A/N: I just felt the urge to right and I felt like writing this.
Summary: Yondaime sent a message to his brother before he died to take care of his son, Naruto; his brother is a member of an early Akatsuki and decides to betray them to save his nephew.
Chapter 1
Dear Little Brother,
It seems that in the end, you always think about your beginnings and the memories of my childhood are filled with many emotions. One of those feelings, if you never knew, was jealousy.
Father may have chosen me to become his successor, but I always felt
like a prisoner among our clansmen. That is the reason why I followed
the same path you had chosen and left one year after you had.
Two years after I had left I found out that our clan was wiped out by a mysterious group; only three survived, two of those survivors were you and me, but you knew that didn't you? I am sure though that you don't know the other person that survived, it turned out dad survived as well. He however has chosen to live in exile; he now lives in the mountains we used to play in, because he had failed to protect our mother.
It's getting pretty boring listening to me talk about our past, right? So I shall get to the point, there is only two things I regret in life, one of these things is running from my duty to the clan. The other one shall be the burden I leave my newly born son with, the Kyuubi No Kitsune has finally decided to grace our village with it's presence and the only way I shall be able to stop it is to seal it in a newborn. I guess you can figure it out by now, that is why I ask for you to fulfill my last wish. Please take my son, and bring him to father, I was not brave enough to fulfill my duty to our clan. So I shall only pray that my son, and your nephew, can do it in my place. Naruto will be in the Hidden Village of the Leaf, I shall not be alive by the time this reaches you so you shall be on your own. Below this letter is detailed information about where he shall be kept, I fear some of my subordinates do not see my son as the hero he is supposed to be. So please take care of my son, I beg of you. Forgive me brother; forgive me for putting such a burden on you.
Your Brother,
Uzumaki Arashi, Yondaime Hokage.
Uzumaki Renji remembers every word of the letter his brother had sent him through his family's secret summon animal, the white owl. Uzumaki Renji had always disliked his brother ever since they were old enough to compete against each other for their father's favor. In the end however his brother had won and became the heir of the prestigious Uzumaki Clan, he had opted to leave the clan after his bitter rivalry with his brother had ended.
Two years after he left he had heard news that his clan had been wiped out, so he rushed back to find the bodies of his love ones among the rubble that he had once called his home.
He found one clue among the rubble and that was a piece of cloth with red clouds on it. He then spent the next five years of his doing research on the symbols that were etched on it and found out that it belonged to an ancient secret organization called "Akatsuki."
He spent the rest of his life getting close to the members and he eventually joined them, he found out later that the person who had wiped out his family was none other then the leader of the organization.
Members of Akatsuki are split up in two man groups who go on missions given to them by their leader through summons known only to the leader of each team. They then go and accomplish the mission through any means possible.
Renji had not intended to do anything for his nephew, but after learning that the organization had wanted him to lead a two man team to retrieve his nephew, Renji changed his mind. Naruto was the last hope for the Uzumaki clan and he does not intend to let his nephew fall into their hands.
Two cloaked figures stood on the walls of Konoha as they surveyed the city, these two figures had earlier infiltrated Konoha's West Gate and one of them had silently killed off all the guards except for one. The other cloaked figure one was currently standing over the last living guard.
The one standing over the guard was a man with a medium build; he was around 5'9 in height and was wrapped in a cloak which was decorated on the outside with red clouds that had white outlines. The figure wore a straw hat over his blonde hair and had piercing blue eyes.
After torturing the guard he then reached into his cloak to produce a weird shaped kunai. With a quick flick of the wrist the kunai embedded itself onto the forehead of guard; he then turned back to his partner, a tall man in his late 20's with a small build. The man also had long bony arms and legs, he wore the same cloak as the first man, and he had dark blue hair under his straw hat. He has a long katana which he strapped onto his back.
The two figures nodded at each other and quickly headed towards the Hokage tower, they easily infiltrated the tower and killed off all the guards that were stationed to protect their target.
The tall man then turned his back to the crib that was located in a small room and faced the hall way to watch for any guards that they may have missed. The shorter man reached the crib, but instead of picking up the target he drew three shrukan's and threw them at his partner. The man formed hand seals and quickly muttered "Shurikan Kagebunshin-No Jutsu."
The taller man was struck with many projectiles and simply fell dead, the shorter man sighed in relief. He bent down and quickly grabbed the baby, but before he could leave a sword pierced through his stomach skewering him. He jumped forward crashing over the crib, but still holding onto the baby, and released himself from the sword.
He looked towards his attacker to only gasp at the site that was in front of him. The taller man who he had thought dead, stood there with absolutely no wounds.
The taller man smirked and said "Well, well, well…. It seems you have decided to finally show your true face Uzumaki Renji."
Renji was shocked and replied "How long have you known…. And how did you find out?"
The taller man snorted out "The organization has known ever since you had first contacted them fool."
He had a smile on his face and continued "We've been running things for a long time Renji; the leader had planned everything from your leaving to the birth of your nephew. We knew your brother would sacrifice himself for this village so we summoned Kyuubi here, as planned your brother sacrificed his life for this village to seal the fox into his son."
He leaned in and said "You and your family have been played for fools ever since you two were born. Our leader is picky in choosing his new body, so he set this all up just to get a body with unlimited chakra, provided for us by the Kyuubi, and your special family bloodline."
Renji growled and replied "You murdered my family, and orchestrated our lives for your own selfish goals? Unfortunately the Uzumaki's will not stand by and let this happen, I believe it's time for us to separate, partner?"
The taller man laughed and said "Do you really think you can beat me? You and I both know that my power exceeds your own, how do you plan on escaping fool? Even if you do, your body has been injected with a very special poison; you shall be dead in a few hours."
Renji smirked and said "I know I cannot beat you, however, I do have a surprise for you."
Quickly performing hand seals he smirked and said "Shunshin-No Jutsu."
The taller man saw his prey disappear and quickly remembered the strange looking kunai he had used to kill the guard earlier, he quickly exited the building and tried uselessly to reach the west gate before both Uzumaki's escaped.
Renji quickly ran into the forest as he knew his former partner would quickly try to catch up with them, he silently thanked his brother for explaining how to do Shunshin-No Jutsu in the letter that he had received. After reaching a big clearing, out side of Konoha, he bit his thumb and then quickly did a hand seal before slamming his hand to the ground.
He yelled out "Kuchiyose-No Jutsu."
A giant white owl appeared before him as he jumped on it's back, he told the bird to fly "home" as he set the child down in front of him. He then quickly performs a couple hand seals as he tried feverishly to close his wounds and try to extract the poison. One thought ran through his head as he began to realize what was going to happen.
"I only have enough chakra to either heal myself or continue to hold this summon until it reaches home." He knew if he didn't heal himself soon he was going to pass the point of no return and die."
Renji smiled as he quickly dropped his hand, he muttered "Looks like I'll be joining you soon brother." He picked up his nephew as they continued to ride to the only place he can ever call home, the great western mountains.
A man watched as a white owl flew past him over head; a tall figure slowly approached him and kneeled.
The tall man replied "All is going exactly how you planned it master, he has no idea that you planned this as well. May I ask however, why did let your new body get away?"
The man replied "Patience, my loyal minion, my new body shall be trained by one of the strongest swordsman ever. After he learns all of their secrets I shall simply take it with ease, besides we have much work to do. How goes the demon sealing in the sand?"
The tall man replied "Our agents in the sand report that all goes according to plan my lord."
The man replied "Perfect." He looked up towards the owl and said "See you in 13 years Uzumaki Naruto."
With that both figures simply vanished.
Uzumaki Sajin was currently meditating in his home, a cave turned into a house behind a waterfall. He sensed two chakras heading his way, one that was slowly diminishing and the other was huge. He slowly stood up and brushed himself off; he was wearing a black kimono and hakama with a white undershirt. He also wore a haori (An overcoat that are worn over kimono's that reach the thigh) and his head was bald, he had a long white beard and mustache.
He grabbed his black katana and came out of his house to "greet" whoever these intruders were. He was shocked when he came outside, in the air was a giant white owl, he knew that only his family knew how summon these special animals. Knowing that it was a family member only enraged him, there were only two people that could do this, and he almost disowned both of them before his clan was wiped out.
The giant owl landed and a figure dressed in a cloak with red clouds on it appeared. Sajin tensed as he remembered that cloak, that cloak was worn by the person who killed his family.
The figure stumbled over and said "Please father, please take Naruto."
Sajin growled and said "You abandon the clan and now you expect me to take your bastard son in? I want you to leave right now or it won't be your injuries that kill you, Renji."
Renji looked up with pain on his face before saying "Father please, this is not my son, it is Arashi's…. After the clan's death I joined this organization to find the killer… A couple days ago, Arashi sent me a letter saying that he was going to die sealing a great demon in his son. A little later I found out the man who killed our clan orchestrated everything, from the very beginning, to gain control of Naruto."
Renji looked his father in the eyes and said "Please, he is the last hope for our clan. Please take him and train him."
Sajin looked his son in the eyes and sighed "How can I accept Arashi's son? He also has betrayed the clan."
Renji said out weakly "Because father, in the end, Arashi was the one who wanted his son to do what he admitted he could not. Please father, please train Naruto so he can rebuild our clan."
Sajin thought for a long time before he muttered a weak "Leave him, I shall look after him. However you need medical attention."
Renji smiled as he set the boy on the ground and said "Sorry father, it is to late for me, I am almost out of chakra and there is still one thing for me to do. I must go to the sand to warn them about their demon or they too shall be fooled by Akatsuki."
Renji smiled at the boy and said "Good bye Naruto, live a happy and carefree life."
With that Renji climbed onto his owl and flew towards the south, Sajin sighed deeply as he picked up Naruto.
He said quietly to Naruto "You are the last hope of this clan little one. I shall train you and when I die you shall become the last Uzumaki."
Uzumaki Naruto's upbringing was quite a strange one, under the watchful eye of his grandfather, Uzumaki Sajin; Naruto's training was one of the finest. In his early years he was taught strategy and psychological warfare, after turning 7 he was given his Katana and was promptly trained how to handle it.
If Sajin was ever asked to sum up what kind of student Naruto was he could only reply "Genius." Naruto soaked up everything he learned and mastered his family's unique taijutsu style, he then went on to master his family's sword style and a technique they called the "Flash Step." This technique allowed Naruto to move at incredible speed, it however was quite strenuous, it took a fair amount of chakra to perform the first step, it took double the amount to do the second and double that to do the third. The reason for this is simply because since moving at such a great speed the chakra had to cover for the lack of friction under the foot.
At Naruto's 10th birthday he was given his family's summoning, he signed the contract with the white owls and could now summon them if he wanted. Naruto also learned a lot about being a ninja, but he lacked in the ninjutsu and genjutsu department. Uzumaki's each had to make up their own jutsu's and Naruto was no different.
Sajin also helped Naruto deal with his demon problem, both grandfather and grandson confronted the demon at an early age. Sajin informed the Kyuubi that he was manipulated by a person in a secret organization called Akatsuki. Kyuubi became enraged and vowed to help his host with whatever means possible to someday kill this man.
Naruto was quite happy with his life, except for the fact that the only person he ever talked to was his Grandfather. Naruto's grandfather had taught him all the things he needed to survive in the wilderness including: tracking, hunting, fishing, and even navigation by use of the stars. Since Naruto knew all of this he could never give a good excuse to go to town, Naruto wondered if he would ever see another person.
Tragedy hit Naruto, in the form of his Grandfather falling ill at the age of 85, Naruto was on his Grandfather's death bed when he first learned about Konoha.
Sajin looked up at his Grandson from his bed and smiled "Naruto, you have grown into a fine young man, I never once regretted taking you in when you were brought to me."
Naruto had tears in his eyes and replied "Please Grandfather, do not speak, you must save your energy so you can get better."
Sajin sighed and said "It is merely old age catching up to me grandson. Listen closely because I must tell you this next part before I die, it is about your father and uncle."
Sajin proceeded to tell Naruto about his father and his uncle. Everything from their leaving to their eventual death's, he then told him about Konoha and what he wanted his Grandson to do."
Sajin coughed for a bit and said "Naruto, I want you to go to Konoha after my death, I want you become a ninja there. When you are there build a life for yourself Naruto, I want you to be happy. Naruto, take this necklace, it is the clan's symbol, show it to the Hokage Sarutobi and he shall know what to do for you."
The old man coughed once more and continued "Promise me Naruto, that you'll pass on what I taught you. Promise me that you'll rebuild the Uzumaki clan and pass on what I taught you."
Naruto was sobbing now, but he nodded and said "I promise you grandpa; I promise you that I'll become the strongest Uzumaki ever and then rebuild the clan! I promise I won't let you down."
Sajin smiled and said "Do not worry Naruto; you have never let me down. You have learned everything I can teach you, everything else you can learn by yourself. Walk into my room and look into the cupboards, there you shall find a scroll with information on the Uzumaki's ultimate sword technique. Take it with you to Konoha Naruto and master it."
Sajin smiled and said his last words "I love you my Grandson, show the world what an Uzumaki can do, and when you find the man who killed our clan, remember to kick his ass in for me and your family."
With that Sajin coughed one last time and slowly, but surely took his last breathes of the world's air. Sajin died happily knowing that he passed on his family's secrets before he died.
Naruto buried his Grandfather where he was shown the family gravesite; Naruto buried him right next to his Grandmother and the rest of the clan.
It was hard for Naruto for a long time, he finally got the chance to leave and see the world, but he had lost his Grandfather whom he loved greatly.
Naruto knew however that he had to pull himself together so he started packing; he dressed himself in a black kimono and hakama, with a white undershirt. He did not wear a haori; he strapped his sword on to his back and wore normal ninja sandals. Naruto had short blonde spiky hair with big blue eyes and whisker marks on his face.
When he was done he had all his clothes in his backpack, he also carried with him all the things he needed in another bag he carried on his right hand. He brought with him everything that was important with him and locked the door to his house. Taking a deep breath in he reached into his shirt and grasped onto his necklace.
He muttered "I won't fail you Grandfather." And with that he began his long journey to Konoha.
Naruto had been traveling for 3 days straight and was beginning to tire as he reached the last leg of his journey. Although he was tired he simply pushed onwards and on the 4th day of his journey he arrived.
Although he had some trouble getting into the city due to the guards being suspicious of his sword, he was eventually let in. He then proceeded to the Hokage tower, after arriving he spoke with the secretary. An argument broke out about him trying to meet the Hokage and he was almost thrown out when Sarutobi, hearing the noise from inside decided to investigate.
Sarutobi calmed everyone down and led the boy into his office; Naruto however had to leave all his bags and weapons to be kept by the Hokage's guards. With that they both sat down and began their conversation.
Sarutobi started off and said "What brings you here to see me young man? Judging by your clothes you do not live around this part."
Naruto merely nodded at the comment and went straight to the point "My Grandfather sent me here to become a ninja."
Sarutobi frowned and replied "I regret to inform you that all ninja's start out at an early age and go through the Ninja Academy, after that they start as genin under the apprenticeship of Jounin's.
Naruto replied "As I suspected, but my Grandfather told me that you would know what to do when I showed you this." Naruto then pulled out his necklace and showed it to Sarutobi.
The Sandaime Hokage was shocked to say the least, the last time he had seen this was when he had met Uzumaki Sajin, the legendary swordsman of the elite Uzumaki clan.
Sarutobi got a hold of himself and replied "You must be an Uzumaki then, that necklace is only given to the clan heir when the previous clan head has died. I give my grievances to you young Uzumaki."
Naruto had a sad look in his eye and replied "Thank you, his passing was quite hard on me."
Sarutobi replied "Indeed he was a great man; however, I must know what do you plan on doing if you become a ninja here."
Naruto replied "I intend to rebuild the Uzumaki Clan here."
The Hokage blinked and couldn't believe his great fortune, the Uzumaki Clan is considered one of the most prestigious clans in history, if they were to rebuild in Konoha then Konoha would be fools to not let them.
Sarutobi replied "I shall get everything worked out; I'll even let you take the genin exam that is being held tomorrow if you wish. May I ask however, what is your name?"
Naruto replied "Uzumaki Naruto and I'm sure you know who my father is."
Sarutobi was quite surprised; Uzumaki Naruto was kidnapped when he was merely a few months old.
Before Sarutobi could reply Naruto explained to him what happened with his uncle what happened back then.
Sarutobi nodded and replied "I understand it is good to have you back Naruto; I completely understand the circumstances of your situation."
With that they both continued to talk, Sarutobi told Naruto to go to the Ninja Academy tomorrow and he would have his people work out everything. Sarutobi also set Naruto up in the house his father used to own, Sarutobi then gave Naruto access to Yondaime's accounts. Naruto also had access to the Uzumaki accounts so he transferred all the money into one account in which he could use to build an Uzumaki clan house later down the road.
After all the legal paper work was done, Naruto bid farewell to Sarutobi and went to get some rest and clean himself up for his big test tomorrow. On his way out he retrieved his items and gear.
Naruto woke up at dawn like he was trained to and began to prepare for the test, Naruto ran through everything he knew about ninjutsu, he didn't know a lot but he definitely knew the basics. He then warmed up his taijutsu and practiced throwing kunai and shurikan's.
After eating a rather dull breakfast that he cooked himself, he dressed himself in his usual clothing and began to walk towards the Ninja Academy.
During his walk he noticed the many great things about his new home, there were many people everywhere and he enjoyed watching them all interact. On his way there however, he passed by a flower shop, unluckily for him he bumped into a girl his age and he fell down.
He looked up and stared into the girls eyes, she blushed a little when she stared into his before completely going off on him about how he should watch where he was going and how late she was going to be.
Before Naruto knew what was going on the girl ran off and he sat there dumb founded. He picked himself up and headed towards the academy.
Naruto arrived late to the academy and it took quite a long time for him to get him checked in and everything, so when he was introduced to the class, all of them had already taken the genin test.
Naruto introduced himself by saying his name and what hobbies he liked to do. Murmurs arose in the classroom when they found out they had a new classman on the day of graduation. Naruto shrugged and sat down at the seat he was pointed to by the teacher.
The blonde sat there while he heard the teacher read off everyone who had passed the genin exam, he also heard him announce that some guy named Uchiha Sasuke was the #1 rookie this year because he got the best grade on the exam.
Before everything was over however, the Hokage entered and whispered something to the teacher. The teacher frowned at him, but followed orders, so he asked for Naruto to come down to the front and that they'll just give him the exam now.
While walking down towards the floor he heard most of the students snicker and laugh at how the new student was going to fail. Naruto continued to walk down the steps however with his head held high, that was when he noticed that the girl he had bumped into earlier was in his class, he looked over to her and quirked an eyebrow. She was surprised and stumbled to look away; he sighed and just continued to walk down to the front.
Naruto stood there as the teachers explained the first test to him, he was to be given 10 tries to hit a circular target in the center, and the target was located on a far wall. He was also told to put as much power as he could and to try his hardest.
The blonde took out a kunai and flicked it at the target, what happened next was quite different from what everyone except for the Hokage was expecting. The kunai hit the target straight in the center, but it didn't stop, the kunai smashed through the wall and embedded itself into a tree outside. The kunai still held the round center of the target as it was sticking out of the tree; a crashed broke them out of their trance as what remained of the target inside the room fell down and broke in two.
The teacher shakily said pass and explained the next test, the next test was for Naruto to try and hit the sensei that was to oversee the test using only taijutsu. He would be graded on form, grace, and speed. Naruto astounded everyone again when he simply kicked his "opponent" with one try with perfect grace, form, and amazing speed. His opponent however was knocked out and had to be revived by medics.
Naruto's final test would be for him to perform bunshin-no jutsu, they told him that 3 is the minimum and everything above that would measure his ability. Naruto saw through the whole thing easily, people who wanted to show off would make as many clones as possible even though 3 was the minimum, this would do no good in missions because it would endanger lives if people decided to show off. Naruto simply made 3 clones and stood there awaiting what to do next.
The teacher nodded at the three bunshins and told Naruto that he was going to tally up his score and tell him what rank he got when he passed. Naruto was happy at that point, he had passed the test easily, and he just hoped he got a good grade because he felt quite embarrassed because everyone kept looking at him with strange looks.
The teacher told him that he got a perfect score, this made Uchiha Sasuke quite angry when he found out he had been outscored quite easily by the new comer, Naruto beamed as the teacher continued to call out his rank.
The teacher announced loudly "Uzumaki Naruto, outscored Uchiha Sasuke by 5 points, because of that Uzumaki Naruto is now the new #1 Rookie."
Naruto smiled brightly, but was saddened when many girls in the audience started yelling curses at him and telling him that Sasuke-kun was so much better then he was. Naruto frowned at that before the Hokage stopped everything, the Hokage handed Naruto his forehead protector and told him that he was quite impressed.
Naruto graciously accepted the forehead protector and proceeded to tie it around his forehead. He went back to his seat to learn that he would have to come back tomorrow to find out who his 2 other teammates were. Naruto has never worked in a team, but he merely shrugged and went home.
That night he kept thinking about that loud blonde girl and why she had been so rude at him, he finally fell asleep and dreamed of what was to happen tomorrow.
A/N: Wow finally done with the 1st chapter, review and tell me what you guys think of it.
I really love this one for some reason.
Peace.