NOVEL NEXT Chapter 8: Chapter 8-Tragedies!
Chapter 8
IZUNA UCHIHA
A Shinobi's life was a tragedy. It was suffering, and that was a lesson he had learned too late. Izuna Uchiha had been born into this world with dreams and aspirations grander than anyone ever realized.
He was hopeful, talented, and supported, believing in the goodness of the people until he was not. Until tragedy struck and took it all away, showing him the truth of this world, the truth of a shinobi's life.
He had thought that he could change the world, and change it, he would as his team would be slaughtered on their first mission. Shisui, his childhood friend and companion, would die in his arms as he sat there surrounded by enemies on all sides with no hope.
And even at that moment, when his own belief had been shaken, Shisui would believe in him. And to this day, it was because of that belief that he lived.
He lived only because of his friend's sacrifice, a sacrifice that he planned to honor.
"It seems it is time for me to get active again," he whispered as he stood in the cemetery, infront of the empty grave of his friend as the day broke behind him.
"Don't worry though, I have learned to watch my back," and with that little jape, he turned his back as he made his way to the training ground. The letter had arrived late into the night, and there was a directive from the Hokage office taking him out of the hospital and putting him on active field duty.
He was to train with Team Minato, to give an assessment of his mission preparedness before he was shipped out to the battlefield once more. And so, he walked towards the training ground clad in his full ninja gear, with pocket fulls of kunai and shuriken and his handy tanto's tied to his back.
Soon enough, he reached the training ground and found Team Minato already there; at least most of it for one person was missing, as always, from their lineup.
Obito Uchiha was well acquainted with his knack for tardiness. Because of his association with Kushina-sensei, he spent a lot of time with the team.
"You are finally here, Izuna-kun," Minato Namikaze greeted him. The man was as cheery as always and rather indulgent when it came to the people he considered friends and family, though the same could not be said when it came to enemies.
The man was a certified prodigy, a shinobi whose name now inspired fear amongst enemy lines. The man's lenience was only for comrades, and there were but a few shinobi as cold a killer than the infamous Yellow Flash.
"Minato-san," he greeted the older nin before he gave a subtle nod to his charges, whose responses were rather representative of their demeanor.
Kakashi Hatake, Konoha's proverbial prodigy, gave a small nod, eyeing him suspiciously while he was greeted by an enthusiastic grin from the sole kunoichi of the team, Nohara Rin.
"Obito-san is lat..."
"Sorry, sorry for being late," and the said nin showed up running as the masked nin clicked his tongue.
"You are late, you dunderhead," Hatake admonished his teammate, even as the sensei did not.
"I just had to help an old woman," he excused as he smiled awkwardly, and before the argument could grow, the yellow-haired nin decided to intervene.
"Ok, that is enough. We have wasted enough time," he said as he clapped his hand, and all of them turned to face him.
"As you can all see, Izuna-kun will be joining us for the training for some days, so I want you to take full advantage of it, especially Rin and Obito," he said, turning towards his two wayward students, who both had very different responses.
"Of course, sensei," the brown-haired girl was quick to agree, and he knew that she was trying to learn iryo-ninjutsu, though he had not made much progress, unlike himself.
"What would I be able to learn from him? I am going to be a chunin soo..." the older Uchiha brat tried to bash away, and yet before he could mouth anymore.
"Don't be an idiot, Obito," Hatake said as he slapped his teammate on the head.
"Heyy!" the Uchiha looked scandalized as the masked boy continued.
"He could defeat you in his sleep with how you are. He even has his Sharingan, unlike a certain someone here," the boy taunted, starting a debate that did not appear to be nearing an end anytime soon.
And at that he looked at the blonde shinobi who simply watched it all indulgently, before he turned to him and began.
"Why don't we get started," and he shrugged and in all that, a snake in the distance slithered away while another slithered down the caverns deep underground to meet with the Shadow that protected Konoha.
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SHIMURA DANZO
Shimura Danzo stood in the underground facility of the Foundation reading over the several reports that he had received from his own men, and saw that they corroborated with what he had learned from Hiruzen about the impending threat from Iwa and Kumo.
The situation for Konoha grew more and more dire, and yet his old friend refused to become the leader he was meant to be, the leader that Konoha needed. Indeed, Konoha was being pressed right now but they had ample resources to combat the combined threat of Kumo and Iwa if only they were willing to use their jinchuriki and yet Hiruzen had refused to do that.
He had even refused to force his wayward student, that Entitled Senju Princess go the front lines and had holed her up in those useless hospitals where she was of no use.
"That fool," he cursed. And yet Hiruzen was always like that, too preoccupied with his civilities and principles to do what was necessary, and so he would do it. He would carry that burden, for unlike Hiruzen he knew that it was him who carried on the true will of their sensei.
He was meant to be the kage, and unlike Hiruzen he would act like it. Even if he may not bear the hat. At least for now that was.
"You are finally here," he spoke as a shadow silently appeared from behind him, and to even most jounin the man's presence would have remained hidden yet he was not most jounin.
Neither was he though. He was the only one of Hiruzen's students who were truly worthy of the title granted to them by Hanzo the Salamander.
"It seems that the young Uchiha has slipped out of your fingers once again," the man dithered his tone as sniding and slippery as a snake, while his golden eyes gleamed in the darkness.
"It matters not, we shall soon have him within our grasps," he said as he burnt the report from his informants and turned to face one of leaf's greatest assets in both combat and research into esoteric subjects. Orochimaru, the Snake Sanin.
"Is that so, or is sensei simply punishing you for your little game," the man continued, and Hiruzen's gaze narrowed as he tapped his finger, knowing full well that it was indeed true.
It had been his ploy to leak the news about a rising Uchiha star, his identity, and even his first mission. He had wished to locate the hidden scouts of Kumo and Iwa and knew that there would be no better temptation for them than a fresh genin team out of the academy bearing one of the most prized genins in it.
And they had taken the bait, allowing him to root out all of their scouts from behind the line, and yet it had earned him much ire from Hiruzen, who suspected him of the plot.
"Have you figured out the jutsu?" he asked and the Snake sanin smirked.
"It was quite a piece of work, I must say. I have not seen a genjutsu so potent in my life," and that genjutsu was what made him so cautious about that boy, for it reeked of the same prowess that had once been wielded by his own teammate, one whose eye now lay hidden behind the bandages on his face.
The ultimate Genjutsu of the Uchiha, wielded only by a user of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
"There are no records of such a genjutsu anywhere. The boy's report is a lie," Orochimaru's words just confirmed his suspicion that Izuna Uchiha now wielded those cursed eyes,
It was both a blessing and a curse to wield such power and have it in the hands of such a young shinobi and a Uchiha. It was a travesty and a weakness.
"Then our decision is made. In these dire times, I must do the deeds that Hiruzen will not," Danzo made his mind as he looked Hiruzen's student in the eye.
"The boy will be under your command in the Northern unit. If an opportunity arises, you will retrieve those eyes for the betterment of Konoha," he ordered, and the Snake Sanin's lips widened.
"I have always desired a pair of those eyes for myself," he said as Danzo's fist balled.
"Why must I hand them over to you, old man?" he asked.
His relationship with the Snake was not of comraderie, it was of mutual benefit. Both of them were enlightened to the darkness that hid underneath the surface, and ere willing to embrace it, both for their own reasons.
"Would you like Hiruzen to learn of your little experiments, Orochimaru?" he taunted, and the man immediately perked up at the threat.
"After all, it is quite a taboo to use corpses for research purposes, especially if it is in any way connected to the First Hokage," he challenged and saw the Snake's fists ball up at those words.
And that was his trump card against the man. For all his prowess and his ability the boy was a failure, one always looking for the approval of his so called sensei. He had an image to maintain infront of Hiruzen and all that would be tarnished if the truth about his true intentions and shady practices came to light.
"You will die for this," the man threatened, and many a shinobi would have been cowed by the killing intent coming off of the white-skinned man, and yet he was not most shinobi.
"Not before I have achieved my dream. Not before I have secured Konoha's future," he answered, and with that, the man turned his back on him.
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