warning: later Naruto MANGA spoilers! if you want to spoil the anime by reading scanslated manga, try Naruto Chuushin. now, on with the synopsis.
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The fifteen-year-old Uzumaki Naruto returns to Konoha, once more reduced to an emotional wreck. This time, the cause is the loss of the first person he had ever known who he could truly relate to: Gaara of the Sand. For both of them had carried "Tailed Beasts" from birth on, and both had been shunned and hated by their respective villages.
Enraged with Akatsuki, who had captured and killed Gaara for his otherself's power, and at himself, who failed to save his proclaimed friend, Naruto throws himself into brutal new training routines with shocking ferocity. As the days pass, more and more of the Kyuubi's red chakra bleeds over into the hyperactive ninja's natural blue, tainting it and worrying the villagers more and more...
Weeks later, Tsunade feels the mix of ningen and tai-youkai chakra that is Naruto's suddenly disappear from his usual training grounds in the forests south of the village. She immediately goes to investigate...
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"NAru..." Bursting from the treeline, Tsunade finds her voice stolen by the sight before her.
In the middle of the clearing, Naruto stands stock-still, holding his mixed chakra under tight leash. Sweat drips down his face, the tension so thick in the air he is almost afraid to breathe. Hearing motion beside him and feeling a strong, familiar chakra, he whispers, "Tsunade-obaa-chan..." Naruto shifts slightly, sensing the counter-tension the Godime Hokage brings with her to what looks to him like a soon-to-be-battlefield.
Before them both stands one man, a hefty burlap sack over one shoulder. He is tall and lanky under his black cloak, with unruly black hair and shocking, three-pinwheeled red eyes set in a prematurely lined face that would otherwise still be rather youthful. On his forehead rides a hi-ate with its symbol, Konoha, barred.
The Godime hisses, "Uchiha..."
"...Itachi!" finishes Naruto. They both tense, ready for anything...
...Except for a chuckle. Itachi then replies, "Good, you're both here. I don't have to explain twice. If at all." Pulling the sack from his shoulder, he reaches into it and withdraws a body, astonishingly similar to himself in build and features... A very familiar body, especially to Naruto.
"Sas--!" Naruto gapes, before behind shoved aside by Tsunade as Itachi hurls the body toward them. Catching the limp form of the youngest Uchiha, she immediately checks for vital signs... "N-nani?! He's alive?" Both Konoha shinobi turn wide eyes on each other, then to the back of the retreating S-que criminal.
"Matte," asks Naruto suddenly. When the elder Uchiha pauses in midstep, Naruto continues, despite the Godime's urgent hushing. "Naze...? Naze da?"
With agonizing slowness, Uchiha Itachi turns his Sharingan eyes on the two blonde ninja. To Tsunade, he states, "His abandonment of Konoha is not entirely his fault, but yours as well. Should you loose him again, I will not save him, from Orochimaru or himself."
Tsunade shakes her head, not understanding. "What the devil are you talking about..."
Itachi's eyes blaze, his Sharingan spiraling into the darkness of the Mangekyo. The world desolves around Tsunade and Naruto...
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TSUKIYOMI
The two ninja find themselves back in Konoha, yet... Naruto gasps in realization. "This... This is the closed-down Uchiha sector! But..." Looking around, they spot bodies.... many bodies, all freshly killed.
"What the...?"
"I don't--!"
Further down the street they spot Itachi again, facing of against... a younger Sasuke!? They explode into motion, close the distance... And pass right through Itachi with their attacks, like spectres.
But the shock quickly wears off, as Itachi speaks.
"If you awaken it, there will be three people, including me, who have ever used the Mangekyo Sharingan. If that can happen, *chuckle* there is meaning in letting you live. But as you are now... you aren't even worth killing."
Tsunade gasps. "This... this is the past... Itachi's memories... But Sasuke..." Her knowledge of human psychology, gained alongside her knowledge of physiology, springs to the fore, and she begins to realize just what was done to Sasuke.
"Foolish brother. If you want to kill me, then curse me. Hate me. And live on in shame. Run and run... and cling desperately to life. Then, one day, come before me with the same eyes I bare now!"
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The real world fades back into existance. Tsunade, however, continues to mull over what has just been revealed.
"Sasuke's actions, his attitudes... His lust for power... But why?" To Itachi, "Why would you go through the trouble of returning him to Konoha? After what you did to his mind, with those words..."
"Tsunade! Tsunade-obaa-chan! That freaky seal-thing... its gone!"
The Godime's eyes widen further. "And to free him from Orochimaru's curse seal... Naze, Uchiha Itachi? You murdered the rest of your clan, why not finish the job and just leave yourself."
Itachi looked at her blandly for a long moment, and Tsunade's heart skipped a beat, and she feared he would not answer, or worse, take offense...
The Akatsuki member snorted suddenly. "I did not, and will not. I slaughtered beasts that dared to claim Uchiha blood. Yet I dream of seeing my Clan rebuilt... I killed all those... 'people'... because they were unworthy. And because I killed them, I too, am unworthy. Ototo... if he is to resurrect the Uchiha, he must prove himself to be worthy. I will accept nothing else."
Then Itachi turned to face the Godime fully, his voice hardening, his chakra pressing down ominously upon her. "And lastly... The Uchiha have always been and should always be of the Leaf. However, if you are not worthy, my ototo, as a Leaf himself, will fail. And if the Leaf fails... If Hebi-men cannot complete his threat, I will finish it for him!" Icy fingers of dread crawled up Tsunade's spine as Itachi's chakra roared... Then he vanished in a flash of black flame, and all was quiet--
"Anosan, anosan! What are we supposed ta do with Mr-Scowly-Face over here, Tsunade-obaa-chan?"
--Except for Naruto, of course. ~THUD~ The Godime sighed as she picked herself up from an undignified facefault. "Come on, kono gaki. Sasuke's comatose; we'd better get him back to the hospital where we can moniter him properly... In the mean time, I have something new to consider, regarding our resident Uchiha..."
An inkling of what Uchiha Itachi had planned was slowly starting to come together inside Tsunade's mind... "Clever, Itachi... Very clever... Perhaps there is hope for Sasuke, and for the Uchiha, yet..."
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ningen (human)
tai-youkai (grand demon)
matte (wait)
naze (why?)
tsukiyomi (World of the Moon)
ototo (younger brother)
hebi-men (snake-face/mask, ie Orochimaru)
kono gaki (you brat)
