Cold Blue Edge

Cold Blue Edge

A rewrite of Cold Blue Metal

Fanfiction by zero0000

Original concept by Masahishi Kishimoto

Author's note: I realize that a lot of people are going to be very disappointed that the original storyline had changed so much. But, certain changes in the canon storyline made a lot of possibilities all the more plausible in a fanfic, also giving me far more leeway to explore the motivations of several factions in Konoha's political environment. Also, I feel that there are many more ways for me to use my specific writing style (which I had managed to polish a bit during the original Cold Blue Metal storyline) would be better expressed with a rewrite.

So, unfortunately for my readers, this chapter is an official notice of sorts discontinuing the original storyline for Cold Blue Metal. Instead, I hope you guys will learn to love this fic as much as you did the first incarnation, and keep reading it enough to at least match the other fic. Also? Spoiler warnings up to chapter 398.

This is zero0000 signing on.

"First rule when you're dealing with the devil…don't."

- Col. Frank Madden, Solo

Prologue: Enter the Boy

1600hh, Uchiha Clan Ancestral Sakura Grove

Nakano River, Village of Konoha

Shisui looked at his friend and kinsman, his expression incredulous. "Itachi," he began, mentally calming his voice so he doesn't sound as incensed as he knew he was. "Are you seriously going along with this? I mean, there are so many reasons why you should just say no--"

"Niisan, I already said yes."

The older ninja huffed. He hated it when the brat (not so much of it now though) called him that. Itachi almost smirked, amusement dancing in his almost onyx eyes. "The kid has the potential to be something great," Itachi said, making room for his cousin to sit down beside him under the sakura tree. "I really don't see the gravity of why the council even insisted I say no to an assignment the Hokage himself gave me."

"What the Hokage did was saddle you to a demon for six years."

"You don't know that for sure," Itachi countered. "I've seen the seals. I read the text. Yondaime-sama was a genius of the highest caliber. Perhaps not even I can do any better with his fuuin-work."

"Still, the demon--"

"The child is not the demon and the demon is not the child," the other said, eyes already narrowing in irritation. "The design was a master work. Do you understand Shisui? It was practically a work of art. The greatest seal created by the greatest seal master this village has ever seen. I mean come on. Even Sandaime-sama spent four years studying the fuuin created the night of October the tenth."

Shisui sighed, knowing that the fight was over before it had truly begun. They had spent most of the morning in their usual spot close to the Nakano River, by the sakura grove one of their distant uncles had planted there with several elders of the clan decades before. He should have known his younger cousin had already reached a decision. Shaking his head, he took a sip from his cup of tea, warmed by that incessantly green thermos Itachi insisted on carrying around during these little outings. The other shinobi busied himself with some onigiri, eating them with small, almost effeminate, bites.

The weather was typical Konoha springtime, the balmy climate that month of May keeping the trees at their greenest, and the cherry blossoms danced in the wind as a light breeze blew past. Nakano river was right near the borders of Konoha's ancestral lands, given to the clan when the village was founded. Behind the pristine beauty of this place was the site of several bloody battles almost a century ago. Bloody wars which shaped the course of history for years to come. It was oddly surprising how such a thing of beauty sprung up from such a place of horror, but the Uchiha could only shrug and say "such is the history of all shinobi of the Leaf. One must bloom or die to make others bloom."

They spent their time here on days off, a few hours at a time, just enough to get some measure of distraction from the lives they led. Conversation stopped for a few more minutes while the pair finished their snacks. It was Shisui who broke the silence first.

"So are you ok with this?"

"Why bother asking me? You've obviously made up your mind already."

Itachi gave him a look of disdain, but said nothing in return. Headstrong and independent, Uchiha Itachi may be, but this side of him that desperately sought approval was well hidden to other people from inside the clan. Shisui admitted that he wasn't the ninja his kinsman was, and so the reason for their close knit relationship was always a bit of a puzzle for him.

The glaring disparity between the two young men was obvious at first glance. Uchiha Itachi at fourteen was younger by three years, and inherited the aristocratic and somewhat feminine features that his mother (and once upon a time, his father) bestowed upon him from her side of the gene pool. He tended to be very graceful yet economical in his movements, and his speech patterns, when faced with the general public in any case, tended to be concise and to the point.

The older shinobi Shisui, who came from a minor branch of the clan, had none of the pressures of being the heir to Konoha's premiere fighting family. This led him to develop a personality that was as laid back as an Uchiha would dare to be, yet his own eyes would turn calculating when faced with serious matters. His facial features tended to look like a charcoal sketch of an aristocrat, lips a little bit thick, eyes that seemed a bit more shadowed, and the shape of the head a bit more squarish and gruff.

The older ninja brushed his hair away from his face with his right hand and sighed. "There's still something that bothers me though," Shisui admitted. "I have a hard time seeing you as a teacher. How in the name of the Heavenly Empress Amaterasu would you even pull off something like that?" Itachi snorted, a gesture that was so out of character for even this casual instance.

"Teaching courses are mandatory upon entry to jounin."

"You skipped jounin level remember, Itachi-taicho?"

"Technically, ANBU is jounin-equivalent. We do have some teaching courses there too."

Shisui just shook his head. "I pity the poor brat if this is the kind of teacher he's going to be stuck with. Might has well leave him to the ministrations of those bastards who keep beating him up at that orphanage."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, niisan," Itachi said in a flat monotone that to him translated as sarcasm. "I'll be sure to enjoy rubbing your face in it when the kid ends up better than what that damn Danzou wanted him to be." Shisui whipped his head towards the younger man so fast it was surprising he didn't break his own neck.

"Wait a second, you never said anything about Danzou arranging this agreement."

"Yes, what of it?"

"What of it?!" Shisui exclaimed. "The man's backing that extremist wing of the ANBU! ROOT of the Tree of Konoha my ass! I can't believe you don't even know that! You're a goddamn ANBU captain for crying out loud!"

Itachi leaned back against the tree, his eyes gazing into the distance. "I had to make a deal," he said after a moment's silence. "They know about the clan's intentions."

Shisui's blood ran cold. That meant only one thing. "They know?" he managed to stammer. "How in hell do they know?" The younger man looked at him.

"They wanted me to carry out the execution," Itachi began, his gut twisting with the almost betrayal that he would have had to commit otherwise. "It was supposed to be a black ops mission approved by the Hokage and the Village Council. Eyes only, no written documentation. All the orders were orally given. The entire Uchiha clan would be executed by myself and one unnamed individual that would have made his presence known the same night. I would have fled and declared myself a missing nin, the only evidence of such a mission hidden deep within the memories of four Kage-level shinobi and myself." Black eyes met black as the most crushing part of the revelation was announced.

"You would have been the first to die, Shisui-niisan."

The gears in the other man's head spun frantically. How had the council known? They had been so circumspect. His own position in the vanguard of the force that would have assassinated the Hokage and the two ruling councilors would have made him the first and most logical target to take out in preventing the Uchiha insurrection. He was still in such a state of internal panic that Shisui barely noticed his cousin's hand shaking him by the shoulder.

"Cousin," Itachi barked. "You're safe. I made the deal to teach Uzumaki Naruto so the execution would not have to be carried out. But the clan is still under heavy guard so I would advise canceling any immediate moves on the family's part. Use whatever delaying tactics you can until father and the rest become discouraged enough to give up on their idea. So long as we don't make any sudden moves the Council will hold to its word and not issue the order for the family's termination."

"H-h-how…"

"Father is not as subtle as he thinks he is."

Shisui clenched and unclenched his fists. Years of planning….wasted! How in the hell did they find out about it!? He raged internally that he would have to leak into their intelligence networks that parts of the plan had been found out. Hopefully within the next few weeks he'd be able to set things in motion to stop the plans for the coup d'etat indefinitely.

Perhaps permanently even.

"The terms of the deal are this," Itachi began again in his lecturing tone. "I, Uchiha Itachi, will teach one Uzumaki Naruto, jinchuuriki and prison warden of the greatest demon lord the planet has ever seen, to become a true weapon in every sense of the world. Uzumaki-kun will be trained as a living coercive force, a security measure that's supposed to be treated somewhat like a secret weapon as they did with that boy Gaara in Suna or that woman Nii Yugito in Kumo."

"In return for at least four years of ANBU-class training, the Uchiha execution orders will be rescinded indefinitely until such time as the clan becomes far to flagrant in their attempts for a rebellion which would seek to undermine present political authority in the village," he ended, speaking the words as if he was reading from a contract. Verbal, obviously. There was no way such a mission would even be on a written document unless it was locked away deep in the ANBU barracks.

Which, in retrospect, it probably was.

Shisui pursed his lips, thinking into the words as deeply as he could. "Very well," he said after a fashion. "I guess there's no escaping this particular fate is there?"

"No there isn't."

"So, when are you planning on telling the brat?"

"This afternoon actually. You want to come with?"

"No, I think I'll be washing my hair." A snort.

"Dumbass. A no would have been enough."

The orphanage obviously had seen better days. The paint was cracking on the outer walls and most of the facility was giving out the effect that everything was repaired with too few materials and not enough funds. Everywhere he looked there were children running around with obviously second-hand toys and ill-fitting clothing. The children looked undernourished, each one of them shorter than they should be and thinner than most children their age. The jounin breezed past them with the miniature crowd parted like the Red Sea. It wasn't everyday they saw an honest-to-kami ninja in the compound.

The person at the front desk adjusted his glasses and looked upon him impassively. Morita Akio had been expecting shinobi escort to take the damn demon brat away from them once and for all. He directed the young man to the shared ward, not even bothering to pull away the two older boys who had been fighting with the undersized blond for one of the better toys in the playpen. Morita took away the little wooden sailboat and slapped all three children in the backs of their heads. Not even bothering to acknowledge their yelps of pain, he turned back to the ninja beside him.

"The blond there is young Naruto," the receptionist said. "He's the one you want."

The jounin nodded. He looked at the young boy and asked "did you pack your things?"

"Yes."

"Good."

With that, the ninja turned and walked away, without even telling the little tike to follow him. A few minutes before he was out of the doors, he heard hurried steps and a bit of hard breathing as Uzumaki Naruto ran to catch up. Itachi's stride didn't change in the slightest, and the little boy had to struggle to keep up. The teen barely glanced at him for a moment before he started down the streets to the ANBU training barracks, the one facility the fighting force had that was somewhere near public view. It took fifteen minutes to reach the facility, but once they were there, even the childish naivete the little blonde orphan had failed to protect him from the sheer intimidation factor the main building possessed.

The damn thing was built like a fortress. Armored plate glass windows resistant to a class A Katon jutsu and at least a class C explosive note. Chakra-conducive steel mesh layered in between two plates of armored glass to redirect the force of any ninpo, fuuin-reinforced concrete walls decorating all three stories of the compound. The rear of the compound was dotted with various training fields, most of which were occupied by rows of cloth-masked recruits barely out of chuunin rank. The drill masters were wearing porcelain masks, pieces of equipment these shit-green recruits would only get to wear once they've passed training. In Konoha, only 2 did, but that little portion of nearly a hundred recruits culled from all active teams per year all became the best ninja the Leaf could ever produced.

The lettering on the building was written on partially raised kanji painted the same color as the walls, so as to not be visible from a distance. Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai, the Special Tactics and Assassination Squad. Even up close it was hard to see unless you knew what you were looking for, and Naruto was surprised it took being ten feet from the facility's open doors for him to even notice the writing there.

The six year old let himself be led to the second floor, to a room with double bunk beds that looked somewhat similar to his own orphanage ward, if a bit more Spartan and better kept. The ninja didn't even speak, just motioned with a quick flick of his head to an empty bunk as if to confirm that the boy now owns it. "You'll be issued a uniform after a few days," the ninja said. "We'll probably have to requisition some training clothing from civilian establishments before then."

"Do you have any questions Uzumaki-san?"

"Well…what am I doing here?" the boy asked tentatively.

The teenager paused, not in the least surprised as to why the child hadn't been told anything. He was only about Sasuke's age after all, so he would have no idea what he was even doing in the ANBU training facility. Reaching into his pouch, he pulled out a crisp new scroll and unrolled it, reading it with a monotone voice. "By special dispensation of the Sandaime Hokage this May 14th, the twenty-sixth year of the Sandaime's reign in the Village of Konoha, the bearer of this document, Uchiha Itachi has been granted the right to inform Uzumaki Naruto about the truth of his heritage, superseding the laws of secrecy and all of its bylaws, passed on October the 11th, twentieth year of the Sandaime's reign in the Village of Konoha."

"Ano, shinobi-san, what does all of this mean?"

The teen rolled up the scroll and sat down in a bunk in front of the blond. "What this means Naruto-san," The Uchiha scion said in a placating tone. "Is that I am now entitled, by powers of this document, to tell you a secret which in other situations would have given the Military Police or the highest levels of shinobi authority to kill me for breaking a law passed when you were not even two days old. Did your headmaster and the teachers at the orphanage ever tell you the story of the defeat of the Kyuubi no Kitsune?"

"Yeah Uchiha-san!" Naruto yelled excitedly, making the ANBU captain flinch. "It's part of the reason why I want to become Hokage! So that I can use cool ninjutsu to protect the village!"

"The story you were told ended with the Yondaime killing the demon lord just as he gave his last breaths," Itachi said, and at Naruto's questioning look, continued with "but the truth is far more than just that."

"One cannot kill a being of malevolence and chakra. One cannot deal death to something not held in its jurisdiction. Instead of killing it the Yondaime was only able to succeed to do one thing and one thing alone. Its defeat was assured in the end, yes. But the method with which the Yondaime dealt that defeat is what we will be talking about today."

"I don't think I understand all those big words, mister."

"The truth of the matter is, Naruto, the demon fox was never truly killed."

The blond sat bolt upright. "What do you mean it wasn't killed?!" he yelled. "The stories said the Yondaime used a super ninjutsu and killed it just as he was dying! What do you mean he didn't do that! He was the Hokage!"

"The Hokage of the time is clearly the most powerful ninja in the village," Itachi conceded. "That much is true. But there is nothing that a mere human can do to truly hurt something that never was meant to die."

"Instead the demon fox was sealed by what was in effect an S-class fuuin seal, created successfully at the cost of the Yondaime's soul. The design of the seal was such that it could only be sealed inside a baby who's chakra coils had not formed yet, allowing for the more malevolent youki to be dispersed and integrated with the child's chakra as he grew up." He looked straight into Naruto's eyes as he said the next part.

"That child was you, Uzumaki Naruto."

The next fifteen minutes was spent explaining the reason for the Hokage's law, why the law was passed so people would not think of him as the demon fox and instead be thought of as a hero. Naruto's fists clenched, suddenly the reasons for why the adults at the orphanage treated him the way they did becoming all too clear. The whispered remarks of "demon" and "kyuubi," the way the headmaster never seemed to be willing to stop the bullies from picking on him and the way he only got the worst clothes the charity bin had for them. By the time the other boy was finished, he was almost shaking.

"But…I can't be the demon," Naruto insisted, as if it was hard to believe in it himself. "I just can't. It's not true isn't it? Uchiha-san?"

Itachi kept his face impassive. "No it's not," he said. "You are not the demon fox. Merely its vessel. A living prison of sorts. No, your job is to make sure it doesn't get out and make merry hell with anything and everything we hold dear in this village. But the people don't see that."

"Why not?"

"It's just how people are," came the reply. "They seek something that they can project their grief upon, something that they can bully and feel superior over. Its nothing you should take personally even though every fiber of your being says so."

Naruto seemed to think this over. People think I'm the demon fox because he's sealed in me¸ he reasoned to himself. That's why they never really believe I'll ever be anything more than a demon in their eyes. Well, if that's what they think, then—

"Then I'll win them over one person at a time!" he declared, pumping his fist. "I'll train and become strong and protect all of them when I become Hokage!"

It took all of Itachi's willpower not to crack a smile.

"Excellent. As soon as you're settled in, we can begin."

To: Sandaime Hokage

Village of Konohagakure

Re:Uzumaki Naruto

Hokage-sama,

He'll fit right in here.

Uchiha Itachi

Captain, ANBU Corps Unit 15