Uzumaki Hisato is born to Uzumaki Akane and wayward Uchiha Gin on July first in a small, sleepy village only miles from the ruins of Uzushiogakure. The village itself is made up of a few survivors from Uzushiogakure, so few, in fact, they could be counted on someone's hand, and civilians who had nowhere else to go. Everyone who lives there ignores the shinobi that pop in from time to time, the village itself isn't a danger after all. It runs on fishing and crafts and those that were shinobi that live in the village have little interest in fighting.

It is a poor village, but the fish they have is bountiful and the soil is good for harvest and rarely does anyone goes hungry. The people there are wary of outsiders and despite having left Konoha for this small village in near the ruins of what was once a powerful shinobi village Gin still gets people eyeing him as though he plans to lead all of Konoha's forces into the village.

He does nothing to reassure them he won't, but at the same time he helps with the harvest and the fishing and deters the shinobi that come to spy on the village from doing anything more than spying.

Still, he winds up staying, knowing his own village has either marked him down as dead or a traitor and he doesn't care. Gin has no longer cares for Konoha, hasn't cared since he first shed blood in the name of glory for the village he grew up in and realized that none of the Hidden Villages cared whether or not they sent children out to be slaughtered.

Quietly, looking at his son with hair as red as the fire Gin's clan loved so much and his own black eyes Gin promised himself that his son would never see combat until he was ready.

"He's beautiful," Akane mutters, breaking the silence that had descended when the baby had quit crying, "He has your eyes."

Hisato does have Gin's eyes and Gin never wants to find out whether or not his son has the Sharingan too. He's seen too many of his own clan members shut themselves away from the world due to the trauma of having an activated Sharingan. He's seen suicides in his clan from memories of battles that won't ever fade because they were recorded by the Sharingan, he's seen twelve-year-olds flinch at the slightest thing because it reminded them of something their sharingan had recorded.

Gin has seen too much of the sorrow the Sharingan causes to view it as anything less than a curse.

He doesn't say any of this to Akane.

"He has your hair," he says to his wife, and it's true, from the thin, red strands atop the baby's head Gin can see that he has definitely inherited his mother's coloring in everything else, "He's going to be as beautiful as you are."

Akane laughs, pleased.

"He's going to be a heartbreaker," she agrees.

Hisato is an odd child. He's quiet when he should be loud and spends far too much time thinking about things that he shouldn't properly grasp yet. And he wants to know everything. He demands all of his parents attention during his lessons. He demands to know about sealing and jutsu and how shinobi villages work just as he demands to know about how their crops grow so well and why the fish are so big and how to heal wounds without using chakra.

Hisato is curious, and neither of his parents can fault him for it. Their village is rather boring and they find Hisato's curiosity amusing, it's as though he's trying to absorb information like a sponge, as though not knowing something might kill him.

It reminds both Akane and Gin of the shinobi they've seen. Of how shinobi would press for information in anyway they could. How shinobi used the information they gained in combat and to survive during undercover missions.

It worries them their son is already acting like a shinobi. So they sit him down, and Hisato, with his sharp mind and sharper tongue watches them cautiously.

"Do you want to be a shinobi?" Akane asks. Hisato blinks and tilts his head to the side, shrugging.

"No," he says, and his answer surprises both parents, "I would like to learn sealing and how to protect people but I don't want to be a shinobi."

Gin's mouth twitches into a smile, "A mercenary then?"

Hisato shakes his head, "No," he repeats, his voice firm, "Just someone who protects."

Akane and Gin share a look.

That's something they can get behind.

Hisato knows he's different. He knows that other people don't have memories of being a completely different person. Knows that other people don't remember dying, being stabbed to death in an alleyway after the opening night of an art gallery he was featured in.

He tries not to let his death, his previous life bother him. He succeeds, and if there are nights where he wakes up in a cold sweat it's dismissed as night terrors that most children his age have.

Hisato doesn't mind it. The less said of who he once was the better.

Hisato begins training with seals when he is four. He learns that the more complex a seal is the more it is personalized toward the person who invented it and the harder it is to deconstruct and learn. Hisato learns that if he ever hopes to be a Seals Master like his mother he has to be creative, inventive enough to come up with his own designs and to unravel the ones that are wrapped up in the more complicated seals. He has to learn how to think like a completely different person to figure out what shapes and drawings might mean to them and Hisato is determined to be all of this.

Sealing is an artform, he thinks and then wonders how others haven't noticed it. Like art, any form of art, you have to have an understanding of yourself, you have know yourself and your limits better than anything. You have to be able to understand emotions, what drives humans to do the things they do and you have to be able to take those emotions and put them into something else. Something that you've created because why shouldn't you have?

And like any art and and any science, there are rules. Because sealing is such an inexact art the rules mostly center around knowing what type of seal you're making and how much chakra it requires. Too little and the seal won't work, too much and it will blow up and kill you when you test it out.

Hisato loves it. He loves that he can add his own flare to seals, loves that he can spend hours trying to figure out how another Seals Master made their seal and come up with nothing but a replica of the real thing because it's not the real thing and it will never be the real thing because Hisato isn't the one who designed it in the first place.

It reminds Hisato of painting, of how he would spend hours in his studio trying to get the idea he had in his head on paper. How he would try and replicate the style of the old masters when he was younger and practicing. How he would spend hours trying to figure out how another artist did that.

It reminds Hisato of his previous life and all the good things in it. Perhaps that is why he likes it so much.

At first, his mother had given him simple storage seals to make, and when he mastered those she slowly began giving him more complex seals until she took him aside one day and gave him a book in which she had written all her knowledge in.

It was, of course, stored inside a seal that needed Hisato's blood to activate.

"Consider it a gift," she said, a sad smile on her face, "You are my son, an Uzumaki in everything. And I leave to you all of my knowledge of seals."

Hisato narrows his eyes, "Mother," he says, and his voice is soft, "You make it sound like this is the last time you will see me."

Akane smiles, false cheer on her face.

"Don't be silly."

Gin teaches Hisato how to fight. Where to hit to cause maximum damage and how to fall and dodge and duck. He teaches Hisato how to use kunai and shuriken and shares with him how to use the Grand Fireball Jutsu. When Hisato learns that Gin teaches him the basics of how to manipulate that jutsu and turn it into the other versions of it.

"There are two other versions of this jutsu. Both are much more powerful than the one you just learned. I normally wouldn't tell anyone this but-" Gin pauses, looking uncomfortable, "-as all other Uzumaki do, you have an insane amount of chakra. As such, I'm confident you will one day be able to do the other versions of this jutsu without problem."

Hisato blinks, "Alright."

Gin blinks, confused for a moment before he coughs into his hand, "Yes, well, let us continue."

One day, Hisato's mother doesn't wake up. She was sick, the village doctor confirms, her body slowly declining until one day she just didn't wake up.

His father's face is unreadable, and Hisato, at thirteen relearns what grief feels like.

Gin hands tightens on his son's shoulders and Hisato looks to find his father's Sharingan spinning wildly before it morphs into something and Hisato's breath catches.

His father just awoke Mangekyo.

His father has Mangekyo.

Hisato blinks and the red in his father's eyes is gone.

They give Akane a proper Uzumaki burial. Hisato swims to the bottom of the lake next to their village and places a seal on the lake floor. He's dripping wet when he comes back up, and Gin hands him a towel.

He watches as his mother's body is pushed out to the middle of the lake and as soon as Hisato activates the seal a whirlpool roars to life and his mother disappears beneath the water.

Hisato blinks back tears and his father's grip on him tightens.

Neither Gin nor Hisato want to stay in their village after that. They pack their things as soon as they hear the Third Shinobi War is over and catch a boat to the mainland.

Once they are there, they wander from village to village, helping where they can and never staying in one place long enough to invite danger. Hisato doesn't ask why they don't return to the village that was Gin's home and Gin doesn't offer an explanation.

He thinks it has something to do with the ruby and gold ring hanging from his father's neck with the Uchiha Clan symbol on it but he doesn't ask.

If Gin catches him staring, he doesn't mention it.

During their travels Hisato studies. He becomes deadly with seals and traps and his father trains him with weapons until he's deadly with those as well.

Despite everything, Hisato has become a shinobi. One without a village, but a shinobi nonetheless.

He isn't sure how to feel about that.

Hisato awakens his Sharingan after killing a bandit when he's fourteen. The shock of taking another life causing his eyes to turn red and his father swiftly kills the other two bandits they had been fighting and rushes to Hisato's side.

Hisato blinks. He didn't even know he could have the Sharingan.

Judging by the look on his father's face, Gin is less than pleased. Despite that, he is gentle with Hisato, cradling his sons face between his hands as he activates his own Sharingan to make sure nothing is wrong with Hisato.

Hisato blinks, for once realizing that the Sharingan actually glows. He doesn't remember that from the anime but it's really fucking cool. He has the Sharingan, he has glowing fucking eyes.

It's awesome, and Hisato focuses on that rather than the fact that he just killed a man.

"Are you alright?" Gin asks and Hisato nods. Deliberately not thinking about the life he just took, Hisato keeps his gaze off the bodies and toward his father.

Something like understanding flickers through Gin's eyes, "You're going to have to withdraw the chakra from your eyes," he says, letting go of Hisato's face, "Not too fast or you'll permanently damage the pathways to your eyes."

Hisato nods, and slowly, carefully withdraws the chakra he had been unconsciously channeling to his eyes. Blinking twice, Hisato looks up at his father and immediately notices the difference between the Sharingan and his normal eyesight.

The Sharingan had made everything appear sharper, in more detail, it allowed Hisato to see every flinch and twitch something made. It made reading people easier because it made their oncoming movements more obvious, and now that he doesn't have his Sharingan he looks toward the body of the man he killed and falls to his knees.

"I killed him," Hisato says, voice hollow, "I didn't even think I just-"

Gin kneels next to him and wraps his arms around Hisato, "Oh, my son," Gin says softly, "I wish you never had to take a life. But this world is cruel, and you do what you must to survive."

A sob breaks free of Hisato's throat, and next thing he knows he's bawling into his father's shoulder.

Hisato is nineteen and has killed more men than he ever thought he would, he's watched his father almost fall in battle and mastered his the base level of the Sharingan in the process.

When he is nineteen, his father dies of the same illness that took his mother.

He gives him a funeral, makes a pyre and sets it alight with his father's body burning with it. Such is the Uchiha way, his father once told him, the Uchiha live until they burn themselves out.

Hisato thinks of the world he found himself in, thinks of the disasters he's let take place because he hadn't wanted to get involved and feels guilty.

There is more you could stop, a voice in his head that sounds like his mother points out, There is so much more you could stop.

The voice is right, and Hisato thinks of Sasuke, of Naruto, of how he is related to both of them and the horror that takes place in both their lives. It may be the way things are here but-

But Hisato wants better for them. So as his father's remains burn, Hisato slips the necklace with the strange ring on it over his head and turns.

It's time he went to Konoha.

On his way to Konoha Hisato stumbles across a group of mercenaries and a frightened little girl.

It doesn't take much to put two and two together and figure out that the child has been kidnapped. Especially since the mercenaries look poor and despite her stained dress and dirty face Hisato can tell that her clothing is made of fine fabric and weaved together carefully.

Hisato smiles at the mercenaries, sharp and charming, "Oh," he says,and notes three chakra signatures in the trees, "Silly me, I must have gotten lost."

"Get lost, shinobi," a bulky mercenary says, "We don't need your kind here." Hisato is almost absolutely sure the only reason the mercenaries haven't attacked yet is because of his lack of a headband.

"Hmm," Hisato puts a finger to his chin and pretends to think about it, "No, I don't think I will leave, after all, you did kidnap that poor girl and I can't just leave her with you." Nevermind the other shinobi in the trees. This was probably their mission Hisato was taking over and Hisato could care less.

"You think you can take us?" the mercenary who spoke before says, a growl in his throat, "You're nothing but skin and bones!"

"Am I? Then you must be everything fat and ugly."

The mercenary lunges at Hisato, Hisato neatly sidesteps and slams a fist a barrier seal on the mans back and activates it. The barrier expands horizontally and slices the man in two.

Hisato spins on a heel and meets the three other mercenaries and smiles sharp and deadly before he moves. He uses a shushin to arrive near the girl, slams a circular barrier around her and slices the throat of the mercenary who thought they could sneak up on him. Blood splatters across Hisato's jacket, and he has never been more grateful that his jacket is black.

It'll hide the stains.

Ignoring the man whose throat he just sliced open, Hisato turns towards the next mercenary who charges him. Hisato lazily throws a kunai and it lodges itself in the mercenaries forehead.

He hadn't even needed his Sharingan for that fight.

How disappointing.

Hisato sighs and turns toward the girl. He touches the barrier and it disappears. Suddenly, the two of them are flanked by three masked men.

"I was wondering why the three of you didn't bother to help," Hisato says, his voice dry as the Suna desert, "Here I thought Anbu were supposed o be elite." One of them makes an affronted noise at that.

Hisato smiles again as he takes in their appearance. They definitely just got out of a fight, blood splatters their usual pristine white armor and Hisato can spy a cut on one of their arms.

He spies a shock of silver hair and knows that Kakashi is one of the ones surrounding him. The other two must be Shisui and Itachi then, judging by their raven hair and pale skin. Hisato hums and turns his attention back toward the girl.

The girl who is trembling still and looking at him with what looks like awe.

Shit.

"Hello," he greets, bending down to her level and ignoring the way the Anbu tense, "I'm Uzumaki Hisato. What's your name?" He ignores the sharp intake of breath from one of the Anbu when he announces his name.

The girl's eyes light up and she throws herself at him. Catching her easily, he lets her hug him for a moment before prying her off of him.

"I'm Naho," she says cheerfully as though she is used to seeing men get slaughtered in front of her, "Thank you for saving me."

Hisato blinks as he sets her down.

"It wasn't a problem," he says, amusement in his voice, "Now I'm going to let your bodyguards take care of you now alright?"

Naho pouts, and she's an adorable little four-year-old Hisato will admit, but he has no plans on going to Konoha with her, "But I want you to come!" she says, jumping a little, "You saved me." Then she gets that teary-eyed look all four-year-olds do when they are trying to get something they want, "Please?"

Hisato is good with children, has babysat more children than he can count and he's good at it. One thing he isn't good at however is resisting the puppy eyes they throw his way when they want something.

Hisato sighs, and looks toward the Anbu for help.

The Anbu member with short black hair snorts and Hisato glares.

"We should take you back with us," the silver haired Anbu -Kakashi- says, "The Hokage will want to thank you for what you've done."

Hisato doesn't hide a grimace. He may be going to Konoha anyway but that doesn't mean he wants to arrive with a bunch of Anbu escorting him to the Hokage's office.

Hisato wonders if he could just trap the Anbu in a barrier and make his own way to Konoha. But they know what he looks like and using a barrier to trap them could be seen as an attack on Konoha by an unknown shinobi and Hisato really doesn't want to make an enemy of his father's village.

He sighs, and looks down at the girl who stares up at him with hopeful eyes.

"Guess I gotta go then don't I?" he says wryly, "Alright, let's move."

AAAA

Meeting the Hokage is awkward. Naho telling her worried steward that an Uzumaki saved her has both the stewards and the Hokage's eyebrows shooting upward.

Hisato slumps forward and tries to make himself appear as small as possible.

"You're an Uzumaki?" Hiruzen asks, and if Hiruzen was anyone else but the Hokage Hisato would have laughed.

Instead, he quirks an eyebrow, "I am," he confirms, "My mother survived the fall, I get most of my coloring from her." Akane had been a beauty with flame red hair and deep brown skin, and while he got her coloring, he got his eyes, black as night, from his father.

They don't need to know about Gin though, after all, they haven't asked.

Naho's Steward snorts, "And we're supposed to believe that you merely stumbled upon Naho and rescued her out of the goodness of your heart?"

"Considering that's what happened, yes."

"How do we know that you aren't a threat? That you even are who you claim to be?"

Hisato's eye twitches, any shinobi would be able to feel the outrageous amount of chakra Hisato carried just like the rest of the Uzumaki Clan. But the steward was a civilian and a paranoid one at that.

Hisato grins at him, knowing that his sharper than normal canine teeth make people nervous, "I'll submit to a DNA test if the Hokage and the leader of my fathers clan wish for it. However, I will not be forced to submit by you." At the last word, Hisato lets the smallest bit of killing intent leak into his voice.

He does not like being pushed around. The steward pales, and Hisato grin widens.

"That's enough," the Hokage says, his voice stern. Hisato lets his grin vanish and nods toward the leader of the Konoha to show that he's listening, "You mentioned your father's clan, why?"

Hisato shrugs, "My father came from Konoha, he died recently and I promised to deliver the ring he had to the Clan Head." Something like a twinkles enters Hiruzen's eyes while the two black haired Anbu behind him tense.

"And who would your father be?"

"Uchiha Gin," Hisato says and grins.

i have a few chapters of other fics almost done so those will be up soon, in the meantime, have an uzumaki-uchiha kid! i mentioned this to some folks on tumblr and they were like '!' so i wrote it.

I think this is the longest first chapter I've ever written. whoops