Chapter 1: The Eyes That Changed Fate
Shisui followed Fugaku through the pouring rain into the isolated building on the outskirts of the Forest of Death. It was, in actuality, a holding cell. It was designed for a situation where it was either unnecessary or inadvisable to bring someone to T&I. There were many such buildings scattered throughout the village, but they were rarely used. Konoha doesn't usually take prisoners that can't be brought to T&I; they were both careful, and knew how to be gentle. This must be a special case.
Special enough to call for the Uchiha clan head, among other important figures. Shisui could sense Danzo's chakra, as well as the Hokage's, Hiashi Hyuuga's, Shikaku Nara's, and…Lord Jiraiya of the Sannin?!
Just what exactly was the purpose of this call? Shisui steeled himself as they entered, Fugaku exchanging terse pleasantries with the others, while Shisui found his attention drawn to the window in the room. On the other side of it was a small child, filthy, underfed, and wearing tattered clothes that more closely resembled a burlap sack. They had light brown hair that was a little longer than neck length, tangled and matted with dirt, and uneven, like it was cut with a knife instead of shears. The child looked up at him, as if they could see him, and Shisui inhaled sharply at what he saw in their eyes.
Instead of irises and whites, the child's eyes were nothing but concentric black rings over a light purple eyeball.
"Is that…" Shisui muttered quietly, drawing the attention of the others.
"The Rinnegan. The Eye of the Six Paths," Jiraiya confirmed in a grave tone.
"How does this child have such a thing? Where did it come from? Just who is this kid?" Fugaku asked.
"It was brought to us by some farmers from Southern Fire Country. They don't know much about shinobi affairs, but they knew enough to recognize this was some sort of dojutsu," Danzo supplied after the Hokage glanced at him sharply.
"Well, I traced the kid's heritage back as best as I could, all the way to the Second War. But, well, past that, and the trail goes cold," Jiraiya continued where Danzo left off. "I've met one other child who had eyes like this. I plan to check up on him and see if he might have any ideas for us. At the very least, he might be able to put together some information about using the Rinnegan."
"If it's as powerful as they say, then it would be a massive boon to the village, properly controlled," Danzo said. Shisui had the sinking feeling that he was calling the child it, not the eye.
"Does the child have a place to stay? Parents?" Hiashi Hyuuga asked, speaking up for the first time since Shisui arrived.
"No, it is an orphan. I suggest recruiting it into ANBU-" Danzo began.
"Out of the question!" Jiraiya snapped. The air in the room grew cold as the two stared each other down. Shisui noticed the way the child had flinched.
"This is a child, Danzo, and we are not at war. Such a thing is not to happen," the Hokage said after a tense pause.
"Bah. How soft have you grown, Hiruzen? Can't even think of making use of a perfectly good weapon when it's given to you?" Danzo mocked the Hokage in a profoundly disrespectful display. But Shisui was too busy noticing the way that the child was glaring at Danzo. At this point, Shikaku also followed Shisui's gaze.
"Excuse me, but can they hear us?" Shisui asked.
"No, we could hear it, if it talked, but-"
"I can read lips, and I don't like being called 'it'," the child said in what must have been a spectacularly venomous tone for an 8 year old. There was a beat of silence as everyone exchanged glances. Fugaku was the one to break it.
"Well, the Sharingan can see in the dark, and the Byakugan can see through solid objects, it would follow that the Rinnegan reacts to light differently than a normal eye," he said thoughtfully, a wry grin on his face.
"I suppose I never did think to check for that when I trained Nagato," Jiraiya admitted sheepishly. The child looked completely and utterly lost by that point, so Shisui decided to take mercy on them.
"It's a one way mirror. You should only be able to see your reflection, not us," he said, deliberately enunciating each word so the child could understand him.
"Oh," was the response, as the child furrowed their brow. Shisui made to move towards the door to the room.
"What are you doing?" Shikaku Nara asked.
"Well, the only way they won't be able to understand us is if we're outside, and it's raining, so we might as well…" Shisui said, smiling. The Hokage grinned as well, and followed him into the room, along with everyone else.
"Well, child, I suppose…hmmm," Jiraiya trailed off uncomfortably.
"What Jiraiya is trying to say is, we can't actually tell if you're a boy or a girl, so we don't know how to refer to you," Shisui said, smiling apologetically. The kid tilted their head to the side in confusion before answering.
"I'm a boy! My name's Akito!" he said, sounding perplexed
"It's nice to meet you, Akito. My name is Hiruzen Sarutobi, and I am the Hokage. Do you know what that means?" he asked, leaning forward slightly.
"You're the super scary old guy who bosses the other ninja around!" the child said. Shisui had to conceal a chuckle, but Jiraiya didn't bother.
"Not inaccurate," Jiraiya said, a smile on his face.
"I suppose I am. Tell me, child. How would you like to be a ninja when you grow up?" the Hokage asked. Shisui saw the child's eye twitch slightly before they put on a fake smile and nodded with false cheer. If he had to guess, he would say that Akito is smart enough to know that that was not a real question.
"Well, there you have it," Fugaku said, seemingly oblivious to the child's emotions. Then again, Shisui has seen him around Itachi and Sasuke. He could say many things about his clan head, but he'd never call him good with kids. "But, where will he stay? They have no family, and no home."
"I'm sure you'd like to have them stay with the Uchiha, at your compound Fugaku, wouldn't you?" Hiashi Hyuuga said accusingly.
"Well, given the nature of it's," the kid snapped their head to Fugaku angrily but he didn't notice and continued on, "abilities it would only be reasonable-"
"You just want to consolidate even more power!" Hiashi cut him off, his own temper flaring.
"Enough!" the Hokage barked, silencing the room. "The child will be given an apartment between the Hyuuga compound and the Police building. He will be trained like any other Academy student, with the Uchiha and Hyuuga cooperating to give supplemental lessons if they desire. Now, the rain has stopped, and I am going to go make the arrangements for him. Shikaku, take Akito home with you for the night, and get them cleaned up and into some better clothes. I'll reimburse you, of course."
"Yes, Lord Third," Shikaku said, leading Akito out of the building and towards the Nara compound.
"Well, the Rain stops here just in time for me to go straight into it. Nature seems to have a sense of humor, indeed," Jiraiya mused as he left.
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"What is this you've brought me, Jiraiya? And why do you look like death?" Sarutobi asked him.
"Concrete evidence that your old buddy Danzo conspired behind your back with Hanzo the Salamander in order to eliminate the Akatsuki, Sarutobi-sensei," Jiraiya said, letting the fury leak into his voice.
"I…see. And what became of this altercation?" Sarutobi asked.
"Well, officially, I showed up just as the Akatsuki had finished the Salamander off, and happened to inhale some residual poison. They gracefully nursed me back to health, as an olive branch between our villages, since they now run Amegakure."
"And unofficially?"
"It took everything I had, as well as the help of Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan, but we managed to kill him. And it was a close thing. Nagato has provided notes on the Rinnegan, by the way, but I had other reading material to look over," Jiraiya said bitterly.
"Understandable. Well, this can't leave the room, of course. No one else can-"
"I gave copies to Fugaku, Hiashi, Shikaku, Choza, and Inoichi already," Jiraiya cut him off. The room went completely still and silent.
"And, why did you do that, may I ask?" Sarutobi questioned, steel in his voice.
"Because you have excused your old friend's treason long enough. He went behind your back and worked with an enemy shinobi to have my students killed. At least, it had better have been behind your back. I also did more investigation, and-"
"Enough!" Sarutobi barked, but Jiraiya continued on.
"He's reformed Root. Against your explicit will, and he's likely used it to commit other atrocities. I'll give one thing to him, he was right. You really have gone soft, sensei," Jiraiya said, sounding more disappointed than he'd ever been before. "Minato entrusted this village back to you, and this is how you repay him? I'm leaving the village to handle one of his other bases. Deal with things here, or I'll do it when I get back."
And like that, Jiraiya left the Third Hokage alone in his Tower, contemplating where he had gone wrong.
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The following weeks led to a radical change in the structure of Konoha's leadership. Danzo was declared a traitor by the Third Hokage, though he was in the wind before anyone could capture him, along with large parts of Root. The fallout of this defection was massive. Several of the major Clans had members in Root, many of them essentially kidnapped and brainwashed into it by Danzo. After such a massive mishandling of the future of the Clans and the village as a whole, there was an outcry. Not a public one, nor a particularly noticeable one, shinobi were too secretive for that. But still enough of one to cause a significant change.
Both the Hokage and the Elder Council's power was reduced, and the Clan heads were given more power. While the Hokage was still the de facto military leader of the village, he now had to answer to a larger council for smaller matters. This concession placated the Uchiha's call for a coup, and things went back to a more uneasy peace in the village, aided by the required conversations between the Hyuuga and the Uchiha surrounding Akito's training, bringing the clans closer together by necessity more than anything.
Amegakure prospered under the Akatsuki led by Yahiko, and they formed an alliance with Konohagakure, though that did upset both Sunagakure and Kusagakure, naturally. Stories of the three leaders of the Akatsuki who defeated Hanzo were told far and wide. The bearer of the legendary Rinnegan, Nagato; the Angel and her awe inspiring control of paper, Konan; and the leader and found with his mastery of Water release and kenjutsu, Yahiko. And if anyone heard any stories about Jiraiya of the Sannin assisting them in the battle, they were simply dismissed as an attempt to make it seem more spectacular than it already was.
Jiraiya busied himself with hunting down both Orochimaru, and Danzo, while doing his best to construct a lesson plan from Nagato's notes. He would present it to Akito's Jonin sensei once he made Genin. Of course, he still rarely returned to the village, relying instead on his spy network to ensure that his old sensei didn't slip up again. Mostly, he was worried that if he stayed in the village too long, he'd end up with a fancy new hat and desk that he really didn't want.
Akito was entered into the Academy, in the year above Naruto's class, though he had to take remedial lessons to learn how to read and write. For the most part, the Hyuuga helped him learn how to utilize the sensory aspects of the Rinnegan, while the Uchiha kept on the lookout for any of the more unique abilities to present themselves. As it was, Akito was just an eight year old with a unique sensory ability and creepy looking eyes. Of course, he would grow into much, much more than that…
Author's Note: This may look familiar to some of you who have followed me on QQ. It was a quest that I abandoned from lack of interest, and I've decided to rewrite it as a story. This actually only needed some light touch ups, but I know the rest will need more. Anyway, there are a few things that might be bending the canon order of events here, and the ripples are maybe a bit bigger than they should be, but we can chalk that up as AU elements. I'll probably have more ready later today, but this was a decent stopping point for a first chapter. I'll be posting this on AO3 and SB as well, both under the same username. As always, feedback is appreciated, and discussion is welcome!
