Naruto: The Uchiha Chronicles

AN/ Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'm Baaaaaack! Hey yo, so RinneTaicho here. Man, it's been forever. To make a long story short, a bad case of writers block and a couple years of hectic school schedules have made it hard to get back to my stories. But now I'm back. I'm going to try to work on all my old stories, and there are also a couple new ones I have in the works. First off, I want to say I'll be changing up my updating style. I'm going to be releasing a chapter a week for stories I have a backlog of chapters on, which will allow me to work on other stories while releasing those chapters, and then work on another story as I'm releasing those chapters for other stories.

So here's the first chapter of my re-write for the original. First off, let me explain why I'm re-writing it in the first place. About a day after I posted the last chapter of the original, I received a review, from someone who pointed out a few flaws I had been already considering and wasn't really happy with, such as the whole Naruto-pretends-he's and idiot thing. So I'm re-writing it, I'll obviously take that part out, and also he'll be closer to Sasuki this time around, as in they'll be friends. There really are a lot of differences between this version and the first, so for anyone that is reading this that read the first version, please read the re-written chapters, because if you don't, you might end up confused later on because certain scenes are different.

Not much else to say, except, let's get on with the chapter!

Normal speech: "what"

Extremely loud group/single person shouting: "WHAT!"

Thoughts/Speech taken out of context: 'what'

Letter/Book/Written text: 'What'

Demon/Summon speech: "what"

Demon/Summon thoughts: 'what'

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach, that honor belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and Tite Kubo respectively.

Arc I: The Origin:

Chapter 1: A Loss of Innocence, The Copy Wheel Begins to Turn!

— ₪ NTUC ₪ —

A young blond haired boy named Naruto Uzumaki raced through the forest. His electric blue eyes were stretched wide in terror. The leaves and twigs of the brush got stuck in his spiky hair, and left small scratches on his arms and legs where his black tee-shirt and tan shorts left the skin exposed. The blood roared in his ears as his heart pounded wildly in his chest. His breath came in short, panting gasps. But the six and a half year-old ignored all that. He had to get away.

A branch snapping in the forest behind him caused him to look over his shoulder in terror as he searched for his pursuers. With the heightened awareness from the adrenaline flooding his veins he thought he could just pick out a white porcelain mask among the green foliage.

The blond haired boy began to run even faster. His small muscles burned terribly, but he tried to ignore it, and forced his stiff limbs to move even faster. He had to get away. Get away from these monsters pursuing him.

Up ahead he began to hear the roar of rushing water. Feverishly, he remembered that the Naka river ran near these training grounds. Maybe he could use it to escape! The current would surely sweep him downstream in no time at all, and he would be able to escape the men chasing him. With a small ember of hope growing in his chest, Naruto rushed blindly out of the brush. He immediately came to a skidding stop on the rocky shore at the edge of the river.

A lump formed in his throat. In front of him the great Naka river tumbled over the side of a cliff to crash upon a set of rocks nearly a hundred feet below with a deafening roar.

How had he gotten himself into this mess? If only he hadn't picked today to practice for when he entered the ninja academy, he wouldn't have seen those masked men attacking that Leaf shinobi, and he wouldn't be running for his life now.

"This is bad. I have to get away. Those men are gonna catch me." Naruto turned to race into the brush once more, but as soon as he saw what was waiting for him, his heart dropped. While he had been lamenting his bad luck, his pursuers had caught up to him. Standing behind him were three men. They were clad in black, with strange white masks that looked like twisted versions of the ones he had seen Anbu wearing.

The one in the lead stepped forward. From behind his four-eyed dog mask came a muffled voice. "There is no escape. Give up now, and your death will be quick."

Naruto shuddered at the emotionless monotone. By that voice alone, he could tell these men were like the ninja his gramps had told him horror stories about. Emotionless killing machines.

Tears began to prick his eyes, and he searched around him for an escape, any escape. To his right there was only a long stretch of rocky riverside. That wasn't an option, these men would catch him before he got even ten feet. His left wasn't an option either, that was the cliff. In front of him were the masked men, and behind him was the river. That was just as bad as the cliff, the current would sweep him over the edge, and his body would be broken on the rocks at the bottom. The man was right. There was no escape. He couldn't get away.

The tears began to fall down his face in hot trails. He didn't want to die. There was no option though. Try as he might, he couldn't think of a way out of this mess.

"It seems you're more intelligent than the reports suggested," The leader said. Naruto didn't even register the insult, or the man giving orders to his comrades to capture him alive. He didn't even raise an eyebrow at the mention of an 'extraction', whatever that meant.

As the the men began to advance on him with strange tip-less tanto's drawn, Naruto could only squeeze his eyes shut in fright. By now his adrenaline was coursing through his veins so hard, his arms had gone tingly and numb. All sound seemed to fade away into the background, and he could only hear the rapid beats of his heart.

Bum bum . . .

His mind began to wander to all he hadn't done. And to his regrets. He still hadn't gained the recognition of the villagers. He regretted that.

Bum bum . . .

And what of those he cared about? The Hokage and the Ichiraku's, how would they feel? Causing them pain, another regret.

Bum bum . . .

But his biggest regret of all? Not finding out who his parents were. Had his whole life been for nothing? All those days in the orphanage, wondering about who his parents were, and if they loved him. The long hours training, and the loneliness and pain. Loneliness so great it was like a constant void, a hole in his heart that he just couldn't seem to fill. No matter how many times he hung out with the Hokage, or ate at Ichiraku's and laughed alongside the cheerful father-daughter duo, it could never wash away his feeling of solitude. Sure he put on a brave face, and pretended it didn't bother him. But it did. To try and escape his sorrow, he'd latched onto a dream. A dream to one day become Hokage, and maybe, just maybe, find out who he was. Was all the training he had put into that goal meaningless? Was he to simply die here, alone?

No. He thought to himself. It can't end like this. I won't let it end here. I refuse to die! Naruto's eyes snapped open, and time seemed to slow to a crawl. If Naruto would have been able to see his eyes, he would have seen that they had turned crimson, with a single black tomoe spinning around the pupil

As it was, his mind went all fuzzy and blank, and Naruto entered a trance-like state. It was like he was in a dream. From deep within himself, a power began to well up. It built and built, until finally it had become too much, it felt like the power would tear his body apart. Somehow, he just knew what to do with that power. Naruto instinctually raised his hand. He pointed it at his enemies, and let the power loose in a wave that swept over the men.

The results were as sudden as they were brutal. One second, the man with the four-eyed dog mask and his companions were charging at him, about to cut him down. The next, the sound of ripping cloth filled the air. Every single weapon on the men tore out from within their weapons pouches. Kunai and shuriken, senbon and makibishi spikes, all began to pour out and hover in mid air. Even the tip-less tanto's the men wielded were jerked from their hands and hung stationary. For a single moment, all was quiet and still.

"What is this?" Asked the dog-masked man in surprise.

And then hell broke loose. The weapons shattered like glass. Slivers of black and silver metal whirled about the three Anbu imposters, like gleaming razors whipping about in a tornado. They began to tear into the men, leaving thousands of razor thin cuts upon their skin.

It was over in a matter of seconds. All that was left of them were a few scraps of cloth, and three shredded lumps of blood, flesh, and bone, resembling hamburger meat more than human corpses.

Coming out of his trance, Naruto stared at the remains of his pursuers in shocked horror. The smell of iron in the air was so strong that it made him nauseous. He almost lost his lunch at the grisly sight before him.

"Th-they're dead. I did that?" He whispered in shock. With the threat gone, his adrenaline began to fall. The energy that had saved his life just moments prior began to fade. A wave of exhaustion hit him. Between the running, and that strange energy, he felt completely drained, and his tiredness began to catch up to him. His eyes drooped. All of a sudden, he felt himself teeter precariously, and then–to his horror–he began to fall forward; right into the river. He tried desperately to make his body move, but it was impossible.

N-no I really am going to die, he thought helplessly. The last thing Naruto was aware of before blackness swallowed his vision, was the ice cold shock as he hit the water.

— ₪ NTUC ₪ —

Naruto could feel something hard underneath him, and he also had the oddest sensation of coolness lapping at his body from below. He lay there, not quite sure what was going on. For some reason his thoughts were fuzzy, and slow. Drip drip.

His face scrunched in annoyance. What was that noise? It almost sounded like water. Water? Strange. For some reason that sounded familiar. Hadn't he been doing something to do with water. The blond sluggishly tried to piece it together Something about water, and falling. A waterfall.

The waterfall! Naruto's eyes snapped open and he sat up quickly.

He was lying in a network of concrete tunnels, with an intersection not too far ahead, and lit with an odd golden light. Pipes ran along the ceiling and parts of the walls. Water dripped slowly from one of the pipes and formed a layer of water on the floor.

The last thing I remember is falling in the river. So how'd I get here? Naruto slowly stood up and looked around. For some reason his vision seemed sharper than before, but he pushed it to the back of his mind. Instead he focused on what he was hearing. Every sound he made seemed to echo off the walls, and the sound of lapping water filled his ears. I can find out how I got here later, right now I need to find a way out and get to Gramps. The intersection up ahead seemed just as good a place to start looking for an exit as any.

Naruto took a cautious step forward, but stopped immediately. A deep growl echoed around him, and with it came a voice, and an ominous feeling.

"Come . . ." It whispered. The voice was deep, and ancient, and it made his body tremble in fear. Yet, he felt himself drawn towards it.

Without even realizing it, Naruto began to walk towards the tunnel ahead of him on the left. In the back of his mind, he was terrified. He knew he should run. Every logical bone in his body told him to turn around and get away as fast as possible. To run away and never look back. But something was drawing him. He had to know what that voice was.

As he turned the corner, Naruto saw a light at the end of the hallway. He began to walk towards it, until he walked right through it.

The brightness of it forced him to squint. When he came out the other side there were spots in his eyes, and he had to blink rapidly to try and clear them. When they finely did, his eyes widened at the sight before him.

He stood in a large room. The walls and ceiling stretched far, and made him feel tiny. But the most impressive thing was the cage. Directly across from him, a gigantic set of doors were set into the wall. Bars stretched from the floor almost to the top of the ceiling. On either side of the cage there were intricate swirl patterns carved into the metal, and in the center of the two doors was a slip of paper as large as his body, with the word seal written on it in kanji.

"Wh-what is this place?" Naruto whispered in awe. He began to walk further into the room, trying to peer into the vast darkness inside the cage. Deep breaths seemed to be coming from within that darkness. "Is someone in there?"

Suddenly, Naruto felt a wave of malice and hatred crash down upon him. He couldn't talk, he couldn't even will himself to stay standing, yet his body refused to fall. He was just frozen in place. The terror he felt was ten times worse than what he had felt when he was about to be killed by the three masked men earlier. The blond felt himself breaking out in a cold sweat. The pressure increased to the point he couldn't even draw breath.

Naruto struggled to stay conscious. Black spots began to invade his vision. Then, finally, mercifully, the pressure lifted from him. A deep rumbling chuckle filled the room.

Naruto collapsed forward onto his hands and knees, panting with his eyes still wide in shock and fear. Suddenly, that same voice from before boomed out to him.

"Hehehehe. So . . . my warden has finally come before me."

A visibly shaken Naruto got to his feet slowly. He looked directly into the darkness. Right now he stood just a short distance away from the cage. All he wanted to do was turn and flee in terror. The boy shook his head. He attempted to reign in his fear, managing to shift his facial features from being terrified with wide eyes, to simply one of wariness.

"Wh-who are you?" He asked cautiously.

In response, he received another deep chuckle, before something terrifying happened. In the dark abyss inside the cage, two enormous crimson eyes with slit pupils shot open, with a huge gleaming white grin soon following. The large pointed teeth were as big as Naruto himself.

Naruto took a step back in fear at the bloodthirsty grin, and the almost manic glaring eyes. It was just as well that he did. For not a moment later did a huge reddish-orange paw resembling a human hand shoot forward towards him. Gleaming white claws looked to impale him. For some reason, he saw it coming as if in slow motion. Naruto threw himself backwards desperately, and landed on his rear in the pool of water on the floor. Still, the claws continued to come towards him, and were just about to impale him, when—

CLANG!

With a resounding crash, the paw was stopped as it crashed against the bars of the cage. One of the deadly claws stopped just inches away from Naruto's face. If the blond hadn't thrown himself backwards, he would have been impaled on it.

Looking up at the owner of the paw with eyes wide in shock, Naruto gulped in fear as he saw a vision of terror.

The shadows in the cage crawled backwards to reveal a beast of nightmares. Standing there looking at him with a menacing grin and one paw attempting to impale him was a giant reddish-orange fox with a human-like torso and rabbit like ears, with black marks extending from its eyes into the inside of its ears. Behind it waved nine giant tails that seemed to have a mind of their own.

He was standing in front of the Nine-Tailed Fox. The greatest calamity to ever befall the Leaf Village. And it was glaring at him fiercely.

"Look at you, little whelp. Standing before me with those eyes. To think you would be from that clan." It growled.

For his part, Naruto was frozen in shock and fear, it felt like someone had poured ice water into his veins. It took several moments, for him to register what the fox said, and even longer formulate a reply.

"Y-you're the Nine-Tails! Where are we, and, um, what do you mean I'm from a clan?" Naruto asked, shaky at first, but stronger and more confused at the end.

In response, the Nine-Tails removed its claw from the cage door. It laid down and growled at the boy.

"Don't play dumb with me, boy. You are undoubtedly a member of those accursed Uchiha . . . with that repugnant Sharingan!" The Fox spat.

The blond was frozen in shock. He tried to process the Nine-Tails' words, but they were just too absurd. Still in denial, he looked down into the pool of water at his feet, only to see his reflection staring back at him. His irises glowed a bloody crimson, a single black tomoe circled each pupil.

"The Sharingan, but how?" Naruto whispered to himself in complete shock and awe.

His eyes were wide in astonishment, and he could feel his body shaking. Such was the shock of seeing the famous dojutsu of the Uchiha Clan in his eyes. Naruto had seen Uchiha clan members around the village, he'd even seen the Sharingan before. His Gramps had told him all about the clan, and their legendary dojutsu. Naruto had often found himself in awe of its capabilities. The ability to copy jutsu; how awesome was that? But he had never expected to see it in his own eyes.

"H-how's this possible? I'm no Uchiha!" Naruto asked himself in shock, something the Nine-Tails heard.

The beast let loose a snort of derision, the noise echoing off the walls.

"Obviously you are, little boy. There's no doubt that is the Sharingan." The Nine-Tails growled, causing Naruto to look up at it once more. The fox snarled in fury when Naruto met its eyes. "Turn those infernal things off, before I find a way to rip them from your skull and make jam from them to spread on crackers." It snarled in annoyance, it's tails whipping about in agitation. Naruto gulped in fear.

"H-how do I do that?" Naruto asked nervously. He didn't want to upset the beast.

Lucky for him, the fox simply gave an annoyed growl, before answering.

"You certainly don't act like most of your clan. To turn those stupid things off, you need to stop the chakra flowing in your eyes, Whelp." It replied in a huff.

Still slightly confused, Naruto struggled to control his chakra, willing the chakra in his eyes to halt. He found it difficult. Although he had managed to get his gramps to show him how to use chakra–mostly through an absurd amount of begging and pestering–, he still wasn't too good at control. It was with much relief, that he looked down into the water, to see his normal blue eyes looking back at him.

Shakily, he looked back up at the Nine-Tails, still having questions for the ancient entity. Like where the heck they were, and what the beast was doing there. For a few minutes, everything was silent, until he finally worked up the nerve to speak to the being once more. He chose his words carefully so as not to upset it.

"I don't wanna be disrespectful, but I have some questions. Where are we? And what did you mean when you called me your warden? More importantly, how're you here, all the stories say the Fourth killed you!" Naruto asked cautiously.

As soon as the last sentence left his mouth, Naruto knew he touched a nerve. Instantly the fox once more tried to impale him, slamming its hand-like paw into the bars again. It snarled in fury, trying in vain to get to the blond.

"KILL ME? THE GREAT NINE-TAILS KILLED BY A LOWLY HUMAN?" The Nine-Tails roared in fury, causing him to cower slightly from the sheer might of its rage.

Even though the Fourth was his hero, he daren't try to talk back to the chakra being. After a moment, the fox seemed to regain its composure, but with the malicious snarl still in place. When next it spoke, it was much calmer, with a touch of arrogance.

"Please, that whelp barely managed to seal me away with the help of that pathetic woman. The mere notion of him being able kill me is laughable." The fox told him.

As opposed to the previous statements, this one drew curiosity from the blond. What'd it mean a woman? All the stories he heard said the Fourth beat the Nine-Tails alone. He was also confused by its mention of a sealing. Naruto didn't know much about sealing—only what his Gramps had told him—, but if the Nine-Tails was sealed in something, there was no way he should be able to be face-to-face with it.

"If you're sealed away, how can I be talking to you, how'd I get in a seal?" He asked. To his surprise, the chakra entity seemed to find this amusing. Its dark chuckles filled the boiler room, as it replied with a malicious smirk.

"Foolish little boy. I called you my warden, are you too stupid to realize what those two things mean?" The fox taunted. "The reason you are my warden, and the reason you can be here—the very reason you are shunned by the people of your village—is because your beloved Fourth sealed me inside of you!" Said Nine-Tails with a twisted grin. It seemed that the fox took a bit of glee in Naruto's pain.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock, as the booming echoes of the Nine-Tails' hate-filled mirth reverberated through the room and through his body. A sick feeling settled into his stomach as the words sunk in. It made horrifying sense. The reason everyone ignored him or glared at him. Why when he would describe people that were particularly mean to him to his grandfather figure, they would disappear. All because he had the Nine-Tails sealed in him the day he was born; by his hero no less. He finally knew the answer to one of the questions he always had about himself.

It took him several minutes to recover his faculties. He struggled to come to terms with all the life altering occurrence's he had recently experienced. He'd found out he had the Sharingan, made his first kill, and learned he was the jailer to a massive chakra monster, all in one day. For any average kid anyone of them would be exhausting, let alone all three. Luckily for him–or unluckily depending how you looked at it–he wasn't normal.

As Naruto gazed at the reflection of himself in the water; he became curious. Once more he allowed chakra into his eyes.

It was fascinating to see the normally electric blue eyes bleed into crimson red, the black tomoe spinning slowly. Before he could get too into looking at his new eyes, he found himself interrupted by a deep growl from the occupant of the cage.

"Why are you playing with those boy, I told you to keep them off." It growled in annoyance.

Instead of being cowed as he was earlier, he decided to keep them on, something that seemed to annoy the fox as Naruto decided to look at it with them.

"I have them now, so I might as well get used to them. Gramps says there's nothing more foolish than wielding a weapon you don't know how to use!" Naruto replied stubbornly. Though he was beginning to get curious as to why the fox seemed to loath the eyes.

"Why do you hate the Sharingan so much?" Naruto asked in a respectful tone, trying to not upset the entity. It was locked in a cage, but Naruto didn't want to press his luck and make the Nine-Tails angry.

At first it seemed like the fox would refuse to answer. The silence stretched for near a minute. Finally, it was broken with a resigned huff from the monster.

"Those filthy monkey eyes have been used to control me twice by members of your damned clan." It answered.

This was something Naruto found interesting. He was going to question it further, but it seemed the fox was now feeling talkative, and he continued without the need of prodding.

"It makes my blood boil seeing you looking at me with them. They remind me of that man." The fox growled, it narrowed its eyes, focusing harder onto him. "In fact . . . if you had black hair, you would be the spitting image of him if he was a boy . . . " It said with a menacing snarl.

Naruto didn't know what to make of that. He reminded the Nine-Tails of one of the men that had controlled it? But who could that be?

"Who d–" He began, halting as he began feeling a strange sensation. It felt like he was being pulled, pulled from his spot, yet not in any direction. His form began fading. Naruto looked down at his rapidly disappearing hands in worry. "What's happening?" He asked in a panicked tone.

Seeing the panic, the fox snorted in amusement, resting its head in its palm in a bored fashion.

"Oh settle down foolish boy. Your body is simply awakening from its forced nap, after you butchered those three men. I must say, it was a most impressive display for one so small. Perhaps you might yet prove to be a worthy container," The fox chuckled, seeming to find amusement in the way the three men had died.

Naruto froze as he was reminded of his recent kills, slowly fading from the seal with a shocked look.

— ₪ NTUC ₪ —

When he passed out, waking up in the seal was a slow and groggy process for Naruto. Exiting the seal was much easier. One second Naruto was talking with the Nine-Tails, and the next he was lying on a soft bed, staring up at a wooden ceiling. Where am I? This isn't the hospital.

Naruto sat up slowly, and began to look around the room. It looked like he was in a traditional style home, with rice paper sliding doors and wooden walls. The room seemed to be lit by a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, with several candles in it.

"Ahem." Naruto jumped at the cough, and his eyes leapt to the foot of his bed. There, sitting in a wooden chair, was an old man wearing a simple black robe. His frame was worn and emaciated, and he had thin white hair that framed his face and covered his right eye. And he was staring right at Naruto.

"You had quite the experience young man. If I hadn't have been taking my morning walk when I did, I wouldn't have seen you falling from the top of the waterfall. I was able to save you at the last second. Had I been a few minutes later, you would undoubtedly be dead." he said. A glint of emotion that Naruto couldn't place flashed through his eyes as he spoke.

Naruto swallowed audibly at the idea that he had come so close to death without even knowing it. "Thanks, I guess."

The old man chuckled in amusement. "Think nothing of it, I'm just glad you're alright, Naruto." he said. His words, though friendly, set Naruto on edge.

I never told him my name. Naruto began to stare at the man wearily. He was just now beginning to realize that he had no idea where he was, or who this stranger was for that matter.

"How'd you know what my name was?"

The old man fixed Naruto with a piercing stare. Unconciously, Naruto channeled chakra to his eyes, and his sharingan activated. He couldn't withhold a gasp at what he saw. The old man was practically swimming in chakra. His reserves were massive!

"You should be careful who you show those eyes to, it might make some people suspicious," the old man said, ignoring Naruto's question. But Naruto wouldn't be deterred.

"I asked you a question! How'd you know my name? Are you working for the guys that chased me?" Naruto asked harshly. The old man snorted, and glared at the wall behind Naruto.

"Please, don't try to lump me in with those mongrels. If your powers hadn't activated and killed them, I would have eviscerated those fools myself. Believe me, I wouldn't ever try to hurt you, Naruto." The old man's voice was thick with emotion, and the emotion in his eyes from before was back in full force.

Naruto's mind froze when he saw that look. He couldn't recognize it before, but now he did. It was the same emotion he saw in his gramps' eyes when he looked at him. Warmth, caring. Love. Why was this person he never met looking at him like this?

"Who the heck are you?" he asked quietly. The old man gave him a soft smile in response. Suddenly, his black eyes bled red, and three tomoe began to spin around his pupils.

"My name is Madara Uchiha," he answered. "As for who I am—" Madara paused and closed his eyes, as if willing himself to continue. Finally, he took a deep breath and looked directly into Naruto's eyes.

"I am your grandfather."

— ₪ NTUC ₪ —

AN/ So there's the re-write of chapter 1 done. No doubt, more than a few people will be mad I'm re-writing this, and that it's taken me so long to get it out.

But to explain, after the last chapter came out, I got a review that pointed out a lot of things in the plot that had already been on my mind, even as I was writing them. An example would be Naruto's hiding his strength. Even while I was writing it, I could tell it's not quite where I wanted to go, and it just didn't feel right. So I decided to re-write it.

As for why it's been so long, I've been dealing with a bunch of issues, not only with tough school, but health problems.

Anyways, the next chapters should follow rather soon. My intention as of writing this AN is to get at least four chapters re-written before I release this first one. I'm also going to be shortening this first arc to three chapters.

So, til next time,

RinneTaicho, Signing off!