Of Samurai and Shinobi

Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, it’s me again. I must say that this is a relatively quick update for me. But as I’ve been inspired to write more as of late, I decided to finish up the next chapter a lot sooner. I also happened to write down the entire plot for this fic, including the ending.

Don’t be alarmed though, it’s not ending any day soon. Quite the opposite, after getting my ideas on paper and establishing a time-line I realised just how long this is going to be, what have I gotten myself into? 0.o

I’m probably going to end up re-re-writing the first few chapters though. I’m not at all pleased with them. Especially not since I now find my writing skills improving and them not being on par with the rest of the story. But that should take a while, I’m picky after all XP

Oh well, hope you guys enjoy!


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Previously:

“A man claiming to be one of our lost distant relatives showed up in Konoha shortly after you left. He learned of our clans secrets before turning on us. He murdered several of our clan members. Our older brothers were amongst the victims.”
“A distant relative? Don’t tell me he got away with it…”
“He did. Somehow he managed to get away without a trace.”
“Well do they at least know his name or something?”
“He said his name was Itachi.”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Naruto POV


Ever had that feeling in your gut? You know, the one screaming at you something horrible is about to happen that could quite possibly change your entire life. That chilling feeling, that kind of unease that makes you feel as if you’re falling while in fact you’ve been unable to move as if frozen to the very ground.

Naruto was currently experiencing a similar sensation.

The last time he had felt like this, Konoha’s beloved Sandaime Hokage died. It had been a horrible fight between him and some S-class missing nin. It had happened during the previous Chuunin-exam. An as of yet still unidentified hidden village very damn well nearly started a full-out shinobi war. It the end they had proven far too weak to actually back up their threats and said shinobis met their match while fighting some of Konoha’s finest.

Naruto had been a pretty young boy at the time, just barely a Genin to be exact. Regardless he and his team-mates had been entered into that exam by their sensei, Yamato-sensei had truly believed they would make it. He remembered his match with the almost unbeatable Hyuuga Neji.

‘Almost, since I kicked his ass pretty good during that match!’

While Naruto and his team had been taken to Hidden Grass for their exam – far away from Konoha – the foreign shinobis made their move, fuelled by the firm belief that Konoha would be at it’s weakest with some of it’s strongest shinobis outside of the Fire-country looking after their young pupils. Their arrogance was countered with experience, as if Sandaime would ever be so stupid as to leave Konoha completely unguarded. The unidentified shinobis didn’t seem all that hard to beat until a former Konohan-nin joined the fight. It turned out he had even arranged for his student Tsunade to take over should anything happen to him.

Having been stationed abroad along side of his team-mates and fellow Genin, Naruto never really did know who this Nukenin was – that and he never did really feel like remembering minor details, an opponent was an opponent, names were unnecessary – but he did know that the man had once been a student of Sandaime. Naruto for one never really understood how anyone could be heartless enough to kill their very own sensei. Just the mere thought of hurting Iruka-sensei…

“Excuse me but what was that name?”

Naruto turned to Kaya hoping that the boy caught his look of desperation. But alas, fate had never really been kind to him.

“The man said his name was Itachi. Why?”

It was as if something inside Sasuke snapped. Even though Naruto understood Sasuke and his brother never really got along, he never did really hear the full story. Not that he cared to really. Mere moments ago Sasuke’s family had been nothing but a bad memory after all – save for his mother who had actually been very nice until Itachi showed up that is.

‘Wait a second…’

“Don’t worry Sasuke, it’s probably not what you’re thinking. I mean he was there with us in your village, wasn’t he? There’s no way he could have made it back that fast. Not even a shinobi can do that!”

He was lying. It had taken Naruto just a short while after all when he had travelled alone. He was pretty sure Sasuke knew that he was lying too, he only hoped to keep his raven-haired lover calm enough until he managed to figure out how to handle the situation. No one seemed to think much of his previous statement.

Why in the world would Sasuke’s older brother hurt Kaya’s family? Or even be in Konoha for that matter. There were tons of Itachi’s! There had to be!
For some reason the thought didn’t manage to reassure him in the slightest…

“At first this guy was pretty nice and polite. He started to get a bit arrogant after learning how to use sharingan though…”

Somehow Naruto wasn’t surprised to hear about the ‘arrogant’ bit.

“He and my oldest brother got pretty close I guess. So after a while Kensuke took him down to see our family temple, this Itachi guy started to behave really cold and unresponsive after that. Ayumu hadn’t been too happy about the whole trip to say the least. Two days later both my brothers and several other clan members were dead.”

No wonder Sai had seemed so on edge. Even though the two of them had never really been close, he still couldn’t help but care about his team-mate. Sai seemed to like the idea of the two of them ending up together as something more then ‘mere’ team-mates. Naruto on the other hand couldn’t see that happening. Having grown up without a family his team-mates had slowly been filling up the empty space a family should have occupied in his life. In the end they saved him from the loneliness that he had been forced to endure for the most part of his life.

Sai was kind of like a brother to him. Although a deranged and perverted one…
Sasame, always the reliable and responsible older sister. She made sure that the boys and even their sensei sometimes were kept in line. Speaking of their sensei, Naruto couldn’t wait to see him. Regardless of how creepy the guy could be.
Their dysfunctional little family was supposed to meet first thing in the morning and report how their individual missions had been.

Wouldn’t Yamato-sensei be surprised to hear about ‘recent developments’.

Sasuke had agreed earlier on to accompany him to the team meeting and be properly introduced to team nine. It were supposed to be a happy occasion and the blond had been giddy for the main part of the morning (even though the little tumble with Sasuke earlier on probably had something to do with that), but the mere mentioning of the name ‘Itachi’ made his hair stand on end. Even more so then Yamato-sensei’s "ruling by the use of terror" approach. Naruto turned to Kaya.

“Just ‘Itachi’? Or did the guy have a last name to go with that.”
Just as Kaya was about to answer, Koji decided to rejoin the land of the living.
“I was NOT asleep!”

Had the current situation been different, Naruto would have laughed at the scene.

“You idiot. Not only were you asleep, you were drooling in my lap.”

The mortified expression on Koji’s face was priceless to say the least. The boy truly was Kiba’s little brother. No doubt about it.

Kiba.

Now those were some memories. Even though they had never really seen themselves as friends before, they used to hang out a lot together back at the academy. Generally ‘hanging out’ meant skipping classes and trying not to get caught by the academy teachers. Somehow Iruka always managed to find them though. Them meaning Kiba, Chouji, Shikamaru and Naruto of course.

Chouji was a rather unappreciated boy within his age group. He was often teased about his weight. What should have interested the people more then the size of his body, should have been the size of his heart. Or at least that’s what Shikamaru used to say, if the boy ever found the energy to do so that is.

Shikamaru was in one word ‘lazy’. He would rather spend his entire afternoon dozing off in the shade or looking at the clouds. He was often assisted in this ‘tiresome’ task by Chouji. It was a shame really, because Naruto knew Shikamaru had a lot of potential. Not only was he exceptionally bright, his bloodline allowed the use of many cool jutsu’s involving shadows. Together with Kiba and Naruto himself, this ragtag pack had pretty much always been up to no good. Naruto remembered Kiba saying something about a younger brother once. Something about him soon being old enough to get a pup of his own.

Somehow the idea of another Akamaru running around didn’t bother him as much as it should. Akamaru had always had it in for him for some reason. It probably had something to do with the strange rivalry between Kiba and Naruto. Kiba had always liked being the centre of attention. Somehow he didn’t feel like sharing this attention with a loud blond orange wearing punk. If he had to throw away one more perfectly fine pair of pants due to the mutt peeing on them however, he’d skin the damn dog and wear it as pants.

The two boys continued to bicker, much like he and Sai had when they were little. During those times, Sai was either busy arguing with Naruto or running away from a flock of girls. Two of Konoha’s most promising young Kunoichi’s – Ino and Sakura – were always hot on his heels. Naruto even vaguely remembered having a crush on Sakura, which didn’t last long though. Even back then Sai had managed to rub him the wrong way. Brilliant little Sai – the Uchiwa prodigy. Even though the boy had been shunned by his family at first due to his inability to activate his sharingan, he had soon proven himself to be quite an asset. Rather then activating a flashy doujutsu, he had the capability to copy anything he saw onto paper. All the perks of an Uchiwa, but never their downsides. He was suddenly accepted into the clan with open arms after that little discovery. A part of him had actually liked Sai before that time, because before that Sai had been an outcast like him. Better yet, he had wanted to be just like him. He had been hard-working and proud, never allowing anyone to see the fierce emotions building up beneath that porcelain surface. Afterwards he grew arrogant.

Out of nowhere he started spouting crap about romantic aspirations towards Naruto. He understood really – the two of them had been in a similar position throughout a large part of their life after all and now that he managed to put himself in people’s good graces, he wanted to do the same for Naruto – but regardless he refused to give in to Sai’s demands. He had seen what all that ass-kissing had done to Sai and he refused to follow in his footsteps this time…

Funny how Sasuke’s stand-offish attitude reminded him a lot of what Sai had been like back in those days. Perhaps the small part of him that had once admired Sai had simply reawakened upon his meeting with Sasuke…

He had been both thrilled and disappointed about being on the same three man cell as him. It gave him a nice chance to show Sai that he could make people respect him through hard work. To show Sai that he’d been wrong to just allow people to kiss his ass because of his family’s reputation rather then his own. Yet at the same time he disliked the idea of having to spend so much time around someone whose sole purpose it was to either annoy you, fight with you or molest you. Knowing Sai, all of it out of sheer dislike of being turned down by another who had once been very much like himself.

Sasame had been a nice addition to the team though. Naruto, never having been popular with those around his own age – or anyone else in Konoha that is – feared the mere thought that she would be as bigoted as everyone else. He was pleasantly wrong though. Though a bit violent and rough on the outside, the girl had a heart of gold.

It was safe to say his academy days hadn’t been boring, neither were the years after his graduation.

Not that he could say his present-day life was boring. Quite the opposite. The arrival of one Uchiha Sasuke managed to spice things up alright. Said young man looked troubled…

They were probably in for a long talk as soon as they left. Honestly, they had only intended to stick around here for a limited amount of time. He had truly meant to show Sasuke around the entire – or at least a large part of Konoha. So far they’d been stuck here and things seemed to be turning for the worst. The academy always seemed to function as the beginning of something…

Naruto stood up and brushed off his pants. As was expected of the loudmouth ninja, he made a scene by stretching in a rude non-caring way and let out a rude loud yawn.

“Well, I say Sasuke and me have been here long enough as it is. There’s a lot more sights to see! Would you guys believe he hasn’t even seen the Hokage faces up close yet? Later Iruka-sensei!”

With that having been said, Naruto grabbed Sasuke’s arm and proceeded in dragging him out of the academy in true ‘Uzumaki-Naruto-style’. Sasuke truly didn’t seem to mind. Perhaps he’d caught on. That they needed to have a serious talk that is…

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Sasuke POV


Once again his brother had single-handedly ruined everything.

When first arriving here a Shinobi village had seemed like the last place where Itachi would have set foot. Or at least not without a purpose in mind.

“Don’t worry Sasuke, it’s probably not what you’re thinking. I mean he was there with us in your village, wasn’t he? There’s no way he could have made it back that fast. Not even a shinobi can do that!”

‘Don’t worry…’

Easier said then done. Even though Naruto did have a point, about Itachi not being fast enough to head over to the Uchiha mansion after such an atrocity mere days ago. It had taken a lot longer when he and Naruto had made said trip towards Konoha.

There was something suspicious about the way Naruto was acting though. Sasuke was no fool, he had seen Naruto move before. On that very night of the festival back at the village when he single-handedly managed to capture that shinobi. Had Naruto been travelling alone he would have made it back much sooner, he had been a burden.

With Naruto’s sudden urge to leave made apparent to his environment, Sasuke didn’t hesitate to go along with the shinobi’s hasty exit. Apparently Naruto wasn’t much of a fool either, even though others might think differently. Naruto seemed a lot better at ‘hiding’ then that Sai character though. As a matter of fact, all shinobi he had met so far seemed to be strangely reclusive towards those around them. Iruka – a sweet and caring mother hen – turned into quite the warrior. The deadly precision with which the gentle teacher threw those weapons was astounding. Then there was Kakashi – a pervert extraordinaire – no matter how strange his appearance, the man was still a highly respected Jounin. That’s right, Iruka had explained the shinobi ‘class-system’ to him earlier on. Shinobi society was unlike anything his fellow samurai had ever imagined, just the fact alone that the shinobis had to earn their titles through training and exams set them apart from samurai.

True, exams were quite different from actual battles and regardless of their young ninja being sent out to do missions across the entire country, an actual battle was a much needed experience to any young warrior. Rather then lurk in the shadows with ‘the mission’ as primary goal, samurai focused on honour and victory. Those who lost never got a second chance, unlike these strange creatures of the night who simply withdrew and tried again with larger numbers.

A disgrace, his father would have called it. And yes, throughout the traditions and mannerism he had been spoon-fed ever since he was born he somewhat agreed. Yet at the same time he had always wondered what the use of it all was. Why take your own life? Why rob yourself of the chance to get stronger and try again? Mere days ago he would have never allowed himself to dwell upon such subjects. But then again, mere days ago he had resided under the watchful eyes of his father, now he was free to do as he wished and free to think as he wished. And funnily enough? He didn’t know what to do with this newfound freedom. He was acting strangely out of character as of late, he was making irrational decisions based on emotions he never imagined he would end up experiencing – well, not again at least.

He had disgraced his family, abandoned his home while paying little to no thought of the consequences his actions might bring. But he really hadn’t cared, he had been happy. He truly didn’t care that he was acting unlike his usual self, he loved. But as always, his past couldn’t remain buried. Itachi once again managed to find a way to ruin his life. He had soiled the Uchiha name before he had even set foot inside this village, Sasuke’s reputation would be forever marked as ‘his little brother’, even in a village that before this day had never even known him.

“Sasuke?”

“What…?”

“You really shouldn’t be worried, you know. You’re not your brother after all.”

“What does that have anything to do with it Naruto?! No matter what I do, no matter where I go, he’s there. He’s just there!”

“But you haven’t done anything!”

“And how long do you intend to keep it hidden? That he’s my brother?!”

“I don’t. I plan on speaking to Tsunade right now and fess up. Like I should have done from the start.”

The idiot was going straight to the damn Hokage? Was he trying to get him killed?!

“Come on. She’ll understand. Knowing her she probably suspects something anyways.”

Sasuke suddenly realised that Naruto had been holding his wrist this entire time. He hadn’t let go, not even once. Sasuke stared at the slightly calloused hand, Naruto gave his wrist a tiny squeeze. A gesture of affection.

‘Trust me.’ His blue eyes seemed to scream.

And he did.

‘WAY too much out of character, what are you getting yourself into Uchiha?’

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tsunade POV


It had been about time. The damn brat and his pretty little ‘boyfriend’ had been keeping the truth from the beginning. Did the brat really think she was that stupid?

She wasn’t selected as a Hokage for nothing after all. Just the way that boy moved betrayed his true nature. The boy was no mere civilian. The graceful way with which this mysterious young man moved had most likely been instilled through rigorous training, those cold calculating eyes taught to detect even the slightest of movements, those were marks of a warrior.

He was most definitely not a shinobi though. The slight trails of callous on the boy’s pale skin didn’t match the typical trails one gained from handling delicate objects such as kunai or senbon. It didn’t take an expert to see this ‘Sasuke-character’ was used to holding a sword of some kind. Adding the fact that Naruto hadn’t come clean about the boy’s true nature, it meant that he was hiding something. The boy either had to be some kind of outlaw or a samurai.

Konoha-gakure had learned it’s lesson not too ling ago, about not allowing strangers amongst them. An adolescent male by the name of Uchiha Itachi had come knocking. The old Uchiwa legends spoke of a large portion of their family going their own way at a certain time in history. A legend since until the day Itachi ‘graced’ Konoha with his presence, this ‘great divide’ had never been proven. All it had taken was to compare his blood-sample to one of the Uchiwa clan. The head of said clan had been so proud to have lived long enough to see the day these two long-lost households reunited. Even though in all her life she had never seen the Uchiwa clan reach out to assist another, it had made perfect sense. Those that were part of that clan stayed part of that clan no matter what, it didn’t entitle them to treat the ‘odd ones out’ like trash though. Poor little Sai, what a case he had been before that little genetic discovery.

Any normal man would have faced severe opposition when allowed into such a tight-packed unit, but young Itachi wormed his way into the clans good graces and earned their respect at a record pace. What fools they had been…

Even though the signs had been there – the mysterious yet frequent disappearances of said long lost clan member, his somewhat anti-social behaviour of towards anyone not belonging to the Uchiwa clan, his eagerness to learn, the increasingly arrogant and stubborn attitude – the head of the Uchiwa clan would not listen. There was no way he would have ever turned down a ‘fellow son of Madara’ after all. The old man had likened Itachi’s strange behaviour to that of any other Uchiwa. He had mistaken this young man’s true motive with pride…and it had cost him his life. Not just his life, but the lives of several clan members as well. Now the old man’s son was in charge.

As if dealing with the new clan-leader Danzou wasn’t bad enough, now Naruto showed up with a boy who resembled Itachi so much that it could even make the world’s biggest idiot question the notion the two could possibly be related. Itachi and Sasuke both sported that ingrained manner of speech, the same grace with which they moved…

What was Naruto getting himself into?

“Tsunade-sama, Naruto-kun and his companion are here to see you.”

“Thank you Shizune, let them in.”

One thing was certain though. If the black-haired bastard even as much harmed a hair on her little idiots head, she’d kill him and spit on his beaten carcass for good measure.

TBC