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Introduction – Part One

It was one past midnight when Mikoto Uchiha finally gave birth to her third child.
She had been waiting in this hospital room for what seemed to have been ages, in her mind. Her water had broken yesterday morning, warning her that her babies would come into the word soon.

To be more precise, she had been pregnant with twins. The older one was a little boy and the younger one was a little girl.

How rare was it to have a baby born one minute before midnight, the darkest time of the night, and another baby born one minute after midnight, the brightest time of the night? It sure was thin on the ground. But Mikoto did not care. After all what she had been through, it was finally over. And now, as some locks of hair – long black hair – were sticking to her face because of the sweat, she was waiting for the nurse to give her the two newborns. She was completely exhausted, and she had a hard time catching her breath, but she could not be happier. Tears of joy glistened in her eyes and wetted her cheeks as the twins were finally put in her arms.

Her husband, Fugaku Uchiha, and their eldest child, Itachi, were finally allowed to come in the hospital room. They found a Mikoto smiling, and she was radiant like she had never been before. Itachi naturally came to his mother’s side, and looked at his younger siblings with curiosity. They were small, pink, and nearly did not look like human beings, but one could tell he already love them from the bottom of his heart. They were sleeping now, wrapped in colored blankets in Mikoto’s arms. Itachi looked up at the latter:

“Have you already chosen a name for them, Mother?”
“I have. Well, we have, with your father. Come here, darling. Don’t you want to see them?”

She was talking to Fugaku, who had stayed in the corner of the room until now. He grumbled, not specially liking babies’ company, but nevertheless stepped toward his spouse and his offspring. Oddly enough, he could not help but smile when he saw the twins deeply asleep, in this warm and protective place, against their mother chest. It remembered him of Itachi’s birth. Like his siblings, he had not cried much and had fallen asleep quickly.

“So, how should we call them, then?” the latter asked his parents.
“For your brother, it will be Sasuke, in honor to the Third Hokage’s father,” Fugaku began.

Mikoto added: “And for your sister, we thought of Asuka. It was the name of your great grandmother, you know. What do you think?”

Itachi was surprised for a moment. Before he could even answer, tiny fingers touched the back of his hand. He slightly jumped and looked at the small hand lying on his. His eyes widened, and he looked at the owner of this hand, that is to say Asuka, who was still sleeping. Then, his attention was caught by his little brother: Sasuke’s eyes fluttered open, and he gave his brother a smile. That was enough to make Itachi’s heart melt. His cheeks reddened, and he grinned.

“I think they love their names.”

Mikoto lightly laughed; Fugaku himself found himself smiling.
And this is how, respectively on July 23, 1989, at one to midnight, and on July 24, 1989, at one past midnight, Sasuke Uchiha and Asuka Uchiha were born, in the hospital of the Hidden Leaf Village, also known as Konoha.


*


It was the beginning of the year. February was not over yet, and it had snowed a lot last night. It was nearly the end of the afternoon.

As usual, Itachi was training in the forest, not so far away from the compound. With Father still on a mission and Mother cooking dinner for tonight, Sasuke and I had decided to go and see our big brother and had given her the slip. We had run together in direction of the forest, which was still snowy, my brother firmly holding my hand. We had laughed out loud all the way.

The place had been really easy to find, as it was not the first time we went there. Once we had reached it, we had immediately looked for Itachi, and it had not taken us too long to find the clearest where he was. Sasuke had hidden behind a tree; as for me, I had squatted behind a big bush. From here, I had an unobstructed view of my eldest brother. He was standing still, in the middle of the clearest. I just saw him close his eyes, before he disappeared, and I gasped in surprise. The next second, he was in the air, Sharingan activated and was throwing kunais at targets that were here and there; there was even one behind a rock. He did not miss any of them.

When he landed on the ground, Sasuke did not bother to hide anymore and stepped out of his hideout; his eyes were twinkling with admiration and pride.

“That was amazing, big brother! You nailed every target without even looking at them! I want to do that, too!”

I was about to show myself too, when something caught my eye. It was a little blue bird, chirping on the branch of a nearby tree, the one Sasuke had hidden behind. This bird was so beautiful that I could not repress the need to discreetly come closer to it. Alas, it flew away as soon as I moved, so I just decided to chase it and immediately run after him, into the forest.

I did not immediately realize that I was drawing away from my brothers, neither did I noticed I had left the forest for quite a few minutes now. This only hit me when the blue bird finally became out of sight and disappeared into the sky. When I looked around me, I was somewhere in the streets of Konoha, alone. The sun was slowly going down, and I just did not know what to do, now. The only thing I was able to do and that came to my mind was to call my brothers; maybe one of them would respond. They could not be so far away, right? I used my hands as a megaphone and started to shout, as loud as I could. It was not like I had any other options anyway.

Well, I had not planned that my yelling would allow some aggressors to find me.

I jumped in surprise and turn around when I heard them coming. They were three people, who must be older than me, as they had a forehead protector. Oh, no! Their hair was dark, as well as their clothes. And their smile was so evil! I was not feeling well and reassured with them around, and feel the urge to back up, and I did so. But they were moving at the same time as me, and when I stepped aside they stepped forward.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here? Isn’t it the youngest child of the Uchiha clan?”
“W–What do you want?”

Did they know who I was because of the Uchiha crest on my clothes? I moved backwards, being more and more afraid, and tears started to fill up my eyes.

“Come on, little girl,” the eldest one, who was probably the leader of their group, said. “Be quiet, give us everything you have and no harm will be done to you.”

“I don’t have money. Please, leave me alone! Anyone, help!” I screamed.

Apparently, the leader did not seem to be pleased with that. “Too bad, you’ve just sealed your destiny.”

I bit my lips. I was secretly hoping that someone, whoever it was, had heard me. All I heard was silence, except for the sound of my feet on the snow. My heart loudly pounded in my chest when I saw the three of them taking a kunai out of their pocket; they were becoming more menacing as the seconds went by. I did not know what they intended to do with their weapons, and besides, I did not really want to know it. I cautiously went backwards and backwards, until my back hit something solid. I just needed a touch to understand that I was actually against a wall. It was probably the one of a house. I did not see what it could have been otherwise. And it meant I had no mean to escape the gang. I saw them coming dangerously close to me, and fear passed in my eyes. My colors were all running dry because of the fear that was inside of me. I closed my eyes; this was over, I could not do anything.

“You cowards! Leave her alone and get way!”

I gasped, taken aback. Where was this voice coming from? Plus, I was sure there was nobody around, when I had checked… What did it mean? Even my three attackers did not seem to understand what was going on and turned around to see who the person who had talk was. I slowly opened up my eyes.

This was when I first saw him.

It was a young boy, who was probably my age; in any case, he was not so much taller than me. He had knuckle hair as golden as the sun and big eyes as blue as the sky. His complexion was olive; he had a white jacket, dark jeans and a red scarf around his neck. What was the most surprising in his appearance was probably the fact that he was wearing large green goggles around his head. He had clenched his fists and looked determinate. It looked like he would never give up, no matter what was lying ahead.

I gasped in terror. He is going to be beaten up!

The three boys glanced at each other knowingly, and then they burst out laughing. I was shaking; I did not want him to be hurt because of me.

“Who do you think you are? The young boy who’s going to save his damsel in distress?”
“I am the greatest Hokage to be, believe it! And I’m going to teach you a lesson!”

The three burst out laugh again. “Oh yeah, ‘the greatest Hokage’, really? And you have the pretention to think that you’re going to defeat us? How stupid.”

I’m sorry… I never asked for you to be involved in this… I was so sure that it would be an adult who would come to my rescue… What were we going to do, now? The blonde and I weren’t at the Academy yet, and our assailants were already genins, I had no idea about the way we were going to get rid of them.

“Wait,” one of them said, “I think I recognize this boy. You know, he is the brat everyone in the village despises.”

Pain flashed in the boy’s blue eyes the moment he heard those words. He gritted his teeth.

“You mean that brat?” the chief asked. He smiled in satisfaction when the other nodded. “Interesting. Beat the hell out of him will be even more satisfying.”
“I’m not gonna let you touch her!” the boy shouted.

He rushed forwards to them, like he did not care what would happen to him. My eyes widened in terror as the leader punched him so hard in the stomach that he coughed blood. He felt on his knees, stunned, only to be knocked on the head and fall flat on his face. Then, two of them, they took his scarf and began to torn it apart. As for their leader, he continued to kick the boy. I could not hold back my tears anymore and cried. They seemed to have forgotten about me, but my sobs caught their attention; here was their evil smile again. I gulped, as I was still against a wall and there was not any way-out to help me get out of there. The leader began to approach me again, while his two partners his crimes had switch roles with him and were now hurting the blonde, who was laying on the floor.

“So…” he said, his kunai in his hand. “Where were we already?”

I nearly had a heart attack, seeing him coming so close to me, and I was still shaking with terror, when someone suddenly appeared before me. I could only see his back, but I knew who he was for sure.

“Don’t you dare to touch her, or I can assure you’re not going to understand what happens to you.”
“Itachi!”

How has he…?! I had thought until now he was still looking for me, if he had even noticed I had disappeared in the beginning. Apparently, his height and his reputation as a genius, as well as his threatening, were enough to scare the three attackers. The leader stepped back and ordered the two other to go away, and they all leave without further ado. I sighed in relied, my hand on my chest. As soon as my brother was sure they were out of sight and had disappeared, he turns toward me, deeply concerned, and gently put his hands on my shoulders.

“Are you okay, little sister?!”

I first did not respond to him, still in shock. It took me a few seconds before I found the strength to nod, and it was only at this moment Itachi begin to relax. He took a deep breath, probably wanting to say something to me, but I did not let him do so. I already know he was worried about me, I also knew I was lucky that he found me in time and rescued me; there was something of the utmost importance I had to check. We could speak later.

I weakly smiled at him and gently removed his hands from my shoulders. Much to his surprise, I run past him, towards the young blonde boy who had tried to save me. He had not move and was laying on the floor, motionless, his scarf not so far away from him. I was relieved to hear him grunt: for a moment, I had though him dead.

“Is it going to be alright?” I asked, in a quiet tone, offering him a hand.

He looked at it with surprise, and finally grabbed it. We both stood up.

“I think so…” he answered. He let his hand run through his hair.
“Thanks a lot, for having come to my rescue,” I said, blushing. “My name’s Asuka, Asuka Uchiha. And this,” I said, pointing at Itachi, “is my big brother, Itachi. It’s nice to meet you.”

I don’t know what could have been if you hadn’t been there. I extended my hand to him. He gazed at it and blinked, as if he did not know why I was doing this and what he was supposed to do. Then he looked up at me. Was something wrong?

“You… You’re not afraid of me?”

I looked at him in concerned. “Why would I be?”

Definitely, he was less confident than he had been earlier. He stared down shamefully.

“… You heard them. The whole village fears me and hates me…”
“Well, you’re my friend, and you nearly saved my life, so I will never ever despise you.”

I softly smiled at him. If he thought I was going to be afraid of him just because everyone in the village was, well he did not know me at all. There was no way I turned my back on him just because someone else had told me to. He had helped me when I needed him the most, so this was only normal he became my friend, even though we had not known each other for long. His blue eyes widened, as well as his mouth. It was like he had never heard the word ‘friend’ before.

“We… We’re friends? Like, for real?”
“Of course we are! I mean, only if you agree, obviously…”

My cheeks slightly reddened and I looked away, embarrassed. I was becoming a little excited here, but well, this boy had something who made me want to stay by his side forever. As for the blonde, his eyes sparkled with joy and he grinned.

“Sure! I’m Naruto Uzumaki. Nice to meet you too, Asuka.”

He did not hesitate anymore and shook my hand. We both chuckled.

“I think this scarf belongs to you, right?” Itachi said to Naruto, as he came closer to us.

We both looked at the scarf Itachi was holding in his hands. The three boys had clearly worn it out, up to a point where we could barely guess it was a scarf in the first place. Naruto sighed sadly and took it. I tried to cheer him up with a smile; when he saw it, he smiled back at me. After that he looked at the scarf, then looked at me, then looked at the scarf, then looked at me again.

“Would you mind taking it with you? It is not really useful anymore, but… it could be the sign of our new friendship.”

I blushed, a lot more than last time, especially on how he had insisted on the last word.

“Well… If it doesn’t bother you… I would be glad to take it. Who knows?” I said after he handed the gift to me. “Maybe my mother will be able to fix it.”

Naruto smiled widely. We looked in each other eyes for a moment, before Itachi brought us to reality

“I’m sorry to say that, but we have to go home, Asuka. Mother and Father are waiting for us.”
“Aw, that’s right,” I sighed. “I’m sorry, Naruto. I have to go. But I hope we’ll see each other soon!”

“Of course we will, believe it! See you next time, then?”
“Yeah, see you soon!”

And this is how I befriended Naruto Uzumaki, the first friend of my life.

He waved goodbye at me, and I waved back at him, while I was holding my brother’s hand in mine. It was when I did not see him anymore that I stopped waving. I had put the scarf on, and surprisingly enough, I could smell Naruto’s odor on the fabric. My cheeks turned bright pink and I closed my eyes. I feel so well with this scarf around my neck… It was a feeling I had never experienced before, but I really liked it. I wish I will be able to see Naruto soon. I can’t wait to play with him. Soon I would enter the Academy. Was there a chance for me to see him there?

“You know, you really scared me to death. When I saw you chase this bird and going off the forest, I seriously panicked. It’s a good thing I was here on time.”

I opened my eyes and looked down in shame. That was right, Itachi had really saved my and Naruto’s lives, on this one. His timing had just been perfect. I really owed him one. I was worried about the blonde that I had not seen Itachi was just as concerned as I had been for Naruto.

“Sorry for all the trouble, Itachi. I didn’t mean to make you worry so much.”
“The most important thing is that you learnt your lesson. Besides, you made a new friend. And I think you caught his eye.”
“Big brother!” I protested, offended.

He chuckled and I could not help myself blushing. Why did he need to say such things? It was not even true! It was just that Naruto was my first friend. Actually, he had been the one willing to save my life today, and that was just enough for me. I was glad we had met, today. I hoped I would see him again and we would be able to play along and get to know each other well. I did not much about him except for his name.

We had been walking for about five minutes, and my brother was explaining to me he had let Sasuke go back home alone, when I suddenly stumbled over a small stone. I cried in pain.

“Ouch!”
“Asuka, are you all right?” Itachi asked.

I gritted my teeth while he crouched down. “F–Fine. I just was not paying enough attention and you see what happened.”

He touched my foot and I let out a cry of pain once. Geez, it really hurts… I did not think I had the strength to stood up, a feeling Itachi confirmed when he looked at me in the eyes and slightly shook his head.

“I fear you’re not going to be able to walk again, so I’ll carry you home on my back. You and Sasuke have really a gift to break your ankle; you’re really twins.”

And with that, we headed to the compound. Itachi was carrying me on his back, just like he had said, and I had put my hands around his neck. I let my head laid against his and closed my eyes. A few seconds later, I was daydreaming, mainly about Naruto and my entrance to the Academy. It was like a dream who was going to fulfill. I could finally proof to my father that we were as good as Itachi was at our age. I would make our parents proud, and I was sure Sasuke would too. We would do our utmost to achieve this goal and be as strong as our big brother. I also hoped I would make new friends there. Well, I was especially thinking of someone with blue eyes and golden hair who had recently saved my life…

*

By the end of April, Sasuke and I had made our first steps at the Academy. It had not been easy, though. For the Entrance Ceremony, we needed one of our parents or somebody of our family to come with us. As Mother had to take care of the house, she could not be this person. As for Father, he had not had any interest in that sort of things; I highly doubted he had been aware that it was this year we would entered the Academy. My dear twin brother had gently tried to remember him of this fact, but Fugaku had not cared at all, being so obsessed about Itachi’s tomorrow mission. The latter threatened our father about not going on said mission if nobody accompanied us. With that, Fugaku finally agreed to come to the school with us while Itachi was on his mission. We met the Third Hokage for the first time, a man who, despite his old age, immediately made you feel sympathy for him. Well, as the chief of our village, he was a man of confidence, at least that was what I thought when I saw him. It made me think of Naruto and how he had said he would be the next Hokage of Konoha; the incident had only happened two months ago, but I had gotten over it, now. I looked for the blonde all the day, but I saw him nowhere.

A year went by, during which some small things changed. I was filled with happiness when I finally noticed Naruto was in the same class as me and Sasuke; this was the moment when we truly began to know each other, just as all friends did. However, it was hardly a bed of roses: Itachi was acting weirder than ever; even our father who always praised him seemed to have distanced himself from his eldest child. By the end of October, we learnt that Shisui had been declared missing. And we learnt it quite the hard way.

The day was coming to an end. Father was out, Mother was cooking dinner, and I was outside, discussing with Itachi and Sasuke. We were talking about everything and nothing, when our attention was caught by some voices asking if Itachi was there; apparently, they wished to talk to him. Nobody responded at first, and I did not dare to move, so I just stayed where I was, with my siblings. A few seconds later, I my eldest brother stood up and walked into the room.

I looked at Sasuke and saw we just have had the same idea coming to our mind. We had to see what was going on exactly and why those people were looking for our big brother. Something had been off for a few months now, and we had to know what it was all about. So we stood up in turn and discreetly came back inside, to hide behind a wall near the front door, making sure nobody could see us. As for Itachi, he was now only focused on the persons – they were men, judging by the tone of their voices – who wanted to see him. They began to talk and, from what I could understand, the men were people of our clan and they were not pleased at all with the fact that Itachi had not come to an important assembly, yesterday.

“We’d like to ask you a bit more about something. It’s about Shisui Uchiha who died after throwing himself into the Nakano River last night.”

The world around me spinned and I nearly threw up. Shisui’s dead?! I could not believe it. Shisui had come to our house several times, being my big brother’s best friend. We were quite close to him; he always gave us presents for our birthdays and had always been nice with us, so why would he commit suicide? Unlike Itachi, he had not been acting weird, for the past six months. I believed he felt fine, I had not thought for a second that he would end his life, especially as his birthday was next week. Just what had happened for such a tragedy to occur? This just could not be real, there had to be an explanation!

“Why don’t you just come out and say it?” I heard Itachi asked. “You all suspect me, right?”

My eyes widened in shock. They could not seriously believe that? Itachi was a peaceful man and Shisui was his best friend. Why would have he done such a thing? It did not make sense at all. He was the best brother you could have hoped for. Could the police forces not see that and let our family alone? None of us had anything to do with Shisui’s death. It had all been so sudden… I could not believe they considered a member of their own clan as a potential culprit.

What happened next was indescribable.

Itachi activated his Sharingan and dealt with defeating the policemen who had insinuated we had something to do with his best friend’s death. They were three: Yashiro Uchiha, who had short spiky light brown hair and a purple shirt; Tekka Uchiha, who had shoulder-length grey hair and a blue shirt; and fnally, Inabi Uchiha who has long dark hair and a black shirt – he was the scariest of the three, to me. I did not really know them well, but I knew they were my father’s subordinates, and I owed them respect just as I owed respect to every member of our clan. That’s weird… Why would they believe Itachi is a killer? Just because he’s acting a bit strangely doesn’t mean he murdered someone. And above all… What was my big brother trying to do, by defeating them? They would get even more angry and would arrest him! What was coming over him, trying to attack members of our clans who were also policemen? This was not the right way to prove his innocence; he could not act like that! He was going to pay dearly if he did not stop right now.

I was shocked. Next to me, Sasuke was not in a better state either, as he was almost shaking with fear. Things got worse when Fugaku suddenly appeared out of nowhere, puzzled and deeply displeased about the scene he just had witnessed. I heard him state that Itachi had not been himself lately. The four continue to argue until one of the tree members finally said: “I’ve had enough! Captain, give us the order to arrest him!”

I gasped in horror, and buried my head in my twin brother’s chest. I could not stand, and neither could he. I felt his arms wrap me up, as he shook his head and shouted: “Big brother! Stop!”

All was silent after that. When I looked at Itachi again, he had frozen and was standing still right in front of us; then he crouched down. It looked like seeing his siblings there had prevented him from going too far this time. I felt better seeing he had calmed down. He usually was not quick-tempered, and I hoped the policemen would forgive him. He was my and Sasuke’s big brother and we did not want to lose him: he was too much precious for us. What could be going on his mind, right now? I wish he would talk to us about what was weighing on his heart. Were not we his family, after all? Did he think we were too young?

“I did not kill Shisui. But I apologize for the words I’ve spoken. I’m truly sorry.”

I bit my lips, then grabbed Sasuke’s hand and squeezed it. I was just as stunned as he was, to be honest. But as we were brother and sister and more especially twins, we had to be here for each other. He shyly smiled when he felt my hand on his, and we both looked at our brother again. I hoped everything would go back to normal soon, so there would be no need to worry about anything. I just wanted us to be a family again. And no matter what Itachi was concerned for, he had to talk to someone about it. I felt like our family would explode, otherwise; and I was on the verge of tears myself.

Finally, Yashiro, Tekka and Inabi left when our father promised to keep an eye on his eldest son. He then asked him to go back inside. When Itachi went past us, he smiled at us politely, almost sadly, and Sasuke and I could not take our eyes off him. It was only when Fugaku entered in turn in the room and told us to prepare ourselves for dinner that we somehow came back to reality. So we walked to the kitchen, where Mother was finishing preparing dinner; we set the table and a few moments later, we were enjoying the evening meal as a family.
Little did we know, it was only a matter of time before the storm raged on.
And we were just in the middle of it.