The Mark of Love

•The Mark of Sin

Since the dawn of time, every person alive received a unique mark on their wrist, to which only one other person carried the same mark. The mark was a symbol of true love, gifting the people the benefit of not wasting their time with someone who was fated for another, freeing them from most heartbreak.

No one was born with the mark, they received it on their 16th birthday usually without fail.

Of course there is a single failure in this process. Some were cursed to have lost their true love to death itself, causing their mark to fade away or never show up at all. Whether it was before or after they met them, no one ever received a second mark. There was only one soul destined for another.

Not everyone agreed with the concept of the marks. They'd try to burn them off and cover them but to no avail.

Here's the story of our boys, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sasuke Uchiha.

See above chapter image for both Naruto and Sasuke's mark.

Naruto opened his eyes, laying blankly in his bed. It was the morning before his birthday, and he wasn't excited to begin his search for his true love. He was 15, he wasn't ready for that yet. He wanted to be Hokage, and absolutely nothing more.

Or so he thought.

Sasuke had already received his mark, being a few months older than Naruto. He didn't like the spiral look of his mark simply because it reminded him of the Leaf Village symbol, infact he kept it covered with ninja bandages constantly to keep him from remembering. Sasuke wanted nothing to do with love, at least.. Not yet.

Sasuke was in the wind, branded as a rouge ninja. Though after he defeated Itachi and met Madara, then discovering this Madara was really Obito, he was furious that he was lied to. He used the power of the Akatsuki under his influence of being Itachi's brother and killer, and his own group, the Taka--or Heavy-- to defeat Obito before Madara could be resurrected. With Obito's fall, Kabuto was too coward to resurrect Madara on his own. There was no war.

The Akatsuki, Kabuto, Black Zetsu and their followers fell back into the shadows for the time being. Plotting their future rise from square one, now without Obito or Madara.

Sasuke didn't know where to go, or what to do. He had all of this hate pent up inside of him, yet no one to pin it against anymore. He wandered, pinning all of his hate on anyone who dared to bother him until his name was known across the continent. He was only sixteen.

Naruto, however, had made a name for himself as well. The Hero of the Leaf. He'd defeated Pain in his first attack all the same, and with Kakashi the decided Hokage's help, they negotiated a lasting peace among the great nations at the five Kage summit, to which Sasuke was too busy battling Obito instead of the Kage or Danzo, to even show up.

~~~~~

Naruto sat up from his bed and yawned, starting his day as usual. He got dressed and left for training, meeting Sakura and Sai at the training grounds. His day went by normally, the three of them doing their own individual training for their specific skills. He didn't feel any particular emotion today, he almost felt numb. Tired of this same routine despite loving the peace.

Naruto had already undergone his training with Killer B. Though Kurama, the 9 tails, was untimately convinced by Gyuuki, the 8 tails, to befriend Naruto. It took time, but Kurama found a friendship with his jinchuriki that wasn't originally based off of his hatred for Madara.