This is giving a more general description of the AU world they're currently in.

Metamorphosis

Chapter IV

Five

"Unity is strength... when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved." - Mattie Stepanek.

There were five families that ruled Konoha. Each family was different, unique: and each dealt (mostly) with their own illegal business. Each family also had a different set of rules, as well as a different set of values.

You had, to start off with, the Uchiha.

A family that valued their own family very highly; not only their family, they also valued success very highly. The Uchiha owned many casinos and different gambling venues - they were one of the cleaner families of Konoha, often claiming that they were also the most honourable (a lie, of course. How can any of the families that dealt with the Underworld be something such as honourable?).

The Uchiha normally had very dark hair (blackblackblack) and very dark eyes (blackblackblack), coupled with a very black demeanour. Some people claimed that they could sometimes see Uchiha's black eyes glinting red - a ridiculous notion, but a very legitimate rumour, nonetheless. They're one of the much older families, meaning their business was well established with deep roots.

Roots in the police, for example. Yes: however underhandedly, the Uchiha had men in the police, and inevitably had a way of controlling them - or at the very least having quite a bit of inside knowledge. When people wonder how they're so old as a family without having been caught so long, that would be the correct answer.

The Head of the family (the Don) at the moment would be Fugaku Uchiha. His wife, Mikoto Uchiha, had given birth to two sons: Sasuke Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha. It was expected that Itachi would inherit the family business, but it would seem like he was very against that notion, meaning that the business would fall in the hands of Sasuke. Of course, Shisui their first cousin was always an option, and the person who Itachi wanted to succeed... But then again, that knowledge wasn't very common.

If Uchiha were to have enemies in any of the families, then they'd be the Hyuuga, who were almost their complete opposites.

They Hyuuga meanwhile, valued secrecy and loyalty very highly. Betrayal was rare: so rare, that it has yet to happen. That would either be because of the iron rule that the Head kept on what was called the 'Branch' family, or because all Hyuuga wanted their family to prosper no matter what.

The Hyuuga stereotypically had dark hair and very unusual white eyes that stared uncannily into the distance - some people would say that those eyes were all seeing, maybe as an metaphor of how the Hyuuga always seemed to see their enemies' move, or maybe because when they looked at you, they looked through you. How unnerving. Like the Uchiha, they've been doing their business of a very long time - a very long time indeed.

Their business involved illegal (and quite a bit legal) weapon's dealing. Weapon's dealing was a brutal things - involving lots of murder and death because well, it weapons caused death - and have made the Hyuuga very cold over the generations. With a business like that, one couldn't afford to let others see their emotions, their feelings, their thoughts. Because if they did, they might end up being the next thing splattered on the pavement.

The Head of the family was Hiashi Hyuuga; his wife deceased. She had given birth to two daughters, much to his disappointment: Hinata Hyuuga and Hanabi Hyuuga. When his twin brother had died, Hiashi had taken in his brother's son and his nephew Neji Hyuuga; seeing his talent, he had thereby decided that Neji Hyuuga would become the heir to the Hyuuga business. It caused quite an outrage, since Neji wasn't directly Hiashi's son, and such a thing hadn't happened before. But now it has.

The Subaku were a family that had recently moved into Konoha from Suna, which was a very large city on a desert oasis. And when they moved, they brought their narcotics business with them.

Narcotics was a dirty, horrible thing - it made people do horrible things - but it was also something that involved a lot of money. The Subaku family had inevitably become very rich.

While their hair colours varied, their eye colour normally remained the same, or some shade of green. And one would suppose that they had very tanned skin since they come from the desert - but one would suppose wrong, after they saw the Head of the Subaku.

Gaara Sabaku. He was very young; the youngest in his family. With blood red hair, very pale skin, turquoise eyes and sleeping problems - he had become the Head of the family that dealt with narcotics (heroin, cocaine, MDMA, ecstasy, etc) after the unfortunate death of his father... Who was killed by one of his own dealers: Orochimaru. At such a young age, he was forced to become the head as the genius of the family - even though he had an older brother, who is now the heir.

Maybe it was the fact that he took control of such a dangerous and stressful business at such a young age, or maybe it was the fact that his father had been brutally murdered... Whatever it was, Gaara obviously suffered from insomnia, dark rings under bright eyes that showed hatred at the rest of the world - reminding them of the fact that they were enemies. Because they were; to the Sabaku family, everyone was a family.

The Senju family, meanwhile, had had a shot of being legal.

Originally, they were involved with the import and export of alcohol (illegal for a time). But they also decided to take part in prostitution - making them own all the major brothels that littered Konoha and the red district. That, of course, was illegal, and remained illegal. Instead of selling all of their brothels as some would have (in order to become 'clean') they decided to keep them; making them apart of the Underworld forever.

Like with the other families, Senju were easily identified by their eyes: a startling shade of brown. And also, a let noticeable trait, is their need to develop a dependence (or obsession) over something. At different points in history, different members of the Senju family had become entangled with politics - further leading their success and wealth.

The head of that family was Tsunade Senju - a woman - and a rarity. Originally, Nawaki Senju was supposed to be the heir; however, he didn't want to be involved with that part of the dirty family business, so that left Tsunade - who didn't want to do it either - to do the job as a sacrifice for her younger brother. Afterwards, she had developed sings of alcoholism as a result of the stress; but that was a secret that few knew.

And then you have what may have been the very darkest family, the Hatake.

Unlike the rest of the families, the Hatake's trait was their silver hair - which wasn't originally silver, mind you - but turned so from stress after the Hatake turned the age of ten. Youthful ageing, one may call it. Whatever the case may be, the Hatake head has always had silver hair.

And what stress, one may ask? Only the deepest and darkest. Because, after all, the Hatake were involved with human trade and human organ selling; murder. Torture. Objectifying humanity. Overall, the business was very dark, and involved with killing people and selling their organs to make a profit. Sometimes the other way around.

That is why it is thought that the previous Hatake head committed suicide - because he couldn't deal with the stress. That left his only son, Kakashi Hatake, to deal with the family business - he had only been eleven at the time. Fully eligible as the silver had streaked through his previously brown hair. Even younger than Gaara, Kakashi had been thrown into that world of business, not knowing what's left and what's right. But maybe that was the price to pay after being raised with dirty money.

And if the Hatake had enemies... Those enemies would have been themselves.

Overall, all five families communicated well - but there was always tension. Sometimes full blown wars happened when people massacred each other: the most common example was between the Senju and Uchiha. But mostly, besides them all trying to best each other, all five communicated well enough to leave the police, government, and justice in general in a stupor.

Sorry for the wait. Reviews?

Aurora.