The Fate series belongs to Type-Moon and Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto

Chapter 1: Childhood ( I )

He stared at the molten metal before an already hardened steel met the red malleable metal on the anvil, sparks of fire appeared with each hit as the metallic noises filled the air.

The movements were memorized to the point that it was something instinctual to the one who was holding that hammer whose metal was bigger than what the small being should be able to carry at his age. Yet the child was carrying that hammer that should be carried by one of his sizes with the two hands, and even then, any other kid would just drag the heavy instrument without being able to raise it without the help of others.

It was easy for anyone to find something wrong with the image of a five years old child hammering iron at such high temperatures with the skill that could only be learned with a lifetime of practice. Everything seemed wrong with that image.

A child could not hold something of that size and hit it with such strength. A child should not be so near such dangerous objects in a space filled with potentially harmful objects for him. A child of such age should not be left under no one's supervision.

It was outrageous! Where were their parents?!

It was something easy to answer, they were not on the side of the living anymore. Nor that the child had ever got to know them, he had only caught glimpses of their faces and expressions, happy with just see him, they were kind people.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

And he continued to stare at the sparks born from the steel that met steel, his eyes no longer focused on the task before him but his body moved by its own with a skill born from an infinite number of the most skilled of the blacksmiths in the whole history but to a distant memory, like a whipping to himself he stared at the distant flames of a hell, born from the clash of a vessel that contained the sins of humanity and the light of the wishes of mankind for victory. A distant fire that had consumed everything, to the point that what made him 'himself' was burned along with whatever family he may have.

But he did not know that, he only knew that what he was doing was reminding himself of a distant memory that he had forgotten and he wanted to remember it, even if that memory was painful to the point that even him— who was the one who was trying to remember those unpleasant memories— wanted that hell to end. But he moved forward on the memory.

A child going through a land of fire and ignoring the cries for help of the people, the suffering around him, he moved forward until he could no longer stand... and there when the child had lost all hope of living, a man moved the rocks that had buried him under a tomb of scorched stone, brick and ashes. A man with the happiest smile that he had ever seen, a smile that he—

"Shirou-kun! Again in here?!"

It was not a question, it was an extremely loud statement from a furious woman with hair as red as the fiercest of the fires with an attitude to live up to it, the carefree woman that was the caretaker of him and the rest of the orphans that she and her husband had found on an abandoned island, the homeland of her ancestors.

Uzumaki Kushina was her name.

He ignored the image of an orange-haired tiger in the shape of a woman that superposed their elder— although he would never dare to call her revered elder... again, he had already discovered what happened when he implied that she was old.

"Kushina-sama."

She cringed at the honorific that she used alongside her name, probably hearing him talking like an 'old man,' like she said before, was the thing that bothered her, but he couldn't help it, he had seen other people of the same clan using that honorific to the one who was the head of their clan. And that was what she was, the Head of the Uzumaki Clan of the Leaf. A clan composed of a single adult woman and two children- one of a year old and the other with five years old-, a clan that was on the verge of extinction. He had heard something about putting the children in a Clan Reconstruction Act or something like that to repopulate the long-time allies of the Leaf, but how would it Reconstruct their clan? Wasn't a clan a family and not a construction? And what did it had to do with repopulating their clan? How were they going to do it? What was an Act?

Every time he mentioned these things to their caretaker— the woman who had adopted him after his parents had died and was okay with him not calling her mother, although he had once tried to say such things, sometimes calling her 'Aunty' or 'Grandma', she had not taken a liking for the last one, but considerating that their clan was a clan known for their vitality and longevity, to the point that an elder of eighty years would look like an adult in their late twenties—, his caretaker would laugh awkwardly and change the subject on an instant or blatantly ignore him by taking her attention to other thing or running away. She was uncomfortable with that, he understood at the seventh time that he had asked why she twitched at the very mention of the word.

"Shirou-kun..."

Her sweet voice along with a tilt of her head, a dangerous small smile on her face. He had seen that image somewhere but did not place where. A pretty girl of lustrous jet black hair with sapphire eyes that was always lecturing him and looking at him as if he were insane, the girl had not even reached his collar bone but he had felt threatened. Now, however, was a woman who he reached to the middle of her thigh with her hair moving dangerously with the sweetest of the smiles and an aura of a demon. The woman who he had heard to be known as the 'Red Hot-blooded Habanero' for her breathtaking beauty and immense savagery in the battlefield alike to the one of a beast.

"What did I told you about being so near to a forge?"

"To don't do it."

He remembered clearly, but he liked the forge, he felt a connection to it, a sort of empathy, as if he was a forge or something like that. He always found it weird that he felt such connection with the forges, instead of with the blacksmiths that used them. Was it because he felt more like a tool than a human?

He would never know, nor say such things as to it would call too much the attention about such things, so he tried to act like a child, although in these sorts of cases was when his true nature was peeking to the outside world.

"And what are you doing now?"

Too close.

"That smile is scary, Kushina-sama."

So close that she was practically inches of his face.

The red-headed woman grabbed his hand and started to walk away from the forge, it was obvious that she was bothered by what he had done for she had already said so many times to the point that she was no longer counting.

763 times.

But he was still counting.

"What were you trying to do this time?"

She said with a sigh as she ignored the looks of pity that the villagers were giving to the child. She was known to be a strict woman on duty and public when she was not with someone that she cared about.

"The fire."

Kushina gave him a side glance and looked at his calm expression. She had known the child for a few years now and he had always been odd, but she did not mind that, for he was a member of her family. Family sticks together. And for the Uzumaki, the family was one of the most important things that they had.

And even if the kid was odd, he was still a kid, with time he will change and hopefully, she would change for the better and not let the traumatic experience of the death of his parents— which he had told her that he remembered— and all the people that he knew in the village consume him in something like vengeance. Even if she hated the fact that she was putting himself at the face of the danger that was the heat of the forge and the sharp and contaminated items on that abandoned forge, that made him feel more relaxed. Maybe he would end up becoming a Blacksmith, there were quite a few famous works of Uzumaki Blacksmiths after all, and he had an innate talent for the art of the forgery of blades.

"You shouldn't think too much about it, looking at the past will not solve anything, it would only make the pain in your heart bigger, focus more on the today and the tomorrow, for those things are all that matters now."

"Someone cannot look at one's future without knowing one's path."

Eck.

Again, with that old man type of attitude. From the moment that she had gotten to know him, he had always seemed like an old veteran that had lived through their whole life on the battlefield without actually knowing any joy in life. A child should not be speaking like that or have such an empty look. It was as if she were staring at one of the young ROOT agents of the old bastard known as Shimura Danzō.

An unnerving sight that her deceased husband had worked hard to erase without canceling the ROOT program completely. Something that she had always seen as stupid, that old goat did not deserve any respect that had been given to him with how badly he treated children, children that were forced to kill their brothers and show no hesitance in obeying that order.

"Okay, okay, Old brat. At least make sure to don't scare Naru-chan with the look of your eyes."

She did not mind him being near to her little Naru-chan, but as her little child was always constantly clinging to him whenever he was taking care her little yellow bean with cute birthmarks resembling whiskers and big brilliant blue eyes like sapphires, it was obvious that he was doing something wrong, for she was not able to hold her little Naru-chan without the newly born baby crying and when he did so, her little Naru-chan giggled. Kushina was a mature woman, she was not jealous, the brat had done something to her little bean to have more affection! She was stealing her little ball of joy!

She was not jealous! Kushina just did not feel comfortable with the idea that another kid had more motherly power than herself, a little boy just a few years older than her baby! He even stole her first word. Instead of saying 'Mama' or something similar, Naru-chan had said 'Shido (Shirou)'. Unacceptable! She was the mommy, why did the little boy steal the position of the first word... well, the second word had been 'Mama' and that was all that mattered, yes, that was all that mattered. HAHAHAHAHahahaha...

Why must life be so unfair?!

Kushina looked at the door of their house and stopped at a few inches from the sliding door. For a moment, almost instinctively, Kushina had almost said 'I am home, honey' and at the moment that that thought crossed her mind, her whole body shut down. Her eyes moving uncomfortably to different directions with the current situation, her lips thinned into a line.

Almost a year. And she still did not accept that he was truly gone.

The Fourth Shadow of the Fire, the Yellow Flash, the Fastest Ninja.

But she knew him by another nickname, her feminine-looking idiot.

She remembered everything about that night and still could not accept that he was truly gone, for her love for her Minato was just as strong as that. An unbreakable love that would never disappear no matter what obstacle would time wait for her, that was the kind of love that those of the Uzumaki clan had for their beloved ones.

The clan ruled more by their feelings than by their logic.

A strong thing love was, one of the strongest driving forces for the people, but it was also the thing that made the hurt the most when those who they loved disappeared. Especially when that love failed to save those they loved.

While in her hesitant condition of not being able to open the door due to her idiot not waiting for her in a pink plain apron, Shirou simply freed himself and opened the door, not understanding why she was so puzzled.

"Ohhh, mama! Shirou-nii!"

A cheerful voice was waiting for them right in front of them. She had probably been waiting for them since the moment that she went to retrieve Shirou.

It was as if the moment that he had gotten his eyes in the little ball of life that was struggling to walk forward, his whole being changed to a joyful one, even if his expression remained still, his aura could not be hidden. An aura of happiness and his eyes softened.

Kushina chuckled, trying to push away the jelou—... the feelings that she had on the scene. And she allowed her lips to take the shape of a saddened smile filled with guilt. For the child was probably replacing the memory of the baby sister that had been taken away from him with her daughter like he sometimes forced himself to don't call her 'Mother' for the word brought a lot of painful memories.

Memories that she and Minato could have prevented if she had put more importance to discover the truthfulness of the rumors of a small village whose inhabitants had hair as red as blood.

She had been in denial at first, just to guard the feelings that she had on this matter. The same feeling of guilt that she had since she was a child for having not being able to do something, anything, to help her family from the attack that they had suffered. Just to keep the small tinge of hope away so that her heart would not be disappointed.

She had been disappointed with herself the moment that she arrived. For that moment she had been able to do something, but just to don't feel the despair, loneliness, and sadness that she had felt when she had heard the news that the defense that her clan had given, had finally been defeated after a whole month of siege.

She had arrived when the village had already lost almost all of its population and the ninjas that had eliminated innocent survivors of her clan— elders, pregnant women, children, babies— and some even seemed to take pleasure on it. The moment that she had seen the first innocent person, a baby no older than a few months old, with his head crushed on the ground, parts of it splattered on the ground.

She saw red. And she reminded everyone why she was also called the 'Red Demon Queen of the Battlefield.'

No survivors from the attackers, she took pleasure on a few of them that begged for their lives as she let her summons eat them alive.

She had thought also that there were no survivors on the victims side either until she made a further inspection of the scene revealed a small child, old enough to have consciousness of what was happening on his surroundings and interact with it, in front of his parents and a small baby, probably a recently born child, on his hands. Several kunais, needles, and shurikens on his body— so many of them to the point that he was very similar to what one would call a 'Living Pin Cushion'—, and only a single needle in the head of the child, the single needle that had taken the life of the baby.

A hollow look on his face as he stood up and starting muttering 'Everything is going to be okay, Illya' over and over again.

Some others tried to get close to the child to put him in a safe place. First with words, but seeing that he was not listening, one of the most impatient and insensible ones tried to move him physically, and when she was about to be vocal about the outrage that she was feeling at such approach—

—The kid defended himself.

Ten ANBU that had accompanied them had died in an instant, pinned to the ground by swords that came out of nothing. But the one who had approached him had suffered a different fate.

A fate of being eliminated as swords came out of his body. A body left unrecognizable by the number of swords that came out of his body, pain extremely obvious on his eyes, his mouth unable to scream. He probably had felt the pain as something that had extended for a longer amount of time, but he had died at the thirty seconds.

Everyone remained quiet and still on that moment— except for a novice and ignorant recently ascended Jōnin, who tried to eliminate the child as a threat, but more importantly.

To avenge his friends.

It was a mistake that almost all of them paid, except for her and a few more who were left unable to continue in their career as protectors of their village due to the act of an idiot against a child.

If it hadn't happened what had happened, the hand of the Jōnin who had tried to attack the child that she would later take under her care would have been severed before the motion of his hand had ended. But it happened, an impossibility, something beyond her comprehension that she said to herself that it was one of the many abilities of the people of her clan.

Swords. A distant hill of swords that had materialized on an instant, less than a second. Yet the effect that it had on the reality was something to be afraid of.

Who, in their right mind, would have said that a child that had just reached the age were a child no longer had difficulty walking? A small and innocent-looking kid— if one did not look at his eyes— would destroy a squad full of a few of the most trained ninja of her village, the elite of the Hidden Village of the Leaf.

But he did, and the kid had almost taken her life if it wasn't for the sharp senses born after years of practice that allowed her to cover the ones around her in a barrier with her chains. All of the swords clashed in a cacophony of deafening noises that made her cover her keen ears that could hear miles away if she wanted. They had been protected until a crimson spear pierced through the barrier like butter cut by a hot-red knife.

The barrier fell. Bodies fell by the barrage of projectiles.

They went to cover from the endless attack that lasted for over a few minutes until the energy of the child ran out and a sound of his little body had fallen to the ground.

And even on unconsciousness, he never let any dirt fall to the little girl around but the sharp weapons that covered his body dug even deeper his flesh.

The child surrounded by hell itself and who protected a little girl, despite already having failed to protect the child. An empty and guilty look on his eyes as tears streamed down his eyes.

She had immediately tried to keep him alive long enough so that an expert would save the child, or so a normal person would have done, for the apprentice of the Three Legendary Ninja was anything but normal, especially on of the Slug Ninja who was known to reject anyone that dared to look for her in an attempt to train under her teachings. Her healing ninja arts were of the highest-ranked one on the village in the actuality despite having Chakra reserves as larger than even a Shadow, to the point that some even considered a Tailed Beast due to her Chakra alone. And so she healed the child on spot after expanding the healing effect to the surrounding area, in an attempt to heal whoever was still alive.

But it did not take long to discover that Shirou was the only one that remained alive in that hell.

She took it with Minato and told him that Shirou was their new child, he tried to reason with her, saying that they weren't ready. She was ready, she had born ready. And no amount of words could make her back away from her decision, no amount of words could make an Uzumaki change their minds.

He was family, it was all the reason that she needed to adopt the child.

"Kushina-sama, I have already made dinner... do you want to eat outside or is there anything that you want to do?"

Cheeky brat.

She smirked at the child as her hand fell on his head, she started patting the boy's head. Kushina felt not for the first time that her dear daughter was more excited to eat the food of a child a few years older than her than she was of eating her food.

Even if the food of the child was more delicious than— No! Her food was still the best, she had been the one to teach him, she would not allow herself to admit that her food was inferior to his!

The sounds of joy that came out of her mouth as she ate one of the best meals that she ever had, without counting Teuchi.

Kushina chuckled as the night continued and the only male in the house tried to feed her daughter with some apple puree while she tried to bring the bowl of ramen near her to eat it.

Ahhh~ Truly my child.

They all enjoyed the moment as two pairs of eyes looked at the scene fondly, both from different worlds but with a similar strong love for this kid despite him not knowing of their existence. Maybe in this world, he would get something that he lacked in the former.

True happiness and peace.

I have... decided to take place in the Writing Contest of Alex-kellar. I decided to take the first route with him being adopted.

I will assume that the first arc will end when he becomes a Genin.

Wonder... should I include characters from the Nasuverse?

Aside from the ones that caused this, of course.

Please leave your reviews... thank you for reading

I will accept any help that anyone gives me :)

Until next time~