he didn't believe Sasuke would immediately grab his katana, track the cabin down and come charging in. Naruto knew Sasuke would do it, because it was the exact same thing he would do if the tables were turned, but he wasn't about to let that happen, because the likelihood of Sasuke getting himself killed in the process were too big.
Why hadn't Naruto realised what kind of place this was before? He kept seeing signs of it everywhere now. He had been given no way to contact anyone, and the shifters were about as far from pleasant as it got, sneering at him if they gave him any attention at all. Probably criminals every one of them, and Naruto had just thought they were unpleasant.
He should have known, should have gotten away while he still could. Even if he decided that he'd risk going without the suppressants he knew that wasn't really an option right now, because he had no way to get away from here. Even if he could escape the walls there was miles of miles of forest around, plenty of time for Danzo's henchmen to catch up to him.
He'd have to bide his time. Danzo would send him out again, wouldn't he? If Naruto went with just Sai he could overpower Sai easily, and then he could leave, and expose Danzo for what he was, and the DPA could take him down.
Naruto buried his face in his hands, groaning.
He needed to be smart about this. Until he had an opportunity to get away he would try to get his hands on the suppressants, that would be his number one priority.
A knock on his door pulled Naruto out of his thoughts, and he sat up in bed.
"Yeah?" he called out. He didn't want to talk to anyone, but he knew that for now he had to lie low. Until he had some plan he needed to make sure no one suspected anything. He had no idea how Danzo would react if he knew what Yamato had told him.
The door opened, and Sai peered inside, lips pulled into his fake smile. Naruto had to force himself to keep the sneer off his face. He'd never liked Sai, and now it was clear why, Sai was just Danzo's little errand boy, always watching over Naruto. He was a creep, and Naruto had no doubt he would report back to Danzo the moment Naruto did anything he shouldn't.
"It's dinner time," Sai just said, staring expectantly at Naruto until Naruto got up from bed and followed after him. Naruto's gut was churning, and he wasn't sure he would be able to stomach anything, but he knew he'd had to try, if only to keep up a pretence of normality, make sure no one suspected anything had happened. Patience had never been a virtue of his, but he would have to work on that.
He saw Yamato already sitting at the dinner table at the far end, ignoring the two next to him, staring down at his dinner plate. He looked miserable, and out of place, and Naruto couldn't help but to wonder why he stayed. if Yamato didn't need the suppressants he could just leave, go far away. He seemed to know exactly what kind of person Danzo was, and was clearly not on his side.
He wanted to ask him, wanted to talk more. New questions was popping up in his mind the more he thought about things, but he knew he had to be careful.
Naruto was pushing his food around the plate when the door across the room opened. He looked up, and saw Danzo stride into the room. Their gazes met for a moment and Naruto instantly looked away, knowing that he wouldn't be able to keep the resentment and hate from showing.
He shoved a piece of meat loaf in his mouth, and almost choked on it when he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Danzo, and there was no way to interpret the look in his face. Naruto swallowed, trying to appear unaffected.
"I would like to see you in my office later," Danzo said.
"Su—sure," Naruto said, voice a little too high, shoulders a little too tense.
Danzo nodded once as he walked past him to take a seat at the head of the table.
Naruto had the feeling he had just agreed to his own demise.
A/N: Protos in fact means something like first, as in they were the first shifters. Boom! Some linguistic facts to round the chapter off. :3
