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Birthright	By : sadfascist Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 3579 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own NARUTO, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 10
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BIRTHRIGHT
THE SLAVE’S TALE: “Sins of Blood, Part Two”
Sakura tells us that she and Hagoromo are in love. They are going to marry, no matter what anybody says. Even though Hagoromo is the heir to the Wood Country. Heir to the hated Senju clan that the Uchiha have been fighting for hundreds of years.
I am heir to the Uchiha. Soon we’ll be fighting, the two of us.
Hagoromo says no. He says that a wedding between our two clans will make peace. He has the trust of his father Senju Sarutobi, and Sakura has the trust of our father. Hagoromo says that together we will create a new era for humanity. A world without war. A world without warlords.
Hagoromo talks a lot. He gives me a headache. Sakura seems very fond of him, though. She and Hagoromo like to hold hands a lot, and also write poems to each other.
On the way back to Sawara, riding separate horses, they’ll scribble words on rolls of rice paper and then give it to me or Naruto to deliver to the other. Sometimes I read them first. I don’t really understand what they mean but I pretend I do.
Hagoromo writes,
The blossoms are seen
Even by the eyes of the poor:
Lonely beauty.
Sakura replies,
Has spring come
Or has the year gone?
Second-to-last-day.
To which Hagoromo says,
Awake at night—
The sound of the water jar
Cracking in the cold.
Sakura giggles and writes,
The dragonfly
Can't quite land
On that blade of grass.
Then Hagoromo smiles and finishes off,
Summer grass—
Before you come,
I’ll hunt out the snakes.
And then the poetry is done for the day. We stop at a inn along the dusty Sohkaido Road and the two of them disappear off to a private room. Sometimes Hagoromo will come out to lecture me and Naruto about justice.
“Justice is the burden of leadership,” he says one night. “Even in this land of evil, it must be so. For a great change is coming. Men are changing, they learn to harness the power of their own spirits—a power far greater than any master’s whip. And so shall society change with men. But the question remains. How shall our land change? The rotten edifice of slavery crumbles—yet what new foundation shall rise up in its wake? The burden falls on us, Itachi. Do you understand? We shall till this barren land until justice come rising up everywhere and grows into a great eternal forest of hope.”
“Is that why you want to be the Birthright Emperor?” I ask.
Hagoromo smiles. “I do not want to be Emperor.”
“Father says you do. The Senju clan, I mean. That’s why he invaded your country.”
“Our fathers are blood enemies, I confess it. But we are not enemies, Itachi. Soon we shall be brothers.”
“If Master Madara consents to the marriage,” says Naruto. Naruto speaks openly, just like he’d talk to me. I think he’s not scared of Hagoromo because Hagoromo isn’t his master. “Which he won’t.”
“Uchiha Madara is not the only voice in the Uchiha clan. When I arrive in Sawara I mean to find the others.”
“Only Mistress Kyoki has any influence. But she’s bedridden ever since she lost her second son during birth, and barren.”
“Mother is sick,” I add. Naruto looks at me. Then I realize I’m just repeating what he already said. I must be an idiot.
Senju Hagoromo stares down at us. He looks like a statue, doesn’t say anything. Suddenly I remember that Hagoromo’s mother, the famous southern princess Otsutsuki Kaguya, had died giving birth to him. So Hagoromo never had a mother growing up. Dim shadows flicker across the paper walls of the inn, like demon shapes. It’s late and the candles in the room are almost all burned away.
“Do you know the poem about sin, Hagoromo-dono?” Naruto asks suddenly. “The one by Kishimo Jiraiya?”
“One of my favorites.” Nodding, the man from Senju speaks it out loud:
And now it goes as it goes
and where it ends is Fate.
And neither by bathing flesh,
nor tipping cups of wine
nor shedding burning tears can you
wash away the Sins of Blood.
“Why do you like it?” Naruto asks.
“It is a poem about justice.”
“And what is justice?”
“To each, what he is owed.” Hagoromo’s bright yellow eyes glitter like a fire is burning there, a fire I can’t see. I’m frightened. “That is the fate I shall bring to this world.”
“You’re very confident.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I have seen it. The wheel of fate turns and bends men to its ultimate purpose. Some souls are cursed, damned to torment over and over again. Others are blessed, and these ones hold greatness in their hands like the sun. Our lives show our fate, as the childhood shows the man. As the morning shows the day. It is karma—there is no escape.”
“No.” It is Naruto. “No. There’s no fate but what we make.”
Hagoromo considers that. “You also are very confident, slaveboy.” He strokes a hand slowly along his bronzed chin. “And what is your fate?”
Naruto doesn’t answer.
******
Senju Hagoromo comes to Uchiha Castle in secret. It’s early spring and Sawara is covered in cherry blossoms. My mother is in the garden courtyard, sitting in a wicker chair facing the sea, when Sakura leads in our guest to see her.
“Kyoki-sama,” says Hagoromo, bowing low. He is disguised as a traveling medicine man, but now he removes his hat and the veil across his face. “Do you know me?”
I think Mother will faint, but she’s stronger than I expect. Her hair is gray, and her skin, but she straightens up in the chair. Pink cherry blossoms fall softly in her lap. “What is this man doing here?” she whispers.
“This man shall be my husband, Mother,” my sister says. “He has come to save our family.”
Hagoromo speaks many words. I’ve heard them all before, and I still don’t know if I can believe them. But Sakura does, and that’s good enough for me. I trust Sakura, more than I trust Father, and I don’t trust myself.
Naruto says that he believes Hagoromo, too.
“Madara will never agree to those terms,” says Mother when Hagoromo is done. “The war is going badly for the Uchiha, yes. But my husband is a prideful man. He may agree to a ceasefire between Blood and Wood, but not to a restoration of the old borders.”
“An Uchiha, Madara-sama’s grandson, will be the heir to the throne of the Wood Country.”
“A half-Senju grandson. The Warlord will not agree.”
“Do you agree?”
At this Mother pauses, brushing the cherry blossoms off her lap. Then she smiles faintly. “Of course, I always agree with my husband, as any wife should. Is this not so, Sakura?”
Sakura laughs. “But sometimes a husband does not know to what he agrees.”
“Just so.” Mother closes her eyes as the sea breeze flutters her hair. “We must talk in the future, Hagoromo-kun.”
The man bows. “Let me leave you a gift, Kyoki-sama. To prove my sincerity.”
He raises his hands, and suddenly his hands are glowing.
I’m stunned. I rub my eyes, but I still see what is impossible. Hagoromo’s hands are blazing with an aura of golden fire, just like the gold in his eyes and in his hair.
“This is spirit magic,” the man says. His words echo in the garden from tree to tree. “Healing magic. Chakra. Do not be alarmed.”
Then he places his hands on Mother’s belly. Mother gasps, and I yell and try to run over, but Sakura stops me. “It’s okay, Itachi.” Now our mother is glowing too, where Hagoromo touches her. A few minutes, maybe, and then Hagoromo pulls his hands away. The golden magic around him disappears.
“My body,” my mother says, smiling. She stands up. “I’m healed.”
“Your body, and your womb.”
“I was infertile.”
“No longer, Kyoki-sama. Please inform Uchiha Madara that I have given him two sons this day.” Hagoromo puts back on his medicine man hat. “One more by birth, if you wish it. And another by marriage, if he will have me. My offer to the Uchiha clan stands.”
Then Senju Hagoromo is walking away, out the castle garden, Sakura close behind him.
I stare after him with an open mouth.
******
Father is furious when he returns.
Father tries to lock Sakura up in the highest tower of Uchiha Castle. Mother does not stand for it, but Sakura agrees not to leave the castle without his permission.
“I will destroy this Senju boy who has defiled my daughter!” Father vows. He shakes his head in anger, hair flying about in silver bolts. “I will destroy the country of these wood bastards and feed their rotting hearts to the ravens.”
And to me he says, “You will accompany my banner, Itachi. You have been under the influence of these soft women too long. It’s past time you know the battlefield, know the war which is your birthright. I have been wrong to hide you from it.”
When I protest, Father beats me. I have no choice.
We leave Sawara in the summer, at the front of a massive army. I’ve seen a lot of them, but this is the biggest ever. Father has called in all the lords and clans and samurai in the Blood Country. All their armor is painted red and black, the colors of the Uchiha, and everywhere soldiers are holding up our flags, like a sea of twisted black crosses. I wear armor, too, dark lacquered samurai plates studded with rubies in the shape of a bird with outstretched wings. “The Young Raven! The Young Raven!” soldiers shout as I ride by in the procession. It was made by a famous Sawara blacksmith special for me.
But I am nothing next to my father. I am a boy of thirteen, and Uchiha Madara is the greatest samurai in the world. Father’s armor is battle tested, famous for all the men he has killed with it. It is made of silvered dreamsteel and crimson enamel and diamonds. The chest and helm are formed in the shape of a dragon, the ancient symbol of the Birthright Emperors themselves. His sword is shaped like a dragon’s deadly claw. When he unsheathes the sword Kusanagi from its scabbard, the entire army roars, beating their swords and spears. The sound’s so loud I want to cover my ears.
I am scared of Father’s armor. I am scared of him. His flat iron voice, his tall chiseled frame, his flowing silver hair like a frozen glacier. His dark eyes as cold as buried emeralds. Everyone says that I look like him, but I don’t see it.
I see a man that I hate. A man that I wish I could be.
Father waves around his sword Kusanagi and gives the signal to march. We move out the northern gates of Sawara, first along the Sohkaido Road and then east to the Wood Country. Father wants to invade and sack the Senju capital city, Kiushu. We’ve invading with all the forces in the Blood Country. I’m not very smart, but even I know that if we lose this campaign, then the war will be lost.
Naruto comes along, too. He wears the simple black robe of a servant, with the symbol of the Uchiha clan stitched on the back. And the same symbol branded on his forehead, too. No slave is allowed to carry weapons.
******
My father leads his army into the forests. The woods are endless, surrounding us, with branches and leaves and the strange sounds of birds. I’ve never seen trees so big. I miss the smell of the sea.
We pass some empty villages. There is no resistance, no Senju armies that meet our invasion.
“They’re waiting to ambush us,” Naruto tells me. Naruto knows these things from books. “Senju Sarutobi is a master strategist. He won’t attack until our supply lines are stretched and he can flank our army from the west.”
“Father is a great general, too.”
“Yes, but he’s in enemy territory. Master Madara has invaded the Wood Country many times, and he’s lost four battles out of five.”
I don’t like Naruto talking about Father that way. “Do you think we’ll lose?”
“I think Master Madara should accept Hagoromo-sama’s offer. A marriage alliance with the Senju will allow us to turn our attention to our enemies in the north. The Moon Country and the Iron Country remain formidable. We can consolidate our strength, and then, if the Senju remain troublesome…”
I have trouble following him. Naruto speaks in such big words, and his thoughts are so big, too. Like Itachi the Calculator. I’m no good at calculating.
“I don’t think we’ll lose,” I say.
My slaveboy is quiet for a while. Then he shakes his head. “War isn’t about winning or losing. Not for people like me. I made myself a promise, back in Sawara. I said that I wasn’t going to die. Are you, Master Itachi?”
“No.”
“Then you won’t lose.”
There’s no fate but what we make, I remember Naruto telling Hagoromo.
His words give me strength.
I’m sleeping in my tent when the first battle comes. It’s very sudden. Screams everywhere, shouting in the night. Naruto scrambles to help me put on my armor, which is very heavy.
Outside the tent the enemies are already in the camp. By torchlight I see men in white armor and golden cloaks riding through the tents, hacking people’s heads off with swords. Father and his generals are at the center of the camp, safe, but he puts me at the very front. To give me a taste of blood, he says. This is how I learned when I was young.
One of the enemy horsemen comes charging at me. I dodge his blow just in time, fumbling to get out my own sword. There are horsemen all around me now, both Senju and Uchiha. Other soldiers. Everyone is moving, dark grunting screaming shapes. I can’t see Naruto.
“Little boy!” one of the Senju horsemen shouts, waving his sword in my direction. I can’t tell if it’s the same one as before or not. He charges. Before I have a chance to get in battle stance someone shoots an arrow in the man’s throat, his horse shrieks, and he slides off the horse into the dirt in front of me.
I run for the trees. There’s a thick grove of redwoods nearby, and men are fighting there too. One of them attacks me with a spear. I’m not prepared and the spear hits me in the chest. It doesn’t pierce my samurai armor but it knocks me down. I groan. The man spears me again, in my armpit. Not deep, but I feel the pain and I scream. The man laughs. I remember that I don’t want to die, so I bring my arm up, ignoring the pain, and slice at the man’s thigh with the edge of my sword. He falls down, groaning like me.
I get up. Fear is rushing through every part of my body, making me hot all over. It’s hard to breathe. Hard to think. The man with the spear is still moving, but behind me there’s another enemy. I feel the wind of the sword as it comes for my neck and I block it. This enemy is a samurai, trained in the dance of the blades, as Father calls it. I know how he attacks, how he moves. It is like the sparring sessions in Uchiha Castle, only this time I know if I make a mistake I will die.
He’s much bigger than I am, almost as big as Hagoromo. But I am fast, and strong. And my armor is much better than his. His sword hits the side of my body and is stopped by black steel. My sword hits the front of his helmet and keeps going. Blood comes out from his face and sprays all over me. Then he sags to the ground, with a sigh, like a fainting woman. The samurai is dead.
I killed him. I fall to my hands and knees and I throw up. Blood makes me sick. I want to get out of my armor and clean myself but the blood is everywhere. There are bodies all over, scattered among the trees. Someone else has killed the man with the spear. He smells awful, like he went to the privy in his own pants. I smell awful.
I feel awful.
After a while, I don’t know how long, the battle dies down. We’ve won, the soldiers tell me. The Senju dogs are running with their tails cut off. The news doesn’t make me feel any better. It’s morning and I ask where my slaveboy Naruto is.
They look all over, but they can’t find him. Not dead, he’s just not in the camp anymore.
Naruto is gone.
******
I tell Father that I saw Naruto get captured. That’s a lie, but he believes it.
“You’re well rid of the slaveboy, Itachi. Bad luck, he is. Now that the Senju have the little shit, perhaps they will suffer my luck as well.”
I know Naruto ran away. I think he ran away to find Hagoromo. Hagoromo doesn’t like slavery and I’m sure he will free Naruto, like I wanted to.
I’m glad for him. But I’m also sad, because I might never see my best friend again.
Father is wrong about Naruto.
He’s wrong about bad luck, too. Our luck does not turn at all.
A few days later, near Kiushu, the Senju armies attack us again. It’s an ambush and we’re surrounded on every sides. I don’t understand the battlefield strategy but I can smell the panic rising from all the Uchiha soldiers. They make me scared.
Father has put me on the frontlines again. He knows I killed a samurai in single combat but is not impressed. I don’t think he will be impressed until I kill Senju Sarutobi himself. But at least this time father has given me some bodyguards. It’s a good thing, because the first Senju attack hits our line like a golden tidal wave, and if my bodyguards are not there to shield me I know that I would be dead.
This time the men in white and gold do not run. We run.
My bodyguards bring me to the command tent where Father gives his orders. Father’s generals are pleading with him. They want him to retreat. They say the battle is lost. Father refuses, and he sticks his sword in one general’s belly. Father wants me to go back to fight on the frontlines, too. But by then the frontline is already at the command tent. Then Father has to retreat because if he doesn’t then he’ll be dead or captured.
The battle’s a disaster. Half of our army is gone. The rest of us try to retreat east, back to the Blood Country, but the Senju chase us through the forests. There are constant attacks every day. I fight in many battles, too many to count on all my fingers and toes. My armor becomes dented and broken. My body does not do much better.
But I am still alive.
One day, me and my remaining bodyguards are fighting the enemy in a swamp. The enemy samurai are strong and there’s a lot of them. One by one all my bodyguards fall. I know there’s no escape.
The lead samurai knocks me to the ground and prepares to stick me through the face with his sword. His helmet is in the shape of a golden monkey. I see the blue sky behind him.
Suddenly the golden monkey is flying through the air, spraying blood.
I look up in shock. I see a pale face, hard jade eyes, a square jaw and long sharp nose. For an instant I think it’s my father.
But my father doesn’t have a slaveseal.
It’s Naruto, a sword in his hand, blood all over his face and clothes. He’s cut off the samurai’s head.
“Naruto!”
“Master Itachi. Please get up and help me.”
The other Senju samurai are attacking. Together me and Naruto beat them back, swords whirling. “Where’d you learn to fight like that?” I ask.
“In secret. I’ve seen you practice the movements often enough.”
“Why?”
“That seems self-evident.”
Naruto is very good. As strong as I am, stronger probably. I think he must have a lot of natural talent. It’s not long before all the enemy samurai are either fleeing or dead.
Only then do I have the time to turn and look at him. Now I notice that the blood which covers Naruto’s robe is dry, the same color as his hair. Old blood. I also notice that Naruto’s robe is full of strange, small holes. He looks like he’s had a rough time.
“What’ve you been doing?” I ask. “Didn’t you go to Hagoromo?”
“No.”
“Didn’t you want to be free?”
He doesn’t answer.
Finally I say, “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t feel sorry for me!” Naruto snaps. “I don’t need your pity.”
I shrink back from his outburst. I have so much to say, but I don’t know what words I should use to say them. Sakura can talk a fish out of water, but my tongue is as charming as a wet noodle. I thank Naruto for saving me and he grunts.
We find my father on a hill overlooking the swamps.
The battle is over, and we’ve lost again. The Senju don’t even bother to chase us away. They sit in their camp and let the ravens come down to feed on the corpses of the Blood Country dead. Thousands of corpses litter the hillsides down to the swamp and each corpse seems to have a raven pecking at it.
Father is kneeling alone at the top of the hill, his face in his hands. I’ve never seen him like that before.
“Father?”
He lowers his hands and looks at me. He’s furious. “How can this be?” he demands. At first I think he’s talking about Naruto, but he doesn’t even notice him. Father looks past me to the horizon. “How can I be defeated by these Senju bastards? What have I done wrong? Tell me, Father!”
He is shouting now. He waves his sword Kusanagi at the sky. “Am I not strong? Have I not followed your lessons? Damn you! I am the great Warlord Uchiha Madara! The great Warlord! The Prince of the Ravens! My son shall be Emperor of all the world, I swear it!”
Father swings the Kusanagi into the ground in front of him with both hands. The blade digs deeply into the earth. He swings so hard that sparks fly, he strikes the dirt again and again. He strikes the sword until it breaks. The Kusanagi shatters and falls to the ground in two pieces.
We all stare at him. Father’s anger is spent. He sits down on the hill, holding the pieces of his broken sword.
Just then a rider comes bearing letters. There are two of them. The first is from Senju Hagoromo. Hagoromo says that his offer to the Uchiha clan still stands. It was necessary for the Senju to defend their country from Blood, but he promises that that the Senju will not invade Blood in turn. Please let there be peace, he says.
The second letter is from home. It’s from my mother.
She is pregnant again.
******
It’s the new year when I come back to Sawara. Nine months have passed, but it feels like much more.
I’m fourteen. I’m not the same boy I was that left to go to war.
I’ve killed many men. And I’ve seen the strongest man I know, my father, become weak.
One day I go to the throne room in Uchiha Castle. It’s empty. The doctors say that my new brother or sister will be born before sunset, and everyone is gathered in the birthing room to wait. But I’m restless. It’ll be autumn soon, and the wild geese are already starting to fly away, to warmer places further south. I can hear them honk through the thin slit windows next to the throne. I look out the window, and I see falling leaves and yellow chrysanthemum flowers. Rain falls on the stone castle towers.
The throne is a huge iron chair, set on a stone dais in the middle of the room. It has belonged to the Uchiha family for hundreds of years, ever since we became the Shoguns of the Birthright Empire. The Shogun Throne, it’s called. It’s made from the iron armor of all the enemies that we have conquered.
Since I’ve been born no one but my father has sat on the Shogun Throne.
I know that Father wants more. Father wants to sit on the golden throne of the Birthright Emperors, up in the imperial palace on the hill of the High District. He’s taken me to Birthright Keep lots of times, to look at the imperial throne. It’s very beautiful and very old.
But no one can declare themselves Emperor without destroying all their enemies first. The Blood Country is still not big enough. Not strong enough.
Maybe it never will be.
Behind the iron Shogun Throne, closed off by cherry wooden doors, there is a set of stairs, winding down deep below the castle. I take the stairs down to the private shrine room of the Uchiha clan.
The tapestry is still there.
The names on the cloth aren’t squiggles, now. I can read them. I know them, the names of my ancestors, the Uchiha family tree threaded in gold against a vast white canvas. I touch my own name, there at the very end. It smells like mold. Next to me there’s a blank space. Haku should have been there, but he died before his time. Now the blankness will be filled by the name of somebody else.
“Itachi?”
I turn to see who it is. The voice is soft and a little bit squeaky, like a mouse.
It’s Rin.
“Rin? What are you doing here?”
“Sakura sent me to tell you that the birth’s started.” She smiles. “I thought I’d find you here.”
“I guess you know me pretty good.” Rin has always been Sakura’s friend, to tell the truth. But Rin’s father, Misain Arashi, and my father are close allies. Rin has been hanging around Uchiha Castle since I can remember. I remember playing all sorts of pranks on her, like putting ants in her food and stealing the peacock feathers she likes so much. It was funny to hear her shout at me, shrill and squeaky.
Rin is different now. She’s a woman. Even in the dim light of the shrine room, I can see the swelling beneath her chest. I can see the net of shiny rainbow jewels in her brown hair. She looks like a pretty doe, with those soft round brown eyes.
“I know you come here when you want to think,” Rin says.
“Yeah. I’m thinking of the baby.”
“Lady Kyoki says it’ll be a boy.”
“Another son.” I can’t keep the bitterness out of my voice. “Maybe my father can be proud of this one. Maybe the baby can be the Uchiha heir.”
“Don’t underestimate yourself,” Rin says softly. She moves closer to me. “Itachi. You are the heir. You will be Warlord.”
“A Warlord has to be smart. Has to be strong.”
“You are smart, and strong. Itachi, don’t you see? Maybe you’re not like your father, but what of it?” She gestured to the Uchiha tapestry. “None of them were. Uchiha Sasori was not a great general, but he was a deft diplomat. Uchiha Shion was a great builder, the architect of modern Sawara. Uchiha Hagoromo traded silk across the world, and to this day the Sohkaido Road he founded still exists.”
I begin to understand what Rin is saying. “You mean… that I don’t have to be such a great warrior?” I frown. “Because I’m better at other things?”
“You’re kind, Itachi. You make people laugh. You make them love you. You make them follow where you lead.”
“Father says that stuff doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
I’m silent for a long time. Then suddenly I am laughing. “Okay, I just decided!” I feel like I want to jump up and down. “I’m going to be Warlord in my own way! And… and Emperor in my own way, too!”
Rin hugs me fiercely. I feel her warmth.
“Maybe that’s the only way to be emperor,” she whispers.
******
Mother gives birth to a boy. His name is Sasuke, after my grandfather.
I stare as Sakura carries him in a little bundle out of the birthing room. My baby brother is fat and healthy and beautiful. She lets me hold him.
When I do, Sasuke smiles. I bring down a finger to stroke his cheek, and his skin is so soft and tender. I can’t believe that this tiny baby is a living thing.
A deep love wells up inside me. It fills up my entire body until I’m going to burst. I don’t know where this feeling comes from, but I don’t want it to ever go away.
I’m so happy.
I’ll be Emperor in my own way, I promise myself then. I’ll be kind, and good, and I’ll make justice. Sasuke laughs, gurgles gently in my arms.
For you, little brother. I’ll be Emperor for you.
Next: THE SLAVE’S TALE: “Sins of Blood, Part Three”
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Birthright