Shadows of the Past

Prelude
Long time ago...

The Earth faced a hideous menace, dark as the void itself and as old as time, they say.

This menace took the form of an immense monster of darkness, and had power unseen by any mortal man.

''They said this monster was in fact a true ungod of destruction, but no-one can be sure of it's true nature. They gave many names to the monster, but the one that lived longer than the others was Kugaya.''

''However, the mortal men who the monster deemed so weak and insignificant were the ones to defeat it. For there were two that rose in battle against that menance. The first was known as the Sage of the Six Paths - once to be respected as the creator of the ninja world as we know it. The other was one who has long since been forgotten, but bore the title of the Ronin of the Hidden Destiny.''

''The battle that ensued was massive, and the heavens themself felt like they were falling when the mightiest of mortal men faced the ungodly beast of destruction. In the end the heroes managed to separate the chakra of the beast into it's two halves - the Yin and the Yang. The Yin was like a deep pit, malicious and filled with darknees. The yang half was like a burning wildfire, raging and uncontrollable but made of sheer power. The Sage of the Six paths managed to seal the Yin half of the chakra inside the Moon with his Chibaku Tensei, they say, while the Ronin of the Hidden Destiny took on the Yang half, making the ultimate sacrifice: He used a forbidden technique called the Soul Combination Technique, and combined his entire existence with that of the Yang chakra of the monster. This sacrifice formed a new entity, but the Ronin of the hidden Destiny disappeared not long after the fight took place. Where he went, only he himself knew.''

But a long-forgotten legend was, that he would return to fullfil his destiny once and for all when the time was right...

The Masked Shadows begin their movement
At the entrance to the dark cave, a figure was standing, ignoring the rain pouring over him. His form was hidden by his pitch black clothing, which left no spot of his skin for the outside world to see. Soon his thoughts were interrupted by another shadow coming out of the cave. The second figure was very clearly female, as she was wearing clothing that didn't leave much space for speculation. Her face, however, was covered by a mask, as was the male figure's. The male's mask was an empty black oval with eyeholes, but the female had a mask resembling a fox's face.

"So... it really has begun, Kurokamen-sama?"

"That's right. The time to take what is legally mine has truly arrived. Remember, Kitsunekamen... This is the beginning of a new era... our era."

A lightning flashed in the clouded skies as the two figures in masks jumped on the nearby trees and begun travelling towards their dark destiny.

A new mission for Team Hotaku!
It was a bright morning in Konohagakure, and a yellow-haired ninja was running down the main street with incredible speed. There was a good reason for him to be running with max speed: He overslept again and was about to be late for the meeting of their team, led by the young but talented jonin Hotaku Kamateru. Hotaku was okay with him being late for a couple of minutes, but his temmates, oh, they would scold him for it again. And that would not be nice for someone, who was supposed to be the son of the Hokage himself, Naruto Uzumaki. "Takatsuke Uzumaki, you're not gonna let them look down on you anymore", thought the young ninja. "I'm gonna be at the meeting place in time no matter what!" Thinking this, he accelerated his running speed even further, making himself look like a yellow blur passing by to the Konoha civilians.

Takatsuke actually made it in time. When he arrived at the meeting place, Hotaku wasn't there yet, but his teammates were. Katoru Uchiha (the other male genin of their team) and Hikarime Yakama (the only female in their team). Even though Takatsuke was in time, the looks on the faces of both Katoru and Hikarime showed clearly, that they knew Takatsuke had overslept and were not pleased by it. They had no time to scold Takatsuke however, because as soon as Takatsuke had arrived, the team leader Hotaku landed on a nearby rock. Hotaku greeted his team with a broad smile and said: "Guess what, my spunkiest-of-all genin team? We have a new mission!" Hotaku always went straight into the business, which made him an ideal leader in the case of a battle, but required the some getting used to from his team. "What rank is this mission?" said Katoru, who spoke a little and was most often even more straightforward than Hotaku. "It's rank C. Should not be too hard, considering you all have gained experience and are not rookies anymore", Hotaku answered. "This mission includes delivering these scrolls to Sunagakure safely", he continued while holding three scrolls for the genin to see. "These scrolls are nothing secret, really, but it's not nice if they end up in wrong hands or get lost, so take good care of them." After saying this Hotaku threw the three scrolls to the genin, one for each. After jumping off the rock he was sitting on, Hotaku led his team forward towards Sunagakure.

On the palm of his hand Takatsuke weighed the scroll he had recieved and wondered what it might contain. He knew very well that he wasn't allowed to open the scroll, but that didn't stop him from theoretisizing. "They needed ninja to transport these scrolls, so even though Hotaku-sensei said it's not secret it has to be important." From this on, Takatsuke's wild imagination managed to create wilder and wilder images of what those scrolls might contain. Concentrating on his thoughts Takatsuke didn't notice that Hotaku was beginning to look more tense. Takatsuke's thoughts were interrupted by Hotaku poking him and whispering "Consentrate, Takatsuke. Even though this is a C-rank mission, a ninja must always be alert!" "Why are you whispering?" asked Takatsuke. "Don't make yourself look more of a goof than you are. I'm pretty sure that there's an ambush set up for us, and if we continued going we would walk right into it." Hotaku turned to Katoru. "Can you use your Sharingan to find out wheter there's any chakra visible ahead?" Katoru didn't answer, but activated his one-tomoe Sharingan and after a while told that there indeed was chakra visible ahead. Takatsuke immediately stuffed the scroll in his ninja tool bag and took a kunai in his hand instead. "An ambush becomes useless if the people the ambushers are trying to attack know they are there. When the ambusher don't know that we know it becomes our advantage" explained Hotaku. "We're going to walk in to the ambush, but instead of being dazed by it, we will instantly strike back and take out the ambushers." All the members of the team nodded and prepared themselves to fight while keeping on the move towards the awaited ambush.

Takatsuke's eyes
Takatsuke decided to stay close to Katoru - not because he thought he needed assistance, but because he had in mind to show off a little bit in front of Katoru. Katoru had never considered Takatsuke to be useful in battle, even though he had already mastered the Shadow Clone Technique and could take advantage of using his clones to attack the enemy or scout the surroundings. Katoru shortly glanced over to Takatsuke, but didn't say anything.

Team Hotaku had arrived to the foretold ambush site. For a second it looked just like any other patch of the forest, but all the sudden the peace was broken. A kunai flew from the trees towards Hotaku, who easily deflected it, but then he was surprised by a ninja jumping out of the trees. The genin didn't manage to see who it was because the attacker took on Hotaku very quickly and then retreated, prompting Hotaku to follow him, as this ninja was clearly jonin level, so Hotaku would have to deal with him to secure the genin. In the meantime the genin were being pushed by kunai and shuriken flying from the trees. Katoru managed to dodge and block them with ease with the help of his Sharingan, and Hikarime was not bad either. Takatsuke, however, took a different way of approaching. He created a bunch of shadow clones and had them jump towards the trees the kunai and shuriken were coming from. Needless to say, the clones were halted by kunai and shuriken hitting them and making them disperse. Takatsuke wasn't stopped however, and continued attacking head on. "Don't waste your chakra on all those clones, you idiot! We should try to pinpoint the location of the attackers and then take them with a coordinated strike!" Katoru yelled him. "Would you mind your own business?! I have a lot of chakra left!" Takatsuke yelled back at him. "Whatever!" Katoru angrily answered and then started doing hand signs. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!" With that, he blew a large fireball towards the tree tops, trying to force the ambushers to come out and fight fairly. This action ended up having a few downsides though. When the fireball hit the trees, a ninja suddenly came down behind Hikarime, who's attention was being stolen by the fireball. The ninja caught her and pushed a kunai on her throat. "No more games! Surrender now, or I'll take out this girl!" Both Katoru and Takatsuke stopped moving on that instant.

"Shit! If I don't do something, Hikarime will die! But if I do something hasty that doesn't work, she'll die anyway! What am I supposed to do?" thought Takatsuke, now clenching his fists tightly and sweating of fear. The thought "What am I supposed to do?" with the thought of his own helplessness to save his comrades filled his mind as he squeezes his eyes tightly shut. Then something snapped inside him.

Katoru was not much less troubled with the situation than Takatsuke. Every option he considered to save Hikarime ended with her, and in the worst cases, his own death as well. Then, something happened. Takatsuke opened his eyes, and Katoru couldn't believe his own, Sharingan or not.

Takatsuke's eyes had changed form. Instead of the bright blue inherited from his father, his eyes were deep red. The pupils were slitted and vertical. And the entire eye was encircled by a rag-edged red patch. Katoru had never heard of eyes that would look exactly like that. Then Takatsuke disappeared, atleast from the sight of Hikarime and the enemy holding her. Katoru could barely see it even with his Sharingan. Takatsuke moved with an amazing speed and delivered a single kick to the head of the ninja holding Hikarime, bringin him down. At that instant kunai and shuriken began flying from the trees, but Takatsuke moved like a hurricane and deflected every single one with the kunai he was holding, not letting them touch Hikarime. Then the two ninja who had hidden in the trees came down to face the genin. "This kid is better than it first seemed. You take the Uchiha brat and I'll consentrate on the mighty midget", said the other one.

The other ninja engaged Katoru in a fierce exchange of blows with kunai. With his Sharingan Katoru had no trouble countering the attacks of the ambusher. "I'll certainly teach you one thing", said Katoru. "I am no brat. I am a true Uchiha!" With this, he threw a shuriken at his adversary, who deflected it with his kunai. This left just the opening for Katoru to use, and he managed to stab the attacker with his kunai and finished it by kicking him to the head, knocking him out. Now looking back at Takatsuke, he saw something even more amazing than the last time.

While Katoru was taking on the first ninja, Takatsuke was focusing on the other one. Deflecting all of his blows seemingly easily, Takatsuke began to throw the mind of the attacker out of balance more and more every minute. Takatsuke's slitted red eyes followed his every movement, his swiftly moving body canceled his every attack. "I don't know what you are, but I'm definetely going to finish you!" the ninja yelled at Takatsuke and plunged towards him with a kunai in his hand. Takatsuke wasn't phased by the attack at all, and caught the hand holding the kunai. "Now that you will surely stay still... I can use my new jutsu on you without having to worry about you running away!" He threw his kunai away and created a shadow clone with a single handed hand sign. The clone began spinning chakra on his hand, faster and stronger every second. Finally it was ready. "Rasengan!!" Takatsuke slammed the Rasengan to the gut of the ninja, sending him flying backwards with him eventually crashing a tree. "This jutsu was taught to me by my father and invented by his father! Rember: I am Takatsuke Uzumaki, the son of the Hokage!" with this said, Takatsuke's eyes returned to normal and he fell down on the ground.

Hotaku vs. Kurokage
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