Summary: Sometimes, when one insists on not wanting to become a Shinobi, it is best to listen to them.

It should be noted that this story was heavily influenced by the works from swabloo and Silver Queen.

Also a very special thank you to marmaroth, who took the time to review this for me.

Konoha.

A village born out of necessity, built on deceit and bloodshed, thriving off of generations' worth of war, each more devastating than the last. To its inhabitants, it is a matter of pride that they only started one of those wars.

Despite the loss of life, each generation raises its children to proudly serve within the shinobi forces. The Hokages would insist that it's for the sake of Konoha, but some believe more in raising the honour and glory of their clan.

To the Uchiha, having a healthy child join the village's forces is expected. Disobedience is rarely expected and never tolerated.

Meet Uchiha Isamu, third born son of Uchiha Katashi who was third in line to be head of the clan. Jounin of Konoha, renowned for his relentless assault on Suna's puppeteer forces. Most of the Shinobi under his command were slaughtered, but were ultimately successful in gaining enough of Suna's attention for the White Fang's forces to deliver a disastrous blow to their main supply line, effectively knocking them out of the war.

So it was a matter of pride when Isamu discovered that his wife was with child. Really, an outsider would comment that the child never had a chance, considering that the clan expected it to live up to its father's reputation and to prove to the world that the Uchiha's strength was far from dwindling.

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Uchiha Hayato came kicking and screaming into this world. At the very least, the first impression was that the boy had a strong pair of lungs.

After six months, the child's eyes shifted into the black coal appearance often prominent in Uchiha who grew to fully develop their Sharingan. It was a glorious moment for Isamu, as the child immediately gained the attention of the clan elders and increased the prestige of his branch of the clan. Not that he ever let that show, as was expected of him.

That feeling, unfortunately, deteriorated over the following years.

Hayato was a quiet, aloof child. He never played with the other children and in fact seemed to have difficulty understanding anything that he was told. While the others quickly learned how to speak and chattered on incessantly, Hayato only spoke when spoken to and even then used the fewest number of words possible.

Isamu never took the time to raise the child; he left that in the hands of his wife. The only time he really spent with the boy was to drill him with questions to check his comprehension and mastery of the language.

By the time the boy was two, Isamu had long since gotten used to the wary look his son directed at him whenever he entered the room.

Then came the day where he introduced his son to the Uchiha's greatest boon, the Sharingan. He did not expect his son to shriek in terror and backpedal away from him, abandoning all sense of dignity and decorum his parents had instilled within him.

Some would have been concerned. Some would have attempted to soothe the child's fears. Isamu had no tolerance for such nonsense and proceeded to heavily discipline the child.

In hindsight, some would say that the incident was the time that Isamu destroyed any chance of gaining his son's respect and admiration. Over the following year, many noticed the evident fear on the boy's face whenever his father entered the room and whenever he saw one with an active Sharingan.

This did nothing to increase the clan's opinion of him and effectively embarrassed Isamu.

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It was quickly discovered that Hayato, despite his communication problems, was rather perceptive. At all times during the day, his eyes were on the move, carefully taking in his surroundings, clearly calculating how to deal with a new situation and, understandable considering his stature, taking note of all possible escape routes.

That quickly singled him out as one of the small handful of prodigies that the clan delighted in.

Isamu introduced his son to Uchiha Fugaku when he was three. The clan head and his family were greeted with an impeccably set dining area with the best china dishes that money could buy.

Hayato went rigid the moment they entered the house. He was meek at first, politely answering any questions directed at him. It was noted that he was quite hesitant around the clan leader, as was sometimes noted in young children, but absolutely refused to look or even acknowledge the presence of his cousin, Uchiha Itachi.

Then Fugaku brought up the topic of allowing Hayato in for early admission to the Academy.

Hayato broke all decorum and spoke up out of turn. "No! I have no…I don't want to be a ninja!"

Isamu ordered him to be quiet, but the child would not listen, going as far as to plead the clan head to not let him in, that he wasn't meant to be a Shinobi. Eventually pleading was replaced with mounting anger, interrupting the conversation again and again with the adamant refusal to be a ninja.

Never had Isamu been so embarrassed. The clan leader was none too pleased with being spoken to so rudely either. It was decided the Hayato would join the Academy the following spring. His training would commence within the week.

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For the first few days of training, the child refused to fight, even turning around to try and run away. The first time he did this, Isamu appeared before him and kicked his three year old son in his chest.

Gasping with tears in his eyes, the child collapsed, looking up at his father in surprise.

Isamu ordered him to get up. The child shook his head and was kicked in the side.

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The cycle was repeated over the following few days. When the child refused to fight, he was struck. When he obeyed, he was struck. When he adapted, his father struck harder.

By the end of the first month of training, Hayato no longer looked at his father with fear. Barely controlled fear was replaced with an open, undisguised look of hatred.

.

It came to no surprise that an Uchiha, younger than all the students save Uchiha Itachi, was given permission to attend the Academy. It was, however, a complete surprise when Hayato did no work. He refused to answer when spoken to. When the instructors managed to get an answer out of him, it was usually in the forms of insults and his opinion of ninjas in general. He didn't take notes, write down answers or participate in exercises.

After he spent a week doing nothing, his instructors passed on a message to his clan. Hayato returned the following week covered in bruises. He asked for aid from his instructors. They refused.

He now applied himself to his training, though his father was no longer the sole recipient of his hatred.

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Six months down the line, Itachi graduated. Hayato had just passed survival training. Though he had the highest grades, it wasn't enough for his father or the rest of the clan. For Hayato showed the most promise after Itachi, and it would bring the clan great honor to have two Uchiha graduate in such a short amount of time. After all, there was a war going on. The Uchiha needed to prove their unrelenting superiority before the war ended.

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One night, Hayato didn't come home. Isamu had prepared the training field in anticipation for his son's evening training. Hayato wasn't early, as he usually was. He wasn't even on time. After five minutes, Isamu was irritated at this lack of promptness. After half an hour, he grew insulted. After one hour he was livid.

A word passed to the Konoha police and they dragged the child back before the moon rose.

Apparently Hayato had attempted to spend the night in the forest. He had refused to come home and tried to escape them, going as far as to fight them when that proved impossible.

Furious, Isamu had brought him out to the training field and ordered him to go through form after form, hitting him whenever exhaustion got the better of him.

Despite his father's expectation, Hayato could not keep the pace up throughout the night. He only looked up when he was called an embarrassment. When he snidely pointed out to his father that he was better than most other Uchiha children, his nose was broken.

Clutching his nose, he slowly got to his feet as he was taught, contempt and hatred oozing out of him. Slowly, he released his bleeding nose and regarded his father, scrutinizing the man. Eventually, he spoke up, slowly enunciating the words so that he wouldn't be misunderstood.

"I do believe I am looking forward to the day you die."

He was admitted to the hospital a few hours later, eyes swollen shut, with a broken arm.

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Hayato graduated from the academy a year later. He was acknowledged as a genius, though never to his face as he tended to get hostile when called that.

He joined his team in Training Field 23 and they went through the usual hopes and dreams scenario that was tradition for newly minted teams. His fellow teammates' were along the lines of becoming great ninjas and finding glory. He refused to answer. When forced to by his sensei, he lied and was called on it.

Finally, after a moment of glaring at his teacher, he answers with the brutal honesty of one with a secret long withheld. "To live a healthy life, retire unscathed from the Shinobi forces and kill the bastard who calls himself my father."

The Hokage allowed him to move out of the Uchiha district and it was noted in his file that he wass mentally unstable.

It took Hayato a few months to sneak a look at his file. He was far too aware that it was only because they allowed him to see it. He knew that were it not for the potential of his dormant Sharingan, they would have killed him long ago.

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The war ended and Hayato came home with a haunted look. He had adjusted poorly to killing. He had adjusted worse to the fact that he was rather efficient at it.

People seemed to believe that the war helped him vent some stress, some thinking that it has loosened his hostility towards his father. Perhaps that was the case at first.

Then Hayato saw the Uchiha in battle, their Sharingan at work. He saw years of hard work effortlessly stolen from the best Ninja that Kumo and Iwa had begat in years. He saw a young Killa Bee, just starting to master the demon that lay within him, in action.

His squad was one of the first on the scene to discover the bodies of Namikaze Minato's remaining students. They witnessed scores of Kiri hunter nin pierced upon a mountainous monstrosity, a pool of blood surrounding its base. One student, Hatake Kakashi, survived.

Whatever light of hope remained within Hayato was extinguished. Only his sensei noticed. A shame he didn't care.

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He spent his days training. Day in and day out, he trained his body and jutsu repertoire. He refused to answer any summons from his clan. The Chunnin exam approached.

He was sent on one last mission beforehand. He and his team were supposed to patrol the border between the lands of Fire and Rock.

It was a routine patrol until Hayato seemed to notice something odd upon seeing a flock of refugees. For the first time, his team actually saw a look of pure terror on his face.

Hayato sprang into action, drawing the Tanto he had been learning to specialize in. Enemy ninja burst into action. Most of the civilians died in the crossfire.

The team was separated. The sensei managed to find two of his students, but found no sign of Hayato.

After an hour's search, they managed to find a heavily wounded Hayato lying among the corpses of Iwa was bleeding internally and had lost the function in his left arm. His eyes were red, two tomoe in his right eye, and one in his left. When they mentioned that to him, he wordlessly stared at them before sighing in resignation and asking them to get him the hell out of there.

Their sensei believed that Hayato recognized the Iwa nin and reacted as he did due to reflexes honed in the war. They left with Hayato resting over a makeshift stretcher. Despite his wounds, he looked at peace. No one noticed the dismembered remains of a silver haired youth among the corpses, the shattered remains of a pair of glasses scattered across the battlefield.

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Had Hayato has his way, he would have lived out his life with a useless arm. However, the Uchiha insisted that no member of their great clan would be allowed to live as a cripple. Seeing that he had little choice in the matter, Hayato reluctantly asked his father and the clan head for help in recuperating from the battle that he instigated. They got him the best healers Konoha had on hand.

He was healed and ordered to get back to work, despite the fact that it was heavily recommended that he take an extended recovery period. It was also brought before his sensei and father that he failed his psychological assessment. The doctor was bribed into silence and the files were burned.

Danzo and the Hokage were well aware of the clan overstepping their boundaries, but did little to retaliate. They recommended that the doctor resign and much to their surprise, found him dead within the month.

If anyone noticed the grim satisfaction on Hayato's face, it was pointedly ignored.

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At first Hayato refused to take part in the exams. His teammates, already bearing heavy dislike towards him, were none too pleased. Neither were the Uchiha. He was ambushed by the military police and brought before Fugaku and his father. He rudely greeted Fugaku and stared hatefully at his father.

Livid and clearly sporting bruises, he signed up with his team the next day.

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They got through the first two tasks without any trouble. If there was one thing that Hayato openly prided himself in, it was his growing mastery over stealth. His teammates also knew that it brought him much satisfaction to know that his clan disapproved of his growing specialty in remaining unseen over frontline combat.

They were the team that took the longest to get to the checkpoint, as Hayato made damn sure that his life was never endangered. Day in and day out, he would refuse to move on ahead unless his team properly scouted out the area. They were filthy from days of travel in the wild, but they never once had to fight a rival team.

In the third task, he was to fight a Genin from one of the minor villages in the land of Fire. After the obligatory month of training, when Hayato was forced to train with the Uchiha to develop the Sharingan he so openly despised, he went into the first round with most of the Uchiha in attendance, expecting him to win handily. His foe was talented but they both know the Uchiha was much more so. Yet another obstacle to sacrifice for the glory of the Uchiha name.

When the proctor asked if they're ready, Hayato grinned broadly and turned to face the stands where the Hokage and, quite coincidentally, the Uchiha elders sat. His voice boomed out across the stadium, betraying his excellent chakra control.

"I forfeit."

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The Uchiha were livid. Those who gambled on the match were outraged. Brawls broke out over arguments as to why the bets didn't count. It got so bad that even the Hunter Nin had to step in to help the Konoha police and Anbu deal with the riots.

The Sandaime Hokage, nursing a headache, gladly hanged up his hat in order for Minato to take over the job and deal with the mobs demanding blood.

One of the first things Yondaime Hokage did upon donning the hat was to call Hayato into his office, admonishing him for his disrespectful behavior.

Hayato showed the man nothing but respect and gladly accepted all the punishments put upon him. He also mentioned that he had to warn the young Kage about a danger threatening Konoha. However he also asked if he could resign from the force. The Yondaime refused.

Hayato looked surprised, an emotion few had ever managed to see on his features, before sighing in resignation. When asked what the warning was, Hayato shrugged his shoulders and muttered something about a false alarm. The Yondaime was skeptical, but was informed by his advisors of the child's tendency to lie and cheat his way out of a Ninja's duty. So he let the untold warning slide.

Less than a year later, the Kyuubi attacked. The few citizens who weren't blinded by raw terror did manage to notice a young ninja standing on top of the Hokage monument. All he did was laugh as the world fell apart around him.

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Konoha was rebuilt, though it was never the same.

Despite his substantial increase in skill, most of Hayato's missions ended up in failure and he was delegated to handling D missions only. When he failed those as well, he was court martialed for deliberately failing his missions.

Yet the Uchiha refused to allow the village to execute the son of a high ranking and respected Uchiha, pulling many strings to order Hayato back to the Uchiha compound to personally deal with the whelp that seemed to make it his life goal to sully their name.

His father, in the midst of having three Chuunin discipline him, expressed his disappointment and went on with the same song and dance routine about the pride of the Uchiha and obligations owed to family.

Hayato snarled and spat in the man's face, yelling at him in a language that no one had ever heard of before.

In response, his father activated his Sharingan and delved into the boys mind, forcing his son to spout out his insults and contempt for the most superior clan in Konoha in their native language.

Outraged that the man went as far as to invade his mind, Hayato drew a Kunai and threw himself at his father.

The fight was short and brutal. Hayato had grown strong, but he couldn't hold out against four Uchiha with fully matured Sharingan.

Forced to kneel at the man's feet, Hayato, nearly frothing at the mouth with rage, roared out his hatred for the man. "So help me, I'll kill you. Whether it's the last thing I ever do, I will kill you."

He was beaten and broken, the Uchiha refusing to back down until he learned his place.

He returned back into the public eye a year later, ready for the Chunnin exams once more. He led his team through each task, brutally dispatching anyone in his way, be they ally or foe.

They made it through in record time.

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He was to fight a rising star in the Uchiha clan. Hayato was put under strict orders to fight him and ensure both of them were promoted. To drag it out and show the world their skills.

The proctor ordered the match to begin. Before anyone could react, the younger Uchiha had his throat slit.

As the body collapsed, two mud clones rose up to impale the youth's eyes on their kunai, destroying the pair of fully matured Sharingan.

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There was an uproar. People were horrified that Hayato could so carelessly slaughter his own clan member. Yet he was allowed to go forward, against the Hokage's better judgement. Hayato won the tournament, but killed each of his opponents.

The final straw was when his final opponent forfeited the match, only to have Hayato lunge at him. Despite the interference from the proctor and Anbu, they failed to stop Hayato from lopping off the Chuunin hopeful's head.

He clearly wasn't promoted and the Hokage ordered his Anbu to bring him in. He was dragged into Torture and Interrogation and after a few months, the report was delivered.

"Is he a spy?" asks the Hokage.

Morino Ibiki denied it.

"Why did he slaughter them?"

Because he wanted to spite the Uchiha, because he believed that it was one of the best ways to show the world exactly what they would do to sate their lust for power and glory.

The report went on explaining in thorough detail the boy's profound hatred for his father, his clan and everything related to the life of a ninja. He also pointed out that the boy had mentioned countless times that he did not want to be a ninja, that people like him would prove to be a liability. In fact, the boy took glee in pointing out how the village itself ignored him, refusing to get involved with his problems in order to prevent a political incident with the arrogant clan. The boy was currently laughing in his cell, going on and on about how he warned them.

The report also went into detail about how the boy believed he originated from another world, except the memories were now far too distorted to make much sense. They would need much more time to fully restore his memories. Whatever the Uchiha did to him, it practically destroyed his mind.

"Is he a threat to Konoha?"

Ibiki sighed and narrowed his eyes. "He would not hesitate to destroy Konoha or this entire continent, should he be given the chance."

After much consideration over whether they could still interrogate the child for information, a decision was made. Considering it was an Uchiha in custody and tensions were still running high over the possibility of clan secrets getting out, the Hokage ordered his execution. The Uchiha gladly accepted this. His death would be better than their secrets being told and despite their desires for a strong army of Uchiha, the child was no longer worth the embarrassment.

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Three ANBU were dead when they went to retrieve him.

A message was left in blood as to where he had gone.

When they found him in front of the burning remains of his parents' home, Hayato greeted the ANBU with a cheery wave as he slowly skinned a bleeding out Uchiha Isamu. They were so surprised by this that they hesitated and went as far as to demand answers from the insane ninja.

Shrugging, Hayato glanced down at his father and smiled, patting his cheek. "I told you I'd kill you."

The Anbu lunged at him and Hayato plunged two kunai into his father's eye sockets. He barely had the time to bask in satisfaction before he was impaled from three different angles, Anbu tantos piercing vital organs.

He died laughing.