Chapter 1: Homecoming

FWOOOSHH! The sound of high speed movement could be heard through the trees as a young man rushed forward quickly hopping from branch to branch moving like a blur. The young man was clearly a in his early teens, he wore the green military green jacket and gray jumpsuit that was standard of military shinobi from the Hidden Leaf village.

As further proof of origin the young ninja wore a headband displaying the hidden leaf symbol over his short, unkempt black hair. The boy's most striking feature without a doubt had to be his eyes, bright red almost glowing equipped with the three tomoe circles indicating a fully matured sharingan, the staple of the Uchiha clan.

'I knew I should've stayed close to camp, the enemy managed to slip past my reconnaissance.' The Uchiha boy as he rushed back towards a pillar of smoke in the center of the forest. KRAKOOM! A thunderous clap rang out from the smoking campsite. 'Ayana!' The boy's eyes widened as a cascade of lightning crashed down onto the campsite before suddenly coming to a drastic halt.

The red eyed boy finally arrived back at the campsite to find a fire that had spread to the trees around him, tents torn and tattered and Ayana being held up in the air by the neck by a massive, muscular ninja with a bald head sporting a headband depicting the twin bolder symbol of Iwagakure. "Oh there you are, I know you leaf ninjas like to travel in groups of three so I was wondering where you ran off to." The Iwa-nin taunted.

"Ide!" Ayana called out as she raised her hand up towards the boy before the Iwa-nin tossed her away.

"Ayana!" He cried back as he rushed to her aid, ignoring Iwa-nin's threat. He wasn't fast enough to stop her fall but once he caught up he quickly propped her head up to examine her. "Aya, are you alright." He spoke softly using the girl's nickname to comfort her but she didn't answer and upon further inspection he found out why.

Her body was rapidly turning to stone like a creeping disease. Her whole body, skin, clothes, even her light brown hair was turned to cold, motionless stone.

"Aya! Ayana!" The young Uchiha called out to no use as his team member was no more responsive than any other statue.

"A jutsu of my own creation. Earth-release, cursed petrification seal. It will turn any opponent I can get my hands on into stone." The Iwa-nin answered unprompted as he gestured to the 3rd member of Ide's team, another young boy around his age who'd also been transformed into a statue.

Ide gently lowered Ayana to the ground before turning to his opponent, his blood red sharingan staring like daggers back at him. "Turn them back he growled."

"Unfortunately I can't, the jutsu will wear off eventually give it a decade or two." The Iwa-nin answered unapologetically before a sinister smirk appeared on his face. "That is unless something bad happens to them!" He roared as he pulled a large sledge hammer out from behind his back and slammed it down on the statue of Ide's third member reducing him to gray rubble. "Oops…" He muttered back with a grin.

Ide was stunned silent but was quickly propelled into action by a singular thought 'I must protect Ayana.' With that Ide picked up the petrified body of his friend and leapt away into the tree tops, opting to run for help rather than staying and fighting.

"Smart kid…" The stone village ninja complimented under his breath before performing an array of hand signs and placing his hand on the ground. "Too bad for him I can't risk letting word of my secret weapon getting out. Mud-release, Mud Hydra!" With that a massive serpent made of fast moving mud erupted out of the ground and followed Ide up into the treetops.

Normally this jutsu would have been of no concern for Ide as the mud snake would typically have no chance at catching him not while his sharingan made maneuvering at full speed no challenge at all but in this case Ide was carrying the stone body of his friend with him and that extra weight slowed him down significantly.

KRAKUSHHH! The hydra suddenly erupted from below, destroying the branch Ide was stepping on at the time and launching the young Uchiha into the air. This would've left Ide totally vulnerable to attack but he thought fast. "Fire-release, Great Fireball Jutsu!" With a flurry of hand signs Ide unleashed a intense blast of fire directly in the face of the hydra.

The attack itself didn't do much in terms of damage to the snake made of mud but it had enough force to propel Ide forward and out of the way of the hydra's incoming jaws. Ide landed on yet another branch and continued his escape.

Suddenly four, smaller, faster moving snake heads erupted from the hydra's neck and quickly caught up with Ide once again but Ide's sharingan easily detected these heads and he unsheathed the shortsword he kept around his waist and easily decapitated the smaller snake heads, cutting through the soft mud like butter as he ran not losing a step.

But this wasn't the end of it, the heads kept coming and running at full speed carrying a lifesize human statue, using the fireball jutsu all while having his sharingan constantly active, it took its toll on Ide making him yet another step slower, a step too slow.

One of the snakes latched onto his sword arm immobilizing it then two more found themselves around his ankles stopping him in his tracks and the sudden shift in moment caused Ide to drop Ayana's statue and it fell from the tree tops. "NO!" He cried out but wouldn't have time to react.

The small snakes wrapped around Ide's limbs began to retract, pulling Ide towards the head of the giant snake. Ide was pulled into the muddy flesh of the snake's neck as the beast lifted its head up before slamming itself down bringing Ide to the ground hard. WHAM!

The mud snake slammed Ide into the forest floor before melting back into the ground leaving Ide stunned by the pain for a moment but the concern for his friend drove him back to his feet as he rushed over to the dropped statue containing his friend. "Ayana… No…" He muttered to himself as he lifted Ayana's statue up finding a crack formed across her face "Damn it.. Why couldn't I protect her!" Ide roared as tears began to well up in his eyes.

"Awh… Well that's just too bad." Ide looked up into the darkness to see a massive hand made of prehensile mud shooting towards him. The hand wrapped around Ide's body, binding his arms to his sides before lifting him up into the air as the massive Iwa-nin emerged from the shadows of the forest.

Another hand of mud emerged from the ground lifting Ayana's statue up off the ground and pulling her towards the sinister ninja. "What a shame, such a pretty statue ruined." He taunted as he caressed the cracked stone head. "Oh well, no use crying over spilled milk." With a single motion and bare strength alone the Iwa-nin crushed Ayana's head into rubble.

"NOOOOOO!" Ide screamed as he began to wiggle and squirm trying to free himself from the muddy hand. "I'll kill you! I'll rip you to shreds!" He roared venomously despite his inability to free himself from the mud arm jutsu.

"Haha…. We'll see about that." The Iwa-nin chuckled back as he re-equipped his sledge hammer preparing to end the last of Ide's team when something caught his eye. "Huh?" Ide's sharingan suddenly began to change the Tomoe and his pupil began to swirl together and formed into a shape resembling a red and black shield with 3 protruding blades. "Well would you look at that… You're one of those Uchiha huh? The fancy red eyes really give it away. This just isn't your lucky day kid, you're gonna have to wait a little longer to reunite with your friends. I'm gonna rip those valuable eyes out of your head first-huh?"

Before the Iwa-nin could take another step the mud hand wrapped around Ide began to melt back into dirt freeing him and he immediately rushed the stone ninja. "DIE!" Ide roared slashing at his opponents stomach with his sword, the Iwa-nin noticed this leaping into the air to dodge the attack but this created the opening Ide was hoping for. Once his opponent left the ground he was vulnerable and Ide was ready with another flurry of hand signs. "Fire-release, Great Fireball Jutsu!"

"AAAAHHHH!" The Iwa-nin roared as he was engulfed by the full force of the fireball before catching himself on his knee as he landed. "Bastard!" He roared as he slammed his hammer down that Ide managed to dash away from to dodge. "Earth-release, stone wave!" The Iwa-nin did a series of hand signs before slamming his hand down in the dirt and generating waves of jagged rocks that tore apart the forest floor, ripping the trees from their roots.

Ide stopped and faced the incoming jagged rocks firing a fierce glare from his left eye that immediately caused the direction of the jagged rocks to reverse as the stone wave made its way towards its caster but immediately after the jutsu changed direction Ide's left eye changed back to its previous three Tomoe state.

"RAAAWHHH!" The Iwa-nin slammed his sledgehammer into an incoming stone primed to impale him, shattering it before it could damage him. "HAAAHHH!" He then performed a powerful leap into the air towards Ide, his massive hammer primed to crush the young Uchiha upon landing.

"Grrrhhh!" Ide rolled out of the way, missing the blunt force of the hammer but being caught up in the shockwave upon landing getting knocked back. "GAAAH!" Ide hit the ground hard skidding across the dirt but eventually caught himself landing in a three point stance. He then unsheathed his sword once more with his right hand and did quick series of and signs with his left. "Fire-release, Ignition!" With his left hand he ran two fingers down his sword's blade causing it to light on fire.

"Mud-release, clay fist!" The Iwa-nin created another prehensile hand that erupted from the dirt and made a fist targeted at Ide.

"Ha!" In a single leap, Ide hopped over the muddy fist and landed on the arm, using it as a runway aimed directly at his target. The slippery let firm mud along with Ide's sharingan allowing him to move easily at high speed along with his determination for revenge got Ide moving at lightning speeds and left the Iwa-nin little in the way of reaction time, he only manage to barely take a step to the left managing to spare his body but Ide still manage to get his pound of flesh. With a single slash of his burning blade that cut flesh like warm butter, Ide sliced his right arm off at the elbow before sliding a few feet past his opponent due to the slippery mud still present on the soles of his feet.

"Aaah aah aaah…" Iwa-nin stood stunned, letting out a few confused mutters before his mind was flooded with anger. "DAMNIT!" He roared as he swung his sledgehammer at Ide.

The leaf ninja attempted to block the attack with his sword but the hammer shattered the blade like glass and slammed into Ide's stomach knocking the wind out of him and sending him flying into a nearby tree."HAAAH!" The Iwa-nin rushed after him, grabbing him by the torso and pressing him against the large tree. "Earth-Release, Cursed Petrification Seal! I'll crush you to dust with a single hand!"

A creeping stone texture began to form on Ide's vest but this was different from before, where Ayana had been consumed nearly instantaneously, the spread of the stone curse on Ide was noticeably slower but the Iwa-nin managed to piece together what was going on. "Huh? So you're weakening the chakra of my seal? I don't know how you're doing this but it's no use. All you're doing is buying a few measly seconds, once the seal's been placed it will consume your body and nothing can stop that."

"Good to know…" Ide had muttered back before raising his head to face the Iwa-nin revealing that the mangekyou in his left eye had resumed and he quickly activated it.

"What?!" The massive stone ninja looked down to see his remain left hand had already turned to stone and just like with Ayana the curse on the Iwa-nin was spreading much faster than Ide's having already infected his broad chest in less than a second. "NOO!" He roared before being silenced as his head began to turn to stone.

Meanwhile ide, who a majority of his chest had already fallen victim to the curse but still had use of his limbs, drew a kunai from his tool pouch before quickly hurling it at his foe. The blade of the Kunai pierced the now statue's stone skull causing a web of cracks to form out from the impact point before eventually causing it to crumble.

Ide's left mangekyou once again reverted to its previous form as he collapsed to a sitting position as the rest of his body was transformed into stone. In his final moments of consciousness he got to rest in with some comfort knowing that at the very least he managed to avenge his teammates before everything went black.

(17 years later)

"Uuuhhhh….." Ide groaned as he was met with a white void as light hit his eyes for the first time in more than a year and a half. The stone that once comprised the entirety of Ide's being was now nothing more than a tissue thin layer that broke and fell off of his body with even the subtlest of movements.

"Gggg.. ACK! ACK! ACK!" Ide managed to sit up pushing away some of the bushes that had grown around him. He began a harsh coughing fit as he was desperate to clear the stone taste out of his mouth.

He took a moment to look himself over and noticed nothing about him has changed physically, even his eyes are in the same state they were when he was frozen and he quickly turned them back to regular black eyes. 'Nothing has changed?' He thought as he began to sit up. "AAAH!" He winced as he rose to his feet, even the damage from the sledge hammer hadn't changed during Ide's time in stasis, a few of his ribs were still broken. 'How long was I sealed for?'

Once on his feet he observed his surroundings and noticed that nature had dealt with the aftermath of his battle. The forest floor that had been torn and destroyed by the stone waves had returned to a more natural state; new trees had even begun noticeable growth. 'I guess it's been awhile.' He joked to himself, forcing a smile that he wasn't able to keep for long. "I guess It's time to go home." He muttered to himself, uncertain of what awaited him.

(Later)

"Uhh Uhh Uhh…." It was late evening by the time Ide reached the gate to the Hidden Leaf He was exhausted, starving, injured and nearly completely drained of chakra to the point where he had opted to walk the last 3 miles of the journey rather than tree hopping.

"Hault!" A voice called out from behind Ide before a blur rushed by him and appeared in front of him. A ninja sporting an outfit near identical to Ide's with spiky, black hair and dark eyes, and a strip of bandage running across the bridge of his nose. "Stop right where you are, you're going to need to identify yourself before you make another step."

"I'm Ide Uchiha, I'm a Leaf Shinobi." Ide muttered as he kept walking forward too tired to even look at the gate guard. He simply tapped his headband as identification. But before he could press on he was met with a forceful hand on his shoulder.

"I don't know where you got that headband and that jacket." The guard said in serious manner. "But I know for a fact you are not who you say you are. I suggest you turn around before I'm forced to apprehend you."

Ide too tired to deal with an explanation simply looked back up at the guard, activated his sharingan and repeated himself. "I am Ide UCHIHA! A Leaf Shinobi. Let me in…"

"..." The gate guard stood stunned for a moment just staring in disbelief into the boy's eyes before coming up with a response. "... I think you're going to need to come with me…."

"Fine…" Ide answered, too tired to argue, as he let his eyes return to normal. "Just let me get something to eat on the way, would you?" With that the village gates opened and Ide was greeted with the familiar sight of Hokage mountain but there was whole new headed added to the monument and one that appeared to be under construction. This is where passage of time finally set in for Ide and all he managed to mutter was a soft "oh no…."

(End/Authors note)

This story was started by Jct1345 around a year ago and I got his permission to take over as the author, he also shared with me his original 14 chapters to upload on my page in order to make the story seemless. He told me where he invisioned the story going but also gave me permission to take things in my own direction. I hope I can live up to expectations