Eyes of the Devil

Chapter 1

The lost soul and the homeless warrior

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the characters of Naruto, only that of Takashi, Inubo, Kurai, and Kaitsu… I think that's all of them, anyway, I own all the characters that are obviously not original to the anime or manga, the four listed are the most important. If you're not sure, ask me in a review.

A/N- I know it sounds like Rurouni Kenshin, and that's because this story was inspired by it. I'm pretty sure hiten mitsirugi is an actual style, but just in case, I place no claim on it. PS- this disclaimer applies to all chapters.

Twelve years ago, the bloodiest revolution in history began in a small village called Hitsuya. Four years into the war, a warrior arose. An assassin the likes of which the world had never seen. Having combined the shinobi arts with that of kenjutsu (the art of the sword), his skill with a blade was unparalleled. His speed was said to have rivaled the gods themselves. He used his blade to cut down all those who would stand in the way of the new regime.

After years of bloody conflict, the long battle finally came to a close and the revolution was over. The warrior disappeared, fading into the annals of history, only the name Demon hidden in the Shadows left as a reminder of the warrior who ended the rule of a tyrant.

Konoha

Present

"Well… here we are…"

"Yes… home… well, not any more…"

"We should move quickly, stick to the shadows and all that."

"Head straight for the Hokage's office, don't get side tracked."

"I know…"

Two men stand on the rooftops of Konoha. They're both tall, one a little taller than the other.

Both are wearing black, hooded cloaks, their faces shadowed.

"Let's move."

Sakura stepped out into the cool evening air. A gentle breeze hung in the air.

"Hey, Sakura-chan!"

"Huh?" Sakura said. She looked down the street to see her best friend, Ino, walking toward her.

"Oh; Hi Ino-chan; what're you doing here?" Sakura said, surprised, but happy to see her friend.

"I'm on my way to confirm my squad's new mission. Wanna tag along?" Ino asked, smiling.

"Sure! I've got to see sensei anyway. She wants me to help her go over some old files."

Sakura and Ino have grown closer than ever the past few years. They had stood by each other in battle, laughed together, been there when the other was hurt, even cried together when Sasuke made it clear he wasn't ever coming back.

"So, how does it feel to be sixteen?" Ino asked.

"Great! But my party isn't until this weekend." Sakura said happily.

Sakura was taller now, about five feet, and her hair had grown out again, all the way down to the small of her back. Her bangs came down to her chin. She'd finally grown into her body; her breasts had grown in, not to the point of being huge, but just enough to make her curvaceous in all the right places.

She wore a shirt similar to her old one, but it was dark blue, not red, and she wore a black t-shirt underneath it. She had black fingerless fighting gloves that came up to her elbow on her hands. Black pants and blue shinobi boots completed her look.

Ino looked pretty much the same as always, and wore a jounin's uniform.

"Well duh. I wouldn't wanna have a massive party during the week! We all have jobs you know!" Ino said. They laughed.

"How does it feel to be a jounin?" Sakura asked sarcastically.

"It's great, but the workload sucks. And you know what?"

"What?"

"You never know how truly annoying genin are until you have three of them stuck up your ass seven days a week."

The two girls laughed.

Two figures land silently on the roof of Tsunade's office.

"Keep guard." The shorter of the two said. He moved to the edge and easily flipped down, grabbing the side of the roof, and swinging through the open window.

Tsunade sat at her desk in the dark office. The only light came from a small lamp on her desk. She looked up from the book she'd been reading, her eyes roaming the hooded figure before returning to her book.

"What, can't even say hi to me?" the figure asked.

Tsunade looked up at him.

"Hello, Takashi." She said; boredom evident in her voice.

The man threw back his hood. He looked shockingly similar to Sasuke, but was definitely older. He looked to be eighteen, and his features were harder, more defined than Sasuke's. He stood dead at six feet.

Under the cloak he wore a tight black t-shirt and black pants that came down to his feet. He wore black shinobi boots with the toes covered. A kattana was on his side, hanging in the black obi belt he wore. It had a blue grip and a black guard with a black sheath. It was pushed behind his back.

His long black hair was tied in a high ponytail and he had the telltale onyx eyes of the Uchiha clan.

"So? Anything new?" he asked.

"Well…" Tsunade said, sighing loudly. "We know they've moved, but we're not sure were. We also know that were ever they are Orochimaru is still giving orders. How they're getting back to sound, I've no clue."

"That's it? What about Sasuke?" Takashi said loudly.

"We don't…" Tsunade began, but Takashi cut her off.

"All you've told me is shit I already knew damn it!"

"Calm down! We're doing our best Takashi!" Tsunade said. She stood as she spoke. "They keep moving. Not only that, Orochimaru keeps sending Sasuke out to do his bidding. Plus our trackers keep turning up dead. Takashi… I don't know how to tell you this… but we're giving up on bringing Sasuke back."

"WHAT?"

"SHUT UP!" These meetings are supposed to be secret! We can't keep sending men after him just so he can kill them! Not to mention the fact that he made it perfectly clear to Naruto and Sakura that he wasn't coming back! I'm sorry Takashi, I am. But I will not continue to sacrifice valuable shinobi to bring back someone who doesn't want to come back!" She said, her voice echoing in the small office.

Sakura and Ino are walking down the hall to Tsunade's office.

"What's that?" Sakura said as they neared the door.

"Sound like she's yelling at someone…" Ino said. The blonde pressed her ear to the door. Her eyes grew wide.

"What is it?"

"They're… they're talking about Sasuke!"

"What?" Sakura said. She leaned down and pressed her ear to the door.

"I don't care what you do, Tsunade, but I'm not giving up on him. He's my little brother… and I will get him back!"

Their attention was drawn to the door. The doorknob was turning.

Sakura opened the door. Tsunade was alone in her office. The window was open and the curtains were billowing in the cool autumn breeze.

"Is everything all right, sensei? We heard yelling from in here." Sakura said. She wanted to know who had said they were Sasuke's brother. It hadn't been Itachi, she knew his voice, so who was it? She wanted to know so badly, but the two girls knew better than to ask annoying questions when Tsunade was in a bad mood; especially since they weren't supposed to be listening anyway.

"Everything's fine." Tsunade said as she sat back down behind her desk. "Ino, here's your genin squads new mission. You start in three days." She said; handing Ino a blue folder. "It's an escort mission." She added.

"Thank you, Lord Hokage. What should I do in the meantime?"

"Your team's been having a full workload lately, so take the time off." Tsunade said wearily.

Ino bowed and left the room, waving to Sakura as she left. Sakura returned her gesture.

"Sit." Tsunade said in that "disobey and you're a dead girl" tone.

"Yes ma'am." Sakura said hurriedly and she quickly sat in one of the chairs before her desk.

"Look through these and mark them for relevancy from 1 being the highest to 5, the lowest." Tsunade said as she handed Sakura a stack of papers.

An hour passed as Sakura aided her sensei in her work.

"Um…" Sakura said out of the blue.

"Yes?" Tsunade asked, looking at her with a tired expression.

"Uh… I know it's none of my business… but… who were you arguing with earlier? I heard him say he was related to Sasuke but he didn't sound like Itachi… but I thought the rest of Sasuke's family was dead." Sakura said.

Tsunade looked away from her and sighed heavily.

"Sakura… there is an explanation, but it is beyond top secret. If what I tell you gets out, it would almost certainly mean war between us and the Hidden Mist Village."

Sakura's jaw dropped.

"What could be so huge it could cause a war?" Sakura asked.

"Swear to me you will never speak of this to anyone."

"I swear."

"Well… You know about the revolution in Hitsuya right? It's a part of Konoha now."

"Yeah, it was one of the bloodiest conflicts in history."

"Well… when it started, the leader of the revolutionaries, Hideki Matatsuma, was a former comrade of the third Hokage. Unfortunately, even though he wanted to help him, a treaty we'd signed with the mist had forbidden it. You see Sakura, Hitsuya was under the rule of a tyrant, Touji Nobunaga. Mist had sided with Nobunaga. You see, they had wanted to conquer Hitsuya, but, when the revolution started, they figured they'd help Nobunaga to win them crush him when his military power was diminished from the war."

"Okay…"

"This is where Sasuke is tied into the story. You see, Itachi wasn't the only prodigy to emerge from the Uchiha clan. Takashi is Itachi's little brother and Sasuke's elder… by about two years I think."

"So how will this info cause a war?"

"I'm not done. Takashi was a prodigy as well. Genin by six year's old, chunin by seven, Anbu at 9! Yes, he was a true prodigy… He was out on a mission the night of the massacre… he never forgave himself for not being there to stop Itachi… Like he'd have been able to… Anyway, he went on to become one of the first members of a top secret division of the Anbu; the Anbu Shadow Tactical Operations, or ASTO, for short."

"What did they do?"

"They are they units we send to support allies when extenuating circumstances prevent us from sending in normal reinforcements."

"So they're the people we send in when we're not even supposed to participate."

"Correct. In order to maintain peace with the Hidden Mist village, while not being forced into fighting alongside Nobunaga, the third Hokage decided to maintain peaceful neutrality. It worked too, for about four years it worked… until Hideki came to Konoha to ask for our help personally. That was also the day the first ASTO squad was formed and went active. "Openly, the third had refused Hideki, maintaining the peace, but in secret he'd agreed to send an ASTO squad to Hitsuya to aid Hideki's war effort."

"And Takashi was one of them? But he would've only been ten at the time!"

"Yes. But he was still an effective soldier. He's kind of a legend now. Are you familiar with the stories about the Demon hidden in the Shadows?"

"Uh… yeah… they say his power was unstoppable during the revolution… You mean he's the Demon hidden in the Shadows? A mere child killed over a thousand people?" Sakura said loudly, she was astonished. How could a ten year old have that kind of power?

"Yes. Well, he didn't get well known until he was twelve but yes. Unfortunately, that fame was the reason he hasn't been able to call Konoha home in the past four years."

"Why hasn't he been able to?"

"Because, when his identity was revealed, we had no choice but to declare him a defect and a rouge ninja to prevent war. It was his choice."

"That's horrible!"

"Yes… it is. All he's cared about since he found out about Sasuke's disappearance is finding his little brother. He's come close a few times. The yelling you and Yamanaka heard was me and him arguing."

"You mean he was just here?"

"Yes. He took the news that we're giving up on Sasuke about as well as you did." Tsunade said heavily.

Yes. Sakura remembered when she'd found out that they were giving up on her first love. She'd cried for days. Thank god for Ino and Naruto. They'd been there for her in her time of need.

"Inubo?" Tsunade called.

"Busted." Came a voice from outside the window. It was deep and rough.

A figure appeared, leaning against the wall next to the window. He was at least seven feet tall, and had silver hair coming down to his shoulders. Amber eyes showed from behind his long bangs.

"How've you been?"

"Terrible. I think I have a cold. Thanks for sending us on that wild goose chase to the land of snow, by the way."

"Sorry about that, we sincerely thought Sasuke was there." Tsunade said with a sheepish smile. "Anyways; Takashi stormed out before I could tell him that for the past few months I smoothed things over enough with the Hidden Mist village to where you and he can finally rejoin the village."

"Really? You could do that?" Inubo said.

"Yes." Tsunade said with a smile. "I won them over when I told the Mizukage that if we let you guys rejoin the village, your combined power could be used for both nations, seeing as we're allies."

"Well I'll be damned… Takashi's going to be happy."

"I doubt it." Tsunade said with a sigh.

The sun shone brightly in Sakura's eyes as she walked down the path she normally took to hers and Tsunade's training grounds. Today she took it to the waterfall. She wanted to find somewhere quiet to think about what she'd learned last night. There was a particularly beautiful clearing a little ways off the path with an excellent view of the waterfall, plus it was surrounded by cherry trees. They're blossoming by now.

Sakura smiled. She took the turn onto the path that led to the clearing. When she arrived there her breath was taken away by the beauty. Cherry blossoms fell lazily from the trees and blew around in the cool autumn wind.

What she didn't notice was a certain sword bearing shinobi dozing in the shadow of the trees.

He opened one eye and studied the girl, who had now moved into the center of the clearing.

"Wow. She's hot. I wonder if she knows I'm here." He thought.

Sakura sighed heavily and turned to go sit in her favorite spot under the trees, but when she looked, someone was already there.

"Hello?" she said. The figure moved, sitting up. Sakura gasped. It had to be Takashi. He looked just like Sasuke, but older.

"Yes?" He said in an amused tone. Truth be told, he was. This girl had gone from complete comfort to fear in a matter of seconds. "You can talk. I won't bite."

"You're Takashi, right?" Sakura said quietly. She was melting under his heated gaze.

"Hai. And you are?"

Takashi was enjoying himself. This girl was obviously a virgin. One heated glance and she was melting before him.

"Well if you're not going to say anything…" he said. He lay back down onto the cool grass. He had laid his kattana beside him on top of his cloak.

His fingerless gloved hands were folded behind his head.

He closed his eyes and appeared to have gone to sleep.

"Um…" Sakura mumbled. She decided against her better judgment and went over and sat down beside him, leaning against a nearby tree. A blast of icy wind came through and Sakura squeaked. She curled into a ball instantly and held her limbs close for warmth. Before she realized what happened she was covered in something heavy and warm.

Takashi had seen her shivering and thrown his cloak over her.

"Here." He said as he buttoned the front closed.

Sakura blushed as his hand brushed her cheek as he busied himself with fixing his cloak on her.

"Better?" he asked. His eyes were soft and kind. Could this really be the man who was feared as a god of death?

"Yes… thank you…" Sakura said.

He leaned back, supported by his arm outstretched behind him, his other arm resting on his leg while the other was outstretched in front of him.

"So… What's your name?" he asked, his tone warm and soft.