Naruto : Monsters

When I had first laid eyes on Danzo, I felt overcome by a blind instinctive – if rational – terror. But in the short intervening time since, my training had started to kick in as my mind started to regain in my emotions, using reason and discipline to blunt most of my initial burst panic.

I was safe.

...

Danzo wasn't here to kill me, he couldn't be. If he had wanted me killed then I would already be dead. It was as simple as that. He wouldn't have gone through all the hassle of setting up this entire charade if he just wanted to kill me.

Then, of course, there was the matter of just who I was.

I wasn't some nameless orphan off the street that he could abduct and no one would notice. I was Hyuuga Hikaru, the firstborn son to Hyuuga Hiashi and the Heir to the Hyuuga Clan, one of the three remaining Noble Clans of Konoha. I was this generation's up and coming prodigy, the best friend to the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki, a member of the newly formed team 7 and a student to Hatake Kakashi. I wasn't just standing in the middle of a spotlight, the spotlight was practically centred on me; there was no way anyone could make me disappear, not without getting half the village after you. Which meant that I was safe, not even Danzo could touch me.

At least, that's what I chose to tell myself.

The pounding of my heart began to abate with that thought, slowing til it approached something that I could at least pretend was normal. Without taking my protector off my eyes, I fully faced Danzo and bowed deeply in my seat towards the man, "Yes, Danzo-sama."

Danzo stared down at me, his scarred face set in its usual grim frown, thoughts indecipherable, before giving a curt nod.

Turning to look toward the rest of the restaurant occupants, where over one hundred Root agents continued to watch me with wide unblinking eyes. They hadn't moved the entire time, not a single one, they didn't so much as twitch, didn't even blink - and I knew, I had been watching.

Danzo calmly raised his working hand and flicked his fingers once, and the silent restaurant burst to life again.

It was as if someone hit the play button after pausing a film.

The waiters smoothly went on with their business, delivering meals or jolting down new orders, while the customers turned back to each other and began picking up threads of conversation, continuing where they had left off as if they hadn't been interrupted at all. Two kids, who couldn't have been older than eight or nine at most, screeched with laughter as they chased one another around the restaurant, while on the stage the koto player returned to her instrument, her fingers gracefully flowing over the strings as they pick up a tune – one thankfully free of chakra this time.

Not that it would have made a difference if she had. While I couldn't stop the foreign chakra from invading my system, most genjutsu relied heavily on the target not knowing they were caught up in an illusion for it to work. And with my eyes now fully open, that was no longer possible.

With my Byakugan active I could see chakra, and if any tried to invade my system I would immediately flush it before it had a chance to take effect. Nothing short of an S-Rank genjutsu like the Kotoamatsukami could affect me now, and with my eyes covered even that wasn't possible.

Presuming, of course, I wasn't already trapped under the effects of Kotoamatsukami.

A passing server placed a bowl of food on the counter in front of Danzo and me before heading off to serve another pair of customers – or rather the Root ninjas pretending to be customers.

"Eat." Danzo nodded towards the meal, "My personal chef's work. I had the entire staff replaced with my own men so no one would disturb us for the night."

Well, at least that explained why the food had tasted so good.

Despite the invitation, Danzo made no move to touch his own food. Rather, he kept on watching me, his bandaged face so stoic that I had no idea what he was thinking.

Yeah, as if I could possibly enjoy eating anything with him watching me. I don't think I could have swallowed without choking with my throat so dry.

"With all due respect Danzo-sama," I ventured cautiously, not sure if he'd be offended, "but why are you here?"

Danzo said nothing and just continued to watch me, showing no signs that he had even heard me speak. The silence between us began to stretch, growing more strained with every passing second, and I tried holding his gaze for as long as I could, but eventually, the tension was too much and just when I was about to force myself to speak up again, Danzo moved.

Turning to face the counter, Danzo picked up a pair of chopsticks with a single hand and began to methodically eat his meal. After a few awkward seconds of watching him eat, I too turned back to my own meal and forced myself to do the same.

Despite having found it delicious only a few seconds earlier, I couldn't taste my food as I chewed, every mouthful a challenge to swallow as I had to force food down my painfully dry throat.

It was an awkward affair, one that I thought would last until we both had finished our meals, but to my immense relief, it was barely a minute later when he spoke. The clinking of plates, the laughter and chatter of the occupants filled the air with a steady din, so when he finally broke his silence, I had almost missed what he had said.

"Were you aware," Danzo asked lightly, "that I was supposed to have trained you?"

Barely managing to keep myself from slipping off my stool at that bit of news, I whipped around to stare at the man. What? I had never heard anything about that. I didn't even know Danzo took on students for God's sake.

My throat constricted at the thought of being under the thumb of this monster, I had even further trouble forcing down the mouthful of food that I had been in the middle of chewing. After a brief struggle, I managed to swallow and asked, "Is...is that normal? For you to take on students, I mean."

"From time to time." Danzo admitted, still maintaining his methodical eating pace, "Usually the people I train are far older, hand-picked from the newest crop of Anbu, but from time to time when a child shows a remarkable amount of talent I get handed a student as young as yourself and take over their training. Many people consider it an honour."

I'm sure they do, you sociopath.

"I was rather surprised when your father rejected my offer." Though his expression didn't so much as shift, I got the impression that Danzo didn't quite know what to think of that.

Oh, Hiashi, you beautiful son of a bitch. When I get home I'm so going to hug the stuffing out of you.

"It is odd, to see a man change so thoroughly." Danzo admitted pensively, "A decade earlier he would have gladly handed you over to me. He was much like Fugaku in that regard, he wanted a powerful heir so badly that it blinded him to everything else. It was almost amusing how two men so similar in nature could hate each other so thoroughly." He scoffed, "People are always blinded to their own faults."

Danzo shook his head, "When you began to prove yourself as a prodigy, everyone had assumed that Hiashi would have leapt at the opportunity of having me take over your training, just as I had done with Fugaku's boy."

"Wait." I interrupted. Startled. Did he mean... Fugaku had only two children, one was Sasuke and the other was - "You trained Itachi?"

"Yes. I had." A fond smile grew on Danzo's face, looking so out of place with his usually harsh features. He set down his chopsticks to raise a hand up to his empty eye socket, fingers slowly caressing the bandage there. "Uchiha Itachi, my greatest creation." He said, sounding oddly proud for some reason.

It was that odd ting of pride in his voice that, along with the way he reached for his missing eye at Itachi's name, gave me the final piece of the puzzle I needed to put everything together.

Oh.

Oh!

Holy- so that's what happened.

I had always wondered what Itachi did when he heard of Sasuke's disappearance, there was no way he would have just sat back and left the matter alone. No, Itachi loved his brother too much to take his disappearance sitting down. From what little I knew of him he would have come storming back to the Leaf to demand answers, and I doubt he would have done it peacefully either. Homicidal would have probably been a better word for it.

And yet, I haven't heard a single thing about it.

There were no swaths of destruction attributed to him, no murders to his name anywhere in the Land of Fire. As far as I knew Itachi hasn't been seen in the village since the massacre. So I had no idea how he had reacted to the news and had no way of ever knowing.

Until now.

One look at Danzo's face gave me all the answers I needed.

Itachi fucking mutilated Danzo. Holy Shit!

...

If you like the story so far, please throw some power stones.

======================

If you want to support me, Or just read ahead of the public release, you can check my p atreon :

 p atreon.com/sybife