1 Neru - Prologue

----Konoha, The Village Hidden in the Leaves, October 28th , Eighteen Days After Kyuubi Attack----

A woman's scream is heard from the Nara branch clan, a man sits calmly in the hallway outside of the room looking over the clan's budget and missions sent from the main family. A shadow condenses into the form of a kneeling slightly younger man in front of him.

"Neru-sama, Shikaku-san sends his regards and well wishes to your esteemed wife and yourself regarding the birth of your firstborn." The older man gently nods with a frown and softly waves his hand dismissing the man, the younger man bows his head for a moment and dissipates soundlessly into shadows.

The man removes his frown and smiles slightly at the sound of soft cries of his firstborn coming from the room to his side and stands slowly, the shadows around him follow his movements as if enraptured by him. Walking into the room he is greeted by his wife holding his child, the med-nin who was beside her was already on her knees and softly said, "Neru-sama, your son is in perfect health as is your wife. I will stay for a few hours while your wife recovers her chakra."

The man grunts softly without sparing her a glance and smiles at his wife widely. "Ina, how are you both feeling?" The woman with two blue triangles on each cheek looks at him exasperated and says, "This one just wouldn't come out easily, but he's so beautiful. We couldn't be happier, 'Eru." She smiles with a feral grin exhaustedly but happy as he makes his way to her and leans in to kiss her head then lips and looks down at his little one. While staring at his son with a gentle smile, the shadows around his son follow his tiny movements as he reaches out as if to grab him.

He puts his finger into his son's grasp with a chuckle and says, "It's great to meet you Shikaeru, fifteenth of his name, heir to the Shadow, heir to the Neru." He looks at his wife once again, this time his face an emotionless mask, "I tire of living the the shadow of our weaker cousins, taking their missions and never seeing the light. I'm going to Hiruzen-sama to bring our small clan into the mix of the eight great clans and finally we will show Konoha and it's enemies that the shadows around them have teeth."

He stands and grabs his papers off the side table outside the room and returns to going over them, the shadows mirroring his anger with erratic movements swirling around him.

Ina watches him walk away with a sad smile on her face and turns to the terrified med-nin nearby and gently hands off little Shikaeru to her to meditate and recover some chakra so she can begin breastfeeding.

----A Few Minutes Later----

Neru Shikaeru looks over his clan's numbers with a smile, one hundred percent success rate, thirty four shadows completed seventeen missions given by the main clan, sixteen unmarked shadows throughout each of the four great villages and two guardian shadows always watching the Hokage for a total of fifty two clan members. Twenty one aspiring shadows, twenty two if you count his son. 'The clan is coming along nicely since the Nara clan has joined the Leaves we have grown from just a man with an odd mutation of the Nara clan's Kagemane bloodline, his wife, and his six children. We will not be hidden for much longer, Nara Shikaeru-sama.'

----A Few Hours Later----

The third Hokage was sitting in his office fighting the longest and only losing battle of his career as a Kage, paperwork, when shadows started from the ground up turning into a kneeling man who he knew well as a great shinobi, and a better friend. "Hokage-sama, it is great go see you again. You look well despite having to take on this horrendous job once again."

Hiruzen smiled tiredly from his chair, the years on his face showed more deeply for a few moments as he stared at his old friend. "Yes... The loss of Minato and Kushina is hard enough without having to go through this once more. With no one on the horizon to take over for me I see no end to this office I so foolishly chased when I was young."

They shared a long silent moment staring off into the distance missing a man they both admired deeply and thought of as the perfect representation of not just a Kage but the Will of Fire that this village was built on.

Hiruzen finally caught himself before the few sleepless months that he has gone through since Minato passed wore on him too much. "What is it you want from this old Kage, Shikaeru?"

Shikaeru lost the look in his eyes and bowed his head once more, "Hokage-sama, I come to ask if Konoha was willing to give my small clan official membership as a Shinobi clan, with everything that goes along with it, including a council seat and removal from my entire clan as a branch clan to the Nara."

The Hokage smiled happily at him gaining a few of the years he just lost he took out a sheet from his desk drawer with it already filled out with his clan's information, "I'm overjoyed to welcome your clan into the light of day. It has been too long that you all have suffered at the hands of the Nara as a lesser offshoot. During the next council meeting there will be a vote to decide whether the Neru clan can indeed perform as a clan of Konoha. You must have at least forty active shinobi, one A-ranked shinobi, and a requisite of at least 70 clan members. Can you provide proof of such a thing along with a vow of loyalty from each of your shinobi?"

Shikaeru looked up in shock at the ease of it all and smiled deeply for the first time since he entered, his incredibly black almost shadowed eyes and neck length onyx hair making him look regal, "I hereby vow as such, and will in greater detail once it is official. I look forward to serving as a sword and shield as the first of Konoha's Shadows."

----Two Weeks Later----

"As for the last bit of business and the reason why this man to my right is here. This is Neru Shikaeru-san, clan head of the branch clan of the Nara clan, we are here today to put to a vote the removal of the Neru clan from the roster of the Nara clan for good as well as instate the Neru clan as an official clan of Konoha, and all that it stands for, including a council seat. This vote needs a majority to pass. It is now open to discussion before the vote." The Hokage finishes lightly as if he hadn't just dropped a bomb on the council.

Murmurs went throughout the council meeting room.

The first to speak up was Nara Shikaku who calmly spoke out, losing the shock from his face, "I think they will make a welcome addition."

Once that was said the room became silent once again until Tsume spoke up, "As a clan head I always welcome good fighters into our forces, and it'll be nice to get rid of some pressure. As an Inuzuka I'm especially happy because my sister married into the Neru clan and an ally is something my croud of troublemakers could use." She smiled and nodded to Shikaeru with a feral grin.

Hyuuga Hiashi stood and evenly spoke, "I've known the Neru clan head almost my entire life, and as a man, a leader, and a shinobi he is one of the if not the best. I find no problems with this." He nodded slightly at the Neru clan head and sat.

One by one the Yamanaka, Aburame, and Akimichi clan heads only had good things to say about Neru Shikaeru until it came down to Uchiha Fugaku, "I outright disagree with all of this, the Neru clan is a group of failed Nara's, showing neither the intelligence or kagemane that is so useful in battle. They are assassins and cowards. They bring shame to Konoha every second they exist in the shinobi corps. They have no honor!"

Shikaeru didn't even look in Fugaku's direction expecting such an outcome. The Hokage stood and said, completely ignoring Fugaku's outburst as well, "The Neru clan has been loyal and stood with Konoha since the founder still had the last name Nara, the Sarutobi clan welcomes them with open arms. Now we will take this to a vote. As the Shinobi Council has already basically voted I will ask the elders and the civilian councilman respect this decision and not interfere." Danzo looked over as if to speak but said nothing and kept his seat.

"Good, may I officially welcome the Neru clan into the clan registry of Konoha along with a council spot and enfeoff the empty lands next to the southern walls of Konoha. Please come to my office for the requisite paperwork and deed to your land. That concludes this meeting, thank you." The Hokage nods stands and shunshin's away.

----Seven years later----

A young boy with a happy smile on his face, shadowed eyes and onyx hair is running through the dark forest that surround every part of his home as if his home was literally a part of it, in the shadows even in the middle of the day because the trees are so dense. Voices are all around him as he dodges a tree here and there.

His father walks out of a shadow directly in from of him and he slams his head against him, "Tou-chan... Don't do that." He rubs his head with a glare at his father then smiles and jumps at him. "How is Saru-gramps?" His father chuckles, "He is fine little shadow, how is your integration going?"

Shikaeru backs off a bit and closes his eyes and slowly shadow starts to take him over from his feet to his head. His father looks at him sternly but is shocked at his progress, Shikaeru is supremely talented. Neru's take from Genin to Chuunin in strength to actually integrate entirely with his personal shadow. Shikaeru senior looks at his son with a smile after a while and rubs his hair. "Very good little shadow, remember while we Neru's have an advantage in using our chakra like it's a second hand, it's only because it integrates with our shadow and as a consequence of our bloodline we can only use the simplest of no element jutsu.

Think of it as the shadow being our jutsu. It is obviously hard to kill or subdue someone with an intangible thing like a shadow, so we focus mainly on Kenjutsu and Taijutsu. Your kaa-chan as an Inuzuka will be taking over your training in Taijutsu as well as speaking with your aunt Tsume about getting a partner nin-dog like kaa-chan's nin-dog Hayato. I will be training you in the basics of Kenjutsu hut you will take over and create your own style.

Remember little shadow, What is an enemy ninja who can see you?"

The cute little seven year old giggles and says, "Already dead!" His father smiles and says, "Very good."