Naruto: The Unwoven Threads of Fate

He almost subconsciously makes a note of the three bodies slumped onto the floor - all three males - and sprints to the inconspicuous double wooden doors.

These doors are no ordinary doors, they've been enhanced throughout their many years. Countless sealmasters have decorated the interior with their art, many shinobi built trap after trap after trap to stop anyone up to no good. To top it all off the wood is from the First Hokage. They're basically unbreakable and the locking seal arrays are unbeatable.

Unless you happen to have lots of sets of eyes study the handsigns to dismantle the seal arrays and access to a person who has keys to everything. Then it becomes child's play to get past any 'unbreakable and unbeatable' door.

Faceless speeds his way through exactly one hundred twenty eight handsigns and the doors flash a blinding yellow for an instant. The seal arrays are deactivated. He reaches into his coat and withdraws a black key with golden accents on it and shoves it into the hidden lock in the bottom left corner of the doors and twists counterclockwise. If he twisted clockwise he would have been turned to ash.

The doors swing inwards to reveal Konoha's most cherished treasures and her most dangerous items. Anything that could be used against her is stored in here, from deadly chakra weapons to the Earth Daimyo's long lost tiara. This is where things are stored to be forgotten.

But it is the exact location of something he desperately needs. He had no other choice than to pull off the most impressive raid since… ever. He did his research, no one has ever been able to get into this room unless allowed in. Not even Iwa or Kumo falsely boast about sneaking something out of the Vault. It's been labeled as impossible.

Faceless doesn't waste time admiring the intricacy of the seal work on the doors even though he'd love to dissect each and every array littered across every scrap of available space. He doesn't spare more than a fleeting glance at the Scroll of Seals as it sits on a shelf growing dusty. He knows exactly what he's here for.

"Oh shit is that Kubikiribōchō?" Faceless pauses on his search to eye the massive cleaver. His eyes roam over one of the seven Legendary Swords of the Mist. "This is where it's been all this time? Well… technically it is mine by right of conquest. Plus I know someone who will be dying to have this."

Faceless grabs the giant blade which is almost as long as he is tall and quickly stuffs it into one of the storage seals he has strapped to his belt.

"Now for what I'm here for." Faceless resumes his search for a specific item with gusto. He knows that his window is rapidly closing before the guards wake up. "Where the hell is it?"

After another thirty seconds of nearly rabid searching Faceless stumbles upon his goal.

"Bingo." He grabs up the specific item and stuffs it into another prepared storage scroll. "Time to haul ass out of here."

He exits the vault and takes the extra ten seconds to shut and reseal the doors. Thankfully all three guards are still asleep. But one of the guards, the one nearest the vault catches Faceless' eye.

"Something is wrong with you." Faceless pauses his escape. "What is it? What is causing me to question this? You're still lying on the ground out cold. Why is that tripping alarms in my head?"

Faceless trusts his gut and gently rolls over the unconscious body with a foot. He has to figure out why this is something that jumped out at him, it could be very important.

"Where'd the tits come from?" He can't help but blurt out in an offensive whisper. His eyes dart to the other two bodies confirming that they are both indeed males and then they return to the body at his feet. He could have sworn that when he came down here the three bodies were all male. "Okay. Logic this out. Before there were no tits. Now there's a pair of nice perky ones, admittedly a little bit on the small side but they go nicely with her body type. What the hell man that's not important! Okay, okay. No tits. Now tits. That means-"

"Body swap. The other three are still unconscious in the stairwell. We're their replacements." A voice from behind Faceless flatly says as they push themselves up. This person let's their henge disguise fade off themselves to reveal an ANBU member wearing a Wolf mask. Faceless attempts to whirl towards the speaker but finds that he can't move. "What have you taken from the Vault?"

"Fucking Naras." Faceless bites out at Wolf's Clan. "I really hate this damn jutsu. I thought I timed this perfectly."

"So you're familiar enough with Konoha's clans to recognize one of their members by being caught in their jutsu." The other body behind Faceless stands up. They're wearing a Beetle mask. "Concerning. Be careful everyone, he feel dangerous. My… gut is telling me to flee from him. That he's a predator."

"Going to go out on a limb here and say you're an Aburame. I got the same reaction from one of your Clan a while ago." Faceless guesses. "Good old irony rears its head again. Crap is that what irony means? I've never really bothered to look up a definition."

"You're awfully calm for someone who was just captured by an ANBU team." The female picks this moment to stand up. She's wearing a Cat mask. "Especially since you so nicely decided to comment on my 'smaller than average' assets."

"HOLY SHIT CAT YOU'RE A WOMAN!?" Faceless can't help but shout out in shock. "Er… I always knew that. That's not right I mean I've never been to Konoha before so how could I possibly know that and uh… how about we forget that just happened?"

"Who the hell do you think you are!" Cat seeths out as she sees red. "Of course I'm a woman! You'll pay for that!

"Cat." Beetle calmly, yet forcibly, calls out to the lone female. "Torture him once he's in a cell."

"You know Cat, we've met before." Faceless taunts her. "I remember that day dearly. We played a fun game together, one that we said we would play again someday. Though I seriously doubt I'll get anyone on my side this time. Kinda burned that bridge."

"The hell are you talking about?" Cat slowly moves closer to the captured ANBU imposter. She may be pissed at him for the whole not knowing she's a she, but she's a highly trained ANBU member. She knows better than to carelessly enter an enemy's reach even if they're trapped by a Nara's shadows.

"My goal was to avoid capture. Your goal was to present me to the Hokage in chains." Under his blank mask Faceless smirks. "It was a wonderful game of Cat and Mouse. Want to play again? I feel like the stakes are upped this time because instead of me trying to get Tora I have a few items from the Vault."

"Bullshit." Cat says as she reaches for the immobile man's mask. But is this really a man behind it? Or is it a boy? "You can't be him."

She pulls off the mask to reveal his face to the three of them.

"Hey Cat." None other than Alvarcus Mar cheekily smiles at Cat.

"Mouse?" She whispers out in shock and fear. She has no idea how someone so dangerous could have penetrated so far into Konoha's defenses. He's less than four minutes away from the Hokage.

The three ANBU simultaneously feel a pinch in their necks. All of their hands reflexively dart up and slap against the offending pinprick to crush whatever bit them but none of them feel the satisfying crunch of an insect.

Or in this case a spider.

"I must warn you in the sense of fair play." Alvarcus' cheeky smile widens as the jutsu holding him fades and the three ANBU stagger as the venom courses through their system. "I'm much better than I was back then. I have so many new tricks."

"How -" Cat falls down to her knees. She can't remain standing as the venom forces her muscles to relax. Wolf and Beetle are already on the ground, she's remaining semi upright by sheer force of will. "How the hell is that fair play? You warned us after you poisoned us. That's cheating."

"We are shinobi. There is no such thing as fair play." Alvarcus catches Cat by the shoulders and gently lowers her to the ground. "If you aren't cheating you aren't trying."

"Asshole." Cat forces the final word out past her lips as the venom fully takes hold. She's incapable of even the slightest movement.

"Make sure to tell Tsunade it was me who did this." Alvarcus says over his shoulder as he makes his way to the stairwell. "I can't wait for S-rank."

He dons Faceless' mask again and leaps up the stairs a flight at a time, never to be seen again.

Otogakure

"Hey Orochimaru!" I bust into his lab without knocking. "Got a moment - oh wow that's concerning. Is he supposed to look like that? All green and furry?"

"Unfortunately no. Something went wrong. He's supposed to be gaining a ridiculous amount of muscle mass, enough to rival perhaps even your Jiongu enhanced raw strength, but instead he decided to grow hair all over his body at an alarming rate. I honestly have no idea how it happened."

Sure enough Orochimaru is standing over a catatonic body that has three inches of a surprisingly nice forest green fur. It looks luscious and thick too, maybe make a nice throw rug or something. If it wasn't, you know, a human. Totally makes it so wrong.

"Did you need something?" Orochimaru leaves his latest project behind as he faces me. "It's not everyday that you visit me here of all places. You know the door is always open to you."

"Yeah I know but if we both were in here we'd never leave or get anything done. We'd both be constantly wondering what the other was doing." Him out of genuine curiosity and me out of a sort of morbid interest. Think like a terrible car crash, you know that you don't want to look at the corpses but at the same time it's impossible to look away. "But I'm like eighty five percent sure I know what to do for the next step of the sword."

"Really?" Orochimaru's excitement is palpable. He's so happy that it's coming along so well. "What is the next step?"

"Well, you're not going to like it." I don't bother with beating around the bush. He'd simply wait until I told him a satisfactory answer anyways so why waste our mutual time? "I need to get my hands on a self sustaining chakra blade."

"Your various liquids yielded insufficient results?" He tilts his head in curiosity. "I thought for sure that blood would retain the chakra long enough for your purposes."

"It definitely was the best contender. It held chakra way longer than any other liquid by a few thousand percent. But in the end it still isn't enough. I consider it a failure." I need this to be flawless. I can't dive into battle and be unsure of such a pivotal weapon. I'd always be second guessing myself with each swing. Is this the Edo Tensi that breaks it? Will they all come bursting out with a vengeance and strike me down in ridiculous unkillable numbers?

"So instead you need to study a self sustaining chakra blade." Orochimaru starts pacing around the table with the catatonic fur man on it. "I know of a few such blades, all of them have been lost. The most recent one that has surfaced is the Sword of the Thunder God in the hands of an Ame nin. But he was killed and the blade stolen, no one knows where it is now."

"Ah." Well this is super awkward. "So about that."

"You know something I don't." Orochimaru states. He knows it's true so he doesn't waste a question. "Explain."

"The Ame nin that had the blade last was Aoi Rokusho." This is so not ending well. "Missing nin of Konoha who's bounty has been claimed."

"And…" Orochimaru drags out the single word to span multiple seconds. "You want to chase down this mystery bounty hunter and use him or her to track down the sword?"

"By me and Sasuke." I finish my thought. "Didn't you know this already? Pretty sure we talked about this my first day in Oto. Before the Pit."

"Oh." Orochimaru shifts through his memories for a brief instant. "So we did. Funny how you forget the little things."

"Yeah… so don't be mad." I start to idly scratch the back of my neck in a very awkward manner. "But -"

"No." Orochimaru immediately dismisses me before I can finish. "Absolutely not. I will not send you out to go raid Konoha for a sword. It doesn't matter if it is legendary or not. It is inconsequential if it will make the Sword of Totsuka easier to finish. Konoha is the softest shinobi village but it is still the single most dangerous place for you to be."

I don't bother replying with words. Time to step up. I reach into my coat and pull out a sword hilt. It's a cold gunmetal and the grip appears to have been twisted around multiple times to form a spiral. The pommel features a squared ring for hooking the hilt to a belt and the scabbard is two pincer like protrusions.

"Please tell me you didn't." There's a slight tone of desperation in his voice.

"I… uh... maybe a little bit?" I weakly say to him as he takes the blade out of my hand. With only two seconds with the hilt he easily sparks it to life and a long yellow blade surges to life.

"I grow very tired of you running off without telling me." Orochimaru retracts the blade back into the hilt and hands it back to me. "That stops. Now. You will not do it again."

"Yeah. You got it." I pocket the sword again and turn to leave.

I only make it a scant three steps before Orochimaru acts. He swept me off my feet and rammed his own legendary blade through my shoulder, effectively nailing me to the floor. He leans down over me, as if he wants the hierarchy to be blatantly clear, and gets right in my face.

"I do not think you understand." He seethes as true anger mars his face. "I give you far more liberties than anyone but there are limits to that. I do not like it when people go behind my back, especially when that person is my own child. Do not think for a single instant that I approve of this. I would have personally stopped you from going if I knew, no matter how much effort was required. No matter how much it hurt our relationship because I never want to see my son captured by the enemy, tortured for months and then publicly executed."

Orochimaru rises up and yanks the Kusanagi out of my shoulder.

"Alvarcus you think you are capable of so many great feats, and I admit you are. But you must realize that there are things beyond you. Things beyond me. Things that are simply unachievable."

"Those are the words of the weak." I calmly say up to the Snake Sannin. "I refuse to believe anything is unachievable. Nothing is unachievable, it's just that people are unwilling to put in the work to make it a reality. They aren't willing to take the risks and get their own hands dirty. I have no qualms about achieving my impossible goals by whatever means I find necessary."

Orochimaru remains silent as I pick myself up off the ground and move to the door.

"Alvarcus." Orochimaru calls out to my back as I leave his lab. "I see so much of myself in you it scares me sometimes."

"Me too." I softly whisper to myself once the door closes behind me. "Me too."

Konoha, Hokage's Office

"Tell me this one more time." Tsunade glares at the four ANBU she has in her office. She turns her eyes onto one specific individual. Their mask is blank, completely white. "Starting with you."

"I was assaulted and subdued by an unknown man." The real Faceless monotonously says to his very disappointed Hokage. "He was wearing an entirely black hood that had a black mesh fabric covering the hole where the face goes. I saw no identifying markers. I'm reluctant to call it a fight since he bested me in five seconds flat and tied me up with no less than five different chakra suppressing seals on my body."

"Faceless you're excused. I have to run damage control and the less people know about this the better." Tsunade heaves out a long and heavy sigh of displeasure as she rubs both her temples. The ball of pressure in her head doesn't lessen from her ministrations.

"Of course Hokage-sama." Faceless straightens up from his kneeling position and exits the office.

"And you three." Tsunade doesn't stop rubbing her temples as she addressed Cat, Wolf and Beetle. "You're the only other ones to actually confront him. If it is a him. Could have been a her with smaller than average breasts, easily mistakable."

Cat's fist curls up so tightly that the creaking of her leather gloves can be heard clearly by all others in the office.

"Something wrong, Cat?" Tsunade quirks an eyebrow at her ANBU.

"No Hokage-sama." Cat calmly says despite her clenched fist. "Your words reminded me of… a personal matter. It is not relevant and I apologize for letting my emotions run wild."

"Just get on with it." Tsunade says as she buries her face in her hands.

"Yes Hokage-sama." Cat falls back onto her training. "The Vault was penetrated by a single individual. We have yet to discover how he made it so far into our village without tripping any alarms. He must have an informant in here that leaked him all the necessary codes and hand signs to pass all of the barriers and checkpoints we have set up. Even more impressive is how he managed to get through the Vault's door. He didn't break in, he opened it. There are only three keys in existence that could open the door. One has been broken long ago during the Second Hokage's reign. One is in your possession. The other-"

"Danzo has." Tsunade reaches into her desk and pulls out a bottle of sake. She doesn't bother with pouring a glass, she drinks straight from the bottle. "Except the entire time this happened he was trapped in a meeting with all the Clan heads and myself present. His alibi is solid as stone."

"Correct." Cat continues speaking. "We confronted the infiltrator as he exited the Vault, he was already inside when we got there. We moved our downed men to a safer location and replaced them on the floor. The infiltrator noticed the swap and we attempted to subdue him. We failed."

"I expect more details in your written report." Tsunade pointedly says as she downs a quarter of the bottle. "Make sure to deliver it to my hands. Only us four know exactly what happened. I want it to stay that way."

"Of course Hokage-sama." Cat dips her head respectfully.

"Did you find out who it was?" Tsunade asks the three ANBU before her.

"Yes." Cat calmly says. "We did."

"And who was it?" Tsunade prompts Cat to continue.

"...Mouse."

"Mouse?" Tsunade asks in confusion. "Who the hell is Mouse?"

"Forgive me." Cat clears her throat. "His real name is Alvarcus Mar."

"You've got to be fucking shitting me." Tsunade downs the rest of the bottle and pulls out a second one. "God damn Alvarcus Mar."

"Hokage-sama?" Cat nervously asks. "Is that… bad?"

"Yes it is!" Tsunade yells at her ANBU. "Now I have to give the little shit S-rank! Great! Just GREAT! I'd rather he have made off with Kubikiribōchō, the Sword of the Thunder God and the Scroll of Seals than give him S-rank!"

"I may have an idea." Cat says from her kneeling spot on the floor. "If you'll hear it, Hokage-sama."

"Go on." Tsunade halts her absurd amount of alcohol consumption to pin Cat in a glare. Her anger at having to give Alvarcus S-rank, having to fulfill a dream of his, is bleeding over. "I'm listening."

"Less than ten people even know that the Vault was penetrated. Only us four know the true identity of who the infiltrator was." Cat carefully says. She's walking on eggshells. "It wouldn't be too farfetched to say that we never discovered their real identity."

"Oh that's good." Tsunade's whole attitude has shifted. "As of this moment you all will forget who broke into the Vault."

"Of course, Hokage-sama." Three very satisfied replies come from the ANBU.

"Cat." Tsunade has one final question for her ANBU. "Where did such a deviously delicious idea come from?"

"If you aren't cheating you aren't trying." Cat can't help but sinisterly smirk from beneath her mask. "I win Mouse. I win."

One Month Before the Chunin Exams at Suna, Three Months from Shippuden

"So." The familiar form of Shirokumo says to me as I relax in my hottub. I've brought it to the roof of the Southern Hideout, the giant prison complex where Karin is at, and am staring up at the stars. Did I mention it was midnight? No? Okay, it's midnight. There, happy now? "You know what's happening soon."

"Yeah." I look up at the countless balls of fire an impossible distance away from me. "It's always harrowing to see how tiny I really am in this world, this universe. Can one person really make such a drastic difference? Can one person really change anything on such a large scale?"

"Oi." Shirokumo boops me in the head with one of his legs. By the way that's where he's at, perched on my head. No idea why he likes it up there. "Don't go all philosophical on me. Keep your head out of the clouds and you'll be fine. Besides it's not just you trying to change the world, you have the full support of the Spiders and the Rashomon behind you. Not to mention your red eyed friend, he's going to be a force to be reckoned with."

"True." I softly smile up at the midnight sky. "One day he's going to be stronger than me, so strong that I'll have no hope of catching up."

"Exactly. You have support. You're not alone in this." Shirokumo affectionately says from my head.

~Don't forget about me. I am always with you, until the end.~

"You're right. I do have support." I can't let but help a bittersweet smile taint my face. "But even then it might not be enough. I'm going against the single most skilled group alive right now. I'm potentially facing the deadliest people to ever walk this world. I don't know if I'm up for it."

"Hey now, enough of that pessimist talk." Shirokumo gently reprimands me. "Take it one step at a time and before you know it you'll have succeeded. So, what's the first step?"

"The first step." I softly whisper out. "I suppose the first step to toppling the Akatsuki and Pain and Obito and Madara and Black Zetsu and eventually Kaguya is to stop the Bijuu from being collected."

"Okay. Good start." Shirokumo urges me onwards. "But be more specific."

"I'm going to stop the two Akatsuki members that share my title of immortal from taking the Seven Tails. I'm going to save Fu from Kakuzu and Hidan."

Those words make it sound so simple. I look skyward once more, taking in the vastness of the midnight sky. I'm resigned to stopping this. I'm resigned to fighting tooth and nail to save this world.

"It's time to say fuck the plot."