Hinata blushed when she saw Akito's lean muscular arms and handsome features. To her, his looks were on par with Naruto's, not that she felt anything towards him anymore.

Akito grunted and stood up and offered a hand to help Hinata up. Hinata blushed even more.

"T-Thank you," she said, flustered.

Akito smiled at her. "Sorry, I flickered here cause I wasn't bothered walking, who is, nevermind, anyway, sorry, apologies for flickering right into you."

"It's alright," said Hinata, smiling gently.

Akito felt heat rush to his cheeks.

"So um...you here alone?" he asked awkwardly.

Hinata gave him a small nod. "The others ditched me...accidentally..."

"Oh, I see...I'll be your tour guide around Uzushio, as an apology for knocking you down, alright? I'll show you the best cinnamon buns," said Akito, winking at her. "I'm Uzumaki Akito by the way. What about you?"

"Hyuga. Hyuga Hinata. Nice to meet you," said Hinata shyly, slightly blushing.

Akito felt his cheeks grow even hotter. Was it normal that he found a girl he had just met undeniably attractive?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It had already been four days since the Rookie 12 had stayed in Uzushio. They were planning on leaving the next day. Early in the morning, Naruto had summoned them to the Uzukage Tower.

Quizzically, they stood in front of the Uzukage. Why did the Uzukage want to meet them all of a sudden? The whole situation was very awkward and quite tense. It was just the Rookie 12 and Naruto in the room. Naruto was still wearing his cloak. It was time...

"Good morning, Konoha shinobi," said Naruto cryptically. "There isn't an easy way to say this so I'll just show you,".

In one fluid movement, Naruto took off his cloak. When he did, the Rookie 12, except for Sai, gasped.

"Na-Naruto? Is that you?" stuttered Sakura, trembling.

Naruto nodded, looking away from them. Sasuke, perhaps, received the biggest shock of all.

His best friend, the one he had considered his brother was banished, because of him and six years later, when they were reunited, he was one of the strongest people on earth.

"Why though?! All these years we thought you were dead! Why didn't you tell us?!" screamed Kiba.

Naruto sighed and shot Kiba a cold look. "You do not know my reasoning, Kiba. I was to never set foot or even been seen in the Fire Country. Failure to obey this requirement meant death. If I had even sent you mail or any notes via my summoning animals, there was a chance I could have been caught.

It's not just my safety that was on the line. It was also yours. If they found out you had any associations with the, I quote, 'Demon-brat', you could have also been banished or even worse, executed.

Do you expect me to talk to you and tell you I was alright when your life could have been in danger?! What's the point anyway?! You probably would have just lived your life as the same when you didn't know me."

"That's not true!" exclaimed Hinata.

Everyone looked at her in astonishment. Hinata was never the one to speak up, nor shout.

"Naruto-kun, you are an inspiration. Thank you for being in my life at least. Thank you for everything; you have done more for me than you would know."

Naruto stared at her, not knowing what to say. He had thought that the Rookie 12 had never even cared about him at all but...

"Naruto..." said Sasuke. "Hinata...she's right...You've done a lot for us than you would know...especially me...you saved me from darkness..."

Naruto smiled gently at him. "Nice to know that I'm so influential, Teme, though I'm a bit hurt that you didn't recognise my chakra signature. I didn't even bother suppressing it."

Sasuke snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Anyway now you guys know that—"

"Naruto," interrupted Sasuke. "Was it true that...Itachi chose me over the village...Tsunade showed me the documents of his mission outline, how he was meant to either chose the village or the clan and his infiltration to the Akatsuki but..."

Naruto gave him a wry smile. "It's true."

Sasuke stared at him, wide-eyed. "But how did you guys even meet? Didn't you say you travelled out of Konoha and came back when you were ten? The Uchiha Massacre happened three years before you came back," explained Sasuke, a matter of factly.

Naruto chuckled. "On the night your brother massacred the clan, I was coincidentally travelling just outside of Konoha. We ran into each other and we fought. I played with him for a bit to test this stranger's abilities and when Itachi activated his Sharingan, I activated mine as well.

This shocked him. I mean, he had just made sure that he had massacred his entire clan. I won the battle. Over time, Itachi and bonded and he told me all about what he did and why he did it and I told him about my past.

It turned out, Itachi had an incurable illness. In the end, even if you didn't manage to kill him, Itachi would have died anyway. However, Itachi wanted to die by your hands so one, you could feel satisfied with avenging your clan and two, you would have hopefully obtained the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Soon Itachi had to go and infiltrate Akatsuki to spy on them so before he left, he told me to look after you.

Though now there is no point keeping it a secret as I have cured him of his so-called 'incurable disease' ever since he found out that you tried going to Orochimaru. Itachi thought there was no point anymore if you were going after him to obtain power."

The Rookie 12 stood there in silence, trying to process all of the newfound information, Sasuke especially. Naruto was a lot more than what he seemed to be.

"Wait, how do you have Sharingan? What is your past?" asked Choji, staring at Naruto curiously.

Naruto smiled at Choji. "Thought you would ask. Let's start with how the shinobi world was made.

A woman called Otsutsuki Kaguya was the first person to wield chakra as she consumed the Forbidden Chakra Fruit of the God Tree.

She gave birth to twins, Hagoromo and Hamura. Because of Kaguya's developing god-complex and her thirst for power, her sons defeated and sealed her.

Hagoromo soon had two sons: Indra and Asura. When they grew up, Hagoromo taught them the ways of Ninshu.

Indra was the older brother and a natural prodigy whereas Asura was a good for nothing, foolish dropout.

As Hagoromo grew older, he had to choose who to pass the will of Ninshu to. Everyone thought it was going to be Indra as he was the older brother and he was more skilful than Asura but Hagoromo decided it would be better to give the two brothers a test to decide who would inherit his name.

You see, over the years, Indra had turned mean-spirited and arrogant. Hagamoro noticed that. In the end, Asura got to be Hagamoro's heir, much to Indra's rage.

The two ended up fighting and their generations fought as well. Indra was the progenitor of the Uchiha clan while Asura was the beginner of the Senju and Uzumaki clans.

One of the most famous rivalries was of the legendary Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara. Those two are my great-great-grandfathers.

When they grew older, Hashirama and Madara made a pact to stop all fighting between the clans. Instead, they built a village called Konohagakure. Hashirama, who was now the head of the Senju clan, also allied with Uzumaki Ashina, the head of the Uzumaki clan in Uzushiogakure.

As a gift, Ashina offered his daughter to Hashirama. She was called Uzumaki Mito. In the end, they fell in love and married.

Hashirama's idea of peace was much different from Madara's. Madara tried to convince the Uchiha clan that this idea of peace was right unlike Hashirama's but even they turned against him. Because of that, it led to conflict and Madara left the village.

When he had attained the Kyuubi, he had come back to Konoha to fight Hashirama. They fought at the Valley of the End and eventually, Hashirama claimed victory.

Madara's body fell into the river and he was washed away.

One day, a girl of the assassin clan, Namikaze, was washing her clothes at the river. She had found a body floating in the river.

The body she had found was the body of Madara's.

The girl saw that the person was barely alive but still had a chance to keep on living so she hoisted him out of the river and brought him home to nurse him back to health.

As Madara started healing, he had also started forming a bond with his saviour. Eventually, they married and had a son who was my great grandfather and my Dad's grandfather. My Dad was Namikaze Minato who was the Fourth Hokage or the notorious Yellow Flash,

My Mum, Uzumaki Kushina who was the infamous Red Hot-Blooded Habanero and the wife of the Yondaime, was a descendant of Senju Hashirama.

She was Tsunade's niece, bore by Tsunade's hidden disowned brother who had married an Uzumaki. Kushina took her mother's name as it would be an even bigger disgrace if she was named a Senju since her father was not even considered one anymore.

Dad was appeared to have blonde hair, blue eyes and tanned skin but that was just a genjutsu. His hair and eyes were pitch black and he had pale skin. These were all natural Uchiha features.

He was scared that if any of the elders found out he was a direct descendant of Uchiha Madara, they would force him to go through the Clan Restoration Act. Obviously, Dad didn't want to participate in CRA as he already had my Mum.

So long story short, I have the Sharingan because I'm an Uchiha."

After Naruto's explanation, the Rookie 12 could only stand there, speechless and bewildered. Naruto was an Uchiha?! It still seemed impossible to them.

"So if this Naruto is an Uchiha, that means Sasuke has no reason to revive his clan, right? I mean he's dickless after all," said Sai bluntly, breaking the silence.

Ino shot him a glare. She loved Sai and his straightforward antics but they were speaking with not just Naruto but him as the Uzukage, one of the most powerful people in the world.

Naruto chuckled. "It seems to be. Funny thing is, I am not the only Uchiha apart from Sasuke. There's more."

"What?! Who?" asked Shikamaru curiously.

"Uchiha Itachi and...Uchiha Obito..." answered Naruto.

Sakura and Sasuke's eyes widened while everyone else was confused to who this 'Obito' was.

"You don't mean Kakashi—"

"Yes, exactly him. After there was a cave-in and Obito sacrificed himself to save Kakashi and his other teammate Nohara Rin, he was saved by White Zetsu under the orders of Madara. Obito was healed and nursed back to health.

When White Zetsu informed him of Kakashi and Rin fighting Kiri shinobi, Obito, who was now all better, wanted to help. It was there when Kakashi accidentally killed Rin and Obito saw this. Both of their Sharingan matured into Mangekyou Sharingan.

Obito vowed to create a perfect world after this and consulted Madara about his desire. Madara laughed and called him a fool, telling Obito that he once had a desire like that as well.

Madara told Obito of something called Infinite Tsukuyomi. He told him of how the Infinite Tsukuyomi could put everyone in a genjutsu so they could live in their dream world; a world without pain, suffering, fear...

But then Madara told him a story of a girl who had rescued him both physically and mentally. She had told him of a world that was perfect in every way, even though there was pain; a world full of suffering but genuine joy; a world where love...conquered... all—it was this world.

That girl...was...Madara's wife...

Over time, Obito's pain started to heal, but unbeknownst to Madara, he was still caught up with the idea of a perfect world. Obito wanted to be reunited with Kakashi and Rin so badly.

Madara soon died and Obito, under the alias of Madara, decided to persuade Yahiko, who was the Akatsuki leader back then, to go ahead with the Eye of the Moon Plan.

Yahiko refused and shortly after, died. Obito tried his luck again and persuaded the new leader of Akatsuki to go along with his plan.

He entered the Akatsuki, taking on the name Tobi and altering his personality when around the members to hide his true intentions.

But slowly, Obito changed. I don't know why or how but I have a feeling Madara's spirit was visiting him.

It was just in time anyway. Akatsuki had now changed their purpose of existence."

"What do you mean? How do you know all of this?" probed TenTen.

Naruto smirked at her. "The Akatsuki is under my wing right now."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hey reader-chans! Hope you like this new update! I have to say, I see a new love blooming! (Hint hint, Akito and Hinata, cough, cough). Anyway, thank you for all the reads! 2k now! I'm so thankful.

Please comment, vote and share this story! I really would appreciate it! I want to know your thoughts on Naruto's complicated backstory.

See you next week!