TEASER OF VERSION 2

Discliamer: Naruto is not mine.

Chapter1 A Tale of Two Cities

Sarutobi, The third Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, looked at the scene before him and felt his heart numbed. The little form that was being under the protection of the blanket was asleep, only the head of the form was visible for all to see. It was small, the head, very small with just a stack of blond hair on it, blond hair that was just being washed from blood. He sighed and felt regret being dumped on his already guilt filled heart.

Just why the villagers won't leave the kid alone, he thought and sighed again. He'd failed the kid, he'd failed his successor, he couldn't made sure that the boy will be safe and now he felt that he'd failed them all.

He looked at the blonde hair of the kid and saw what remain of the section of the hair that had been burnt.

They'd tried to burn him alive, he spat and felt something inside him died. Never in his life had he ever doubted in his village. He'd always feel proud in his village, in it's people and it's values. Never the Leaf peoples had done anything like this, trying to kill a three years old boy for something he'd never commit or something he couldn't control. He had personally ordered them to be executed. His shinobis seemed strangely reluctance at first, but nonetheless they'd complied. Law was still law, and no Konoha citizen had any right to kill another citizen.

He once had considered sending him to other places, far from here, far from this people but how could he make sure that the boy will be safe? How could he make sure that some shinobi just won't go after the kid and killed him for revenge? No, Naruto would be safer, even how many times it looked like the opposite way, in this village and under his eyes. Of course, otherwise if he could find someone he could trust, but lately, he'd felt like he could trust no one over this issue. He'd just stripped that wretched Anbu, his Anbu, his choice, from all ranks and happily send him back to Genin rank after he'd failed this particular protection mission. The near manpower shortage was the only thing that prevented him from joining the same fate as those villagers.

His former students came to his thought but he'd quickly put it aside. Jiraiya was busy now, trying to hold the enemy's advance and stay alive. Tsunade was out of the question. He'd lost contact with her since she'd leaved, no, fled the village after the Kyuubi had been sealed inside this boy. Guilt and regret had pushed her away, too much memories for her, and then Orochimaru…

"Hokage-sama" A grimly low voice behind him suddenly brought him from his inner thought. He turned and saw an Anbu standing at the doorframe, shifting instantly, as if standing there was unbearable.

"Hokage-sama? The council is ready and waiting for you" The same Anbu said when he saw that Sarutobi still sitting there, beside the…thing.

Sarutobi saw the tone in that Anbu's eyes and felt like he want to kill someone but instead, he stood up and walked to the door.

"Watch the boy. If anything happen to him, you'll be the one that must responsible for it" He said while he was walking past the said Anbu. He saw the Anbu flinched and snickered, sympathy was not in his mood right now. A small victory for him, small, but nonetheless victory.

With that thought, a smile appeared on his face, a very small smile that kept only to Sandaime himself. He thought how long that he hadn't smile or there'd been any reasons to, even though that he knew that the smile won't last long. Indeed, when he greeted the guards that began to open the door of the conference room for him, his smile won't last long.

"What did you just say?" Sarutobi spoke, couldn't clearly comprehended what he'd just heard. He looked around the room, two of his former teammates- now his advisors-sat beside him, all the clan's head, all the Jounins who hadn't been sent to the war zone, yet, and the people who's who in the village and the Fire country sat before him. All of them looked…tense, as well as the atmosphere of the room. The war, indeed, was taking its toll on everyone, Sarutobi thought.

"I said.." The fat man in front of him spoke. Sarutobi remembered him, Fire country's Daimyo's representative "that we should end the war against the Cloud. This war was ridiculously started by an accident and it'd made us fighting an elusive foe, a foe we never want to fight against, while we're already at war with the Mist and the Stone. We should offer them a peace agreement, so we can end this war and concentrate on our real enemy"

Sarutobi waited for a reaction from the room. Something like this was unheard of in the Leaf and the Fire country. They'd never lose any wars before and an offer like this was a show of weakness and couldn't be allowed to stand. When nothing happened, suspicion rose inside his brain. The room was too quiet for a proposal like this. Hoping to deter such a ridiculous scheme, he started to argue.

"You must understand that this is a big move, even the Cloud only declared war against us but not against our allies, there is no guarantee that they will accept our offer and of course you must remember what the Cloud has done to us. The carnages that…"

The fat man, realized the opening, seized the opportunity and cut Sarutobi off.

"Of course how could we forget what they have done to us?" He spoke and looked around the room, particularly at the shinobis.

"The occupation of the North Plain, the destruction of our coastline and not to mention the Massacre of Zoryu, Chitara and Mukden. Hardly to forget isn't it? And to think that all of this was started by your rouge shinobis, who you failed to keep them in line and now we've to suffer from it" The man stopped at Sarutobi, as if dared him to say something against it. For some reason, Sarutobi didn't.

The fat man spoke on, his voice ranging in the room and Sarutobi was suspicious when no shinobi had spoke to defend the Leaf.

"I say we've suffered long enough. It's now time to end this ridiculous fight. This war was started by an accident and…" He looked at Sarutobi "the incompetence to handle such an accident. The Cloud never wants to be our enemy. Why do we keep fighting them when it is clear who's our real enemy? Hokage-sama, I asked you, on behalf of the Council, to considered our proposal"

The fat man ended his ever grand speech and sat down. The room muttered in silence acceptance. Sarutobi narrowed his eyes, his suspicion was true.

"You had working on this behind my back? You, all of you, had agreed to this…proposal without my consent, my knowledge in it?" He said and looked around the room.

"What were you thinking? Surrendering to the enemy that has done nothing else but destroying us, humiliating us for the last three years? If I agree to this, how can I answer to our ancestors and the shinobis that were, and currently, sacrifice their lives for this village and country?"

"And how can you answer to thousands of thousands that died for nothing!" A civilian shouted from the back of the room.

At this point the room fell into a dread silence. Some shinobis hid their eyes or hung their heads down, some of them-Hyuga and Uchiha among others-looked at him straight to his eyes as if challenging him to turn down their proposal.

As if to destroy more of his already damaged respect to this village. Koharu, his former teammate now his advisor spoke without any hesitation.

"Sarutobi, it's useless to fight against the Cloud, you know it, and we know it. Many of our shinobis have died, shinobis that should be at the frontline against the Stone and the Mist but instead they have to fight this useless, strategic worthless war that have consumed our resources more than the last two wars combined. The war now is in stalemate but it won't last. We have to do this while we can have it on our term. Accept this proposal, Sarutobi, we have argued enough about this. Let's not waste valuable time. We need your support for this"

No, you just need my signature. Sarutobi thought grimly but against all these odds, he understood them. He understood their thought, their fear, and their desperation. Since the war had started, there were no more trades, no more goods from the Lightning's factories. Their Northern Plain, one of their main breadbaskets, had been under the Cloud occupation almost from the beginning of the war and the major food and supplies shortage were now spreading like plague.

But he couldn't see why they should do this. The Leaf village, and effectively the Fire Country, had always maintaining their prosperity, prestige and balance of power on the strong and powerful military presence. To just stop fighting the Cloud, even if they somehow could defeat the Stone and the Mist, would be the showing of weakness, and he couldn't predict what would happened after that. He wanted, needed, his village to be strong, if not for these peoples, then for the Naruto for his own sake to be able to grow up and make his father proud.

Sarutobi clenched his fists. His power was not at it once had been. He always knew that he was a compromised figure after the Fourth's death and the disarray that it had caused. After some shinobis- mostly that always important Uchiha- figured that they should do something to teach the Lightning country a lesson or two about neutrality and ending the flow of supplies to and fro the Stone and the Mist through that said neutral country by invading their territory and to the top of that, they had successfully damaged the Lightning's prized Grand Canal. Way to go, Uchiha.

If they're not killed by the Cloud shinobis then, I would lynch them myself, he thought. He'd tried, he'd plead, even called a bluff but it's always came down to one fact. The Lightning had demanded for too much and he could offer too little.

The rest? His newly reestablished and still fragile power and prestige were slowly destroyed.

Consequences? Looked at Uzumaki Naruto and his currently situation and you could get a picture.

How he hated these peoples so much but still love this village to his heart, but he felt tired, tired at all of this. Sarutobi grabbed a pen and signed on the paper in front of him. If the Cloud did taking advantage of this scheme, which he's quite sure they would, these peoples would be blamed and he could regain some of his power and influence.

Served them right, he thought coldly and without any sympathy.

Cloud Village, Northern Sakumo Valley, Shinobi Continent

Cold rain was heavily pouring down on the Cloud village, officially the Hidden Village in the Cloud, but no one had bothered to use that name for decades, making all those humble humans down the heaven to run and seek shelter from the cold shower of the country's cold, harsh coming winter. Embraced between the high mountain ranges that made of the most of the Lightning country, the Cloud village looked like a view from another world with buildings' lights and bulletins flickering thought the raining night with high mountains with rain clouds flew past their tops constantly in the background.

In the exception, of course, was the military sector of the village, which separated itself, intentionally or not, from other parts of the village. In the night, it looked even more darkly and stiffly than in the daytime, maintaining the atmosphere of discipline side of it's inhabitants, as if it's Spartan styled structures weren't enough. Except from street lights and a handful of significant building, the Barrack, the sector's nickname, was totally out of lights and human. Tonight, however, the most important building of the Barrack was still shining through the dark district. The conference room of the Central Office was still lit and full of peoples, discussing and planning for their village, their country and most importantly, for themselves.

Shinohara Kenshiro thought that he shouldn't be at this place, being the only Samurai in the room full of the inner circle of the military faction of the Lightning country. He thought it was odd, having the country equally divided between the civilian and the military, but he kept it only to himself. Who know what would happen if he dare to speak it out loud? Being the son of their most powerful Samurai ally would mean nothing for them, he's sure of that. He's not the heir and didn't have the talent to make him different from his brothers, which brought him to this place.

A diplomat personnel to our ally, his father'd assured him, a polite way to say that he was just a messenger, a job even his servant could do. Surely, for his father, explaining the situation on the continent to his father's powerful ally across the White Ocean was something he couldn't fucked up.

It's not fair, he thought. He could fight, he could prove that he was worth a dame but his father just won't thrust him. No, his father just doted on his second son, now the heir, once he was done with his grief over his eldest son's unfortunate death and still ignore him all along.

At least that wretched Kensato was death, that arrogant, shithead, assface bastard. He took the news with joy and hoped his dear older brother would be burned eternally in the flame of hell. That was one of the best thing that'd happened in his life.

Well, back on his worst part. What did his father thinking when he was making a deal with this Gaijin? Shinobi gaijin for all sake! His father's advisors were right, Gaijin are always worthless and inferior. If only his father would listened to them, to him.

At least they're rich. Not just rich but very, very rich. That's why his father make a deal with this people. Money for weapons and supplies, Shinobi for hire, all of this using Gaijin money all along. If only this people would just be grateful as they should be, shut their mouth and happy that his father accept their proposal. No, they were troublesome, always asking his father annoying questions about their…..investment. An annoying and degrading job his father send him to do.

How fair our troops we send for you doing?

How long do you think the– endless name-battle will last?

How much money do you saying, what?

What did you say about enemy clans?

What kind of weapon you say again?

How much troop do you want?

How can you pay for them again?

Did we tell you we're fighting a war against that Konosa or whatever shinobi?

When will you pay back the loan?

Questions, endless questions. Questions he has to answer. Such a nice day to do this job. Sitting with these weirdoes, answering their gruesome curiosity, but at least that girl was staring at him with smile pestered on her face. At least he would get something out of this boring scheme. He wondered, until another gruesome question required his attention.

"Well, how was that battle going, what's that place name again? Oh yes! Shohonmaru. How's it going?"

A man sitting beside that old, grumpy Raikaigo or something said. What's his name again? Ah, yes! Fumimaro Raito, a man who held some high rank in this country of which he didn't care at all.

"Ah..yes, Fumimaro-san. The battle is going on well, my father's..sorry, our troops are crushing their retreat line right now and it will be only the matter of time before the enemy will be trapped at Shohonmaru City, which your ships will be ready to shell them along with their last base and the war will be over"

'At least for now, wait until we crush you, infidel', he thought.

"Is it…" The old Raikage tried to say something but was cut off by Raito.

"But how about the problems in the enemy territories? Our commissioner there said that there were…uprisings there"

"There were no such things that we can't handle" Kenshiro snapped, feeling a bit annoy by this people right now. If he would just pay more attention he should notice something interesting had happened or was about to happen in the inner circle of this country but alas, he wasn't the one to pay attention to anything.

So far, for him, the meeting was going on well, aside from the old Raikage who looked a bit strangely shaken, nothing was wrong. He did his job and then said goodbye to everyone, and go off with that girl. For some reason he didn't want to know, he didn't want to be in the same room with that Fumimaro fellow. The man made him feel creepy!

If Raito felt offended by Kenshiro's snap and action, he said nothing about it. In truth he didn't care about that samurai at all, after all, that man couldn't survive the night, not with that bitch that was Tsubaki's secretary share it with him. Now, he has more important thing to do than to give some attention for that man.

As it would be known, it would take three days before Kenshiro met daylight once again. And his presence won't be a pretty site to watch at. Three MPs would tell you that.

"Really, sir, I didn't want to know what happened to this man but all I can tell you is that he has been here for at least two days" A young MP said to Iesawa Hiroshi. He didn't know why he should tell this to an Anbu but his boss said that it was from somewhere high so he shut his mouth and tell him anyway.

Really, who want to be the centre of attention at this moment?

Iesawa looked at the copse and share the same thought with the young MP. Who could know that katana could do something like that?

"You know what to do. It's Code-17" He spoke nonchalantly. The MP looked bewildered, he didn't know it was from surprise or from the fact that it was an Anbu that ordering him, and he didn't care a bit.

"Code-17? Sir, but…"

"I said Code-17" Iesawa said sharply, giving no chance of any argument. Young MP grumbled a bit but he did what he was told to do. If anything the man here was a commander and he was just a low rank MP, no matter that he was MP and the man was Anbu. Order was still an order, he didn't dare to define it.

Iesawa peered his eyes to the copse once, use his left foot to inspect the body just a bit and walked away, letting the MP carried out his order.

With almost 6'7 height and a worthy notable skill and gusto to go down with it, Iesawa had carried and held a lot of reputations, respect and high rank along with him. Surely, his rank as the Chief of Anbu Regular Division would say something about it. His recently post as the temporary commander of the Expedition Forces (Group South) was an astonishing success, particularly when the 2nd, 3rd and 7th Battalion Divisions, along with the southern division of the Central Interrogation Unit didn't make any protest as many in the village had expected, although the Central Committee may had gotten annoyed when he has made protests when they pulled some of his troops for their investment in the Samurai Continent. Evermore so that he was too aggressive to their liking. Oh sure, they would be happy to burn the cursed Konoha to the ground, he and the Raikage had shared the same thought about it but then, it wasn't that the Raikage would have a freehand in this matter. The Central Committee didn't share the same ideal with them and with that, they had not long ago ruled out the outright invasion and concentrate on holding the line in the occupied Northern Plain and bleeding the Konoha white.

'Chaps care for their money than revenge' he thought. For him, and the people of the Lightning country at large, the hatred for their southern counterparts had been immense and deep and the attack on Grand Canal has made it deeper. In it, Konoha and the Fire country had always been there, the centre of its all. Always with their pride, their value and never miss a chance to looked down on them but still ignored how powerful their former victim had become.

But now, Konoha had become important, if you could use that word. Konoha was the reason he had to go south and now was the reason he had to come back here. The former was, of course, the Canal Incident. Propaganda Ministry had some wild days after that. The Daimyo and his ministers were happy to push the trade sanction without some difficulties from the industries, just to make more money from the tariffs more than some stupid ideal, he suspected. His village too had been happy to flex its muscles even more. Everyone was happy. After all, this war with Konoha had opened many opportunities for them, from the new and larger test field for many researches to the bigger training field for their shinobis, not to mention some revenge courses made. All in all, they just happy to let the Konoha took some whipping and suffering before burned it to the ground.

However, the latter event was more important. While Raikage-sama and he and many others would just let the war turn into a slaughter feast, the Daimyo and many others did not happy about it. Many which of them that had already invest in the Samurai War to be specific. He knew, he knew that they were growing stronger each day the war drag on and with more and more troops pulled from his command to that continent. Finally, the Southern Folly, as the Propaganda Ministry now called it, had grinded into a stalemate. A fucking stalemate that made him deeply irritated.

The peak of it had come three days ago. Two shaken Konoha shinobis had been presented to him. They declared that they had come with the generous proposal for peace from their village. That if that his country would accept it, they will honored it by taking the signing ceremony in their village. He had taken many minutes later explained, after he'd killed one of them that actually demanded that the Raikage come to talk to them personally, that his country didn't work that way. That their message must go through many security measures after which it must be considered by the Central Committee which his Raikage was the head of it and they must also consulted it with the Diamyo government and then if they reach any result, it must go down through the command structure before it will reach him.

It did reach him, yes, yesterday, it did reach him. That's why he here, by the joint order of the committee. Something was wrong; something must had happened here, he was sure of that. Nothing was wrong with the transmission though, it was the order that rang home his alert signal.

By the joint order of the Central Committee. Stop. To Commander of the Expedition Forces (Group South). Stop. You are relief from your post. Stop. Report immediately to the committee. End Transmission. Code 746/85/473

He clenched the transmission paper in his hand. This wasn't right, Raikage-sama would never relief him from that post unless something had happened. Once he'd arrived at the station, instead of going straight to the Central Office, he had to issue some order to that MP's case which was weird since he or any Anbu held no authority over this kind of affair.

He's dreaded all this time and he knew it. Every single nerve in his body was screamed at him to go and find out what exactly had happened but he wasn't the type to disobey a direct order. The White Fang may had been portrayed in Konoha as the hero who save his comrade. But that was their way, not his. No, doing something like that in this country would only mean your death. It just simple like that, mission first, everything else is irrelevant.

Nothing must stand in the way of this country or the country will crush you to dust. The good ole virtue always held true to its word and he was good at keeping it or else he wouldn't go this far. Funny thing was, facing the enemies was one thing but facing the power play of this country was worse. He would be more happy fighting millions of southern infidels than fighting the wolf packs of the committees, at least he was sure of his shinobi skill not his political skill. One wrong move, one wrong hidden word and he could be sentenced to death. A one big disadvantage of being the high ranker. At least he could enjoyed his mission back when he was just a regular shinobi without worrying that his action would undermined his political capital. If he fell, they would tear him apart like jackals.